Developing Language Skills

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT: DEVELOPING LANGUAGE SKILLS GENERAL INFORMATION: This assignment has to fulfil the following conditions: Length: between 6 and 8 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if there are any-). Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman. Size: 11. Line height: 1.5. Alignment: Justified. The assignment has to be done in this Word document and has to fulfil the rules of presentation and edition, as for quotes and bibliographical references. Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the Study Guide. Sending it to the teacher’s e-mail is not permitted. In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the Study Guide. The assignment mark is 80% of the final mark and the participation in the activities performed during the tutorials constitutes the remaining 20%. Assignment: Take the unit from the course book Bachillerato Made Easy, Richmond Publishing, available in the Assignment materials section (at the same place where you can find this paper), and the unit ‘Botellón!’ from an English textbook published in the Basque Country (2010) for teenagers. Compare and contrast the way the two units deal with the four skills. You should refer to the following matters: The learning theories implicit in the way the units are presented and developed. The extent to which the skills are integrated. The product-process aspects of the two units. The ‘authentic/genuine’ aspects. The issue of simplification of text. The relationship between the skills work and the learning/practice of grammar. The opportunities for production (oral and written) the units provide. The types of production required. The variety (or otherwise) of the activity types. Which unit do you prefer? Why? Of course, add any other aspects that you consider relevant or important. The above list is simply a suggestion of the sort of considerations you will need to make in order to analyse the two books critically, and to arrive at a conclusion as to which of the two units you prefer, if indeed you have a preference. Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions will not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.  Name and surname(s): Rebecca Fitzell User: ESFPMLAEILE1823552 Master Edition: 2014 - 2015 Date: 06 / 12 / 2014 (resent 11 / 12 / 2014) MASTER: Máster Universitario en Lingüística aplicada a la Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera Student: Rebecca Fitzell Edition: 2014 - 2015 Subject: FP008 Developing Language Skills User: ESFPMLAEILE1823552 Comparing and contrasting the language skills used in two units ‘Botellon’ and ‘Teen Links’ from two different books Index 1. Introduction ………………………………………………….. p .6 2. Lead-in Activities ………………………………………………….. p. 6 3. Reading ………………………………………………….. p. 7 4. Language Analysis ………………………………………………….. p. 9 5. Reading & Speaking ………………………………………………….. p. 9 6. Writing ………………………………………………….. p. 10 7. Listening & Speaking ………………………………………………….. p. 11 8. Speaking ………………………………………………….. p. 12 9. Summary & Conclusion ………………………………………………….. p. 13 10. Bibliography ………………………………………………….. p. 14 Introduction When we are examining and researching what books to use with our students, it is incredibly important to consider in which way and how the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking are approached. Every teacher knows that it is likely impossible to find the perfect book which suits the exact needs of students, especially when it comes to the skills. Some may have too much reading and writing, with very little focus on communication through listening and speaking, others may have a considerable focus on grammar and language, with only a small snippet of some of the skills put in random places. The most significant thing we must remember is that there needs to be some sort of a balance between the skills included in every chapter so students can effectively produce and use the target language. In this assignment, I will compare and contrast these two units from different books by taking into account the strategies of the activities, the effectiveness of each task and if there is an even balance with the four skills. In this way, I can evaluate which book I would prefer to choose should I be given the option and why I would choose this particular book. Lead – In To begin, it is worth noting the topics of each of the units and discussing if they can produce speculation about the content within the chapters. ‘Teen Links’ and ‘Botellon’ are quite interesting topics and from these names, I can only assume that both these books are catered for teenage students from sixteen or seventeen years of age and up. The subjects can motivate the students enough to produce a lot of speaking from them and they can relate them to their everyday lives. It is also worth highlighting that the objectives and goals are clearly stated so the students will know what they will gain and hopefully be able to produce by the end of the unit. From looking at the first pages of each of the units, you can see that they both have attractive colourful pictures or photos which may be used to express their opinions on the subject, before the students even have to read anything. These pictures can be used along with the ‘Warm-Up’ activity in ‘Teen Links’, in which the students can engage in a meaningful conversation discussing their agreement or disagreement of the statements outlined, and also the ‘Brainstorming’ and ‘Danger! Botellon Zone’ activities in ‘Botellon’, in which students can work together in pairs and think about vocabulary or phrases which they personally link to the ‘Botellon’ experience. Brainstorming activities can be used with any type of skills task. It “should be free-wheeling, unstructured and non-judgemental.” White, R. & Arndt, V. 1992. p. 4. “Generating” in Process Writing. London: Longman All of these activities are fantastic to start off with as they generate thoughts and opinions about the respective subjects and students will be genuinely and actively involved in the discussions. I would not consider these as simple, short tasks. I believe that the students will produce a lot of verbal output and these can be transformed into a polar question tasks which can be greatly exploited. Reading When moving onto the reading activities in the units, we observe that both readings have a top-down strategy in order to make the tasks even more effective and more explanatory for the students. When we examine ‘Teen Links’, there is a pre-reading task in which students must match vocabulary to their definitions. This is a pre-teaching vocabulary activity which will help students not to block on these difficult words which they may find in the text. This type of action is highly effective because students will find the reading task easier to complete and they will not worry about these words and get frustrated. The flow of the text will be more natural for them and they will not have to interrupt their reading to ask the meaning of a particular word. After this activity, there is a while reading task where the students must read the text and when they come across these particular sentences, they have to put them in the correct order. This can be considered as skimming or reading for gist. In this type of activity, the “learners would attempt to find the answer quickly, without reading every word of the passage, by ‘speed-reading’ through some portions of the text.” Scrivener, J. 2005. p. 185. Learning Teaching, A guidebook for English language teachers. Second Edition. Macmillan By doing this, students look at the structure of the reading, which appears to be some sort of article that is of appropriate length, and they can learn from it. The following task requires the use of their translation skills to compare and contrast the meanings between their L1 and the L2. This activity is carried out in pairs as it not only tests their translation abilities, but also their logic, as some phrases cannot be literally translated. Thus, in pairs, they can speculate over the true meaning of these phrases. It is difficult to tell if the text is authentic or genuine because it seems like a very basic text with some pieces of advice for maintaining your friendships. If anything, the text may have be simplified to suit the needs of the learners, as there is not a broad range of difficult vocabulary and the fairly easy imperative tense is used. This text could be more demanding. Then we can move on to the after-reading. In this, we can identify two clear activities; namely a true and false task and another task which includes wh- questions and polar questions. Again, like in the ‘Warm Up’ activities, they produce a lot of speaking through students’ opinions and ideas. These types of activities are vital because they really lift English out of the book and increase effective production in the target language and build confidence in the students in their abilities to communicate in the L2. These exercises are then followed by a brief multiple-choice task where students are shown the strategy of doing this followed by practise of choosing the correct synonym for the phrasal verbs which appeared in the text. When we compare and contrast the reading activities in ‘Botellon’, we can see that they have a slightly different format. Firstly, there is no pre-teaching activity so students may become blocked while reading. Perhaps this is only not noted in the book and maybe, in the planning of the lesson, if the teacher feels that he / she needs to pre-teach vocabulary then they can do so themselves by highlighting difficult words or phrases. The first task is a pre-reading task and can also be seen as as ‘scanning activity’. This type of activity consists of “fast reading for: specific individual pieces of information (e.g. names, addresses, facts, prices, numbers, dates etc.)” Scrivener, J. 2005. p. 185. Learning Teaching, A guidebook for English language teachers. Second Edition. Macmillan The students must read the seven viewpoints and match them to the professions of five people who conveyed these opinions. The remaining two professions need to be guessed. After this, the students must read the text again looking for more specific reasons to support their decisions in matching these paragraphs to the professions. This reading exercise can show the students the technique of examining a text to find evidence to justify their beliefs. After completing this activity individually, they can compare their answers in pairs, thus create further speaking production and cause less embarrassment for students who think that their answers are incorrect. After completing these, they can continue to the next activity, on page 66, which can be carried out in pairs or small groups. Speaking with their partners, they can convey what they believe are the opinions of the seven people about ‘Botellon’. During this, there may be some disagreement of ideas, but it will generate more discussion which is fantastic. In this task, again, they discuss their