Controlled practice bt 2012
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graeme.hodgson@learningfact ory.net www.learningfacto ry.net Supporting Speaking Skills: Controlled Practice Revisited! with Graeme Hodgson A QR Code to keep you busy before we start!!
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Short workshop with theory and practice of drilling to promote fluency. Slides will not give a full idea of the actual interaction in session, due to practical running of drills with participants.
Transcript of Controlled practice bt 2012
Supporting Speaking Skills: Controlled Practice
Revisited!with Graeme Hodgson
A QR Code to keep you busy before we start!!
BACKGROUND
Adult students want to:
Learn quickly
REACH POST-BASIC LEVEL
Develop oral skills
Feel confident Creat solid foundation of language
learnt
Deliberate Practice
Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of Psychology at Florida State University:
“The differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain."
Deliberate Practice
“How expert one becomes at a skill has more to do with HOW one practices than with merely performing a skill a large number of times. An expert breaks down the skills that are required to be expert and focuses on improving those skill chunks during practice… often paired with immediate coaching feedback. Another important feature lies in continually practicing a skill at more challenging levels.”
- Anders Ericsson (1993)
Cognitive Theory
“Excellent performance results from practicing complex tasks that produce errors. Such errors provide the learner with rich feedback that results in scaffolding for future performance.”
- Mayer (2008)
Function of Drills (for Learners)
• Provide a focus on accuracy. • Provide learners with intensive practice in hearing
and saying particular words or phrases. • Provide a safe environment for learners to
experiment with producing the language. • Help students notice the correct form or
pronunciation of a word or phrase. • Provide an opportunity for learners to get immediate
feedback on their accuracy.• Help memorization and automization of common
language patterns and language chunks.
General Guidelines on Drilling
Better for Ss NOT to see the language written down before they practice saying it (T models, S repeat)
Give clear, natural and consistent models. Hand movements indicate intonation, beat stress
etc. Join or separate fingers to show word boundaries and linking.
Back-chaining helps focus on correct pronunciation & intonation . It is also attention-grabbing!
Vary drill in terms of who repeats: whole class, half the class, boys, girls, individuals.
Drilling should be done at a “snappy” pace.
Changing Pace by Drilling
Whisper drills (for quietening down a rowdy class)Shouting drills (for livening them up )
Model saying things in different ways: e.g. very happy, very sad, very bored, very excited, sleepy, angry etc. (Model facial expression & get learners to do the same).
“Communicative tasks- yes – but there is also a definite need for
an explicit focus on form and meaning, and therefore for the
micro skills needed to do that. And this is often completely
lacking in teachers and in their training.”
“The micro techniques (eg: drilling, contextualizing, use of
substitution tables, etc) ...are extremely useful ... and will
enhance coursebook work.”
Jim ScrivenerIATEFL Conference,
Harrogate 2010)
“For years and years people learnt
languages with teaching methods that most
modern teachers would think were completely
anti-fluency. Grammar translation, audio-
lingualism, constant drilling and repetition. And
yet, the result of that was that some people
became very fluent. You just know them, you’ve
met them, you may be them.” (ABCI, 2010)
“For the last 15 or 20 years, sts have learnt
English using communicative activity after
communicative activity. Lots and lots of talking.
And you know what happened? Some of them
become very fluent and some of them, don’t.”
(ABCI, 2010)
“Once you’ve said: ‘Have you ever been to France?’
‘Have you ever been to France?’ ‘Have you ever been to
France?’ enough times, you can say ‘Have you ever been
to Fortaleza?’ ‘Have you ever been to Recife?’ ‘Have you
ever been to Salvador?’ ‘Have you ever been to Porto
Alegre’. You can say it easy, easy. But … the challenge for
you is…
Yes, repetition works, how can you make it work WELL?
What kind of repetition does the magic to the brain?
That’s my last question.”
(ABCI, 2010)
1. Teacher says a sentence/ lexical item;2. Students repeat the sentence/lexical item, in chorus;3. After 2 or 3 choral repetitions, conduct an individual repetition.4. Teacher repeats procedures 1-3 using the prompts suggested in the Teacher’s Guide.
REPETITION DRILL
1. The teacher presents the basic structure that students need to practice;2. The teacher provides a cue word/expression to substitute in a slot;3. The teacher models the sentence;4. Students say the new sentence, in chorus, keeping the same pattern;6. After 2 or 3 choral repetitions, T colIects individual repetitions;
SUBSTITUTION DRILL
Example:
T: What’s your [name]? Stds repeat.T: last name. (mime “hold on”)T: What’s your [last name]? Stds repeat.
T: jobStds: What’s your [job]?
SUBSTITUTION DRILL
1. Teacher asks a question;2. Student answers the question.3. Teacher asks stds to repeat either the
question or the answer (depending on the focus of the drill) in chorus.
E.g. T: What time is it? [on the board - 5:30]
T: It’s half past five. (Student repeats)Stds: It’s half past five.
QUESTION & ANSWER DRILL
Transformation drill
Student transforms sentence by making it negative or interrogative, switching from singular into plural or by changing tense, mood, voice, aspect or modality.
DRILLS
Open Pair drill
Student A or group A asks Student B or group B a question, considering a prompt given by the teacher.E.g. T: happy.
A: Are you happy? (Stds repeat)B: B’s reply. (yes, I am./No, I’m not.)
1. Student A asks Student B a question;2. Student B answers the question;3. Student B asks Student C a question;4. Student C answers the question;5. The same procedure is repeated until all
students take part in the activity.6. Correction permeates the activity, if
necessary.
CHAIN DRILL
References
• Tice, J. Teaching English, British Council, 2004. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/drilling-1
• Anders Ericsson, K. Krampe, R. and Tesch-Romer, C. The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance. Psychological Review 1993, Vol. 100. No. 3, 363-406
• Mayer, R. E. Learning and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. 2008.
