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Shaping the Way We Teach English

The Landscape of English Language Teaching!

Required Readings for the Course"

These articles English Teaching Forum are specially chosen for this MOOC. They are taken from the American English website ! (http://americanenglish.state.gov),where you can download hundreds of others. They are packaged together here to make it easy to read as an eBook on a tablet or smartphone using free apps such as Google Play Books (Android) or iBooks (iOS).

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Week 1!
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M a r y A s h w o r t h a n d H . Pa t r i c i a Wa ke f i e l d

or in kindergarten or grade one, marks an important turning point in terms of language development. At home, children develop both their physical and conversational skills in unstructured circumstances. The greater part of their experience is often with one caregiver. Even when more than one is involved, the number is usually limited and they are delighted to focus exclusively on the child. Learning, although it is spontaneous and unstructured, is nevertheless steady and involving for the child. The function of schools is to broaden childrens range of experiences, introduce new possibilities, systematize the process of learning, help develop thinking skills and, ultimately, empower students to take responsibility for their own learning. The strategies children have developed at home to make sense of their world, to
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talk about their experiences and to wonder about what is new or imaginary continue to be effective. These strategies should not be supplanted by the school but augmented by teachers skilled in helping all children discover their potential. Gordon Wells told us that knowledge cannot be transmitted in isolation, but must be reinvented as the learner brings to each new situation his own previous experience and background and interprets new information from that perspective. By the time children come to school, they are already successful communicators. They know what language is for and how to use it competently. As they experience new situations and interact with new adults and children, they continue to use language to interpret, ask questions, negotiate, comment and wonder. With skillful guidance from and the understanding of teachers, childrens language continues to grow and blossom in the school environment. Meaning-making in conversation is a collaborative activity, Gordon Wells wrote. The wise early childhood teacher knows how to create an atmosphere in which childrens experiences outside school are valued and talked about, where their ideas and comments are listened to with respect, and where they learn to reflect on what they know. Language is the key to creative thinking, solving problems and collaborative learning. The growth and development of language is a lifelong activity, an essential component of successful living.
Learning a second language

Although they may not be able to express themselves in English very well, the young ESL children you are meeting for the first time are, in fact, experienced language users. Cognitively and linguistically, they are as welldeveloped as their English speaking counterparts, but this development has taken place in another language and culture. Now they must begin the process of transferring what they know to a new context and continuing their development in two languages. First, however, here are some facts about language that are important to keep in mind: Language is a human universal. All cultural groups have a language system that their members master in order to communicate with each other.

Language is systematic. Every language has its own characteristic way of combining sounds, words and sentences. No language is wholly regular. Exceptions to the rule are found in all languages. All languages enable speakers to create new utterances. However, these utterances must conform to the rules established over the centuries by speakers of a particular language. Language is both creative and functional. A speaker of any language can both create and comprehend an infinite number of utterances based on a finite number of rules. These utterances can cover a multitude of functions, such as requesting, refusing, promising, warning, denying, agreeing, disagreeing and expressing emotions. Languages change. For example, new words can be created to meet the scientific and technological demands of the modern world. Human beings have an innate capacity to learn language. All children, unless they are severely neurologically impaired, are capable of learning a language. Language can be non-verbal as well as verbal. Facial expressions, gestures and other body movements may convey messages, the meanings of which are culturally specific. Language and culture are closely related. Customs, traditions, values, stories, religion, history and other manifestations of culture are transmitted to a large extent through language. Language and thought are closely related. Children and adults use language to share their thoughts and to expand and clarify concepts. Although there are many similarities between the way first and second languages are acquired, there are also important differences that cannot be ignored. Young English-speaking children do not know another language; ESL/EFL children do. They have mastered many of the skills involved in listening and talking. They know what language is and how to use it to request, demand, invite, socialize and much more. All young children are highly motivated to learn language. Surrounded by love and attention, encouraged and complimented for all their vocal efforts, they continually make every attempt to communicate. Children learning a

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second language, however, may not feel the same urgency to communicate in English as their English-speaking counterparts. They can already make themselves understood in their home language. Their initial efforts to speak English at school may be met not with praise and encouragement, but with misunderstanding and ridicule. In addition, they may hear English only at school, never at home, so that their exposure to comprehensible input is limited. When young children attempt to use language at home, their adult caregivers try very hard to understand the meaning of their utterances and pay little attention to its form. For ESL/EFL children, the opposite is too often true. When they attempt to use English at school, the teacher often pays more attention to the form than to the message. Young children learn their home language slowly over a number of years. There is no pressure; every advance is enthusiastically welcomed. When it becomes necessary for children to learn English to communicate at school, the atmosphere is very different. There is considerable pressure on them to learn the new language quickly. This pressure does not necessarily come from the teacher, but may originate with other children, the school system and their parents. Encouragement of childrens efforts should include praise for making progress, which is often phenomenal. Concepts and language development go hand in hand. All young children develop concepts of shape and color at an early age. Some of these ideas transfer easily into another language. Others, however, are different and can cause confusion. For example, the color spectrum is not divided the same way in all cultures. Yellow and green are separated by vocabulary into two colors in English; in some other cultures, one word describes that range of color. On the other hand, there are some notable similarities that help teachers as they plan activities. For example, the concept of rounda circle is universal; only the vocabulary is different. All children need to hear English modeled by both adults and their peers in a variety of situations. In both languages, there is a role for imitation. Although not all the phonemes, or sounds, of English are not found in other languages and vice versa, all children benefit from activities that highlight different combinations of sounds. For example, in the song, Old

MacDonald Had a Farm, each verse introduces a new animal sound. In English, the cow says, A moo-moo here, and a moo-moo there. But this approximation of animal sounds is not the same in all languages. A Chinese cow, for example, says, Woo. All children need to play with language, try it out, test it, receive feedback and try again. This is the way children test the rules and adjust them to their own world view, a process that prevails among all language learners. All children need to have adult language adjusted to their level of understanding and, finally, all children learn faster when language and content are combined. Language is a tool for learning.
Learning a concept is not a one-shot deal

Children need a variety of experiences with a concept in a variety of situations with a variety of people. Each new experience will result in some modification, extension or limitation of the concept. The following are some of the clusters of concepts that young children should become familiar with over time: Identification of objects beginning with those that are immediate and personal, such as body parts, clothing and objects in the classroom. Classification according to color, shape, size, number, function and kind, again beginning with what is immediate, personal and concrete; comparing and contrasting these. Spatial relationships such as near and far, in front of and behind and under and over. In every classroom, opportunities abound for both the informal and formal teaching of spatial relationships. For example, activities such as games, handicrafts and tidying up can all involve opportunities to develop childrens awareness of spatial relationships. Temporal relationships such as past, present and future, before and after, and since and during. Because time is less concrete than space, it represents an increased level of difficulty for some children. Some aspects of time, such as attitudes towards the future or the keeping of appointments, are culture-bound. Emotional and familial relationships such as love and hate, happiness and unhappiness,

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loyalty, family, kinship, self and others, including both other children and adults. Many of these concepts are culture-bound. In North America, for example, far more emphasis is placed on the individual than on the group. As another example, some cultures differentiate between an uncle on the mothers side and an uncle on the fathers side. Unless teachers are aware of these differences, they may confuse the children. Ordering which can evolve from one of the other concept clusters. For example, items that have been classified as big or little can be arranged in order from biggest to littlest, or yesterdays field trip can be reviewed in chronological sequence by talking about what the class did first, next, and so on. Equivalency which involves recognizing that although things may differ in some respects, they may in fact be the sameor equivalentin others. For example, different shapes may enclose the same area, or different shaped vessels may contain the same amount of liquid. Practical experience with containers of the same or different size helps develop the concept of equivalency.
Early literacy

Early literacy, a term widely used in current educational literature, describes how young children gradually become aware of the uses of written language in their environment. This ever-increasing awareness of writing and reading is now considered an integral part of childrens early language development. Before this theory emerged, researchers thought language development in the early years was only a precursor to the acquisition of the essential skills of reading, encoding and decoding. It was widely believed that the so-called readiness skills (letter recognition, recognition of the sound-symbol correspondence, etc.) that preceded the act of reading could be taught only when children were developmentally and physically ready to absorb them. This readiness, it was believed, occurred as a result of maturation after children began formal schooling and were ready to be taught the specific skills that would enable them to read.
Learning centers

centers or play areas, are used as an organizational structure for the classroom. These centers provide a variety of learning experiences and materials, encouraging children to explore, experiment, discover and socialize in their individual ways. As the children do so, teachers can observe differences in learning styles as well as childrens responses to stories, songs or field trips. At first, some ESL/EFL children may be overwhelmed by the variety of new materials, the freedom to choose, which may be strange to them, and their inability to play as they would like to with other children because of a language barrier. Their responses may be quite different: some may withdraw silently, others may wander aimlessly from center to center, and still others may choose one area, such as the water table, and refuse to move. Sensitive teachers will be sympathetic to their need for time to adjust to the new environment. The number of learning centers in a classroom varies with the needs of the children, the imagination of the teacher and the limitations of the space. They are all useful for involving children in different activities, for extending language and thinking and for encouraging social interaction with different groups. Learning centers give teachers a chance to observe ESL/EFL children closely as they interact with others, and to make note of their linguistic, cultural and social needs. If their English is to develop so that it can keep pace with their cognitive development, teachers need to ensure that the progression is logical and continuous, that language support is visual, aural and emotional and that stimulation is appropriate and consistent.
Block center

In most preschool and primary settings, learning centers, sometimes called activity

This area, like the others, provides opportunities for learning through play. It gives teachers a chance to observe the concepts ESL/EFL children have already developed in their first language, ensure that they have an opportunity to express these concepts in English, and plan for extension. Number, order, shape, size, space and measurement are only a few of the concepts ESL/EFL children may have already developed in their first language. Age is not always a reliable measure of what children know: observing children as you interact with them is much

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more informative. For example, teachers might say things like, This is a circle. Can you find a triangle? Lets put the triangle on top of the circle. Where is the triangle? The circle? The possible extensions are endless, but they should be organized, not haphazard, so that ESL/EFL children are guided gradually towards expressing concepts appropriate to their stage of development. In addition to mathematical concepts, many other kinds of concepts can be introduced and extended during play in the block corner. For example, this center provides an ideal vehicle for integrating studies in various areas of the curriculum, such as science, social studies, literacy and mathematics.
Art or creating center

Sand or water table

The presence of one of these centers does not preclude the presence of the other. We are treating them as one, however, because the activities they encourage are similaronly the medium is different. To conserve space, some teachers set up a sand table for a month or two, then switch to a water table. Equipment at both should include utensils for measuring, pouring, scooping and digging, and toys, such as cars, trucks, bulldozers, boats, balls, animals and people. Children discover for themselves that different-shaped containers may hold the same amount, that some objects float and others do not, that sand can be molded but water can not, and so on.
Library

This area offers children the opportunity to create, experiment and respond personally to ideas and events. The things children produce at this center provide insights into what they are thinking but cannot yet express in English. Discussing work-in-progress or completed work with the children gives teachers a chance to praise, invite appreciation from others and build childrens self-confidence. Equipment at this center will include materials such as modeling dough, cookie cutters, paints, brushes, paper, coloring pens and pencils, fabric scraps, glue, easels and tables. Signing their art work reinforces the childrens concept of one of the functions of written languagelabeling.
Dramatic play center

Perhaps more than any other, this center provides both children and teachers with the best opportunities for learning. As children reenact a story, role play in the house corner, choose costumes from the dress-up box or experiment with items from the prop box, they engage in many different cognitive activities: solving problems, hypothesizing, predicting and sequencing are but a few. Their dialogue with other children or a teacher helps them use language to clarify these thinking skills. This center, popular with most children, is particularly appealing to ESL/EFL children. Here, they can become someone else, use English as another character and let their imaginations soar. Teachers watch and learn, participating only when required.

In some early childhood education classrooms, the library is a center, a cozy, inviting corner where books are kept on shelves within easy reach of children who want to sit quietly to look and read. When children gather for circle or story time, this corner is often used. Although the library is located in a specific area, it is so integral to all the learning activities in some classrooms that children constantly carry books to other areas to use as references. Whatever the design, the library is important for ESL/EFL children. They need to be encouraged to look at books, choose stories for reading, listen to tapes while following along in the books and borrow books to take home. They should also be encouraged to share books from home with other children. If the books are written in another language, it is a wonderful opportunity for the other children to see and learn about a different system of writing. The illustrations, too, may be very different from those in English books.
Writing center

Like the library, the writing center, too, is portable. Reading and writing are integral to language development and must be included in the activities of every classroom every day. Very young children learn to do things like write their names on their artwork, read labels on classroom objects, manipulate the day, month and date on the calendar, choose the appropriate words to describe the weather, and recognize the month in which their birthdays occur.

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ESL/EFL children should not be excluded from these activities. No matter how proficient they are in English when they enter the program, written representation should be part of their daily routine, because all four language modeslistening, speaking, writing and readingare interrelated and develop concurrently.
Science center

ESL/EFL children who may want to play quietly on their own for a while.
Music center

The science center changes constantly to keep pace with the childrens varying interests and the changing seasons of the year. Whether it is gathering colored leaves in the fall and observing what happens to them, looking at pictures of birds to help identify them when on a field trip, melting snow in winter, or planting seeds in the spring, the list of activities is endless. The purpose of the science center is to pique childrens curiosity and encourage them to observe, question and draw conclusions. At this center, they learn to do things like make graphs and charts, record their observations and interpret data.
Table toys

This learning area often has a variety of toys and equipment, all of which need a flat surface for manipulation. They may include small cars and trucks, dolls or animals, puzzles and games, and scissors and paper for cutting out. Centers like this encourage the development of hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, as well as providing a respite for

The music center has a fascinating array of instruments that can be used to create different sounds and rhythms. They may be commercially created or homemade, whatever the teacher can provideukuleles, drums, marimbas, recorders, flutes, sticks, etc. Some centers have a record player or tape deck that may be used in large- or small-group activities. The uses of the music center vary with every group. Sometimes, it is the focus for a singsong accompanied by a rhythm band, sometimes one or two children use it to listen quietly to a record or story on tape, or sometimes a child wants to play with one or more of the instruments, experimenting with ways of making different sounds. Music is not usually confined to a specific area. Songs are used at transition times, at clean-up times, for group activities, and for saying good-bye. ESL/EFL children respond well to songs because it is often easier to sing something in another language than to say it.
From Teaching the Worlds Children: ESL for Ages Three to Seven by MARY ASHWORTH and H. PATRICIA WAKEFIELD. 2004 by Pippin Publishing Corporation. Reprinted with permission of the publisher. All rights reserved

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B l e n t A l a n a n d F re d r i c k a L . S t o ll e r
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Maximizing
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HE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT WORK DIFFERS GREATLY FROM ONE INSTRUCTIONAL

setting to another. In some settings, fairly non-elaborated tasks, confined to a single class session, are labeled as projects. In other settings, elaborate sets of tasks establish the process for completing the project and span an entire instructional unit; in settings like these, the benefits of project work are maximized because students are actively engaged in information gathering, processing, and reporting over a period of time, and the outcome is increased content knowledge and language mastery. In addition, students experience increased motivation, autonomy, engagement, and a more positive attitude toward English. Although project-based learning presents challenges for teachers and students (Beckett 2002; Eyring 1997), most project-work proponents assert that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
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In this article, we focus on how English language teachers can capitalize on the content and language learning benefits of project work. To explore the topic, we examine the characteristics of under-exploited project work, outline the features that maximize the potential benefits of project work, and present a case study of project-based learning. We conclude with recommendations for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and materials writers who want to integrate project-based learning into their own curricula.
Under-exploited project work

