The MATSDA/Fontys University of Applied Sciences Conference - June 10th-11th, 2017 Meaning-Focused Materials for Language Learning Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts (FHK), Zwijsenplein 1, Tilburg
Schedule of Presentations Saturday June 10th Entrance: Bisschop Zwijsenstraat 11 in Tilburg 08.30-09.00 – Registration in the Foyer 09.00-09.30 – Introduction - Brian Tomlinson (University of Liverpool, Shanghai International Studies University and Anaheim University) in Academietheater 09.30-10.30 – Brian Tomlinson (University of Liverpool, Shanghai International Studies University and Anaheim University) in Academietheater What Should Meaning-Focused Really Mean? Usually when we speak or write what we say is intended to communicate meaning. And when we read or listen our intention is to understand meaning. But what does meaning mean? I’m claiming that the meaning of an utterance includes: •
the denotation of the utterance (i.e. what it refers to)
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the connotation of the utterance (i.e. the attitude(s) it implies)
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the intention of the utterance (i.e. what it is intended to achieve)
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the effect of the utterance (i.e. what effect it achieves)
In my presentation I’m going to claim that many supposedly meaning-focused activities in many commercial materials focus on denotative meaning and that inadequate attention to connotative meaning, to communicative intent and to communicative effect can lead to apparently successful language learners being unprepared for the reality of post-course communication in the target language. I’ll be demonstrating how materials can be prepared which engage learners in responding to all four aspects of meaning outlined above, in communicating meaning themselves and in guiding them to make discoveries about what meaning was achieved and how it could have been achieved more effectively. 10.30-11.00 – Morning Coffee in the Foyer and Poster Presentations in D3.13 11.00 -11.55 – Hitomi Masuhara (University of Liverpool) in Academietheater Helping Learners Pay Attention to Form in Meaning-Focused Activities
SLA theorists, such as Rod Ellis, Michael Long and Peter Skeehan, have demonstrated that paying attention to form whilst engaged in meaning-focused activities can facilitate language acquisition. Yet most commercially published materials continue to feature activities in which the learners are asked to focus on predetermined forms presented in decontextualized texts, practised in isolation and ‘produced’ with no communicative intent. In my presentation I aim to demonstrate and discuss how learners can be helped to pay attention to salient features of the language whilst and after being engaged in meaningfocused activities. 12.00 -12.40 – Parallel Presentations 1 Julia Reckermann (Dortmund) in D1.03 Reading Picture Books - A Resource for Meaning-Focused Language Learning Opportunities In this presentation I would like to summarise prior research on picture books in EFL learning and briefly provide an overview of the present use of such books in class. In a next step I will give an overview of my reading study and present central results of it, focusing on the learners’ reading comprehension of picture books. I will then elaborate on the potential of focusing on meaning when working with authentic texts in EFL learning, centering on a pre-, while- and post-reading task cycle. This will also include an explanation of why meaningfocussed reading should begin in the primary school and to what extent picture books can provide a dual-focus on language as well as content. Finally, implications for future teaching will be given, also containing an outlook on reading at secondary school level. 2 Laila El-Metoui (LGBT Education Consultant & Teacher Educator) in D1.05 LGBTIQ Inclusion in English Teaching If learners are not in an environment where they feel free to talk about themselves - their identities and personal lives - then there is a strong likelihood this could hinder their language acquisition. The issue is particularly relevant to LGBTIQ English ESOL/EFL students whose classmates may have strong homophobic views linked to cultures, religions or personal beliefs. I would like to explore strategies to foster a positive and inclusive environment conducive to language acquisition and development based on my experience of not only designing resources but managing LGBTIQ inclusion projects in adult and further education. In my presentation I will endeavour to dispel some of the myths, identify current practices and offer strategies to challenge discrimination and prejudice. 3 Rosa-Maria Cives-Enriquez (Chartered Linguist & L&D Professional) in D3.09 Transform your Storytelling! A Multisensory Immersive Approach to Teaching a Mixed Ability Beginners’ Spanish Group. In this workshop I aim to put human stories at the heart of my lesson content, because in my opinion, it’s the most effective way to create relevance, engage learners and deliver messages which aid language acquisition. My aim is to create ‘character-led’ stories that make my
students feel something because it’s the emotion produced by a story/journey that makes it memorable and ensures its message ‘sticks’. I blend my own methods with research from pioneers in language education, such as Stephen Krashen, Steven Pinker, and Blaine Ray. Krashen and Pinker promoted natural language acquisition over traditional grammar and drilling. Ray invented TPR Storytelling in the 1990s, a story-based method gaining popularity among teachers worldwide. In addition, I draw inspiration from Management Theory and my work as a Learning and Development (L&D) professional as I feel that there is an overlap in the work that we do when we invest ‘in a person’s fundamental human needs’ (David Freemantle, Simon Sinek) by creating an environment where individuals thrive. Step by step, my colour coded (3 tier) content introduces new words and phrases. Target vocabulary is woven into short, culturally relevant stories that make language accessible and adaptable to the student’s own life experiences— and they forget they are actually learning. Students pick up language naturally, effortlessly, through repeated exposure to comprehensible input. My material and content is authentic, relevant and designed to work flexibly with different teaching methods and environments. 4 Susanne Smulders (Fontys University of Applied Sciences) in D3.17
