ESL/EFL Cases: Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions 9789629374693, 9789629371425

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ESL/EFL Cases

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ESL/EFL Cases Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions Gertrude TINKER SACHS Belinda HO

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©2007 City University of Hong Kong All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, internet or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the City University of Hong Kong Press. First published 2007 ISBN: 978-962-937-142-5 Published by

City University of Hong Kong Press



Tat Chee Avenue



Kowloon, Hong Kong



Website: www.cityu.edu.hk/upress



E-mail: [email protected]

Printed in Hong Kong

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To the classroom and university teachers whose lessons and commentaries are featured in this book and to all those who will read and use this book for the professional growth and development of themselves and others

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Contents

Acknowledgements ix Preface xi Introduction by Jack RICHARDS xiii Using Cases in Teacher Education xv Terms Used in this Book xxi

1

Critical Thinking 1 Case 1 Critical Thinking: Facts and Opinions, Writer’s Purpose 3

2

Writing 13 Case 2 Writing an Argumentative Essay 15 Case 3 Supporting Writing 23

3

Extensive Reading and Using Class Readers 33 Case 4 Literature Circles 35 Case 5 Developing a Slogan in an ERS Lesson 47 Case 6 Using Class Readers 57

4

Listening 65 Case 7 Answer Checking in a Listening Lesson 67

5

Grammar 75 Case 8 Explanations in Teaching 77 Case 9 Making a Request 85

6

Reading Comprehension 95 Case 10 Questions and Answers in Comprehension 97 Case 11 Group Work in Reading Comprehension 107

7

Vocabulary Development 117 Case 12 Elicitation in Vocabulary Teaching 119 Case 13 Building Vocabulary 131

8

Classroom Management 143 Case 14 Classroom Management 145

9

Possible Answers 155

Concluding Remarks 179 About the Authors 181 Index 183

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the principals of the participating schools, their secondary teachers and students for allowing us to video-tape their lessons. We thank the teachers for taking time to tell us their personal and professional histories as well as to comment on selected lesson excerpts. In order to protect the privacy of the schools, teachers and students, pseudonyms are used throughout this case book. We also recognise the University Teachers whose commentaries are featured in this book:

Ms Lin Fenli, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA



Ms Li Hong, Chongqing University, People’s Republic of China



Dr. George Jacobs, Education Consultant, Singapore



Dr. Stella Kong, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong



Dr. Becky Kwan, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong



Dr. Rebecca Lam, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong



Dr. Icy Lee, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong



Dr. Angel Lin, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong



Dr. Gloria Lo, National Pengu University, Taiwan



Mr. Edgar McGee, Campbellsville University, Campbellsville, Kentucky, USA



Dr. Lindsay Miller, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong



Dr. Yan Wang, Georgia State University, USA



Dr. Shelley Wong, George Mason University, USA



Dr. Ivan Yang, Formosa University, Taiwan



Dr. Vicky Hui-chin Yeh, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

We also acknowledge Dr. Pier Junor Clarke of Georgia State University, USA and one anonymous reviewer whose feedback enhanced the overall quality of this book. We want to thank City University of Hong Kong, who funded this project (Quality Enhancement Fund #8710134) from 1997 to 2002. Special acknowledgements and thanks also go to our wonderful research support staff, Kenneth Lee (1997–1998), Jane Lung (1998–1999), Catherine Yung (1999–2002) and Angel Lau (2003).

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Preface

The cases in this book are derived from the project “The Real Teachers’ Project”, so named because the cases are from teachers in their authentic settings. Real teachers are like real people, very complex and complicated with their own personal and professional histories that are taken to the classrooms with them. Similarly, real classrooms are filled with students who bring their own personal learning histories, background knowledge and world experiences to the classroom, the sum of their numbers combined. When teachers bring all their human foibles, fears and frustrations to the classrooms, the challenges are substantial. And when those real teachers undertake different ways of teaching their students, the reader has to appreciate teaching from multiple viewpoints. And, in essence, that is what the cases in this book are about: rationalising and appreciating the complexities of the challenges of teaching from the multiple viewpoints of the teachers’ and the learners’ perspectives in their own particularised learning contexts. We believe that you chose this book because you aspire to become a more effective teacher of English as a second/foreign language. As educators, we all desire to become better at what we do. As the writers of this book, we aspire to become more effective teacher educators. For us, this means making meaningful impact with our teacher learners whether they are pre-service, in-service, undergraduate or graduate teachers. In other words, how do we, and the other teacher educators who will use this book, help our teacher learners to become more effective in the classroom? This book is important to us because we saw a void in the ESL/EFL literature that did not adequately address the needs of teachers of English as a second/foreign language. We wanted a book that captured large slices of teachers doing their work and we wanted to use their authentic work contexts as a means to foster discussions about the teaching and learning of English. We have deliberately maintained the rich and messy contexts of teaching because we know that these will contribute to the fullness of your discussions and because these characteristics truly represent the realities of teaching. We believe that through your reflective reading, thinking, writing and discussions about our cases, we would be creating the spaces for improving the teaching and learning of English as a second/foreign language. We envision communities of teachers sitting around a table in teacher development seminars, faculty workshops, teacher study groups or in the university classroom, talking animatedly about teaching and learning, not just planning the next test for our students or for teacher learners, how to pass the course. Instead, we hope for groups of teachers engaging in talk about how we can, through our interactions and instructional approaches, help our learners to become competent in all aspects of English. For teacher educators and the pre-service and in-service student teachers under their tutelage we hope that you too, can foster communities of learners through allocating time in your coursework to use our

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cases as authentic contexts to address the often cited criticism about teacher education’s lack of good classroom examples to support our theoretical orientations or to exemplify our pedagogical approaches. The idea of community is critical to the success of our quest of becoming more effective educators. We are social beings and most of us function best through our social discourses with others and we believe that our cases provide rich contexts for promoting reflective and meaningful teacher discussions. The first questions that we would like you to think about are: “What does it mean to be an effective teacher and how do we become more effective teachers of English?” The next question that we would like you to think about is related to context. “Which contexts and conditions are important for acquiring another language?” As you read our cases, you will find many different learning contexts some of which you may deem to be more effective than others. We hope that you will use your understandings of how we learn and teach a second/foreign language to guide your discussions. Most of all, we hope that you will set directions for yourself and use our cases and the discussions that evolve from them as impetus to take appropriate action to become a more effective educator, something which we all desire to be.

Gertrude TINKER SACHS Belinda HO Summer 2007

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Introduction Jack RICHARDS

One of the biggest difficulties involved in delivering teacher–education courses is bridging the gap between theory and practice, between the academic content of university courses and the contexts in which teachers work or will work in the future. Language teaching is an essentially practical activity, yet when it is the focus of an academic course and explored through lectures, journal articles and classroom discussions, it often seems divorced from the real world of teachers, classes and learners. Teacher educators have long struggled with this dilemma, particularly when preparing courses for pre-service education. Watching videos of teachers and assigning classroom observation are both useful ways of bringing real classroom data into the campus program. This book presents another useful strategy—the use of case reports of lessons and classroom incidents—and shows how case reports can be used to explore central aspects of what it means to be an English as a second/foreign (ESL/ EFL) language teacher. Case reports are attracting growing interest from teacher educators and teacher developers in both general education as well as second language teacher education. They offer unique possibilities as teacher professional resources for a number of reasons: • they offer an insider-view of teaching •

they present classroom data that can be used to explore many different aspects of teaching

•

they allow for multiple interpretations and thus illustrate some of the complexities of teaching

•

they show what happens when teachers try to turn their plans into practice

Reading and discussing case-reports thus provides a refreshing alternative to more conventional teacher–development activities and allows the teacher-trainer or teacher developer to bring examples of real classroom episodes and dilemmas into his or her teaching. The present collection of case reports is unique in a number of ways: • the cases are derived from real lessons that the authors arranged to have videotaped •

the participating teachers reviewed and commented on the teaching incidents

•

commentaries are provided to enable the incidents to be interpreted and explored

•

tasks and activities are included that enable the cases to be used as a basis for teacher training and professional development

•

various options for using the cases are presented

•

the cases have been piloted with student teachers

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•

the cases take the form of lesson transcripts rather than narrative summaries of lessons or incidents, thus enabling the reader to see aspects of lessons as they actually developed

The compilers of this set of case reports are therefore to be congratulated on making this rich and invaluable set of teaching resources available for use by teacher educators, professional developers and teachers in Asia and elsewhere.

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Using Cases in Teacher Education

Cases in Teacher Education Cases are important in teacher education because they present rich classroom contexts for teacher learners to forge connections between theory and practice. Cases also promote reflective and effective practice when teachers are encouraged to rationalise why classroom problems occur (Richards, 1998) and figure out what they would do if they were in a similar teaching situation (Johnson, 2000). Cases can also be designed to foster an awareness of critical issues in education such as religious diversity, gender issues, stereotyping and teacher identity (Goldblatt and Smith, 2005). In general, cases provide specific contexts for stimulating talk about instructional and cultural differences and similarities of teaching contexts and issues around the world (Richards, 1998). Cases by their varied and specific nature can serve as a unifying force for teachers to talk about our global quest of improving the work of educators.

The Context of Our Cases The cases in this book are from the Hong Kong secondary school English classroom. In secondary schools, students usually study from Forms 1–7 (grades 7–13). The schools are divided into bands 1, 2, or 3 in each geographic district. Students are allocated to these schools on the basis of their performance on exit tests given at the end of primary 6. The academically strong students in a district go to the Band 1 schools and the weakest students would end up attending the lower band schools. In terms of instruction, the schools are usually divided into two types—CMI (Chinese as a Medium of Instruction) and EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction). Medium of instruction (MOI) indicates whether the majority of the school’s subjects are being taught in a particular language. Since 1998, many schools were required to switch from EMI to CMI. (Please refer to page xxi for more information on EMI and CMI schools.) The majority of Hong Kong’s local schools are comprised of Hong Kong ethnic Chinese students. However, since the return to Mainland China in 1997, schools are increasingly faced with new immigrants from China who may speak a different dialect or who may have had little or no English language school learning experiences. Some local schools also have students whose parents were originally from other Asian countries such as the Indian subcontinent. These students may speak the local Cantonese dialect and/or English in addition to their mother tongue.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

How We Developed Our Cases The following sections provide detailed explanations on how our cases were developed. We also offer some recommendations for how the cases may be presented for teacher education and/or teacher professional development or study group sessions.

There were five stages in the development of our cases:

Stage 1—Identifying the Teachers The teachers in the Bachelor degree programme on Teaching English as a Second Language (BATESL) and the Master’s degree programme on Teaching English as a Second Language (MATESL) at City University of Hong Kong together with their teacher friends were our main contacts and volunteers. When the teachers were contacted and had indicated interest in joining the project, letters were sent to the principals of their schools so that the teachers could obtain official approval to participate. To protect the privacy of our participating schools and teachers, only pseudonyms are used throughout this book. Stage 2—Interviewing the Teachers These teachers were then interviewed to collect background information about their schools, their classes, their own experiences, beliefs and practices in teaching and learning English. This was a very important stage as it enabled us to provide the reader with the context for the specific case. Stage 3—Video-taping the Lessons Each teacher then chose a convenient time for 3 to 5 of his or her lessons to be videotaped. These were usually the teachers’ regular lessons which were not especially designed for our purpose.* Stage 4—Preparing the Cases After video-taping the lessons, the authors viewed the lessons and selected interesting episodes to be included in the cases. Questions were noted during the viewing process and the teachers were interviewed for the second time to collect their reactions and explanations * This was true for the majority of our cases but a few lessons were deliberately designed by the writers and taught by teachers to promote discussion about different ways of teaching.

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Using Cases in Teacher Education

for the selected episodes and to clarify any other questions. The cases were then crafted based on the framework described in the next section, the “Anatomy of our Cases”. Stage 5—Field Testing and Refining the Cases After the cases were developed, they were sent to the teachers for comments and approval. These cases were then field-tested by the authors and other local and international colleagues. Based on the information collected from the field tests, the cases were then edited and refined.

Anatomy of Our Cases Diagram 1—The Anatomy of Our Cases, depicts the distinctive characteristics of our cases.