ideas, opinions and have to justify their reasons. Moving to the next exercise, they have to complete some specific and intensive reading. They must examine the texts and excerpt some language which the speakers use to express their opinions. This activity examines the students’ capabilities to assess a text and find specific vocabulary which is needed in disclosing views. The next task fits in quite nicely with the previous with students having to find arguments supporting the opinion of for and against in relation to the texts which were read, the following is an activity which requires the students finding the solutions posed by each speaker. All in all, I find the reading activity in ‘Botellon’ quite extensive and quite long because although they learn a lot of vocabulary and useful phrases, they seem to be reading the same shorts seven texts many times and it may become a little monotonous for the learners. In this sense, I feel that ‘Teen Links’ has a better reading section in comparison to ‘Botellon’. Language Analysis Let us advance in the comparison and contrast and return to the unit in ‘Teen Links’. The following part of the unit is an enormous section of language. The grammar studied is Reported Speech which leads me to believe that the learners are in the later stages of the B1 learning process. On page 62 we can see a clear grammatical analysis with a sort of ‘grammar box’ highlighting the use and some examples of using this grammar tense. This is then followed with the direction of looking back to the text which was previously read, to find examples of Reported Speech in it. Activity 2 asks learners to copy and complete the table according to the sentences provided and this can be seen as a type of guided discovery in which the students must investigate the form of the tense. The subsequent page continues with the theme of Reported Speech and there are three full grammar activities with a bit of listening thrown in. It continues with a so-called ‘write a report’ which is really just an activity where they have to finish the sentences in Reported Speech. This ‘report’ only summarises the above text, but doesn’t use any of the learners’ own opinions or ideas. The language carries on with page 64 highlighting Irregular Comparatives and Superlatives, what I found even more amusing was the below part which says ‘Optional Grammar’. I am not sure if the learners’ or their teacher really think if this is optional or not. Language follows through right up to the end of page 65 with the difference between Do and Make, along with plenty of written language activities to practise these. This section has changed the rhythm of the unit, from being skills’ based to grammar-loaded. We can now see that from all the information and skills they needed in the reading at the start, it was all for the use of the text, rather than the practical usage. Reading with integrated Speaking When we look back at ‘Botellon’, we see that it does not have this chunk of grammar scrutiny. After, ‘Botellon’ continues with the aspect of skills. First, on page 69, learners must take three solutions which were mentioned in the text and say if they agree or disagree with them, again, giving reasons. Later, they compare and contrast with other students in groups to rank the solutions. This stimulates even more speaking which can be exploited for a longer period of time and can be exposed as a class discussion. It then changes its topic to energize and invigorate the learners once again with an interesting topic, cannabis. The first task, on page 71, tests students on how they can read a text and summarise the opinions as pro or contra. The following activity, on page 73, asks them to find the exact references from the text. Although the format of these reading tasks are practically identical to those of the ‘botellon phenomenon’, because the topic has changed, they are reading in the same matter but with different material, so in the future it can be seen as a strategy in their reading skills. On the next page, the topic changes once again, a curfew for teenagers. This again, will cause more speaking and definitely more opinions. Students can read the statements of viewpoints given by people and complete activity 2 on page 75, where they must look at other statements and decide if they are correct or incorrect and support their judgements. Like before, they can compare and contrast in pairs. By doing this after such an activity, it always generates speaking and they will become more fluent in their ability. They also get extra practise with this in the ‘Diplomatic on Discussion’ activity in which they have to refute the statements in a diplomatic manner. It is more than obvious that up to this point in the unit of ‘Botellon’ there is a massive focus on the skills of reading and speaking which is great. The students are receiving input through the texts and producing output from the texts. Writing Enough said about ‘Botellon’ for the moment. Let us return to ‘Teen Links’ and see what else it has to offer. Following the overwhelming four pages of language focus, we can turn to page 66 and finally see that the learners will be allowed to use their own ideas and they compose an opinion essay. The great thing about this section is that they have given a clear and precise example, and have highlighted the layout of an essay, thus students can follow the process easily and use it for reference in the future when they are writing, whether it be for homework, for an official exam or for something else. After