EN 4313 (Lecture 2)

1
EN 4313 (Lecture 2)

• Contextualizing teaching language tasks
• Personalizing teaching language tasks
• Using different sensory input
• Making interactive-decisions
• Engaging different classroom interaction patterns
• Engaging different classroom discourse formats

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Contextualizing your teaching

• Context a situation in which
• theres a call for meaningful or purposeful
  communication
• the communication calls for the use of a specific
  language item (collocation)
• The context should signal to Ss the situation
  with which the particular language item can be
  associated.
• To contextualize your teaching means to create a
  meaningful communicative context for what
  students are going to learn
• Contextualize both your teaching and major
  language tasks so that your students can learn
  the communicative use of the language
  item(s)/skills

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Examples of context and details involved

• An event / a story a robbery, a birthday party,
  a personal crisis / problem, etc.
• A place at MacDonalds, at the Peak, etc.
• People involved a policeman, a friend, a
  counselor, etc.
• The communication needed / particular language
  item needed describing an event, giving
  instructions, looking up information for a
  project, etc.
• The communication mode email, telephone,
  face-to-face discussion,etc.

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• Task 1
• Is Task A in the handout contextualized? If so,
  is it well-contextualized? Comment. What can we
  do to contextualize the task?
• Is Task B in the handout contextualized? If so,
  is it well-contextualized? Comment. What can we
  do to contextualize the task?

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Personalizing your teaching

• Personalizing signaling to Ss that what youre
  going to present or what you want them to do is
• related to them
• generated from them
• to be owned by them

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Ways of personalizing your teaching (presentation)

• When presenting/teaching the use of a language
  item or a skill,
• draw on the experiences, views of your students
• solicit examples or linguistic data (language)
  from your students
• acknowledge the contribution of the above

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Personalizing a learning task

• Assigning a topic / context that concerns your Ss
  or that interests them
• Allowing Ss to personalize their own products by
  encouraging them to
• express their views, thoughts about a topic in a
  piece of writing
• create a personal title for their own products
• decorate their own products
• publish their work (creating a sense of
  recognition)

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Why personalizing our teaching?

• Personalizing can
• create a sense of ownership of things produced
  during the learning process
• make your classroom a personal and human place
• motivate learning
• lubricate the process of learning

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Knowledge required of you

• Interests of youngsters
• Your Ss interests
• The practice of your CTs
• Any other types of knowledge?

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• If possible, contextualize and personalize when
  planning for a teaching unit and in particular
  for the start / warm-up stage of
• A major reading task
• A major writing task
• A major speaking task
• A major vocabulary learning unit
• A major grammar item learning unit

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Making use of different sensory input to spice up
your lessons

• Use
• Music (e.g., MTVs)
• Video clips
• Internet resources, etc.
• Pictures
• Objects
• Etc.
• to stimulate thinking and to generate ideas

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Making interactive decisions

• Interactive decisions
• ad hoc decisions made during your teaching
  regarding
• the pace
• the amount of input to give
• the strategies of teaching for the next step of
  your teaching
• in order to maximize the effectiveness of your
  teaching

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Observations to make for interactive decisions

• pace of learning / ability to learn
• mood
• discipline
• level of interest in the activities /your
  teaching
• the previous the next lessons

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Some likely scenarios in your PT which may affect
the progress ofyour lesson

• Sleepy Ss (200 in a hot afternoon)
• Slow learners
• Confused learners
• A rowdy group
• Ss have returned from a P.E. lesson
• Ss have finished a test in a previous lesson
• Ss will be writing a test in the next lesson
• Ss have been punished in a previous lesson
• Students have suggested some good examples.
• Ss in a festive mood.

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Solutions?

• Slowing down
• Repeating a teaching procedure
• Rephrasing your explanation
• Introducing a brief game / a fun activity
• Allowing several minutes for settling down
• Allowing a short break
• Allowing Ss to talk about the previous / upcoming
  lesson
• Staying away from sensitive topics
• Adopting Ss examples

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Interactive decisions on your use of equipment,
materials, etc.

• When equipment breaks down or when you suddenly
  find a mistake in your materials,
• quit using the equipment
• quit using the materials if the mistake is
  serious
• point out the problems of the materials
• ?check the equipment / materials first before the
  class starts
• ? think of some fallback strategies

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Flexibility counts!

• Exercise flexibility in the execution of your
  plan.
• Dont panic when things dont run according to
  your plan.
• Do what you think is appropriate to the flow of
  your lesson (logical enough?).
• Do what you think is conducive to the achieving
  of the lesson objectives.
• Dont stick to your lesson plan just because your
  CT or Tutor has a copy of if and is observing
  your lesson.

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Classroom interaction patterns

• T ? Ss (lecturing)
• SSS (group)
• S-S (pair)
• S
• What are the strengths and limitations of these
  various interaction patterns?

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Classroom Talk(Discourse formats)

• T-initiated talk
• Monologue
• IRF
• IR(group discussion group responding)F
• IRF (F from peers F from T)
• I(Genuine questions)R-Inc (incorporation of ideas
  for teaching)
• What are the various formats good for?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
  variations of IRF?

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Classroom Talk (continued)

• Student-initiated talk
• IR (teacher)
• IR (peer) F (teacher)
• I I (teacher) R(peer) F(teacher)
• What are some strengths and weaknesses of the
  above formats?

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• Initiation involves questioning/elicitation
  skills (practised in Tut 2/3).
• Response takes time, may need motivation or
  encouragement, may mean overcoming the classroom
  cultural barrier.
• Feedback requires your interactive decisions.
• Implications?

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Implications for MT / on-site PT?

• You will be assessed on how well you can do the
  following
• Contextualization
• Personalization
• Use of different sensory input
• Use of different interaction patterns
• Use of different discourse formats