I took two Chinese guys and two Korean guys camping a couple weekends ago. I believe it was the first time for all of them. The guys loved fishing, so the plan was to catch our food, although we brought some back-up supplies. But the trip was also good exercise for their English, since English was the common language the five of us spoke. I gave them a guide to identifying fish and knowing the criteria to keep them. They used this guide to discuss, sometimes argue, which fish they caught. It was a blast overall, with a bonus of learning for them and me. I think I will incorporate nature guides in lesson plans and, if possible, some sort of outdoor field trip, most likely not camping but maybe the zoo.

Literacy and Citizenship

You may remember a while back I mentioned a cool event for literacy instructors and volunteers related to citizenship?  Well, i realized that I never posted the info on the blog, so here it is!  RSVP still possible today, but the event is Thursday, so if you are planning to attend, you might want to email asap!

Also, I just got an email from Arlington Reads about a 5K run for literacy on August 14.  I'll post a link with information on that as soon as I can find one.

Yuni's self evaluation

I personally believe that the process of L2 acquisition is quite different from acquiring the mother tongue. As we discussed in the class, EFL students do not live in English-friendly environment and have less chances to exposure to English. People can take advantage of the grammar rules because they can save and effort identifying certain patterns by themselves.

However they often fail to use grammar rules when they face the situation to talk with native speakers. They may lose the connection between learning and applying grammar rules.

As an inductive approach, you can encourage students’ intrinsic motivation and try to shift their attentions to communicative ability. You can give them possible scenarios that communicative problems can occur due to the violation of grammar rules to increase their interest and explain the grammar rules for them.

A deductive approach seems to work better with the exceptional grammar rules, but a combination of two approaches will be the best.

Self-Evaluation GERUNDS

I truly don't know how I could have made my grammar instruction more communicative. I believe that it was inductive given that I started with real life questions first, before leading into the explanation of the grammar rule. The questions I asked were real-life. Perhaps some of you could comment and give me suggestions here. If I were to do the lesson again, I would give more examples before giving the partnered activity so the Ss might better understand the grammar rule.

Yuni's test assessment

I found the “written comprehension” test from http://www.englishclub.com/esl-exams/levels-test-wc.htm.

This time-limited test has pretty good face validity because I as a task taker could see what they try to measure for each question. For example, both Q1 and Q4 are asking if task takers understand the usage of comparative adjectives.

If I were a test developer, I would be satisfied with construct validity as well. For example of Q7, the main construct of the question assumes to be the different usage of “like” as a verb or as an adjective, it has been measured successfully with good construct validity.

It also includes pragmatic aspects of language like Q4 or Q9 which test takers can easily hear in daily-life situations.

One of disadvantages of on-line tests is the time issue, but this website provides a timer so that students can finish this test in a limited time.

However, the website does not provide any information on correct answers with detailed explanation. Test takers cannot get any feedback from this test.

Erica's Self Evaluation

My second mini-lesson went a bit better than the first one. I might have made it more communicative by playing Jeopardy! ® on the blackboard, rather than the computer. Being that far away from the class was a mistake. I couldn’t hear the students’ answers well, and it was noted that I frowned a lot when I had to ask them to repeat. Next time I would have the categories with answers written down and just write the categories and amounts on the board. Standing closer to my students and being more upbeat and enthusiastic would go a long way toward making the lesson super-communicative. I do think that letting the groups work together to come up with the right answer is a great group activity, but I would change it a little so that a different person each time got to answer out loud. That would keep any dominant students from doing all the work, and ensure that others got an equal chance to participate.

Evaluation of a Quiz and Self

The grammar quiz, focusing on proposition usage, can be found at Dave's ESL Cafe or by clicking on this link: click here.

Practicality
This quiz is practical in the context of time needed to take and grade the test, cost of the test, and method of grading. Its small size makes it easy for students to finish in a small amount of time and for teachers to grade, even if the class sized is large. The quiz can be printed from online, retyped, or completed online easily. The quiz is also a blend of norm- and criterion-referenced.

Validity
This quiz is valid on a small scale. With only 10 questions, it doesn't include all prepositions, actually being limited to just a few. It is also very face-valid for the students and content-valid, being very obvious in its intention of determining their understanding of prepositions.

Reliability
The quiz has a few shortcomings in reliability. It is very consistent in its form, however, being multiple choice, students are given options to guess at as opposed to independently coming up with an answer. Also, as it is an online quiz originally, the availability of computers and internet access can be affecting factors of its reliability in administration. The test doesn't change; the questions are the same each time you go back to it. Scorer reliability will not be an issue since it is multiple choice with definite answers.

Authenticity
The questions are good examples of real-world language use and contain subject matter that is interesting and useful to language learners. There is no story line in this quiz, but a story line can easily be implemented if modifying this quiz or creating a replica.

Washback
There is poor opportunity for washback with this online quiz. If the quiz was administered as a paper form, then washback could be present. When necessary, incorrect answers are marked and correct answers or given.




Self-Evaluation

My lesson on Tuesday, 7/6, pertained to giving and receiving directions for driving, walking, bicycling, etc. where the individual is responsible for getting themselves to the desired destination, as opposed to a specific grammar aspect. If there was less teacher monologue in the beginning, more time could have been allocated to interaction between students. Instead of listing all of the vocabulary in the beginning, I could have engaged students earlier by asking them for directions, steering them towards using the intended vocabulary, explaining the vocabulary words if and when necessary. I do think that the activities that would eventually occur in the lesson are very communicative.

Last Blog Assignment

1. http://www.englishclub.com/esl-exams/levels-test-wc.htm

This website shows a test that evaluates your level in English written comprehension. Thus, it is a Reading test. It gives you 15 minutes to solve 20 questions. If you click a bar "Now click for your level" you'll check your level in terms of reading comprehension.

I like it in terms of practicality; that is, the test itself is very easy to understand and it takes a second to check your score. Money does not seem to be an issue at all. In addition, this test is quite reliable since it is very consistent; the given 20 questions are always the same. In terms of validity, it is still good in that it measures what it is intended to measure. Finally, it uses authentic langauge.

One big problem is that this test does not show you the concrete result. In other words, it does not have a WASHBACK part at all. Even if I know my level of reading comprehension, I don't have any idea about what I missed.

Lastly, having only 20 questions can also be a problem. This test should have a question bank made of at least 100 similar questions so that we can have a different problem set next time.


2. How can I make the grammar teaching more "communicative"? Evidently, L2 is different from L1. And it is ideal to have an inductive approach in EFL classes. However, researchers and scholars argue that deductive approaches have a lot of demerits.

I realized that my grammar teaching on Tuesday was quite deductive. Even though I started with an example, the whole teaching was based on rules. I remember I repeated "3rd person, singular, and present" over and over again. I like Krashen's idea about "Comprehensible Input" but I also know that it takes time. Within 10-15 minutes, how can we successfully teach grammar to students with inductive approach? I have no answer yet..... I should have given more examples in the first half of the teaching. By doing so, students can possibly realize the rule by themselves.

Blog for the last day of class!

For the blog today:
1) page 464 #2 = find an English language test somewhere online and evaluate it based on the criteria in Brown.
2) Self-evaluate your grammar teaching from Tuesday, and talk about how you might make your lesson more communicative, more inductive, or less focused on explicit grammar.
3) Read and comment on 2-4 posts.

Thanks for being a great class!  I've really enjoyed having you in class for the last 5 weeks!

Just a reminder that the final exam will be Monday from 3:30-5:30 in the computer lab.  Feel free to bring books, notes, etc.

And enjoy the weekend!

Erica's Test Evaluation

Subject/verb agreement

This quiz tests subject verb agreement, using the simple present and past tenses.

Practicality:
I found this test to be very practical. The quiz is available for free online, which makes it affordable, easy to manage, and can be easily printed out for the students. This class can also be taken online, but I would rather it be a pen and paper test, unless my class is spending a lot of time on the computer. For a key, it’s easy for me as teacher to answer the questions myself and then submit for grading. I can then print out the answer key for grading myself.

Reliability:
This test appears to be very consistent. It asks the students to choose between two possible answers. The tense is the same on each question, however. There is no ambiguity—the answers are clear.

Validity:
I believe that it is valid, both for content and face. The students should believe that they are being tested on whether or not they can properly conjugate a verb and make it match the subject.

Authenticity:
Authenticity is whether or not the test relates to the material taught, and I believe this does. If you are teaching grammar, you are going to explain to your students that some verbs take an ‘s’ at the end and some don’t, and it depends on your subject.

Washback:
Once students’ tests have been graded and returned, if they got any wrong answers that the other answer is the right one. I think that it may take another mini-lesson by the teacher to reinforce why, if very many students got a lot of answers wrong, though.

