Dear students,
In short, below you'll find an outline and some references to the points discussed in class today.
Factors influencing SLA:
L1. First language interference is a delicate issue. The extend to which it influences depends on the distance or the degree of difference between the L1 and L2. For more info on that pages 85-87 of the Lightbown and Spada book.
Major points: Grammar and syntax can influence L2 learning. Example: English uses verb inflections to add tense. Thai adds extra words to add tense to a message.
Word order is another example. English uses subject verb inversion in some cases of question formation. Thai has more freedom in word order without changing the meaning of the sentence.
Phonology and phonetics: First language Intonation and stress patterns can create difficulties in communication or even lead to a communicative break down. Thai is a tonal language. English is a stress timed language. English uses tones to add intention to a sentence. Thai uses tones to change the meaning of a word. In this case more problems would occur for the English speaker learning Thai than the Thai speaker learning English as far as tones are concerned.
Culture: Different mindsets lead to different associations of words and concepts. Concepts have different words in different cultures even though they might share the same language. Basically, a Thai learner of English will use English words that are closer to the perception of a Thai concept than someone from Europe would do.
Example given in class: fixed expressions with figurative meaning “What’s up?”. These are culturally related expressions that are often not easily translated if at all. They come forth from different behaviors in communication and different social relations. Think about the way of addressing someone in Thai, Pi and Nong, and the different names for family relations from father and mother’s side. In more general terms we say that different cultures have different communicative rules and strategies.
Language anxiety: this is the feeling of excitement, fear, anxiety that comes up when is learner is prompted to use the target language. It will impair second language production. Language anxiety is mostly associated with speaking skills but has also been found in writing and listening.
Motivation. The desire to master a certain skill and the willingness to put effort into learning this skill.
Motivated students have a desire to achieve a goal and this goal is some degree of proficiency in the target language. Motivation is considered to be one of the most if not the most influential factor in language learning.
Learner environment: Creating an encouraging and positive atmosphere will definitely increase the satisfaction of the learner. A good learning atmosphere is a prerequisite to learning languages it helps you and the student. A positive attitude toward the learning environment is stimulating the second language achievement in general.
The student. Students, learners, they are individuals. They have feelings, emotions and a history. As language learning is quite a personal experience these factors play a role in language learning as well. Some days students don’t want to learn, some days they’re great. It’s not up to you as a teacher to force students to learn anything. You can facilitate the language learning process through the above mentioned factors but you can’t push students.
Teacher: You as a teacher are largely responsible for the atmosphere in class. If you’re a repressive teacher your classes will feel different than a largely facilitating teacher who emphasizes students’ responsibility in language learning. You’re important as you’re an entity in the class who determines a lot but as it comes to learning and skills development, the students are the most important in class and you’re a facilitating factor in the learning process.
Hope this helps you a bit in understanding the blur of information of today's class.
references:
spada and lightbown, how languages are learned 1997.
Schmitt N. Introduction to applied linguistics.
wikipedia articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language_acquisition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language_acquisition#Anxiety
Monday, November 17, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Using Thai movies in ELT
Thai movies in ELT
Below you'll find a kind of lengthy description of an idea that I worked out over the last couple of weeks. Please feel free to use it. It can be done with any class mathayom, or at university level. Even in adult classes it's no problem. It's a great and entertaining way to show students they can do more than just remember their lines.
The aim of this lesson is to label students’ already existing concepts with English words by relying on students’ common ground and as a result let students express emotions and feeling in their English language use. Movies provide a combination of authentic language, emotions and context. By using Thai movies in ELT you provide your students with two basic ingredients of communication: context and feeling. The third ingredient, authentic language is so to say your variable. A breakdown in communication is often the result of lack of context and or different perceptions of emotions. Thus by providing your students with a context they fully understand and the emotions that are closely related to them, you create common ground for the students and smoothen the usage of the target language. Language, at this point, has become a minor problem. Students can transfer, not translate, the Thai script of the movie into English by using the knowledge they have plus the extra knowledge they gain from the transfer. Even if they have limited knowledge it remains easier to transfer concepts they can relate to into English than something that is not akin. Another advantage, and very important factor, of the use of Thai movies is that they take place in Thailand and represent average daily life situations they can relate to.
