Teaching English to Young Learners: An Activity

Teaching English to Young Learners: An Activitybased Guide for Prospective Teachers

Edited by Esim GÜRSOY

Arda ARIKAN

Authors Murat HİŞMANOĞLU Yasemin KIRKGÖZ Şule KORKMAZ Özgür KÖSE Hülya KÜÇÜKOĞLU Kemal Sinan ÖZMEN H. Sezgi SARAÇ Olcay SERT Gonca YANGIN EKŞİ Ece ZEHİR TOPKAYA Mehmet Galip ZORBA

Erhan ALABAY Arda ARIKAN Cem BALÇIKANLI Simla COURSE Muhlise COŞGUN ÖGEYİK Servet ÇELİK Bengül ÇETİNTAŞ Feryal ÇUBUKCU Derya DÖNER YILMAZ Şehriban DÜNDAR Esim GÜRSOY

2012

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ISBN 978-605-5472-xx-x

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ÖN SÖZ

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART 1: Theoretical Considerations................................................. 1 Learning Theories.................................................................................................1 Çiğdem Karatepe Curriculum .......................................................................................................... 21 Yasemin Kırkgöz Materials.............................................................................................................. 33 Gonca YANGIN EKŞİ Lesson Planning................................................................................................. 57 H. Sezgi Saraç Theme-Based Teaching: Environmental Education............................... 75 Esim Gürsoy Autonomy.............................................................................................................. 87 Simla Course Classroom Management................................................................................ 105 Erhan Alabay Mehmet Galip Zorba Nuremberg Recommendations.................................................................... 127 Bengül Çetintaş PART 2: skılls and aspects.............................................................. 141 Listening.............................................................................................................. 143 Murat Hişmanoğlu Speaking .............................................................................................................. 165 Olcay Sert Listening and Speaking.................................................................................. 189 Ece Zehir Topkaya Reading................................................................................................................. 219 Muhlise Coşgun Ögeyik Writing................................................................................................................. 237 Arda Arikan

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Vocabulary ....................................................................................................... 247 Mehmet Galip Zorba Arda Arikan Grammar.............................................................................................................. 263 Derya Döner Yılmaz PART 3: text and tools..................................................................... 281 Drama.................................................................................................................... 283 Şehriban Dündar Games.................................................................................................................... 305 Şule Korkmaz Music and Puppets........................................................................................... 327 Esim Gürsoy Literature........................................................................................................... 343 Feryal Çubukcu Culture ............................................................................................................... 355 Servet Çelik On the Web.......................................................................................................... 377 Cem Balçıkanlı Kemal Sinan Özmen Digital Stories................................................................................................... 393 Özgür Köse Hülya Küçükoğlu About the Contributors............................................................................... 405

PART 1 Theoretical Considerations

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Theoretical Considerations

Learning Theories vii

Learning Theories Çiğdem Karatepe

Teacher candidates should develop a solid understanding of cognitive aspects of both learning and teaching processes where not only students but also teachers learn new things. The literature in the field of teacher education reports that teachers’ understanding of how particular topic is taught is heavily influenced by how they were taught about it (cf. Stofflett & Stoddart, 1994). It is also reported that teachers show a strong resistance to change their preconceptions regarding teaching. Therefore, it is essential for future teachers grasp a strong body of knowledge on teaching and learning so that they are able to remain well- informed. Teachers and teacher candidates should have an in-depth knowledge about child development. Here the term child development refers to child’s cognitive, intellectual, psychological, linguistic, social and physiological development. As language teachers, we cannot ignore the factors related to our students’ nonlinguistic development. We need to adopt a holistic view of child development. Crowded classes are really an important obstacle on the way to success in education. Teachers often do not spare time to find out about pupils’ specific learning needs, such as learning styles, preferences, and strategies (Brown 2000; Lightbown & Spada, 1999). However, finding out about these individual learner attributes is important as these will enable teachers to use contextualisation techniques in order to relate language to learners’ lives (Yılmaz & Karatepe, 2010). Unfortunately, the entire Turkish education system is ruled by tests and test scores. That is, it leads everyone participating in the system to product oriented learning while the processes of learning are ignored. The caricature depicts the contradiction between test based teaching and a child’s instinct to be in interaction with his environment.

Dismal learning is not the path to success

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Discussion questions • Look at the caricature above and discuss why those students are drawn as such. • What does the girl see when she looks out of the window? • The bird flies a ribbon. It reads ‘Arts’. Why do you think the artist who drew this caricature wanted to highlight ‘Arts’? • What does ‘P.E.’ on the signpost stand for? Why do you think the artist wanted to draw our attention to this issue? • The teacher in the caricature warns the child by saying ‘Do you want to be a child left behind? ’ But the child’s does not seem to mind this. ▶ Discuss the teacher’s and the pupil’s attitudes toward teaching and learning. ▶ Discuss whether it could be possible to teach English in conjunction with arts and sports. Teachers are always anxious to cover the textbook because central exams are entirely based on the knowledge given in those textbooks. It seems that similar situation is experienced by many teachers and students in countries such as Canada and the USA. Below is an excerpt from former President George W. Bush’s speech in Congress on 27 February, 2001 titled ‘Courage in a Time of Blessing’. While reading this citation, pay special attention to how education is viewed. The former president of the USA argues that politicians and state officials would like to see results and the only way of seeing results is ‘to teach to the test’. Discussion question ▶ Discuss what other ways can there be to see the results of teaching and learning as an output of educational system by reading the following passage. Children should be tested on basic reading and math skills every year between grades three and eight. Measuring is the only way to know whether all our children are learning. And I want to know because I refuse to leave any child behind in America. Critics of testing contend it distracts from learning. They talk about ‘teaching to the test’. But let’s put that logic to test. If you test a child on basic maths and reading skills, and you are ‘teaching to the test,’ you are teaching maths and reading. And that’s the whole idea (Washington Post, 28 February, 2001: A10; cited in Kinginger 2002, p. 258). Wells (1999) complained that “a major influencing factor is the increasing pressure of accountability for delivering a centrally determined curriculum and for increasing students’ scores on standardized tests basic skills and memorized items

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of information” (p. 51). Certainly, such pressure on teachers does not encourage innovatory practices as educational administrators and parents alike limit their expectations to high scores. It seems that the USA education system suffers from the same problems but apparently, this did not bother the former president. As a result, there is a danger for teachers to confuse means and ends. They need to be aware of the fact that the textbook is just a tool not an end in itself. However, with test based education in mind, teachers can easily find themselves off-track. Therefore, students should be made aware of the consequences of mishaps of the context of education within which they will practice in the near future. For this very reason, they need to learn how to develop ‘a learning-centred perspective’ (Cameron, 2001: p. 1). Cameron distinguishes ‘a learning-centred’ teaching from ‘learnercentred’ teaching by stating that “learner-centred teaching places the child at the centre of teacher thinking and curriculum planning” (p. 1) which resembles what is happening in our country. Various disadvantages of this is described by Cameron (2001) as “if a teacher’s concern is centred on the child, there is a temptation to stay in that first place to follow the child” (p. 2). In addition to a solid background on learner psychology and development, teachers need to understand the socio-cultural environment where learners have been brought up and the context of education in which they teach. Unfortunately, this issue is ignored by educationalists, educational administrators and teachers. EFL teacher candidates are expected to be able to synthesise their knowledge about contemporary theories of child development and learning with their knowledge of socio-cultural environment where their students have grown and their own context of education. This is not an easy task to do. Those teachers who are not aware of the magnitude of this assignment may even give up the profession as a result of frustration and desperation. Or remain in the profession as a sordid school teacher. Discussion question Think about what ‘human action in context’ means. Human beings exist in their cultural environment. Their behaviours are shaped up by their cultural and traditional context as well as their perception and understanding. Although languages have universal features and human values overlap to a great extent but still individuals’ family background plays a very important role in how we perceive the world. ▶ In the light of this view, discuss to what extent it is viable to borrow or export foreign educational practices and attempt to apply in all schools country wide.

Piaget Piaget was a biologist by profession. He started to develop an interest in child development after having his own children. He proposed his theory as an alternative to that of the behaviourists. Unlike the behaviourists, he thought babies’ mind was not like a blank slate and they did not learn via trial-and-error. Rather, they have Learning Theories

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some innate structures of knowledge (schema). Without this innate schema, babies could not have progressed forward from sensory experience (sensorimotor stage) in order to begin to develop cognitive reasoning.

amount of learning and knowledge a child experiences was not as important as its quality. He believed that as the child matured his/her cognitive skills became more sophisticated, which was a sign of intellectual development.

Piaget proposed that children’s capacity develop gradually to understand what is happening in their environment. That is, they need to be mature enough to undertake certain tasks. He argued that this maturation process has got its stages. These stages can be seen as important milestones in the life of a child. For example, 18 months, 7 years and 11/12 years are such kind of thresholds. Children become cognitively more mature after transiting the next stage.

Piaget regarded thinking as a kind of action whether it was performed physically or not. Babies are born with the minimal innate cognitive structure. They begin with perceptual capacities and reflexes. Piaget regarded intellectual growth as a process of adaptation (adjustment) to the world. These are followed by three generalised adaptive processes a) Perceptual capacities

According to Piaget, each child goes through the process of cognitive development following the same order of stages though some individuals may develop faster or slower.

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development Sensory-motor (birth-2 years): The baby can • differentiate self from objects, • realise that s/he can take an action and begins to act intentionally, for example can hit a toy to the table to make noise and s/he shows that s/he enjoys it. • fUnderstand that things continue to exist even when they are not visible (Object permanence). Pre-operational (2-7 years): The child • Learns language and represent objects by images and words.

b) Reflexes c) Three generalised adaptive processes: 1. Assimilation 2. Accommodation 3. Equilibration In the process of maturing, babies gradually become more active and mobile. This is made possible as a result of developing muscles and joints. As the baby is physically active, s/he can begin to act on objects in the environment. A very young baby cannot move his body intentionally. His / her movements are rather reflexes. However, in time, s/he finds out how to control these reflexes such as the grabbing reflex. For example, when a child grabs an object and drops it while sitting on his chairs/he sees it falling down and s/ he realises that s/he can act on objects. Then, the child develops knowledge about the consequences of an object that is dropped. Ability to develop control over reflexes leads to more thinking and learning through three generalised adaptive processes.

• Classifies objects based on a criterion. For example s/he can group together all the red blocks no matter what shape they have.

1) Assimilation

• The child’s thinking is still egocentric. He cannot understand other people’s view point.

Assimilation happens when a child uses his/her existing knowledge to make sense of new experiences.

Concrete-Operational (7-11 years): The child can • Think logically about events and objects. • Achieve conservation of number, mass and weight. • Classify objects according to several features and can order them in series according to a single characteristic such as size. Formal Operational (11 years +): S/he can • Thinks logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically. • Becomes concerned with hypothetical (What happens when oil reserves run out?) and ideological (how to combat poverty in the world) problems (Summarised from Wollfolk,1998).

Piaget proposed that all children were born with a kind of genetically inherited mental structure of knowledge. Unlike the behaviourists, he thought that the 4


2) Accommodation Accommodation happens when a child modifies his/her existing schema to make sense of a new situation. If there is no available existing schema, a new one needs to be developed. The child adjusts his/her thinking to fit the new situation. For example, a child can create a new schema for an entirely foreign animal in addition to other animals in his/her mind. This is why; s/he shows accommodation by adding the new scheme to his/her existing scheme (Woolfolk, 1998).

3) Equilibration According to Piaget equilibration is ‘the act of searching for a balance’ (Woolfolk 1998: p. 29). Piaget hypothesised that human mind preferred consistency and order. In human mind, there is a conflict between our wish to learn something new and what we already know (via assimilation). It also shows resistance to alteration of existing structures (via accommodation). Assimilation and accommodation are adaptive processes of behaviour and thinking and they occur together. Learning Theories

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Piaget thought individuals do not like disequilibrium. They all have a kind of innate desire for establishing equilibrium. This innate capacity motivates learning. As a result, it can be said that disequilibrium is a precursor for learning. Discussion question Discuss, with concrete examples, how you have experienced equilibrium and disequilibrium in your lives by paying special attention to such experiences related to your learning. McLaughlin (1992) borrowed the idea of accommodation in developmental psychology and referred to it as ‘restructuring’ in second language learning. An example of restructuring in this sense can be as in the following example. A group of Turkish EFL learners may have already developed a schema for pronunciation of borrowed words in Turkish, such as television and telephone. When they realise that these words exist in the English language, they appear to think that it is all right to pronounce these words in Turkish way. However, they may gradually come to realise that they need to adapt their existing knowledge of pronunciation to the phonetics of the English language. That is, they restructure their existing knowledge and find out the right way. Piaget saw child development as gradual accumulation of knowledge and thinking. The final stage of this intellectual maturation is the development of formal and logical thinking. He agreed that not all individuals could develop a fully mature formal and logical thinking. Piaget believed that children tried to make sense of objects and events in their environment through thinking and language development is a result of this intellectual growth. According to Piaget, development of object permanence in a child’s life is an important step towards developing linguistic ability. Object Permanence enables children “to use symbols to represent objects that are no longer present; these symbols become the child’s first true words” (Bohannaon & Bonvillian, 1997: p. 281). The child’s accumulation of knowledge about the world is reflected in his / her language skills. The child needs to know animate and inanimate things existing in the world. Therefore, when reporting an action carried out by an animate or an inanimate object, the child will follow this order (S+V+O). This kind of knowledge is not only reflected on the child’s knowledge of syntax but also semantics as s/he comes to know the difference between them as he or she matures. Discussion question Hickman (1985) reports that native speaker children were able to use determiners (a/an, the), pronouns, and possessive pronouns accurately only after the age of 10 (Cited in Wood 1999: 155). Discuss, in the light of this finding, how appropriate to teach grammar in traditional sense to young learners before the age of 10 in Turkish classes.

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Criticising Piaget: Methodological criticism Many researchers have criticized Piaget’s research methodology. They argued that his tasks were too difficult and his questions were not really good ones to guide his child subjects. Particularly the research methodology he used while working with very young children has been criticised. His sensorimotor tasks required a lot from young children. Failure in removing a piece of cloth or being unable to grasp an object does not always mean that the child cannot think. Piaget disregarded the issue that this might be a result of under-developed motor skills. Piaget has also been criticised for using complicated language and unfamiliar materials in his tasks. As a result, children could not show high levels of success. He also did not present his tasks within a context which was familiar. For this reason children may have misinterpreted or misunderstood what they were asked to do. Besides, he carried out his study on a small number of children. He did not analyse the findings of his study statistically. For this reason, other researchers find it hard to compare and contrast their findings with that of Piaget’s. His findings are based on cross-sectional studies not longitudinal. Therefore, he did not really observe developmental stages through which children matured in a long period of time. He claimed that he worked with every individual child one-to-one so that he could observe how each one of children reason and make sense of the world. While this could be one of his strengths, results based on more number of children would be more valid and reliable. Researchers, such as Donaldson (1978) argue that in such studies, children should be presented familiar tasks within a familiar context of situation and researchers should use clear and simple language. Some studies such as Light and others (1979), and Donaldson (1978) reported on Piaget’s studies. These researchers used clear and simple language and familiar tasks during which the children performed better. These results suggested that the context of the task could be a very important factor in determining the response from children. Light and others (1979) for example, created little stories within contexts where children were convinced that there was a good reason for performing a particular task and they performed it much better than the ones who had participated in Piaget’s study. Piaget claims that language is not a separate ability on its own. It is rather one of several abilities which develop as a natural consequence of cognitive maturation. He argues that … language is structured or constrained by reason; basic linguistic developments must be based upon or derived from even more basic, general changes in cognition (Bohannon & Bonvillian 1997, pp. 279-280). According to Piaget children acquire structures as a result of continuing interaction between the child’s present level of cognitive abilities and his/her verbal or nonverbal interactions with the environment. Language errors in children’s speech can reveal valuable information not only about their knowledge of the structure of the language but also the structure of their knowledge in general (Bohannon & Bonvillian, 1997). Learning Theories

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Criticising Piaget: Theoretical criticism Piaget argues that there is a correlation between particular cognitive skills and the emergence of particular linguistic skills, such as emergence of a word. This hypothesis has been retested by various researchers. Although there is some evidence to support it, many researchers are still not entirely convinced about the existence of such kind of correlation. This hypothesis claims that thinking develops before the language does. However, Vygotsky argues just the opposite. Vygotsky in fact reverses Piaget, arguing that speech is initially social, is then internalized, and subsequently leads to inner and private (or egocentric) speech (Thorne 2009: p. 219). Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky argues that first language emerges through verbal interaction with caregivers which leads to thought. Vygotsky sees language having a higher-order mental function. He regards language use as a symbolic activity which is based on socio-cultural aspect of life although Piaget hypothesised that learning is an individual activity. In other words, for Vygotsky learning is a social activity.

Discussion question Language topics in the curriculum and textbooks are ordered from easy to difficult. The units start with concrete topics such as the names of clothes and move towards more difficult topics such as tenses (the present perfect) and expressions of probability. Discuss the rationale behind this kind of ordering from Piaget’s perspective.

The next part is about Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory of learning. He is one of the important researchers who shaped up our understanding of human development and thinking. His opinions formed a basis for Bruner whose ideas revolutionised education during the second half of the last century. Vygotsky and Bruner believed that children were not alone in the process of understanding the world. They are supported by an adult or a more knowledgeable member of the society.

Vygotsky Vygotsky was a Russian developmental psychologist. In his short period of life, he carried out numerous experiments and wrote many scientific books and articles. But his name could only be heard outside of the Soviet world quite later in the 20th century. His ideas have been very influential in shaping up the modern day education.

Learning according to Vygotsky He believed that development and learning were two parallel and integrated processes. These two processes are embedded in children’s social environment. Children learn from their interactions with the environment and the people in the environment. Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky believed in the supportive role of child’s interaction with adults and with more knowledgeable others within his/ her close environment. 8


He attributed a significant role to language in this process. It is a critical tool because it is the symbol system, by means of which knowledge is coded and organised. This was quite different to Piaget’s main idea as he saw the child alone during the process of intellectual and cognitive development. He was more interested in what a child at a certain age could or could not do. But Vygotsky came up with the idea that child’s cognitive development is actualised collaboratively by the child and others (Wood 1999; Woolfolk 1998).

Language as an innate ability Vygotsky believes that children have an innate ability to learn a language with some contribution coming from the environment. Vygotsky argued that initially language was only a tool for the child to interact with his/her parents. Gradually, the child learns to use the language by talking to himself while he is playing. Then s/he begins to think aloud and then this thinking aloud shifts into inner talk. All these shape up the child’s thought processes and these thought processes shape up language skills. Language becomes the source of structure of the child’s thoughts (Woolfolk 1998; Wood 1999).

Learning as social transaction Vygotsky argues that ‘the child’s capacity to learn through instruction’ is a very important feature of human intelligence. It also shows to what extent is the child ready to co-operate with others. Vygotsky puts ‘instruction’ or in other words, ‘interaction’ at the heart of development. With instruction, a child’s potential for learning is revealed. One of his most important contributions to the field was his proposal of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). He described the construct as …the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem-solving and the level of potential development as determined by problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers (Vygotsky 1978, p. 86). With this construct, he underlined the fact that intelligence was not to be measured as the child’s individual performance. He believed that a child’s intelligence was understood better while the child was performing with the help and guidance of another person. The child’s ability to follow instructions and ability to make use of the tips given by his/her partner is also an indication of the child’s level of cognitive development. In the process of such kind of interaction, the child receives help. . If the child has got the capacity to analyse the situation and synthesise the extra information with what s/he knows already, s/he can achieve the task. Children may be more dependent on the other person while solving problems or performing tasks but gradually they will learn to act more independently and they will gain self- confidence.

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Discussion questions “In order to understand the individual it is necessary to understand the social relations in which the individual exists (Werthsch 1991:26 cited in Sullivan 2000).” In the quotation above, the writer would like to emphasise the importance of understanding learners’ background in a careful manner so as to teach in a more successful way. ▶ Discuss what he meant by saying ‘to understand the social relations in which the individual exists’. ▶ What kind of social relations could he mean? Begin with the family environment and extend it to his/her neighbourhood and circle of friends. ▶ Describe your own social relations and think about how those factors which have led you to motivate you to learn English.

Domains of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) Vygotsky described three domains through which ZPD operates.

a) Assessment The first one is related to assessment. Since it indicates the difference between individual performance and assisted performance, it enables educational psychologists to assess a learner’s educational potential in a more dynamic way. That is, instead of assessing the learner in one setting by means of a single test, the notion of ZPD advocates a multi-dimensional assessment where the child’s potential is evaluated on how s/he negotiates meaning during interaction.

b) Scope of concepts and topics The second one is about the scope of the concepts and topics to be introduced through interaction as Vygotsky describes in the quotation above. Vygotsky does not restrict the scope of variety of topics and issues. They can be everyday topics, such as how to brush one’s teeth or teaching and learning about photosynthesis. Therefore, with ZPD, Vygotsky attempts to explain how knowledge about life and science is built through interaction between child and adult / or a more knowledgeable peers.

Discussion questions One day I was travelling on a bus. One of the passengers, a 7-8 year of boy kept asking ‘Mom, what is this?’ (Pointing to something in the bus). His mom kept quiet. But the boy was insisting. After a while she said ‘shut up’ with an angry tone of voice. As a consequence, the boy kept quiet. ▶ Discuss the reasons why the mom kept quiet first and then scolded the boy. ▶ What could she said to support curiosity of this perceptive boy? What would you say if you were the mom? You need to adapt such a strategy that the child should feel that you are very pleased that your son pays attention different things around him and wants to learn about them. ▶ Write a dialogue between your son and you where you explain the boy this symbol.

c) Pretend play and imagination The third dimension was related to how Vygotsky regards play. He proposed that during a role play activity, the child personifies an older person (for example, a doctor or a mother), who has more knowledge or more authority. Such kind of rehearsals prepares the child for the role s/he may take up in the future. That is, the child would like to be higher than his/ her average age, higher than usual everyday behaviour; he is in play as if a head of himself (Vygotsky 1933/ 1966: pp. 74-75 cited in Valsiner & van der Veer 1993: p. 44). According to Vygotskian view, adult guidance is needed to start up and to extend role- play and drama activities so that children could experience some kind of micro-world of what happens in real life. This way, children can learn about social role and social relationships in society. In this respect, play contributes not only to cognitive development but also to social development. Language plays a very significant role in pretend play. In this respect, role play, drama or any kind of game activities are very beneficial tools both for learners and teachers in an EFL classroom. Play can have a positive effect on learners as it can help them to gain confidence through actions, such as talking to oneself to plan what one is going to say and by actually saying it in his/her part in the play. How these activities can be exploited and practised will be presented in detail in the coming chapters in this book.

Pretend play and cognitive development Pretend play is regarded as one of the first signs of child’s developing cognitive ability to enable him / her to separate primary (real) representations of objects from pretend representations (Leslie 1987). For example, pretending that a banana is a telephone receiver and speaking to it is a play for a young child. Goswami and Bryant (2007) summarize that 10


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“During pretend play, this primary representation [banana as a fruit] must be detached or ‘quarantined’ from the pretend representation [banana as a telephone receiver] …The pretend representation is not a representation of the objective world, rather it is a representation of a representation from that world. It is metarepresentation. Thus the emergence of pretend play marks the beginning of a capacity to understand cognition itself - to understand thoughts as entities” (p. 11). Discussion questions ▶ In what ways, do you think having interaction during a play can contribute to child’s development? Look at Figure 8. There you see boys in a village in Bursa playing with the stethoscope of a medical school student who visits the village school with other university students. These boys have met male and female university students and a doctor candidate. ▶ Try to figure out how these three boys feel at that moment. Perhaps the boy who holds the equipment has felt like a doctor.

where the role of learners’ contribution of awareness and creativity is better conceptualized…It is language awareness that can bring into relation with one another reproductive and creative needs of foreign language education… (p. 257). Co-authoring can support communicative language teaching by fostering learners’ creativity. It can also contribute to the development of language awareness if/ when used to increase interaction in foreign language classrooms.

Scaffolding and teachers’ roles in the process The term scaffolding was first used by Vygotsky and Lauria (cited in Van der Veer & Valsiner 1991, p. 226). Their aim was to explain the role of adults in the process of introducing children to the culture they lived in. Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) developed the term scaffolding. It is a metaphor which appears to describe the role played by the interaction between the child and the adult/ more knowledgeable peer. By means of interactional skills, the adult or more knowledgeable peer guides the child to build up learning.

▶ Do you think for a learner just pretending as if talking to foreigners in English in a role play activity, can have a similar activity?

Hammond and Gibbons (2005) describe scaffolding in the context of classroom interaction as “in the context of classroom interaction, the term scaffolding has been taken up to describe the temporary assistance that teachers provide for their students to assist them to complete a task or develop new understandings, so that they will later be able to complete similar tasks alone” (p. 9).

▶ Communicative Language Teaching is in favour of the use of situational drama and role play activities where learners personify a character and speak pretending that their role is real.

Bruner states that new learning is based on what is familiar in the child’s world. Burns and de Silva Joyce (2005) summarise the process of scaffolding and the role of the adult in it as follows:

▶ Think of such an activity and make a list of the benefits that learners can gain during the performance of this activity.

• Effective scaffolding is tuned to the needs of learners and constantly adjusted in response to what they are able to do.

▶ Do you think even this feeling can motivate the child to study more to become a doctor?

For Vygotsky imagination was a special cognitive activity which had significant effects on cognitive self-regulation. The main role of pretend play in the process of cognitive development is that rules of any pretend activity require children to be patient and smart enough to act against their impulses. This was how they learn to develop control over their thoughts and actions (Goswami & Byrant, 2007).

• Support is gradually reduced as skills and knowledge are acquired.

Vygotsky never talked about a scene where an adult preached children about a grammar rule or meanings of words. He had the adult as a facilitator in his mind. The adult creates curiosity and desire to understand what other children think or feel. As a result, children come up with real questions. These questions lead to answers, all of which build up a dialogue. This is what he means with knowledge building. As children find answers to their questions real understanding takes place. Kinginger (2002) refers to this kind of responsivity of children in the process of dialogue building as ‘co-authoring’. She concludes that

• Focussing continually towards the whole task and the goals to be achieved is central to effective scaffolding.

A broader understanding of the ZPD as an activity of ‘co-authoring’ might assist in furthering the agenda of communicative language teaching, one

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• Learners are more likely to be successful when tasks are broken down into achievable parts. • Demonstrating and modelling are important aspects of scaffolding learning.

• Learners have success with new tasks when they are located within formats and routines that are already familiar. (pp. 4-5). Scaffolding can be accomplished during a task performance or it can assist learners while they try to understand a new concept. In both cases asking questions which would lead up to comprehension may be the simplest technique to initiate the process. It is important for teachers that they do activities not for the sake of doing them. They use activities in the classroom to support learning. For this purpose, teachers need to know what their learners know presently. In order to this they


need to find out what children can do and cannot do with their present level of knowledge. Timing is very important. Timely support plays a key role in assisting learners to overcome challenges. In this respect, it is crucial to know their learners’ weaknesses and strengths. Teachers should be able to estimate to what extent they need to downgrade the challenge of a task into manageable small tasks. However, they should avoid getting lost in details and prevent learners from doing so. Teachers should have tried the task themselves in advance so that they can present a good role model. They should figure out how long the support should be provided for the learners. The support should be tailored to the demands of the task. The support should be reduced gradually in the right time to allow time and space for learners to perform independently (Guerrero & Villamil, 2000). Perhaps most importantly, teachers are expected to be aware of the principles of how to contextualise a language topic in order to present it within a familiar format which is based on what learners know (Hadley 2002, Yılmaz & Karatepe, 2010). Scaffolding is the kind of support which would lead to learner autonomy and independence. It aims “to know not only what to think and do, but also how to think” (Hammond & Gibbson, 2005, p. 10).

Bruner argues that education should treat children as active problem-solvers. They should be guided to explore new things and ideas themselves. Bruner based his research on human cognition on the ability of categorization. He argued that all primary cognitive activities were performed in order to categorise things and ideas. In a way, he associated mental functions

• perceiving, • conceptualising, and • learning with categorising. He thinks human mind interpret concepts in terms of similarities and differences between them.

Hands-on task Remember McLaughlin argues that in order to acquire a language item, learners need to notice it in the first place. Then, they need to relate it to the similar concepts that they have already learned. In the final stage, learners restructure what they knew in order to integrate what they have just learned. Keeping this in mind, make an attempt to describe the process of teaching a closed set of vocabulary (clothes, family members, seasons) by diving it into three mental functions (perceiving, conceptualising and learning) as Bruner described.

Discussion question

Make a lesson plan for teaching such a set of words a group of 10-year old pupils.

Remember Cameron (2000) distinguishes ‘a learning-centred’ teaching from ‘a learner-centred’ teaching.

Note down the audio-visual materials, games and other fun activities you would like to use in the lesson. Find examples which are related to typical 10 year-olds lives.

• Where do you think scaffolding fits in according to Cameron? • Discuss whether scaffolding supports a learning-centred teaching or a learner-centred teaching.

Bruner Bruner developed a theory of cognitive growth in the 1960s. Bruner’s theory of Constructivism has been influenced by Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s ideas. However, in contrast to that of Piaget’s, he was interested in how environmental and experiential factors shaped up cognition. He regarded learning as constructing knowledge of the world. • Unlike Piaget, he saw the child in social interaction while learning. • He agreed with Piaget on the issue that intellectual ability developed in stages. • But he diverges from Piaget’s thinking by arguing that how the mind is used during these stages determines this process of development. • In this respect, Bruner’s thinking was very much influenced by the ideas of researchers such as Vygotsky. • Bruner criticised Piaget for not taking social and cultural factors into consideration which have a significant potential in affecting intellectual growth. 14


Bruner’s two-primary modes of thinking Bruner also claimed that there were two primary modes of thinking: narrative thought and paradigmatic thought. Narrative thought requires action-oriented, detail driven and sequential mental processes, such as storytelling. The narrative mode is more about daily life and it is used to express beliefs and intentions. The language used in narratives can show variation depending on the speaker’s/ writer’s thinking. It reflects his/her idiosyncratic style. Young children’s narratives are embedded in the immediate context of situation. While telling about past events and giving information, children need to use decontextualised language which is described as the kind of language that refers to people, events, and experiences that are not part of the immediate context (Wood, 1999). This ability develops gradually. Around the age of 10, children master the use of decontextualized language (Wood, 1999). Paradigmatic thought requires analytical, systematic and categorical mental processes such as logical reasoning (Bruner, 1978). The paradigmatic mode is logical and scientific. The language which is used to express this kind of thought is consistent and non-contradictory. This is the kind of language high school students and university students are required and expected to use in their assignments and presentations (this kind of teaching does not match young learners’ features at all). Learning Theories 15

As the child matures, s/he develops ability to use both modes of thought. If s/ he has a more academic family background, s/he is expected to have readiness to develop mastery of paradigmatic thought. If s/he listened to many stories, if s/he was allowed to tell a story at a young age and motivated to do so, s/he can get the chance to develop mastery of narrative mode of language.

Bruner’s three types of cognitive representation Bruner’s theoretical framework focuses on how learners construct new concepts by drawing on their background knowledge. According to Bruner, learner is very active in this process. S/he decides which part of new information to focus on and transforms it based on his/her past experiences. While doing this, s/he forms hypotheses and figures out how this new bit of information and background knowledge are related. This is how human beings perceive, understand and then learn new concepts. Bruner describes three types of representation in the process of cognitive development in children: • The enactive mode: The infant gets to know the world through physical contact mostly. This way s/he stores information as muscle memories. The stored information is mostly a consequence of his/her physical actions such as grabbing an object, shaking it and perhaps tasting it. This experience is recorded and stored as a nasty or perhaps enjoyable experience. Thinking is based on these physical actions. Bruner refers to thinking as internal representation. He believes that infant learns through doing not thinking. Thinking requires internal representation of information and processing it. However, this is not possible during this early period of life. • The iconic mode: Information is stored as sensory images. Some children develop a very good photographic memory. But they lose it later in life. Thinking is based on mental images (icons) of things and senses the child experiences. • The symbolic mode: Information is stored as symbols. In this stage, language is a powerful symbol. The child can now store information as verbal memory. Representation of the world is mainly through language but music and numbers are also employed as a symbol system (Bruner, 1978).

instructor. S/he is there to guide the learner not to teach him /her in the traditional sense. By means of active interaction between the learner and the instructor they can discover the way of doing this. During this dialogue, the instructor can encourage the learner and support learning process by asking guiding questions. However, the curriculum should also be designed so that it could facilitate this kind of learning process. Bruner suggests designing curriculum in a spiral manner. This can assist learners to build upon existing knowledge.

Four major aspects of Bruner’s theory of instruction Based on this argument, Bruner (1996) proposes four major aspects that a theory of instruction should have: • Readiness for learning: He argues that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development Bruner (1960, p. 33). With this argument, he clearly disagrees with Piaget, who argues that children’s cognitive skills develop in time. Since learners construct ideas and concepts based on their existing knowledge, instructors are to prepare background knowledge for the upcoming concepts and issues, before introducing them in detail. This takes us to his idea of spiral curriculum. • Spiral curriculum: The ways of how new information is structured to enable learners to grasp it. The idea behind spiral curriculum is that “a curriculum as it develops should revisit this basic ideas repeatedly building upon them until the student has grasped the full formal apparatus that goes with them” (Bruner 1960, p. 13). • Intuitive and analytical thinking: These two types of thinking contradict with one another. Piaget seems to favour analytical thinking. For this reason, teachers appear to aim to help their learners to think analytically. They like to use tasks to foster their analytical thinking. However, Bruner argues that children should learn how to make use of their intuitions. They should also gain self-confidence to depend on their intuitions. Instruction should be designed to help learners to infer and discover. That is, instruction is to facilitate learners’ thinking so that they are able to go beyond the information given and / or read between the lines when needed. • Motives for Learning: Bruner states that the best way to motivate learners is to present the course material in an interesting structure. It would motivate them better than exams or fear of future. It would certainly foster learning.

Bruner’s theory of instruction and spiral curriculum Both Piaget and Vygotsky attempted to understand how children think and learn. Vygotsky described how interaction supports learning. However, Bruner’s theory is regarded as a theory of instruction. Bruner assigns an unconventional role to the 16


Bruner sees education as “the establishment of knowledge” (1966, p. 72). He thinks learners should take part in the process of “knowledge –getting” (ibid). To contradict today’s exam-oriented education he argues that these scores do not tell us what learners know and how much they have developed during the process of education


as it is a kind of end-product. Because he believes “knowing is a process not a product” (ibid). (author’s emphasis) While Piaget and Bruner agree on issues related to abstract thinking, they fall apart on the issues of ‘logic’ and ‘intellectual development’. Piaget gives ‘logic’ prime importance. He argues that it is “a framework for understanding the nature and development of thinking” (Woods 1999, p. 10). However, Bruner claims that “logic is not the basis of mature adaptive thinking” (Woods 1999, p. 10). He sees logic as one of the ways of thinking.

task. Therefore, English language education principles are not incongruence with the country’s assessment and evaluation conventions. As a consequence, teachers end up teaching to the test. That is, they adopt a learner-centred perspective. As a result, our teaching principles may be based on those proposed by Vygotsky and Bruner, but the principles and conventions for assessing and evaluating the product of this teaching are based on the principles of Piaget’s.

Bruner versus Piaget Bruner carried out experiments on adults to understand adult reasoning. He concluded that people did not make use of a single method or logic while solving problems. They utilized a variety of strategies. These might not be equally effective and good strategies. Bruner was interested in the process through which people solve problems. In other words these are the processes of creative thinking (Wood 1999, p. 9). On the other hand, Piaget was interested in the structure of mature thinking. That is, Piaget focused on what they could do or could not do. In a way, he was more interested in the product not the process. According to Woods (1999), both Piaget and Bruner emphasised the importance of action and problem solving. From both perspectives, [instruction] that teaches children only how to manipulate abstract procedures (e.g. learning how to solve equations) without first establishing the deep connections between such procedures and the activities involved in the solution of practical, concrete problems (which the procedures serve to represent at a more abstract level) is bound to fail (Wood 1999, pp. 9-10). Teachers typically teach modal verbs for example, without relating their usage to speech acts such as requests and suggestions. As a result, modal verbs will only remain as a grammar topic (abstract) in learners’ minds. Whereas, they could easily be related to real life contexts. Learners know how to perform speech acts in their L1. Therefore, teachers can easily make use of social conventions to lead the learners on the issues such as appropriate language use. This can easily help learners to grasp both meaning and usage of modal verbs in a more concrete and meaningful way. Bruner insisted that new topics should be based upon existing knowledge.

Review questions

• For many children in Turkey, learning English is not really relevant to their lives. Suggests ways for making pupils feel that learning English can have a place in their lives.

• Using games and fun activities will definitely attract pupils’ attention.

However, there is always a danger for both teachers and pupils to confuse the means and ends. It usually is the case that the main aim of a fun activity is to have fun only. The language point in it gets lost in the process. Suggest ways to avoid this.

• Bruner argues that “knowing is a process not a product”. However,

when the outcome of teaching and learning is assessed according to the learners’ test results, how can teachers have an idea about the process through which pupils have gone in the process of learning? Suggest alternative ways for assessing learning.

Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner favour collaborative learning and teaching and the child’s ability to follow instructions provided by their partners in group work. They support that this way leads to learning-centred teaching. Remember that communicative language teaching as favoured in our country, aims to establish interaction in the classroom via various communicative activities although the assessment and evaluation system in our country takes assessment and evaluation individually. Centrally-run multiple choice tests or True-False tests cannot measure a learners’ ability to use English while performing a task during a co-operative 18



Curriculum Yasemin Kırkgöz Discussion questions ▶ What do you know about a curriculum? ▶ When was the English language first introduced in Turkish primary education? ▶ What are the underlying principles of the newest ELT curriculum?

What is curriculum? Curriculum is a large concept which can be described in a number of ways. A very broad definition is that “it includes all of the planned learning experiences of an educational system” (Nunan, 2001: 55). Curriculum development was first systematized by Tyler (1949) who put forward four basic questions that must be addressed by any curriculum developer: • What educational purposes should a school aim to attain? • What educational experiences can be provided to attain those purposes? • How can the educational experiences be effectively organized? • How can we determine whether these purposes have been attained? In the context of language teaching, the first two questions are related to syllabus design, the third with methodology and the final question concerns with assessment. In relation to curriculum development for young children, Wood and Attfield (2005) point out that “all curriculum models reflect a set of beliefs and values about what is considered to be educationally and developmentally worthwhile in terms of children’s immediate needs; their future needs and the wider society” (p. 138). This requires a curriculum framework that considers what is important for children based on research and experience to ensure that children attain what they need in order to promote their learning of foreign language, and to support practitioners. Therefore, we need a curriculum that must be able to respond to how children learn a foreign language by addressing the following questions: • What is believed to be important for young children in primary education? These are the values, aims and principles that the curriculum is based on. • When is it considered best to focus on particular learning experiences in the curriculum, and how such learning experiences be taught? This includes the designing of the content relevant to children in primary education, and the processes involved in learning and teaching; in other words, the pedagogy. This chapter, which begun with a definition of curriculum, continues with a discussion of the English Language Curriculum in Turkish Primary Education. In this section,

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essential components of the new English Language Teaching (ELT) curriculum are introduced. This chapter closes by highlighting certain issues which continue to be relevant, and raise further questions concerning the links between the curriculum objectives and the actual implementation of those objectives in practice by the practitioners.

The English language curriculum in Turkish primary education The English language was first introduced in Turkish primary education in 1997, following a major Curriculum Innovation Project in ELT. This curriculum initiative resulted in an increase in the duration of primary education from 5 to 8 years. In addition, English started to be taught in primary schools in grades 4 and 5 to young learners (aged 9-11) as a compulsory school subject, nationwide (See Kırkgöz, 2006; 2007a for details). In 2005, the curriculum was revised to improve the English language teaching and learning in primary education, and to adapt the ELT curriculum to the European Union (EU) language teaching standards (Kırkgöz, 2007b). The revised curriculum was implemented gradually; in the 2006-2007 teaching year, it was implemented only in grade 4 classes, and in consecutive years the revised curricula was followed into the upper grades.

Aims of the curriculum The revised primary ELT curriculum was prepared by a curriculum development committee appointed by the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MNE) (MEB, 2006). The curriculum is set out in a document containing the rationale, aims and objectives, structured content and assessment approaches for each of the primary levels 4 to 8 to children aged (9-13) which will be referred to as young learners in this chapter. The curriculum document, which can be accessed and downloaded from the MNE website, provides detailed theoretical information on various aspects of the ELT including: • curriculum design issues, • selection of appropriate teaching materials for different grades, • the distinction between language acquisition and language learning and • how young learners (Grade 4–5 students) and adolescents (Grades 6–8 students) learn foreign languages, a crucial point to take into account when teaching both age groups. The goals and objectives to be achieved for each grade are given with their corresponding structural items, illustrated with topics (famous cities), functions (describing locations), sample tasks or projects (naming some famous buildings) students are expected to carry out, following a functional-notional and skillsbased model (MEB, 2006). In addition, the new curriculum provides comprehensive guidelines to teachers on the following issues: • how much English and the mother tongue to use in the English language

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classroom, • a detailed step-by-step illustrated lesson reflecting the philosophy on which the revised curriculum is based, • a sample lesson plan illustrating how young learners’ acquisition of the foreign language can be facilitated through the use of games, stories, songs, dramatization and model materials, and • sample tests based on the communicative view to ELT.

Outline of the syllabus The curriculum objectives have been made concrete in the syllabus. Within the broad category of goals, a list of objectives is specified. A short extract from the syllabus of primary grade 4 is illustrated in Table 1. UNIT 2: MY CLASSROOM TOPIC

SKILLS

Listening Part A: Classroom * Listening to recorded short Language texts to assimilate meaning Reading * Recognizing familiar names, words and simple phrases * Reading simple phrases for general comprehension with visual support. * Using clues to make predictions * Following short, simple directions and instructions Writing * Writing simple phrases and sentences about their classroom Speaking * Asking and answering simple questions * Initiating and responding to simple statements in areas of immediate need * Identifying what he/she means by pointing to it

CONTEXT (Situations and Texts)

FUNCTIONS TASKS

Choose the appropriate ones from the list.

Asking for and giving information about classroom objects Following classroom instructions Giving classroom commands

Doing picture puzzles.

Table 1. Extract from the MNE’s syllabus of primary grade 4 (MEB, 2006: p. 65). Curriculum

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Components of the curriculum The new curriculum incorporates recent methodological trends in ELT, and is comprised of several components, as illustrated in Figure 1, below:

Figure 2. An illustration of Gardner’s multiple intelligences Figure 1. Components of the new curriculum (Kırkgöz, 2011: p. 183)

Communicative language teaching As in the 1997 curriculum, the communicative dimension of the new curriculum aims at promoting learners’ communicative competence in English by fostering integrated development of four language skills. The role of the teacher is considered as the “guider” and “facilitator” of the learning process. The curriculum proposes a variety of activities to be used in ELT for Grades 4 to 5 students including songs, plays, and games encouraging the active involvement of the learners. The curriculum of upper grades (6 to 8) encourages learner autonomy through giving assigning projects to complete, and the training of strategy so that learners can have opportunities to learn according to their own individual styles and preferences.

Drawing on the theory Multiple Intelligences, and as illustrated in Figure 2 with reference to nine types of intelligences; Logical-Mathematical, Visual-Spatial, Bodily/ Kinesthetic, Musical-Rhythmic, Interpersonal/Social, Intrapersonal/Introspective, VerbalLinguistic, Naturalistic and existential intelligence, the new curriculum encourages teachers to present lessons in a variety of ways so that individualised learning styles and interests of students may be addressed (see Kırkgöz, 2010). Study and discuss Table 2 illustrates intelligence types and different activities taken from various English textbooks used in primary education. Can you match each of the activities with intelligence types by writing the letters under the intelligence types? Then, compare your findings with your partner.

Multiple intelligences The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI), proposed by Gardner (1983), has had a considerable impact on the design of the foreign language curriculum in many countries. As proposed by MI, students come into the classroom with different sets of developed intelligences, which means that each child will have his or her own unique set of intellectual strengths and weaknesses.

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Integrating language and content Intelligence Types

Activities

a. Look at the words below and write them in the correct place. 1. Spatial/visual ……………………….................................. b. Look at the sun signs below and sing the song ‘sun sing’. c. Read the horoscopes again. Which sun signs do you think will have a good week 2. Musical and which ones will have a difficult week? ……………………….................................. Write them in the chart. d. Do you know the main characteristics of your sun signs? Are they true for you? Talk to a partner.

3. Verbal/linguistics ……………………….................................. e. Imagine you are the writers of the daily horoscopes for the Spot Magazine. Work in the groups of three and make predictions for the sun sign for tomorrow. 4. Logical/mathematical f. Find out and make a list of the sun sign of ……………………….................................. your family members. g. Think about differences between a laptop and a computer. 5. Intrapersonal ………………………..................................

h. What do you think about the future? Will the life be easy or difficult? i. Say what you have got in your suitcase. Write the clothes in the suitcase j. Write an e-mail

6. Interpersonal k. Connect the dots from 60 to 100. Then ……………………….................................. colour it. l. Prepare a poster to protect animal rights m. Imagine you are the writers of the daily horoscopes for the Spot Magazine. Work 7. Spiritual/ existential in groups of three and make predictions ……………………….................................. for the sun sign for tomorrow. n. Listen to the sounds of nature. What’s the weather like? o. Do the actions 8. Naturalist ……………………….................................. p. Read the body parts and categorize them Table 2. Sample activities addressing different intelligences

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The new curriculum adopts content and language integrated learning (CLIL). A selection of topics from non-language cross-curricular subjects such as geography, mathematics, music and sports, which are scheduled to be taught in the students’ regular programme are integrated into the ELT curriculum to enable certain crosscurricular topics to be learned in L2. Developing content learning through lessons is an important example of designing young learners’ curriculum so that it can relate to their growing world. The rationale for integrating cross-curricular topics into the new curriculum is explained below by the curriculum document: In most of the Turkish schools, English is taught as an isolated subject in the curriculum; hence, a possible innovation is thought to be teaching English through a cross-curricular model. Cross-curricular studies can be a way of teaching English through content in which the target language is the vehicle of interaction and knowledge, not the subject matter. Cross-curricular studies facilitate learning, integrating all subjects through the use of foreign language, allowing learners to inquire and connect experience and knowledge. By bringing together several disciplines and making content connections across subjects (subjects: mathematics, science, arts, music, social studies, etc.) in the classroom, we can show learners that a topic is relevant, related to their real world and previous experience (MEB 2006, 22). Discussion questions Find some primary school ELT textbooks and study them carefully to decide what content area is being integrated into the young learners’ language learning experiences. Discuss the weak and strong points of these textbooks.

Constructivism The curriculum is also influenced by the philosophy of constructivism, which is founded on the premise that learners make sense of new ideas and concepts in terms of their existing knowledge and skills (Brooks & Brooks, 1993). As confirmed by Halliwell (2000: p. 3) Young children do not come to the language classroom empty-handed. They bring with them an already well-established set of instincts, skills and characteristics which will help them to learn another language. For example, children are already very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual words; they already have great skill in using limited language creatively; they frequently learn indirectly rather than directly; they take great pleasure in finding and creating fun in which they do; they have a ready imagination, and above all take great delight in talking! In the constructivist learning, teachers need to make the most of the learners’ prior knowledge through setting up learning situations, tasks and problems, monitor Curriculum

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students’ exploration, and guide student learning. Based on constructivist approach to learning, is the 5 E’s Model, recommended to be used by the teachers. This instructional model is based on the premise that learners build up or construct new ideas based on their prior knowledge (Carin and Bass, 2005). As illustrated in Figure 3, each of the 5 E’s in the model describes a particular phase of learning: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The 5 E’s allows students and teachers to experience common activities, to use and build on prior knowledge and experience, to construct meaning, and to continually assess their understanding of a concept or a new material.

• Engage phase of the 5 E’s starts the process. An “engage” activity is aimed to make links between past and present learning experiences. At this phase, the teacher prepares the learners linguistically, cognitively and emotionally through various activities. Students should become mentally engaged in the concept, process or skill to be learned, focussing their thinking on the learning outcomes of the activities. • Explore phase of the 5 E’s provides students with a set of experiences. During this phase, students are required to actively explore and manipulate materials. The teacher can also set up a language task. • Explain phase of the 5 E’s helps students explain the concept or material they have been exploring. Students can express their conceptual understanding or demonstrate new skills. In this phase, teachers can ask questions, introduce the necessary explanations for concepts or skills. • Elaborate phase of the 5 E’s extends students’ conceptual understanding and allows them to practice skills. By gaining new experiences, learners develop deeper and broader understanding of the task and obtain more information about the material being studied. • Evaluate phase encourages learners to assess their understanding and abilities. Teachers can evaluate students’ understanding of key concepts and skill development. In addition, tasks are integrated into the new curriculum. Teachers are expected to assign students stimulating real life tasks in meaningful context. It is also expected that tasks be relevant to each topic covered in the curriculum for practising and consolidating varied skills.

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Experiential learning Young learners need to be offered classroom experiences that relate to their growing world (Slatterly and Willis, 2001). Getting a young learner to make or create something is one way of achieving this. In the new curriculum, drama, arts, and craft activities are suggested to promote experiential learning, to improve learners’ creativity and their social, cognitive, artistic, and linguistic skills. Art offers plenty of opportunities for self-fulfillment in the classroom due to its large number of materials and processes enabling students to choose appropriate ways for communicating their ideas, feelings and thoughts exploiting their imagination. Participation in such art related activities as painting, drawing, connecting dots also assists development of psychomotor, emotional, and cognitive skills. Craft activities usually enable students to participate in the production of some kind of a work. Making and creating new things, for example, a finger puppet, a postcard or a fortune telling toy through English, helps to bring the language alive making it entertaining and satisfying for young learners (Holderness and Hughes, 1997). This, consequently, motivates learners and encourages them to be involved in the activities actively (See Can 2007 for more details). Due to numerous benefits yielded, art and craft activities are suggested particularly for grade 4 and 5 students (MEB, 2006).

Assessment The new curriculum offers an update for the assessment system proposed by the EU, of which Turkey is trying to become a member. It calls for more performance-based assessment as an appropriate alternative assessment tool to evaluate the learning outcomes of young learners, and to complement the traditional product-oriented formative assessment system extensively employed in Turkish state primary schools (Kırkgöz, 2006). Portfolio is proposed as an example of performance-based and authentic assessment, which is claimed to be more congruent with the principles of the communicative language teaching. Portfolio, a purposeful collection of students’ work, documents a student’s language progress and performance in a given area (vocabulary, grammar, the macro skills, etc.). It also allows students to assume responsibility for their own learning. To attain an international standardization in assessment, the ELT curriculum is benchmarked to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), which is used as the framework for the description of the language proficiency students are expected to have attained by the end of each grade. Accordingly, primary learners by the end of grade 4 and 5 are expected to have reached Level A1, and by grade 8 to Level A2, to the level of basic users of the language, as described in CERF (Council of Europe, 2001). In line with CEFR, self assessment is another alternative form of assessment that is recommended to be used in language classrooms. Through self-assessment language learners gain responsibility for monitoring their own language learning

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processes. Learners can set their needs and objectives for learning a foreign language, they can monitor their learning to see to what extent they have reached those objectives through self-assessment using can-do statements as proposed by CERF. For language learners this way of monitoring and assessing their own language learning processes provides opportunities for them to be more autonomous in learning the target language.

The English language teaching resources Textbooks function as a basic teaching tool in the regular teaching and learning of English, and they supply much of the language input learners receive in the classroom (O’Neill, 1982). In Turkey, the MNE is responsible for coordinating the compiling of English textbooks for all levels in primary schools. In 2005, following the revision in primary school ELT curriculum, the MNE renewed textbooks. Currently, all state schools use MNE-approved textbooks, which are also financed by the MNE to all recipients of primary education. To help provide students with listening practice, listening scripts are now available in MNE website to be downloaded and used by teachers and students, alike. Teachers are recommended to find stimulating ways to increase learning opportunities in the classroom via the use of technological support. Many schools are now equipped with computer facilities with the internet access. This provides opportunities for school tasks as a way of making learning meaningful through projects and activities.

Teaching hours In terms of the teaching hours, currently, 4th and 5th graders are allocated three hours of English classes and the upper graders (6 to 8) are allocated four hours per week.

Some challenges of curriculum implementation This chapter has illustrated the concept of curriculum, and the new English language curriculum in Turkish primary education. It is true to point out that the achievements in ELT curriculum since 1997 are remarkable, and there is much to appreciate in the attempts to improve the content of the curriculum. The MNE has engaged in sustaining continuity in curriculum innovation in primary ELT, providing an outline of a curriculum document and securing provision of textbooks to all recipients in state primary education. However, to realize the very ambitious ELT curriculum specified for primary education, it is very important that the teachers have an adequate understanding of what the curriculum implies for them, and they need to be familiar with the new methodological trends recommended by the policy document.

innovation (Carless, 2001; Fullan, 1991) teachers, as practitioners, are the key players in the curriculum implementation process, and they have a crucial role in putting the curriculum objectives into their teaching practice effectively. It is therefore crucial that teachers have an adequate knowledge and understanding of the underlying principles of curriculum goals and objectives. Since the introduction of the new curriculum, the MNE organised seminars and conducted in-service training workshops in different cities in order to familiarize teachers with the goals and objectives of the new curriculum, and the methodologies underlying the new curriculum (MEB, 2008). Currently, a national programme of in-service teacher development is being offered to ensure the attendance of teachers on a large nation-wide scale. It is hoped that with these teacher development support, teachers will be able to appropriately implement the new curriculum in their primary lessons. Now, having read this chapter, you can carry out the following mini research tasks to apply the theory into the practice. Do not forget that, as Richards (2001) argues, good textbooks serve to turn the guidelines in the official government syllabus into a rich source of content.

Mini-research I Visit the MNE web-site. Study the MNE’s curriculum for the primary school English language teaching courses. Discuss its relevance to the needs and qualities of Turkish young learners of English.

• Is the curriculum appropriate in relation to the age and interest level of the learners?

• Are the objectives achievable? Mini-research II Choose an English textbook currently used in a state primary school. You can develop a textbook evaluation checklist to guide your evaluation. 1. Find out the intelligence types that are catered for in each unit. 2. Complete this analysis for the whole book to determine the book’s intelligence profile. 3. Also, identify some of the problems involved in such an analysis.

Ball (1994) maintains that policy refers to both text and action as well as to words and deeds. It is also enacted as well as intended. Policies are “always incomplete insofar as they relate to or map on to the ‘wild profusion’ of local practice” (p. 10). As implied, and acknowledged by several researchers involved in curriculum

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Further reading

Materials

These publications may provide you with additional information on various aspects of the curriculum.

Gonca YANGIN EKŞİ

Arikan, A. (2009). Problems with course books in EFL classrooms: Prospective teachers‘opinions. EKEV Academic Review, 38, 309-315. Arikan, A. (2010). Effective English language teacher from the perspectives of prospective and in-service teachers in Turkey. Electronic Journal of Social Sciences, 31, 209-223. Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kırkgöz, Y. (2011). An evaluation of English textbooks in Turkish primary education: Students’ and teachers’ perceptions. Eğitim Arastırmaları- Eurosian Journal of Educational Research, 44, 188-206. Tekir, S., & Arikan, A. (2007). An analysis of English language teaching course books by Turkish writers: Let’s speak English 7 example. International Journal of Human Sciences, 4(2), 1-18.

What are “language teaching materials”? Teaching English to Young learners (TEYL) has become a popular area of study in the last 30 years as early foreign language instruction has become a mandatory part of primary school education in more and more countries worldwide. Improvements have been made in teacher education programs and in development and publication of materials for young learners so as to keep up with the demand. As much as the student and the teacher, materials probably play the third most important role in language learning. Nunan (1988, p. 28) points out that “At their best they (materials) provide concrete models of desirable classroom practice, they act as curriculum models, at their very best they fulfill a teacher development role. Good materials also allow models for teachers to follow in developing their own materials”.

Toth, M. (1995). Children’s games. London: Heinemann Publishers.

Discussion question

Wood, D. (1988). How children think and learn. New York: Blackwell Publishers.

Before you continue, discuss what other materials can be used in the classroom with young learners other than the coursebook.

Wood, E., & Attfield, J. (2005). Play learning and the early child curriculum. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Yolageldili, G., & Arikan, A. (2011). Effectiveness of using games in teaching grammar to young learners. Elementary Education Online, 10(1), 219-229.

Print Materials

Audio-Visual Materials

• • • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Videos Casettes CD-Roms DVDs Pictures Flashcards Posters Wall charts Cartoons Web sites Multimedia tools

MATERIALS

Authentic Materials

• • • • • • • • • •

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Childrens’ litreature Magazines Postcards Maps Signs Brochures Leaflets Calendars Menus Comics

Students’ book Teachers’ book Workbook Readers Handouts Stories Dictionaries

Real Objects

Activities

Natural part of children’s world

• • • •

• Realia • Puppets • Toys

Games Puzzles Craft activities Drama activities

Materials

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Although it is often the coursebook (together with the teachers’ book and the workbook) that is most frequently used and cited as “language learning/teaching materials” in the classroom, materials can be anything that is used with the aim of teaching the target language, increasing the knowledge and experience of learners with the language and facilitating the learning of the language. Because children learn through experience and by interacting with the physical world, a wide variety of objects and activities should be used to convey meaning to young learners. In other words, language learning materials for children cover a wide range of items- puppets, toys, realia, crafts, textbooks, storybooks, workbooks, dictionaries, grammar books, readers, cassettes, CDs, videos, photocopied handouts, flash cards, posters, real language examples such as magazines or restaurant menus, web-based games and websites. Briefly, language teaching and learning materials cover a wide variety of materials which facilitate and increase the learning experience of learners.

Why use textbooks at all? The teacher of the young learners is sure to have her/his hands too full with a group of energetic children seeking action, variety and fun in the classroom. The textbook may become a lifesaver for the teacher. Along with accompanying printed or multimedia supplementary materials and the teachers’ book, the coursebook or the textbook saves teachers from having to create everything from scratch and thus alleviates the teacher’s burden to a great extent. Discussion question Discuss and list potential benefits and shortcomings of textbooks before you read further. When you have finished, compare your list with the one below. Pros & Cons of Textbooks Coursebooks offer potential benefits for Coursebooks might have some drawbacks teachers because they… because they... • serve as a syllabus with systematic and balanced selection of language. • provide a wide range of materials and tasks with appropriate levels (which save time for the teacher). • offer professionally developed materials that are compatible with currently popular syllabus types • provide invaluable help for novice teachers. • come in packages whose components are compatible with each other. • involve work or activities that learners can do on their own (and thus foster autonomy). • provide a source of practical ideas for the teacher. • give a sense of progress and purpose. 34


• are often written for global audiences; therefore, they may fail to cater for needs of specific groups of learners. • cannot cover everything and might have gaps in coverage. • strict adherence to coursebooks may dictate what is taught in what order. • may bring boredom. • do not bring real life language use into the classroom; do not provide the examples of natural use of a language.

What kind of language teaching materials should be used with young learners? As mentioned before, in the hands of a creative teacher with some imagination anything can be used to teach or facilitate the learning of the target language. Activities or items that can be used as language teaching materials are determined by the general characteristics of the age group. The term young learners can be used to describe: (a) preschool learners, (b) primary school learners, and (c) early secondary school learners. The abilities and interests of these children vary greatly among these age groups, therefore, the materials and activities used for them should vary accordingly. Apart from textbooks written specifically for age groups, projects, chants, songs, craft activities, games, stories and tales, dramatizing, web-based games and activities, puppets, toys and realia constitute other materials to be used for young learners. No matter what the child’s age is, teachers should bear in mind some crucial features of materials to be chosen and used. Materials for young learners: • should be meaningful, comprehensible and relevant to the child. Language should be presented in natural, real or understandable contexts. It should build on what they already know. The activities should be purposeful as well. Children would be thrilled to discover and use the target language to do things. • should be developmentally appropriate. The activities should be adequately challenging (i+1). Materials should be interesting for young learners, should engage them affectively and cognitively. They should be appropriate for the motor, cognitive and socio-affective development of the child. • should be related to their world. Children are interested in issues that are belong to their natural world. The real objects and issues that are “here and now” in their real world, and stories and fantasy in their imaginary world should be used. • should be recycled for better retention. Children may learn slowly and forget fast. Plenty of exposure to language that involves all senses and that cater for different learning styles and intelligences should be provided. Materials need to involve constant review and recycling in different ways and different contexts. • should contain physical action. Physical action is part of children’s world. They are full of energy, therefore activities that involve movement are welcome by children such as games, songs, singing, dancing, TPR storytelling, etc. Children learn by doing. They love arts and crafts activities, so materials for young learners should involve lots of hands-on activities. • should contain proper and accurate use of the target language. The language presented should contain correct grammar and proper word choice. Materials

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• should be attractive. Materials for young learners should be appealing, even at first sight, with lots of illustrations and color. • should be varied. Materials of different types and sources would appeal young learners. Story books, puppets, audio and visual materials such as songs, rhymes, flashcards, posters, animations, videos, and so on. Technology is being incorporated into schools more and more each day so computers and language learning software and web sources should all be utilized whenever possible. • should be integrated. Young learners start learning a language mainly as an oral process, but should gradually cover the four skills after the initial emphasis on speaking and listening skills. The activities should be purposeful to let children discover and use the target language to do things. • should increase their natural curiosity for motivation. Materials for young learners should develop children’s imagination and creativity. Content has to be attractive but at the same time should provide some routines, because children need certain routines in their lives. To increase their motivation, fun and an element of puzzle should be an integral part of the lessons.

• should involve the right type of grouping according to the age requirements.

Younger children like playing in the presence of others but by themselves and may be less likely to cooperate whereas older children and teenagers are more sociable and like group activities in which they can play with classmates. The materials and activities used in the classroom should be appropriate to the social behavior and development of the child. The activities should also encourage cooperation and respect among students.

book offers and what we as teachers and students need”. Coursebooks cannot cater for the needs of particular groups of students; therefore, coursebooks must not constitute the whole programme and they should not be seen as the curriculum itself. The teacher is expected to be a “materials developer” in the sense that s/ he needs to be able to select, evaluate, adapt and produce materials to ensure a match between the given students and the materials they use when there is a loose fit or mismatch between course aims and learner needs on one hand, and what the coursebook offers, on the other.

What are the principles of materials adaptation? Effective language teachers do not show a strict adherence to the coursebook, instead they make the best of it by a selective approach. Materials adaptation is altering the materials to improve or make them more suitable for a particular group of learners and can take several forms: Omission, addition, reduction, extension, modification and replacement (McGrath, 2006; Tomlinson, 1998; Cunningsworth 1995; McDonough & Shaw 1993). Gabrielatos (2004, p. 3) addresses some key points to consider in materials adaptation for teachers: Adaptation Alternatives

What can I adapt?

Why should teachers develop or adapt materials? Teachers should hold an adapt-do-not-adopt approach to make the most of coursebooks or other materials at hand. Materials adaptation is making changes to materials in order to improve them or to make them more suitable for a particular type of learner. The teacher often needs to adapt materials in order to increase the effectiveness of the programme and materials used for their particular learners. The teacher may also need to create or supplement materials to bridge the gaps in the coverage of the textbook. That is to say, every teacher should be a materials adapter and developer in their profession from time to time. It is advisable the teacher take the initiative to reorganize, adapt or supplement the content when needed. Cunningsworth (1984, p. 6) expresses the rationale that lies under materials adaptation: “No course book will be totally suited to a particular teaching situation. The teacher will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if necessary. So we should not be looking for the perfect course book which meets all our requirements, but rather for the best possible fit between what the course

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How can I adapt it?

Where do I find alternative materials?

• Aims • Topics • Texts • Visuals • Guidelines and Explanations • Exercises, Activities and Tasks • Games, Quizzes, Questionnaires • • • • • •

Omit Reorder Replace Change Combine Add

• Same CB • Other ELT books • Publications (Newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, novels, etc.) • Media (radio, TV) • Internet • Corpora • Own materials

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Discussion question Teachers can make changes in the content or the organization of the material to optimize its effectiveness. Look at the chart above, discuss what possible problems can be encountered with materials and discuss effective adaptation strategies to deal with them. Write a list and check your answers with the chart below. The table below summarizes effective adaptation strategies in given problems: EFFECTIVE MATERIALS ADAPTATION STRATEGIES Problem Learners need more practice.

Strategy Extension Adding

The learners need to revise language or skills.

Design or write similar activities.

Reduction

The activity or task does not work properly.

Eliminate or shorten some activities. Assign different activities to different learners/groups.

Changing Replacing

The task does not fit the learning style of the learners.

Change the activity or task keeping the educational objective. (e.g. convert a mechanical activity into a more meaningful one by providing it with purpose and an element of puzzle) Redesign the task or activity addressing for all intelligences and learning styles.

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The task or activity is too easy or difficult.


There is nothing wrong with eliminating lessons if they do not work properly. Use own material that is more appropriate.

The activity or task does not work properly. Changing

Make the activity more challenging or less challenging. Expand the task or divide it into more manageable steps. Offer guidance.

The learners are already competent.

Omitting

Use the time for something else.

The learners need to learn or practice items in a different order.

Reordering

Change the order of the material.

The material or task is not appropriate to the learners’ age/ experience.

Replacing

Devise a more appropriate activity.

There are areas not covered.

Adding

Supplement areas or tasks that are not provided sufficiently.

Use as many as needed.

The activity is too lengthy and boring.

Replacing

Add supplementary material and activities.

Make use of the textbooks strengths and cover the gaps or insufficiencies with the teacher’s own preferences. Learners do not need more practice.

Omitting

Suggested Action

Use other coursebooks or workbooks.

The activity is insufficient.

The content and sequencing of the textbook are inappropriate.

Hands-on tasks 1. It is now time to adapt some materials with all the reflection you have done so far. Look at the activity in Appendix 2 and add supplementary activities for it. 2. Work in pairs and design a puzzle or guessing game that does not require much language proficiency. For a sample activity, see Appendix 3.

Where do authentic materials fit in within teaching English to young learners? Authentic language is a piece of real language taken from the real world, produced by a real speaker or writer for a real audience and for a concrete reason. Authentic materials are not created or edited for language learners. Most everyday objects in the target language qualify as authentic materials. Types of authentic materials that can be used in the language classroom are various, such as printed materials (newspapers, articles, brochures, leaflets, calendars, ads, etc.), audio materials (CDs, DVDs, songs, news, commercials, announcement at the airports), visual materials (postcards, maps, signs, photos), realia (coins and currency, cultural tools or any real Materials

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object brought into the classroom), children’s literature (stories, poems, tales, etc.), music, films, TV programs and radio broadcasts, the Internet, the press media, and comics and so on. Materials for young learners should also provide exposure to English in authentic use in meaningful ways. Teachers may be reluctant to use authentic material for fear that authentic materials are too difficult for young learners. However, this is not necessarily true. Even younger learners with little English can handle some authentic but simple materials and activities. The teacher of the young learner should be careful to avoid authentic materials that are likely to contain difficult language and infrequent vocabulary and can be too culturally biased. Authentic materials, with the wide variety available, offer “real” English, which is intrinsically motivating and interesting. Thus, they provide a sense of achievement and confidence in the learner. Despite the possible drawbacks, they are too valuable tools to be ignored in language learning. It can be time-consuming to find the suitable material and the teacher’s task is not an easy one, when tailoring it for the needs of the class; yet, it is worth the effort. The teacher may simplify the material, or just simplify the activity or the task. Below are some questions to for teachers to help them decide whether the authentic material will be of use with young learners. If the positive answers are fairly more, the material is worth a try as it is or with little adaption:

Hands-on task Bring into the classroom some authentic material to be used as or converted into language learning material. Decide what language can be presented or practiced through it. Brainstorm any activities that go with it.

What is the role of children’s literature as materials for young learners? Using children’s literature can be an effective and enjoyable way of teaching a foreign language. Children’s literature is different from readers created for specifically EFL young learners and can be regarded as part of authentic material for they are written for native children. Examples of children’s literature can provide young learners with new and illustrated vocabulary and a clear context in which language is repeated. As stories often share universal features, the content is often familiar or easy to infer; which makes them invaluable authentic materials for young learners not to mention the sense of accomplishment upon finishing a book and all the fun and fantasy that it can provide. The challenges awaiting the teacher are choosing the right book and preparing a story-based lesson with appropriate teaching materials. Teachers with a creative approach can use children’s literature effectively as the context for an integrated skills EFL lesson. When choosing the right book, teachers should make sure that the story is:

• Is the material appropriate for the learning points to teach or skills to develop?

• adequately challenging. The story should not be too long or complex. Simple, short stories with repetitive language work best.

• Is the language comprehensible?

• not overloaded with new vocabulary. If novel-familiar vocabulary ratio is not fair, children may fail to comprehend and get frustrated.

• Is the language appropriately challenging? (slightly above the students’ present level / with a fair ratio of known and guessable items?) • Are the activities in line with age, needs, interests and background of the students? Are they likely to create interest?)

• attractive at first sight. Colorful illustrations helping to make meaning clear and pages with attractive layout and suitable type and spaces are likely to be encouraging.

• Are there illustrations/pictures/title(s) that support the text? How is the sound quality? Do the visuals support the audio/text?)

• engage children. Children would be enthusiastic to read about a story that they like.

• Is the material or text, affordable and easy to access? • Are unfamiliar cultural elements appropriate? Do the students have at least some experience with the topic? Some authentic language and activities that can be used with young learners in the classroom are children’s stories, cartoons, children’s programmes on television, websites and magazines for children, currencies, prices, sizes and dimensions, thematic lexis, fixed and semi-fixed expressions, imperatives, filling out forms, categorizing, projects and posters, arts and crafts and so forth. For more examples of authentic materials for young learners see Appendix 4.

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Once the right book has been found, the story can be shortened and simplified if needed. The teacher should also decide the teaching objective. After identifying what language or vocabulary to highlight in the lesson, the teacher develops types of activities that will be most valuable to the children and that fit their needs. The activities and materials used may be varied such as puppets, flash cards, slide shows, songs, drawing, craft activities, TPR activities, drama and role-play activities and so on. One final point of consideration for teachers is that the activities should be various to cater for the learning styles and multiple intelligences of children.

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Hands-on task See Appendix 5 for the story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. Work in groups to decide the language objective. Simplify the material if needed. Develop activities for different learners. Provide puppets or toys to demonstrate the flow of the story.

How about computer-based, multi-media materials? The developments in technology have brought innovation and new tools in language teaching. Computer- and web-based materials and resources can be utilized to present and practice language, to stimulate interest and to integrate sound, color and movement into the classroom. Websites for children, learning games, videos, multimedia packages that publishing houses offer are just a few to mention. Below is a task designed to reflect upon opportunities offered by computer-based technologies.

Hands-on tasks 3. Web sites for children, if appropriately selected and organized, can offer language learning experiences for young learners in a playful context. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using digital stories. 4. Refer to the list at the end of the chapter for resources for early introduction to EFL. Surf among the sites and look for activities (digital stories, songs, games etc.) that can be used. Discuss the language content and teachability of the activity.

How can teachers evaluate and choose textbooks? Tomlinson (2003, p. 15) defines materials evaluation as “a procedure that involves measuring the value (or potential value) of a set of learning materials”. Teachers should also know how to select the most appropriate coursebook for class use among the ever growing number of coursebooks on the market. Evaluation and selecting the right coursebook is highly important although assessing materials impressionistically may lead to superficial judgments and wrong choices. “Materials evaluation is essentially a matching process in which the needs and assumptions of a particular teaching-learning context are matched to the available solutions” (Hutchinson, 1987, p. 41). Teachers need to develop some criteria to ensure a good match and even pre-service teachers of English can evaluate coursebooks and propose alternative solutions to the problems identified (Arikan, 2009). The evaluation and selection of materials is worth the time and effort put to it. A wrong choice might cause waste of money and time, not to mention the frustration on the part of both the children and the teacher. A deeper evaluation of materials can help select the most appropriate coursebook among the available ones and identify any mismatches between what the coursebook offers and what a specific group of pupils need, thus what needs to be tailored. Even if a perfect book for everyone cannot be found, choosing the one that is most appropriate in a particular 42


learning situation can reduce problems during classroom implementation. The process of choosing the right book is not an easy task and the process might inherently be very superficial and subjective. There are a number of models and frameworks for assessing coursebooks and attempts can be made to carry out a more systematic and principled assessment. Below, approaches and criteria to be employed in the selection and evaluation of instructional materials will be reviewed. Rea-Dickins (1994) summarises three kinds of evaluation:

• pre-use evaluation which can be done prior to the use of a coursebook (for the purpose of checking the construct validity and the match with the needs)

• in-use evaluation • post-use evaluation, measured in terms of learners’ performance.