Numerous language educators incorporate what they call project work into their classrooms, even though the lessons do not maximize the full potential of project work. For example, in some settings, basic communicative activities used to help students get to know one another better and to promote conversation have been labeled as projects. What often occurs in such settings is that students, when given the chance, join groups with their friends. They complete their non-elaborated tasks in a superficial way without much collaboration. Students socialize, but rarely assist each other with the language and information-gathering demands of the task (if there are any demands). In some settings, project work is merely a source of entertainment and a break from routine classroom activities. Though projects often focus on challenging, real-world subject matter, students are often solely concerned with the visual attractiveness of their projects, paying little attention to content and language learning. In these settings, teachers often reinforce this misdirected attention by assessing student projects according to their visual appeal, ignoring students gains in language and content learning. In other settings, students are constrained in their ability to grow from their projects, either because of excessive teacher control or because of the absence of teacher feedback and guidance during the process. In settings characterized by too much teacher control, we find instructors who dictate each step of the process without giving students any voice in defining the project. Generally, such excessive control inhibits students from taking responsibility for their own learning and developing a sense of ownership toward the project. In these settings,

students are rarely asked to provide feedback on the project experience; thus, often the same project is incorporated into future instruction, with no modification, which usually results in the same lack of student engagement. Another problem occurs when repeating students influence new students with their negative attitudes toward the project, further undermining the potential of the project. Project work can be more effective when teachers relax their control, when students regard the teacher as a guide (Sheppard and Stoller 1995), and when students provide feedback on the experience so that projects can be improved each year. A total relaxation of teacher control, however, is not the solution to a teacher-centered project. In some cases, students are left alone and receive no guidance on the language, content, or process demands of the project. Here, it seems, teachers have ignored both the process-based nature of project work and students need for support at different stages in the project. Finding the proper balance between teacher guidance and student autonomy enhances the advantages of project work in the language classroom.
Project work that maximizes benefits

Projects that are structured to maximize language, content, and real-life skill learning require a combination of teacher guidance, teacher feedback, student engagement, and elaborated tasks with some degree of challenge. Generally, such projects are multidimensional. A review of numerous case-study reports (Allen 2004; Gardner 1995; Gu 2004; Ho 2003; Lee 2002; Levine 2004; Papandreou 1994; Tomei, Glick, and Holst 1999) reveals that successful project-based learning: focuses on real-world subject matter that can sustain the interest of students requires student collaboration and, at the same time, some degree of student autonomy and independence can accommodate a purposeful and explicit focus on form and other aspects of language is process and product oriented, with an emphasis on integrated skills and end-ofproject reflection. The end result is often authenticity of experience, improved language and content knowl-

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edge, increased metacognitive awareness, enhanced critical thinking and decision-making abilities, intensity of motivation and engagement, improved social skills, and a familiarity with target language resources. One way to maximize the potential benefits of project work is to follow the ten-step process advocated by Stoller (1997) and Sheppard and Stoller (1995). The ten steps are summarized below. Step 1: Students and instructor agree on a theme for the project The students and instructor come to an agreement on a project theme. Because projects range from structured, semi-structured, to unstructured in terms of the degree to which the teacher defines the project (Stoller 1997), instructors should identify ways (large or small) in which students can develop some sense of ownership toward the project. Step 2: Students and instructor determine the final outcome of the project With the nature and objectives of the project in mind, the students and instructor determine the final outcome of the project (e.g., bulletin board display, written report, debate, brochure, letter, handbook, oral presentation, video, multimedia presentation, theatrical performance). At this point, the students and instructor negotiate the most appropriate audience for their projects (e.g., classmates, other students, parents, program director, city mayor, a local business). Step3: Students and instructor structure the project After the theme and final outcome of the project are determined, the students and instructor work out project details that guide students from the opening activity to the completion of the project. In this step, students consider their roles, responsibilities, and collaborative work groups. After negotiating a deadline for project completion, students reach a consensus on the timing for gathering, sharing, and compiling information, and then presenting their final project. Step 4: Instructor prepares students for the demands of information gathering At this stage, the instructor prepares students for the language, skill, and strategy demands associated with information gathering. With student ability levels in mind, the instructor

prepares instructional activities for each of the information-gathering tasks. For instance, if students will be conducting interviews to gather information, the instructor may plan activities in which students have to form questions, ask follow-up questions, request clarification, and take notes. If students are expected to write letters, the instructor might review the format and language of formal letters. If they intend to conduct an Internet search, the instructor may review search procedures and introduce useful note-taking strategies. Step 5: Students gather information After practicing the skills, strategies, and language needed for gathering information, students are ready to collect information using methods such as interviewing, letter writing, and library searches. Whenever possible, the instructor brings in relevant content resources to get students started on their information quests. Step 6: Instructor prepares students to compile and analyze data At this stage, students need to master the language, skills, and strategies needed to compile, analyze, and synthesize the information that they have collected from different sources. The instructor prepares students to do much of this on their own through tasks that involve, for example, categorizing, making comparisons, and using graphic organizers such as charts and time lines. Numerous training sessions might need to be planned, depending on the types of information collected and the ways in which it was collected (e.g., taped interviews, brochures received in response to solicitation letters, library research, and note-taking). Step 7: Students compile and analyze information After engaging in teacher-guided preparatory activities, students are ready to tackle the demands of compiling and analyzing the gathered information. Working in groups, students organize information and then discuss the value of the data that they have collected, keeping some and discarding others. The goal is to identify information that is critical for the completion of their projects. Step 8: Instructor prepares students for the language demands of the final activity As in Steps 4 and 6, the instructor designs language-improvement activities to help stu-

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dents successfully present the final outcome of the project. Those activities may focus on skills for successful oral presentations, effective written revisions and editing, persuasive debates, and so forth. Some focus on form might be greatly appreciated by students at this point. Step 9: Students present the final product Students present the final outcome of their projects, as planned in Step 2. Step 10: Students evaluate the project In this last, often neglected stage of project work, students reflect on the language mastered and the subject matter acquired during the project. In addition, students are asked to make recommendations that can be used to enhance similar projects in the future. It is during this stage that teachers provide students with feedback on their language and content learning.
Project work options

The details of project work are largely dependent on contextual factors, language program objectives, and available resources. For instance, in Turkey, at higher education levels, students of agriculture can engage in project work about soil erosion, which is a serious contemporary issue, with the goal of generating possible solutions for deforestation in Turkey. Engineering students can prepare written reports after investigating the advantages and disadvantages of a third bridge over the Bosphorus in Istanbul; they might even send their reports to interested officials. Students enrolled in a vocational school on the southern coast of Turkey might design a website that introduces their town, with an eye toward attracting and building tourism in the area (Hseyin Ycel, personal communication, May 2004). Academic English-preparation students in their first year of university studies can explore a self-selected topic related to their majors (reported orally to classmates and in writing for their teacher) to prepare them for future studies (Semra Sadik, personal communication, June 2004). Students majoring in physical education may investigate reasons for the limited numbers of Turkish athletes in recent Olympic games. EFL students in the eastern part of Turkey might conduct a survey aimed at determining the causes for low female-student school enrollments, concluding with suggestions, submitted to local officials, for turning around the trend.

Students studying EFL in other countries are known to focus their projects on issues specific to their own countries, regions, and studies. Italian vocational high schools, for example, have structured their curricula around topics of relevance to students in various vocational areas, resulting in brochures for tourists, travel itineraries submitted to travel agencies, school banquet manuals, and many other real-world items. EFL students in Tunisian high schools have explored topics as diverse as mining and traditional marriage practices as part of their project work, culminating in video presentations of their findings. EFL students in Japan are surveying visitors at major tourist destinationswith note pad, tape recorder, and camera in handabout topics of contemporary interest. In line with such practices, Brazilian, Costa Rican, or Malaysian students could conduct projects with an environmental slant that are aimed at convincing local or national governments to take necessary precautions to protect local rain forests. (See Lee 2002, for a description of a project involving the creation of a booklet that describes an environmentally sound home, with suggestions for environmentally sensitive lifestyles.) These examples, like those in Appendices 1 and 2, represent just a sampling of possible projects and outcomes that can be integrated into EFL classrooms.
Project work: A case study

Here we showcase a real-world project designed for intermediate and high-intermediate EFL students enrolled in the English Preparatory Program, in the School of Foreign Languages at Anadolu University, Eskis ehir, Turkey. As part of this semi-structured project, defined and organized by both the teacher and students, students evaluate the effectiveness of the local tramcar system. As part of their data collection, they interview experts from the university, authorities from the city government, and residents of Eskis ehir. They also write formal letters to the city to request information and conduct library and Web research. At the conclusion of the project, students present results to students in the School of Foreign Languages as well as to guests from the university and city government by means of a public forum, reinforced by a bulletin board display with findings and recommendations. The principal goal of the month-long project

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is to give students a voice in reshaping their town and its tramcar system. By the conclusion of the project, students are able to do the following: Gather pertinent information through various data-collection techniques, such as interviews, surveys, and library and Web research Engage in critical thinking activities, partially through synthesis activities See improvement in their language skills Use English with more self-confidence The project, structured following Stollers (1997) ten steps, is described below. Step 1: Students and instructor agree on a project The instructor conducts a lesson designed to raise students awareness of a local tramcar issue. This opening lesson, meant to encourage students to participate in shaping public opinion, elicits students attitudes toward public transportation, specifically tramcars, and

provides them with the vocabulary and language needed to participate in the project. The instructor asks students where they live and how they travel to school. To facilitate this interaction, the instructor creates an overhead transparency with a grid that lists different forms of transportation, including tramcars. The instructor fills in the grid with students initials or tally marks to indicate who uses which forms of transportation. After filling in the grid, the instructor asks students to work in small groups, ideally with at least one student whose hometown has tramcar transportation. Students are asked to discuss the effectiveness of their hometown public transportation. A handout providing relevant vocabulary and a list of possible questions guides students in group discussions (see Figure 1). Follow-up activities are useful to guide students in comparing the advantages and disadehir tramcar system with vantages of the Eskis the systems of other cities. At the conclusion of group discussions, each group reports its

F IGURE 1: E FFECTIVENESS

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most important finding, most worrisome discovery, and any similarities discovered about tramcar systems in other cities. The instructor then asks students to take a few minutes to fill in a semantic feature analysis grid that juxtaposes different features of the local tramcar and bus systems (see Figure 2). Then students are asked to brainstorm the ehir advantages and disadvantages of the Eskis tramcar, considering factors such as the locations of their homes, routes, and tramcar stations (see Figure 3). After students complete these activities, the instructor elicits suggestions for improving the quality of Eskis ehir public transport. The instructor asks students to judge whether it is possible to implement the solutions that they have put forward. Next, the instructor tells students about a project that will help them improve their English and might also

improve the local tramcar system. Finally, the instructor introduces the essentials of the project, giving students the opportunity to finetune the project so that they develop a sense of ownership. Step 2: Students and instructor determine the final outcome of the project The teacher proposes that students report the results of their investigation, with suggestions for improved public transportation: (1) in a letter to the local government, (2) at an open public forum with invited guests, and (3) on a bulletin board in Anadolu Universitys School of Foreign Languages. Students are encouraged to include the following in their bulletin board display: a copy of a letter sent to ehir municipality requesting a modthe Eskis ified tramcar system that caters to the needs of university students, written reports, photographs, and transcripts of interviews with

F IGURE 2: S EMANTIC F EATURE A NALYSIS G RID

EHIR? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE TRAMCAR SYSTEM IN ESKIS


Pros Cons

F IGURE 3: G RID

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students, community members, and university experts. Feedback on this preliminary plan is solicited from students. At this stage, students are also given the opportunity to define their varied audiences for the letter, public forum, and bulletin board display. For instance, besides the Foreign Languages School director, teachers, and students, they decide who else to invite from the university governing council ehir municipality. and the Eskis Step 3: Students and instructor structure the project At this stage, students help to structure the project. To do so, they consider questions such as: 1. What information is needed to conduct an examination of the local tramcar system? 2. Where and how might pertinent information be found? a. Who will be interviewed to determine public opinion? To identify the views of experts on public transportation? To ascertain the views of the local government? b. What information might be found at the library? On the Web? At the City Hall? At public transportation stations? 3. How will information be gathered, compiled, and analyzed? During these deliberations, students decide on their primary roles and responsibilities. For instance, students determine who will conduct interviews; take photos; do library and Web searches; draw graphs, pictures, and charts; finalize the bulletin board display; and make opening remarks, present data, and entertain questions at the open forum. While determining roles, the students majors are taken into account so they can be assigned roles most closely aligned with their interests and abilities. For instance, students from the fine arts department might be responsible for the layout of the bulletin board display, journalism students can conduct oral interviews, aspiring English majors can write letters soliciting information, and math majors can compile statistics. To balance the workload, students can pair up with others to offer assistance at different points in

the project. With the deadline for the final outcome in mind, students reach a consensus about the sequencing of project tasks. Step 4: Instructor prepares students for information gathering At this stage, the instructor prepares students for the upcoming language and skill demands of the information-gathering stage of the project. These lessons train students to conduct interviews (e.g., forming a question, posing follow-up questions, requesting clarification and/or elaboration) and introduce them to the standard parts of an interview: polite opening, body, and thank you (see Lee, Li, and Lee 1999, for more details on the various stages of an interview). The instructor might help students determine the level of language formality and content of the questions to be asked of different interviewees. Mock interviews can be conducted with classmates, family members, teachers, or other language students on campus. Audiotaped mock interviews can be reviewed in class for appropriateness, politeness, pronunciation, stress, and grammar. For students who are responsible for writing formal letters, the instructor introduces writing conventions associated with formal letter writing by means of model letters. Students write several drafts of their letters, followed by editing and revision activities that examine levels of formality, formatting, and linguistic accuracy. Guided peer-feedback sessions represent effective ways to encourage student collaboration and writing practice. For students who are going to use the Web and library to gather relevant information, the instructor initiates brainstorming sessions in which students consider the best ways to search for information in these venues. As part of this preparation, the instructor may introduce students to relevant search engines or websites on mass transit. Step 5: Students gather information After practicing the skills, strategies, and language they need for gathering information, students are ready to conduct informal interviews with students and local residents of ehir. Students who are to conduct formal Eskis interviews make appointments and conduct interviews with experts. (The instructor may need to help students find equipment needed for interviews, such as tape recorders.) Stu-

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dents gathering information by means of letters of inquiry draft their letters, solicit feedback from classmates and the instructor, and then send out their letters. Students who are to conduct library and Web searches move ahead. Throughout this stage, the instructor monitors students progress, making sure that they are on the right track, giving them feedback on their language use throughout. Step 6: Instructor prepares students for compiling and analyzing data After data have been gathered, students need to compile, evaluate, and synthesize the relevant information. The instructor prepares students for this vital stage of the project by using model transcripts, letters, lists, and grids to illustrate different categorization, evaluation, and interpretation techniques. This is a good time to introduce students to conversational gambits that they can use with each other to negotiate the meaning and relevance of gathered data, such as I see your point, but and Dont you think that? Step 7: Students compile and analyze information After students have been introduced to techniques for compiling and analyzing data, they are ready to organize and synthesize their own data. Groups of students discuss the value of their data, discarding that which seems inappropriate and organizing and then evaluating that which seems particularly valuable. Students discuss the best ways to present relevant data to their varied audiences. Step 8: Instructor prepares students for the final activity At this stage, the instructor prepares students for the language, skill, and content demands presented by the final written display and oral presentation. A simulation of the open forum provides opportunities to work on fluency, pronunciation, intonation, and conversational gambits that will contribute to the flow of the event. (See Mach, Stoller, and Tardy 1997 for a related discussion.) Students who are not actually involved in the public forum might be assigned different roles for the simulation, such as a representative from the municipality of Eskis ehir, representatives of the university governing council, or the director and teachers of the School of Foreign Languages. These students could be directed to

anticipate what kinds of questions the actual audience might ask about the bulletin board display. At the conclusion of the simulation, the class can brainstorm about challenges that might be encountered during the actual open forum, such as irrelevant questions, hard-tounderstand questions, and public resistance to findings and suggestions. In addition, possible solutions to these challenges can be discussed, including a list of possible questions and responses, back-up visual displays, and conversational gambits to ask for clarification. A discussion of open-forum logistics (e.g., room set-up, invitations to audience members, videotaping) would be appropriate as well. Discussions of the bulletin board, with an emphasis on presentation of information, layout, visual appeal, clarity, and peer editing (that focuses on mechanics, grammar, level of formality, cohesion) are appropriate at this point. Step 9: Students present final product Students are now ready to mount the bulletin board display and participate in the open forum, representing the final outcomes of the class project. (Videotaping the open forum facilitates meaningful feedback in the final stage of the project.) Step 10: Students evaluate the project This last stage of the project serves multiple purposes. On the more traditional side, teachers provide students with feedback on their language, content, strategy, and skill use, using the videotape of the open forum as one means of interactive evaluation. Less traditional, but equally valuable, are the opportunities students will have to: (1) reflect on the language, skills, and strategies that they have mastered to conduct the project; (2) consider the content that they have learned to complete the project; (3) contemplate the impact of the project; and (4) offer suggestions for improved projectwork assignments for future classes.
Conclusion