I piloted this idea over the last couple of weeks with a Bed third year class that got stuck in automated language use. I wanted to get them away from the preprogrammed rehearsal and the memorization of lexical entries and let them ‘feel’ the concepts and the emotions they convey. As the students of this class are not world travelers and a lot of them haven’t even been to Bangkok yet, I thought it was useless to introduce English movies and ram the English meaning in. This would lead to the same result that I was trying to get away from: preprogrammed rehearsal and recitation. Also, I was trying to introduce the idea of acting as in two years from now some of them will be teachers and as far as I know teaching is performance and performance is often acting. How can you give natural input in an institutional setting without some good acting? Another huge advantage of acting is that the students are not themselves. They act out a character, so if they do anything out of the ordinary it’s not the student but the character. This seems to work great.
The project can be stretched out over a couple of weeks. To complete all the steps it took me about 2 full lectures of 3 hours with low-level B.ed 3rd year students.
Steps of the lesson:
- Students form groups of 4-5 students, have them form the groups on their own as this increases their autonomy and shows your faith in their abilities.
- They choose a Thai movie, preferably one with a foreigner in it, and discuss the movie. This gives them the chance to make a fool out of the foreigner, something they love to do, but also to relate to the foreigner, as one of them has to act out that particular role.
- Make sure that everyone understands the genre of the movie and have them brainstorm on the meaning of the movie. Everyone should have seen the movie or should see it before they start transferring it into English.
- They choose a scene that they find interesting and make sure they had enough roles for all the students.
- They find the Thai script on the Internet and copy the scene.
- They transfer the Thai into English as a group. Encourage them to use the dictionary as little as possible. This lowers the chance of awkward or low frequency word usage and encourages them to explore the boundaries of their English skills.
- Students choose a role that they are comfortable with and that they can relate to.
- Students try to get an idea of the character by making a profile of the character. Have them come up with a list of words that describes the characteristics of the character. This reinforces the links between English words and their concepts.
- Students start practicing the movie and come up with props that they need. Keep the usage of props limited. Let them focus on props that strengthen the characteristics of their role but do not replace the character or take away the essence and function of the language and consequently the objective of the lesson.
The actual classroom performance:
I built up their confidence with a couple of small acting activities.
- Act out a fruit. Students choose a fruit and act out how they feel if they were that fruit. A rich imagination of the teacher will definitely facilitate the outcome of this activity.
- Say: “Wow, you look great today” in different moods. Students pair up and say “Wow, you look great today” to each other in different moods. Sincere, sarcastic, sad, happy, crazy, etc. Model the activity clearly with a couple of students.
The final warm up activity before they actually start their acting is an activity that I borrowed from Dave Hopkins’ textbook, ‘Smooth Moves’. It’s called “Death in the afternoon”. It’s a simple skit that students can act out in different moods. For instructions and the dialogue please see Smooth Moves, page 83. The dialogue can be adjusted for lower level students. I rewrote it and adjusted it to their level. The skit can be hilarious and it takes away the anxiety and it reminds students of the mood they have to take up in the acting.
After that I gave the students a little break and some preparation time for their final task: Acting out their scenes.
At this moment I let the students take care of everything. It is their performance and their work. I sat down in a corner of the room and had them rearrange everything. The last thing I wanted to do was walk around and boss them around. I did this every time after I modeled the activity. Back off and sit down, let the students take over. Yes, sometimes it gets out of hand but who cares: they’re learning.
Any comments, suggestions, critics.. please let me know, it would be great if we can improve the lesson!
Below you'll find a kind of lengthy description of an idea that I worked out over the last couple of weeks. Please feel free to use it. It can be done with any class mathayom, or at university level. Even in adult classes it's no problem. It's a great and entertaining way to show students they can do more than just remember their lines.
