Welcome to my blog. I use it to share activities with my English students and with teachers in different training workshops. If you like what you see, why not leave a comment?
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 10 of the course Teaching Grammar for the Licenciatura in English Teaching at ULACIT. In this class we will do several activities to explore the topics of tasks in grammar teaching and the use of corpus data to help students make discoveries about language.
Today's Goals:
Explore one of three task gap types (information, opinion, and reasoning) and share the logic, strengths, and challenges of your assigned task type with your partners.
Search corpus data to make discoveries about how words and phrases are actually used.
Begin sequencing your syllabus content for your Grammar Syllabus Proposal.
Guiding Questions:
What are the features of a communicative task?
What are the benefits of using tasks to develop students' ability to use grammar communicatively.
How can corpus linguistics help us make discoveries about how language is actually used?
Task 1: Exploring Task Types
Click on your assigned link below to expore your task type. Be ready to explain what you learned to your partners when we return to the main room.
The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) is the world's largest collection of spoken and written English texts containing over a billion words. You can search the corpus to learn lots of interesting things about how words and phrases work. It's free, but you need an account.
Sign up: CLICK HERE or copy/paste this link into your internet browser.
https://www.english-corpora.org/register.asp?n=y
Try it out: CLICK HERE or copy/paste the link into your internet browser to go to the search page. Type in your favorite English word or short phrase.
https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/
Options: Try using the following options to see what you can learn.
Word: Definition, Topics, Collocates
Task 3: Using Corpus Data
Now you will continue working with COCA to complete some tasks with your partners. Click your group link below and follow the instructions.
Last week you worked with your partners to select CEFR can-do statements. From those statements you extracted specific communicative aims. Then you brainstormed specific grammar structures, useful phrases, and vocabulary words to achieve the aims as well as some possible learning activities for students.
Now it is time to put the pieces together. You need to arrange your course into 3 distinct units. Each with at least two communicative aims and all of the language points and suggested learning tasks. For homework you will write a brief paper describing your syllabus proposal and justifying the choices that you made when designing the course. Get started now!
Design and Evaluation of Training Programs - Week 10 - Training All Kinds of People
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 10 of the course Design and Evaluation of Teacher Training Programs and Workshops for the Master's in English Teaching at ULACIT. Today we will do several activities to explore the topics of loop input, the experiential learning cycle, and personality profiles of trainees.
Today's Goals:
Experience an example of loop input and explore its benefits and challenges for teacher training.
Discuss the personality characteristics of trainees and propose strategies to incorporate all trainees into the workshop activities.
Review a sample Teacher Training Proposal that fullfills all of the requirements of the assignment.
Guiding Questions:
How can the experiential learning cycle and the concept of loop input be applied in the context of a teacher training workshop?
How do personality facotrs influence the development of a workshop?
What strategies can I use to make my training inclusive for everyone?
Warm Up: My Teacher Personality
In this activity you will explore the Big 5 Personality Model, a well established model of five personality characteristics from the field of psychology. One partner should share the screen and then click the three dots at the bottom of the presentation to enter full-screen mode. Follow the instructions in the presentation.
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Task 1: Sharing your PD Journal
Let's take a moment to share one of the entries you made in your PD Journal in Week 9. As you share your highlight, let's think about how this tip connects to how we as individual teachers can develop in our practice and how we as trainers can use these techniques to support teacher growth with teachers we work with.
Expand Your Teaching Skills
Experience classroom activities
Watch videos of teaching
Use wikis for collaborative teacher development
Take part in micro-teaching
Be creative
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Task 2: Experiential Learning Cycle and Looped Input
In your reading this week from Richards (2017), the author suggests several tips for professional development that allow the teacher to have a learning "experience". Discuss the following questions.
What comes to mind when you read the phrases "experiential learning" or "learning through experience"?
What kinds of experiences provide meaningful learning opportunities for teachers?
What are the benefits of thanking and "experiential" approach to teacher training?
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One way to give teachers a powerful learning experience is to do a "demo" teaching activity or lesson in which trainee teachers play the role of language learners and the trainer acts as the teacher. After the demo lesson, the trainees take off their "student hats" and consider the activity from a teacher perspective before creating their own activity or lesson based on the previous model.
