I teach a graduate school seminar on Task Based Language Learning. For the seminar we have read the Willis book, a Framework for Task Based Learning, and a chapter from the new Paul Nation book, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking which gives a lot of good ideas for tasks. The class consists of 3 Japanese graduate students and a researcher from Pakistan. Next week, they will go to a junior high school (JHS) and teach a lesson that is supposed to feature a language learning task. Our goal (or at least the goal that I imposed) is the following:
"Design a task supported lesson that will encourage communication and interaction among junior high school students to reinforce their understanding of how to use the language they have studied up to that point."
Last week the student-teachers designed a lesson plan which consisted of a jumbling task, where the JHS kids would have to order a story, and then a writing task where the JHS kids would have to write the ending of the story. The problem was that the story was too complex for the JHS kids and the writing task was too long. We went to the JHS last Thursday to present the plan to the teacher and she rightly pointed out that it would take about 3 classes to do such a task. On the way back to the university from the JHS I reiterated to the student-teachers that they needed to drastically reduce the content.
Tonight I got the new lesson plan from the student-teachers and I was shocked. The lesson is only task by name. It changed to a typical JHS lesson. To make a long story short, they plan to read half a story to the JHS kids in English, have them write the ending of the story in Japanese, and then change the story to English. Last the kids will read their English story to each other. What is worse is that the JHS where they will teach did a similar lesson which the student-teachers observed. The lesson was actually pretty good. What bothers me is that the graduate students' lesson is like a bad imitation. If they are going to fail, I want them to at least fail trying something original.
After they made their first lesson I encouraged the student-teachers to "adapt" tasks to the JHS. By "adapt" I meant reduce the content and think about how they could change the task to encourage the JHS students' language use. For some reason, they seemed to perceive my "adapt" to be completely destroy. We have one week until the lesson and I will meet with the graduate students tomorrow. Let's see what happens.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
What do kids get out of listening to an English picture book? Developing a questionnaire
At last, tomorrow the picture book pilot lessons will begin. Altogether we have conducted 2 workshops and held 2 separate meetings with teachers. I have also received some phone calls and e-mails from teachers asking for help with finding teaching materials or advice on their lesson plans. I am not sure how the lessons will go, but I can say that I have enjoyed very much working with the teachers. I think that English picture books are a great means to help children learn about language and culture but I now have a full appreciation of the time and effort necessary to make the use of English picture books possible at Japanese primary schools.
Over the past couple of years we have conducted numerous pilot lessons using picture books but this is the first time where we will be giving a questionnaire to the children. We are giving the questionnaire to find out the following:
１） Did you understand the story? (Students write a circle next to the answer they agree with)
a. I understood it well ( )
b. I understood it a little ( )
c. I did not understand it well ( )
d. I did not understand it at all ( )
a. I tried very hard （ ）
b. I tried a little （ ）
c. I did not try so hard （ ）
d. I did not try at all （ ）
a. The teacher’s facial expression when he/she was reading （ ）
b. The teacher’s voice would change from loud to soft （ ）
c. I heard words that I recognized （ ）
d. I would think about what would happen next while I was listening to the story（ ）
e. The picture （ ）
f. Asking the teachers questions （ ）
g. The teacher using Japanese （ ）
h. I did not understand the English but I could follow the story （ ）
i. The teacher’s talk before reading the book （ ）
j. Other： ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
a. It was very interesting （ ）
b. It was a little interesting （ ）
c. It was not very interesting （ ）
d. It was not interesting at all （ ）
Why do you think so? Please write a reason below.
Over the past couple of years we have conducted numerous pilot lessons using picture books but this is the first time where we will be giving a questionnaire to the children. We are giving the questionnaire to find out the following:
- How many children were able to understand the story?
- How were the children able to understand the story?
- What did the children enjoy about the story?
- What kind of activities during the lesson did the children enjoy?
- What English words did the children feel they were able to learn?
- Did they learn anything new about the USA or Japan from listening to the story?
１） Did you understand the story? (Students write a circle next to the answer they agree with)
a. I understood it well ( )
b. I understood it a little ( )
c. I did not understand it well ( )
d. I did not understand it at all ( )
- What I want to find out: This is pretty straight forward, I want to find out how many children understood the story (or at least thought they understood it)
a. I tried very hard （ ）
b. I tried a little （ ）
c. I did not try so hard （ ）
d. I did not try at all （ ）
- What I want to find out: If children did not understand the story, I want to know if they made the effort to understand or if they just decided not to pay attention
a. The teacher’s facial expression when he/she was reading （ ）
b. The teacher’s voice would change from loud to soft （ ）
c. I heard words that I recognized （ ）
d. I would think about what would happen next while I was listening to the story（ ）
e. The picture （ ）
f. Asking the teachers questions （ ）
g. The teacher using Japanese （ ）
h. I did not understand the English but I could follow the story （ ）
i. The teacher’s talk before reading the book （ ）
j. Other： ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
- What I want to find out: I want to know HOW the students were able to understand the story (What listening strategies they used).
a. It was very interesting （ ）
b. It was a little interesting （ ）
c. It was not very interesting （ ）
d. It was not interesting at all （ ）
Why do you think so? Please write a reason below.
- What I want to find out: This is pretty self-explanatory too. I want to know if the children found the story interesting. Four different types of books will be read and it will be interesting to find out which type of book captured the students' interest.
- What I want to find out:The particular part of the story that the children liked.
- What I want to find out: Did children like the pre or post-storytelling activities more than listening to the story or was it vice versa?
- What I want to find out: Were there any particular words that stuck in the children's heads?
- What I want to find out: Three of the four books are from a previous project, Cross-cultural Understanding Using Picture Books. In this project the English picture books were used to teach about aspects of the US culture, so I am interested in knowing if children thought they were able to learn anything about the USA.
- What I want to find out: Part of cross-cultural learning is making discoveries about your own culture. People say that it is impossible to understand other cultures without understanding your own. So, I want to know if children were realized anything new about their own culture in this lesson.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
A speaking task where students did not interact and an interesting discussion with my students
This is a follow-up to my previous post about a speaking task I did in a university freshman English class. In the previous class the students exchanged profiles. As a follow-up, in the next lesson we did if the "World were 100 people" activity (I admit that I am using task and activity interchangeably here) which I had used various times in other classes. In this activity, students filled out a worksheet (html version - some mistakes) (pdf version-some mistakes) citing statistics about the world if it were a village of 100 people.