The Anatomy of Our Cases Context Teacher, school, class Selected Event(s) Lesson overview, episodes Initial Questions Teacher’s Comments Discussion Questions Critical Commentary Because cases can be episodic in nature, in the first part of each case, information is provided on the context such as the school, the class, the teacher’s beliefs and practices. This is to provide important background for the reader to appreciate the teacher’s work context and beliefs and offset the difficulties attributed to lack of contextual information to fully appreciate the case. The main part of the case contains the events. This section starts with an overview of the lesson, followed by the transcription of a selected episode(s) of the lesson.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Following this information, we provide some initial questions at this point to help frame thinking and discussion. The initial questions are the same for every case—“What is your first reaction to the case you have just read,” “What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing,” and “If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson.” The reader’s initial views might change when the teacher’s comments that follow are read. The teacher’s perspective and rationale were obtained in our second interview and provides a window through which the reader can relate to the teacher’s actions. The questions that follow the teacher’s comments were prepared for in-depth discussions and suggested answers (found at the back of the book) were provided for the teacher educator/developer. Critical commentaries were also included to provide another perspective on the case and to stimulate further reading and professional development. The one missing aspect of some of our cases is students’ own feedback on the lessons. While we recognize the importance of students’ voices in the learning process, we were not able to obtain them for every lesson due to time constraints after video-taping the lessons. Student comments therefore appear in some cases only. Our cases are presented in a format so that methodologies may be reconstructed and problems may be situated within the multidimensionality of teaching. Subject matter content knowledge may also be applied within this interactive perspective and different theories may be entertained. In essence, it is hoped that through the presentation of our cases, fertile ground is provided for many different foci and perspectives on theory and practice to emerge. The next section provides further discussion on how cases can be used for teaching and professional development purposes. In field-testing our cases, we followed the procedures outlined in the presentation of our cases. Ours was typically a read-and-discuss format that was incorporated into our regular teacher education classes where appropriate. However, several variations of our presentation format may be used to maximise the full use of the cases. (Examples of some case presentation options are presented in Table 1.) In all of these suggested formats, the teacher educator/teacher developer plays the role of a facilitator except where an asterisk (*) is given when s/he will give direct input. The words in boldface indicate the different sections of the cases as presented in this book. In addition to the procedures that we have recommended for teacher/curriculum leaders, panel chairs, teacher developers and educators, we also encourage education professors or practicum supervisors to use our cases especially for practicum courses. We believe that while teachers are on Practice Teaching, our case book can be a very good accompanying document to foster reflective thinking about their classroom practices. Supervisors may ask student teachers to read one chapter a week and write a reflective comment on the case as it relates to their own practice. Alternatively,

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Using Cases in Teacher Education

where there are two or more student teachers in the same school, they may read and tape record their discussion of the cases. Teachers’ reflections on the cases can be included in their portfolios. Table 1: Case Presentation Formats Our Presentation Format**

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Option 5

Read case sections (teacher, school, lesson overview, episodes)

*Give an overview of the case background (teacher, school, lesson overview)

Read case sections (teacher, school, lesson overview, teacher’s comments)

Read discussion questions

Read critical commentary

Discuss the initial questions

Read episodes

Oral/written response

*Give an overview of the case background (teacher, school, lesson overview)

Oral/written response

Read the teacher’s comments

Oral/written response to the case initial questions

Read episodes and discussion questions

Read case sections teacher, school, lesson overview, episodes, teacher’s comments

Read case sections teacher, school, lesson overview, episodes, teacher’s comments

Read the discussion questions

Read teacher’s comments and critical commentary

Write response

Oral/written response to the discussion questions

Discuss your response and compare and contrast with the critical commentary

Respond

Oral/written response

Discuss response

Connect to readings Respond to the discussion questions

Read critical commentary (not included in our field tests)

Connect to other teaching topics

Read critical commentary

Prepare written response

Respond

Write a response

Pursue suggested readings for further study

Consider the possible answers and how they differ from your own answers

** Format used for the field testing of cases and the format we have incorporated in this book to present the cases.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

In the preceding sections we have provided some ideas of how we went about developing the cases and we have recommended formats you can use for professional development. We hope that this knowledge will serve to enrich your understandings of our work and enhance your sense of the scope and direction of what you can achieve in working with the cases. ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions arises from everyday classroom sites. These are authentic contexts from which the cases were derived. Teachers’ real voices are heard in the comments and observations on their lessons. The lesson excerpts, the initial questions and all the discussion questions that follow them manifest real classroom experiences and applications. The answers that we provide are a possible check on teacher learners’ perspectives and could themselves be sources of discussion. In general, however, the answers are there for the benefit and ease of the facilitator and to stimulate further discussion and thinking. The commentaries that follow the cases provide another window on the cases and are written from the unique perspectives and styles of teacher educators from different countries. While our cases are context-specific as cases should be, this does not prohibit their use and applications in very different language learning environments. We hope that working with our cases will be a very fruitful experience for you and your fellow teachers. Happy teaching!

Reference Goldblatt, P. F. and Smith, D. (Eds.) (2005). Cases for teacher development. Preparing for the classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Johnson, K. E. (2000). Teacher education. Case studies in TESOL practice series. Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Richards, J. C. (1998). Talking in action: Case studies from second language classrooms. Alexandria, VA: TESOL

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Terms Used in this Book

Some common terms used in secondary school education in Hong Kong Form Levels In secondary schools, students usually study from Forms 1–7, which is equivalent to Grades 7–13 and the first year in university in the North American system.

The Banding System Primary school students are allocated to secondary schools on the basis of their scaled internal assessment results. Students are divided into 3 Bands, higher, middle or lower band, according to their results. Each band consists of 1/3 of the total number of primary students in the school’s net. The academically strong students in a district go to the upper banding schools and the weakest to the lower banding schools.

CMI and EMI Schools When the medium of instruction is taken into consideration, there are two kinds of schools: the CMI schools which use Chinese as the medium of instruction and the EMI schools which use English as the medium of instruction. In a CMI school, Chinese is used in teaching all subjects including some English lessons where Chinese may be used as a resource to support English learning. All the announcements are made in Chinese and the memos sent to the parents are also in Chinese. In an EMI school, the teachers use English to teach all Arts and Science academic subjects, except Chinese and Chinese History. In some EMI schools, English is used to make announcements. Assemblies are conducted in English and even the letters sent to the parents are written in English. It has been the Government’s policy since the 1980s to encourage schools to adopt Chinese as the medium of instruction to enhance students’ cognitive development and learning ability because it is believed that students generally learn more effectively in their mother tongue without the barrier of a second language. According to the Medium of Instruction: Guidance for Secondary Schools (1997), schools should adopt Chinese as the medium of instruction for all academic subjects. Only schools that can demonstrate that they fully satisfy the requirements in terms of student ability, teacher capacity and support strategies and programmes can use English as the medium of instruction. In the meantime, schools adopting Chinese as the medium of instruction may opt to switch to English medium for certain subjects in some classes in Secondary 4 and 5 but they have to fully satisfy the above-mentioned requirements. Most parents prefer to send their children to EMI

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schools because they consider these schools more prestigious. In 1998, 307 government and government-aided secondary schools in Hong Kong were required to adopt mother-tongue teaching and the remaining 114 were allowed to teach in English due to their previous school history (Hong Kong Government, 1997). However, at press time, the Education Department appears to be relaxing its policy on the medium of instruction. School management boards are being accorded greater autonomy in determining the language teaching medium.

Reference Hong Kong Government. (1997). Medium of instruction: Guidance for secondary schools. Education Department, Hong Kong: Government Printer.

Other Terms and Abbreviations Terms

Explanations

Banding

Schools are assessed into 3 bandings; 1 as the highest and 3 as the lowest.

CMI

Chinese as a medium of instruction

EAP

English for Academic Purposes

EFL

English as a Foreign Language

EMI

English as a medium of instruction

ERS

Extensive Reading Scheme

ESL

English as a Second Language

G.E.

General English (consisting of reading comprehension, grammar and usage)

L1

First language

L2

Second language

MOI

Medium of Instruction

NET

Native-speaking English Teacher

S1

Student one

S2

Student two

SLA

Second Language Acquisition

Ss

Students

T

Teacher

TESL

Teaching English as a Second Language

TESOL

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

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1

Critical Thinking

Our first case will address aspects of critical thinking. As very busy teachers, we often do not give enough attention to this very important aspect of language learning. Just because we are trying to help students master complicated grammar and rich expressive vocabularies does not mean that we should ignore higher order skills. After all, what is mastery of the basics if one is not trained to use the basics to promote thinking and learning? Critical thinking can be incorporated into all aspects of our language syllabus whether or not our learners are highly competent or below basic competence and regardless of which aspect of English we are teaching. When we capture our pupils’ imagination and appeal to their reasoning, we have a way of motivating them and helping them to see purpose in what they are learning far beyond the acquisition of language structures. In today’s highly technological world, critical thinking skills can be promoted through visually representing aspects of learning such as in simple or complex graphic organisers such as Venn diagrams or semantic maps. Critical thinking means more than a set of skills to be “mastered” but a way of viewing the world such as looking at a piece of writing on the internet and determining the standpoint of the writer and which audience s/he targeted and how could it have been written if it were for another audience or written by another person with a different perspective. It’s not just distinguishing between facts and opinions but going deeply into the texts of all genres to consider issues related to gender, class, cultural background, country of origin, language variety, sexual orientation, age, power and race. As you read the critical thinking case, think about the ways you can make critical thinking and critical pedagogy more central in your English teaching syllabus.



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Case 1

Critical Thinking: Facts and Opinions, Writer’s Purpose Ms Mok’s Case

Teacher Ms Mok has been teaching for over 12 years in three different schools and has attained a Masters in TESL. Ms Mok’s goal in teaching is to help students improve their English and raise their interest in English language learning. To help some students with low language proficiency, Ms Mok thinks that it is important to create a supportive environment to sustain their interest and to help them build up confidence in learning in English. She believes that “we need to plan something that is accessible for them and try to help them learn through different sources and materials.”

Context • School This is a Form 3 class in a lower banding CMI school. • Class This class is considered to be the best of the Form 3 classes in the school. There are 35 boys and girls, aged 14–16. The students are highly motivated in learning, but they are rather weak in their language proficiency.



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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

3 Double period Classroom 35 boys and girls Whole class, group work **Critical Thinking Lesson Activity 1—Sentence Writing

*2 min

Whole class

– T shows Ss the picture of Tang Wing Cheung and asks the Ss what they know about him.

8 min

Group work

– T gives Ss 5 mins to discuss and write down 5 to 8 sentences about Mr. Tang. – Ss discuss. T monitors.

7 min

Whole class

– Each group reports one of their sentences to the T and the T writes the main points on the board.

Activity 2—Fact v.s. Opinion 3 min

Whole class

– T teaches Ss what facts and opinions are by drawing a mind map. T uses a mind map to illustrate the differences between a fact and an opinion.

*6 min

Group work

– T asks Ss to work in groups, categorise which of the recorded sentences are facts and which are opinions and explain why.

*12 min

Whole class

– T checks the answers with the Ss. – T nominates Ss to explain their answers.

Activity 3—Fact v.s. Opinion and Writer’s Purpose 10 min

Whole class

– T shows Ss some news headlines. – T asks Ss why the writers use these headlines. – T introduces some writers’ purposes to Ss.

*8 min

Whole class

– T distributes the worksheets to the Ss. – *T gives instruction that Ss have to decide whether the statements from the news articles are facts or opinions, provide reason(s) and write down the writer’s purpose. – T does number 1 as an example.

5 min

Group work

– Ss work in groups and do number 2.

3 min

Whole class

– T checks the answer with the Ss.

Review 6 min

Whole class

– T reviews what they have learnt with the Ss in Cantonese.

* Extracted episode ** This is the same lesson plan as Case 12, but the excerpt selected for this case has a different focus. This lesson also takes place in a different school with a different class and teacher. 

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1

Critical Thinking

Episodes

T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s)



(italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible

Excerpt 1

1

T:

OK. OK. (She writes “Tang Wing Cheung” on the board) Tang Wing Cheung. Do



2



you know him? How much do you know about him?



3

S1: He is a man. (Ss laugh)



4

T:



5

S2: Old man.



6

T:



7

S3: Many money.



8

T:

OK. A lot of money, right. OK. You do seem to be familiar with this man. Now I want you to



9



have a little discussion. Write down five to eight sentences about the man. Write down

10



anything you know about the man and then put them down onto the paper. Alright, you’ll be

11



given five minutes. After five minutes, I would like to have feedback from each group. OK.



12



All of you are sitting in groups? Alright.



13



(T distributes paper)

14

T:

OK. Have you got the blank paper? OK. Not enough. How many?



15

T:

OK. Two? Right. Now, who are the group leaders? Please put up your hands. Who are the



16



group leaders? Right, now, group leaders, it’s your duty to lead the discussion in the group.

17



OK. Five minutes. Write down anything you know about the man. Anything you think you

18



know. OK.

19



(Discussion begins)

Of course. Of course. He is a man. Old man.

Excerpt 2

T:

20

Now, you have come to understand what facts and opinions are. Can we look at these

21



statements again? You had a little discussion five minutes ago. You just simply wrote down

22



everything that came across your mind. OK. Can you tell me which statements are true facts?

23



Facts are true statements. OK. Which are the opinion statements? I give you three minutes

24



to go through these sentences and then tell me whether they are F or O. OK. So, ‘F’ stands



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25



for facts, ‘O’ stands for opinion. OK. Can you start your discussion now? And tell me why.

26



Why do you think so?





(Discussion starts)

27

28

***



T:

I’m going to hear your comment, your feedback. OK. The first one. Tang Wing Cheung was

30



a Cantonese opera singer, ‘F’ or ‘O’.

31

Ss: F!



T:

29

32

OK. Sure?

33

Ss: Yes.

34

T:

OK. F, right. Right, F. Can anybody tell me why this statement is a fact? Yes, right. Yes,

35



please, can you speak up? It doesn’t matter, please stand up. (S doesn’t want to

36



explain)

37



You have no idea? OK. How about Matthew? Turn around. Come on, tell me. OK. It is a fact.

38



Why? Why? You can’t tell why. Sorry, I don’t think we can hear very well.



S14: Speak louder, please.

39

40

S15: His famous song is…

41

T:

42

S15: It is true.



43

T:

Right. Good. True. It is true. It is true. Alright. He could sing many songs.

44

T:

OK, number three. “He enjoyed living with all his children.”

45

Ss: O!

46

T:

47

Ss: O !



T:

O. How many say ‘O’? Put up your hands. Can you tell me why?

49



(Ss who put up their hands for ‘O’ put down their hands immediately after the



50



T says, ‘Can you tell me why?) No, don’t put down your hands. I know who you are.

51



Right, Yes. Right, Yes. I guess it’s ‘O’.



T:

OK. True. How about number two? He had many sons and daughters. F or O?

48

52

I’m talking about number one. All of you agree that it is a fact, factual statement. Why?

Enjoy? Enjoy living with all children? What do you think about it?

53

Ss: F

54

T:



S16: It is true.

55

Right. OK. True, you say ‘F’. Why?



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Critical Thinking

Excerpt 3 T:

56

Let’s go into the details of the newspaper article. Just pass them around. OK, take a copy.

57



Now, you just look at the news headline. Now, let’s, let’s go into the details. Not enough copies.



58



OK, spare copies? Please pass them to the back. No, each one gets one. Yes, there must

59



be some spare copies over there. Right. Look at number one. These sentences are taken from

60



different newspapers. They are about the story of Tang Wing Cheung. OK. When you are

61



reading these sentences, pay attention to these three elements. Is it a fact? Is it an opinion?

62



Why does the writer write in this way?



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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“I am eliciting answers from my students about those statements they mentioned about Tang Wing Cheung at the very beginning. But it seems to me that they don’t really understand the difference between a fact and an opinion. I think I should give more examples to help them understand more about the concept before they begin to identify the difference.”