We have showcased the details of one project designed for an EFL setting. Although the tramcar theme itself may not be transferable to other settings, because of its very local relevance, basic features of the project could easily be transferred to other EFL classrooms. These transferable features, in the form of recommendations for EFL teachers and materials writers

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who attempt to integrate project-based learning into their own curricula, appear below. Devise projects with students immediate and future language needs and content interests in mind, while at the same time remaining vigilant of institutional expectations and available resources. Specify language, content, task, skill, and strategy learning objectives in line with students needs and institutional expectations to maximize the benefits of the project. Strive to engage students in all stages of the project. Begin by giving students the chance to structure parts of the project, even if those contributions are small, with the aim of building a sense of student ownership and pride in project engagement. Design and sequence tasks with great care. Make sure that (1) skills are integrated to achieve real communicative purposes, (2) students are obliged to use various strategies for meaningful aims, (3) critical thinking is required for successful task completion, and (4) students are held accountable for content learning. Integrate tasks that require both independent and collaborative work. Help students reach agreement about different team member responsibilities. Students should view each other as single links in a chain that unite, through exchanges of information and negotiation of meaning, to produce a successful project outcome. Be sure to plan an opening activity that promotes students interests, taps background knowledge, introduces important vocabulary, and builds up expectations for the final activity. Take advantage of Steps 4, 6, and 8 to provide explicit instruction so that students not only improve their language abilities but also excel in the information gathering, processing, and reporting stages of the project. Allow time for feedback at the conclusion of the project and at other critical junctures as well. We close by directing readers to Appendix 3 for a list of questions for teachers to consider as they assess the viability of projects for their

classrooms and develop actual projects for and with their students.
References

Allen, L. Q. 2004. Implementing a culture portfolio project within a constructivist paradigm. Foreign Language Annals 37 (2): 23239. Beckett, G. H. 2002. Teacher and student evaluations of project-based instruction. TESL Canada Journal 19 (2): 5266. Eyring, J. L. 1997. Is project work worth it? Washington, DC: Education Resources Information Center. ERIC Database ED407838. Gardner, D. 1995. Student-produced video documentary provides a real reason for using the target language. Language Learning Journal 12: 5456. Gu, P. 2004. Tech view: Leaving the bathtub to make waves. Essential Teacher 1 (4): 3235. Ho, R. 2003. Project approach: Teaching. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Education Resources Information Center. ERIC Database ED478224. Lee, I. 2002. Project work made easy in the English classroom. Canadian Modern Language Review 59 (2): 28290. Lee, M. M. T., B. K. W. Li, and I. K. B. Lee. 1999. Project work: Practical guidelines. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Education. Levine, G. S. 2004. Global simulation: A studentcentered, task-based format for intermediate foreign language courses. Foreign Language Annals 37 (1): 2636. Mach, T., F. L. Stoller, and C. Tardy. 1997. A gambit-driven debate. In New ways in content-based instruction, eds. D. Brinton and P. Master, 6468. Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Papandreou, A. P. 1994. An application of the projects approach to EFL. English Teaching Forum 32 (3): 4142. Sheppard, K., and F. L. Stoller. 1995. Guidelines for the integration of student projects in ESP classrooms. English Teaching Forum 33 (2): 1015. Stoller, F. L. 1997. Project work: A means to promote language and content. English Teaching Forum 35 (4): 29, 37. Tomei, J., C. Glick, and M. Holst. 1999. Project work in the Japanese university classroom. The Language Teacher 23 (3): 58. BLENT ALAN earned his MA in TEFL at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. He teaches and coordinates reading courses at Anadolu University, School of Foreign Languages, in Eskis , ehir, Turkey. He also teaches in the Distance ELT BA program there. FREDRICKA L. STOLLER is a Professor of English at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, where she teaches in the MA-TESL and PhD in Applied Linguistics programs. In 20022003, she was a Fulbright Senior Lecturer at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.

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A P P E N D I X 1 | P ROJECT-W ORK T OPICS : S OME O PTIONS


MAXIMIZING THE BENEFITS OF PROJECT WORK Blent Alan and Fredricka L. Stoller
Project-work topics fall into a wide range of categories, including the six below. Although topics are essentially limitless, the key to effective project work is the selection and definition of topics that will sustain student interest and engagement for the duration of the project. Final outcomes of projects (see Appendix 2 for some possibilities) should vary in response to curricular objectives and student needs.
1. Mainstream class subject matter: Project-work topics can complement themes covered in mainstream classes. a. The pros and cons of a new bridge over the Bosphorus in Istanbul (architecture, city planning, engineering) b. Theories of the demise of dinosaurs (natural history, biology) c. The art of mummification (ancient history) d. Impressionist artists (art, art history) e. The causes of contemporary human migration patterns (history, civic education, anthropology) f. A mock election (civic education) 2. Vocational topics: Project-work topics can be connected to students vocational interests. a. b. c. d. e. f. The promotion of regional tourism (tourism) A holiday menu for people with various dietary needs (food services and catering) Adjusting to a new job: Guidelines for new service workers (retail and service work) Dental problems: Whats a tourist to do? (dental technology) Advances in computer technology (computer technology, mechanics) Trends in teenage buying (business)

3. Sociopolitical issues: Project-work topics can be tied to students sociopolitical interests. One good starting point for developing projects with sociopolitical overtones is the set of lessons found in Language and Civil Societies and Language and Life Sciences <http://ex changes.state.gov/forum/journal>. a. b. c. d. e. f. Gender roles Rights of the handicapped In defense of human rights Fighting crime in urban areas Drug trafficking at the international level Freedom of speech and press

4. General human interest topics: Project-work topics can be linked to general human interest topics, dependent largely on students ages, maturity levels, interests, and concerns. a. b. c. d. e. f. Animal communication Sports and youth Population growth Famous individuals Stem cell research Family album

5. Local issues: Project-work topics are often informed by local issues. a. Deforestation b. Profiles of minority groups c. Mining: Pros and cons

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d. European Union membership e. New monetary systems f. Economic crises and solutions 6. Global issues: Project-work topics often are defined by global issues that are of interest to students. a. b. c. d. e. f. International terrorism International efforts to fight air, water, and noise pollution International efforts to turn global warming around AIDS, malaria Civil wars Water shortages

A P P E N D I X 2 | FINAL OUTCOMES OF PROJECTS: SOME POSSIBILITIES


MAXIMIZING THE BENEFITS OF PROJECT WORK Blent Alan and Fredricka L. Stoller
Brochure Class newspaper or wall newspaper Bulletin board display Debate Graphic display Guide book Handbook Information packet Letter Maquette Multimedia presentation Oral presentation Pin and string display Poster Research paper Scrapbook Simulation Survey report Theatrical performance Video or film Website Written report

A P P E N D I X 3 | C HECKLIST: Q UESTIONS

TO A SK W HILE MAXIMIZING THE BENEFITS OF PROJECT WORK Blent Alan and Fredricka L. Stoller

P LANNING

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS: Before planning a project for your students, be sure


that you can answer questions such as these.
How will my students benefit from project work in terms of language improvement (reading, writing, speaking, listening, vocabulary, grammar), content mastery, study skills, reallife skills, strategy use, etc.? How will project work assist me in satisfying program objectives? Which program objectives are likely to be met by project work? Is project work best incorporated into my course by integrating it into an existing instructional unit or by creating a separate stand-alone project? Does my classroom settingdefined by student needs, student abilities, time factors, available resources, and program expectationslend itself best to a structured project (defined and planned entirely by the teacher), a semi-structured project (defined and planned by the teacher with students), or an unstructured project (defined and planned by students)? Which specific language skills, if not all of them, should be given priority to best meet students current and future needs? How much time, in and out of class, can I allot for project work? How will this time allocation impact my planning? Realistically, what can the class accomplish in the time that is available?

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How might Stollers ten-step framework (summarized in this article) need to be adapted for my teaching situation?

PROJECT PLANNING: While planning a project for your class, pose the following questions and make every effort to find answers to them.
What project-work topics are likely to (1) sustain student interests, (2) increase student motivation, and (3) ensure meaningful student engagement? What can I do to give students a voice in the selection of the project-work theme, the designation of a project outcome, and the process of the project (even if I have structured the project myself)? In other words, what can I do to ensure that students develop a sense of ownership in the project? How can the project be designed to build upon (1) what students already know, (2) what they are already able to do, and (3) what they want to learn? What resources are readily available for the project theme (in print, on the Web, on video, from different people/organizations, etc.)? What resources might I, myself, collect to share with students? What resources will students be able to access on their own in a timely fashion? Which elaborated tasks will help me meet program objectives and assist students in completing the project in a satisfactory manner? How can I structure elaborated tasks so that they lead to an authentic experience and critical thinking? What activities can I incorporate into the process of project completion that will increase students metacognitive awareness? How will I assign student work groups? Should I group students who are similar or different in language ability, motivational level, etc.? Should I let students form groups of their own or should I assign students to groups? How can I structure the project so that it is both sufficiently challenging and manageable at the same time? What language and content-learning demands are inherent in Steps 5 (information gathering), 7 (information compiling and analyzing), and 9 (information reporting)? How can I best prepare students for those demands in Steps 4, 6, and 8? What grammar points stand out as being particularly relevant in Steps 5, 7, and 9? How, and at what point(s) in the project, can I focus explicitly on form so that students can practice relevant grammar points in a meaningful way? How can I structure the project so that there is a proper balance among teacher guidance (and feedback), and student autonomy and collaboration? How can I structure the project so that students are engaged in meaningful and purposeful integrated skills? How can I conclude the project so that students have the opportunity to reflect on their improved language abilities and the content that they learned as a result of the project? How can I solicit honest feedback from students about the project-work experience so that I can use their insights to assist me in future planning of projects?

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Nation, P. (1978). "What is it?": A multipurpose language teaching technique. English Teaching Forum, 16 (3), 20-23, 32.

"What Is It?": A Multipurpose Language Teaching Technique


PAUL NATION

Victoria University of Wellington

What is it? It's interesting. It's easy to make. It makes your learners think. It's good for work in pairs, groups, or with the whole class. It gives each learner a chance to show his skill. It can be used for listening, reading, writing, or speaking. Do you give up? The answer is: my favorite teaching technique-the "What Is It?" technique.
Teaching the spoken skills

Let's look at an example of this technique used as a listening and speaking exercise. First, the teacher thinks of something that his students know well, and he describes it: It's black and silver. It's quite heavy. It's made of metal and rubber. It costs a lot of money. We can find it on the roads. It has two wheels and a motor. It's used for going from one place to another. What is it? When a student thinks that he knows what the teacher is describing, he raises his hand. He does not shout out. When the teacher reaches the end of the description, he asks one of the students who has raised his hand to name the object he has described. The teacher describes several things in this way while the students listen and try to guess the objects being described. Then the teacher writes an example on the blackboard, using the same sentence patterns as in the example above. He then gives another example to show that all he has to do is change the underlined words to make a new description: It's brown. It's square. It's made of wood. It costs about fifty dollars. It has four legs. We can find it in a classroom. It's used for writing, reading, and resting. What is it?

Paul Nation is a lecturer at the

English Language Institute of Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. The English Language Institute runs a nine-month Diploma course for teachers of English as a foreign or second language from Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and the Middle East. At present his particular interest is in teaching vocabulary and cooperative learning. His book Language Teaching Techniques is due to be published by Cambridge University Press in 1978. He has published articles in
English Teaching Forum, English Language Teaching Journal, R.E.L.C. Journal, and The Modern Language Journal. Mr. Nation has

taught in Indonesia for several years and through his students has a close connection with many Southeast Asian countries.

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HavingtheStudentsChoose. Next, the teacher chooses something for the class to describe, and the students suggest substitutions in the model sentences on the blackboard to make a good description. When they can do this easily, the teacher asks one of them to think of something and then describe it by closely following the model on the blackboard. While the student describes the object, the teacher and the other students try to guess what it is. This is one of the good features of the "What Is It?" technique: each student has the chance to possess information that the others in the class, including the teacher, do not have. The student knows what he is going to describe; the others do not. They must therefore listen carefully to his description in order to find out what it is. This puts the student in a superior position to the teacher and the other students in the class. In many classrooms this is a rare situation; usually only the teacher is in the superior position. The "What Is It?" technique enables us to change this situation. Providing Practice for Beginners. Even beginners can use the "What Is It?" technique for language practice. The teacher puts the following simple patterns on the blackboard: a shop. We can find it in a school. a house. silver. It's brown. colorless. black. metal. It's made of wood. glass. big. It's square. round. long. a neck. a lid. a handle. It has four legs. four corners. numbers on it. ink in it. holding things. holding water. I t ,s use d for drawing. sitting. eating. telling the time.

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On another part of the blackboard the teacher writes this pattern or puts up a chart containing pictures of the following things: a chair. a tin. 1 a ruler. a clock. a box. a pen. It's a glass. a blackboard. a table. a knife. a bottle. a pencil. The teacher also writes each noun in this pattern on a small piece of paper and distributes these among some of the students. One of the students then describes the object on his piece of paper by reading appropriate sentences from the patterns on the blackboard. The other students listen, and when the description is finished they read aloud the appropriate sentence from the last pattern, naming the object. Here is an example: Student A: We can find it in a shop. 2 We can find it in a house. It's silver. It's made of metal. It's round. It has a lid. It's used for holding things. Student B: It's a tin.
Teaching vocabulary

The "What Is It?" technique can also be used to introduce new vocabulary. Let's imagine that the teacher wants to introduce the word stirrup. He may describe it as follows: A stirrup is silver. A stirrup is strong. A stirrup is made of iron. A stirrup has a fiat bottom. We can find a stirrup on a horse. A stirrup is used to put your foot into when you ride a horse. When the teacher finishes his description he tells the students to try to translate the word into their mother tongue. (If there is no roughly equivalent word in the mother tongue, they can draw a picture or point to one of several pictures that the teacher may make available.)
1. In American English, It's a can or It's a tin can. 2. In Ameri<;:an English this would probably be store.

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ENGLISH TEACHING FORUM

JULY 1978

While describing a stirrup, the teacher repeats each dents an opportunity to meet the new word several sentence once or twice before going on to the next one. times. He also goes back and repeats the previous sentences Providing for Individual Work. The "What Is It?" several times before he reaches the end of the descrip- technique can also be used for individual vocabulary tion. In this way the students will have heard the new work, with the exercises on cards or in a book. Here is word stirrup many times by the end of the description. an example: They will also have listened with close attention because ONE MORE SENTENCE they want to discover what the new word means. Some teachers make the mistake of giving the meaning of From the five "Missing Sentences" given at the end, new vocabulary too quickly. Once the students have find the one that belongs to each of the groups of related been given the meaning of the word, they have no sentences. Write the number of the sentence and, next reason to pay attention any longer. Experiments on to it, the name of the object described in the group of remembering (Jenkins 1974) have shown that recalling sentences to which it belongs. the form of a word (its spelling or sound) is more diffiA farm is a big piece of land. cult than recalling its meaning. For this reason, techA farm is usually in the country. niques that give the student an opportunity for repeated Sometimes a man grows vegetables or rice on a farm. attention to a new word before discovering its meaning A hen is a big bird. are important for vocabulary learning. If the learners We eat eggs from a hen. are asked to translate stirrup after listening to the deA hen eats corn and other things. scription, this is in some ways the same as a direct A hen cannot swim. translation where the teacher says, "Stirrup in your mother tongue is ." But the differences are A map is very useful. important: Direct translation is quick; the "What Is It?" A map is a picture of streets, roads, towns, and cities. technique, involving the describing of the object before A map shows us the hills, mountains, and rivers. the learners are asked to translate, wastes some teachA restaurant is a building. ing time, but it makes valuable use of learning time. A man sells food in a restaurant. By listening to the description the learners have heard People can buy many kinds of food and drink there. the new word several times, they have had to make an effort to get the meaning, and they have been active Sometimes a telegram brings good news. in telling the teacher what they think the translation Sometimes a telegram brings bad news. should be (Nation, English Language Teaching Journal, We send a telegram at the post office. forthcoming). The Missing Sentences Limiting the Information. The order of the sentences in the "What Is It?" technique is important if the teacher 1. We use it when we want to know the way. wants to keep the meaning of the new word away from 2. People go there to eat. the learners for as long as possible. The following ex3. Sometimes a man keeps animals there. ample shows how this may be done. This time I will 4. People keep it and feed it. teach a technical word used in botany. As you read the 5. It travels quickly through a wire. description, make a note of the point at which you felt This exercise may also be used to teach verbs, adjecthat you knew the common name for the technical word. tives, or adverbs; in that case the missing sentence has Brassicas are green. an empty space where the new word should be. Brassicas are made of leaves. Introducing Vocabulary Incidentally. The "What Is Brassicas have big leaves. It?" technique can also be used to introduce new voOne costs about sixty cents. cabulary incidentally. This often adds extra interest. We can find brassicas in most vegetable gardens. For example, if the teacher is describing a fork in a Brassicas are round. listen-and-guess exercise, he might say: Brassicas are used for eating. It is silver. Silver is a color as well as a material. Many people cook brassicas before they eat them. Can you think of other things that are silver but are not made of silver? You should not have been able to guess that the new word brassica referred to cabbages, cauliflowers, etc., It is long. until after you had read almost all of the sentences. So, It usually has four prongs. Do you know what a prong is? ... in constructing a "What Is It?" exercise the teacher should make sure that the first sentences do not provide The value of the "What Is It?" technique in teaching too much information. In this way he can give the stu- vocabulary lies in the opportunity it provides the stu-

