Thoughts on the recordings

A few interesting comments on the recorded sessions vs the live sessions today. I had thought that the recordings wouldn't be as popular as the live versions as the latter would be more interactive, more immediate, more motivating and there is the option to ask, to question, to clarify.  However, there were comments that they liked the recordings because they like to make notes and having the recordings allowed them to do that, also to pause, rewind, have a break etc.  One keenie even said that she listens to the recordings even if she's been in the sessions! That's dedication!

Someone also suggested that I should sat up a facebook group for people to be able to contact each other, and I think this is a good idea - I could post up interesting bits and pieces as well.

Ch.. Ch.. Ch... Changes....

'Keep it simple, stupid' might be a good thing to think about.  It's interesting how teaching the evening group (who are largely pre-celta trainees of the type I envisaged would do the course) is quite a different expereince to the afternoon group (largely overseas, post celta/ interested in the course/ know the grammar).  The session yesterday was much too easy, no challenge for them (of course!) and not very satisfying for me.  Tonight it was much slower, and I've gone back to simplify my input, put continuous (easier) before perfect aspect (more tricky) and to take out the slides I had on 'When isn't it perfect/ continuous?' looking at gerunds, participle clauses, -ing adjectives etc.  This is just too much for them.  They are really struggling with getting the basics.  More can come later.

On the technical side, the breakout rooms are better now, and I've adjusted my mike so that the sound is better.  I feel as if I'm getting to know them a bit, but I need a little profile of them near me, I think.  I might ask them to send me a pic, too....

Motivation

Only three people showed up last night (although I had an apology from one other).  I think that that is another one of those differences between an on-line class and one you have to commit to going to - because the barrier is lower in terms of easily being able to go, it's also psychologically easier to miss it.  I had the same experience when the Virtual Round Table conference rolled around - I had had it in my diary for months - I really wanted to go to some of the sessions - thought it wasa great idea.... and in the end didn't find the time to do it, life got in the way.

Not sure if this will be different if people have paid for it... I also think that perhaps I should allow the link to be available for, maybe a week after the session.  A limited time will (perhaps) make people make time to watch it if they want to.  If you know it's available indefinitely, do you ever do it....

First session in Pilot 2!

Just finished the first session on the 'big' pilot.  A bit wierd because I don't know people, I have to say - a bit impoersonal - it's better in the breakout rooms.  Still, 10 people came plus one of the trainers who is interested popped in.  The big thing is just that there still is too much information in that frst session  it took an hour and a half and couldn't have been done in much less.  It would be good to ignore articles, but they're so important.  Could they be moved to the third session? 

Working blind, as it were, it's difficult to judge the level that people are at. Big difference between this and f2f is that you can't easily tell how easy/ difficult they are finding it.....

I sent out a quick review type homework (two sentences to parse) afterwards, and I thik that's a helpful idea. 

Scott Thornberry's Post on Focus on Form

In his absurdist, mildly funny novel Nowhere Man (Picador, 2004), Aleksandar Hemon describes a scene where the protagonist, a Bosnian, has applied for a job as an English teacher ('strictly out of despair') in an ESL school in Chicago. He is given a tour of the school, and visits an advanced class where there is a discussion in progress about Siamese twins:

"I must say," the man whom I recognised as Mihalka said, "that it is not perfectly pleasant when I watch them."

"They are monsters," said a woman in a dark, stern suit...

"They are humans," Mihalka said, then lifted his index finger, enunciating an important statement.  "When I had been a little child, I had had a friend who had had a big head.... Every child had told him about his big head and had kicked him with a big stick on his head.  I had been very sad," Mihalka said, nodding, as if to show the painful recoil of the big head.

"We are learning Past Perfect," the teacher said to us, and smiled benevolently...

"I must know Past Perfect," Mihalka said, and shrugged resignedly, as if Past Perfect were death and he were ready for it.

The scene nicely captures a number of the tensions that characterise interaction in the ESL/EFL classroom, not least the tension between, on the one hand, meaningful interaction ("Let's talk about Siamese twins") and, on the other, a focus on form ("Let's use the past perfect").

(Normally, of course, the focus on form is engineered by the teacher, not the learner. What's interesting, in this case, is Mihalka's dogged - if flawed - attempts to use 'the structure of the day'. Is this because he is conscious that the teacher's agenda is primarily form-focussed? Or is he the kind of learner who likes to try new forms out for size? Well, we'll never know.)

Just to remind you, a focus on form "overtly draws students' attention to linguistic elements as they arise incidentally in lessons whose overriding focus is on meaning or communication" (Long 1991, quoted in Doughty and Williams 1998, p. 3). Typically, this might take the form of overt correction, or of gentle nudging, e.g. by asking for clarification, or by re-casting (or reformulating) what the learner has said. This incidental approach contrasts with the more traditional and deliberate approach, where teaching is based on a syllabus of graded structures (or forms), and these are pre-taught in advance of activities designed to practise them - what Long called (somewhat confusingly) a focus on formS.