My colleagues and I are currently developing a third-year bachelor module “Internationalisation – Language Policy & Cultural Awareness” at Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Tilburg that will run from 1 May until 30 June 2017. In this module, 12 of our full-time students will visit 3 different work placement contexts. Here, they will carry out various assignments developed in part by us, but also by teachers from the 4 participating secondary schools: an international school, a CLIL-based school in Eindhoven, a refugee school in Eindhoven and a CLIL-based school in Helmond. Our aim is for our students to discover how their own cultural awareness and vision on diversity affects their teaching style and to make them more aware of other possible approaches. In my talk I would like to share some of my insights and materials with the audience. 12.45-13.25 – Parallel Presentations 1 Irina Malinina (Freelance EFL Teacher) in D1.03 CLIL: Teaching History through English to Teenagers CLIL (Content and language Integrated Learning) can be a highly motivating, cognitively engaging, and rewarding approach both for students and for teachers of English. This is a different way of learning, where English and various subjects are intertwined, thus making English a medium for instruction. CLIL methodology develops higher-order skills by involving learners in activities in which they have to apply these skills (such as creative thinking, critical evaluation, or hypothesizing). During this presentation I will share my experience and my findings about materials development and adaptation for teaching History through English to a group of Russian teenagers (12-14 years old). I will speak about selecting and developing materials for a CLIL curriculum, the best ways of using authentic texts and videos, applying Task-Based Learning approaches and project work in the classroom. Hopefully, this practical guidance on how to
make CLIL a reality will serve as a springboard to enable you to design your own CLIL materials and expand your repertoire of classroom techniques. 2 Isabella Seeger (University of Muenster) in D1.05 The Learner Knows Best: Involving Secondary Students in Topic and Materials Selection for Meaningful Classroom Activities Deciding what topics and materials are meaningful for their students in the sense of the CEFR can be a complex challenge for teachers and materials designers. Firstly, educators' pedagogic aims and their personal and professional experiences very often differ from the students' interests, life experiences and (future) professional needs. Secondly, curricular demands for conformity to educational standards may conflict with students' desires to conform to peer group values. Thirdly, adult notions of classroom suitability concerning language and content of authentic materials are often virtually mocked by teenagers' constant real-life experience with "unsuitable" materials. However, Motivation theory and research into Learner Autonomy point to ways of how this divide between two worlds might be bridged, in particular with regard to the different secondary school types in Germany. This paper therefore postulates that learners' influence on the selection of topics and materials and their (semi-)autonomous exploration according to personal interest promote meaningful language production and classroom interaction. Presenting examples from classroom practice, this paper points out ways of involving learners in the selection of materials such as song, literature and film with the aim of making learning activities more meaningful to them and more gratifying to the teacher.
[email protected];
[email protected] 3 Claudia Saraceni (University of Bedfordshire) in D3.09 Language Diversity and Language Assessment Meaning-focused language learning is often considered effective in the language classroom, relevant to learners’ needs and beneficial for learning, as it is thought to be interactive, context-driven and learner-centred. It is also very often associated with communicative language use in the classroom, and its well celebrated characteristics and purposes. However, in the relevant literature the principles and practices of meaning-focused language learning and teaching are frequently defined in mutually exclusive terms, often in contrast with formfocused language teaching and learning. The general consensus on the potential value of meaning-focused approaches, however, doesn’t seem to be reflected in a large proportion of language assessment practices. These are largely influenced and often determined by a rather standardised, forms-focused controlled language practice, commonly present in widely used, internationally recognised test papers. In turns, this type of language assessment also tends to inform the practice of language teaching in the classroom as well as in the materials. In doing so, it seems to feed and justify its own existence in a kind of cyclical process, which seems to lie beyond language pedagogical principles. In this presentation, we will discuss and explore ways of making language assessment subordinate to language learning. This will be considered with the aim of moving away from the divergent, binary definition of concepts related to meaning-focused and form-focused language teaching, and of promoting the diverse nature of language use through a more realistic, authentic, learner-centred and localised approach to language assessment.
4 Alessandra Belletti Figueira Mulling (University of Portsmouth) in D3.17 Evaluation of a Reading Tool in a Courseware from the Point of View of End-Users: to what Extent was it Appropriate and Useful? The first part of this talk will briefly show what research suggests as the way CALL materials should be evaluated. According to Caws and Heift (2016) the key elements for the evaluations of a digital platform used for language learning are (1) the learner, (2) the tool, (3) the interactions and (4) the outcomes. So, after describing the tool Catching a glimpse, initially designed to inform users of this material about culturally-related themes in English speaking countries, I will present the profile of the learners who were interviewed, building a case for the importance of post-use evaluations that draw on end-users, i.e., the learner, especially taking into account distance learning environments where learners’ opinion about the material is paramount. Secondly, this tool will be looked at taking into account Leakey’s (2011) criteria for the evaluation of CALL enhancement to address the value of a certain CALL tool, i.e., the difference it makes (if any) to user’s learning. One of the criteria suggested by Leakey is meaning focus, which investigates the “extent to which learner’s attention is directed toward the meaning of the language” (p. 80). Leakey’s criterion drew on Chapelle’s (2001) principles for CALL task appropriateness, one of which is meaning focused.
By discussing user’s responses about their experience with this tool, this talk attempts to suggest to which extent, if at all, this tool was useful and appropriate to the context (selfinstructed learners at elementary level of proficiency with varied levels of comfort and familiarity with the use of technology for learning purposes) where its use is being investigated in regards to the criteria of meaning focus.