What experience have you had using demo lessons and activities as a trainer or as a trainee?
Was the experience successful?
What was challenging about it?
Does this technique have any limitations?
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Let's try a variation on the demo activity using a technique called "loop input". Click the link below and follow the teacher's instructions.
Training involves "content" (what is to be learned) and "process" (how it is to be learned). According to Tessa Woodward, the creator of loop input, this technique is "a specific type of experiential teacher training process that involves an alignment of the process and content of learning" (Woodward, 2003, p. 301). This means that the content of the demonstration activity is related to the specific teaching technique to be learned. In this example, a demonstration of a dictation activity included a text about how to give dictations. This concept can be applied to many other teaching techniques that you may want to train your teachers on.
As Woodward (2003) says, "the advantages of loop input are that it is multi-sensory, in just the same ways as experiential learning, but with the added advantage of involving self-descriptivity and recursion...[and]...some participants thus learn more deeply as a result of this reverberation between process and content" (p. 303).
What are some ways that you might teach the following techniques to a group of trainee teachers using a loop input technique?
PPP - Presentation, Practice, Production
Pre-While-Post activities for listening or reading
Flipped Learning
Jigsaw Reading/Listening
Use of some particular educational technology
Other training topics
Does loop input have its limitations? What might they be?
Task 3: The Personality Parade - Training All Kinds of People
This week you read a chapter from Jolles (2005) about 8 personality types that you are likely to encounter as a trainer. Many of these personality types will be familar to you already from your experience working with students over the years. Click the gtroup worksheet below and follow the instructions.
Your Training Program Proposal is due next week. To prepare for this assignment, it will be helpful for you to review a sample project from a pervious academic term that completely fulfilled the requirements. This will give you a good idea of what is expected of you.
Diseño de Materiales - Week 9 - Introduction to Authentic Materials
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 9 of the course Diseño de Materiales for the Licenciatura in English Teaching program at ULACIT. In this class we will discuss some key concepts from Chapter 6 in McGrath regarding the definition and features of authentic materials. We will also discuss the benefits and challenges of incorporating these kinds of materials in EFL lessons and we'll analyze a demo activity sequence to illustrate some principles of effective use of authentic materials.
Today's Goals:
Define the concept of authentic materials.
Discuss the benefits and challenges of incorporating authentic materials in our EFL classes.
Participate in a demo lesson sequence using authentic materials and analyze it to identify the presence or absence of McGrath's principles of authentic materials use.
Guiding Questions:
What are the features of authentic materials?
What are the benefits and challenges of using authentic texts and tasks?
Warm Up: Say 3 Things
In this short warm up activity you will need to say three items in a given category:
one you like
one you dislike
one you have no strong feelings about
Then you classmates will guess which one is which.
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Task 1: Video Analysis
Watch the following video with your partners and then discuss the questions below it. When you finish, move on to Task 2.
How authentic is this text? Why?
What language is used in it?
How authentic is the language use? Why?
How challenging would this text be for your learners?
What is your definition of "authenticity" when it comes to teaching materials and texts?
Task 2: Reasons for Using Authentic Texts
Read four quotes from teachers about their reasons for using texts in their language classes. For each one, summarize the teacher's view in your own words. Then discuss the questions at the end.
Quote 1: I want students to have a model (for instance, examples of a new structure or a particular kind of letter) so that they'll feel more confident about attempting new things in the language. The principle of listen/read first and then speak/write seems a basic one to me.
Quote 2: Students will only learn to understand native speakers of the language if they're exposed to plenty of samples of authenic language different voices, etc.
Quote 3: Sometimes my students have difficulty talking or writing about topics because they lack imagination or inspiration. I find that if I give them a listening or reading text first, that often helps to get the ideas flowing.
Quote 4: I see texts as linguistic quarries (tajos). My main concern in working with texts - real texts, that is, not texts specially written for language learners - is to draw attention to points of language which are either of interest in themselves (specific structures, lexical items, cultural allusions) or provide a starting point for consideration of related language features. A lot of what I do is in the area of vocabulary. The general idea is to enrich their vocabularies and extend their linguistic repertoirs. We dig at the text together; they then decide what they want to take from it. For the kind of students I teach, upper-intermediate and advanced, this seems to work pretty well.
