Authentic material:
1. INTRODUCTION
I have always been interested in alternative and untraditional
ways of teaching, since they have not been used for long time in
current educational systems at primary and secondary schools. I
think that some of them are really profitable and useful. I gained
some experience abroad, where I saw alternative approaches and
methods in practise. I was fascinated by them as well as with the
results. Since that time, I am trying to get proficient in using at
least some of the methods in my teaching.
Therefore I decided to look closely at one of the alternative
ways, use of authentic materials. I think that they are
underestimated. I believe that if they were used more, English
teaching would be not only more effective, but also more
interesting.
In the first part of my diploma thesis, I am going to explore
literature dealing with usage of authentic materials and with some
other important components that should be included in teaching
language which are somehow connected with authenticity.
In the second part of this work, I am going to describe my
teaching project. I created it especially for trying to implement
authentic materials into teaching at higher primary school in the
Czech Republic. There are three projects with three different
classes of different levels. I will also describe the results.
It is my first opportunity to use my ideas in practise. I will
work under experienced teachers, who can help me to discard my
unrealistic ideas, if there were some and give me some valuable
pieces of advice. I hope to gain a good base for my future teaching
career, because I am definitely going to use some of my ideas,
which will show up to be good, in my next practice.
2. Authentic Materials
Authentic Materials: An Overview (2002) by Alejandro G. Martinez
deals with the term authentic materials itself and with advantages
and disadvantages of their use as well as possible sources of
them.
Authentic materials: Sometimes called authentic or
contextualized, real-life materials are those that a student
encounters in everyday life but that werent created for educational
purposes. They include newspapers, magazines, and Web sites, as
well as drivers manuals, utility bills, pill bottles, and clothing
labels.
Martinez mentions Widdowsons differentiation between authentic
and genuine materials. Authentic materials are materials created
for native speaker of the language and use in a class in its
original form and design. In other words, they are not changed in
any way. Whereas genuine materials are authentic materials adapted
for a class, e. g. jumbled paragraphs, cut out headlines etc.
Martinez listed following pluses and minuses:
Advantages:
Students are exposed to real language
There is factual acquisition from most of them
Textbooks do not include inaccurate language
Authentic materials may be inspirational for some students
One piece of text may be used for various activities and
tasks
There is a wide choice of styles, genres and formality in
authentic texts
They can motivate students to read for pleasure
Disadvantages:
Authentic texts may be difficult to understand because of a
culture gap
The vocabulary may be not exactly what the students need
They are rather difficult for beginners
Preparation of the texts and activities is often demanding and
time consuming
There are many various accents and dialects in listenings
The materials become outdated quickly (news)
Sources of authentic materials
Newspapers, menus, magazines, the Internet, TV programs, movies,
CDs, songs, brochures, comics, literature (novels, poems and short
stories), catalogues, leaflets, tickets, postcards, bills,
receipts, wrappings, recipes, business cards, labels, stamps,
etc.
Where to get authentic materials
the Internet
library
There is usually an English department in every city or
university library. There can be found not only books, but also
magazines and music.
a foreign country
When visiting an English speaking country, one should think
about the great opportunity to get authentic materials.
Difficultness
On British Council web pages, there are described some aspects
of using authentic materials. One of them is difficultness of such
materials. There is said that they are difficult, but that is the
point. Moreover, the trick is to set the task according to the
level of the students, not to choose the material according to the
students level.
However, for lower levels are suitable leaflets, menus,
timetables, video and audio advertisements, short reports, short
news. The tasks should be rather simple and vocabulary should be
introduced in advance. Excessive materials for intermediate levels
can be longer articles and news or reports, whole TV programmes.
The vocabulary should be pre-taught, too. With advanced students,
any authentic material can be used. Pre-teaching is not necessary,
but it is good to have some explanations and definitions
prepared.
Claire Kramsch had a different view on authentic materials. In
her book Context and Culture in Language Teaching (1996), she
devoted one chapter to authentic texts and contexts. She agrees
with Widdowsons definition: It is probably better to consider
authenticity not as a quality residing in instances of language but
as a quality which is bestowed upon them, created by the response
of the receiver. Authenticity in this view is a function of the
interaction between the reader/hearer and the text which
incorporates the intentions of the writer/speaker Authenticity has
to do with appropriate response.
As an example, she mentions a German menu, which would not be
authentic text if it was used in an English lesson to practice
reading prices or learning adjective endings. It would be an
authentic piece of text if it was used as a German menu.
Next she says that cultural competence does not include the
obligation to behave according to conventions of given speech
community and that we should not want our student to behave like
somebody else or plagiarize behavioural patterns. Behaving like
someone else is not a guarantee that the community that speaks the
language will accept the person.
3 . Projects
In Introduction to Project Work (1992) by Tom Hutchinson,
specifics of project working are described. A project is a result
of hard work, because the authors have to find information for
their project, get pictures or draw some, make a draft containing
their ideas, then put everything together and complete the text,
the result of which is a presentation.
A project is an extended piece of work on a particular topic
where the content and the presentation are determined principally
by the learners.
The teacher can provide the topic, but the authors decide
themselves what exactly are they going to write and how will they
present it.
Because a project is a creative task, it is also personal.
The reason for doing project work are based on the fact that
there is a strong communicative aspect, which enables the students
to use the language in something real, not in an artificial
exercise. Principal elements of communicative approach are a
concern for motivation, a concern for relevance and a concern for
educational values. Motivation is a crucial key for successful
learning. Project work is especially useful for developing positive
motivation.
As mentioned above, projects are personal. The students write
about their lives, their families, their cities or their researches
into topics that interest them. Because of such personal approach,
both sense of the project and its presentation are important for
students. Projects are not simulations. They are real.
Projects are also very operative. It is actually a play. The
learners have to collect information, draw pictures, maps or
charts, cut out pictures, carry out interviews and surveys and make
recordings.
Diane Phillips, Sarah Burwood and Helen Dunfold say in their
publication Projects with Young Learners (2003) that projects
develop childrens whole personality:
intellectual skills (describing, drawing, imagination, reading,
planning)
physical / motor skills (colouring, painting, folding, cutting
etc.)
social skills (sharing, cooperation, making decisions,
appreciating individual contributions)
learner independence (making responsible choices, getting
information, evaluating results)
According to Hutchinson, project work enables all students to
produce a worthwhile product. Therefore it is highly suitable for
mixed ability classes and for students with special educational
needs. The brighter students can work faster while at the same
time, the slower students can work in their own pace and produce
something they can be proud of. They can use more visual aid to
compensate their language imperfection.
The advantages of projects according to Phillips, Burwood and
Dunfold are:
The project focus is on all aspects of childrens life, not only
on their linguistic competences. Therefore they can easily relate
what they know from their lives to concrete problems.
Projects encourage students to be responsible for their work and
their learning.
Projects allow students with different competences cooperate
when working out the project. It is a kind of solution for mixed
ability classes.
Personal involvement is high, which support students motivation
for further learning.
Hutchinson says that projects are good for integration of
foreign languages into learners communicative competence. It
encourages the use of a wide range of communicative skills, enables
learners to exploit other spheres of knowledge, and provides
opportunities for them to write about things that are important in
their own lives. The language used in projects is more relevant to
students needs. They can rehearse use of language, which would be
the most useful for them in real life.
There is a big culture part in project work. The learner can not
only mention their own culture, but also explore into foreign
cultures and compare them with each other.
Project work supports independent work, cooperation, imagination
and self-discipline. These are some of the basic aims in the most
curricula. Recently, the requirement of cross-curricular learning
has been raised and anchored in Czech Framework Educational
Programme. Project work obviously encourages using knowledge gained
in other subjects such as Geography, History, civics etc.
There are also some disadvantages in project working.
Firstly, there may be more noise in the classroom when the
students are working out their projects. However, Hutchinson claims
that there is not really a problem of noise, but a problem of
control. The teacher has to be able to manage the class during such
an alternative way of work as well as during common teaching. There
will always be some noise, because the students need to discuss
some thing with their classmates and need to borrow some tools or
books. But it is a natural noise, which is comparable with noise
made during common teaching: teachers strong voice or whole class
repeating after the teacher can be even noisier.
Secondly, time management is definitely a thing to consider. If
a project is a group work, most of it must be done at school. But
students can work outside the class, too. They can have some
partial or individual tasks to work out.