13.30-14.30 – Lunch in the City Centre and Poster Presentations in D3.13
14.30 – 15.25 – Marina Bouckaert (Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Tilburg) in Academietheater Square Peg, Round Hole? Developing Meaning-Focused Materials for Forms-Focused Courses in Teacher Education There is a question which has been on my mind since I started working in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher education: how can I stimulate the development of meaning-focused materials and meaning-focused lessons by student teachers in pre-service courses which explicitly focus on forms? I would like to explore this question by looking, on the one hand, at the historic developments in EFL teaching and learning in the Netherlands which have resulted in a general pedagogy that still seems to be very much focused on forms (Kwakernaak, 2014) – with exceptions, of course. On the other hand, I would like to discuss some of the potential ways in which teacher educators and those involved in the professional development of EFL teachers can “teach what they preach”, as is commonly expected of them (Lunenberg et al., 2007; Swennen et al., 2008; Murray, 2009). Concrete examples will be shown and discussed in light of relevant theory underpinning second language acquisition and communicative language teaching, as well as the practicalities of the curriculum and everyday school/college life. Conference participants will be challenged to consider whether the square peg (i.e. meaning-focused materials) can indeed be made to fit into a round hole (i.e. forms-focused courses). 15.30-16.10 – Parallel Presentations
1 Junia Ngoepe (University of Limpopo, South Africa) in D1.03 Seeding Task-Based Interactive English Second Language Learning through MeaningFocused Materials at Post-Graduate Level Lectures should arguably begin with a focus on meaning and not on form. In an attempt to respond to the English second language needs of South African (SA) University of Limpopo (UL) cohorts of post-graduate students the lecturer emphasises the use of meaning-focused materials when doing task-based learning and teaching activities based on specific topics or themes. Task–based learning (TBL) is an approach which relies on learner interaction. The rationale for using TBL is that students have more opportunities to interact with one another. Interaction and output are essential components in facilitating Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Tasks are tailored to the needs of specific classes to make them more engaging and motivating. This also places a premium on devising clear instructions for tasks. Listeners and readers are not regarded as passive; they are seen as active participants in the negotiation of meaning. Message sending or message receiving representation is the collaborative nature of meaning making. Meaning-focused materials engage readers in texts and encourage readers to reflect and think about what they have just read. Reader activities lend themselves well to incorporation into meaning-focused teaching materials. Students eventually learn to take control of their own performance from their own perspective. If a task can create this condition, it will succeed in reflecting much real-life communication. Which is why materials should return control to the student; his or her personal decisions should be respected. The aim in this presentation is to discuss how South African (SA) UL post-graduate students respond to the planned use of meaning-focused L2 materials in their SLA module, which are designed so that practical sequences of meaning-focused activities can sometimes lead to a focus on form.
[email protected] 2 Buket Kasap (Ankara University) in D1.05 An Examination of the Mindset of Teachers in Turkey: The Case of Materials Development In Turkey, the Ministry of Education prepares the curriculum and has textbooks written and distributed to all state schools before each school year. However, English language teachers prepare materials for their learners to supplement these text books. To that end, 10 in-service teachers from primary and secondary level, who had received teacher training on materials development, were interviewed on their habits of materials development. It was observed that teachers “intuitively” worked on materials. They paid attention to students’ needs, interests, learning styles, and backgrounds when they prepared materials for them. It was critically important for them to make the class more enjoyable and appealing to students because they excessively complained about the content and presentation of the textbooks. As long as the textbooks remained unchanged, teachers claimed they had to support it with extra materials to differentiate the instruction. Most teachers felt proud of themselves because they worked on materials for their students. However, teachers prepared their own materials mostly during the early years of teaching because they felt more enthusiastic to make a difference as a teacher and they had more free time. Even so, working on materials took up around two hours of their preparation time. 3 Asma Aftab (University of Birmingham) in D3.17
The Representation of the Meaning-Focused Approach in Formal English Language Coursebooks and Examinations The use of the term meaning in the context of language teaching gained popularity because of the advent of the communicative approach (which emphasizes negotiation of meaning) and its related methodology Task Based Teaching (Richards, 2006). Lately Littlewood (2004) and Ellis (2005; 2009) have elucidated and characterized the concept meaning from different perspectives. This presentation, while based on the diverse conceptual representations of the term in applied linguistics literature, will move beyond pure theoretical descriptions and instead present a set of guidelines which can help ESL teachers to apply the focus on meaning approach in their classrooms and use the guidelines to evaluate some popular English language teaching materials and examination procedures. The presentation aims on the one hand to highlight some useful approaches and techniques which can support focus on meaning in the ESL classrooms and on the other hand to evaluate how far textbook and examination materials reflect the specified approaches. During the first stage of the presentation I will try to elaborate the implications of the concept and specify what types of meanings are relevant for language learners. For instance, language activities should focus on meaning which is interesting and important for the target students while also involving them emotionally. During the second stage I will examine some activities of the English textbook Step Ahead and the syllabi and assessment bands of some international English examinations in order to assess how far these documents have adopted the principles specified in the initial stage of the presentation. 4 Sakae Onoda (Juntendo University, Japan) in D3.17 Using Linked Skills Tasks to Promote Learners’ Oral Fluency This paper will show how linked skills tasks can improve fluency in L2 speech production. Linked skills, which need not be specific to speaking skills, can be utilized for L2 oral fluency development. In linked skills tasks, a single piece of subject matter is focused upon for an extended period and engages the learners in a sequence of tasks utilizing different skills. For example, students watch an easy TV news clip and answer some comprehension questions and then they read the script or an easy newspaper article about the same topic. After their comprehension is confirmed, they summarize the story and write their own opinions about the topic. Then they talk about the story and their opinions in different pairs. L2 literature indicates that this teaching procedure is effective because it includes such fluency-enhancing elements as the recycling and deep processing of vocabulary (i.e., using words in different contexts), formulaic expressions, and automatization. In fact, Onoda (2013) shows that university English majors improved in fluency and motivation in relation to their speech production. The presenter will demonstrate a linked skills tasks and show a DVD that explains how Japanese students engage in such tasks. The presenter will also discuss the results of a study that investigated the effects of linked skills tasks on oral fluency development. (This presentation will be by video as Sakae Onoda has been unable to travel to Tilburg.) 16.15 – 17.15 - Marjolijn H. Verspoor (University of Groningen) in Academietheater
From CLIL to FLIL As second language teachers, we often overlook the great potential of movies in language learning. If the goal is to teach learners to be able to communicate in the target language, what better way than to eavesdrop on real target language speakers in an exciting and engaging context? However, just showing a movie may not be the way to go. In this talk I will explain how language and language acquisition should be viewed from a dynamic usage based (DUB) approach (we need to focus on the language as a whole and repeat often) and what that entails in teaching (we need real meaningful content to work with). I will argue that we need an approach like Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) to film, which results in Film Language Integrated Learning (FLIL). The talk will end with some very practical FLIL ideas that can be implemented for any foreign language and different levels of proficiency.