•

“They didn’t have this kind of learning before, so, they had no idea about facts and opinions. This was something new to them. This was the first time they have learned about it.”

•

“When I designed this, what I was thinking was that firstly I selected different newspaper headlines about this man and about other different topics. And then I wanted the students to look at different newspapers. Let the students look at the newspaper articles and then try to identify the slant of the article whether the article was slanted towards the subjective or objective. And then try to decide whether the statement was a fact or an opinion. And then identify why you said it was a fact or an opinion.”

•

“I don’t think their performance was satisfactory. The reading article taken from the newspaper was too difficult for them. When they first had a look, some of them looked quite puzzled. So, they didn’t understand some vocabulary items used. I think, if I really want to get students to understand facts and opinions, I need to find something that is within the ability of my students. This should not be taken from the newspapers in English. Because the language in the newspaper is more complicated. So, maybe if I really have to use it, I have to simplify it. Ok, try to put those words into their language, maybe in a simple way. The main purpose is to get them to understand the concept. But here, my students may be hindered in thinking because of the difficult vocabulary items.”



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Critical Thinking

Questions for Discussion 1. How did the teacher structure her activities? Was this beneficial for the students? 2. Do you think the context/topic given by the teacher was appropriate for Form 3 students? 3. Were the activities too cognitively demanding for this group of Form 3 students? 4. Were the activities linguistically demanding for these students? Explain your answer. 5. This lesson is described as a critical thinking lesson. What other ways could critical thinking be developed in secondary students? 6. How do you develop your students’ critical thinking skills?

Critical Commentary Ms Mok’s lesson in critical thinking illustrates the power of using students’ L1 sociocultural knowledge base to develop L2 proficiency in an English as a Foreign language classroom (John-Steiner, Panofsky and Smith, 1994). From the standpoint of being motivated to learn, her Form 3 class was one of the best in the school but overall was weak in English proficiency. One of Ms Mok’s challenges was how to organise participation in activities involving critical thinking when her students did not yet have the vocabulary nor linguistic structures to fully participate using the L2. Ms Mok met this challenge through selecting topics and designing activities that would appeal to students of this age group and motivate them to make continued progress. She also made effective use of L1 to build a bridge from L1 and L2 and strengthen her student’s confidence in their use of English. As an experienced teacher, having taught for 12 years and having attained a Masters degree in TESL, Ms Mok is an important role model for her students. She skilfully uses her own experiences as a successful foreign language learner to help her students develop critical thinking. By using newspapers she was able to draw on the students’ prior knowledge base which they had gained through reading newspapers or hearing the news in their native language, Cantonese. She was also able to motivate students by selecting topics in the news which reflected popular culture and which appealed to secondary Form 3 students, ranging in age from 14–16. Ms Mok opened her lesson by showing her class a picture of Tang Wing Cheung, the famous Cantonese opera singer. Drawing on her students’ prior knowledge, she asked the class in English what they knew of Tang and then asked students to break into groups and write 5–8 sentences in English about him, which they then reported back to the whole



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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

class. In a second activity, she asked the students to classify the sentences which they had generated into two categories: facts and opinions. In the third activity she provided English language newspaper headlines about Tang and asked the students to categorise whether the headlines were “Facts” or “Opinions” and to write down the writer’s intention (i.e., whether to inform, to persuade, to report, etc.). She ended the lesson by summarising in Cantonese what the students had learned about the sentences. The activities engaged students in collaborative inquiry as a community of learners (Lee and Smagorinsky, 2000). Ms Mok’s use of L1 to review at the end of the class was a very effective way to bridge the cognitive and linguistic challenges posed to the students and keep the meaning of the tasks together. She had observed that during the third activity, that the English language newspaper headlines were too difficult for a significant number of her students. Many students did not have the vocabulary in English to read the texts. However, realising that her most important teaching point was the concept of “facts” or “opinions”, by summarizing in Cantonese, she was able to direct her students’ attention back to the main point of the lesson. Ms Mok simultaneously drew from her bi-literate and cultural knowledge of the learners. This was an on-going process of assessment at three overlapping levels: their socio-cultural knowledge and their cognitive and linguistic proficiencies. The importance of this case study for the field of TESOL is mining the highly contextualised nature of knowing what learners already know (Wallace, 1992). When teachers capitalise on what learners bring to the classroom, they can build on student strengths in structuring participation for future cognitive and L2 literacy development. These students can develop critical reading skills and express these skills in the L1 much better than they are able to do in L2. Ms Mok’s Form 3 students are simultaneously working in L2 between “learning to read” and “reading to learn”. Experienced bi-literate bi-cultural teachers like Ms Mok build on their students’ L1 knowledge to scaffold their performance in L2 literacy and critical thinking.

Shelley Wong (Ed.D.) Shelley Wong is interested in supporting academic achievement for English language learners through dialogic, critical-race and feminist pedagogies. A fifth-generation Chinese American from California, Dr. Wong received her BA in Sociology at U.C. Santa Cruz, her teaching certification and MA in Teaching English as a Second Language from UCLA and her Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics from Columbia Teachers College. She is an Associate Professor in the Center for Language and Culture at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virgina, USA. She is the author of Dialogic Approaches to TESOL: Where the Ginkgo Tree Grows published by Lawrence Erlbaum, Taylor & Francis.

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Critical Thinking

Reference John-Steiner, V., Panofsky, C. P and Smith, L. W. (1994). Introduction. In John-Steiner, Panofsky and Smith (Eds.), Sociocultural approaches to language and literacy (pp. 1–34). New York: Cambridge University Press. Lee, C. D. and Smagorinsky, P. (2000). Introduction. In Lee and Smagorinsky (Eds.), Vygotskian perspectives on literacy research: Constructing meaning through collaborative inquiry (pp. 1–18). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wallace, C. (1992). Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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2

Writing

Before you read the two cases on writing that follow, consider the following question: “What are your purposes for writing and specifically what are your purposes for writing in the second language (L2)?” Even if the purposes for writing in L2 cannot be compared to the range and variety of writing purposes students engage in for their first language (L1), we should strive to make our L2 writing activities meaningful. This would mean that if students needed to, they could function at L1 level and sometimes even beyond, in the range and variety of writing tasks they can accomplish in L2. Of course we must attend to those basic skills but we can do this through connecting writing to all the other language learning skills including reading, speaking, listening, visualising and visually representing. In an effort to give attention to a number of important skill areas, the time in the school’s day is allocated to different aspects of language learning. While some of us might debate the effectiveness of the artificial segmentation of the language learning content, as much as possible, we must not let the division of the skills limit our efforts to integrate them in our L2 communication activities. In addition to integrating writing into all aspects of language learning, creativity is another aspect of writing that should not be ignored. Can our learners be creative in L2? Yes, certainly they can if we provide them with ample experiences to develop and manifest their creativity. This could be from writing poems and stories based on the format of other poems and stories or simply writing their own ideas on an event that has happened in their lives. We must not neglect this important aspect of learning. Just like the need to incorporate more critical thinking activities in our ways of teaching so must we also strive to touch our learners’ hearts and minds by helping them to see the possibilities of what they can create in another language. The full range of possibilities that writing in L2 can offer must also be exploited from incorporating conventional poetic forms to rap, conventional fiction and non-fiction prose to e-mails and text messaging, and from conventional dramatic productions to comic strips. This means that we need to make a place for both formal and informal registers of writing in our class activities as both forms mirror real-world activities.

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Case 2

Writing an Argumentative Essay Mr. Tsui’s Case

Teacher Mr. Tsui is a popular 23 year old teacher who completed his bachelor’s degree in TESOL two years ago. He believes that students should be exposed to as much English as possible and he hopes that eventually he can use only English in the lessons. However, he fears that most of his students are not interested in learning English. Many of his students skip English classes, complain when he uses English in the class and generally feel that English is unimportant to them. At this point in his career, Mr. Tsui believes that he has learned to strike a balance in using English and Cantonese in the classroom. He admits that he has agonised over this and now the results from his students’ feedback are better, which indicates that his students are more comfortable with his use of Cantonese and English.

Context • School This is a Form 4 class in a private lower banding school due to the students’ weak performance in English. The medium of instruction in this school is Cantonese and English is taught as a subject. • Class There are 40 male and female students and they are between the ages of 14 and 22. Some of the older pupils are new immigrants who have had to repeat the form. The students in this particular class often feel that they are inadequate when it comes to English language classes. Two groups of older students often sit together at the back of the class to look at magazines or engage in other activities such as gambling.

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Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

4 Double period Classroom 40 boys and girls Whole class Writing Lesson Teaching

2 min

Whole class

– T asks Ss to copy down the title of the composition—School examinations should be abolished. – T explains the title.

Brainstorming 28 min

Whole class

– T elicits ideas from the Ss by nominating Ss to give their opinions, e.g., whether they think school examinations should be cancelled or not and to give one reason. – T writes the ideas on the board. – T gives hints to Ss if they run out of ideas. – T asks if the Ss have any problems at the end of this section.

Input *6 min

Whole class

– T writes the introduction and conclusion on the board and explains.

Writing 38 min

Individual

– Ss write their compositions. T monitors. – Ss hand in their compositions.

* Extracted episode

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Writing

Episodes

T = Teacher



(italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



{ } = English translation

T:

Okay, so, first of all, okay, you have to write a... you have to write an introduction, okay, , D,



1



2

{well, as for these} points 呢, 寫晒響喥喇, 咁呢, 你記住囉喎。{they are all written down here,



3

so, try to remember them}



4

one paragraph one point, 永遠都係喱樣㗎喇。{it’s always the same thing}



5

one paragraph one point. I’ll write the conclusion down and then I will write the introduction down



6

for you. Okay, so, you can take it as a reference, , 你可以參考喱個{well, you can refer to the}



7

introduction 啦, 我寫低佢, 你可以參考, 咁, 起碼你可以學點樣寫好D, 咁我無



8

時間討論喇, 但係你喜歡呢, 你可以唔跟, 你可以唔跟, {well, I have written it down,



9

you can refer to it, well, at least you can learn how to write a better one, well, we don’t have time



10

to talk about it, but if you wish, you do not need to follow, you do not need to follow.}

11



(T begins to write down the introduction. Students copy the notes. Two groups of students at the

12



back are talking quietly and they do nothing about the composition. There are 3 male students

13



sleeping at the back.)



14

T:

Okay, so, this is the introduction,



15

T:

And for the... for the conclusion, it is very short, and then I’ll write down on the blackboard, okay,

16

so you can copy it into another sheet,  {well}, conclusion 喇, 我寫埋出嚟喇, 但係你唔好

17

跟住寫落去喎 {I’ll write it down as well, but don’t just copy alongside} okay? 你搵其他張紙

18

寫低佢啦。{You try to find another paper to copy it down.}

19

(While the teacher is writing the conclusion on the blackboard, a girl throws a piece of crinkled

20



paper to another classmate; 2–3 boys start to look around to see what is going on; 2 of them

21



exchange a few words; only one third of the class are copying, and 2 groups at the back of the

22



class are still talking. One of the students in one of the groups is looking at something in the





drawer while talking to two other girls who are also looking into the drawer.)

23

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“The most difficult approach is to copy. The students try their best to copy the information on the blackboard. The students usually just copy the vocabulary and none of them is correct. One student likes to copy the vocabulary, for example ‘cancel cancel cancel cancel’, just like copying the words in a copy book. So he likes to choose some difficult words to copy, so he does not give me a composition.”

•

“I think every time I have to write down the introduction and conclusion, no matter whether they have asked for them or not, because I think they cannot give you a good introduction and conclusion. This is one method that my colleagues told me. They said some students would not give you the composition. At least you should write down the introduction and the conclusion on the blackboard and let them copy, so at last they could give you a so-called composition, so you can give the mark. Even though the marks are quite low, I think they at least have the homework to give you.”

•

“Some of them just write down the topic as what I said. Some better teachers would write down the introduction, the conclusion, the topic and explain the introduction, the topic and the conclusion and then let them write. Better teachers give them the points, introduction, conclusion and then listen and then explain the points and then write. Yes, this is the typical way. I always ask them about how to teach this kind of students and then they give me these several methods. This is my second year but in this second year, the students are better. In the first few lessons, I tried these methods, but they don’t like it. They want some good ideas. Some talk about the ideas. So I used this method again, but I can’t say the result is good. Some of them just want to listen because they want to relax. But I think whether they can write a composition is not important. It is the moment during which they want to write. If you make them want to write their compositions, they can write a good composition. Maybe it is because of the topic. They like the topic. Maybe it is because they like the teacher or they

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2

Writing

like the method or that particular lesson. They feel very good, so they write a good composition. So, I can’t say there is a typical method to let the students write better compositions.”

Questions for Discussion 1. What observations can be made about the teacher’s approach to teaching writing? 2. What is the relationship between Mr. Tsui’s approach and his beliefs about the students’ ability and motivation? 3. How would you respond to the following comments made by Mr. Tsui about his students’ writing?

“The students usually just copy the vocabulary and none of them is correct. One student likes to copy the vocabulary, for example ‘cancel cancel cancel cancel’, just like copying the words in a copy book”.

4. How would you respond to Mr. Tsui’s comments about his colleagues’ views about getting students to write? I think every time I have to write down the introduction and conclusion, no matter whether they have asked for them or not, because I think they cannot give you a good introduction and conclusion. This is one method that my colleagues told me. They said some students would not give you the composition. At least you should write down the introduction and the conclusion on the blackboard and let them copy, so at last they could give you a so-called composition, so you can give the mark. Even though the marks are quite low, I think they at least have the homework to give you.” 5. Comment on Mr. Tsui’s use of Cantonese in this lesson. 6. In your opinion, is Mr. Tsui a good teacher of English?