Lastly, the teacher has to decide whether he prefers the
students to speak only English all the time or whether they can use
their mother tongue, too. Hutchinson says that is does not matter
when they use mother tongue. We should rather consider its merits
than to see it as a problem. The product will be English anyway, so
we can allow the learners to use their mother tongue during working
it out.
For teachers, project work has a wide use. It is a flexible
methodology, which can be applied on every level except of complete
beginners. It is suitable for all ages.
The teacher should choose the topic according to the age of his
students, their interests, level of English, available sources and
the amount of time which can be devoted to the project.
4. Video
Susan Stempleski and Barry Tomalin suggest in their book Video
in Action, (1990) some good reasons why to use video in teaching
and some important and useful points to concentrate on.
Why to use video?
First of all, it is a big motivation. Students become interested
faster when experiencing the language in a lively and amusing was,
i. e. through pictures, in this case moving pictures (films,
documents, broadcasting etc.). In combination with sounds, video
interprets the language in a comprehensive and realistic way.
Secondly, video often makes students more communicative in
target language.
Thirdly, non verbal aspects of communication are presented, too.
Robert Merabian, the American psychologist, said that 80 percent of
human communication is non-verbal. Our expressions, gestures,
posture and clothing is equal to what we say. We can see those
aspects in motion on a video. Moreover, the teacher can freeze any
moment he wants to and discuss it with the students.
Finally, cross-cultural comparison is an indivisible feature of
authentic materials. Observing differences in culture is essential
for understanding other nations. Awareness of cultural background
is important in learning a language. Therefore it is essential to
highlight cultural habits, too.
When to use video
Stempleski and Tomalin say that video can be used at any level.
It can be used as a supplementary material time to time, e. g. one
a week, or it can be a part of every lesson if the course is based
on it. Because video is a highly motivating devise, it is useful
for beginners and elementary levels as the good motivation at the
beginning is crucial.
Usage of video depends, of course, on sources, technical
equipment and amount of time, which can be devoted to it.
What to focus on
Active viewing
The students should be actively involved when watching. They
should know in advance what are they going to watch before they get
some tasks connected with watching. Active watching is especially
important in watching recipes.
Vocabulary
Revision of vocabulary students vocabulary can be exercised and
reviewed
Building vocabulary new vocabulary or lexical units can be
introduced and acquired from a certain sequence
Grammar
Revision of grammar grammar already known to students can be
toughen up
Grammar presentation certain grammatical structures are
presented
Pronunciation
Sounds, stress and intonation exercises
Listening / speaking skills
Viewing understanding comprehension of visual component
Listening focus on spoken utterances
Oral retelling saying the story orally
Speaking spoken presentation to the topic of the sequence
Discussion discussing the topic in a group
Reading and writing
Reading reading activities connected with the video sequence
Taking notes taking notes during watching
Writing summary writing or creative writing
Cross cultural matters
Cultural apprehension cultural concerns, effects
Cross cultural comparison comparing learners native culture with
culture of the country of which the language are they learning
Testing
Examination based on video sequence
There are two types of video material educative video and
authentic video. Educative materials are CDs and DVDs which come
together with textbook or which had been created for educative
purposes. Authentic video is material primarily intended for native
speakers, e. g. TV programmes, broadcasting, news, advertisements
or films.
Suggestions for lesson planning
According to Tomalin and Stempleski, it is important to prepare
the lesson plan and the material thoroughly. It might be time
consuming, but once it is done, it can be used again next year in
other class and other teachers can use it, too.
The teacher should consider the needs of his students.
When selecting a sequence, the teacher should choose a suitable
part, which the students will be interested in. They usually do not
consider a video to be an educational material. It is rather
entertainment for them. If it were a boring sequence for them, they
would not be willing to learn through it.
The length should be adequate to the length of the lesson, to
the level of the students and their age. The shortest sequence may
be about thirty seconds long.
It should be possible to use the sequence for more than one
activity. Otherwise it may be waste of time. The teacher has to
consider his pupils skills carefully. The level of language in the
sequence should be neither too low nor too high for them. However,
it is not a crucial parameter when choosing a sequence. The teacher
can still provide the script and the video will provide the
context, which is a basic clue to understand it.
Next he should consider whether there are the relevant language
items that he intends to present to the students. If his intention
is a revision of vocabulary, it is necessary the sequence to
contain it.
The teacher is recommended by the authors to use scripts with
the video itself as well. He should use it not only in the lesson,
but also during the preparation, because it will show him what
language is used. The video itself will show behaviour and context.
The video and the script complement each other.
Once the teacher has chosen a sequence, he may need to prepare
some worksheets. He may need and overhead projector presentation,
extra activities, transcripts of dialogues, commentaries etc. He
should leave himself a lot of time, because it may be extremely
time-consuming.
Some basic techniques for using video
1. Sound off / vision on (silent viewing)
This technique can be used to imitate the language activity
about happening on the screen or to concentrate on language
production through guessing or prediction tasks.
2. Sound on / vision off
The pupils can guess the characters, setting, conditions
etc.
3. Pause / freeze frame control
With sound on, the teacher can pause the starting point of every
exchange and ask the pupils to predict words or utterances.
With sound on, the teacher can pause important moments in the
plot and ask the pupils questions about the situation. They can
comment on previous actions and predict following ones, too.
The teacher can pause shots of characters faces and the pupils
can comment on their facial expressions, their feelings, thoughts
etc.
4. Sound and vision on (listening and viewing comprehension)
the pupils get worksheets beforehand and have to fill it in
during viewing
the pupils get worksheet after the viewing and have to fill in
the correct answers or answer questions etc.
the pupils are looking for rhymes / something in a certain
colour / something beginning with a certain letter in the
sequence
the pupils are said what are they going to watch and are asked
to guess what will they see / hear. After viewing, they can compare
their guesses.
the pupils are given the script and are asked to mark the direct
speech
5. Jumbling sequences
The pupils watch pieces of a sequence in jumbled order and
should decide what is the correct order.
6. Split viewing
One half of the pupils see the sequence without sound, the other
half can only hear the sound without pictures. Various activities
can follow.
Reading and use of film and TV
In teachers resource material Penguin Readers Teachers Guide to
Using Film an TV (1999) by Carolyn Walker, there are useful
information about reading, using video in teaching and combining
those two methods.
The learners can experience the spoken language in action
through watching video. They can see the settings as well as the
movements, body language and the characters appearances. They can
watch the importance of gestures, facial expressions and eye
contact in communication. It can be a good background to
cross-cultural comparison, too. In comparison with pictures, that
are very often use in language teaching, video has the main
advantage in extensity of movement and time.
TV and films are not intended as teaching materials. It means
that it is a good source of authentic material. However, it is
important to remember that there might appear language
difficulties.
Students should be aware of active watching, i. e. they are not
supposed to relax during watching, but actively respond. There are
a lot of activities that can be done before, during or after
watching.
Technical equipment
The teacher should familiarize himself with the equipment. He
should know how to use the controls.
Before the class, the teacher should have enough time to set the
equipment. He has to check whether everything is switched on and
working correctly.
He should play the cassette / DVD to check the sound and
picture.
Check whether the sound is audible at the back of the room.
The teacher should ensure that everybody will be able to see the
screen and that there are no lights reflecting on the screen.
He should find a good place for himself where he will be during
watching so that he can control both video and students.
5. The Internet
The book How to Use the Internet in ELT (2000) by Dede Teeler
and Peta Gray is a very useful handbook for teachers who would like
to learn how to use the Internet, where to find information and
materials for their lessons and how to manage the computer,
too.
The authors say that it is not possible to say how many people
use the Internet. But definitely, some of them are teachers and
they seem to be using it almost for everything: updating language
skills, searching for materials, learning about computer
technology, keeping in touch with other teachers and friends,
teaching, working on projects and another activities, or just
enjoying themselves.
According to them, the Internet is probably the biggest library
in the world. It is still changing and therefore it is not possible
to make an index for it. But there are another ways how to search
in it the gateways.
The gateways sites are common web sites. There are listed links
to other web sites or documents. They are regularly updated.