Enjoy Your Evening in Tilburg!
Sunday June 11th Entrance: Zwijsenplein 1 in Tilburg 08.30-09.00 – Registration in the Foyer 09.00-09.55 – Anne Burns (University of New South Wales and Aston University) in Academietheater Meaning and Authenticity in Materials Development for English Language Teaching A long-standing debate in English language teaching has been the need to provide students with materials that are meaning-focused and authentic. However, is it the case that these two concepts are interchangeable or do materials developers need to balance moves towards authenticity with students’ ability to create meaning? In this talk I will consider the relationships between these two concepts from the point of view of teaching the skills of speaking and listening. My talk will be illustrated by examples of meaning-focused materials that have been developed by teachers involved in action research projects to help students expand their abilities to handle authentic text. 10.00-10.40 – Parallel Presentations 1 Patrícia de Oliveira Lucas (Federal University of Piauí, Brasil) in D1.03
Metaphors vs. Materials: Saying the Same Things in Different Ways Metaphors have been used in many research areas, with one of the major contributions being Lakoff & Johnson’s (1980) work in the educational field. With regard to teacher preparation, Munby (1986) has suggested that metaphors that teachers use in order to express their own points of view seem to be a fruitful way to understand what these professionals have inside of their minds when they are teaching their students. In terms of materials development, studies proposed by McGrath (2002; 2006; 2013) have fortified how these teaching resources are understood and used by teachers. Equally important, Lucas (2016) has described the roles materials have according to teachers’ practices by observing how they deal with those
teaching resources within their professional contexts. McGrath (2006, p.1) has stressed that “metaphors may be a conveniently economical way of focusing such reflection”, especially when their focus is related to the comprehension of teaching-learning processes. The intention of this paper is to discuss with the audience some of the metaphors reported in a research that was developed with the cooperation of public school teachers, emphasizing the existence of some previously used ones regarding teaching materials, such as “sacred object” (Graves, 2000; Bosompem, 2014) and “recipe” (McGrath, 2002), plus some new ones, such as the “didactic seesaw” (Lucas, 2016), highlighting the benefits of their uses within the teacher education field. The intention is also to discuss with the participants some of the metaphors related to teaching materials that were reported in a research that was developed in urban and suburban public schools with the cooperation of teaching professionals, highlighting the benefits of their uses within teacher preparation programs. 2 Barbara Roosken (Fontys Lerarenopleiding Tilburg) in D1.05 Stories of Resilience This workshop will bring together stories novice teachers tell about their first days as an EFL teacher. The aim of my research was to explore the strategies that novices have when responding effectively to challenging behaviour in the EFL classroom. A qualitative methodology was therefore deemed appropriate since it emphasizes novices’ understanding of their personal experiences. The data collection, analysis and discussion were organised into twelve cases. A thematic data analysis was used (Guest et al., 2012; Braun & Clarke, 2013) with the help of ATLAS.ti 7 software. The workshop consists of the following activities:
Task 1: Discuss briefly with your partner the critical incidents you came across in the past 6 months? Task 2: What are the coping strategies that contribute to changes in your resilience?
The findings show that the ECTs were often expected to take on the full range of teaching tasks in isolation with little support to cope with all the demands of their new role. Although the development of resilience was different for every ECT, participants also shared common strategies that contributed to development of resilience such as emotional regulation, seeking renewal, goal setting and help seeking when overcoming the setbacks they experienced. By identifying strategies that impact on resilience, this research has strengthened the guidelines on which induction programmes at Teacher Education Colleges can be made. It is suggested that the critical incidents approach designed to support ECTs in building stories about their teaching experiences can be used as a teaching methodology for trainee teachers at Teaching Education Colleges.
3 Jennifer Thomas and Sujata Bhonsale (CEIAR, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai) in D3.09 Creating Meaning Focused Materials for a Technology Enabled Language Learning Course: An Example from India Despite progressive education policies which recommend measures to improve teachinglearning processes (NCF, 2005) there is a preponderance of traditional methods like drills and rote memorization (Alexander, R. 2001) in the Indian classroom. English communication skills is now a driver for education, employability and social mobility in India (Graddol, D.
2010) but there is a dearth of meaningful material that enhances the oral communication skills of students. This paper focuses on a technology enabled language learning course that uses the affordances of computers: a) to enable access to meaning-focused and gradeappropriate material in under-served communities; b) to create opportunities to use English meaningfully, purposefully and creatively c) to promote collaboration and peer learning. Technology aids language learning in two ways - by providing teaching resources and by providing enhanced learning experiences (Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2016). At the same time rapid evolution of communication technologies has changed language pedagogy and language use, enabling new forms of discourse, new forms of authorship, and new ways to create and participate in communities (Kern, 2006). Since such an intervention within the Indian public education system is innovative and unique, we begin by examining factors that informed the development of meaning-focused materials that can be used at scale. We list principles we adopted to design materials and interactive digital tools that will encourage learners to focus on meaning-making while communicating. We draw on examples from the materials we have created as well as samples of student artefacts to illustrate this. 10.40-11.10 – Morning Coffee in the Foyer and Poster Presentations in D3.13 11.10-12.05 – Daniela Fasoglio (Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development) in Academietheater Using Assessment to Promote Learning Assessment, and its crucial role in the integral language curriculum, should take a strategic place in language teacher training programmes. Assessment does not limit to traditional tests, but includes a wide variety of methods and tools to evaluate, measure, and document learning. Assessment should not just be used for the purposes of accountability, but and above all to support and enhance learning as the bridge between teaching and learning. Formative assessment encompasses all those activities undertaken during learning by teachers, and/or by students and their peers, which provide evidence of students' achievements. Such evidence can be interpreted and used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities, in order to better meet students' learning needs and to improve both teaching and learning. Practice in a classroom is formative to the extent that evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers, to make decisions about the next steps in instruction (adjusted from Black &Wiliam, 1998: 7, and Black & Wiliam, 2009). In this short talk I will share with you some practical examples of language activities designed to implement formative assessment in the EFL classroom. 12.10 -12.50 – Parallel Presentations 1 Claire Brett (University of Bristol) in D1.03 Do Engineers Dream of Electric Sheep?