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Critical Commentary Mr. Tsui’s episode of asking students to copy a model introduction for their argumentative essays is not uncommon among novice teachers, who are more concerned with students’ writing products than the writing process. I can recall using similar strategies while I started my teaching practice some 15 years ago. Exasperated by my students’ inability to produce their introductions and as a matter of fact any part of a new text type (i.e., genre*), I would produce long lists of formulaic expressions for students to copy hoping that they would eventually put together something that resembled an ideal text which I had envisaged during my lesson planning. What I saw as a result of my good-intentioned supply of stock phrases were mosaics of words, sometimes hilarious and other times outrageous. My students were still not able to write. I could not see much of their original thinking, not to mention their own voices. Writing involves more than using set phrases, and, contrary to many teachers’ belief, the crafting of beautiful language. Writing is an act in which the writer comes to make sense of the world. It is also an act through which one articulates one’s own voices and individuality accrued from one’s own life experiences. Allowing students to copy chunks of language can at most reproduce impeccable minas but not real writers and can only clone copies of language but not artifacts that have life of their own and that can speak to their audience. Worst of all, this practice strips students’ chances to make sense of what they experience. What could then be some ways out of the situation where students cannot produce a text or one part of a text? There could be many solutions. In Mr. Tsui’s case, I would say, it would have greatly helped if he had allowed his students to read some argumentative essays well before embarking on the teaching of the genre (afterall the argumentative essay is a very complex and demanding text type both for reading and writing). I do not mean showing model texts for students to mime. Rather, we need to engage students in the use of the genre (e.g., reading an essay and responding to the writer’s argument) and allow them to feel for the functions of it. This can greatly enhance students’ understanding of the genre without placing an extra demand on their ability to produce a text of it when they are not ready to do so. Where students are ready, the genre functions (purposes), genre structure (the introduction-body-conclusion organisation), and registers (the type of language but not set phrases) can be introduced in a gradual or step-by-step manner. I need to add that writing introductions (in any genre) can be extremely difficult to many novice writers. An awareness-raising approach is a possibility to help them start. This approach

* A genre is a type of writing. For instance, we have the genre of news report, the genre of fable and the genre of meeting minutes.

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Writing

involves helping students to understand the following aspects of the introduction to an argumentative essay: •

Its possible purposes in relation to the rest of the essay;

•

Different possible ways of realising (expressing) the purposes;

•

Different intentions and shades of meanings involved when the different ways are used.

Awareness-raising can best be done through analysis activities. Teachers can draw on some of the argumentative texts which students have read in previous reading classes and ask students to identify, for instance, the purposes of their introductions. This type of activity needs to be facilitated if students’ ability to express themselves in English is weak. It helps if the teacher allows some use of Cantonese or, where the school policy does not allow to do so, gives students hints and language support to carry out the analysis. For instance, a set of choices such as those given below can be presented to students:

The introductions you have read do the following: (a) tell the reader what the writer will discuss in general (aims of the essay); (b) tell the reader what the writer thinks in general about the topic (the thesis statement); (c) tell the reader how the essay is structured; (d) catch the reader’s attention / raise the reader’s interest in the topic through a real story.

Or, students can be asked to match each of the above choices with a particular part of an introduction. The analysis activity can then be followed by applying some of the principles learned. For instance, where students need support for planning their introductions, the teacher can make use of the metalanguage (technical language used to describe the use of language as exemplified in the choices a–d above) to guide students to produce their introductions: (a) What do you think about the topic in general? (b) What is/are the overall aim of your discussion? (c) Do you have any real stories to provide to catch your reader’s attention? (d) How is your essay structured? Introductions are not easy to write and are worth being treated as an independent skill for training in a writing syllabus. In this case, the awareness-raising approach can still be adopted. Follow-up tasks should however focus on writing individual introductions rather than entire essays. For instance, we can present students a well-written argumentative essay with its introduction removed. We can ask students to write the introduction using the four guiding questions suggested above. This rewriting exercise can then be followed by

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writing an introduction to an imagined argumentative essay. Let us take Mr. Tsui’s case as an example again. After the brainstorming session such as the one which Mr. Tsui did, we can help students organise the points, arrive at a thesis for the essay, and decide on a possible structuring of them for an imagined essay. With these procedures done, we can ask students to write an introduction for the essay by referring to the four guiding questions. A note of caution is however in order. No two texts of a genre can be identical. What students produce as a good introduction to one essay cannot be transplanted to another. Every new writing context calls for a new appraisal of how the introduction should be written. As such, teachers should not expect that while students have performed well in one writing task, they would fare equally well in the next one. This sounds rather pessimistic, but, at least, it can solve our puzzle over why some students cannot constantly produce quality work though they have been conscientiously drilled. What we really need is to teach students how to analyse a writing context, give them time to mull over the topic and gather enough ideas before rushing them to write their one and only one draft. After all, learning to write is a long time process, and, to many, a process that takes a life’s time to complete. We need to somehow put up with students’ imperfect use of language and immature ideas while they wade through this process, which goes beyond our span of teaching. As the saying goes, Rome was not built in one day.

Becky Kwan (Ph.D.) Becky S. C. Kwan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Communication, City University of Hong Kong. Her research and teaching largely fall on the three areas of genre analysis, EAP materials and syllabus design, and teacher education.

Reference Brookes, Arthur and Grundy, Peter. (1998). Beginning to write: Writing activities for elementary and intermediate learners. New York: Cambridge University Press. Morretta, Teresa M. and Ambrosini, Michelle. (2000). Practical approaches for teaching reading and writing in middle schools. Newark, Del.: International Reading Association. Tompkins, Gail E. (2000). Teaching writing: Balancing process and product. Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Merrill.

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Case 3

Supporting Writing Ms Cheng’s Case

Teacher Ms Cheng is in her third year of teaching. She wishes to establish an atmosphere of fun in her English classrooms. She believes that the students should be taught English in a communicative way. However, the overpacked English syllabus and the difficult textbooks prevent her from doing what she wants. Also, other jobs assigned by the school stop her from devoting her effort to building up a fun atmosphere. She also tries to establish and maintain a good relationship with her students but this could be a disadvantage when it comes to getting her students to work more diligently. She is afraid that the relationship will be damaged if she forces them to work harder.

Context • School This is a higher banding CMI school though some students belong to the middle band. Students in this school are generally not very strong in their English proficiency. • Class This a Form 1 class with 37 Hong Kong Chinese boys and girls, aged 12– 14. This is the best class in this form level but they have some difficulties in understanding English.

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Lesson Overview

Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

1 Single period Classroom 37 boys and girls Whole class, pair work Writing Exercise 1—Describing Pictures

5 min

Whole class

– T shows Ss a transparency of the textbook passage. – T tells Ss that they are going to write an eyewitness report. – T gives Ss the situation.

3 min

Individual work

– Ss look at the pictures and guess what happened. – T monitors.

*7 min

Whole class

– T finds that many of the Ss have problems doing the exercise by themselves, so she goes through the pictures with the Ss.

Exercise 2—Fill-in-the-blanks (News Report) 2 min

Whole class

– T instructs Ss that they have to fill in the blanks in the news report with the words provided in the yellow box.

2 min

Individual work

– Ss do the exercise.

*9 min

Whole class

– T finds that many of them have problems doing the work, so she does it with the Ss together. – T reads the passage, stops before the blanks and lets the Ss give her the answers. When the Ss cannot provide the answers, she tells them the answers. – T asks Ss some questions to check understanding from time to time.

Exercise 3—Writing Composition *5 min

Whole class + some pair work

– T provides Ss with some guided questions to write their composition. – T goes through the questions with the Ss. – T tells Ss that they can discuss the guided questions with their neighbour before they do their compositions.

5 min

Individual work

– Ss copy down the guided questions. – Ss are writing their own compositions

Summing Up 3 min

Whole class

– T tells Ss that there is not enough time for them to finish their writing in the lesson and asks them to submit it in the next lesson.

* Extracted episode

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2

Writing

Episodes T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s) (italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible Boldface = Parts read from the book



Excerpt 1 — Exercise 1

1

T: What were Gork doing in the picture? Sorry, what was Gork doing in the picture?



2





3

T: Alright. (T points to picture 1) Gork was?



4





5

T: Trying to enter Captain’s?



6





7

T: House. Ok? Remember, remember the story we have talked about earlier? Right? Gork and



8



the Captain. Look at the next picture, second picture (T uses a ruler to point to the picture) What



9



was Gork doing?



10



(Ss silent)

(Ss silent) (Ss silent) (Ss silent)

11

T: What was Gork doing?



12





13

T: Ah? He was? (T takes a cloth to clean the blackboard)

(Ss silent)

14



(Ss silent)



15

T: He was? Ok, he entered the house?…he was?…yes very good. He tried to break down (T



16



writes “ break down” on the board) the wall. Ok, you know, remember Gork? How big was he?

17



(T uses gesture to show the idea of “ big”) How big was he? He was very big, right? So, he was



18



breaking down the wall (T points to the picture, and does the action of breaking something). He

19



was breaking down the wall. Alright? You know? Break down the wall (gesture). Ok? What



20



about the next picture? what happened? What happened later? (T points to Captain) Ok, what



21



did Captain do when he saw Gork? What did he do when he saw Gork? (T points to the picture)



22



He?

23

Ss: Ran away



T: Yes, he ran away at once. And he ran to his? (T points to the car)

24

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25

Ss: Car



26

T: Good, he went to his car. And what about his friend? He also? (T pretends to be running)



27

Ss: Ran away.

28

T: Ran away. Yes. If you were Gork, sorry, Captain’s friend, what would you do? Of course you

29



30

Ss: Ran away



31

T: Yes. You would run away at once. Right? To save your life. (T points to picture 4). Number 4



32



ok, you see? Captain was? (T holds her hands in front of her as if she is driving) driving his car.

33



And, (T points to the picture) What about Gork? Gork followed Captain into? Into the? (T points



34



to the spaceship)



35

Ss: Spaceship

would? (T pretends to be running)

Excerpt 2 — Exercise 2

36

T: Look at the board. Now “ The Alien attack on space captain” is about the story you’ve read over

37



just now. Um, first paragraph. Yesterday evening, as it was getting dark, I was passing the

38



garden of my neighbour. “ I” refers to? To? Mabel, the captain’s neighbour. Yes. I was passing



39



the garden of my neighour, the famous spaceman, Captain King. And I saw a strange figure



40



inside his garden. It was much bigger than a man, and in its face there was a single”?

41

Ss: Eye



T: Remember Gork? What does Gork look like?

42

43

Ss: Eye

44

T: Eyes or eye?

45

Ss: Eye

46

T: Yes, remember one eye only. The eye shone with a?

47

Ss: Red



T: Red light. Good. The strange figure was an alien. So, an alien means?

48

49

Ss: ***



50

T: Ah? Means? Means the living things from the outer space, from the outer space. As I watched,



51



the alien? The alien?

52

Ss: ***

53

T: You may say, you can say try or? Or? (T writes on the board the word “ began”) begin, alright?



54



Sorry, began. As I watched, the alien began to? To? To walk? To walk? Towards (T writes



55



“towards” on the board) To walk towards Captain King’s? House. (T writes “ house” on the

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2



56



Writing

board) Ok? Alright. Captain King and his? Captain King and his?

57

Ss: Friend

58

T: Friends, good. (T writes “ friends” on the board) Captain King and his friends? What did they

59



60

Ss: Ran away

61

T: They ran away, good. (T writes “ ran away” on the board) And the Captain? And the Captain?

62



do?

Ran to his car. (T writes “ ran” on the board)…

Excerpt 3 — Exercise 3

63

T: Now, this is what the story is about. You are going to write a topic (T changes the transparency)

64



that is (changing the transparency). Imagine, you were, ok? You are going to write a story but

65



from a different angle. Alright? Imagine you were one of the friends of Captain King. You were

66



the friend of Captain King. (T points to the Ss). You were with Captain when Gork attacked

67



Captain. (T points to the instruction) Now, write a story based on what you saw and experienced.

68



Imagine, you are with King, Captain’s friend. You were talking with him at that time in the house.

69



And you saw what happened. You saw how the whole thing happened, ok? So, you need to

70



write the story down. Ok? So, take a look at the first paragraph what you are going to write. Ok,



71



number one (T points to question 1), where were you in that evening? You can use your own



72



imagination. You can make up your own story. Say, where were you in that morning? Sorry, in

73



that evening? You were? You were in?

74



(Ss silent)

75

T: You were in? - in? (T points to the instruction) in King’s house, right? You were in King’s house.

76



77

Ss: ***

78

T: Talking with captain (T points to a student) Ah? Ah?

79

S1: Watching TV



T: Watching TV?! Watching TV with Captain, right? Ok, you can make up your own answer. Em,

80

And what were you doing at that time? You were? Ah?

81





S2: ***

82

what about, ah Candy, what were you doing at that time, with captain?

83

T: Ah, louder please?

84

S2: Watching TV.



T: Watching TV again? Ok, you can say watching TV or talking with him or maybe you were playing

85

86



computer games with captain. Something like that. And, (T points to number 3) What was

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions



87



Captain King doing at that time? What was he doing? Make up your answer. You may say, er,



88



Captain was sleeping at that time. Captain King…was…maybe he was eat-eating dinner at that



89



time. Anything you like. Alright? Understand? And then, (T points to number 4) What

90



happened suddenly? What happened suddenly? Ah? I can’t hear. (T walks closer to the S)

91



What happened suddenly? (T points to a student)

92

S3: Ran away. (S stands up and sits down quickly)

93

T: Ran away?! Earlier, before he ran away, what happened?



Ss: ***

94

95

T: The alien?….Gork appeared?…in the garden of Captain King’s house and tried to? (T pretends





96

that she’s beating somebody) tried to?

97

Ss: Attack him.



T: Attack him. Yes, suddenly, Gork tried to attack him. Right? Ok, the 2nd paragraph…

98

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2

Writing

Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“I prefer to give the students closely guided compositions because if they write about their ideas on their own, they will make a lot of mistakes. I do not have so much time to correct their mistakes for them. I have to mark a lot of assignments and I have a lot of duties.”