Jason's Test Assessment and Grammar self-evaluation

Test on Prepositions

This is a pretty simplistic if not somewhat long multiple choice test on prepositions of time. From the standpoint of the 5 principles we discussed, my opinion is that:

1. From the standpoint of practicality, this test is very practical. The multiple choice makes it very quick and easy to grade and also pretty quick and easy for students to take.
2. From the standpoint of reliability, this type of test is one of the most reliable for the professor to grade. You will still need to make sure (as much as possible) that the students are well fed and well rested but in terms of grading, you should have no reliability issues because there is no room for your opinion or bias to enter into the choice of grading.
3. From the standpoint of Validity, the test seems like it would be a perfectly valid test, validly measuring what it aims to measure. However, inevitably you will have some students trying to guess at some of the answers and having the potential to get the right answer from just guessing while not super high is high enough to warrant a comment.
4. From the standpoint of authenticity, it offers a little in the way of real world authenticity because you are using the the prepositions in real, valid sentences. However, this language is not very relevant or meaning to anyone and does not offer very much authentic creativity and authentic use of language. Its a little stinted as well.
5. From the standpoint of Washback, there doesn't seem to much you could do in terms of giving good feedback other than reteaching the grammar lesson.

In terms of the grammar lesson that I gave on Tuesday, one of students made a suggestion about giving more examples using myself or other students and I think that this would be one great way to make the lesson more real-life and real world. Maybe I could tell a story and act out the story that I am telling while I tell it using prepositions to related myself to various objects in the story. I could also have the students act out something using prepositions. Maybe you are in a clothing store and your friend tells you that he or she saw the coolest/cutest whatever and it was over there to the left of such and such or something and so the students would have to go find the item based on the clues they were given. I think our treasure hunt was really communicative in this way but it could be polished.

Test Assessment

http://esl.about.com/od/printablequizzesforclass/a/printable_toefl_vocabulary_practice_test.htm

The test that I found was a Vocabulary test. Instead of just asking you what each word means, they use the word in context to help the students learn the vocabulary words and give them extra help by having the surrounding words.

I think this test is valid. It measures what it intends to measure. It's looking to see if they know their vocabulary words and if they can figure out what another word for 'inquiry' could be by looking at the context then they will pass the test. I think it's very obvious about what it is trying to teach. As soon as I looked at it I knew it was trying to test the students knowledge of vocabulary words they had previously learned.

In my opinion this test is authentic. It is likely to be enacted in real-life. Someone could be speaking or you could even be reading a book and see that the words people use may not be one you know but by looking at the whole sentence you can come to realize what exactly 'inquiry' could mean using a simpler word you know.

We could use the washback with this test. It all depends on if the teacher would do it or not. The test itself could have washback but it's up to the teacher to do it or not. I would say this test is practical. It isn't too long and it isn't too short. It also isn't totally expensive. You would come up with a few sentences that include big words, print out a few copies, and then give the test. It is very practical.

For reliability this test would work if we made sure that the bias were cut out. If we put our students ID numbers on instead of their names you can help any bias happen. With regards to fatigue or carelessness we really don't have any control over that.

Self-Eval:

In order to make Jason and I's lesson more communicative I think that using more self examples would help. I believe we needed more examples, to expand on our lesson, and we also really needed to be more interactive when the lesson was being given. Being more interactive, giving more examples of us and the students would have made our lesson more communicative and more real world life for them.

On The Last Day of Class...

1. Please click here for the test: http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/302.html

This test is a valid test for being able to use indefinite articles. There are several questions that are more difficult, as they are the exceptions to the rules. It is good because the questions start out easy, but then become increasingly difficult, though I wish that they also had some easy questions at the end. It seems to be targeted toward an intermediate level of understanding.

2. My grammar instruction was a bit too deductive to be "communicative." I believe that having some examples and going over them would have been more useful than going over the rules first. On the lesson plan I wrote, I actually covered the rules first and did the PowerPoint second, but in class I just did the PowerPoint. I do not think that this would necessarily be the best way to teach articles in an actual ESL class because of the limited amount of reading comprehension. I have learned much about my teaching style and that I, too, love grammar, but I also know that too much grammar instruction early on in my L2 learning has caused me to over-monitor my speech.

1) TEST ASSESSMENT p. 464 #2

At quick glance, I thought this site would be great as a test resource:
After viewing the Modal Diagnostic, I changed my mind.

1) It looks practical in that it's not expensive to print (it must be taken on-line), nor time consuming to take, nor to grade. Of course, it wouldn't be practical if each student had no access to a lab full of computers.
2) Reliability is not an issue because the diagnostic has multiple choice questions. Multiple people could grade it without inconsistency as long as the answer key is followed.
3) I do not feel the diagnostic is valid. As a native English speaker, I do not feel the directions are clear so I feel it would not teach the student anything by taking it. I don't agree with all of the answers. Thus, I don't see the purpose of taking the diagnostic, thus, I see no face validity. There is no content validity because of the multiple-choice questions. There is no construct validity because the diagnostic does not prove mastery of the modals. We'd have no idea if the students could actually use the modals to write sentences. They could guess on every question and possibly pass it.
4) The diagnostic is not authentic because the questions are isolated and "bear no relationship to one another."
5) The diagnostic does not foster Washback because incorrect answers would not lend themselves to any "insight into further work." I do not see how the diagnostic could be used as a learning tool.

Teaching Activity 7/6/10 GERUNDS

In case y'all could use the materials from my presentation today, please feel free to email me: ronda.glasser@mavs.uta.edu
I'd have attached them to this blog, but I do not know how to do so.

Awesome presentations today!

Line-Up for Tuesday and modified reading schedule

On Tuesday we will be teaching our second mini-lessons.  Here's the line-up:
1) Ronda
2) Katie and Jason
3) Yuni
4) Erica
5) Derek
6) Yilmin
7) Allison
8) Matt

Also, I'll remind you that I've changed the reading assignment for next week.  Rather than reading chapters 23-26, please read chapters 22-24.  The means that on Thursday, we'll discuss a little about form-focused instruction, as well as assessment.  While I suggest that you at some point at least skim through chapters 25 and 26 related to Lifelong Learning, we will not be discussing these in class.

Speaking: by Derek and Yilmin

Types of Performance
1) Imitative- Imitative works not for the purpose of meaningful interaction but for focusing on elements of language form, e.g. oral drills.
2) Intensive- Intensive goes a step beyond imitative to include a focused practice more about phonological and grammatical aspects.
3) Responsive- Short replies to questions by teacher or other students represents responsive speaking.
4) Transactional- Transactional, a type of dialogue, has a purpose of exchanging specific information and facts.
5) Interpersonal- Another form of dialogue, interpersonal, unlike transactional, conveys more social relationship-based dialogue.
6) Extensive- Extensive is usually in the form of a monologue report or summary by intermediate to advanced levels of students.

Teaching Techniques
1) Indirect Conversation- students have free reign and are encouraged to engage in interaction outside of the classroom.
2) Direct Conversation- the teacher plans a conversation program in advance.
3) Transactional Conversation- examples would include ordering from a catalog, purchasing something at a retail store (e.g. buying a GPS at BestBuy), or talking to a doctor about symptoms; when the purpose is an exchange of information or facts.
4) Practicing Grammar Orally- this would include oral grammar drills or other types of imitative and intensive performance.
5) Individual Practice- examples include oral dialogue journals or other instances where students practice oral expressions. In particular, in small classes, this technique offers students the ability to talk about their concerns without the risk of embarrassment.
6) Other Interactive Techniques- Any activity that requires the student to interact with others orally, such as interviews, discussions, and debates.

Assessment
1) Imitative Speaking Tasks- checking accuracy when repeating small groups of words or sentences, focusing on sounds segments.
2) Intensive Speaking Tasks- focuses on understanding of formulaic usage of a limited number of controlled expressions.
3) Responsive Speaking Tasks- students' responses to simple questions from teacher or other students is checked for appropriateness in context.
4) Interactive Speaking Tasks- assessment via students' interaction between each other during interactive activities
5) Extensive Speaking Tasks- high-level speaking tasks such as oral presentation or retelling a story using paraphrasing skills.

Critical Thinking Questions
1) How can class size affect technique choice?
2) The textbook suggest we do not correct local errors, but how much is too much? Should we ignore all local errors or when should we begin correcting them?
3) What are some strategies of classroom management and setup to create the most comfortable environment for students to express freely (high WTC).

Blog Assingment 8- Reading

Reading- Yuni & Katie

Types of Classroom Reading Performance p.371-373

1. Oral and silent reading- For Beginning and Intermediate levels this type of classroom reading performance can serve as a evaluative check on bottom-up processing skills, help with pronunciation check and it can serve to add extra student participation. For advanced levels the only advantage can be gained by reading orally. A few disadvantages include other students not paying attention when one is speaking, oral reading is not authentic language, and it is actually just recitation instead of participation.