Nation / "What Is It?": A Multipurpose Language Teaching Technique


dents to give repeated attention to the new word while requiring them to play an active part in discovering the meaning. It can be used in classes where English is the medium of instruction for subjects such as geography, mathematics, and general science as well as in special ESL classes. Teaching the written skills The "What Is It?" technique can be used in creating short puzzles to give practice in reading. The students read the description and respond by doing one of the following: 1. completing a sentence 2. writing a name 3. drawing a picture 4. choosing a name, picture, or sentence from several given choices Here is an example to illustrate these different kinds of responses: It is usually colorless and partly round. We can find it in houses. Every house has several of them. It is made of glass and metal. It shines when electricity passes through it. 1. We usually use it when _ _ _ __ 2. What is it? 3. Draw a picture of it. 4. Itisa _ _ _ __ cup pot bulb window Providing for Individual Differences. It is easy to give useful composition practice in a class with a wide range of ability by using the "What Is It?" technique. The teacher introduces the technique in the way described at the beginning of this article. Then he tells the students to write a description of something, using the model sentences that he has put on the blackboard and adding other suitable sentences if they can. In this way, the students who have only a little difficulty with English can add many sentences that are not based on the model; these who find writing difficult can use only the model sentences. Even when learners describe the same thing and use only the model sentences it is unlikely that any of the descriptions will be exactly the same; the "What Is It?" technique is a good bridge between strictly controlled composition and free composition. After the students have written their compositions they can exchange them with other students in the class, who read them and try to guess what is being described. Composition work thus becomes a communicative activity. Using Other Questions. There is no reason why the technique should be limited to the question "What is it?" There are many other possibilities: "What book or film is it?," "Who is it?," "What country or city is it?," "What animal is it?" Here are some examples of possi-

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ble models (Nation, Language Teaching Techniques, forthcoming):

a. Each student describes one of his friends or a person that everyone knows: He is about thirty years old. He is one meter eighty centimeters tall. He has black hair and brown eyes. He is wearing a blue shirt and black trousers. He is wearing glasses. He is carrying a bag I sitting near me. Who is he?
b. Each student describes an animal and the others

try to guess its name: It is big. It is brown. It has four legs. It has horns. It has a long tail. It does not have wings. It lives in a field. It can give us milk. It cannot fly. Its body is covered with thick skin. It is tame, so it is not afraid of people. What is it?

c. Each student chooses and describes a different country, city, or place:


It has a warm climate. It has three seasons. They are the wet season, the dry season, and the cool season. It is a small country. It has a small population. Many of the farmers in that country grow rice/raise cattle. It sells wood to other countries. It buys cars from other countries. It is part of the Middle East/ Asia/ South America. It is to the south of/near the Indian Sea. Its neighbors are India and Burma. The people there speak many languages. These languages are Singhalese, Tamil, and English. The capital city is called _ _ - - - What country is it? d. Each student has a different book and describes his own book: Jane Eyre was written by Charlotte Bronte. Charlotte Bronte lived over a hundred years ago. She was English. Jane Eyre is an interesting book. (Instead of interesting you can have long, difficult, expensive, famous, etc.) It has a hard cover. It is three hundred and twenty pages long. It has twelve chapters. It has many pictures (a table of contents, an index, some questions at the back). It has a red cover. There is a picture of a girl on the cover. It was first printed by Oxford University Press in 1864. It is a love story. It is about a young girl. Summary The "What Is It?" technique has many useful features:

1. It can be used to teach vocabulary and to give


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"What Is It?": A Multipurpose language Teaching Technique continued from page 23

practice in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. 2. It involves the students in meaningful communicative activity. 3. It gives each student a chance to be iu a superior position as the source of information. Students performing are much more interesting than the teacher performing. 4. It can be used with classes containing students of widely differing achievement in English. It can also be used with beginners or advanced learners. 5. It requires little work from the teacher but a large amount of effort and attention from the students. 6. It can act as a bridge between controlled and free

activities in speaking and writing. 7. It can provide challenging opportunities for attention to repeated material in listening, reading, and vocabulary-learning activities. 8. It is fun for both teacher and students.
REFERENCES

Jenkins, J. J. 1974. Language and memory. In Psychology and communication, ed. G. A. Miller, pp. 181-193. Washing ton, D.C.: Voice of America, Forum Series. Nation, I. S. P. Forthcoming. Translation and the teaching of meaning: some techniques. English Language Teaching Journal. Nation, I. S. P. Forthcoming. Language teaching techniques. London: Cambridge University Press. 0

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Reconceptualizing Interactional Groups: Grouping Schemes for Maximizing Language Learning


Group work. When it works, we are pleased. But when it does not when the learners stare at each other without speaking or when two learners begin an argument that threatens to disrupt the whole lesson we know we should have done it better. n the field of English as a Second/ Foreign Language (ESL/EFL), it has long been recognized that for second language acquisition to occur learners must use English to construct meaning and interact with others in authentic contexts. The importance of learner interaction in acquiring a second language has made the teacherdirected student-centered classroom the standard for effective instruction, in print if not in practice. While this standard may seem contradictory, effective teacher directives can optimize student autonomy and facilitate effective cooperative learning, which is at the core of a student-centered environment. These principles have led to the increasing use of group work in the second language classroom, wherein students work in teams to construct knowledge and accomplish tasks through collaborative interac20 2010 N
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tion. However, not much has been written about the classroom management strategies that underlie the practice, and less has been written about directing the membership of small groups as students engage in learning tasks and activities. For many teachers, group activity planning is often based on lastminute decisions or left to chance. When there is forethought, it mostly surrounds putting problem students in the least-likely-to-cause-trouble group. Teachers frequently comment that they have not been given clear guidance in the management of groups; in fact, a quick survey of current TESOL education and methods texts reveals little information about how to accomplish this complex classroom management task beyond the recommendations that teachers use interactional groups because of
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the multiple benefits for English learners (Diaz-Rico 2008), use a variety of groupings tied to the instructional purpose (Echevarria, Vogt, and Short 2008), and make the process for cooperative groups (task orientation, roles, appropriate behaviors, etc.) explicit to students (Herrell and Jordan 2008). However, drawing together information from a range of educational areas including curriculum, second language acquisition studies, and effective school research, we can create some reasonable guidelines for reconceptualizing the process of forming groups. An exploration of the types of collaborative tasks and activities that most successfully meet the instructors objectives will go a long way towards optimizing the effectiveness of groups, and will affect decisions about successful strategies and group size and configuration. After discussing the rationale for collaborative interaction, this article will offer examples on how to deal with these group management issues when coordinating collaborative work in the ESL/EFL classroom.
What the research says

suggest that the picture is more complex than what had previously been assumed. Nevertheless, even though the research on the quality of interaction in groups is not altogether clear, teachers generally do agree that a well-planned group activity holds great potential value. Small-group collaboration allows learners to rehearse for the larger whole-class discussion to follow, to practice pronunciation of words, to structure conversations conceptually, and to build conversational efficacy in a less formal and less anxiety-ridden context. In addition to increased language practice, the ability to appropriately interact in groups has become a goal in itself, in part because many students will be required to work on team projects in courses such as global business, science, and other academic subjects taught in U.S. classrooms.
How many students in a group?

Language acquisition research has long supported the benefits of student interaction, which include useful language practice (Doughty and Pica 1986, among others), student-to-student scaffolding during challenging tasks (Storch 2001, among others), and the formation of personal agency in academic settings (Morita 2004). However, research also yields a conflicting picture of what happens when students interact in groups and even questions the effectiveness of collaborative groups. While early research suggested that language manipulation increased in small-group activities (Doughty and Pica 1986), other research found that negotiating for meaning was not an often-used strategy and that some learners chose to remain disengaged in the group setting. In other words, while the teacher may strive to foster engaging student interaction during the lesson, students may have other ideas. Recent research points to an intricate web of factors that affect the types of interaction and level of learner participation in group activities. The role of personality, sense of agency, and collaborative orientation (Storch 2001; Morita 2004), and proficiency level (Watanabe and Swain 2007)

The first decision the teacher must face involves the optimum number of learners per group. Bell (1988) suggests a range of three to seven students. One misconception of teachers is that all groups must have the same number of members. In fact, a group of reticent students may be capped at three to force all to speak, while a larger group of six dominant students will receive valuable practice at social turn-taking. There is no instructional rule that demands equal group size.
Fixed vs. flexible grouping

The second decision that teachers face is fixed grouping (consistent group membership for extended periods) vs. flexible grouping (the teacher decides group membership for each lesson or task). Fixed group rosters allow learners to get to know others in a deeper way and to develop tolerant and trusting relationships; it also saves the teacher valuable planning time. However, when groups remain together for too long, learners may be missing out on a diversity of viewpoints and language interactions. Thus, the balance between the security of established groups and the chance to work with most members of the class becomes a goal of grouping strategies. One solution proposed by Bell (1988) joins the two conflicting goals: each student belongs to three or four different fixed groups and rotates among them based on the learn-

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ing objectives and the type of task that is assigned.


Planning for group membership

Twenty-five years ago, the use of small interactional groups was designed to facilitate communication in a new language, which acknowledged the important role of socially situated interaction in the development of communicative competence (Savignon 1983). As educators, we focused on student personalities in grouping decisions or perhaps decided to group according to relative language proficiency. However, the current focus on academic pre-university preparation in many programs, both in the United States and in international settings, demands that we take a new look at the way in which we form collaborative groups to ensure that all learners engage deeply with the academic content, develop spoken literacy for academic interaction, and assert themselves and participate effectively in the academic conversation. Most educators believe that the skills needed to participate in group discussions and team decision-making can be explicitly taught and practiced. The membership of the interactional group is a critical consideration. A group that is well matched to the task will talk a lot even if the task is weak. Conversely, a teacher could design a rich learning experience, but if the individuals choose non-involvement because of the group membership, it fails. Choosing group membership requires much artistry, as it demands sensitivity to cultural contexts, to individual personalities in the class, and to the variety of skill levels. I experienced this challenge firsthand when structuring interactional groups in my multilingual class of university students. (While my teaching context was an ESL program for international students in the United States, the same principles apply in EFL contexts.) My students had a wide range of language proficiencies and English experiences, and an even greater diversity of specific language skill levels and personality types. Some students had great oral fluency but were less strong in reading and writing; others lacked proficiency in speaking but were advanced learners in reading, and to a

lesser extent, writing. For example, Edgardo, a student from Venezuela who had spent a year in a U.S. high school, was orally fluent but scored significantly lower on his English reading test. He sat next to Pongsak, a quiet student from Thailand, who had been in the United States for only a few weeks when the class began. While Edgardos spoken English was nearly as fluent as a native speakers and he spoke with confidence, Pongsaks speaking was hesitant and often difficult to comprehend. However, both Edgardos and Pongsaks writing differed substantially from standard academic English, and both had similar reading proficiencies that limited their access to academic texts. My instructional objective was to prepare both students for college-level work in an English-medium university and to provide them with the collaborative speaking skill and academic English experience necessary to participate in the student-led team projects advocated by U.S. colleges. While my goals were the same for each of these learners, their ability to progress towards acquiring language and collaborative skills in group work would have been limited had I only considered my goals and not the complex interactional patterns that would help or hinder acquisition as Pongsak and Edgardo worked together in the group. There are several bases on which experienced teachers form groups: language proficiency, personality, friendships, shared native language, and academic orientation. However, one of the variables not often considered by the classroom teacher is the objective of the task itself. While general guidelines may point the teacher in the direction of conventional wisdom, the content of the task may point a different way. Several options on how to plan group membership around task objectives follow. Oral language proficiency grouping One of the first instincts of a teacher is to group students heterogeneously so that the members with higher proficiency can support the learners with lower proficiency. However, without intervention and planning, the students with higher spoken English proficiency often will take over the conversational workload, giving the less proficient little practice in speaking. This replicates the typical conversation pattern when my low-proficiency English

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learners are put on collaborative teams with native English speakers. The English learners sit silently at the periphery of the circle, marginalized from the group. Thus, in the ESL classroom, it is often better to group individuals by similar proficiency so that all will have equal opportunity and responsibility to speak. One technique for quick implementation is to keep a list of students ordered by proficiency level, with the most proficient students in the class at the top and the least proficient at the bottom. If you choose to form triads, for example, count down the list by three, draw a line, and group by three until you reach the end of the list. This gives you ready-made proficiency groups. Another instructional strategy, if you do group heterogeneously, is to use a multiresponse format by arranging a series of tasks in increasing levels of difficulty. Assign specific students to the tasks that best fit their proficiency levels. For example, if I want students to discuss the causes of the American Civil War, I might list and number five questions at increasing levels of linguistic challenge. Question 1 might ask simply, In what years did the Civil War happen? Question 5, for the highest proficiency student, might read, How did the differing cultures of North vs. South contribute to the causes of the American Civil War? Each student is assigned a question number to report on, based on his or her proficiency level. Personality grouping Personality grouping is based on dominance vs. reticence. In other words, in a homogeneous scheme, active students are grouped together to fight it out, allowing reticent learners to interact more casually. If you have designed a task that has a defined outcome and learners understand that there is a job to be accomplished, then grouping the reticent learners together forces them to take the initiative to complete the task even though there may be a minimal use of English. Noise does not always equal shared participation. In fact, when groups are less loud, often it is because all learners are giving a respectful space to speak. The loudest groups sometimes signal the owning of the conversation by an argumentative few. When the objective is for learners to work with a problem and achieve consensus on a solu-

tion, this homogeneous grouping scheme will maximize chances for all group members to engage in conversation. When forming groups based on personality, it is important for the teacher to designate a group leader who possesses the positive traits of high task orientation, negotiating ability, and leadership. In following this plan, the group leader models effective leadership for other members so that later they may take over the leadership role. Controlled affiliation grouping What is the level of trust among group members? How important is diversity of opinion and diversity of perception? When friends are grouped with friends, trust will be high, but diversity will be limited because of the likelihood of common experiences and viewpoints. In general, asking learners to work with members of the class whom they do not know well fosters more on-task learning, allows multiple viewpoints to be considered, and nurtures the growth of a class community as individuals get to know and trust one another. However, if the topic is emotionally charged and controversial, creating a safe space to allow free discussion may make instructional sense. For example, in the discussion of a piece of literature that contained chapters of violence and sexually suggestive scenes, I grouped by gender and close affiliation, which allowed for a safer, deeper, and more authentic literary analysis. This was the case in the class reading of Maya Angelous (1971) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The affiliation grouping allowed me to speak privately with a group of female students about skipping one chapter that might have been uncomfortable or objectionable, and allowed the students to discuss those parts of the book that were personally engaging but topically safe. Shared first language (L1) groupings Do you have a multilingual class of English learners? Generally, it is prevailing wisdom to group learners together who do not share a native language since this fosters maximum communication in English. Students then have no other choice but to use English as the medium of conversation to accomplish a task. However, there may be an academic task for which you want your

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learners to use academic resources and terminology in the L1 to assist the task in the L2. When the objective is to master challenging content with language learning as an auxiliary goal, grouping learners by L1 groups is reasonable. For example, when you are teaching the finer points of English punctuation, allowing learners to use some L1 to discuss the nuances of punctuation leads to more efficient learning, in addition to the valueadded discussions of punctuation differences between languages. Paradoxically, English accuracy may be facilitated through the use of the L1 to scaffold the L2. Furthermore, when the academic task requires the cognitive processing of highly abstract information, allowing the shared language groups to codeswitch during discussion leads to greater analytic depth. For example, identifying elements of deconstructionism within a novel demands that learners codeswitch in order to fully analyze literary factors. Academic orientation groups Are there class members who are less prepared academically than others? Does the task suggest that a mix of students will allow the stronger to scaffold the less strong, enhancing the academic conversation for all? For example, when integrating challenging academic content, such as science, with language learning, learners with strong academic backgrounds (irrespective of proficiency) can supply needed content expertise that allows all group members to learn the content and concurrently focus on language development. If the goal is for learners to develop collaborative

knowledge, heterogeneous grouping based on content knowledge makes sense. Although the intricacies in group work planning may seem overwhelming at first, much of the process can become routine. Establishing a variety of grouping schemes at the beginning of the year, giving each grouping scheme a name, and listing the learners in that scheme on a chart posted in the classroom leads to more efficient teacher planning.
Planning the interactional group task

The critical approach to planning for groups is to focus on what key outcomes you hope to see in your learners and to plan rich, thoughtful, and interesting tasks for group work. On the surface, designing a group task appears relatively easy, but to achieve outcomes beyond simple language practice the teacher must construct tasks and implement strategies that address not only language practice, but also support content learning, foster critical thinking, and develop a hopedfor supportive classroom community. Table 1 lists several instructional strategies that can be used to achieve five desired learner outcomes.
Assigning group roles

Again, it is important to assign each group member a role within the group. While the teacher may select the leader-facilitator or may have each group choose the leader on its own, other roles are also needed: Choose a scribe to take notes and organize the group discussion on a large piece of paper so every group member can follow the discussion threads.