•

“I used Task 1 to bring out the theme. Then, I helped them to brainstorm some ideas and vocabulary through Task 2 and gave them some guidelines through Task 3. After I had given them enough support, they had to write on their own and each student could come up with different ideas and endings.”

•

“After I have asked the students a question, I usually wait for an answer for only one or two seconds and then I give the answers to the students. If I stop talking for a longer time, the students will start talking to one another and will not pay attention to me. Besides, I have so much to cover in this lesson. I do not have the time to wait for their answers. If I have more time, I will ask the students to have pair or group discussions first before I ask them for the answers. But I just don’t have the time!”

•

“I asked the students to write on this topic because it was one of the topics that I had covered in the text book. They should have some background knowledge about the topic. It should be easier than if I gave them a brand new topic to write on.”

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Questions for Discussion 1. Comment on the amount of support given to this class of students in preparing them for the writing task: (a) Has an adequate amount of support been given to this class of students? Why? (b) Have enough opportunities been provided for the development of creativity? Why? 2. Comment on the difficulty level and relevance of the topic. 3. Comment on the teacher’s elicitation pattern in this lesson. 4. How appropriate are the kinds of pre-writing activities for this class of students? Why? 5. Compare and contrast the situation in Hong Kong to that in your context and express your views on issues related to the amount of support given by the teacher to the students.

Critical Commentary Is writing essentially a language learning activity, or is writing an activity that allows learners to develop thinking and express their personality? Ms Cheng’s case perhaps demonstrates the dilemma that ESL/EFL teachers are faced with in the writing classroom. Should we try our best to help students write correct English by giving them a great deal of language support and close guidance, or should we give students more freedom to explore ideas and develop their creativity even though they may end up making a lot more mistakes? How can we strike a balance? In her post-lesson reflections, Ms Cheng confessed that she gave students a closely guided composition because “if they write about their ideas on their own, they will make a lot of mistakes”. The pre-writing activities using pictures, cloze and guiding questions, therefore, were primarily used to help students produce the ‘right’ kind of language for their writing. In the end, the 37 compositions Ms Cheng collected would look very similar. There might still be mistakes, but probably the mistakes would be rather predictable and relatively easy to fix. While Ms Cheng’s case is a good example to illustrate the use of writing as a tool for reinforcing language and structures, it raises the question of how writing can be used to enhance motivation, encourage creativity, and to promote independence in writing.

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Writing

To respond to these questions, I would raise three main points for the readers to consider: 1.

Learner Interest—The topic Ms Cheng chose to work on was familiar to students because it had been covered in the textbook. While topic familiarity is a valid consideration in the choice of essay topics, it is more important to consider if a topic can arouse and motivate interest in students’ writing (Lee and Lee, 1997). Instead of writing a story as a friend of Captain King, it may be more interesting to ask students to write their own imaginative story about a similar encounter so that they can create their own story instead of using ideas they have already read about in the textbook.

2.

Learner Choice and Writer Ownership—The ideas of the composition (as well as most of the language) were provided by Ms Cheng in the pre-writing stage, mainly through the pictures, cloze and the guiding questions. While such help is useful for students, especially elementary and lower proficiency students, it is also important that we encourage students to exercise learner choice over content and language in writing—that is, to express alternative ideas and to take risks in their attempts to express these ideas in writing. Learner choice is crucial if we want to develop greater autonomy in students (see Pemberton, Li, Or and Pierson, 1996). In writing, students need to be empowered so that they develop a sense of ownership over what they write. They also need to learn to express and explore ideas and thoughts, develop their imagination and creativity, and express their own personality in writing. These are significant dimensions of writing that should not be undermined.

3.

Purpose and Audience of Writing—Students were told about the context of the writing task and knew they were writing in the capacity of Captain King’s friend. This was useful because students knew very clearly the perspective from which the story should be told. However, was the writing very purposeful? Mabel has already written a report. Why should students be writing a story based on the report? What is the purpose of the story? Who is going to read it? Without knowledge of purpose and audience, students do not know how best to write the story. The writing is in the end rendered a mechanical language-focused exercise to regurgitate vocabulary and language structures learnt in class. In real life, however, we write with a real purpose and a real audience. We adjust our writing style according to our purpose, reader expectations and context of situation (see Ferris and Hedgcock, 2005)

To answer my own question raised earlier on about how to strike a balance between teacher control of student language and development of writer individuality and creativity, I have two suggestions to make:

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

1. Ask students to add an interesting ending to the story. The teacher can tell students that all the endings will be posted on the notice board. Students will read the endings and vote for the best three. 2.

Tell students that Mabel and Captain King’s friend have a different report of the incident, which demonstrates clearly that “seeing is not always believing” and that different eye-witnesses often end up giving different versions of a happening. After reading Mabel’s report, students have to change the content of the story and write a report different from that of Mabel. In the end, the whole class could read the stories and vote for the most interesting one.

In both examples, in addition to the language support students get from the teacher, they are given freedom to explore ideas and to develop their creativity. The purpose of writing is clearer, and they have a clearer sense of the audience.

Icy Lee (Ph.D.) Icy Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong. Her articles have appeared in Journal of Second Language Writing, System, ELT Journal and other publications. Her main research interests include L2 writing and L2 teacher education.

Reference Ferris, D., Hedgcock, J. S. (2005). Teaching ESL composition: Purpose, process, and practice (2nd ed.). Mahway, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Lee, I. and Lee, M. (1997). Facilitating writing in the language classroom. Guidelines, 19(2), 73– 86. Pemberton, R., Li, E. S. L., Or, W. W. F., and Pierson, H. D. (1996). Taking control: Autonomy in language learning. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

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3

Extensive Reading and Using Class Readers

We turn now to three cases on reading to help you think about aspects of your instruction in this area. Have you ever seen your learners relishing the reading of a good piece of text in English? If you have, there must have been a good feeling as you observed your readers’ excitement and engagement in the act of reading in another language. If you have not experienced this satisfaction with your learners, have you experienced it yourself as a reader of L2 texts? This could be professional texts such as this book, which we hope you are enjoying or it could be recreational text, such as reading for pleasure or for information as in looking up something on the internet. As teachers of English, we too must set examples for our students. Are you a reader of English? We ask this question because unless you too are a reader of English outside of the class, we find it difficult to see how you could honestly promote reading in English for your students. We do learn from our own experiences and we do teach in ways that are based on our own affective understandings. It stands to reason then that if you love and enjoy reading in L2, you will transmit this love to your pupils. With your modeling and motivation, your learners can be taken to worlds near or far away from where they are now. Literature of all types promote the acquisition of another language. Be they resources from your extensive reading scheme, your classroom library or the class readers you use, exposing students to this world is the first step. Exposure may take the form of reading to your students, developing understanding and appreciation of text, be it off-line or online, and students reading and responding to you and each other. Taking students beyond the mastery of basic skills in reading is essential for them to see and discover the real purpose for learning those basic skills in the first place. Opportunities to talk about English texts during extensive reading classes, reader lessons or regular English classes and also outside of classes can promote richness in students’ written and spoken language expression.

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Case 4

Literature Circles Ms Siu’s Case

Teacher Ms Siu is an experienced teacher who is currently studying a MATESL course in Hong Kong. She believes that teachers should help students to enjoy learning and that talking about books they have read will help them to enjoy learning English. She tries to help build up the students’ confidence and designs activities to motivate them to read.

Context • School This is a lower banding CMI school. • Class This is a Form 4 science class. This is the best class in the form. Most of the students like English and have a positive attitude towards English.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

4 Double period Classroom 42 Whole class, group work Extensive Reading Lesson Input

5 min

Whole class

– T gives a brief review of the terms “similarities” and “differences”. – T shows how different aspects of the books can be compared and contrasted, through for example, timeline, characters, themes, settings and sequence of events. – T explains what a collage is and shows Ss a collage of ideas to exemplify what she is talking about. Distributing Student Roles

2 min

Whole class

– T asks Ss in each group to select the role they want to play. – writer, artist, reporter, checker and timer. Working with the Story Circle Cards

*20 min

Group work

– T distributes the storytelling circle cards for Ss to fill in. – Each S has 1 or 2 cards and asks his/her group mates for the information on the circle cards. (e.g., setting, main characters and main events) – Members take turns reporting while the circle card holder asks the questions and makes notes on the circle card. Creating Group Collage

*30 min

Group work

– Group members place all the circle cards on the table and look for possible links, themes or commonalties across the story circle cards or within one story circle card. (Which element(s) do they want to focus on for example, time, characters, setting, events in the stories, climaxes, stages, themes, topics?) – Group members then discuss ideas for representing the stories read and draw their group collage. Presentation

20 min

Whole class

– Group representatives present their collages to the class. Selecting Most Creative Work

3 min

Whole class

– Class members vote for the collage that is most artistically/ visually impressive or creative.

* Extracted episode 36

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3

Extensive Reading and Using Class Readers

Episodes T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s) (italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible



{ } = English translation



[ = Speaking at the same time



Capital Letters = Stresses the words

Excerpt 1 — Sharing the story

1

S1: We all reading the type of book is classics. My name is Annie.



2

S2: My name is Reiko.



3

S3: My name is Andrew.



4

S4: My name is Sara.



5

S3: Excuse me, Annie, I want to ask you something about the book. I want to ask you what is the



6





7

S1: Oh, my book is about a girl always want to go inside the looking glass. But one day, she actually



8





9

S3: The girl want to… want to.. go.. inside the…



10

S1: Looking glass



11

S3: Looking glass. Is that right?



12

S1: Yes, that’s right. And she, she really do it.



13

S3: And she really do it. (Writing down what S1 said) she really do it. 哎呀，唔知點串呀！ {Don’t



14





15

S1: Yes, R-E-A-L-L-Y



16

S3: R-E-A-L-L-Y, really do it.



17

S1: Really do it. Inside the looking glass or have a world, world, that inside the world, has divided



18



book about? do it. she can go inside the looking glass.

know how to spell} R-E-L-L-Y?

about eight stage.

19

S3: Eight stage



S1: Yes, eight stage

20

21

S3: Eight stage. there has… (writing)



S1: Divided into eight stage.

22

23

S3: Eight stage in the book. OK. (writing)

24

S1: Let me tell, let me tell, let me tell you about my character name. The girl name called Alex.



S3: Called Alex? She… em, she called… Excuse me, how to spell?

25

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions



26

S1: [A-L-I-C-E,



27

S3: [A-L-I-C-E.



28

S1: Yes, that’s right.

29

S3: Alice, oh, good name.

30

S1: And she had to go into, go through all stage and the eight stage. Then, she will become a

31



32

S3: Oh, she need to, she need to…she need to..

33

S1: Go through.



34

S3: She need to go through



35

S1: Eight, eight s

queen.

36

S3: Eight stage.

37

S1: Eight stage, yes.



S3: And become?

38

39

S1: And become a queen.

40

S3: And become a queen. OK.



S1: Oh, at last, it’s find it is just a dream.

41

42

S3: Just oh?

43

S1: She’s just dreaming.



44

S3: She’s just dream, not the true. OK, thank you for your survey. Reiko, I want to ask you what is the



45



book about?

46

S2: Oh! my book is take place in.. take place in long time ago, and..



S3: What is your content about your book?

47

48

S2: My book is talking about…

49



50

S1: Can you tell me more about your character?

51

S4: My character name is Robertson. He is a ***. He wants to be a sailor.



52

S1: Oh he want to be a sailor? Sailor to where?



53

S4: Robertson wants to be a sailor. So, one day, his friend has a ship, so they went out to the sea.



54



***

But in that time, the sea was have a strong wind.

55

S1: Strong wind? Oh, that was very dangerous.

56

S4: Yes, he was very afraid and ***. but his friend say, it is so ***. This wind was weak, not strong.

57



This has storm and some ship maker. His ship was breaking down. Luckily, he was swimming to



58



the island. But on this island, nobody in here and nothing in here. He made it. He made the every

59



thing by his hand.

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3

Extensive Reading and Using Class Readers

60

S1: OH, Would you like to tell, tell me about, do you love, do you like your character?

61

S4: ...

62

S1: Could you tell me something special about your character?

63

S4: I think he was… he was… so…

64

S1: So intelligent? He could make things with his hands.



S4: He wants to do and he wants to come true.

65

66

S1: To reach his target.



67

S4: Yes, he works very hard to… em, make the target come true.



68

S1: He did not need the sailor?



69

S4: He can done the sailor.

70



***

71

S4: No, I tell you, Ebenezer Scrooge.

72

S1: Let’s tell me more about your character.

73

S4: He is very, very lonely.

74

S1: Oh, why he always feel very, very lonely?

75

S4: Because nobody will visit him.

76

S1: Why? Why people don’t want to visit him?

77

S4: He is selfish.

78

S1: Selfish?

79

S4: He will not give... Although he is wealthy, he will never give any money to somebody.

80

S1: Oh, she never help other people.

81

S4: And then, because he is really lonely, so, at last, ***, then, he gives money to the others. I think

82



83

S1: And she is very helpful?

84

S4: Yes.

85

S1: She started to help another poor?

86

S4: Yes. He gives his money to the poor.

87



88

S4: What is the mood of your book? Do you think your book is interesting or quite boring or

89



90

S1: I think this book was quite interesting. This story was quite to let the children know something is

91



92

S1: Do you learn something from your book?

93

S4: Yes, I can learn that. I must not, you must not because I think will like her. And then I know that I

this is the good point.

*** something? good.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

94





S1: Oh, this is all you learn from the book?

95

need to be a ***, I need to be a helpful people. When somebody needs help, I need to help.

96

S4: Yes. What about your book?

97

S1: My main character name is called Alex. She is a girl always want to go into the looking glass.



S4: Have you ever think you want to go inside the looking glass?

98

99

S1: No, the world in the mirror is so terrible. Everything is in vague.

100

S4: Yes!

101

S1: And, I think, I think *** live inside.

102

S4: Yes! I will feel very strange.

Excerpt 2 — Creating a collage 103

S2: OK… OK, what should we draw in this collage?

104

S1: At first, we would like to discuss about what is the similarities in our book.