Using the Internet for distance-learning
Teeler and Gray mention some good tips how to use the Internet
not only as an individual, but also in a group. As mentioned above,
the teacher can keep in touch with colleagues and friends, either
through email or through chat (conversation in real time) or
discussions and forums. The Internet can be also used for distant
learning. There are several courses on-line, which one can attend.
The teacher can become a learner and extend his knowledge; or can
be a leader and lead an on-line course for his students.
Suggestions for further resources
Stempleski and Tomalin suggest following:
Information for research: thanks to the Internet, planning and
working out a research have become quicker and more amusing. You
can search in a database and find out not only information for your
research, but also another researches.
Practical ideas for classroom use: you can find both materials
on various topic and grammar materials such as theory, exercises,
games etc. You just have to know how to adapt it for your
pupils.
Publishers: you can find the offers of various publishers
on-line as well as some teaching tips and list of upcoming seminars
and conferences.
Dictionaries and encyclopaedias: a lot of books are now
available in an electronic version on-line. You can even download
some of them into your computer or you can have a link on your
desktop.
Scholarships and grants: you can find a way to fund you project
/ conference / travel expenses etc.
Why to use the Internet for materials
According to Tomalin and Stempleski, one of the advantages is
topicality of course a lot of materials are old, but there are new
ones added monthly, weekly or daily. The teacher does not have to
buy the publications and can download them from the Internet or
print them straight from the web page. Other one is personalization
the teacher cannot change the textbook he is working with, but he
can find suitable materials on the Internet and modify them if
needed.
There are some disadvantages, too.
Firstly, it is a lack of index.
Secondly, a lot of school still do not have facilities and
students cannot access the Internet easily, not even in lessons.
The teacher can, of course, print papers for students, but it is
not possible to include active working on-line into a lesson
plan.
The teacher has to be aware of the fact that most of the
materials on the Internet have not been produced for learners of
English. The authors of most of the materials are native speakers,
who often tend to use idiomatic expressions and sometimes there are
grammatical mistakes, too.
How to adapt materials
Stempleski and Tomalin give some advice how to adapt materials
for certain students. Technically, it is an easy process. The
teacher can just copy and paste the pieces he wants to use. The
only thing he has to be careful about is the copyright law. He
should check the legal notice on the website he uses.
Internet based activities
Before the teacher decides to use an Internet-based activity in
his lesson, he should consider following points:
What do you suppose the students to get from this activity?
Why is it better to do this activity on the Internet rather than
through another media?
How long will be the activity? (part of a lesson, one lesson, a
few lessons, a month, whole year)
Will the students communicate with someone? Who with? (each
other, another class, another school, foreign school, native
speakers, some organizations or companies)
Can you use this activity only with one class or can you adapt
it for other classes and grades?
The teacher should look in the course book he uses and consider
whether the activity will be challenging for his students or
useless and boring. He has to set some criteria for choosing
appropriate websites. There is no use in doing an on-line activity
which could be as well done off-line, only for that the Internet is
a novelty factor.
In the publication The Internet and Young Learners (2004), the
author Gordon Lewis suggests following learning purposes: pure
communication, searching for information and producing content. He
says that for on-line communication, e-mails and chats are the most
useful. Chat is a talk on-line, in real time. It means that two
people have to be connected at the same moment, which might be
difficult, especially when communicating with foreign people. Such
communication requires prompt answering, which may be a difficult
task for beginners. E-mail has an advantage pupils can write it in
advance and then send it. It is similar to a letter, but it can be
sent immediately and the answer comes sooner, too. Formulating an
e-mail is a good homework task.
Searching for information requires a web browser. It is
essential to offer to students a list of web pages already
approved. Otherwise they may get lost in information mass.
When the students become familiar with the Internet, they might
want to produce their own web page. It can be a class web page with
childrens portfolios. A course class work can be presented there as
well.
Lewis gives tips for criteria when choosing a web site to work
with. The web site should have interesting graphics and should not
be complicated. Nice colours and pictures or animations will catch
childrens eyes. The navigation should be clear, too. The best
navigation is an iconic one, i. e. there are pictures to click on
instead of words. The teacher should check in advance whether the
site is quick to be loaded. Slow loading can completely damage the
lesson. He is strongly recommended to check what is hidden behind
the web site. There are a lot of innocent looking web pages, which
finally turn out to be advertising something or being a religious
or erotic sites.
As safety is concerned, Lewis warns against some potential
dangers. The teacher has to keep eye on the children all the time.
They cannot give their personal information, such as the address or
telephone number to anyone. The teacher should check the e-mails
before they are sent away and they should used only e-mail
addresses already approved. The teacher should also check every
unknown e-mail that comes. The teacher and the childs parents must
approve all the materials published on web.
6. Using pictures
The book Pictures for Language Learning (1994) by Andrew Wright
is a very useful source for teachers, who want to use pictures in
teaching.
As Wright says, pictures in teaching are especially suitable for
learners with special needs. They are also very useful when
introducing new topic. The teacher can thanks to them provoke the
students to express themselves emotionally. Pictures can be used
with as well beginners as advanced students of all ages. There is
usually minimal preparation and low costs.
It is important to expose students to various stimuli so that
they can develop their skills broadly. According to Wright,
teachers resources must include pictures. We are not exposed only
to spoken language, but we perceive a lot of context visually.
Students have to learn to predict, induce and deduce. Pictures play
a key role in motivating students and contribute to interest and
awareness of context.
Preparation
The teacher should consider some aspects before preparing the
lesson.
Demandingness of preparation: if the preparation is difficult in
relation to what the outcome should be, then it is no worth doing
it
Class organization: if the class organization would be
difficult, it is no use to do it
Interest: the activity should be interesting for students and
the teacher, too.
Meaningfulness and authenticity: the language should be
authentic to the activity. There should be some outcome, so that
the student can reflect on their work and see, whether they use the
language correctly or not.
Amount of language: there should be sufficient amount of
language in the activity, otherwise it is no use to do it
Through pictures, various language skills can be practised:
structures (tenses, transitive / intransitive verbs, interrogative
etc.); vocabulary (topic-based vocabulary, opposites, adjectives
etc.); functions (making request, describing things, expressing
likes and dislikes etc.); situations (describing the situation,
situation dialogues, role play etc.); skills (listening, reading,
writing, speaking).
It should be clear to the students what are they going to do and
why are they going to do it. They should have the language to be
able to do it.
Wright says that pictures can motivate students in such a way
that they want to pay attention and be included. Pictures bring the
world or a street scene or other environments to the classroom.
Describing pictures can be objective or subjective (This is a
train. / I like travelling by train.) Pictures can stimulate and
provide material to be discussed in a conversation or
discussion.
What kind of pictures can be used? Wright recommends pictures of
one person or of several people, people in action, places, from
history, with a lot of information, the news, fantasies, maps and
symbols, pairs of pictures, pictures and texts, sequences of
pictures, related pictures, single stimulation pictures, ambiguous
pictures, bizzare pictures, explanatory pictures and student and
teacher drawings.
7. Simulations
The book Simulation in Language Teaching (1990) by Ken Jones is
a useful handbook for teachers, who are planning to use simulations
in teaching.
A simulation is and event. It is not taught. The students become
participants and shape the event. They have roles, functions,
duties and responsibilities as ecologist, king, manager, explorer,
reporter, survivor, administrator within a structures situation
involving problem solving and decision making.
The teachers role in simulation is a controller. He introduces
the simulation and then observes and assess. He does not interfere.
It is a good position for monitoring the language, communicative
skills and behaviour of the students.
There is no pretence in simulations it is a reality of function
in a simulated environment. Simulations and language are
inseparable. Spoken language, written language or both can be
used.
The language in simulations has two main characteristics it is
functional and cohesive. It has certain functions because the
participants have their role and their problems to solve, jobs to
do, tasks to fulfil. Therefore they have to choose appropriate
language to achieve what they want to. It is a matter of the
students to suit the language to the situation. Because there are
usually a lot of opportunities for interaction, action and reaction
in simulations, the other participants can deal with their
colleagues inappropriate use of language. Although two participants
start with opposite view, the situation brings them together.
Because of the structure, the language is cohesive.
Motivation
Motivation is an integral part of simulations. It is one of the
most important and interesting reasons for using simulation in
teaching. The functions, duties and responsibilities given to the
participants arise motives. The intensity of motivation depends on
the quality of simulation. If the simulation is good, well
prepared, stimulative and provocative, there is likely to be strong
emotional component, which leads to motivation. The motivation may
be strengthened by the participants appreciation of being powerful,
responsible for decision-making. They own the simulation.