The aim of this lesson is to label students’ already existing concepts with English words by relying on students’ common ground and as a result let students express emotions and feeling in their English language use. Movies provide a combination of authentic language, emotions and context. By using Thai movies in ELT you provide your students with two basic ingredients of communication: context and feeling. The third ingredient, authentic language is so to say your variable. A breakdown in communication is often the result of lack of context and or different perceptions of emotions. Thus by providing your students with a context they fully understand and the emotions that are closely related to them, you create common ground for the students and smoothen the usage of the target language. Language, at this point, has become a minor problem. Students can transfer, not translate, the Thai script of the movie into English by using the knowledge they have plus the extra knowledge they gain from the transfer. Even if they have limited knowledge it remains easier to transfer concepts they can relate to into English than something that is not akin. Another advantage, and very important factor, of the use of Thai movies is that they take place in Thailand and represent average daily life situations they can relate to.
I piloted this idea over the last couple of weeks with a Bed third year class that got stuck in automated language use. I wanted to get them away from the preprogrammed rehearsal and the memorization of lexical entries and let them ‘feel’ the concepts and the emotions they convey. As the students of this class are not world travelers and a lot of them haven’t even been to Bangkok yet, I thought it was useless to introduce English movies and ram the English meaning in. This would lead to the same result that I was trying to get away from: preprogrammed rehearsal and recitation. Also, I was trying to introduce the idea of acting as in two years from now some of them will be teachers and as far as I know teaching is performance and performance is often acting. How can you give natural input in an institutional setting without some good acting? Another huge advantage of acting is that the students are not themselves. They act out a character, so if they do anything out of the ordinary it’s not the student but the character. This seems to work great.
The project can be stretched out over a couple of weeks. To complete all the steps it took me about 2 full lectures of 3 hours with low-level B.ed 3rd year students.
Steps of the lesson:
- Students form groups of 4-5 students, have them form the groups on their own as this increases their autonomy and shows your faith in their abilities.
- They choose a Thai movie, preferably one with a foreigner in it, and discuss the movie. This gives them the chance to make a fool out of the foreigner, something they love to do, but also to relate to the foreigner, as one of them has to act out that particular role.
- Make sure that everyone understands the genre of the movie and have them brainstorm on the meaning of the movie. Everyone should have seen the movie or should see it before they start transferring it into English.
- They choose a scene that they find interesting and make sure they had enough roles for all the students.
- They find the Thai script on the Internet and copy the scene.
- They transfer the Thai into English as a group. Encourage them to use the dictionary as little as possible. This lowers the chance of awkward or low frequency word usage and encourages them to explore the boundaries of their English skills.
- Students choose a role that they are comfortable with and that they can relate to.
- Students try to get an idea of the character by making a profile of the character. Have them come up with a list of words that describes the characteristics of the character. This reinforces the links between English words and their concepts.
- Students start practicing the movie and come up with props that they need. Keep the usage of props limited. Let them focus on props that strengthen the characteristics of their role but do not replace the character or take away the essence and function of the language and consequently the objective of the lesson.
The actual classroom performance:
I built up their confidence with a couple of small acting activities.
- Act out a fruit. Students choose a fruit and act out how they feel if they were that fruit. A rich imagination of the teacher will definitely facilitate the outcome of this activity.
- Say: “Wow, you look great today” in different moods. Students pair up and say “Wow, you look great today” to each other in different moods. Sincere, sarcastic, sad, happy, crazy, etc. Model the activity clearly with a couple of students.
The final warm up activity before they actually start their acting is an activity that I borrowed from Dave Hopkins’ textbook, ‘Smooth Moves’. It’s called “Death in the afternoon”. It’s a simple skit that students can act out in different moods. For instructions and the dialogue please see Smooth Moves, page 83. The dialogue can be adjusted for lower level students. I rewrote it and adjusted it to their level. The skit can be hilarious and it takes away the anxiety and it reminds students of the mood they have to take up in the acting.
After that I gave the students a little break and some preparation time for their final task: Acting out their scenes.