reading the example, they can examine it and answer the structural questions with their partner and then as a class. They then have to generate ideas before writing which again shows them a good strategy of making a plan and getting their views in order before commencing. Generating ideas can be done by brainstorming in a group which “both benefits from and contributes to a cooperative learning approach. By using it, students learn that writers can profit from drawing on other people’s ideas as well as their own.” White, R. & Arndt, V. 1992. p. 6. “Generating” in Process Writing. London: Longman Gathering ideas can also be done simply by answering the question 6 on page 66 or by using word maps or spidergrams. This writing task can then be given in class time or for homework. In my case, I would give it to them for homework so they would have more time for thinking and planning. Writing something like this with its style and vocabulary, can be quite time-consuming and you may lose more than half your class time completing it. Also, the learners like to use you as a dictionary, thus you are constantly running around the classroom. In this sense, it is better for homework and also because they will have more time to check and revise their own work. This task is quite good as it focuses on the process of writing with the final part being the production of the essay. To help the students, as outlined in the book on page 66, point 11, they can check and revise using the three Cs, be clear, concise and consistent. Listening with a link to Speaking After this wonderful writing activity in ‘Teen Links’ we can continue to the final page of the chapter which the authors of the book have suitably called ‘Wrap Up’. It shows us that in this last page there will be practice of the receptive skills of listening. First, let us evaluate the listening. It is important to take note of the fact that when considering listening skills, “listening activities based on simulated real-life situations are likely to be more motivating and interesting to do than contrived textbook comprehension activities.” Ur, P. 1996. p.107. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and theory. Cambridge University Press Is this the case with the listening activities in this unit? In the first task, students must do a pre-teach vocabulary activity by matching two columns of synonyms. These are obviously the words that may cause difficulty in the listening. The next task is a light listening activity which students must put the sentences in the correct order. This is a gist listening task for “learners to get an overall impression of the content without worrying about small items or individual words.” Scrivener, J. 2005. p. 181. Learning Teaching, A guidebook for English language teachers. Second Edition. Macmillan Exercise 3 entails more careful listening to understand more complex things “by catching and interpreting smaller parts of the text, learners fine-tune their understanding” Scrivener, J. 2005. p. 181. Learning Teaching, A guidebook for English language teachers. Second Edition. Macmillan In general, I think the listening task is quite good albeit it is too short. I do not have the audio to listen to the text, so it is difficult to gage if it is an authentic listening, but I imagine it is not. In this case, I believe a longer listening would be a better example and also they could include more questions in exercise 3 so that the activity is more challenging for the students. The final activity of the unit of ‘Teen Links’ is a speaking activity. It asks students to do a self-assessment and reflect on their behaviour. It’s gives useful expressions which may be used during the task. In my class, I would do this as a pair work activity and give each pair five minutes to answer the questions and give their views and reasons about them. Then I would rotate the pairs so that the learners could speak to a different partner and generate a different conversation with a different person. This rotation can happen several times. Finally, I would divide them into groups of three to discuss the last question. After talking about this for five to ten minutes, the students could write down some notes and present their findings to the class and also give some ideas on how to resolves these issues. This speaking activity is great because students get to use their own beliefs and opinions on a personal topic. It is an ideal way to end the chapter of ‘Teen Links’. As I have finished assessing ‘Teen Links’, I will now turn once again to ‘Botellon’ and scrutinize its final pages. The next part highlighted in ‘Botellon’ is watching a debate. This is a fantastic idea as they are not only listening to a debate, but they can also watch it which makes the experience much more real life. Everyone can concur that “talking involves the use of both aural and visual media since it is an activity which makes use of gesture, facial expression and other paralinguistic phenomena.” Widdowson, H.G. 1978. p.59. Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford University Press We must also remember that in our everyday lives “only a very small proportion of listening is done ‘blind’ - to the radio or telephone for example. Normally, we have something to look at that is linked to what is being said: usually the speaker him- or herself, but often other stimuli as well.” Ur, P. 1996. p.107. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and theory. Cambridge University Press Thus, this task is visually engaging and is about two very different, controversial topics of pregnancy discrimination and the presence of US troops in Iraq. This is a different approach to the information which was obtained in the previous reading activities. Students must note down opinions from the speakers in their respective columns. After, they can look at the expression box which highlights the phrases used in the debate on the videos. They can retain these expressions and use them in the future and they also must put them into the columns, depending on which speaker used them. In the next section, they learn about some strategies which can be used in a discussion. This is another listening activity, but this time, without the visuals. Students need time before listening to read the statements before they can commence. Then the listening can be played and they have to tick the boxes if they think that Dr. Lindee meant these things. The listening should be played twice as to give students a fair opportunity to choose the correct answers. Their answers may be compared with the partners before the teacher gives them the audio script to check their answers. Then they may complete their notes onto the strategy list which shows their abilities to summarise the ideas presented. These types of listening activities are great as the students get to practice their skill for a longer period of time and the texts appear to be more alluring. Speaking Moving on to the last part of the unit of ‘Botellon’, there is a focus on speaking. It is important to highlight that there are some important features of a successful speaking activity: “learners talk a lot, participation is even, motivation is high and that language is of an acceptable level.” Ur, P. 1996. p.120. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and theory. Cambridge University Press It is clear from the heading on page 80, that the outcome from this unit is to be able to produce a feasible discussion or debate on the topics issued throughout the lesson. On this page, highlighted as the final task, it features instructions on how to plan the discussion. The title of the discussion is the same as the topic we began the unit with: ‘botellon’. Students will be given roles and they must note down their ideas and opinions according to their role of for or against the motive. They must be polite and use some of the expressions and phrases which were encountered in the chapter. The discussion will begin and they can participate using their ideas and take what is being said into consideration. When the learners are finished, they must self-assess their performance and write it down. This speaking activity is excellent because it is interesting, thought-provoking, refreshing and provocative. It will encourage the students to speak their mind and make the topic personal. They already might have some experience with the topic and can learn together and share knowledge about it. This type of activity can also be used as a form of oral testing, to examine what the students have learnt and grasped in the unit. Summary and Conclusion As I said when I started this assignment, it is nearly impossible to find the perfect book which has a perfect balance of the four skills. Every book has its advantages and disadvantages. Look at ‘Teen Links’ for example. The unit started off fantastically with an engaging subject, good reading activities, an interesting article, but then the flow was blocked by a page full of grammar analysis with many grammar activities which could hinder learners in their communication skills. Do not get me wrong, there is a need for grammar, but I do no think it is needed to this extent in this unit. Does it contain the four skills? Yes, it does but in short passages with the separation of an enormous part of language. This book seems to be catered more towards linguistic methodology with a grammar and vocabulary focus, which all the skills are based upon. It depends on the teacher’s diversity to exploit activities in order to cause more production. In general, ‘Teen Links’ focuses more on use. Whereas, ‘Botellon’ looks more at ‘usage’. It is innovative with many topics covered for discussion purposes as they are modern. The success of any book depends not only on the content and the skills involved, but also on the teacher and how well they can use and exploit the book. A good teacher knows that it is important to promote student talking time and to demote teacher talking time. When we compare the two units, it is obvious that there is more teacher talking time in ‘Teen Links’ as there is a need for a lot of language explanation. ‘Botellon’ appears to be the contrary with students having the opportunity to speak at almost every stage. In conclusion, I believe that students would find a unit like ‘Botellon’ more appealing. It offers a lot of practice with the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking, with little or no focus on language. It encourages and demands communication and would be much more enriching and successful amongst students as the topics involved in just one unit are incredibly engaging. Bibliography Scrivener, J. 2005. Learning Teaching, A guidebook for English language teachers. Second Edition. Macmillan Ur, P. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and theory. Cambridge University Press White, R. & Arndt, V. 1992. “Generating” in Process Writing. London: Longman Widdowson, H.G. 1978. Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford University Press Universidad de Jaén ASSIGNMENT – DLS 15