The worksheet looked something like this:
After going over some difficult words/phrases with the students, I asked them to work in pairs and guess how many people for each item. First, students worked individually and filled in the blanks, then they compared answers. When their answers were different, I asked them to explain to each other why they gave that particular answer. For example, if one student thought that 10 people would be unable to read and her partner thought that 40 people would be unable to read, both students would try to justify their answers to each other. In this class, there seemed to be very little interaction among the students. After the class I asked students whether or not they agreed with the statement that
"I was able to use a lot of English when comparing answers with my partner for if the world were 1o0 people activity"
Of 20 students, 10 agreed and 10 disagreed. Their primary reasons for saying that they could not use English was that 1) the worksheet contained too many unknown words, 2) they did not have the vocabulary to explain their answers, 3) they answered based on intuition (which I encouraged them to do) and could not give a reason for their answers. Those who wrote that they agreed with the above statement did so because they were 1) trying to make me feel happy, 2) enjoyed explaining their thinking to their partners, or 3) enjoyed learning and using new words.
After students had compared answers, they watched a movie called Miniature Earth which presents the "If the World were 100 People" data. Students then write the correct answers and I asked them how accurate they were.
Lastly, we had an interesting discussion - in Japanese. As a surprising amount of people in the world live without poverty, clean water, etc. I expected that a group of Japanese university students would feel pretty fortunate about what they have (a roof over their head, an education, the financial flexibility to pursue their dreams, etc.). I asked them if they felt fortunate after watching this video. One student started speaking in Japanese and said that compared to other people in the world she is fortunate but inside Japan she is not fortunate so she does not consider herself to be so. I asked her why and she said because she cannot do what she wants. I asked her what she wants and she said that she wanted to buy a lot of things that she could not. She knew a lot of rich kids who got whatever they wanted. The bell rang and I felt guilty about having this discussion in Japanese. Before students left I told them that I wanted to have a discussion at the beginning of the next class. I told them to think of an answer to the following question and we would talk about it in English.
Are you currently satisfied with your life? Why or why not?
The next class we went outside to have the discussion. We made 2 circles, an outer circle of 10 students and an inner circle of 9 students and 1 teacher (one student was absent). At first, I told students to only speak in English and gave them some communication strategies (How do you say ~ in English etc.). One student in the inner circle talked to another in the outer circle. First, they had some light exchanges (Hey, how are you? How was your weekend? etc.) After the pleasantries, the content became deep: "Are you currently satisfied with your life? Why or why not?". At first, students had 3 minutes to talk with each other. After three minutes, the inner circle rotated and each student had a new partner. Then the inner circle and outer circle students talked again.
For pair work to be effective, I read that students need to push themselves to produce language that is a little beyond their level or their partners level. If the partner does not understand she should ask for a clarification. When an interlocutor (speaker) reformulates his utterance he can either correct a misunderstanding he has about a particular grammatical item or lexical phrase or the listener can learn a new piece of language (if the interlocutor said something that was correct and the listener just did not understand).
I have no idea what the quality of the students' interactions was because I had to be involved in the activity myself and could not monitor the conversation. I can say, though, that I heard A LOT of noise and I am sure that we annoyed the other classes who left their windows open. Hearing a lot of noise in an English speaking activity is usually a beautiful thing.
At the ending of the activity, I asked some students what their partners had said. Then, I told the whole class that I learned that many of us have problems. However, our problems such as a long commute to school, not being able to buy what we want are much smaller than what many people in this world face; living on one or two dollars a day, etc. Maybe I should have encouraged students to come up with their own conclusions or at least asked them what their conclusions were. I didn't.
At the ending of class I asked students whether or not they agreed with the following question and why:
"I was able to use a lot of English when discussing whether or not I was satisfied with my life"
18 of 19 students agreed with this statement. They wrote that they were able to express their ideas in English.
So, why did the first speaking activity not work so well and the second activity work well? I have learned that these students like to talk about themselves and their own lives. It is a way that they can get to know their classmates and maybe even make some friends. It is also something that they can talk about with very little preparation because (as they should) they know a lot about themselves. As college freshmen, though, they are not so knowledgeable of global issues. Therefore, some students struggled to give a reason for their estimates in "If the World were 100 People activity." Thus, next time we have a discussion about global issues I need to make sure that students have enough knowledge of the content beforehand.
The worksheet looked something like this:
If the world were 100 peopleetc... There are a lot of items.
there would be ____________ Asians
there would be ____________ Europeans
there would be ____________ Africans
there would be ____________ from North America
there would be ____________ from South America and the Caribbean
___________ people would have no clean, safe, water to drink
___________ own 59% of the entire wealth of the community.
___________ would be undernourished
___________ would be unable to read
____________ would be educated at a secondary level
After going over some difficult words/phrases with the students, I asked them to work in pairs and guess how many people for each item. First, students worked individually and filled in the blanks, then they compared answers. When their answers were different, I asked them to explain to each other why they gave that particular answer. For example, if one student thought that 10 people would be unable to read and her partner thought that 40 people would be unable to read, both students would try to justify their answers to each other. In this class, there seemed to be very little interaction among the students. After the class I asked students whether or not they agreed with the statement that
"I was able to use a lot of English when comparing answers with my partner for if the world were 1o0 people activity"
Of 20 students, 10 agreed and 10 disagreed. Their primary reasons for saying that they could not use English was that 1) the worksheet contained too many unknown words, 2) they did not have the vocabulary to explain their answers, 3) they answered based on intuition (which I encouraged them to do) and could not give a reason for their answers. Those who wrote that they agreed with the above statement did so because they were 1) trying to make me feel happy, 2) enjoyed explaining their thinking to their partners, or 3) enjoyed learning and using new words.
After students had compared answers, they watched a movie called Miniature Earth which presents the "If the World were 100 People" data. Students then write the correct answers and I asked them how accurate they were.
Lastly, we had an interesting discussion - in Japanese. As a surprising amount of people in the world live without poverty, clean water, etc. I expected that a group of Japanese university students would feel pretty fortunate about what they have (a roof over their head, an education, the financial flexibility to pursue their dreams, etc.). I asked them if they felt fortunate after watching this video. One student started speaking in Japanese and said that compared to other people in the world she is fortunate but inside Japan she is not fortunate so she does not consider herself to be so. I asked her why and she said because she cannot do what she wants. I asked her what she wants and she said that she wanted to buy a lot of things that she could not. She knew a lot of rich kids who got whatever they wanted. The bell rang and I felt guilty about having this discussion in Japanese. Before students left I told them that I wanted to have a discussion at the beginning of the next class. I told them to think of an answer to the following question and we would talk about it in English.
