GSE M&M

1. GSE M&M WEEK 11

2. Today’s Schedule • Return Quizzes and other papers • Review CLT and presentation groups • Application of CLT methods • The Natural Approach • Cooperative Language Learning • Content Based Instruction • Task-based Language Teaching • Sample Lesson Plan • How does this lesson plan follow your method? • How could you modify this lesson to better fit your method?

3. Introduction to Current Methods • Communicative Language Teaching marked the beginning of the current language teaching methods period • Began in the 1980s • Applied linguistics began emphasizing functional and communicative potential of language, and modifying teaching practices to emphasize these • The philosophy of CLT has spawned several teaching practices including the Natural Approach, Content-Based Teaching, Task-Based Teaching, and others

4. Communicative Language Teaching • Is seen as an approach to language teaching (not method) • Learning to use English (weak) vs using English to learn it (strong) • No one book or authority on CLT • Focus on communication from the beginning (not delayed) • Learner-centered and experienced-based • Language carries out a task and is meaningful to learners • Syllabi consist of • Topics (food, weather) • Functions (describing, requesting info) • Notions (time, frequency, duration, • Vocabulary and grammar needed

5. Comparing Current Methods (handout)

6. Project #2 Current Methods • 2-3 people per group (Natural, Coop, CBI, TBLT) • Assignment: Teach a Mini Lesson ~15 minutes using your selected method. • Structure • Introduce method, tell us what we will see in your lesson, what age/level we (the students) are • Teach your lesson • Conclusion and Q&A • Other considerations • Your project’s unity (dividing up the roles equally) is very important • You will need to turn in a lesson plan stating everyone’s roles • Someone will need to introduce the lesson, 2-3 people can take turns teaching • Someone will need to make materials (worksheet + PPT) for the lesson

7. Grading Rubric • Unity/evenly divided roles 10 points • Method clearly demonstrated 15 points • Materials (handouts, PPTs, etc) 10 points • Use other resources besides textbook 5 points • Participation 10 points • Total 50 points

8. Sign Up Sheet

9. Application of Methods to Teaching • How will you teach a mini-lesson using this method? • All methods we are studying are variations of Communicative Language Teaching • Focused on communication • Learner Centered • Students complete tasks by using English • Materials: text-based, task-based, and realia

10. Application of Methods to Teaching • Determine your students’ • Age • Ability • Background knowledge (in relation to task) • Decide what content you want to teach • Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking focus? • Grammar or vocabulary? • Do you want to teach about culture?

11. Types of Materials • Text-based: Textbooks • Task-based: handbooks, cue cards, activity cards, pair communication materials • Games, Role plays, Communication activities (information gap, jigsaw) • Realia: Real life materials • advertisements, menus, maps, charts

12. Procedures • present a dialogue • Oral practice • Q&A • Study communicative expressions • Learner discovery of rules • Oral recognition or production activities

13. The Natural Approach Input hypothesis i+1 Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis: competency can be developed through acquiring an L2 like an L1, and through learning conscious rules about the language Monitor hypothesis: Ss need time, focus on the form, knowledge of rules to initiate conscious learning Affective Filter Hypothesis: Motivation, Self-Confidence, and anxiety reduction needed for effective learning

14. The Natural Approach • Basic personal communication skills: oral, written • Academic learning skills: oral, written • Stages of learning: pre-production, early-production, and speech-emergent • Use realia rather than textbooks • No unique techniques, so do whatever you like 

15. Cooperative Language Learning • Most speech is organized in conversation, focus on communicative competency • Critical thinking skills, question matrix • Cooperative activities: formal groups, informal groups, cooperative base groups • Individual accountability

16. Cooperative Language Learning • Team practice from common input, jigsaw activities, discovery learning • Importance of materials to aid cooperative learning

17. Content-Based Instruction • Decide which content to teach through English • Different programs to model: • Immigrant On-Arrival Programs • Limited English Proficiency (LEP) • English for Specific Purposes (LSP) • Theme-based language instruction, sheltered content instruction (SIOP) adjunct language instruction, team-teach approach, skills-based approach

18. Content-Based Instruction • Language is a means of acquiring information. CBI activities emphasize the need to learn a language • Language is text and discourse based, on integrated skills, and purposeful • Build on learner’s background knowledge. Teach skills and strategies for acquiring knowledge. • Learn by doing and through collaborative learning • Materials are heavily used

19. Task-Based Language Teaching • Tasks give students a context for learning to take place. • Focus on process rather than product “Getting there is half of the fun!” • Categories of team performance: orientation, organizational functions, adaptation, and motivational functions • TBLT is a learning theory rather than language theory – language is a means of making meaning, draw on structural, functional and interactional models of language

20. Task-Based Language Teaching • Choose a real world task that meets needs of learners • Figure out what pedagogical tasks can be accomplished through the real world task • Figure out what your goal is and how students will achieve that goal (p.234) • Figure out how to prepare learners, and sequence the task for optimal learning (pre task, task and post task) • Real world materials emphasized