Discuss: Which of the teachers seem most concerned that texts should be authentic?
Discuss: What are your own beliefs about the role of texts in language teaching?
Task 3: Demo Activity
In this activity you will experience a demonstration of an activity sequence using an authentic text. This was originally designed for a group of intermediate adult learners. The topic of their unit was "People and Places" and it discussed reasons why people live where they do and why people move. Click your group link below and follow the instructions.
Now look back at the demo sequence and discuss the following questions from a teacher perspective.
Describe the characteristics of the text (video).
Was it an example of an authentic material? Why or why not?
What were some potential or real strengths and challenges of using the video with intermediate learners?
Describe the tasks that you were asked to do
What aspects of the activities facilitated the comprehension of the text?
Brian Tomlinson says that learning materials should serve one or more of the following four functions. Did these texts and tasks serve any of these functions?
Instructional: They inform learners about the language.
Experiential: They provide exposure to the langauage in use.
Elicitative: They stimulate students to use language.
Exploratory: They faciliate discoveries about language use.
Principles for Working with Authentic Texts:
Read the list of principles from chapter 6 of McGrath. How can you relate them to the previous activity? Can you give an example from your own teaching context?
Help Comprehension: Students will find it easier to cope with "real life" listening/reading if they are exposed to authentic texts in class.
Put the Learner in the Picture: In most real life listening and reading scenarios, we have context to help us. We are interacting in a conversation and understand the purpose. We are listening to two people talk in line behind us and we the situation informs what is happening, Learners listening to recording in the classroom are at a disadvantage because they are hearing the audio out of context. Before playing the audio, give the learners all the contextual information they would have if they were really there.
Focus on Meaning: Natural (real life) text processing involves a primary focus on meaning.
The meanings that we ask students to extract should be related to the meanings the intended reader or listener is expected to derive from the text.
Give students support: If you want learners to cope with the challenges of the text, give them help.
Focus on Language: After meaningful processing of the text has occured, you can then draw students' attention to language features, not before.
References
McGrath, I. (2016). Materials Evaluation & Design for Language Teaching. Edinburg University Press.
In each round one of your partners will be the speaker. He or she will choose a topic from the list below and say three things related to that topic.
one thing he/she likes
one thing he/she does not like
one thing he/she does not have strong feelings about
Then the partners have to guess which is which. Then a new partner chooses another topic and says their three things.
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Task 1: Restaurant Reviewers
You work as a team of chefs in Gordon Ramsay's newest restaurant. Today a group of 5 restaurant reviewers will visit the restaurant and try the different dishes. There is only one rule. Each restaurant reviewer MUST TRY a different dish. NO DISHES can be repeated. Read the information below and decide which dish you want to serve to each person and why. CLICK HERE to access your virtual worksheet.
Click the image to see a larger version.
Click the image to see a larger version.
Task 2: Practice with NOT Questions
Remember that the NOT questions are the most time consuming and difficult questions in Part 7 of the reading test. The best strategy is to answer these questions last and go one by one through the answer choices using the process of elimination. Read each text with your partners and decide on the correct answer from the questions below.
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Task 3: Focused Practice
Take the following group quiz with your partners. All of the texts in the quiz are examples of advertisements, another common text type in Part 7 of the TOEIC. The quiz has 15 questions. Be sure to skim the questions before you start reading.
Teaching Grammar - Week 9 - Grammar and Corpus Data
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 9 of the course Teaching Grammar for the Licenciatura in English Teaching at ULACIT. In this class we will do several activities to explore the topic corpus data and we will begin working on your grammar syllabus project.
Today's Goals:
Extract useful language content to achieve a communicative aim according to a CEFR descriptor.
Search the corpus data to make discoveries about how words and phrases are actually used.
Guiding Questions:
How can the CEFR help us use grammar as a communicative resource when designing a language course?
What does it mean to know a word or phrase?