Are you currently satisfied with your life? Why or why not?
The next class we went outside to have the discussion. We made 2 circles, an outer circle of 10 students and an inner circle of 9 students and 1 teacher (one student was absent). At first, I told students to only speak in English and gave them some communication strategies (How do you say ~ in English etc.). One student in the inner circle talked to another in the outer circle. First, they had some light exchanges (Hey, how are you? How was your weekend? etc.) After the pleasantries, the content became deep: "Are you currently satisfied with your life? Why or why not?". At first, students had 3 minutes to talk with each other. After three minutes, the inner circle rotated and each student had a new partner. Then the inner circle and outer circle students talked again.
For pair work to be effective, I read that students need to push themselves to produce language that is a little beyond their level or their partners level. If the partner does not understand she should ask for a clarification. When an interlocutor (speaker) reformulates his utterance he can either correct a misunderstanding he has about a particular grammatical item or lexical phrase or the listener can learn a new piece of language (if the interlocutor said something that was correct and the listener just did not understand).
I have no idea what the quality of the students' interactions was because I had to be involved in the activity myself and could not monitor the conversation. I can say, though, that I heard A LOT of noise and I am sure that we annoyed the other classes who left their windows open. Hearing a lot of noise in an English speaking activity is usually a beautiful thing.
At the ending of the activity, I asked some students what their partners had said. Then, I told the whole class that I learned that many of us have problems. However, our problems such as a long commute to school, not being able to buy what we want are much smaller than what many people in this world face; living on one or two dollars a day, etc. Maybe I should have encouraged students to come up with their own conclusions or at least asked them what their conclusions were. I didn't.
At the ending of class I asked students whether or not they agreed with the following question and why:
"I was able to use a lot of English when discussing whether or not I was satisfied with my life"
18 of 19 students agreed with this statement. They wrote that they were able to express their ideas in English.
So, why did the first speaking activity not work so well and the second activity work well? I have learned that these students like to talk about themselves and their own lives. It is a way that they can get to know their classmates and maybe even make some friends. It is also something that they can talk about with very little preparation because (as they should) they know a lot about themselves. As college freshmen, though, they are not so knowledgeable of global issues. Therefore, some students struggled to give a reason for their estimates in "If the World were 100 People activity." Thus, next time we have a discussion about global issues I need to make sure that students have enough knowledge of the content beforehand.
Friday, May 29, 2009
A Simple Speaking Task where students actually interacted!
The other day I did a simple speaking task that worked very well with college freshmen who are novice English speakers. There are 20 students in this class and they are a little reserved but very considerate and copperative young men and women.
We are using the textbook Global Issues by Tim Grose. The text book has a profile of a boy living in India talking about his family, school and future dreams. This boy has to drop out of school to support his family.
Class 1: I asked the students to write their own profile in the 3rd person. I asked them to talk about their family, their school history and their future dreams. I asked them to use the profile in the textbook for ideas on how they can write their profile.
Class 2: Students handed in their profiles. Some tried hard and others simply wrote 8 - 10 sentences with no real coherence. I took their papers home and underlined mistakes or parts that I could not understand. I also wrote comments such as "connect your sentences" or requests for students to add more content.
Class 3: First, I put students in pairs. I handed back the papers to the students and asked them to revise their papers. I told them to consult with their partner or me if they were not sure how to revise their papers. I realize that this was not real pair work, but I have found that it is best to make peer feedback optional among students if they still do not know each other well. It took them about 20 minutes. I walked around the class and ended up helping each student individually.
When they were finished revising, I told students to read their paper to their partner (without showing the paper!). The partner would write key words. After each student read their profile, pairs joined to make groups of 4. Students would then use their notes to tell their new group members their partners' profiles. I made this activity "English only" and encouraged students to ask each other about words that they understood. I was surprised about the amount of English use and interaction in this activity because usually these students were very hesitant to interact with each other in English.
When the groups of 4 were finished, I asked various groups interesting things they heard about their classmates.
At the ending of the class I asked students to answer the following questions on their response cards
1) What did you learn today?
2) Do you think that this activity is useful? Why or why not?
3) I could introduce my partner to other people.
a) strongly agree b) agree c) disagree d) strongly disagree
4) I could understand other people's profiles.
a) strongly agree b) agree c) disagree d) strongly disagree
5) I asked questions when I could not understand.
a) strongly agree b) agree c) disagree d) strongly disagree
Many of the students wrote various phrases or vocabulary they had learned after writing their profiles and getting feedback. Other students wrote vocabulary they had learned from listening to other people's profiles. Two students wrote that they learned about how to connect sentences. Four students wrote that they learned nothing but that they thought the activity was useful! (In hindsight, question 2 was not a good question.)
Class 4: I found that the previous week's task gave us a good reason to study conjunctions and I gave students a conjunction worksheet to complete for the next week. We did a follow up task where we did the if the World were 100 Peopleactivity. There was much less interaction among the students during this activity. In my next post, I would like to talk about why this was so.
We are using the textbook Global Issues by Tim Grose. The text book has a profile of a boy living in India talking about his family, school and future dreams. This boy has to drop out of school to support his family.
Class 1: I asked the students to write their own profile in the 3rd person. I asked them to talk about their family, their school history and their future dreams. I asked them to use the profile in the textbook for ideas on how they can write their profile.
Class 2: Students handed in their profiles. Some tried hard and others simply wrote 8 - 10 sentences with no real coherence. I took their papers home and underlined mistakes or parts that I could not understand. I also wrote comments such as "connect your sentences" or requests for students to add more content.
Class 3: First, I put students in pairs. I handed back the papers to the students and asked them to revise their papers. I told them to consult with their partner or me if they were not sure how to revise their papers. I realize that this was not real pair work, but I have found that it is best to make peer feedback optional among students if they still do not know each other well. It took them about 20 minutes. I walked around the class and ended up helping each student individually.
When they were finished revising, I told students to read their paper to their partner (without showing the paper!). The partner would write key words. After each student read their profile, pairs joined to make groups of 4. Students would then use their notes to tell their new group members their partners' profiles. I made this activity "English only" and encouraged students to ask each other about words that they understood. I was surprised about the amount of English use and interaction in this activity because usually these students were very hesitant to interact with each other in English.