2. Intensive and extensive reading- Intensive reading is a classroom-oriented activity focused on the linguistic or semantic details of a passage. This type of reading includes grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like. Extensive reading is mostly outside the classroom and includes pleasure reading. An advantage of this is students don't overanalyze.

Principles for Teaching Reading Skills p.373-376

1. In an integrated course, don't overlook a specific focus on reading skills
- Focus on student's reading skills and check if students have been spending enough time to extensively read some books, long articles, and essays without looking up all the unknown words every time.

2. Use techniques that are intrinsically motivating
-Select the topics or material relevant to student's interests or goals to increase the level of intrinsic motivation. It is sometimes helpful to have students create their own material for reading and assess themselves

3. Balance authenticity and readability in choosing texts
-Simplify texts by adjusting lexical and structural difficulties depending on the proficiency level of students but be cautious not to lose the natural redundancy, humor, wit, and other captivating features of the original material.

4. Encourage the development of reading strategies
-Get your students to use some reading strategies introduced in the textbook, but also encourage them to develop their own reading strategies rather than sticking into one of strategies.

5. Include both bottom-up and top-down techniques
-A combination of top-down and bottom-up processing is important by having students to predict overall meaning and then moving to each level of language itself.

6. Follow the SQ3R sequence
-Guide students to follow five steps for approaching a reading text: 1) skim through the text for main ideas, 2) make questions about the text, 3) read again the text to find answers to questions, 4) reprocess the main points of text, 5) assess the important points of the text and incorporate it into long-term associations.

7. Plan on prereading during reading, and after-reading phases
-Keep in mind to spend some time introducing a topic to students before they start reading to give them a sense of purpose for reading while they are reading, and to ask some comprehensive questions as a follow-up writing exercise after they read.

8. Build an assessment aspect into your techniques
- Try to carefully assess student's comprehension using external cues such as doing, choosing, transferring, answering, condensing, extending, duplicating, modeling, and conversing.

Assessment p.385-386

For assessing reading there are three things you should look at:

1. Be specific about micro- or macroskills
2. Pay close attention to what strategies for reading are being examined
3. Differentiate between bottom-up and top-down tasks, as well as form versus meaning

These are some possibilities we can use:

1. Perceptive Reading- basically a recognition of symbols, letters, or words.
2. Selective Reading- where you focus more on morphology, grammar, and lexicon.
3. Interactive Reading- this includes responding to questions but also things like re-ordering sequences of sentences.
4. Extensive Reading- which includes summarizing, note taking, or outlining.

Critical Thinking Questions:

1. What are some disadvantages of Extensive Reading and why?

2. How can you increase the affective power of reading?

3. How can we help students to distinguish between literal and implied meanings?

Principles of Writing and then some

Principles of Writing
1. Teach students helpful writing techniques...
a. Know your audience
b. Plan and prepare
c. Set realistic goals
d. Revise, get feedback, then edit
2. Keep the balance between the writing process and what you write (the product)
3. Know your audience, especially regarding their culture and literary schemata
4. Draw connections between the reading and writing processes
5. Use as many real-world writing tasks as humanly possible.
6. Emphasize the entire writing process
a. Brainstorming/Freewriting
b. Write a draft
c. Revise (then return to previous step)
d. Finalize after extensive editing, including peer-editing
7. Provide interactive writing opportunities
8. Be sensitive when correcting errors, but don’t shy from correction
9. Explain and model the proper writing process and conventions

Types of Writing Performance
1. Imitation: Dictation
2. Controlled: Change present tense to past
3. Guided: Write about a video clip
4. Self-writing: Journal
5. Display writing: short-answer, essay answers, research papers
6. “Real” Writing
a. Academic: collaboration
b. Vocational/Technical: memos
c. Personal: email

Evaluation and Assessment
1. Content: what the writing is about
2. Organization: how the writing is organized
3. Discourse: How the paper “flows”
4. Syntax: Using it correctly for the task
5. Vocabulary: Self-explanatory
6. Mechanics: Dot the Is, Cross the Ts

Critically Thinking
1. Where should the emphasis be placed on a student's writing task, product or process? Why?
2. How can you use authentic writing tasks in groups/pairs?
3. Defend your position on the role of the teacher being either a model or an editor.

Listening - Types of Performance, Techniques, Assessment

I. Types of Listening Performance (Brown 308-310)
a. Reactive – This is essentially rote memorization. It is not as valid for an interactive classroom but it may have a small role in correcting pronunciation.
b. Intensive – For stressing specific components of language such as phonemes and intonation or for “imprinting” a phrase.
c. Responsive – Teacher speaks and students respond immediately. It can help with checking comprehension, questions and commands, or clarification.
d. Selective – Finding specific meaning within a longer discourse such as speeches, broadcasts, stories. This is similar to teaching the strategy of picking out the key words in an utterance.
e. Extensive – More effective for lectures and note taking and uses a top down method of teaching.
f. Interactive – Requires integration with speaking and other skills and includes all of the above types of performance. Leads to true, real-world communication.
II. Listening Techniques (Brown 312-317)
a. Bottom-Up – This technique goes from small pieces like phonemes to grammar specifics.
b. Top-Down – More concerned with schemata, which is what the student brings to the classroom.
c. Interactive – An exchange of ideas between two or more people and the effect that they have on each other.
III. Assessment (Brown 318-319)
a. Intensive Listening Tasks – More about distinguishing pieces of language such as phonemic and morphological pairs, stress patterns, recognition and paraphrasing.
b. Responsive Listening Tasks – This is about questions and answers
c. Selective Listening Tasks – Fill in the blanks, verbal responses, chart completion and sentence repetition.
d. Extensive Listening Tasks – Focus is dictation, dialogue, lectures and stories.
e. Interaction – Includes full skills integration and all of the above points including speaking.


Critical Thinking Questions
1. What type of technique would you use for the intensive type of listening performance and why?
2. How would you go about assessing a student or students in an extensive listening performance environment? Give examples.
3. In an interactive teaching situation, which uses all five of the other types performance, which performance type do you feel you might use more and why?

Blog Assignment 8

In class, you were assigned to a particular chapter, with specific points for you to discuss on the blog.  Here's the break-down:

Listening:  Jason and Erica = types of performance, techniques, assessment, and critical thinking q's
Speaking:  Derek and Yilmin = types of performance, techniques, assessment, and critical thinking q's
Reading:  Yuni and Katie = types of performance, principles, assessment, and critical thinking q's
Writing:  Matt and Ronda = types of performance, principles, assessment, and critical thinking q's

For each chapter, you should outline the relevant points from the textbook, and then ask a minimum of 3 (THREE) critical thinking questions related to the teaching of this skill.  Remember that critical thinking skills should require that students think about and assess their knowledge and experience in some way, rather than simply reproduce material in the textbook.  You might consider that other students may not have read this chapter, but you want them to be able to think about and respond to your questions anyway (though they may need to read through your outline of the relevant points first).

After outlining the relevant points in your chapter and posting the critical thinking questions, EACH STUDENT (not in pairs) should respond to AT LEAST ONE question from each post, including their own. 

Ronda and Derek Part 2

Listening- Encourage use of top-down and bottom-up strategies.

Students can and should look at language from these two angles to decipher the meaning of an utterance. Top-down is approaching the utterance from the big picture, it's entire meaning, using expectations, past experience, and schemata to understand the utterance and uncover the meaning of each piece and how they fit into the bigger picture. Bottom-up is the opposite: start with the smaller morphological and phonological parts of an utterance and build up from their meanings and roles to discover the big-picture meaning. Both approaches are equally important and are used on a case-by-case basis. This could be done by disecting utterances that include a word(s) students don't know (for top-down) or comprised of known words but unclear meaning of the utterance as a whole (for bottom-up).

Speaking- Encourage the development of speaking strategies.

Students gain skills that supplement oral communication towards automaticity. These include asking for clarification or something to be repeated for the listener to understand better, using fillers to buy time to process and paraphrasing or using nonverbal expressions when speaking, and even just asking the interlocutor for help. Language learners can benefit greatly by adopting and utilizing these techniques. Teachers can best explain them by modeling the strategies with a student(s) for the class and possibly creating a game or exercise (border-line drilling, but with partners) to follow the example.

Erica & Yuni, Part II

Part II

Listening: Carefully consider the form of listener’s responses

In order to understand how much students know and comprehend, you must look at external cues such as doing, choosing, transferring, answering, condensing, extending, duplicating, modeling, and conversing. Different responses can be observed depending on the level of students, but in a current classroom setting answering seems to be the most frequently used way to check students’ comprehension. In the case of modeling, you need to try to induce students’ creativity rather than having them repeat the model.