How an awareness of engineering ‘thinking and doing’ behaviours can inform meaningfocussed materials design for international engineering students. Traditionally, engineering often ends up being defined by its relationship with science and maths (Royal Academy of Engineering, 2014), rather than its relationship to more creative skills and behaviours with which the majority of English for Academic purposes (EAP) materials writers may more readily identify. In addition, the fact that relatively few EAP writers have an academic science background may cause a challenge for those attempting to create materials for engineers that are not only authentic in terms of task nature, but also allow for meaningful engagement with content. This session will demonstrate an approach towards materials design which attempts to address this issue by drawing on a report by the Royal Academic of Engineering (2014) that identifies typical engineering ‘thinking and doing’ behaviours, presented a set of core ‘Engineering Habits of Mind’ (EHoM): namely, ‘systems thinking, problem finding, visualizing, improving, creative problem-solving and adaptability’. A case study will exemplify this approach in which 1st year undergraduate engineering students on an EAP unit are encouraged to apply EHoM behaviours. It is suggested that an explicit awareness of EHoM can enable non-content specialist EAP writers to create meaningful tasks and activities which contribute towards an authentic and constructive learning and teaching environment. This enables students to not only learn English as a subject, but engage with subject content and academic literacy through it (Gibbons, 2003). 2 Anne-Mette Korczynski (University of Greenland) in D1.05 Speaking Many Voices in Greenland Due to grim evaluations in 2015 of both the Greenlandic primary and lower secondary school and the Institute for Learning, University of Greenland, both parties have set sails to change the present situation. Geographically Greenland is huge with only about 56,300 inhabitants –16,000 of them living in the capital of Nuuk. The population in Greenland is a mixture of people speaking Greenlandic as their mother tongue and Danish as their second language or the other way around. Some are bilingual, some do not speak Greenlandic and others do not speak Danish. Besides Danish and the three kinds of Greenlandic: West, South and East, immigrant language such as Polish, Vietnamese, Thai, English, Russian and Tagalog is heard. In the historical and political context language and identity issues play an immense role to some groups of Greenlanders and Danes and the topic about bringing English in as the second language have raised some tensions. The Greenlandic primary and lower secondary school lack qualified teachers and Danish teachers are employed. In some settlements the population is down to a few hundreds, with only a few teachers to carry through all subjects in the curriculum. As the Danish teachers lack the Greenlandic voice the language challenges for all parties are tremendous. So – how to qualify and prepare Greenlandic students to their forthcoming professions as new teachers in the Greenlandic primary and lower secondary school where lack of materials is enormous!
My line of approach to the subject: Danish as a Second Language is social contructionism, combining a relational theory of learning with the interactional view of language learning. In the relational learning process, relation between Self and Other is created in generative joint. 3 Majid Elahi Shirvan (University of Bojnord, Iran) and Gholam Hassan Khajavy,
(University of Bojnord, Iran) in D3.09 Interplay between Data-Driven Learning, Text- Driven Approach, and MeaningFocused Materials Research has indicated the gap between theories of applied linguistics and the practice in materials development. Despite the large number of research findings addressing the importance of learners’ exposure to rich and meaningful input, materials, especially the commercial ones, have not provided rich meaning-focused activities yet. To bridge this gap, we conducted an experiment with intermediate-level university students practicing the potential applications of electronic corpora as meaning-focused materials via data-driven learning (DDL) using Text-Driven Approach (TDA) prioritizing learners’ apprehension to their comprehension. First, the participants of the study, taking a course of general English, were engaged in the different aspects of utterance meaning such as locutionary (its reference), illocutionary (its intention), and perlocutionary (its effect) forces of some selected Key Word in Context (KWIC) concordances of Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) doing readiness, experiential, and intake response activities as well as an introduction to corpora. Second, confronting with the language data in COCA, they discovered these aspects carrying out input response activities and discussed the questions, thought deeply about them, and achieved awareness regarding the intended meaning of the utterances while doing interpretation and awareness tasks. Finally, in group discussion, they practiced producing context for each concordance line. Significant improvement in the participants’ understanding of the different aspects of meaning based on their performance in the pre-and post-tests and the interviews conducted after the experiment highlight the success of the meaning-focused activities in an integrated framework of DDL and TDA. email:
[email protected]: email:
[email protected] 4 Yi Yong (Changzhou University, China) in D3.17
Meaning-Focused Activities for Learners of Business English in China Business English (BE) is a relatively new undergraduate English programme in China. The students in BE are expected to acquire effective functional skills in English written and spoken language. The curriculum will be broad and will cover basic knowledge and theory of the liberal arts, law, economics, management, international trade law and other related subjects. Students will be introduced to relevant aspects of international business practice and acquire an effective ability to use English relevant to the performance of business related tasks, including aspects of communication across cultures. To do this students will need to become autonomous learners, developing creative, critical thinking ability, in relation to work in an international business context. This paper proposes that 'teaching and learning Business English as a meaningful activity’ in China is to be focused upon holistic principles of education, aimed at developing the student as a whole person, well able to function effectively in their specialist subject, while not