When the groups of 4 were finished, I asked various groups interesting things they heard about their classmates.
At the ending of the class I asked students to answer the following questions on their response cards
1) What did you learn today?
2) Do you think that this activity is useful? Why or why not?
3) I could introduce my partner to other people.
a) strongly agree b) agree c) disagree d) strongly disagree
4) I could understand other people's profiles.
a) strongly agree b) agree c) disagree d) strongly disagree
5) I asked questions when I could not understand.
a) strongly agree b) agree c) disagree d) strongly disagree
Many of the students wrote various phrases or vocabulary they had learned after writing their profiles and getting feedback. Other students wrote vocabulary they had learned from listening to other people's profiles. Two students wrote that they learned about how to connect sentences. Four students wrote that they learned nothing but that they thought the activity was useful! (In hindsight, question 2 was not a good question.)
Class 4: I found that the previous week's task gave us a good reason to study conjunctions and I gave students a conjunction worksheet to complete for the next week. We did a follow up task where we did the if the World were 100 Peopleactivity. There was much less interaction among the students during this activity. In my next post, I would like to talk about why this was so.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Why Tasks are not incorporated into many Japanese secondary school English classrooms (Part 2)
This is a continuation fo my last post. Today, I read a great article that attempts to explain problems that teachers have with adopting communicative language teaching (CLT) and task-based language teaching (TBLT) into East Asian classrooms. The article is Communicative and task-based language teaching in East Asian classrooms by William Littlewood and appeared in Language Teaching (2007), 40: 243-249.
Littlewood gives 5 concerns that teachers have with CLT and TBLT
1) Classroom management: Students misbehave or slack off
2) Avoidance of English: Students and teachers do not use English during the task
3) Minimal demands of language Competence: Students use minimal language or non-verbal communication to complete a task; they do not challenge themselves to experiment with new or complex language.
4) Incompatibility with public assessment: Task objectives are inconsistent with standardized tests or university entrance examinations
5) Tasks conflict with educational values and traditions: TBLT and CLT are based on western conceptions of learning that might differ from that of countries in East Asia.
Littlewood argues that a solution for these problems is for teachers to "adapt" rather than "adopt". He argues that no single set of methods will fit all teachers in all contexts. Thus a teacher should probably attempt to adapt the strengths of multiple methods to their respective contexts to maximize their students' learning potential.
Littlewood's last argument is that many teachers have misconceptions about TBLT and CLT. For example, many teachers believe that in CLT students only speak and do not study grammar. Regarding TBLT, there are various definitions for "task" in the literature and many educators have different ideas of what a task is. He argues that if teachers have a better understanding of CLT and TBLT it will help them adopt these approaches into their teaching.
This year, I hope to offer some solutions for the issues raised in my first and second post through working with secondary school English teachers in my community. Hopefully, I will have some solutions posted in a couple of months.
Littlewood gives 5 concerns that teachers have with CLT and TBLT
1) Classroom management: Students misbehave or slack off
2) Avoidance of English: Students and teachers do not use English during the task
3) Minimal demands of language Competence: Students use minimal language or non-verbal communication to complete a task; they do not challenge themselves to experiment with new or complex language.
4) Incompatibility with public assessment: Task objectives are inconsistent with standardized tests or university entrance examinations
5) Tasks conflict with educational values and traditions: TBLT and CLT are based on western conceptions of learning that might differ from that of countries in East Asia.
Littlewood argues that a solution for these problems is for teachers to "adapt" rather than "adopt". He argues that no single set of methods will fit all teachers in all contexts. Thus a teacher should probably attempt to adapt the strengths of multiple methods to their respective contexts to maximize their students' learning potential.
Littlewood's last argument is that many teachers have misconceptions about TBLT and CLT. For example, many teachers believe that in CLT students only speak and do not study grammar. Regarding TBLT, there are various definitions for "task" in the literature and many educators have different ideas of what a task is. He argues that if teachers have a better understanding of CLT and TBLT it will help them adopt these approaches into their teaching.
This year, I hope to offer some solutions for the issues raised in my first and second post through working with secondary school English teachers in my community. Hopefully, I will have some solutions posted in a couple of months.
Why Tasks are not incorporated into many Japanese secondary school English classrooms
I just read an interesting chapter and article about problems that teachers encounter with Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT). In this post I will talk about the chapter. The chapter, "Pedagogic Perspectives on Second Language Tasks" is from Tasks in Language Learning by Virginia Samuda and Martic Bygate (2005, Palgrave Macmillan) and it attempts to explain why TBLT is not adopted in many educational contexts.
First, Samuda and Bygate argue that the three primary reasons that teachers do not use TBLT is the following 1) The decision to use tasks is a top-down decision made by people sitting in high places who are far removed from the teachers' daily grind. 2) Teachers are pessimistic about the potential pedagogic value of tasks. 3) Unrealistic demands are placed on teachers to dramatically change their way of teaching instantaneously. I think that these reasons show that change in education must also be a bottom-up process. Just telling teachers what they should do will not convince them to adapt new teaching methodologies into their classrooms.
Samuda and Bygate also list the following logistical issues that teachers have with tasks:
I do not think "using tasks to introduce new language" is a relevant issue. Samuda and Bygate make a distinction between Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) and Task Supported Language teaching(TSLT). In TBLT, the task is the central component of the syllabus while in TSLT tasks are used with a pedagogic purpose to help accomplish some of the goals of the syllabus. Tasks themselves in TBLT or TSLT are not different, but the ways in which tasks are used is different (Being the central part of the curriculum vs. helping to realize the learning goals of the curriculum). In the Japanese public secondary school which is based on a nationally approved structural syllabus and students have limited time to study English, I do not think that TBLT is viable. Thus, I do not think that the issue of using tasks to introduce new language is relevant.
Samuda and Bygate argue that tasks can serve a variety of purposes (provide students with an opportunity to use language that they have studied, give them an opportunity to experience real-world language use for a situation they might find themselve them in, learn communication strategies, enhance students' motivation - these examples are mine) and that teachers should not equate tasks with TBLT. I agree that teachers should adapt tasks into their current teaching (TSLT) rather and that expecting teachers do adopt a whole new teaching methodology (TBLT) is not feasible. The next article I will write about, addresses this issue.