Listening & Speaking: use techniques that are intrinsically motivating

Try to select the topics or activities related to personal interests and goals to increase students’ intrinsic motivation. For example, teachers can choose the topic relevant to “asking for a date” for young adults to increase their level of interest, but need to be cautious about sensitive topics. When you have multiple people with different interests, you can choose one topic for one day and another for the next day so that everyone can get interested in classroom topics.

Content-based Instruction

This method is more about the subject matter and not specifically about other language forms.

Lesson Plan

Age: Native Chinese-speaking Adults in EMBA program at UTA
Proficiency Level: High Intermediate
Institutional Setting: classroom of 6 students, 1 hour class
Terminal Objective: To be able to function in a business meeting conducted in English
Enabling Objective: To read a case study of a company (reading), hear a summary of a different case study (listening and speaking), and be able to answer 3 questions about what they heard (writing)
Materials: 6 different case studies (1 copy each); 6 evaluation forms (6 sections of 4 questions each)

Warm-up (5 min.) (L, S)

Have the students gather around a large table.

Teacher: Today we are going to talk about businesses. Can you tell me some successful businesses?
Ss: verbal responses
Teacher: What makes a company successful? Why?
Ss: verbal responses

Segment 1 (5 min.) (L, R)

Teacher: You each have a case study about a different company in front of you. Without reading the whole study now, but just looking it over, have you ever heard of this company? Have you seen or heard anything about the CEO? Remember, CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, or the head of the company.

Segment 2 (10 min.) (R)

Teacher: Now I want you to each read your case study, silently. At this time, there should be no talking, just reading.

Segment 3 (30 min.) (S, L)

Teacher: OK, has everyone read their case study? Great! Starting with David, I want you to summarize the case study for your classmates. You don’t need to read it to them, just tell them what the company is, who the CEO is, and some good information about the company. The rest of you should listen carefully to the summary. You have in front of you a sheet of paper, divided into six sections, one for each person, with the questions you will need to answer for each section. You may take notes if you want to.

Segment 4 (5 min.) (W)

Teacher: Now that you’ve heard each summary, write down the answers to the questions that I’ve given you.

Question 1: Who is the student who summarized?
Question 2: Who is the CEO mentioned?
Question 3: What is the name of the company?
Question 4: Name one fact that is interesting to you; this is your choice.

Wind Down (5 min.) (L, S)

Teacher: You all learned about several companies today, and the men who run them or started them. Were these companies successful? Why or why not? If they were, what made them successful?

At this point, the teacher should take answers from several of the students.

Teacher: Please hand in your evaluations. This was a great class today, wasn’t it?

Experiential Learning

Part 1

Experiential Learning: includes activities that engage both left- and right-brain for living in the real-world

Students learn by doing and discovering. Trial and error plays a part in learning.


LESSON PLAN:

Context: 12 Intermediate Level Adult Learners in a Language Center in Texas
Course focus: Multiple skills, emphasis on Grammar
Class Hour: 1 hour
Terminal objective—Ss will be able to use and identify past perfect (pp) & past perfect progressive (ppp) tenses in all four skills areas

WARM-UP (5 mins) L, S, W, R
Enabling Objective: T models using past perfect and past perfect progressive tenses
Step 1: T asks following question and then writes on board: What had you already studied by the time you moved to Texas?
Step 2: T draws diagram on board illustrating chronological order of events, using a response from a student

PRESENTATION: (10 mins) R, L
Enabling Objective: T explains definition of pp & ppp verb tenses, Ss follow along in textbook and refer to examples
1) T directs Ss to page __ in textbook
2) T defines past perfect and past perfect progressive tenses

PRACTICE: (15 mins) R, W, L, S
Enabling Objective: Ss practice creating their own examples of pp & ppp usage
1) Ss create 3 sentences of their own complete with diagrams
2) Volunteers will read their examples

ROLE-PLAY: (20 mins) L, S, W, R
Enabling Objective: Ss use their own creativity to show comprehension & ability to use pp & ppp
1) T & S volunteer model example
2) T assigns pairs
3) Each pair receives an index card with format
4) Pairs fill out cards using pp/ppp
5) Each pair will act out their card

DEBRIEFING (5 mins) L, S
Enabling Objective: Ss evaluate appropriate usage of pp/ppp

WIND-DOWN (5 mins) L, R, W
Enabling Objective: Ss practice pp & ppp usage
T passes out worksheet to be completed and returned the following day

Matt, Jason and Katie Part 2

Listening:
Include a focus on listening in an integrated-skills course
Encourage the development of listening strategies

When including a focus on listening in your integrated-skills course you must be careful to tailor the listening activities to the level of English that your students speak. Some activities you can do to help focus on listening are playing an audio recording and having students respond. Going around the room randomly selecting students and asking them questions about a particular topic and changing the topic as students share about this or that or whatever.

For encouraging students to develop listening strategies we discussed how they will help the students have a more successful learning experience. Listening strategies will help their understanding of English and increase their automaticity. Learning not to worry about whether you understand every word in an utterance but rather picking up the key words will help a student greatly in listening. Also, note taking will help a student to grasp the spoken language as it gives the student and opportunity to summarize what is being heard and to maintain focus.

Speaking:
Encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts

Using relevant, intrinsically motivating spoken language activities helps the student stay interested and take charge of his/her learning. Any grammar discussion should be condensed to a mini-lesson that addresses specific grammatical errors that are hampering a group of the students in class.

Update on Service Learning

So how's the service learning going?  How are you feeling about it?  Learning anything?  Tell us here!

Theme-Based Instruction

Theme-Based Instruction...
This method is very centered on a theme or topic which is the driving force, while the grammar takes a back seat.

Eating Out Theme: Restaurant Style [not fast food]

Context: ESL
Level: Intermediate
Course Focus: Integrated course, General English skills
Students: Adults
Lesson: Unit Four, Lesson One
[Book we made up]
Class hour: 4 hours
Terminal Objective: Dining out at a casual restaurant.
Enabling Objective: How to read a menu, How to tip, How to pay, How to interact with hostess/host, waiter/waitress

Materials: Chili's menu, money, comment card, salt/pepper, sugar packets, ketchup, coaster, silverware, napkins, play food, Chili's check/receipt

Warm-Up: We will watch a Youtube clip of a couple dining at a restaurant. Students will then point out what they saw and discuss the clip. Finally, we will finish with a sequencing activity where students will put into practice the order the restaurant experience goes in. Skills: Listening, Speaking

Presentation:
1. Role Play
Hostess/Getting seated or waiting to be seated
The teachers will model this section, the students will then role play this section, and then we will discuss. Skills: Listening, Speaking
2. Role Play
Meeting waiter/waitress, Ordering drinks and then food
The teachers will model this section, the students will then role play this section, and then we will discuss. Skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking
3. Role Play
Getting the ticket, paying for the meal, to-go box if needed
The teachers will model this section, the students will then role play this section, and then we will discuss. Skills: Speaking, Listening

Closure:
We will examine the Chili's ticket/receipt and explain the "tip" process. The students will learn how to fill out the ticket and how to tip. We will then talk about our field trip to Chili's where we will experience the restaurant first hand. Skills: Writing, Reading

Allison and Yimin Part II

LISTENING: Use authentic language and contexts

- Definition: As a teacher, we have to use real0life texts and situations in the classroom. Activities should be natural, rather than contrived, to encourage students' engagement.

- Questions and Answers:
1. How do we determine how authentic the texts are?
It depends on how you utilize the materials. For example, asking students to draw a cartoon strip about something very dramatic; that is, this could be a counterexample of AUTHENTIC texts.
2. Which of these text is most appropriate for listening activity?
Interviews, conversations or speeches seem to be more appropriate than other texts.


SPEAKING: Give students opportunity to initiate oral communication

- Definition: As a teacher, we have to not only make students have interactions but also make them initiate language by themselves.

- Questions and Answers:
1. How would we intrinsically motivate shy students to initiate oral communication?
Pair work and small group work such as bingo activity can help us to make students start to talk.
Using extrinsic motivation to encourage to answer would be also good.

Allison and Yilmin Post #7, Part 1

Our model was Task-Based Language Teaching. We defined this as a method that focuses on solving communicative problems in real-life situations. Assessments for this model are based on the outcomes of the situation, or the resolution. We determined the ultimate goal or focus of this model is what happens beyond the classroom. The difference between this and experiential learning might be the focus on problem-solving versus re-enactment, and in TBLT, the learning process is directly linked to the curricular goals.

This is the link to our lesson plan as a Google Doc. I've never done this before, so hopefully it works. You know what they say about English teachers and technology...

Blog Assignment #6, part 3

I know that you just finished teaching your first mini-lesson on Tuesday, but it's almost time to teach again!  Next Thursday (in one week), you will need to bring a rough draft of your next lesson plan with you to class.  This lesson plan must include all the components that your first lesson plan did.  Rather than writing these in class, we'll be doing a little bit of peer review to help each other improve our lessons before we actually present them.  Ideally, the weaknesses of this past teaching demo will be improved in the second demo.