105

S2: Ok, I think our similarities of… of me and you is our story was creative story

106

S1: Yes

107

S4: Because none are real. Do you think so?

108

S1: I think my story and Andrew’s story was quite same because the both of us the stories is…in my

109



110

S3: … Also divided in a different place, at different part. OK, my book, you book same to, have a…

111

S1: Yes, both of us has learn something in your book?

112

S2: So, what should we choose to draw? We have some similarities, but how can we draw?

113

S3: We can draw about the *** of life.

114

S2: Um, um, Let us talk, talking about the difference first before we draw this, OK? Difference. I think

115



the most difference was me, Andrew and Sara’s character was boy and Annie’s character was a

116



girl. Yes, then do you think any difference of our books?

117

S3: I think no.

118

S2: I think oh, difference…

119

S4: We can talk about the… 點畫呀？{how to draw}?

120

S2: Anyway, we draw this first, OK.

121

S3: Annie, what do you think, which thing can appear in this, on the paper?

122

S1: In my story, about a looking glass. Let put a looking glass in the paper.

123

S2: Only one or?

124

S1: Do you have any ideas?

125

S4: I think we have four characters. I think we can write three looking glass and one look at this glass.

story, the story is divided into eight stages and Andrew’s story is about.

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3

Extensive Reading and Using Class Readers

126 S2: Write the character in Alice’s book. Alice? 127

S3: Yes. Stand… right, right… I think Stand, yes, in the middle…

128

S1: Reiko, do you have any idea?

129

S3: I think she stand in the middle.

130

S4: Middle is good.

131

S3: More properly.

132

S1: So, at last we would like to draw four.

133

S2, 3 & 4: Three glasses.

134

S2: In front of Alice. And then Alice, we need to draw her back or front?

135

S4: Her back. back. Back is proper.

136 S2: Can I have, 137

S1: Your book.

138

S2: Your book.

139

S1: Besides the glasses, what thing do you like to add inside the picture?

140

S3: Inside the picture? I think there have a… a three story. I think there have a… there have a…

141

S1: Different background? Different background?

142

S3: Yes…yes…yes, yes, different background. And each, each, Each mir… each mirror is about one

143



144

S1: Oh! This one is quite good!

of the story.

145 S3: We can, we can draw some, some things can represent the story. Yes. Just like, like my book, it’s 146



about Henry’s eggs. We can draw Henry’s eggs in the, in the mirror. Yes.

147

S2: Draw he like the sons and did not like the daughters?

148

S3: Um…

149

S1: *** Something that is extra?

150

S3: Yes, he, he treats the girls and the boys very different. He likes the boys but he did not like the

151



152

S1: And one is upside down and one is ***.

153

S3: Yes.

154

S1: Let’s wait for Reiko to draw about it.

155

S3: OK.

156

S1: Oh, Reiko your drawing is very good.

157

S2: No. OK, I finish the girl.

158

S4: The green looking mirror? Looking mirror?

159

S1: Because we want to add some, some special in, in the mirror?

160

All: Yes…

girls. So, we can draw that he holds the boys and the girls in each of the side. And the…

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161

T:

162

Alright, if you haven’t start drawing. I think you should start now. We only have ten minutes left to complete your “collage”.

163

S2: You can discuss first, I can draw this.

164

S4: Do you, do you need some more add you have saying?

165

S3: Oh yes. My idea is that I want in the mirror have a Henry’s egg. He’s holds the boys and the

166



167

S1: Oh! Never mind. Oh, Sarah.

168

S4: Yes.

169

S1: Do you have any idea about our pictures?

170

S4: Her.

171

S2: Wait a minute. What do you want to draw in the middle, looking glass?

172

S3: I want to draw the Henry’s eggs in the looking glass. And he holds, holds a boy

173

S1: One side is boy, one side is girl.

174

S3: Yes. And the, and the boys is higher than the girls.

175

S2: Like this?

176

All: Yes.

177

S1: It is because the king like, like…

178

S2: Like have a son, did not like a daughter.

girls and the…少少{a little}

179 S4: Yes, OK. You can discuss first, let me… 180

S2: OK. I think in my story, we can write a big ship.

181

S1: Big ship?

182

S2: Yes, because Robertson like to travel.

183

S1: Yes.

184

S2: We can write, we can draw some strong wind and storm. And the ship was broken down.

185

S1: OK. All of our story characters had their own lives, such as my story is about a girl want to go

186



inside the glass and your story was about a man who want to be a sailor and at last, she do it.

187



She does it. Andrew’s story is about a king.

188

S3: Likes a…

189 S1: Son more than a daughter. 190

S2: Do you think, in the, in my book, in my book, the three what things we can add in the pictures?

191

S1: Oh, you say that you want to add a broken ship and a big wind, a storm? Oh, this is, all can

192



193

S2: Yes. Do you think it is enough?

194

S1: Oh, it is, it is quite enough.

represent your story.

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Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this class? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“My students were able to do this task. One thing I did was to ask them to borrow the same genre, so that made it easier for them. If there were all different genres, then it would be more difficult. Some groups did better than the others. If you want them to talk about things quite naturally, I think it is something new for them. I have integrated reader response theory together with story grammar into my reading lessons. It was not easy for them but on the whole, they were able to do it. They were able to communicate.”

•

“I think we need to understand our students and their needs. Like my students, they are willing to talk if they have some scaffolding. And I think we need to give them some, but maybe not too much later on because otherwise we might limit their creativity. I think sometimes we are afraid of students making mistakes. I think it’s OK. As long as our students know that we are not going to penalise them because we would like them to communicate. From this class and my MA dissertation work, I found that kids generally enjoy literature circles much more than the regular ERS lessons. I think a lot of ESL/EFL learners may have the vocabulary but they don’t use it and they are not confident. In literature circles they can learn that speaking in English is possible. It is rich work.”

Questions for Discussion 1. What observations can you make about the students’ discussion in Excerpts 1 and 2? 2. In designing this lesson what measures did the teacher take to facilitate pupils’ discussion?

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3. What are your opinions on using Literature Circles with your classes? How is this approach different from or similar to the activities that you carry out in your regular English reading lessons? 4. The students in this selection have all read books from the classics. Comment on using these types of books to develop L2 learners’ reading habits. What other genres can L2 readers be exposed to? 5. Is there a reading programme in your school? If yes, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the programme. If no, state what type of programmme you would like to see implemented and why.

Critical Commentary As an integrated approach, Literature Circles activities provide optimal conditions for second language learning through bringing together such resources as student interest and motivation, interaction and negotiation for meaning (Long, 1983), comprehensible input (Krashen, 1985), comprehensible output (Swain, 1985), and scaffolding for the development of a new language. Ms Siu’s lesson exemplifies successful use of Literature Circles activities for a group of Form 4 students in an extensive reading lesson. The lesson overview and selected excerpts illustrate the instructionally mediated and socially constructed process involved. Language problems pervaded the entire students’ discussions at all levels—phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and discourse, for instance, run-on sentences, lack of tenses or incorrect use of tenses, word order problems, inappropriate use of vocabulary, to name only a few. However, despite all the struggles, the students understood one another and got their meaning across, although it took several turns sometimes, and were able to complete all the tasks: story sharing, similarity/difference discussion, and collage drawing, a somewhat challenging undertaking, because of the relatively high language demands and cognitive complexity entailed, and students’ unfamiliarity with such activities. According to Ms Siu, “it is something new for them”. What stood out in the students’ discussions were all the means by which they achieved communication: repeating, paraphrasing, rewording/reformulating, clarification requests, spelling out of vocabulary, and occasionally resorting to the native language, which testified Long’s (1983) Interaction Hypothesis that interlocutors work collaboratively to make input comprehensible. The Literature Circles activities were structured in such a way that each student possessed information that other members had to obtain in order for the group to successfully complete the tasks, thus promoting negotiation of meaning more extensively than free conversations and open-ended discussions. Active learning took place

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throughout the whole process: the students were highly engaged in thinking and putting their thoughts together, as manifested by the rapid pace of the conversations and frequent turn-takings. By utilising their developing second language system, the students made great efforts in expressing their ideas, creating another necessary condition for second language acquisition, according to Swain’s (1985) Comprehensible Output Hypothesis. By saying that the students were able to communicate and accomplish the tasks, I by no means imply that communication went through on every piece of information and at every moment of the conversations. Although the students made constant efforts to negotiate meaning, there were a few occasions when they did not do so although confusion might have arisen. For instance, in sharing her story, S1 did not make it clear whether Alice had to go through eight stages to become a queen or to go inside the mirror and whether she dreamed about being a queen in the real world or the mirror, and S1’s interlocutor did not ask for clarification. A variety of reasons are possible here: S1 did not have enough language to make it clear; her interlocutor was not capable of asking questions specifically enough for her to clarify; or the two decided to tolerate the ambiguity and move on, since it did not affect the overall meaning of the story nor their completion of the tasks. I think that it is unnecessary to require perfect communications in doing Literature Circles or to withhold such activities until students have acquired perfect language. Tolerating ambiguity and staying focused on major things are essential elements of successful Literature Circles activities. Among the three tasks performed, the students were engaged in much longer and more elaborative discussions in sharing their stories and drawing the collage than in comparing similarities and differences across the stories. Although the teacher gave instructions and the circle cards provided props, it might be an area of special difficulty for these students, which is not surprising, given how demanding such an activity can be, cognitively as well as linguistically. The relative brevity of similarity/difference discussions might also be due to time allocation. The students were given 20 minutes for story sharing and 30 minutes for similarity/difference discussions and collage drawing combined. I am not suggesting that Ms Siu assign time differently. Learning to compare and contrast for similarities and differences might not be a focus in this particular lesson. If it had been, more modeling and a longer period of time would have seemed to be necessary. Language teachers, especially those in the EFL context, rarely attempt cooperative learning activities such as Literature Circles, convinced from the very beginning that “conditions” for success do not suffice: students’ poor listening and speaking skills, large class size, and discipline problems. Ms Siu’s lesson shows that such a belief, albeit deeply held, is hard to sustain. She had 42 students altogether and their overall English proficiency was not strong. From the included excerpts, the students never exhibited off-task behaviors, and the teacher entered the scene at only one time after group work started, not to interfere with misbehaviors but to remind the students of the time remaining. Apparently, conditions for success should be re-defined: when students are interested in what they do, and tasks

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are structured in a way that adequate scaffolding and clear directions are provided, they will achieve what otherwise they would not.

Yan Wang (Ph.D.) Yan Wang teaches in the Department of Middle Secondary Education and Instructional Technology at Georgia State University. She received her doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction, with a concentration in TESOL, from Illinois State University. Her research interests include cultural issues in education, second language reading, and ESL students learning in content areas.

Reference Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. Harlow: Longman. Long, M. H. (1983). Native speaker/non native speaker conversation and the negotiation of comprehensible input. Applied Linguistics, 4, 126–141. Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. M. Gass and C. G. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235–253). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

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Case 5

Developing a Slogan in an ERS Lesson Ms Mok’s Case

Teacher Ms Mok has been teaching for over 12 years in three different schools and has attained a Masters in TESL. Ms Mok’s goal in teaching is to help students improve their English and raise their interest in English language learning. To help some students with low language proficiency, Ms Mok thinks that it is important to create a supportive environment to sustain their interest and to help them build up confidence in learning in English. She believes that “we need to plan something that is accessible for them and try to help them learn through different sources and materials.”

Context • School This is a lower banding CMI school. • Class This class is considered to be the best of the Form 3 classes in the school. There are 35 boys and girls, aged 14–16. The students are highly motivated in learning, but they are rather weak in their language proficiency.

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Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

3 Double period Classroom 35 boys and girls Whole class, group work, pair work Extensive Reading Lesson Preparation

15min

Individual

– Students read the books that they have chosen silently.

Activity 1—Story Grammar 15 min

Group work

– Students form groups of 4 and share with their classmates their stories. Teacher monitors.

5 min

Sharing

– Teacher invites some students to report their stories to the class.

Activity 2—Slogan *5 min

Instruction

– Teacher gives instructions for group work.

*15 min

Group work

– Students write their slogans in groups. Teacher monitors.

5 min

Sharing

– Teacher pastes all the students’ slogans on the board and reads out the slogans to the students.

Activity 3—Reading Out the Most Interesting Part of the Story 5 min

Demonstration

– Teacher reads out her most interesting part of the story.

10 min

Pair-work

– Students read their most interesting parts to their partners.

5 min

Sharing

– Teacher invites some students to come out and read their most interesting parts to the whole class.

* Extracted episode

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Episodes

T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s)



(italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible

Excerpt 1 — Giving instructions

1

T:

Now, let’s go to another activity. The first one, in the first activity, you know something about



2



the story. Now, let’s do something, in a more creative way. That is activity 2. You are going



3



to develop a slogan, a slogan, to sell your book. You are an advertising agent. You will put



4



an advertisement in the South China Morning Post, Ming Pao newspaper. And then, you



5



want to develop, design a slogan to put in the newspaper. Last night, I read my book. And



6



I designed my slogan, ok? For my book. (T puts a picture on the board and picks up a book)



7



Ok, this is the book. This is the book I read last night. (T puts the book on the board next to



8



the picture) The title of the book is Robinson Crusoe. After reading the book, I think this is



9



the most important thing. I put it in a slogan. You know a slogan consists of a few words



10



that reads out a message. What is my slogan? Hope, H-O-P-E, Adds, A-D-D-S, colour.



11



You know colour? Ok. Hope adds colour to life. Robinson Crusoe had been on this island



12



for 27 years. Only one man, no friends, at the very beginning. And then, he tried to give



13



hope to himself. So, every time, when he feels unhappy, he tries to give himself hope. And



14



then hope helps him to keep alive. So, I would like to sell my book. I would like to put this



15



slogan, ok? In the paper. So, what you are going to do, is to develop a slogan. Most



16



probably, you should have done it at home. So, I would like you to share the slogans in



17



groups, again. Ok? (T takes up the paper and points to the paper) very simple, you just



18



simply write the title of the book and then the slogan. Ok? That’s all. Is it alright? Ok, let me



19



see, you can get it done very easily. Just simply, at least remember, simply read aloud the



20



slogan. And then the other member copies it out and then stick it on the board. Is that clear



21



to you? Ok, 5 minutes. Ok, start now.