Table 1: Effective Instructional Strategies for Desired Learner Outcomes Desired Learner Outcomes 1. Foster a sense of community, belonging, and safety. Effective Instructional Strategies Begin your class with community-building activities for the explicit purpose of having students learn one anothers names, personalities, and cultures. This develops tolerance for cultures and ethnicities that have experienced mutual attitudes of bias or conflict. Design tasks and activities that are personally meaningful and capture the teachable moment of a learner engaged in the difficult task of communicating in a new language. Embed the task in a narrative to foster personal connections.

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2. Maximize opportunities for rehearsing, practicing, and engaging in creative manipulation of the language.

Design group tasks so that all learners must participate and contribute to the group. Design and assign tasks that compel the group to find a solution to a problem, resolve a conflict, or reach consensus on an issue. Provide the linguistic input necessary for learners to fully perform and benefit from the task. Teach vocabulary, idioms, and structures needed for meaningmaking. Give learners the opportunity to individually prepare and rehearse the language before it is called into use by allowing five minutes of study time before the group discussion begins. In a classroom with diverse proficiencies, create multiple response formats related to the topic (easier tasks for lower proficiency, harder for more advanced learners).

3. Utilize functional language to accomplish a linguistic, academic, or managerial task.

Explicitly teach functional language and conversational strategies that learners will likely need, such as how to disagree and interrupt in a polite manner. Teach learners awareness of body language appropriate for English-situated conversations (leaning slightly forward, making eye contact, etc.). Define specific but revolving roles for learners (discussion leader, notetaker, etc.) so that all learners are secure in expectations but have an opportunity to engage in differing roles and at times assume leadership. Make the rules of engagement explicit to solidify expectations for tolerance of diverse viewpoints, respectful use of language, equality of turn-taking, and the right to speak. Consider writing these rules down on chart paper and posting them during group work. Integrate important academic or cultural content in the design of activities so students are not only growing linguistically, but are gaining knowledge. Design tasks that replicate the kind of academic tasks that students will need outside the classroom in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) or U.S. K12 settings, which facilitates the conceptual bridge between the ESL/EFL classroom and academic contexts. Foster critical thinking through a task design that requires students to read, write, and listen to academic or other information sources before engaging in the academic conversations required for the task. Design tasks that engage and challenge students on a deep linguistic and knowledge level involving problem solving, predicting, critiquing, applying, and other cognitively challenging manipulations of language and information. Choose topics of interest that will engage and excite the learners to know more and discuss more freely.

4. Increase awareness of other cultures and tolerance for diverse personalities. Engage in appropriate social practices for the context.

5. Develop new knowledge about a content area or cultural topic. Engage in critical thinking and problem solving.

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Appoint a reporter to report back to the class during a whole-class debrief. Assign a vocabulary monitor to compile new words from a discussion and give each group member a list the following day. Appoint a time monitor to keep track of the time allowed for the discussion. Depending on the task and the number of members in each group, roles may be added or deleted. Remember, however, that even though each student might have a different role, all group members must still participate in the assigned task (for example, the time manager should not simply sit and look at the clock). And, to make sure that all students know what each role entails, teachers should clearly explain the responsibilities of each role before group work begins.
Reconceptualizing interactional groups

References

With the increasing complexity of the ESL/EFL curriculum amidst a push for content-infused language teaching, it is crucial to reconceptualize interactional groups and to consider a greater sophistication of decisionmaking, not only in the intentional choices we make in membership but also in the tasks that we construct for group work. Certainly, while the examples above represent only a small sample of potential schemes, each educator must reflect on the unique classroom context and class membership when directing group work to meet objectives. The bottom line is that the quality of learner interaction is too important to be left to chance. If we intend to maximize language learning and use, greater reflection and planning will certainly be needed.

Angelou, M. 1971. I know why the caged bird sings. New York: Bantam. Bell, J. 1988. Teaching multilevel classes in ESL. San Diego: Dormac. Diaz-Rico, L. T. 2008. A course for teaching English learners. Boston: Pearson Education. Doughty, C., and T. Pica. 1986. Information gap tasks: Do they facilitate second language acquisition? TESOL Quarterly 20 (2): 30525. Echevarra, J., M. Vogt, and D. J. Short. 2008. Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model. 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Herrell, A. J., and M. Jordan. 2008. Fifty strategies for teaching English language learners. 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Morita, N. 2004. Negotiating participation and identity in second language academic communities. TESOL Quarterly 38 (4): 573603. Savignon, S. J. 1983. Communicative competence: Theory and classroom practice. Texts and contexts in second language learning. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Storch, N. 2001. How collaborative is pair work? ESL tertiary students composing in pairs. Language Teaching Research 5 (1), 2953. Watanabe, Y., and M. Swain. 2007. Effects of proficiency differences and patterns of pair interaction on second language learning: Collaborative dialogue between adult ESL learners. Language Teaching Research 11 (2), 12142.

JUDITH A. RANCE-RONEY is a teacher educator and Chair of Education at DeSales University in Pennsylvania. She has taught English for twenty-five years both in the United States and Asia. Her interests lie in training teachers in the techniques and technologies for the effective English language classroom.

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Destroying the Teacher: The Need for Learner-Centered Teaching


BY ALAN C. McLEAN
This article was rst published in Volume 18, No. 3 (1980). He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher. Walt Whitman Most children in school John Holt are scared most of the time. True knowledge, Plato argues, must be within us all, and learning consists solely of discovering what we already know. Colin Blakemore If a teacher is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind. Kahlil Gibran

Much of what we say and do in school only makes children feel that they do not know things that, in fact, they knew perfectly well before we began to talk about them. John Holt If the culture of the teacher is to become part of the consciousness of the child, then the culture of the child must first be in the consciousness of the teacher. Basil Bernstein Schools are designed on the assumption that there is a secret to everything in life; that the quality of life depends on knowing that secret; that secrets can be known only in orderly succession; and that only teachers can properly reveal these secrets. Ivan lllich Who needs the most practice talking in school? Who gets the most? John Holt In the average classroom someone is talking for two-thirds of the time, two-thirds of the talk is teacher-talk, and two-thirds of the teacher-talk is direct influence. N.A. Flanders Language complexity increases when the child writes or speaks about events in which the child has participated in a goal-seeking process. J.S. Bruner Information is rarely, if ever, stored in the human nervous system without affective coding. Earl W. Stevick We must not fool ourselves...into thinking that guiding children to answers by carefully chosen leading questions is in any important respect different from just telling them the answers in the first place....The only answer that really sticks in a childs mind is the answer to a question that he asked or might ask of himself. John Holt
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The title of this article comes from a poem by Walt Whit man: He most honors my style who learns under it to de stroy the teacher. I chose this epigraph because I wish to plead for a less dominant classroom role for the language teacher, in accord with the importance of classroom interac tion in the language-learning process. First, I would like to encourage a lessening of attention to the linguistic content of language teaching, and suggest that such content, and the theoretical basis on which we choose it, are not as crucial for language learning as are aspects of classroom behavior. Too often, in discussing the teaching of English, we behave as if language were the most impor tant factor in the classroom. I think this is seldom the case. We need to see English as essentially an educative sub ject, linked to the cognitive development of learners, rather than as something isolated from the rest of the curriculum. Unfortunately, in many classrooms throughout the world, little true education takes place. Instead, there is rote learn ing of material irrelevant to the learners interests. We need to be aware of the educational potential of English in such circumstances. To fully realize this potential we need to look outside the connes of English language teaching itself. There is now a considerable body of work that focuses on the conditions under which children learn most effectively. This work re lates both to the internal processes involved in apprehending and storing information and to the most favorable condi tions for the operation of these processes. I would like to consider here the relevance of this work to the teaching of English. I will deal with it under ve main headings:
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reduc tion of coercion, active learner involvement, experience be fore interpretation, avoidance of oversimplication, and the value of silence.

Reduction of coercion

Several of the quotations accompanying this article come from the American educationist John Holt. One of Holts major beliefs is that for most pupils school is a place of fear. Children are coerced by various means to produce answers that are acceptable to their teacher rather than to engage in practical thinking. Coercion can be nonviolent, of course. The threat of withdrawal of love or approval is, in fact, often much more powerful than the threat of physical punish ment. Whatever its form, we need to end unnecessary coer cion in class and thus minimize defensive learning. The fear that many children experience arises most often out of bewilderment, which itself frequently results from the clash between the culture of the learner and that of the teacher. Holt puts it well: Much of what we say and do in school only makes children feel that they do not know things that, in fact, they knew perfectly well before we began to talk about them. As Bernstein shows, the clash be tween learner and teacher, which may involve any of a number of factorsage, class, or nationality, for examplecan inhibit true learning insofar as the teacher does not have access to the learners world. There is a clear need for the teacher to endeavor to get into the learners conscious ness much more than he usually does at present. Unfortunately, in many countries the typical teaching style is authoritarian. The teacher is, in Illichs phrase, the custodian of the secret: he is the source from which all wisdom ows, and he is always correct. This position is very threatening to most learners. It is vital for the teacher to show that he is not superhuman, that he can make mis takes, and that there are many things of which he is igno rant. Only when the teachers authority recedes can the learner be thrown back on his own resources. There is clear evidence that the learner has a marked ability to correct mis takes that he has made; furthermore, mistakes so corrected will seldom be repeated, whereas mistakes corrected by the teacher often will be made again. But this self-correcting mechanism can operate only when the teacher gives up playing God.

Learning is most effective when the learner is the initiator of the learning process. (Bruner notes that this holds true even for children a few weeks old.) With regard to language, it has been found that syntactic complexity and sentence length both increase when the topic is one in which the learner has been actively involved. This surely argues for the kind of withdrawal of control on the teachers part that I have recommended above. Related to the above fact is evidence that the emotion as sociated with learning an item is important in storing it. In a recent article, Brown has described affective factors as the keys to language-learning success. Even hostility, it appears, stores items better than a total lack of emotional in volvementthough perhaps this is a path we should not follow too far! There is thus a clear need for the content of language teaching materials to involve the learnerto relate to his needs, interests, and moral concerns. It seems to me that too much of our material is empty of such involvement. Characters and situations in English-teaching course books are fre quently vapid stereotypes. Although some writers might argue that materials, for the widest distribution, must be morally value-free, I would say that being morally neutral is itself to make a decision about values. Another important nding is that learning improves when goals are set before tasks are begun: the learner should be aware of the learning objectives. Relating this to reading, for example, we may consider it more useful to ask questions about a text before the students read it than afterward. In this way, the learner will approach the text with a set purpose, as adults normally do. After all, we seldom read anything without a reason; yet that is what we ask our learners to do time and time again.

Experience before interpretation

Active learner involvement

Teachers talk too much. And too much of this talk is di rective. Many of us are wryly familiar with Flanders twothirds rule, which, in my experience, holds true even in the most progressive classrooms. The only solution is for the teacher consciously to become more silent, so that the learner may become more vocal.
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Psychologists such as Bruner and Piaget have stressed the need for an initial tactile stage of learning. Bruner calls it the enactive stage and Piaget the sensorimotor stage, but the principle is the same, namely, that the learner needs time to mess around with target material before he is asked to give proof that he has learned it. We may have noticed this process while watching our own children beginning to read. There is a good deal of handling of printed material, or playing with it, of changing the words of the text before real reading starts. And this period of experiencing the material seems to be a necessary precondition for interpreting it. Yet we often ask language learners to dispense with this stage when they are dealing with a particular piece of learning.
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Avoidance of oversimplification

It may seem paradoxical to follow the above plea for giving the learner more time to experience target material by asking the teacher not to oversimplify it. In reality, however, this is another aspect of the same principle: that learning is something only the learner can do. The teacher cannot learn for the pupil; he can only provide good conditions within which learning may take place. If things are made too easy for the learner, he will not be inclined to use his own learning resources. What I am specically questioning is the idea that a step-by-step approach is the only way to learn. Holt says: If we taught children to speak, they would never learn. What he means is that as teachers we would want to break up the learning process into a series of gradeable steps and prevent movement from one step to another until the rst step had been mastered. We would ensure that the learner was not exposed to tasks that were, we felt, beyond his abilities. It is doubtful if learners always benet from such a piecemeal approach. The indications are that the excessive suppression of irregularities in language does not make the learning task easierit makes it more difcult. If, for example, irregularities in spelling are systematically suppressed, and we offer the learner only a predigested, simplied variety of language, we make the transfer to real language more difcult. Teaching the notion of irregularity from the beginning gives the learner a more accurate picture of what is involved in learning the language. Again, let us relate this question of oversimplifying to the problem of reading. New words and structures in a reading passage are commonly practiced and drilled before the passage is read, so that the learner does not have to cope with anything that he hasnt seen before. In some cultures it is regarded as improper, in fact, to ignore any word that ap pears in the text, the printed text itself being accorded an almost religious respect. Yet if we drill all the new language in the reading passage before it is read, we are preventing the learner from developing a crucial reading skill: the need to guess, to make hypotheses, to play hunches about the nature of the textspecically, to predict what is likely to come next. The ability to pick up context cues within a text is vital to the successful decoding of it. Merritt has de scribed the act of reading as one of prediction and model making rather than word-recognition. And Goodman denes the process as follows: Reading is a selective process. It involves partial use of available language cues. As this partial information is processed, tentative deci sions are made, to be conrmed, rejected, or rened as
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reading progresses. If we oversimplify texts or prepare the learner for them too fully, we are preventing him from at taining a skill which is a vital part of a mature reading ability.