So, think about what you need to improve on, and think about the kind of lesson that would allow you to show your growth.  Using any site you choose (check out the blogsites from the first week of class if you need ideas!), or simply coming up with it on your own, choose what you want to teach about next time.  In the comments to this post, tell what site and activity you plan to concentrate on (so that, again, we can make sure that not everyone is doing the same thing).  Using your student comment sheet, summarize what you want to improve upon and your own response to your teaching demo.  Also discuss what you will focus on in this second teaching demo.  Make sure you include your name!  Start writing your lesson plan (not on the blog) if there's time.

Please note: any group or pair work that you include in this lesson should take less than half of your time.  In other words, you as the teacher must discuss or present or instruct for at least half of your total teaching time.

You may need to finish this activity at home.  Please do so no later than the next class!

Blog Assignment #6, part 2

Groupwork is often a helpful tool for interaction in a language classroom, but may lead to classroom management issues, as we saw in the teaching demos on Tuesday.  Considering the usefulness of groupwork, this is an issue that we hope to overcome to be able to successfully use groupwork effectively.  Think about the following questions (choose the appropriate one for your pair), and discuss them with your partner.  Post your answer on the comments to this blog post.  Make sure you include (a) the question, (b) names of both partners, and (c) a well-thought-out response.

cow:  How can random group selection be both advantageous and disadvantageous?  When would you choose to randomly select groups?  When would you not allow random selection?  What about groups selection by ability levels?  When would you use/not use this technique?  Add in some personal experiences if possible.

cat:  How can group assignment by teacher be both advantageous and disadvantageous?  When would you choose to assign members to groups?  When would you not assign group members?  What about student-selected groups?  When would you choose to allow/not allow students to select their own groups?  Add in some personal experiences if possible.

pig:  Think about group work in general.  It works well for some concepts, with some groups, for some teachers.  Other times it's not so successful.  Discuss how we as teachers can better ensure the success of our groupwork.  Add in some personal experiences if possible.

turkey:  Think about classroom management in general.  Think about and discuss several ways (don't just repeat the book!) that a teacher can work toward a well-managed classroom.  Add in some personal experiences if possible.


When you have finished posting (make sure you are ready to discuss!), move on to part 3 in the next post.

Blog Assignment #6, part 1

I was having technical difficulties today, and Microsoft Office kept quitting on me, so I finally gave up and decided to just type your blog assignment directly into the blog itself. 

Here's the first part:
Chapter 13 discusses how the principles we talked about earlier in the semester form the foundation for 'structuring a theory of interaction in the language classroom'.   With your partner, look back over the list of articles that you both posted last week from our trip to the library.  Do any of the articles discuss the importance of interaction in relation to the principle that was researched?  If so, read the abstracts for those articles.  If not, think about why interaction is not stressed for that principle.  Discuss with your partner how interaction can help build that principle, and how that principle affects interaction.  Together, write a paragraph or two that discusses that principle in relation to interaction, and post it in the comments section of the original citation list.  Include your name and your partner's name, please!  Be prepared to summarize both principles and how they relate to interaction for the rest of the students at the end of class (if there is time).

When you finish this section of the blog assignment, move on to part 2 in the next post.

Effort in Reading/Writing/Note-taking in L1 & L2

This research was primarily aimed at studying the attentional load entailed by reading, notetaking, and writing from an electronic document in L1 and in L2. Concerning cognitive effort, there was no significant difference between L1 and L2. On the other hand, reading and note-taking were significantly more costly than writing.

Participants abbreviated almost twice as many words noted in L2 than in L1. Again, the ways of abbreviating in L1 were apparently not transferred to L2, and the use of this process seems to entail the acquisition of language-specific conventions. Nonetheless, word abbreviation in note-taking is an effective strategy for saving time and transcribing as many words as possible without having to go back to the source document.

Compared to note-takers in L1, L2 participants did more verbatim copying of their notes during the writing process. In contrast, the L2 participants benefited from the word-processor condition, since they were able to copy and paste far more ideas than the L1 participants, as if they sensed the difficulty of selecting relevant information.

I think that this article is great in terms of the impact of note-taking in the L2 (English for our students). Realizing how difficult it is to write notes in a new language and how much concentration it takes to do so can help in our pacing of our speech.

Mini-Lesson Observation

Today, you saw 7 mini-lessons taught by your classmates, and performed one yourself.  For me, even after 15 years of teaching, observing other teachers always provides me with new ideas, questions about my own teaching, and different approaches to old topics.  Think back over the teaching demos that you saw, and comment on how they will affect your own teaching - did you learn a new technique, new ideas, things for teachers to be aware of, new ways to focus on a topic, etc?  In other words, what'd you learn today and how did the lessons speak to you about your own teaching?

As always, be nice, be thoughtful, and be detailed.

Looking for conversation starters and/or guides?

I know that some of you are working with partners for your Service Learning who want conversation practice.  This can be difficult when you don't know a person well, kind of like making small talk at a party with someone you've never met before and know nothing about.  At least at a party, you can make an excuse and walk away.  Not so with your conversation partner!

So, in case you need some ideas, I'm posting here my list of top 5 Go-To sites for conversation.  If you have others that you prefer, please add them in the comments!

from eslgold.com
from iteslj.com
from esljunction.com
from eslgenius.com
from eslpartyland.com

Summary of "Willingness to communicate : can online chat help?"

I selected the article, "Willingness to communicate : can online chat help?" I picked this article because it sounded very interesting. What I discovered here was that online chat actually does increase the willingness to communicate. When the students are face to face it puts more pressure on them and it is harder to have that willingness to communicate. Online chat also helps the students not be affected by the teacher, other students, or other elements that might affect the experience of learning a language.

In this article the students feedback was very positive. They were able to communicate freely without any fear. It was easier to give their opinions when not face to face and they didn't know who their partner was that they were talking to so there was no worrying or anxiety.

I would highly recommend this article. I think it is very helpful to ESL and EFL students to do online chat and I recommend reading it.

Summary of Article from the Language/Culture Connection

Since my original article was not available, I opted to read “The Dilemma of Perceptual Changes: A Case Study of Three Japanese ESL Students” by Mika Yoshimoto from Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Carleton University.

A consistent thread throughout the article was the heavy influence Buddhism had on the three Japanese students’ concept of the absence of “self”. One of the students was especially reluctant to participate in groups in her ESL class in Canada because she felt it conflicted with her concept of social harmony. Besides feeling uncomfortable in speaking class, this concept of putting others before “self” affected her writing. In Canada she was expected to write openly about her feelings, which she felt was “excessively direct.”

The three students approached their language learning in unique ways; however, they all shared a fear of losing (or desire to maintain) their Japanese culture. They were primarily concerned about showing honor for their ancestors by not speaking out when they didn’t know the answers, consideration for others’ feelings, and acceptance of things that were beyond their control. All of these factors lead to substantial changes in their self-perceptions during their English study in Canada.

Having read these students’ perspectives I will be able to empathize and thus teach Japanese students more effectively in my future classroom. This article was well worth reading!

Line-up for mini-lessons on Tuesday

On Tuesday, we'll be observing each others' teaching during the first part of class.  Remember 10 minutes minimum, 15 minutes maximum for everyone except Jason and Katie, who are working together and have 15-20 minutes.

Here's the plan:
1 - Matt on personality traits
2 - Ronda on tag questions/intonation
3 - Allison on introductions
4 - Yuni on traveling problems
5 - Derek on Uno for colors and numbers
6 - Erica on body parts and other beginner vocab
7 - Jason and Katie on shopping and delivery items
8 - Yilmin on paragraph structure

Meaningful Learning Article

The article I chose is The Role of English in Individual and Societal Development: A View from African Classrooms, by Ailie Cleghorn and Marissa Rollnick. In this article, the authors discuss when to begin L2 teaching (English, in this case). They feel that, according to studies done, that the best time is either after or at the same time as the student is becoming literate in his first language. This is so that the mother language is not lost while the second language is acquired. The authors delve into meaningful learning when they discuss how important code-switching is for language learners. Just giving students vocabulary and grammar in a second language does them no good if they cannot understand that there are cultural differences between them and other language speakers. The goal is to maintain their own native culture, while preparing these learners for becoming world citizens.

A Selected Paper on Native Language Effect

I selected Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by japanese speakers: A missing uninterpretable feature account by Roger Hawkins and Hajime Hattori.

As we learned in class, Native Language Effect is two-folded: that is, it can be EITHER facilitation OR interference. This selected paper is mostly about the interference. Initial research question of the paper starts from Tsimpli (2003) suggesting that uninterpretable syntactic features that have not been selected during first language(L1) acquisition will not be available for L2 grammar construction. However, interpretable syntactic features remain available even those not selected by the L1.