Motivation can help to break down shyness, differences of sex,
race, colour or status.
Jones mentions that simulation is a good event for students to
get know to each other and for a teacher get to know the students.
A good simulation can be an icebreaker and can provide an
interesting experience, which is good for social relations.
Icebreaking may be needed not only at beginnings, but also
always when a frosty situation occurs. Routine can be one of the
reasons. Not all the simulations are good for breaking ice. A
suitable simulation for that must be fully participatory, must not
have any passive or part roles and should involve a lot of
interaction among the students.
Simulations also can help to break down cultural or ethnical
prejudices.
Benefits of simulations according to Randall S. Davis:
appease students demand of realism in learning language
increase of motivation, students one as well as teachers one
typical teacher student relationship breakdown (students are
responsible for reaching their goals themselves)
cross-cultural comparison and identification
reduction of stress (it is one of the crucial points in
successful language learning)
possible noteless teachers monitoring
8. SELF-INSTRUCTION
Leslie Dickinson focused on self-instructed learning in her book
Self-instruction in Language Learning (1988).
Authentic texts are a valuable source for self-instructed
learners. They allow the learner to meet his needs accurately and
economically. They can choose texts they suit the best to their
requirements. Frequent problem of second language learners is that
they do not understand the context. Using authentic text can help
them to minimize this deficiency.
According to Leslie Dickinson, learning must always be an
individual and personal act. Normally the teacher is responsible
for the set up, organization and managing lessons. At least some
responsibilities should be shared with learners, e. g. setting
goals, choosing materials or evaluating progress.
9. Culture
Culture Bound Bridging the cultural gap in Language teaching
(1992), edited by Joyce Merrill Valdes, deals with place of culture
in learning foreign languages.
Second language learning is connected with second culture
learning. A language is a mean of communication among members of a
culture. It is the most evident expression of the culture.
When learning a second language, there can be three different
contexts:
a) learning a foreign language within the culture of this
language,
b) learning a foreign language within learners own culture if
the foreign language is accepted as a lingua franca in this
environment,
c) learning a foreign language in ones own culture with some
opportunities to use the language within the environment of ones
own culture. (e. g. learning English in the Czech Republic)
Each of these types involves different degrees of acculturation,
the process of adapting to a new culture. In learning a foreign
language in native culture, degree of acculturation of a learner is
influenced by cultural and sociopolitical status of the language
and motivation of the learner.
Social distance is proximity of two cultures that individuals
come into contact with. The word distance is used in abstract sense
here. It should express diversity of two cultures.
At the base of intercultural understanding is a recognition of
the way in which two cultures resemble one another as well as the
ways on which they differ. Resemblances usually surface through an
examination of the differences.
Comparisons of a language and its culture open great views for
teachers and present basis for understanding a person from other
environments. New insights into second language teaching approaches
are found there, too. It is obvious that no one can learn
everything about cultures; what is more, no one knows everything
about his own culture. Sweeping universal aspects of cultures may
be helpful, but one cannot expect all the people to fir the
generality.
There are usually some native culture habits transferred into
learning the second culture and therefore we can expect some
trouble spots. E. g. members of a culture expect their culture
patter and behaviour to be the correct one and patterns of other
cultures to be the wrong one. It does not have to be a wrong one,
but a different one.
Language cannot be translated word by word. There are idiomatic
expressions in almost every language. The intonation carries the
meaning, however, there are different patterns of intonation in
different languages. Loudness is a characteristic of a language,
too. Meaning is conveyed by body language and gestures well, but
not all the movements mean the same in different cultures. The
language uses different elements and expressions for description of
physical world. There are also some taboo topics in every language.
We should know what can we say and what cannot we say on what
occasion. Addressing people is also different. We should know
whether to use first name or second name and titles.
In teaching English as a foreign language should be followed
these recommendations:
teachers hired should have good comparative analysis skills and
(or) training in intercultural communication,
teachers with overseas experience and those familiar with
non-Indo-European languages should be preferred,
for current stuff, there should be opportunity to be trained in
intercultural communication,
current staff should be informed about cultural and linguistic
background of course participants every semester,
syllabus should include intercultural education next to the
language,
materials selected for teaching should encourage intercultural
point of view,
it is essential to develop some strategies for teaching
culture,
a special course focused on some cultural topics should be
established,
students should be provided by a number of excursions, tours,
films, sport programmes and if possible homestay with a foreign
family,
programs against ghettos should be established, especially at
universities.
Teachers should choose textbooks according to following
guidelines:
1. A new book should be examined carefully to check whether it
provides sufficient cultural point of view.
2. The teacher should make a list of cultural aspects in each
lesson and check whether they are positive or negative.
3. The teacher should look in detail at the exercises and
consider whether they will support his intercultural
activities.
4. He should check whether the vocabulary, examples, grammar
structures etc. are placed on some meaningful cultural
background.
5. Check whether the pictures and photographs are culturally
related.
6. Examine dialogues for cultural context.
7. Re-examine textbooks that may be culturally biased. Check
whether they are objective.
PRACTICAL PART
10. INTRODUCTION TO PRACTICAL PART
I decided to create some projects for higher primary pupils.
The projects are not strictly intended for certain grades; they
can be used with younger children as well as with older ones
according to their skills, level of English and interests.
These projects have various features, which I would like to
highlight.
Firstly, they should mediate knowledge through an interesting
topic and alternative way of teaching.
Secondly, they should present useful facts and teach skills such
as cooperation, communication, searching for information, selecting
sources, giving presentation etc.
Thirdly, I would like to show how important and useful is using
authentic materials in foreign language teaching. Those materials
are very interesting for the pupils - they are catchy, original and
untraditional.
Lastly, they meet cross-curricular topics, namely multicultural
education, media education and education to thinking in European
and global context.
I believe that a complex project can give children more than
simple learning from a textbook since there are a lot of activities
and many things to do condensed in relatively short time that is
devoted to the project. The time given depends on the schedule
possibilities and pupils skills.
Optimally, there should be time for introduction, motivation and
pre-teaching vocabulary before the project itself starts. There is
also a demand for suitable facilities and materials such as maps,
the Internet connection, video / DVD player, CD player, data
projector etc.
I wanted to find out the current situation in Czech schooling in
connection with untraditional methods. Unfortunately, not all the
schools are prepared and equipped for such work. However, my work
cannot be considered a research, because I only visited one school.
It is just my presumption that the situation is similar at most of
the primary schools.
I recorded the presentations on a video camera with kind
agreement of the pupils. I enclose a DVD with the recording to this
work.
11. TRAVELLING
8th grade (13 15 years old pupils)
Nowadays, thousands of people are travelling abroad every day.
Young people and students get a lot of opportunities to visit
foreign countries, meet new people and new cultures, which is
crucial for their social development and general awareness. This is
one of many other reasons why to learn languages. I think that it
is important to draw pupils attention to this fact, show them, how
are English classes important, because the language can open doors
for them.
Motivation is very important in any learning. The more
complicated subject to learn, the stronger the motivation should
be. I believe that motivating through personal experience and
catchy materials is highly efficient.
I prepared a project about travelling for four groups of
students. They were asked to suggest a route in Great Britain and
Ireland, visiting interesting places on their way, giving reasons
why to visit a certain place and what is interesting there.
The first group was to suggest a route in Ireland, the second
one a route in Great Britain, travelling only on routes and
highways, the third one a route in Great Britain, travelling only
on railways and the fourth one route in Great Britain using only
waterways.
Their budget was limited (5.000 CZK per person) and the week for
virtual realization of this journey was set the first week in May
2008. They were supposed to find a flight ticket on the Internet,
note departure times too, public transport in foreign country and
accommodation. I pointed out not to forget about food, entrance
tickets and another extra costs. Finally, they were supposed to
present their proposal to their classmates.
I supported the pupils with a lot of materials that I brought
over from Ireland and Great Britain and some books about those
countries written in Czech language. These included: various
leaflets, postcards and magazines brought from Ireland and Great
Britain, county Wiltshire, and books, namely Beautiful Ireland,
Salisbury, Trowbridge, Stonehenge, Irish Tales and Sagas, Celtic
Inspirations, The Celtic Image, Irsko, Velk Britnie. All of the
books except the last two are written in. Beautiful Ireland is a
picture book, 90% are photographs of nature, people and cities.