limited by that speciality. This concept extends 'meaning-focus' to equipping the student to function comfortably in the extended world of work, not a narrow linguistic competence, an essential criterion for flexible business students graduates. The proposed approach is philosophically wedded to Krashen’s non interface position with its meaning focus, but uses the weak interface position of Norris and Ortega, together with elements from the strong interface position favoured by De Keyser and others, to develop knowledge and thus utilise intensive form(s) focused acquisition in specific 'sections' of the whole programme. The paper will draw upon extensive teaching experience and will tentatively propose a framework for seeking the interest and engagement of the learners through a negotiated meaning focus, which is reinforced by teacher-led interventions intended to bring that ‘general meaning focus’ through specific elements of ‘form focus’. The pedagogical basis for this will follow an interpretation of Ellis’ idea of methodological options, which is influenced by aspects of Pienemann’s ‘Teachability Hypothesis’. 13.00-14.00 – Lunch in the Foyer and Poster Presentations in D3.13 14.00 -14.40 – Parallel Presentations 1 Patrícia de Oliveira Lucas (Universidade Federal do Piauí), Leandro Rodrigues Alves Diniz (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), Nelson Viana (Universidade Federal de São Carlos ), Elias Ribeiro da Silva (Universidade Federal de Alfenas ) and Bruna Pupatto Ruano (Universidade Federal do Paraná) in D1.03 Portuguese as a Foreign Language and Teaching Materials: Fulfilling the Needs to Achieve the Wants The teaching of Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL) has been growing considerably in many countries around the world. This new scenario has offered lots of different opportunities to both professionals and apprentices, as the former needs to develop, among other things, teaching materials to help foreign students to improve their language skills. By dealing with some special features of the language, that are discussed according to the teaching of PFL, we intend to demonstrate how tailor-made materials can help students to understand some linguistic aspects in a better way, mainly when they have a specific purpose to use the target language. During this presentation, we will discuss some personal professional experiences that we have faced, when working as a team in a national project at the same educational context. We intend to demonstrate how materials played an important role in guiding us throughout this teaching process, where we were recruited to teach a group of Spanish speakers learning Portuguese as a foreign language for a very specific purpose. This experience has shown us that tailor-made materials are, indeed, an essential part of the course and when well-designed they can help students to improve their skills in a FL. In addition, materials can lead professionals to (re)think their own pedagogical practices, both as teachers and also as learners of their own first language. 2 Stephanie Lehrer (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) in D1.05 Telling the story: Reflections of a Reading Teacher on a Scientific Writing Course Academic writing in English as a foreign language poses a diversity of challenges. Conscious of the importance to their careers of proficient written English, students of the sciences are also aware they must do more than merely generate grammatically correct text. Israeli Ph.D.
candidates enrolled in a mandatory scientific writing course often comment that they want to “tell a story,” or to be able to write in such a way that their message is accurately perceived by their readers. While lessons focused on identifying collective errors proved useful in providing students with the tools they need for self-correction, collaborative error analysis in one-on-one sessions seems most effective. However, merely correcting the technical aspects of writing does not ensure language flow; it is only after employing certain additional features that smooth transitions between sentences are facilitated. Informing writers of these principles enables them to understand interpretive clues derived by readers from particular structures, thus more easily achieve in their own writing that elusive quality of flow. Using student-generated texts for purposes of demonstration, the presenter will explain these linguistic principles and show how students possessing advanced EFL writing skills might incorporate them in order to convey meaning in as clear and comprehensible a manner as possible.
[email protected] 3 Tony Waterman (Royal Air Force of Oman) in D3.09 Meaning-Focused Materials: English for Security The presenter’s 28-slide practice-oriented presentation explains the need for an innovative English course for Omani air force security personnel and sets a clear context for producing such material. He details the extensive needs analysis process undertaken and how these data were analysed to construct a comprehensive syllabus. Tony focuses on key language in security contexts for each unit of the syllabus and how this underpinned the planning and production of classroom tasks. He continues by showcasing one sub-section of one unit to exemplify the result of the design and production process and discusses the importance of multiple opportunities afforded learners for intake, uptake and output during each unit combined with regular review and re-cycling to build learners language and confidence incrementally. Tony also showcases the rationale and design of the student and teacher’s books, together with review and assessment materials. He proceeds to highlight key implications of such an approach to course design and offers conclusions regarding ESP course design involving meaning-focused language instruction. 4 Claudia Mewald and Sabine Wallner (University College of Teacher Education in
Lower Austria, Baden) in D3.17 PALM – An Interactive Platform for Language Learning in Eight Languages This paper presents the ongoing Erasmus+ project PALM, which is a 3-year collaborative endeavour of twelve schools and six higher education institutions. PALM exists through and for 6-14 year-old learners who are authors and consumers of an interactive platform in eight languages: English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Ladin and/or Spanish. Teachers supervise the pupils in text production and selection in “PALM Boards”. Learning materials for the platform are generated by teacher trainees and practising teachers. The authentic texts produced by bi- or multilingual speakers of the eight languages are intended to provide interesting reading and listening input for learners of the same age who want to study these languages. This sharing of texts and tasks that provide immediate