First, Samuda and Bygate argue that the three primary reasons that teachers do not use TBLT is the following 1) The decision to use tasks is a top-down decision made by people sitting in high places who are far removed from the teachers' daily grind. 2) Teachers are pessimistic about the potential pedagogic value of tasks. 3) Unrealistic demands are placed on teachers to dramatically change their way of teaching instantaneously. I think that these reasons show that change in education must also be a bottom-up process. Just telling teachers what they should do will not convince them to adapt new teaching methodologies into their classrooms.
Samuda and Bygate also list the following logistical issues that teachers have with tasks:
- Using tasks in monolingual classes
- Matching tasks with skill levels
- Integrating tasks with a prescribed syllabus
- Viability of tasks with beginning students
- Using tasks in mixed ability classes
- Using tasks to introduce new language
- Giving feedback on task performance: how and when
- Fitting tasks with other kinds of activities
- Tasks and grammar learning
- Motivating students to engage in tasks
I do not think "using tasks to introduce new language" is a relevant issue. Samuda and Bygate make a distinction between Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) and Task Supported Language teaching(TSLT). In TBLT, the task is the central component of the syllabus while in TSLT tasks are used with a pedagogic purpose to help accomplish some of the goals of the syllabus. Tasks themselves in TBLT or TSLT are not different, but the ways in which tasks are used is different (Being the central part of the curriculum vs. helping to realize the learning goals of the curriculum). In the Japanese public secondary school which is based on a nationally approved structural syllabus and students have limited time to study English, I do not think that TBLT is viable. Thus, I do not think that the issue of using tasks to introduce new language is relevant.
Samuda and Bygate argue that tasks can serve a variety of purposes (provide students with an opportunity to use language that they have studied, give them an opportunity to experience real-world language use for a situation they might find themselve them in, learn communication strategies, enhance students' motivation - these examples are mine) and that teachers should not equate tasks with TBLT. I agree that teachers should adapt tasks into their current teaching (TSLT) rather and that expecting teachers do adopt a whole new teaching methodology (TBLT) is not feasible. The next article I will write about, addresses this issue.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Conducting a Workshop on Using English Picture Books: Part 2 - How to read an English picture book
Introduction
This workshop was held on April 23 and was the second and last workshop for School A teachers on how to use English picture books. In the first workshop, I gave the teachers a very robust handout on the structure of a lesson using English picture books as well as a list of possible activities (see the previous post) . During the last workshop, I realized that I had talked too much and this time I decided to talk as little as possible and let the participants do 90 percent of the work.
Details of the Second Workshop
In the workshop we did the following:
1. My colleague and I told teachers 4 key points to reading picture books. (10 minutes)
2. We did pronunciation practice for warm up (5 minutes)
3. Practice reading the books in groups. (40 minutes)
4. Each group read its story to everyone else. (25 minutes)
5. Final words
The 研究就任 (lead researchers) of School A facilitated the workshop by introducing and ending each activity as well as giving the teachers instructions. This was immensely helpful. Also, the lead researchers and I planned the workshop together. I will now briefly write what we did for each stage.
1) Four Key Points for Reading English Picture Books
There are of course many more than four key points but I wanted my talk to be as brief but also meaningful as possible so I tried to condense a lot of information into 4 key points. I talked about two key points and my colleague spoke about another two key points. The four key points we discussed are below.
1) You can do it! (If you practice)
2) Plan ahead what kind of questions you will ask and when
3) Abbreviate parts of the story if necessary
4) There are ways to help the children understand other than translation. Pre-storytelling activities, questioning techniques, the book’s pictures, the reader’s expression, intonation, and variation in rhythm will help children understand the story.
The points were elaborated upon and you can see the details in the handout I gave the teachers (in Japanese).
Sixth Grade teachers (Yoko, for a description see CCUP)
Fifth Grade teachers (Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs, for a description see CCUP)
3rd and 4th Grade Teachers (Tulip Sees America, for a description see CCUP)
1st and 2nd Grade Teachers (Suddenly)
The text for Yoko, Nana, and Tulip had been rewritten and simplified by me. Also the book's pages had been scanned and then printed onto A3 sized paper to make them easier to see. I also laminated these pages so they could be preserved. The simplified text was pasted onto the back of each page. Lastly, each group had a recording of me reading their book.
Again, each group was very enthusiastic about practicing. First, they listened to the CD. Many of them highlighted words which were emphasized or wrote accent marks over the parts of words that were stressed.
After listening the teachers practiced reading paying particular attention to how to pronounce the words as well as the proper intonation. During this time, my colleague, the lead researchers and I walked around and provided assistance when needed. I spent a lot of time with the group reading Nana because it was the most difficult book to read.
I would like to note that the teachers did not think of questions to get children involved in the storytelling because it was beyond the scope of the workshop.
4) Storytelling
In this stage each group read its book to the rest of the teachers. After each group read their book, the other teachers wrote them a feedback sheet on their reading. This sheet can be seen in the handout. The feedback sheet consisted of the following questions:
1) Did you understand the content of the story?
2) Which parts of the story were difficult to understand?
3) Did the way in which the story read make you want to listen more and make you anticipate how the story would develop? If so, which part was particularly effective in catching your interest?
4) Any other feedback?
At the ending of the workshop each group received its feedback sheets.
Some teachers read the story very well while others were a little difficult to understand. To my surprise, Nana was read particularly well. Tulip was the most difficult to understand. The reason for this was that to understand this book pre-storytelling activities are important but we did not do any pre-storytelling activities. The teachers were very enthusiastic about reading the books in front of their peers. It will be interesting to see how the books are received by the students. Lessons will begin in June.
5) Final Words
My colleague and I gave our final thoughts. I decided to use English this time because the teachers had been working so hard to speak English and the atmosphere had changed from a formal training session to a real English education workshop. I told the teachers that reading the book was just part of the storytelling lesson and that pre-storytelling activities, post-storytelling activities, and conceiving of ways to get children to participate were essential to conducting a successful lesson. I then pointed out some words that each group had difficulty pronouncing. Lastly, I congratulated the teachers on their effort and encouraged them to keep on practicing. At the ending of the workshop, the teachers also wrote a workshop evaluation sheet that is also on the handout. The questions the teachers answered were:
1) What did you learn in the workshop?
2) What content would you like to learn more about next time?
We have yet to analyze the teachers' responses.
This workshop was held on April 23 and was the second and last workshop for School A teachers on how to use English picture books. In the first workshop, I gave the teachers a very robust handout on the structure of a lesson using English picture books as well as a list of possible activities (see the previous post) . During the last workshop, I realized that I had talked too much and this time I decided to talk as little as possible and let the participants do 90 percent of the work.