Excerpt 2 — Writing up slogan Group 1

24

T:

Ok. Let’s see yours. What do you have with yours? Your slogan is…



25



(S2 points to a slogan)

T:

(T to S3) What are you going to say about this? What did you—did you like the story?

26

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27

S3: Yes.



28

T:



29

S3: Em… my is… very funny



30

T:



31

S3: He is very silly.



32

T:

Why? Yes, so, why is he funny? Silly, ok. What does he do?

33

S3: … He’s very like… listen… one story.



34

T:



35

S3: He alway… he alway… hope… he is superman. (laughs)



36

T:



37

S3: Em.

He likes to listen to one story. Which story is that? Ah! He thinks he is superman. Ah! Ok, so... when he is superman, what does he do?

38

T:

He thinks he is superman, yes? What does he do? What silly things?





(T is quickly scanning the blurb on the back of the book.)

39

40

S3: (Silent)



41



(S2 tells S3 something silently)



42

T:

Ok, so Mark likes to think that he is superman, right? And, he does silly things. Is that right?



43



(S3 nods) You said you like how he does silly things? What makes them silly…? Are they



44



funny…?



45

S3: (Silent)



46

T:



47

S2: (S2 says to S3) Do you like… (S2, then turns her head and asks the T) to speak again. (T:



48



Yes?) Speak again.



49

T:

Say it again? Ok, I’ll say it again. So, this story is about Mark who does funny things, right?



50



But he thinks that he is superman. Yes? Yes or no?

Yes, funny? Silly is funny? (S3 nods) Do you like reading those funny things?

51

S3: Yes.



52

T:

(T opens the book and shows the students some pictures) Is that funny? Is that funny? (S2



53



says something to S3)



54

S3: Yes

55

T:



S2: Yes

56

Why? Why is this funny? Yes, you can help her?

57

T:



S3: He…

58

You want to say it in Cantonese and then she can tell me. Tell her in Cantonese.

59

T:

He what?

60

S3: He… make fun of the man.

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61

T:

Ok! (T nods her head) Makes fun of the man. (T thinks for a while). Ok, now, let’s see if we



62



can turn that into a slogan. Er, can funny be interesting? Doing funny things, is that



63



interesting?



64

Ss: Yes.



65

T:



66

S2: (S2 tells S3) Funny can be interesting. (S2 points to the paper).



67

T:

Yes. So, we can say, funny can be interesting. Ok? Funny can be interesting.

Excerpt 3 — Writing up slogan Group 2

68

T monitors another group of students.



69

T:

Let me correct that for you. Honesty, use the noun (T corrects S1’s slogan). Honesty is

70



good. That’s very good! A very good slogan!

71

S4: (S4 nods her head)

72

T:

What’s your slogan? (T asks S5. S5 shows the T her slogan) Ok, “if you love a lovely

73



dolphin, go to look at the story book”. Let’s look at the story book. Alright. (pause)

74



Um… a slogan only has a few words. Only a few words. Right? So, you have many

75



words. Let’s see, which words do you want to use?

76

S5: (Silent)

77

T:



78

S5: (Silent)



79

T:

Let’s just have 3 or 4 words. Which words would you use? You understand?

80

S5: Yes.



T:

81

How many words?

82

S5: (Counting the words of her slogan)



T:

Too many words, right? So, let’s have only 4 or 5 words. So, what can we say? (T

84



looks at the S’s notes) A lovely dolphin, where’s your story? Where is your book?



85



(S5 shows the T her story book)



86

T:

What does this dolphin do? (T shows the S the cover of the book) Where’s the dolphin?



87



Where?

88



(S5 points to the book cover)

89

T:

So, what does he do? (T points to the dolphin)



S5: He, he is swimming.

83

90

91

T:

Swimming, and then?

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92

S5: ***

93

T:

94

S5: Jump out the water



T:

And then? (T laughs and talks to another S) Are you alright? Can you see? What else?

96



(S4 and S5 look at the cover of the book together) Is he dreaming about the dolphin?

97

S5: Yes.

98

T:

99

S5: I don’t know

100

T:

101

S5: … found the home

102

T:

103

S5: Yes.

95

What else?

Yes. What does he do for the dolphin? You don’t know, ok. What happens to the dolphin in the story? What happens? He found the home.

104 T:

So, we can say the dolphin finds a home. That could be your slogan.

105

(S5 nods)



106 T:

The dolphin finds a home, right?

107

S5: Yes.

108

T:

And then, how many words do we have? The – dolphin – finds – a – home. Five words.

109



(T counts her fingers) So we have a few words, right?

110

S5: Yes.

111

T:

Ok, so you write down your new slogan here. What’s you slogan? (T asks another S)

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Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments “I don’t know whether I am right. It seems to me that most teachers especially junior Form teachers would get students to read the book at home, or chapter at home. And then, the next day, when they come back for the reading lesson, they would go through relevant paragraphs or chapters. And then students would be asked questions to test their understanding. After that, these students are expected to write a book report. But those things I’m doing with my class are different from those of the other schools, I guess. At least, they have to respond. They don’t have to do the same thing at all. Of course they come across problems. For example, they don’t have sufficient vocabulary items to help them express themselves fluently. And also, during the sharing section, they don’t know how to pronounce certain words. They will probably get stuck. I understand how those students feel. I think some of the remedial actions to be taken include more time for them to do in class. They need to be given more time to discuss it, or rehearse the presentation in class.”

Students’ Comments The following are some of the written comments made by the students about the activity in their own words: •

“Slogan—“I have a chances to study the other slogan. Many slogan wrote quiet well. For example: Honest is the best! Fat is cute!”

•

“I have learn write the slogan. I feel I play the slogan is very clever, because I use 3 hours design the slogan.”

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•

“I like this ‘Stranger Danger’ because my classmate with me read this book, I felt very happy. I study read story book with friends look is happy.”

•

“I learn how read the story. And finish read the story I have many feeling.”

•

“I don’t like ‘Developing Book Slogan”. Because I can’t learnt anything in it.”

•

“I in the active it some difficulties and problems. Because I have some don’t understand the teacher talk. She ask me question I understand but I cannot use English talk of she. It is very difficulties. Possible I is very tense and afraid.”

•

“I can’t easy to understand what did the teacher say. When my classmate told about his story. I only understand something.”

•

“I had feel English painful, difficult and astonished. I need Miss and companions give instructions and helpful. I feel myself useless. I have astonished to hear it English and have information but I feel very exciting.”

Questions for Discussion 1. (a) What do you think is the teacher’s purpose in the first excerpt?

(b) Do you think this purpose has been achieved in this class?



(c) Is this a typical ERS lesson?

2. What are the difficulties that the teacher experiences in the second and third excerpts? How can these problems be resolved? 3. What are the particular problems that the students exhibit in Excerpts 2 and 3? How could the teacher help the students? 4. From the students’ comments we know that some students did or did not enjoy the activities. Why do you think this is so? 5. How would you characterise the activity of making a slogan? Is it an easy or difficult task? Explain your answer. 6. This activity is taking place in an ERS lesson. Is this activity useful for supporting pupils’ reading development? Why or why not?

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Critical Commentary Ms Mok’s goal in her teaching mainly centres on increasing Hong Kong students’ interests in English learning. She believes that it is crucial for Hong Kong students to learn English with higher motivation. She thinks that the students will enjoy reading if they are introduced to different reading strategies when they are in primary school. Once they develop their interests for reading, they will read for pleasure eventually. It is notable that she created the meaningfulness of the activity. She provided an authentic purpose for learners to sell books by figuring out slogans for ads. When a real purpose like this is targeted, learners could better situate the activity in a meaningful context. Modeling was demonstrated through the instructor’s think-aloud strategy of her own reading process. Ms Mok engaged students in tasks, including group work, sharing, and pair work. She tried to provide a learning community where learners could enjoy learning. Classrooms could be communities; the ordering of the life of the group is marked out in social terms (Meek, 1991). Ms Mok knew the fact that most of her students were not good at English.  Their English proficiency was limited and their learning motivation was low. Therefore, when she gave the instructions to the class, she explained the activity in detail, provided modeling, and tried to slow it down so that all students could understand her. She divided students into several groups and allowed them to have discussions. During the group work, she walked around the class and tried to assist them. When she tried to facilitate group 1, she used questions to encourage students to think and talk. In order to encourage peers to help each other and get their meanings across, the students were allowed to use some Cantonese to better convey their meanings. When first language is allowed to some appropriate degree, learners could possibly lower their anxiety in expressing themselves. After students have proposed their initial ideas, Ms Mok tried to rephrase what was said by students and offered the possibility of the slogan based on students’ initial ideas. Being a teacher should be like what Moll and Amanti (1992) suggested: “My role would have been to act as facilitator helping the students answer their own questions.” In the EFL classroom, it is imperative for the teacher to monitor and provide assistance when necessary so that EFL learners could find it possible to articulate their meanings with their limited vocabulary. However, it is suggested that more wait time could be possibly provided for students so that they could put their words together as their own slogans rather than being offered the answers directly. Harste (1989) claimed, “mistakes are not so much failures on the part of teachers as they are opportunities for self correction and growth on the part of learners. Without mistakes, there is no evidence of learning.” It is obvious learners have insufficient language so that Ms Mok tried to elicit the output by asking a lot of questions. As EFL teachers, it is a challenge to decide a fine line between assistance and domination. If mistakes could be considered as part of the learning process for learners, wait time could be purposefully planned for learners’ output. In addition, students could have been much more engaged in

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their own conversations before the teacher’s modeling. It is also more productive if these discussions could be based on the storyline of the books they have read or further relate them to some possible slogans they could come up with. Ivan Yang (Ph.D.) and Hui-chin Yeh (Ph.D.) Shih-hsien, Ivan, Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Applied Foreign Languages Department at Formosa University in Taiwan. He graduated from the Language Education Department at Indiana University. His research interests are computer assisted language learning and cross-cultural learning experiences. Hui-chin Yeh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Foreign Languages at National Yunlin University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. She earned her Ph.D. in Language Education from Indiana University-Bloomington. Her research expertise centers on EFL teacher professional development, collaborative learning community, and computer assisted language learning.

Reference Harste, J. C. (1989). Fostering needed change in early literacy programs. In D. S. Strickland and L. M. (Eds.), Emerging literacy: Young children learn to read and write (pp.147–159). International Reading Association. Meek, M. (1991). On being literate. Portsmowh, NH: Heinemann. Moll, L. C. and Amanti, C. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 16(2), 132–141.

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Case 6

Using Class Readers Mr. Lo’s Case

Teacher Mr. Lo is in his third year of English language teaching. He became a teacher right after he graduated from a BATESL programme. He was taught in a traditional way such as through dictation and direct translation. His teacher just read aloud the text and then explained the words in Cantonese. The students listened and noted down the important meaning. He wanted to help students especially the less capable ones to improve their English when he first started teaching. But now, for some classes, he spends more time teaching them to respect their teachers more than helping them with their English. “It’s quite a problem to teach a class if they don’t listen to you. If you can’t keep them quiet, you can’t teach them anything at all,” he says.

Context • School This is a lower banding CMI school. About one third or more students come from Mainland China. They have had very little exposure to English before arriving in Hong Kong. • Class This is a Form 2 class. The teacher describes them as quite weak in English but very active in other ways. Most of them do not show any confidence in using the language either in written or spoken form. Some of them want to give up learning English because they think that their goals are unachievable.

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Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

2 Double period Classroom 38 Whole class Story Book Lesson Routine

2 min

Whole class

– T asks Ss to turn to p. 49 of their story book. – T tells Ss that they are going to have a G.E. test the next day.

Story Book Reading I *53 min

Whole class

– T reads the story line by line, followed by Chinese translation. – T involves the Ss by asking them to guess what will happen next, checking Ss’ understanding and asking Ss’ to raise their hands to show their opinions, etc.

Break 3 min

Whole class

– Some Ss ask T to give them the areas that would be covered in the test.

Story Book Reading II 12 min

Whole class

– T asks Ss to read the first page and says he will ask them what it is about later. – T asks Ss the title of the new story. – T reads the 1st paragraph and asks Ss the meaning of it. – T explains the paragraph.

* Extracted episode

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3

Extensive Reading and Using Class Readers

Episodes T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s) (italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible



{ } = English translation



Boldface = Parts read from the book



1

T:

(T puts his left hand in his trousers’ pocket and uses his right hand to hold the book)



2



I heard Holmes breathing very heavily. “ Breathing heavily” 即係點呀? {what does it mean?}



3



(T fanning himself with the storybook)



4



Can you show me how to breathe heavily? 係啦! 即係好辛苦、好急咁樣啦! {Yes, right, it



5



means he finds it very difficult to breathe} ‘Give me water. Water!’ he cried. Holmes needs



6



some water. 跟住啦! {And then} ‘Well, you are nearly dead, Holmes, but there are still a few



7



things I want to say to you. Am, Mr… 呢個係邊個講架？ 呢句說話？ {Who said this?} Mr.



8



Culverton. Mr. Culverton. Mr. Culverton said. Well you are nearly dead. You are nearly dead.



9



You are close to dead 差唔多 {close}?



10



(Some Ss are leaning on one side; two Ss turn around and look



11



at the other student’s book because they haven’t brought their story books)



12

S1: 死 {dead}



13

T:

係啦。 {Right} But, 不過咩呀？{But what?}



14



(T walks to the other side of the classroom)

15



There are still a few things I want to say to you. Still have some things to tell? Holmes. What is it?

16



What is it? Let’s find out. So, I’ll give you a little water.



17



(S2 pats S3’s shoulder and talks to him)

18



I’ll give you a little water so that you won’t die right away. Won’t die right away. 等佢唔好即刻死

19

啦! {let him not to die right away} 延續佢生命 {let him live longer} So that he can have time to

20



tell Holmes something, right? There. Drink it!