Conclusively, the authors argue that there is a critical period for the selection of uninterpretable syntactic features for the construction of mental grammars. Moreover, caution should be required in interpreting target-like performance as evidence that L2 speakers have the same underlying grammatical representations as native speakers.

Personally, this paper is very interesting in that Japanese shares a lot of properties with Korean. The Wh-in-situ language such as Japanese lacks the movement-forcing feature. As far as I know from my native intuition, Korean can be regarded as a Wh-in-situ langauge. However, someone can argue that Korean is not in that Korean acually allows Wh-movement because Korean is very famous for its word order flexibility. I'm also curious about the movement-forcing features.

In a nutshell, it is useful for linguists or TESOL researchers who are interested in native language effect. In particular, if your target language is a Wh-in-situ language, this paper will give you some comparative and contrastive points of view.

Native Language Effect

Abstracts of the 10 papers:

Adrian, Maria Martinez. 2010. On L2 english transfer effects in L3 syntax. VIAL – Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics 7. 75-98.

This article focuses on the acquisition of L3 German by high school learners whose L2 is English. The main aim is to study the possible influence of English as an L2 on the acquisition of word order in L3 German in light of proposals along Minimalist lines (Chomsky 1995; Zwart 1997ab). Taking into account the description of parameters in terms of feature strength within the Minimalist Program, the hypothesis is entertained that there would be transfer of the value of feature strength under functional categories from the L2 to the L3. In order to test this hypothesis, written production data and grammaticality judgements have been collected from two groups of participants who learn German as L3 and from one control group with L2 German. The results do not support the hypothesis of L2 transfer at the syntactic level. However, evidence has been found of optional movements of the verb and the object, as reported in previous studies by Beck (1998). This optionality will be explained by the underspecification of feature values under functional categories.



Chen, Fred Jyun-gwang. 2006. Interplay between forward and backward transfer in L2 and L1 writing: The case of chinese ESL learners in the US. Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 32. 147-96.

This paper focuses on the issue of language transfer in an L2 environment. Research has shown that forward transfer from L1 to L2 appears at early stages and decreases as L2 proficiency increases. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that backward transfer from L2 to L1 may occur in an L2 environment in which subsequent contact to L2 is limited or in an L2 academic community in which confirming evidence that L1 syntax is correct is lacking. The study of this paper investigates Chinese and Spanish learners across three English proficiency levels, who wrote in L1 and L2 at U.S. graduate schools. All participants completed sentence and discourse tasks. It is found that forward transfer occurred in the Chinese learners' L2 writing at the discourse level and that backward transfer occurred in their L1 writing at the sentence level. Moreover, both forward transfer and backward transfer are mitigated by L2 proficiency. Furthermore, among the Level 2 Chinese learners, the relationship between forward transfer and L2 proficiency in the English sentence task follows a U-shaped curve, and the relationship between backward transfer and L2 proficiency in the Chinese sentence task also follows a U-shaped curve. The results of this study point to the complexity of language transfer and its interactions with L2 proficiency and distinctive task types.



Geranpayeh, Ardeshir. 2000. The acquisition of the english article system by persian speakers. Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics 10. 37-51.

It has been argued that the acquisition of the English article system is delayed for most second-language (L2) learners until the very final stages of learning. This paper examines the difficulties of the acquisition of this system by Persian speakers. It will be argued that no single available theory can account for the causes of the learners' errors but a combination of contrastive analysis & an analysis of these errors might be illuminating. English & Persian differ in that the former uses definite markers, while the latter uses specific markers. It will also be shown that syntax has a major role in the use of the definite marker in English, whereas semantics has that role in Persian. It is predicted that if any transfer from the first language (L1) were to occur, it would most likely happen where the noun phrase carrying the article appears in subject position. An analysis of the subjects' performance on two article elicitation tasks suggests that Persian L2 learners of English have problems identifying the English definite marker when it is subject position. 6 Tables, 3 Figures, 1 Appendix, 18 References.



Hasan, Ahmad. 2001. The interference of arabic syntax in EFL learning. Arab Journal for the
Humanities 19. 245-61.

The phenomenon of first language (L1) interference in the learning of a foreign language has been extensively discussed; however, most of the accounts that approach this problem are unsatisfactory as they fail to explain this issue systematically. One aspect of L1 interference in learning a foreign language, namely the interference of Arabic syntax in the learning of English by Arab students, is addressed. Errors in grammar resulting from L1 interference have been dealt with from the error analysis & contrastive analysis perspectives. The author argues that these two models are inadequate as they both fail to attain explanatory power. As an alternative, Chomsky's (1981, 1986, & 1995) model of grammar, as presented in the Government & Binding theory, is adequate not only to describe but also to explain these errors. The author's account enables us to explain the predictability of these errors in that it predicts which errors are likely to occur as a result of Arabic interference in learning English as a foreign language (EFL). More significantly, the author shows how the Government & Binding framework, through its principles & parameters, offers more insight into what happens in the learner's mind than the other models do.



Hawkins, Roger, and Hajime Hattori. 2006. Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by japanese speakers: A missing uninterpretable feature account. Second Language Research 22. 269-301.

In recent work by Tsimpli (2003) & Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou (to appear) an explicit claim is made about the nature of end-state grammars in older second language (L2) learners: uninterpretable syntactic features that have not been selected during first language (L1) acquisition will not be available for L2 grammar construction. Interpretable syntactic features, on the other hand, remain available (as well as the computational procedures & principles of the language faculty), even those not selected by the L1. The present study investigates this hypothesis in relation to the acquisition of the uninterpretable feature that forces wh-movement in interrogatives in English. Nineteen L1 speakers of Japanese (a wh-in-situ language that lacks the movement-forcing feature) who are highly proficient speakers of English were asked to interpret bi-clausal multiple wh-questions in English (like Where did the professor say the students studied when?). Their responses were compared with those of a native speaker control group. It is argued that the results are consistent with the unavailability of the uninterpretable feature. Two conclusions are drawn: first, that there is a critical period for the selection of uninterpretable syntactic features for the construction of mental grammars; second, that despite the observation of target-like performance by L1 Japanese speakers on English wh-interrogatives reported in a number of existing studies, caution is required in interpreting target-like performance as evidence that L2 speakers have the same underlying grammatical representations as native speakers.



Juffs, Alan. 1998. Some effects of first language argument structure and morphosyntax on second language sentence processing. Second Language Research 14. 406-24.

This article explores some effects of first-language verb-argument structure on second-language processing of English as a second language. Speakers of Chinese, Japanese or Korean, & three Romance languages & native English speakers provided word-by-word reading times & grammaticality judgment data in a self-paced reading task. Results suggest that reliable differences in parsing are not restricted to cases where verb-argument structure differs cross-linguistically.



Mori, Yoko. 2005. The initial high pitch in english sentences produced by japanese speakers. English Linguistics / Journal of the English Linguistic Society of Japan 22. 23-55.

This study attempts to explore an initial high pitch characteristically observed in English sentences produced by Japanese speakers. The experimental results have revealed that about half or more native Japanese participants (college students majoring in English) produced unfocused subject pronouns I, they, you, & it in sentence-initial position at a higher pitch than they did lexical verbs that followed. In three sentence-initial articles, however, the phenomenon was not observed, whereas monosyllabic prepositions showed a smaller degree of the initial high pitch depending on their syllable structures. These results suggest that the transfer of Japanese sentence-initial intonation patterns & interference from Japanese phonological & syntactic structures are involved in the occurrence of the initial high pitch.



Perez Tattam, Rocio. 2006. Control in L2 english and spanish: More on grammar at the syntax-semantic interface. Cahiers linguistiques d'Ottawa 34. 99-108.

In this paper we investigate the acquisition of control in second language (L2) English & Spanish by adult native speakers of Spanish & English by means of a bidirectional experimental study which contrasts different control structures according to the type of controlled clause (complement vs. adjunct control structures) & the type of control (obligatory vs. non-obligatory control). Our results will show that our experimental subjects transfer their L1-knowledge when interpreting & producing control structures, & learn language-specific rules.



Schwartz, Bonnie D. 1999. Some Specs on Specs in L2 Acquisition. Specifiers: Minimalist Approaches, ed. by Adger, David, Pintzuk, Susan,Plunkett, Bernadette and George Tsoulas, 299-337. England: Oxford U Press.