McDonough and Shaw’s (1993) two-stage model for coursebook evaluation is an apparently logical and practical framework for conducting a detailed analysis of a coursebook: the external (outside the core of the student’s book) evaluation which offers a brief ‘overview’ of the materials from the outside (cover, introduction, table of contents), which is then followed by a closer and more detailed internal evaluation’ (p. 66). Having externally evaluated the book and decided that it is potentially suitable as a coursebook, McDonough and Shaw’s model prescribes an in-depth internal evaluation of ‘at least two units (preferably more)’ (p. 75). It provides a greater perception of the book’s strengths and weaknesses, which enables the teacher to focus on the weak points and adapt or supplement them accordingly. Teachers spend much more time in the classroom, observing and practicing than anybody else in the field and they are supposed to know much about their learners. Undoubtedly, what teachers believe to be valuable and useful is important. In some cases, teachers have the last word regarding the selection of a coursebook for the program; in some other cases they may have some or very little influence on the selection of the textbook among the available ones. In both cases, they need to be provided with an outline to pick up the coursebooks, or the materials, that have the most potential benefit for the given students. With the increase in commercially produced language teaching materials, the need for a more systematic approach to materials evaluation emerged. Evaluation forms, mostly in the form of checklists, have been used to determine, or predict, the extent to which the materials fulfill suitability for use in particular teaching contexts. Checklists offer systematic and comprehensive evaluation and comparison. They are also cost and time effective. In this chapter, we offer a teacher-friendly materials evaluation checklist (see Appendix 1). The checklist offers a quick and handy evaluation of coursebooks. Several checklists are reviewed and integrated so as to ensure a wider coverage (Breen & Candlin, 1987; Cunningsworth, 1984; McDonough & Shaw, 1993; Tanner & Green 1998; Varela, 2003). Hopefully, it will

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serve a valuable tool for teachers and school administrators. For other checklists to evaluate and compare materials for young learners, refer to Halliwell (1992) and Varela (2003).

Discussion question 1. Discuss what features should be assessed while evaluating materials. Write in list form the areas to be assessed. Compare your list to the one in the suggestions below. • General Appearance • Layout and Design • Methodology • Appearance • Language Skills • Language content • Topic Content • Level and Activities • Supplementary Resources • Teachability and Flexibility • Assessment • Adequacy in terms of Ministry of Education requirements 2. For each area above, write at least two statements indicating level of agreement or disagreement, and then compare your list to the checklist provided in Appendix 1. So as to obtain a comprehensive view of what is happening in teaching English as a foreign language to young learners in different countries, the British Council conducted a survey titled “Worldwide Survey of Primary English” in 2004 which involved 42 countries (including Turkey). The survey revealed that teachers of young learners use various materials in their classrooms: original materials devised by themselves, lesson materials they adapt from several published sources, international published coursebooks, and local published coursebooks and so on. It appears that the creation of suitable materials is of primary importance. When English for young learners is newly introduced in an education system, international materials are often used. Then local authors and publishers take into action to produce more context-specific materials that cater for the needs of given learners. Most governments fund large scale textbook projects run by ministries of education. All these vigorous efforts are to meet the relatively new demand on teaching English to young learners.

materials currently in use or order to find out to what degree, how and why they facilitate the learning of language.

What are some useful links for teachers who work with young learners? Here are some of the hundreds of useful links for teachers of young learners for their professional development and resources for materials to be used with young learners. Thanks to the World Wide Web, teachers from all around the globe can access and share materials, experiences and suggestions. http://www.pumpkin.com http://englishstorytime.pbworks.com http://www.esl4kids.net/ http://www.eslkidstuff.com/ http://www.kindersite.org http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/ http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/ http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/kid_frame.html http://www.onestopenglish.com/ http://www.supersimplesongs.com/ http://www.mes-english.com/ http://www.english-4kids.com/ http://www.englishclub.com/young-learners/ http://eslcafe.com/search/Kids/index.html http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/ http://www.dltk-kids.com/ http://www.countryschool.com/ylsig2/ http://www.genkienglish.net/index.htm http://www.the-bus-stop.net/ http://www.teachchildrenesl.com/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/younglearners/

This chapter is concerned with what language teachers could do in order to improve the quality of materials used for the teaching of English to young learners in primary schools. The chapter also focuses on how to carry out systematic evaluation of 44


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Excellent

Good

Poor

COURSEBOOK EVALUATION CHECKLIST

Fair

APPENDIX 1

The topics are interesting and relevant for children. The content is graded in terms of difficulty. The content is free of material that might be offensive in terms of accepted community standards. The content serves as a window into the target language culture. The cultural aspects presented are significant and appropriate for children.

The cover is attractive.

First Impression

The illustrations are appealing for children. The illustrations are suitable for the cognitive development of children. successfully

convey

the

The layout is appropriate (densely cluttered pages, appropriate print, large margins etc.). The price is fair. The book contents and supplementary materials look fun and interesting to children. The units are well organized and offer easy progression.

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Content

Excellent

Good

There is a broad and diverse presentation of other cultures and countries. The content is up-to-date and accurate. The content is adaptable to students’ needs, interests and abilities. The content covers a wide range of activities and materials.

The cover and binding are durable.

The illustrations concepts.

Fair

Poor

Mark the scale to indicate your agreement or disagreement with each statement.

The vocabulary and language are significant and presented appropriately for the age group. The skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are integrated and practiced appropriately for children. There is constant revision of the vocabulary and structures learnt. The language is introduced in a meaningful context.

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Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor

The More The Merrier

What components make up the total course package? Circle any available. The teacher’s book gives useful and complete guidance. It offers extra activities (optional activities for various types of learners, photocopiable sheets etc.).

SB TB WB Cassettes CDs flashcards puppet videos software with multimedia website posters picture dictionary free tests graded readers photocopiable extra materials cut-outs

Your comments about the overall quality of the coursebook: • What are the outstanding features of the book? • What are the shortcomings of the book?

Learner Issues

Teacher & Learner Issues

The suggestions for the teacher are flexible and adaptable to a variety of student needs? The solutions to the activities and exercises are correct and clear. The book is part of a series, all of which are suitable for other levels in your school. The book covers the syllabus of the school to a sufficient extent. The coursebook meets the long-term and short-term goals specific to your learners. The activities focus on different ways in which students learn (various learning styles and multiple intelligences).

Assessment

The activities and tasks are appropriate for children in terms of context and level.

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The material provides adequate opportunities for learner assessment. The material provides periodical revisions for diagnostic purposes. The material offers various tasks that allow for portfolio assessment.


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APPENDIX 2 • Below is an activity from “Spot on” Grade 6. Supplement the activity for learners who need more practice.

APPENDIX 3 On the 1st and 3rd columns describe the animals in Sheet A. Cut the red lines and make windows. On the 2nd and 4th columns, insert pictures of animals in Sheet B. Stick them on top of each other. Read about the animal. Guess what that is. Then open window to check. Have fun! 

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APPENDIX 4

Lemon Lion Cupcake Recipe (imperatives)

Below are some sample authentic materials that can be used with young learners: Listen to the song and number the lines in the correct order. Sing along and circle and match pictures with lines of the lyric.

CLOSE YOUR EYES GO TO SLEEP ___ a. Just to guide you on your way, ___ b. Close your eyes, go to sleep ___ c. And the stars, in the sky ___ d. And the moon, up on high ___ e. Mr. Sandman is waiting ___ f. Will be twinkling for you ___ g. Shines his light on your pillow ___ h. With his basket full of dreams

(retrieved on September 8, 2011 at http://bussongs.com/songs/close_your_eyes_go_to_ sleep.php

(Retrieved on September 9, 2011 at http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/littlekids/lemonlion-cupcakes.html

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APPENDIX 5 Below is the story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. Read through the story, and devise activities for the story. Decide your learners’ age and level. You may need to simplify or shorten the story. At the end of the story, you will find some questions for reflection and suggestions for activities11aa.

Goldilocks and The Three Bears This is the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. Look! Here are the three bears. Father Bear is very big. Mother Bear is big. And Baby Bear is small. And here is their house. It is in a forest. The three bears like porridge. Every morning, Mother Bear makes porridge. This morning the porridge is very hot. “Let’s go for a walk,” says Father Bear. “We can eat the porridge later.” Here is Goldilocks. Goldilocks is not a good girl. She is a naughty girl. Goldilocks is walking in the forest. Look! She can smell the porridge. And she is hungry. Goldilocks sees the house and she climbs through the window. Now, Goldilocks is in the kitchen. She sees three bowls of porridge on the table. There is a very big bowl. There is a big bowl. And there is a small bowl. First, Goldilocks tries the very big bowl. “Ouch! This porridge is too hot,” she says. Next, Goldilocks tries the big bowl. “This porridge is too cold,” she says. Then, Goldilocks tries the small bowl. “Mmmm! This porridge is nice,” she says. And Goldilocks eats all Baby Bear’s porridge. Next, Goldilocks goes into the living room. She sees three chairs. First, Goldilocks sits on the very big chair. “I don’t like this chair. It’s too big,” she says. Next, Goldilocks sits on the big chair. “I don’t like this chair. It’s too big,” she says. Then, Goldilocks sits on the small chair. “I like this chair,” she says. But Baby Bear’s chair is not very strong. It breaks. “Oh dear!” says Goldilocks. Then, Goldilocks goes into the bedroom. She sees three beds. First, Goldilocks sits on the very big bed. “I don’t like this bed. It’s too hard,” she says. Next, Goldilocks sits on the big bed. “I don’t like this bed. It’s too soft,” she says. Then, Goldilocks sits on the small bed. “I like this bed,” she says. Look! Goldilocks is asleep now. 54


The three bears come home. They are very hungry. They go into the kitchen. Father Bear looks at his bowl of porridge. “Oh, no!” he says. Mother Bear looks at her bowl of porridge. “Oh, dear!” she says. Baby Bear looks at his bowl of porridge. “There is no porridge in my bowl!” he says. Father Bear is very angry. Mother Bear is angry too. And Baby Bear is very upset. “Let’s look in the living room,” says Father Bear. The three bears go into the living room. “Look!” says Father Bear. “There is porridge on my chair.” “Look! There is porridge on my chair too,” says Mother Bear. “Look! My chair is broken!” says Baby Bear. Father Bear is very angry. Mother Bear is angry too. And Baby Bear is very upset. “Let’s look into the bedroom,” says Father Bear. The three bears go into the bedroom. “Look! My bed is untidy,” says Father Bear. He is very angry. “Look! My bed is untidy too,” says Mother Bear. “Mum, dad look! There is a girl in my bed,” says Baby Bear. He is very shocked. They come and look at the girl. They are very angry. Father Bear opens his mouth and growls. “Rooarrrr!” Goldilocks wakes up. And she sees the three bears. Goldilocks screams. “Aaaaaaghh!” She jumps out of bed. She runs out of the bed. And she runs through the forest and far away. The three bears never see Goldilocks again. And Goldilocks is never naughty again.

Brainstorming and suggestions:

• The story involves enough repetitive language. What language can be

studied with the story? For which age group do you think this story is appropriate?

• How can you make it easier for your students to comprehend the story?

(Body language, demonstration, puppets or toys can be used to dramatize the story to make meaning clear. Beautiful color illustrations depicting scenes will definitely help. You can devise a craft activity in which learners color and cut out pictures of the bear family and a little girl. Then, they can stick them to straws and thus have puppets for the story. You can use puppets to act scenes out).

• Are there any vocabulary items that need to be simplified? (e.g. rather than using “porridge”, you can use “soup” which is probably familiar with the learners).

• If you need to shorten the story, which parts can be eliminated? (how about one of the repeated patterns?)

• What kind of activities can be conducted about the story? (e.g. drawing,

coloring, matching, TPR, puzzles, flashcards. You can even write simple play script depicting scenes from the story. Your students would be thrilled to act scenes out).

Materials

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Lesson Planning H. Sezgi Saraç

Planning a lesson: Why do teachers need it? Each class should have a design in its own since a class is the core of the whole education, curriculum and teaching/learning process. Just as the building blocks of a construction, a class time ranging from fort-five to sixty minutes constitutes one block of the complete structure. Teachers need to design such classes that each of them should be interconnected with the other classes, the sources used and the curriculum. For professional teachers, prior lesson planning is not optional since it is the indispensible part of language instruction and it is the decision making process on what and how they are going to teach. Otherwise, teachers who do not establish their objectives and activities beforehand will find themselves captured by the coursebook in a mechanical way or improvising classes deprived of material, timing and purposive concerns (Pearse, 2000). Even though flexibility and improvisation are crucial aspects of classroom teaching, students can easily distinguish between an unplanned and planned teacher, which identifies their level of interest and respect towards the subject matter. Novice teachers usually prefer detailed instructional plans designed prior to the lessons; nevertheless, as time passes, the experience gathered in the profession enables practitioners to have less detailed written designs functioning as reminders, and the rest of the plan resides in the teacher’s mind. Until gaining sufficient experience in teaching, detailed prior plans of teaching provide relief and assurance for teachers. Lesson plans are not pre-structured or restrictive rules of a class time but a guidance leading practitioners all through the lesson. The aim of this chapter to inform the readers on how to write lesson plans for the teaching of English language.

Preliminary Questions Before reading the chapter, go over the questions below and state your ideas related to them. 1. What is a lesson plan? 2. Why do we need lesson plans? 3. What are the points a teacher needs to take into consideration before planning a lesson? Think about it: 4. What should be the How much time do you allocate as a teacher to stages of a lesson take the attendance of a class of 20 students? plan? 1 minute? 56


5 minutes?

15 minutes?

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Things to do before planning a lesson Pre-Planning A number of crucial factors are to be taken into consideration before starting to plan a lesson. Some of these factors are namely; the students’ level of language proficiency, their learning needs, educational and cultural background, their types of motivation and their probable learning styles (Harmer, 2001). A teacher needs to observe and collect data on the target group of learners’ personal needs and preferences of language learning and of achievement level as well as their previous learning experiences. In addition to the knowledge on learners, a practitioner is to tailor the lesson plan content in accordance to the previous classes, syllabus and the curriculum.

Coursebook exploration and evaluation If you as the class teacher or the institution you work for have chosen a coursebook to follow, the first issue to accomplish is to explore the coursebook content. However, if you do not have an adequate textbook selected for your learners, then the planning processes is more involved. The teachers should review different teaching materials and sources to bring together before planning the syllabus and lesson plans. This way or the other, a teacher needs to explore the content of a source or sources, which will lead them to the coursebook or material exploration stage. Actually, what the coursebook suggests can guide the teachers; nevertheless, it is a material published for national or international market of mass education, not specifically for the group of learners that you teach: One size definitely does not fit all! Even though teachers appreciate the key role of coursebooks in giving direction and continuity to language learning, they prefer substituting some items with other ones which are more relevant for the students they teach (Senior, 2006). Therefore, the first stage in planning is the evaluation of teaching material, identifying its strengths and weaknesses by taking into consideration the learners you teach. The class size, students’ learning needs and the teaching goals you target to achieve will guide you during the exploration and evaluation process. After identifying the coursebook content and its aim, it is possible to make modifications related with it. As it is acknowledged by Doff (1988), the teaching material may focus on a particular topic for the purpose of vocabulary Think about it: teaching; such as, learning the names - Do you know the coursebooks used in of colors or practicing the lexical items primary education in Turkey? to buy clothes. The focal point may - What do you think about these books? also be a particular structure; namely, describing actions in the present progressive aspect. Last but not least, the content might be targeting the practice of a specific skill or of integrated skills. Have a look at the example coursebook activity below and discuss what the aim seems to be: 58


Material Adaptation and Development After discovering the content and nature of materials, it is time for teachers to adapt them in line with “practical realities” (Harmer, 1991). The logistics of classroom in which practitioners give the language instruction; such as, Think about it: - After exploring the activity above, discuss in what way or ways you would make changes in it or have additions to it. • student population, • existence or nonexistence of technological devices, • time allocation, • seating arrangement and alike identify the practical reality of the instructional settings. In a language class of thirty students, teachers may prefer adapting their individual work materials, and may turn them into pair or group work activities. Besides, in crowded classes again, individual hand-outs can be shared via a transparency on the overhead projector, if there is one in the classroom. Depending on the knowledge of classroom and its logistics, teachers either adapt, which is making slight changes, or develop new materials in order to respond their learners’ language needs. Taking into consideration the skill or language aspect the Lesson Planning

59

learners need to improve more, practitioners may • rearrange the sequence of applications suggested in the coursebook, • adapt the content of some of activities and/or • change one or more applications with others. One definition of teaching might be the manipulation of instructional materials for the sake of fulfilling target group of learners’ needs and interests. The more you redesign and restructure the material you have in hand, the more you attain purposeful teaching. Think about it: - What are the -practical realities- of state schools in Turkey? - What kind of teaching materials would be more beneficial for students in Turkish state schools?

Explore the activity below prepared for the 5th graders. Discuss what kinds of adaptations you would suggest to turn it into both a group work and an infogap activity.

Writing a Lesson Plan Teachers usually experiment with different styles and content of lesson planning. Even though the variations are plenty in lesson plan organization, there happens to be an agreement on the essential parts of planning among teachers. When teachers find the format that suits well with their instructional style and preferences, they keep on using it with minimal changes. Within a lesson plan, you can find the information on the target language, group of learners, materials used and time span allocated for each application. The plans also report to the reader on aims, objectives and the procedural plan.

Section of description Having a close look at the materials selected and completing the adaptation procedure, a teacher identifies the goal and objectives of a lesson plan, which is the framework of a class hour of teaching. However, while writing the lesson plan, before starting with the goal and objectives, teachers provide the related descriptions of context in detail. Teachers prefer including such an initial section as they write lesson plans for managerial reasons as well; such as informing a substitute teacher before taking the class over or a supervisor coming to class to observe (CelceMurcia, 1991). The content of this section may include any type of information on the instruction, students and setting. Some of the items that can be included in the section are as follows: a. Grade / School b. Date c. Name of instructor d. Students: Demographics, learner characteristics, etc. e. Duration of lesson: The time allocated for teaching. f. Learners’ background knowledge: The previous course material the students reviewed. g. Teaching materials and aids: The instructional materials to be used; namely, the coursebook, CD player, OHP, etc.

Goal(s) A goal describes the overall purpose of a lesson to be accomplished by the end of the class time. It can be stated in general terms but provides a framework of reference for the design of activities and procedure. A lesson may include one or more goals depending on learner variables and instructional concerns. The Think about it: samples of goals are given as Review the list of items in the description follows: section. What other items would you like to include in the list and why? 60


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Students will read and write a personal letter. Students will ask and answer questions about what they like and dislike. Students will talk about their future plans. Students will give and ask for information on quantities and numbers.

Students will give simple descriptions of people.

Think about it: Have a look at the extract from the content page of a coursebook for young learners of English. Discuss what could be the goal or goals of such a unit.

• distinguishing between literal and implied meanings, and/or • taking notes to outline the text. If the objectives are stated in the same sequence of pre-planned in-class applications, they provide an illustration of a mini lesson plan with steps, stages and procedure. A teacher may accomplish one objective at a time and go on with the following one until the class is over. In order to form an objective, the teacher selects and brings together the related in-class activities. If an application is comprehensive enough, it can be described in one objective. However, usually two or more different applications enable the practitioner to achieve an objective. These applications can be from the same coursebook or might be a compilation of different sources at the end of a material exploration procedure and by keeping in mind the specific group of learners’ language learning needs. While deciding upon lesson objectives, the practitioner needs to predetermine what s/he targets to accomplish in a class hour. Besides, these objectives should follow such a sequence that they maintain unity and coherence for a purposeful and well flowing class. As illustrated in the suggested activities taken from the coursebook below, learners get involved in three different applications to set sentences and describe occupations in the English language:

Adapted from Bates-Treloar, F. and Thompson, S. (2007, p. iv), Start with English B: Pupil’s Book. Ankara: Nüans Publishing.

Objectives Objectives are explicit statements on what the teacher aims to achieve in each stage of the lesson. A goal may describe the overall aim of a class, but objectives are in detail and procedural descriptions of how to achieve the goal/s. Therefore, objectives describe the learning outcomes expected at the end of each class time. The overall aim of a class might be to improve the listening skill; nevertheless, the objectives of such a class can be: • identifying the gist of the spoken text, 62


Adapted from Herrera, M. and Pinkley, D. (2005, pp.50, 51), Backpack 2. New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

Applying these three activities of warm-up, simultaneous listening and reading and finally speaking, the teacher aims at enabling learners describe people’s occupations. Therefore, the objective of these applications can be stated as:

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By the end of the class, the learners will be able to describe people’s occupations by setting spoken sentences. Think about it: Think about it: What are the stages of teaching a skill-based class? What are the stages of a grammar class? While writing objectives, it is highly recommended that teachers avoid using vague statements such as ‘learn’, ‘do’ or ‘understand’ (Brown, 2001). Since the learning outcome described in an objective is supposed to be observable and measurable, the language used to write an objective should be specific enough (Wiseman, et al., 2002). Instead of using unverifiable statements, prefer setting such statements that you can confirm their realization. As in the example objective suggested above, the success of such an objective may easily be observed if learners can come up with their own sentences to describe occupations.

natural connection between the Think about it: objectives determined and the What other key words would you add to sequence of activities planned for each category in the table above? application. Therefore, it is better to Some keywords can be included in more start with easier tasks and process than one category. What are these towards the harder ones. It is also keywords? suggested that practitioners have quiet activities before the lively ones because of the classroom management concerns. What is more, practitioners aim to achieve smooth and easy transitions among different applications and end the class with a positive note in order to enable the learners leave the class with the sense of achievement (Ur, 1996). Explore the activities below. What do you think should be the sequence of application of these activities?

The taxonomy suggested by Bloom, et al. (1956), which is over fifty years old now, suggest a working framework of cognition levels which can be made use of while writing objectives. These levels of cognition are categorized in six groups of ‘knowledge’, ‘comprehension’, ‘application’, ‘analysis’, ‘synthesis’ and ‘evaluation’. The key verbs of each category can help practitioners write appropriate objectives: Evaluation Synthesis

Evaluate

Analysis

Summarize

Criticize

Application

Categorize

Argue

Prove

Comprehension

Predict

Analyze

Organize

Support

Knowledge

Describe

Explain

Compare

Conclude

Confirm

Choose

Explain

Choose

Contrast

Combine

Assess

Define

Discuss

Perform

Distinguish

Create

Support

List

Summarize

Interpret

Infer

Reorganize

Determine

Match

Express

Order

Question

Synthesize

Defend

Name

Identify

Relate

Conclude

Underline

Outline

Prepare

Label

Classify

Write

Activity book. Berkshire: Express Publishing.

Now, write the objective for the in-class activities above:

Repeat

Since a lesson is composed of parts of applicational units, each objective indicates one section of a whole class time. Depending on what a teacher wants to achieve, the number and sequence of objectives are identified. There is supposed to be a 64

Adapted from Gray, E. (2001, pp.17, 19). The express picture dictionary for young learners:


By the end of the class, the learners will be able to …………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………….....................................

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Examine the activity given below and decide what other activities you would add before and/or after it.

introduced to the learners. In the Practice stage, learners are involved in usually guided language exercises, and then in the Production stage, learners take part in free or open-ended activities by using the target language item or items. In a more detailed format of teaching the language item, the usage is introduced in the Familialization stage: the teacher usually opens up a conversation using the target structure. In the Presentation stage, the item is illustrated in a written or oral text for learners’ self-discovery of pattern or usage. The following stages are devoted to application in a staged structure, which are Controlled, Guided and Free practice. In Controlled practice, learners’ possible language productions are ‘controlled’. Learners usually select from multiple answers to identify the correct usage; for example, they take part in: • multiple choice questions, • fill-in-the-blank exercises, • drills, • reading aloud, • dictation, • sequencing a dialogue/text given in jumbled order, • role play demonstration. In Guided practice, learners are ‘guided’ to use the target structure. The students do not come up with their own complete language productions yet, but they use the structure in a limited setting: • completing sentences,

Bates-Treloar, F. and Thompson, S. (2007, p. 13).

Now, write the objective for the series of activities you suggested for the previous application.

• writing the missing parts of speech or phrases, • suggesting an end for a paragraph, • adding a line to a poem, • suggesting a title for a paragraph.

By the end the class, the learners will be able to ....…………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………….....................................

In Free practice stage, learners create language productions on their own. Even though Guided and Controlled activities aim ‘accuracy’ via limited language outputs by learners, Free practice activities are more expanded with a focus on ‘fluency’. Some of the example in-class applications for Free practice are:

Sequencing the activities: Procedure

• simulation,

Determining the goals and objectives, the teacher decides on the sequence of activities as well. Within a lesson plan, the interrelated organization and planning of a class-time is reflected in the procedure part. The practitioner explains each stage of a lesson in detail under the title ‘procedure’. Depending upon the aim of a class, which might be the teaching of skills, vocabulary or grammar, the sequencing is determined.

• interview,

In a traditional language class, the sequence of activities is based upon: PresentationPractice- Production (PPP). In the Presentation stage, the new language item is

• conversation,

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• problem solving, • paragraph/composition writing, • drama, • discussion, • games.

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Think about it: Read the procedure taken from a lesson plan and decide if it is a ‘controlled’, ‘guided’ or ‘free’ activity. Procedure: Students work in pairs and they receive two copies of the same letter with some missing parts (the missing parts include the target structure). To create info-gap, the missing parts in each letter are different. When a student reads the letter, the other student writes the missing sentences in his/her letter. Finally, the completed letters are checked by reading out the original letter once . Now, suggest descriptions of procedure for the stages other than the one applied above. For the teaching of skills, practitioners usually follow Pre-, While-, Post- stages of application. Especially for the teaching of listening and reading skills, this threestaged cycle of applications are preferred in designing the lesson procedure. Prereading or Pre-listening stages enable the teacher to present the content, activate learners’ prior knowledge and pre-teach active vocabulary. During While-reading/ listening, learners work on the written or audio text for comprehension. In the Post stage, the teacher applies a follow-up which usually targets the integration of skills via practicing a different skill with the same content. For the teaching of speaking skill, the initial stages of procedure are usually devoted to ‘controlled’ language practice which is followed by ‘freer’ practice stages. For vocabulary teaching, different teaching techniques are sequenced for the teaching of different items which are graded from easy to difficult, simple to complex and concrete to abstract. For lessons designed in line with task-based approach, teachers usually prefer to follow the sequence of Pre-task activities, The task cycle, The language focus, and a Follow-up task. While deciding upon lesson sequencing, one of the main constraints is ‘timing’. The teacher needs to make decisions on timing by taking into account the learner variables; such as, language proficiency level, motivation, classroom population and so on. It is required for practitioners to estimate how much time an activity will take and to allocate a time span accordingly.

Review the stages below and decide how much time you would allocate for each stage if you applied it in a class of fifteen students and why? Stage

Procedure

Time

Prereading

The teacher introduces five vocabulary items (canoeing, drowning, life-jacket, life guard , compass) via visuals and realia .

_______ mins.

Students complete six paragraphs with six sentences given in hand-outs.

_______ mins.

Lead in

Whilereading

Learners brainstorm on what they do on ‘holidays’.

Students read and match six pictures with the paragraphs in the text.

_______ mins.

_______ mins.

Think about it: What kind of a post-reading activity would you suggest for the procedural plan given above? How much time would you allocate for the post-reading stage? While applying a pre-planned lesson in the classroom, the practitioners are often advised to be -flexible-. No matter how well the class procedure is designed, there might be unexpected results or reactions that might be obtained during the application phase. In such a case, it is required to take action; such as changing the sequence of applications, adapting the content of applications accordingly and/or changing the time span devoted for activities. In each lesson plan, a contingency plan section needs to be included so that the teacher can change an activity that does not work with the contingency one. Besides, if there happens to be extra time left in a class hour, the teacher will apply that contingency plan so that s/he can make the most of class time.

Lesson plan format The teacher can design lesson plans which are; • vertical or • horizontal in format. In addition, the explanations included in plans may be provided in: • full sentences or in • phrases. If a practitioner wants to make sure of the instructions to be used during the class, s/he can include them in the lesson plans as well. Besides, for the sake of being

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specific, the procedure stage might be written in: • sample dialogues between the teacher and students; otherwise, the descriptions stated in

Examine the sample lesson plan and the suggested materials given below and identify the aim of the lesson: Date:05.04.2012 Grade: 7th School: Ata Primary School Materials:Visuals, Coursebook.

What is a teacher supposed to do before preparing a lesson plan?

Instructor: Senem Özkul Students: 25 students with high motivation but easily distracted. They are very keen on pair and group work. Duration: 45 minutes. Learners’ background knowledge: They read and spoke on daily habits and different personality types: introverts and extroverts.

What are the items you are required to include in a lesson plan?

Aim: ………………………………………………………………………………………….

• sentences or only in phrases are sufficient. Among various ways of designing lesson plans, the teacher selects the one which is more practical and useful. Remember:

Which items do you think the most important ones in a lesson plan? Which items might be optional in a lesson plan?

Objectives: By the end of lesson, learners will be able to deduce information from a listening text to describe a person in distinct written sentences and by giving reasons. describe their own habits, likes and dislikes in a written paragraph. Procedure: a. Lead-in and warm up: The teacher starts a conversation on free-time activities and pre-teaches vocabulary by using visuals. The vocabulary items to teach are: trekking, playing cards, cycling, scuba diving and motor racing.

3 mins.

b. Speaking and brainstorming: The learners make guesses on what the main character likes doing in her free time and set spoken sentences on activities by giving reasons.

2 mins.

c. Listening and note-taking: The learners listen to a text and take notes on activities of like/dislike and the related reasons. They listen to the text for two times.

5 mins.

d. Writing and speaking: The learners write complete sentences on what the main character likes and dislikes doing by stating the reasons as well. Later, they work in pairs first and then as a whole group to check their statements.

10 mins.

e. Outlining and speaking: The students create an outline on their habits, routines, likes and dislikes. Then, they work in pairs and compare their outlines.

10 mins.

f. Free writing: The students write one or two paragraphs on their habits, routines, likes and dislikes.

10 mins.

g. Concluding: The teacher let some students read their productions and reviews the target vocabulary and expressions to conclude.

5 mins.

Contingency Plan: The students write three or four sentences about their habits, likes and dislikes on different pieces of paper and fold them. A learner picks one folded slip of paper, reads the sentences and the whole class tries to guess the writer of sentences. 70


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Think about it: Within the lesson plan, there exist two instructional objectives but seven steps in the procedure. Discuss and identify which steps belong to the first and second objectives. The coursebook materials used in the lesson plan are given in jumbled order below. Find the applications that are covered in each procedural step.

Think about it: You can design the sample lesson plan by using the procedure used for the teaching of writing: pre-, while- and post-. In addition, the procedure: ‘controlled’, ‘guided’ and ‘free’ writing can be also used. Choose one of the alternative procedures, decide which applications can be included in that procedure and redesign the plan accordingly.

Tasks for further study 1. Write an objective for the in-class activity given below. Materials:

A big enough picture showing various numbers of things that are happening in a street.

Procedure:

Show the picture only for one or two minutes, then hide it and ask learners to write down as many sentences as they can remember. Check students’ productions with the picture. The activity is done as a group competition on which group can remember the most activities (Ur, 2006).

Objective:

…………………………………………………………………………

2. Suggest procedures for the objectives given below. By the end of the class, the learners will be able to draw and describe an animal. By the end of the class, the learners will be able to give and follow instructions stated in imperatives that are in the written and spoken form. By the end of the class, the learners will be able to list and explain the rules in their homes and school. 3. Design a lesson plan which aims the teaching of coursebook materials given below. You can adapt the materials suggested or add different materials depending on the lesson aim you identified. Adapted from Arıkan, A., et. al (2011). English Break: A2. Ankara: Gündüz Yayıncılık.

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Theme-Based Teaching: Environmental Education Esim Gürsoy In this chapter, theme-based teaching and the integration of environmental issues to young learner language classroom will be discussed. The section will provide information about organizing language lessons around some environmental issues. Considering the characteristics of child learners and their cognitive abilities, some tips will be given to make language lessons interesting. Preliminary questions 1. Do you think that children are or can be interested in environmental problems such as global warming, air pollution, endangered animals, recycling … etc.? 2. Do children have developed cognitive abilities to understand complicated concepts related to the environment? 3. Why is it important to use environmental issues as part of language lessons?

Theme-based teaching Theme-based teaching, also referred to as topic-based teaching, refers to designing a lesson by organizing it around a topic (Moon, 2000). In theme-based teaching, the teacher’s aim is not to teach the whole topic in every detail but to help the learner use the topic to learn the certain aspects of the language (Bourke, 2006). In other words, the theme becomes the context of the language learning material.

Adapted from Arıkan, A., et. al (2011). English Break: A2. Ankara: Gündüz.

Theme-based learning has several advantages: First, the use of appropriate topics would attract children’s interest. This focused attention creates a need to use and comprehend the foreign language being learned (Gürsoy, 2010). Topics and themes provide meaningful contexts for learning a foreign language by giving children a concrete setting for learning. Moreover, meaningful contexts enable the use of different skills and discourse types (Yang, 2009). Providing a concrete reason for children to learn a foreign language at the primary level is challenging for teachers. Children do not have a need to learn English as they can perfectly communicate in their mother tongue. So, language learning in a classroom environment is nothing but an obligation for children as they do not know why they are learning it. Of course, most of them may hear from their parents or older siblings that it is important to learn English, but as opposed to ESL environments, learning English is not an immediate need that they can relate to. Learning the formal rules of the new language is challenging and meaningless for children as the rules are abstract and children up to the age of 11 cannot develop understanding of the abstract. According to Piaget, the period of formal operations is the final stage of cognitive developmental stages and children move to this

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final stage around age 11. Therefore, it is necessary for every foreign language teacher (and every parent alike) to give young learners a reason to learn a foreign language. As children do not have realistic future plans, reasons should be given within the ‘here and now’ principle. Short term objectives can affect the classroom environment positively and motivate students by creating a desire to learn. Thus, providing students with interesting topics, games, and projects would give them opportunities for meaningful language use. Children love dealing with themes. Theme-based teaching helps children associate their own life experiences with a specific topic (Scott & Ytreberg, 1990). When children’s learning is supported with children’s previous knowledge and experience, it becomes easier for children to learn the new information by connecting the past knowledge with the newer one. This goes hand in hand with the principle that children’s learn materials and processes should move from the known to the unknown and from the concrete to the more abstract (Moon, 2000). In theme-based teaching, content and language knowledge are integrated by taking children’s ways of learning into consideration. Thus, theme-based teaching; 1. involves students with concrete activities during which they focus on meaning, 2. includes activities that trigger the use of multi-sensory approach by helping children gain first hand experiences, 3. stimulates the desire for communication and socialization (Moon, 2000). Discussion questions Which theme (topic) given in each pair is more suitable for young learners’ interests and expectation. Explain your reasons by giving specific developmental reasons. 3

1 employment

the type of music I like

my father’s job

the songs I like 4

2 education

colors

schools

sounds

Cameron (2001) argues that theme-based learning helps children’s vocabulary learning positively. Theme-based teaching supports the learning process by enabling children in linking certain vocabulary items, structures, and/ or situations via the theme selected. Such an activity helps the storage and retrieval of information (Scott & Ytreberg, 1990). Finally, during the detailed exploration of a topic (Scott & Ytreberg, 1990) children develop ideas, emotions, and awareness related to it (Gursoy, 2010). Dealing with certain themes also helps the development of critical thinking skills. In theme-based teaching, the lesson is organized with the use of different types of activities that are linked to each other. This type of organization is called activity-based learning, which is perfectly appropriate with children’s 76


characteristics, and their cognitive and social development. The benefit of planning the lesson around a theme with activities is twofold: 1. Children have opportunity to “learn and practice language, concepts, and skills” (Moon, 2000, p. 119), 2. L2 is used in a meaningful and purposeful way (ibid.). Cameron (2001) also argues that theme-based teaching suits children’s natural way of learning. Therefore, in many primary schools, language learning is usually organized around themes to facilitate children’s comprehension. Examination of any ESL/EFL coursebook will show us that the units are always categorized under certain topics such as family members, school, pets, seasons, toys, clothes, and many others. Themes that are chosen according to the “here and now” principle and that are interesting help children create a map of related issues in their minds. They help to activate their schema by organizing their knowledge around the same topic. Theme-based teaching is meaning-focused rather than form-focused. Hence, children learn the language without being aware of it through a process that is similar to their first language acquisition. When using theme-based teaching, the teacher accomplishes two goals: content goal and language goal. Children not only learn some information about a topic but learn the language meaningfully and purposefully for communication. A recent study conducted with primary school children in Turkey by Alptekin, Erçetin, and Bayyurt (2007) showed that children who received a themed-based syllabus outperformed the others who followed the Turkish Ministry of National Education’s regular curriculum for fourth grades. The success of theme-based teaching on language outcomes and content outcomes brings a responsibility to the teachers in the selection of the themes. In addition to the topics that are relevant to the children’s lives, topics that also help developing their social awareness and critical thinking skills must be chosen for children’s social, cognitive, and emotional development. Issues related to the global problems such us poverty, violence, human rights, environmental issues such as pollution and overpopulation are important themes that may help creating awareness. Due to children’s cognitive abilities, not all topics may appropriate to be used in primary schools (i.e. domestic violence, hate-crimes, brutal fights). However, as children grow older, these topics can also be integrated into the curriculum little by little and without making the classroom a scene of horror, disgust, and hatred. Environmental problems are one of the global issues that can be used in the primary school because of two main reasons. First, these problems are already known or at least heard by these students (schema theory). Second, these themes can be made more concrete with visuals, cartoons, videos, and games and by simplifying the concepts so that they are appropriate for children’s level of cognitive and conceptual development. In most cases, environmental education starts at secondary school as a part of science and biology lessons. However, some researchers argue that an early onset for environmental education is more beneficial, thus it should start at primary school (Erten 2004; Şimşekli, 2004). Owing to the fact that attitudes, behaviors, and value Theme-based Teaching

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judgments start developing during childhood (Gürsoy, 2010), students’ awareness in environmental issues such as human and animal rights, pollution, drought, global warming, forest degradation, and recycling can be developed through the use of appropriate lesson plans. Children can learn about and experience these issues the result of which can be learning to protect our environment by reducing our waste, reusing and recycling them, planting and saving the trees, saving energy, and being active citizens who project their opinions on such matters openly and responsibly.

Environmental education Discussion - Should environmental problems be a concern for language teachers or should we leave this to science teachers? - How responsible do you feel yourself about environmental issues? - What do you do to minimize the negative consequences of our environmental problems? Environmental problems that we are experiencing today are not the concern of a single country or a certain group of people. We suffer from the results of these problems globally. Solutions to these problems lie behind environmental awareness which is developed through environmental education. According to Pooley and O’Connor (2000) the aim of environmental education programs is to change the learners’ behaviors by increasing their knowledge about the environment and environmental problems. In its broader sense these programs start by creating an awareness on the issues, help learners make change their behaviors, and finally, take action in solving these problems (Erten, 2004; Simsekli, 2004). According to UNESCO-UNEP (1976, cited in Goatly, 2000, p. 256) environmental education has six objectives identified by the United Nations; 1. Awareness of environmental problems. 2. Basic understanding of the environment and its problems and human beings’ role in relation to the environment. 3. Attitude of concern for environmental problems. 4. Skills in overcoming environmental problems. 5. Ability to evaluate proposed solutions to environmental problems. 6. Participation in solving environmental problems. As can be seen from the objectives, the first step of environmental education starts with creating awareness and develops step by step to participating in the solutions. To this end, starting environmental education at younger ages is even more important to help children become aware of these problems as early as possible. The lessons designed concretely with the help of activities, projects, videos, and visuals not only help the development of awareness but also help children develop

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understanding and concern. Moreover, classroom projects are valuable to take action in these issues. Arikan (2009), by pointing at Freire’s (1999, cited in Arikan, 2009) ‘critical pedagogy,’ argues that the relationship between school and society needs to be re-built. Freire’s (ibid.) ‘critical pedagogy’ is a reaction to traditional classrooms in which the teacher is the center of the teaching-learning process (Arikan, 2009). However, the newer approaches to language teaching and learning put the learner in the center of the process by giving them the responsibility to learn. During this change of focus from teacher to learner, focus on the form also shifted towards focus on the meaning. Contextualization in language learning became prominent more than form focused learning. Contextualized language learning enables the learners to “interact, share ideas, develop social and language skills, and gain social and language awareness” (Gursoy, 2011, p.47). In this perspective theme-based teaching becomes a valuable tool for language educators as it helps contextualization. In other words, the context of the language input can be conceptualized as a socially responsible activity within which students practice the language. Environmental education as one of the many topics of Global Issues in Language Education (GILE) which aims to “enable students effectively acquire a foreign language while empowering them with the knowledge skills and commitment required by world citizens to solve global problems” (Cates, 1990, p.41). The objective of GILE fits in the definition of socially responsible teaching (SRT) such as peace education and human rights education. According to Arikan (2009), “socially responsible teaching assumes that students are active agents who have power to solve our social and ecological problems if they are encouraged to focus on such issues” (p. 89). SRT encourages the development of critical thinking skills by helping individuals to think about and take action in global problems such as the environment. Integration of environmental issues can be considered as an SRT which is and should be the responsibility of all teachers regardless of their teaching field. However, the teaching of environmental issues has been considered as the responsibility of science teachers and lessons (Sağlam & Gürsoy, 2010). With the use of theme-based teaching topics related to the environmental problems can be used to contextualize language learning, help children gain awareness on global issues, develop critical thinking skills, enhance vocabulary acquisition, support meaningful learning, and give children a reason for using English. Discussion What can be some ways to make topics of environmental issues attractive to children? (Consider children’s characteristics).

Integrating environmental issues to the language classroom For students to pay attention to environmental issues they need to be attractive and presented in a concrete way via pictures, cartoons, videos, games, puppets.


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Hands on activities, problem-solving activities, displays, and projects are also great ways to engage students. Children are visual, kinesthetic, imaginative, creative, and talkative. If the activities enable the children to use these characteristics, it is no doubt that the learning outcomes will be higher. You can use many of the environmental topics and simplify their instruction to children’s age and language level. Some of these topics are; • Planting (making our environment healthy and beautiful) • Protecting animals ▶ street animals, ▶ animals in the shelters, ▶ endangered animals • Energy saving (home and school) • Recycling

In addition to brainstorming about the do’s of energy saving, don’ts could also be added to the map. After completing the initial stage of topic work several activities can be done depending on the teacher’s linguistic goal. It is always very important that you select and use activities that are interesting for children and that have clear teaching goals and learning outcomes. Moon (2000) lists the characteristics of a good language learning activity;

• Global warming • Water pollution ▶ sea life ▶ drinking water • Air pollution After selecting a topic it is best to start with graphic organizers to activate schema, and learn about students’ expectations. One of the graphic organizers that can be used is KWL charts. These charts are filled in together with the classroom on the board and they can be used before and after starting the topic work. Let’s say that our topic is street animals, here are some things that students might say while filling in the KWL chart below. Before the application

After the application

What do I know?

What do I want to know?

What did I learn?

St1. They live in the streets.

St.4. How can I help them?

St.7. I can leave some water in the summer.

St.2. They eat garbage.

St. 5. How can I feed them?

St.8. I don’t throw food in the garbage. I give them to street animals.

St.3. They don’t have a home. …..

St.6. How can I protect them? …..

St.9. I can adopt one of them and keep him or her home. I will have a new friend!

- has clear language-teaching goal - has a clear and meaningful goal or purpose for learners - has a clear outcome(s) for the learners - involves learners in work or activity which requires the use of the L2 - facilitates language learning (p. 88) It is crucial that the activities selected involve students rather than just occupy them. The sequencing of the activities is as important as their selection. When sequencing the teacher should pay attention that they are moving from easy to difficult, concrete to abstract, known to unknown, and receptive to productive. In the following section you will find some activities that can be used with children. Prepare a lesson Choose an environmental topic, identify your content and language objectives, select skills that you will focus on and organize a lesson around your theme. Think about how you will introduce the topic and take students’ attention. Consider your learners’ linguistic and cognitive capabilities.

Another way to start topic work might be via semantic maps. Children and teacher brainstorm about what they know about the topic. As they generate ideas teacher puts them on the board by showing connections. Here is an example about energy saving; 80



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2. Linked activities: Recycling 1. Video activity: Air pollution and global warming

ȤȤ Start the lesson with a video on air pollution and global warming, ex: http:// www.climatechangeeducation.org/videos/youtube/home_sweet.html

ȤȤ Brainstorm on the video with the students. Ask them what they see, what the video/cartoon is about such as: “Is the world happy or un happy? Why does the world cough? What happened then? Is the world happy now? Why?

ȤȤ Relate the topic to students’ lives so that they can make a connection with

� Step 1: Enter the classroom with a plastic bottle half full of water and a candy bar in your hand. Without saying anything, drink the water and throw the bottle on the floor. Then, eat the candy bar throw away its plastic/ paper cover. Open your bag, take a newspaper, look at the title and throw away. Do similar actions with things that you can bring in the classroom. You can also use students’ possessions (as well as yours) to show how serious the problem may be. � After you are finished with these non-environmental actions ask children how the class looks like (dirty/clean) and if they like or dislike it. You can generate more questions depending on the students’ linguistic knowledge such as “Did I do a good thing?” or “Am I a good person?” � Then ask “What can I do?” When they say “throw them in the garbage” you can talk about recycling. � Put the visual material given here about recycling on the wall. Ask whether they recognize it.

what they know and what they are about to learn. Ask questions such as: “Do you like flowers and trees?; Do you have flowers at home?; Do you like walking/playing in the forest/park?; Do you throw garbage on the street or keep them? etc…

ȤȤ Give examples of your own and ask for examples from your students. For

example: “I like green. I like trees and flowers. I have got many flowers at home. I have got beautiful trees in the garden. I like reading a book under a tree. In summer, it is very cool under a tree. I plant trees with TEMA. Do you know TEMA? I walk to school every morning. I don’t drive my car. Sometimes I take the bus. I recycle. Do you recycle? I don’t throw my garbage on the streets etc.

ȤȤ Ask some critical thinking questions. Provide students with the key vocabulary. Ask questions such as: What happens if we cut trees? What happens if we drive cars? What happens if we don’t walk? etc…

ȤȤ Start making a semantic map as you talk along.

� Step 2: Show a video on recycling. Ex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l WQlFk0PLAI&feature=related . (You can find more videos at the end of the chapter.) � Talk about the 3 R’s (reduce-reuse-recycle). � Step 3: Initiate a classroom project! Start recycling in the classroom …. � Divide the classroom into four groups. Ask each group to bring in a big box and green, blue, yellow and white paper. � Tell each group to cover their box with one of the colored papers. And write either “glass, plastic, paper, or metal” on the boxes. Select a place for your boxes and start recycling. � Note: The project could be done school-wide with the cooperation of other classes.

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3. Project work: Energy saving !

4. Project Work: Global warming!

Language Skills: Speaking, Writing

Language Skills: Speaking, Reading, Writing

� Tell students to observe their family’s energy use at home. You can give them a table or prepare one all together. They should be able to note down their family’s habits in energy use. Do they leave some lights on although they do not need it? Do they use energy saving light bulbs? � Ask students to report their observations in the classroom. Then, tell them to draw/take pictures of do’s and don’ts of energy saving and paste them on appropriate places at home.

� Initiate a school project that aims to increase awareness on global warming. After the preparatory work in the classroom divide the class into groups of four. � Tell each group to prepare a slogan to hang on the school corridors. � After the groups decide on their slogans they write them in fancy ways to take attention, including visuals and post them on the walls. Give a home to birds and bees! Plant trees!

� Tell them to prepare a chart indicating the times that the tap/lights etc. left on/off, the electronic devices unplugged, family members using the shower or the bath. After a week of observation ask them about the results of their energy saving project. 03.09.2012 04.09.2012 Tap

XXX

XX

Lights

XXXX

X

05.09.2012 06.09.2012 07.09.2012 08.09.2012

Electronic XX Devices shower

Note: This can be done in the classroom orally with the help of Language Experience Approach. The teacher asks students their experiences and writes them on the board. Later on, the discussion and the writing can be used to help students write their reports. At the end, the children will decide whether their families have become energy-conscious or not.

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5. Activity: Plant a flower and observe its growth Language Skills: Speaking, Writing � Divide students into groups and tell them to bring in pots, dirt, and seeds to plant a flower. � First of all, by using appropriate teacher language show students how to plant a flower. Than step by step give instructions (commands) to children to plant their seeds. This process is valuable for students listening comprehension as well as exposure to meaningful input. Ex: Put the dirt in the pot. Put the seed on the dirt Add some more dirt on the seed. Water the seed. Put the pots in front of the window etc…. � Then help students make their plant book by folding two A4 sheets/ cardboards and stapling them. � Tell each group to give a name to their book. Ex: My plant book/ My beautiful flower /My Observation Book… � Tell students to spare a sheet to write their observations of their plant every other week. � After the flowers bloom talk about how they feel about it, whether they like their classroom or not, etc… Note: You can, later on, plant these flowers on your school yard.

Discussion questions 1. Why do you think it is a teacher’s job to implement socially responsible teaching (SRT) to their classroom? 2. How does the integration of environmental topics help children’s cognitive development? 3. Do you think that children can develop appropriate behavior for the environment with the activities done in the English classroom? 4. Are children capable of taking action in protecting the environment?

Autonomy Simla Course There has been a growing interest in learner autonomy in the last decades. Although there are different approaches regarding learner autonomy, there is a consensus that learner autonomy is “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” (Holec as cited in Benson, 2009, p. 17). Advocates of learner autonomy propose that language learners are not empty vessels to be filled in by the teachers, but active beings who make sense out of what they learn in relation to their worlds (Reinders, 2010). This premise suggests that people, as active agents of their lives, are capable of, and indeed in need of, making sense of their learning and being in charge of it. In this chapter too, the stance that is adopted is that people are already autonomous beings in their interaction with their environment. Therefore, learner autonomy is not a skill that teachers will need to teach from scratch, but is an ability that the learners already exercise in different areas of their lives and that teachers need to foster in educational settings. To get a deeper understanding of what learner autonomy is and how to foster it, we should take a look at autonomous learners. Autonomous learners are those who are capable of and willing to reflect on their own learning needs, strengths and weaknesses; of setting learning goals; deciding which path to follow to achieve these goals; and, as an essential component of learner autonomy, monitoring and evaluating their own progress (Benson, 2011; Sinclair, 2009). That is, they should be in control of all aspects of and pay conscious attention to the process of their learning (Little, 1999). As Sinclair puts it, “learner autonomy consists of the ability to make informed decisions about one’s own learning” (2009, p. 184). Such a shift in the roles of learners and teachers can be a daunting and intimidating task. In traditional educational settings, it is the teacher’s responsibility, together with the policy makers, to decide on all the aspects mentioned above. The teacher decides what she expects the learners to achieve, which specific goals and objectives, in which lesson, through the use of which materials and activities. The teacher is also the authority to decide who has achieved how much. In a classroom where learner autonomy is fostered, however, these decisions are made by the learners, in collaboration with the teacher. Therefore, in learner autonomy, contrary to misconception, learners do not work in isolation and teachers are not redundant. Unsurprisingly, teachers are as vital in autonomous language learning as in traditional language classrooms. As it is remarked above, all learners are autonomous beings. However, anyone with some experience at school, either as a teacher or as a student, can provide firsthand accounts that not every student is autonomous. In other words, the inherent autonomy does not necessarily translate into formal educational settings. While one learner decides that she should learn names of the neighbouring countries in

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the target language (L2), or reflects that she needs to read faster in L2, another learner can be quite content with the lack of such vocabulary or reading at a slower speed. Not all learners are going to be willing and ready to assume all responsibility of their learning in a formal educational setting. So how do we foster learner autonomy? How do we mobilize the need and curiosity to learn, that is already present in human beings? One way to do this is to look at the relationship between autonomy and motivation. Autonomous learning is a self-sustaining, continuous act and understanding why and how some learners choose to be actively involved in their learning will provide an insight on how we can help our learners be more autonomous. To do this, we need to look at why some learners are motivated to take responsibility of their learning. Discussion Please discuss the following questions with a colleague. 1. What motivates infants to learn to talk and to walk? 2. Why do people of all ages learn to use new technology such as computers, smart phones, DVD players and so on every day. Studies on motivation suggest that people are motivated to learn a skill or a set of knowledge due to its inherent value in the learners’ lives. Please consider a baby learning to walk. He will not need his parents to convince him that walking will be “good for him”. Nor will he require rewards to take his first steps. He will do so because he has places to get to and because he needs to be able to interact with the world. We keep learning new skills and information in every stage of our lives. We do so in order to be competent in our surroundings. Yet it seems that when we are in a classroom we are often in need of being reminded of the inherent value of learning that specific subject or of engaging in a specific activity. In school education, language teachers often find themselves in a position where they have to convince learners of the value of learning that language. Although it is not uncommon to find teachers dealing with this through promise of a better life, as Ushioda (1996) suggests, such remote rewards have the risk of fading away unless stages of learning generates meaningful relationship with the learner’s life and the learner can drive a sense of enjoyment and achievement from it. In addition, when learners are motivated to receive external rewards, such as stickers, praise, gifts, or even grades, they are more concerned with the reward than learning, which suggests that they will not take risks in learning a language but will stick to what they know the best in order to receive that reward (Lamb, 2009). However, we would like the learners to take risks, try to get their meaning across, notice the gaps in their L2 knowledge and pay conscious effort to make up for those gaps. It is well established now that it is important for the language learners to notice gaps between their existing L2 knowledge and the knowledge required to complete tasks in L2 (Hedge, 2000). It is in this process of noticing that the learners will see what is missing in their interlanguage, and what they need to focus on and

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learn to cope with a similar situation. In short, we would like our learners to be consciously paying effort to learning that language, reflect on what they need to learn and keep working towards their goals. Research shows that learners are motivated to do these when learning is interesting, enjoyable, and when the skill or knowledge learned has an inherent meaning in the learners’ lives (Ushioda, 1996). Such motivation is referred to as intrinsic motivation. People are intrinsically motivated when they see the value of what is learned in their lives, i.e. when they can relate to learning in a meaningful way (Ushioda, 1996). Although motivation is not sufficient for autonomous learning, it is necessary to initiate taking responsibility of learning. As argued above, when learners see learning as making them competent beings, they are more motivated to learn (Ushioda, 1996). In a language classroom this means communication in L2. Communicating with speakers of that language can help the learners see what they can do using L2 and this will help them feel more competent in their relationship with the world. Thus, providing genuine opportunities for the learners to communicate with each other, with the teacher and with other speakers of the target language using L2 is essential in increasing motivation as well as fostering learner autonomy (Little, Ridley, & Ushioda 2002; Ushioda, 1996). Such opportunities will help the learners to see that learning a language is not just learning grammar or memorising extensive vocabulary lists; but that using a language they can actually communicate with real people. Therefore, L2 should be used as a means to communicate rather than as an end in itself, i.e. a subject of study (Ushioda, 1996). Authentic materials are beneficial in creating a sense of competence through genuine communication (Ushioda, 1996). They can help learners see that using L2, they can actually be included in the communication intended for the actual speakers of that language. They will also help the learners have a sense of achievement, which is important to increase and sustain motivation. Another important point in motivation is that when people feel that their actions are not imposed by an external agent but that they have control over their actions, they are more willing to be engaged in that task (Benson, 2011). In a language classroom this entails involving the learners in decision making process of the course. For example including the learners in selecting, organising the materials or tasks to be used in the course, will not only give the learners a sense of control, but also will help relate the classroom procedures to the learners’ lives. Issue of control over one’s learning is an indispensable aspect of autonomy and perhaps one of the most challenging aspects for both the learners and teachers, where the traditional roles need to be altered. Involving learners in decision making process of selecting materials and tasks will be explored in more detail in the next section.

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Discussion Please discuss the following questions with a colleague. 1. In your context, who is in charge of making decisions for teaching/ learning L2? 2. To what extent are the following involved in making decisions for teaching/ learning L2? a. Learners? b. Parents? c. The teacher? d. The school administration? e. The ministry of education? f. A centralised exam system? You might find that the answers to the questions, to the left, are more complicated than it seems at first sight. In a language classroom in formal education settings, the answer is probably all of the above. Traditionally it is the policy making institutions like the ministry of education or the school administration that are in charge of setting goals and objectives in a macro level while the teacher is in charge of implementing these in a micro level, i.e. classroom setting. To foster learner autonomy, however, there is a need to involve the learners in every step of this process. It is essential that learners have control over their own learning. As Little et al., remark, “being in control of one’s own actions and responsible for their outcomes is a prerequisite for self-fulfilment” (2002, p. 15). Being in control of one’s own learning requires being in charge of setting goals for their learning (very often within the constraints of overall goals set by policy makers), being in charge of selecting, ordering and/or designing one’s own materials and tasks to best aid achieving the previously set goals; and continuously reflecting on and assessing the learning process and outcomes. One common misconception about learner autonomy is that giving control to learners means leaving the learners alone to learn on their own. In an autonomous classroom, the teacher does not wash her hands off teaching, she is the one that teaches. However, the learners take the responsibility of their learning. To this end, it is important that the teacher is explicit about the overall goals of the course from the beginning and works with the learners to help them set their own individual goals depending on their own needs, weaknesses and strengths. She encourages and helps the learners to work both inside and outside the classroom to achieve their goals. Besides, she is willing to hand in the control over learning process by involving the learners in selection of such aspects as materials and tasks when they are ready to assume this control; and from the start, she works toward helping the learners to assume such control. Although it is the stand taken here that all learners have a capacity for autonomous behaviour, it is also acknowledged that learners can find taking the responsibility of 90


their own learning intimidating and the likelihood of making mistakes disheartening (Little et al., 2002, p. 15). Moving away from the security of their old roles as learners, where they are familiar with what is expected of them, can be a frustrating experience (Porto, 2007). It is important, therefore, that the teacher first of all bears this in mind and does not expect a miraculous transformation from day one, but provides constant guidance, keeps the channels of communication about the learners’ experiences open throughout the process, and is able to adapt classroom procedures according to the learners’ needs. It is also acknowledged that the range of autonomous behaviour will be dependent on the learners’ characteristics. Learners’ age, proficiency level, and past experiences will play an essential role in how ready they will be to assume control in setting their own goals and in planning their learning around them. In such cases, the teacher will have to provide more guidance in the process. One way to do this is providing a variety of options for the learners to choose from at the beginning. Giving options can help the learners assume responsibility and take control gradually until they reach a stage where they will feel more confident and competent to take control themselves and plan their own learning (Little et al., 2002). As suggested above, it is the teacher’s job to raise learners’ awareness on what they are expected to achieve within the overall learning goals and objectives set by the curriculum and policy makers. Being explicit about the overall goals and objectives of the course, i.e. what the learners are expected to achieve in that course, will not only give control of the learning process to the learners, but will help them see what they are expected to achieve in a specific time frame and help manage their own learning (Little et al., 2002). In the absence of such a policy, where learning is regulated solely by the learners’ needs, the teacher is in charge of guiding and facilitating the learners, as an expert, on how to achieve what they set out to achieve. In addition, in both cases, the teacher will need to help the learners set a course of action and facilitate evaluation of their progress. In an autonomous classroom, the teacher is still the expert in L2 and learning it. The learners will need to make use of her expertise. Asking the students to set their own goals can still sound as a daunting task to some language teachers. To start with, the learners can be prompted to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, needs and priorities. However, learners do not always have the metacognitive knowledge to express their strengths and weaknesses in depth (Reinders, 2010). Indeed some learners may be aware that they have to work on, say, their reading skills but may not be able to voice what exactly they need to improve in their reading. Similarly, some learners can set unrealistic goals for themselves not taking their current capabilities, time and context limitations into consideration (Cotterall, 2000). Therefore, the teachers will need to act as mentors and help the students in this process through direct communication and negotiation to clarify and raise their awareness on what exactly it is that they would like to improve and to work on. Doing needs analysis can be beneficial at this stage. It can be a good investment of time to develop a needs analysis questionnaire or simply Autonomy

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adopt or adapt one from a wide selection that is available to language teachers, which can guide the teacher in providing options to her learners and help raise metacognitive awareness of their learners (Reinders, 2010). Having set their goals, the students should take action to achieve these goals through homework, projects or in-class tasks. This means being in control of selecting and creating the resources to achieve these goals and consciously working to achieve them. For example, a group of learners who decide to work on offering and responding to apologies in L2 can collect authentic samples of spoken and written language; or a group of learners working on reading for the gist can bring in and/or produce written texts themselves. As the students start working actively to achieve their goals, the teacher will need to keep working as a facilitator and counsellor. However, if the learners find selecting or creating their own materials and tasks challenging to start with, the teacher may need to direct them to resources initially, until the learners feel more confident, or can provide options. For, example as Miller (2009) remarks, after setting a task for the whole class, asking the learners to set their own goals for that specific task is an option. Cotterall (2000) reports a study where in addition to setting their individual goals for a common task, the learners were asked to reflect on their performances upon completion of the task to support goal setting and reflection practice. Miller also suggests that, for example, in a writing task where a teacher asks the students to write ‘love letters’, encouraging the learners to decide who they will write their letters to, e.g. a sibling, an aunt, etc. will help give more control to the learners; so will asking the learners to consider their own goals in a reading task and deciding whether to read, for example, for “complete comprehension versus general understanding” (2009, p. 114). The teacher should also make use of “regular whole-class planning and evaluation” to help learners develop a sense of direction and progress (Little et al., 2002, p. 18). Thus, it is important to devote regular sessions to class discussion of what has been achieved by the learners, individuals and group, and decide on what to focus on next. Of course, the degree of control handed to the learners depends on the context and learners. For example, Smith (2003) asked his learners, university students learning English, to decide on classroom activities. Based on their decisions, the students formed groups and started working on different tasks designed by themselves such as writing poetry, transcribing, watching and discussing movies, reading, free conversation, and so on. While initially evaluation of the learning progress was directed by the teacher to a great extent, in time, evaluation was undertaken by the group members themselves. Similarly, Smith (2003) was more involved in planning the activities initially but in time, as he realised that the learners were capable of planning, he handed the control of these to the learners. Porto (2007), on the other hand, had more control over classroom procedures as a teacher and asked her learners to choose activities from a variety of options as the “learners had never before engaged in any form of autonomous learning” (p. 673). The learners could withdraw from any activity, were given activities to practice out of class and, were free to select a topic to talk about before each lesson (Porto, 2007). Both 92


these studies report very different levels of learner control. What they both have in common, though, is an increase in such control. It is up to the teacher to see initially to what extent the learners are ready to assume control and consider other contextual factors. Dam uses logbooks to help the learners take control of their learning (2009). They record their goals, in form of learning contracts, the work they undertake to achieve these goals, everything that goes on in the classroom and evaluation of their work in their logbooks (Dam, 2009). In her language classrooms over the years, learners were responsible for deciding their own homework, classroom activities and small projects. All this work was shaped around the goals that the learners had set for themselves and recorded in their individual logbooks. She reports that logbooks not only help the learners evaluate their own progress, a key feature of learner autonomy, but also help the teacher see individual learners’ progress in achieving these goals and provide further support for them (Dam, 2009). Logbooks are useful in learners’ self-evaluation helping them see what they intended to achieve, how they went about it and what they achieved. They are not, however, the only means for self-evaluation. Another commonly used tool is the European Language Portfolio (ELP). Little provides detailed accounts of using ELP to foster learner and teacher autonomy through self-evaluation and planning. (Little, 2009; Little et al., 2002). Similarly, Gonzales reports that ELP not only helped the learners to self-evaluate but also increased their metacognitive knowledge (2009). Another important point in Dam’s studies is the use of L2 in the classroom. L2 is used by and encouraged to be used by the teacher for both oral and written communication (2009). Therefore, both the logbooks and the feedback provided by the teacher are written in L2. In Dam’s studies logbooks include: • personal aims and objectives within the overall curricular guidelines and objectives; • plans and the carrying out of these plans in the daily work in class; • what has been learned and achieved and how; • individual homework, according to the aims and goals set up; and • an evaluation of the work undertaken (Dam, 2009, p. 133) The use of L2 as the medium of all communication in the classroom clearly can be challenging for learners of different ages and proficiency levels, particularly for young learners and beginner level learners. Having worked with young learners for a long time, Dam remarks that initial stages of logbooks while working with young learners can be a mixture of L2 and L1 (2009). However, as the teacher insists of using, and encourages the use of L2 by the learners, the language used in logbooks in later stages shift to L2. The role of using L2 in increasing a sense of competence and motivation is already discussed in the previous section. Also, as Little et al., remark, using L2, the teacher scaffolds the language to be learned (2002). Besides scaffolding, teacher’s use of L2 also helps the learners to think and talk about their Autonomy

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learning process using that language, which as will be discussed in the next section, constitutes an internal dialogue, an essential aspect for learning (Little et al., 2002). To have classroom full of students working for their own objectives can sound cacophonic and unrealistic at first. However, collaboration with students and the teacher is a key aspect in fostering learner autonomy. Besides, in a classroom where the learners share similar proficiency levels and overall goals of learning, they are likely to have short-term goals that are relevant to each other. A group of your beginner learners, for example, might decide that they would like to learn 15 high frequency words. Learners sharing this goal can work together and build on their initial 15 words. Regular class discussions, presentations, posters will provide the whole class with an extensive list of vocabulary items from these students. It is also possible to have a class discussion and select certain words to present to whole class to keep each other informed and promote collaboration (Dam as cited in Benson, 2011). Collaboration will also enable better learners to provide support for weaker learners. Dam (2009) reports how better learners were able to not only provide help to their weaker project partners, but also prioritise the needs of their weaker peers. Making use of posters, peer-teaching and presentations as well as class discussions evaluating the tasks/ activities used by different learners, will also enable the learners to know where they are with regard to other learners and will add to the repertoire of the class as a whole (Dam, 2009; Little, 2009). Having control over one’s learning calls for the teacher working together with the learners, and for the learners working with each other. Learner autonomy, therefore, is a product of collaboration, as will be discussed in section 4. Discussion Please discuss the following questions with a colleague. 1. Please remember how you learned to a. cook b. address a stranger asking directions in your native language. 2. Please remember how infants acquire L1. What is the role of caregiver speech?

We all learn through interaction. Those who learned cooking from an older parent, sibling, or friend were interacting with others. They observed, imitated, and probably asked questions. Those who learned it from a cookbook did not learn in isolation from others either. They interacted with and found answers to their questions through a written medium, the cookbook, which was written by a person with similar interests. In short, we all collaborate with others while learning. According to Vygotsky, we learn as a result of reflection and reflection is the product of “an internal dialogue between the self and the ‘me’, between the individual and the member of society” (Riley 2009, p. 45). As fostering learner autonomy demands reflection, to achieve this, collaboration between learners, where they will replicate this internal dialogue with their peers, is of great value (Little et al., 2002). Vygotsky also argued that it is through the guidance of a parent, adult, or a more capable peer that the children move beyond their current capabilities and learn to solve problems that they cannot on their own (Little et al., 2002). He called the distance between the current capabilities of a child and his potential capabilities under the guidance of a more capable peer, the zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Little et al., 2002, p.12). To support learning, a more capable peer provides support regarding the problem or task at hand until the learner is capable of performing that task on his own, at which point the capable peer withdraws the support. This is very often referred to as “scaffolding” (Little et al., 2002, p. 12). In an autonomous language classroom, it is the teacher that will provide scaffolding. She will do so through her L2 use as well as her role as the expert in L2 providing guidance to the learners on every aspect of their learning, from planning to evaluating their learning. Please remember your answers to the questions at the beginning of this section. When you learned to cook, say pasta, you probably had questions regarding the timing, order of actions, etc., and you probably imitated, followed, and sought further support, e.g. asking a friend or parent or checking the recipe again, until you felt confident you could cook on your own. Similarly, when children learn to talk, they are given constant support by adults or more capable peers through repetition, slow speech, intonation, and so on. What these suggest for a language classroom is that collaboration will provide reflection on learning through negotiation between the teacher and the learners and will provide scaffolding. Student-student interaction will provide input that is close to the learners’ current capability, which is an important aspect of ZPD. Please remember the caregiver speech. The caregiver speech is much simpler than adults’ speaking to each other, since the child’s limited current capabilities play a role on how much he can learn in that instance from the adult. The merits of student-student interaction for providing scaffolding have been debated for a long time. We should remember that there are studies suggesting student-student interaction does not always provide rich enough input required to improve L2, however, at the same time bear in mind that student collaboration is crucial in providing opportunities for the learners to reflect on their learning

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through interaction with other learners. It is also critical in providing opportunities for the learners to use the target language for genuine communication. It is through genuine communication that the learners can reflect on their learning, seeing what they can and cannot do with L2, and what they need to work on to be able to close that gap. Students asked to inform another student on what they did the day before, are more likely to notice the grammatical and lexical gaps regarding past structures in their interlanguage, compared to, for example, when they are asked to put a group of words in correct order to make a grammatically accurate sentence. In the former case, there will be a genuine need for them to use past structures. It is this need that will draw their attention to these lexical and grammatical structures and will facilitate using them in communication. Student collaboration also provides opportunities for the learners to acquire the metacognitive awareness they need for learning. Dam’s studies show that student collaboration raises their awareness in their own learning process, which is what Vygotsky suggests as internal dialogue (Dam, 2009). Please have a look at the example below, between two beginner learners of Turkish, giving directions to each other to go home from school. In this example, A’s gap in his interlanguage to produce the possessive suffix in Turkish leads both learners to move away from the message and talk about the language structure. A: Sağa dön. Benim ev orada. B: Uh, benim ev, evim? A: Evim? Ev... B: Evim, erm, my house (pointing to self). Besides, genuine communication will help the learners develop a sense of competence, which is important in motivation, as argued above (Benson, 2011). It is important to remember that language is learned through use. Learners will need to be given an abundance of opportunities to practice language taking on different roles, “initiating as well as responding” in communication (Little, 2009, p. 153). Adopting different roles and having many opportunities to communicate, student collaboration will also increase strategy use (Benson, 2011), which will be discussed below. Discussion Please discuss the following questions with a colleague. 1. Which strategies do you use while reading in L2? 2. Which strategies do you use to learn vocabulary? 3. Which strategies do you use to manage your learning? 4. Which strategies do you use when you cannot remember a word while engaged in a conversation? Recent research looked at what good language learners do to answer the question of how to learn/ teach a language effectively. The strategies good language learners use provided insight into which strategies should be made available to weaker learners. 96


Language learning strategies are “specific plans or steps – either observable, such as taking notes or seeking out a conversation partner, or unobservable, such as mentally analysing a word – that L2 learners intentionally employ to improve reception, storage, retention, and retrieval of information” (Oxford, 2003, p. 81). Learners use strategies to improve language learning, to cope with communication when their interlanguage is not quite enough to cope with the situation at hand, to cope with the affective and motivational aspect of language learning, or to plan and organise their learning (Gao, 2010; Griffiths, 2008; Hedge, 2000). These strategies are often classified into groups that include cognitive, metacognitive, communication, and socio-effective strategies (Gao, 2010; Hedge, 2000; McDonough, 1999). Socio-effective strategies deal with the motivational and emotional aspect of language learning. Cognitive strategies are those that are used to deal with the information, language or task presented. These include a wide variety of processes usually determined by the skill or task that the learner faces. These strategies include guessing the meaning from the context, making use of the pictures, illustrations and context surrounding the text (written or spoken), making written or mental notes, paraphrasing, summarising, forming expectations about the text, forming visual representations of the words, skimming, and scanning, among many others (Hedge, 2000; McDonough, 1995). Communication strategies are those that a learner uses when his interlanguage is not enough to express his meaning (Hedge, 2000). These include circumlocution, appealing for help, switching to L1, using body language, restructuring, and reduction among others. It is possible to help the learners use these strategies by teaching them the structures they can use for appealing for help, e.g. “How do you say... What do you call a person who...” (Hedge, 2000, p. 53). Teachers can choose to give explicit training on language learning strategies or raise awareness of the learners on their own strategy use and possible other strategies available to them. Regardless of which approach they take, such training will help improve language learning. Cohen’s study reports that strategy training improves task performance (1999). Nunan, Lai, & Keobke (1999), on the other hand, suggest that when used together with reflection, strategy training fosters learner autonomy. Learners involved in their study reported that they used a wider variety of listening materials, set more relevant learning goals for specific materials and a better identification of listening problems and strategies to be used to deal with these problems (Nunan et al., 1999). These findings suggest that making learners more aware of their strategy use and the strategies available to them are vital in fostering learner autonomy. Besides the strategies used to deal with the task at hand, it is also important to raise learners’ awareness of the strategies to plan their own learning, i.e. metacognitive strategies. Metacognitive strategies “deal with pre-assessment and pre-planning, on-line planning and evaluation, and post-evaluation of language learning activities, and language use events” (Cohen, 1999, p. 62). In becoming autonomous, it is essential to reflect on one’s learning and set a course of action, as has been argued above on many occasions. Therefore, it is beneficial to provide an awareness of Autonomy

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these strategies in a language classroom if we want learners to be able to have the tools to reflect on their learning and select the strategies to use from a collection available to them. For example, asking students to bring in newspapers and short stories to compare the way they read classified ads and short stories; or giving them a text devoid of any visual aids, titles and asking them to compare reading it with a text with the usual visual aids present will help raise learners’ awareness on how different texts are read employing different strategies. As well as raising learners’ awareness on strategy use and their own learning, it is also important that the teachers raise student awareness on how the mechanics of the language works by providing explicit awareness raising activities or explicit language instruction on language patterns (Sinclair, 2010). This will develop the metacognitive knowledge needed to talk about their learning and about the language. As reviewed in the previous section, talking and thinking about the process of learning is valuable for learning, as Vygotsky argued. Sinclair remarks that it is important that the learners are aware of what they are doing or expected to do, how and why it is important for their learning. It is also important to provide the learners with explicit instruction on the patterns in L2 to foster learner autonomy. It is possible to provide language patterns, i.e. grammatical or lexical patterns, and ask the learners to hypothesise when these patterns are used, or to provide input in L2 and ask the learners to find the patterns in that input (Sinclair, 2010). Since autonomous learners are those engaged in their learning beyond the confinement of language classroom, and are capable of directing their own learning, self-access centres are beneficial in providing the learners with the resources to be used in their learning. As Benson remarks, “a self-access centre can be broadly defined as a purpose-designed facility in which learning resources are made directly available to learners” (2011, p. 128). The resources in a self-access centre can include audio and video recordings, books, other printed materials, and computers, software designed for language learning. Bearing in mind the value of real communication and authentic materials in fostering learner autonomy, in the absence of such facilities like a room to be allocated for this use, computers, TVs, video-audio recorders, it is also possible to develop a resources centre or a corner in the classroom by simply collecting resources in time. In the experience of the author asking the students to contribute to this collection will also include them in materials selection and creation and will increase the collection in volume as well as resulting in an increase in learner motivation and collaboration Information technologies such as computer-assisted language learning (CALL), computer mediated communication for language learning (CMCL) are widely used in teaching and learning a language. CALL offers software designed to facilitate language learning. The students can be involved in tasks where they can practice L2 and evaluate themselves. Such software clearly offers resources for the learners to work on in their own time and pace. Where CALL is not readily available to learners or teachers, the Internet is widely used to provide means for genuine communication. Dias (2000) accounts a study where the learners were asked to use information and communication strategies including, the internet and e-mail exchange, in learning 98


language functions. The participants in this study spoke English more often than their peers as they used these technologies to complete tasks, which they then had to report to their peers. Where, technology is available to the learners, it is often used in language classes to provide opportunities for the learners to engage in meaningful communication and to encourage collaboration (Warschauer, Shetzer, & Meloni 2000). One common method is ‘tandem learning’ (Benson, 2011, 131), where two individual learners or two groups of learners use the target language to exchange information. Recently, communication technologies such as e-mails or video-conferencing are being used to facilitate tandem learning (Warschauer et al., 2000). Regular exchange of e-mails with speakers of the target language on specific themes can be motivating as well as providing genuine communication. Deciding on the themes collaboratively will also increase student control. Using the Internet to complete tasks by collecting information, i.e. WebQuests, student publishing through blogs, journals, student collaboration through, for example, discussion lists are also among the uses of communication and information technologies use to foster autonomy. Software such as concordances are also available to access authentic language for meaningful input.