At this moment I let the students take care of everything. It is their performance and their work. I sat down in a corner of the room and had them rearrange everything. The last thing I wanted to do was walk around and boss them around. I did this every time after I modeled the activity. Back off and sit down, let the students take over. Yes, sometimes it gets out of hand but who cares: they’re learning.
Any comments, suggestions, critics.. please let me know, it would be great if we can improve the lesson!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Independent studies week 5
Dear students,
Below again the requirements for your research topic for this Friday.
If you do a good job now, I'll guarantee you that you'll benefit from it later this term.
For this Friday hand in:
1. A narrowed down topic. e.g., Thai students' knowledge of the English holidays: Easter and Christmas. Or, motivation of Thai students of English, why don't they want to learn? or, Present perfect and past simple: problematic grammatical features for Thai students.
2. Explain your topic in detail. Tell me everything YOU know about it and what your sources say about it. What are you going to do? How are you going to do that? What are you going to discuss. Make it a detailed discussion of your topic
3. Describe/ summarize 3 sources: 2 internet sources and 1 library source. Take time to do this as you'll benefit from it later.
Hand it in on Friday the 4th of July before 15:00. Hand in a printed version, 12. times new roman, double line spacing. Approximately 500-700 words +- 10%
How to quickly read an article:
To method I gave you today in class:
1. Read the titles and the subtitles of each paragraph / chapter.
What is the article about? What do you think?
2. Read the first line of each paragraph/ chapter?
What is the article about? What kind of information does it give you?
3. Read the abstract and the conclusion.
Ask yourself: is the article relevant to my topic or not.
4. Read the full article with the guide below.
Reading techniques for reading a full article:
The following information comes from: http://www.johnsesl.com/templates/reading/strategies.php accessed on 16/06/2008
How to read an article:
Reading Strategies
The reading strategies offered on this page will help you become a better reader. These strategies will work both in and out of the classroom, but are particularly useful in the classroom. If you learn and use the reading strategies on this page you will improve both your reading comprehension and test scores.
Strategy 1: Ignore words that are unimportant.
When reading, you may often come upon a word or phrase that you don't understand. Your first impulse may be to look up the word in your dictionary. Before resorting to a dictionary, though, you should first determine whether the word you don't know is important. If it isn't, then ignore it. Consider the following sentence.
The farvenugen truck was parked in front of the house.
What does the word farvennugen mean? You probably don't know. Right? Now ask yourself, Is the word farvennugen important in understanding the sentence? No, not really. We can tell that farvennugen is being used as an adjective, but it isn't important to the meaning of the sentence. The point of the sentence is where the truck was parked, not what kind of truck it is, so, we can ignore that word and still understand the sentence.
Strategy 2: Use the context to guess the meaning.
If you follow Strategy 1, and you determine that the word you don't know IS important, then before using a dictionary, try to guess the meaning of the word from the context. Context refers to the words and phrases surrounding the word that you don't understand. Once you think you have guessed the correct meaning, then look up the word in your dictionary to insure you have made a correct guess. Then practice using the word in different contexts. This will help you increase your understanding of the word, which in turn will help you increase your vocabulary.
Being able to guess the meaning of words from their context is a skill that is particularly helpful when you come across idioms. For example, in the sentence
Jimmy lost track of time and was late for class,
the phrase lost track of time is an idiom that means to forget about the time. If you didn't know the meaning of this idiom and you looked up each word in the
dictionary, you still would not understand the sentence.
Strategy 3: Scan for specific information.
Scanning is a skill that requires that you read quickly while looking for specific information. To scan a reading text, you should start at the top of the page and then move your eyes quickly toward the bottom. Generally, scanning is a technique that is helpful when you are looking for the answer to a known question. This is especially helpful when taking a test.
Strategy 4: Skim for general information.
Like scanning, skimming requires you to read quickly. When you skim a text, though, you are not looking for specific information, but rather, you are trying to get the main idea or point of the text you are reading. When skimming a reading selection, start with the title of the text, then read the topic sentence of each paragraph. Skimming is a skill that is especially suited for doing research. By skimming a few pages of a reference book or novel, you can generally tell if the book or novel will be useful for your research.