Salisbury is a city guide, with lots of pictures, too. Trowbridge
is a city guide as well, including interesting historical facts.
Stonehenge is a book about ancient monument, rather for people
interested in history and such heritage sites. Irish Tales and
Sagas by Ulick OConnor is a book of Irish legends. It is completed
by beautiful drawings and contains legends such as St Patrick,
Cuchulain, Children of Lir and others. Celtic Inspirations and The
Celtic Image are books about Celts and their culture. They are very
interesting and nicely graphically worked out. The two Czech books
are detailed travel guides with hundreds of pictures, photos and
descriptions. As they are travel guides, they are designed to help
tourist to plan their journey and give them important information.
Therefore I chose those books although they are written in
Czech.
Another source of information I asked the pupils to work with
was the Internet, atlas of the world and any other books in
libraries they visit.
I wanted the pupils to learn not only how to cooperate with
other people (group work), but primarily to learn to plan a
journey, to look up information on the Internet, plan finances and
choose best options out of many presented in advertisements and on
the Internet. These are skills they will probably use in their
future lives.
Expected problems
I expected the pupils to tell me that they did not have the
Internet at home and could not look the information up. I also
thought that they would have difficulties to work in groups
arguing, division of work etc.
I expected the pupils not to like the presentation. I think that
Czech pupils are capable of working out a task, write a piece of
work, but they are not used to presenting in front of the class,
not mentioning public.
Expected outcome
I had imagined the groups to present their routes on wall
charts, showing lots of pictures and describing not only the
routes, but also mainly the sites and places that are worth
stopping on. I expected almost mistake-free speech because they had
enough time for preparation and consultation with their classmates
and the teacher (me). I supposed the presentations to be vivid,
colourful and interesting.
I hoped the pupils would like the topic because travelling is
one of the most frequent hobbies among young people. The authentic
materials should have support them and show them that it is not
impossible to visit a foreign country for some time, although it
may look like that to them.
Unexpected problems
I did not expect the classs English teacher to be ill when I was
there. As a result, I had no one to refer to me about the pupils
and help me with division into groups. I prefer mixing better
pupils with worse ones in groups, so that the talented ones can
support, guide and motivate the worse ones or those who struggle in
languages.
I did not expect the school not to have appropriate wall charts,
not even atlases of the world. The school was not be able to offer
much materials or pictures connected with culture and geography of
Great Britain and Ireland; thus I had to rely on my private
sources.
I have studied the Masaryk kindergarten and primary school.
School educational programme and I found out that the pupils of
upper primary school, i. e. sixth to ninth grade, have three
English lessons a week. It says that they are divided into groups.
The subject is focused on improving communication and language
skills, vocabulary extension and learning about English speaking
countries. They use various methods, such as individual and group
projects, dialogues, listening and working with authentic texts.
According to this School Educational Programme, the pupils learn
numerals in the third grade and sentence word order in the sixth
grade.
In my lesson plans, there are also organizational parts, which
take about two minutes and they are dedicated to administrative
work and organizational instructions for pupils.
The first lesson plan
1. Organizational part
(3 minutes)
2. Introductory questions
Do you like travelling?
How often do you travel abroad?
Who with?
Have you ever been to any English speaking country? Which one?
When?
Do you know in which countries is English the official
language?
(5 minutes)
3. Motivation part
Displaying the supporting materials on a desk. Pupils come to
see them.
(5-10 minutes)
4. Introduction of the project
We are going to talk about travelling and we will virtually
travel to Ireland and Great Britain. etc.
Setting the rules and requirements
Division into groups
5. Working in groups, discussing the way of working out the
task, division of work among pupils, asking the teacher questions
or for help. Using materials displayed and atlases of the
world.
(the rest of the lesson)
Homework: to look some information up on the Internet
The first lesson
I went according to my lesson plan. I asked children the
introductory questions. They cooperated well. I found out that they
travel mostly to Croatia for holiday. Only one girl was in Great
Britain some time ago.
Then I displayed my materials on a table and invited the
children to come there and see them. They were surprisingly
interested and spent on them about 10 minutes.
After that, I told them about my project and explained what were
they going to do. I let them divide into groups as they wished.
In the rest of the time, they were supposed to start working on
the project. I helped them with choosing materials useful for their
tasks.
At the end, I asked them to look some information up on the
Internet at home. As I supposed, there were huge protests. They
argued against my task that they did not have the Internet
connection at home. I told them to visit a library and use some
books then.
The second lesson plan
1. Organizational part
(3 minutes)
2. Working on the presentation in groups, using the same
material as in the first lesson.
(the rest of the lesson)
The third lesson plan
1. Organizational part
(5 minutes)
2. Presentations of the groups
Materials used: the same materials as in the previous lessons,
wall chart of Ireland and Great Britain
Presentation
Unexpected problems
Before the second lesson, I asked the Geography teacher for
atlases of the world in which there are detailed maps of Ireland
and Great Britain. He surprised me with the answer that there were
no atlases at that school, because there had not been money yet to
buy some. I was also unsuccessful asking English teachers for a
wall chart of those countries. In the classroom, there was only a
wall chart of Europe; Great Britain itself was about 5 cm long on
this map. I must have helped myself: copy a map from my book on my
private copy machine and distribute them among pupils.
Because there was not a map in the third lesson when the
presentations took place, I decided to give some task to the pupils
to keep their attention. I asked them to listen to carefully,
follow the presentations and note down the routes that the other
groups proposed in three different colours into the maps they had
gotten. Although the task was set as individual work, they still
had an opportunity to chat and copy from their partners.
Assessment
I assessed attitude (A), speaking (S), content (C) and overall
presentation (P).
Attitude: goodwill, activity during work, effort, contribution
to teamwork, cooperation with classmates within the group and with
other groups, working with materials (literally manipulation with
materials children sometimes tent to damage things which are not
theirs), attitude to the teacher (me as a student teacher)
Speaking: distribution of speech among pupils, accuracy and
fluency, fillers, speech power, pace
Content: choice of information, sequence of information
Presentation: overall presentation, mainly number of pictures
and another materials used, posture of the pupils regarding their
listeners, movements, body talk, gestures + speaking and
content
I did not have any scale set before the lesson. I had some
expectations according to the School Educational framework. I
compared the groups one with another.
The first presentation Ireland
There were four girls in this group. They started working on
their presentation the first lesson and seemed to be really
interested. They did not need any help from me. I only showed them
which postcards and pictures they should use. They also worked very
well in the second lesson.
The presentation was not finally as good as I supposed it to be
judging from their hard work. One of the girls started to describe
the route, but spoke slowly with a lot of mistakes. She used a map
that she found in a magazine from Ireland, but it was too small for
whole class to see it, although it was A4 format. Time to time,
another girl helped her with a few words and some pictures. Then,
the third girl described the financial part, but she had serious
difficulties with numerals. I checked their notes in their
notebooks. They were well worked out. The fourth girl did not say a
word during their presentation and the answer for on my question
why was that she was too shy and that she had helped with the
preparation.
I liked the way the girls worked on their presentation, but I
did not like the way they spoke. It was obvious that they had not
tried it in advance and did not think about the numerals at all.
Also the division of speech was not optimal. I wanted them all to
speak.
They made mistake such as: *It cost / * in first May / *we come
in the plane / * in the Galway / * its costing. One girl also asked
her colleague in Czech how is one hundred in English, which proves
that they had not prepare the speech in advance.
The second presentation Great Britain roads
There were three people in the group. The boy who started
speaking seemed livelier and his speech was faster and louder than
the first groups one. He did not make almost any mistakes. The only
mistake was using both names - Praha and Prague. They showed
pictures from a book during their presentation. There was not much
hesitation, which I definitely cannot say about the first group.
The second boy took the speech over later and spoke about the
budget. The numerals were correct. The girl did not say anything
and gave me the explanation that she had helped with the
preparation more than the boys. But again, I wanted them all to
speak, so it was their minus. Apart from that this presentation was
nice.