Since fostering learner autonomy requires teachers to negotiate with the learners to help them set goals for, plan and evaluate their learning, the teachers themselves need to be autonomous in their own practice (Benson, 2011). However, as Nakata (2001) suggests, teacher autonomy is not a necessary precondition for fostering learner autonomy (2011). Teachers also should have a “readiness” to help learners become autonomous (p. 901). We need to remember that autonomy is a pre-requisite to self-fulfilment, therefore, people have a need to be autonomous in their actions (Little, 2009). For teaching, this would entail having the freedom and control on one’s own practice, to be able to promote learner control. Teachers need to consider at this point to what extent they will need to negotiate with their colleagues, the institution they work in, and sometimes parents and learners for such control. Although it is not uncommon to Autonomy

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find a sense of resignation from the teachers saying they do not have control over their own teaching practices and that the control is held by the institution they work in, in most cases, as Benson (2011) remarks, such control can be useful to serve as a benchmark in teaching. Please remember that some students will be more ready to assume autonomy of their learning while some will be more inclined to attribute all control and outcome of their learning to the teacher. One student in Lamb’s (2009) study, for example, remarks that she would be more successful if the teacher was more encouraging. Interestingly, similar mindset can also be present among teachers, or surprisingly even among teacher trainees that an encouraging curriculum, the principal, colleagues, and/or course books; or more responsible learners are pre-requisite to develop more professionally, or to foster learner autonomy. We need to remember that the teachers, much like the learners themselves, will need to operate within the framework of the educational settings they work in to develop professionally and to foster learner autonomy. This suggests that they will need to find ways of doing this within the context they teach. When faced with constraints from the educational settings, as Benson argues, teachers can respond in different ways.

identification of an area of improvement, planning and a new course of action based on the results. Therefore, it is cyclical in nature:

(McNiff, 1988, p. 22)

Depending on the context, the learners, and the teacher- researcher, these cycles are likely to expand or multiply (McNiff, 1988).

There are no pre-set rules to foster learner autonomy, as remarked above, but different learners with different characteristics, such as age, educational background, needs, goals, will call for different approaches. To be well-equipped for such diversity, the teachers will need to develop continuously. Just as learners need to reflect on their learning, teachers will need to reflect on their teaching. To do so, teachers often use action research, which will be discussed below. As maintained above, it is not uncommon for the teachers to feel disempowered in their practice of teaching. Action research is used commonly as a means for promoting teacher autonomy. It is based on the principle of empowering practitioners to produce theory and practical knowledge and of drawing on this new knowledge to improve practice (Reason & Bradbury, 2001). Therefore, in educational settings, action research is an ongoing process to improve teaching and learning (Macintyre, 2000). Please discuss the following questions with a colleague. 1. Should teachers do research? Why/ Why not? 2. Suggest possible stages of research designed to improve teaching. 3. Please remember that teaching and learning are not done in isolation. Who would a teacher doing action research need to collaborate with? At what stage of research?

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Action research typically starts with identifying a problem in the teaching/learning process, whereby the teacher-researcher plans a change to solve the problem or to improve teaching practice. Following the planning phase, the teacher-researcher implements the plan and reflects on the outcomes of that course of action. It is common that such reflection will give rise to further

(McNiff, 1988, p. 44)

Just as learner autonomy requires collaboration, teacher autonomy and action research too requires collaboration with the colleagues. Besides, the teacherresearcher should reflect on the current practice, identify what she needs to improve in the teaching / learning process, much like the reflection stage in learner autonomy. The next step of setting a course of action and evaluating, reflecting on the outcomes of this course are also common stages with learner autonomy. To carry out such evaluation the teacher will need to take a closer look at the specific aspect that she set out to improve and to be able to do this, she will need to evaluate the change implemented. Vieira (2007) suggests keeping teacher journals in the process to help evaluation. Other instruments such as questionnaires, interviews, student logs, portfolios, achievement tests, among many others, are also available

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for evaluation, depending on the nature of the problem and the change implemented. We need to remember that learning, formal or informal, exists in every stage of our lives. We are predisposed to learning to be able to function effectively in our interactions with others and with the world. In teaching a foreign language, it is this need to be competent that we need to mobilise. By providing genuine communication opportunities, providing tasks that relate to the learners’ lives, giving them a sense of enjoyment and achievement in learning, we can motivate learners to be more actively engaged in their learning. Motivated learners will be more inclined to carry on learning both inside and outside the classroom. However, to ensure a self-sustaining learning, we also need to foster autonomous behaviour, which is also present in every individual at varying degrees. Autonomous learners reflect on their strengths, weaknesses, and the progress of their learning. They are capable of setting goals and working towards these goals. They will be willing to work collaboratively with others to facilitate their learning and will not be afraid to take risks. An essential component of fostering learner autonomy, then, is giving more control to learners. To be able to do this, language teachers will find themselves in a position where they have to negotiate with the policy makers, colleagues and stakeholders, such as parents and learners, as they move away from the traditional classroom. They will also have to be very clear and explicit about the overall aims and goals of the curriculum, within which the learners can plan their own learning.

autonomy. Language learning software and the Internet, as well as audio and video recordings will give valuable prospects for communication, collaboration, planning and reflection/evaluation. In the absence of such technologies and physical constraints to use these, the teachers can develop self-access facilities in time by collecting resources and offering an open access to these. To be able to meet the demands of fostering learner autonomy, the teachers themselves, will need to be autonomous. Although teacher autonomy requires freedom over the process of teaching, in contexts where the teacher is bound by the curriculum or an exam system, she can use these as overall goals and operate within them. Similar to learner autonomy, teacher autonomy requires reflection on the process of teaching, setting goals, collaboration and evaluation of the process. Action research is a beneficial tool in promoting teacher autonomy as it facilitates reflection, taking action and evaluation. Helping learners become more autonomous in language learning is by no means an easy process. The teacher will need to adopt additional roles besides teaching. However, autonomous learning is the goal of all teaching as we would like the learners to keep learning beyond the allocated hours in classrooms and relate what is learned to their lives if we want learners to be independent, empowered individuals.

While some learners can be more ready to assume such control, some others can be more inclined to stay within the safety of traditional roles where they are told what they need to produce when and how. Also, a change in roles can cause frustration if the learners are not clear about the aim of the change and what the new roles entail for them. Therefore, fostering learner autonomy is a gradual process where the control is handed to the learners as they grow to be more ready for it. In addition, it is crucial that the teachers act as mentors, facilitators, and guides and negotiate with the learners about their learning in this process. The teachers should help the learners set goals, provide the setting where learners can collaborate with each other, help them set a plan to achieve their goals and evaluate their progress. It is also the teacher who should organise communication between individual learners, groups and class as a whole; and direct the learners to resources until they are ready to do this themselves. Student collaboration is an important aspect of learner autonomy and should be encouraged to ensure a metacognitive awareness about the learning process, which is essential in learning. Language learning strategies also play an important role in developing a metacognitive awareness. In fostering learner autonomy, it is possible to give direct instruction on learning strategies as well as raising awareness of the strategies used and those that are available to learners. Whichever approach is adopted, language learning strategies will offer a repertoire for the learners. Use of technology and self-access centres are also instrumental in fostering learner 102


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Follow-up questions

Classroom Management

1. What does the term learner autonomy mean to you? 2. Would you consider yourself to be an autonomous learner? 3. Would you consider learner autonomy to be an important educational goal? Why/ Why not? 4. What would you say characteristics of autonomous learners are? 5. What is the role of teacher in autonomous learning? 6. What should language teachers do to foster learner autonomy? 7. Which of the following would you say autonomous learners have a say in? a) What they learn; b) How they learn, c) Evaluation of the learning process and learning outcomes 8. Can you think of any problems that learners and /or teachers encounter while fostering learner autonomy? If yes, please list them all. 9. What does the term teacher autonomy mean to you? 10. In your opinion, how are learner and teacher autonomy related? 11. Please list means of reflection to be used to foster autonomous learning? 12. Besides logbooks and portfolios, what other means of self-evaluation are available? 13. How can discussion lists be used to help learners reflect? 14. Please suggest ways of including the learners in decision making process of a listening course for beginner level learners. 15. Please suggest ways for the learners to create and select their own materials for a reading course. 16. Please suggest a variety of tasks for the learners to choose from in a writing course for advanced level learners. 17. Please suggest speaking tasks for genuine communication designed for beginner level learners.

Erhan Alabay Mehmet Galip Zorba Classroom management is an essential part of education. Although it is often seen as setting the rules to prevent undesirable behaviour, it is in fact much more than that. Evertson and Neal (2006) define classroom as a place where teachers focus on learning. Classroom management has a significant role for providing appropriate atmosphere in classrooms and much cannot be expected from the other teaching activities as long as problems related to classroom management are not solved (Sherwood, 2008). According to Evertson and Neal (2006) classroom management is a matter of maintaining control of students and their learning activities. Although this definition is acceptable, it does not seem comprehensive enough because it only covers controlling of students and their learning activities. In addition to the first definition, classroom management can also be defined as the teacher’s ability to manage the time, space, resources and student roles and student behaviours to provide a climate that encourages learning (Alberto & Troutman, 1986, p. 404). Capel, et al. (1999) state that classroom management refers to arrangements made by the teacher to establish and maintain an environment in which learning can occur, e.g. effective organization and presentation of lessons so that pupils are actively engaged in learning (p. 92). It is apparent in these definitions that teachers’ role in classroom management is undeniable since there is a direct relation between a successfully managed classroom and effective teaching and learning activities (Harmer, 2001). Marzano et al. (2003) state that effective teaching and learning cannot take place in a poorly managed classroom.

Approaches to classroom management There are many approaches to classroom management. However, choosing the most appropriate approach for your students is key for effective classroom management (Evertson & Neal, 2006). There are two basic approaches traditional approach and contemporary approach.

18. Please find a beginner level and an advanced level course book in English and analyse strategy training provided in the book. 19. Suggest ways of raising learners’ awareness on listening, speaking, reading and writing strategies. 20. Design a mock-action research project. Identify a specific point you believe you need to improve as a language teacher, for example giving instructions in L2, teaching collocations, etc. What is the first step you would do to improve it? What are the following steps? How would you evaluate your improvement?

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Figure 1. Classroom management approaches


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Traditional approaches are based on behaviorism which prioritizes individuals’ observable and measurable behaviors (Aksoy, 2001). Traditional approaches put teacher-centeredness at the center of classroom management. In other words, students are passive in every kind of learningteaching activities occurring in classrooms whereas teachers are relatively more active. In traditional approaches, teacher-student interaction is limited with clear-cut borders (Başar, 1996). In that sense, students’ opinions or thoughts are ignored in decision making processes since teachers are the sole authority in classrooms (Başar, 1996; Lewis, 2009). Traditional approaches are based on strict, unquestionable and unchangeable rules set by teachers. Thus, teachers are regarded as authority figures. Black (2005) states that since these approaches leave no room for democracy and student-centeredness, it is unlikely to achieve contemporary humanistic teaching and learning goals through them (cited in Akın, 2006). Therefore, one of the most negative effects that traditional approaches may cause is alienation. Alienation hinders students’ awareness in the learning process. During such an alienation process, students react less strongly to what they are learning, and thus the feeling of not being a part of classroom emerges. As a result, students feel alienated and become desensitized to learning processes. Contemporary classroom management approaches emerged as a reaction to traditional approaches that hinder learning process. The most distinct characteristic of contemporary approaches is student-centeredness. Student-centeredness requires valuing students’ opinions and thoughts (Kauffman et al., 2006). In other words, students are not the object of education; on the contrary, they are regarded as the main actors in the teaching and learning process. Hence, as Roses (1990) elucidates, students should have a say in the decision making process of significant educational actions taken in classrooms such as classroom rules, the teaching method that teachers follow and the setting of the goals of the course. Compared with traditional approaches, contemporary classroom management approaches require flexible rules. These flexible rules can be changed according to emotional, cognitive and physical developments of students. Besides, contemporary approaches involves both inside and outside of the classroom. In this sense, classrooms, students, teachers, education programs, educational environments and materials are considered as internal factors whereas social environments and families are regarded as external factors (Marzano & Marzano, 2003). Effective classroom management requires successfully managing both internal and external factors since all of these factors play significant roles in students’ behaviors in classroom environment (Özdayı, 2004). 106


Table 1 explains briefly the differences between traditional and contemporary classroom management approaches.

Traditional Classroom Management Approaches

Contemporary Classroom Management Approaches

• • • •

• Student-centered • Flexible rules • Teachers and students co-construct the rules • Students have voice in classroom management • Both inside and outside of school are taken into consideration (Internal and External factors) • No central authority • Promote development • Democratic atmosphere in classroom • Students are active • Discussing and mutual understanding in classroom • Aims are decided by whole class • Students are expected to think on and question knowledge, and construct new knowledge

•

• • • • • • •

Teacher-centered Strict and unchangeable rules Rules are set up by teachers Students do not have voice in classroom management Only inside of school are taken into consideration (Internal Factors) Teacher is the sole authority Alienation Autocratic atmosphere in classroom Students are passive Condemnation, judgment and punishment Aims are decided by teachers Students are expected to memorize knowledge

Table 1. The differences between traditional and contemporary classroom management approaches What would you do? Esra was a novice teacher of English at a state school. One day, she had an English lesson with class 6B. When she entered the classroom which was the one after the Physical Education lesson, she realized that the class was too noisy. Most of the students were still running in the classroom. Similarly, there was no fresh air and it was also dusty. At first, Esra wanted to open the windows and then she noticed that she was unable to manage the class after opening the windows. Some of the students were sitting on their chairs but others were chasing each other or drawing pictures on the blackboard. Esra was not sure what to do in such a case. Regarding the contemporary classroom management approaches, what would you do or how would you react if you were Esra? In your opinion, through which approach will you be able to receive positive feedback? As mentioned above, classroom management approaches are generally divided


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into two sections; traditional and contemporary. However, different approaches are available for classroom management as well and teachers can adopt these different approaches according to their contextual needs (Başar, 1999). These approaches are given as follows: 1. Reactive classroom management approach 2. Precautionary classroom management approach 3. Developmental classroom management approach 4. Holistic classroom management approach

Reactive classroom management approach Reactive classroom management approach aims to eliminate undesirable behaviors through the principle of action-reaction or reward-punishment (Bull & Solity, 1996). When teachers observe am undesirable behavior, they try to eliminate it through direct involvement.

Preventative classroom management approach Preventative classroom management aims to determine and prevent undesirable behavior before such behavior occurs. Therefore, teachers have great responsibilities since this approach requires profound observation and experience so that teachers predict and/or determine potential problems both in classrooms and school environment (Küçükahmet, 2000). After determining potential problems, teachers should take preventative actions through setting necessary rules and/or principles so as to prevent or change undesired behaviors. Prediction and prevention of problematic behaviors and situations before they even occur are crucial part of this approach. Preventative classroom management, however, does not offer any solutions when problems or conflicts arise.

Developmental classroom management approach This approach is based on students’ development, and thus classroom rules and principles are decided through considering students’ physical, psychological, moral, emotional and mental developments. This approach aims to design a classroom model that includes appropriate teaching methods and subject areas to students’ developmental levels as well as students’ behaviors. Jacobsen et al. (1993) divides this approach into four developmental stages:

• Stage 1: It involves the period until the age of 10. In this period, students

learn how to be a student, how to behave in classroom and school environment, and thus teachers have great responsibility at this stage.

• Stage 2: It includes the period between the age of 10 and 12. The focus

on classroom management diminishes. Students are willing to obey classroom rules and please their teachers.

• Stage 3: It involves the period between the age of 12 and 15. Students

cause problems in the classroom in order to receive appreciation of their friends, and they question classroom rules and the reasons behind them.

• Stage 4: It involves high school years. Students begin to understand who they are, how to behave and become socialized.

In developmental classroom management, teachers need to know students’ developmental levels so that they decide on how to find solutions to undesirable behaviors considering students’ age.

Holistic classroom management approach Holistic classroom management is a mixed approach that synthesizes the other three approaches. In this approach, educational and social environment affecting the classroom are considered as a whole. Apart from the four classroom management approaches, Martin et. al. (1998) divides classroom management approaches in three. These are; a. Interventionist classroom management approach b. Non-interventionist classroom management approach c. Interactive classroom management approach

Interventionist classroom management approach

Interventionist classroom management leaves students’ thoughts and emotions aside, and ignores individual differences.

Interventionist classroom management approach is based on traditional approaches. In this approach, teachers are responsible for controlling students’ undesirable behaviors. Thus, classroom rules are set up by teachers. The rules are explained clearly and briefly, and students are expected to obey all the rules. As teachers are the sole authority in classroom, they never avoid using their authority to prevent or stop undesirable behaviors. Besides, reward and punishment have significant roles. Instant intervention to undesirable behaviors is the key element of this approach. (Martin, et. al. 1998). The main principles of interventionist classroom management are as follows;

• Teachers have the total control over class. • Teachers are the sole authority that establishes the rules. • The focus is on behavior. • Sınıf yönetiminde kurallar konulurken bireysel farklılıklar önemli değildir. • Reward and punishment are crucial for managing behaviors. • The most important power is reward and coercive power. • Teaches need to take action while intervening to undesirable behaviors. (Zirpoli & Melloy, 1997; Martin et al., 1998).

behave collaboratively in order to enjoy and receive support. They may

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Non-interventionist classroom management approach Non-interventionist classroom management approach is based on humanist and studentscentered views. It assumes that students have an innate ability to control their own behavior. Therefore, it is students’ responsibility to control their own behavior whereas teachers’ main role is to arrange educational environment in which students learn how to control their behavior (Levin & Nolan, 1991; Aksoy, 2001). The reason behind undesirable behaviors is confusion in emotion and thought. Hence, teachers should draw students’ attention to their behavior (Yılmaz & Çavaş, 2008). According to noninterventionist classroom management, it is important not to judge students’ behavior. Teachers should avoid instant intervention to undesirable behavior.

The first step against an undesirable behavior is giving a silent message. Silent messages play significant role in non-interventionist classroom management. Through these messages students are expected to realize and abandon undesirable behavior. However, silent messages may not always be suffice for preventing undesirable behaviors. In such cases, teachers should discuss students’ behaviors through one-to-one interviews with problematic students. Martin and Yin (1997) summarize the main principles of non-interventionist classroom management as follows:

authorities with students. Furthermore, teachers give particular importance to students’ needs. When an undesirable behavior occurs, teachers seek solutions through collaboration with students. Expert and legal power play crucial role in interactive classroom management. It is important that teacher should consider classroom as whole, struggle for classroom rights and prevent individual behavior that prevents classroom rights (Martin & Baldwin, 1993). The principles of interactive classroom management are summarized as follows: • Teachers and students have equal responsibility in classroom management. • Students’ opinions are taken into consideration while setting up classroom rules. • Behavior takes precedence over emotions and thoughts. • Individual differences have importance at medium level. • Teachers protect classroom rights. • Teachers give time to students so that they can realize their behavior. • Group meetings, the techniques for overcoming undesirable behavior are significant in this approach.

• The main responsibility in controlling their behaviors belongs to students.

What would you do if you were ……….. ?

• Students decide on classroom rules under the guidance of teachers.

• Teachers give time to students so that they realize their undesirable behavior.

Ahmet was working as a teacher of English in Malatya. At the beginning of the term, he assigned personal projects to his 7th grade students. After a month, Ahmet collected students’ drafts so as to see students’ developing work. When he examined the project reports, he noticed that two of the students had submitted the same project reports. Upon this situation, he started to think about the reaction that he was going to take against these two students.

• Silent messages and one-to-one talk are used to prevent undesirable behavior.

If you were Ahmet, how would you react to these two students? Explain in accordance with each one of the approaches mentioned above.

• Emotions and thoughts are the basis of this approach. • Individual differences are highly considered.

In addition to the principles mentioned above, Martin and Yin (1997) also consider expert power as one of the most necessary elements that teachers need to have. Lunenburg and Ornstein (1991) explain that the term expert power is a special power that is based on knowledge since students tend to respect teachers who know what they are doing (Harmer, 2001). Expert power provides teachers self-confidence, and thus they teach their lessons more effectively (Borich, 1996). Therefore, as Lunenburg and Ornstein (1991) claim, teachers who have expert power have a great influence on students and gain their students’ respect and admiration. Interactive classroom management approach According to interactive classroom management, students and teachers share responsibility for controlling students’ behavior (Aksoy, 2001). Teachers and students set up classroom rules together, through which teachers share their

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www. zacchw.glogster.com


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Key factors in classroom management Effective teaching-learning process can only be provided through effective classroom management that involves a well-planned organization and control that a teacher has over the flow of activities in a classroom while getting students to obey the classroom rules (Oliver & Reschly, 2007). In addition, classroom management must also include the ability to deal with behavioral disturbances in classroom. There are key factors that influence these behavioral disturbances (see Figure 2). Thus, teachers need to be aware of these key factors while minimizing their negative effects (Jones & Jones, 1998).

Traditional seating chart: In traditional seating chart, seats are placed one after another and side by side, and each desk looks at the blackboard (see Figure 3). Although this kind of seating chart is useful for some organizations such as conference and displays, it does not allow for discussion. Therefore, traditional seating chart leaves no room for communication and interaction.

Figure 3. Traditional Seating Chart (Lesson Plan Inc., n.d.) Figure 2. Key Factors in classroom management

In-class Factors

Seating chart for discussion: Seats are placed in the shape of semicircle or circle (see Figure 4). In this way, students can easily see one another. Therefore, students make discussions through semicircle or circle seating chart.

The structure of educational environment The structure of effective educational environment provides positive atmosphere in classroom since the physical and socio-psychological structure of educational environment have influence on students’ behavior (Robert, 2007). Almost everything that can influence students’ behavior are considered such as the classroom size, illumination and air conditioning, seating plans, appropriateness of in-class materials to students’ developmental levels, the number of educational materials and suitability of these materials to students’ needs. One of the most important elements mentioned above is the seating plan. Thus, teachers should give importance it according to the aims of lessons. There are various ways to organize how students sit. Konza et al. (2006) state that a well-planned seating plan is helpful for establishing a more effective classroom management.

Figure 4. Seating Chart for Discussion (Lesson Plan Inc., n.d.) Seating chart for group work: Two or more seats are combined, and hence students in the same group can see each other, easily cooperate (see Figure 5).

Seating plans can be organized according to the teaching methods and techniques or behaviors that students display in the classroom. Seating charts organized according to teaching methods and techniques have three main types; • traditional seating chart, • seating chart for discussion • seating chart for group work (Lesson Plan Inc., n.d.)

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Figure 5. Seating chart for group work (Lesson Plan Inc., n.d.) Classroom Management

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In addition to seating charts organized according to teaching methods and techniques, seating charts can also be organized according to the behavior that students display in classroom. Sitting a talkative student next to a shy student or sitting a student who has concentration problem on a seat where he/she can make an eye contact with teacher easily can be given examples for this type of seating charts. However, there are some rules for seating charts organized according to students’ behavior. The first rule is to find a specific seat for students considering their behavior. The second rule is to place students who display undesirable behavior at seats where teacher can easily keep close eye contact with these students. For instance, placing students with ADD (attention deficit disorder) in the front may help to provide more effective classroom management since students in the front and center of classroom receive the most eye contact from teachers. Figure 6 shows seating charts that are organized for students displaying different kind of undesirable behavior.

Placing students displaying undesirable behavior may cause different problems. When teacher place a disruptive student in the front or at the center, the whole class sees his/her. Therefore, these seats are not suitable for students displaying such undesirable behavior. One of the best things to do is to place these students in the corners so that the other students pay less attention to them (Shindler, 2010).

Front and center seats are not appropriate for students with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

Education programs, methods and techniques Education programs and methods and techniques employed in the scope of these programs have a significant role in preventing undesirable behavior in classroom. In education programs that do not reply to students’ development levels, their interests and needs, it is inevitable to encounter undesirable behavior in classroom. Therefore, it is necessary that teachers need prepare lesson plans considering students’ development levels, their interests and needs. Besides, it also necessary that teachers need to have experience and backup plans that help them solve unexpected problems that y arise suddenly throughout course duration. Through these measures, undesirable behavior that may result from such factors as fear of failure and lack of interest are prevented (Başar, 1999). Each student’s experience, developmental level, interests, needs, expectations, way of learning and family structure are different. It is possible to minimize these differences and so undesirable behavior resulted from these differences through a well-planned program.

Figure 6. Seating charts according to students’ behavior (Lesson Plan Inc., n.d.)

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No matter how successful and welldesigned program teachers have, failure is inevitable without well implementation. Therefore, teachers have great responsibilities in classroom management since having students monotonously engaged in activities that are prepared in terms of the aims and gains of programs is likely to trigger undesirable behavior in classroom. Total silence in classroom does not indicate effective classroom management. Classroom Management

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Therefore, implementation of methods and techniques which promote interaction and students’ efforts, instead of traditional ones, is helpful for preventing undesirable behavior (O’Leary & O’Leary, 1972).

Teachers’ features Teachers’ features are one of the elements that have an influence on in-class factors. Teachers’ behaviors may sometimes cause undesirable behaviors and hence the way of teaching and teacher-student relationship can help prevent such behaviors (Harmer, 2001). Filene (2005) states that attitudes that teachers display are the most important features because teachers should display democratic attitudes both inside and outside of classroom through which they can prevent undesirable behavior while establishing a peaceful educational environment. Tolerance is another attitude that teacher should Teachers should bear in display, through which teachers encourage whole class mind that tolerance does to display positive behavior. Besides, tolerant attitude not mean “to ignore”. of teachers help students understand that each undesirable behavior or mistake does not always require punishment because making mistake is in our nature. Another attitude that influences classroom management of teachers is emotional actions or decisions. However, this attitude may cause problems in classroom management if teachers take actions contrary to the classroom rules due to emotional reasons. Day (2004) states that teachers should not discriminate against any of their students under any circumstances. Therefore, emotional objectivity and fairness is highly crucial for classroom management. In addition to these, interest and enthusiasm profoundly influence students’ behaviors in a positive way. Therefore, teachers always try to find ways to attract students’ interest and promote their enthusiasm. On the other hand, students’ enthusiasm can also be generated or improved through teachers’ performance. Harmer (2001) draws a framework of how teachers should perform during certain classroom activities (see Table 2). Table 2. How teachers should perform

Activity

How teachers should perform

Team game

Teacher reading aloud

energetically, encouragingly, clearly and fairly clearly, encouragingly, retiringly and supportively commandingly, dramatically and interestingly

Whole-class listening

efficiently, clearly and supportively

Role-play

Students’ features Students’ features have as significant role as teachers’ features in classroom management. Behavior that students display in classroom is closely related about their individual and developmental features. It would be a huge mistake to expect that each student have psychically and developmentally same characteristics. Thus, teachers should be aware of these differences and consider them while establishing classroom rules. Some students may have more easily offended, aggressive, introverted or reserved characteristics compared to their peers due to their developmental features or social environment. These characteristics may cause serious problems in classroom. Therefore, teachers should aware of these different characteristics through detailed observations, and find solutions to them by employing different methods. In addition to the elements mentioned above, students’ special attention needs have strongly influence in classroom management since each students’ are in need of special attention at different levels (Yurtal & Yaşar, 2008). This is closely related to students’ social environments and their families. For instance, a student coming from an isolated environment may be in need of socialization in classroom whereas another student coming from a single-child and high-income family may expect that his/her wishes are immediately granted. Undoubtedly, all these needs, interests, individual and social differences prompt students to behave in completely different ways in the same environment. What would you do if you were …….? Işıl was in charge of the English lessons in a private school in İstanbul. The school that she was working for was one of the prominent schools in the city. Children of the wealthiest families of the city were all in her class. Mehmet (14) was her most problematic student. He disobeyed any rule set. As a result, all students were influenced by this situation negatively. Işıl was trying to ignore this problem and continue her lessons as if nothing went wrong. However, she was also aware that Mehmet was a real problem to be dealt with in the classroom atmosphere. What would you do if you were Işıl? Which elements of the classroom management would you pay attention to most?

(Harmer, 2001; p. 64)

Out-class factors

To sum up, teachers need to control their attitudes. Teachers should take leadership role in classroom. However, this leadership role, as Poggi and Germani (2003) state, includes treating their students like one of their friends or parents when necessary.

Out-class factors play as significant role as in-class factors does. These factors are family, social environment, information and communication technologies and school environment.

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Family Students’ experiences in their families have profound effect on their classroom behaviors (Harmer, 2001). The attitudes and behaviors that family members display directly influence students’ since family relations are the most intensive personal relations that students are in. Therefore, interactions between families and their students lead to either negative or positive changes in students’ behavioral, emotional and mental development. Negative changes, however, pave the way for undesirable behavior in classroom by influencing students’ behavior and attitudes. Parents’ attitudes are another factor that causes undesirable behavior in classroom. It is unlikely to expect that all parents take the same attitude towards children (Evertson & Weinstein, 2006). There various kinds of attitudes that parents display. Some parents show authoritarian attitudes toward their children, some adopt indifferent attitude whereas some take over-protective attitude. These undesirable attitudes affect students’ classroom behavior as well. For instance, a student brought up by over-tolerant parents is expected to display selfish, bad-tempered and impatient behavior in classroom environment when he/she does not encounter with the same attitude that his/her parents take at home. Economic conditions of families, their education levels, number of family members and absence of one of family members or being a member of a divorced family are all included in familial factors that lead to undesirable behavior in classroom.

Social environment Social environment has great influence on people from all ages, and thus it is inevitable to encounter its either positive or negative effects in classroom since social environment becomes stimulus of our some behavior whereas it prevents some. Social environment can be discussed in two subtitles; close environment and distant environment. Close environment includes people and places that are part of students’ everyday life such as school, classroom, family, surrounding playgrounds and other places where students spend their past times. Distant surrounding, on the other hand, includes life styles, beliefs, customs, political and social structures of the society in which students live. The main goal of teachers is to minimize or overcome possible negative influences that may result from both close and distant environment of students so as to prevent undesirable behavior in classroom. Therefore, for effective 118


classroom management, teachers should consider not only students themselves but also close and distant environment students live in while establishing classroom rules. (Ming-tak & Wai-shing, 2008).

The media The media is one of the factors that can negatively or positively affect students’ classroom behavior. The media, particularly television and the Internet, lead students to get used to continuously changing and dynamic stimuli. When the negative effects of television on children are examined, one of the foremost negative effects is stimulation of violent and aggressive feelings, and thus children who watch movies or TV programs containing violence tend to have aggressive feelings and thoughts. Children learn through observing behavior and taking the characters as role models. In addition, children tend to act what they observe and learn. Therefore, movies and TV programs containing violence provides different kinds of negative role models and behavior for children, and consequently it is inevitable to act these behavior in real life (White, et. al., 2011). The Internet is another element that affects students’ cognitive and affective development. The Internet can be either a quite useful tool or a time-killing activity depending on your purposes. It provides various resources and information if it is used properly. Haphazard use of the Internet leads to waste of time, and may negatively affect individual, social and cognitive developments. On the other hand, games play via the Internet contain violent and lead to addiction. In this sense, the Internet provides negative role models for children as well, and reflects undesirable behavior in classroom that they acquire from these role models.

School Classrooms are subunits of schools, and hence the structure that schools have directly affects students and so classroom management. Structure of schools includes various elements from organizational structure, atmosphere, culture, decision making processes to supporting services provided teachers and students, teaching and learning processes, school rules and attitudes towards learning. One of the main aims of schools is to arouse sense of belonging towards school. The fact that Classroom Management

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schools provide students opportunities to take part in decision making process and promote sense of belonging not only minimizes undesirable behavior but also improves academic success (Marzano, et. al., 2006). As one of the out-class factors that affect classroom management school can be examined in two sections. These are administrative structure and psychical structure. Administrative structure includes, as mentioned above, inclusion of teachers and students in decision making process related to schools. In addition, school administrators should take actions in order to improve teachers’ and students’ motivations. Motivating organizations and activities promote sense of belonging, socialization and interaction between students and teachers. Psychical structure, on the other hand, includes appearance, cleaning, health conditions, practicality and equipment of school. Psychical structure affects teaching-learning process. Besides, teachers’ or students’ displeasure resulting from psychical structure lead to setbacks in teaching-learning process.

What would you do if you were ……? Muzaffer was working as a teacher of English at a state school. There were 15 students in total in his class and materials to be used in the lesson were adequate enough to conduct the lesson in an effective way. However, 12 year-old Ömer was not participating in the lesson and he was dealing with the things that were not related to the course content. This situation was quite distracting for both the teacher and his classmates. When Muzaffer inspected Ömer’s file, he found out that Ömer’s parents were recently divorced. Muzaffer, who was experiencing such a situation for the first time in his career was aware that he had to do something but he couldn’t come up with any solution to this problem. What kind of a strategy would you follow if you were Muzaffer?

Effective classroom management Having quiet students listening to their teachers does not indicate effective classroom management. Classroom management involves strategies and attitudes that teachers employ so as to organize educational environment. Therefore, there are factors that teachers need to consider for effective classroom management. These factors are;

• Communication • Rules • Time management • Undesirable behavior method Communication Communication can be defined as an action directing and changing the behavior of the individual or group in a desired way. Communication is a purposeful initiative that includes specific elements and procedures.

http://leadingfromtheheart.org/category/classroom/

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The main elements of communication are source, message, channel, receiver and feedback. Source is the person who initiates communication and defines the target. Message is the thought, feeling or behavior that the source intends to share with the receiver. In communication process, teachers should prefer short, brief and understandable message so that students can understand the message. Channel can be defined as a method or technique through which the source conveys the message to the receiver. For instance, e-mails and SMS are the channel people use via the Internet and mobile phones. Receiver is the target person to whom the source intends to convey a message. Feedback is the reaction that the receiver displays in order to inform the source whether the message is received or not (Ergin & Birol, 1995). Classroom Management

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A breakdown in the communication channel resulting from any of the elements of communication leads to an inefficient flow in information. Students are unaware of what their teacher expects of them. This may lead to undesirable behavior by negatively affecting teaching- learning process. Therefore, communication process is required to be well planned by teachers. In classroom communication, everything that is said and how it is said is significant and that, as Kohl (2002) suggests, “small things such as comments, questions, responses, phrases and tone often make a big difference in students’ attitudes, not only towards their teacher, but towards what their teacher teaches” (p. 145). The use of language in the classroom defines the nature of how teachers make meaning, and thus has a powerful influence on students. In the communication process, there are some ways that help teachers while communicating with students. One of these ways is to use “I language”. It is the language that teachers use while describing students their undesirable behavior and how their behavior affects other students and teachers (Çağdaş, 2009). For instance, some teachers utter such sentences below after encountering surprising results of an examination. “You are all lazy.”

“You’ll learn nothing.”

“You are all failure.”

“You are useless.”

In sentences above, “you language” is employed. It is the language used for blaming someone. Teachers that use such kind of messages make students feel totally inadequate. Besides, students exposed to such messages may ignore them after a while or withdraw Instead of such messages, teachers should use constructive messages such as “Your exam result are highly surprising for me and they made me upset. However, if we work on harder together, we can get more successful results.” For students, such messages sound more constructive. Besides, these messages show students that their teachers share their failure with them. Thus, these messages incline students to realize undesirable behavior instead of displaying defensive attitudes.

What would you say in place of these sentences? Teacher says:

Alternative Sentences:

• I don’t want to see all the sloppy papers that I saw the last time.

• ……………………………………........

• Stop talking or I will kick you out.

• ……………………………………........

• I told you guys to get to work.

• ……………………………………........

• When are you ever going to learn?

• ……………………………………........

• There is too much noise in the room.

• ……………………………………........

• You are always talking.

• ……………………………………........

• You are not listening to what I am teaching but I’ll ask every one of them in the exam.

• ……………………………………........

• ……………………………………........

• I wonder how you can’t understand such as simple thing. (Adapted from Schindler, 2010; p. 43)

Rules Rules play a vital role in preventing undesirable behavior. Furthermore, they help students realize how to behave both inside and outside of classroom. However, the most important point is that rules should not be established through teacher-centered decisions. Otherwise, the rules established without students’ views and suggestions result to autocratic atmosphere in classroom instead of plurivocal and democratic atmosphere. However, students that take active role in the decision making processes of classroom rules tend to obey these rules more enthusiastically, and feel themselves valuable (Ming-tak & Wai-shing, 2008; Wragg, 1995). Classroom rules are helpful for putting students in order and improve academic success. Moreover, they prepare students for the world outside of classroom. Defining effective classroom rules are import for peace and harmony in classroom along with effective learning. Therefore, effective classroom rules should be applicable and preventative in a way to facilitate learning (Ming-tak & Wai-shing, 2008).

Time management Time management means to use a certain amount of time most effectively. It is unlikely that teachers suffer from time limitation in classrooms where effective classroom management whereas in classrooms where effective classroom 122



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management does not exists the allocated time for educational activities is insufficient (Tauber, 2007). Therefore, managing time in an effective way is a vocational requirement for teachers. However, there are some useful tips that help teachers for better time management. First, it is impossible to get back the time. Hence, teachers should well-planned how to use time before each lesson. However, everything may not go according to your plans so teachers need backup plans that they can use in case of different problems. Second, it is not likely that teachers are able to do all the things they wish in a lesson time. Order of priority and need in time management is crucial. Therefore, teachers make a list that shows students’ needs and expectations, and then put the items on the list in order of priority. Lastly, teachers should use the allocated time according to the educational purposes that they intend to accomplish.

Reacting to undesirable behavior Before discussing how to react to undesirable behavior, it is useful to discuss the reasons behind it. Undesirable behavior that students display has three main reasons. These reasons are individual behavior, peer and teacher-student interaction. Undesirable behavior that is based on individual behavior is student-centered. Kıran (2005) summarizes this type of behavior as attending to lessons in a sloppy manner, displaying indifferent behavior towards lessons, speaking without asking for permission, coming to lessons late, lying, bullying other students, finding excuses for failure, using slang expressions, disobeying rules of good manners, studying another lesson during the lesson time and wearing inappropriate clothes. Nicknaming, looking down on, disturbing and annoying other students, and taking other students’ belongings without permission are such behaviors. The first method that teachers should employ while reacting to undesirable behavior is to use positive statements while talking to their students (Bakioğlu, 2009). Although negative statements are effective, they do not provide long-term changes. Therefore, teachers should prefer constructive statements and encourage positive behavior (Harmer, 2001). Since these statements do not bruise students’ self-esteem and self-confidence, they promote long-term positive changes in students’ behavior. In addition to using positive statements, reward and punishment is another method used for overcoming undesirable behavior. However, as Belvel and Belvel (2010) argue, punishment is not as effective as reward in the long run. Therefore, instead of punishment, teachers should prefer rewarding while dealing with undesirable behavior. Praising can be used as a reward. However, teachers should consider students’ age and the amount of praise given. Otherwise, it may cause problems among students such as annoyance and envy.

Some students insistently use their mother tongues without making any efforts. One of the reasons behind that is the difficulty of activities. Activities that are unsuitable for students’ levels impel students to use their mother tongue since they cannot take the expected action due to the fact that they are linguistically incapable of (Harmer, 2001). Another reason why students use their mother tongues in classroom is students’ unfamiliarity with new language. Code-switching between the mother tongue and foreign language is gradually developed (Elridge, 1996). Thus, it is quite natural that students, especially at elementary and intermediate levels, use their own language while learning a foreign language (Harmer, 2001). The reason of mother tongue use is teachers’ themselves. Students perceive that mother tongue use is acceptable when teachers frequently use it (Harmer, 2001). Therefore, teachers should display attitudes to mother tongue use in classroom. There are various strategies that teachers can use to promote the use of English. Some of them are given as follows; Setting clear guidelines: Teachers should set clear guidelines so shat students know when mother tongue use is permitted (Harmer, 2001). The use of English in classroom is definitely essential, and teachers should raise awareness about it whereas for some activities or actions in classroom mother tongue use is tolerable such as grammar explanations, giving instructions, discussing classroom methodology and giving of announcements (Harmer, 2001). The more important thing is teachers’ adherence to the guidelines that they set; otherwise students get confused about them. Choosing suitable activities: Teachers should choose activities that are suitable to their students’ level. Too difficult activities may lead to adverse effects on students’ enthusiasm and motivation (Harmer, 2001). However, this does not mean that teachers need to give up engaging students in challenging activities. In careful while choosing activities.

Too difficult activities may lead sense of failure whereas too easy ones hinder learning. this sense, teacher should

Creating an English atmosphere: Making English classroom language may help promote the use of the target language. In order to that anglicizing students’ names, as teachers who use Suggestopedia do, may be useful (Harmer, 2001). Persuading students: Although giving direct warnings against mother tongue use often works, reward and punishment can also be used. In most of the language classrooms in Turkey, teachers make students pay a fine when they use their own languages (Harmer, 2001)

.

Promoting students to speak English The most common undesirable behavior in language classrooms is students’ reluctance to speak in English especially in communicative activities (Harmer, 2001). However, there are understandable reasons that lie behind students’ reluctance. 124



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Nuremberg Recommendations Bengül Çetintaş The Nuremberg Recommendations for Early Foreign Language Learning (hereafter NR) was published by the Goethe Institute in 1996 (and revised 2010) in collaboration with experts from 22 countries from all around the world, following a series of seminars on 4 to 10 year old young learners’ learning of foreign languages. The recommendations “were drawn up with the objective of placing early foreign language learning on the most widely acceptable curricular basis possible” (Nuremberg Recommendations, 2010, p. 4). As a document containing recommendations on young learners’ experiences in foreign language teaching, it remains as the most comprehensive body of documents that contain valuable information for language teachers of young learners. http://www.classroommanagementonline.com/

What would you do? Zafer was a teacher of German in Afyon. At the beginning of that term, Zafer and his students determined the classroom rules together. It had been two months since the beginning of the term. However, by raising her hand, 14 year-old Zehra asked the reason for having more strict rules than other classes. Zafer was aware that class rules should be determined together with students but it was the first time that he was directed such a question and he was not sure how to answer this question. He let Zehra sit her desk and continued his lesson. If you were Zafer, how would you answer to Zehra’s question?

In this chapter, some important aspects of these recommendations are discussed to inform future foreign language teachers about features of teaching foreign languages to children. Also, these recommendations are given as points of discussion rather than rules that must be obeyed without questioning. That’s why reflection activities are given to you to develop your own understanding of foreign language teaching to young learners. The document is composed of three headings, namely;

• new influences on the learning environment of children, • early foreign language learning today and perspectives for the future, • basic conditions for early foreign language learning. Under the first heading titled “New influences on the learning environment of children”, it emphasizes the individuality of the young language learner regardless of his or her regional or local background. Under the second heading titled “Early foreign language learning today and perspectives for the future”, the following issues are discussed:

• language policy actors, • language choice and language sequence, • appropriate concepts for childhood foreign language learning, • standards in early foreign language teaching.

Under the third and main heading titled “Basic conditions for early foreign language learning”, the issues discussed are:

• the child-centered language programme, • linguistically qualified pre-primary staff and language teachers, • parents, • physical environments for learning,

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• objective: the interculturally aware child, • appropriate content for an early foreign languages programme, • methodology and pedagogic principles, • media , • diagnosis, progress recording, and evaluation. For the purposes of this book chapter, I will only focus on the third heading by specifically discussing, through direct quotes taken from the NR, the issues that I believe are the most necessary for our context in Turkey. Specifically, because of our contextual needs, I focused on the child-centered language programme, linguistically qualified pre-primary staff and language teachers, physical environments for learning and appropriate content for an early foreign languages programme. Although the document is necessary as a whole for a foreign language teacher to develop, the ones I mention are specifically important for teacher trainees because they are the ones that have direct practical value. According to the Nuremberg Recommendations, foreign language learning consists of highly complex factors which affect each other in a connected manner. In this system of many factors, known as “Didactical octagon”, the “kid” is at the center of foreign language education. Teachers who are responsible for the foreign language education of the kids have a special place in this system. The other factors that are effective in the Didactical octagon are the institutions in which foreign language education takes place, the aims they put forward, the contents and methods which are generated to achieve these aims and the course materials which are used in running of the courses. The last factor in the Didactical octagon is assessment and evaluation of the developments in foreign language education. The following figure shows the factors which affect the process of children’s learning of a foreign language.

triangle is a helpful diagram that can be used to answer our practical needs and problems in our classrooms. Let’s say the following is our problem: “Our school (or school system) aims for education all students to attain ‘native-like’ pronunciation.” How could that aim be realized? Answers to this and similar questions can be formulated with the help of this triangle as follows: Teachers should be qualified enough in order to guarantee the exemplary pronunciation. The institution must be concerned about the smaller classes. Content-wise songs and rhymes must be given priority. Reading and repeating could be the predominantly used methods. Reading texts in a creative way could be used as a means of evaluation. The language lab could re-accelerate in order to enable individual training. The child remains in the line in such a goal setting (p. 19). Hands-on activity Take the following problems and formulate recommendations to solve them by using the triangle suggested by Chighini and Kirsch (2009): • Our students cannot write well-thought paragraphs. • Foreign language classrooms must be seen as areas of fun, enjoyment, and action. • Teachers should be knowledgeable in cultures of the target language. • Environmental issues must be covered in foreign language classrooms in a way to develop students as responsible citizens.

The child’s linguistic development According NR, there is still no consensus on the precise sequence of child-hood language acquisition phases. It is accepted that human beings are capable of learning one or more new languages at any time in their lives. However, findings from research on language acquisition and from brain research have produced evidence that the acquisition of an unfamiliar language should take place as early as possible in order to master the phonetics of the language learned. It has been shown, for instance, that children up to the age of six can learn to speak a second language without an accent. Up to the age of puberty, syntax and morphology can be acquired with less effort. Nuremberg Recommendations • The childhood foreign language acquisition process should be viewed in as close association as possible with linguistic development in the mother tongue.

(by P. Chighini, & D. Kirsch 2009, 18)

The illustration by Chighini and Kirsch (2009) displays that school learning is not an isolated form of education, but is connected to humans, science, and society. The 128


• During the language learning process, the child should be given sufficient opportunities to try out newly learnt material in social interaction, e.g. with the teacher or with fellow pupils (p. 13).


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▶ Reflection

Reflection

Children acquire their first language during the first few years of their lives. The acquisition of the first language, especially that of the mother tongue occurs “naturally” and “unconsciously”. In theory, if a small child (until the ages of three and four) grows up while learning two languages, he or she acquires two mother tongues at the same time. In such situations, one could talk about primary bilingualism (Apeltauer 1997, 10-11).

With the new 12-year-compulsory and dubbed educational application, the Ministry of National Education has introduced changes in foreign language education. In accordance with this new application, foreign language education has moved back from the 4th grade/ year to the 2nd grade/ year (of primary education). Considering that the 60-66 month-old children will be attending the first grade, the first language education will start with 6,5-year-old pupils, that is, three years earlier than it was in the previous system.

• Give an example to the situations in which the child encounters two languages concomitantly and in which he or she acquires both languages as his/ her mother tongues. The acquisition of an additional language which occurs after the acquisition of the first language (during adolescence) is described as secondary bilingualism. The acquisition of every additional language differentiates itself fundamentally from the acquisition of the first language, since one language has already been acquired and the structures of the first language are already known (Apeltauer 1997, 16). • Give some examples in which the child learns a second language unconsciously and in its natural environment and learns it after the acquisition of the mother tongue. Children who encounter a foreign language already at the ages up to three and four find themselves in a situation similar to that of the children who acquire two languages concomitantly. The younger the children are and the less they have already acquired their first language, the better their learning situation of both languages at the start will be. Thus, parallel progress will be made in the learning of the first and second language (Apeltauer 1997, 11). • Children acquire the first language relatively quick, especially until the ages of three to four, when the learning of a foreign language takes relatively much longer time. Which consequences do you draw from the fact of this early start to foreign language learning at schools? Different from the acquisition of a language, learning a new language is described as “the conscious and goal-oriented language processing. The learning of a foreign language happens mostly in instructional contexts” (Apeltauer 1997, p. 14). • Give examples to the situations in which the foreign language is “learned.”

• Discuss the new regulation of the Ministry of Education within the new 4+4+4 • educational application by putting emphasis on its main reasons for the earlier start of • foreign language education. • Apart from the reasons you have stated above, explain your personal reasons and hesitations about the approximation of foreign language education to the acquisition of the mother tongue in our country.

The child’s needs A child needs to • feel safe and secure while in the learning environment, • receive affection and be able to show affection, • express feelings, be happy, and make others happy, • communicate with others, to express thoughts and feelings, • play, be active, move, romp about, • express him- or herself creatively, • experience successes and be praised, • encounter new things by experience, by learning, by discovery, or through conscious research, • re-run new experiences and insights in role-play (or similar) and thus assimilate these emotionally (p.14). Nuremberg Recommendations In planning and implementing the aims, content and methods of early foreign language learning, the practitioner or teacher should always ensure that the child’s needs are taken into account (p. 14). Reflection In your experiences as a student, has a teacher’s warmth and playful attitude had a positive impact on your interest in his or her class or your overall learning? Remember those experiences of yours and discuss the issue’s importance with your friends.

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The child’s rights

Linguistically qualified pre-primary staff and language teachers

According the NR, the basic right to language education paves way to many further rights. People are able to read and write, and while doing so, for example, they will learn to communicate in a more complex way in one or more foreign languages as well. Early foreign language learning should abide with the following language-related rights of children:

According to the NR, teachers have an important role in foreign language learning at early ages since, in classrooms, teachers are the sole figures from whom students learn the foreign language. Effective teachers are believed to have adequate and sufficient professional knowledge of the language, culture, and pedagogy.

• The right to early and comprehensive linguistic education (aimed at equal opportunity). This comprises both the development of competence in the mother tongue (or language of origin) and the extension of the child’s linguistic resources through early learning of foreign languages. • The right of access to learning material of an intercultural nature and to the opportunity to engage in intercultural communication. • The right to have the child’s innate potential in all its aspects developed to the maximum by the language programme. That includes learning through the use of all senses for the purpose of acquiring knowledge. • The right to autonomous action and to participation in joint decisionmaking in the context of the language- learning programme. • The right to commit linguistic errors unpunished.

Teachers should use of the target language in an exemplary way not only in terms of its phonetics, but also in terms of its speech melody and intonation. Hence, it is the teacher’s responsibility to introduce the children to the language and culture in a profound and acceptable manner. The teacher, then, must work as a mediator in exposing students to cultural and linguistic knowledge of the target language through his or her methodological competence at work. While doing that, the teacher must be approachable, ready to communicate and open not only to his or her students but also his or her colleagues and students’ parents as well. Such a positive approach can help intensifying the overall quality of the educational interaction created by the teacher. Assets of such competences are outlined below: In addition to professional requirements, teachers also should have further qualifications given below: • natural enjoyment of communication, • capacity and desire for intercultural communication, • capacity for analytical, problem-oriented thought,

Reflection According to NR, children must be informed about their rights during their education. In your case, do you such informative activities happening in Turkish primary schools? Are they sufficient?

• competence in identifying, mediating and implementing learning strategies,

Activity There are 54 items in the list covering children’s rights as published by the United Nations. Research and find 5 of these items that are related to foreign language learning. Then, write a report to discuss how these items are covered in our primary schools. 1. ………………………………………………………………………. 2. ………………………………………………………………………. 3. ………………………………………………………………………. 4. ………………………………………………………………………. 5. ……………………………………………………………………….

• ability to cooperate as harmoniously and productively with colleagues as with children (p.17).

Nuremberg Recommendations The early foreign languages programme should provide as many practical opportunities as possible, specifically tailored to the age-groups concerned, for children to experience and appreciate children’s rights, and thus for the individual child’s sense of self to be strengthened. This includes listening to children, inviting them to express themselves, permitting questions, and exercising sensitivity and discretion in the correction of errors (p. 15).

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• endorsement of lifelong learning as a principle for oneself and all learners, • ability to inspire openness to new ways of thinking and learning,

Nuremberg Recommendations • Practitioners and teachers who are to be involved in early foreign language learning should be trained in courses of study specifically geared to childappropriate language teaching. • The study courses should be competence-oriented and as comprehensive as possible both in imparting the underlying theoretical principles and in developing and fostering practical competences. • For early foreign language learning at nursery education and primary education levels, the practitioners and teachers should have a command of the language rated at level B2 to C1 of the European Reference Framework, so that the language model delivered may be as error-free and authentic as possible. • During the course of study the foreign language should be the working language and be used as often as possible. • The syllabus content should have an intercultural emphasis: Nuremberg Recommendations

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• That is to say, the two languages and cultures – the source language and culture and the target language and culture – should both receive attention, and their relationship to each other should be explored. • Ideally, courses should prepare students to put the didactics of multilingualism into practice – i.e. prepare them to take cognizance of, and turn to good use, all the languages that might potentially be spoken within a learning group, along with the children’s past experiences of language learning. • During the period of training there should be the opportunity to try out pedagogical principles and methods in practice and to review them critically in group discussion. • As part of the training course, students should also be provided with the linguistic resources needed for child-relevant topics and situations, and with the lexical material they will need for directing the learning process. • Students should be given the opportunity to acquaint themselves with relevant developments in languages policy, and to discuss such developments amongst themselves, not least with reference to their own professional situation. • The training course should feature a period of residence abroad, either as an option or as an integral part of the syllabus. (NR, 1996, p.19) ▶ Reflection According to the NR, teachers who teach foreign language unto children are preferred to be graduates of classroom teacher programs (Tr. Sınıf Öğretmenliği Lisans Programları) because these teachers can easily connect the contents of the foreign language courses with other fields of studies or lessons (for instance, social sciences and science). The teachers who graduate from foreign language programs do not have such background in wider areas of study. Hence, even when foreign language teachers are responsible for foreign language courses, it is recommended that they definitely work in cooperation with classroom teachers (NR, 1997, p. 22). • When your teacher training program is considered, who will perform more effectively in primary schools as foreign language teachers? You or classroom teachers? • It is known that there exist different programs or systems that educate future teachers to be foreign language teachers for children. Find one foreign language teacher education system from another country and compare it with ours.

Physical environment According to the NR, to meet the criteria for qualified learning programs, the locations provided must ensure a safe environment for the children in terms of size, furnishings and equipment, must allow the learning processes to be directed in child-appropriate ways, and must be so designed as to exclude any risk of impairment of children’s health as they learn (p.22). 134


Nuremberg Recommendations The classrooms in which children learn should be used on as sustained a basis as possible, so that the children can develop in an environment where they can feel secure (p.22). Reflection Environment, space, and physical conditions of classrooms are undoubtedly very important for the teaching of foreign languages successfully. According to NR, teaching of foreign languages at an early age is recommended to be conducted in classrooms spared only for foreign language instruction. Do you think schools should have separate foreign language classroom? Support your decision with real life examples. Discussion The principle of continuity in foreign language instruction, which the EU has frequently mentioned in recent years is also mentioned in NR. Discuss the situation in our country by focusing on to what extent continuity is established in foreign language education. Can a student start primary school and graduate from high school by continuing his or her foreign language education in a reasonable and level-based manner?

Appropriate content for an early foreign languages programme According NR, selection of thematic and linguistic content should be oriented towards children’s interests and current developmental stages. The content should both appeal to and expand their interests, emotions, and readiness for commitment while fostering their imaginative and creative powers in an enjoyable manner (p.29). Nuremberg Recommendations • The teaching content of an early foreign language learning programme should touch on general topics such as those listed below and should be designed to introduce relevant vocabulary along with each topic. the content elements specified should be embedded in communicative contexts. • Topics and situations • Everyday life and childhood culture: The child in various contexts, e.g. my family/friends and I, nursery/primary school, play, hobbies, sports, animals, travel, seasons/weather, food and drink, the body and health, clothes, festivals and popular customs, environ-mental protection/ sustainable living etc. • Aspects of general knowledge: In contexts provided by the topics enumerated above, new information and new insights relating to human beings and the world we live in are imparted. Nuremberg Recommendations

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• Intercultural geographic aspects: Learning from examples about everyday life/customs and manners in the target language country and comparison/contrast with those of the own environment.

• Vocabulary:

Within the parameters of the topics and situations specified above, childappropriate vocabulary featuring as far as possible all parts of speech should be learnt.

Discussion Study the following extract taken from a 6th grade coursebook by Erin (2006) to discuss to what extent this part successfully meets the recommendation given below: “Learning from examples about everyday life/ customs and manners in the target language country and comparison/contrast with those of the own environment.”

• Those selecting content and linguistic structures relevant to pronunciation should bear the following considerations in mind:

Pronunciation;

• Correct pronunciation and intonation should be treated as important from an early stage.

• The child learner should be made aware of differences between the mother tongue and the foreign language.

• The pronunciation training offered should include both exercises in listening and speaking.

Linguistic structures and language use

• Communicative aims should be embedded in syntactically simple structures

(predominantly main clauses), especially when the productive work required is direct oral communication. In the case of (listening and reading) comprehension texts, structures of greater complexity may be gradually introduced with a view to extending receptive language grasp.

• A certain measure of awareness of linguistic rules and of underlying logical

principles can lead to improved transparency in early foreign language teaching, and lays a foundation for future analytical thinking about language. This must not be confused with the teaching of grammar, and should only arise out of communicative or content issues. Schematically conceived exercises, deductive introduction of grammar rules, and references to metalinguistic terms are wholly inappropriate to the stage of cognitive development that has been reached by children of approximately four to ten years of age, and do not lead to the desired outcome of a communicative use of language.

• Extra-linguistic and paralinguistic modes of utterance are an integral element of the relevant content of early foreign language teaching:

Non-verbal modes of communication Communicative situations should be accompanied both by confirmatory practical actions (pointing to something, mimicking an action etc.) and by appropriate paralinguistic-tic body communication (gesture, mime, body posture, bodily or eye contact etc.). The marked cultural specificity of paralinguistic modes gives them a key role in the success or failure of a communication (p.29). 136



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Reflection According the NR, topics and situations in the early foreign language must include: 1. Everyday life and childhood culture; aspects of general knowledge, and intercultural geographical aspects. 2. Apart from these, topics should include the child’s areas of interest. According to NR, child has eight areas of interest: 1. Treasure hunt According to this area of interest, the child has a natural motive for being a hunter and a collector. Collection and accumulation of something is a motive that begins in childhood and extends to adulthood. Remember that in our childhood, some of us collected soda pop caps and some of us collected stamps. 2. I am making a home that belongs to me! According to this area of interest, the child needs to be safe in his/ her own space. For example, children build tree houses or tree forts. 3. I protect and look after you! According to this area of interest, the child tends to look after, protect, and nurture someone. For instance, he or she looks after pets, given them food and water, etc. 4. I want to go out or I can do this, too! According to this area of interest, the child develops the spirit of discovery and creativity.

A sample activity prepared about the topic “sheltering” A sample activity prepared by sheltering considers the three-dimensional point of view as follows:

• My crazy house. • I live with others. • The world. My crazy house Children build a house with teachers from carton or other materials in the classroom environment. � Linguistic gains: Words for the materials used in construction. � Child learns by playing and gains linguistic behaviors. I live with others Children are asked to tell the story which narrates the lives of those with whom they live together in the house. They simply learn by narrating. Between the tent and the apartment building Children are asked to research the forms of sheltering from different countries and around the world. One student, for instance, compares native Americans’ tents to their own apartment houses.

5. Ben de varım! According to this area of interest, the child imitates and tries crafts and trades. For example, they buy and sell hand crafts made by themselves in bazaars and buy used books. 6. I, you, and others Children are interested in forming groups, etc. 7. Hot, cold, strong, and weak! According to this area of interest, the child wants to to recognize the limits of her/ his own body and explore the area around. For example, they climb trees in order to raise their adrenalin flow. 8. Too far away, and inside my head ... There is a wonderful country! According to this area of interest, it expresses that child activates the need for dreaming, For instance, creating imaginary heroes or buddies (NR, pp. 13-14). How do you implement these areas of interest of children in the foreign language courses? Topics should be handled from three perspectives or dimensions starting from the self and moving towards the others and ending in the world. Choose a topic (area of interest) and prepare a lesson plan of activities to teach vocabulary as can be seen in the following sample lesson plan. 138



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Project What follows is the first part of the contents page from a 6th grade coursebook by Erin (2006). Discuss to what extent these topics are relevant to children’s areas of interest as expressed in NR.

PART 2 skılls and aspects

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Listening Murat Hişmanoğlu

This chapter which focuses on teaching listening to young learners is made up of seven sub-sections. In the first section, a general introduction is made to the subject of listening. In the second section, key concepts of listening; the concept of listening, characteristics of listening, top-down and bottom-up processing, schema theory and types of listening are presented. In the third section, pedagogical considerations; common listening situations, materials used for listening, listening skills, techniques for teaching listening to young learners, teaching phase and activities for teaching are explained. In the fourth section, activities for teaching; typical activities for teaching phase are listed and based on theoretical background, sample listening activities are created for young learners. The chapter ends with final remarks, mini research questions and references. Prior to reading the chapter, please answer the preliminary questions below individually and discuss your ideas with your peers. Discussion questions Read the following questions and keep them in mind as you work through the sections below. By the time you have completed the chapter, you should be able to discuss all of these points and come up with your own ideas about how to teach listening to young learners.

• What is listening? What are the main characteristics of listening? • What are two views of listening that have dominated language pedagogy over the last two decades?

• What

are some useful techniques for teaching listening to young learners?

• What are some typical activities for teaching phase? • What are some sample listening activities for young learners? How can

language teachers make use of these activities in a foreign language classroom?

The ability to listen is the most fundamental skill to make a child successful at school in an EFL setting. Children enhance listening before any other foreign language skills (Myers, 2001; Miles, 2002). Learning to listen and listening to learn are key to lifelong success and should be directly taught (Jalongo, 1995; Hoag, 1996; Smith, 1998). Many educators support the view that listening comprehension plays a crucial role in foreign language teaching, especially with young learners (Grabielatos, 1995; Rost, 1990; Shorrocks, 1994). Former views of listening exhibited it as the mastery of discrete skills or microskills, such as knowing reduced forms of words, knowing cohesive devices in texts, and

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describing key words in a text, and that these skills should make up the core of teaching. Later views of listening were based on the field of cognitive psychology, which introduced the concepts of bottom-up and top-down processing and brought attention to the role of prior knowledge and schema in comprehension. Listening came to be viewed as an interpretive process. At the same time, the fields of discourse analysis and conversational analysis unearthed a great deal about the composition and organization of spoken discourse and gave rise to a realization that reading written texts aloud could not establish an appropriate foundation for promoting the abilities necessary for processing real-time authentic discourse. Hence, current views of listening stress the role of the listener, who is viewed as an active participant in listening, utilizing strategies to ease, observe, and evaluate his or her listening (Richards, 2008).

What is listening? Listening is a complex amalgam of many components: hearing acuity, auditory perception, that is, the ability to understand similarities and dissimilarities in sounds, intention, attitude, consideration, experience and training (Giri, 1998). Listening is a process consisting of three steps: receiving, attending, and assigning meaning. In the first step, listeners receive the aural stimuli or the combined aural and visual stimuli provided by the speaker. In the second step, listeners concentrate on significant stimuli while disregarding other, distracting stimuli. Since a number of stimuli surround students in the classroom, they must attend to the speaker’s message, concentrating on the most prominent information in that message. In the third step, listeners understand or assign meaning to the speaker’s message. Responding to the message is not viewed as part of the listening process; the response occurs afterward, and it sets another communication process into action where the listener becomes the message sender (Wolvin & Coakley, 1995). In Wolvin and Coakley’s (1995) view, people actually employ different types of listening for these four purposes: • Discriminative listening to discriminate sounds • Aesthetic listening for pleasure • Efferent listening to learn information • Critical listening to evaluate information Children use discriminative listening as they improve phonemic awareness, the ability to coalesce and categorize the sounds in spoken words, describe rhyming words, and spell words. They utilize aesthetic listening when listening to teachers read stories aloud, poets recite poems, singers sing songs, etc. Children often use efferent listening when listening to teachers read books aloud or viewing videos as part of social studies and science thematic units. As for critical listening, it is a broadening of efferent listening. As in efferent listening, listeners try to comprehend a message, but they also filter the message to spot propaganda and emotional 144

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appeals. Students utilize critical listening to listen to debates, commercials, political speeches, and other arguments (Wolvin & Coakley, 1995). Discussion question Which type of listening is the most important /the least important for young learners? Write three possible reasons.

Characteristics of listening According to Giri (1998), there are seven main characteristics of listening, which are informality of language, brevity, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, noise, and redundancy.

� Informality of language: Most of the spoken language we listen to is casual

and natural; the speaker makes it up as s/he goes along rather than reading aloud reciting from memory.

� Brevity: It is usually segmented into short chunks. In a conversation, for

instance, people take turns to speak, generally in short turns consisting of a couple of seconds.

� Pronunciation: The articulation of words is often slurred, and remarkably

different from the phonological representations given in a dictionary. Some examples are “can’t” for “cannot”, “aright” for “all right” or “She we go? “ for “Shall we go? “.

� Vocabulary: The vocabulary is often colloquial, that is, in spoken language,

we might, for instance, utilize “guy”, whereas in written language, we use “man”. Similarly, in spoken language, we use “kid”, whereas we use “child” in written language.

� Grammar: Informal speech is inclined to be somewhat ungrammatical. Utterances may not be divided into sentences logically; a grammatical structure may change mid-utterance.

� Noise: There will be some bits of the discourse that are incomprehensible

to the hearer, and therefore meaningless for the hearer. This may occur because the words are not articulated overtly, or unfamiliar to the hearer, or because the hearer does not attribute importance to these words.

� Redundancy: The speaker normally says more than is absolutely necessary

for conveying the message. Redundancy covers such things as reiteration, rephrasing, self correction and the deployment of fillers such as “I mean” and “well”.

Top-down and bottom-up processing Two views of listening, the ‘bottom-up’ processing view and the ‘top-down’ interpretation view, have dominated language pedagogy over the last two decades. In the bottom-up processing model, listening is a process in which phonemic units are decoded and linked together to make words, words are linked together to make phrases, phrases are linked together to make utterances, and utterances are linked Listening

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together to make complete meaningful texts. It can be stated that listening is a linear process where meaning itself is derived as the last step in the process (Nunan, 1999). In the top-down processing model, the listener utilizes incoming sounds as clues to actively construct (or, more precisely, reconstruct) the original meaning of the speaker. In this reconstruction process, the listener employs prior knowledge of the context and situation where the listening takes place to understand what he or she hears (Nunan, 1999). Context of situation covers such things as knowledge of the topic at hand, the speaker or speakers and their relationship to the situation as well as to each other, and prior events.

Schema theory Schema theory, an important theoretical underpinning to the top-down approach, was originated by the psychologist Bartlett (1932). This theory has had a prominent impact on researchers in the areas of speech processing and language comprehension ever since. Bartlett asserted that the knowledge we have in our heads is grouped into interrelated patterns. They are like stereotypical mental scripts or scenarios of situations and events, which are constructed from a number of experiences of similar events. We construct literally hundreds of mental schemas during the course of our lives and these mental schemas assist us in making sense of the many situations we find ourselves in during the day; from catching the train to work, to joining a business meeting, to having a meal. From time to time, especially in cross-cultural situations, when we employ the wrong or improper scheme in a situation, it can get us into trouble (Nunan, 1999). Research has shown the insufficiency of a strictly bottom-up approach, that is, research has revealed that we do not store listening texts word-for-word as suggested by the bottom-up approach. Listeners recall some bits, omit some bits, and often incorporate bits that were non-existent in the original listening when being asked to listen to a text, and then write down as much as they can recall. To put it differently, it is highly probable that the pieces that are successfully recalled by listeners will not be recorded in exactly the same words as the original message. It indicates that, in designing listening courses, materials, and lessons, it is prominent, not only to teach bottom-up processing skills such as the ability to discriminate between minimal pairs, but it is also prominent to assist learners in using what they already know to comprehend what they hear. The listening itself can be preceded by schema building activities so as to provide learners with some of the terms which they will encounter in the body of the unit if teachers view gaps in their learners’ content, grammar or vocabulary knowledge (Nunan, 1999).