Strategy 5: Read in units or chunks of words.
When we see sentences written on paper, we see words that are separated by spaces. What we hear when we speak, though, are not words but sounds. Words are separated by spaces on paper for convenience. Reading is similar to speaking because people who are proficient readers read sentences in units of words rather than one word at a time. This skill takes practice, but if mastered is well worth the effort.
Below again the requirements for your research topic for this Friday.
If you do a good job now, I'll guarantee you that you'll benefit from it later this term.
For this Friday hand in:
1. A narrowed down topic. e.g., Thai students' knowledge of the English holidays: Easter and Christmas. Or, motivation of Thai students of English, why don't they want to learn? or, Present perfect and past simple: problematic grammatical features for Thai students.
2. Explain your topic in detail. Tell me everything YOU know about it and what your sources say about it. What are you going to do? How are you going to do that? What are you going to discuss. Make it a detailed discussion of your topic
3. Describe/ summarize 3 sources: 2 internet sources and 1 library source. Take time to do this as you'll benefit from it later.
Hand it in on Friday the 4th of July before 15:00. Hand in a printed version, 12. times new roman, double line spacing. Approximately 500-700 words +- 10%
How to quickly read an article:
To method I gave you today in class:
1. Read the titles and the subtitles of each paragraph / chapter.
What is the article about? What do you think?
2. Read the first line of each paragraph/ chapter?
What is the article about? What kind of information does it give you?
3. Read the abstract and the conclusion.
Ask yourself: is the article relevant to my topic or not.
4. Read the full article with the guide below.
Reading techniques for reading a full article:
The following information comes from: http://www.johnsesl.com/templates/reading/strategies.php accessed on 16/06/2008
How to read an article:
Reading Strategies
The reading strategies offered on this page will help you become a better reader. These strategies will work both in and out of the classroom, but are particularly useful in the classroom. If you learn and use the reading strategies on this page you will improve both your reading comprehension and test scores.
Strategy 1: Ignore words that are unimportant.
When reading, you may often come upon a word or phrase that you don't understand. Your first impulse may be to look up the word in your dictionary. Before resorting to a dictionary, though, you should first determine whether the word you don't know is important. If it isn't, then ignore it. Consider the following sentence.
The farvenugen truck was parked in front of the house.
What does the word farvennugen mean? You probably don't know. Right? Now ask yourself, Is the word farvennugen important in understanding the sentence? No, not really. We can tell that farvennugen is being used as an adjective, but it isn't important to the meaning of the sentence. The point of the sentence is where the truck was parked, not what kind of truck it is, so, we can ignore that word and still understand the sentence.
Strategy 2: Use the context to guess the meaning.
If you follow Strategy 1, and you determine that the word you don't know IS important, then before using a dictionary, try to guess the meaning of the word from the context. Context refers to the words and phrases surrounding the word that you don't understand. Once you think you have guessed the correct meaning, then look up the word in your dictionary to insure you have made a correct guess. Then practice using the word in different contexts. This will help you increase your understanding of the word, which in turn will help you increase your vocabulary.
Being able to guess the meaning of words from their context is a skill that is particularly helpful when you come across idioms. For example, in the sentence
Jimmy lost track of time and was late for class,
the phrase lost track of time is an idiom that means to forget about the time. If you didn't know the meaning of this idiom and you looked up each word in the
dictionary, you still would not understand the sentence.
Strategy 3: Scan for specific information.
Scanning is a skill that requires that you read quickly while looking for specific information. To scan a reading text, you should start at the top of the page and then move your eyes quickly toward the bottom. Generally, scanning is a technique that is helpful when you are looking for the answer to a known question. This is especially helpful when taking a test.
Strategy 4: Skim for general information.
Like scanning, skimming requires you to read quickly. When you skim a text, though, you are not looking for specific information, but rather, you are trying to get the main idea or point of the text you are reading. When skimming a reading selection, start with the title of the text, then read the topic sentence of each paragraph. Skimming is a skill that is especially suited for doing research. By skimming a few pages of a reference book or novel, you can generally tell if the book or novel will be useful for your research.