The third presentation Great Britain waterways
This group was the worst one. It was my fault that those not
really excellent pupils met in one group - I did not know that they
were the worst. Otherwise I would not let them work together. There
were two girls and three boys. They were disturbing since the first
minute I entered the classroom and their distractive behaviour was
affecting the whole class, especially during the presentations.
I watched them during the lessons more that the other groups,
because I soon realized that they were not working very well. All
the time I came to their desks, they pretended to be highly
concentrated on the work and even asked me some questions
concerning the project.
The third lesson, before their presentation, they were chatting
so loudly that I had to ask one boy to change his place.
Their presentation was really poor. Each of them said about two
sentences and none of them was correct. They seemed to be there for
the first time and never see the project before. The girls were
giggling and hiding their faces behind sheets of paper. They spoke
with lots of mistakes. They only used one leaflet, which I told
them to use, because there was a map of water canal in the south of
England. They showed it to the class, but did not explain what was
in the picture and why it was important for their journey.
At the end, when I assessed their performance, they argued with
me that it was not true they had not done enough and so on. It was
the worst presentation.
The cause of this failure was that there were not very good
pupils in the group. Next time, I would ask their English teacher
or a teacher who knows them, how good students they are and make
the groups according to this information. I would mix high ability
pupils with low ability ones. If I happened not to have this
information, which was actually this case, I would check them more
during the work and did not give them so much responsibility as I
did. I only checked that they were working, but next time I would
like to see some results after every lesson and would check taking
notes during the lessons, too. I would also try to motivate them
more in case I have more time. The motivation was sufficient for
high ability and average ability students, but obviously not for
those low ability ones. Maybe it would be essential to motivate
them individually. It is, however, complicated in such a big group
of pupils.
The fourth group Great Britain railways
There were three girls in the group. Their presentation was very
nice. They used their own materials English magazines and a map,
which seemed to be printed from the Internet. They showed a lot of
pictures. Their speech was nice and grammatically and lexically
correct.
I saw them working hard and silently since the first lesson.
Final assessment
1st group A: 1 C: 1 S: 3/4 P: 2/3
2nd group A: 2C: 1S: 2P: 2
3rd group A: 4/5C: 3/4 S: 4/5P: 4
4th groupA: 1C: 1+S: 1P: 1
I chose the best group and compared the others with it. The best
group worked adequately according to their School Educational
Framework. The pupils asked me to tell them the grades they got,
they were not interested in the mistakes they made. I would like to
have one more lesson and talk about their mistakes and tell them
what should they improve and what to concentrate on. Unfortunately,
I only had five minutes, so I told them a few sentences at least. I
spoke in Czech, because they would not understand fast English and
some of them probably would not understand even slow English
assessment.
First I told them grades they got for their attitude. I praised
the first group for hard work since the beginning and reminded the
second group that they did not work in the first lesson. The third
group started arguing with me, which made me angry, because not
only it was rude, but also it was unfair to the other groups.
Then I assessed content and commended the fourth group for
bringing and using their own materials.
I commented speech, too. I said to the first group to pay more
attention to numerals and told the third group that it was a
disaster, that they were not able to say a single sentence
correctly.
The first group got 2/3 for overall presentation because of the
mistakes they made, uneven distribution of speech and limited
number of pictures they showed to the spectators. The second group
got grade 2 for uneven speech distribution and chatting in the
first lesson. The third group did not need to be commented, I think
that they knew themselves that they deserved grade 4. The last
group was the best one and I did not find anything serious to point
out. They got grade 1.
I created this project two years ago when I was on an exchange
programme in the Netherlands. I had school practice there in a
bilingual class, i. e. the pupils had their lessons mostly in
English, only some of them in Dutch. I chose 12 year old children
and cooperated with their Geography teacher. Unfortunately, he got
ill and I had to manage the class on my own. However, it was not
any problem at all. The children had completely different way of
working in comparison with Czech children. They used the same
excuse as my pupils here in Czech they said they did not have the
Internet access; they did not go to any library etc. But they all
finally fulfilled the tasks and did their homework. They worked
independently and were interested in the work. Their approach to
education was to be different they seemed to know that they were
learning for themselves, not just fulfilling teachers tasks.
The result - the presentation was very nice. Firstly, we had a
nice big wall chart. Secondly, they spoke English very well,
fluently and accurately, too. Lastly, they worked hard and
therefore the presentations were nice and interesting.
I think their main advantage is that they had been taught how to
make project since early stages at primary schools. They have
project in all the subjects and they have a lot of them every term.
They know how to do it, where to find information, what should be
the outcome like and are used to speak in English and in front of
the class.
12. CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
6th grade (11 12 years old pupils)
Roald Dahl, one of the most famous British novelists, is
definitely worth to be introduced to children. His most popular
books for children are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda,
The Witches and James and the Giant Peach, but he wrote many more.
These are lovely, funny and readable stories, catching not only
childrens attention. I chose the story Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory, because it has been filmized in 1995, starring Johny Depp.
I therefore supposed at least some children to know the story.
I did not work with the book, but the film instead. I had only
three lessons to work with the class (finally only two lessons), so
I actually had to choose the film instead of the book, because if I
wanted to work with almost the whole story, we would not manage to
read the book in such a short time. We probably would not manage to
read even extracts, because the pupils in the sixth class are
eleven or twelve years old and some of them are really slow
readers. What is more, I do not expect children to read a lot
nowadays. They do not like reading. It does not mean that I agree
with this attitude, I think they should read. But they do not and
in my opinion a good film can motivate them to read. I killed two
birds with one stone I managed to fit in the time given and I tried
to motivate the pupils to read through amusing activity.
Expected problems
I expected the pupils not to be willing to dance as Oompa
Loompas, because they might have been ashamed. (Oompa Loompas are
bantams, Willi Wonkas workers, who are about 30 40 cm tall and come
from Oompaland. They can be seen everywhere in the factory. They
like singing and dancing, usually when a child makes something
bad).
I also expected them not to understand the movie very well as I
played it in English with English subtitles. I thought that they
would be noisy during watching and that they would welcomed my
lessons with playing a film as a nice pause from learning.
Unexpected problems that appeared
There is only one classroom in the school that is equipped with
a DVD player. Although I announced a week in advance that I was
going to use it, the class I was teaching was not moved in there.
The pupils had to wait for me to come for them and move with them
into the audiovisual classroom, where the other class was waiting
for our coming to move into our classroom instead of us. Those two
classrooms were quite far from each other, we had to go down the
stairs, through the assembly hall, up the stairs, to the end of the
hall, wait until the other class would go out, move in, sit down,
prepare the DVD. It took almost 15 minutes out of the whole lesson.
The problem is that I cannot move the children during the break. I
have to wait for the bell, and then wait for all the pupils until
they come back to the classroom. I have to give them instructions
how to behave in the corridors (no running, no shouting etc.). I
could not prepare the DVD player during the break either. It is
locked in a wardrobe and only teachers have the key from it.
Because it is in a common classroom, the children may damage the
recorder. Teacher, who is using the recorder, has to be there all
the time and keep an eye on it.
After my first lesson in this class, their English teacher asked
me to have only two lessons instead of three. She said she would
have problems to catch up.
Last, but not least, the second lesson happened the same as in
the first one I had to move with the class again, which took again
a lot of time out of it.
The first lesson plan
1. Organizational part
(2 minutes)
2. Introducing Roald Dahl
Do you know Roald Dahl? Have you ever heard about him?
Have you read any book by him?
Have you seen any movie? (Charlie and the Chocolate factory,
Matilda)
Brief biography.(5 minutes)
3. Watching a part of video
(25 minutes)
First 25 minutes from the film. There is introduced Willy Wonka
and his factory, Charlie and his family. The competition with
golden tickets starts. Four spoilt children find golden tickets;
Charlie finds the golden ticket, too. They are preparing for the
visit of the factory.
4. Questionnaire
(10 minutes)
Is Charlies family rich or poor?
How many grandparents does Charlie have?
Do they have a nice house? What is their house made of?
What do they eat every day?
How many children are going to visit the factory?
Where are they from?
Can you remember their names?
Are the children nice?
Choose one child and describe him / her. (character)
5. Checking the answers
(5 minutes)
6. Organizational part
(2 minutes)
The first lesson
Because I had not counted with the time loss, I had to improvise
a little.
I started the first lesson with questions about the author. I
mentioned above that I think children do not real a lot nowadays,
which is widely known. But it does not apply on 100% of children.