Types of listening There are eleven types of listening, which are discriminative listening, comprehension listening, critical listening, biased listening, evaluative listening, appreciative listening, sympathetic listening, empathetic listening, therapeutic listening, dialogic listening, and relationship listening (http://changingminds.org/ 146

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techniques/listening/types_listening.htm). In the following section, these eleven types of listening will be explained.

� Discriminative listening

Discriminative listening, which is the most basic type of listening, is based on the identification of differences between different sounds. This means that we cannot make sense of the meaning expressed by sound differences if we cannot hear differences between different sounds. Moreover, listening is both a visual and an auditory act, as we communicate much through body language. Hence, learners should also distinguish between muscle and skeletal movements that communicate different meanings.

� Comprehension listening

The next step beyond distinguishing between different sounds is to make sense of them. To get the meaning involves possessing a lexicon of words and also grammatical rules via which we can comprehend what others are saying. The same is valid for the visual components of communication, and a comprehension of body language enables us to comprehend what the other person really means. In communication, some words are more prominent and some are less prominent, and comprehension often benefits from deducing basic facts and items from a long spiel.

� Critical listening

In critical listening, we make evaluation and judgment by forming opinions about what is being said. Judgment involves evaluating pros and cons, agreement and confirmation. Critical listening involves prominent real-time cognitive endeavour because the listener examines what is being said, linking it with existing knowledge and rules, whilst synchronously listening to the continuing words from the speaker.

� Biased listening

In biased listening, the listener generally misinterpretes what the other person says based on the stereotypes and other biases that he or she possesses. The person only hears what s/he wants to hear. In many cases, such prejudiced listening is very evaluative in nature.

Evaluative listening In evaluative listening, we make judgments about what the other person is saying. We try to evaluate the truthfulness of what is being said. We also judge what the other person says by considering our values and assessing them as good or bad, worthy or unworthy. When the other person attempts to convince us to alter our behavior or beliefs, this type of listening is especially appropriate. In evaluative listening, we also distinguish between intricacies of language and understand the deep meaning of what is uttered. Further, we evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of an argument, specifying whether it makes sense rationally as well as whether it is beneficial for us. � Appreciative listening Listening

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In appreciative listening, we try to find out certain information which will appreciate, for instance, that which enables us to meet our needs and goals. We utilize appreciative listening when listening to good music or poetry.

� Sympathetic listening

Sympathetic listening is a type of listening in which we care about the other person and exhibit our concern in the way we pay close attention and express our sorrow for their illness and happiness at their joys.

� Empathetic listening

When we listen empathetically, we go beyond sympathy to find a truer comprehend how others are sensing. This involves good discernment and close recognition to the nuances of emotional indicators. When we are being truly empathetic, we actually feel what they are feeling. To get others to expose these inner parts of themselves to us, we should also exhibit our empathy in our manner towards them, asking sensitively and in a way that stimulates self-disclosure.

� Therapeutic listening

In therapeutic listening, the listener has a purpose of both empathizing with the speaker and utilizing this deep connection to enable the speaker to comprehend, change or develop in some way. Therapeutic listening not only occurs when you go to see a therapist but also in a variety of social situations, where friends and family try to both identify problems from listening and also to assist the speaker in curing themselves, perhaps via some cathartic process. This type of listening also occurs in work places, in which managers, trainers and coaches try to help employees to learn and develop.

ȤȤ D ialogic listening

Etymologically, the word “dialogue” comes from the Greek words “dia”, meaning “through” and “logos” meaning “words”. Hence, dialogic listening, also known as relational listening, indicates learning via conversation and an exchange of ideas and information in which we actively try to learn more about the person and how they think.

� Relationship listening

In listening, to improve or maintain a relationship is sometimes the most significant factor. It is because of this reason that lovers talk for hours and give importance to what each other will say when the same words from somebody else would seem to be rather uninteresting. Relationship listening is also significant in areas such as negotiation and sales. If the other person likes you and have confidence in you in such areas, it becomes useful for you.

Common listening situations Common listening situations are as follows: • listening to live conversations • listening to announcements made at airports, railway stations, bus stations,etc. • listening to the news, the weather forecast on the radio • watching the news, the weather forecast on TV • listening to the radio for entertainment (e.g. listening to a radio drama) • watching TV for entertainment (e.g. watching a movie) • listening to songs • following a lesson (at a school, college or a university) • listening to a lecture • listening to a presentation at a conference, symposium, congress • listening on the telephone • following instructions • listening to someone giving a speech • listening to someone giving a public address (http://www.hufs.davidboesch.com/GSE_YLDownloads/2010.ppt)

Discussion question Which listening situations are problem causing for young learners? Why?

Materials used for listening Three types of materials can be utilized in teaching listening to young learners. These three types of materials are authentic materials, semi-authentic materials and prepared materials. Among authentic materials are radio broadcasts, recordings (e.g. of movie times, airport announcements), videos of TV shows or movies, lectures and phone conversations. Among semi-authentic materials are unrehearsed tapes; role plays with native speakers who speak at normal speed. Lastly, commercially prepared tapes and videos are known as prepared materials for teaching listening to young learners (http://www.hufs.davidboesch.com/GSE_YLDownloads/2010.ppt)

(http://changingminds.org/techniques/listening/types_listening.htm)

Listening skills

Pedagogical considerations

Craven (2012) lists some of the basic listening skills with a brief description of what each skill covers as follows:

In this section, common listening situations, materials used for listening, listening skills, techniques for teaching listening to young learners and teaching phase are included. 148

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ȤȤ Listening for general understanding - students listen to identify the general ideas presented in the whole recording.

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ȤȤ Listening for details – students listen for details at sentence level. ȤȤ Listening for specific information – students listen for specific information at word level.

ȤȤ Predicting – students attempt to guess key information included in the recording prior to listening.

ȤȤ Inferring relationships – students listen to describe who the people in the recording are and what the relationship is between them.

Discussion question Which listening skill(s) is/are difficult to develop for young learners? Write three possible reasons.

Techniques for teaching listening to young learners Teachers can utilize a variety of techniques such as songs, stories, digital stories, games, dictation and cartoon films to teach listening to young learners. In the following section, these techniques will be explained.

Songs Songs can be utilized as a beneficial teaching and learning tool (Millington, 2011). Songs can help young learners to enhance their listening skills and pronunciation (Murphey, 1992). Purcell (1992) stresses that students can become demotivated by continually listening to a narration or dialogue when they try to comprehend the meaning of new words or phrases in context. However, listening to a song over and over again can be more colorful due to the rhythm and melody

Stories Using stories is an effective technique for teaching listening to young learners. Paul (2003) emphasizes that teachers can read stories to young learners from storybooks, memorize the stories then tell these stories to them or play them on a tape. When reading stories from storybooks, teachers can change stress, pitch and intonation patterns or tone of voice to refer to different characters of the story. Thus, young learners can have better chance to experience the suprasegmental features of the target language.

Digital stories Digital stories can be very helpful in promoting young learners’ listening skills (Verdugo & Belmonte, 2007). They are inclined to be visual, interactive and reiterative. The interactivity of Internet-based stories may pave the way for learning in that children are actively engaged in decoding and comprehending the story (Donato, 1994). Students can proceed at their own pace, which provides them with a high level of individual control. The reiterative composition of the digital stories can also help children progressively learn the foreign language. Lastly, gains in listening skills and comprehension can bring benefits to promote young learners’ reading comprehension (Biemiller, 2003; Sticht 2003). See the chapter on digital stories in 150

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this book for further information about them.

Games Games are one of the most effective techniques for promoting young learners’ listening skills. As Tang (2012) states, listening games with animal sounds help children to promote their ability to distinguish the dissimilarities and similarities between sounds, and to maximize language skills from sounds. Georgiou (2010) stresses that young learners get pleasure from games and thus take part in games without anxiety. Games can maximize young learners’ motivation greatly and they are activities which are usually familiar to children in terms of structure, rules, etc. It is because of this familiarity that they link back to the young learners’s home background. Games are especially beneficial for young learners commencing to learn a foreign language. Children just commencing to master a new language need some time to adapt to the language, its sounds and rhythms. They should be exposed to input before they produce language. While some young learners produce the new language with ease, some others can be shy and they may need more time to produce the language. This ‘silent’ period should be provided to the young learners and they should never be forced to produce language. At this juncture, games present a significant tool which enables young learners to listen to and understand language without necessitating production. Young learners can take part in all the activities completely without being forced to produce the language (Georgiou, 2010). Some sample examples that can be utilized in a listening class are as follows:

Game 1 Matching game Skill: Listening to the animal sounds and matching them to the correct animals Group Size: 4 to 30 Playing Time: 5-20 minutes Interest Level: ages 4 to adult Ability Level: upper beginning to intermediate Procedure: The teacher shows students pictures of ten animals and asks them to listen to the animal sounds in the recording and match the sounds to the correct animal. If the child chooses the correct animal, the animal glows and pop-up bubble reads ‘’Well done!’’. (Tang, 2012) T: Listen to the animal sounds in the recording and match the sounds to the correct animal.

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A

Game 2 Then game (Shakeel, 2010).

1. __________ Animal Sound 1

B 2. __________ Animal Sound 2

C

Skill: Listening to an uttereance made by a peer and adding an utterance to finish the first utterance Group Size: 4 to 30 Playing Time: 5-20 minutes Interest Level: ages 6 to adult Ability Level: upper beginning to intermediate Procedure: Younger learners can play the game entitled “Then”. Two players are necessary to play this game. The first child makes an utterance ending in a “then”. The second child adds an utterance finishing the first utterance. To illustrate, the first child utters: “The boy throws the ball, then…” and the second child utters: “…. the ball rolls down the hill.”

Game 3

3. __________ Animal Sound 3

Clapping game

D 4. __________ Animal Sound 4

E

Skill: Listening to the claps made by the teacher and doing a physical action Group Size: 4 to 30 Playing Time: 5-20 minutes Interest Level: ages 6 to adult Ability Level: upper beginning to intermediate Procedure: The teacher tells the children that one clap means stand, two claps mean march on the spot and three claps mean sit. Either the teacher or a child stands in the centre and claps instructions. The children listen to the clapped instructions very carefully and they follow these instructions correctly. (http://www.ppds.ie/pcsparchive/english/listening%20and%20 concentration%20games.pdf)

5. __________ Animal Sound 5

Game 4 F 6. __________ Animal Sound 6

G 7. __________ Animal Sound 7

My father went to the shop Skill: Listening, repeating and producing by adding Group Size: 4 to 30 Playing Time: 5-20 minutes Interest Level: ages 6 to adult Ability Level: upper beginning to intermediate Procedure: Children sit in an inward facing circle. One child commences by uttering ‘my father went to the shop and bought…’ and names an item like bread. The next child repeats the utterance involving bread and adds another item. Each child in turn repeats the utterance, all the former items and adds a new item, until someone makes a mistake. The utterance then commences again. (http://www.ppds.ie/pcsparchive/english/listening%20and%20 concentration%20games.pdf)

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Game 5

A

B

C

Name:

Name:

Name:

Story roundabout Skill: Listening, repeating and producing by adding Group Size: 4 to 30 Playing Time: 5-20 minutes Interest Level: ages 6 to adult Ability Level: upper beginning to intermediate Procedure: The children sit in an inward facing circle. A child or teacher commences a story which each child in turn continues by adding a sentence. A variation is to add only one word each. (http://www.ppds.ie/pcsparchive/english/listening%20and%20 concentration%20games.pdf)

Dictation

B. Watch the cartoon film and write Tom, Jerry or a lion into the blanks

Dictation exercise is a very useful technique for teaching listening to young learners. If the teacher simply articulates the words and students write these words in their notebooks, dictation exercise can be demotivating for young learners. However, if the teacher applies it in language games, young learners can get pleasure from it to a great extent. Some of the listening games which contain the principles of dictation are Bingo and Chopstick Spelling. For instance, in the listening game entitled Bingo, the teacher gives each of the children a bingo card. The teacher dictates words and the children select which square to write them in. Each of the dictated words is then put into a box. The child dictating the letter, or the other children, draws the word from the box one at a time, and the children mark them off on their cards. A child getting a whole row, column, or diagonal, calls out, Bingo! (Diyanti, 2010)

1. The radio anouncement was about a ________ escaping from a circus.

Cartoon films Cartoon films can be used to teach listening to young learners. Because young learners have the chance to listen to the language within a visual context, they can better comprehend what they listen to. For instance, the teacher can have the students watch the episode entitled Jerry and the Lion (http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=6ifVoUzFxRM) in the classroom. After the students have finished watching the episode, the following activity can be used in the classroom. A Sample Activity Based on Jerry and the Lion A. Watch the cartoon film and write names of the characters

2. __________ tries to keep the lion out of the house. 3. __________ feeds the lion. (Expected answers: 1. a lion

2. Tom 3. Jerry)

Discussion question Which listening technique/s can be more supportive for young learners? Why? Teaching phase Rixon (1986) divides the listening process into three stages. These stages are as follows:

ȤȤ Pre-listening stage

This phase is made up of things that students do before the listening, to assist students in getting the most out of what they are going to listen to. To put it differently, this stage prepares students for the listening activity.

ȤȤ While-listening stage

The second phase is made up of activities and exercises to be carried out while the learners listen to the listening text, to direct them to get the main message of the passage. To put it differently, it is the way the teacher controls the listening activity.

ȤȤ Follow-up stage

The third phase contains activities to be done when the students have learned the meaning and content of the passage and are ready to look back, to reflect on some aspects of language in it, or to do some extra work relying on the content of the listening text.

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Activities for teaching

Discussion question

In this section, typical activities for teaching phase; typical pre-listening, whilelistening and follow-up listening activities are listed and sample listening activities are presented via examples.

Which while-listening and follow-up listening activities do you think language teachers should use most in a listening class? Why?

Typical pre-listening activities • • • •

Pictures to activate background knowledge brainstorming what students know about the topic with a word map exhibiting real objects related to the topic (ex: a menu or a movie schedule) pre-teaching vocabulary (with pictures, realia, examples in context…) (http://www.hufs.davidboesch.com/GSE_YLDownloads/2010.ppt)

Typical while-listening activities • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

listening for gist listening to background noise to create setting and topic describing specific words finding relationship by listening to tone of voice listening for specific intonation (statement, question tag, or yes no question) raising hand when catching certain words true/false questions indicating stress or intonation matching multiple choice questions ordering/numbering items finding mistakes writing short responses performing a task such as filling out a form, taking an order making a decision relying on the information note-taking from a lecture (http://www.hufs.davidboesch.com/GSE_YLDownloads/2010.ppt)

Typical follow-up listening activities • interviewing with native speakers • role playing • reading and/or writing about the topic

Sample listening activities In this section, sample listening activities are presented under four subcategories, which are listen and do activities, listening for information, listen and repeat activities and listening to stories.

Listen and do activities Activity 1 Raise your hand Young learners can be asked to raise their hands when they hear a particular phonetic sound, or when the teacher misses a number while counting or when they hear a new or previously learned word (http://www.tefllife.com/virtualcourses/teyl/section_2/index.php). For instance, they can be asked to raise their hands when they hear [Ɵ] sound in a given short text on how to brush teeth. Here is the English text given to the students:

Brushing your teeth is vital for good dental health. Wet your toothbrush slightly. Squeeze a pea-sized amount of toothpaste onto your toothbrush. Try to concentrate on one tooth at a time. Start with the front of your teeth. Brush your molars. Brush the “inside” of your teeth. Rinse out your mouth. Rinse your toothbrush. Use mouthwash. (http://www.wikihow.com/Brush-Your-Teeth)

Activity 2 Mime stories The teacher tells the story and the students and the teacher do the physical actions (http://www.tefllife. com/virtualcourses/teyl/section_2/ index.php). A simple example can be: “We are on a sandy beach. We are sunbathing (The children mime sunbathing) Oh! What’s that? I can see a young man doing water-skiing (The children mime water-skiing) and the story continues…

• discussing the topic • listening to another example • designing a poster (http://www.hufs.davidboesch.com/GSE_YLDownloads/2010.ppt)

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Activity 3

Student: (Students connect the top left extending corner to the farthest bottom left corner to finish the outline of the box.)

Touch parts of your body The teacher has the children watch the video entitled “ Heads, shoulders, knees and toes’’ by accessing the web site http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=d8FwBSITW-4 and asks them to touch parts of their body while singing the song.

Activity 4 Drawing Listen and draw is an enjoyable classroom activity. However, the teacher should keep in mind that drawing takes time so the pictures should be easy to draw. The teacher tells the student what to draw but s/he does not say the name of the actual object. This activity is beneficial for developing listening as well as checking vocabulary, prepositions, numbers and color (http://www.tefllife.com/virtualcourses/teyl/section_2/index.php). For instance, the teacher tells the student how to draw a box in the following way: Teacher: Draw a square to make the front of your box.

Teacher: Color the top of the box, the right side, and the side facing you. Student: (Student colors the top of the box, the right side, and the side facing him/her.)

Listening for information These activities can be used to check what the children know and to give new information. Listening for the mistake, gap filling, putting things in order, listening and coloring and identifying are some of the activities focusing on listening for information (http://www.tefllife.com/virtualcourses/teyl/section_2/index.php). In the following section, these activities will be exemplified to better depict how to utilize these activities in a classroom context.

Activity 5 Listening for mistakes The teacher shows a picture to the students and reads a short text related to the picture. However, the teacher makes mistakes in the text s/he reads. The students listen to the teacher read a text and try to find out the mistakes by looking at the picture (http://www.tefllife.com/virtualcourses/teyl/section_2/index.php). For instance, the teacher shows the students a picture of children playing in the garden and reads the text below related to the picture:

Student: (Student draws a square to make the front of the box.) Teacher: Draw straight lines going up and right from all four corners of the square. Student: (Student draws straight lines going up and right from all four corners of the square.) Teacher: Connect the 2 top extending lines to make the top of the box. Student: (Student connects the 2 top extending lines to make the top of the box.)

Text Four children are playing football in the garden. Two of the children are female, whereas two of them are male. Female children are wearing a pink T-shirt. The male child is wearing a green T-shirt with number 10. In the garden, there is also a woman wearing a red and a white colored T-shirt. The woman is wearing glasses.

Teacher: Connect the 2 bottom extending lines to make the bottom of the box. Student: (Students connect the 2 bottom extending lines to make the bottom of the box.) Teacher: Connect the top right extending corner to the bottom right extending corner to make the right side of the box. Student: (Students connect the top right extending corner to the bottom right extending corner to make the right side of the box.) Teacher: Connect the top left extending corner to the farthest bottom left corner to finish the outline of the box.

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Activity 6

Activity 7

Gap filling

Putting things in order

Students can fill in the missing words of a table, a time-table, a song, or a text (http://www.tefllife.com/virtualcourses/teyl/section_2/index.php). For instance, students listen to a text about favorit colors of various people and tick the answers. Text John: My favorite colors are white and red. White is the symbol of purity and innocence and red is the color of strength, health, and vitality. Robert: My favorite colors are green and blue. Green is the harmony and balance and blue is the color of deliberation and introspection, conservatism and duty. Amy: My favorite colors are pink and orange. Pink is th color of love and affection without passion. Orange is the color of luxury and pleasure. Favorite Colors

John

Robert

Students listen to a recording on evening routine and put the pictures in the right order. The recording may be as follows:

Text Every evening, we wash our hands. We set the table. We eat dinner. After dinner, we put the dishes in the sink. We take a shower. We put on our pyjamas. We drink our milk. We brush our teeth. We tidy our rooms, put our toys away and fold our clothes. We close the curtains. We read a story and finally we go to sleep.

Amy

Yellow Red Blue Green White Black Orange Brown Pink Grey

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Activity 8

Activity 9

Listening and coloring

Identifting exercise

The students can listen to their teacher read the short text below aloud and they can color the picture based on what they hear.

Students can listen to the recording and tick the correct picture that is identified.

Text The man on the left side of the picture is wearing a blue shirt, black trousers and black shoes. He is also wearing a black belt. The man on the right side of the picture is wearing a pink shirt, dark-blue trousers and black shoes but he is not wearing a belt.

Text Have you seen Caroline’s little daughter? She is so cute with her blue eyes and fair hair. She is eating a candy and she is wearing a pink sweater.

Listen and repeat activities The teacher has the children watch the nursery rhyme entitled “ Ten Little Indians’’ by accessing the web site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7CFQLeFuj8 and asks them to repeat it. Thus, students can have the chance to practice the rhythm and intonation of the English language. One little, two little, Three little Indians. Four little, five little, Six little Indians. Seven little, eight little, Nine little Indians, Ten little Indian boys. Ten little, nine little, Eight little Indians. Seven little, six little, five little Indians. Four little, three little, Two little Indians, One little Indian boy. One little Indian boy.

Listening to stories Listening to stories plays a crucial role in young learners’ linguistic development. Listening to stories enables young learners to make up their own inner pictures. When telling a story to young learners, the teacher should adapt the language to 162

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the students’ level, repeat and go back, utilize gestures and facial expressions and make eye contact with the students to draw their attention to the story (http://www. tefllife.com/virtualcourses/teyl/section_2/index.php). An interesting activity for young learners is the teacher’s creating stories with them. In this activity type, the teacher poses questions to the students and the responses given by young learners proceeds the story. Because young learners are embedded into the activity and the end of the story is just like a crossword puzzle for them, they enjoy the teacher’s creating stories with them. In this chapter, listening instruction for young learners was presented. The chapter formed a background to the teaching of listening. In the chapter, information on key concepts of listening; the concept of listening, characteristics of listening, top-down and bottom-up processing, schema theory and types of listening was presented. Common listening situations, materials used for listening, listening skills, techniques for teaching listening to young learners, teaching phase and activities for teaching were also included. Further activities for teaching were listed and some sample listening activities were suggested. Mini-research questions 1. Explain why listening is a complex amalgam of many components with reference to recently conducted research studies. 2. What is the role of the language teacher in promoting students’ listening skills in today’s language classrooms? 3. What are the benefits of using technology-based listening materials (e.g. Internet-based listening materials) for young learners? 4. What are the common types of listening materials that young learners would be interested in?

Speaking Olcay Sert

Preliminary questions 1. What does interactional competence mean to you? 2. In what ways does the teaching of speaking skills to adults and to young learners differ? 3. How should teachers treat errors of young learners during speaking activities? 4. How can teachers make use of audiovisual materials to develop children’s speaking skills? The new millennium has witnessed a sharp turn in the conceptualisation of foreign language learning by placing interaction to the heart of language development both in and outside of classrooms (Firth & Wagner, 2007). Although the theoretical and practical innovations built upon communicative approach has had a considerably positive impact on pedagogical practices, practitioners have failed to implement an interaction-friendly framework, especially in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. This problem can particularly be observed in young learners’ classrooms, where ‘spoken interaction’ and ‘participation’ should be given primary emphasis in carrying out classroom tasks and activities. According to Halliwell (1992), the instinct for interaction and talk is the most important instinct a young child brings to learning a foreign language at school. However, making use of this instinct is not an easy task for language teachers, especially considering the physical limitations like overcrowded classrooms.

5. What problem(s) do you think language teachers are likely to encounter in teaching listening to young learners? What are some concrete ways to overcome these problems?

An EFL young learners’ classroom in Turkey

The primary aim of this chapter is to present a workable framework for developing 164

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speaking skills and interactional competence in EFL classrooms for young learners. The main argument is that participation is key to learning, and a teacher needs to facilitate learning opportunities by engaging students in talk and giving them appropriate prompts for oral production not only at word level but also at discourse level. In the following section, the idea of interactional competence and its significance for young learners will be clarified. Following this, by using examples from microteaching sessions at a state university and previously published extracts of recorded interactions from young learners’ classrooms, the interactional management of speaking activities will be illustrated in whole class interaction, chain activities, and pair/group work. In the fourth section, scaffolding and correction in young learners’ classrooms are discussed by arguing whether we need to correct or let student mistakes pass is highly dependant on the pedagogical goals of a given task or activity. The chapter will be finalised with a discussion on the use of dialogues from audiovisual materials.

Young learners and interactional competence Concerning the starting age for learning a foreign language, ‘the younger the better’ is a belief that has dominated pedagogical agendas in EFL globally. However, according to Linse (2005), contrary to popular myth, younger children learning English “do not develop English language skills more readily than older learners” (p. 49). Yet, a clear advantage of young learners is their tendency to acquire target language pronunciation in a considerably successful way (Munro et al., 1996). Although pronunciation skill is an integral part of learning a foreign language, it should be kept in mind that the primary aim of learning a language is to be able to communicate in the target language. Therefore, foreign language teachers should prioritise interactional competence over other competencies. Young (2008) defined interactional competence as a “relationship between the participants’ employment of linguistic and interactional resources and the contexts in which they are employed” (p.101). Markee (2008) proposed three components of interactional competence: 1) language as a formal system (includes pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar), 2) semiotic systems, including turn-taking, repair, sequence organization, 3) gaze and paralinguistic features. These definitions suggest that language use does not solely consist of exchanging utterances between participants in talk, but it also includes employment of verbal and nonverbal resources through turn-taking mechanisms in order to co-construct meaning. This said, interaction does not only involve speakership, but it also involves active listenership and a constant negotiation for meaning. This is one of the key differences between communicative competence and interactional competence, since communicative competence puts emphasis on individual performance as opposed to interactional competence, which considers interaction as a co-constructed and joint enterprise. Space precludes us for a discussion on these differences, but see appendix 1 for a comprehensive understanding of the distinctions. 166

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Since our concern in this chapter is ‘instructed learning settings’ (i.e. classrooms), particular attention should be paid to the concept of ‘classroom interactional competence’ (Walsh, 2011; 2012). According to Walsh (2011), classroom interactional competence (CIC) can be defined as “teachers’ and learners’ ability to use interaction as a tool for mediating and assisting learning” (p. 158). An important feature of CIC is that a teacher’s use of language should be convergent to the pedagogic goal of the moment. For instance, if the main aim of a classroom activity is to focus on linguistic forms, then an immediate correction can be more suitable to avoid further student errors. While this is the case for form-and-accuracy contexts (Seedhouse, 2004), different techniques like embedded correction or even avoiding correction can be more appropriate when the focus is on meaning. Discussion Read and respond to the ideas presented in the following part by considering student motivation and error correction relationship: “If the main aim of a classroom activity is to focus on linguistic forms, then an immediate correction can be more suitable to avoid further student errors.” It should, however, be noted that we cannot expect advanced communicative skills from young learners at early stages of language learning. At beginner levels and during early weeks of teaching, we should first get them acquainted to short segments of language so that they can use these in the future to further co-construct and negotiate meaning in classroom activities. This does not necessarily mean that students will be expected to just memorize and repeat orally the isolated language structures that are free from context. Developing interactional competence requires exposure to meaningful exchanges of utterances in a contextualized way, for instance by making use of adjacency pairs (e.g. question-answer; offer-acceptance/ rejection; invitation-decline). In the following section, different speech events in young learners’ classrooms will be examined and extracts from real interactions will be given.

Interactional management of speaking tasks/activities According to Cameron (2001), there are two guiding principles for teaching speaking skills to young learners: (1) meaning must come first, and (2) to learn discourse skills, children need both to participate in discourse and to build up knowledge and skills for participation. In this line of thinking, speaking activities and tasks prepared and enacted by a teacher play a crucial role for developing young learners’ speaking skills and interactional competence. It is obvious that materials and tasks cannot guarantee successful learning, but the interactional management of these by the teacher can help learners engage in interaction, and therefore may create opportunities for learning.

Teacher-fronted talk and whole class activities No matter how much time we dedicate to create more learner-centred classrooms for young learners, it is obvious that a great deal of classroom interaction consists of Speaking

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teacher-fronted talk. As we have seen in other chapters in this book, young learners should be taught with activities that are fun and interesting for them. An important point here is that it is mostly the teacher who introduces new language by making use of a variety of materials. The way a teacher uses her language to introduce these learning materials determine successful uptake of young learners. Therefore, teachers’ instructions as well as her use of language while introducing new words play a significant role for learners to understand the target items. Firstly, in a classroom full of children, a teacher should pay attention to the pace of her talk and should emphasise a new item by using pitch and stress. In other words, she should speak slow enough to make her utterances intelligible, and she should display the significance of the new language item by emphasising it at suprasegmental level. Secondly, she should maximise interactional space through increased wait-time (this is not always the case though, especially while asking students to repeat newly introduced words). Thirdly, she should keep monitoring student understanding by asking questions where relevant.

08 Ss: hmm 09 T: it’s a rectangle (1.1) it has (.) two short sides (.) and two lo:::ng sides (1.1) lo:ng. (0.6)

Mini- research Go on to Youtube and search for a video clip of an EFL classroom for children. Watch the video carefully and try to find out how a young learners’ teacher modifies her language use while speaking to kids. In order to illustrate these variables and to further exemplify different features including the use of non-verbal language, we can have a look at the extract below. This extract is from a microteaching session for young learners, prepared by a teacher candidate at Hacettepe University. It is clear that speaking first starts by uttering individual words and sounds, and for very young learners, the teachers may first introduce vocabulary and encourage students to say and repeat lexical items. This is the very first step in developing speaking skills. Yet, we should not simply introduce the target items through texts and repetitions, but give students rich prompts by making use of colourful materials, which will connect the image and the sound in a successful way (Sert, 2006). In this microteaching session illustrated with extract 1 below, the teacher introduces shapes by using colourful pictures on the board. Extract 1: Rectangle 01 T:

this is my friend, rectangle. (0.7)

02 Ss: °rectangle°. 03 T:

RECtangle. (0.3)

04 Ss: rectangle. 05 T: rectangle has, one (0.9) two (0.6) three (0.7) four sides= ((shows the sides on the material)) 06 S1: =like a square. 07 T:

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10 T:

can you make a rectangle?

11 Ss: yes. 12 T: short one (0.5) lo::ng (0.6)short (0.7) long again. ((showing the sides on the picture)) ((the students all draw the sides on the air like the teacher)) 13 yes:. 14 T:

what is it? ((holds the picture up))

15 Ss: it’s a rectangle. This extract represents many features of CIC, although at first one may think that it is a typical teacher presentation mode which is mechanical and which does not provide opportunities for student participation. It seems that the focus is not much on meaning, but on form; yet, this is the pedagogic goal at the moment and we should consider the meaning making process from that perspective. Firstly, as can be seen in the figures, the materials are colourful and appropriate for young learners in many ways. In line 1, the teacher introduces the new word (rectangle) and this is immediately followed by a chorus repetition by the learners, which is a typical example of traditional turn-taking mechanism in multi-party classrooms. This helps the teacher to monitor problems in pronunciation and she uses this opportunity to help students to produce correct utterances by putting emphasis at word-initial Speaking

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position in line 3. When they are first introduced new language items, young learners need this kind of repair work from the teachers at phonological level. Another teacher skill that can be observed here is that she keeps her pace down, utters each individual word slowly, and leaves considerably long silences between utterances. This makes the spoken language more intelligible for learners. In line 5, the teacher also uses deictic gestures (i.e. pointing), and imitates the shape of rectangle, which is also repeated by the students. In line 6, we see an example of student initiation that elaborates on the teacher turns, which is a desirable goal since it shows that there is student participation even in a mechanical exchange like this. In line 7, the teacher acknowledges the student contribution and expands her sequence with a further question. Meanwhile, as can be seen in the first figure, she matches the two materials on the board, therefore making meaning clear for the learners. This is again followed by hand and arm gestures through which the sound form (stretching the ‘o’ sound in ‘long’) matches with the meaning of the word. The extract finishes with further non-verbal displays, teacher question and student repetition of the whole sentence in chorus. Students were successfully enabled to produce the target items both in sound form, and then in word and full sentence form. Beyond that, although the extract starts with just repetition at the beginning, we see adjacency pairs after the students are confident enough to use the new items in a question answer exchange (lines 10-11 and lines 14-15). Discussion questions 1. Why do you think teachers should also use their body language while speaking to children? 2. It is often argued that teachers’ pronunciation of words sounds awkward rather than natural. In the example above, the teacher says “lo::ng (0.6).” By considering this, explain, in your own words, how teachers should speak. Should we aim to be understandable and audible or simply natural? Remember to…

• start with a good modelling of the spoken language! • keep your pace down! • leave pauses between utterances/items when possible! • start from the sound (line 3), move to the word, • then to an utterance (e.g line 9), • and finally to an adjacency pair (e.g. lines 14 and 15) • use deictic and iconic gestures! (as seen in the figures) • elaborate on student utterances if possible! (line 7)

young learners’ knowledge in spoken language from segmental and word level to conversational level, teachers need to expose them to question-answer exchanges. This is because an adjacency pair is the minimal unit of interaction through which participants co-construct meaning. Therefore, although at the beginning they may sound a bit mechanical, question-answer chain drills introduced through games or different tasks can be very helpful for young learners. In the following section, we will look at a video-recorded example of a question-answer chain game.

Interactional features of chain work As mentioned earlier, adjacency pairs form the basis of social interaction and meaning making process. When the students start learning vocabulary or grammar rules, they also need to be able to use the new language items in meaningful conversations. Question-answer chain drills give young learners the opportunity to practice simple interactional patterns in line with the pedagogical goals of the teacher. In extract 2 below, a teacher candidate at Hacettepe University uses a ‘ball throwing game’ to teach question-answer exchanges about dresses. Prior to this interaction, the trainee teacher introduced different words using audio-visuals and the students have previously covered colours and other required vocabulary. The primary pedagogical aim of this activity is to simply practice question forms using question-answer adjacency pairs. One of the main advantages of such an activity is that many students find opportunities to practice spoken language by not only using statements, but also question forms. In this way, the activity becomes more meaningful, also considering the fact that the students are using their own clothes to answer the questions. What is more, the turn-taking mechanism is more student friendly compared to traditional teacher fronted conversations, since students are free to perform next-speaker turn allocation by throwing a ball. Extract 2: Ball game 01 T:

now it’s time to play a game (.) i have a ball (.) and I am giving it to you (.)

02

you will throw the ball to one of your friends (.) and ask her or him

03

‘what are you wearing?’ (.) and your friend will give you the answer,

04

‘i’m wearing a black skirt’ for example (.) belma can you start?

05

(3.0)

As mentioned earlier, at the very beginning stages, conversational skills of young learners cannot be expected to be like adult learners, who can engage in extended conversations using more complex structures. However, in order to take 170

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06 B:

what are you wearing Mine.

07 M: i’m wea- wearing blue skirt. 08

(5.0) ((Throws the ball to U))

09 M: what are you wearing? 10

(2.0)

11 U:

i’m wearing a black skirt.

12

(1.2)

13 T: a black skirt? ((checks the colour)) yes good ((students laugh)) can you throw it? 14

(1.1)

15 U:

what are you wearing naz?

16

(1.0)

17 N:

I’m wearing a blue t shirt.

18 T:

Okay, well done.

Remember to…

• check your pace while giving the instructions! • use an object like a ball that will help to run the turn-taking mechanism run smoothly!

• give students the opportunity to allocate turns! • model the question answer exchange before the activity starts! • constantly monitor student utterances and spot potential problems • avoid correcting each minor mistake at the beginning! • however, act on immediately if other students fail to produce accurate forms

• use praise words to motivate your students! There are many other techniques a teacher can use to teach basic conversational patterns. Use of puppets, especially in young learners’ classrooms, is a creative way to introduce adjacency pairs before conversational chain drills. Apart from traditional puppets that have been used in young learners’ classrooms worldwide, using finger puppets can also be a very entertaining technique, since the students can also make their own puppets, which will bring a hands-on dimension to the learning process. In this image, we see a snapshot from an activity in which a trainee teacher uses finger puppets to teach family members to young learners. One important technique she uses is to use an animated voice while modelling the dialogues. This makes the learning process more fun for kids. Additionally, children feel more secure when personifications are included in the learning process. See appendix 2 for an activity that aims to teach basic interactional patterns using finger puppets and questionanswer chain drills.

From lines 1 to 5, the teacher gives the instructions of the activity that will be carried out. An important feature of her instruction is that she uses a number of micropauses between her utterances so that the learners will be able to understand the procedures of the activity. Secondly, she models the language (beginning of line 3 and line 4) that will be used by the students to make sure that the students will use appropriate question-answer forms. Modelling the language this way is a crucial step while giving the instructions to young learners at the beginning of any kind of activity. She also displays the throwing action so that the students have a better understanding of the activity sequence. At the end of line 4, she allocates the turn to Berna and the chain activity starts after three seconds of silence. In lines 6 and 7, B and M successfully exchange information using the modelled adjacency pair by the teacher. Although B does not use a rising intonation at the end of her question, the teacher lets this mistake pass, maybe because the utterance was syntactically wellformed. Besides, in line 7, the student does not use the indefinite article ‘a’ which is not corrected by the teacher. After 5 seconds of silence, M initiates the turn to U, this time with the correct question form and intonation pattern. In line 11, U gives the required response and the activity proceeds smoothly in the following lines.

Opportunities for language use and learning in pair/group work

It should be noted that in line 18, the teacher acknowledges the student contributions and praises the student (well done). Young learners need to receive positive feedback after successful turn initiations, and it is a well-known fact that this may have a positive effect on their motivation. Another important thing in this activity sequence is that there are shorter gaps between the turns as the activity moves forward. This indicates that the students are getting used to the flow of interaction and it becomes more rapid and fluent. In addition to this, although there were problems with question intonation and use of indefinite article at the beginning, the students started to be more accurate while forming the adjacency pairs.

Resent research in the field of foreign language education showed that task based language teaching (TBLT) is a powerful method that provides opportunities for students’ language use in classrooms. Tasks provide young learners with motives that enable them to use oral language in meaningful contexts. Space precludes a full account of TBLT in this chapter, but I will briefly mention some crucial points that are relevant to developing speaking skills of young learners. Firstly, by accomplishing given tasks and using the target language while doing so, children co-construct understanding and negotiate meaning which is conducive to language acquisition. Secondly, by carrying out tasks in a foreign language, children ‘learn by

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Mini- research Find a coursebook prepared for young learners and search for dialogues that can be used to teach basic adjacency pairs which can be used in question-answer chain drills. Pay attention to the functions of language (e.g. invitation, offering etc.)

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doing’. Learning by doing is achieved through successful means of language use. Additionally, negotiating of meaning leads to ‘modified output’, which is a desirable goal in language learning. A picture-matching task or a map task is one of the most popular tasks used in young learners’ classrooms, since they provide opportunities for negotiation-for-meaning. Especially in map tasks, the students need to ask questions and exchange information, which enables them to use different question forms, confirmation checks and acknowledgement tokens. See appendix 3 for a sample.

Discussion question What kind of difficulties may a teacher experience during pair work activities in young learners’ classrooms? Pair work and group work tasks and activities are quite popular in TBLT. Of course, it is not easy to deal with classrooms full of children. There are two major problems that teachers can encounter. Firstly, disciplinary issues can arise like too much ‘off-task talk’ and noise. Secondly, when left alone, students tend to switch to their L1 and neglect using the target language for accomplishing the given tasks. To resolve these problems, during group work and pair work activities, teachers should monitor each pair and group effectively and make sure L2 is used as much as possible. Teacher intervention in such cases is not always a bad thing. While monitoring children, teachers can spot mistakes in language use, and can provide input, guidance, and feedback. Oliver et al. (2008) investigated the impact of teacher input, guidance, and feedback on ESL children’s task based interactions in Australia. They examined three experimental conditions representing a continuum of teacher guidance: task instructions alone, task instructions with examples, and task instructions followed by on-task guidance and feedback. An important finding from their study is that older children (11-12 year olds) benefited most from on-task guidance from the teacher compared to younger children (5-7 year olds), evidenced by the number of modified output from the learners. One of the most significant educational implications of this is that teachers need to be very clear in giving pre-task instructions before pair work and group work while they are teaching to very young learners, and they need to provide feedback while they are dealing with older children. This can be illustrated with the extract below, which comes from a pair work interaction in a young learners’ classroom (11-12 year olds): Extract 3: On task support and recast (adopted from Oliver et al., 2008, p. 141) 01 S2: Does does what is this? 02 T:

It’s called a desert

03 S2: Does horse live in cosert [desert]? 04 T:

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05 S2: //desert// 06 T:

//desert//

[10 turns later, teacher is not present] 07 S1: Yes does cow live in Jungle? 08 S2: jungle> no does cow live disert [desert]? 09 S1: disert dusert [desert] no does cow live in a farm? 10 S2: No> In this extract, the teacher provides support for learners in the form of a vocabulary item (line 2) and recasts student production into a target-like form in lines 4 and 6. Following this teacher support, the students recall the word ‘desert’ and use it appropriately when the teacher leaves the interaction, although they mispronounce it (lines 8 and 9). So it is obvious that no matter how good tasks are planned by teachers, a constant monitoring of student interaction is vital for language learning. By spotting potential problems in such speaking activities, teachers can act on immediately and provide structural, topic-oriented, and interactional feedback. Yet, is immediate correction always good for learners? Should we correct every single mistake made by students? Furthermore, how can we provide language support indirectly? How can scaffolding be performed effectively? In the following section, I will address all these issues by using excerpts from published transcripts. Remember to…

• give very clear instructions before a task! • provide students with examples of language items that can be used during solving a task!

• monitor the students and be aware of potential problems! Let them know that you can be of help when they need it!

• provide on-task guidance and feedback! • use recasts where relevant! • avoid simply giving the correct answers: help them with the language, but let them complete the task. Feeling of accomplishment is very important to motivate young learners!

• be alert when they start using their mother tongue dominantly! Scaffolding and correction In a broad sense, ‘scaffolding’ in interaction refers to the linguistic support given by a tutor to a learner (Bruner, 1985). It should, however, not be understood as simply providing young learners with accurate language forms when they encounter difficulties in retrieving language items from their memory. It is used to lead learners to an understanding of the task by, on the one hand, a teacher’s provision of challenge to maintain involvement, and on the other, support to ensure understanding (Walsh, 2006). Being able to ‘shape children’s oral contributions’ during interaction can be Speaking

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considered as a more general feature of classroom interactional competence of teachers, which includes scaffolding as well as modelling, repairing learner input (e.g. embedded correction), and seeking clarification (Walsh, 2012). Recent research (e.g. Yazigi & Seedhouse, 2005) shows that scaffolding practices (mainly in the form of embedded correction, which will be described in the following paragraphs) can be observed in ‘Sharing Time’ activities in young learners’ classrooms. ‘Sharing Time’ activities are generally enacted as follows: young learners sit or stand in a circle, and a child speaks at a time and shares feelings or ideas with the rest of the group. The focus is “on creating a sense of community and developing social and interactional skills” (Yazigi and Seedhouse, ibid., p.1).

A snapshot from a Sharing Time activity in a kindergarten in Turkey

Extract 4 below comes from recorded interactions in a Sharing Time activity in a second grade young learners’ classroom in Abu Dhabi. The extract shows how the teacher uses a number of resources to secure the flow of conversation and to make sure the student uses spoken language fluently and share her experience. Extract 4: Car wash (Adopted from Yazigi & Seedhouse, 2005, p. 15) 01 L:

yesterday ya my uncle took me where they wash cars.

02 T:

to the car wash?

03 L:

ya the car wash and also I started uh washing them.

04

I worked with them too sometimes.

05 T:

the workers?

06 L:

ya.

07 T:

what did you do? did you wax the car after it was washed?

08 L:

ya.

09 T:

you helped waxing it?

10 L:

ya and also inside.

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11 T:

oh. what did you do inside?

12 L:

uh::: first thing my uncle putted everything in the back:::

13 T:

uhu..

14 L:

and then the back was so heavy so he couldn’t drive

15

very good so we moved...everything...so it was

16

so we started cleaning, then we putted them back

17

again where they were next to each other:::

18 T:

uhu..

19 L:

ya..and after ..we opened at the back and we also

20

started cleaning ya and now my uncle’s car is so:::

21 T:

very clean.

22 L:

ya. very clean.

23 T:

when you said the back of the car you meant the boot?

24 L:

ya. the boot of the car.

25 T:

O.K. thank you Nabil.

After the learner starts sharing her experience in line 1, the teacher performs a vocabulary expansion in line 2. This leads to a student uptake in line 3 (the car wash) and proves to be an effective way to help the student produce correct utterances. Following a message-oriented repair in line 5, T again helps the flow of conversation using appropriate questions in lines 7, 9, and 11. Note that the students’ linguistic mistakes (e.g. hitted) from line 14 to 17 are not corrected by the teacher, so that the primary aim of this activity is achieved: to let the student share her experience and talk as much as possible. In line 21, T initiates a message-oriented repair and again ensures flow of the interaction by completing the learner’s utterance with an appropriate expression. The student again displays uptake of the repaired item by repeating it in line 22. In line 23, T refers back to lines 12 and 14 and initiates repair of the expression the back of the car, replacing it with boot. The student again displays uptake by using it in line 24 (Yazigi & Seedhouse, 2005). What we have observed here, based on the authors’ analysis, is that a teacher can create space for learning by shaping learner contributions in different ways. It was showed that the teacher repairs (e.g. lines 3, 21) were picked up and used by the student. Another interesting phenomenon to be considered is the teachers’ avoidance of correcting student mistakes (e.g. hitted). One can argue that this is definitely in line with the pedagogical goal of the moment, since the main aim in this activity is to ensure that the interaction flows smoothly. The vocabulary expansions offered by the teacher, without immediate corrections, is a feature of scaffolding strategy and teachers should make use of such resources in speaking activities for young learners. According to Yazigi and Seedhouse (ibid.), Sharing Time activities should be adopted in young learners’ classrooms for a number of reasons:

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1. To establish teacher-student rapport and a sense of community. 2. To build self-confidence. 3. To encourage fluency and the use of English for talking about real life issues. 4. To address a need felt by students. 5. It is an enjoyable activity and a good induction to the day. In Sharing Time activities, remember to…

• arrange the physical environment to a circular position! • let young learners choose and share an experience of their own! • acknowledge any logical topic selected by the learner! • refrain immediate corrections so as not to interrupt the flow of interaction! • use embedded correction that may lead to learner uptake! • initiate listenership tokens (e.g. lines 13 and 18) that displays understanding of learner turns!

Discussion question Examine the different classroom excerpts given below. Discuss with a peer whether you find the types of corrections (if any) appropriate or not. Remember to consider the pedagogical goals of the teacher. Excerpt A: Embedded correction T: What did you do during the weekend Cem? Cem: I goed to cinema with my father.

According to Scott and Ytreberg (1990), when pupils are working with controlled and guided speaking activities, if they make mistakes they need to be corrected at once. Yet, should this always be the case? There are two issues that should be taken into consideration while thinking about correcting young learners during interaction. The first one is of psychological nature. Linse (2005) states that responding to too many errors can discourage children from communicating and talking. The second issue is a pedagogical one. According to Seedhouse (2004), there is a reflexive relation between pedagogy and interaction, and organisation of repair (e.g. correction) is dependent on the micro-context (e.g. form-and-accuracy or meaning-and-fluency) of the moment. For instance, in extract 4, as we have discussed in this section, the focus is on a student’s experience, therefore on meaning. For this reason, an explicit correction from the teacher may not be appropriate. However, correction does not always need to be explicit. Embedded correction, that is a repair done in the context of a conversational move, is a more indirect and suitable way of repairing student utterances. Extract 5 below, from a young learners’ classroom in Abu Dhabi, illustrates how a teacher can perform an embedded correction following a grammatical mistake made by a student in a speaking activity: Extract 5: They will came today (Adopted from Yazigi and Seedhouse, 2005, p. 12)

Excerpt B: Explicit negative assessment and immediate correction

01 L:

yesterday I don’t know my grand my grandfather

02

and m.. and with my bay.. with their baby ya

03

and with my grandmother I don’t know they will came today.

T: okay. repeat after me Selim.

04 T:

they will come today? they’re coming? Your grandmother and grandfather?

05

where from?

I should (ʃʊd) see a doctor.

T: Oh you went to the cinema with your father?

Selim: I ʃʊld see a doctor. *

06 L:

Australia. (Arabic pronunciation)

Cem: Yes. We watched The Monsters Inc.

T: No. Be careful. I ʃʊd see a doctor.

07 T:

oh, they’re coming from Australia to visit you here in Abu Dhabi?

Selim: I should (ʃʊd) see a doctor.

08 L:

ya.

T: Well done Selim.

In this example, the teacher treats the error (line 3, they will came today) indirectly, and first models the language at the beginning of line 4, and then asks for confirmation with more questions. We can observe another embedded repair in line 7 where the teacher specifically addresses the pronunciation of the word ‘Australia’ with a full statement. Embedded correction helps students in a variety of ways. Firstly, it is not an explicit negative assessment, and therefore does not de-motivate young learners. Secondly, the language is modelled to both the student who made the mistake and to other students who are listening to the conversation. Lastly, it ensures a successful flow of conversation. Activities like Sharing Time are very useful especially if the young learners are at a level where they can express themselves in a foreign language. It is obvious that this will not be possible with learners who have a limited spoken proficiency level. In the following section, we will again consider young learners at the very beginning stages of foreign language learning and show what kind of roles audio-visuals play in the teaching and learning process.

Excerpt C: No correction with acknowledgement tokens

Excerpt D: Explicit negative assessment and immediate correction

S: I thinked Super Man is best.*

T: Who wants to share his feelings on the cartoon?

T: Uh huh. S: But Spiderman weren’t good like him.* T: Yeah I agree. I like Super Man better too.

Yes Bora. Bora: I finded it too funny*. T: Found. you must say found. it is an irregular verb. Bora: I found it too* funny. T: Very funny!

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Using Dialogues from Audio-visual Resources An important strategy that helps a child engage with a context is to use fantasy or role-play (Stables, 1992). Role-plays give young learners the opportunity to use spoken language in an entertaining and meaningful way. As role-play activities may consist of dialogues that reflect various functions of spoken language, they become an invaluable resource for children to practice speaking in a foreign language. According to Cameron (2001), dialogues provide a model of different question. According to her, dialogues may offer:

Although course books include dialogues for young learners to practice conversational patterns, they are mostly artificial interactional sequences, which do not reflect all features of spoken interaction. Films, TV series, and cartoons, on the other hand, can be a more fruitful resource for young learners due to many factors (Sert, 2009). Cartoons are especially useful in young learners’ classrooms since they supply audio-visual input, reflect native-speaker talk, and are fun to watch for kids. In the example below, there is a very short clip from the animatied film Monster Inc. In the very first days of teaching, this short clip can be used to

ȤȤ genuine samples of spoken language; ȤȤ contextualised sentence patterns; ȤȤ written sentences that resemble what people might say; ȤȤ practice of sentence patterns; ȤȤ scripts, rather like short theatrical plays (Cameron, 2001, p. 69).

Children’s short stories may include a variety of repetitive sentence patterns as well as dialogues that may help to develop speaking skills. The key point for making use of them is the ‘fun factor’ that easily engages young learners in classroom activities. Wu (2008) suggests that folk plays like Three Little Pigs may be used as they include repetitive language, sentence patterns, and rhythmic refrains, which can be chanted and sung in an appealing way. Below is an excerpt from this folk tale: Excerpt 1

Excerpt 2

Excerpt 3

One, two, three, the three little pigs. One, two, three, the three little pigs. House, house, a new house, I want to build a new house. Straw, straw, Dog has some straw. Straw, straw, Please give me some straw. I want to build a house of straw.

One, two, three, the three little pigs. One, two, three, the three little pigs. House, house, a new house, I want to build a new house. Sticks, sticks, Goat has some sticks. Sticks, sticks, Please give me some sticks. I want to build a house of sticks.

One, two, three, the three little pigs. One, two, three, the three little pigs. House, house, a new house, I want to build a new house. Bricks, bricks, Bear has some bricks, Bricks, bricks, Please give me some bricks. I want to build a house of bricks.

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introduce basic greetings and introduction patterns. Of course, these kinds of sequences can be found in course books and the teacher can make use of different materials to teach such adjacency pairs (e.g. greeting– greeting). However, there are some advantages in bringing a material from a cartoon like this to a young learners classroom. Let’s have a closer look at the interaction here: Extract 6: Greetings and introduction, Adopted from Monsters Inc (2001). 01 Mike:

Hey.

02 Mom:

Oh! Well, hello there.

03

What’s your name?

04 Mike:

Mike Wazowski!

What actually happens in this interaction seems pretty simple at first. Mike greets the other monsters; the mother monster greets back and asks his name. However, how this is done is quite different from typical artificial dialogues that we find in course books. We normally teach young learners two different ways to greet someone during initial encounters: ‘Hi!’ and ‘Hello!’. In extract 6, on the other hand, Mike uses a more informal greeting (Hey!) which is frequently observed in native speaker discourse. The response from the mother is also distinctive: ‘Oh well, hello there!’. The mother enacts the surprise factor with a change of state token like ‘oh’ (Heritage, 1992), also using the discourse marker ‘well’, which is again

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frequently used by native speakers in daily interaction. She completes her turn with an alternative greeting that should be taught to beginner learners of English: ‘hello there’. Then the sequence is closed with a question-answer adjacency pair that can illustrate young learners how introductions are accomplished. By making use of dialogues from cartoons like the one above, young learners, firstly, are exposed to native-speaker input. Secondly, the conversational exchanges are contextualised with an audiovisual material, which has the potential to enhance learning. Lastly, rather than using written dialogues from course books, the children are exposed to more real-like interactional patterns which include alternative greetings (e.g. ‘hey’, ‘hello there’) and they also get acquainted with a variety of features of daily spoken interaction including change of state tokens (‘oh’), and discourse markers (‘e.g. ‘well’). Therefore, even a short and simple dialogue like this can prove to be a very rich teaching material that can enhance children’s interactional competence. In appendix 4, there is an activity that can be used with young learners who have a higher proficiency level. While using dialogues from cartoons, remember to…

• bring to the classroom the kind of cartoons that the kids would love to watch! • choose dialogues that are appropriate for the children’s level! • make sure the dialogues reflect ‘functions of language’ rather than a focus on ‘forms’!

• use dialogues that include question-answer exchanges! • include English subtitles so that they also get to see the written form! • avoid bringing dialogues which include accents that are not easily intelligible! • help your students model the language they hear! Conclusion Some important features of spoken interaction in young learners’ classrooms are discussed in this chapter. In discussing all these features and related classroom activities, ‘the oral use of language’ and ‘interactional competence’ was at the centre of this chapter’s argument. It is obvious that before being able to use language orally in meaningful interactions, children need adequate amount of oral input from the teacher or from audiovisual materials, and they need to practice short segments of language. After adequate amount of input at sound and word level has been achieved, they need to be exposed to and to use adjacency pairs to co-construct meaning with their interlocutors.

gives opportunities for participation and learning; and may fail to do so if she cannot conform her discourse to the pedagogical goal of the moment. Some of the features that were found to be useful were to give learning space with decreased pace of talk, use of suprasegmentals for emphasis, use of vocabulary expansions, and scaffolding and embedded correction. Finally, I argued that use of carefully selected audiovisual materials can be fruitful for children. In doing so, teachers can use dialogues from cartoons that are similar to real-life conversations carried out by native speakers. To conclude this chapter, I suggest that interactional competence should be the core aim in English language classrooms in Turkey. This is exactly what we have failed to do so far considering that English language learners in Turkey have a considerably low spoken proficiency level compared to their proficiency in other skills. Study questions 1. What are the primary differences between interactional competence and other competencies (e.g. grammatical competence, lexical competence, communicative competence) that have been covered in this book? 2. How should teachers adapt their language use in terms of pace, emphasis, and non-verbal cues while speaking to young learners, especially while giving instructions? 3. Why are question-answer chain drills important for young learners? 4. What are the two major problematic issues that a teacher may face during pair/group work activities with young learners? 5. What is scaffolding? How can it help to develop speaking skills for young learners? 6.

What are the two issues that should be taken into consideration while correcting (or not) young learners during classroom interaction?

7.

What are the criteria to select appropriate dialogues from audiovisual materials for young learners?

By making use of samples from micro-teachings and previously published extracts of real classroom interactions, it is illustrated how interactions unfold in a variety of contexts including teacher-fronted talk, chain work, and ‘Sharing Time’ activities. The main argument here was that the way a teacher controls her discourse and the way teachers shape learner contributions have the potential to determine the quality of student output. By using scaffolding and fine-tuned correction techniques, a teacher 182

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Appendix 1 Interactional competence vs. communicative competence (Walsh, 2011, p. 165)

Appendix 2 Sample question-answer chain drill activity using finger puppets Aim: To teach conversations on clothes and kinship using chain drills and finger puppets Level: Young learners, aged between 8-11 Materials: Paper finger puppets representing the members of The Simpsons Pre-activity stage: The teacher brings pictures of The Simpsons family and introduces them to the class with an emphasis on the kinship terms and clothes. For example: This is Marge Simpson. Marge is Bart’s mother. Marge is wearing a blue dress. Then she models sample conversations between the family members using the finger puppets she prepared in advance. Remember that use of animated voice is important at this stage. For example: Bart:

Hi Mom.

Marge: Hi Bart. Bart:

What are you wearing today?

Marge: I am wearing a blue dress. What about you? Bart:

I am wearing a red t-shirt.

Preparation: The teacher gives copies of the papers that the students need to cut and create finger puppets. Then the students need to colour the dresses on the characters. The question-answer chain activity: After each student prepares her/his own finger puppet, they start taking turns and ask each other what their characters are wearing, by also using the kinship terms. The teacher has to make sure that each student uses both the question form and then the statement in an accurate way. The students should be advised to pretend that they are the characters themselves, so they use first person singular form. They can also be asked to use animated voice, which will make the activity more fun.

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Appendix 3 A sample map task to be used in pair-work (adapted from Scott & Ytreberg, 1990, p. 43)

Appendix 4 A learning activity adapted from a sample dialogue in The Monsters Inc.

Procedures:

Level: Young learners, aged between 8-12

Provide each pair of students with two maps (see below). In one of the maps, places like library, cinema, and hospital are not shown, while in the other map the student knows where each place is. The student with limited information asks the other student the location of, for instance, the library and tries to figure out where to draw the library on his empty map. Here is a sample interaction that may occur during such a task:

Materials: The DVD of The Monsters Inc. with English subtitles

A: Where is the library?

Aim: To teach conversations on describing objects.

Pre-activity stage: Make your learners familiar with the cartoon The Monsters Inc. before you show them the specific video clip and the extract given below. Make sure you have previously covered how people describe objects in English, with reference to colours and shapes.

B: It is on Grey Street. A: Where on Grey Street? B: Next to the Sweet Shop. A: Next to what? B: The Sweet Shop. Task outcomes: By completing this task, the students will potentially use question answer exchanges as well as requests for clarification, which are conducive to language acquisition. They will, in addition, be able to use the items they have learned in meaningful contexts. Before starting such task, a teacher needs to make sure that the language to be used is properly modelled to the students. On-task guidance by the teacher is also a desirable feature of such activities in the classrooms.

The procedures: Play the video clip with English subtitles a couple of times and ask your students to focus on how M1 describes the door. M1:

Mike, that’s not her door.

M2:

What are you talking about? Of course it’s her door. It’s her door.

M1:

No, her door was white.

M2: No. M1:

And it had flowers on it.

M2:

No. It must have been dark last night, because this is the door.

After making sure the students understand the dialogue, ask them to discuss in pairs the physical features of the girl’s door. Following this, ask each pair for their responses and make sure the students use utterances like: ‘Mike thinks the door was white’. Also pay particular attention on how the monsters co-construct a disagreement sequence (e.g. with utterances like ‘What are you talking about?’) and how they resolve this finally. Alternatively, you can give students the script with blanks after they listen to the dialogue, and ask them to write the missing words in the text.

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Speaking

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Listening and Speaking Ece Zehir Topkaya

Consider the following preliminary questions before you continue reading:

• Do you think listening and speaking skills are given priority in EFL classes? • How much place did listening and speaking cover when you were learning English at primary and secondary school?

• What were the most common activities you did? How did you do them? What is listening? To put it simply, listening “is an active, purposeful process of making sense of what we hear” (Helgesen, 2003: p. 24). However, it should be noted that in listening we may as well respond to non-verbal messages. Therefore, in a broader sense, we may define listening as “the process of receiving, constructing meaning from and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages (ILA, 1995). Listening, alongside speaking, is also described as an oral skill. That is, we make sense of what is spoken to us. Besides, it is also viewed as a receptive skill “because the focus is on receiving information from an outside source” (Linse, 2005). When this description is taken into consideration by itself, it is often thought that receiving information does not require a response in the hearer. This misconception may lead us to think that listening is a passive skill. However, just to think about what we do or how we react upon hearing something will give clues about how much we are involved in active listening. For one thing, in most of the cases upon receiving an oral message, we give immediate answers; we usually relate it to some other background information we have. The list may continue forever. In conclusion, listening is a communication process in which the listener works actively to make meaning and evaluation of a message before a response is produced. Activity 1: Just to see how much active listening you do, please note down at least five things you have listened to so far today and how you have reacted to the incoming information. What I have listened to so far today

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Skills and Aspects

How I have reacted to the input

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Activity 2: Look at the English Language Teaching Program for primary school learners in the national curriculum. Choose any two grades and list down at least 5 listening skills that are cultivated in the program, please. Grades ............. Grade

............ Grade

1.

1.

2.

2.

3.

3.

4.

4.

5.

5.

Recently there has been more emphasis on the cognitive processes involved in the act of listening. In other words, how we process what we hear, i.e. the input, is another question we need to tackle at this point. From this perspective, there are two major approaches to explain the listening process: bottom-up and topdown approaches or processes. The former “refers to decoding a message that the listener hears through the analysis of sounds, words, and sentences [in other words linguistic elements]” and moving to trying to understand the whole text while “top-down processing refers to using background knowledge to comprehend (the meaning of) a message” (Gebhard, 2006: 148). This background knowledge could include the “previous knowledge about the topic of discourse, situational or contextual knowledge… or plans about the overall structure of events and the relationships between them” (Richards, 2008: 7). 190

Skills and Aspects

The two notions, i.e. approaching listening as a set of skills and as a cognitive process could be merged in one figure (see Figure 1).

Using general/local/socio-cultural knowledge Identifying implied meanings Identifying general meaning Identifying specific meanings Identifying grammatical groupings of words Recognizing non-verbal signals

Top- down processing

Listening can be regarded as a set of skills, or micro skills that include discrimination of sounds; recognition of words; recognizing cohesive devices in texts; identifying key words; understanding sequence of events, organization of ideas; getting the main idea(s) in a text; recognizing people’s attitudes and opinions; capturing the cultural information and etc. (Willis, 1981; Rost, 1991; Richards, 2008). Dividing listening into sub-skills can help teachers in two ways: in the first place, being knowledgeable about them will help them observe their learners and diagnose their listening problems using these skills as a checklist and second, this information will help them to identify the purpose of a listening activity as given in a coursebook.

However, in many cases we do not solely depend on one process to make meaning of what we hear. Most of the time, we combine bottom-up and top-down processing to arrive at the intended meaning of what we hear. For instance, imagine that you are at a clothes shop and you see that the shop assistant is coming towards you. You may instantly think what she may say to you thus you start predicting the likely words or sentences, hence use your background information. Then the shop assistant arrives and says “Is there anything special you are looking for?” By hearing the sentence, you pick up the words special and look for and you may understand the message of the question, hence, use bottom-up process. As seen in this example, most of the time we integrate the two processes in our attempts to understand what we hear, which is called interactive processing (Helgesen, 2003).

Bottom-up processing

The above discussion makes the connection between listening and speaking obvious. Developing listening skills also support other skills such as reading since people use similar listening and reading processes in the comprehension of input. For example, making intelligent predictions about a text is a skill that students need to develop both in listening and reading. Similarly, distinguishing the main ideas or recognizing discourse markers such as but, however in a text, whether it is to be read or listened to, are among those skills that are utilized in listening and reading comprehension. As Linse (2005: 28-29) puts it, training children to listen to attentively means giving them the opportunity to develop their reading readiness especially in the comprehension of stories.

Recognizing stress-intonation patterns Recognizing words Discriminating sounds Predicting the content before listening

Figure 1: Listening as a set of skills and a cognitive process

As indicated above, in real-life listening we use a combination of the two processes. However, it should be noted that there is generally more emphasis on one of these processes depending on our reasons for listening. In other words, sometimes we use more top down processing and sometimes more bottom-up. In the classroom, on the other hand, these two processes can be practiced separately. For example, showing learners some pictures related to the listening text and then having them predict the content of it is an example for top-down processing. After students listen, asking them to identify what words they hear related to a category (e.g. food) is an example activity for bottom-up processing.


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Activity 3: Write 5 listening activities in the table below. Do they activate bottom-up or top-down processing more? Some examples are already given for you. Listening activities

Information processing

Listen to the story and put the pictures in order

Top-down

Listen to the dialog and find out where it takes place Top-down Listen to the dialog and note down the ages of the Bottom-up people in the dialog Listen to the description and find out which picture Bottom-up it is.

Recently there has been more emphasis on developing top-down processing skills in ELT. However, in young learner classes at beginner and elementary level, when students’ cognitive development and their target language proficiency level are considered, they could be engaged in more bottom-up skills where they are asked to retain input while it is being processed. Recognition of word and clause divisions; recognition of key words, key transitions in a discourse; recognition of grammatical relationships between key elements in sentences; recognition of the use of stress and intonation to identify word and sentence functions are just some of these basic bottom-up skills (Richards, 2008: 5). See the box below for activities where students are required to use these skills (Box 1). Box 1 Possible activities including bottom-up processing 1. Circle the words you hear. (a number of words given and students circle the one they hear) 2. Circle the sentences you hear. (a number of sentences given and students circle the one they hear) 3. Number the words as you hear them. 4. Number the sentences as you hear them. 5. Write the words you hear under the related categories such as fruits/ vegatables. 6. Fill in the nursery rhyme/song/dialog/mini story etc. with the words you hear 7. Note down the animals/vegetables/flowers/numbers/classroom objects as you listen to the nursery rhyme/song/dialog/mini story 8. Correct the words of the nursery rhyme/song/dialog/mini story as you listen. 9. Place the items (fruits, objects, animals, shops, furniture, clothes) in the picture as you listen to the descriptions. 10. Listen and do what you hear.

Although young learners in beginner and elementary groups may be engaged in bottom-up processing, this does not come to mean that overall comprehension should be discarded. Activities that require learners to use their background information and listen for general meaning could easily be designed to develop their top-down processing (see Box 2 for possible activities). Consequently, it should be kept in mind that combining these two listening processes is vital for successful listening. For this reason, teachers should seek ways of exposing students to these different ways of processing information which can be achieved by teaching a variety of tasks with a variety of listening texts. Box 2 Possible activities including top-down processing 1. Look at the title, pictures, some extracted words/sentences and guess what the listening text is about/where it takes place. 2. Look at the pictures and decide which of the given sentences you can hear. 3. Look at some key sentences extracted from the listening text and write some questions that you might find the answers in the text. Listen and check if you can find the answers. 4. Listen to the speakers and identify their emotions. 5. Read the information about the listening text you will hear then listen to find whether or not the same points are mentioned. 6. Listen to the dialog and guess what kind of relationship they have. 7. Listen to the text and identify the general idea. 8. Listen to the text and identify the topic. 9. Listen to one speaker’s part in a dialog and predict the other speaker’s part, then listen and compare (Richards, 2008) 10. Listen to the story and then write and ending to it. Then listen and compare. A typical listening lesson includes three stages: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. Each of these stages has different purposes. See Figure 2 for listening lesson procedural steps (see Figure 2): Pre-listening

Preparing learners for the while-stage Comprehending the listening material:

While-listening

Set task Listen as many times as needed Check task Assessing the task/self

Post-listening

Extending the topic through other skills Personalizing the topic

Figure 2: Lesson design for listening

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Stages Pre-listening stage In this stage, teachers can undertake five major tasks, all of which aim at facilitating learners’ comprehension of the listening material during the while stage. These tasks are: a. introducing the setting and the characters (if there are any characters) b. activating learners’ background information related to the topic of the listening c. engaging learners in guessing activities d. revising and/or pre-teaching vocabulary e. revising and/or pre-teaching structures Let’s take each of these tasks one by one and try to understand how they can be implemented in classroom teaching. Introducing the setting and the characters: It is one of the most important steps in that it facilitates top-down processing while learners have the opportunity to clearly locate and understand where the listening material is taking place and who is engaged in. Although some listening texts do not have any characters to introduce (for example, the ones where students listen to announcements, advertisements, rhymes etc.), all texts have settings. During this step visuals such as newspaper cutouts, pictures, photos, realia, videos (with sound on or off as appropriate) can be used to concretize the character(s) and the setting. See the example pre-listening stage below to clarify this step (Box 3): Box 3 An example lesson procedure for introducing the character(s) and the setting in pre-listening stage Grade: 7th graders Level: Pre-intermediate Material: picture of a girl, several pictures illustrating different types of holidays, a short listening text where a Japanese girl, Keiko, is talking about her last summer holiday. Pre-listening a. Set the scene and introduce the character ȤȤ Show the learners the picture of the girl. Introduce her : “This is Keiko”. ȤȤ Have learners guess her age and nationality by asking questions: “How old is she? What do you think?” “Where is she from? What do you think?” ȤȤ Elicit/Give the answers “She is 12. She is from Japan.” ȤȤ Write the answers on the board if you wish. ȤȤ Set the scene. Say “Last year Keiko went on holiday. Look at the pictures. Was it a winter holiday or summer holiday?” ȤȤ Elicit the answer “summer holiday”. 194

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As the procedure above makes it clear, during this step student talking time should be monitored. To this end, teachers should avoid monologues and seize every opportunity to involve students. The easiest way to do is to use Question-Answer technique. However, in mixed ability groups where stronger students usually dominate the class, teachers may wish to use some written prompts given with the visuals so that even the weakest students can give answers to the questions. Activating background information: As well known, students learn and remember new information best when it is linked to relevant prior knowledge (Beyer, 1991). To activate background information simple techniques such as brainstorming (i.e. listing all the information that comes to mind as learners think about a key concept), semantic mapping (i.e. writing all the ideas as in brainstorming but this time organizing them under certain headings) and prequestions can be used effectively. Similarly, these techniques can be controlled and guided through the use of visual materials. During this step learners could be asked to cooperate with their pairs or can be put in small groups. See the example pre-listening stage below to clarify this step (Box 4): Box 4 Pre-listening (continuing from step a in Box 3 above) b. Activate background information

ȤȤ Show students several pictures related to summer time activities, food, drinks,

clothing etc e.g. swimming, reading, watermelon, swimming suit, sunglasses etc. Ask questions related to them.

ȤȤ Draw a large circle on the board and write summer holiday in it. ȤȤ Put students in pairs and ask them to write whatever comes to their minds related to summer holiday

ȤȤ Set the time and start the activity ȤȤ Monitor the students and give help if necessary ȤȤ Finish the activity, elicit all the ideas and put them on the board. Engaging learners in guessing activities: Guessing the context and content of the listening material is an important listening strategy that native speakers use prior to the listening process. There are three major questions to be asked related to this step: What do learners guess? How do they guess? and should teachers facilitate their guessing? To start with, learners may be asked to guess the topic, the words, and the sentences in the listening material. While engaging students in this activity, however, teachers should encourage intelligent guessing and this could be achieved by providing students with some prompts which can be in the form of pictures, sounds, words, etc. As for the last question, it should be remembered that guessing activities can be frustrating for students with limited language as is the case in most young learners’ classes. Teachers may also feel dissatisfied for not so much is produced during such Listening and Speaking

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activities. One way to round this problem is to prepare activity sheets through which learners are asked to guess. For example, for a typical “guess the words you may hear” activity related to our fictional character, Keiko, and her holiday, rather than inviting students to guess the words, the following material can be given to them on which they can work either individually or in pairs (see Box 5). Box 5 A sample guessing activity sheet

Keiko is talking about her last summer holiday...