Hypotheses in the generative framework regarding the extent of transfer in second-language (L2) acquisition are reviewed & tested by reexamining two studies of children's L2 acquisition involving specifiers. (1) In a critique of Lydia White's (1996) analysis of French clitic acquisition in P. Lightbown's (1977) 3-year study of English-speaking children acquiring Quebecois French in a kindergarten immersion setting (N = 2 males), White's premise that English lacks clitics is contested; L2 clitic development is shown to be early for preverbal subject pronominals & imperative postverbal object pronominals, which can be accommodated by first-language syntax, & late for preverbal object pronominals, which resist English-based analysis. (2) A problematic data set from the earliest period of Belma Haznedar's (1997) study of English acquisition by a Turkish male (aged 4:3 at study onset) is clarified by applying Richard Kayne's proposal that all languages have basic verb + object order: subject's native object raising to a higher specifier position was transferred to English & delearned a year later. Both reanalyses show that the findings of (1) & (2) support B. D. Schwartz & R. A. Sprouse's (1996) full transfer/full access model of L2 acquisition.



Tickoo, Asha. 2001. Re-examining the developmental sequence hypothesis for past tense marking in ESL: Transfer effects and implications. Prospect 16. 17-34.

Recent research on the acquisition of past tense in L2 has suggested that there is a common developmental process for learners of disparate language backgrounds. This universalist hypothesis claims that verbs which are lexico-semantically more event-like are marked for tense first, followed in distinct stages by the marking of increasingly less event-like verbs. In this study, the past tense marking of Chinese learners of ESL in Hong Kong was examined in 120 narratives by students at three learning levels: Form 3 (age 12), Form 6 (age 15), & the second year of university (age 20). An initial quantitative assessment of the data revealed that the above-described developmental pattern does not properly describe the past tense acquisition of ESL learners whose L1 is Cantonese. The data were re-examined using a less traditional, qualitative mode of data analysis, which (1) gave significance to the individual learner's performance & (2) acknowledged the discourse context in which the past tense marking was used, & the speaker intent it served to fulfill. It was then found that across all three proficiency levels some learners use the past tense to mark only foregrounded (that is, informationally salient) situations. Other learners were found to use the past tense on all verbs, in conformity to the target language grammar. It was found that the only change, as these ESL learners advance in their academic career, is a gradual increase in the number of students who use target-like marking. The idiosyncrasy of this pattern of acquisition is interpreted as resulting from the transfer from these learners' tense-free L1 of a feature of its temporal system. Two implications for L2 research & pedagogy are noted. It is suggested that the potential role of L1 in L2 acquisition must be properly acknowledged. It is also suggested that accurate assessment of learners' syntax is achieved via a qualitative analysis of the individual's performance, which recognizes the communicative function the syntax serves in the discourse context in which it occurs.

Anticipation of Reward and (Mainly) Intrinsic Motivation

Bordia, Sarbari, Lynn Wales, and Jeffrey Pittam. "The Role of Student Expectations in TESOL: Opening a Research Agenda." TESOL in Context 16.1 (2006): 10-7. CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts.

The idea of students having expectations of the courses they attend, although accepted as an important issue amongst language teachers, has limited research support. Students devoting time, money and energy to courses expect intellectual and practical gains from them. Expectations are also shaped by their language learning goals and previous learning experiences. Fulfillment of expectations can affect motivation, performance and general language learning experience. In the absence of existing theoretical perspectives on student expectations in second language acquisition (SLA) and TESOL, researchers turn to consumer psychology, with a history of research on expectations in relation to product, service and healthcare marketing. This article provides a formative base for further empirical research on student expectations in TESOL. After reviewing definitions of expectations in consumer behaviour, we propose one for TESOL. The theoretical background in expectation research is described and, based on findings of the doctoral research of the first author, a conceptual model for TESOL is proposed. This model of student expectations accounts for factors shaping expectation formation, interaction of expectations with curricula and pedagogy in courses and outcomes of met/unmet expectations. Constructs relevant to research on student expectations in TESOL and similar findings in consumer psychology are finally discussed. Adapted from the source document

Detaramani, Champa R., and Irene Shuk Im Chan. "Learners' Attitudes and Motivation Towards the Self-Access Mode of Language Learning." Research Monograph - City University of Hong Kong, Department of English 8.Mar (1996): 1-42. CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts.

Undergraduate Ss (N = 585, aged 16-25) from the City U of Hong Kong were surveyed regarding their needs, attitudes, & perceptions toward independent language learning & the use of a self-access center (SAC). Data were obtained via an English questionnaire consisting of 22 questions & in-depth interviews with 5% of the S sample. Questionnaire results included self-perceptions of English ability, perceived most important & difficult skills, preferred learning approach, measures of desire to improve English, attitudes toward learning English, desire to use the SAC to improve English, reasons for an unwillingness to use the SAC, recommendations for the role of the SAC, the focus & theme for SAC materials, & preferred SAC services & facilities. Strong extrinsic motivation to learn English was combined with a reluctance to use the self-access mode of language learning. High intrinsic motivation was associated with a willingness to use the SAC. 22 Tables, 1 Appendix, 19 References. Adapted from the source document

Fox, Anne. "Using Podcasts in the EFL Classroom." TESL-EJ 11.4 (2008): 6/16/2010. <http://tesl-ej.org/ej44/a4.html>.

Talk-radio podcasts, such as Absolutely Intercultural, which are not overtly pedagogical, can be much more than passive, extended listening practice. This paper describes two examples in which teachers have used the Absolutely Intercultural podcast and discusses the different levels of involvement possible with podcasts from listening to producing and how these are based on our current understanding of what constitutes effective learning approaches. This is a step-by-step guide, centering on pedagogical rather than technical issues, about how to involve target language podcasts in EFL teaching.

Hiroaki, Tanaka, and Hiromori Tomohito. "The Effects of Educational Intervention that Enhances Intrinsic Motivation of L2 Students." JALT Journal 29.1 (2007): 59-80. CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts.

Although motivation in the area of L2 studies has attracted the interest of numerous researchers, there have been very few studies conducted regarding factors involved in bringing about motivation, or in other words, strategies that enhance motivation. To address this gap, Noels & her coresearchers have used Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a well-developed motivation theory in psychology, to examine factors behind the intrinsic motivation of L2 students (eg., Noels, 2001; Noels, Pelletier, Clement, & Vallerand, 2000). SDT focuses on the source of human motivation & deals with the manner in which the inclination & physiological/ psychological needs toward growth innately possessed by human beings evolve or are attenuated as people interact with surrounding sociocultural factors. In addition, this theory assumes the existence of three psychological needs (ie., for autonomy, competence, & relatedness) as prerequisites for enhancing student motivation. SDT hypothesizes that if these psychological needs are met, intrinsic motivation will be enhanced; whereas, if they are not met, intrinsic motivation will be undermined. The studies conducted by Noels et al., which examined factors behind L2 students' motivation, demonstrate to a certain extent the significance & potential for invoking SDT in L2 motivation studies. However, their studies are limited to an examination of the correlation between motivating factors (ie., the three psychological needs) & intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, the causal relationship between these factors & motivation has not been established. In other words, is intrinsic motivation really enhanced if psychological needs are satisfied? Thus this study investigates whether or not it is possible to enhance intrinsic motivation in Japanese EEL university students by introducing an educational intervention that stimulates the three psychological needs put forth in SDT. We decided to use the "Group Presentation Activity" (GP Activity; Tanaka, 2005) for this purpose because this activity has the potential to stimulate the three needs simultaneously. Therefore, the purposes of this study are as follows: (a) to examine whether the GP Activity enhances intrinsic motivation in Japanese EFL university students, & (b) to examine which psychological need (the need for autonomy, competence, or relatedness) plays the most significant role in students' motivational development. Seventy-eight university students (58 males & 20 females) who were enrolled in a second-year English language course participated in this study. The students met once a week in a 90-minute class. The GP Activity was used with them for five weeks. Prior to the beginning of the intervention, students were given questionnaires about language learning motivation & the three psychological needs. The same questionnaires were administered at the end of the intervention. Changes in scores (ie., the difference between pretest & posttest scores) served as the measures of development of students' motivation. In addition, to investigate in detail the manner in which the three psychological needs act in terms of enhancing motivation among students, we examined the data from the perspectives of general tendency & individual differences. The results showed that: (a) GP Activity had a significant positive effect on students' intrinsic motivation; & (b) from the perspective of general tendency, satisfaction of the need for autonomy had a strong relationship with students' motivational development. These two findings corresponded to previous studies based on the SDT. On the other hand, a more detailed analysis focusing on individual differences revealed that (c) the facilitating role of the three psychological needs varied according to students' motivational profiles. In short, while less motivated students seemed to benefit the most from the satisfaction of the need for competence, students with a medium level of motivation required that both the need for autonomy & competence be met for their motivational development. This suggested that teachers who intend to enhance students' motivation should differentiate their teaching strategies depending on the motivational profiles of their students. Tables, Figures, Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document

Ibarz, Toni, and Sue Webb. "Listening to Learners to Investigate the Viability of Technology-Driven ESOL Pedagogy." Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 1.2 (2007): 208-26. CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts.