Some are on the contrary interested in reading a lot. They are,
unfortunately, rather exceptions, as pupils Czech language teacher
told me. However, there is usually at least one such pupil in a
class. Therefore I tried to ask about Roald Dahl and his books. All
the children said that they had heard about him and two of them
even named some more stories by him. Children knew Matilda when I
asked them. They had probably seen it on television.
The crucial point on the lesson was the movie, because without
watching it the pupils would not be able to fill in the
questionnaire. I managed to play the whole part of it that I had
planned, but it finished in the moment the bell was ringing. So I
asked the pupils to complete the papers (the questionnaire) for
homework. Children loved the lesson, not only because they did not
have to learn and work with textbook, but also because they liked
the story a lot.
I had to talk to them in Czech, because they did not react on
English. If I were their English teacher, I would not use Czech, at
least not so much, but because I was short of time, I had to move
on and use Czech to provoke some reactions.
The second lesson plan
1. Organizational part
(2 minutes)
2. Watching next part of the movie
(20 minutes)
The visit of the factory. Naughty children are punished for
their bad behaviour. Introduction of Oompa Loompas.
using DVD extras dancing
reading and translation of a song
Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop!
The great big greedy nincompoop!
How long could we allow this beast
To gorge and guzzle, feed and feast
On everything he wanted to?
Great Scott! It simply wouldnt do!
However long this pig might live,
Were positive hed never give
Even the smallest bit of fun
Or happiness to anyone.
So what we do in cases such
As this, we use the gentle touch,
And carefully we take the brat
And turn him into something that
Will give great pleasure to us all-
A doll, for instance, or a ball,
Or marbles or a rocking horse.7 learning dancing and singing
according to DVD extra material
(20 minutes)
3. Organizational part, homework (Write a prediction of about 6
sentences. What will happen next in the movie? How will the story
end?)
(3 minutes)
The second lesson
I had to press two lessons in one. We had to move from one
classroom to another again. As a result, I had to omit some
activities because of lack of time. Firstly, I checked the
homework. Only a few pupils did it in paper, but another pupils
were able to answer the questions, too. Then we watched next part
of the movie and finally we did the activity with pictures and
learned to dance. I was surprised how they liked dancing.
Unfortunately, we only had about 7 minutes for this activity, then
the bell rang and there was no space for any feedback. It was
caused by time loss, which happened because of moving. If we had
not had to move, I would have had enough time to fulfil my plan. I
think that there is imperfect organization in school inner rules.
They should find a way to change classrooms without loosing time of
a lesson.
I felt a little disappointed after those two lessons, because
the class was nice and I could have done much more with them if I
had had time. The introduction was poor and there was not time for
any feedback, which was a big mistake. The pupils did not learn
much, because everything had to be done in hurry. I really missed
the third lesson. I would like them to make some notes in their
notebooks and spend some time on revision exercises. We did not
have time to do any exercises or activities based on the film
practicing vocabulary or grammar. If there was enough time, we
could do some of them spontaneously and the pupils would not even
recognise that they were not watching the film and playing, but
learning.
It was not my mistake and I cannot blame their teacher either.
She has to follow her long-term plan and I should be grateful that
she let me work with the class those two lessons.
At least the pupils had two lively lessons and tried different
way of work. They liked the lessons and it is one of the most
important things in teaching.
The third lesson plan
1. Organizational part
(2 minutes)
2. Checking homework, discussion
(5 10 minutes)
3. Watching next part of the movie + the end
(20 minutes)
4. Playing with pictures every pupil gets a picture (copied from
the book Charlie and the Chocolate factory) and their task is to
stand in a row in chronological order and say which scene is in the
picture.
(5 minutes)
5. Discussion
Did you like the movie? Why / why not?
Who was your favourite character?
What was nice / was not nice about the children?
Would you like to such a factory? Why / why not?
Would you like to read the book now? (+ motivating pupils to
read the book is much better, because the content is more dense,
there are pictures, you can read in your pace, you can read some
parts again and again etc.)
(13 18 minutes)
6. Organizational part
(1 minute)
13. COOKING
9th grade (14 15 years old pupils)
Food is one of the crucial needs for human beings next to the
air and water. Every person eats some food since the day one. Food
is a phenomenon. Thousand of books about food have been written; a
lot of people dedicated their life to cooking. People love food and
its preparation might be lots of fun!
Therefore I decided to prepare a project about cooking. Boys are
generally less interested in this topic. That is why I chose to
introduce a famous British cook Jamie Oliver. He is young and as he
is male, he may be more inspiration for boys. Girls may adore him
as a handsome guy.
I used a DVD, which was enclosed to the Mlada fronta newspaper
issue last spring. I chose a recipe for pork chops and traditional
Irish champ. The criteria for choosing the recipe were the kind of
food prepared I wanted something traditional or typical British or
Irish meal; length and language. I played it in English with Czech
subtitles, because the two Englishmen were speaking quickly and
with such an accent, which I supposed not to be understood easily
by the pupils. The video was 20 minutes long. I did not play the
whole episode, because it would be too long. At the beginning of
the episode, Jamie is coming to a restaurant to visit his friend
who works as a chef. Then they go together to Jamies home on a
motorbike. There is an introductory song playing on background. It
is a kind of pop music. I hoped that this modern image of the film
would motivate the pupils and show them that cooking is a job not
only for their mothers and grandmothers.
I decided to make a simple simulation with the pupils. I chose
five different recipes from book Jamie Dinners, which was published
in 2004. Pupils got the recipes and therefore were divided into
five groups. They were supposed to prepare a presentation together:
to pretend cooking, describing the process and trying to introduce
or teach new vocabulary their classmates. They were supposed to
become cooks and possibly teachers. They did not have to learn the
recipes by heart - they could read them. I suggested using pictures
or tickets with words during the show. I chose recipes for tomato
soup, thai watermelon salad, farfalle with carbonara and spring
peas, summer tray-baked salmon and bakewell tart. I brought the
original book with me so that the pupils can have a look at it, see
it in colours and see the photos of Jamie, his family, pictures of
his restaurant, the fifteen boys and food and meals, too. I also
brought his latest book called Jamie at home, which was published
in 2007.
Expected problems
I supposed pupils not to understand the listening very well.
That is the reason why I decided to play Czech subtitles. Jamie and
his Irish friend speak together quite quickly, because the material
is not made to be a study material, but a show for basically
British people. Their accent is strong. One has to be concentrated
and know English quite well to understand everything. However, it
is not so difficult completely and some parts are clear even for
pre-intermediate students.
I expected boys not to be interested in cooking. My prediction
was correct with a little detail missing the girls were not
interested, either.
Unexpected problems
I did not expect to move the class from their classroom to the
audio-visual classroom as well as the sixth class and loosing time
on it.
I expected the pupils to know basic vocabulary connected with
cooking: ingredients, food, some basic verbs such as grate, stir,
pour etc., tools such as pan, pot, oven etc. Some pupils did not
know much and had to look everything up in dictionaries. Some
pupils were good and did not need my help or dictionaries so much,
but there were only a few of them.
My lesson suddenly happened to be using grammar-translation
method, although it was not my intention, and tent to be boring in
some groups, where were not any good students and pupils had to
translate the text word by word with dictionaries. I tried to help
them, but I did not want to translate the text instead of them, so
my advice was rather sporadic.
The first lesson plan
1. Organizational part
(2 minutes)
2. Introductory questions
What do you thing we are going to talk about? miming
Do you like cooking?
Can you cook?
Is it a good / interesting job to be a cook?
Do you know some cook?
Etc.
(3 minutes)
3. Introducing Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver is a young Englishman established a restaurant
called Fifteen in London. Every year, he hires fifteen young people
living in streets and provides one-year-education course. They
become cooks. He has published a few cookery books; the latest is
called Jamie at home. (They can have a look at the book - I have
the English original.) He also has a popular TV show. He is married
and has two small children.
(2 minutes)
4. Brainstorming cooking
(3 minutes)
5. What do you like to eat? What would you like to be able to
cook?
6. Watching DVD, filling in the questionnaire
(20 minutes)
7. Checking the answers (with partner, then with teacher)
(3 minutes)
8. Explaining the project task, showing the scene with pictures,
division into groups, distributing recipes.