Which words can you hear? Circle your guesses, please. enjoy

food

bored

photo

family

bicycle

visit

hospital

Related to this step as explained so far, the following brief summary could be made: What do learners guess?

Topic, emotions, relations, words, sentences, the whole dialog etc.

How do learners guess?

By looking at pictures, listening to sounds, listening to videos with sound off (if the materials have videos), by reading extracted sentences, words, summaries etc.

Should teachers facilitate?

Depends on the proficiency level of the learners. If the teacher foresees some problems related to limited language use, then: - Ready-made materials can be given. - Pairs/small groups or individual work can be used. -Answers may be elicited and teachers may tell the learners if they have guessed correctly or not. Alternatively, teachers may move onto the whilestage and ask learners to check their guesses through listening.

Revising and/or pre-teaching vocabulary: One of the key tasks in the pre-listening stage is revising/pre-teaching vocabulary. Here the major decision to make is about which vocabulary to revise/pre-teach. The vocabulary selected for revising/teaching 196

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should be that most needed for completion of the tasks that are to be set (Scrivener, 1994:80; Riddell, 2003). What is expected from teachers is, then, to read the tasks and the possible answers that learners will give and then to anticipate what vocabulary should be clarified for the learners, firstly, to understand the tasks and then to complete the tasks. This strategy helps teachers save time without spending valuable class time on those vocabulary items which will be unhelpful to the learners in completion of a task. Moreover, it should be kept in mind that in real life, foreign language learners have to cope with unknown words as they listen to various sources. Thus, teaching only the necessary vocabulary will develop their tolerance towards unknown vocabulary and when they succeed in making meaning of what they listen to, this will strengthen their confidence in listening. While revising the necessary vocabulary, different activities can be used effectively rather than writing a list of words for the learners to keep in mind while listening. Matching pictures with words, unscrambling the letters to find the words, using given words to complete some sentences extracted from the listening text are just some possible vocabulary activities to be used for revision. As for pre-teaching vocabulary, a more straightforward approach could be adopted. Teachers may directly teach the necessary vocabulary using visual or verbal techniques as appropriate. Revising and/or pre-teaching structures: The principles for revising/pre-teaching vocabulary as explained above also apply to revising/pre-teaching structures. Generally speaking, due to the language proficiency of young learners, listening texts used at this level rarely include new structures since listening texts not only serve to develop skills of listening but also focus on language systems, i.e. vocabulary and grammar, learned prior to listening activities. For this reason, it is common that listening texts for young learners also give practice of language systems. If this is the case, it is wise to revise the structure recurring in the text prior to the while-listening stage. This kind of revision could also be done through predicting activities. Sometimes, however, to support peripheral learning, listening materials may include some new structures. If this is the case, as explained above, teachers should consider the tasks to be completed when deciding to pre-teach structures. If the tasks do not require catching and understanding these bits of language, then there is no need to teach them. In conclusion, the pre-listening is the stage that ensures the following while-listening stage activities will work. Surely it would not be possible to make room for all these tasks in the pre-listening stage. Teachers, therefore, should consider learners’ age and cognitive maturity, learning outcomes, and the while-stage activities while choosing which tasks to undertake during this stage. For example, if the following finger-play is to be used as a listening activity with young learners at elementary level, pre-teaching vocabulary, setting the scene and a prediction activity can be done prior to the while-listening stage. See Box 6 for sample lesson procedure and Box 7 for the prediction activity sheet.


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Box 6 A example pre-listening stage lesson procedure for the fingerplay “Zebras in a Zoo” Age: 9-10 Level: Elementary Learning outcomes: Predicting the structures in a listening text prior to listening; identifying the structures in a listening text via listening Material: The finger play “Zebras in a zoo”; related pictures Pre-listening stage Activating background information & Vocabulary teaching

Box 7 The prediciton activity for the fingerplay

ȤȤ Bring the pictures of monkey, elephant, giraffe and zebra (or toys animals) to the class.

ȤȤ Show them to the students one by one and ask “Which animal is this?” “Do you like monkeys?” etc.

ȤȤ Elicit the answers and invite students to write the names on the board as you

put the pictures on it. ȤȤ Ask in L1 “peki şehirde yaşıyorsak bu hayvanları nerede görebiliriz?” ȤȤ Elicit “hayvanat bahçesi” and provide L2 equivalent for the term “zoo”. ȤȤ Have the students repeat the word chorally/individually and put the picture of a zoo on the board and write “zoo” near it. ȤȤ Ask around the class “Do you like zoos?” “Do you go to the zoos?” “What do you do there?” Set the scene and prediction activity

ȤȤ Say to the students “bugün bir tekerleme dinleyeceğiz sizinle” “Hangi Türkçe tekerlemeleri biliyorsunuz?” and elicit some answers from the students ȤȤ Set the scene “bizim tekerlememiz “Five zebras in a zoo””. ȤȤ Have the students repeat the title and write it on the board ȤȤ Hold your left hand up and introduce the zebras from one to five. Have all the learners repeat “The first zebra, the second zebra etc.” ȤȤ Say to the students “Bu zebralar bize bir şeyler diyorlar. Acaba ne diyor olabilirler? ȤȤ Elicit some ideas and encourage them to say their ideas in English. ȤȤ Give the instructions “Look here. Burada zebraların söyledikleri var ama sıralı değil. Acaba hangi zebra ne diyor? Think. Match the zebras with their sentences, please.” ȤȤ Check the students understanding “What will you do?” ȤȤ Pair the students and give out the activity sheets ȤȤ Monitor the students. Remind them this is a rhyme and they should look for rhyming words and finish the activity ȤȤ Elicit the answers and put them on the board. Do not give them the right answers and move to the while stage to have the students listen and check their ideas.

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Zebras in a Zoo There are five zebras in a zoo-(Wiggle five fingers.) The first zebra says, “I love cakes .” (Touch thumb.) The second zebra says, “I do, too!” (Touch index finger.) The third zebra says, “My name is Sue.” (Touch middle finger.) The fourth zebra says, “Hello! It’s nice to meet you.” (Shake ring finger with other hand as if shaking hands.) The fifth zebra says, “What can I do?” (Wiggle little finger.) (adapted from http://www.naturallearning.com/fingerplays.html)


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While-listening stage

Box 8

This stage is where learners are exposed to listening and are asked to do things during or immediately after listening. It should be kept in mind that the written form of the listening texts should not be given to learners since this turns the listening lesson to a reading lesson. In the implementation phase, the following procedure can be followed if learners are asked to give written information after listening (see Figure 3):

Set the task

Play the audio player

Do paircheck

Get/Give feedback

Give the task before students listen and let them read. Check if they have understood the task. Play the audio player. Alternatively, you, a student or students may read the text. Let learners check their answers in pairs. Elicit the answers and give whole class feedback.

An example while-listening stage lesson procedure Learning outcomes: Identifying the general idea of the listening text; identifying words related to feelings While-listening stage Activity 1

ȤȤ Tell the students “Now you will listen to Keiko. What is she talking about?” ȤȤ Elicit “Her last summer holiday”. ȤȤ Set up the activity “OK. Listen to her. Did she like her holiday?” Answer this question, please”.

ȤȤ Put the question on the board. ȤȤ Check the students’ understanding. ȤȤ Play the first part of the listening material. ȤȤ Stop the audio player and have the students check their answer in pairs. ȤȤ Play the audio player again if needed and have the students check their answer. ȤȤ Elicit the answer. Activity 2

ȤȤ Tell the students “She liked her holiday. OK. but how do you know? Which words does she use? so we understand she liked her holiday?”

Figure 3: Procedure for while-listening stage

See the example while-stage for the material, “Keiko’s last summer holiday”, used in the pre-listening stage (Box 8). On the other hand, it should be kept in mind that written tasks can be demanding for young learners especially at the beginning proficiency level. For this reason, more Total Physical Response (TPR) activities can take place where students are asked to do things while listening. As Linse (2005: 30-31) suggests at early stages simple commands such as open the window, go to the door can be used. As students gain more proficiency, TPR storytelling can work well where firstly teacher tells a story using puppets, pictures or different items and then asks students to manipulate, show and/or move around with them as she retells the story. This listening activity may also be turned into a speaking activity when students are invited to tell the story while the others act it out.

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ȤȤ Set up the activity “Listen to her again and write the words.” ȤȤ Check the students’ understanding. ȤȤ Play the audio player and monitor if the students are able to catch the words. ȤȤ Stop the audio player and have the students check their answer in pairs. ȤȤ Play the audio player again and use pausing strategy if necessary. ȤȤ Have the students check their answer. ȤȤ Elicit the answer. Ask the students to come to the board and write the words on the board: “superb, wonderful, enjoy”.

Part of the listening material Keiko: Do you like summer holidays? I LOVE them. My last summer holiday was superb too. I enjoyed it a lot. My parents and I had wonderful time. Where did we go? What did we do? Wait a second I will tell you all about it.....


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Similarly, games that require listening and responding quickly are valuable activities in young learners’ classes. For example, an interesting activity that requires an immediate response to what has been said is “Who wants to be a millionaire?” as adapted from the famous TV show. It is good as a revision activity and also gives students meaningful listening practice in a fun way. In this activity, teacher splits the classroom into groups and has them take turns answering Wh-questions until they choose to stop and win all the money or until they get a question wrong and lose everything. Teacher writes the prize money on the board from 0 TL to 1 000 000 TL and asks the first student in a group a question. If they get it right, teacher moves to the next student. The questions get harder. For example, the first question can be “What do cows give us?” but another one is “What is the capital city of South Africa?. After each question they get right, the teacher asks them if they would like to continue or not. When the group fails to give a right answer, it is another group’s turn to continue the game (adapted from http://www.funenglishgames.com). Songs, chants and rhymes are also among those most successful, motivating teaching tools. Many course books for young learners include them but most of the time their quality is low. For this reason, they should be chosen wisely. Another problem with songs, chants and rhymes is poor exploitation (Clavery, 2001). The most common activity type is fill-in-the blanks which do not do justice to the rich content and possibilities of exploitation of them. Here are some activities that can be used both in the pre and while-listening stages when using songs, rhymes and chants (see Box 9): Box 9

Activity 4: Use the following rhyme for your beginning level young learners to teach listening skills. Decide what materials you need and also identify student learning outcomes. Then, design the pre and while-listening stages of your lesson. Materials: .......................................................................................................................... Learning Outcomes: ........................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................................................. Lesson step

Procedures

Pre-listening

While-listening

Rhyme: Take a snowball Take a snowball, put it on the ground,

Possible activities for songs, chants and rhymes

Push it, roll it, make it big and round.

1. Give students a list of verbs/words/sentences to order while listening. 2. Listen how many times do you hear …..? (a word/verb/ auxiliary/article etc)

Look, your snowman is big and tall

3. Change some words in the lyrics and students listen and correct the words.

but has no eyes, no nose at all.

4. Split the sentences from the song/chant into two halves and students match them before listening. Then they listen and check their answers. 5. Jumble the parts of the song/chant and students reorder them before listening. Then they listen and check their answers. 6. Give them related pictures. As they listen, they put the pictures in order. 7. Give them the title of the song/some key words in the pre-listenging stage. Students guess if the song is a happy one/sad one etc. They listen and check their answer. (Clavery, 2001; Geyer, 2001)

Thus, as this list of activities suggest songs and chants can be treated as listening texts and used effectively to teach listening skills. To see how much is learned so far, the following activity (Activity 4) can be done where pre and while-listening stages should be designed for the given rhyme. 202

Skills and Aspects

Two stones will do, and a carrot, too. Now, Mr. Snowman, how are you? (Geyer, 2001)

Post-listening stage The last stage in a listening lesson is the post-listening stage that provides a follow up to the listening activity. It serves three major purposes: a. Assessing the activities, material and self b. Personalization c. Extending the topic of listening through other skills Assessing the activities, material and self: One of the tasks that may be done in this stage is encouraging learners to assess listening activities, material and Listening and Speaking

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their own performance in listening. Generally speaking, this kind of task requires reflection and an ability to look back on what has been done in the classroom and one’s own performance during the listening activities objectively and critically. Therefore, while involving students in this task, their age and cognitive maturity should be considered for older students tend to do these better. However, it should be kept in mind that students can be taught to critically think about the activities, material and self as well. For this reason, starting from earlier ages, teachers could ask learners to give their opinions about the different components of the listening lesson. This can be done by asking some informal questions such as “Was the listening difficult/easy?”, “What parts did you find more difficult? Why?”, “Was the topic interesting?”, “How was your performance during the listening activity?” or “Are you happy with your performance?” etc. If students’ proficiency level does not allow doing this in English, L1 can be used as well. Moreover, written assessment can also be employed by simply designing assessment sheets where, for example, students are asked to rate their performance, the difficulty of the text, tasks or whether they were motivating using a rating scale from 5 to 1, 5 representing a very positive opinion and 1 a low one. As it could be easily inferred, this kind of task can easily be used to guide students to set goals for more successful listening. Also, teachers could introduce effective listening strategies and tactics in this stage. Besides, this task helps teachers to view their activities and materials critically by allowing them to revise, modify or completely leave aside any components of the lesson prior to another teaching segment. Personalization: This task is a very common one employed by teachers at all proficiency levels. It allows learners to extend the content of the lesson by thinking about their own experiences, ideas, plans etc. Asking questions such as “what would you do if you were him/her?”, “Did anything like this ever happen to you?”, “the character likes rock music? How about you? What kind of music do you like? Who are your favorite singers?” are examples for personalization. Teachers may prefer to put students in pairs or small groups before whole class discussions /elicitations and depending on students proficiency level and how complex the activity they may assign it as a writing or speaking activity. Extending the topic of listening through other skills: This task includes the extension of the topic, content of the listening text through speaking, writing, and reading. It aims to utilize the knowledge, vocabulary, structures gained from listening. If the listening text is a dialog, to write the rest of it or a different ending to it or to choose the best ending from among the given ones are examples to these kinds of tasks. See the following post-listening procedure for the material “Keiko’s last summer holiday” to exemplify how this stage could be designed (Box 10):

Box 10 An example post-listening lesson procedure for “Keiko’s last summer holiday” Post-listening Extending the topic of the listening through reading

ȤȤ Tel students that listening is over. ȤȤ Ask them” OK. Where did she stay in her last summer holiday?” and elicit “hotel”.

ȤȤ Set the task and give the instructions. ȤȤ “Look at this sheet. There are 3 hotels here and some information about them.

Read it. Which hotel did Keiko and her family stay last year? Circle the hotel, please.” ȤȤ Check students’ understanding. ȤȤ Pair the students. Hand out the activity sheet and the listening text. ȤȤ Set the time and start the activity.

Final suggestions for teachers Here is a list of suggestions that summarizes the points discussed so far and presents a few new ones (Rost, 1991; Scrivener, 1994; Clavery, 2001; Riddell, 2003). • Make English the language of the classroom. Practicing listening starts with teachers. • Bring a variety of materials containing a variety of speakers with a variety of accents. • Always boost students’ motivation. Think of their age, cognitive development, interests while selecting materials and designing activities. • Do not skip the pre-listening stage. It ensures student success in the while-listening stage. • Before learners start listening, it is a good idea to familiarize them with the task (not the text!) they are to do while listening. It should not be forgotten that if students do not understand the task, it is not possible for them to complete it (Scrivener, 1994) • Let learners listen as many times as they need to. • Have students check their answers in pairs. • Monitor the learners while they listen and do tasks in order to see if any parts in the task present a problem to the majority of the learners. If this is observed, then use pausing strategy, i.e. pausing the audio player/stop reading the text at those points where students are having difficulty in understanding. This way, students can catch the parts they need to hear. • Do not give the listening material during the while-listening stage. It turns listening lesson to a reading one. However, if there is a relevant activity in the post-stage that students should use the listening text to complete the

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activity, then they are given the written form of it (see Box 10). • If the material is taped, have a plan B. Think what you will do if the electricity goes out. Have the script ready to read aloud. • If you are to read aloud, be as dramatic as you can. Change your voice, use stress and intonation well when reading aloud. • Do not ask extra questions. Stick to the task you assign for listening. If that extra question is important for the students to catch, write it on the board and let learners listen for it again. Activity 4: Choose a listening text. Identify the age and language proficiency level of the learners that the text is appropriate for. Identify the learning outcomes and design a complete listening lesson. What would you do for pre-listening? What task(s) would you give in the while stage? What post-listening activity would you use for this particular age group and proficiency level?

Speaking What is speaking? What are speaking skills? Speaking is a “productive aural/oral skill” (Bailey, 2003: 48). It is productive because it requires generating the right sounds, words, putting them in grammatically correct structures. It is aural/oral because speakers hear the upcoming messages and respond orally. Similar to listening, speaking is a composite skill made up of several micro skills. In other words, it involves producing the right sounds, intonation and stress; choosing the right words and structures as well as getting a clear message across which has appropriate content to fit the situation (Clavery, 2001). Some of these speaking skills are presented in the box below:

Taking the age and proficiency level of young learners some of these skills certainly need to be emphasized more. For example, with true beginners and elementary learners, producing sounds, stress correctly at word level; using a range of vocabulary, structures and phrases at sentence level are focused on more while at pre-intermediate level being able to talk about a range of topics; express personal information with ease and not much hesitancy; using a range of scripts (buying something at a store, ordering food in a restaurant etc.) are emphasized more. One of the issues to consider in teaching speaking is accuracy and fluency. Accuracy indicates correctness. In speaking it comes to mean producing the correct sounds, stress, choosing the right grammar and vocabulary. Fluency, on the other hand, refers to being able to convey one’s messages effortlessly, quickly and efficiently. One of the dilemmas for language teachers is which one to focus on and when. “Fluency activities are essential at all levels but the balance between fluency and accuracy tasks will differ” (Clavery, 2001). Generally speaking, in beginner and elementary learner classes more emphasis is put on accuracy. However, fluency is also a goal at this level but within the limits of the structures being practiced since the speaking tasks at this level are usually limited by grammar, vocabulary and length of utterance (Brown, 2001). Therefore, not much creativity is expected at this level and there will be more support and controlled work in speaking activities (Clavery, 2001). Activity 6: Look at the following speaking activities. Do they focus on accuracy or fluency more? Give reasons for your answers as well. Accuracy or Fluency?

Speaking activities Extending or continuing a dialog

Box 11

Reproducing a written dialog verbally

ȤȤ Producing

A list of speaking micro skills

vowels, consonants, stressed/unstressed syllables (segmental features) at word level sufficiently correctly for communication to take place. ȤȤ Using intonation, stress in sentences, word-linking and weak forms (suprasegmental features) correctly in spoken utterances. ȤȤ Using a range of vocabulary, phrases and structures at sentence level. ȤȤ Marking the main points or important information in utterances through emphasis ȤȤ Expressing information or knowledge in informal and semi-formal utterances ȤȤ Talking about a range of topics (food, family, sports etc). ȤȤ Selecting appropriate vocabulary, structures depending on the degree of formality/informality ȤȤ Using intonation to convey meaning ȤȤ Using a set of speaking strategies to cope with insufficient language resources (paraphrasing, inventing a word, using gestures, asking for clarification etc.)

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Guess the story behind a picture Describing a picture to partners. Partners draw and ask questions to draw it better Making a mini-speech on a topic of interest Completing a questionnaire by asking their partners the questions Asking “Twenty-questions” celebrity/place etc.

to

guess

the

object/

Inventing a conversation for characters in a picture

Stages of a speaking lesson Speaking activities are usually parts of a lesson package. In other words, students are not thrown in these activities without a reason (Riddell, 2003). At beginner and elementary levels they are placed after vocabulary and grammar work, usually following a listening activity. See Box 11 for a typical example: Listening and Speaking

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Box 11 A. Listen. Connect the picture to the answer. 1.

A: What’s the weather like in Paris? B: …………………………………………

2.

Presentation

A: What’s the weather like in London? B: ……………………………………………

3.

Step C above is a typical controlled practice or oral practice activity, which requires learners to use the newly learned vocabulary and structures. Such lesson sequences fit the PPP- present, practice, and produce- lesson procedure well (see Figure 4).

A: What’s the weather like in İstanbul? B: …………………………………………..

Teacher introduces a set of vocabulary / structures

Practice

Students practice these limited structures in familiar contexts to manipulate them

Produce

Meaningful, purposeful, and creative communication, involving some exchanges of information

Figure 4: PPP procedure and the place of speaking

4.

A: What’s the weather like in Athens?

Practice stage (Oral Practice)

B: …………………………………………..

In the PPP lesson procedure, practice stage includes drilling, doing exercises, writing, listening, reading as well as speaking. At this stage, speaking practice aims at providing students with opportunities to use and gradually automatize the newly learnt structures in meaningful ways. The sample activity given in Box 12 is a good example for the type of oral practice done in this stage. Here are some classroom activities that could be used at this stage (http://waze.net/oea/; http://www.eslflow. com/; Clavery, 2001; Willis, 1981):

B. Practice the dialogs with your partner. C. Look at the map. Ask and answer with your partner.

A: What is the weather like in Bursa?

B: It’s windy.

One question survey: Each student either receives or writes down a different question and conducts a survey of their classmates taking notes of their answers, for example, after learning How often? pattern. To control and guide the practice, teacher may write some actions on the board e.g. watch horror films, feed birds, get a haircut, etc. Thus, students write a question and ask around the class. As a variation, after running the activity for a while, the teacher may ask the students to write another question and continue the activity. Surveys: Each student receives a blank survey they walk around talking to other students and taking notes of their answers. This type of activity can easily be adapted to several language areas for speaking practice purposes. See Box 13 for an example survey for elementary learners. The follow-up writing activity given in the example links speaking to writing and achieves integration of skills. Find the differences: Students speak in order to find the differences between two similar pictures. This activity can also be applied to several vocabulary area and language structures: vocabulary for describing people, clothes, rooms, houses, there is/ are, have/has got, comparatives, present continuous tense etc. In the implementation phase, if the aim is not to give practice of already learnt structures and vocabulary, this activity may also move towards oral fluency practice (production).

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Box 13 Family Survey Talk to 5 friends and fill in the table

What is your name?

Do you have a ….?

What do/ does … do?

Where do/ does … live?

What do/ does … like doing on the weekend?

brother uncle

sentence rather than just a word or words. The sentences recycle the vocabulary, structures, phrases that the students have learned previously. In a variation of this activity for elementary and pre-intermediate learners, teachers may give 4-5 sentence-long stories or chains of actions. One student from the group comes and takes the first card and starts miming. When the rest of the members get the first sentence right, another student comes and takes the next card. Miming and story building (or chain of actions) continues until the group gets the all sentences right. Meanwhile, the teacher or a student may write the sentences on the board. In Box 15 a sample story for miming is provided: Box 15

grandmother pet

Dan

sister

1. Dan is in the kitchen. 2. He is making a cake.

Now write about 5 friends e.g: Selin has a brother. He is a student. He lives in Çanakkale. He likes going fishing on the weekend.

3. He is reading the recipe.

1……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………......................

5. He is very happy.

4. Now Dan is breaking an egg. 6. Today is his birthday.

2……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...................... Questionnaires: In these activities, after students complete the questionnaire for their partners, they do the scoring. This type of activity provides a very controlled speaking practice since what students do is basically reading aloud (Clavery, 2001). However, in such groups where teachers need to build students’ confidence in speaking activities, they could be helpful as starters. See the example in Box 14: Box 14 How healthy are you? 1. Do you eat vegetables every day? a. Yes b. No 2. Do you regularly play any sports? a. Yes b. No 3. How often do you eat fast food? a. Never b. Every day c. Once a week d. Once a month

Your points: 0-10 points: You need to see a doctor soon. Stop eating fast food and start eating fruits and vegetables more. ……… 11-20 points: You like eating healthy food but ……...

Guess the mime: This activity can be done as whole class or in small groups. Students are given cards and they have to tell the other group members the information on the card without speaking. The others have to guess the whole 210

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( the story is adapted from http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/index.html)

Act the joke out: Jokes are great fun at all proficiency with all age groups. They also provide meaningful listening and reading. For this reason, this activity can easily be done as part of a reading or listening lesson. While in the pre and while stages, students work on the text and comprehend the text completely, in the post stages, students can be invited to act the jokes. When choosing jokes, teachers should look for those which include dialogs. Besides, since students should be able to understand the humor, Teachers may rewrite them if their language is difficult. Box 16 presents an example. Box 16 A joke about the cute dog A man walks into a shop and sees a cute little dog. He asks the shopkeeper, “Does your dog bite?” The shopkeeper says, “No, my dog does not bite.” The man tries to pet the dog and the dog bites him. “Ouch!” he says. “I thought you said your dog does not bite!” The shopkeeper replies, “That is not my dog!”


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In such lessons, several jokes can be used rather using only one for the whole group. After students complete the reading/listening lesson segment, students are put into groups and given a joke to act out. If there are more than one groups with the same joke, the groups may compete for best performance at the end. Students rehearse and get ready to perform within a given time limit and at this stage, fluency, appropriate use of stress, intonation, and gestures should be encouraged. In the final stage, students perform in front of the other students. As suggested, some of the students could be a panel of experts and choose the best performers. Picture clues with substitution tables: This activity can be used with true beginners and early elementary learners. It gives controlled practice of the structures learned in the strictest sense and may be seen as a very mechanical oral activity. However, these activities can easily be made more meaningful and interesting with the use of visuals. For example, with the following substitution table students are asked to make true sentences in pairs by looking at the picture in pairs (Box 17). Find the picture: This is a very simple activity that could be used to practice describing people, objects, places, events etc. Teacher brings several pictures to the class and sticks them to the board or the walls. The necessary vocabulary and structures can be put on the board as well. The activity may start as a whole class activity. One student starts describing a picture and the others try to find it. When students get used to the activity they can be put in pairs to give all the students time to speak. Box 17

Production stage (Oral fluency) Production stage (oral fluency), on the other hand, makes more room for unexpected vocabulary, structures. In beginners and elementary groups, this stage may not be activated as much as the previous one, but teachers should allocate time to give students practice opportunities for purposeful, fluent communication where the focus is not getting the linguistic structures right but communicating messages. Oral fluency activities are less teacher-controlled ones but teachers should prepare students for the fluency work in terms of vocabulary, possible structures and ideas before the activity. The thumb rule here is to “focus on language areas students can recall and use well” (Clavery, 2001: 41). Another important point is the correction mode teachers choose in fluency activities. As known, during oral practice immediate corrective feedback is usually provided by teachers since this stage aims at speaking accurately. However, during oral fluency activities teachers do not interrupt unless they observe the activity is stuck because of a communication breakdown. Thus, in this stage teachers keep notes of the problems that are common to majority of students without interrupting them. When the activity finishes, as a follow up they may draw students attention to these problems either asking for clarification for the correct usages or clarifying the problems themselves. Below are some example fluency activities to be used with young learners (http://www.squidoo.com; http:// waze.net/oea http://www.eslwriting.org ; http://www.tesolzone.com): The memory circle: In this activity students stand up in a circle. Teacher or a student says a sentence “I watched a film last night”. The next student says, “She watched a film last night, and I made a cake”. The next student repeats the sentences and adds a new one. If someone misses and gets it incorrect, they sit down and the game is over. The teacher may restrict the use of tenses and vocabulary by setting a rule at the start of the activity.

Make sentences about the picture. e.g. There is an umbrella in the picture.

Celebrity backs: This is similar to “Twenty questions” activity. Here teacher brings adhesive labels to class with celebrities’ names on them and stick these labels to students’ backs. Students mingle and ask questions in pairs. Prior to the activity, some vocabulary and structures can be revised.

is There are

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four boys a cat two umbrellas two boys a man an umbrella two dogs three woman a dog three beach balls

in the picture.

Draw a picture: When the vocabulary and structures are strictly controlled (for example particular vocabulary for body parts, clothes, descriptive adjectives), this activity serves as an oral practice activity. However, when students are given more complex pictures which require the use of a wide range of vocabulary and structures, it becomes a fluency activity. For this activity, pairs sit back to back and one person describes a picture while the other draws. Say as many things as you can: In this activity, teacher writes several topics on slips of paper, such as countries, words about weather, emotions, wild animals, sea animals, furniture, cities in Europe, musical instruments. Students sit in pairs. One partner picks a topic (preferably out of a box, for it is better if students do not see the topics beforehand), the other student says a list of things related to the topic Listening and Speaking

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in 60 seconds. They keep a total of the answers. The winner is the person with the most answers. Question & answer contest: For this activity, first, the class is divided into teams. Then teacher asks each team a question, giving three or 4 seconds for them to answer to get a point Depending on the characteristics of the students, though, teachers may decide how many seconds they will allow the students to think for an answer. To give all the students a chance to practice, domineering students should be observed and the game rules must be set. Taboo: This is a very well known word guessing game. The rule of the game is for a player to have his partners guess the word on his card without using the word itself and four or five additional words on the card. In young learner classes, this could be a whole class game. To include everyone in the group enough cards should be prepared beforehand. With lower level students, this can turn to a word-level guessing game. However, as students gain more proficiency learners, they should be encouraged to form sentences rather than only words. Box 17 Example Taboo cards WATCH

TEACHER

SNOW

Time

Teach

Cold

Wear

School

Winter

Wrist

Students

December

Complete the dialog: This is a great fluency activity that could be played with all age groups at all proficiency levels. First, students are divided in pairs/groups. Then teacher says a sentence that can be a part of a dialog, e.g. “Today’s a nice day”. Students make up short dialogs including the sentence given by the teacher. A rule for the length of the dialogs can be stated, e.g. “Make up a dialog with 6 sentences”. Afterwards, they can act their dialogs for the whole class.

Steps of a simple speaking activity Setting up activities in the classroom is as important as choosing and planning them. There are three main steps to consider when implementing a speaking activity, either oral practice or fluency, in the classroom (Figure 6):

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Setting up

Teacher introduces the activity.

Running the activity

Students do the activity.

Elicitation/ Feedback

Teacher gets feedback; do follow-on work etc.

Figure 5: Steps of a simple speaking activity

Setting up Whether the speaking activity is a part of a skill lesson (reading/listening) or an activity that stands alone, the first step is to familiarize students with the content, characters, event, when necessary (e.g. Act the joke out, Guess the mime). Therefore, there can be a brief lead-in such as looking at pictures, watching a video or telling a personal anecdote or asking a couple of questions at the beginning. Similarly, revision of vocabulary/structures should also be considered especially for oral practice activities and useful language items should be placed on the board for everyone to see and use during the activity. The next important point is to give the instructions and, if there are, set the rules clearly. Here oral explanations should be kept to minimum and demonstration, showing, modeling the activity alone or with the help of students should be used effectively. Teachers should not forget to check the instructions to make sure everyone has understood what to do. This could be done through oral elicitation or simply by asking students to show what they will do. Similarly, where applicable, e.g. short exchanges of information such as “Have you got any brothers and sisters?” “Yes, I have./No, I haven’t.” starting the activity with open pairs (i.e. two students, preferably from different corners of the class, do the activity while others observe) is a good way to ensure that everyone understands what to do. Pairing/grouping students should also be taken care of during this step.

Running the activity (Speaking practice) After setting the time, teacher starts the activity. During oral practice activities students may need teachers’ help more. So, teachers should circulate and when necessary help learners when they are stuck. However, a more fly-on-the-wall approach should be adopted during oral fluency activities. During these activities teachers walk around, listen and take notes for common mistakes (or brilliant ideas, well-formed sentences etc.) to give feedback later. Listening and Speaking

215

Elicitation and feedback In this step, if the activity is short enough to be performed to the whole class, students can be invited to do so or students can be asked to report back on to the whole class, telling their partners’ ideas/choices/preferences, comparing the results etc. For example, “I like apples but Ekin likes bananas. Mert doesn’t like bananas but he likes oranges”. As part of this step, teachers also give feedback to the whole class about the common mistakes. To do this, mistakes are written on the board and students are invited to think about the mistakes and, if necessary, teachers make explanations. Similar to the listening skill post-stage task, asking learners to evaluate the material(s), activity, and their own performances will be enlightening for both students and teachers.

Activity 7: Choose a speaking activity. Identify the age and language proficiency level of the learners it is appropriate for. Identify the learning outcomes and design a speaking activity. What would you do to set up the activity? What seating and grouping arrangements would you use? What would your instructions be and how would you give them? What would you do at the elicitation/feedback step?

Study Questions 1. What is the difference between top-down and bottom-up listening processes? 2. Name two listening skills related to top-down processing and two for bottom-up, please.

Final suggestions for teachers

3. What are the stages of a listening lesson?

Below are some final tips and the summary of ideas discussed so far related to teaching speaking skill (Riddell, 2003; Scrivener, 1994; Brown, 2001):

4. Why is pre-listening stage important? What kinds of tasks can be undertaken at this stage?

• Consider the age, cognitive development, proficiency level, interests of your students when choosing activities. They should be close to their lives, meet students’ needs and the learning outcomes.

5. Name five principles to keep in mind while running the while-listening stage, please.

• Plan your activities well and anticipate likely problems that may engender the flow of the activity prior to implementation phase. Especially classroom seating, pairing/grouping options should be considered well.

6. State the difference between accuracy and fluency practice, please. Discuss these two concepts in relation to age groups and proficiency levels? 7. What are the stages of a simple speaking activity?

• Oral production activities should be based on “language that is lower than the language used in intensive study (e.g. reading texts)” (Clavery, 2001: 41). Do not forget students should be able to recall and use the necessary words and structures to be used in the activity easily. • If you need written materials for the activity, prepare them with care. They should be legible, with the instructions, some examples (for oral practice activities) or some clues. • During mingling/pair/group work activities think of ways of starting and stopping activities for there may be some noise in the classroom especially at the end of the activity. • Plan your instructions and how you will give them. Show, demonstrate, explain! Include students to model the activity. • Put a time limit for activities. Think of the feedback step you need to do. • Monitor the activity well. During oral practice, i.e. accuracy work, students may need help and more immediate corrective feedback from you. However, during oral production do not interrupt unless you observe communication failure. • In monolingual classes keeping students in the target language is difficult. For this reason, remind students to speak English as you walk around the classroom. 216

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Reading Muhlise Coşgun Ögeyik

Discussion questions

ȤȤ What are the main purposes of teaching reading to young learners? ȤȤ How can you define reading? ȤȤ What are the common reading techniques used in the classroom? ȤȤ How can you motivate young learners to engage in reading activities? ȤȤ What kind of materials work better in young learners’ reading classes? There has been an increased focus on the teaching reading to children. Children who have learned to read in their mother tongue can be exposed to reading in foreign language, thus they may understand the technical features of written language and the communicative nature of reading. Since literacy instruction to young learners in EFL contexts has increased, various instructional methods and techniques have been implemented. It is important to introduce reading after students have some basic knowledge of the spoken language so that it quickly becomes meaning-based and not simply decoding (Brewster & Ellis, 2004). The teacher can support students’ association of letters and words through various materials. Instead of monotonous and repetitive activities, students need to be involved in purposeful and enjoyable activities. Reading is a set of skills that helps meaning making by decoding the printed word. Thus, in order to read learners must be able to decode the printed words and also comprehend what they read (Linse, 2005, pp. 69-71). While reading a piece of writing, readers’ background and linguistic knowledge and previous experiences affect their decoding and comprehending processes. By the impact of background and linguistic knowledge, learners develop reading strategies. Research has shown that learners actively use comprehension strategies to understand both spoken and written passages more effectively (Wallace, 1992). While beginning to teach reading to young learners, phonics instruction is used as an approach to strengthen children’s phonemic, phonological and morphological awareness. By developing their word recognition skills, that is, by focusing on letter and sound relations, students’ literacy skills are built as a bottom-up strategy.

What is reading? Reading is decoding, comprehending, and interpreting. ȤȤ Decoding: Reading starts with the decoding process. Decoding is the process in which learners read and recognize the written symbols making up the words. Decoding is also making sense of individual words within

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Reading

219

a context for getting meaning. Phonics instruction helps to recognize individual sound-letter correspondence to defeat challenging aspect of decoding.

ȤȤ Comprehension:

To know how to pronounce written symbols correctly does not mean that reading is achieved; that is, without comprehending the information in the context, it is impossible to claim that reading is implemented. Therefore, reading requires higher order of understanding the meaning. Comprehension may vary from reader to reader. Different readers may respond to a single text in different ways. Thus, how to analyse and synthesize the information can be best constructed through a well designed instruction.

ȤȤ Interpretation: After decoding and comprehending the written text, thinking

/talking about it is the complementary part of reading process. Through the interpretation of learners, reading process is completed. The teacher can make assessment on the base of the interpretation of learners to decide on whether the text is read and understood appropriately or not.

In real life, readers have specific purposes when they start reading. While some may read for gathering information, some others may read for pleasure.

Reading for Information Reading for information can be implemented in any situation. For instance, reading the instruction guide to help you use a tool or machine, a menu in a restaurant, instructions on the walls of the school corridor, a book on monkeys, and others. Such kind of reading may not vary while interpreting the meaning. Similar messages may be comprehended by readers, if they have similar cultural environments.

Reading for Pleasure Some readers may read for pleasure without having other benefit of reading in mind. When they get pleasure while reading, they can be more motivated for reading in the foreign language. In this sense, reading for pleasure may not have any purpose. It is just related with readers’ preferences in reading. For instance, literary texts are mostly read for pleasure. While readers get pleasure during reading, they also gain some benefits from such readings such as developing linguistic use of the language or being exposed to cultural themes or practices.

The reading process Whatever the purpose, during reading process learners activate their schemata to get information from the text. By activating the schemata, they bring experience, memories, knowledge to the text in front of them. Two types of schemata are activated while reading: content schemata: general world knowledge and formal schemata: knowledge about discourse structure; i.e. linguistic knowledge (Williams, 1987). Activating schemata is implemented in two types of processes: 1. Bottom-up Processing: In bottom-up processing, readers use the linguistic 220

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knowledge which is necessary for the decoding process. They also start from the parts and move to the whole text. 2. Top-down processing: To comprehend and interpret the meaning of a text, readers refer to their experiences and background knowledge by starting from the whole and going to the parts.

Types of reading Skimming: Skimming is a reading type applied for identifying the main ideas in a text quickly. While reading the text, the text is not read word-by-word, instead, it is read at a speed faster than normal reading in a limited amount of time (Brown, 2001). For instance, any piece of writing may be read to get idea about what it comprises. Skimming can be accomplished through various strategies. For instance, just by reading the introduction and conclusion parts of any article, specific information can be gathered. Instead of comprehending the whole text, an overall idea can be obtained from the text. Scanning: Scanning is a technique mostly used to find out a precise item from the text (Brown, 2001). Just by looking up the words, signs, or phrases, the search may be completed. While searching, the reader focuses on the specific item s/he is looking for. Scanning is also used for determining whether the type of source is consistent with the reader expectation. Reading Aloud/ Oral Reading: Reading aloud is predominantly used to encourage readers to correspond between spoken and written English, particularly for beginner level students. While reading, readers can check the pronunciation of the written word. Silent Reading: During silent reading, readers interact with the text and try to understand the text on their own without being interrupted by the teacher. Thus the reader engages in both bottom-up and top-down processing. Such reading helps readers develop a fluency in reading. Intensive Reading: Intensive reading is carried out in the classroom through some activities such as skimming, scanning. It provides a basis for explaining difficulties of structure and for extending knowledge of vocabulary and idioms (Rivers, 1981, p. 278). To increase interest in classroom readings, reading passages need to be chosen regarding learners’ interests and needs. Besides, the activities and tasks to be applied in the classroom should be interesting as well. While reading the text, learners are observed by the teacher to check their performances. Reading as a classroom-oriented activity helps teachers assess their students’ development in a systematic way (Hedge, 2003). Extensive Reading: Extensive reading is carried out as an activity processed and completed outside the class. Students choose the materials and topics they enjoy and read them outside their classroom hours (Hedge, 2003). The teacher may provide them the material and encourage them to bring in their oral or written reports about what they have read outside. Reading

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Reading instruction During reading instruction, teachers devote a great amount of time to encourage learners to develop reading skills by using the contextual clues, activating schemata (using background knowledge), and using reading strategies. While comprehending the text, readers need to be directed with appropriate comprehension techniques to organize the information in the text. It is argued that not all ESL/EFL learners may be motivated enough to read a text, and when a motivational problem is faced, the teacher is usually at a loss about what to do (Gebhard, 2009). Therefore, reading instruction should be designed for motivating and encouraging them to comprehend the value of reading issue. Reading programme should be organized to develop individual ability and maturity. In this respect, reading is a complex process. Grabe (1991) has identified six general component skills and knowledge areas within the complex process of reading: 1. Automatic recognition skills: a virtually unconscious ability, ideally requiring little mental processing to recognize text, especially for word identification 2. Vocabulary and structural knowledge: a sound understanding of language structure and a large recognition vocabulary 3. Formal discourse structure knowledge: an understanding of how texts are organized and how information is put together into various genres of text (e.g. a report, a letter, a narrative) 4. Content/world knowledge: prior knowledge of text-related information and a shared understanding of the cultural information involved in text 5. Synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies: the ability to read and compare information from multiple sources, to think critically about what one reads, and to decide what information is relevant or useful for one’s purpose 6. Metacognitive knowledge and skills monitoring: an awareness of one’s mental processes and the ability to reflect on what one is doing and the strategies one is employing while reading Young readers at the initial stage may not bring all those components into the reading process at once as fluent readers may do. To encourage them to bring the components into the process, the reading programme needs to be designed for facilitating and implementing the components in an order in the process. An effective program may contribute to making the process work. Therefore, first of all the teacher should be aware of learners’ characteristics. Young learners and adult learners have distinct characteristics. DeKeyser (2003: p. 335) explains the differences between young and adult learners in the following way: The shift during childhood from implicit to explicit processes explains the two findings about age differences in second language learning: children learn better and adults learn faster. Children do better in terms of ultimate

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attainment because many elements of language are hard to learn explicitly; adults learn faster because their capacities for explicit learning let them make short cuts. As a result, given ample time in an unstructured environment, children come out on top. In a traditional school context, however, where time is limited and learning is highly structured, adults and other children learn more in the same amount of time. In reading classes, for motivating young learners to read and helping them activate their background (top-down processing) and linguistic knowledge (bottom-up processing), the activities should take learners’ attention to both surface and deep structures of the text. A reading course is usually implemented through three stages:

• Pre-reading Stage In this stage the reader’s engagement is provided. The engagement is supported by activating learners’ schemata and constructing new knowledge before reading process. Another aim is language preparation for decoding and comprehending the text. Since learners are expected to recognize the linguistic features for comprehension, language preparation activities will construct concentration (McRae, 1991). In this respect, pre-reading stage is the key part of the whole learning process because the learner understands the reason for reading the text.

• While-reading Stage While-reading stage is the interactive process through which the learner’s ability in engaging in texts is developed. In this process, learners rely on bottom-up and top-down processes by decoding and comprehending the text through some reading techniques such as silent reading, reading aloud, intensive reading, and etc.

• Post-reading Stage Young learners may have comprehension problems and need guidance in constructing meanings when their knowledge does not match the requirements of the text, thus post-reading activities such as matching exercises, cloze exercises, cut-up sentences, comprehension questions can improve reading comprehension (Haller, 2000). Discussion question Explain, with examples, how your world knowledge affect your reading comprehension?

Reading activities Teachers can use different classroom activities for young learners who have mastered reading in their mother tongue. For example, a child at the age of eight is already familiar with individual words and word divisions, sentence links, paragraph structure, sound-letter relations, etc. in his or her native language. However, in Reading

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foreign language, at the initial stage, young learners may mostly have problems with how letters relate to sounds. Therefore, phonics can be used as an approach in reading classes for teaching letter-sound relations in English. Then, learners’ attention can be drawn to words and phrases to help them recognize the individual items in a sentence (bottom-up processing). Thus, whole sentence reading can be implemented to make learners understand the words or phrases carrying meaning within a context. Based on the mentioned initial activities, whole text reading activities can be applied. Some of the reading activities common in young learners’ classes are presented below:

Some traditional fairy tales that they are familiar with such as Little Red Riding Hood can be read to motivate them to read (top-down processing). Since learners have familiarity with the themes of such stories, they can comprehend the story easily. Therefore they are good resources for teaching reading to young learners.

Reading a story

Reading techniques

Reading stories such as simplified and authentic ones in reading classes is one of the most enjoyable activities. This activity is mostly implemented by teachers, then learners. When teachers read stories aloud, the learner can learn how to read the story. a. While listening to the story, learners may form their own inner pictures in their minds. b. While reading the story, the teacher may point to the word so that learners can recognize it. Thus, they may understand sound-letter relation by connecting the spoken and the written word to understand the word (bottom-up processing). In this process, the words should be read under normal speed, keeping the intonation correct. c. Learners can be directed to ask questions and discuss their ideas if they desire. d. Learners should be encouraged to talk about the story. The teacher can ask questions in the mother tongue if they do not understand the question in English. e. After finishing reading, learners are motivated to read the story silently. f. The teacher can read the story again. S/he can let learners complete some of the sentences while reading, because word recognition is an essential component in the mastery of reading: Teacher: That’s a..... Student: House Teacher: It’s.... Student: Big Teacher: Yes, that’s a house. It’s big. g. If learners cannot point to the word, the teacher should help them through graphic organizers, story maps, Venn diagrams, and etc. to check their comprehension. Reading a class story 224

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Reading familiar nursery rhymes and songs This activity can be very effective in reading classes. Since most of the children learn nursery rhymes and songs in their mother tongue, they can read and learn them easily (top-down processing).

Reading aloud: This technique can be useful for beginners in a language. Reading aloud can be carried out individually or in small groups. It can be used as an assessment tool to check pronunciation and intonation. While reading a dialogue text, reading aloud can be done in pairs. Sometimes teacher can read the text and learners repeat it. Such reading can encourage readers and build up self-confidence. Silent reading: Most people read silently in their daily lives. For young learners, it may also prompt conscious language development and comprehension. Thus, they can understand the reading material by bottom-up/top-down processing. After the teacher reads the text loudly, learners may be asked to read the text silently in the classroom. Intensive reading: In classroom, when learners are exposed to intensive reading either through reading aloud or silent reading or both, they can be assessed by the teacher by means of some activities such as comprehension questions, discussion questions, and etc. Or the teacher can ask learners to summarize the story with their own words. While doing this activity, the other classmates can help the one who is summarizing the story. They can also do self-assessment during reading activity. Extensive reading: As mentioned before, extensive reading is mostly implemented out of the class. For young learners, it may be a daunting task; if the teacher hands out some extra material to read at home, they can read it as homework. Although young learners may face some difficulties while reading and discussing extra materials on their own, those materials can be used just for making them struggle for comprehending the reading materials. They may spend some time to read and understand the text. In the classroom, the teacher may help them after they implement extensive reading. Scanning: This technique is useful to take learners’ attention to specific word/ words. Thus, learners recognize the sound of the word/words by making soundsymbol relationships. Sample scanning activities are:

ȤȤ Finding a specific information in a text ȤȤ Finding an item in a text

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ȤȤ Finding a particular number, name, programme in a text, and so on. Skimming: Skimming is an activity used to understand the main ideas in a text quickly. The text is read at a faster speed. Thus, learners are trained to skim any reading passage for general understanding. It can be used as a starting strategy to reading activities. Since young learners are not proficient readers in foreign language, they may develop their own strategies to understand the overall idea. They may also predict the meaning of some unknown words from the context. Sample skimming activities are:

ȤȤ Matching headlines with texts ȤȤ Matching pictures with texts ȤȤ Matching statements with the topic of texts ȤȤ Using keywords to make predictions about the topic

1. Tell the students they will read a shaped poem and create their own poems about fruits. 2. Read the shaped poem you prepared. 3. Hand out the poem to the students. 4. Teach the meaning of the words: mushy, ripe, soggy, warm, gooey, stickiness, loathe. 5. Have them repeat the words (word recognition) 6. Ask them to read the poem (reading aloud) 7. Ask questions about the banana described in the poem. 8. Encourage them to use the adjectives used for banana (scanning) 9. Use graphic organizers, for example a semantic map, to encourage the students to describe the banana in the poem.

Discussion question Which two of the reading techniques explained above are most helpful in young learners’ learning of English? Which two are the least helpful? Explain by giving specific examples from their developmental stages and qualities of their age.

Sample reading activities A shaped poem Age: 10-12 Aim: Reading and writing a shaped poem Materials: A shaped poem

10. Divide the class into pairs. 11. Ask the students to choose the subject of their shaped poems and to write five sentences to describe it (skimming) 12. After they finish writing their sentences, ask pairs to change their sentences and to create poems. Discussion question What are the benefits of using shaped poems for young learners in reading classes? Hands-on task Find or prepare a shaped poem and develop classroom activities to teach how to skim and scan for information. Procedures 226

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Reading

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The Lion and Monkeys

Procedures

Aim: Learning some adjectives

1. Introduce the topic and talk about animals in their mother tongue to take their attention to animals (top-down processing)

Materials: Short texts about animals, pictures

2. Tell them you have two guests today.

A lion is an animal. It has four legs. But it has short legs. It has a short tail. It lives in the woods. It has short fur. Its fur is brown or white. Its ears are big. Its teeth are big and strong. It is a wild animal. It eats meat.

3. Hand out the texts.

Age: 8-11

4. Before reading the texts write down the adjectives from both texts on the board. 5. Show some pictures to the students. The pictures should display the adjectives you teach; for instance, you may show a picture combining both short and tall pencils. 6. After introducing visual materials, read the first text about “lion” 7. Have your students skim the text and find out the overall idea. 8. Then read the second text. 9. Ask your students to compare both animals. You can use a Venn diagram to compare the animals. In the middle, they will write the similar features of the animals. On the left and right diagrams, they can show the different features of each animal (skimming) 10. Ask your students to find out the similarities and differences between those animals (intensive reading) lion

monkey four legs A monkey is an animal. It has four legs. Its fur is short. It is brown or black. It lives in the woods. It has a big mouth. It has a long tail. It is not a wild animal. It eats bananas.

short fur

11. As a follow up activity, divide the class into pairs and ask each pair to tell some characteristics of each animal without looking at the text. As one student tells the characteristics, the other student shows the relevant visual material. This activity may motivate the students for understanding the text while having pleasure, because drawing animals with/without text is fun and easy. 12. Hand out some pictures of animals and get the students to write the main characteristics of the animals in the pictures.

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The donkey says “It’s not fair! I want to live in the house, too.”

Look at that cat!.....................................................................

One day, the donkey leaves the stable and goes into the house. It plays in the house. It breaks the furniture and the glasses and the cups and the plates. It sits on the man’s knee! “Get out of the house!” shouts the man. “You have got a nice stable!” What is good for a little dog may not be good for a donkey.

That is a rabbit! .......................................................................

That is a big cow. ....................................................................

It’s a parrot. ..............................................................................

The donkey and the little dog (Wright, 2004) Age: 8-12 Time: 30+30 minutes Language Skill: Reading Preparation before the class: 1. Select the words you will teach 2. Make a photocopy of the story for each child 3. Prepare pictures of the animals given in the story (a dog, a donkey, a stable, a room with furniture, a plate, a cup, some hay). 4. Draw the pictures of the story in separate sheets. 5. Prepare the sheets on which sentences from the story are written in order to make the students put them in an order. A man has a donkey and a little dog. The donkey lives in a warm, clean stable and it has hay and water. The little dog lives in the house. It sits on the man’s knees in the evening and sleeps in a chair in front of the fire in the night. It eats meat and biscuits. The man gives him biscuits as he eats dinner.

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Pre-reading stage 1. Tell the students that you are going to read a story. Teach them the unknown words given in the story. You can teach the words by drawing, showing the pictures you have prepared, or miming. 2. Repeat the words to make your students recognize the sounds of the words (word recognition) 3. Ask the students to match the written words with the pictures on the board to check whether they have understood the words. While-reading stage 1. Tell the story by acting out. 2. Use the pictures you have prepared while you are telling the story. 3. After telling the story, hand out the photocopies of the story to the students. 4. Read the story loudly to the class. While reading the story, act out the story again. 5. Have the students to read the story silently (silent reading) 6. Ask one or two of the students in the class to read the story (reading aloud)

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7. Choose three students to read the story. One is reading the parts of donkey, one is reading the parts of the man, and the other is reading the descriptive parts of the story (reading aloud) 8. Repeat this reading activity a few times with other students.

Follow-up activities You may ask your students to create their own stories similar to the one they have read. They write their own stories and change the stories with his/her pair. The pairs read each other’s stories and make comments (top-down processing)

Post-reading stage 1. Ask questions about the story to check whether the students have understood it. a. What are the names of the animals in the story?

1. Select the words you will teach.

d. Why does the man shout?

2. Make a photocopy of the poem for each child.

e. Why does the donkey want to live in the house? f. Why can’t the donkey live in the house? 1. Hand out some sheets on which the parts of the story are written and ask the students to put them into the correct order. 2. Put the sheets on which you have illustrated the story and ask the students to put the drawings in the correct order and tell the story with their own words by looking at the drawings. 3. Let the students find the words on their own in the puzzle given (bottom-up processing) hay cup

3. Prepare pictures of the fruits in the poem (grapes, an apple, a pear, an orange, a banana, strawberries). 4. Prepare sheets on which sentences from the poem are written in order to make the students choose the suitable word. I like grapes Little black grapes I eat grapes Little tasty grapes I like apples

Find the words dog

Time: 30 minutes Preparation before the class:

c. Who lives in the house?

stable

Age: 8-12 Language Skill: Reading

b. Who lives in the stable?

donkey

Fruits

furniture house

knees

A big red apple I eat apples

water

A big green apple

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Sweet yellow pears

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Delicious oranges

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I like pears Sweat yellow pears I eat pears I like oranges I eat oranges Delicious oranges Tasty big bananas Delicious small strawberries.

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Pre-reading stage 1. Write the names of the fruits on the board. Teach the students the names of the fruits in the poem. You can teach the fruits by drawing or showing the pictures you have prepared. 2. Repeat the words to make them recognize the sounds of the fruits (word recognition) 3. Ask the students to match the words written on the board with the pictures to check whether they have understood the words. 4. Clean board and ask the students to say the names of the fruits by showing their pictures or drawings.

ȤȤ Which fruit is big? ȤȤ Which fruit is yellow? ȤȤ Which fruits are delicious? 2. Give some blank cards to students and ask them to draw and paint any fruit they have read in the poem. 3. Collect the cards and then give other cards on which the colours of the fruits are written and ask the students to draw and write the names of the fruits. 4. Form pairs. Each student asks a question to his/ her partner. The question can be modelled by the teacher at the beginning. For instance, the teacher can ask the question “Which fruit do you like best?” With such a question and answer activity, the pairs can comprehend the poem easily.

Follow-up activities You may ask your students to write their own poems by changing the adjectives of the fruits in the original poem with some other fruits. Discussion question Do you think teaching vocabulary items in the pre-reading stage is more beneficial than teaching them in the following stages? Why?

While-reading stage 1. Read the poem aloud. 2. While reading the poem, show the pictures of the fruits by one by. After reading the poem, hand out the photocopies of the poem to the students. 3. Read the poem loudly to the class once more and have the students repeat after you. 4. Divide the poem into parts with a different fruit. For instance, the part with grapes will be read by student A, the part with the apple will be read by student B, etc. Repeat this activity with all students present in the class (reading aloud)

Post-reading stage 1. Ask questions about the characteristics of the fruits in the poem (scanning)

ȤȤ What colour are the grapes? ȤȤ What colour is the apple? 234

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Writing Arda Arikan Preliminary questions

ȤȤ How

do you define writing for young learners? Is it writing a paragraph, sentence or a word?

ȤȤ What are the challenges associated with teaching writing in English language classrooms at primary schools?

ȤȤ Why is it difficult for the learner to learn how to write in English? ȤȤ What should the teacher’s role be to facilitate learning how to write in English? Writing and young learners For young learners, writing in English is the most difficult skill to develop for many reasons. First of all, young learners’ writing habits are not fully developed in their home languages. Hence, they cannot really succeed in writing in English accurately. Secondly, in addition to the differences between Turkish and English punctuation rules, English spelling system poses a big problem for them simply because a single sound (or a single phoneme) has many different spellings (paw, poor, pore, pour, daughter, Sean) as exemplified by Harmer (2001, p. 256). Apart from the difficulty posed by the nature of the language being learned, students’ personal states poses additional problem that hinders their development in writing. Chastain (1998) claims that “writing is difficult even under the most supportive and natural circumstances,” hence, “students’ psychological and emotional attitudes toward written communication assignments and to plan toward reducing or eliminating their potential negative effects on the students’ attitudes” (p. 251). As Phillips (2001, p. 57) rightly put, “it is best to introduce English through listening and speaking first, then reading, and writing last.” The teacher’s role in teaching writing unto young learners is important in developing this skill. One of the most important roles of the teacher while teaching to write in a foreign language is motivating the learner (Cuenca & Carmona, 2012). Because we are dealing with young learners, we cannot often motivate our students by lecturing them about how writing will be helpful to them in their future in a rigid mannerdoing so, in fact, will make them feel detached from writing for sure! Thus, teachers should share his or her own writing with her students, including her mistakes in writing, in a light way and invite her students to participate in re-writing and editing. Such a simple step can break the thick ice while making students feel more comfortable and valued. Writing, in the past, was considered to be individual work. Today, we know that writing can be conceptualized and practiced as a pair or group work which facilitates

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communication among students (Cuenca & Carmona, 2012). Such conceptualization also helps integration of skills because students can both speak, listen, read, and write while working together on a piece of writing. In this process, because young learners do not tend to think directly and formally as adult learners do, their imagination works to its fullest which should not be taken as a threat by the teacher. A snow drop can be red, a dog can eat flowers or, worse, a badly written sentence is in fact the best sentence one can ever write. The teacher, hence, should support her students to write for communication and not for perfectness. However, many EFL coursebooks in Turkey continue to take writing as putting the letters in the correct order through without actually helping students to write in meaningful and creative ways.

Hands-on activity By considering the ideas given above, study the coursebook activity given below (Genç, Oruç & Şeremet, 2006, p. 72). Try to explain to what extent this activity helps brainstorming for ideas, exercising imagination, and leading to publishing materials.

Hands-on activity Study the following writing activity extracted from Time for English Grade 4 (p. 61). Discuss to what extent it helps developing young learners’ writing skills.

Literature on young learners’ writing activities suggests that writing activities tasks should: 1. brainstorm for ideas and vocabulary together as a group or class (Kim, 2003, p. 65) 2. require the students to exercise imagination (Cuenca & Carmona, 2012, p. 45). 3. lead to published material (Linse, 2005, p. 101). This is more likely to result from young learners’ eagerness to touch, feel, and show what they have accomplished in their classrooms (Remember how children love showing and talking about the pictures they draw or poems they write in the classrooms). This reality is strongly emphasized by Boldizsár (n.d., p. 56) in the context of the Common European Framework.

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The above discussion gives us hints about the nature of writing as well as the hierarchy of skills to be taught in young learners’ classes. As Cameron (2005) discusses, in young learner classes, “the helpfulness of the written language is limited, and using reading passages, writing up words of songs or using written labels for new vocabulary may cause serious difficulties for pupils” (p. 66). In short, writing cannot be taken by teachers as the major macro skill to be taught or developed in young learners’ foreign language classrooms. In fact, it should be given a subordinate role, one that is only aiming to support the development of the other skills. In that sense, writing should be integrated in English language learners’ classrooms with other skills to enhance students’ learning.

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Discussion Discuss the possible effect of the following activity taken from Spot on 8 (Kurt et al., 2011, p. 154) on 8th graders’ language development by considering Cameron’s (2005) note on difficulties posed by exposing students to writing in young learners’ classrooms. What are the problems with this activity when the issues verbalized by Cameron are considered?

even in your native language, what you can write about the relationship between cacti and lizards. How well can you write on this ‘awkward’ topic unless you do some research about the poor lizards and the hurtful spines of the cacti? Your mastery in Turkish grammar and vocabulary does not help you much, does it? Specific to young learners, here and now principle is accepted as a framework for all of the content of young learners’ classes. Here and now principle underlines that any content addressed to young learners must only include what they know as topics existing in their immediate environment (‘here’) and what they can hear, see, and find out in their current time (the ‘now’). Foreign language learners, similar to any learner, must be taught to plan well before starting writing. Brainstorming for ideas is the simplest way for documenting what to write in an organized way. Have a look at the following mind map a foreign language learner produced. Discuss how this and similar maps may help young learners write easily and more successfully.

Activities Writing with images Writing can be conceived as a symbolic activity for young learners involving the use of symbols and images that paves way to writing through words. In this activity, students write, but not with words. They use images to write. Phillips (2001, p. 58) writes “Choose a suitable text and rewrite it, substituting pictures for some of the words. The children should write the words, perhaps with the help of their picture dictionaries.” The text she suggests looks like as follows:

Planning writing We are well aware now that our background information has the most influential role in what we make both in life as well as in language teaching. Even when we master all the grammar rules and vocabulary items necessary for writing or speaking, we can hardly drop a line unless we know about what we are to write. Think for instance,

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This is my

……. . She eats

……….. and drinks

……….

She further advises that students “can write a story one line at a time, folding their papers over and passing them on after each sentence. The final story will be a nonsense story made up of several children’s sentences” (p. 60). Teachers can come up with numerous different activities that can be used young Writing

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learners’ classrooms by playing with activity and text types in a creative way. Study the handout and discuss how this activity contributes to young learners’ development in writing. A. Here is Mike’s e-mail to Clara. Read it and put the correct images into the blanks. There is one extra. June 23, 2012 Dear Clara, I am going to ………………………………………. with my ………………………………... We are going to fly tomorrow. I am happy because I will see an …………………………………….. ! I will also see a ………………………………… because we will travel from Rome to Florence. I want to eat a lot of …………………………………….. in Rome. I will write to you later!

Imaginative story completion As mentioned before, imagination and young learners’ learning are closely related. In this activity, students use the verbal and pictorial clues to create a short story. Simply, tell your students to look at the pictures and complete the story which you started (a similar activity is suggested by Cuenca and Carmona (2012) but their activity does not include the pictures and is rather weakly contextualized). Use three of these pictures to complete the story.

Mike

Alex wants two pets ……………………………………………………………..

Well-known stories told the other way around I have adapted this activity from an activity suggested by Cuenca and Carmona (2012, p. 46) carrying the same title. I have added the brainstorming sections that make use of the visuals I suggested.

B. Write three things about Mike’s trip by finishing the sentences: 1. Mike is going to …………………………………………… with his ………………………………… 2. He is happy because he will ………………………………………….

A. Write about Snow White and the Evil Queen. Who are they? What do they do?

Snow White

3. He wants to eat a lot of …………………………………….. C. Draw a picture about your trip. Write an e-mail to your friend about your picture and your trip.

.................................. .................................. .................................. ..................................

The Evil Queen .................................. .................................. .................................. ..................................

B. Write what happens in the story. C. Give the Witch’s qualities to Snow White and Snow White’s to the Witch. Re-write the story. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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Writing a poem Students can experiment with writing poems in a creative way. Phillips (2001, p. 64) writes that “the children can write a counting poem from one to ten. Each line could be a noun-adjective combination or a complete sentence, for example: One dog sleeping in the sun Two cats washing their ears Three children playing in the grass Four mothers drinking tea…. An animal haiku is also interesting and useful for young learners (McKay & Guse, 2007). Haiku is a Japanese lyric poem. It is a single stanza containing 3 lines. There are 17 syllables (5 in the first line, 7 in the second line, 5 in the last line). In this activity, students write a haiku in an enjoyable way. A. Choose an animal and write its name here: ………………………………….. B. Write, with your friends, what you know about this animal: …………………………………….

posters to inform their friends about such serious problems. Such an activity may especially be helpful in practicing the imperatives or subject verb agreement patterns in a contextualized manner (Arikan, 2009).

Free writing with visuals Visual materials are stimulating for young learners. Just show students some photographs or pictures and ask them to write as much as they want about these visuals. For example, students can stick their favorite cartoon characters or draw them on a piece of paper and describe or introduce them to their classmates. Free writing with visuals can also be a good way to start a learner portfolio because what students create becomes their own original material. Project Study the writing activity given below in a detailed way by applying what you have learned in this chapter. Report to your friends the benefits and challenges associated with such activities like this (Yalçınkaya et al., 2004, p. 37)

C. Write a haiku with your friend by filling in the spaces below. Use your dictionary to see how many syllables there are in each word. …………………………………… (name of your animal) _____ _______ _____

“What is a….?” writing game Ask a question and write on the board. (i.e. What is a cloud?) Ask students to brainstorm ideas and write their ideas down. Inform them that they can be as imaginative as possible. As long as their ideas tell us something about a cloud, it is fine. After the students complete their responses, they exchange their opinions with their classmates. (Some possible answers are: It is a) white b) a sheep (in the sky) c) water d) cotton balls e) light f) a happy boy. / It has a) many shapes b) colors c) cloud friends d) a big nose.

Guessing games Ask students to write three facts about an animal, place, city or object. Students then say and write their clues for their friends to guess what that animal, place, city or object is. For example: one student writes/ asks about the hospital by writing these: 1. It is a large building. 2. Sick people stay there. 3. Doctors and nurses work there.

Poster preparation Young learners are interested in and sensitive about global and natural issues such as earthquakes and forest fires. Students can choose a global issue and prepare 244

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Hands-on activities 1. What are the negative consequences of asking students to write in English in the foreign language classroom? Discuss this especially in terms of how errors are made and dealt with especially in crowded classrooms. Write a brief report to show your views. 2. Ask young learners about their interests and prepare a list of topics that can be helpful in preparing materials and activities for students to write about. 3. Go over some coursebooks used in primary school English lessons to choose two well prepared writing activities and two that are badly written. Explain, in detail, what makes you believe that these activities are good or bad for use with young learners.

Vocabulary Mehmet Galip Zorba Arda Arikan

Warm Up Questions: 1. Considering your own language learning experiences, how did you learn vocabulary in your classrooms? 2. Was vocabulary instruction neglected while you were learning a foreign? Why or why not? 3. How do you (plan to) teach vocabulary? How do you think young learners learn vocabulary items best?

Most scholars believe that vocabulary instruction plays crucial role in a foreign language teaching. Wilkins (1972, p. 111) has long ago emphasized the importance of vocabulary instruction by arguing that “without grammar, very little can be conveyed. Without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed.” Although, as Allen (1983) claims, vocabulary instruction was neglected in English language teaching education programs, today there is much more attention given to vocabulary instruction in many ELT programs. Linse (2005) states that developing vocabulary is essential in foreign language learning. It is true that we need words or visual representations of them to pass a message across. For instance, even when you are with someone who cannot speak the language you are speaking, non-verbal messages such as gestures are translated into verbal ones in minds so as to continue communication. Teachers must be careful about non-verbal messages for two major reasons. First, they will inevitably use them while teaching vocabulary unto those who have limited vocabulary knowledge. Hence, non-verbal communication (such as those body movements made through drama) will help passing the message across or making the verbal understood through the non-verbal. Second, there are important cultural differences in the meaning of non-verbal messages about which students must be informed. For instance, I remember my close friend who was visiting me in the US utter the sound “Eh!” in response to an American’s question about whether or not she could speak English. For her and any other Turkish speaker in Turkey, this utterance means that she could “somehow” speak English. However, it has no meaning in the US as such. Hence, the question remained unanswered and they both decided not to continue their “awkward” communication probably thinking that neither of them wanted to continue that conversation. Below, you can see some non-verbal messages passed across through our bodies. Have a look at it and add more culture specific and universal non-verbal messages that you may think of.

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Non-verbal messages that has verbal effect (message) in communication Talking manners

Appearance

Humming, coughing

Stress on words, intonation, pauses

Being clean-shaven, well- dressed, dirty

Body posture

Closeness

Facial expression

Leaning or relaxing the muscles

Standing too close or stepping back

Raised eyebrows, lip movements, smiling

Eye movements

Hand movements

Eye contact, winking, staring, etc.

Placing hands on knees, playing with hair, etc.

Sounds

Others ...........................

several different learning processes. Direct and indirect instructions are two of these several processes. Direct instruction; Linse (2005) defines, refers to teaching the words and their meanings. Therefore, direct teaching proceeds in a planned and programmed manner. In this method, teachers often give words and their meanings then have students used these words in sentences. Teaching lexical items such as chunks, phrases, prefixes and suffixes are at the center while teaching vocabulary. Sample Activity Aims: To present vocabulary (animals) Description: To match the pictures with the animals Procedures: 1. Show students the pictures. 2. Then write the names of the animals randomly. 3. Have them match the names with the pictures.

Nation (1990) claims that knowing and using of sufficient number of vocabulary has a pivotal role in effective communication in a foreign language since vocabulary is central to the development of language proficiency with its close contact with pronunciation, spelling, meaning and grammatical properties of the lexis (Riazi & Alavi, 2004). Much more concerns have been discussed and many strategies, techniques and activities are suggested for better vocabulary instruction. However, Allen (1983) underlines a must rule in vocabulary teaching, that is the best time for vocabulary learning is when students feel a certain word needed. Hence, it is necessary for teachers to find ways to arouse interest and curiosity, and to create needs for vocabulary in the classroom so as for better vocabulary instruction. There are differences between teaching a Cartoons, realia, songs, foreign language to children and adults. flashcards, games, puppets, and Children lose their interest and motivation toys are suitable materials that easily whereas they are more enthusiastic can stimulate young learners’ about and less embarrassed at talking imagination in language in learning a new language (Cameron, teaching. 2001). Hence, in vocabulary teaching, characteristics of young learners should be taken into consideration before planning the materials and lesson plans and during the instruction. Providing young learners with different learning opportunities help them to improve not only their vocabulary but also overall language ability (Linse, 2005). Nation (2003) suggests that teachers should facilitate vocabulary learning by teaching learners useful words that they Tongue twisters, riddles and are likely to encounter and by teaching storytelling are helpful in strategies to help learners figure out the attracting young learners’ meanings of words on their own. attention while making the Ellis (1994) defines vocabulary acquisition learning process enjoyable. as a complex phenomenon that includes 248

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Text: a. dog b. cat c. chicken

d. rat e. bird f. fish

Pictures:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Indirect teaching, on the other hand, refers to helping learners learn appropriate strategies so that they can figure out the meaning of words on their own (Linse, 2005; p. 124). Indirect teaching involves a subconscious process which learners learn new words in an unintentional way through exposure to a wide variety of words.

Vocabulary in context Memorizing lists of words is boring, difficult and not practical since meanings of words change in terms of different contexts. Thus, learning new words in various contexts help learners guess the meanings of these words. Nattinger (1988) claims that the meanings of new words are mostly figured out through guessing the meaning from context. On the contrary, Beck and McKeown (2003) state that students should be taught that there may be times when they are not able to figure out the meaning from context (cited in Linse, 2005). Sedita (2005) argues that not all contexts carry sufficient information for a reader to guess or understand the word meaning. In that sense, clear and meaningful contexts must provide the reader with meaningful, detailed, and transferable knowledge of the Putting words into categories words used. help students to contextualize Context clues are words, drawings or nonthe words. verbal messages that provide necessary Vocabulary

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information to guess the meanings of unfamiliar words. In written texts, these items are generally lexical, grammatical and/or visual. The materials that teachers use must include lexical items in accurate and meaningful contexts so that students can understand vocabulary items easily. Students need strategies such as anticipating and inferring in order or figure out unknown words from context. These strategies also help them improve their communicative competence and learner autonomy. In young learners’ classrooms, teacher talk is accepted as the main context clue from which students attain facts about the context.

Aims: To present vocabulary, to practice guessing meaning from context. Description: Bring together a reading text that is written in students’ own language. The text must include some English words that are planned to be taught/ practiced. Students are supposed to use the context to guess the meaning of the words. Stages: 1. Write the title of the text or tell your students what they are going to do.

