Awareness and autonomy in ELT

Keith Morrow © 2006

The death of the method

Prabhu, N.S. 1990. ‘There is no best method – why?’ TESOL Quarterly, 24/2: 161–176.

The enemy of good teaching is not a bad method, but overroutinisation.

Prabhu p. 174

When we encounter an instance of really bad teaching, it is most often not a case of the teacher following a method with which we disagree, but rather of the teacher merely going through the motions of teaching, with no sense of involvement.

Prabhu p.171

.

Awareness and autonomy

why?

input

intake

Awareness and autonomy

how?

Noticing and reformulation

Awareness-raising for learners‘Grammatical accuracy and learnerautonomy in advanced writing’

Caroline H. Vickers and Estela Ene

ELT Journal 60/2 April 2006

Quelle est la profession de votre mère / père / frère / sœur / oncle / tante?

My mother is ……………………………...

My father is ……………………………...

My brother is ……………………………...

My sister is ……………………………...

My uncle is ……………………………...

My aunt is ……………………………...

Quelle est la profession de votre mère / père / frère / sœur / oncle / tante?

My mother is a teacher

My father is a lorry driver

My brother is an engineer

My sister is a nurse

My uncle is a banker

My aunt is an undertaker

Quelle est la profession de votre mère / père / frère / sœur / oncle / tante?

My mother is ……………………………...

My father is ……………………………...

My brother is ……………………………...

My sister is ……………………………...

My uncle is ……………………………...

My aunt is ……………………………...

Focus on 3rd conditional in writing

Stage 1: Situation established. Write a paragraph about the situation. Prompts: If I, if the teacher, if the committee

Stage 2:

(1) Read an explanation of the rules for forming 3rd conditional

(2) Read a text using 3rd conditional correctly with forms bolded

(3) Review own original paragraph (number of errors indicated)

Focus on 3rd conditional in writing

Stage 3: Write a paragraph as in stage 1 but with a different prompt.

Vickers & Ene ‘Grammatical accuracy and learner autonomy in advanced writing’

ELT Journal 60/2 April 2006

Awareness-raising for teachers

Classroom discourse

Steve Walsh ‘Talking the Talk of the TESOL Classroom’ ELT Journal 60/2 April 2006

Stage 1: Collect some samples of your teaching

Stage 2: Analyze the samples in terms of a descriptive framework

Stage 3: Identify features of your “discourse” you wish to modify

Stage 4: Collect further samples, analyze, and review

Feature of teacher talk Description

A Scaffolding

B Direct repair

C Content feedback

D Extended wait-time

E Referential questions

F Seeking clarification

Feature of teacher talk Description

A Scaffolding 1 Reformulation (rephrasing a learner’s contribution)

2 Extension (extending a learner’s contribution) 3 Modelling (providing an example for learner(s))

B Direct repair Correcting an error quickly and directly.

C Content feedback Giving feedback to the message rather than the words used.

D Extended wait-time Allowing sufficient time (several seconds) for students to respond or formulate a response.

E Referential questions Genuine questions to which the teacher does not know the answer.

F Seeking clarification 1 Teacher asks a student to clarify something the student has said.

2 Student asks teacher to clarify something the teacher has said.

Feature of teacher talk Description

G Extended learner turn .

H Teacher echo .

I Teacher interruptions

J Extended teacher turn .

K Turn completion

L Display questions

M Form-focused feedback .

Feature of teacher talk Description

G Extended learner turn Learner turn of more than one utterance.

H Teacher echo 1 Teacher repeats teacher’s previous utterance.

2 Teacher repeats a learner’s contribution.

I Teacher interruptions Interrupting a learner’ contribution.

J Extended teacher turn Teacher turn of more than one utterance.

K Turn completion Completing a learner’s contribution for the learner.

L Display questions Asking questions to which teacher knows the answer.

M Form-focused feedback Giving feedback on the words used, not the message. .

The Common European Framework of Reference

for Languages:

Learning, teaching, assessment

In which of the following ways should learners be expected or required todevelop their vocabulary?a) by simple exposure to words and fixed expressions used in authentic spoken and written texts?

b) by learner elicitation or dictionary, etc. look-up as needed for specific tasks and activities?

c)

d)

e)

f)

g)

h)

Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state the ways in which vocabulary items (form and meaning) are presented to and learned by pupils and students.

ELT Journal

http://www.eltj.org/oxford