A focus on formS (plural) entails the pre-selection and pre-teaching of discrete items of language (it is thus proactive), whereas a focus on form is essentially reactive, entailing "a prerequisite engagement in meaning before attention to linguistic features can expect to be effective" (Doughty and Williams, ibid. p. 3).   A focus on formS presumes a PPP methodology, where presentation of pre-selected and pre-graded items precedes production, and where it is assumed that fluency arises out of accuracy.  A focus on form, on the other hand, fits better with a task-based approach, where learning is driven solely by the need to communicate and where, as in first language acquisition, accuracy is late-acquired.

Focusing on the form of learner language that has emerged in classroom interaction is also a mainstay of the Dogme philosophy. As Luke Meddings and I point out (in Teaching Unplugged):

Focussing on learners’ lives means that the language that emerges in class will be relevant to them, but there is still work to be done if both you and they are to make the most of it. This is where a focus on form comes in (p. 60).

In our book, we offer some strategies as to how to exploit the language that emerges in classroom interaction so as to incorporate a focus on form, without sacrificing real communication. These include:

1.                  Retrieve what the learner has just said.  Otherwise it will just remain as linguistic “noise”. This might mean simple making an informal note during a speaking activity, or, at times, writing the learner’s utterance on the board.

2.                  Repeat it.  Repeat it yourself; have other learners repeat it – even drill it! Drilling something has the effect of making it stand out from all the other things that happen in a language lesson.

3.                  Recast it.  Reformulate the learners’ interlanguage productions into a more target-like form. This is not the same as correction. It is simply a way of indicating “I know what you’re trying to say; this is how I would say it”.

4.                  Report it.  Ask learners to report what they said and heard in group work. Apart from anything else, knowing that they may have to report on their group work encourages learners to pay attention to what is going on.

5.                  Recycle it. Encourage learners to use the emergent items in new contexts. This may be simply asking for an example of their own that contextualises a new item of vocabulary, or it may involve learners creating a dialogue that embeds several of the new expressions that have come up.

I'm now wondering: in the case of Mihalka, in the 'Siamese Twin' lesson quoted above, which of these - if any - might have been the most effective strategy?

References:

Doughty, C., & Williams, J. (eds.) 1998. Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition. Cambridge University Press.

Meddings, L., & Thornbury, S. 2009. Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching. Peaslake: Delta Publishing.

ESOL Teaching Skills Task Book

http://www.languages.ac.nz/table-of-contents-and-resources.html

This is a fantastic resource for post-celta trainees (and other teachers).  You should definitely recommend it.

A thought is that it would be a good idea to give a list of resources and possibilities for CPD after the course, including the Virtual Round Table conference, Russell's website etc etc.

This could be via links on your website, too.....

Using Voice and Timing

The session tonight was on the Present Perfect.  It's the first of the part II course lessons, ie the first time I've been explaining grammar rather than just explaining what things are called.  It was largely quite successful, but went on for much longer than I  had planned - about 90 mins, not 60.  I thin this was necessary, to be honest, I couldn't have done it justice in less, but I may have to rethink the times - maybe this part II has to have 90 minute sessions.

More trouble with the breakout rooms and the (not responding) signal.  I'll have to get on to Adobe again - this only seems to have happened since they changed the programme - I want the old one back!!

What was interesting tonight was that people were comfortable to use voice for the first time.  I had a lot more vocal feedback and much less text chat.  Not sure whether this is good or bad as it meant that some of the participants were less involved, but it made it feel more like an interactive classroom environment.  Not sure how this will work if the group is much bigger.....

Started to think about a website - I'll need one if this is going to be a commercial venture.  There's a lot of interest in the pilot course (it is free, though....) - I've had 15 people sign up in 2 days - what is really interesting is that they are not in any way all pre-celta trainees - a lot of them are post celta or qualified teachers in a job......  There may be a lot of mileage in this.

Two different courses?

Had more nightmare problems with the system last night - whenever I tried to move people to breakout rooms, the programme kept freezing up (not responding) on the screen.  The Powerpoint froze on two occasions, too and I had to reload it.  Will talk to Adobe today. I suspect it's glitches with the new system.

Had a bright idea this morning.  I could offer a 'foundation level' course with just 4 or 5 hour long sessions covering parts of speech and verb tenses, active and passive ie just the nomenclature, and then a further add-on going over some of the more tricky parts of the grammar eg present perfect, relative clauses, the future etc.  This would mean that I could offer the first one very cheaply and a lot of people might feel that this was all they needed (even if it really wasn't, but at least it'd be something and it'd be affordable for everyone.)