Hands-on activity Study the context clues given by the teacher to her students and the words planned to be taught in these contexts. Decide which context clues are wellwritten or said so as to make learners’ guessing easier. Also, point at the badly written clues that do not make guessing and learning easier. Discuss your reasons with your friends. Context clues

Words to be taught

Dogs have it.

a tail

Children love drinking it.

coke

It’s a flower.

a rose

In Isparta, you can see these flowers everywhere.

roses

You play with it in the playground.

a ball

It’s white and yellow and you make omelets with it.

an egg

We live in it.

a house

We have ten of them on our hands.

fingers

It’s a pet animal and it likes sleeping on your lap all day a cat long. It’s something white that you put on your food.

yoghurt

Our flag is white and…

red

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2. Show a picture of the things you are aiming to teach and ask students to guess what the text is about. 3. Tell them that the text is in their own language but there are some words in English. 4. Ask them to work in pairs to find the words by guessing. Sample Text: Oğuz’un okulda en sevdiği ders resim dersiydi. Resim dersinde öğretmeni Oğuz’dan doğa resmi çizmesini istedi. Oğuz önce büyük bir güneş çizdi ve onu yellow’a boyadı. Sonra blue renkli kalemiyle gökyüzünü çizdi. Ardından gökyüzüne white renkli bulutlar çizdi. Resmine ağaçlar ekledi. Ağaçların gövdesini brown’a boyadı. Ağaç yapraklarını ve çimenleri de green’e boyadı. Sonra gökyüzünde uçan black renkli kargalar çizdi. Son olarak da çimenlerin arasına güller çizdi ve onları red’e boyadı. Pictures:

Using visual aids Visual devices or objects used by a teacher to help learning are called visual aids. Visual aids are available in many forms. Charts, pictures and flashcards are the most common visual aids used in language learning classrooms. In addition, readily accessible objects in classrooms such as boxes, bottles and scissors are visual aids as well. These objects are useful to help students understand the meanings of words. It is accepted in foreign language education that foreign words associated with imagery are learnt more easily than words alone (Saghayer, 2001). Allen (1993) states that real objects are often better than pictures in terms of their effect on the viewer. Using real objects are also more practical especially when teaching vocabulary items that can be found in any classrooms such as body parts, clothes and classroom objects. However, they are not always sufficient since it is impossible to find or bring every kind of real object in classrooms. Pictures are thus useful in such cases. Especially when it comes to teaching actions or action verbs, handouts such as the following one can be helpful.

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Aim: Visualizing the daily actions students do Task description: Students put the pictures in the chronological order. Stages: Ask students about their daily routines. Have them put the pictures into the chronological order. Ask them to fill in the blanks with the names of the actions. Actions: - brush my teeth

- go to school

the spread of videos as instructional materials. Now, videos are accepted as useful resources of vocabulary learning especially for young learners simply because they expose young learners to colorful and enjoyable scenes in which the language being learned is used in communication. A typical video-based vocabulary instruction may follow the procedures given below (Wang, 2012): 1. Previewing 2. Watching the video for the first time 3. First comprehension check

- wake up

- have breakfast

4. Giving or highlighting the word list

- take a shower

- go to bed

5. Watching for the second time

- do my homework Pictures:

- have dinner

6. Exploring the words 7. Class discussion 8. Watching for the last time 9. Wrapping-up (p. 220). Hands-on activity

........................... ........................... ........................... ...........................

........................... ........................... ........................... ........................... Multimedia and vocabulary teaching Fast developing computer technology, with the help of the Internet, offers great potential for language learning (Hu & Deng, 2007). Seghayer (2001) states that the use of multimedia in language learning is an effective and useful tool that provides context that is enriched with texts, pictures, videos and sound. The use of multimedia in vocabulary teaching helps students to work with information at a high cognitive and personal level. In addition, vocabulary items are more likely to be remembered through the use of multimedia in vocabulary teaching (Linse 2005). Furthermore, students more easily establish connections between new words and their prior knowledge by the help of multimedia (Ref. needed). Allen (1983) suggests three ways to show the meanings of vocabulary items: 1. Pictures,

Watch an episode of Peppee and try to follow the 9 steps suggested by Wang (2012) to teach a list of vocabulary items given in that specific episode. Then, report your lesson plan and improve it with the help of your friends. Note that you will be teaching “Turkish” to foreigners. So, wait until Peppee starts speaking in English to use his videos in your English lessons. There are also many CDs that are prepared for young learners’ development of foreign language teaching. Even pre-kindergarten (illiterate) learners can make use of them easily because of their sound-based and/ or pictorial (image-based) set-up and use. Below you can see a CD called Caillou prepared by Brighter Child Publishing in 2003. The young learner using this CD follows the verbal and sound-based instructions to complete the tasks by clicking the images accordingly. Learners both play and learn with these tools while developing their technological and motor skills along with their learning of a foreign language largely due to the exposure to the language being learned through the medium itself.

2. Explanations in students’ own language, 3. Definitions in simple English, using vocabulary that students already know (p. 12). At this point, we have to remember that much has changed since Allen wrote the above mentioned ways in 1983 such as the birth and the evolution of the Internet and 252

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Dictionary use: Sample activity Aim: To categorize the words given. Description: Put the words below into categorizes according to the context to which they belong. Words dog-wolf-hen-cow-pig-lion-tiger-horse-donkey-shark-bear-snake

Dictionary use Undoubtedly, dictionaries are the best resources that provide meanings of words. Moreover, some dictionaries provide further information such as suitable prepositions for words, synonyms, antonyms and examples of how words are used. Therefore, dictionary use has a significant role in improving vocabulary acquisition and comprehension. From students’ point of view, dictionaries are considered as useful tool that facilitate communication in the target language; yet, as Leffa (1992) states, dictionaries help learners enhance their vocabulary knowledge and increase their awareness of common grammatical errors. In addition, according to Knight (1994), students learn more words when they use dictionaries, and thus they achieve higher reading comprehension scores. With the emergence of the Internet, the number electronic and/or online dictionaries have gradually increased, which means that students can access the words they look up for with just typing the letters and clicking the button instead of searching words between hundreds of pages. Compared with conventional dictionaries, electronic or online dictionaries certainly save much more time. Keeping a vocabulary notebook provides young learners with opportunities to develop a variety of vocabulary acquisition strategies while helping them have control over their learning (Carroll & Mordaunt, 1991; Fowles, 2002). Through using an old address book or any notebook, students can create their own dictionaries. They can record new words that they are learning and can also enrich them with pictures or other visual materials (Linse, 2005). In this way, students are actively involved in the use of the language they are learning.

Categories Farm animals

Wild animals

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

………………..

Teaching vocabulary in classroom Richards (1976) and Nation (2001) point out the different things learners need to know before teachers can say that they have learned it. These are: • The meaning(s) of the word • Its spoken and written forms • What “word parts” it has (e.g., any prefix, suffix, and “root” form) • Its grammatical behavior (e.g., its word class, typical grammatical patterns it occurs in) • Its collocations • Its register • What associations it has (e.g., words that are similar or opposite in meaning) • What connotations it has • Its frequency (cited in McCarten, 2007, p. 18) It would be unrealistic to teach everything there is to know about a word the first time it is presented to students (McCarten, 2007). Therefore, while teaching a foreign language to young learners at beginner level, teachers should prefer to start with teaching cognates at the first step. Cognate is a word in one language that has the same origin as a word in another language such as police. In addition, teacher should also prefer teaching words that young learners are familiar with or can easily encounter or even touch in daily life (such as classroom objects) while they hear the

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foreign names of these words. In this way, the meanings of these words can easily be made clear for students. Moreover, students need to learn these words so as to communicate basically in classroom and to define more difficult words that they will learn as they progress in foreign language learning. Basic vocabulary may be hard to be learnt since students have already learnt them in their mother tongue. Hence, teachers should not expect that each student in the class learn these basic words easily. However, teachers can facilitate vocabulary learning process for their students through enriching lessons with different kind of materials such as flash cards.

Mini-research Study the following vocabulary study activity given in a 6th grade EFL coursebook (Erin, 2006). Write two positive and two negative consequences of asking students to study vocabulary through such an activity like this.

Learning vocabulary largely depends on remembering. Besides, students generally need to see, say, and write newly learned words many times before they can be said to have learned them (McCarten, 2007). Therefore, teaching words for once is never enough for vocabulary learning. Multiple exposure to new vocabulary items play crucial role in vocabulary teaching (Linse, 2005). Teachers need to use the words that they have taught in different activities in order to keep them fresh. Songs and games are the best way for keeping vocabulary fresh. For further levels, writing activities should also be preferred. Young learners have a short attention span, and thus it is significant that activities focusing on vocabulary teaching should be enjoyable, attract students’ attention and more importantly these activities should not occupy much of the lesson time. Teachers should use the pictures that students draw as visual aids for learning vocabulary (Allen, 1983). Much of the basic vocabulary represents things that can be easily drawn such as tree, cloud, moon and mountain (Allen, 1983; McCarten, 2007). Having students drawn the pictures of basic words help them get involved with the use of language they are learning, and also provide students with opportunities to personalize these words more easily (Linse, 2005).

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Hands-on activity

Mini-research

Study to material given below (Özer & Kaptan, 2010). Explain how this activity might develop young learners’ skills. Specifically, which specific skill or sub-skill is aimed to be developed through this activity? Vocabulary? Spelling? The soundsystem? Or ordering?

Language materials, if not prepared well, may hinder students’ learning of the language. Look at the material below (Kaptan & Özer, 2010). What are the problems with these activities? How can you improve them?

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Hands-on activity Both of the activities below (Kaptan & Özer, 2010; Kurt, et. al., 2011) aim to develop students’ knowledge of collocations. Compare the weak and strong sides of each activity. Choose which one you would prefer to use by explaining your reasons.

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Project work Target vocabulary lists have been used to make the curriculum (coursebooks) more concrete. However, problems with appropriateness have been a major concern shared by teachers, students and coursebooks writers alike. Have a look at the target vocabulary list of a coursebook intended for 8th grade Turkish classrooms (Kurt, et. al., 2011). By considering the age, interests and communicative needs of 8th graders, tick the items you find appropriate and cross the ones you find inappropriate or useless at this level or for these learners’ communicative needs. Then, compare your results with your classmates. Discuss your possible suggestions or solutions to minimize the negative effects of such problems.

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Grammar Derya Döner Yılmaz

Preliminary questions 1. How do you define grammar? What does it include as a body of knowledge? 2. What do you understand from the terms ‘explicit’ and ‘implicit’ knowledge? 3. Is it possible to integrate grammar learning into the teaching of meaningful communication? 4. Do we really need to teach grammar in young learners’ classrooms? When teaching English to young learners, we do not really take the issue of teaching grammar into consideration as an important aim of the course. There is a general consensus in that children cannot and should not learn the structures of the language because they lack meta-linguistic awareness while having limited cognitive abilities both in their L1 and L2. Hence, young learners should learn a foreign language for communication purposes only (Wood, 1998). This is not only a concern in the matter of teaching English to young learners. In fact, language teachers are confused about the role of grammar in the language teaching at all levels. Some of the teachers feel that teaching grammar does not help learners to use the language and they claim that their learners can learn a language without explicit grammar instruction. Yet, some others insist on a more traditional view that language learning equals learning the grammar of that language. There has been continuous debate in ELT circles about the place and importance of teaching grammar. There are researchers such as Fotos and Ellis (1991) who suggest that ‘learners need to engage in communication based on an exchange of information’ (p. 605). Krashen (1982) makes a distinction between acquired knowledge and learned knowledge by arguing that acquisition only takes place when learners are exposed to roughly tuned input which they are able to comprehend and that learning is limited to a few simple practical rules. On the other hand, there are other researchers who are in favour of teaching grammar. For example, White (1987) stands against the notion of comprehensible input by claiming that grammar cannot be acquired only on the basis of comprehensible input and learners need to receive formal instruction. Moreover, Lightbown (1985) argues that ‘knowing a language rule does not mean one will be able to use it in a communicative interaction’ and ‘ being able to use a rule may not mean that one will be able to state it explicitly’ (p. 177). Thus, as Brewster, Ellis and Girard (1990) claim ‘appropriate language use requires knowledge of both the form and the functions of a language’. At this point, it is worth considering what we really mean when we talk about teaching grammar.

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What is grammar? It is obvious that we need to consider this issue from a broader perspective and emphasize the important role of form-focused instruction. We realize that in the ELT literature, there is a distinction between meaning-focused and form-focused instruction. Meaning focused instruction refers to the kind of information which engages the learners in communicative tasks during which their attention is on expressing their message. The form-focused instruction, on the other hand, takes the learners’ attention to linguistic forms. Lightbown and Spada (1990) state that students in meaning-oriented language classes often experience difficulties with accuracy. Then again, Genesee (1987) who searched immersion classes stated that the emphasis on expressing and exchanging messages in communicative classes promoted fluency. However, it is also observed that this kind of instruction has not really helped learners to achieve grammatical accuracy. Van Patten (1990) claimed that especially learners would not achieve high level of linguistic accuracy by means of communicative activities alone because of cognitive constraints (once again due to their lack of metalinguistic awareness). Since low level proficiency learners may have limited processing capacities, they cannot easily attend to both meaning and form at the same time (Van Patten, 1990). Thus, we can see that young learners in our case cannot really be expected to achieve high level of linguistic accuracy. However, they are not likely to learn a foreign language without being exposed to some simple language structures either.

Contextualizing grammar Discussion Question Why is contextualization an important issue in the matter of teaching English to young learners? Celce-Murcia (1991) suggested that teachers should attend to forms through some grammar instruction. They emphasized the need to integrate grammar instruction in communicative teaching by presenting grammatical features contextually to the learners. The contextualization of grammar instruction is a very crucial element of teaching language structures to young learners. We highly value this fact in this specific chapter since we know that we cannot really engage learners in meaningful communication without giving them basics of the grammar of the English language. Children would not be able to take part in communicative activities unless they learn the grammar of the basic communication patterns. However, it is equally important to determine how we would present grammar in the English lessons. In fact, Fotos and Ellis (1991) try to show that ‘it is possible to integrate the teaching of grammar with the provision of opportunities for communication involving an exchange of information’ (p.611). They manage to do this with the help of the grammar tasks which the learners perform interactively. Nevertheless, we cannot really expect young learners to be engaged in complex 264

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interactive tasks that require the use of higher order cognitive skills. Yet, it is still possible to help children develop cognitive and social skills while practicing grammatical structures via communicative tasks that are meaningful and contextual. As Nunan (2000) claims, in genuine communication beyond the classroom, grammar and context are often so closely related that appropriate grammatical choices can only be made with reference to context and the purpose of the communication (p. 192). It is, thus very important to teach grammar within meaningful contexts but not through exercises which emphasize formal mastery of language structures out of context. To this end, teachers are expected to provide learners with tasks that present the relationship between language structures and contexts within which they are used. We clearly understand that the learners should have the opportunity to see the relationship between form-meaning-use in a transparent way. That is what we will consider in the following sections. Cameron (2001) also believes that ‘grammar does indeed have a place in children’s foreign language learning, and that skilful grammar teaching can be useful’ (p.96). What she understands from grammar is actually ‘something more than the lists of labels and rules found in grammar books and that grammar is closely tied into meaning and use of language’. At this point, it is worth considering a classification of teaching grammar which falls into 3 main categories which is similar to Cameron’s (2001).

Natural way of learning grammar This model assumes that the learners will learn the language by using it to communicate with other people. It is like the children’s process of acquiring their own mother tongue. Acquiring their L1, children learn to communicate through socialization by gradually and progressively improving their linguistic performance and competence being grammatically and sociolinguistically accurate and appropriate. In other words, they just cannot help learning the grammatical structure naturally. Grammar is considered as unimportant and is not paid any attention. In that case, for example, as Fotos and Ellis (1991) suggest native speakers are generally unable to describe the rules they use when they make their sentences. This can only be possible in the natural context. If you take a Turkish child to Britain and let him live there for some period, he will learn/acquire the language in a natural way mostly for survival. This will require implicit knowledge which is ‘intuitive and procedural’ (Fotos & Ellis, 1991) This model does not help us to teach English as a foreign language in Turkey since we need to follow a prescribed syllabus to be exploited in limited class time.

Teaching grammar directly In this methodology, the most important part of the language is its grammar. Here the grammar rules are presented in an order explicitly and most of the time metalinguistic labels are used to introduce grammar structures. In that case, as Cameron (2001) states the learners are expected to learn the rules and practice Grammar

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using the rules to construct sentences. Then the learners are expected to use the rules automatically. This way of teaching grammar is referred to as linear model of language learning by Nunan (2000). He argues that this model works on the premise that learners acquire one target language item at a time, in a sequential, step-by-step fashion. In most cases, learners are given isolated sentences and they try to internalize those through exercises involving repetition, manipulation and grammatical transformation. The learners do not have the chance to see the systematic relationships that exist between form, meaning and use (Nunan, 2000). However, young learners would not really be able to cope with this kind of instruction since they are not cognitively developed yet. The rules of a language are abstract. Memorization of these rules is meaningless for children. Children go for meaning and they cannot analyze these rules due to their abstract nature. According to Piaget’s cognitive developmental stages abstract thinking develops around age 11. Thus, earlier attempts to learn and memorize the rules will be an ineffective, boring, and meaningless strategy for children. Hence, young learners will need a more organic approach where they are exposed to the target language within a meaningful context.

Teaching grammar indirectly Another way of presenting grammar is within a meaningful context by highlighting some specific grammatical structures on the syllabus in an indirect way. Cameron (2001) noticed that focusing on meaning only in the classrooms does not guarantee language development and learners need help to notice grammatical patterns of the foreign language. Moreover, they need help to focus on the accuracy and the language use, though not in an explicit way. Cameron (2001) suggests that teachers should be aware of the grammatical issues in the first place and should possess a range of form-focusing techniques. Thus, they will be able to teach grammar whenever necessary in a non-formal way. They are expected to make use of the situations that arise to present some specific grammatical issues. With the help of the techniques such as stories, songs, games etc., they can take the young learners’ attention to the grammatical issues. Moreover, she claims that; Good learning-centred grammar teaching will be meaningful and interesting, require active participation from learners and will work with how children learn and what they are capable of learning (p.110). Cameron (2001) also emphasizes the importance of socio-cultural context of foreign language lessons which will strongly influence what happens in the classrooms. Thus, it is also very important that the teacher is successful in relating language learning to children’s background knowledge and real life experiences. However, in an EFL country like Turkey, it is very difficult for children to see language as something real and relevant. They are not exposed to the English language in their daily lives and many of the families may not have relevant background knowledge

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of the language to encourage their children to learn it. In such a situation the teachers have greater responsibilities to motivate children to learn the language and to create a communicative purpose to use the language in meaningful contexts. Activity Story completion: Read and show the first two paragraphs of the story to your students and then ask the students to complete the story by ordering the scrambled sentences given. Aim: Exposing students to simple present tense in a story context. This activity helps the learner to identify the story sequence by exposure to meaningful input. Clever Thief Devan is a clever thief. He robs the rich and gives all to the sick and the needy. The other thieves are jealous of him. They plan to get rid of him. They try to steal the King’s Pyjamas. Devan accepts the challenge. After that he prepares to execute the new challenge. He makes a plan to steal the King’s Pyjamas. Give the sentences below in a jumbled order. And ask the students to re-order the sentences.

Devan goes to the King’s Palace

He finds the King sleeping

.

.

He opens a bottle of red ants on the bed. The ants bite the King badly. He cries for help. The servants rush in. They pretend to look for ants.

Devan

removes the King’s Pyjamas and escapes.

Devan makes fun of the other thieves. The other thieves accept Deven as their leader in the end. Story adapted from :http://www.english-for-students.com/Clever-Thief.html

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In the following section, we will try to deal with some possible different ways of presenting and practicing language structures and encourage teachers to use one or more of these techniques. Reflection: How did you learn English grammar? Think back your previous learning experiences and try to identify good and not so good techniques of teaching grammar. Discussion question Which way of grammar teaching do you think is the most appropriate one in Turkey? Why? Having reviewed some of the possible models to teach grammar, we can conclude that in an EFL context such as Turkey, children can be taught grammar indirectly. Since they are not cognitively developed and do not have linguistic purposes (Moon, 2000) they are not able to learn grammar rules presented to them directly. On the other hand, since exposing them to the natural English speaking environment is not possible they cannot be expected to learn the grammar structures in a natural way. In that case, the only true way to teach grammar will be presenting language structures within meaningful contexts which will appeal to learners’ interest. However teachers will have a syllabus which considers grammatical structures.

Different ways of presenting language forms In this section, we will look at some different ways of presenting grammar and will try to offer an example activity to give you an idea how you can plan and prepare English lessons emphasizing a specific grammar point.

The use of classroom language First of all, we can consider the idea of indirect learning. We know that children have the ability to go for meaning (Moon, 2000). They have got the natural ability to make sense of the situation or event from the context without really knowing how the structure works. They will tend to focus on meaning and try to understand what goes on in that specific situation. It is simply because as it is typical for this age group, they mostly focus on the total meaning rather than the individual components of sentences. Thus, it is also possible that children will not be concerned about the structure but instead may just pick up the phrases or chunks since they have got this kind of ability (see Moon, 2000). As Cameron (2001) states ‘this kind of learning of pre-fabricated phrases or chunks of language, is also on the fringes of grammar, but it is probably very important in the early stages’ (p. 98). Thus, we can make use of chunks and ready-made language such as classroom talk in an attempt to introduce some grammatical patterns. This requires teachers to consider their own use of the language in the classroom and carefully plan to use some specific grammatical structures deliberately and exploit them in the classroom. Cameron (2001) also states that ‘classroom discourse and routines can serve to introduce new grammar, with access to meaning supported by action and objects’ (p.111). When we are working with young learners, the use of routines can help us to provide a context in which we can teach some structures. 268

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For example if the teacher uses expressions as presented in the following examples in a systematic way intentionally, the learners will pick up some specific structures.

ȤȤ May I open the window? ȤȤ Let’s look at the pictures! ȤȤ Who will help me? ȤȤ Now it is my turn! ȤȤ What is this picture? ȤȤ Who wants to play now?

The use of this type of language will help the learners to see the real use of language for a communicative purpose and they will tend to use the same expressions whenever they need them.

Listen and do activities These kinds of tasks will help young learners to be exposed to the natural language without any pressure to produce language. Since they would not be expected to take any risk, they will feel confident when they join in the activity. Moreover, they can listen to a piece of talk and fill in a table using what they understand. In the meantime, they can deal with the grammar point which is planned to be presented through the task. What is the weather like today? At the beginning of the activity; the teacher presents a social talk and asks students some questions about the weather; i.e. “What is the weather like today?’’ Then, she explains that they will listen to a weather forecast a few times and take some notes to match the countries and the weather situations that are hanging on the board. After they complete this task, volunteers come to the board in order to match a picture and a country one by one. By the time students finish the matching, the teacher asks students to work in pairs to exchange information as follows:

ȤȤ “What is the weather like in Portugal?’’ ȤȤ “It is sunny.”

Students then role-play by impersonating a weather forecast reported called Sam: There are a lot of different weather conditions around the world today. In England, it is rainy now. In Portugal, it is sunny. In Japan, it is foggy. In Australia, it is very hot. In Sweden, it is snowy. In China, it is windy. In Egypt, it will be cloudy. In India, there will be storms. These kinds of activities will help the learners to practice different grammatical structures within a meaningful context.

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The use of stories

Story: Brown Bear

Stories can also be seen as another way of presenting some specific grammatical patterns of English in a meaningful and contextual way. This meaningful context helps them get the meaning in a natural way. Since children love to listen to stories again and again, this will give them a chance to pick up the structures without any direct grammar teaching. Moreover, children will naturally be involved in the stories where they are expected to join in the repetitive parts.

Read the following story to your students. Identify the chunks and structures your students are likely to grasp.

When we use stories as a means to introduce grammatical structures, we can consider using puppets to play out the story. Young learners will definitely pay more attention to the puppet talk. This will give the teacher a chance to present grammar indirectly but effectively. Furthermore, the repetitive patterns in the stories will provide a good opportunity for language practice.

Brown Bear Brown bear, brown bear What do you see? I see a red bird

looking at me Red bird red bird What do you see?

For example, the story of Pinocchio can be a good way of presenting the simple present tense. The picture of Pinocchio is attached on the board to introduce the main character. Some eliciting questions are used to find out to what extent they are already familiar with the character and the story. Some pictures showing Pinocchio in action are also put on the board and then Pinocchio starts talking about what he does every day. But as a famous liar, Pinocchio tells some lies. In the meantime the class is divided into groups and they are expected to spot his lies. After each lie is found, a student adds a nose to the Pinocchio picture, then he will have a longer nose each time. Some of the sentences from Pinocchio:

ȤȤ I get up early ȤȤ I have my breakfast. ȤȤ I go to school. ȤȤ I have my lunch ȤȤ I do not spend all of my money.

At the end of the activity they will have a picture of Pinocchio with a very long nose on the board.

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I see a yellow duck

looking at me.

Yellow duck yellow duck What do you see? I see a green frog

looking at me………. Etc.

The use of songs and rhymes Apart from stories, they will be exposed to specific language patterns through songs and games. Likewise, the songs and games will also have repetitious patterns and will be useful means for introducing grammatical structures. They will have opportunity to practice the structures in a natural way and young learners will enjoy themselves. Since songs will stimulate learners’ interest, they will be highly motivated and want to be involved in the activity. Cameron (2001) suggests one way of using rhymes where younger learners are given the rhyming words on cards and they are asked to put the cards in the correct order. When they are doing this they will probably repeat the rhyme many times and this will be very effective way of attending to the form.

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a. to look at the digital clock and

BATH SONG

b. to show the time on the model clock and

Can you wash your hair?

Can you wash your shoulders?

I can wash my hair.

I can wash my shoulders.

Can you wash your feet?

Can you wash your toes?

I can wash my feet.

I can wash my toes.

Can you wash your face?

I can wash my hands.

Can you wash your knees?

I can wash my nose.

I can wash my knees.

I can wash my nose.

I can wash my hair.

I can wash my shoulders.

I can wash my feet.

I can wash my toes.

I can wash my face.

I can wash my hands.

I can wash my knees.

I can wash my nose.

This is the way we take a bath.

This is the way we take a bath.

c. to tell the time. If they do this correctly they gain one point. Then they make sentences such as, ‘I have got Maths at four o’clock on Mondays’ and put the picture representing the school subject on the right side of the timetable. Each time a group makes a correct sentence, they gain 3 points. The more points the groups collect, the more successful they are. However, correctness should not be confused with perfection. Students may make minor mistakes which can be corrected together while their answer remains correct and rewarded with 3 points. This game will give them a chance to practice certain structures in an enjoyable way. They will do a lot of repetition but would not really realize that they are repeating a structure but will consider it as a fun activity.

We need a doll, a sponge, a bathtub and three paper clowns for this activity. We play the song and do the actions on the doll pretending to wash the baby.

The use of games Games are very important in foreign language teaching situations especially for young learners because they can encourage meaningful language practice. There are actually many different advantages of using games in the young learners’ classrooms. However, we will be more concerned about the fact that games can be an ideal way of grammar teaching. Here we have to refer to some studies which have already dealt with the impact of game when practicing some grammatical structures. For example, Yıldız (2001) stated that young learners can learn and remember grammar rules more effectively when they are practiced within a game. Moreover, Taşlı (2003) investigated young learners’ success in the practice of numbers and ‘what time is it?’ structure and he found out that playing games for this purpose seemed to influence their learning performance positively. Yolageldili and Arıkan (2011) investigated teachers’ attitudes towards using games in teaching grammar in EFL classrooms and concluded that according to the teachers, games are believed to be effective in increasing learners’ proficiency in practicing grammar communicatively although teachers do not use them effectively during their teaching.

The use of surveys and questionnaires It is generally common to make use of surveys and questionnaires. In fact, some specific grammar practice is very suitable for such material; for example, when children are learning ‘Do you like..?’ structure, they may be asked to use the survey technique to find out about their friends’ favourite food and drinks. In that case, they will have a real purpose to use the necessary language structure and will have the chance to practice it at all levels.

We can play a Time Wheel game to practise telling the time and talking about school schedule and subjects with our students. Here, there are four groups competing with each other. Each group turns the spinner and chooses the symbolic picture of any school subject and one of the days of the week. They are expected to recognise the word. Then, they are asked 272

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More Games and Activities

Guessing Game: MEETING AT THE AIRPORT

Activity 1: MAKING A PIZZA

Aim: To practise describing appearance

Aim: To practice like/ dislike

Context: The teacher presents a simulated story for the students. There is an international meeting in our city for the Children’s Day celebrations. One of us will have to go to the airport to meet the guests but he does not know who is coming and we will try to help him/her by describing the guests.

Context: The English teacher announces that they are going to a picnic as a class. They will have a big pizza to eat there. But they have to create their own pizza according to their likes and dislikes. Materials: The picture of a pizza base, different pizza ingredients made from cardboard and a spinner Organization: Whole-class activity The Procedure: The teacher puts a plain pizza base on the board and sticks all the ingredients next to pizza. The ingredients are olives, pepper, mushroom, cheese, pepperoni, salami, sweetcorn and etc .

Material: a number of stick figures Procedure: First the teacher asks ‘Who wants to volunteer to meet our first guest?’ Then one of the volunteer students gets out of the classroom and the others choose a figure among the bunch and after examining the figure very carefully they put it back. Then volunteer gets into the classroom and starts asking questions such as ‘ Is the guest a girl or a boy?’, What does s/he wear?, What color is her hair? The students try to describe the figure and the volunteer tries to recognize the figure. They need other volunteers to meet the other guests at the airport. When all the guests arrive safely the activity is over.

The students will come to board, turn the spinner and if it stops at ‘Like’ they will choose something they like from the ingredients on the board and stick it on the pizza saying ‘I like salami on my pizza’. Then teacher asks the other students ‘What does she like on her pizza’ and the class answers ‘She likes Salami on her pizza’. If it stops at ‘don’t like’ they take something they do not like from the board and drop it in a cup saying ‘I don’t like mushrooms on my pizza’. Likewise the teacher asks and students answer the question. When there is not any item on the board, the pizza is done and ready to eat. The activity is completed. This type of activity will help the students to practice ‘Likes/Dislikes’ in a meaningful context without realizing that they study grammar.

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Activity 2: A BIG BIG COOKING POT

Alien Land

Aim: To practise ‘can’ structure for ability

Aim: to practise ‘has got ‘ structure to describe physical appearance

Context: In this activity the teacher becomes a chief cook and comes to the classroom with a big pot and a spoon. The teacher tells the students that they will cook an ability soup that day. Material: A real cooking pot , a wooden spoon, colorful name tags organization: Individual work

to practise affirmative /negative and question form of ‘Can’ structure Context: In this activity The students are asked to form an alien land. Fort his end, the do handcraft work first. They design their own aliens and assign some characteristics. They cut and colour their aliens. The purpose is to form an alien land.

Procedure: Students are asked to pick up colorful number cards presented by the teacher and they write their names on the cards. This way they know when it is their turn to present their abilities. Then students come to the board in turn and teacher asks

Procedure: After they prepare their aliens they bring them to the classroom and introduce their aliens to the class.

‘What can you do best?’

After the land is ready full of all different aliens, now each of them talks about the abiliteis of their aliens and their classmates are encouraged to ask questions about the aliens.

‘I can dance very well’. The student presents some dance figures and as a class they decide to put the name tag of that student in the soup if they really like the dance. If not, the student may try another action after all the students finish their performances.

‘It is a big green alien. It has got one big eye. It has got a big mouth.’ Then the alien is accepted to the Alien Land(sticks his figure on the board).

‘He can eat a lot. He can dance well. ‘Can he fly? Can he speak English?’

‘I can jump high.’ As the activity continues the pot is now full of colorful name tags representing the ability soup and the students have a lot of ‘can’ practice.

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Activity 3:CATERPILLARS AND FLOWERS ON THE BOARD

Activity 4: EVLIYA ÇELEBI TRAVELS AROUND TURKEY

Aim: To practise simple present tense

Aim: To practice ‘ famous for’ structure

Context: Students play with cardboards

Context: The teacher invites Evliya Çelebi to the classroom. A stick puppet is provided. The teacher tells the students that he has just finished his Turkey tour and arrived at Bursa. The students are now going to play a game with him about the places in Turkey and ask what they are famous for.

Materials: Colorful cardboards, pictures, glue and scissors Procedure: The students form their own groups and then one of the group members is asked to come to the teacher’s desk first and choose a picture which describes an action such as a girl drinking water. Then the student goes back to his/her seat and with the other group members they try to guess what the picture describes. Under the Picture they will find a clue about the subject of the sentence and the form of the sentence (positive, negative or question). By choosing the relevant cardboards on the table they will make their sentences to describe their Picture. If the sentence is positive, they form a flower, if it is negative, they form a caterpillar but if it is a question they can make a centipede.

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Organization: Individual work Materials: Turkey map, Evliya Çelebi puppet Procedure: Students come to the board, examine the map and choose a city and they ask ‘What is Isparta famous for ?’, Evliya Çelebi shows a picture of a rose and the students is expected to say ‘Isparta is famous for rose.’ The activity continues with different cities of Turkey.

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Tasks for teaching 1. Choose one of the task types that have been mentioned in this chapter. Determine a specific grammar point such as ‘can’ or ‘there is/ there are.’ Prepare a lesson plan to teach this grammar point and micro-teach this lesson. 2. Consider different kinds of teacher talk that is likely to take place in the classroom and specify a grammar point that can be used in the talk. Prepare a lesson plan to exploit this grammar point. 3. Examine the English syllabus which is used in public schools in Turkey and determine the language structures which are aimed to teach at the grade you choose. Choose one of the structures and then decide what you will do to contextualize this structure in a meaningful way. Prepare a lesson plan to teach it.

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Drama Şehriban Dündar

Before you start! Have a look at the photograph. As you can see, students act out traditional Roma folktales during a summer camp. Brainstorm ideas to explain the benefits and challenges associated with being a part of such an activity while learning a foreign language. How would you feel if you were a part of that group of students who study a foreign language through activites such as this?

Photo source: http://hungary.usembassy.gov/event_07232011.html

Education is concerned with individuals; drama is concerned with the individuality of individuals, with the uniqueness of each human essence. (Peter Slade) In Turkey, it is still possible to see the traces of traditional language teaching methods which don’t let learners go beyond repeating the same set of language patterns that have limited communicative value. Learners are exposed to a number of courses in English as a part of curriculum with many compulsory standardized multiple choice exams. Consequently, learners and teachers hardly achieve the communicative purposes in all age groups. Savignon (1983) considers drama activities (theatre arts) as the most important language teaching program because it involves learners in

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the experience of language as a network of relations among people, things and events. Furthermore, drama pedagogy for FLL is both realization and an extension of communicative language teaching aimed at developing communicative (Conale & Swain, n. d.) and interactional competence (Kramsch, n. d.). Drama literally means “a play written to be acted”, “acting”, “activity” and “acting”. Drama method which helps learners gain concrete experiences in the learning environment is an important teaching method that lets leaning by doing and experiencing (San, 1990; Adıgüzel, 1993; Üstündağ, 1997a; Üstündağ, 1998; Kelly, 2003; Önder, 2003; Karadağ & Çalışkan, 2005; Piekkari, 2005; Açıkgöz, 2006). The aim of drama activity in the classroom is to learn an abstract concept, behavior, an idea or knowledge by playing (Adıgüzel, 2007). Schejbal (2006) claims that drama in FLT context doesn’t mean a classical play or a theatre performance, as the aim is to assess the learning process together with the product. While it doesn’t exclude the elements of a play or a performance, it also includes a number of other aspects theatre performance or a classical play. However, it can be said that drama is a reflection of performance arts into the FL classrooms, which put the young learners into various roles and situations that are quite possible in real life so that they can communicate through target language using four language skills, the lexis and grammar effectively. Smith (1984), a professionally trained actor and a teacher of English as a second language draws a parallel between the theatre arts and the language learning. He suggests that actors and learners share a common goal of communicating intended messages, have similar obstacles of dealing with new roles and language, and therefore can use the same strategies to overcome the difficulties and achieve the aims. Smith proposes that language learning will benefit linguistically or socio-linguistically from the techniques applies in the theatre arts.

The history of drama in foreign language teaching The use of drama in foreign language is not a new concept. Having been used to teach foreign languages since the MiddleAges, drama plays an important role in teaching the target language and culture (Tüm, et al., 2010). Drama has played small but consistent role in language teaching in Britain and the United States since the1970’s (Dodson, 2000). The early, most-well known advocates of drama in the L1 classroom were Heathcote and Bolton (1984) who encouraged teachers to integrate theatre into what they did. Bolton (1984), in particular, championed the use of drama in classes for all subjects making it “the center of the curriculum.” Later on, L2 practitioners adopted drama in their practices and drama gained popularity in foreign language teaching. Drama was firstly started to be used in history and literature classes at secondary schools in 1951 in Turkey (Tüm, et al., 2010). From 1980 onwards, drama technique has being commonly used in mother tongue instruction in Turkey (Öztürk, 2008).

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The relationship between drama and child’s developmental stages Drama can be considered as an appropriate tool for young language learners, as drama fits into child’s developmental stages. According to Brazelton and Greenspan (2000), a child has three developmental stages, social/emotional, physical, cognitive and moral development. Language teachers, who are aware of those developmental stages, can provide young learners with developmentally appropriate instruction.

Drama and emotional/social development According to McClellan and Katz (2001), the following are the attributes of young learners:

ȤȤ being in a positive mood ȤȤ displaying the capacity for humor ȤȤ approaching others positively ȤȤ expressing wishes and preferences clearly, gives reasons for actions and positions

ȤȤ expressing

frustrations and anger effectively and without escalating disagreements or harming others

ȤȤ showing interest in others by exchanging information ȤȤ accepting and enjoying peers and adults of ethnic groups other than his or her own.

Demirel (2007) describes drama is a way through which learners will learn how to behave accordingly in certain situations by direct experience, improves problem solving and communication skills. Thus, improving individuals’ basic skills, drama contributes to needs of communication, meeting the requirements of contemporary society, giving rational decisions and continuing the learning (Öztürk, et al., 2008). Taking Demirel’s and Öztürk’s description of drama into consideration, functions of drama and a young learner’s emotional/social development go hand in hand. Drama not only contributes to linguistic development but also to other developmental areas of young learners such as social development. Drama characteristically requires social interaction in the classroom either between the teachers and learners or among learners, for instance, role play, reader’s theatre, skit and scriptwriting requires preparation and collaboration in order to prepare scripts to be performed, sometimes costume and stage, rehearse beforehand in contrast to other drama activities such as improvisation, simulation, mime, drama and language games and frozen image building. Thanks to this preparations, young learners’ anxiety levels will be lowered as they have chance to know their peers closely by communicating, exchanging ideas, expressing preferences without harming their peers but showing respect and thus, teachers will have created an appropriate environment; socially interactive classroom atmosphere to carry out other drama activities and others to teach the language.

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Drama and cognitive development Attributes of cognitive development (McClellan and Katz, 2001):

ȤȤ understands the concepts of symbols such as numbers and letters ȤȤ likes reading or being read to ȤȤ like playing with words, numbers, or abstract symbols ȤȤ comprehends concrete and/or abstract cause and effect relationships ȤȤ can follow a sequence of events ȤȤ can classify concrete pictures, objects, and/or abstract concepts

As young learners are capable of comprehending both concrete and abstract things easily, teachers can vary the items that they are using for drama activities, there is no point in sticking to just printed resources. In any classroom activity including, learners can’t be expected to produce something except pre-listening, -reading, -writing and speaking which requires prior knowledge, therefore, teachers can bring texts, graded readers, fairy tales, cartoons and comics which include the target language focus that learners are going to practice in drama activities. Furthermore, drama plays of American and British literature can be provided for young learners to create bridges between target language and culture either for classroom activities or out off classroom activities. Teachers can read or get learners read fairy tales, drama plays to foster learners’ creativity for drama activities that learners are going to be involved or to get learners digest what they have learnt, because they like reading and exploring and discovering something new or interesting. Jumbled words, pictures, objects, events and letters can be distributed and then learners can be asked to sequence them, create a new story and subsequently, perform role play, mime, improvisation, simulation, improvisation and frozen image building activities. Grammar teaching can take place inductively, by including the grammar points in drama activities, thus learners can recognize the target grammar point and its function and then can practice that into other drama activities which include language outputs that belong to learners.

Drama and physical development Attributes of physical development (McClellan & Katz, 2001),

ȤȤ demonstrates the muscle and hand-eye coordination, ȤȤ demonstrates the muscle and foot-eye coordination, ȤȤ is able to skip, hop, run, hop, run, jump, and dance or move to music, ȤȤ demonstrates muscle control when using scissors, pencils, markers, paintbrushes.

It is not just the mind but also whole body is active during the all drama activities. Drama involves children at many levels, through their bodies, minds, emotions, language and social interaction (Zalta, 2006). What is expected from young learners is not just perform the drama activities that are provided or preparing their own

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scripts to perform, but also, preparing the stage or costumes such as masks and puppets is also expected sometimes as long as time allows. Especially mime activities accompanied by music require ear and whole body coordination, and learners are expected to put things into action accordingly, which shows that drama not only cares about cognitive development but also physical development of young language learners. Reflection Discuss the developmentally appropriate instruction for young language learners and answer “What makes drama a developmentally appropriate tool for young language learners?”

Advantages of using drama with young language learners Zalta (et al., 2006) has stated the following reasons for using drama with young language learners. As he argues drama;

ȤȤ helps children to activate language and have fun. ȤȤ encourages children to speak and gives them chance to communicate even with limited language, using nonverbal communication, such as body movements and facial expressions.

ȤȤ can reduce the pressure that students feel, so they become ready to talk sooner.

ȤȤ motivates children as dramatizing a text is motivating and it’s fun, thus

English language skills will be developed successfully if learners are motivated.

ȤȤ is familiar to children as dramatizing is part of children’s lives from an

early age. They play at being adults in situations that are part of their lives. Children try out different roles in make believe play. They rehearse the language and the “script” of the situation and experience the emotions involved, knowing that they can switch back to reality whenever they want to. Such pretend play prepares children for the real-life situations they will meet later on: it is a rehearsal of the real thing. Make-believe encourages their creativity and develops their imagination and at the same time gives them the opportunity to use language that is outside their daily needs.

ȤȤ helps children build confidence. By taking on a role, children can escape from their everyday identity and lose their inhibitions. This is useful with children who are about using English, or who don’t like joining in group activities. If you give these children special roles, it encourages them to be those characters and to abandon their shyness or embarrassment. This is especially true when you use puppets and masks.

ȤȤ helps

children build skills in group dynamics. Children often work in groups or pairs when dramatizing. Children have to make decisions as a group, listen to each other, and value each other’s suggestions. They have

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to cooperate to achieve their aims, find ways of settling their differences, and use the strength of each member of the group.

Reflection

to all kinds of learners. We receive and process information in different ways; the main ones are through sight, hearing, and our physical bodies. One of these channels tends to be dominant in each of us. When children dramatize, they use all the channels, and each child will draw on the one that suits him or her best. This means all the children in a class will be actively involved in the activity, and the language will “enter” through the channel most appropriate for each of them.

2. In your drama and theatre experiences, what kind of drama techniques did you use? Do you know about drama techniques that theatre performers are using? How can we benefit from theatre performers’ drama techniques in young language learners’ classes?

ȤȤ is appropriate for children’s different learning styles. Dramatizing appeals

ȤȤ allows language personalization as dramatizing allows children to add an

emotion or personality to a text that they have read or listened to. Take any word, sentence, or short dialogue (two to four lines) and ask children to practice saying it “in character.” By interpreting the words, children make them their own. This also makes language memorable. Children especially enjoy interpreting the words with a puppet in hand.

ȤȤ helps learners learn the language in context. In the classroom, we often

expose children to small bits of language, such as individual words, rather than whole phrases or “chunks.” When speaking, children are not often asked to combine the different structures they are learning. Drama is an ideal way to encourage children to guess the meaning of unknown language in a context, which often makes meaning clear. Similarly, children will need to use a mixture of language structures and functions if they are to communicate successfully.

ȤȤ provides cross-curricular content. For instance, when using drama, your

aims can be more than linguistic. You can use topics from other subjects. For example, children can act out scenes from history. You can work on ideas and issues that run through the curriculum, such as respect for the environment, and road safety. Important messages can be conveyed and explored through sketches and role plays. Drama can also be used to introduce the culture of the new language through stories and customs and with a context for working on different kinds of behavior.

ȤȤ can change the pace or mood in the classroom. It is especially appropriate

for young learner’s short attention spans. Dramatizing is learner-centered, so you can use it to contrast with the more teacher-centered parts of your lesson. It is active, so you can use it to make a class more lively after quieter or individual work.

To sum up, drama provides many advantages for emotional/social, cognitive and physical development areas of young language learners. Furthermore, drama brings a refreshing change into the classrooms motivating all different learner styles to learn the language in context and in cross cultural content and to communicate with self confidence in a stress free classrooms. 288

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1. Have you ever took part in drama or theatre activities in your school life? In the light of your experiences, what do think of using drama with young learners?

3. Talk about the drama techniques that you are familiar with and suggest ways how to utilize them in young language learners’ classes.

Nine drama activities for foreign language classrooms: Benefits and challenges Dodson (et al., 2000) says that drama is an ideal way to bring the skills of grammar, reading, writing, speaking, listening and pronunciation together in a course where the focus is not on the form but rather fluency and meaning. Therefore, nine drama activities which are told in this chapter are intended to improve young learners’ four language skills, the lexis and grammar and to increase the knowledge of target culture by contributing to learners’ emotional/social, cognitive and physical development.

Drama and language games Drama and language games can serve as a natural introduction to dramatic activities and as preparation for role-play, improvisation, and other drama experiences (Davies, 1990). Drama games include ice-breakers, energizers, brainteasers, etc. These are usually of short duration and are used as introductory or concluding activities. Drama and language games can be considered as warm-up activities. They are meant to create immediate motivation as well as physical and/ or mental stimulation, which will draw students into or sustain active learning that, is centered on authentic/actual communication in the target language (Stoate, 1984 and Dougill, 1987). According to a study titled as “Awareness levels of primary school foreign language teachers in using drama activities and their perceptions on using drama”, nine of ten teachers have admitted that they are using drama and language games mostly in their classroom to motivate learners and keep learners attention alive. As the main focus of drama and language games to create relaxed language learning environment in the first, they don’t have to carry a language focus, rather, they are means of lowering affective filter, enhancing team spirit, fostering socialization among peers.

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Activity

Activity

(This activity has been adapted from Tim Tuck’s Drama Warm-Ups, D1, Fun and Easy Drama Activities, Lower, Middle and Upper Primary: Aim: To practice forming groups quickly before carrying out any classroom activity this requires collaboration and classroom interaction

This activity can be practiced either as an introductory activity in the first ten minutes of the lesson to revise the what has been learnt in the previous lesson or to motivate the learners or as a concluding activity in the last minutes of the lesson to revise what has been learnt and detect learners’ weak points in the learnt structure.

Allocated time: maximum 5 minutes

Name of the activity: Stop the music

Materials: one children’s song which last maximum four minutes and is preferably active and favorite of young language learners

Allocated time: 10 minutes

Name of the activity: Five…Four...Three…

This activity requires whole class participation and is suitable for middle primary and upwards language learners. Large and open play area should be prepared quickly if the physical setting of the classroom allows.

Purpose: While it helps learners get to know each other, it also helps practice learnt structure with its linguistic and social functions. Language focus: like and don’t like, vocabulary (fruits; banana, grape, apple, orange, peach, apricot, lemon, cherry, pear)

Procedures

Materials: a song which can include names of the fruits

Prepare the play area

Procedures: When the music is on, all participants stand up, walk around the classroom or dance. When the music stops, learners have to find a partner and find a one thing in common by asking questions “Do you like banana, apple, pear etc.? and answering that questions by “Yes, I like banana or No, I don’t like banana, I like apple.” When the music plays again, learners move around and find another partner and one thing in common. When the teacher stops the activity, learners can report what they have found about each other.

Have learners move around Stop the music and call out “Groups of five…four…three…two…one….stop!” You can call out the numbers depending on the activity which requires different size. Sometimes instead of calling out the numbers, you can beat the group size number on a drum, board, desk or any material. Learners must form a group of the designated size before you have finished counting down.

Role play Observations have indicated that the less structured games allow students the easiest switch to their mother tongue. Unstructured games also demand very minimal teacher control so the class can be out of control (Gaudert, 1990). It is important to choose an appropriate time and integrate them into the regular syllabus and curriculum. However, because of the limitations of the syllabus, games often cannot be used, as much as they should be. Therefore, it may be challenging for teachers to try to add some games in class in order to develop students’ English proficiency of the target language (Deesri, 2002). In order to prevent switch to learners’ mother tongue, drama and language games should be doable so that young learners can communicate with their peers even with a couple of words and clear guidelines must be provide beforehand, if necessary an example should be done by the teacher.

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Role-play is any speaking activity when you either put yourself into somebody else’s shoes, or when you stay in your own shoes but put yourself into an imaginary situation (Budden, 2004). According to Kodotchigova (2001) role play prepares L2 learners for L2 communication in a different social and cultural context. Role play is really a worthwhile learning experience for both the students and the teacher. Not only can students have more opportunities to “act” and “interact” with their peers trying to use the English language, but also students’ English speaking, listening, and understanding will improve (Huang, 2008). Teachers often feel that a great deal of preparation is required from the teacher because the students must be given clear guidelines as to how to carry out the role play. Although this is true, the same could be said for any classroom activity which is not tied to a course book. The presentation needed for a role play activity is not much more than for other non-course book activities (Gaudert, et al, 1990). Another objection which has been expressed is that role playing is too emotionally demanding because the task is performed in front of others. However, role play doesn’t automatically mean that the task has to be performed in front of others. In the pair-work described earlier, for example when students greet each other they are not performing for the other person. The whole class could be working in pairs Drama

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at the same time so no one is performing for anyone else. The question of task being emotionally demanding therefore doesn’t arise. It is important in fact, not only for role play, but for all drama activities in the classroom, that there is no audience (Gaudert, et al, 1990). Role-plays require more imagination by students and teacher and can be difficult to manage because they are unpredictable (Stocker, 2006). It is imperative for teachers to select role plays that will afford learners the opportunity to practice what they have learnt or discussed in class, whilst simultaneously stimulating their interest so as to ensure maximum participation (Athiemoolam, 2004). It is important to consider the learners’ level of language proficiency when implementing role play activities in the L2 classroom. Once you have selected a suitable role play, predict the language needed for it. In this regard it is important to ensure that the learners are exposed to new vocabulary before commencing with the role play (Athiemoolam, et al., 2004). Richard Amato states that as role plays are less controlled practice than drills and dialogue activities learners may not use the target structures as much as teachers would like, therefore it is important to choose situations and contexts in which the target structure occurs naturally. There are usually several ways to successfully communicate meaning, so role plays can be considered as an opportunity for learners to practice a range of speaking and listening skills, rather than a single structure. Clark (1992), Richard-Amato, and others support the use of index cards for role play as young learners and beginners may need support, especially in early stages of participating in role plays, yet, they will benefit and become more independent and confident with practice. The use of index cards with written cues or the complete role-play exchange will help students know what to say. At later stages, you may be able to leave blanks on the cue cards or just write the idea that each student should try to express.

Activity Aim: This activity aims to get learners learn some basic expressions required for meeting someone new. While it can be carried out in pairs, it can be carried out more than two student by preparing cue and index cards accordingly. Time allocated: 10-15 minutes Materials: cue card Meeting cue card Student A: Hello, what is your name? Student B: My name is ………………….. What is your name? Student A: My name is …………………. Student B: How old are you? Student A: I am …………… How old are you? Student B: I am ………………… Student A: Where are you from? Student B: I am from …………….Where are you from? Student A: I am from………. Student B: Nice to meet you! Student A: You too! Procedure: The role play dialogue stated above can be noted on cards provided with visuals is distributed to the learners. Learners are asked to perform the role play activity assuming that they haven’t seen their classmates before, thus they can practice needed expressions for meeting someone new. Learners can change their partners as long as time allows.

Improvisation Landy (1982) defines improvisation as an unscripted, unrehearsed, spontaneous set of actions in response to minimal directions from a teacher, usually including statements of which one is, where one is and what one is doing there. In improvisation, students must create a scene, speak, act, react, and move without preparing (Davis, n.d.). Maples (2002) emphasized improvisation provides learners with opportunities to not only improve their language communication skills, but also to improve their confidence, which will ultimately lead to the development of positive self-concepts. Improvisational exercises provide three main goals: student pronunciation improves, proper use of a grammatical structure is reinforced, and vocabulary practice is enhanced. While implementing improvisation, the situation has to be clearly stated, easy to act out and to have dramatic story twist. When students are fairly fluent in English, they should be able to create a plausible conversation around the given situation, complete with appropriate facial expressions and gestures (Barbu, 2007). It is important to note, however, that the purpose of improvisation in the L2 class 292

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is not to entertain others but to provide the participants with a medium of self expression (Athiemoolam, et al., 2004). At the beginning students will be hesitant and shy to participate in the activities, but after a few sessions they will become more enthusiastic and there will be a phenomenal improvement in their confidence level (Davis, et al., n.d.).

teachers should be careful while using mime to convey a message, as a class which host multicultural learners, makes mime activities difficult to use. Because, the message the body language, facial expressions and gestures carry with can differ from culture to culture and from region to region even in the same country. Activity

Activity

Name of the activity: I can run

The name of the activity: First day at school

Time allocated: 10-15 minutes

Allocated time: 10 minutes

Language focus: grammar (I can ……., Can you?) and vocabulary (action verbs; run, jump, skip, swim, hop)

Aim: To get learners practice the phrases of “Introducing yourself” Procedures: Teacher writes on the board “First day at school” and says “You are on the first day of your school life; you don’t know your each other and introduce yourself to your desk mate, put your pencils and notebooks under the desks.” Learners are expected to use the questions of “What is your name?, Where are you from?, How old are you?, and answer accordingly to introduce themselves. As soon as teacher says “you can begin”, learners should start to introduce themselves, without writing their scripts and rehearsing. When the time is over, teacher can ask a couple of learners to perform their activity in front of their peers. Passive improvisation which works great with young learners can be used as a drama technique, as well. The teacher can tell a simple story to the young learners and they can act it out as teacher says it. There need to be loads of simple actions in the story that they will understand and will perform easily. Thus, the teacher can work on learners’ listening skills as well as their ability to act (Bertrand, 2010).

Mime Dougill (1987) defines mime as “a non-verbal representation of an idea or story through gesture, bodily movement and expression”. Mime emphasizes the paralinguistic features of communication. From the point of the teacher, miming may as well be a good method how to integrate even those students whose language abilities are not the best and in most of the activities want to keep back (Hillova, 2008). Savignon (1983) says that the mime helps learners become comfortable with the idea of performing in front of peers without concern for language and that although no language is used during a mime it can be a spur to use language. Long and Castonas (1976) warn us that mime clearly has its limitations in the communication of many language items and shouldn’t be relied upon for teaching them. Cleary it shouldn’t be the sole teaching technique used to teach any language item. The problem with the mime form is that it is difficult to remove the personal aspect from it entirely. Students who are quite happy to watch a mime may not be willing to perform. The teacher has to be sensitive to those students and plan activities so that there is a way out for these students not to perform, for the teacher not to have to insist that they perform, and yet encourage those who might like to perform but need that final push to do so (Gaudert, et al., 1990). Furthermore, 294

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Materials: “I can run” song and the action verbs flashcards Procedures: After the introduction of action verbs and grammar structure “I can run. Can you run?” by the teachers through visuals, in the last 15 minutes of the class hour, the song “I can run” played, however, learners shouldn’t be exposed its video version, then learners are asked to perform the actions (I can run, I can swim, I can jump, I can hop, I can skip) in the song without singing the song. After enough mime practice take place, learners can asked to sing the song by performing the actions. Later or, teachers ask questions (Can you run?, Can you jump?, Can you swim?, Can you hop?, Can you skip?) to the learners by miming the actions and learners are expected to answer the questions and miming the action. This activity can be done in pairs, as well. Or, learners are asked to walk around the classroom and pick as much as information they can about their friends by using “can” grammar structure and miming the action verbs. While sharing the information collected from their peers, learners can be taught to say “Ayşe can run, she can run or Ahmet can swim, he can swim” thus, learners will have learned the use of “can” with third person singular (he, she).

Simulation Jones (1980) calls a simulation as case study where learners become participants in an event and shape the course of the event. The learners have roles, functions, duties, and responsibilities within a structured situation involving problem solving. Simulations are generally held to be a structured set of circumstances’ that mirror real life and in which participants act as instructed. A simulation activity provides a specific situation within which students can practice various communication skills like asserting oneself, expressing opinions, convincing others, arguing eliciting opinions, group-problems-solving, analyzing situations and so on (Smith, 1984). Participants must step inside the function mentally and behaviorally in order to fulfill their duties and responsibilities in the situation (Jones, 1982). The role of students in simulations, therefore, is (1) taking the functional roles such as reporter, survivor, or customer as a participant, (2) stepping into the event, and (3) shaping the event, carrying out their duties and responsibilities. In simulations, a provided environment must be simulated. In order to fulfill the essential condition of being

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a simulated environment, there must be no contact between the participants and the world outside of the classroom (Jones, et al., 1982). It is important that the essential “facts” of the simulation environment are provided, not invented by the participants, to preserve reality of function (Jones, et al., 1982). Activity The name of the activity: Asking for direction Time allocated: 15 minutes Language focus: grammar; imperatives used for giving directions (go left, turn left, take a left, go right, turn right, take a right, go ahead, go straight ahead, go straight on), vocabulary; building names (the school, the hospital, the swimming pool, the supermarket, the park) Materials: a big city map covering the blackboard and titled as New York, audio recording which reflects city life (noises of cars, street sellers) or toy buildings and traffic lights or other materials which reflect city life can be situated in different parts of the classroom beforehand by the teachers Procedures: Teacher should make ready necessary equipments necessary for the activity by herself in order to get learners believe in that they are in New York. If the learners are involved in the preparation period of the activity, they won’t believe in the reality of the situation. That’s why this activity can be practiced at the very beginning of the class hour so that learners can get astonished and motivated entering the classroom. Teacher can start with saying “Today, we are New York City, do you know New York?” and putting a doll of the Statue of Liberty which reflects New York in the middle at top of the map. Then, teacher assigns the roles of learners as a local person and a stranger. Learners are assumed to know the names of the buildings. Teacher can write question of “How can I get there? (the school, the hospital, the swimming pool, the supermarket, the park) and the imperatives; go left, turn left, take a left, go right, turn right, take a right, go ahead, go straight ahead, go straight on. The dialogue between learners is expected to happen naturally without any preparation beforehand or using pen and paper. Learners can get help from the cues written on the board. A learner (stranger) states his present point and asks question of “How can I get there?” to reach the place that he wants. The dialogue between the learners is going to be as following: Learner A (stranger): Excuse me? How can I get to the school?

an intended audience. To portray a character, readers strive for, “voice flexibility, good articulation, proper pronunciation and projection”. Reader’s Theatre has been adopted in Western educational settings to improve the reading fluency and to enhance the reading comprehension of students (Henry, 2011). Because readers’ theater focuses on vocal expression, and students have the opportunity to practice repeatedly, pronunciation is a key component (Davis, et al., n.d.). In creating RT scripts, students increase their knowledge of language structure (vocabulary, syntax and meaning), and language use (forms and functions of language use) and the meta-linguistic awareness such as the ability to talk about the language (Hill, 1990). According to Patrick (et al., 2008) there can be some limitations to using the RT in the classroom, particularly if students are not familiar with theatre as a genre or they may have not linguistically ability to produce their own scripts. The teacher needs to ensure that every student is involved by getting students to create sufficient characters by relating to the topic. The teacher may include the role of a narrator to create the atmosphere for the play. Ensure that each student has sufficient lines for the teacher to asses him/her on speaking skills. Ensure that each student has a copy of the script. Impress on the students the importance of having a good plot, genuine characters (stress the use of a good dialogue to liven up a character). While students are rehearsing their script, the teacher should try to reinforce, certain vocabulary, grammar or sentence structure if necessary. Although readers theatre reinforce learners’ the knowledge of language structure, language use and meta-linguistic awareness in the scriptwriting period, it can be challenging for young learners to prepare scripts after reading stories, as learners can’t be linguistically competent enough and fail in producing scripts and begin to use mother tongue which is not preferable or teacher can get involved in the producing script, however, teachers should balance her involvement in preparing scripts or learners won’t fully accept that the script is their own language production. In order to prevent this outcome, teachers can bring prepared scripts as Robertson (2009) suggests learners can read stories scripted like a play, and they act out the story together. Learners may practice their parts several times before acting the story out in front of the class, which gets them thinking about their characters and the plot in a focused way. Rather than using elaborate props, costumes, or scenery, students can be encouraged to use vocal, facial, and physical expression to engage with the script and their character. Since the activity is meant to practice reading, students don’t need to memorize their lines, which keeps the spotlight on the reading practice, not the performance.

Learner B (local person): Go straight ahead; turn right, it is on the right. Learner A (stranger): Thank you.

Readers’ Theatre According to Sloyer (1982) readers’ theatre is an oral presentation of drama, prose or poetry by two or more readers. Readers first read a story and then transform the story into script involving several characters. The script is then performed for

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Activity The name of the activity: The sad little worm (pdf version can be downloaded from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/file-share/integrating-drama). Allocated time: 30 minutes Language focus: adjectives; little, big, tall, short, pretty, ugly Aim: improving reading fluency Procedures: Before reading takes place, teacher introduces the characters (the sad little worm, the big cow, the pretty ant, the long snake, the boy, the apple, the tree, the sun) through flashcards and assigns the roles and one learner take the role of narrator on. In order to foster the reading comprehension, vocabulary learning takes place as a part of pre-reading activity. Learners are taught the adjectives (little, big, tall, short, pretty, ugly) which describes the characters’ physical appearance. Silent reading takes place in order to get learners familiar with the character they are going to act out. Learners should read just their part not the narrator’s part like “the cow shakes his head and laughs”. Before staging, learners rehearse their play and scripts. Teacher walks around the classroom to check whether learners are reading with expression and pronouncing correct. Learners can create simple props for the play if they wish. Teacher carries out sample reading for the learners and tells how they are going to be evaluated. Learners can be evaluated based on the following items; volume, clarity of pronunciation, expression, posture and eye contact as Amber Prentice suggests. When the preparation is completed, performance can happen. Teacher observes the learners during the performance, jots down learners’ mistakes according to the evaluation items and focus on problematic areas after the performance. As a post reading activity, learners can be asked to talk or write about the characters which learners have performed.

Frozen image building Frozen Image Building is a technique in drama education where participants initially create “frozen pictures” which are later developed into animated situations involving a series of interviews with the characters incorporated in the respective images (Jarayseh, 2010). This technique could be implemented very effectively in the English second language class as it enables the participants to work with other members as a team to create their images. Second language learners definitely gain more confidence when they are encouraged to share ideas and to work in groups (Athiemoolam, et al., 2004). L2 learners who lack the confidence to communicate in the target language could be gradually initiated into using the language by first enabling them to create their still images and later to add words to their presentations (Athiemoolam, et al., 2004). As a frozen image will compel the observers to come up with informed guesses and multiple possible meaning interpretations, it encourages students’ linguistic output. This allows the teacher

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to identify the forms the students have already mastered as well as those they still need to learn in order to convey their thoughts and ideas appropriately and idiomatically, and to introduce and reinforce these forms based on the needs of communication (Liu, 2002). Sometimes it can be hard to implement frozen image building drama technique, not because young learners will be unable to build frozen images, but because they can be in trouble with interpreting the frozen images due to the lack of limited vocabulary and grammar structure. On the other, young learners don’t have set up a complete sentence to interpret the frozen image, it will be enough if they utter a word to interpret the frozen image as long as they are willing to participate in the activity and putting effort to find out the frozen image. Activity The name of the activity: Sports Allocated time: 15 minutes Language focus: grammar; present continuous tense, vocabulary; dancing, basketball, swimming, golf, football, climbing, skateboarding, gymnastics, baseball, running Materials: the sports flashcards Aim: To reinforce the use of the present continuous tense with personal pronouns “I, he, she” in its affirmative, negative and question forms using the sports as a tool. Procedures: While this activity can be done in pairs or groups, it is suggested to done as a whole class activity to make the interpretation process fast with whole class participation and gain time for other activities. To implement this activity, learners are expected to have been introduced the sports and got familiar with grammar structure of present continuous. Teacher brings the sports flashcards. One learner is selected or becomes voluntary and then picks one flashcard and builds (freezes) the image on the sports flashcard. Teacher asks “What is s/he doing?” to start the activity. Learners begin their guesses such as “you are dancing”, “you are climbing”, “he is playing football”, and until the correct guess is called out, frozen image builder doesn’t break his image. This activity can be practiced with different learners again and again until the teacher feels that learners grasp the point. Furthermore, this activity can be implemented by dividing the classroom into two groups promising a reward for the winner group, then learners will become more enthusiastic to break the frozen image, on the other hand, too much noise can arise, but there is no need to worry as learners are challenging themselves to use the target language.

Scriptwriting Scriptwriting is an activity in which students write their own words (and sometimes actions) to dramatize. Students may write what they will say, the cues for movement, and other scene-setting elements. This can be as simple as a short dialogue or as Drama

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long as a full-length play. After students write their script, they can act it out (Davis, et al., n. d.). Scriptwriting can be done individually, in pairs, or in groups. Scriptwriting helps students focus on register, adjacency pairs, vocabulary in context, and fluency. A script can be edited and re-drafted to focus on the writing process. The added benefit is that the students can perform their script when it is completed (Davis, et al., n. d.). An easy way to engage students in the learning of new vocabulary is to have them create very short scenes in which they dramatize certain concepts. Aside from practicing newly learned vocabulary, students can focus on specific grammar features. Likewise, students may write scripts for scenes that focus on specific pronunciation issues (Davis, et al., n. d.). According to Porcaro (2001), while primarily a writing exercise, role-play scriptwriting provides an opportunity to integrate with it the other basic language skills of reading, speaking, and listening in EFL instruction. It provides an opportunity for thoughtful expression and exercise of imagination; it effectively integrates all the basic language skills; it involves participation by all members of the class and is quite informative and entertaining.

Activity The name of the activity: Little Red Riding Hood Time allocated: 1 week Language focus: the simple past and the past continuous tense Aim: to revise what has been taught, to carrying language learning out of classroom, to foster learner autonomy, to create cooperation among peers, to enhance learners’ creativity through writing Materials: It depends on the learners deciding on what to use. However, the following pictures should be certainly provided for the learners by the teachers as the scripts will be written according to pictures.

Procedures: As story of Little Red Riding is commonly read and known by all young learners, preparing scripts of the story won’t be challenging. On the first hand, groups including the Little Red Riding Hood, Mum, Granny, Woodcutter and Narrator should be settled by the teacher. Learners are expected to write a different scenario and a script taking the pictures into consideration. Writing process won’t be included in the class hours therefore, teacher is going to help learners about vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, writing, characters, stage decoration and costumes and encourage learners to meet with their peers in their groups and work in cooperation. Stage decoration and costumes should be optimal and shouldn’t be exaggerated or learners will focus on stage decoration and costumes more than writing the scenario and script. There should be balance and this balance should be regularly controlled by the teacher. Although it is aimed that learners are let be free while writing their scenario and script, the number of lines of their script and timing of staging should be determined beforehand, in order to give chance to each group to perform their plays in the given time. While learners are being assessed, the following items can be considered; working in collaboration with peers, regular consultation with the teacher, organization of writing, spelling in the writing, use of vocabulary and grammar both in writing and in speaking, performance including pronunciation; tone of voice, stress, miming, being able to reflect the character. The performance of the learners can be recorded and kept for future uses.

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Skits Skits which can be of various lengths and purposes include any activity from acting out a scene in a storybook to present a full theatrical production. This type of drama can be a project extension from a class reader, or even a textbook passage (Senf, n. d.). Skits created and performed by students can be a successful supplement to the classroom experience (Shiue, n. d.). In addition, the nature of the task requires cooperation, communication and creativity, i.e. involvement and practice is the key to success in learning language. Motivation is the most frequently given reason for the use of skit in EFL and ESL classes. Skit activities can assist in relieving flagging interest and frustration which is often a feature of L2 learning (Hsu: 1975; Via, 1976). Skit can provide a strong motivation for language learning as play production can foster cultural proximity allowing learners to participate in the new culture, this developing sensitivity to speakers of the target language. Dramatizations of skits, with a fixed set of lines where students don’t have to create expressions, yet where they can instill their own creative interpretations and emotions, were thought to constitute a good intermediate point between practicing the form and communicating the message (Nolan & Patterson, 2000).

Activity The name of the activity: Halloween Skit (adapted from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown) Time Allocated: 30 minutes Aim: To get learners know the target culture; Holloween. Trick or treat is customarily practice for children on Holloween in many countries. Children in costumes travel from house to house in order to ask for treats such as candy (or in some cultures, money) with the question “Trick or Treat?” The trick is a threat to the homeowners if the threat is not given. Materials: A haunted house on the chalkboard with a door, paper masks and bags, a bowl of candy for the homeowner. Procedures: The teacher forms the groups of four and assigns the roles; the homeowner, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3. The teacher talks about the story briefly and focuses on the unknown vocabulary; trick, treat, vampire, werewolf, ghost, candy, cookie and rock and distributes the script and then gives time for rehearsal and stage decoration and costumes. Learners can keep the scripts during their performance; however, it is better to encourage them not to keep the scripts in order to teach natural speaking, just in case learners forget their lines, the teacher is there for the immediate help. Script: Kids (Altogether): (Knocks on the chalkboard door. After the home owner opens the door) Trick or Treat! Homeowner: (To first kid1) Who are you? Kid1: I’m a vampire (A vampire mask on his head). Homeowner: (Homeowner gives candy to Kid1 and turns to Kid2) Who are you? Kid2: I’m a werewolf. Homeowner: (Homeowner gives some cookies to Kid2 and turns to Kid3) Who are you? Kid3: I’m a ghost. Homeowner: (Homeowner secretly gives a small rock to kid3) Good bye! Kids (Altogether): Goodbye! (Homeowner shuts the door and the kids come together to see what everyone got.) Kid1: I got candy! Kid2: I got cookies! Kid3: I got a rock!

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Review questions 1. Do you think of any other drama technique that can be used in foreign language teaching? 2. Turkish foreign language learners are considered to be good at receptive skills. What can be the reason for it? How can teachers balance young learners’ receptive and productive skills utilizing drama? 3. Do you think that you will be able to use the drama activities mentioned in this chapter in your practice considering the curriculum, the coursebooks, language classrooms, and teachers’ professional competence? Suggest ways to create and improve the current settings for drama use in language classrooms.

Games Şule Korkmaz

Games of childhood are origins for future life of children; in them is released and developed the whole man, his dispositions and inner tendencies. Whole future life of man has its origins in the age of childhood. (Fröbel, 1826; cited in Vankus, 2005)

4. Why do think that theatre performers and language learners drama techniques? Reflect your ideas with reasons. Discuss in groups. 5. What are young learners’ needs and preferences? Reflect your ideas depending on your experiences in primary school and observations at primary schools. How can drama respond to these needs and preferences? 6. What makes you use drama in your future practices? 7. What kind of challenges do expect to come across in your future practices while using drama? What kind of solutions can put forth to deal with those challenges? 4th Grade students at Öğretmen Hasan Güney Primary School

Children are born with an innate sense of play. They like exploring the world around them. Therefore, language teachers should use games that are entertaining, relaxing, and motivating in order to facilitate language learning for young learners (Sandford & Williamson, 2005). Children have natural tendencies to play a game reflecting their social world in which children learn to accept the rules, how to behave and how to cooperate with others, thus become ready to enter society (Roth, 1998). Traditionally, teachers tend to separate instruction from recreation by ignoring the characteristics of young learners. They use games as reward which decreases learners’ desire to finish the assigned task. Educators should realize the necessity for integrating learning with game and play (Sandford & Williamson, 2005). A positive environment where learners feel at home is a crucial point affecting young learners’ positive attitudes towards learning English (Moon, 2000). Hence, learning a language through games is a very appropriate and efficient technique that provides a positive atmosphere in young learners’ classrooms (Linse, 2006). Today, games are seen as a part of any instructional program in the current educational context which extends and enriches the content and delivery of many subjects (Mayer & Harris, 2010). However, much has to be learned about games and play simply because this educational area is still in formation. 304

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Preliminary Discussion Questions 1. Have you ever played a language game when learning English? If yes, share your experience with your classmates? Which language component was the game about? Was it an efficient game for you? Why or why not? 2. Could we design a game to practice any subject in English? Could we play a game any time throughout the lesson? 3. To what extent do you think children get benefit from learning English through games? 4. What potential problems might English teachers have when integrating games in their teaching? What might be the role of teachers to overcome these possible problems? 5. What do you think is meant by a ‘good language game’? What essential points are necessary for a successful language game? The present chapter aims to build the base for the role of games in the field of English language teaching by examining their potential in children’s foreign language learning process. Therefore, the following points will be handled in this chapter respectively; the definition of a game from different viewpoints; the reasons for using games in language classes; the characteristics of games and the criteria for choosing the most appropriate one; a variety of crucial points when integrating games in language teaching together with recommendations for teachers; discussion of the timing of games; the role of peers when playing games; possible problems and the role of teachers in solving them; finally, types of games with a few samples in order to practice different components of a language. The following points will help you to capture the assumptions that inform the contents of this chapter.