feedback through new media is expected to increase motivation and to develop transversal skills and multilingualism. Through writing and speaking about free-time activities, experiments, reports, films or books as well as topics that create personal interest, pupils are expected to transfer skills which have been acquired in informal and authentic contexts to situations and tasks at school. Therefore, enhancing digital integration in learning, teaching, and training at various levels is a priority of the Erasmus+ Project PALM. It aims at the strategic use of open educational resources, virtual and blended mobility through the PALM platform, which will serve as a virtual learning space for the pupils in the project and beyond. Claudia Mewald,
[email protected] Sabine Wallner,
[email protected] 14.45 – 15.25 - Parallel Presentations 1 Danny Norrington-Davies (Kings College, London) in D1.03 From Rules to Reasons and Other Little Tweaks How useful are comprehension questions, rule discovery exercises and controlled practice activities? In this presentation we will discuss some limitations of these standard practices, look at some creative alternatives and explore why focusing on reasons rather than rules can lead our learners to greater understanding of language items and provide extensive opportunities for more meaningful and communicative practice. 2 Salha Mohamed Hussain (Ministry of Education, Singapore) in D1.05 Model on the Development of Teaching Materials for the Malay Language Curriculum for Primary Schools in Singapore In 2010, the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore conducted a review of the Malay Language curriculum and pedagogy in Singapore. Through the review, some recommendations were made to nurture active learners who are able to use the Malay Language efficiently in their daily lives. In response to the review, a new Malay Language syllabus and teaching package were developed in stages. The new Malay Language teaching and learning package for primary school, called CEKAP, was implemented for Primary 1 in all primary schools from 2015. Resources developed in this package includes the text book, activity book, teacher’s guide, big books, small readers, picture cards, flash cards, a game kit and ICT resources. The development of the CEKAP package is continuous until 2020. This paper will look at the process of developing the CEKAP package from its conceptualisation stage to its implementation in the classrooms. In this materials development process, many aspects of the development need to be taken into consideration so that there is an alignment with the government’s initiatives, especially those concerning the bilingual policy in Singapore. This paper will look at a model incorporated in the development of the teaching materials in the new Malay Language Curriculum for Primary Schools and the rational for each phase of development to ensure that the resources meet the needs of every pupil in the teaching and learning of Malay Language in the primary schools.
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3 Nausica Marcos Miguel and Bob Hershberger in D3.09 Re-imagining Global Content and Pedagogy for Intermediate Spanish Language Courses The Global Crossroads’ initiative from the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) aims to 1) “advance internationalization of the programs of learning” and 2) “engage meaningfully with people and achievements of other cultural, ethnic, and linguistic traditions” at colleges in the US. Following this call, two Spanish professors at two GLCA colleges have been working to incorporate more global content in intermediate Spanish language courses. This call is particularly timely as both institutions are in the midst of major curricular renovations in order to engage global challenges of the 21st century more centrally in their respective curriculums. The textbooks utilized in two language courses were closely examined, seeking points where global topics could enhance the curriculum. Moreover, the approaches of content-based instruction and critical pedagogies were taken into consideration so that learners were reminded of issues of power and privilege when regarding other cultures and cautioned against exoticizing and essentializing these cultures to a mere collection of neutral artifacts, customs, and festivals. The approach used resonates strongly with ACTFL’s 5 Cs, i.e., Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. Materials that have been utilized in these classroom will be discussed, as well as ideas to craft further topics. We will also consider alliances with relevant interdisciplinary programs. 15.30 – 16.10 - Parallel Presentations 1 Kirstin Plante (TPRS Academy) in D1.03 Meaningful Language Teaching Through TPRS Are you curious to know what an on-the-spot meaningful language class can look like? Come sit in a Storytelling class and find out more about the successful approach of TPR Storytelling! Summary: One of the most meaningful approaches to language learning is TPR Storytelling, a very dynamic way of teaching second and foreign languages. Teacher and students co-create engaging and personalized stories, through which vocabulary and grammatical structures are acquired almost unconsciously. TPRS offers the teacher many tools to provide in an endless stream of interesting comprehensible input, through which the students can acquire the new language in a natural way. In this workshop, participants will be a language student in a Russian demo class. After the demo, there will be time to discuss ways of creating resources for this approach. 2 Gholam Hassan Khajavy (University of Bojnord, Iran) and Majid Elahi Shirvan (University of Bojnord, Iran) in D1.05 Globalization of English: The Need to Focus on Sociopragmatics in Meaning Focused Activities in D1.03 Despite a large of number of research studies emphasizing the role of pragmatics in the field of applied linguistics, the practice of materials development has been mainly focused on pragmalinguistics rather than socio pragmatics. However, with the globalization of English language, a depth of understanding concerning its diversity of context in its broad community of practice is needed to be practiced in meaning focused materials development. Thus, in this study, having developed some activities focusing on the speech act of Taarof, particular to Iranian culture, we used them in an English course with a group of Arab and
Korean intermediate learners of English. The performance of the learners in the discourse completion taks in the pre- and post tests indicated a significant improvement on their sociopragmatic awareness. The findings of this study pave the way for further practice of sociopragmatic meaning focused activities in the development of both in-house and general materials for learning English.