The value of silence

A key psychological process underlying all learning is the transfer of learning items from the short-term memory to the long-term memory. Research by Luria (among others) suggests that a period of silence during the short-term memory span (calculated to be approximately twenty seconds) encourages this transfer. In examining the mental processes of a professional mnemonist, Luria found that such a period of silence between items was necessary for their effective storage. Protagonists of the Silent Way have emphasized the value of silence in the teaching process. Anyone who has undergone Silent Way teaching will, I think, conrm how active the learner is forced to be during the period of silence. Silence is also fundamental to Currans Community Language Learning. Each period of learning is followed by a period of reection, the rst part of which is conducted in silence. La Forge describes the value of this silence as follows: The silence cannot be underestimated in any way for its value and impact on progress in language learning. Far from being a vacuous period of time after the experience part of the class, the silence of the reection period is characterized by intensive activity. I believe that these ndings should make us reconsider the value of teacher talk in our classrooms. For example, are we always justied in engaging in immediate repetition of items? Perhaps a more effective method would be for the initial presentation of an item to be followed by a short period of silence, in which the item is available for shortterm memory review and long-term memory transfer by the learner. This would also t in better with the idea of the teacher as facilitator (to use Rogerss term), advocated earlier in this article. Finally, I would like to stress the need for all of us to consider learners as whole and integrated human beings and respond to them as such. We should see English as a means of education, relating closely to the development of the learners cognitive ability, rather than as simply the inculcation of a specic series of linguistic skills. Let me end by drawing your attention to the two nal quotations, by neurologist Colin Blakemore and philosopher Kahlil Gibran. Both serve to emphasize something we often tend to forget: namely, that teaching is not so much a process of cramming outside knowledge into the learners mind as of drawing out the knowledge that each of our students has within him.
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Bernstein, Basil. 1970. Education cannot compensate for society. New Society. Blakemore, Colin. 1977. Mechanics of mind. BBC Publications. Brown, H. Douglas. 1977. Some limitations of C-L/CLL models of second language teaching.TESOL Quarterly (December 1977). Bruner, Jerome S. 1973. The relevance of education. New York: Norton (Penguin 1974). Flanders, Ned A. 1962. Using interaction analysis in the in-service training of teachers. Journal of Experimental Education, 30, 4. La Forge, Paul G. 1977. Uses of social silence in the interpersonal dynam ics of community language learning. TESOL Quarterly (December 1977). Gibran, Kahlil. 1926. The prophet. Heinemann. Goodman, Kenneth S. 1967. Reading: a psycholinguistic guessing game. Journal of the Reading Specialist. Holt, John. 1969. How children fail. New York: Dell (Pelican). . 1972. How children learn. New York: Dell (Pelican 1979). Illich, Ivan. 1972. Deschooling society. New York: Harper & Row (Penguin 1973). Luria, A. R. 1968. The mind of a mnemonist. New York: Basic (Penguin 1975). Merritt, John E. 1974. What shall we teach? Ward Lock. Rogers, Carl A. 1965. Client-centered therapy: its current practice, impli cations, and theory. New York: Houghton Mifin. Stevick, Earl W. 1976. Memory, meaning and method. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House. Whitman, Walt. 1976. Leaves of grass. New York: Penguin.

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of English as a foreign language at the primary level in many countries (Rixon 1992). This trend has come at a time when the field of EFL/ESL is witnessing a notable shift from structural teaching approaches to communicative, humanistic, and learner-centered approaches. These new approaches in teaching EFL/ESL recognize that affective considerations are of vital importance for the acquisition of a foreign/second language; they suggest teaching methods and techniques that help learners acquire the language in an anxiety-reduced environment (Stevick 1990; Krashen 1982; Asher 1988). Consequently, the assessment of students progress and achievement in EFL/ESL classes should be carried out in a manner that does not cause anxiety in the students. As new EFL/ESL curricula have moved in the direction of developing communicative skills through the integration of language and content as
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well as language skill integration, the traditional paper-and-pencil tests no longer cover the variety of activities and tasks that take place in the elementary classroom. The summative form of testing that permeated the traditional curricula would not be fair to students whose studies are based on communicative activities. Fortunately, the field of evaluation has witnessed a major shift from strictly summative testing tools and procedures to a more humanistic approach using informal assessment techniques that stress formative evaluation (ONeil 1992). This article discusses alternative forms of assessment, in particular, personal-response and performance-based assessment, which, in congruence with the learner-centered principles of new methodological approaches, treat assessment as an integral part of teaching culminating in formative evaluation.
Importance of assessment

Alternatives in assessment

In all academic settings, assessment is viewed as closely related to instruction. Assessment is needed to help teachers and administrators make decisions about students linguistic abilities, their placement in appropriate levels, and their achievement. The success of any assessment depends on the effective selection and use of appropriate tools and procedures as well as on the proper interpretation of students performance. Assessment tools and procedures, in addition to being essential for evaluating students progress and achievement, also help in evaluating the suitability and effectiveness of the curriculum, the teaching methodology, and the instructional materials. In the past, assessment tools and procedures were chosen at the level of the Ministry of Education, school district, school administration, or program coordinator. With the advent of learner-centered and communicative teaching methodologies, however, in many settings control over the collection and interpretation of assessment information has shifted from centralized authority towards the classrooms where assessment occurs on a regular basis (Fradd and Hudelson 1995:5). This shift gives the classroom teacher a decisive role in assessing students and makes it necessary for the teacher to look for new assessment techniques to evaluate students achievement and progress.

The testing tools and procedures discussed in this article are characterized by a deliberate move from traditional formal assessment to a less formal, less quantitative framework. Pierce and OMalley define alternative assessment as any method of finding out what a student knows or can do that is intended to show growth and inform instruction and is not a standardized or traditional test (1992:2). Specifically, alternative ways of assessing students take into account variation in students needs, interests, and learning styles; and they attempt to integrate assessment and learning activities. Also, they indicate successful performance, highlight positive traits, and provide formative rather than summative evaluation. Until recently the assessment scene in EFL/ESL classes has been dominated by summative evaluation of learner achievement, focusing on mastery of discrete language points and linguistic accuracy, rather than on communicative competence, with test items typically consisting of matching or gap-filling. Communicative teaching methodology brings with it a considerable emphasis on formative evaluation with more use of descriptive records of learner development in language and learning which [track] language development along with other curricular abilities (Rea-Dickins and Rixon 1997:151). Therefore, assessment becomes a diagnostic tool that provides feedback to the learner and the teacher about the suitability of the curriculum and instructional materials, the effectiveness of the teaching methods, and the strengths and weaknesses of the students. Furthermore, it helps demonstrate to young learners that they are making progress in their linguistic development, which can boost motivation. This encourages students to do more and the teacher to work on refining the process of learning rather than its product. Young learners are notoriously poor testtakers. [T]he younger the child being evaluated, assessed, or tested, the more errors are made[and] the greater the risk of assigning false labels to them (Katz 1997:1). Traditional classroom testing procedures can cause children a great deal of anxiety that affects their language learning as well as their self-image (Smith 1996). Therefore, children need to learn and be evaluated in an anxiety-reduced,

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if not anxiety-free, environment. This can be achieved if children perceive assessment as an integral component of the learning/teaching process rather than an independent process whose purpose is to pass judgment on their abilities in relation to their classmates. Using formative assessment can help decrease the level of anxiety generated by concentration on linguistic accuracy and increase students comfort zone and feeling of success by stressing communicative fluency. Some teachers and researchers call for allowing students to have a say not only in deciding the format of the test but also in deciding its content and the way it is administered. Thus, Mayerhof (1992) suggests allowing students to discuss questions during the test quietly as long as each writes his own answers; of course, she is referring to subjective types of questions. Friel (1989) recommends involving students in suggesting topics for the test or in generating some questions. Murphey (1994/95) ventures beyond this concept to recommend that students make their own tests. He considers that studentmade tests are an effective way to mine students different perceptions and use them, building upon what a group knows as a whole and getting them to collaborate in their learning Murphey (1994/1995:12). He suggests the following process: students choose the questions that will go into the test under the guidance of the teacher; a few days later, working in pairs, they ask each other questions during class; later on, the questions are asked again with a new partner to reinforce what is being learned. Students are graded by their partners or by the teacher for the correctness of their answers and for the appropriateness and correctness of their English. A final characteristic of alternative assessment techniques for young learners is that they are performance-based, requiring students to perform authentic tasks using oral and/or written communication skills. These techniques can include traditional classroom activities, such as giving oral reports and writing essays, but they may also involve nontraditional tasks, such as cooperative group work and problem solving. Teachers score the task performances holistically (Shohamy 1995; Wiggins 1989). Student performance should be measured against standards previously discussed in class.

Types of student responses

Brown and Hudson (1998) identified these three types of responses required in most classroom assessment: selected-response (true-false, matching, multiple choice), constructed response (fill-in, short answer, performance), and personal-response (conferences, portfolios, self and peer assessment). At the primary level, assessment should begin with the use of personal response. As students proficiency levels increase, teachers can move gradually into constructed response assessment and later into selected-response assessment. Many techniques of alternative assessment were developed in line with the taxonomy of student response types identified by Krashen and Terrell (1983) and adapted by Olsen (1992), which suggests that there are four stages of language development in FL/SL learners. The first stage is preproduction, in which learners have a silent period and their performance indicators are mostly kinesthetic in nature. During instruction and assessment, teachers may ask students to point, act out, choose, mark, gesture, and follow instructions. The second stage is early speech, in which performance indicators are kinesthetic responses and one- or two-word utterances. During instruction and assessment, teachers ask students to name, number, list, and group words or phrases. The third stage is speech emergence, in which the performance indicators are oneand two-word utterances, plus phrases and simple sentences. During instruction and assessment, students are asked to describe, define, recall, retell, summarize, compare, and contrast. The fourth stage is fluency emergence, in which performance indicators are words, phrases, and complete sentences. Students are asked to justify, create, give opinions, debate, defend, analyze, and evaluate (Krashen and Terrell 1983). Another assessment procedure that is compatible with communicative approaches to FL/SL language teaching is the 3Rs: recognition, replication, and reorganization (Olsen 1996). These three types of responses mirror the four stages of language acquisition of Krashen and Terrell. Thus, recognition requires simple physical responses and short verbal responses. Replication corresponds to early speech and fluency emergence. The last step, reorganization, can accommodate various levels of

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language proficiency from silent and speech emergence through fluent stages of Krashen and Terrells taxonomy as well as articulate, highly verbal responses (Olsen 1996:16). It requires students to demonstrate the ability to take given information and reorganize it into different formats. Reorganization usually includes tasks that lend themselves to group work, such as creating a time line, an outline, or a semantic map; problem solving; analyzing and reporting the results of a questionnaire; writing up the text of an oral interview; and rewriting a narrative as a dialogue.
Classroom assessment techniques

can be an enjoyable way of informal assessment that could be used effectively within a content-based curriculum. For example, he recommends the use of role play to express mathematical concepts such as fractions, to demonstrate basic concepts in science such as the life cycle, and to represent historical events or literary characters. Written Narratives: Assessment of the written communicative abilities of children could be achieved through purposeful, authentic tasks, such as writing letters to friends, writing letters to favorite television program characters, and writing and responding to invitations. Young learners enjoy story telling and are usually motivated to listen to stories as well as to tell them. Teachers can take advantage of this interest in stories and have their students write narratives that relate to personal experiences, retell or modify nursery stories and fairy tales, or retell historical events from different perspectives. Oller (1987) suggests the use of a narrative development technique in an integrated process of teaching and assessment. The first step in the process is to check on how well learners are following the story line. To establish the basic facts, the teachers asks yes-no questions, then the teacher moves on to information questions. Presentations: Presentations are important for assessment because they can provide a comprehensive record of students abilities in both oral and written performance. Furthermore, presentations give the teacher some insights into students interests, work habits, and organizational abilities. Presentations cover a wide range of meaningful activities, including poetry readings, plays, role-plays, dramatizations, and interviews. Classroom presentations are nowadays becoming more sophisticated as a result of increasing access to educational technology. In many parts of the world, students are becoming more aware of the power of multimedia for communicating information, and they enjoy keeping audio, video, and electronic records of their involvement in class presentations. Student-Teacher Conferences: Student-teacher conferences, including structured interviews, can be an effective informal way of assessing a students progress in language learning. Conferences and interviews provide opportunities

The following assessment techniques can be used for effective and practical measurements of students abilities, progress, and achievement in a variety of educational settings. Nonverbal Responses: At the early stages of learning, before the emergence of speech, children should be instructed and assessed largely through the use of physical performance responses and pictorial products (Tannenbaum 1996). These tasks require simple directions to carry out. As an assessment technique, this type of response may help lower the level of anxiety normally associated with evaluation, as students see it as a natural extension of learning activities. At a later stage, students may perform hands-on tasks. For example, they may be asked to produce and manipulate drawings, dioramas, models, graphs, and charts (Tannenbaum 1996:1). This technique fits very well within the Total Physical Response methodology for early language development (Asher 1988). Oral Interview: Pierce and OMalley (1992) suggest using visual cues in oral interviews at the early stages of acquisition. Thus a student may be asked to choose pictures to talk about, and the teachers role is to guide the student by asking questions that require the use of related vocabulary. This technique works well during the early speech and speech emergence stages. Role-play: This informal assessment technique combines oral performance and physical activity. Children of all ages, when assessed through this technique, feel comfortable and motivated, especially when the activity lends itself to cooperative learning and is seen as a fun way of learning. Kelner (1993) believes that role-play

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for one-on-one interactions where the teacher can learn about a students communicative abilities, emotional and social well-being, attention span, attitudes, pace of learning, and strengths and weaknesses (Smith 1996; Allerson and Grabe 1986). Conferences can be most effective when they follow focused observations. Observations could be done in class, for example, in cooperative learning groups, or out of class, for example, on the playground. Gomez, Parker, Lara-Alecio, Ochoa, and Gomez, Jr. (1996) have developed an observational instrument for assessing learners oral performance in naturalistic language settings, which focuses on these seven language abilities: understanding by others, providing information needed by the listener, absence of hesitations, willingness to participate in conversations, self-initiated utterances, accuracy (in grammar, usage, and vocabulary), and topic development. Tambini (1999) also recommends the use of conferences to assess the oral and written abilities of children. He, too, favors conferences that follow observations and concentrate directly on the learning processes and strategies employed by the student. For assessing oral skills, he suggests that children be evaluated primarily on their ability to understand and communicate with teachers and classmates. In assessment of writing tasks, conferences could be used to discuss drafts of essays and evaluate progress. Self-Assessment: Young learners may also participate in self-assessment. Although selfassessment may seem inappropriate at first, it can yield accurate judgments of students linguistic abilities, weaknesses and strengths, and improvement (McNamara and Deane 1995). Self-assessment could be done using one of the following two techniques: K-W-L charts: With this type of chart, individual students provide examples of what they know, what they wonder, what they have learned. K-W-L charts are especially effective when used at the beginning and at the end of a period of study. At the start of a course, the completed charts can help the teacher learn about students background knowledge and interests. At the end of a course, the charts can help the students reflect on what they have learned as well as gain awareness of their improvements (Tannenbaum 1996).

Learning logs: A learning log is a record of the students experiences with the use of the English language outside the classroom, including the when and the where of language use and why certain experiences were successful and others werent. Students may also use logs to comment on what they have studied in class and to record what they have understood and what they havent (Brown 1998). An advantage of learning logs is that they can contribute to the teachers understanding of the students use of metacognitive learning strategies. Dialogue Journals: These journals are interactive in nature; they take the form of an ongoing written dialogue between teacher and student. Dialogue journals have proven effective and enjoyable for students regardless of their level of proficiency. They are informal and provide a means of free, uncensored expression, enabling students to write without worrying about being corrected (Peyton and Reed 1990). Teachers can also use journals to collect information on students views, beliefs, attitudes, and motivation related to a class or program or to the process involved in learning various language skills (Brown 1998:4). As an assessment technique, dialogue journals can help the teacher assess students writing ability and improvement over time. Peer and Group Assessment: Recent trends in EFL/ESL teaching methodology have stressed the need to develop students ability to work cooperatively with others in groups. For assessment, for example, students can write evaluative, encouraging notes for each member of their team emphasizing their positive contribution to team work. The role of the teacher would be to provide guidance, to explain to the students what they have to evaluate in one anothers work, and to help them identify and apply properly the evaluation criteria. At the end of group tasks, if necessary, the teacher can give each student a test to check their individual performance. Proponents of cooperative learning suggest the teacher should give a group grade to help reinforce the merits of group work. Student Portfolios: The concept of portfolio was borrowed from the field of fine arts where portfolios are used to display the best samples of an artists work (Brown 1998). The purpose of a portfolio in the context of language teaching

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is to demonstrate the extent of a students communicative competence in the target language through samples of oral and written work (Wolf 1989). Student portfolios may be defined as the use of records of a students work over time and in a variety of modes to show the depth, breadth, and development of the students abilities (Pierce and OMalley 1992:2). Arter and Spandel argue that portfolios must include student participation in selection of portfolio content; the guidelines for selection; the criteria for judging merit; and evidence of student reflection (1992:36). As a systematic collection of a students work, which may be shown to parents, peers, other teachers, and outside observers, a portfolio requires close cooperation between the teacher and the student in identifying the samples of that students work to be included. Since portfolios trace a students progress over time, it is imperative that revisions and drafts be included and that all samples be dated. As for the contents of portfolios, they should be multi-sourced and include a variety of the written and oral work that illustrates students efforts, progress, achievements, and even concerns. Therefore, the portfolio of a young EFL/ESL learner might include the following: audiotaped or videotaped recordings, writing samples (such as entries made in journals, logs, and book reports), conference or observation notes, and artwork (such as drawings, charts, and graphs). The portfolio could also include self-assessment checklists (such as K-W-L charts) and anecdotal records. Finally, the portfolio could include samples of the tests and quizzes that are periodically used by teachers as part of assessing the achievement and overall performance of their students in relation to others or to standards. If portfolios are implemented clearly and systematically as an alternative means of assessment, they have several advantages over traditional forms of assessment (Pierce and OMalley 1992; Brown and Hudson 1998; Moya and OMalley 1994). First, they provide the teacher with a detailed picture of a students language performance in a variety of different tasks. Second, they can enhance students selfimage as they participate in the decisions about content and can help them identify their strengths and weakness in the target language. Finally, they integrate teaching and assessment in a continuous process.