What is a game? It is important to define what it is that makes a game a game which is a natural way of children’s learning. We are now in a position to present a definition of a game which varies according to researchers but shares common features with all. To that end, firstly, we need to understand the complex relationship between play and games. Depending on how it is framed, games could be either smaller than play or play could be a subset of “game”. All activities can be considered as play; however, not all plays can be labeled as games. Because, unlike plays, games are more organized, include a formalized set of rules and have an element of competition. Moreover, in some situations within the larger phenomenon of game, the play of game is only one component of games among three such as rules, play and culture. Rules contain formal game design schemas, play contains experiential game design schemas, and culture contains contextual game design schemas. Including these three components, a game is defined as ‘a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules that result in a quantifiable outcome or goal’ (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004: p. 83). 306

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Games are activities with clearly defined goals, explicit rules, and fun elements (Khan, 1991). They are also defined as entertaining and engaging activities in which competition is minimized and challenge is maximized and in which the learners play and usually interact with others aiming at doing their best (Wright, Betteridge, & Buckybuy, 2006). ‘A game’ is considered as a voluntary activity, separate from the real life, creating an imaginary or immersive world (De Freitas, 2006). As is seen, different authors have defined games within their own contexts; however essential components are common in all definitions such as clearly defined goals, specified rules, a quantifiable outcome/closure, and engaging, challenging and entertaining tasks. Discussion What is a language game for you? Have you thought about your own definition of a game as a prospective English teacher or practicing teacher?

Integrating games with language work Learning a foreign language requires learners’ constant effort, thus well-designed games are invaluable as a technique in young-learner classes. In Turkey, primary school English teachers have to follow a coursebook designed by the Ministry of Education; thus, games can be used either to supplement the mainstream coursebook depending on the flexibility of the program or to replace inefficient parts of the units in the book. Depending on the aims of the lesson, the reasons for using games might vary from introducing new subjects, practicing newly learnt language items or particular themes to relaxing and energizing a class. Teachers should come to believe that integrating games into their methodology enhances whole class participation, thus offers children various benefits when learning a foreign language. Here are some advantages learners will have if language games are integrated in young learners’ classes: • Learners find opportunity to experience desire and pleasure, anxiety and release, wonder and knowledge when playing games (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004). • Games give students a break and also allow them to practice language skills by using meaningful and useful language in real contexts (Ersöz, 2000). • Games help and encourage many learners to make an effort and sustain their interest and work when learning a language. • Games help the teacher to set up situations in which learners need and want to communicate in a meaningful and intense way in that they need to use language to have a turn at playing, to point out the rules, to challenge another player. • Learners can experience language with variety of opportunities to negotiate meaning rather than only study it, which helps them to develop

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language skills more rapidly than the students who do not play games. • Games help students learn English subjects better and repeated use of particular language items within games helps the learners absorb the language better. • Various types of games help teachers to cater for individual learning styles. • Games elicit social interaction, particularly icebreakers and warmer games help learners be creative, risk-takers, thoughtful, communicative, and happy to work together with other learners. • Learners in this fun and comfortable environment become more likely to take risks (Wright, Betteridge, & Buckybuy (2006). • Learners experience the skills required to share and learn with others through either cooperative or competitive interaction when playing games. • Learners increase their problem solving strategies through observing other students who are interacting with information and solving problems. • Learners grow as learners in that they learn failing is natural and they can learn from their mistakes and still continue on to succeed within different learning experiences. • Games, particularly from social aspects, help learners to explore some real-world skills and realities such as ethical choices and their results when gathering and using information (Mayer & Harris, 2010). Reflection time: Your beliefs about games How far do you agree with the views below? Learning a foreign language through games for children ……. •

‘…..is integrating the authentic language with real life experiences.’

• ‘…..is communicating in real life, as English is not a lesson but a living language.’ • ‘…..is in need indeed.’

physical science, social science, English, German, French, mathematics, and music. The study by Taşlı (2003) revealed that 4th grade primary school students who learnt the numbers and telling the time through games indicated more positive results compared to traditional ways of teaching. The study by Bilsoy (1992) and Yıldız (2001) showed that young children learnt grammar rules easily and more effectively when the material is presented and practiced through games. Another study by Kaya (2007) revealed that 5th grade primary school students who learnt giving directions, classroom language and shopping in English through games indicated higher success than the students who learnt same subjects through traditional methods. The study by İnan (2006) indicated positive results with regard to the use of games, drama and music when learning vocabulary instead of learning words with their Turkish equivalence. Despite these positive results, there seems to be a problem using games in foreign language teaching in Turkish EFL classrooms. Yolageldili and Arıkan (2011) investigated the perspectives of the Turkish EFL teachers working in primary schools with regard to the use of games when teaching English. Results of their study revealed that although they valued the use of games in teaching grammar, they still followed a rule-based approach. Moreover, the study by İnan (2006) and Çelik Korkmaz (2010) revealed another problem in Turkey. Although English teachers agreed on the necessity of using all those techniques such as games, drama and music, they stated that they barely used these techniques in the realms of language classrooms because students, as they believed, had to be prepared through traditional ways of teaching so as to get higher marks in national placement tests such as SBS. It is frustrating to know the low frequency of using such techniques like the games in Turkish primary schools. Only by raising their awareness with regard to the positive results of teaching English through games teachers can come to understand the value of integrating games into their teaching. Therefore, as teachers, we should study our own beliefs and opinions on games to get rid of what makes us fall behind in using games in our English language classrooms.

• ‘…..is enjoyable; however too noisy.’

Discussion

• ‘…..is very motivating and attractive for them because they like moving at these ages and through games they have a chance to learn kinesthetically.’

1. What might be the reasons for those teachers who do not use these contemporary techniques when teaching English to young learners in Turkish primary schools? What are your solutions for your comments?

• ‘…. is fun, but because of the general teaching methods children still tend to see games as grammar activities. Some children have a tendency to divert from the games. They need modeling and clear instructions…’

Games and students’ success Positive effects of games on students’ success have been confirmed with a number of studies conducted in Turkey with regard to different subject areas such as history,

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2. Do you think they are not motivated enough to use these techniques when teaching English or is it because of the reasons regardless of the teachers such as dense curriculum, crowded classes, exam-oriented education system etc.?

Features of games What are the features of a good game? The involvement of significant features in a games

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game might influence the extent to which learners get benefit from playing games in order to be more successful. Therefore, it is vital for teachers to consider the following points so as to design and teach with games effectively. The following ludic principles offered by Khan (1991) are crucial to turn different activities into games and to find ways for developing new games. Games scaffold learning in that they challenge and support players to approach, explore, and solve complex problems. If games merely include skills, there appear to be a few winners and as a result, playing games might reduce the involvement of the majority of the class. Adding luck into a game in order to increase the excitement of players and balance the combination of chance and skills helps learners get more benefit from playing games. Different types of games require the involvement of competition or cooperation or combination of both. In fact, every game in itself includes competition to some extent, but cooperation is usually required to compete and win the game. In order to reduce the negative outcomes of a competitive game the teacher can form mixedability groups to compete with each other. Thus, while the students work together cooperatively within their groups they can continue to compete with the others. As a result, the winner of the competition will not be a single student but a group of students. In games, where there is only one winner, the rest of the class is labeled as losers. Also, when considering that only the higher achievers can have a chance to win language games, certain groups of students are destined to be losers all the time. However, one of the aims of foreign language teaching at the primary level is to help the learners develop positive attitudes for the language. Forming mixedability groups is a solution for giving equal opportunities to each group to become the winner. As competitive games are fun and create a desire to get involved, another way to organize competitive games is to having students compete against the time or the game itself rather than their peers. By this way losing the game will not be as disastrous as losing it against a classmate. Finally, another solution to overcome the negative effects of competitive games is to varying the type of games constantly so that each student/group has a chance to win at least once. If the teacher only uses grammar games or vocabulary games it is highly that only students with strong grammatical and vocabulary knowledge will win. Considering the fact that children might have different strengths at different skills a variation in activity and game types will prevent injustice on the part of the learner. Hence, the teacher should be careful about game choice giving equal opportunities to everyone who has varying strengths in speaking, writing, listening, reading, grammar, and/or vocabulary.

ȤȤ “Öğretmenim siz ama bütün gruplara artı koydunuz. Hangi grup kazandı?” ȤȤ “All of you won.” ȤȤ “Kim kazandı?” ȤȤ “Group A, B and C won.” ȤȤ “Berabere mi kaldık öğretmenim”. ȤȤ “Yes, berabere.” The example above shows that pupils were striving to be the best; however, the student teacher was trying to emphasize the importance of learning rather than winning in a competition. Most probably because she did not want her students to deal with the negative feelings of losing a game, she focused on winning together. Language teachers should integrate more cooperative and less competitive games to enable pupils to experience challenge, fun and participation together through which they communicate rather than compete without much conversational meaning.

Criteria for choosing games Teachers need to answer which games to play and the criteria of choosing them, when to play, and how to play. Piaget studied marbles and other institutional games and asserted that there was a close relationship between children’s intellectual growth and the game activity. Based on his developmental stages, children follow motor play, egocentric play, beginnings of cooperation, and codification of rules. As the age of learners increases, the nature of the games changes with regard to players’ rule system (Piaget, 1932, Piaget, 1946 cited in Linaza, 1984). Before choosing a game for your particular language classroom, consider not only what is required for children’s intellectual growth, but also other individual differences such personality, interest, language level, background knowledge, attention span, attitudes towards playing games, learning styles and intelligence types. In addition to such criteria, teachers need to evaluate the game in terms of the time required, availability of resources, class size, and appropriateness for the culture and opportunities for language practice (Lewis & Bedson, 1999; Mısırlı, 2007). Hands-on task Evaluate the following extracts taken from Time for English Grade 4 Student’s Book in relation to the features of a successful game. Identify the qualities that make each of those games effective or ineffective.

The fact that players need to negotiate for meaning when cooperating with each other provides learners with establishing successful communication. The following conversation taken from a student teacher’s practicum reports indicates the energizing nature of games: 310

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Extract 1

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of children in the classroom and if they are well-designed and well-prepared by the teacher, children are likely to benefit from the games whenever they play them.

When playing games in a language learning classroom, all players might not have the same expertise in the target language and in that particular game. Therefore, some students need ‘peer support’ to benefit from the game played in the classroom. Peers who are familiar with a game and who are at higher levels may work as partners or coaches. They help each other to initiate the game, to give advice on how to interpret and interact with information, and to provide support and feedback about how to play the game. Moreover, they continue exchanging information and sharing their experiences with their peers to increase their social development.

Preparing a game Preparing a game is particularly related to our knowledge of material preparation which is tiring and demanding for many teachers as resources cost money, time and effort to teachers. However, as Moon (2000) suggests, teachers can involve children in material preparation processes or collaborate with other English or art teachers in their own schools or via the Internet. Some children might not feel competent enough in playing games in another language. Therefore, it is vital for teachers to identify the learners’ active and passive language knowledge with regard to the requirements of the game (Lewis & Bedson, 1999) and to make children be aware of the reasons for playing games (Read, 2007). Otherwise, children tend to use their native language and this causes students to lose a point or a turn when playing games (Linse, 2006). In order to reduce the time allocated for use of L1, the following are some tips for teachers to consider; •

Avoid using complex games and remember that the simpler the game they use, the better the results they have.

•

Keep your introduction and explanation short and make sure everyone understands what to do.

•

Adjust the language for students’ level when giving the instructions.

• Demonstrate how they are going to play a game. •

When to play games When should we play games in a language classroom? This might be one of the questions teachers have in mind when they plan to integrate games in their structured lesson plans. Steinberg (1983) answers this question and claims that children benefit from playing a game at any moment during the lesson. At the beginning of the lesson, to welcome children back and refresh their memories and to warm them up for learning a new subject; in the middle of the lesson to revive the class and make learners alert and attentive; and at the end of the lesson to finish the lesson at its peak. If games are carefully chosen considering the characteristics

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Write the key language and/or instruction on the board (Slattery & Willis, 2001).

Organizing the class is an important part of using games. Here are some tips for you to consider to get the best results: •

Make sure you clearly define the goals.

•

Demonstrate parts of the game by rehearsing it with your students. When you show them what to do through clear and understandable instruction, you also provide a real purpose for listening, thus learners could absorb new vocabulary and intonation patterns (Slattery & Willis, 2001).

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•

Establish discipline with a set of agreed rules but without ruining the light spirit of the class and the game.

•

Decide the most appropriate organization (whole class/ individual /pair / group work) for playing games.

•

Maximize the ways for making every student get involved in the game and experience success (Slattery & Willis, 2001).

•

Be fair to every individual/ pair/ group.

•

Do not interrupt the game in order to correct errors (Wright, Betteridge, & Buckybuy, 2006).

If we aim to teach the language to children through games, we need to integrate the subject matter knowledge with a game-play in a creative and powerful way. Teachers should find games which are compatible with the curriculum (Foster & Mishra, 2009). In addition, the information which is used in the game should encourage learners to combine their background knowledge and the new information. Games used in language classroom should enable learners to develop language skills and competencies. Therefore, teachers should be aware of what they expect from children to do. Try to find games with which students are familiar in their own language and culture. Children rediscover the same games and rejoice in playing them. You can follow the popular TV games children like and adapt them to be used in your classrooms.

for communication. The games below utilize different components of language and skills and were prepared and micro-taught by student teachers in order to perform tasks required for practical parts of English for young learner courses. Speaking games can be teacher-led and children could be encouraged to use English by playing a game with the help of concrete materials such as a ball, a hat, a microphone, or a puppet. No child should be forced to speak until they feel ready, so involving them into other activities in which they could show their understanding can be helpful. As Moon (2000) states, children are talkative and sociable, thus they are likely to be motivated to speak within the activities which are carefully designed, which are stimulating and fun for children.

Suggested games Guessing games and memory games are effective to enable children to be familiar with and practice new vocabulary in an enjoyable way (Slattery and Willis, 2001). Therefore, this game which was adapted from a TV program by a group of student teacher provides learners to increase their curiosity and activate their background with regard to words they have learnt.

Hands-on task 1. Identify one of the English language subject matters mentioned in our primary school curriculum which children might consider difficult or boring. 2. Decide the objectives of the game. 3. Decide the required materials to play the game. 4. Decide the best organization to play the game 5. Decide the rules of the game you have planned. 6. Write the procedure including the role of the players and the teacher. 7. Be prepared to perform the game you have prepared in the classroom.

Types of Games Language games do not refer to traditional, competitive games such as Jeopardy, Password, or Hangman. Language games might simply include problem solving activities which require the use of the target language. For instance, student A has a diagram or a picture and has to describe it in the target language and Student B has to draw it. After finishing the task, the diagrams or pictures are compared to check for similarity. This kind of game provides learners with the opportunity to exchange information with each other, thus to achieve communication (Young, 1991). Moreover, they should include information gap activities and a real need

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A vocabulary game (Turnstile)

A revision game: Dressing Minnie and Mickey Mouse

Age: 10-11

Age: 10-11

Organization: Two groups


Aims: To revise the name of words related to parts of face, animals, fruit and vegetables, clothes.

Aims: To revise the name of words related to clothes and colors.

Language focus: Revision game for animals, fruit and vegetables, clothes etc.

Materials needed: Scissors, glue, colorful cartons to prepare the models of Minnie and Mickey Mouse and different articles of clothes.

Materials needed: Five big cards on each of which a name of the target word is written, something like hooter as a button.

Language focus: Revision game for clothes and colors.

Procedures:

Procedures:

• Stick the paper models and articles of clothes on the board.

• Divide the class into two groups (each group has 5 competitors for the first categories.)

• Divide the class into two groups and put the numbers from 1 to 20 for each group in the baskets on the table.

• Choose 5 students to show the cards to the group members.

• Put the written forms of clothes in the colorful envelopes on the table. Moreover, write different points into the envelopes in order to include luck into the game.

• One competitor from each group comes to the front of the class in order to answer the teacher’s questions for the first category (What are the most common transportation vehicles?) • The one who pushes the button at first answers the question. • For instance: one of the competitors says ‘plane’. If one of the students holding a card has the plane picture, s/he takes a step to the front to show the picture. If the answer of ‘plane’ is correct, that group continues game by saying other transportation vehicles. • If that group gives two wrong answers, the turn is on the other group. If they say only a right answer, the first group will lose all of the points that they get from transportation category. • The group with more points will be the winner of the game. The cards which are not opened will be shown to the groups.

• Choose a number from the basket to call a student from each group to start a game. • Each group member (E.g: number 4 from group A and number 11 from group B) chooses one of the envelopes on the table and opens it to see the written form of one of the names of clothes. The group members should firstly stick the written forms on the clothes then stick the article of clothes on Minnie or Mickey Mouse‘s cartoon. • If the each group member sticks the written forms on the clothes correctly and puts the right clothes on Minnie or Mickey Mouse‘s cartoon, they get the points written in their envelopes. After dressing up the models, the groups with more points win the game.

Rules: • Push the button only once to answer the question. • After giving the answer, you cannot change. • Answer the question in 10 seconds. • You cannot talk to group members while answering the question.

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A grammar game (Bingo game)

A listening game/ Action game/ TPR game

Age: 10-11

Age: 10-11

Organization: Whole class activity

Organization: Group game

Aims: To make students perceive the structure of the present continuous tense and to increase learner attention.

Aims: To increase students’ listening ability and to enable children show their understanding in the target language through a TPR game.

Language focus: The Present Continuous Tense.

Language focus: Imperatives including colors and shapes.

Materials needed: Pictures of the actions, sentences written by students and a marker.

Materials needed: Flash Cards, Platform colourful shapes on it, and the materials which the students do the action with such as earnings, water, balloon, book, comb, ball and basket, banana, pen, lipstick, scissors, gum, strip. Etc. Pictures of the actions, sentences written by students and a marker.

Procedures: • Uncompleted sentences written on a piece of paper are distributed to the students. They complete them using “The Present Continuous Tense”. • E.g.: I___________________________ (watch) T.V. • “The BINGO table including pictures of the actions” is hung on the board as a sample and the copied bingo cards are handed out to each student. • The sentences completed by the students are collected and put in a bag and the students come one by one and choose a paper from the bag. • The student who chooses a paper reads the sentence in present continuous tense aloud and other students listen to the sentence carefully and check the pictures in front of them to find the same sentence on the board and put the sentence on the suitable picture. Finally, they complete THE BINGO.

Procedures: • Divide the class into two groups and give a number to each group members to be a competitor. • Put the cards with instructions in the box. • Demonstrate the activity with the help of a student in the classroom (One will read the instructions written on the card and the other will act on the platform). • Call a member from each group by choosing number from the bag (E.g: number 6 from group A and B). • Let them choose a card randomly and read the instruction to each other. • Let them do the action on the platform of by using the objects on the teacher table (The competitor can say “pass” if s/he can’t do the action without getting any points). • Give each group 5 points for each completed action (The group with higher score will be the winner of the game).

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A reading/ listening game (Coloring the clown- or any other object)

A reading game: Giving advice

Age: 10-11

Age: 10-11

Organization: Individual or pair work

Organization: Group game

Aims: Increasing learners’ reading/ listening ability and to check whether the students show what they have read throughout the game.

Aims: To improve learners’ reading ability and to let them show what they have read.

Language focus: The structure of ‘has got’ with body parts and colors.

Language focus: ‘should’

Materials needed: A colorless picture of a clown (see the example given), the original colored clown poster and pastel crayons.

Materials needed: Colorful pieces of clothes and equipments which are made of cardboards (magnet, glue, scissors), a model woman made of cardboard to be Aunt Mary, pieces of papers to write the problems of Aunt Mary and envelopes to put them in.

Procedures: • Give the reading materials or do it as a listening activity to describe what the clown has.

Procedures:

• Each member has to paint the clown after reading or listening to the description.

• Introduce Aunt Mary to the classroom.

• Stick the original (colorful) picture of the clown and give feedback to children.

• Divide the class into 4 groups. Give an envelope to each group in which one of the problems of Aunt Mary is explained as a paragraph. (Example problem: Aunt Mary will have friends for dinner. She needs to prepare some food for them. What should she wear?) • Show the first example by reading one of her problems and by writing her advices on the board. Put the required clothes on Aunt Mary to solve her problem. • Give 10 minutes to the groups to read her problem and write their advices by using ‘should’. • Call each group leader to come and read their problems and the solutions they have written. • Get them to put the suitable clothes and items on Aunt Mary one by one. • Give five points for each correct written advice and extra five points for dressing Aunt Marry according to the advice they wrote. • The groups with more points will be the winner of this reading game.

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Lets’ talk through puppet clock

A speaking game: Describing pictures

Age: 10-11

Age: 10-11



Aims: To improve students’ speaking ability in an enjoyable way.

Aims: To improve students’ speaking ability in an enjoyable way.

Language focus: What time is it?

Language focus: Present progressive, there is/are?

Materials needed: A hand made big puppet clock which is wearable and a lot of hair with cards designed to practice different times (you can play the same game with various different clocks).

Materials needed: A dice made of cardboard, different pictures to stick on the floor, a box with numbers to nominate learners.

Procedures:

• Divide the class into two groups and hand out numbers to each group member.

• Hand the puppet on your arms to take students’ attention and increase their curiosity. Ask them “Who am I? Can you guess my name?” Introduce this wearable clock such as ‘I am Mr. Clock’.

• Stick one picture in each step of the game road stuck on the floor.

• Choose a student to help you when introducing the game they are going to play in order to practice the structure “What time is it?” • Want him/her to pick up a hair of Mr. Clock with which a paper is tied. Want him/her to answer the question by using the information written on the paper. • Teacher: What time is it? • Student: It is half past ten. • Want him/her to show the time on Mr. Clock. • Divide the class into two groups and call two members from each group to start the game.

Procedures:

• Call a member from each group by choosing a number from the box. • Want them to throw the dice and let a student with higher number start the game. • Let them throw the dice to understand which picture s/he is going to talk about (E.g: 3 on dice means that the student should move three steps further). • Ask to the student to describe what is seen in the picture in two minutes. • Give 5 points for each correct sentence. • Change the group members for each turn. • The group which finishes the road with higher numbers will win the game.

• Give 10 points for each correct conversation to the groups and give extra five points for each correct demonstration on Mr. Clock. • Finish the game when they finish all the hair on Mr. Clock. • Count the points after completing the activity to decide on the winner.

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A writing game: What are there in the village? Age: 10-11 Organization: Group work

Music and Puppets Esim Gürsoy

Aims: To make students produce the structure of there is /there are besides practicing already learnt vocabulary with regard to the village context. Language focus: There is/ there are Materials needed: A big cardboard with colorful parts, small colorful boxes with some pictures showing already known vocabulary in it. Procedures: • Divide the class into five groups. • Hand out different boxes made of cardboards whose colors are the same with the parts on the cardboard. • Assign a monitor for each group. • Explain the context and the activity (describing the village)

“A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron .”

Horace Mann

• Let one of the group members choose a box for their group task. • Keep the time (3-5 minutes is enough). • When the time is over, check their sentences. For each correct sentence, let them stick the picture on the big board. • The group with more pictures on their board will be the winner of the game. Chapter review questions 1. What are the pros and cons of playing games in language classrooms? 2. Explain and illustrate the difference between play and game. 3. What are some central issues in the use of games in teaching English through games? 4. To what extent do teachers’ beliefs play an important role in integrating a game into a language classroom? 5. What are the roles of a teacher to make a game meaningful and fun for learners? 6. To what extent do peers help each other while playing a language game? 7. Explain how to design a language game step by step. 8. Why is it so important to include ludic principles into the game to be played in the classroom? Give an example to support your ideas.

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The aim of this chapter is to provide a framework for teaching EFL to young learners via music and puppets. The first part of the chapter will present background information on the importance of integration of music to the teaching environment. The benefits of using songs, chants, finger plays, and rhymes in the language development of children will be discussed and examples will be given. In the second part, the role of puppets in children’s social, affective, and linguistic development will be discussed. Ways of using puppets in language teaching will be examined and different examples of making puppets will be exemplified. Before reading this chapter, brainstorm the following questions. Preliminary Questions 1. Which language skill develops first in infants? Does it tell you something about which language skill should be developed in EFL first ? 2. What are the initial musical pieces with which children encounter? 3. Discuss the developmental importance of music for children. 4. For what different purposes can music be used in classrooms? 5. How can puppets facilitate learning and teaching?

Why music? Being different from adolescents and adults, EFL children do not have a reason for learning another language. Due to the lack of a need to communicate, teaching methods and strategies that would normally apply for older learners do not usually work with young learners. The age difference among learners is an important consideration for teachers which requires knowledge about the characteristics of the student group. Children bring in their skills and instincts that they developed musıc and puppets

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while acquiring their mother tongue to the language classroom. In that sense, classrooms for young learners should be seen as extension to their social world if we want to develop their present skills without much burden to them. Children naturally like to have fun when they play, interact and learn. Any “serious task” proposed by the teacher can become a game, a reason for laughter or detachment and loss for children. Children learn by doing and seeing; therefore, being “still” while learning in the classroom is very difficult for young learners. What’s more, children are very talkative. They like to talk about things with which they are familiar among which one’s own life is the most popular topic for this age group. According to Piaget’s cognitive developmental stages, children do not develop hypothetical thinking until the age of 11 and can only understand what is concrete. Thus, teaching English to young learners needs to be organized around the “here and now” principle. Young learners do not have a concern for the hypothetical. The question interrogating the meaning of life is totally meaningless to many of them. They also do not really concentrate on the past or future simply because what is happening at the moment is more interesting and energizing. Activities and topics that are abstract are not appropriate for children as they cannot relate to their lives. Relating language learning to students’ lives is crucial for them to be able to build a connection with what they experience as a child and what they are learning. Hands-on task Fill in the following table to show your opinion on what 9 year old students may like or dislike talking about. Use the topics given below. And one additional one for each category. horses

democracy

pollution

colours

mobile phones

love

They are likely to like

friendship marriage

spaghetti a lost child

Discussion question Think of two different activities that would involve children emotionally, physically and mentally and are purposeful and enjoyable at the same time. Explain how these activities cater for the needs of children. Unlike adults, children can learn only when the information is presented to them indirectly. Traditional teaching methods of explaining the rules directly, translating, or repetitious drills do not help children learn although some of these techniques may work well with adults. With the traditional teaching methods such as drills, children cannot develop an interest in the task. If they cannot relate what they already know to what they are learning, the teaching process becomes confusing. Part of this problem can be seen in children’s L1 acquisition. Parents do not correct their children’s grammar errors or pronunciation as they acquire their mother tongue. Even if parents correct their children, it is not possible for the child to understand the error and self-correct as s/he is focused on the meaning rather than the form. Teachers should shift their focus from form to meaning and design activities accordingly. In addition, children have a natural capacity to grasp the meaning although they may not understand every single word (Halliwell, 1992). They can interpret the meaning from the visual clues such as gestures, body language, pictures, or the context in which the language is used. Thus, it is not an effective strategy to try to give L1 equivalents of every single word that is uttered in the classroom. With the adequate use of visual aids, children can perfectly grasp the meaning which is an outcome of their ability to learn indirectly.

working mothers cartoon characters

They are likely to dislike Discussion question Look at the cartoon and discuss why the child does not correct his grammar error in his native language.

Children need to be actively involved in the learning process. Active involvement requires emotional, physical and mental involvement. Children’s attention span is very short. Thus, it is essential to change the flow of activities in the lesson frequently by using different and interesting activities that would involve them physically and mentally. The activities should involve students rather than just occupy them. The activities should provide opportunities for talking and be meaningful, purposeful, and enjoyable at the same time. 328

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One way to help children use their natural characteristics in the classroom is via integrating songs and rhymes to our syllabus. According to Gardner (1993), musical intelligence emerges earlier than the others. The first musical piece that we hear as

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infants is usually our mothers’ lullabies. Mothers use lullabies to soothe and comfort the baby. Lullabies also help to build a warm connection between the mother and the child. As we grow older, we learn to make our own music by constantly hitting a pan with a wooden spoon or our plate with a fork. Children learn to build social relationships and connect with each other with the songs that they sing and dance together. At the same time they can come across with grammatical rules, stress, intonation and pronunciation as well as vocabulary through music. Songs and rhymes constitute the first patterned texts that children acknowledge. This way, music plays an important role in the smooth transition from lyrics to the printed word. Music can create a positive and enjoyable classroom atmosphere. Music not only helps children’s social and emotional development, but also their language development. There are multiple reasons for using music with young learners. According to Krashen (1982), for learning to be facilitated, learners need to lower down their affective filter. The weakness in the affective filter would result in more positive attitudes and would encourage learners to take risks. Songs create a comfortable and relaxed environment that would help reduce negative feelings such as stress and anxiety. The fun and enjoyment that is created while listening to music or singing songs as a group help students reduce their affective filter. Study the concept The affective filter is a mental mechanism that can either facilitate or hinder language production. When the affective filter is high, we may experience anxiety that may hinder our success in learning a language. Having a low affective filter, on the other hand, encourages risk-taking behavior through which students use the language as naturally as possible. By providing opportunities to develop automaticity due to the repetitive nature of the songs, music can contribute to children’s cognitive development. As argued by Gatbonton and Segalowitz (1988), language fluency requires the knowledge and production of language in a rapid manner without any pauses. Within the context of communicative language teaching methodology, unlike meaningless repetitive drills, songs provide purposeful and enjoyable repetition as they are usually accompanied by physical activities in a meaningful context. In addition, lyrics create opportunities for students to make innovative contribution by writing their own verses to the song (Linse, 2007). Using music, rhymes, and finger plays have not only affective and cognitive gains, but also linguistic ones. Majority of children’s songs have repetitions that are valuable for children to notice the chunks, which are ready-made pieces of language that can easily be used elsewhere, when needed. Chunks are very useful for beginning level learners as they help the child join in conversations. With the confidence that comes with the use of chunks, learners get more language practice (Moon, 2000). Due to the fact that children need and use informal language in their daily lives,

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classroom language should avoid book language and present examples of everyday language in order to provide meaningful input. Authentic children’s songs can provide informal daily language and can provide meaningful language input. In addition, learners benefit from authentic language use. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills as well as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and suprasegmentals such as rhythm, intonation and stress patterns are developed by means of employing appropriate tasks and activities. Songs, chants, and rhymes create wonderful opportunities in developing language skills without the boredom caused during the formal teaching of these skills. Hokey Pokey You put your right foot in, You put your right foot out, You put your right foot in And you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey And you turn yourself around, That’s what it’s all about. You put your left foot in, You put your left foot out, You put your left foot in, And you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey And you turn yourself around, That’s what it’s all about. You put your right hand in, You put your right hand out, You put your right hand in And you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey And you turn yourself around, That’s what it’s all about. You put your left hand in, You put your left hand out, You put your left hand in, And you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey And you turn yourself around, That’s what it’s all about. etc.

Activity Identify the chunks that students might pick up from these songs. Explain why they are easy for children to be learned.

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Using music in the classroom not only provides cognitive, affective, and linguistic gains, but also practical gains such as smooth activity transitions and classroom management. Music can be used to signal the start of different types of activities, can facilitate transitions between activities, and change the energy flow in the classroom. For instance, repetitive use of certain musical pieces at the beginning of certain activities would inform children about the upcoming activity. The musical piece used before a story-telling activity should be different from the piece that is used to indicate a game. This way, transitions between the activities are made smoothly and in an enjoyable way. It is usually chaotic to help students to concentrate on a reading activity after a kinesthetic activity. When the children get excited and physically active they tend to continue with a type of activity that makes them use their body in an active way. We call such activities as “stirring/ rousing” activities where children get involved in a physical game, a role-play, and/ or a TPR activity. However, when it is time to focus on other skills such as reading, writing or any type of intrapersonal activity, it becomes difficult for students to settle down and move on with what’s called a “settling” activity. Thus, music can be used to help the transition between stirring and settling activities and facilitate classroom management by preventing chaos after kinesthetic activities. The type of music chosen for a kinesthetically active game could energize the children to play the game, whereas, a softer, calming tune could help children to settle down to do an individual activity or to read and write. Thus, music can be used to prepare the students emotionally according to the type of the activity to be used. Moreover, music can be used as background to trigger students’ musical intelligence and to create a warm and secure classroom atmosphere. Finally, with the use of music, children find opportunity to use their creativity and develop cultural awareness. The use of authentic songs provides cultural information about the target language. Indirect presentation of cultural information can help children develop a multicultural understanding towards differences and similarities of the L2 community. Studies in the field of psycholinguistics indicate that using songs in the learning process facilitate language acquisition process by activating both right and left hemispheres. The left hemisphere is responsible for analytic processing of the language. The right hemisphere, on the other hand, is dominant in processing nonverbal stimuli such as the melody and the body. Therefore, using songs as a language teaching material would enable the learners to be more active learners by engaging them fully with the learning process in which both hemispheres are used.

phonological awareness, it is essential that the learner can segment the words and identify the sounds in isolation. In addition, through the identification of auditory or phonological patterns, children get prepared for the visual patterns with which they will come across. Also, rhymes facilitate the process of detecting phonological patterns. As most English songs, chants, and finger-plays have rhymes, the use of them in the classroom would enable the young learners during the decoding process. LITTLE STAR Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are.

TEDDY BEAR, TEDDY BEAR Teddy bear, Teddy bear, Touch the ground. Teddy bear, Teddy bear, Turn around. Teddy bear, Teddy bear, Show your shoe. Teddy bear, Teddy bear, That will do. Teddy bear, Teddy bear, Run upstairs. Teddy bear, Teddy bear, Say your prayers. Teddy bear, Teddy bear, Blow out the light. Teddy bear, Teddy bear, Say good night.

The listening skill Listening is the foundation of all the other skills. Naturally, listening is the first skill that develops in an infant’s language learning experience. Through listening to the sounds that are in the environment, the baby learns to distinguish them. Good listening skills will help the development of the reading skill as the children learn to match the symbols with the sounds to decode the words. In order to develop 332

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Various listening comprehension activities can be done with songs, chants and finger plays. To help children develop phonological awareness, it would be a good exercise to ask children to identify the rhyming words in the song. A fill-in-the blanks exercise can be transformed into a drawing activity. Instead of writing the words in the blanks students can draw them. The second time they sing, they can sing by using the clues given through their own drawings. This way, they will be emotionally, psychologically and kinesthetically involved in the process while both of their hemispheres are triggered. This Old Man This old man, he played He played knick-knack on my

;

Knick-knack paddywhack, Give a dog a

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The speaking skill The speaking skill is the second skill that develops. One of the basic characteristics of children is that they are talkative. Most of the time, it is very difficult for the parent and the teacher to stop them from talking. Children always have “important” things to tell. The trick in the classroom is to use this instinct in a way that it contributes to their language development. Therefore, the classroom activities and tasks should involve a certain amount of speaking interaction. In addition, in order for students to speak, the activities need to be meaningful, purposeful and enjoyable. Songs and chants are always a source of joy for children; however, the activities that are associated with the songs are even more important to create a reason for children to talk. The repetitions in the songs provide students with enough practice for the pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation. In addition, pronunciation, stress, intonation and rhythm, the topic of the song can be used as a start to a speaking activity as well. The song titled The Mulberry Bush, for instance, can be used to talk about our daily routine or to discuss how the students do the so-called actions. Moreover, the chunks in songs serve as ready-made pieces of language that can be used later on.

This old man came rolling home. The Mulberry Bush Here we go ‘round the mulberry bush The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush Here we go ‘round the mulberry bush So early in the morning

This old man, he played two, He played knick-knack on my; Knick-knack paddywhack,

This is the way we wash our face Wash our face, wash our face This is the way we wash our face So early in the morning

Give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling home.

This is the way we comb our hair Comb our hair, comb our hair This is the way we comb our hair So early in the morning

This old man, he played three, He played knick-knack on my ; Knick-knack paddywhack,

This is the way we brush our teeth Brush our teeth, brush our teeth This is the way we brush our teeth So early in the morning

Give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling home. Activity This old man, he played four, He played knick-knack on my Knick-knack paddywhack, Give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling home

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;

Choose a children’s song and design a listening activity either for developing comprehension or pronunciation. Take children’s characteristics into consideration as you design your activity.

This is the way we put on our clothes Put on our clothes, put on our clothes This is the way we put on our clothes So early in the morning

In order to have the utmost fun while singing, it is best to associate the lyrics with actions. This way it becomes easier for students to learn the vocabulary and decode meaning. The actions reduce the amount of translation while making meaning clear. In addition, as children are predominantly visual and kinesthetic, singing songs with actions requires the use of multiple learning channels, invokes multiple intelligences, and thus enhances learning by facilitating the internalization process. Seeing others perform the actions is helpful for visual learners, singing the song is helpful for those having musical and verbal/linguistic intelligences, and doing the actions is helpful for bodily/kinesthetic intelligence. Auditory, tactile, and visual learning channels work all at the same time while increasing comprehension.

The reading skill The reading skill is the third skill in the natural order. It requires the recognition of sounds and symbols and associating them with the meaning that they represent. musıc and puppets

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Linse (2007) defines reading as “a set of skills that involves making sense and deriving meaning from the printed word” (p. 81). Reading itself is not just decoding the words, it also involves comprehension. According to Anderson (2003), the aim of reading is to understand the meaning. Reading in a foreign language is rather difficult for children as it requires solid knowledge about the sound and letter system. What children hear is reflected in different ways in languages where there is no one-to-one correspondence with the symbols and sounds as is the case in English. Therefore, it is essential that learners come across with the written text. Songs can give a reason for reading. Not just the lyrics of a song but also a short reading text that compliments the context of the song could be used with young learners. As students get familiar with the song with actions and pictures, reading comprehension is facilitated. Moreover, using songs helps the development of the listening skill, which, as discussed earlier, is essential for children to learn to match the symbols with the sounds.

The writing skill Being the most problematic skill not only in L2 but also in L1, it is difficult to engage young learners with writing. The major problem in writing is lacking a reason for writing which is followed by organizing the thoughts and ideas that will be put into a text. In Turkey, young learners are mostly required to write at the sentence level. However, writing without a context is even more complex for children. The best way to provide a context is via songs. After being familiar with the context of the song, students can easily shape their thoughts. Thus, initial writing experiences of young learners can be via “innovations” (Linse, 2007). For example, writing new versions of a song is referred to as innovations. Children can create their own verses to familiar songs. This is easier than writing a whole paragraph from scratch as the pattern is known and the chunks are also helpful. In addition, it is an opportunity to create fun with the freedom of being silly. This could be arranged in group writing, where students work in groups to write their own verses. The “prewriting” stage helps children get together to organize their ideas and get prepared for the writing process. At this stage, they can decide on the vocabulary they will use, find rhyming words, and decide on the chunks they will put together. In the second step, “writing”, children put down all the ideas that they have thought in the prewriting stage, without worrying about their errors. The major objective of this stage is to put down all the ideas on paper. In the third stage students “revise” what they have written by checking the flow. Later on, at the “editing” stage, students check for the grammatical or spelling errors. Finally, at the “publishing” stage, they make their work public by presenting it to the others in the classroom. In this case, when writing innovations to the songs they have sung before, they can sing it together to their classmates (Linse, 2007). Activity Use the “Hokey Pokey” or the “Mulberry Bush” songs to make your own innovations. Write new verses to the songs and share it with your peers. 336

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Using Puppets Using puppets is a great way to practice in English with young learners. First of all, it reduces the anxiety that children may have due to learning something unfamiliar, irrelevant, and not so purposeful. For young learners, learning a foreign language is a new experience that might be difficult to relate to their own lives. Therefore, it is crucial for the language teacher to relate language learning to something with which students are familiar. By this way, students’ negative feelings will be reduced to minimum. Children’s perception of reality is different from adults. Reality for young learners contains elements of imagination and creativity. Children frequently personalize what they do when they take part in make-believe games. Therefore, it would be a very good strategy to bring children’s daily habits into the classroom. Personalization in games is great for imagination and creativity. The tools that children use for personalization are usually the toys with which they play. They can successfully use anything as an instrument for communication mostly by role-playing. They often pretend to be adults through exaggerated mimics by focusing on the events and situations that belong to the world of the adults’. It is very likely to see or hear a child talking to a doll as “Don’t cry little baby, mummy will give you your milk” as an imitation of her own mother’s behavior. Playing with a car and personalizing the toy such as “I’m driving in super turbo mode. I’ll jump over the bridge and win the race” is also a common activity one can see when around a child. Caregivers also use role-playing with the use of puppets when playing with their children. They use puppets as a tool to talk about appropriate behaviors, to explain things, events, to set examples, to help children talk about their feelings etc. Puppets are amusing for children. They enjoy listening to the stories from a puppet and they can easily interact with the puppet. Some children’s programs use puppets not just to amuse children but to teach something with the use of a fun character to take children’s attention. Puppets are in the natural and everyday environment of most children. Therefore, it is wise and effective to use them as a resource in language teaching. The integration of puppets to language teaching is also affectively facilitative. According to Slattery and Willis (2004) children feel more comfortable when talking to a puppet as they reduce the anxiety of talking to an adult.

How to use puppets The basic strategy when using puppets is to give an identity and a personality to the character/ puppet. The person who uses the puppet usually has a distinctive voice to get attention and to be funny. Because of the amusing features of puppeteering, children learn social concepts and behaviors without consciously being aware of it. Moreover, talking to a puppet is more comfortable then talking to an adult. Especially for shy and introvert children using puppets is an effective way to engage them in talking. Puppets, as they engage children in talking, help them express themselves and are used as a problem solving device.

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Puppets from paper plates

Without doubt, a resource, that is frequently a part of children’s daily life and L1 development, can be useful as well if it is used with L2 children. L2 teachers can use the puppets for similar reasons such as to reduce anxiety caused by talking to an adult, reduce psychological barriers, bring fun into the classroom, join shy students in classroom talk, develop social skills, and to teach appropriate behavior etc. In addition, they can be used to foster some language skills and can be used as an indicator of certain classroom activities. Puppets are great for teaching songs, chants and teaching pronunciation. For instance, with songs such as “Old McDonald’s” puppet and children can sing the song together by sharing the lyrics:

This is one of the easiest ways to make puppets. It is as simple as drawing the face of a character on the back of a paper or plastic plate and decorating it. Here, in the example below, these paper plate puppets are used for teaching about animals practicing some language work through the voices of the animals. Students are expected to role play by using these puppets in a dramatic way.

Finger Puppets

P: Old McDonald has a farm

There are different ways to make finger puppets. As simple drawings on cardboards can be turned into finger puppets, empty egg shells can also be used as materials to draw faces on and to play with. Here, in the example below, egg-shell finger puppets are used for teaching countries and nationalities.

C: EIEIOOOO P: And on his farm C: He has some chicks …etc. Puppets can also be used to correct pronunciation while singing the songs with a room for exaggeration. Or the puppet can be an excellent method of error correction. It can make the children’s errors itself so that it won’t be the children who are being corrected or who are making errors, but the puppet. It would be even more effective if the children help the teacher to correct the error. Thus, puppets can be used as a method of self-correction. Puppets are a teacher’s biggest help. The teacher can use the puppet as one of the classroom members to introduce a topic, to give instructions, to demonstrate an activity, to tell a story, to start a game, to use in a role play, to activate schema, to create a warm classroom atmosphere, to create fun, or to work on certain grammar and pronunciation errors implicitly. Activity Design an activity by using puppets to aid the teacher in accomplishing one of these goals listed above. Describe how you will use the puppet. As well as being a valuable resource, making puppets can be an opportunity for children to produce their own resources. Involving students in making resources brings in many benefits. First of all, while engaged in the process children are exposed to meaningful input from the teacher. The instructions provided by the teacher will give a real reason for listening comprehension. Moreover, the repetitions and the chunks used while giving the instructions are likely to enable the children catch the language patterns and chunks to be used elsewhere. Secondly, it gives them an opportunity to use English purposefully. Therefore, the language practice occurs naturally. In addition, being involved in making resources children become more willing to use them and responsible to protect them when using.

Types of puppets Puppets can be made by using different materials and can be made by involving children in the process. Puppets can be made from socks, paper bags, plastic plates, wooden spoons, milk boxes or cardboard rolls from paper towels. Finger puppets can be made by simple character drawings and coloring tied around the fingers. 338

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String Puppets String puppets are not only enjoyable to make, but also delightful to play with. It is easy to create a story with different characters. As students speak for the puppets and move them around they are involved in the language learning visually and kinesthetically. They will not only improve their speaking skills, they will have fun, use their creativity, imagination, and find a way to use their kinesthetic energy.

Sock puppets Children might need some help when producing sock-puppets as they require some sewing, but still they can be involved in the production by bringing in socks, buttons (for eyes), and knitting yarn (for hair, whiskers, etc.). During the process, students will be exposed to meaningful input while the teacher is giving instructions such as:

ȤȤ Give me two brown buttons for her eyes. ȤȤ What color is Sally’s hair? ȤȤ Bring me some brown knitting yarn. ȤȤ I need the scissors, who has got the scissors? ȤȤ Now, help me glue it, please.

In addition to the linguistic benefits, children will also learn to work collaboratively to accomplish a common goal. They learn social skills by working as a team. In the pictures below the teacher is using sock-puppets to tell a story to children.

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Study questions and projects

Puppets from fruits and vegetables By using the fruits and vegetables found in the fridge, we can make puppets as well. These can be used for describing people, or talking about fruits and vegetables through personalization. They are very easy to make. With the help of chopsticks, toothpicks, and/or wooden sticks and with a little bit of drawing it is possible to make different puppet characters. We have to make sure that after using the fruits and vegetables, we eat them after washing them thoroughly to set an example to our students for we don’t waste our food!

1. Choose a welcoming song for children when they first come to the classroom. Consider using this song each time before you start your lesson. Why would you choose that song? What might be your selection criteria for that song (length, lyrics, rhythm, etc.)? 2. Make a puppet that you would continuously use to aid your teaching. Give it a name and some characteristics. What would be some characteristics of the puppet? Why? When you give a character to your puppet think about the purposes of using puppets and things that would interest and enjoy children. 3. Examine a primary school course book, choose a unit and try to find songs relevant with the topic or the structure of the unit. Think different ways and purposes of using the song as well as the appropriate section of the lesson (warm-up, presentation, practice).

Puppets from plastic cups and balloons Plastic cup puppets are very easy to make. The plastic cup is used as the body of the puppet. A slightly blown balloon is used as the head and inserted in the hole that is made at the bottom of the cup. Then, they are decorated by using knitting yarn, drawings, and colorful paper for dress. The puppets in the example below are made to teach different moods and facial expression. We, again, must make sure the we don’t use too many cups and put them into the waste bin. We use and reuse them for instructional purposes so as to save our planet!

Cardboard puppets Another way to make simple puppets is via using cardboards. A desired character is drawn and cut out from a cardboard. Two copies of the figure are glued to each other from the sides so that a pocket is left in the middle to put the hand in. The figure is colored and decorated with crayons, colorful cards, buttons etc. Then it is ready to use.

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Literature Feryal Çubukcu

Discussion question When you were a child, did you enjoy listening to stories? What made you like them?

Children and literature Children love stories, fairy tales and folk tales a lot and they love to hear and tell the stories. Storytelling is an ideal introduction to foreign languages as stories provide a familiar context for the child. Moreover, if teachers want to attract children’s attention they must propose a motivating activity such as story telling. Children start enjoying literature from an early age by the teacher’s use of extensive reading of stories. Literature, in general, allows pupils to understand and appreciate cultures and ideologies different from their own. Consequently, children learn to respect other cultures and to be involved in them. In addition to this, storytelling provides contexts for speaking, listening, reading, writing and other activities such as dancing and dramatizing. According to several critics (Gomez, 2010, pp. 31-34), there are a number of reasons why teachers use children’s stories: • are motivating and fun, • create a desire to communicate, • help developing positive attitudes, • exercise imagination, • are a useful tool in linking the fantasy and imagination with the child’s real world. Literature has a social and emotional value, which is a vital part of its role in the development of children’s language learning skills. Storytelling provokes a response of laughter, sadness, excitement and anticipation, which can encourage the child’s social and emotional development. In addition, there is always a sort of interaction between the reader and his listeners so s/he can ask for listeners’ collaboration to say what happens next, for instance. Listening to stories is a natural way of acquiring language. The child learns to deduce what happens next, to deduce the meaning of words from the context or visual aids. Children enjoy listening to stories over and over again. This allows certain language items to be acquired while others are being overtly reinforced. Little by little they make sense out of the listening. In addition, repetition also encourages participation in the narrative, thereby providing a type of pattern practice in a meaningful context. Telling stories is a resource of linguistic input. The process of making input comprehensible is an active constructive process (Genesee, 1994, p. 53). An important 342

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condition for language acquisition to occur is that the student understands the input that contains a structure ‘a bit beyond’ his/ her current level of competence. Hence, they can understand most of it, but still be challenged to make progress (Brown, 1987, p. 188). Stories allow the teacher to introduce or revise new vocabulary, sentence structures and pronunciation in meaningful contexts by means of pictures, gestures, intonation, facial expression, and dramatizing. Children acquire them unconsciously as they listen to the story for meaning in order to know what is going on. Consequently, children must be active participants in the construction of meaning. Stories can be used to reinforce conceptual development in children (colour, shape, time, size etc.) and they are a way of getting children to learn for themselves. Stories reinforce thinking strategies (comparing, classifying, predicting, planning etc.), develop strategies for learning English (guessing the meaning of new words, training the memory etc.) and improve study skills (understanding and interpreting charts and graphs, organizing work and so on.). Stories help children lower their affective filter by making them feel relaxed. Knowing that “relaxed students learn more easily” (Dulay, 1982, p. 266), stories should be a part of any foreign language teaching process. A low affective filter, which may result from feelings of relaxation, well-being or success, maximises learning efficiency (Ellis, 2000). In this positive atmosphere, the affective filter is down and the acquisition of the new language is easier. In addition to this, all learners are involved and their work is valued, which makes them feel comfortable. In this sense, Broughton and others (1980, p. 170) assert that no child should feel pressed to learn. Moreover, children will learn more if they have a positive attitude towards what they are doing and if they want to do it (Williams, 1998, p. 204). In general terms, children acquire first the general semantic characteristics of words (Galeote, 2002, p. 167). Their meanings are contextualized and can be inferred from the pictures or teacher’s gestures. Moreover, the teacher usually reads slowly and gives them time to think about the meaning and look at the pictures. Many traditional stories abound with powerfully repeated phrases such as Goldilocks – Who’s been sitting on my chair? And who’s broken it? Added baby bear... Who’s been sleeping in my bed? Baby bear adds: and who’s still sleeping there now? These examples can be used as an almost subliminal grammar input (Morgan & Rinvolucri, 1983, p. 2). Stories help children develop their narrative skills. Narrative with children has been studied as a key genre in classroom work (Collerson, 1988; Cope & Kalantzis, 1993). Stories have a plot structure with a clear beginning, some turning-points and their resolutions. There is strong human interest in the events and motivations of story characters and how they solve problems (Cortazzi, 1993; Linde, 1993). This narrative thinking is a unique mode of thought which is distinct from the logical kind of thinking in that ‘narrative knowing’ is particularly important for children’s learning (Bruner, 1986). That is why educators have called for a ‘narrative curriculum’ based around storytelling, especially for the primary stage (Egan, 1988; Lauritzen & Jaeger, 1997).

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Discussion Read the following extract and discuss how narrative curriculum may deliver Mathematics as well English lessons. Try to come up with one narrative curriculum activity for each of the lessons. Constructing stories in the mind/ storying, as it has been called/ is one of the most fundamental means of making meaning; as such it is an activity that pervades all aspects of learning… Through the exchange of stories, teachers and students can share their understandings of a topic and bring their mental models of the world into closer alignment. In this sense, stories, and storytelling are relevant in all areas of the curriculum. (Wells, 1986, p. 194) Forster’s (1927, p. 82) definition of the plot as ‘The king died and then the queen died of grief’ (without the last two words, Forster argues, this is not a plot) tells us what a plot is. Our experience with this kind of framework is that learners can benefit for the support of using the series of questions (roughly from top to bottom in cumulatively to generate, first, a short simple story, then gradually increasing the length and complexity successively prompted by questions). With teacher support, young learners can remember a long oral story because of the repetitions involved and visual props. Discussion Why are the last two words (underlined for emphasis) of this sentence important to accept it as a narrative? Discuss your reasons and think about it in relation to how this understanding of a plot affects your storytelling in young learners’ classrooms. ‘The king died and then the queen died of grief.’ When it comes social aspects of developing narrative and narrative learning, there is substantial research on how children learn to tell stories (Applebee, 1978; McCabe & Peterson, 1991; Bamberg, 1997). Progressions in children’s development include using connectives (such as ‘then’, ‘so’ or ‘but’) to show chains of chronological events and causation. Later developments may involve embedding events within a larger framework and perhaps understanding and using flash-backs and flashforwards and giving clearer accounts of motivation and character. However, much of this research pays insufficient attention to the content and meaning of children’s stories and to the cultural settings and situations in which children hear or tell stories. These aspects are relevant to learners because cultural variations may imply that narrative skills may be valued and realized differently in the range of cultures represented by these learners. Children are socialized into the narrative ways of their own culture. Through narrative they are, in turn, socialized into the shared knowledge, social experience and cultural values. Thus ‘narrative learning’ may be conceptualized as “learning a narrative” and “learning through a narrative.” literature

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Discussion Discuss the difference between “learning a narrative” and “learning through a narrative” by giving specific real life examples from your own culture as well as from your learning of a foreign language and culture. Narratives revolve around the following parts of the narration:

foreign language learners learn how to put the events in logical sequence while understanding why a specific sequence is more appropriate in that language and culture. In strengthening their sense of story grammar, students do not just build some abstract skill but they also develop an understanding of logical sequencing of historical events (Kornfeld & Leyden, 2005).

• Causes: Why? How?

Collie and Slater (1987) and Wessels (1987) focus on the positive contributions of language learning through literature while pointing to the values and uses of drama, which can help the teacher to achieve ‘reality’ in several ways by overcoming students’ resistance to learning the new language by

• Sequence of events

• making the learning of the new language an enjoyable experience

• Consequences: Why? Because….

• setting realistic targets for the students to aim for

• Characters, their motives, and reactions

• creative ‘slowing down’ of real experience

• Prior events: What happened before? • Context: Where? When?

Using visual means and clues is an important complement to developing oral narrative skills. The process of hearing and producing English through visuals could be regarded as an aspect of graphic literacy (Cortazzi et al., 1998) as visuals represent the content knowledge (Mohan, 1986). The content of a chart or map, for instance, can be verbalized in different ways but listening to many versions of a story and writing or telling one’s own version while using visual support means that both the content and the relevant language are likely to be remembered. It is suggested that teachers tell (rather than read) stories by using plenty of gestures, facial expressions, and a degree of dramatization accompanied by using the voice and mime (Colwell, 1980; Grainger, 1997). Such dramatization clarifies the meaning through enactment and repetition and can be practiced. Masks, hats, puppets, posters and theme-based displays of stories, actions, songs, and role plays can enrich this narrative experience. Such creative activities provide a format to recycle the language and concepts in a story and make curricular links (Morgan & Rinvolucri, 1983; Garvie, 1990). Further activities may include: • identifying and labelling people, locations, items and props, • describing attributes (colour, size, shape), • examining relations by comparing, contrasting, sorting into sets and categories, • predicting and sequencing of events in time or by establishing cause and effect relationships. For many young students, eras and events of the past in folk tales and fairy tales seem totally unrelated to their lives. But by acting out those stories, students can get intensely involved in history. As Booth (1985, p. 195) wrote, through drama, “teachers help children acquire the means to more fully understand what they have experienced. Students need to interact with both the author’s thoughts and their own thoughts in order to bring about true learning.” As Bodrova and Leong (1996, p. 146) explained, by retelling familiar stories, children learn about general patterns common to all stories. Using these story patterns (also known as story grammar) 346

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• linking the language-learning experience with the student’s own experience of life • the use of ‘creative tension’ (situations requiring urgent solutions); • putting more responsibility on the learner as opposed to the teacher. (Wessels, 1987, pp. 53-54)

Children and selection of stories Stories must be chosen depending on the age and the linguistic level of the pupils. Stories, which are culturally familiar, may be especially helpful because prior knowledge of characters and plots may make the stories potentially more comprehensible to the learners than unfamiliar ones. If students already know the story in their first language they will be able to follow the English version of the same story through body language or using pictures. Real language use is another criterion to develop students’ language skills and provide them the real language use. Another important aspect is illustrations. Children like stories full of illustrations in bright colours and with interesting characters. They make the meaning of the story easier to understand than a story without any illustration at all. A story with illustrations is accessible, useful and relevant for children learning English because they can understand the story on their own. In selecting stories for the classroom, Morgan and Rinvolucri (1983, p. 9) consider two main criteria. First, the teacher would enjoy telling that story and second, pupils might find that story entertaining. Ellis and Brewster (1991, p. 12) also give criteria for selecting storybooks. For them there are several points of view: The first is linguistic (that is the difficulty of structures and vocabulary, the facility of pronunciation given by rhymes, rhythms or intonations and the content, if it is relevant and interesting). The second is psychological (if there are attractive visuals, if the story encourages participation by using repetitions or prediction, if it is motivating and if it arouses curiosity). Finally, the third one is cultural (if the story

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creates positive attitudes towards the target language and the target culture and, finally, if the language is authentic and appropriate for the children). Wright (1996: p. 15) has got similar ideas about choosing a story as well. He argues that the story chosen must be appealing to the children. They must like it. The story must be suitable to the students’ age, linguistic level and maturity. The school children must understand it in order to enjoy it.

Story-based activities Critics (Gomez, 2010, p. 39) claim that the environment, which is created in class for the story telling, is important. It must be relaxing. Asking the pupils to sit in a circle on the floor can change the boredom traditional classroom setting by signaling that what they are going to share is something special. Also, if the students feel relaxed, they may feel more open to what they are about to hear. Pupils’ enjoyment will increase if the teacher ensures that their understanding is supported in several ways such as

ȤȤ relating the literary text to their personal world by asking and answering

questions. Children relate the theme to their knowledge and understanding (Carter & Long, 1991, p. 45). ȤȤ setting the scene by drawing upon the children’s own experiences or knowledge about the subject and language used in the story. ȤȤ providing a context for the story and introducing the main characters. ȤȤ either providing a brief outline of the main storyline beforehand or reminding pupils of what has happened so far in the story. ȤȤ explaining the keywords, expressions or cultural information, even in their mother tongue. Dramatizing with the learners can be really helpful at this stage. ȤȤ Asking the pupils to predict what will happen next in the story. ȤȤ Providing visual support with realia, published materials, the teacher’s and pupils’ drawings on the blackboard, cut out figures, masks, puppets or the illustrations about the story in order to make the story understandable. Reading like this is seen by many teachers as the most reliable path to the development of reading skills (Brumfit, Moon, & Tongue 1991: p. 178). Having a repertoire of ideas and a collection of prototype materials to support the narrative of the stories helps the teacher to tell the story (Kennedy & Jarvis, 1991, p. 57). On the other hand, a teacher’s story telling skills are very important. There are a number of techniques s/he can use in order to make the experience more enjoyable and successful. The teacher must notice if the pupils are accustomed to story telling or not. If they are unfamiliar with story telling the teacher should begin with short sessions that do not demand too much from them. Many critics agree on the importance of story telling and give some ideas in order to improve their story telling techniques such as

ȤȤ sitting on the floor around the teacher. ȤȤ reading slowly and clearly, giving pupils time to think, ask questions, look

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at the pictures and make comments. ȤȤ making comments about the illustrations or asking and answering questions about the story. ȤȤ encouraging pupils to take part in the story telling by repeating key vocabulary items and phrases or dramatizing here and there. ȤȤ using gestures, body language, facial expressions, varied intonation, pace and tone, disguising his/her voice for different characters as much as possible to help convey meaning. This keeps the pupils’ attention intact as well.

Red riding hood Two visual means of conveying story meaning are the use of keywords and story maps. As the first step, children look at the pictures of a wolf and the red riding hood who is a little girl dressed in a red hooded cloak. The teacher familiarizes them with the words they do not know in the story. The teacher activates students’ schema about the wolf and animals and grand mother, providing a context for the story and introducing the main characters. This helps students to feel involved and to link their experiences with that of the story to set the scene and then they hear a story in English through using large pictures; the pictures are not simply illustrations, but are later placed one by one on the board as prompts for the children to retell the story in English. This leads to better retellings than simply relying on memory. The pictures help them to organize their knowledge of the story.

As the second step, the teacher works with the class to choose keywords (nouns and verbs representing stages of the content), write them on cards and use the cards as prompts for another retelling. This has a limited effect, since the written words are not themselves organized visually to support the children’s narrative, so the teacher then sticks the words on the board in the story order and joins them with arrows to make a story ‘map’. The learners then retell the story using the map, and then remove the cards and replace them in sequence, while themselves retelling the story step by step. As the third step, the teacher asks students to change the end or ask them how they feel if they are in the shoes of a. the red riding hood b. the wolf c. the hunter d. the mother e. the grandmother.

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Nasreddin hodja

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repeated word. As the follow up activity children use actions or gestures to indicate a word and other students guess the word. This game can be played in teams (one team shows the actions and asks the other team to guess what the words might be) or as a big group (one student shows/mimes and the others guess). The teacher makes a set of miming cards based on the content that students have been studying. Students pick one up and mime and the class guesses what is being mimed and makes a sentence about the story.

One night, Nasreddin Hodja and his wife wake up with noise. His wife, in panic, says `Effendi, there are thieves downstairs. We should go down!’ The Hodja does not care. `Woman, there is no need. First, they have to find something to steal. If they find something, then we’ll go down.’

A variation is the teacher writes down the names of different characters from stories that the students have been reading. The name of one character should be written on each card. Each student selects a card, then writes a few sentences from the point of view of the character. The student then reads the sentences aloud, using the mannerism, tone of voice, etc. of the selected character. The rest of the class guesses who the character is. The teacher brings alot of different items of clothing into the class and students guess which character has which item of clothing.

Procedures After the teacher reads the story, she divides the class into (Hodja, his wife, and burglars) and asks them to dramatize and repeat the dialogue. Then students share their ideas on narratives revolving around the following parts of the narration.

Cinderella Students learn the gestures to go with words that are repeated in a story. Then, as the teacher reads the story, the children do the actions when they hear the key words.

Mother

Mime an affectionate mother by showing hugging or cuddling

Father

Mime a man with moustache

Step mother

Mime a bad person

House

Draw a house in the air

Long

Stretch both arms out straight to make a long “line”

Beggar

Mime a poor old woman

Happy

Mime that you are happy

Shoes

Point to the shoes

Prince Charming Draw /show a handsome star’s picture Sad

Mime that you are sad

The teacher practices these gestures for the repeated words and slowly reads the story aloud, and has students do the appropriate gestures as they hear each 350

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The teacher asks students to come up with the different aspect of each character by miming. Students vary the reactions of the characters such as the step mother is ill , or she is sick, the Prince Charming is not so charming. For the final section, the teacher might have students practise learning the different parts and put on the play for other classes and/or parents.

Aesop’s fables A father has sons who always quarrel. They never listen when he tells them about the danger of disagreement. This father decides to give his sons a practical lesson. He takes a bundle of sticks and asks each son in turn to break the bundle. None of his sons are able to do this. Then the father opens the bundle and gives his sons separate sticks. Of course the sons could break these sticks easily. The father says, “Our family is like this bundle of sticks. While we are together, nothing can break us. When we are divided, our enemies will break us as easily as these sticks. The teacher starts the lesson by asking some adjectives for “fathers” and each student comes up with an adjective to describe the characteristic of father. In literary texts, it can be used to deepen characterization. In case the level of the learners’ questions remains literal, or barely relevant, the teacher should intervene and give lead. This technique operates in a controlled manner and is, therefore, very useful for the teacher who is new to drama. Texts about characters who have done heroic feats, lived an adventurous life or wise in giving advice can be used for . Then the teacher reads the story through mimes. The class is told that they are going to interview the character following his/ her adventures. The character (a learner who has volunteered to take on the role) sits in the front, facing the rest of the class and answers questions posed by the reporters. literature

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He is interviewed for no more than 10 minutes. The interviewers ask not just questions, but, also take notes in order to write a news story or a more descriptive feature article for the next edition of their paper. In case of a large number of learners in the class, about three learners can team together and prepare questions to be asked. After the interview is over, the teams work together for the write-up. The learner who has been questioned in the role of the character can join one of the teams. As a variation, different learners can volunteer as the character to be interviewed.

Telephone conversations This technique helps enhancing the speaking and listening skills of the learners. The learners work in pairs sitting their backs touching each other’s so that they can only hear their telephone conversation partner. The learners in each group are to imagine that they are two different characters of the story. They try to have the conversation on the phone.

Soliloquy/ Thought Tracking Each student has a monologue with himself about the conflict in the situation. For example, the student role-plays a father to have a monologue with himself about what he should do about his spoiled children. After this drama activity, students mime the characters after the father has given his advice “While we are together, nothing can break us. When we are divided, our enemies will break us as easily as these sticks.” Hence each student mimes an emotion (relieved, happy, joyful) and the class tries to guess this emotion. Bloor (1991, p. 129) contends that children learn a foreign language better in situations in which attention is focused on meaning rather than on language itself. That happens with a tale. It attracts children’s attention and they understand the plot of the story. The vocabulary is not abstract but concrete. Moreover, it is useful because children can understand the new vocabulary without any translations into their mother tongue. In this sense, Halliwell (1994, p. 3) stands out that young children are good at interpreting the general meaning. Teachers can make use of voice intonation or body language to facilitate the process of meaning understanding. The use of drama activities has a definite place in the classroom. Such activities provide meaningful and enjoyable language practise, and they encourage learners to explore the wonderful world of the English language through drama. Drama activities also develop students’ intelligence by stimulating their imagination and creativity.

approaches to language teaching, where the learner rather than the language or indeed the teacher is at the centre of the learning process. Drama in the English language classroom is ultimately indispensable because it gives learners the chance to use their own personalities. It draws upon students’ natural abilities to imitate and express themselves, and if well-handled should arouse interest and imagination. Drama encourages adaptability, fluency, and communicative competence. It puts language into context, and by giving learners experience of success in real-life situations it should arm them with confidence for tackling the world outside the classroom. Hands-on activity 1. Choose a fairy tale and a grammar point that suit it. 2. Prepare activities to teach that point along with this tale. 3. How do you scaffold students’ learning of English? What are already known by them? What is there to learn? 4. How would you increase students’ interest? To sum up, stories can develop • an understanding of human nature, • an understanding of feelings, • an awareness of the role characteristics people assume, • an understanding of sequence, • language skills (vocabulary, grammar, syntax and pronunciation), • their attention span and their ability to listen, • their ability to follow instructions, • their ability to co-operate with others, • an understanding of concepts

Perhaps one of the greatest advantages to be gained from the use of drama is that students become more confident in their use of English by experiencing the language in operation. The student-centredness inherent in all dramatic activities also improves students’ maturity and motivation, and the physical involvement contained in drama along with the concept of learning language through action is an effective variation on the method of Total Physical Response and other holistic 352

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Culture Servet Çelik Instructing students in the linguistic structures of English is only one of the Think about it: important aspects of ESL/EFL teaching; What is culture? How does culture developing true communicative skills affect language? Do you think also requires an understanding of the understanding culture is necessary cultural context in which the language for learning to communicate well in a is spoken. The goal of this chapter is to foreign language? Why or why not? equip future ESL/EFL teachers with an overview of the concepts of culture and cross-cultural communication and to provide them with the tools that are needed to introduce these ideas in the ESL/EFL classroom.

What is culture? Because culture is such a complex and dynamic structure, it is nearly impossible to provide a precise and absolute definition. The phenomenon of culture is viewed in different ways by a number of different fields of study, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and linguistics; and as Wintergerst and McVeigh (2011) point out, each of these disciplines has its own perspective on culture and its own approach to defining it. Yet, with that said, culture can be generally described as a universal aspect of human behavior which is integral to each and every human society (Damen, 1994) – as a system of beliefs and attitudes that permeates everything a given group of people does, says and feels. When people think about culture, they often think about the aspects of a particular culture that are on the surface, where they are easy to observe. However, as Peterson (2004) emphasizes, there are in fact two distinctive types of culture, which he illustrates using the metaphor of an iceberg. At the tip of the iceberg are the visible aspects of a culture: art, music and literature; historical figures; and prominent architecture; as well as the everyday cultural norms such as style of dress; types of food that are consumed; gestures and other nonverbal forms of communication; hobbies and other leisure pastimes; and so on. On the other hand, at the bottom of the iceberg – the immense, unseen area below the surface – are the invisible features of the culture, such as its core values, attitudes and beliefs; its historical and legal foundations; and the common traditions, practices, popular opinions and humor that are an integral part of everyday life. While it is a relatively 354

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straightforward task to teach students about the visible aspects of culture such as major historical events, religious practices, and celebrations, it is equally important to make them aware of the unseen characteristics that define the members of the target culture. Activity Have students form discussion groups. With one student in each group taking notes, have them talk over the question: “The definition of culture is __________________.” At the end of the discussion, the group should have one answer to report to the class. Have a member of each group explain to the class how they came up with their answer; talk as a class about the similarities and differences in the answers from each group.

Culture and language learning Given the fact that culture is such an important factor in how we think, behave, and view the world around us, awareness of our own cultural framework, as well as that of the target culture, is necessary in order to achieve true communication; simply learning the vocabulary and grammatical structures of a foreign language is not enough to allow speakers who do not share a common background to understand one another fully. Even when two different cultures appear similar on the surface, lack of awareness of underlying attitudes, beliefs and practices can cause difficulties in the transmission of meaning. Incidents of cross-cultural miscommunication are commonplace and demonstrate clearly that it is not only the words themselves, but the meaning behind the words, that is important in communication. Thus, as Kramsch (1993) explains, culture is not an simply an expendable aspect of language learning that should be regarded as somehow less important than instruction in reading, speaking, listening and writing.

Culture and nonverbal communication A British tourist who had recently traveled to Russia was waiting in line to use an automated teller machine (ATM). As the Russian who was ahead of him stepped up to the machine, the Englishman stood back in order to give him privacy while he conducted his transaction. Thinking that the British gentleman did not intend to use the ATM, another Russian stepped in line in front of him. He then became angry, thinking that he was being pushed aside. He did not understand that in Russia, the accepted personal distance between strangers is much closer than in the U.K.; while the Russian did not

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realize that the visitor was attempting to be polite by not crowding the man in front of him as he used the ATM. Non-verbal communication, which includes facial expressions, hand and arm gestures, head movements, body postures, personal space, eye contact, touching and other body language, varies greatly from one culture to the next. Because similar gestures can mean very different things in different cultures, a lack of awareness of their meanings can lead to unfortunate misunderstandings in crosscultural encounters. For this reason, it is important to include some discussion of non-verbal communication in the ESL/EFL classroom. Consider the following scenario: Three business associates – an Australian man, a Dutch woman and a man from South Korea – are meeting for the first time at a restaurant to discuss a potential deal. After they shake hands and greet one another formally in English, the Australian becomes talkative, criticizing the quality of the food and service, while the Dutch woman remains reserved, especially when the Australian occasionally touches her arm and directs personal questions at her. Meanwhile, the Korean gentleman enthusiastically and sometimes audibly applies himself to his food. How might each of these individuals view the others based on their mannerisms and other unspoken communication, and how might this affect the outcome of their business discussion? Would it make any difference if all three had some understanding of the non-verbal cues typical of each of the different cultures? The following hints may help you to answer these questions: • In general, Koreans prefer to maintain harmony rather than complain out loud in a manner that may make others uncomfortable or lead to confrontation. • Although noisy eating is not generally considered polite in many European countries, it is perfectly acceptable in much of Southeast Asia. In fact, burping loudly after a meal may express appreciation for the food; attempting to cover it up might be seen as an insult to the cook. • Dutch people are generally more reserved than Australians and do not tend to discuss personal matters with people they do not know well. In addition, it is not customary for any but close friends to touch one another casually. In Australia and much of northern Europe, making eye contact is considered a sign of forthrightness and honesty; to Koreans, however, this is not at all the case. Looking another person straight in the eyes, especially one who is socially superior, would be considered rude and arrogant.