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[email protected] 3 Jacques Plettenburg (Fontys University, Tilburg) in D3.09 Hypocritical Pupil, My Fellow, My Brother This presentation will focus on how to train teachers to guide students to read literary texts using ‘internal locus of control’ (a term in psychotherapy). It will outline an approach which aims to train teachers to discover and develop ways of helping their students to go from dependence to self-reliance in poetry reading. An example of the proposed approach to poetry reading will be demonstrated. 16.15 – 17.15 – Alan Maley in Academietheater Make Mine Meaning It strikes me as peculiar that after so many years of ELT, we still need to talk about the centrality of meaning. What else is there? But it is also true that we have often contrived to make language learning tedious and leached of meaning. In this talk I shall focus on four aspects of meaning/meaningfulness: a) Meaningful texts and inputs, b) Meaningful processes, c) Meaningful outcomes and d) Meaningful interaction. a) will suggest criteria for text selection. Apart from more aesthetic inputs, we need to extend the range of geographical choice and of text-types we use. b) will discuss current and possible future processes to engage students, I will suggest that we need to extend the range of processes to include more creativity and critical thinking. c) considers what kinds of outcomes might engage students more meaningfully with the material being learned. One way is to give them greater choice and ownership of outcomes, and to focus on more psycho-social factors. d) discusses the quality of the interaction between teacher and students and among participants. This is perhaps the most important of all, and is currently rather poorly catered for in training programmes. 17.15 - 17.30 – Closing Remarks - Brian Tomlinson in Academietheater
Poster Presentations During Morning Coffee and Lunch in the Foyer on June 10th and 11th 1 Sajjad Pouromid (Osaka University, Japan) and Seyedeh Zahra Hoseini Nasab (Shiraz University, Iran)
Learner Meaning Making from Teacher Made Materials: Insights from Conversation Analysis Materials development research has been critical of the widespread use of “global” textbooks, an overreliance on which has resulted in the marginalization of language teachers (McGrath, 2013). There have been propositions though to empower teachers by giving them more crucial roles in evaluating, adapting and producing materials (Tomlinson, 2003; Masuhara, 2011). Teachers can be producers of materials for their own classes especially where commercially produced materials fall short of reflecting SLA research findings. They can also be in the best position to assess their materials encouraging insider evaluation. Based on these arguments, the present study sought to evaluate a teacher-made visualization task (Tomlinson, 2011) drawing upon Conversation Analysis (CA) as an emic method of inquiry. The participants comprised 32 elementary learners assigned into 16 pairs. 8 of the pairs were given an L2 poetry visualization task while the rest dealt with a task without visualization prompts. The learners’ on-task interactions were audio-recorded, transcribed and analyzed within a CA framework. The results, mindful of both actions and sequences (Schegloff, 2007), indicated that the pairs making use of the teacher-made visualizing task were more successful in dealing with vocabulary problems as well as sentence and discourse level L2 poetry meaning making. 2 Iffat Subhani (University of Southampton) Bringing EAP Material to Life: Pedagogical Relevance and Context of Application An experiment and a case study Saraceni describes “Adaptation as Awareness Development” (Tomlinson, 2003) but adaptation, does not entail exposing students to different materials alone. Equally important are pedagogical adjustments towards a cultural framework, especially in the context of Global English. It is making materials relevant to their personal and academic needs, so they use knowledge of English rather than just have information of English. This poster illustrates how I designed supplementary lessons for my students from Saudi Arabia in an academic pathway program in Toronto. Drawing on the principles of English in the lingua franca communication contexts – teaching and testing, I will show how Western content is introduced against a traditional backdrop; and combined with linguistic and stylistic features of general academic English. These are extracted from language proficiency assessments (e.g. IELTS Academic) and transferred across learning situations (EAP or exam English) because language is not dissociated from grammar, logic and rhetoric, which inform the exploratory and analytical potentials of a text. Task outcomes indicated students’ active engagement in processing semantic information after their cognitive filters were reset. Also facilitated was their development of critical interpretation of materials because the true meaning of an exposition was conveyed through their linguistic output placed in context (app.1). 3 Tony Waterman (Directorate of Education and Military Culture, Oman) Exploiting Classroom Walls
Tony’s poster offers motivational reasons for adorning classroom walls with artefacts relating to learners’ current English courses. His poster details a wide range of potential artefacts including pictures, symbols, learners’ work and more. Then a wide range of activities are presented covering how and when to exploit such artefacts. 4 Roberta Amendola (University of Sao Paulo) Teachers' Book: An Inviting and Meaningful Reading In our Master's research, we analyzed the uses and functions of textbooks of Spanish as a foreign language in Brazilian High Schools. In order to develop the research, our theoretical framework focused on the relationship between the political and educational history of textbooks and teachers training in the country. One public and one private school teacher from the state of São Paulo were given voice to identify what they believed to be the role of textbooks for students and the role of teacher's books for themselves. In this poster we highlight that, although the teachers were experienced and considered the teachers’ book important, they found it difficult to read, probably due to some deficiencies in their academic studies. As an alternative, we developed a hybrid proposal based on the instructional and informative genres, which provides support and content of continuing education to the teacher in the form of a magazine, including articles, suggestions of complementary activities and references to help the teacher use the students’ book. Although this proposal does not solve the shortcomings of primary, secondary and higher educational systems in Brazil – nor does it have this pretension –, it can contribute to the daily use of this main resource of teaching and learning. 5 Asma Aftab (University of Birmingham) Revisiting Second Language Materials: A Pakistani Perspective Language materials have been an important focus of literature in the past two decades. “Many of the books published are ‘how to’ books… but they are not based on research studies into materials” (Garton and Graves, 2014, p. 1). In contrast, Revisiting Second Language Materials: A Pakistani Perspective (Aftab, 2017) presents a fresh outlook about the field of second language materials by illustrating and applying the theoretical assumptions in research involving comprehensive analysis of the ESL textbook scenario in Pakistan for the first time. The opening chapters while assimilating broadly whatever has been written before, focus on materials from the point of view of their main aim, namely that of facilitating learners to acquire the target language in order to use it in real life situations beyond the classrooms. The readers are stimulated to critically view the proposed beliefs and concepts from an innovative stance. The main chapters discuss the findings highlighted through a recent study critically investigating the different educational aspects (primarily the textbooks) which have influenced the English language teaching context in Pakistan. This book is relevant for practitioners, researchers and students associated with the fields of ELT, TEFL, TESOL, applied linguistics, and education as well as educational policy makers, English language teachers, teacher trainers, and English language textbook writers.
HOPE YOU ENJOY THE CONFERENCE AND TILBURG