Conclusion

This article has emphasized the need for teachers to use a variety of types of alternative assessment, especially non-threatening informal techniques, with young EFL/ESL learners. However, there is no claim that these types of assessment are without shortcomings. Brown and Hudson point out that performance assessments are relatively difficult to produce and relatively time-consuming to administer. Reliability may be problematic because of rater inconsistencies, limited number of observations, [and] subjectivity in the scoring process (1998: 662). For example, in self-assessment, accuracy of perceptions varies from one student to another and is usually affected by language proficiency (Blanche 1988). Other objections could be raised about informal assessment. However, teachers should not be expected to use techniques of alternative assessment exclusively. Teachers should strive to familiarize their students with all forms of assessment because each form has its merits and uses, as well as its problems and shortcomings. In most academic settings, it is necessary to test students, sometimes even young ones, in the traditional way with paper-and-pencil tests (e.g., true-false, matching, multiple choice, and cloze). In many cases, decisions will be made about students based on their performance on such tests, for example, in comparisons with students in other schools. One major argument for using alternative techniques with young learners, however, is that official or standardized proficiency examinations usually cannot adequately determine their performance levels. Alternative assessment techniques present a dynamic rather than static picture of their linguistic development. Many of the assessment techniques discussed in this article can be integrated into daily classroom activities and give a comprehensive picture of the students abilities, progress, and achievement. Unlike traditional tests that only provide a numerical description of students, these techniques of alternative assessment can document a story for every studentand what is the ultimate goal of evaluation but to give us the knowledge to be able to reflect upon, discuss, and assist a students journey through the learning process (Huerta-Macias 1995:10).

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References

Allerson, G. and W. Grabe. 1986. Reading assessment. In Teaching second language reading for academic purposes, eds. F. Dubin, D. Eskey, and W. Grabe. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Arter, J. A. and V. Spandel. 1992. Using portfolios of student work in instruction and assessment. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 11, 1, pp. 3644 Asher, J. 1988. Learning another language through actions: The complete teachers guidebook, (3rd ed.), Los Gatos, CA: Sky Oaks Productions. Blanche, P. 1988. Self-assessment of foreign language skills: Implications for teachers and resources. RELC Journal, 19, 1, pp. 7593. Brown, J. D., ed. 1998. New ways of classroom assessment. Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Brown, J. D. and T. Hudson. 1998. The alternatives in language assessment. TESOL Quarterly, 32, 4, pp. 653675. Fradd, S. and S. Hudelson. 1995. Alternative assessment: A process that promotes collaboration and reflection. TESOL Journal, 5, 1, p. 5. Friel, M. 1989. Reading technical texts: A class test. English Teaching Forum, 27, 1, pp. 3233. Gomez, L., R. Parker, R. Lara-Alecio, S. H. Ochoa, and R. Gomez, Jr. 1996. Naturalistic language assessment of LEP students in classroom interactions. The Bilingual Research Journal, 20, 1, pp. 6992. Huerta-Macias, A. 1995. Alternative assessment: Responses to commonly asked questions. TESOL Journal, 5, 1, pp. 811. Katz, L. 1997. A developmental approach to assessment of young children. ERIC Digest. ED407127. Champaign, IL: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education. Kelner, L. B. 1993. The creative classroom: A guide for using creative drama in the classroom, Pre K-6. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Krashen, S. 1982. Principles and practices in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon. Krashen, S. D. and T. Terrell. 1983. The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Alemany Press. Mayerhof, E. 1992. Communication dynamics as test anxiety therapy. English Teaching Forum, 30, 1, pp. 4547. McNamara, M. J. and D. Deane. 1995. Self-assessment activities: Towards autonomy in language learning. TESOL Journal, 5, 1, pp. 1721. Moya, S. S. and J. M. OMalley. 1994. A portfolio assessment model for ESL. The Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 13, pp. 1336. Murphey, T. 1994/1995. Tests: Learning through negotiated interaction. TESOL Journal, 4, 2, pp. 1216.

Oller, J. W, Jr. 1987. Practical ideas for language teachers from a quarter century of language testing. English Teaching Forum, 25, 4, pp. 4246, 55. Olsen, R.E. W-B. 1996. Classroom questioning, classroom talk. Handouts given at the American University of Beirut ESL Workshop held in Larnaca, Cyprus. . 1992. Cooperative learning and social studies. In Cooperative language learning: A teachers resource book, ed. C. Kessler. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents. ONeil, J. 1992. Putting performance assessment to the test. Educational Leadership, 49, 8, pp. 1419. Peyton, J. K. and L. Reed. 1990. Dialogue journal writing with nonnative English speakers: A handbook for teachers. Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Pierce, L. V. and J. M. OMalley. 1992. Performance and portfolio assessment for language minority students. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. Rea-Dickins, P. and S. Rixon. 1997. The assessment of young learners of English as a foreign language. In Encyclopedia of language and education, Vol. 7: Language testing and assessment, eds. C. Clapham and D. Carson. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Rixon, S. 1992. English and other languages for younger children. Language Teaching, 25, 2, pp. 7379. Shohamy, E. 1995. Performance assessment in language testing. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 15, pp. 188211. Smith, K. 1996. Assessing and testing young learners: Can we? Should we? In Entry points: Papers from a symposium of the research, testing, and young learners special interest groups, ed. D. Allen. Kent, England: IATEFL. Stevick, E. 1990. Humanism in language teaching: A critical perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tambini, R. F. 1999. Aligning learning activities and assessment strategies in the ESL classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, 5, 9, 4 pages. Tannenbaum, J. A. 1996. Practical ideas on alternative assessment for ESL students. ERIC Digest. ED395500, Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics. Wiggins, G. 1989. A true test: Toward more authentic and equitable assessment. Phi Delta Kappa, 70, pp. 703-713. Wolf, D. P. 1989. Portfolio assessment: Sampling student work. Educational Leadership, 46, pp. 3539. This article originally appeared in the October 2001 issue.

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Using Favorite Songs and Poems with Young Learners

ongs and poems are a natural part of early childhood education in the United States. Native English-speaking children in all regions of the United States are taught a wide variety of songs and poems either by their family members or their teachers. Even teachers and parents who are not musically inclined share songs and poems with young learners. Many teachers working with children learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) also know the value of childrens verse in the young learner classroom. Experienced teachers know that songs and poems are an excellent way to begin or end a lesson. At the beginning of a lesson they can help children make the transition from their native language into English as the lesson warm-up. Whenever possible it is best to select a piece of verse that is directly related to the content of the lesson. For example, if you are teaching body parts, you could easily begin the class by doing the chant, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. At the end of the lesson, a good way to dismiss the children is by singing or chanting a
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piece of verse. This may even be done while children are lining up to leave or while they are waiting at the door for the dismissal bell to ring. There are a number of different ways that songs and poems can be presented to children. Often the first step is to introduce any key vocabulary that may be unfamiliar. Props, such as real objects or pictures of objects, can be used to present the key vocabulary for a song or poem. Actions can also help children learn unfamiliar vocabulary. The props or actions not only help children remember the words and meanings of new words but also help children remember the context or situation depicted in the piece of verse. Once the key vocabulary has been presented, teachers find it useful to introduce young learners to pieces of verse one line at a time. The teacher says one line of the song or poem using the props or actions that illustrate it, and then the children repeat the line. This procedure continues until all the lines of the targeted piece of verse have been said and repeated. Next the learners repeat the entire selection of verse using props or
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actions to help them remember the words. In addition, teachers may have children clap out the syllables of a piece of verse as a way to keep young learners actively involved.
Using actions to accompany songs and poems

If a digital camera is available, learners may want to take pictures of the learner-created actions for each song or poem. If a digital camera is not available, learners and/or teachers may draw pictures of the learner-created actions.

Children love to move as they chant or sing poems and songs. It is easy to make up actions to accompany many pieces of verse. The actions can be as simple as moving a hand or fingers. For example, the following poem can be transformed into a fun action rhyme by adding simple movements (as indicated).

Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
(Pantomime sitting on a wall by squatting.)

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;


(Pantomime falling down.)

Here is the Beehive


Here is the beehive; where are the bees?
(Fold your fingers into a fist.)

All the kings horses and all the kings men


(Pantomime looking sad, weary, and unable to get up.)

Couldnt put Humpty together again.


(Turn and stagger away.)

Hidden away where nobody sees.


(Hold up your fist.)

Watch and youll see them come out of the hive.


(Wave your fist.)

Puppets

One, two, three, four, five.


(Open up fist, one finger at a time.)

Bzzzzzz..
(Wave fingers in the air.)

Other songs and poems can be made more interesting with the addition of whole body motions. It is best to start by standing, if at all possible, away from desks, tables, and chairs when reciting pieces of verse with accompanying whole body motions. See the box in the next column for the types of actions that could accompany the verse Humpty Dumpty. Children may want to make up their own actions to accompany different pieces of verse.

Children enjoy puppets and often will talk to a puppet more freely than to a teacher. Puppets work well with many songs, such as The Farmer in the Dell. Puppets can be made by cutting out the pictures provided with this article and mounting the pictures on chopsticks or popsicle sticks. Hold up the appropriate puppet as the song is chanted or sung. Once children are familiar with the song, they can assume different roles, and each child can hold the puppet that matches his/her role.
Innovations

Children can create innovations for their favorite songs and poems. Innovations are different versions of pieces of verse created by substituting individual words for some of the original words. When children create their own

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innovations, they substitute words in the verse with their own words. The number and types of words substituted will vary depending upon the song or poem. Look at the example below.

pass on to their children. The second site, www.songsforteaching.com, was designed to help teachers use music across the curriculum to teach a wide variety of concepts and skills. On pages 43 to 45 are some songs that have delighted native English-speaking children in the United States for a long, long time. You and your students are likely to enjoy them just as much!
Song and poem charts

Original Around the Garden


Round and round the garden, Goes the little mouse. Up, up, up he creeps, Up into his house.

Innovation of Around the Garden


Round and round the farmyard, Goes the little horse. Round, round, round he struts, Round into his barn.

Personal songbooks

Children can make their own personal songbooks by copying the texts from the board or using photocopies of the texts. Learners can also be provided with pictures, such as the ones provided with this article, or they can draw their own pictures. If learners have created their own innovations for songs, they should make sure they put them into their songbooks, complete with illustrations.
Sources for songs

Song and poem charts can be created for different pieces of verse. Song and poem charts are large posters containing different pieces of verse. In some cases, all of the words are printed on the poster with a few illustrations to provide context. In other cases, some words and some rebus pictures, with a couple of illustrations, constitute the chart. Rebus pictures are small pictures that are used in place of words that are unfamiliar or that children cannot read. Whenever possible, try to include on the chart illustrations like the ones provided with this article. Two examples of song charts follow this article. The first example of Home on the Range shows a song chart with the text and a photo. Note that the photo can be used to teach two of the key vocabulary items, range (a large area of open land where livestock wander and graze) and buffalo. More than anything, the photo serves as decoration to make the song chart more attractive. The second song chart shows Home on the Range with rebus pictures. Song charts can also be created with the musical scores for learners who have learned how to read music. Note how the rebus pictures are put into the chart in place of the written nouns. Rebus pictures are used to help native English-speaking children ease into reading. In the foreign language classroom, rebus pictures help learners use a visual picture cue to remind them of the word and the meaning of the word.
CAROLINE T. LINSE, Associate Professor, Sookmyung Womens University, Seoul, Korea, is the author of numerous student textbooks. She is also the author of the book: Practical English Language Teaching: Young Learners (McGraw Hill).

Two very good sources for childrens songs are available on the Internet. These websites have been set up primarily for native English speakers and their teachers and family members who may have difficulty remembering the words to favorite songs. The first site: www.bus songs.com was designed to help adults remember the words to the songs that they wanted to

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Home on the Range


Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, Where the deer and the antelope play, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the skies are not cloudy all day. Home, home on the range, Where the deer and the antelope play, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the skies are not cloudy all day.
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on the Range

Oh, give me a Where the

where the and the

roam, play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the , Where the are not on the range, and the play, all day.

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the


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Sp e n c er Sal as, Paul G. F i tc h e t t, a nd L e o n ardo Mercado


U N I T E D S TAT E S
AND

PERU

Talking to Learn across Classrooms and Communities


s teachers, we value the role of participatory and exploratory civil dialogue in our classrooms for its pedagogical benefits (Haneda and Wells 2008; Heyden 2003; McCann et al. 2006; OKeefe 1995) and, even more, for what discussion profoundly represents for democratic societies (Dewey 2009; Fitchett and Salas 2010; Hoffman 2000; McCoy and Scully 2002). Despite its many benefits, discussion does not always come easily, especially in language classrooms. Some educators dismiss dialogue as too advanced for emerging English speakers. Others believe in and want to include thoughtful discussion in their curricular repertoire, but they hesitate, worried that students are not yet ready. Problematically, when students approach the end of their formal trajectories as language learners, they and their teachers have had little practice with the ins and outs of talking with each other in purposeful and thoughtful ways; thus, we are all disappointed. In our combined experiences, we have seen the familiar sequence of a
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teacher asking a question, a student or students responding, and the same teacher evaluating that response while the rest of the students wait their turns. In other instances, talking is framed as a debate with two teams committed to outtalking each other and competing for the teachers attention. Yet discussion can be something much more than a contest for the teachers recognition or an argument with a winner and a loser. Structured and focused classroom discussion talking to learncan move student interactions with the target language forward while simultaneously serving as a catharsis whereby competitiveness and egocentrism are replaced with respect, empathy, and perspective sharing (Fitchett and Salas 2010). In this article, we will outline our guiding principles for engaging students in thoughtful, participatory classroom discussions. These broad underlying principles or macro-strategies strike a balance between structure and creativity central to orchestrating participatory, student-centered dialogue (Freire 2000; Shor 1992).
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We begin by articulating a model for promoting principled discussion (see Figure 1). We conclude with a set of three specific but versatile formats for talking to learn in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom.
Engage participants in focused discussions drawing from their experiences

Although there are compelling reasons to engage students in critical discussions of current events, frequently learners may lack the background knowledge to engage in such discussions. Teachers who do opt for discussions of contemporary or historical events should make sure that students are given access to multiple information sources and ample content preparation in order to discuss the topic in an informed manner (Adler 2004; Hess 2009). Participants can access articles,

lectures, videos, and specialized websites on the Internet or other sources. At the same time, students do come to classrooms with a multitude of lived experiences. We suggest focusing discussions around those funds of knowledge (Moll 2011) to stimulate purposeful and introspective talk. For example, a potential theme for discussion might focus critically on the gendered roles that define women and men in their homes and communities. Questions generated around such a theme might include, What are the roles of fathers and mothers in raising children? or Should children be raised equally by both parents? Other theme-based questions may include, What is the difference between having only one working parent as opposed to two?; What can be done to stem crime in our neighborhoods?; or How is bullying a seri-

Engage students in lived experiences Align dialogue with student goals and expectations Honor difference, reflect, and offer closure

Principled Discussion: Talking to Learn


Offer multiple opportunities for students to prepare Keep the conversation horizontal Focus on meaning and value active listening

Figure 1. A model for principled discussion

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ous problem and what should be done to address it in schools? Student involvement in the composition of the questions is a way of approaching the complexity or diversity of thought that a theme might generate. With a theme in hand, small groups of participants might then move to developing potential questions for discussion. The theme of friendship, for example, might generate questions such as What are the qualities of a true friend? or What are the limits of friendship? At this point, teachers can help students sculpt thoughtful, well-structured, and emotionally and developmentally appropriate questions for discussion. Questions generate more questions. For example, thinking about the limits of friendship, participants might begin to critically examine their personal working definition of friendship with specific examples of how that relationship is or is not demonstrated. With some thoughtful facilitation on the part of the teacher, participants can choose what is personally most relevant to them while maintaining coherence with the curriculum.
Create multiple opportunities for participants to prepare

Teachers often reward students for spontaneity. However, spontaneity can exclude students who prefer to think deeply before they speak. If teachers do opt for spontaneity, questions should focus on topics that are exceedingly familiar to students, such as daily routines or personal preferences. Thoughtful discussions depend on thoughtful preparation. Language learners benefit from structured opportunities to prepare and organize ideas before actually participating in discussion. We recommend that teachers encourage all participants to write their ideas on paper first and to bring that writing to the discussionthis way we can be certain that all participants have something to say or, if necessary, to read. Prediscussion preparation might engage students in well-known cooperative learning practices such as think-pair-share, three-step interview, or round-robin brainstorming (Kagan and Kagan 2009). We have also found it helpful for students to end these brief preliminary composition activities by writing down the questions that emerged in the course of pre-

discussion writing and small-group work. Writing questions about questions and about ones own initial response creates a tentative stance, where one begins to explore ideas and adopt an opinion about a topic. Recursive questioning also sends the message that dialogue is not merely a space to state ones position, but also a means of questioning our own points of view. Writing and talking in advance of a discussion widens the circle of participation. Preparing for a discussion is not limited to helping students gather and organize what they are going to say, but also lays the foundation for how they will interact with each other. In advance of the activity, teachers and students might outline their expectations of appropriate behaviors such as routines for turn-taking, protocols for disagreeing and agreeing, strategies for soliciting examples from peers, and challenging classmates to consider alternative viewpoints. In a series of mini-lessons before or after a discussion, teachers and students might examine specific structures and language that are indicative of and necessary for respectful dialogue. Participants might practice various ways of expressing agreement (Thats an interesting pointIve thought about that too) or disagreement with an idea or point of view (Im afraid I disagree), or ways to indicate uncertainty or tentativeness in ways that promote talk as opposed to silencing or shutting down others (Thats an interesting way to think about it. Im not sure what my opinion is). With training and practice over time, language learners at different levels can use a variety of expressions naturally and confidently (see Figure 2).
Keep the conversation horizontal

It is often a struggle to decentralize the conversation away from what the teacher thinks. However, the top-down talk that teachers are expected to provide in many classrooms undermines the dialogic format we advocate here. Cruz and Thornton (2009) and Oxfam (2006) identify a number of potential teacher roles ranging from a committed participant who expresses his or her opinion while encouraging the expression of others to one of an impartial chairperson who recasts students opinions without ever

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Expression Thats an interesting opinion. In addition, I think Thats a good point. But I have a different opinion. I I never thought of that before. Could you explain that point a little more?