How can corpus linguistics help us make discoveries about how language is actually used?
Warm Up: My favorite words
To start today's class we will share some of our favorite and least favorite words and phrases in English.
For one of your group projects this term you will create a proposal for a syllabus for a conversational English course. You will generate the language content for this syllabus by following a step by step process to select grammar, vocabulary, and learning tasks related to Can Do descriptors from the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Then you will make decisions about how to sequence your content into units and you will write a brief synthesis paper describing the design choices you made.
The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) is the world's largest collection of spoken and written English texts containing over a billion words. You can search the corpus to learn lots of interesting things about how words and phrases work. It's free, but you need an account.
Sign up: CLICK HERE or copy/paste this link into your internet browser.
https://www.english-corpora.org/register.asp?n=y
Try it out: CLICK HERE or copy/paste the link into your internet browser to go to the search page. Type in your favorite English word or short phrase.
https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/
Options: Try using the following options to see what you can learn.
Word: Definition, Topics, Collocates
Task 3: Using Corpus Data
Now you will continue working with COCA to complete some tasks with your partners. Click your group link below and follow the instructions.
Design and Evaluation of Training Programs - Week 9 - Organizing your Training Course
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 9 of the course Design and Evaluation of Teacher Training Programs and Workshops for the Master's in English Teaching at ULACIT. Today we will do several activities to explore the topics of teacher research as a professional development strategy and .
Today's Goals:
Explore the Teacher Research Cycle and textbook evaluation techniques as potential development strategies.
Share your syllabus outline and potential unit organization with your group members and begin planning the shape of your course.
Guiding Questions:
How can doing research contribute to teachers' professional development?
What organizing principle(s) can I use to sequence my training course?
Warm Up: How did I learn what I know now?
As experienced teachers, you have a wide range of practical and theoretical knowledge and skills related to our field of language teaching, but have you ever stopped to think about how you learned what you know? In this warm up, you will explore this question with your partners.
Let's take a moment to share one of the entries you made in your PD Journal in Week 8. As you share your highlight, let's think about how this tip connects to how we as individual teachers can develop in our practice and how we as trainers can use these techniques to support teacher growth with teachers we work with.
Develop Research Skills
Learn how to review a textbook
Carry out action research
Try a replication study
Take part in lesson-study
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Task 2: Teachers as Researchers
In your reading this week from Richards (2017), the author suggests developing resarch skills for professional development.
What do you think of when you hear the term "research"?
What forms can research take?
We tend to associate research with scientists and university students, what are some ways that teaachers can become researchers?
What benefits can teacher research have for individual teachers and their institution?
Doing Teacher Research
Donald Freeman's (1998) book "Doing Teacher Research: From Inquiry to Understanding" offers a practical framework for classroom-based research projects for teachers. Click your group link below to explore the Teacher Research Cycle.
Teachers can use a variety of didactic materials in their classes, but nowadays nearly all language courses in the world are based on or supported by the use of commercial textbooks. McGrath (2016) in his book "Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching" stresses the importance of teachers developing a critical or questioning mindset regarding the materials they use.
Can you think of a time as a teacher, learner, or adminsitrator when you looked at the materials you were using critically?
In your experience, what factors determine if a textbook is good or appropriate for a given course?
How might you (and your teachers) go about analyzing and evaluating a textbook?
What purposes might a project like this serve?
McGrath presents a framework for analyzing, evaluating, and selecting coursebooks which begins by clearly analyzing and defining student learning needs and contextual factors in which the materials will be used. He futher suggests the development of checklists and other data collection instruments to be used to analyze and evaluate potential materials in a systematic way.
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A professional development workshop for teachers could involve them suggesting checklist criteria to create a data collection instrument and then use the instrument to review a textbook and report on their findings. You could also have teachers use other frameworks for textbook analysis such as the ones below.
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Task 3: Reading Response
Last week you read Chapter 7 "Organizing the Course" in Graves (2000) Designing Language Courses and completed a study guide as well as an outline of your syllabus and unit structure. This is the final reading we will do from this book so now it is time to think seriously about how you plan to organize the content, activities, and assessments in your course proposal.
