A highly-integrated complex ER/EL program: Problems and prospects

Stephen Shrader and Rob WaringNotre Dame Seishin Women’s UniversityERF World Congress, Kyoto, Sept, 2011

Our OC courseWe believe in:

Autonomy and self-selectionThe importance of tasks and interactionThe value of some teacher guidance and controlNation’s four strands

meaning-focused inputattention to language features/items meaning-focused outputfluent 4 skills use of known language items

We see our course as complex (language targets; tasks) and integrated (the parts reinforce each other).

　

　 　

　 　　

Reading Listening

Self- selected fluency work

Non-self-selected fluency work

Language focus work

Graded readers

Audio from graded readers

ELLLO (with T guidance)

Non-fiction material tied to course book topics (Footprints)

Course book audio

Course book video

Course book (Reading Explorer 2)

Word lists

Listening while reading in class (The Elephant Man)Teacher stories, demos

Posters and presentations

Reading Listening

Self selected fluency work

　

Reading Listening

Non-self selectedfluency

work

Reading Listening　

Language focus work

Most of it is concurrent

Though we talked about it step by step, most elements run concurrently throughout the term!e.g. Alternating self-selected reading and listening week 1 with non-self selected materials the next.They read 6 GRs and 6 Footprints, 20 ELLLO, 6 Own ListeningsAdditional activities – reading reportsThe two classes met once per two weeks to do something (activity/presentation/poster or report their reading / listening).ExamView tests plus teacher quizzes

The data

Data collectionOne semester of data so farExpect 2-3 years of data to be collectedPre-course data collected in first week (85 items)End of semester data collected in July (66 items)

Background 40 female first year college students2 regular classes per week @ 90 minutes (plus homework)1 CALL class @ 90 mins

The data: Reading histories in English

Prior reading was mostly of textbooks and course and exam related materialsThey had done very little reading of English content materials (comics, novels, poetry, magazines, newspapers etc.)50% had read many / a lot of music lyrics, English webpages46% had already read easy story books in English88% read a lot/ often in Japanese

The data: Reading desires

They reported wanting to read most types of reading materials – from newspapers and magazines to webpagesGenre preferences were for fantasy, romance, drama, historical, adventure, crime, biographies but not sci-fi, sports and scienceNon-fiction was highly rated

The data: Little /no change over one semester

Similar tendency / rates for need to look up unknown wordsSimilar desire to be a better reader in English (high initially)Similar liking for listening while readingSimilar levels of desire to understand everything when reading

The data: Minor changes since high school

Our course book was less tiring and easier to understand than those in High SchoolIncreased desire to know more about the reading topic after readingIncreased desire / liking for reading in EnglishIncreased perception of ease in reading in English Lowering of perception that reading is hardIncreased desire in liking for listeningSlight increase in desire to read in Japanese

The data: Larger differences

They translated less frequently when reading (29% said a lot in April to 7% in July)Tendency to find their own non-course related reading materialIncreased desire to read something more challengingIncreased desire to read more (in general)Increased desire to read more non-fictionDecrease in perception that listening is difficultIncrease in preference for listening over readingLessening of the desire to study alone

The data: Massive gains

Self-perception of being a more confident reader78% lacking confidence -> 83% felt confident

The data: Some negatives (but to be expected)

Slight decrease in perceived English ability since entering uniSlight increase in realization they won’t be very fluent after graduation

The data: hard to interpret data

Lessening in strong desire to read easy story books (46% to 24% strong). BUT also a lessening in desire to read something very very difficult (39% to 17%) and an increase in desire to read something a little difficult (44% to 73%)

?? They want to read something at or about their level or just above it (not too easy and not too hard)

The data: Learning habits

Increase in autonomyIncreased desire to ask questions / ask for helpLess desire to stay quiet about their mistakes(but slight increase in desire for a teacher centered class)

Increased tendency to see reading as a communicative act rather than for language study Slight increase in desire to focus on grammatical itemsLarge increase in % of students who liked speaking in classMuch greater tolerance for making mistakesIncrease in clarity of the reason they want to study English

The data: Input preferences

Most useful

Most enjoyable

Liked the best

ELLLO (self-selected online listening) 34% 7% 10%

Self selected Listening CDs 2% 7% 5%

Self- selected reading (graded readers) 49% 76% 80%

Teacher selected reading (Footprints) 15% 10% 5%

The data: Post impressions

83% reported some gains in reading speed (12% said a lot)68% reported increasing reading speed is very important63% prefer self-selected reading to teacher selected readingMoodlereader quizzes were hard (51%) to very hard (39%) even though most tests were passed49% prefer Moodle tests to doing reports (39%)68% said the text book was okay, 5% easy, 27% hard46% said the amount of homework was just right, 29% a bit too much, 15% not enough63% said the videos were okay, 27% said a little difficult

The data: Post impressions - reading

The genre (54%) was most likely to determine if a book was borrowed, blurb 27%, cover 10%, recommendation 10%32% read a bit before choosing, 34% selected on interest, 17% on cover and 15% on genre63% said selecting the right reading level was important 29% very important, 7% not important

The data: Post impressions - listening

37% said selecting the right listening level was important, 59% a little important and 2% not important34% selected from the blurb, 41% genre and 20% cover17% can listen much faster, 76% a little faster than April54% reported chatting helped them listen better than, ELLLO (32%) and own listening (15%)80% report an increase in listening confidence63% still report listening is hard, 37% not so hard93% report wanting to listen more and 98% report they want to be a better listener than they did in April

The data: Post impressions - ELLLO

ELLLO listening71% selected on interest51% said it was not easy to find suitable level material39% said it was easy to find suitable level material37% use pictures or interest (27%) to select material27% read some of the text before listening37% did many online exercises, 51% did few

The data: The ER program

98% reported the borrowing system was easy to follow68% reported taking time to select their own reading / listening materials 10% quickly, 22% a long time

Some of the challenges:

Lots of complex parts and deadlines to keep track of for...students... so the full course calendar needed for orientation

by us… word lists were needed at the very startbook orders filled before term start (class sets)sometimes limited resources, so activities can't

overlap some tasks due on a certain day across classes, so schedule is important

And... we wanted to demo all important tasks with both classes together, so all of that needed to be ready and teacher roles decided.

Responding to needs

As the course progressed, we addedMoodlereader for assessmentSummer vacation weekly blogs (using blogger.com)Student portfolios

In the futurePut all audio and video on computer for students to self- access, add self study materials for songsAllow students to take Moodlereader quizzes / access ELLLO in the new self-access labAdd self access, self selected language focused study

Reporting

We’ll finish the year, collect more data and report the data in a future paper.

Thank you for your time.

Feedback please

Is this too complex?Enough integration?How extendable would this be?What data should we collect?Should we add strategy development?

Coursebook CD-ROM

www.elllo.org

Listening task for ELLLO

Our reader room

Self-selected listening…

Many students also borrow DVDs!

New computers for future listening tasks!

Some of our books…

Tasks for self-selected reading and listening.

A story in pictures…