Policies for second language (L2) learning have moved to centre stage in many postindustrial societies as economic and political migration has increased. This paper presents an overview of this shift in education policy and uses empirical work with learners to examine the way that technology is being used as a solution to support second language programmes for adult immigrants in some English-speaking countries. The paper examines the viability of technology-driven pedagogy for ESL/ESOL using qualitative research conducted on learners taking an ESL/ESOL CD-ROM-based programme offered by a national basic skills provider in the UK. After setting out the context relating this UK policy intervention to existing CALL theory and to similar technology-based projects in Australia and North America, the paper discusses the findings in relation to the four language skills, motivation and learning relationships. This research identifies some potential benefits of technology-driven pedagogy for language learning, provided it is supported by a principle-oriented ESL/ESOL pedagogy. Adapted from the source document

Richards, Stephen. "Motivation in Second Language Learning: A Hong Kong Perspective." Research Report - City Polytechnic of Hong Kong, Department of English 32.Nov (1993): 1-106. CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts.

Theories & research into the connection between motivation & second-language acquisition (SLA) are reviewed, along with several studies investigating the motivation & ethnolinguistic attitudes of English-learning students in Hong Kong. Perspectives on the role of intrinsic motivation in second-language learners from the fields of social & educational psychology are presented. The review of studies conducted in Hong Kong on the motivations & attitudes of local English as a second language (ESL) students indicates ambiguous feelings over the use of English among Hong Kong students. Survey results show loss of Chinese identity & ethnic solidarity as factors affecting students' English language development. Nevertheless, this comparison of studies fails to produce any direct link between attitudinal variables & ESL proficiency. Suggestions are made for enhancing intrinsic motivation & encouraging positive ethnolinguistic attitudes in students. 2 Figures, 108 References. Adapted from the source document

Rubenfeld, Sara, Lisa Sinclair, and Richard Clement. "Second Language Learning and Acculturation: The Role of Motivation and Goal Content Congruence." Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique appliquee 10.3 (2007): 309-24. CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts.

This study explored how having differing goals and motives for learning a second language influences adaptation in the foreign culture. Specifically, we compared English as a second language (ESL) students in two programs, which differed in their long-term goal orientations. Some students were taking ESL courses in order to attend university in their second language, whereas other ESL students took courses that were not followed by an immediate reward. Students in both programs completed measures of acculturation as well as measures of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for learning English. We found that adaptation to the foreign culture, in the form of acculturation, is best facilitated by congruence between students' motives and goals. The findings are discussed in terms of their methodological and pedagogical implications. Adapted from the source document

Sanchez Hernandez, Purificacion, and Pascual F. Perez Paredes. "Integrating English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) Skills into Mainstream English Courses." Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 15.Nov (2002): 229-40. CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts.

This paper examines the design & implementation stages of a course of English given by the faculty of psychology at the University of Murcia, Spain. The course was programmed regardless of the particular individuals & no previous requirements were needed. Two initial tests were passed to the students at the beginning of the semester, the first one to evaluate their needs & motivation, & the second one to measure their general communicative competence. The results were heterogeneous. The students were informed of their results, & also of the level they should reach to pass the course, especially those with low marks. With respect to their motivation, they manifested two orientations: labor, & integrative reasons. Taking into account their "labor reasons," some units closely related to their specialty were included, & the final evaluation was modified giving some weight also to the specific English component (75% GE, 25% ESAP). The analysis reveals that, according to our initial assumption, those students with a better communicative competence at the beginning of the course obtained the best results in the final exam. A correlation between those students with intrinsic motivation & communicative competence & the best final marks has also been found. 11 Tables, 27 References. Adapted from the source document

Santoro, Ninetta. "Why Won't they Talk: The Difficulties of Engaging Victims of Trauma in Classroom Interaction." TESOL in Context 7.2 (1997): 14-8. CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts.

It is suggested that some refugees' lack of motivation & anxiety in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom is linked to pre-immigration trauma that may have occurred as much as 10-15 years earlier. Case studies of three adult refugee ESL students in Australia (N = 3) are examined in order to explore this hypothesis. Although all three subjects had been well educated in their native countries (ie, Afghanistan & Vietnam), they all have problems in their ESL classes despite having been in Australia for 9-19 years & having attended numerous English classes. Subjects' stories reveal that all of them had experienced periods of deprivation & prolonged separation from their families before immigrating to Australia; one was even tortured. It is conceded that other factors may be contributing to their lack of motivation to participate in the ESL classroom; however, it is considered important that their experiences be taken into account, particularly by teachers who are accustomed to working with more established immigrant groups. 12 References. J. Paul

Tanaka, Hiroaki. "Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation at Three Levels: The Effects of Motivational Strategies." JALT Journal 31.2 (2009): 227-50. CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts.

Traditionally, motivation researchers have been more concerned about what motivation is rather than how to motivate students. Recently, research interests have shifted towards educational purposes and an increasing number of studies now propose motivational strategies. Motivational strategies refer to "methods and techniques to generate and maintain the learners' motivation" (Dornyei, 200 1, p. 2). Using motivational strategies is generally believed to facilitate students' motivation, but only a few studies have found empirical evidence to support this claim. For example, Hiromori (2006) used "creative writing activities with student self-monitoring techniques" as a motivational strategy and showed that the strategy had a significant positive effect on students' motivation toward learning English. Tanaka and Hiromori (2007) proposed that "group presentation activities" are a useful motivational strategy. They successfully enhanced students' intrinsic motivation during a 5-week intervention. However, the number of studies that examine the effect of motivational strategies in the actual English language classroom is limited. In this article, I would like to point out two drawbacks of the above studies. The first drawback is related to the definition of motivation. Most of the preceding studies on motivation define motivation as a trait attribute. However, many researchers segmentalize motivation into different levels (e.g., Crookes & Schmidt, 1991). Vallerand and Ratelle (2002) analyzed intrinsic motivation at three levels, namely, the situational level, contextual level, and global level. They recommend that motivation be considered not merely as a unitary concept, but as a complex concept. However, studies examining the effect of motivational strategies focus only on the trait and unitary aspects of motivation. Thus, there needs to be an examination of the effect of motivational strategies on motivation at different levels. In this article, three types of intrinsic motivation are addressed, namely intrinsic motivation for listening/speaking activities, intrinsic classroom motivation, and intrinsic trait motivation. The second drawback concerns research design. Much of the research that examines the effect of motivational strategies adopts a pre-post design. However, in order to capture motivational changes in more detail, additional measurement times would be useful. In this article, intrinsic motivation was measured at three different times: that is, pre-measurement, mid-measurement, and post-measurement. Thus, this study aims to enhance students' intrinsic motivation at three levels. I adopt Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a well-developed motivation theory in psychology, as the theoretical underpinning. This theory provides a useful framework for examining the effect of motivational strategy because it assumes the existence of three psychological needs (i.e., the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness) as prerequisites for enhancing student motivation. The purposes of this study are as follows: (1) to enhance intrinsic motivation to engage in listening activities; (2) to enhance intrinsic motivation to engage in speaking activities; (3) to enhance intrinsic classroom motivation; and (4) to enhance intrinsic trait motivation. This study further explores facilitating factors of intrinsic motivation at the three levels. Thus, this article also aims (5) to examine which psychological need (the need for autonomy, competence or relatedness) plays the most significant role in students' motivational development; and (6) to explore new facilitating factors of intrinsic motivation. Fifty-two university students who were enrolled in a 1st-year English language course participated in this study. The students met once a week in a 90-minute class. The intervention was given to them for 15 weeks. Prior to the beginning of the intervention, students were given questionnaires about language learning motivation and the three psychological needs. The same questionnaires were administered in the middle and at the end of the intervention. An open-ended questionnaire was also administered to students at the post-measurement stage. The results of the quantitative analysis showed that: (1) the intervention had a significant positive effect on students' intrinsic motivation to engage in listening/speaking activities and intrinsic classroom motivation; (2) the need for competence had a strong relationship with the development in students' intrinsic motivation to engage in listening activities; (3) the need for competence and relatedness had a strong relationship with development in students' intrinsic motivation to engage in speaking activities; (4) all three needs were related to the development in intrinsic classroom motivation. Further, the results of qualitative analysis indicated that (5) "usefulness" might be another facilitating factor of motivation. Adapted from the source document

MY PICK:

Anne Fox's article about using podcasts to increase intrinsic motivation in an EFL class. At first I thought, "Yeah, right. How?" But it makes sense. She claims that they offer excellent listening practice because they can be paused, chunked, and have segments replayed. Additionally to this convenience, with the popularity of ipods and other mp3 players, podcasts are very portable and can be taken anywhere to be listened to at anytime. She uses a specific program as an example and mentions several English-learning specific podcasts, but there is great variety ensuring captivated interest for any ELL.

Fox suggests this listening tool be used for more advanced learners and that it could be used for lower levels if the teacher prepares ahead of time. Additionally, students can be creative and make their own podcasts.