(10 minutes)
9. Organizational part (2 minutes)
Homework: translate the recipes so that you know new vocabulary
and you can understand the procedure of preparation.
The first lesson
After we moved to audio-visual classroom and lost about 10
minutes from the lesson, I went according to my lesson plan. I
tried to motivate the pupils and describe Jamie Oliver in the best
way, but I heard them saying that he was stupid boy and that it was
silly. Most of them also said they did not like cooking and did not
know any cook. Generally, the response was negative all over.
Nevertheless, I played the DVD hoping that they might get
interested. I asked them to fill in the questionnaires, but soon I
recognized that they would not be able to. They seemed not to
listen to the video at all and I think they only read the
subtitles. At the moment they read the answer they needed, they
started to listen to the English, but it was already gone. The
result was sad. What is more, they were not happy with the recipes
I gave them. I was disappointed after the first lesson with this
class.
The second lesson plan
1. Organizational part
(2 minutes)
2. Working out the presentation in groups (drawing pictures,
division of roles among pupils, asking questions the teacher
etc.)
(40 minutes)
3. Organizational part
(3 minutes)
The second lesson
The second lesson was much better than the first one. The pupils
seemed more interested in the topic or were at least somehow
reconciled with it. However, only one group had translated the
recipe at home, the rest pull them out of their bags, some of them
badly creased. Some pupils did not even bring it, but those were
exceptions. I brought dictionaries to the class and distributed
them among children. They started translating. Some pupils divided
the work among themselves within the group, which means that some
of them translated and some were drawing pictures for presentation
and helping with the translation if they understood something from
the recipe. I was monitoring all the time and helping student with
difficulties. I was shocked when I found that they had to look up
in the dictionaries words like a pot, a slice or even a peanut.
At the end of the lesson, I asked the pupils to divide the rest
of work among them and finish it before the next lesson, when the
presentation would take place. I meant to finish the translation
and prepare the presentation, draw pictures or another way how to
present the recipe.
The third lesson plan
1. Organizational part
(2 minutes)
2. Presentations of the groups
(42 minutes)
3. Organizational part
(1 minute)
The third lesson
The presentation lesson was little bit hectic, because in two
minutes after the beginning of the lesson, an English teacher
teaching in the neighbouring class entered out classroom and told
me that we had to be joined together with the other group, because
of some reason I do no remember. The only possible answer was yes,
so I waited until the group come in and sat down and then we could
start.
The first group presented the recipe for farfalle with carbonara
and spring peas. Two pupils from the group were chosen to present
it. They had nice pictures of the ingredients and one of them
showed the picture during the other one read the recipe. After this
introduction, one of the pupils continued reading, but the show
stopped. It was obvious the he read it for the fist time loud. I
could not understand him very well because he did not pronounced
correctly. I stopped him in a while because it was no use listening
to him. I am sure that neither his classmates could understand him,
because if they did not know basic words, they definitely could not
understand the more difficult ones.
The second group was supposed to present thai watermelon salad.
When I asked them to come in front of the class and start, they did
not move. It took me a second to understand that they were not
prepared. I did not know why, because they had translated the whole
recipe the previous lesson. I asked them to come and read the
recipe at least, but they had left it at home. I was disappointed
and angry. I told them to rewrite the translation of the recipe at
home and bring it to their English teacher the next lesson.
The next group presented the recipe for tomato soup. There were
only two girls in the group, but they did very well. They had
prepared some pictures and showed not only the ingredients, but
also pretended cooking. Unfortunately, they wished not to be
recorded, so I do not have them on my video.
The fourth group showed us preparing salmon. I knew that those
boys had been translating the recipe last lesson and did not manage
to prepare any pictures. I did not supposed them to do it at home,
either, although it was their homework. So I brought some plastic
food from home and lent them a pan and a spatula too. Their
presentation was nice and humorous and everybody liked it. However,
they were not good at reading and I stopped them after short time.
But their attitude was good.
The last group spoke about bakewell tart. I really liked their
pictures they were A4 format papers folded in half so that they
made roof and could stand. Pupils could see all the pictures
displayed. They read the recipe well.
At the end of the lesson, we still had some time left because of
the one group, which did not do the presentation. I asked the
pupils to take a piece of paper and write al the words connected
with food and cooking they could remember from the last three
lessons. I was positively surprised with the result. I left them of
about five minutes and some of them asked me for extra time, they
still knew some words they wanted to write down. Some pupils did
very well, they managed to write down a lot of words and add
translation, too. The maximum number was twenty-four and all the
words were translated. Two children wrote twenty-two words, one of
them with translation. Two pupils eighteen, one seventeen with
translation, one sixteen, one fifteen with translation, three
thirteen words, one twelve, one eleven, two ten and one boy wrote
only six words. I monitored the class during writing because I
wanted them to sign their papers and not to copy from their
recipes. They surprised me with words such as sea salt, fresh mint,
gas stove, extra virgin oil, smoky bacon, tablespoon or large
pan.
In the last five minutes we played a game called The alphabet
game. Children were asked to say words connected with cooking and
food in alphabetical order, i. e. a word beginning with a, then b
etc. Who knew one could stand up and write it on the board. They
were quite creative and used some words they could remember from
their recipes, e. g. farfalle or gas.
14. FEEDBACK
To get some feedback, I asked all the pupils anticipating in the
projects to fill in questionnaires. They were anonymous, because I
wanted to know the truth.
TRAVELLING
GENERAL QUESTIONS
1. What do you prefer:
a) learning from a textbook
b) learning from another materials such as books, movies,
leaflets, magazines
2. Have you ever done a project in English class? ..
If yes, how many times? .
Was it easy or difficult for you?
what was the most difficult part of the project?
a) preparation searching for information
b) working out the presentation cooperation with your
classmates, summarizing the information, choosing information
etc.
c) presentation speaking, standing in front of the class
TRAVELLING PROJECT QUESTIONS
3. Did you like the project about travelling to England and
Ireland? Why yes or why not?
4. Circle the statements you agree with:
I learned new things
I didnt learn any new things
I liked working with materials such as leaflets, books, maps
I didnt like working with materials which were different to my
textbook
I liked working with the Internet
I didnt like working with the Internet
I liked presenting the results orally in front of the class
I didnt like presenting the results orally in front of the
class
The whole task was rather easy for me
The whole task was not easy nor difficult for me
The whole task was difficult for me
I was interested in the topic
I wasnt interested in the topic
It was better that working with textbook
It wasnt better than working with textbook
I wish we had more time for this project
There was enough time for this project
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
GENERAL QUESTIONS
5. What do you prefer:
a) learning from a textbook
b) learning from another materials such as books, movies,
leaflets, magazines
6. Do you use additional materials in English language lessons?
(books, magazines, songs etc.) If yes, what materials?
..
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
7. Had you known the story before we watched it at school?
4. Did you
a) understand spoken English in the movie
b) understand the subtitles in the movie
c) didnt understand at all, watched the pictures only
5. Did you learn anything new or not?
6. Did you like dancing like Oompa Loompas?
a) Yes, I did.
b) Yes, I did. I like when I can move in lessons.
c) No, I did not.
d) I dont care.
7. Would you like to read the book now? Why?
8. Do you wish we had more time for working with Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory or was it enough?
COOKING
GENERAL QUESTIONS
1. What do you prefer:
a) learning from a textbook
b) learning from another materials such as books, movies,
leaflets, magazines
2. Do you ever listen to spoken English?
a. no, not at all
b. yes, at school, listenings in my textbook
c. yes, on TV, in movies (video DVD) etc.
2. Have you ever done a project in English class? ..
If yes, how many times? .
Was it easy or difficult for you?
what was the most difficult part of the project?
d) preparation searching for information
e) working out the presentation cooperation with your
classmates, summarizing the information, choosing information
etc.
f) presentation speaking, standing in front of the class
JAMIE OLIVER, COOKING
3. Had you heard about Jamie before we spoke about him at
school?
4. Do you like him?
5. Did you like the video we watched?
a. yes, I did, it was interesting
b. yes, I did, but I didnt understand it
c. no, I didnt, it was silly
d. no, I didnt, I dont like cooking
e. other:
6. Circle the statement you agree with:
- I learned some new things
- I didnt learn anything new
- I liked presenting the results orally in front of the
class