Details of the Second Workshop
In the workshop we did the following:
1. My colleague and I told teachers 4 key points to reading picture books. (10 minutes)
2. We did pronunciation practice for warm up (5 minutes)
3. Practice reading the books in groups. (40 minutes)
4. Each group read its story to everyone else. (25 minutes)
5. Final words
The 研究就任 (lead researchers) of School A facilitated the workshop by introducing and ending each activity as well as giving the teachers instructions. This was immensely helpful. Also, the lead researchers and I planned the workshop together. I will now briefly write what we did for each stage.
1) Four Key Points for Reading English Picture Books
There are of course many more than four key points but I wanted my talk to be as brief but also meaningful as possible so I tried to condense a lot of information into 4 key points. I talked about two key points and my colleague spoke about another two key points. The four key points we discussed are below.
1) You can do it! (If you practice)
2) Plan ahead what kind of questions you will ask and when
3) Abbreviate parts of the story if necessary
4) There are ways to help the children understand other than translation. Pre-storytelling activities, questioning techniques, the book’s pictures, the reader’s expression, intonation, and variation in rhythm will help children understand the story.
The points were elaborated upon and you can see the details in the handout I gave the teachers (in Japanese).
2. Pronunciation practice
My colleague prepared a print which featured sets of minimal pairs which were typically difficult for Japanese speakers to pronounce. I led the practice and I was surprised at how enthusiastically the teachers participated.
3) Practice reading the books in groups
The teachers were divided into four groups, each group had a different picture book:Sixth Grade teachers (Yoko, for a description see CCUP)
Fifth Grade teachers (Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs, for a description see CCUP)
3rd and 4th Grade Teachers (Tulip Sees America, for a description see CCUP)
1st and 2nd Grade Teachers (Suddenly)
The text for Yoko, Nana, and Tulip had been rewritten and simplified by me. Also the book's pages had been scanned and then printed onto A3 sized paper to make them easier to see. I also laminated these pages so they could be preserved. The simplified text was pasted onto the back of each page. Lastly, each group had a recording of me reading their book.
Again, each group was very enthusiastic about practicing. First, they listened to the CD. Many of them highlighted words which were emphasized or wrote accent marks over the parts of words that were stressed.
After listening the teachers practiced reading paying particular attention to how to pronounce the words as well as the proper intonation. During this time, my colleague, the lead researchers and I walked around and provided assistance when needed. I spent a lot of time with the group reading Nana because it was the most difficult book to read.
I would like to note that the teachers did not think of questions to get children involved in the storytelling because it was beyond the scope of the workshop.
4) Storytelling
In this stage each group read its book to the rest of the teachers. After each group read their book, the other teachers wrote them a feedback sheet on their reading. This sheet can be seen in the handout. The feedback sheet consisted of the following questions:
1) Did you understand the content of the story?
2) Which parts of the story were difficult to understand?
3) Did the way in which the story read make you want to listen more and make you anticipate how the story would develop? If so, which part was particularly effective in catching your interest?
4) Any other feedback?
At the ending of the workshop each group received its feedback sheets.
Some teachers read the story very well while others were a little difficult to understand. To my surprise, Nana was read particularly well. Tulip was the most difficult to understand. The reason for this was that to understand this book pre-storytelling activities are important but we did not do any pre-storytelling activities. The teachers were very enthusiastic about reading the books in front of their peers. It will be interesting to see how the books are received by the students. Lessons will begin in June.
5) Final Words
My colleague and I gave our final thoughts. I decided to use English this time because the teachers had been working so hard to speak English and the atmosphere had changed from a formal training session to a real English education workshop. I told the teachers that reading the book was just part of the storytelling lesson and that pre-storytelling activities, post-storytelling activities, and conceiving of ways to get children to participate were essential to conducting a successful lesson. I then pointed out some words that each group had difficulty pronouncing. Lastly, I congratulated the teachers on their effort and encouraged them to keep on practicing. At the ending of the workshop, the teachers also wrote a workshop evaluation sheet that is also on the handout. The questions the teachers answered were:
1) What did you learn in the workshop?
2) What content would you like to learn more about next time?
We have yet to analyze the teachers' responses.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Conducting a Workshop on Using English Picture Books: Teaching the structure of a picture book lesson
Background
Last Thursday, as part of the Working with Picture Books Project, I went to the primary school affiliated with my university (hereafter, School A) to give a workshop about using English picture books. A Japanese colleague in my department accompanied me. The 研究主任 (lead researcher) of School A also helped me facilitate the workshop.
We have planned to give two workshops of an hour and a half to the School a teachers about using English picture books. The first workshop, which has already been completed, was supposed to help teachers learn about the structure of a lesson using an English picture book and the second workshop is designed to give teachers confidence in reading English picture books. Starting in June, teachers will start conducting lessons using English picture books which will have been conceived in these workshops.
In this post, I will summarize the first workshop. As a facilitator I would give myself a grade of a C -, and I am being generous. I hope that this post might give readers ideas of some "dos" and "don'ts" when conducting workshops.
Workshop 1: Planning and Conducting Lessons Using English Picture Books
The aim of this workshop was to give teachers as many practical ideas as possible for using English picture books and help them understand the structure these kinds of lessons. The outline of the workshop was below, it was supposed to last 90 minutes.
1) Introduction (Lead Researcher) 5 min
2) Advice for using English picture books (me and my colleague) 20 min
3) School A Teachers design a rough lesson plan using a picture book (divided into 4 groups) (35 minutes)
4) Each group presents their lessons (20 minutes)
5) Comments about the lessons (my colleague and me) (5 minutes)
I prepared a 7-paged print in Japanese which discussed
1) The reasons for using English picture books as well as three primary uses of English picture books (teach about language, culture, or just to enjoy the story)
2) Secrets for giving a successful lesson
3) How to prepare for a lesson using English picture books
4) The structure of a lessons
Stage 1: Pre-storytelling (The goal of this stage and various activities)
Stage 2: Storytelling (The objective of this stage and various techniques for reading)
Stage 3: Post-Storytelling (The goal of this stage and activities for language study, activities that involve reading the book again, activities that involve discussion, activities that involve cultural learning)
I am putting the file of this handout on-line. The print does not have a reference list so I will describe which sources I referenced for each section and include a bibliography at the bottom of this post. For 1) my reference was the Japanese translation of Brewster & Ellis (2008, in Japanese) and my own research (Hall, 2008). The secrets for giving a successful lesson came from my own observations and opinions of the lead researcher for School A. References for 3) came from my own observations, Ellis & Brewster (1991), and Wright (1995). Ideas for 4) came from myself(ホール, in press), Wright (1996) , Ellis & Brewster (2008), and Ur & Wright (1992).