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Activity Most of the communication that takes place between people is in the form of unspoken cues. While some gestures, such as shaking hands, are universal, similar nonverbal signals often mean vastly different things from one region of the world to another. Use the Internet to find out how members of different cultures view the following: • Smiling • Nodding/ shaking the head • Waving with the palm outward/inward • Pointing the index finger • Crooking the index finger • Making a circle with the thumb and forefinger • Making a ‘V’ with the first two fingers • Thumbs up/down • Showing the bottoms of the feet or shoes • Touching the head, shoulders, arm, etc. of another person • Looking another person in the eyes • Kissing/hugging

foreign language instruction, language learners may develop the ability to function in a wide range of cultural contexts; therefore, the CEFR advocates plurilingual and pluricultural competence as desired outcomes of language learning, stressing the need to consider diversity of foreign languages and cultures as an asset, rather than as a barrier to understanding, and to promote communication, mutual understanding and cooperation on an international level (CoE, 2001). In order to stimulate the development of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism, the CoE advocates the use of the European Language Portfolio (ELP), a learning tool which is designed to encourage students of foreign languages to record their language learning progress, as well as their intercultural encounters, and to promote language learning as a lifelong process (CoE, 2011). Many Council of Europe member countries, including Turkey, have adapted various forms of the ELP for use in their national foreign language curricula in line with CoE recommendations (Mirici, 2008).

Effective methods for teaching about culture Because English is truly an international language and is spoken throughout the world, it is not always practical for instructors to target a single English-speaking culture (unless the purpose of the course is to prepare students for living or working in a specific region); ESL/EFL teachers may choose to focus instead on examples of culture from a variety of English-speaking countries, taking care not to suggest that one country or set of values is “better” than any other.

Activities International guidelines for teaching about culture With the growing recognition of the importance of incorporating culture into foreign language learning, the Council of Europe (CoE) and many of its member countries have adapted a language learning framework which includes the understanding of foreign culture as an essential competency to be gained from foreign language study. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, or CEFR, “describes in a comprehensive way what language learners have to learn to do in order to use a language for communication and what knowledge and skills they have to develop so as to be able to act effectively” (CoE, 2001, p. 1) within a given linguistic and cultural context. The CEFR, which is intended to serve as a guideline in developing curricula for foreign language study, stresses the communicative aspects of language learning, with an emphasis on the concept of plurilingualism, an approach to language learning which maintains that: As an individual person’s experience of language in its cultural contexts expands, from the language of the home to that of society at large and then to the languages of other peoples […], he or she […] builds up a communicative competence to which all knowledge and the experience of language contributes and in which languages interrelate and interact (p. 4). Pluriculturalism, by extension, refers to an individual’s “capacity to identify with and participate in multiple cultures” (CoE, 2009, p. 6). By fostering pluriculturalism in 358

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There are endless possibilities for bringing culture into the ESL/EFL classroom. With a little creativity and the use of authentic teaching materials and resources, ESL/ EFL teachers can come up with a wide range of activities that will make Englishspeaking cultures come alive for their students. A few suggestions for activities are given below; further project ideas can be found at the end of the chapter. A Day at the Cinema: Television shows and films are valuable tools for learning about culture; they often tell stories that exemplify a particular cultural value or theme, at the same time providing an opportunity for listening practice. Choose an ageappropriate English-language film. If you can, make the experience even more authentic by providing popcorn and soft drinks during the show as a treat. Role Play: Role play is a valuable teaching tool, as it permits students to identify with and develop empathy for the characters they are playing. Use real-life situations such as shopping, ordering food in a restaurant, purchasing movie tickets, attending a sporting event, chatting with a friend about schoolwork, and so on. Have students culture

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Think about it: Why are hands-on activities more effective than straight lectures for teaching about foreign cultures?

take turns playing the various roles and use the opportunity to introduce vocabulary related to the scenario.

Holiday Celebrations: Holidays are particularly effective for teaching about culture, as they tend to showcase an aspect of a society that is especially important to its members. You might discuss the origins of a holiday, the date that it is celebrated, the traditions associated with the day, special foods, and so on. Use holiday decorations in the classroom, share games or stories, and compare the occasion with similar celebrations in your home country. Videos of Cultural Events: Show recordings of special occasions such as weddings, birthday celebrations, anniversary parties or other gatherings; have students write down the ways in which these events are similar to those in their own culture, as well as the important differences they notice. Native Speakers: One of the best ways to bring culture into the ESL/EFL classroom is to engage a native guest speaker to talk to the class, whether in person or via online video conferencing. The target culture becomes much more personal and real when students have the opportunity to talk to visitors about life in an Englishspeaking country. Idioms: English is full of curious expressions: “It’s raining cats and dogs;” “Time flies;” “They beefed up security before the football match.” While native speakers know exactly what is meant by sayings like these, they can sound very strange to someone hearing them for the first time! Spend a session discussing these expressions; have students create illustrations of what comes to mind when they hear a particular idiom, and talk about what they think it might mean.

Things to Consider When teaching about culture in the ESL/EFL classroom, there are a number of points to keep in mind in order to ensure a constructive, positive learning environment. 1. First, as Cullen and Sato (2000) caution, it is important to keep in mind the ability level of the students in your class. Introducing concepts or activities that are too difficult (or too easy) is a sure way to lose their attention and make learning about culture just another unwelcome chore. While you might lead an advanced class of older, high-school students in a discussion about the history of British colonization and the cultural emphasis on progress, activities such as making Halloween masks would be more suitable for younger children. 2. Cullen and Sato (2000) also stress the need to avoid teaching only a single aspect of a culture or teaching only about the characteristics that 360

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are pleasant. Instead, offer contrasting views, such as ideals versus real behavior, when introducing cultural concepts. Otherwise, students will be left with an unrealistic perception of how members of the target culture live. 3. ESL/EFL teachers should avoid expressing judgments that certain behaviors, beliefs or attitudes in the target culture are “bad” or “good” in comparison with the students’ native culture or with other Englishspeaking cultures; these values should be introduced objectively and in their proper context. While it is fine to discuss religious celebrations such as Christmas, Easter, Hanukah, and so on, it is best to stick to the particulars of the celebrations and not dwell on the religious doctrine behind them (Culture in ESL/EFL Classrooms, n.d.); The spiritual views of other cultures may conflict with students’ personal beliefs and might be offensive to some; the ESL/EFL classroom should not be used as a venue to challenge or advocate a particular religion. Think about it: Religious beliefs play a tremendous role in any culture. What are some things you could do to introduce religion in the ESL/EFL classroom without infringing on students’ personal beliefs?

Common Problems Related to Teaching about Culture Negative Attitudes toward Foreign Cultures A young, female English teacher was Activity teaching an ESL class to students whose Have students act out a scenario parents had recently immigrated to that revolves around an intercultural the U.S. Among the students were two misunderstanding in front of the class. teenage boys who had come from a Discuss how each of the participants country in Asia. The boys were rude to might have viewed the situation and the teacher and refused to follow her what they could have done to resolve instructions, often disrupting the lesson. the conflict. The teacher took the two boys aside after class one afternoon and asked them why their behavior was so disrespectful. With a great deal of effort, she was able to learn a couple of things. First, the boys were experiencing some degree of culture shock, being away from their relatives and friends, and second, they resented having to learn English in order to survive in this new country. They saw the teacher as an authority figure and a female one at that. After listening and empathizing with their situation, the teacher was able to persuade them that they would be happier if they put their efforts into learning English rather than resisting it, and that showing respect to all people, male or female, would earn them respect in return. In time, the boys came to appreciate that in their new setting, mutual respect was considered more important than gender or authority.

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As the above example demonstrates, the ability and willingness of a student to successfully learn a foreign language is often affected by his or her attitude toward the target language, as well as toward the native speakers of the language and their culture. Fortunately, “negative [attitudes] can be changed by thoughtful instructional methods” that can help students to better understand and appreciate the target culture (Elyıldırım & Asthon-Hay, 2006, p. 2). The best way to eliminate negative attitudes toward learning about an English-speaking culture is to help students to identify with members of that culture. Role-play is an especially effective way to help students develop empathy for others. Talking with members of the target culture who share similar interests can also help to eliminate prejudice. The Internet – specifically, social networking sites – can be useful for cross-cultural interaction. It goes without saying that ESL/EFL teachers themselves must be cautious not to project any negativity toward the target culture.

Inadequate Training & Lack of Knowledge As Türkan and Çelik (2007) argue, many ESL/EFL teachers feel intimidated by the idea of teaching about culture, in part because they have not received adequate training or do not feel they are sufficiently well-informed about the target culture themselves. The important thing to keep in mind is that the job of an ESL/EFL teacher is not to simply impart a specific set of facts, but to give students the tools that they need to explore and learn for themselves (Abisamra, 2001). Even without formal training in teaching about culture or extensive personal knowledge of the culture itself, teachers can use the strategies such as those given in this chapter to integrate cultural learning into the ESL/ EFL curriculum, keeping the following goals in mind: 1. Helping students to understand the definition of culture; 2. Teaching students how culture affects language, even down to the most common words and phrases; 3. Helping students to recognize the ways in which culture informs their own lives; 4. Generating an intellectual curiosity in students about people living in other parts of the world and developing empathy for members of the target culture; 5. Teaching students the skills necessary to observe, explore and learn on their own.

Overcrowded curriculum Limited classroom time is a common problem faced by many ESL/EFL instructors. Often, teaching about culture is seen as secondary to helping students master the basics of vocabulary, grammar, listening and speaking; lessons about culture are 362

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set aside as supplementary material to be introduced “if there is time.” However, as discussed throughout this chapter, learning about culture is critical to students’ ability to communicate and should be taught in an integral fashion, rather than in a separate set of lessons.

Shortcomings of coursebooks The primary resources employed in most foreign language classrooms are textbooks; yet, in spite of the recognized need to integrate culture into language learning, most ESL/EFL coursebooks fail to address culture in a meaningful way (Türkan & Çelik, 2007). This presents a major obstacle for foreign language teachers, especially in countries such as Turkey, where “EFL textbooks for public schools […] are centrally selected by the Turkish Ministry of National Education [MoNE], and are forced upon language teachers who do not have a say on what to use in their own classrooms” (p. 21). Çakır (2010) contends that, although the importance of incorporating target culture into foreign language teaching has long been acknowledged by the MoNE, the coursebooks that are prescribed for classroom use consistently miss the mark. In his analysis of three widely-used EFL texts for primary school students (Spring 6, Spring 7 and English Net 8), he found that: Most of the teaching activities do not contain sufficient cultural elements. Language is presented mostly by dialogues and visuals into which teaching points are penetrated with a simple and plain language. The utterances do not involve culture specific expressions adequately (p. 185). Similarly, Hinkel (1999) argues that the cultural emphasis in Turkish EFL texts is on the source culture, rather than the target culture. Ҫakır (2010) attributes this failing to the fact that the authors of these books are Turkish writers who generally have no direct experience with the features of English-speaking cultures and are therefore unable to represent them accurately. Faced with the shortcomings of the required coursebooks, EFL instructors in Turkey are left to their own initiative when it comes to introducing target language culture into their lessons; therefore, whether or not EFL learners are exposed to cultural elements that are truly representative of English-speaking contexts depends on the motivation and creativity of the individual classroom teachers.

Study Questions 1. What is the relationship between culture and language? Can English be taught effectively without reference to the culture of native speakers? Why or why not? 2. What is the role of an ESL/EFL teacher in helping students to understand the importance of culture in language learning? What can you do as an instructor to make the target culture relevant to students? 3. What is non-verbal communication? Why is it important for ESL/EFL learners to understand the cultural cues expressed by gestures, facial

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expressions and other body language? What are the benefits of using hands-on activities in teaching about culture? 4. What are the advantages of introducing students to native English speakers when teaching about culture? 5. When teaching about a culture, is it better to focus on a single aspect in order to avoid confusion, or should ESL/EFL teachers aim to cover a wide range of cultural characteristics? Explain your answer. 6. Religion is an important aspect of any culture. Is it a good idea to include religious doctrine in an ESL/EFL curriculum? Why or why not? 7. What is cultural bias? Why is it important to avoid representing one culture as superior to, or less worthy than, another? How can you keep cultural bias out of the ESL/EFL classroom? 8. What are some of the things an ESL/EFL teacher can do to address negative attitudes of students toward the target culture? 9. Should ESL/EFL teachers express their own views of the target culture to students? Why or why not?

Projects for Further Study 1. Choose a holiday celebrated in an English-speaking country (e.g., Halloween, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, May Day, Australia Day, Carnival, etc.). Create a lesson plan including a PowerPoint presentation (or posters), along with handouts and in-class activities targeted at a primary school audience, to teach about the holiday. Your lesson plan should include the following information: • The date the holiday is celebrated;

• The historical origin of the celebration; • Which English-speaking countries celebrate the holiday; • Various traditions associated with the celebration (i.e.,

special foods,

games, music, costumes, etc.);

• Vocabulary associated with the holiday. Present the lesson to your class. 2. Americans, in particular, place a great deal of importance on punctuality and time; this can be seen in expressions such as “Don’t waste time, time is money, and I’m out of time.” Choose a cultural value prevalent in an English-speaking region of the world (e.g., independence, community, individuality, honesty, progress, privacy, etc.). Write a short, 5-6 page research paper about how that value has come to be important to the culture and how it is expressed through language. Include common English terms that reflect the value you have chosen. 3. Check your local library or bookstore for English-language books geared toward elementary and high-school students, or order a few volumes online. Read the stories and think about what they have to say about the culture in which they are situated. Use the theme(s) in the story to create a lesson plan appropriate for the 364

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age group targeted by the book; your lesson plan should include the following: • An introduction to the cultural value(s) described in the story and a discussion of the cultural context (for example, a story about settlers in the American West might be used to talk about the importance Americans place on self-reliance);

• A vocabulary worksheet; • A poster or PowerPoint presentation illustrating the important themes of the story;

• A student-centered activity of your choice related to the story. Classroom tools –Activity sheets, handouts and project ideas The activities on the following pages can be used “as is” or adapted to your particular needs for use in the ESL/EFL classroom. A variety of activities, handouts and project ideas have been provided for different age and ability levels.

Projects and classroom activities Pen Pals One of the best ways to learn about another culture is to correspond with someone who lives in it! Having a foreign pen pal is a fun and exciting experience for students of all ages. Teachers will need to do some legwork in order to make this activity a success. Use your contacts through your university, the school where you teach, or any other resources you may have to locate an English-speaking school with students similar in age to those in your class. Working with their teacher, match up your students with a pen pal in their class, and have students write (in English, as best they can) to their new “friends” abroad. This correspondence can provide plenty of material for class discussion and can help students learn to identify with and appreciate kids of their own age living in other parts of the world. While this activity may be implemented through the traditional means of actual written letters, many students may enjoy communicating via online social networking, instead.

Celebrate the Holidays Learning about holiday celebrations is a fantastic way for students to connect with English-speaking cultures. Choose from the list of holidays below, or research other celebrations:

• Thanksgiving (U.S. and Canada) • Independence Day (U.S.) culture

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• May Day (Great Britain) • Halloween (Many countries) • Australia Day (Australia) • Carnival (Caribbean Islands) Read stories about the origins of the celebrations and how people mark these occasions – with traditional foods, special dances, parades, costume parties, and so on. Have students make decorations typically used as part of the celebration or dress up in costumes related to the holiday, and ask for volunteers to prepare traditional foods as a special treat.

Handout - Understanding Cultural Values Have students complete the worksheet, and then compare answers with their classmates. Talk about how their answers reflect their own cultural values, and discuss how members of another culture might answer the questions differently. Directions: Look at the cultural values described on each side of the chart. Which value is most important to you and your family? Circle the number that best represents your point of view. 1.

Children’s Games Kids’ games offer young students an opportunity to learn about English-speaking culture while having fun. Active games are also a change of pace from more traditional, lecture-based instruction. Some favorite children’s games are described below. • Hide and Seek: One player is designated as “It” and covers his or her eyes while counting to a predetermined number – 10, 20, 100, etc. while the other players quickly hide. After completing the count, the player acting as “It” searches for the other players. The first hidden player to be found then becomes “It,” and the game continues. • Duck, Duck, Goose: All players but one sit on the floor in a circle; the seated players are the “ducks,” and the remaining player is the “goose.” The “goose” goes around the circle, tapping each player on the head or shoulder. With each tap, he or she calls out “duck,” until coming to the player the “goose” has secretly decided on; when tapping this player, he or she calls out “goose.” The selected player then gets up and chases the “goose” around the circle – if the player catches the “goose” before the goose reaches the vacated spot and sits down, he or she returns to the circle; otherwise, the player becomes the “goose,” and the game continues. • Red Light, Green Light: One player is designated as “It,” and stands at one end of the room. The other players line up on the other end of the room, facing “It.” The student playing “It” calls out, “green light,” and all other players walk forward. When “It” calls out “red light,” all other players freeze. Anyone who takes a step while they are supposed to be “frozen” must return to the starting point. The player who

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is “It” continues calling out “red light” and “green light” until one of the other players comes close enough to “tag” (lightly touch) the one playing “It.” This player wins the game and becomes “It” for the next round.

Texts and Tools

It is important not to

1

2

3

4

5

It is important that we talk

talk about a subject on

about problems so we can

which we do not agree

resolve our differences.

in order to maintain harmony. 2.

The needs of a group

1

2

3

4

5

An individual should place his

are more important

or her needs above those of

than the needs of

the group.

individual members. 3.

4.

A person’s status and

1

2

3

4

5

A person’s status and

importance are based

importance are based

on his or her family

on what he or she has

connections.

accomplished.

I am more comfortable

1

2

3

4

5

I prefer to be direct when communicating with others.

with indirect communication. 5.

6.

Looking away or

1

2

3

4

5

Looking people in the eye

downward while

when you are speaking to

speaking to an authority

them shows respect and

figure is a sign of

allows them to see that you

respect.

are sincere.

My views about time are

1

2

3

4

5

It is important to stick to a schedule and be on time.

flexible; we’ll get there when we get there. 7.

I prefer to let my

1

2

3

4

5

I might listen to the advice

elders make important

of more experienced family

decisions for me; they

members, but in the end, it is

are more experienced

up to me to make important

and know what is best.

decisions about my life.

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8.

9.

I enjoy meeting new people

Activity – Language and Culture: Word Search

acceptable for me to

and make new friends all

Directions: Solve the puzzle by finding the hidden words.

approach a member

the time. If I see someone

of the opposite sex to

who looks interesting, I

whom I have not been

might approach him/her and

formally introduced.

introduce myself.

It would not be

Smiling is reserved for

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

close friends and family.

Smiling at others, even people I don’t know, shows that I am friendly and pleasant.

10. It is important to

1

2

3

4

5

While tradition is important

observe the traditions

because it makes us who

of my culture and live

we are, progress is more

by established values.

important than dwelling on the past.

Adapted from Gardenswartz and Rowe (1994, p. 58), The managing diversity survival guide: A complete collection of checklists, activities and tips. Chicago: Irwin Professional Publishing

D T K T F U U Q P D N F C K Z L I R D C N F R F O Y Z N K H L O V A S E O Y I S E M P Z Q Y W V M D G P T N A C H D L K L F G E R I A S I O N A N C T I J Z E H R T T E E E P Q P H M F S Q E H K I X R D P A C E A S Z P Z N L E O S N I M D R F B O E L D E R S N E N N B V W O E R U T L U C Y P E O V B C A U T H O R I T Y E S R M C J O U R M Z P U N Q D S C V C Culture Family Authority Independence Progress Love Beauty Elders Respect Progress Tradition Happiness Cooperation

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Activity – What’s in a gesture?1

What’s in a gesture - Answer Key2

Have participants number their papers from 1 to 10. Demonstrate each gesture and ask students to write down what they think it means. They should also indicate whether they think the gesture is considered rude. Have the class discuss how body language influences communication between cultures.

1. Beckon with index finger. This means “Come here” in the U.S. To use the finger(s) to call someone is insulting in many cultures, including in the Middle or Far East; Portugal, Spain, Latin America, Japan, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

1. Beckon with the index finger. 2. Use the index finger to point at something in the room. 3. Make a “V” sign. 4. Smile. 5. Sit with the soles of the feet or shoes showing. 6. Form a circle with the thumb and index finger to indicate “O.K.” 7. Hold up the right “pointer” finger with the hand folded and facing away from the body.

2. Point at something in the room. It is impolite to point with the index finger in the Middle and Far East. 3. Make a “V” sign. This means “Victory” in most of Europe when you make this sign with your palm facing away from you. If you face your palm in, the same gesture is insulting. 4. Smile. This gesture is understood all over the world. However, people from various cultures have different reasons for smiling. The Japanese may smile when they are confused or angry. In other parts of Asia, people may smile when they are embarrassed. 5. Sit with the soles of the feet or shoes showing. In many cultures, this sends a rude message. In Thailand, Japan and France, as well as countries of the Middle and Near East, showing the soles of the feet demonstrates disrespect. 6. Form a circle with fingers to indicate “O.K.” Although this means “O.K.” in the U.S. and in many countries around the world, there are exceptions:

• In Brazil and Germany, this gesture is obscene. • In Japan, this means “money.” • In France, it has the additional meaning of “zero” or “worthless.”

8. Pass an item to someone with one hand. 9. Wave the hand with the palm facing outward to greet someone. 10. Nod head up and down to say “Yes.”

7. Hold up the right “pointer” finger with hand folded and facing away from body. In non-British countries of Europe, it can mean two of something. They start counting with the thumb. In Japan it would mean “four,” as the Japanese start counting with the pinkie. 8. Pass an item to someone with one hand. In Japan, this is perceived as very rude. Even a small item such as a pencil must be passed with two hands. In many Middle and Far Eastern countries, it is rude to pass something with your left hand, which is considered “unclean.” 9. Wave the hand with the palm facing outward to greet someone. In Europe, waving the hand back and forth can mean “No.” To wave “good-bye,” raise the palm outward and wag the fingers in unison. 10. Nod head up and down to say “Yes.” In Bulgaria and Greece, this gesture means “No.”

1

Adapted from Haynes (2002). everything ESL.net. Retrieved September 12, 2011 from http://www. everythingesl.net/downloads/gestures_version02.pdf

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2

Adapted from Haynes (2002). everything ESL.net. Retrieved September 12, 2011 from http://www. everythingesl.net/downloads/gestures_version02.pdf culture

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Handout – Odd idioms English is full of expressions and sayings that can sound strange, or even downright silly, to non-native speakers. Share this listing of English idioms with students and talk about what they might really mean. It’s raining cats and dogs. I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse. We’re just hanging out. It happens once in a blue moon. She’s on cloud nine. He’s all thumbs. He’s got ants in his pants. I’d give my right arm for one of those. He’s an armchair quarterback. Her eyes are bigger than her stomach. Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Let’s kill two birds with one stone. He’s telling a fish tale.

Intercultural Conflict Resolution Role Play Cultural differences often lead to miscommunication and conflict; roleplaying scenarios of cross-cultural misunderstandings is often used as a tool both for instructing students about the characteristics of a culture and for developing communication skills. Have groups of students act out one of the scenarios described below, or come up with your own conflict. • An American and a Chinese student are sharing a dorm room. The American becomes angry when his roommate uses his personal belongings – reference books, computer, toothpaste, etc. – without asking. The Chinese student is confused about why the American is upset, since he put everything back where he found it. • A Canadian exchange student is living with a family in Germany, which consists of a mother and father, as well as a daughter who is the same age as the Canadian student. Every afternoon, after school, the two girls do their homework. Wanting to respect the privacy of her hosts, the Canadian goes to her room and closes the door to work. The German girl is offended because she feels that the Canadian is not interested in what she is doing and does not want to spend time with her. • A Turkish student invites several American friends to dinner at a local Turkish restaurant. At the end of the meal, the Americans take out their money and start dividing up the check. The Turkish student is surprised and attempts to pay the bill himself; he seems confused when the American visitors insist on treating him instead. Once the participants have finished acting out the scenario, have each student talk about why his/her character might have been confused by the behavior of the others. Have them discuss how the problem would be handled in the culture represented by their character. Ask the class to think of ways the conflict could be resolved so that all parties are satisfied.

Cat got your tongue? Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. We’re all in the same boat. 372

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Additional Suggestions • Cultural Artifacts – Have students bring a cultural item from home to share with the class. This could be anything from a baseball to a CD to a traditional costume, even a special recipe. • Scavenger Hunt – Have students look for items at home that were manufactured in another country – clothing, toys, packaged foods, etc. Ask them to make a list of the items and the countries they came from and bring it in to share with the class. • Culture Collage – Ask students to bring magazine illustrations or photographs from home that depict some aspect of an English-speaking culture; create a collage using all of the pictures. • Comic Strip – Have students create a comic strip showing an interaction between members of different cultural groups. • Surveys – Even people living in the same geographic area often have cultural differences. Have students create a survey and interview one or more of their classmates, looking for information they do not already know about one another. • Active Games – Have students work in groups to research a physical children’s game played in an English-speaking country, then teach it to the rest of the class. • Story Time – Find a series of children’s short stories written in English. Have students take turns reading the stories aloud in class. As an alternative for more advanced students, ask them to write a short story that reflects some aspect of an English-speaking culture and share it with the class. • Culture Charades – On individual slips of paper, write down the name of an object or culture-related theme. Hand them out to the class, asking each student to read their paper, but to keep the word on it secret. Have them take turns acting out or describing (without using the exact word(s) what is written on the paper, and ask the rest of the class to guess what it is.

Chapter Review Questions What is Culture? 1. How would you define culture? 2. Is teaching about culture a necessary part of an ESL/EFL curriculum? Why or why not? 3. Give some examples of the visible and invisible aspects of culture. 4. Do you think nonverbal communication is as important as spoken language? Explain your answer. International Guidelines for Teaching about Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom 1. Why does the Common European Framework advocate the concept of plurilingualism? 2. What is the European Language Portfolio, and how do you think it can be applied in your teaching context? 3. Do you think that awareness of other cultures is important in today’s society? Why or why not? Effective Methods for Teaching Culture 1. What are some of the advantages of using role play to teach about culture? 2. Do you see social networking and the Internet as possible tools for teaching students about culture? Why or why not? 3. Is it a good idea to incorporate religious doctrine into a lesson about culture? Explain your answer. Common Problems Related to Teaching about Culture 1. What do you think is the most effective way to eliminate students’ negative attitudes towards learning about English-speaking culture? 2. Is it necessary for an ESL/EFL teacher to have in-depth knowledge of the target culture? Why or why not? 3. Why should ESL/EFL instructors avoid letting their own attitudes and beliefs intrude on a lesson about culture? 4. What steps can classroom instructors take to overcome the failure of ESL/EFL coursebooks to sufficiently address target culture?

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On the Web Cem Balçıkanlı Kemal Sinan Özmen

Discussion Questions: 1. What do Internet technologies provide for an EFL teacher teaching young learners? 2. How can we make use of web technologies to promote outside-theclass learning for young learners? 3. Why are internet technologies important in teaching English?

Critical role of web technologies For students, computers and Internet have always been more appealing and interesting than other teaching materials. The truth is that, traditional teaching materials and settings need to try hard to offer as much as what our students get from play-stations, social networking sites and television programs. As for pure EFL contexts like Turkey, these technologies can possibly create a new perspective of teaching for young learners, for we can stretch the boundaries of English learning environment and multiply the channels of engagement with the authentic language. To this end, the first step for a teacher of young learners is to learn more about web technologies and the possibilities that these new uncharted technologies offer for teaching English. The second step is to explore what teaching strategies may be employed to increase the amount and the quality of time that students spend with these learning tools. This chapter will discuss the innovative Web 2.0 technologies and their applications in teaching young learners with the philosophy of learner autonomy. A detailed discussion of developing learner autonomy in young learners can be found in Chapter three. Students in Turkey rarely find an opportunity to communicate in English outside the classroom. Therefore, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that English is mostly regarded as yet another school subject to be learned for succeeding in school or national examinations. However, the latest technological developments in the last decade have completely changed the nature of EFL contexts. Although English is not used in daily communication in Turkey, our students do encounter authentic English via computer games and internet sites. Thus, it is the teacher’s duty to make effective use of such engagement with web technologies. The critical role of web technologies in EFL settings is widely accepted in the relevant literature (Balçıkanlı, 2009). However, it is also important to elaborate

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on why young learners are disposed to use web technologies. Evidence for using web technologies in teaching young learners may be found in much of the research indicating the natural diposition of young learners towards technology. The terms referring to the differences between attitudes of children and of adults in using technology in daily routines are quite explanatory to illustrate the portrait: young learners are described as digital natives, (Prensky, 2001) who acquire innovative technologies that are injected to our daily life naturally and voluntarily. However, Prensky (2001) claims that adults who experienced the birth of color televisions and giant wireless telephones are digital immigrants, who may have a lot of troubles in adopting, understanding and using such technologies. The limitless and creative world shaped by innovative softwares utilized in internet sites offer an entertaining atmosphere in which children can improve certain linguistic and non-linguistic skills that are critical in their cognitive and affective development. The linguistic skills are defined as major components of communicative competence, intercultural interaction, acquisition of foreign language skills and developing learning strategies. As for non-linguistic competences, critical thinking and learner autonomy may be enlisted as the major elements. We will discuss each in detail. A child using web technologies as a part of foreign language learning process will be able to interact with other children of English speaking societies, which will help develop pragmatic and sociolinguistic competences more effectively than a child learning a foreign language among classroom walls by using course books. Such traditional settings of language learning are reported to provide limited opportunities and are mostly weak in providing real contexts for communication and a varied authentic language exposure (Reinders & Balçıkanlı, 2011). It is the absolute impact of this process that may enable young learners to acquire foreign language skills, by specifically approaching English as more than a regular school subject that includes some vocabulary lists to memorize and some formulas to generate abstract sentences. Second Life, Kerpoof or Facebook can be given as concrete examples which will help English teachers to lead their students to complete hundreds of different types of language learning-related tasks in real, authentic web softwares that are specifically designed for children’s learning. Different web softwares are believed to strengthen specific learning strategies like cognitive or socio-affective. To give an example, language learning communities for young learners such as Xlingo, and Mixxer may be utilized to build up socio-affective learning strategies, which are claimed to weak in EFL students (Balçıkanlı, 2012). Non-linguistic skills that can be improved through web technologies may be seen as secondary elements. However, critical thinking skills and learner autonomy can be considered as the supporting components that help accelerate and activate effective learning in the process through which young learners are exposed to the authentic language. The latest understanding of critical thinking is actually quite complementary for the subskills of learner autonomy, (Özmen, 2008) in which it

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is defined as some set of affective habits of mind; or ‘dispositions’ that include inquisitiveness, open-mindedness, fair-mindedness, being analytical and so on (Özmen, 2008). It is commonly accepted that when these personality needs are met, high order thinking skills like analysis, synthesis and evaluation can be utilized more effectively in thinking and learning (Facione, 1990). In this respect, the infinite number of possibilities for creativity that is available on web softwares may also be exploited as a venue of developing effective thinking skills that are known to contribute to learners’ cognitive and affective development (Özmen, 2008). As for the other side of the coin, learner autonomy stands at a critical stage in which EFL teachers will be able to design more learning and learner-centered contexts for language learning. In addition to the direct exposure to the authentic language that is tailored for the level of young learners, this group of students will be able to make choices of what, how and when to learn, quite independent from the usual EFL materials that a teacher can possibly offer in a classroom setting. This independent learning atmosphere is claimed to develop autonomy (Benson, 2001). There is a general accord with the idea that communicating in a social setting provided by web technologies contributes significantly to second language acquisition (Thomas, 2009). At this point, when we pool our thinking to seek a connection between the development of learner autonomy and learning English online, one can infer that this process may also helps develop a sustainable or life-long language learning. This new learning ecology and its possibilities should be well-analyzed and learnt by all EFL teachers. In the following sections, some critical web technologies will be analyzed for the teachers’ use. Discussion • Why do you think young learners are digital natives? How can we make use of this trait? • What specific areas of learner autonomy (awareness, responsibility and independence) can be promoted by teaching English through web technologies? • Please do small research and make a list of suitable internet sites for young EFL learners that are free. Then, group them under some categories such as e-blogs, social networking sites, and language exchange communities.

Tasks for teachers In this section, we will discuss some important web sites that might be helpful for teaching young learners. All the sites, including the following list, are pedagogically safe and free to use. The sample activities we provide aim at various ways that teachers may possibly utilize these technologies in their teaching situations. It is also important to note that the methodological perspective behind these activities

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is grounded on what we have discussed in the previous section. Please refer to the theoretical arguments, such as second language acquisition, learner autonomy or learning strategies here in this chapter. However, an in-depth analysis of such frameworks is provided in the relevant chapters of the book. It is therefore strongly recommended that a critical perspective be adopted to analyze the language, learning and teaching philosophy behind these activities. This critical analysis process will contribute to your approach to other sites that we have not presented as an activity and enable you to use them safely in your teaching situation.

Here are some guidelines that help young learners make use of this entertainment website.

Guidelines * It is required that students sign up once in order to save and publish their works. 1. Access www.kerpoof.com.

Activity I * Work in groups. Make a list of websites you can employ in teaching young learners. Activity II * Work in pairs. Read the texts about the websites below and answer the following questions. 1. Is it for teachers, learners or both? 2. What does the site offer? 3. What do you like about the site? 4. What are the limitations? 5. What are the advantages of the websites? 6. How can the site be employed with young learners in language classrooms?

2. Click “Login” on the Storybird homepage and choose “Need an account? Click here to sign up. It’s free”.

Kerpoof Children’s entertainment and educational website produced by Disney Online Kerpoof Studios, Kerpoof (www.kerpoof.com) allows users to create cartoon avatars and earn Kerpoof Koins by making, sharing, and voting on virtual artwork. Since its inception in 2006, it has been extensively used by a large community of users. This interesting and enjoyable site is specifically designed for children aged 3 and up. Teachers in schools who may apply for free teacher accounts permitting them to make use of additional services also use it. There are a lot of activities both teachers and learners can do online, namely making a picture, making a drawing, making a movie, telling a story, making a card, spelling a picture. One can also see various tutorials which help users make use of this website. Kerpoof also publishes an e-newsletter for educators, offering free Kerpoof-based lesson plans on a variety of subjects. As far as language learning is concerned, it encourages creativity through projectbased learning specifically for young learners. Working cooperatively, young learners can develop some projects that enable them to use the language patterns they cover in class. In line with the assumption that language learning is more than a classroom experience, it is highly believed that young learners are engaged in different kinds of activities outside the classroom, which hones their language skills. 380

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3. Provide required information. 4. Once you create an account, you can do a lot of things online.

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Storybird Storybird (www.storybird.com) is a collaborative story telling website that enables users to write a story using the templates available online as well as to accompany pictures that are already provided. Created by Mark Ury, a media arts guru for two decades, Storybird is very popular specifically for young learners when studying their subjects. Believing that individuals in the 21st century need to share their own stories with others, Ury states that Storybird, in a way, is one of the best-established ways to a new 21st century method. Students from all grades ranging from primary to high schools can spend their spare time doing a variety of things online. More importantly, they are challenged to create stories and to accompany pictures. A vast repertoire of artwork for students is also available on the website. Students are given opportunities to create a digital storybook, which can be published online, printed or shared privately with selected recipients. Storybird can be integrated into the language classroom in numerous ways that are both interesting and educational. First, students are encouraged to skim through the pictures provided and pick to fit the theme of their own story. This way, ideas are likely to flow and they become more motivated to start writing about whatever the subject is. Second, Storybird can be used as an individual project that encourages students to develop a story online. Moreover, they can contribute a page to the story as a collaborative writing project. What is very interesting is that their stories can be published online, which makes them very excited.

Guidelines 1. Access www. storybird.com.

3. Provide required information. 4. Click “Create” to start creating stories or you may even take a tour to learn more about the website. 5. You can choose a theme you want to create a story about.

Xtranormal Xtranormal (www.xtranormal.com) is a website that enables individuals to produce text-to-speech based computer animated video clips, featuring animated threedimensional characters speaking in monotone computer voices. Launched in 2008, Xtranormal offers great possibilities for individuals to create their own movies. Users who log into the site are allowed to choose predesigned characters and scenes as well as camera angles. It is a very user friendly website that enables users to write their own dialogs. Xtranormal videos may also be created through an interface on YouTube and downloaded free and run offline.

Guidelines * It is required that one sign up once in order to save and publish her/his works. 1. Access www.xtranormal.com.

2. Click “Sign up” on the Storybird homepage and choose an account type.

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2. Click “Sign up” on the Xtranormal homepage and choose “Don’t have an account?”.

1. Access www.quizler.com

3. Provide required information.

2. Click “Sign up” on the 3. Provide required information.

Quizlet

homepage

and

choose

“Sign

up”.

4. Once you create an account, you can start creating movies by using predesigned characters and scenes as well as camera angles.

4. Once you create an account, you can start creating your own flashcards to practice online communication.

5. You can even share your movies with your friends and family online.

Quizlet Quizlet (www.quizlet.com) is an online learning tool created by a high school sophomore Andrew Sutherland. It was originally conceived in October 2005 and released to the public in January 2007. The website is the largest flash cards and study games website with over 7 million free sets of flashcards covering every possible subject. It’s the best place to play educational games, memorize vocabulary and study online.

Guidelines 384

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Whyville

3. Provide required information.

Whyville (www.whyville.com) is a virtual world geared towards children from ages 6-12. Dr. James M. Bower and his students who believe that simulation-based serious gaming could change education in 1999 developed it. Its main goal is to engage its users in learning about a broad range of topics, from science and business to art and geography. One of the first virtual worlds where game play was based on an internal virtual currency, Whyville offers educational activities children engage if they earn a ‘clam’ salary. With their clams, they can buy face parts, projectiles, furniture, bricks, and other virtual goods and services that enhance their life in the Whyville world. As for Whyville in schools, it has also become involved in a number of work force pipeline projects aiming to encourage children to consider technical and scientific careers. The main idea was to integrate Whyville into school day activities and creating lesson plans available in the Whyville discussion group at Ning.com. Moreover, students can design their own look, join a team, chat and play games The Skater & Spin Game, Hot Air Balloon Race, Dance Studio and many more.

Guidelines 1. Access www.whyville.com.

4. Once you create an account, you can take a tour on how to use the website. Afterwards, you can start designing your own look and chatting and playing games with friends.

2. Click “Register” on the Whyville homepage.

E-Blogs, Forums and Groups There are loads of free internet sites that enable users to create personal web sites, blogs, interactive news pages and group or discussion forums. Such free internet sources may be possibly exploited to expand the duration in which students encounter L2 in their daily lives. Such web-based tasks may be assigned to promote active 386

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learning, peer-learning and learner autonomy. As is known, young learners obtain only three or four hours of English class per week in most cases. Then, teachers of these students need to make use of precious four hours by modifying their lessons as feedback and reflection sessions instead of giving input in a traditional fashion. Some examples for such tools are as follows: • wordpress.com • blogger.com • yahoogroups.com • googleblog.blogspot.com • kiddieskingdom.info • kidslearntoblog.com • studentsoftheworld.info • xanga.com • myspace.com • Blogger.com • livejournal.com • my-diary.org • freeopendiary.com • diaryland.com Now, let’s imagine a young-learners classroom in which a team of students update their weekly news site that gives the latest information about the school, teachers, and other issues that are interesting for their students. Here the teacher is a facilitator and a counselor. Another group of students needs to upload some writings about interesting topics to their blogs so that their peers may comment on them. In addition, all of the students need to log into the forum of the classroom and upload their weekly, say, picture drawings, project assignments. Each student has already designed their personal web sites and updated their pages regularly to show their pictures, funny stories, web-based projects such as music composition or movie making and other interesting games and competitions. Again, the teacher acts like a counselor and facilitator. The teacher may also ask the students to create a group on Facebook so that they may help each other when preparing weekly assignments or just having some fun with English. This may sound quite difficult to realize as the first reaction of the professionals is that many of the young learners are not able to find a computer with an internet connection because of financial problems. However, it is commonly known that internet cafes are full of children spending hours for useless games or surfing. The important question is that how we will be able to shape the value and beliefs of young learners about learning English by making use of web technologies, which they love to use in their daily lives. The values and beliefs about learning and teaching, or simply the general socio-psychological constructs of thinking, are 388

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known to be acquired through social interaction in which children shape each others’ values and dispositions. Broadly speaking, this is nothing but the basic motto of constructivism. Here the role of the teacher is to manipulate this social interaction by providing students with what they like to do and add some learning experiences into this process. This is the point where we are able to scrutinize the true value and power of teaching: choosing effective experiences of the students, monitoring the experiential process, giving feedback and providing reflection so that student may make sense of such experiences. The process of realizing this sole goal is ironically easy for a curious teacher who brings such technologies into classroom and set up the students for success. Hands-on activity • Work in pairs. Analyze the teaching tasks below and identify certain points enlisted above: • The general philosophy of ELT adopted in the activity; • Role of the teacher, learner, learning setting; • Theory of learning and teaching; • Theory of language • Work individually. Now imagine you are teaching a group of young learners in a state primary school. By referring to web sites provided above, decide what kind of classroom and out-side-the classroom tasks would you assign to your students? How many Internet sites would you use? Please take notes and shape your teaching ecology by using web technologies. This chapter has explored major theoretical pillars of web-based technologies in teaching English to young learners with some practical ideas for classroom use. The sample web sites presented here are expected to demonstrate the various practical ways in which they can be used in different contexts and settings of teachers seeking innovation and refreshment in their classes. In the preparation of these samples, the contemporary understanding of EFL methodology was referred as the major criterion. Thus, it is important that teachers question the role of language, teacher and the learners in these examples so that we may bridge our theoretical and practical approach to teaching English to young learners via web technologies. Besides, these examples may illuminate your approach to other web sites enlisted in the chapter, and to even more web technologies that we choose to exclude from our list. The critical point is that any pedagogically safe internet site that features authentic English and that is appealing for young learners can be modified to utilize as a teaching tool. At this point, considering the number of such well-designed internet sites for young learners, it is important to bear in mind that this chapter provides a representative, not exhaustive or comprehensive, samples of web tools and technologies. The rest is in your hands as a curious and inquisitive teacher.

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We all know that the Internet is a deep jungle functioning in quite an uncontrolled way for users. While some websites are completely safe for our children, we need to remember that specifically free internet resources can be available for us by the advertisements that such sites broadcast on their pages. Therefore, teachers should be very cautious not only about the content of the web sites but also the advertisements that may appear on so-called safe sites. We do believe that it is the teacher’s responsibility to acknowledge and warn parents and students about such limitations of these free web sites. There are various ways to keep our children away from pedagogically unsafe sites. You may increase the security wall of your processor, block certain unsafe web sites and install some programs that are specifically designed for children’s safe internet surfing. Also parents and teachers need to monitor what kind of information their children are publishing on their blogs or e-diaries. Some personal information or information about others may enable certain web users to abuse such information for criminal and illegal purposes. Using blogs, e-diaries, web-based games that relate to foreign language learning or other web tools are invaluable in learning and teaching a foreign language. However, such assignments and activities of the children should be regularly observed to avoid any illegal actions that may have unexpected consequences. Discussion • Discuss in groups and note down the advantages of using web technologies in teaching young learners. Then share your ideas with the rest of the classroom. • Which web tools (games, e-blogs, movie makers, etc.) were most attractive for you? Why? • How would you integrate web-tools as out-side-the-class tasks into your teaching situation? • How would you give feedback to your students about their studies on Internet? • Discuss the various ways that help parents and teachers protect students from unsafe Internet sites.

Useful websites Learning/content management systems (LMSs/CMSs) Blackboard, Drupal, Joomla, Moodle and Sakai. Communication Gmail, Jabberwacky, MyBB, phpBB, Skype, Tangler, TokBox, Verbot, Voxopop, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger. Live and virtual worlds ActiveWorlds, Elluminate, Livestream, OpenSimulator, Second Life, Ustream, Wimba Classroom, WiZiQ, Whyville, Moshimonster Build a bear ville, Dizzywood, Secret Builders, Wiglington and Wenks, Mindyaland, Eeekworld, Handiponts, Mobile Kids. Social networking and bookmarking Delicious, Diigo, Elgg, Facebook, Grouply, MySpace, Ning, SocialGo, LinkedIn, Twitter, Lang-8 and Livemocha. Blogs and wikis Blogger, Edmodo, Edublogs, LiveJournal, WordPress.com, PBWorks, Wikispaces and Penzu. Presentation 280 Slides, Animoto, Empresser, Prezi, SlideRocket and Zoho Show Resource sharing Google Docs, TitanPad, Zoho Writer, Box.net, Dropbox, VoiceThread, Xtranormal, Flickr, Picasa, MyPodcast, PodOmatic, Glogster, Screenr, Slideshare, PhotoPeach, Dipity, OurStory, Jing, SchoolTube, TeacherTube, VideoPress, Vimeo, WatchKnow and YouTube. Website creation Google Sites, Jimdo, KompoZer, Mahara, Movable Type, SnapPages, Weebly, Webnode, Webs and Wix Web exercise creation ContentGenerator, SMILE, ESL Video, JClic, Hot Potatoes, Quia, Lingt and Listen and Write. Web search engines Ask.com, Bing, Google and Yahoo! Search. Dictionaries and concordancers Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster Online, YourDictionary.com, Compleat Lexical Tutor, Forvo, Howjsay, Visuwords, OneLook Dictionary Search and VLC Web Concordancer.

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Online books websites

Digital Stories

Children´s storybooks, Reading Sites for the Primary Grades: A list of readers for all levels, Starfall Readers: Fiction and Non-Fiction, Storynory: Free Audio Stories, BBC-CBeebies-Story, Online Audio Stories, MeeGenius Storyline online, Storycover

Özgür Köse

Directories There are a lot of directory Internet sites for you to guide you in the deep jungle of web tools and sites, one of which is “commonsensemedia.org/websitereviews”. This site will enable you to find hundreds of different internet sites, all free, and read about the reviewers’ comments, who are mostly teachers and families. You can also be informed about the new sites so that you can enhance your teaching situation by refreshing the web tools you use. Other directories and guiding sites are: http://www.empoweringparents.com/blog/ http://www.theyreourchildren.blogspot.com/ http://www.freechildrenwebsites.com/ http://www.ukchildrensbooks.co.uk/ http://www.freeeducationalwebsites.com/ http://www.craftsitedirectory.com/children/index.html http://www.childrensillustrators.com/ http://www.kidsites.com/ http://www.super-kids.com/ http://www.wimpykid.com/ Please bear in mind that these and other internet sites we have mentioned here are just representative. There are simply thousands of them available for your use as a teacher. Why don’t you prepare your own list and share it with your peers? Other Utilities Other utilities include various web sites in which your students can enjoy language learning games, mathematic or geography activities that enable L2 exposure and other web tools that can easily be utilized in daily life routines such as calendars, currency converters and other computer and internet based utilities. Here are some examples: CalculateMe, CalendarFly, Doodle, ClustrMaps, Currency Converter, Dvolver Moviemaker, Google Earth, Lesson Writer, Storybird, Cacoo, Mindmeister, Mindomo, Remember the milk, SurveyMonkey, Voki, Time and Date, TinyURL.com, W3C Link Checker, Wallwisher, Wayback Machine, Wordle, MakeBeliefsComix, Zunal, Spelling Time, Spelling City, Interactive games and activities, Spelling Wizard, Everglades Spelling, Kid Safari, Steller Speller, Spelling Connections, Laguage Arts, Spell it!

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Hülya Küçükoğlu

Thought flows in terms of stories - stories about events, stories about people, and stories about intentions and achievements. The best teachers are the best story tellers. We learn in the form of stories. --Frank Smith Literature has been an indispensible part of foreign language learning settings, and its pedagogical value for learners’ language development has been widely recognized (Carter & Long, 1991; Lazar, 1993; Parkinson & Thomas, 2000; Maley, 2001; McKay, 2001; Kim, 2004; Hall, 2005; Arikan, 2008). It is believed that the authentic nature of literary texts provide “a bountiful and extremely varied body of written material” which in return positively contributes to learner’s cultural and language enrichment (Collie & Slater, 1991, p. 3). Similarly, McKay (2001) points out three noteworthy benefits for language learners which are illustrating the significance of the way authors use words and forms to accomplish communicative goals, incorporating four skills, and offering an ideal context for studying cross-cultural discrepancies. Regarding the effect of authentic texts on promoting learners’ intercultural awareness, Ghosn (2002) states that literary text can be an effective “change agents,” fostering empathy and tolerance for diversity while helping learners develop their emotional intelligence. It implies that bringing literary texts into language learning is fundamentally important for the settings populated with college level language learners, i.e.: prospective language teachers. Additionally, it’s also endorsed by many that literary texts have a strong potential to levitate learner motivation through their gripping characteristics (Champell, 1987; Lazar, 1993, 1996; Ghosn, 2002). In addition to its many linguistic and cultural contributions, Ur (1996) also indicates that literature in language classrooms stimulates students’ critical thinking which is a desired skill that should be developed in today’s classrooms (see Benesch, 1993; Tsui, 1999; Schultz, 2002; Daud & Husin, 2004). While literary texts’ positive effects are highlighted by a myriad of researchers, some possible challenges and drawbacks of their utilization cannot be disregarded. Literary texts, according to Parkinson and Thomas (2000), “can be remote from the learners in all sorts of ways—historically, geographically, socially and in terms of life experiences” (p. 11). The confusion that the learners might encounter due to this remoteness might afflict the whole learning experience including the development of language and content knowledge. Secondly, Long (1986) indicates that learners are challenged with the level of vocabulary and the syntactic complexity of the dıgıtal story

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authentic texts and might many times fail to decode the meaning presented in the texts. Likewise, Collie and Slater (1991) and Ur (1996) mention the existence of a possible gap between the learners’ cultural heritage and linguistic competency which may hinder students’ reading and learning processes. Discussion What are some creative ways to integrate literary texts into language classrooms?

In addition to these problems, it’s argued that literature classes fail to provide a student-centered and visually-assisted learning environment. Parkinson and Thomas (2000) claim that the most fundamental problem with literature classes is the fact that students often consider themselves to be passive consumers of teacher’s knowledge while teachers act as lecturers “telling the learners what they should know and even think, perhaps even translating parts of the text” (p. 12). Similar arguments are put forward by Lin and Guey (2004) who allege that the teacher-centered nature of literature classes fails “to engage students, whose interpretative skills and analytic abilities remain underdeveloped within such a traditionally transmissive approach” (p. 2). These studies are important in terms of shedding light on a possible conflict between most literature classes and some, if not all, of the core ideas of language learning and teaching pedagogies. Nonetheless, a potentially more detrimental and challenging problem brought forward is yet to be explained, one that has become a challenge in all aspects of life, namely, technology

Literature and technology The US magazine, TIME has a tradition of selecting “The Person of the Year” since 1927. Several individuals, groups of people, inventions, and even our endangered planet have received that title in their special end of the year issues (Time, 2010). In the year 2006, “you”, along with many of your students, were titled ‘the person of the year’ “for the growth and influence of user-generated content on the Internet” (BBC, 2006, para. 1). Since 2006, our lives have gotten even more digitalized, and the future looks even more promising for ‘the people of 2006’. A quick glimpse at the demographics of some of the most famed online metropolises—such as YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, or MySpace—shows how right Time Magazine is in giving this title to the students occupying modern day classrooms. Browsing through various academic studies conducted on the willingness and readiness of teachers to incorporate technology in classrooms (see Albrini, 2006; Bauer & Kenton, 2005; Duhaney, 2001), however, paradoxically challenges Time’s decision to choose such a broad title, ‘you’, encompassing everybody. The clash between the learners’ promptness and propensity to use, adopt, and create digital technology and the teachers’ hesitance and concerns to welcome it in classrooms is one of the most, if not the most, demanding challenges ever experienced in educational world. In other words, motivating, engaging, and teaching, what Prensky (2001) 394

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calls, “digital native” students of the modern days is arguably the toughest test that teachers—most of whom are considered “digital immigrants” according to Prensky—face today. As digital technology has been quite explicitly infiltrating educational world, its value in language education is broadly recognized (Sharma, 2008; Santos & Sobrinho, 2009; Motteram & Sharma, 2009; Egorov, Jantassova, & Churchill, 2007). Yet, its use, effectiveness, and possible drawbacks in literature classes in foreign language setting have not been under the scope of much research. While it’s universally accepted that learners are all unique and different learning contexts requires different learning methods, it’s remarkable to see that studies carried out 11.000 kilometers away from each other have the same implications in regard to bringing technology into literature classes. In their studies, Arıkan (2008) from Ankara, Turkey and Speaker (2004) of New Jersey, the United States give voice to the opinions of students in their literature classes. Speaker (2004), reports that students learn the content better when technology is utilized in classrooms. Similarly, Arıkan’s (2008) findings show that incorporating technology in literature classes helps learners not only understand the content better but also improve their communicative skills. In addition to these two studies, a more tangible support to the significance of using technology in literature classes comes from Maninger (2006) whose research with 185 students shows that effective integration of technology into literature classes increases students’ success. Discuss 1. Why do you think employing technology positively affects students’ learning of a foreign language? 2. It is argued that using technology deadens the critical thinking—a significant part of the learning process. Do you agree? Why? 3. Can you think of some possible ways of bringing technology into language classrooms in which students can actively participate?

Digital story telling All technological applications have their own downsides and none of them can be considered a panacea for the need of enhancing learners’ learning experiences. In addition to these commonly accepted views, a plethora of research examining the reasons why bringing technology into classroom is surprisingly low in spite of the influx of technology in every area of our lives is concluded with very similar findings such as lack of appropriate software, technical difficulties, teachers’ lack of necessary technical skills, and funding. Despite all these concerns, though, some applications—which are not necessarily exclusively designed for educational purposes—have recently drawn much attention thanks to their unsophisticated yet effectual aspects and has been finding their ways into the skeptic world of academia—

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digital storytelling applications are one of them. Digital stories are 3 – 5 minute long computer-based and user-generated short video clips that enable learners to utilize and combine various skills including “research and writing, organization, technology, presentation, interpersonal, or problem-solving skills, which, in turn, develop digital, global, visual, and information literacy” (Gregori-Signes, 2008). They are widely used in language classes as well (see Tsou, Wang, & Tzeng, 2006; McLellan, 2006; Vinogradova, n.d.; Afrilyasanti, 2009; Wan, Tanimoto, & Templeton, 2008).

Discuss Name some stories that can be covered with digital storytelling. What kinds of music and illustrations would be suitable for these stories?

the digitalized world of this century, are in need of a digital touch to remain pertinent and engaging to the student population experiencing the digital age in many ways in their daily lives. Hence, digital storytelling applications have an important potential to revitalize them by changing the dynamics of the traditional course of humanities and by giving students a chance to work collaboratively to construct their digital projects while promoting their language skills.

Application Below are examples from a group of learners’ digital storytelling work. Please follow the section below to familiarize yourself with Microsoft Photo Story 3 and how to digitalize a story that you want to use in your classroom.

In order to help learners build 21st century communication skills, teachers can use digital story telling in their classrooms. Digital story telling is fun, inspiring and exciting; developing personal digital stories can be healing. According to constructivist model digital story telling can be used as a tool in order to build a real world experience in reading skills. Constructivism, in general, is the notion that meaning is imposed on the world rather than extant in it (Swan, 2005). There is evidence that storytelling contributes to deep learning (Barrett, 2006; Miley, 2009; Jenkins & Lonsdale, 2007). Deep learning focuses is on “what is signified”. It also relates knowledge from different courses and relates theoretical ideas to everyday experience which makes digital stories a beneficial tool for deep learning. The reasons that make digital storytelling a promising application to assist teaching can be listed as follows. Initially, quite arguably everybody can survive while working on most of the digital storytelling programs. Most programs available on the Internet do not require users to possess high computer skills. Next, what digital storytelling applications offer with their customizable and constructivist characteristics are compliant with language teaching pedagogies that are accepted to be efficient, and third, they provide students with changes to link their background knowledge with technology and use their information-creation skills for educational purposes. The last but not least, almost all of the digital storytelling tools can be obtained free of charge; they can be downloaded from the websites of the manufacturers or can be found pre-installed by default on personal computers. Some of the most common free-of-charge digital storytelling programs are Windows Movie Maker and Microsoft Photo Story 3 (for Windows based PCs) and iMovie for Macintosh computers. It should be remembered that these free-of-charge programs are less professional and offer fewer options to edit or modify multimedia elements compared to their paid counterparts such as Adobe Premiere or Macromedia Flash. However, their features and what they promise when combined with the imagination of a mind would be more than enough to breathe a new life into any learning experience. It’s rational in claiming that traditional literature classes, like any other classes in 396

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Getting started Microsoft Photo Story 3 (MPS3 hereafter) is free software for owners of a genuine version of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 (It will not run on Macintosh computers). The program lets users create effective digital stories using still images and sounds in a couple of simple steps. It does not support video recordings; instead, MPS3 adds motion, transition, narration, and music to the digital images to create the story. There is an option to record narration; this, however, requires an external or a built-in microphone. The video files created with MPS3 can be played on any computer with the capabilities of playing .wmv files or on DVD players. Below are the explanations on how to create a digital story with MPS3. After being familiarized with the basic working

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mechanisms of program, users can explore the extents of possibilities MPS3 offers. The steps below assume that you possess basic computer skills. You are advised to seek for additional help from other sources if you need assistance with some of the steps explained below.

the screen. The chosen image on the storyboard will appear on the ‘screen’ and will have a dark blue frame around it. Users have to work on each image one by one; to choose an image in the storyboard, simply click on it once (Figure 4).

Beginning a New Story & Adding Images

• See if the program is pre-installed on your computer: Start à All programs

à Microsoft Photo Story 3. If not (which might be the case for many Windows XP based computers), download it from Microsoft’s website.

• Choose the default prompt, Begin a New Story, on the welcome screen and hit Next to start the project. Users can navigate through MSP3 screens with the Next and Back buttons at the bottom of the screen (Figure 1).

• Clicking

on the Edit button Figure 5. Adding photo effects on this screen opens a new Figure 5. Adding photo effects pop-up window where users can rotate or crop images, work on contrast and apply effects such as black and white, sepia, washout or diffuse glow (Figure 5).

• Click on the Import Pictures button to select pictures for the story (Figure 2).

• To change the order of photos in the storyboard, select the photo you

would like to relocate, and either use the arrows to the right of the storyboard or simply hold and drag it to a new place. To remove an image from the story, select it and press X below the arrows or Delete on your keyboard.

•

Remember to click on the Save button after every modification.

Adding Texts

• Click Next to proceed to the next screen where you can add text on the • Click on the pictures you would like select and hit

OK on the pop-up window to add them to your story. To select more than one file at a time, hold down the control key (CTRL) on your keyboard; to add all images in the folder, press CTRL + A (Figure 3).

photos. First, select the picture on which you would like to insert your text. Type your text and adjust the alignments with the options above the text box. To modify your text, click on the button with the “A” letter on it at the top-left of the text box (Figure 6). Choose the font style, font size, font color and font on the pop-up window (Figure 7).

Figure 6. Inserting texts

Figure 6. Inserting texts Figure 3. Selecting images

Figure 4. Storyboard

• The images you select will be copied to the storyboard at the bottom of 398

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Figure 7. Modifying text

Figure 7. Modifying text

• Select images individually to add your text; MPS3 does not have a “copy the same text on all images” option.

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• Before clicking Next, make sure you have a microphone ready with you if

you do not have a built-in microphone because the next screen is where you record your speech and attach it to the images.

Narrating a Voiceover

• After connecting your microphone, click on the circle with the red dot on it to attach a voiceover to your image (Figure 8). You can write a text in the text box below the recording button. This text will not appear on your story and it is there only to be used as a basis for your voiceover. Click Preview to view your story.

• Voiceovers

are attached individually to each picture. That means the longer you record, the longer that image will be displayed on the screen. Put your narration into chunks and attach them to different pictures if you want different photos to be associated with particular parts of your narration.

screen is also where you can adjust the way your pictures are displayed (Figure 9). Mark Specify Start and End Position of motion; hold and drag the little boxes in the corners of the picture to the desired location. MPS3 then will generate a zooming effect between the starting and ending positions you specified.

• To

customize zooming, mark Specify Start and End Position of motion; hold and drag the little boxes in the corners of the picture to the desired location. MPS3 will generate a zooming effect between the starting and ending positions you specified (Figure 9).

• MSP3 assigns a default transition, cross fade, for all of the images in the

story. On the same window under the Transitions tab, you may customize the transition effect between pictures as well (Figure 10). To select a new transition, simply click on the one you want to assign and hit Save.

Adding Background Music

• You may insert background music to your story; you may choose from the

Customizing Motion

• If there is no voiceover attached, each picture on the storyboard will be

displayed for five seconds by default before proceeding to the next one. It is possible to set a longer or shorter time of display for pictures by clicking on the Customize Motion button (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Customize Motion

• This

• On the new screen, mark Number of seconds to display the picture and set the number of seconds you want that picture to be displayed. The time limit you set affects only that particular image; the action must be repeated for each picture individually

music files saved on your computer or may choose to create new music (Figures 11& 12).

• Click on the picture in the storyboard where you want the music to start. Click Select Music or Create Music depending on your choice. Clicking the latter lets you choose from a good variety of pre-recorded music from different genres and styles. You may customize your music’s tempo and intensity as well. Click Play to review your music.

(Figure 9).

Figure 11. Adding music

Figure 12. Creating music

• You may add a different piece of music play for each picture in your story. Just click on another new image in the storyboard and repeat the actions in the previous step.

• Click preview and view your story before the next step. Figure 9. Start and end point

Figure 9. Start and end point

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Figure 10. Transitions

Figure 10. Transitions

Saving and Publishing

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most appropriate one depending on where you plan to play your video— on a computer, cell phone, or portable media players (Figure 13).

• Click Settings and then Profile to choose the quality you want to save your story (Figure 14).

• Click Browse button if you want to specify the location and the file name of your story. You are now just a click away from your digital story; hit next to finalize.

Figure 13. Saving the story Figure 13. Saving the story

Figure 14. Choosing file quality Figure 14. Choosing file quality

After MPS3 finishes creating • your story, the final screen will give you the option to view your story, create a new story or to go back to change something else in your story (Figure 15).

•

To be able to make further modifications in your story later, make sure you click Save Project before you click Exit. Figure 15. TheThe final menu Figure 15. final menu

Discussion Discuss and list potential benefits of using digital storytelling in language classrooms. At the end of the application when you have finished your own story prepared with digital storytelling, go through your list once again in order to highlight the benefits you have gained throughout the process. While there is abundant support urging the use of digital applications to update traditional literature classes, not much research has been carried out to evaluate the validity and the applicability of any particular digital tool to assess the vitality of these claims. Therefore, the current study aims to shed light on the effectiveness and the applicability of digital storytelling, a widely-used digital tool coming out of the educational world, in enhancing literature classes in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) environment. Moreover, the study intends to reflect the attitudes of the students towards the use of Microsoft Photo Story 3 © (MPS3) as a tool to facilitate and enrich the literature classes in an EFL setting.

Discussion question Discuss the differences as an output between traditionally reading a short story in the classroom and using digital storytelling in language classrooms. Ghosn (2002) articulates that utilization of literary texts is important in terms of assisting language learners in enhancing their academic literacy, a crucial skill the development of which might not be effectively sustained through traditional language learning materials. One limitation of this study is the probability of overrated answers given by the students due to the fact that two of the researchers are the teachers of the students. While the anonymity provided with the online surveys might control this limitation, it’s still possible that some, if not all, participants’ answers were affected by that. Or, it’s possible that some of the participants who completed the survey might respond more enthusiastically.

Important Points to Remember

• You need Windows Media Player 10 installed on your computer to be able

Discussion question

•

To what extent it is viable to use the digital storytelling technique to teach young learners in foreign language educational practices?

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to run MSP3. Save your work very often. Notice the Save Project button at the bottom of the MSP3 screen. If you have any technical glitches while you are working on your project, you will lose all your work. If you have small size images, you will be disappointed with the resolution of your visuals when you view or project your story on a large screen. Make sure you use high-resolution images in your story. If you choose a high quality save option, make sure that your computer has a good processor because as the quality gets higher, the file becomes more demanding for the computer. Texts and Tools

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About the Contributors Erhan Alabay, PhD Candidate, is currently working at Selçuk University, Ahmet Keleşoğlu Faculty of Education, Department of Pre-school Education. His interests are science and maths teaching in pre-school education. Arda Arikan, PhD, is an Associate Professor of English Language Teaching currently working at Akdeniz University. Receiving his PhD at Pennsylvania State University, he has published articles and book chapters about foreign language teacher training, literature education, gender, and culture teaching. Cem Balçıkanlı, PhD, works as a lecturer in English language teaching program at Gazi University. He is particularly interested in learner/teacher autonomy, web technologies in language learning/teaching and teaching Turkish as a foreign language. He has presented papers at several conferences and has published in various journals. Muhlise Coşgun Ögeyik, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Faculty of Education, Trakya University. She has been working at English Language Teaching Department. She holds Ph. D. degree in English Language Teaching. Her special research interest areas are: foreign language teacher training, literature education, linguistics, methodology, culture teaching, research design and methodology. Simla Course obtained her BA in ELT from the Middle East Technical University; her MA and PhD degrees from the University of Warwick. Currently she is working at the ELT department of Akdeniz University. Her areas of professional interest include developing critical reading, reading, and writing skills in EFL, critical discourse analysis, critical theory, learner autonomy and motivation. Servet Ҫelik, PhD, is currently an assistant professor and chair of the Department of Foreign Language Education at Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey. Dr. Ҫelik holds a bachelor›s degree in ELT from Gazi University, Turkey; a master›s of education degree in TESOL from the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and a doctoral degree in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education from Indiana UniversityBloomington, USA. He taught elementary-level EFL in Turkey, and college-level Turkish in the U.S., and has worked as a rater for ETS scoring constructed speaking responses for the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Testing (TOEFL iBT) Speaking program. Some of Dr. Ҫelik’s professional interests include language teacher education, teaching of culture and intercultural competence, critical literacy, narrative inquiry and qualitative research.

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Bengül Çetintaş, PhD, is an Associate Professor of German Language Teaching currently working at the Department of Western Languages and Literatures at Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey. Her research interests are teacher education, intercultural education, and teaching skills. Feryal Çubukcu, PhD, is currently an Associate Professor of English Language Teaching at the Department of Foreign Language Education at Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey. Her research interests are literature and its teaching, teacher development, teaching skills. Derya Döner Yılmaz, PhD, is currently an assistant professor at the department of English Language Teaching at Uludağ University. Having graduated from Hacettepe University in 1990, she continued her MA studies at the University of Essex and completed her PhD at the same university in 1998. She teaches ‘Teaching Skills’ courses at BA level and ‘Material Evaluation and Design’ course at both BA and MA levels. Her research areas are teacher training, language teaching materials and teaching young learners. Şehriban Dündar, is currently a master’s degree student in English Language Teaching Program at Akdeniz University. She received her BA from Selçuk University, ELT Department in 2011. She is interested in drama in foreign language teaching and teacher development. Esim Gürsoy, PhD, is currently an assistant professor in the ELT Department of Uludağ University, Turkey. Dr. Gürsoy holds a bachelor’s degree in ELT from Uludağ University, Turkey; a master’s of education degree in Teacher Education from Ohio University, USA, and a doctoral degree in ELT from Anadolu University, Turkey. She offers courses on teaching English to young learners at the graduate and undergraduate level. Some of her professional interests include foreign language teaching to young learners, language teacher education, teaching practice, use of technology in foreign language teaching, and integration of SRT topics, such as environmental education, to foreign language teaching and teacher education.

Murat Hişmanoğlu, PhD, is currently an assistant professor and Head of English Language and Literature Department at Faculty of Arts and Science at Uşak University, Turkey. Dr. Hismanoglu holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s of arts degree in Linguistics from Hacettepe University, Turkey, and a doctoral degree in English Language Teaching from Hacettepe University, Turkey. He offers courses on Listening and Pronunciation and Linguistics at the graduate and undergraduate level. Some of Dr. Hişmanoglu’s professional interests include L2 pronunciation teaching, particularly Internet-assisted L2 pronunciation teaching, use of technology in foreign language education, intercultural communication, language teacher education and teaching practice. Yasemin Kırkgöz, PhD, is a lecturer at the ELT Department of Çukurova University, Adana, Turkey, and has responsibility as Head of the Department of Foreign Languages. She completed her MA and PhD at Aston University, Birmingham in England. She has published on language policy, curriculum design and innovation management, teaching English to young learners, integrating computers in language teaching, and she has reviewed several book chapters. Her research interests include macro to micro levels in foreign language teaching and learning at all levels from primary to high education; innovation in foreign language teaching; curriculum development, materials evaluation and technology in teaching. Çiğdem Karatepe, has completed her PhD at Liverpool University following her MA studies at the same university. She has been interested in teacher education, linguistics, and discourse analysis. She is currently working at Uludağ University’s ELT department. Şule Korkmaz has been a lecturer since 2002 at Uludag University Faculty of Education English Language Teaching Department, where she received her MA in 2001. She is currently a doctorate student in Çanakkale 18 Mart University Institute of Educational Science ELT Department. She is interested in ELT teacher education, materials development, and teaching young learners. Özgür Köse, PhD candidate, works at METU as a foreign language instructor. Interested in technology, materials development, and writing. Hülya Küçükoğlu, PhD candidate, works at Hacettepe University as a foreign language instructor. Interested in technology, materials development, and teacher education.

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Kemal Sinan Özmen, PhD, works at Gazi University, English language teaching program in Turkey, and teaches TESOL methodology, second language acquisition and creative drama. His research interests include ‘teaching as a performing art’, teacher identity and belief development and pre-service English teacher education. H. Sezgi Saraç, PhD, H. Sezgi Saraç holds a PhD from Hacettepe University (Turkey), specializing in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. She has worked as an English instructor (1998-2001/Baskent University, Turkey), foreign language teaching assistant (2004-2005/New York State University, USA) and research assistant (2001-2007/Hacettepe University, Turkey). She currently works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of English Language Teaching at Baskent University in Turkey and is also the editor-in-chief of the journal Novitas: ROYAL (Research on Youth and Language). Her research areas are curriculum development, pedagogical content knowledge, material development and syllabus design. Olcay Sert, PhD, is an academic and researcher at the Department of Foreign Languages Education, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye. He worked as a language tutor at the University of Sunderland, a teaching assistant at Newcastle University, and as a visiting researcher at the University of Luxembourg. He is an associate editor of Novitas-ROYAL (Research on Youth and Language), and has worked as a reviewer for a number of academic journals including International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Wiley-Blackwell), Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching (Routledge), and Classroom Discourse (Routledge). His main research approach is Conversation Analysis and his research deals primarily with classroom discourse, interactional competence, and language teacher education. Gonca Yangın Ekşi has done her MA at Hacettepe University, Department of ELT and her PhD at Gazi University, Department of ELT, where is currently working as an Assistant Professor of ELT. Prior to that, she had lots of experience in teaching English and working at the testing office at Gazi University School of Foreign Languages. Her research interests include teacher training, language and culture, teaching English to young learners, materials development, ICT and developing language skills. Ece Zehir Topkaya, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English Language Teaching, Faculty of Education, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. Her research interests include teacher education, psychology of learning and teaching language skills. Mehmet Galip Zorba, MA, is currently interested in materials development, language teaching standards, literature, and lexicology. 408
