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).
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Question 2:
ReplyDeleteI feel like a certain amount of correction is applicable if it is done correctly. The responding to another person with a question to clarify what they are asking is one thing I like to do with my conversation partner. I don't do it all of the time, but certain errors that are repeated several times I will make the point to correct it in that kind of way. It is not that helpful however to continually stop a student to correct all of their mistakes. This will only result in the loss in confidence of the student and they will be less willing to speak. Correcting has its place however.
Class size affecting choice of technique:
ReplyDeleteIndirect conversation can allow for all sizes of classes, as there isn't much focus on specific types of discourse. However, a very large class, all talking to each other, can get very loud and potentially disruptive.
If a teacher plans for direct conversation, unless they break the class up into smaller groups, a very large class can be hard for them to manage, in my opinion.
Transactional conversation works great for a medium sized group, say 15 or less. This is a great number of students for brainstorming how to conduct business transactions. Small groups of 2-3 students would work best for practice in the class.
Oral drills can work with any size class.
As stated, individual practice really works better with small classes. The teacher might have difficulty in monitoring a lot of small groups.
2) The textbook suggests 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?
ReplyDeleteIt can depend on whether you are working one-on-one with a student or if you have the S in a large class. It's much easier on the ego to correct (without interrupting a productive flow of communication, of course) when a T works with only one S. I definitely lean toward being an interventionist, however, in a large class of students, "ego fragility," "willingness to be corrected," etc., play a large role. Many times, other students may make corrections before the T would. The T could be indirect and say/write a common error on the board so the student wouldn't feel that a finger was being pointed directly at him/her.
I definitely do NOT believe that all local errors should be ignored. Many factors must be taken into consideration before errors are corrected; however, most students welcome the correction if made in a kind, non-threatening, or non-punishing way.
I think that the most comfortable environment for the classroom would not be a "classroom." I believe that couches and sofas would be great seating. Perhaps if each person had their own lap-desk for writing when they needed it. Oh... maybe a setup like they have at the Movie Tavern on West 7th in Fort Worth (Huge chairs, a pivoting tray table, etc.)
ReplyDeleteReally though, I think it would be best to never actually have class in a room. If every day were a field trip, you would never have to worry about an "authentic" experience again!
I partially agree with Matt. The part I disagree with is never having class in a classroom. I think there needs to be some degree of formal classroom structure. Field trips are great, yes, but in a classroom you have some control over distractions, such as people not belonging to the class, weather, nature noise, etc. Also, depending on group size, it could be not feasible to facilitate having a large group meet in a Starbucks or the zoo.
ReplyDeleteI think a good balance would be a classroom with comfortable seating for occasional use or at least easy access to such. Maybe easily movable couches and folding desk-chairs- you can change the seating to fit the lesson.
Q#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?
ReplyDeleteReminiscing on my intensive language-learning period, I used to be a student who loved to be corrected by teachers all the time. I wanted to be a better speaker of English. I'm not saying that I loved to be corrected in every domain but language-learning domain. However, some of my shy frieds told me they were embarrassed or lost face when they were corrected by teachers even in one-on-one conversations.
Here is my ad hoc conclustion: know your students. By doing so, it would be much easier to find a proper chance to correct students' local errors. In particular, if you find a student like me, you'll be free to correct him or her. However, even a very kind way of correction could be considered as an attack to some fragile egos especially in a large classroom.
How can class size affect technique choice?
ReplyDeleteClass size can affect the technique choice negatively or positively. It all comes down to knowing your students. For example, if you have a large class size it would be more difficult to do an individual technique choice. Another example would be other interactive techniques which might result in losing control of your classroom if there is more than one dialogue or conversation going on.
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ReplyDeleteQ2:
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Yilmin’s opinion. We tend to disregard an individual’s learning preferences when discussing teaching strategies. It is really important to recognize individual differences in learning styles and apply individualized strategies to them.
In my personal experience, the one of safe ways to correct student’s speaking errors without hurting their feelings is to naturally rephrase what they said when they made local errors &mistakes. Because rephrasing often occurs in normal conversation processing, teachers can unnoticeably make the correction and students can pick up correct English without discouragement. It is always important not to interrupt students’ though processing during conversation.
Yilmin and Yuni, I'm glad you two are in our class. You can give us immediate English-learner feedback in our discussions. What a great resource to have, both for the native speakers learning how to teach and for you two as teachers!
ReplyDelete