First, it was my turn to speak. I told the School A teachers that I was so happy to be able to collaborate with them and that I was going to summarize what I had learned about using English picture books over the past year. I also told them that I was looking forward to expand the content of the handout by working together with them. There was a lot of information on the print and I told them that I would only highlight the important parts. I had also prepared a DVD to show them scenes of teachers conducting pre-storytelling and post-storytelling activities.
I HAD planned to tell them that I hoped that they would use the handout as a reference when making their lesson plans but I forgot! I was a little nervous. I was dressed in a suit, something I am not accustomed to, and the participants were dressed in much nicer attire. While I was talking, the lead researcher was kind enough to write notes in his computer about what I said. His notes appeared on the screen behind me as I spoke. His notes have been a valuable way for me to know what I actually said. His notes were much more eloquent than what came out of my mouth. My Japanese is not bad, but my wife tells me that when I speak publicly, I speak with a stronger foreign accent and make more grammatical mistakes than I usually do. I was feeling a little self conscious about my Japanese. I always enjoy the opportunity to give workshops in Japanese because it enables me to understand how my students feel when I put them on the spot and also improves my foreign language skills. However, my inability to relax probably made my presentation a little difficult to understand for the listeners.
I finished my presentation in 25 minutes. Given the amount of material I had, going 5 minutes over time was not bad. However, I now realize that I gave them too much information and this might have prevented the teachers from understanding my main message: "English picture books are a wonderful way for children to make discoveries about the world around them as well as the English language and I want to give you tips for conducting classes that children can understand and enjoy". If I could do the presentation again, I would know what information to include and what to not include. Unfortunately, the only way for me to learn this was to appear on stage and give a mediocre performance.
After my presentation, the teachers were divided into groups. We asked teachers to give a proposal for a lesson using an English picture book and then present their ideas. The teachers were asked to discuss the following in their presentation:
1) The focus of their lesson: language, culture, or the story
2) The number of periods they would need to conduct their lesson
3) Possible pre-storytelling, storytelling techniques, and post-storytelling activities.
The teachers were divided into four groups, each group with a different picture book:
Sixth Grade teachers (Yoko, for a description see CCUP)
Fifth Grade teachers (Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs, for a description see CCUP)
3rd and 4th Grade Teachers (Tulip Sees America, for a description see CCUP)
1st and 2nd Grade Teachers (Suddenly)
I rewrote the text for Yoko, Nana and Tulip to make the stories shorter. According to Wright (1995), stories should not last over 10 minutes because children's concentration will not last longer than that. Each group devoted a fair amount of time to reading the story and trying to understand it. I sat with the group who was preparing a lesson plan for Yoko. I tried not to interfere and only spoke when they asked me something. When they were preparing their presentation, they did not discuss any of the points they were asked to nor did they use the print I had made to help them think of activities. These teachers were veterans who had their own ideas about how they could use the book. I was not offended that they did not use any of my ideas because when I am a participant of a workshop doing a group task, I also tend to produce something different from what the facilitator plans. I guess that is what makes us educators human: We are all unique and we each have different ideas for handling the same material.
After about 45 minutes, each group gave a presentation. I was in deep thought during the group presentations. I realized that one problem with this workshop was that we had chosen the books for each group. I think that for an English picture book lesson to work the teacher herself must be interested in the book. If the teacher believes that the book contains a message that children will find appealing than she will work very hard to use the book in such a way that children understand the appeal of the story. It felt like one of the groups did not see how their story would appeal to the children. If this is indeed true, I would have no problem with them choosing another book.
After the presentations, my colleague and I were supposed to give the presenters advice. My colleague gave the presenters good advice about the importance of linking the story with children's own experiences and the importance of determining what skill in children you want to build through English activities (imagination, listening strategies, etc.)
I, on the other hand, was surprised about how the ideas of each group were different from each other and from mine. I basically felt that I had no advice to give, I was just interested in knowing how the lessons would turn out and seeing what kind of discoveries about using English picture books these lessons might lead to. Speaking in Japanese, I said that I realized how many different ways there are to use English picture books. I should have shut up after that but then I actually tried to give some advice when I should have just said what I really felt (I was interested in seeing how the lessons turned out).
What did I learn from this experience? First, of course, it would have been better to have more time and it would have been better to ask the groups to read the books before the workshop. However, Japanese elementary school teachers are very busy and I think workshops should be as minimally demanding of their time as possible. Therefore, workshops need to be short and to the point. For this workshop, I prepared a handout that I could have used for an entire 90 minute lecture. If I could have done this workshop all over again, I would have given them a much more condensed version of the handout.
I also learned the importance of being yourself when speaking publicly and not giving advice for the sake of giving advice. I am looking forward to the next workshop with the teachers where we will practice reading the books.
Bibliography
Last Thursday, as part of the Working with Picture Books Project, I went to the primary school affiliated with my university (hereafter, School A) to give a workshop about using English picture books. A Japanese colleague in my department accompanied me. The 研究主任 (lead researcher) of School A also helped me facilitate the workshop.
We have planned to give two workshops of an hour and a half to the School a teachers about using English picture books. The first workshop, which has already been completed, was supposed to help teachers learn about the structure of a lesson using an English picture book and the second workshop is designed to give teachers confidence in reading English picture books. Starting in June, teachers will start conducting lessons using English picture books which will have been conceived in these workshops.
In this post, I will summarize the first workshop. As a facilitator I would give myself a grade of a C -, and I am being generous. I hope that this post might give readers ideas of some "dos" and "don'ts" when conducting workshops.
Workshop 1: Planning and Conducting Lessons Using English Picture Books
The aim of this workshop was to give teachers as many practical ideas as possible for using English picture books and help them understand the structure these kinds of lessons. The outline of the workshop was below, it was supposed to last 90 minutes.