Strategy 5: Read in units or chunks of words.
When we see sentences written on paper, we see words that are separated by spaces. What we hear when we speak, though, are not words but sounds. Words are separated by spaces on paper for convenience. Reading is similar to speaking because people who are proficient readers read sentences in units of words rather than one word at a time. This skill takes practice, but if mastered is well worth the effort.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Independent Studies BA 4/1 4/2 and Inter 4
Brainstorm Subjects of Interest
As we already brainstormed on several topics in class it’s time to have a closer look at your topic. Don’t think too long about your topic. Make sure you’re interested in the topic. You have to work on it for 14 weeks.
A couple of things I mentioned in class:
When choosing a topic make sure:
- Your topic is related to English language à learning, teaching
- Your topic is interesting for you and others
- Your topic is testable: That means you have to be able to do a small experiment in class. If you doubt whether your topic is testable or not, please come and see me. I can help you with that.
- Your topic is big enough but not too big. Remember you have only 14 weeks. Quantity is not everything, quality is.
- That there is enough information on the net
- Your topic is not something you don’t know anything about: Don’t reinvent the wheel. There is a lot of information on the web. Try to connect your knowledge and interests with the information available.
- You don’t copy a research that’s already been done in Thai. Don’t translate existing research
Maybe most important to mention: If you get stuck at any moment, post a question on this site or come and see me in my office.
The next thing you’re going to do is think about your topic. Ouch. Yes you have to start thinking about what you want to know.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Why am I interested in this topic?
What do I already know about this topic?
What do I want to know about this topic?
What can I learn from this topic?
What do I want others to learn from this topic?
Write down the answers to all these questions in a small report and hand it in on Friday the 27th of June before 12:00.
As we already brainstormed on several topics in class it’s time to have a closer look at your topic. Don’t think too long about your topic. Make sure you’re interested in the topic. You have to work on it for 14 weeks.
A couple of things I mentioned in class:
When choosing a topic make sure:
- Your topic is related to English language à learning, teaching
- Your topic is interesting for you and others
- Your topic is testable: That means you have to be able to do a small experiment in class. If you doubt whether your topic is testable or not, please come and see me. I can help you with that.
- Your topic is big enough but not too big. Remember you have only 14 weeks. Quantity is not everything, quality is.
- That there is enough information on the net
- Your topic is not something you don’t know anything about: Don’t reinvent the wheel. There is a lot of information on the web. Try to connect your knowledge and interests with the information available.
- You don’t copy a research that’s already been done in Thai. Don’t translate existing research
Maybe most important to mention: If you get stuck at any moment, post a question on this site or come and see me in my office.
The next thing you’re going to do is think about your topic. Ouch. Yes you have to start thinking about what you want to know.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Why am I interested in this topic?
What do I already know about this topic?
What do I want to know about this topic?
What can I learn from this topic?
What do I want others to learn from this topic?
Write down the answers to all these questions in a small report and hand it in on Friday the 27th of June before 12:00.
Opening post
This blog tries to stimulate to communication between teacher and student.
I will start a topic for each of the courses that I'm teaching this semester and students can ask questions or answer each others questions by commenting on the post.
I will try to post new information for the courses regularly. Before commenting please read the previous posts, maybe someone already answered your question.
Please do keep in mind that this blog serves an educational purpose. If you're not enrolled in one of the courses please don't post comments.
Any reactions, suggestions, or general questions can be posted as comments to this opening post.
Freek Olaf
I will start a topic for each of the courses that I'm teaching this semester and students can ask questions or answer each others questions by commenting on the post.
I will try to post new information for the courses regularly. Before commenting please read the previous posts, maybe someone already answered your question.
Please do keep in mind that this blog serves an educational purpose. If you're not enrolled in one of the courses please don't post comments.
Any reactions, suggestions, or general questions can be posted as comments to this opening post.
Freek Olaf
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