Intermediate

You have made some interesting points, but my opinion may be a little different. Certainly, I would have to agree withon this issue. Furthermore, I can say that What an interesting suggestion. Could you elaborate more on that idea, please?

Advanced

Figure 2. The language of discussion revealing his or her point of view. Teachers might very well express their opinion or might hold off. (Im not completely sure of what I think. Id like to hear what everybody else thinks first.) One simple strategy to decentralize discussions is for teachers to position themselves physically such that they become a participant among participants. A circle format is ideal. In classroom spaces that do not accommodate grouping and re-grouping, classmates might elect a peer to represent the range of their opinions in a panel format. After a series of opening statements from each of the panelists, the discussion might turn to questions and probing from the panelists and audience. Discussion formats sometimes favor extroverted students. Providing specific feedback about individuals frequency of participation at the close of a discussion and thinking together how we might all work to encourage each other to participate are strategies for raising awareness of group dynamics and individual levels of participation. For example, ask participants to identify a contribution they made to a discussion and contributions others made to the discussion. Articulate questions that the discussion generated and identify behaviors that encouraged or discouraged participation. Asking students questions such as What did you do to encourage a classmate to share his or her opinion? or What do you do when one of your classmates begins dominating the discussion? or How did your body language indicate that you were listening to your classmates? can elicit feedback about behaviors that enhance or detract from dialogue. Recognize what specific students did at certain points of the discussion that moved the dialogue forward, e.g., I liked the way Leo and Paul asked each other for specific examples of the limitations of friendship. I appreciate that Spencer invited Leo into the conversation by asking him what he thought. Students can also provide feedback to their teachers, letting them know how they felt during the discussion because of their teachers interventions and observations regarding their performance.
Focus on meaning and value active listening

A planned, intensive focus on form might be a part of the pre-discussion preparation sequences when students are consciously readying themselves to engage in high-quality language production. There are some instructional instances when real-time, corrective feedback is appropriate (Ellis 2001; Harmer 2007; Nation 2007). However, once the dialogue begins, the focus should be on meaning making. When students are talking thoughtfully together about something that they care

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about, teachers should concentrate on understanding and helping them clarify or elaborate their points of view and challenging them to consider alternative perspectives with empathy. What students are trying to say should be valued over form. As opposed to correcting student language, teacher-talk might sound something like, Is there another way that we might think about friendships? or Can you think of any reasons why someone would want to put limits on friendship? During the discussion, the class might identify individual participants who can help out with students struggling to express their ideas. We also imagine that students talking about something that matters to them might have a tendency to shift into their first language (L1). Instead of penalizing students for attempting to express an idea or thought, consider students use of L1 as an indicator of their motivation. Dialogue depends on both talking and good listenership (OKeeffe, McCarthy, and Carter 2007; Rost 2006). We encourage teachers to think of ways to promote active and thoughtful listening by assigning certain students the role of observers. During a discussion or structured interchange, observers might take notes on content and participant strategies and behaviors that either stimulate or block the dialogue. After the discussion, observers might report out to the class, highlighting strands of the discussion that they found important or particularly thoughtful. Students might also reflect on individual or collective behaviors and strategies that encouraged or discouraged thoughtful participation. Students debriefing might include what individuals learned from their classmates and what new questions the discussion generated.
Align progressively more demanding dialogue with student goals and expectations

Teachers can carefully plan discussion activities that engage students in meaningful, participatory dialogue in ways that make the most of their potential at any particular point in time or language level. Curricular vetting or the practice of validating planned learning events in a course or program against well-established criteria or benchmarks, such as Blooms Taxonomy or international pro-

ficiency standards, can bolster that potential (Mercado 2012). Teachers can plan discussions over the course of a semester or year so that turn-taking, question formulation, and reflective discourse all gain complexity and richness as students move to higher levels of language development. As they help students engage in evaluation and synthesis, teachers can cross-reference the competencies and skills that increasingly complex discussion activities require against the descriptors of well-known proficiency standards or guidelines, such as the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) or the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). To that end, discussions will advance the level of thought, elaboration, and complexity for successful participation and simultaneously contribute to the consolidation of skills and competencies that correspond to the level of proficiency students are seeking to develop. Parker (2003) proposes two models for progressive discussion: deliberation and seminar. Through deliberation, participants discussion centers on resolving a common dilemma or controversial issue such as Should website providers be responsible for the quality and usage of material on the site? or Which of the main tenants of democracy is more important: freedom or equality? Unlike debate, deliberation challenges learners to mediate their perspectives in order to find an alternative middle ground. Seminar, rather than resolving issues, attempts to expand understanding of an idea or concept. Frequently associated with inquiry and questioning strategies, seminar formats challenge students to question their own assumptions and understandings. For example, a seminar might entail an investigation of a single text, such as Hughess (1995) I Tooa free-verse poem that challenges the racial segregation of the early twentieth-century United States. Both deliberation and seminar provide students the opportunities to become critical consumers of their own language acquisition through advanced, engaged discourse.
Honor difference, reflect, and offer closure

At the conclusion of a classroom discussion, we suggest that teachers try to bring

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some closure to the dialogue. Closure might include a synthesis or review of the various points of view that were expressed during the course of the conversation, the questions that the discussion generated, and the identification of behaviors that advanced the process. Discussions can generate strong emotions. Teachers should recognize these feelings but at the same time honor the diverse ways in which individuals might problem-solve or conceptualize a particular issue. Ending a discussion does not involve identifying who was more right. Rather, closure as we understand it involves reflection on where the discussion took us in our individual and collective thinking and what additional questions it generated. To emphasize the generative dimension of classroom discussion, teachers might finish the discussion with individual or small-group writinga chance for participants to get down on paper what they did not say but wish they had and what they are now thinking. We also suggest that once teachers have modeled bringing closure to a discussion, students themselves might also take a more active role in facilitating that process.
Three formats for classroom dialogue

2. Rating agreement/disagreement Rating activities are useful discussion scaffolds (McCann et al. 2006). In designing a rating activity, teachers should choose a theme that allows for a variety of opinions some potentially controversial. We suggest, for example, value-oriented topics that address the lived experiences of students and encourage a wide range of responses, e.g., a ranking activity that elicits opinions about gendered roles in family and society; friendship; honesty, etc. We have structured ranking activities, for example, around the theme of lovetaking popular quotes about the emotion such as All you need is love or Love is blind and asking student groups to rate their level of agreement or disagreement using a numerical scale ranging from one to five. Afterwards, a representative from each group reports on two to three highlights of the small groups discussion. Follow up by having students create a multilayered definition for whatever category the ranking activity is examining. 3. Scenarios for role play Role plays stress the adoption of perspective. They offer emerging English speakers a platform that emphasizes the complexity of the human condition by simulating conflict, resolution, and compromise (Au 2010; Cruz and Thornton 2009). Choose a short narrative to read and identify participants who will take on the perspectives of the various characters. Thinking about the theme of friendship, teachers might select a short reading such as The Giving Tree by Silverstein (1964)the poignant tale of a tree who gives a little boy all she has until she is nothing but a stump for the boy-turned-old-man to sit on. Allow characters to prepare with the support of a small-group opening statement explaining their motivation and point of view: Why as tree did I give all of myself to the boy? Why as boy did I ask so much of the tree? Follow up with pre-prepared questions from the class to the tree and the boy.
From What do I think? to How could we think differently together?

Teachers can approach discussion in various ways. We conclude here with three formats that we have found particularly generative and flexible in terms of age and language readiness. 1. Gallery Walk The concept of a gallery walk comes from the world of art. Just as in an art gallery, participants move from one image to the next responding at an immediate level to the images displayed. In the language classroom, images might be visual (a picture or graphic) or textual (a word, phrase, or short reading). Develop a set of written or visual images around a theme or concept and use chart paper to post the images or texts on tables or on the wall. A gallery walk structured around the theme of friendship might include pictures or artistic renderings of friendship; quotes about friendship such as A friend to all is a friend to none; or even simple words such as enemy or friend. Direct teams or groups to stations with a colored marker specific to their team. Have them respond in writing to each visual or textual prompt. Debrief the class on responses and encourage individual or collaborative elaboration of ideas.

As current and former classroom teachers, we recognize that, as much as we believe in dialogue, thoughtful discussion takes practice both in and outside the classroom. Students have the right to articulate their individual

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and collective values informed by their lived experiences. However, such perspectives can evolve. Thoughtful classroom dialogue is a powerful medium through which students can gain fluency and confidence in the language while making substantial progress in developing their language proficiency. When discussion focuses on promoting empathetic, genuine interchange, talking to learn can transform traditional classrooms into communities of accomplished learners who interact and respect each other as equals. We believe that English language classrooms can and should mirror the sorts of communities that we are in the process of still becoming ones committed to exploratory, civil, and participatory dialogue. Classroom practice that supports the notion of cultural democracy (Banks 2008; Parker 2003) honors students individual perceptions of content and concept as valid, educative, and fluid. What is more, instructional environments emphasizing openness of discourse embody the tolerance and civic understanding that we need more of in our communities (Avery 2002; Torney-Purta and Richardson 2003). However, far too often, in our classrooms and our communities, discussion is adversarial, polemic, and insular. It does not have to be that way. Engaging students in discussion encourages perspectivetaking and a dialogue of civility and tolerance grounded in mutual understanding, respect, and empathy (Avery 2002; Fitchett and Salas 2010). Constructive dialogue, as exemplified in the model presented here, empowers students and teachers to reach these goals while making a substantial contribution to their English language development. As Hess (2002) notes, teachers should teach both for and with discussion. That is to say, it is not enough to teach English learners the form and function of the language. Students must also be skilled in how to enact and sustain mutually challenging but respectful discourse. As such, talking to learn across classrooms and communities can empower English learners of all levels with the skills and stances upon which our cultural and political democratic traditions are grounded and upon which our collective futures as open societies depend.

References

Adler, M. 2004. The paideia proposal. In The curriculum studies reader, ed. D. J. Flinders and S. J. Thornton, 15962. New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Au, W. 2010. Not playing around: Teaching roleplays in social education. In Social studies and diversity education: What we do and why we do it, ed. E. E. Heilman, 29295. New York: Routledge. Avery, P. G. 2002. Teaching tolerance: What research tells us. Social Education 66 (5): 270 75. Banks, J. A. 2008. Diversity, group identity, and citizenship education in a global age. Educational Researcher 37 (3): 12939. Cruz, B. C., and S. J. Thornton. 2009. Teaching social studies to English language learners. New York: Routledge. Dewey, J. 2009. Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York: WLC Books. (Orig. pub. 1916.) Ellis, R. 2001. Introduction: Investigating formfocused instruction. Language Learning 51 (s1): 146. Fitchett, P. G., and S. Salas. 2010. You lieThats not true: Immigration and preservice teacher education. Action in Teacher Education 32 (4): 96104. Freire, P. 2000. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. (Orig. pub. 1970.) Haneda, M., and G. Wells. 2008. Learning an additional language through dialogic inquiry. Language and Education 22 (2): 11436. Harmer, J. 2007. The practice of English language teaching. 4th ed. Harlow, UK: Pearson Longman. Hess, D. E. 2002. Discussing controversial public issues in secondary social studies classrooms: Learning from skilled teachers. Theory and Research in Social Education 30 (1): 1041. . 2009. Controversy in the classroom: The democratic power of discussion. New York: Routledge. Heyden, R. 2003. Literature circles as a differentiated instructional strategy for including ESL students in mainstream classrooms. Canadian Modern Language Review 59 (3): 46375. Hoffman, M. L. 2000. Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hughes, L. 1995. I, too. In The collected poems of Langston Hughes, ed. A. Rampersad and D. Roessel, 46. New York: Vintage. Kagan, S., and M. Kagan. 2009. Kagan cooperative learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan. McCann, T. M., L. R. Johannessen, E. Kahn, and J. M. Flanagan. 2006. Talking in class: Using discussion to enhance teaching and learning. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. McCoy, M. L., and P. L. Scully. 2002. Deliberative dialogue to expand civic engagement: What kind of talk does democracy need? National Civic Review 91 (2): 11735. Mercado, L. 2012. Guarantor of quality assurance.

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In A handbook for language program administrators. 2nd ed. Ed. M. A. Christison and F. Stoller, 11736. Miami, FL: Alta Book Center. Moll, L. C. 2011. Only life educates: Immigrant families, the cultivation of biliteracy, and the mobility of knowledge. In Vygotsky in 21st century society: Advances in cultural historical theory and praxis with non-dominant communities, ed. P. R. Portes and S. Salas, 15161. New York: Peter Lang. Nation, P. 2007. The four strands. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 1 (1): 112. OKeefe, V. 1995. Speaking to think, thinking to speak: The importance of talk in the learning process. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton-Cook. OKeeffe, A., M. McCarthy, and R. Carter. 2007. From corpus to classroom: Language use and language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oxfam. 2006. Teaching controversial issues. www. oxfam.org.uk/education/teachersupport/cpd/ controversial/files/teaching_controversial_ issues.pdf Parker, W. C. 2003. Teaching democracy: Unity and diversity in public life. New York: Teachers College Press. Rost, M. 2006. Areas of research that influence L2 listening instruction. In Current trends in the development and teaching of the four language skills, ed. E. Us-Juan and A. Martinez-Flor, 4774. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. Shor, I. 1992. Empowering education: Critical teaching for social change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Silverstein, S. 1964. The giving tree. New York: Harper and Row.

Torney-Purta, J., and W. K. Richardson. 2003. Teaching for the meaningful practice of democratic citizenship: Learning from the IEA civic eduation study in 28 countries. In Civic learning in teacher education: International perspectives on education for democracy in the preparation of teachers, ed. J. J. Patrick, G. E. Hamot, and R. S. Leming, 2544. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education. Eric Digest ED 475824. www.eric. ed.gov/PDFS/ED475824.pdf

SPENCER SALAS is an Assistant Professor in TESL Education in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K12 Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. PAUL G. FITCHETT is Assistant Professor of Education in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K12 Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research interests include the intersection of social studies education, teacher characteristics, and educational policy. LEONARDO MERCADO, originally from Queens, New York, is the Academic Director at the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano and has been an ESL/EFL teacher, teacher trainer, program administrator, and certified language proficiency tester for more than 15 years.

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