New Practical English

1
New Practical English

• An Overview and Review
• Margie Berns, Purdue University, USA

2
Thank you

• Heartfelt thanks
• Privilege and honor
• Best wishes

3
Greetings from Professor Silva

• Best wishes for a successful and productive 2004
• Summer Seminar for Teachers of College English

4
New Practical English

• aka (also known as)
• New Practical English

5
NPE Overview

• Contexts of learning and use
• Theoretical approach
• Goals and objectives

6
NPE Overview continued

• Syllabus organization
• Tasks, exercises, activities
• Outcomes

7
NPE Contexts of learning and use

• International
• National
• Higher education
• Classroom

8
International - China and Syria run the first
joint oil company
9
International

• Social and economic globalization
• English as an international language
• Business, tourism, higher education

10
National
11
National

• Expanding economic growth
• Need for proficiency in English
• Demand for English instruction

12
Higher Education

• Skilled and educated members of society
• Curriculum reform
• English in the curriculum

13
Classroom
14
Classroom

• Teaching traditions
• Learner expectations
• Classroom practices

15
NPE Why a new textbook?

• Adapt to change at global and national level
• Develop sound pedagogy to respond to new theories
  of language, learning, and teaching

16
Why a new textbook?

• Change practices to meet learner needs
• Foster professional growth for teachers of
  English

17
NPE - Theoretical foundation

• Preconceptions, assumptions
• Why English is being learned
• What learners need to be able to do with English
  

18
NPE Theoretical Foundations

• Theoretical orientations informing NPE
• Grammar-Translation
• Audiolingual
• Communicative

19
Grammar-Translation

• Learners need to access the knowledge in the
  world
• Deductive learning of prescriptive grammar
• Reading, translation

20
NPE Grammar-Translation

• Comprehensive Course
• Reading 5 pages
• Translation 6 exercises
• Exercises 5, 9 Read and translate
• Translate the following sentences into English /
  Chinese.

21
Grammar-Translation

• Exercise 6 Read and Simulate
• translate the Chinese sentence by simulating
  the structure of the English sentences.

22
Grammar-Translation

• Comprehensive Course
• Write Through Applying Grammar Rules
• Teachers Manual
• Language Points

23
Audiolingual

• Priority given to listening and speaking
• Inductive, grammar rules not taught
• Substitution exercises and transformation drills

24
Speaking, Listening

• Section I Speaking
• Talking Face to Face
• Section II Listening
• Being All Ears
• Pages ranging from 5 - 9

25
Controlled Writing

• Section IV, Trying Your Hand
• Controlled writing exercises
• Simulate and Create
• Write a summary of the passage through
  answering the following questions.

26
Transformation exercises

• Section IV, Trying Your Hand
• Read and Rewrite
• Rewrite the above story in the third person.

27
Communicative approach

• Focus on use of language as a
• means of communication both spoken and written
  
• Four components of communicative competence

28
Components

• Linguistic competence
• ability to use and recognize formal features of
  a language
• not related to ability to recite grammar rules

29
Components

• Sociocultural competence
• understanding of cultural setting of the
  interaction (NS NNS, NNS-NNS)
• requires cultural sensitivity and cultural
  knowledge

30
Whose English is wrong?

• My friend Maurice from Zambia greeted me one day
  by saying
• Hello, Margie. How are you?
• I see youve put on weight.

31
Zambian English?

• Being an American who wants to have a fashion
  model figure (this he didnt know), Im insulted
  and say to him
• Why do you want to make me feel bad about my
  appearance?

32
American English?

• In his home country of Zambia people are
  concerned for your health if you are too thin.
• This I didnt know.

33
Components

• Discourse competence
• knowledge of how a series of spoken utterances
  or written sentences form
• a meaningful whole
• conversation, poem, business letter)

34
Components

• Strategic competence
• ability to accept imperfect and
• incomplete knowledge of social rules of language
  use
• skills to cope with the unexpected (not knowing
  a word, phrase, cultural misunderstandings)

35
Inductive and deductive

• Learning forms of English by means of
  transformation, substitution and by minimal
  explicit instruction
• Learning forms of English by conscious attention
  to them and by explicit instruction

36
Focus on Contexts Learning

• Goals and objectives relate to everyday needs for
  the language
• Materials developed locally for learners by those
  who know their needs best

37
Focus on Contexts Use

• Writing or speaking to whom?
• For what purpose?
• In what setting?
• About what?

38
Example One

• Talking Face to Face, Put in Use
• Imagine you are inviting purpose
• your friend Bill to whom
• to a concert tonight about what .
• In what setting?

39
Example Two

• Talking Face to Face, Put in Use
• Imagine you are an applicant asking for a job
  purpose. You have got everything ready for the
  interview.
• In what setting?

40
Goals and objectives

• Goals describe in general how to meet learners
  needs
• Objectives what knowledge and competences to be
  developed by course end

41
Syllabus organization

• Overall order of course content
• What is to be learned
• How it is to be learned

42
Review

• Can learners achieve goals?
• IS NPE based on sound pedagogical and linguistic
  principles?
• Is Standard Modern English used in NPE?

43
Review continued

• Is proficiency in all four traditional skill
  areas achievable?
• Is the methodology comparable to Western
  methodologies?
• Is learning for communicative competence
  maximized?

44
Four Skills and Communication

• Speaking - spontaneous?
• Listening - which varieties?
• Reading longer text?
• Writing composing?

45
Communicative goal

• Ability to express own meaning
• Ability to interpret anothers meaning
• Ability to negotiate meaning

46
Factors shaping NPE

• Cultural
• Pedagogical
• Logistical

47
International

• Social and economic globalization
• English as an international language
• Business, tourism, higher education

48
National

• Expanding economic growth
• Need for proficiency in English
• Demand for English instruction

49
Higher Education

• Skilled and educated members of society
• Curriculum reform
• English in the curriculum

50
Classroom

• Teaching traditions
• Learner expectations
• Classroom practices

51
Developments in ELT

• Internet and web materials
• Sociocultural competence
• World Englishes

52
Internet and web materials

• Hino Nobuyuki, Osaka, Japan
• Internet connectible computer classroom
• Holistic approach to learning and teaching
  English for international communication

53
Classroom procedures

• Watching the latest news in English from
  American, Asian, and other television broadcasts
• Reading the same news real-time on the
  broadcasters web pages

54
Continued

• Turning to other news media in several different
  countries for other perspectives (Australia, UK)
• Helping the learners to understand the content
  and having discussions in English

55
Sample Tasks

• Gather and compile articles from English language
  news media from all over the world, concerning
  the recent US government policies regarding
  international relations (post 9/11).
• Determine which are supportive, critical, or
  neutral.

56
Sociocultural competence

• Globalization brings cultures together
• Cross cultural communication is complex
• Acceptance of cultural differences

57
World Englishes

• Bringing other Englishes into the classroom
• Recognizing all teachers are not native speakers
• Accepting intelligibility and appropriateness as
  outcomes

58
Thank you very much.