1) Introduction (Lead Researcher) 5 min
2) Advice for using English picture books (me and my colleague) 20 min
3) School A Teachers design a rough lesson plan using a picture book (divided into 4 groups) (35 minutes)
4) Each group presents their lessons (20 minutes)
5) Comments about the lessons (my colleague and me) (5 minutes)
I prepared a 7-paged print in Japanese which discussed
1) The reasons for using English picture books as well as three primary uses of English picture books (teach about language, culture, or just to enjoy the story)
2) Secrets for giving a successful lesson
3) How to prepare for a lesson using English picture books
4) The structure of a lessons
Stage 1: Pre-storytelling (The goal of this stage and various activities)
Stage 2: Storytelling (The objective of this stage and various techniques for reading)
Stage 3: Post-Storytelling (The goal of this stage and activities for language study, activities that involve reading the book again, activities that involve discussion, activities that involve cultural learning)
I am putting the file of this handout on-line. The print does not have a reference list so I will describe which sources I referenced for each section and include a bibliography at the bottom of this post. For 1) my reference was the Japanese translation of Brewster & Ellis (2008, in Japanese) and my own research (Hall, 2008). The secrets for giving a successful lesson came from my own observations and opinions of the lead researcher for School A. References for 3) came from my own observations, Ellis & Brewster (1991), and Wright (1995). Ideas for 4) came from myself(ホール, in press), Wright (1996) , Ellis & Brewster (2008), and Ur & Wright (1992).
First, it was my turn to speak. I told the School A teachers that I was so happy to be able to collaborate with them and that I was going to summarize what I had learned about using English picture books over the past year. I also told them that I was looking forward to expand the content of the handout by working together with them. There was a lot of information on the print and I told them that I would only highlight the important parts. I had also prepared a DVD to show them scenes of teachers conducting pre-storytelling and post-storytelling activities.
I HAD planned to tell them that I hoped that they would use the handout as a reference when making their lesson plans but I forgot! I was a little nervous. I was dressed in a suit, something I am not accustomed to, and the participants were dressed in much nicer attire. While I was talking, the lead researcher was kind enough to write notes in his computer about what I said. His notes appeared on the screen behind me as I spoke. His notes have been a valuable way for me to know what I actually said. His notes were much more eloquent than what came out of my mouth. My Japanese is not bad, but my wife tells me that when I speak publicly, I speak with a stronger foreign accent and make more grammatical mistakes than I usually do. I was feeling a little self conscious about my Japanese. I always enjoy the opportunity to give workshops in Japanese because it enables me to understand how my students feel when I put them on the spot and also improves my foreign language skills. However, my inability to relax probably made my presentation a little difficult to understand for the listeners.
I finished my presentation in 25 minutes. Given the amount of material I had, going 5 minutes over time was not bad. However, I now realize that I gave them too much information and this might have prevented the teachers from understanding my main message: "English picture books are a wonderful way for children to make discoveries about the world around them as well as the English language and I want to give you tips for conducting classes that children can understand and enjoy". If I could do the presentation again, I would know what information to include and what to not include. Unfortunately, the only way for me to learn this was to appear on stage and give a mediocre performance.
After my presentation, the teachers were divided into groups. We asked teachers to give a proposal for a lesson using an English picture book and then present their ideas. The teachers were asked to discuss the following in their presentation:
1) The focus of their lesson: language, culture, or the story
2) The number of periods they would need to conduct their lesson
3) Possible pre-storytelling, storytelling techniques, and post-storytelling activities.
The teachers were divided into four groups, each group with a different picture book:
Sixth Grade teachers (Yoko, for a description see CCUP)
Fifth Grade teachers (Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs, for a description see CCUP)
3rd and 4th Grade Teachers (Tulip Sees America, for a description see CCUP)
1st and 2nd Grade Teachers (Suddenly)
I rewrote the text for Yoko, Nana and Tulip to make the stories shorter. According to Wright (1995), stories should not last over 10 minutes because children's concentration will not last longer than that. Each group devoted a fair amount of time to reading the story and trying to understand it. I sat with the group who was preparing a lesson plan for Yoko. I tried not to interfere and only spoke when they asked me something. When they were preparing their presentation, they did not discuss any of the points they were asked to nor did they use the print I had made to help them think of activities. These teachers were veterans who had their own ideas about how they could use the book. I was not offended that they did not use any of my ideas because when I am a participant of a workshop doing a group task, I also tend to produce something different from what the facilitator plans. I guess that is what makes us educators human: We are all unique and we each have different ideas for handling the same material.
After about 45 minutes, each group gave a presentation. I was in deep thought during the group presentations. I realized that one problem with this workshop was that we had chosen the books for each group. I think that for an English picture book lesson to work the teacher herself must be interested in the book. If the teacher believes that the book contains a message that children will find appealing than she will work very hard to use the book in such a way that children understand the appeal of the story. It felt like one of the groups did not see how their story would appeal to the children. If this is indeed true, I would have no problem with them choosing another book.
After the presentations, my colleague and I were supposed to give the presenters advice. My colleague gave the presenters good advice about the importance of linking the story with children's own experiences and the importance of determining what skill in children you want to build through English activities (imagination, listening strategies, etc.)
I, on the other hand, was surprised about how the ideas of each group were different from each other and from mine. I basically felt that I had no advice to give, I was just interested in knowing how the lessons would turn out and seeing what kind of discoveries about using English picture books these lessons might lead to. Speaking in Japanese, I said that I realized how many different ways there are to use English picture books. I should have shut up after that but then I actually tried to give some advice when I should have just said what I really felt (I was interested in seeing how the lessons turned out).
What did I learn from this experience? First, of course, it would have been better to have more time and it would have been better to ask the groups to read the books before the workshop. However, Japanese elementary school teachers are very busy and I think workshops should be as minimally demanding of their time as possible. Therefore, workshops need to be short and to the point. For this workshop, I prepared a handout that I could have used for an entire 90 minute lecture. If I could have done this workshop all over again, I would have given them a much more condensed version of the handout.
I also learned the importance of being yourself when speaking publicly and not giving advice for the sake of giving advice. I am looking forward to the next workshop with the teachers where we will practice reading the books.
Bibliography
- G.エリス ＆ Ｊ．ブルースター （松岡洋子訳） 2008．『先生、英語のお話を聞かせて』 玉川大学出版部.
- Wright, A. (1995). Storytelling with Children. OUP.
- Ur, P. & Wright, A. Five Minute Activities. CUP.
- Ellis, G. & Brewster, J. (1991). The Storybook Handbook.
- J. ホール (2009). 小学生の理解と興味を高める英語絵本の効果的な読み聞かせ方. 『教材学研究』 第20巻
- Hall, J. M. (2008). Selecting and using English picture books in Japanese elementary schools. In K. Bradford Watts, T. Muller, & M. Swanson (Eds.), JALT2007 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