21



(Three girls are passing a note among themselves)



22



There! When you give someone something, say, there.

23



(T pretends that he holds a glass of water)

24



There you are, drink it!

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25



(T pretends to give the glass of water to S4) (Ss laugh)



26



Drink it. There. ‘Help me, Culverton Smith, help me, and I won’t say anything about what



27



you did.’ 佢話咩呀? {What did he say?} 救我啦！ {Help me!}, 跟住佢講咩呀? {Then, what



28



did he say?} I won’t say anything about what you did? 即係咩呀? {What does it mean?} 咩意思



29

呀? {What does that mean?} What does that mean? About what you did 係咩呀? {What’s it?} 你話



30

比我聽佢講咩呀? 吓? {You tell me, pardon?}



31



(S5 lies on the table)



32

S:

我唔介意 {I don’t care}



33

T:

你咩呀? 唔介意, 係 {You what? Don’t care, yes?}

34

S:

我唔 … 我唔可 {I won’t… I won’t}



T:

係啦! {Right!} 我唔會講你做過D乜嘢, {I won’t say anything about what you did,} 你所做的

35

36

嘢 {what you did}, 我唔會講 {I won’t tell} Ar, I’ll forget it. 我會咩呀? {I will what?} 係啦 {Yes},

37



我唔記得哂喇 {I’ll forget it}, 你做嘢我唔記得哂喇! {I’ll forget what you’ve done}. I’ll forget it.

38



(S6 is doing her homework)



39



‘I promise.’ 係喇 {Right}(T nods), 我保證啦 {I promise}, 我保證 {I promise}. ‘I don’t care

40



what you know about my nephew’s death.’ 呢句說話 {This sentence}, who said this?

41



(Two students are lying on their desks sleeping. The group of students sitting in the front are



42



listening to the teacher.)



43



邊個講? {Who said this?} Holmes or Culverton Smith? 係啦 {Right}, Culverton Smith 講

44



{said this}. I don’t care. 即係咩呀？{what does that mean?}係啦！{Right!} 我唔在乎 {I don’t

45



care} ‘I don’t care what you know about my nephew’s death. 我唔在乎咩呀？ {I don’t care

46



what?} 係啦！{Right!} 我唔在乎呢你知道我個侄仔點樣死，{I don’t care what you





know about my nephew’s death, } I don’t care. It’s not him we are talking about now. 而家我

47

48

地唔係講緊? {Now we are not talking about?}



49



(S6 gives a pen to the student sitting next to her)



50



Now we are not talking about my nephew. 唔係講緊我 {not talking about my} nephew. It’s



51



you. 我地講緊咩呀 {Whom are we talking about?}, 呢個 ‘you’ 係? {What does ‘you’ refer to?}

52



What does ‘you’ refer to? 呢個 ‘you’ 係指邊個? {What does ‘you’ refer to?} 邊個? {Who?} (T





points to S7)

53

54

S7: Holmes.

55

T:

Holmes. 係啦 {Right}, Holmes. Do you know how you got the disease, Holmes? 佢問你知

56

唔知點樣咩呀? 點樣咩呀? 呀? {Do you know how you got the disease Holmes?} 即係問咩

57

呀? {What does that mean?}

58

(S6 has taken out another workbook and continues to do her homework)



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Extensive Reading and Using Class Readers



59



(S8—the student sitting next to S6 is also doing his homework)



60

S9: ***



61

T:

係啦。{Right} (T points to S9 with the story book) 聽唔聽到呀? {Can you hear him?}



62



(T asks the class if they can hear what S9 said)



63

你大聲D話比佢哋聽 {Speak louder, let the whole class hear you}(T asks S8 to repeat the

64



sentence in a louder voice)

65

S9: ***



66

T:



67

係啦 {Right}。你知唔知你點樣染上呢個病? {Do you know how you got the disease?} 知 唔知你點樣染上呢個病? {You know how you got the disease?} I think I’ve got it from the

68



seamen I was working with, down in Rotherhithe. 佢話咩呀? {What did he say?}



69



(T goes to a student and asks) 佢話咩呀? {What did he say?} 呀? {Pardon?} Holmes 點答佢呀?

70



{How did he answer?} 點答佢呀? {How did he answer?} Ha?

71



(T goes to the other side of the classroom, standing closer to the 2 Ss who are sleeping. The 2 Ss sit

72



a little straighter.)



73



Can anyone tell me what he said? I think I’ve got it from the seamen I was working with, down in



74



Rotherhithe. 係Rotherhithe 呢個地方 {In the place—Rotherhithe}。係啦! {Right!} 究竟佢講乜



75 呀? {What did he say?} In Cantonese? Can anyone tell me what he said in Cantonese? 用中



76



77

Ss: 我認為 {I think}



78

T:

我認為啦，{Right! I think} 我認為咩呀？{I think, what?} Ha?



79



(Ss silent)



80

T:

I think I’ve got it 我咩呀？{I, what?}



81

S10: 染到 {got infected}



82

T:

文講畀我聽佢講咩? {Tell me what he said in Cantonese} I think 係咩? {What is it?}

染到 {got infected}，我染到？{I’ve got?} It 係指咩呀？{What does it refer to?}

83

S10: 呢個病 {the disease}



84

T:

係啦 {Right}, it means the disease from 咩呀? {What is it?}



85



(Ss silent)

86

T:

From, what? The seamen



S11: 海員 {The seaman}

87

88

T:

係啦，海員啦 {Right, the seaman}。I was working with 我當時 {I was working with}，係啦，

89

係個度做嘢 {Right, work there}，同佢地一齊 {with them}，就係 Rotherhithe 呢個地方 {At

90

the place called Rotherhithe}。 They said they had just come from Sumatra. 佢地由邊度嚟





91



92

呀？ {Where did they come from?}

S12: 蘇門答臘 {Sumatra}

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“The lesson was quite teacher dominant. There was a lot of teacher talk. I chose to use this method because it was quite easy to handle the content and the mechanism of the lesson. It was easier to control the discipline of the students as well. It was also easy for me to prepare the lessons.”

•

“I aimed at arousing the interest of the students and helping them comprehend the story in this lesson.”

•

“I used Chinese for explanation and comprehension checking. The students were rather weak in English. If I did not use Chinese, most of them just did not know what I was talking about. It was also quite convenient to use direct Chinese translations.”

•

“It was time consuming to go through each sentence in this way, but it was just difficult to ask a class of students with very low motivation to do the reading by themselves at home. If I could not finish the book at the end of the school year, I would just leave out some chapters.”

•

“The students did not enjoy this lesson, but it is very common in Hong Kong that students find English lessons boring, especially if they are very weak.”

Questions for Discussion 1. What observations can be made about the teacher’s approach to teaching a story book? 2. Comment on the use of the translation method with this group of learners. 3. Do you think that the teacher succeeded in achieving his aims in this lesson? Why?

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3

Extensive Reading and Using Class Readers

Critical Commentary Mr. Lo’s teaching approach is rather typical in Hong Kong, especially in low banding schools and with disadvantaged students who come to the school and the English classroom with little English linguistic and cultural capital (i.e., students who are situated in non-middle class families where no one speaks any English and where there is little family support for learning English). Mr. Lo’s justification for a teacher-directed approach is also a typical justification drawn upon by many Hong Kong teachers situated in similarly disadvantaged schools: poor student learning motivation, limited English proficiency, serious classroom management problems. Mr. Lo’s teacher-centred teaching approach seems to have achieved mainly institutional goals: covering of the assigned textbook or syllabus, keeping students quiet so that the textbook units can be “covered” within the limited lesson time. The students’ initial lack of interest in English is further reinforced and perpetuated by such non-participatory, boring lectures on grammar and lexical meanings and teacher-directed questioning sequences. The students’ lack of English proficiency is also reproduced by the lack of opportunities and incentives to speak, listen, read or write for themselves, except for the immediate pragmatic purpose of finishing the textbook tasks which involve little meaning-making on the part of the students. The problem of Mr. Lo’s teaching procedure lies, however, not in the fact that L1 (students’ familiar language) is used, but in the ways in which it is used and more importantly, in the purposes for which it is used. L1 is used in Mr. Lo’s case mainly to “cover” the textbook text and the text-based lexical and comprehension questions and not to arouse students’ interest in the reading topic, to involve students in discussions about the storyline and the characters, or to encourage students to draw upon their experiences and to express their ideas about the topic; in short, no or few students’ meanings are involved. The problem is, therefore, not that L1 is used, but that it is used as part of a specific pedagogy that takes away students’ chances for their own expression of meaning and for their active involvement in reading. L1 can be, and will often be, used, to help students form discussion groups on the reading topics, to do pre-, during- and post-reading activities. L1 does have an important role in classes where students do not have the English linguistic and cultural capital to conduct all their activities and discussions in English. However, L1 mainly used for the purpose of covering textbook texts and teacher-centred questions is certainly misused, but one has to be clear that the problem is in that particular pedagogy, not in the use of L1 per se. Very often we hear teachers say that they cannot practise those liberal, collaborative, participatory pedagogies because their students are low in both L2 learning motivation and L2 proficiency and that because of this they say they have to cling to teacher-centred approaches. The logic is not clear and one big ungrounded assumption has been made:

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the use of the students’ indigenous resources (e.g., L1, their popular cultural topics) is mutually exclusive with the use of collaborative, participatory pedagogies. They mistake the total immersion approach or direct method (i.e., insisting on the exclusive use of L2 in L2 lessons) as a necessary component of, if not equivalent to, collaborative, participatory approaches and equate L1 use with traditional teacher-fronted methods. This mix-up is unfortunate as the two in both cases do not need to go together, neither in theory, nor in practice. The important pedagogic task that lies ahead is to explore more creative ways of capitalising on students’ indigenous resources, among which is L1, to help them make the transition from teacher-centred classroom activities to collaborative, participatory activities even when, and precisely when, students do not come with the English linguistic and cultural capital that middle class students have (for further discussion of this, see Lin, 1997; 1999).

Angel Lin (Ph.D.) Angel Lin holds a Ph.D. from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. She works in the areas of critical discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, classroom interaction analysis, and urban and school ethnography. She is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Reference Lin, A. M. Y. (1999). Doing-English-lessons in the reproduction or transformation of social worlds? TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 393–412. Lin, A. M. Y. (1997). Hong Kong children’s rights to a culturally compatible English education. Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2(2), 23–48.

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4

Listening

How well do you listen and how important it is to be able to listen for important information or for intonation cues when interacting with someone? If we all agree that these are important attributes of communicating, then how can we incorporate these characteristics more effectively into our lessons? Also, if we agree that listening is an important element in all aspects of language learning, why do we often treat it as a “poor cousin”? A lot of our treatment has to do with how we compartmentalise aspects of our teaching. However, if we were to see the elements as integral parts, maybe listening could be done in more purposeful and meaningful ways. We could, for example, incorporate activities such as listening to a weather forecast to know whether we should take our umbrellas or not, or listening to a story to be able to talk about it to our friends. Listening could be integrated in watching a movie and listening for the slang and idiomatic expressions so that we could reuse them in our speech and writing. Listening can be much more than the boring subject that many of our students perceive it to be whether or not we are preparing them for high stakes examinations. It is up to us as educators to accord the role of listening the important value that it is. Let’s try to make our listening lessons more interesting by incorporating elements of all the other language skills. This may involve, for example, recording instructions for a recipe from the internet or television, then making the recipe as in a task-based assignment, and then retelling the recipe to a friend who in turn records it. We may design activities such as listening to music for enjoyment and then incorporating the music into a dramatic production or we may listen to a book on tape for information as we travel on the bus, train, plane or in a car.

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Case 7

Answer Checking in a Listening Lesson Mr. Wong’s Case

Teacher After graduating with his teacher’s certificate in 1993, Mr. Wong held a number of temporary teaching posts and it was not until 1996, after completing his first degree in TESOL, that he started teaching full-time. He sets a high standard and has high student expectation. He is strict about their language mistakes and expects high language accuracy from the students. Mr. Wong also thinks that it is important to have good classroom control before the students can start to learn anything. Mr. Wong likes to explore new ways to teach English, but he says that his non-teaching duties have prevented him from having enough time to prepare for the lesson or think of new ways to teach.

Context • School This is an upper banding EMI school emphasising students’ development in arts, sports and their studies. • Class This is a Form 2 class consisting of 39 boys and girls aged 13–15. This is the weakest class in the arts stream and the students are talkative. The teacher believes that this is a promising class with some really outstanding students but the main problem is that they do not like to speak in English during English lessons.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

2 The first half of a double lesson Classroom 39 boys and girls Whole class Listening Lesson

Exercise 1—Filling in Temperature and Weather 15 min

Whole class

– T elicits from Ss some words to describe weather. – T asks the Ss to give him the name of the places in their book. – T tells Ss the Chinese names of some places and drills Ss in the pronunciation. – T asks Ss to read the names to him. – T gives instruction. (Write down the temperature and weather.) – T plays the tape. – T plays the tape section by section while checking the answers.

Exercise 2—Filling in a Map 12 min

Whole class

– – – –

T T T T

goes through the names of places in the table. gives instruction. (Draw pictures and temperature of the places.) plays the tape twice (the 2nd time with pauses). plays the tape section by section to check answers.

Exercise 3—Filling in a Weather Report *10 min

Whole class

– – – –

T gives instruction. T gives Ss 1 min to look at the map. T has a little chat with the Ss. T goes through the report with the Ss once (giving them some hints on what they should write in the blanks, e.g. ,noun, adjective, words and numbers, etc.) – T asks Ss to look at the map and try to fill in some information before listening to the tape. – T plays the tape with pauses and gives hints to the Ss. – *T plays the tape with pauses again for answer checking.

Conclusion 5 min

Whole class

– Teacher gives Ss a break. – The 2nd lesson is for ERS.

* Extracted episode

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4

Listening

Episodes T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s) (italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible



{ } = English translation Boldface = Tape-recorded sections read from the text book



Capital letters = Teacher stresses the words



1



(T sits at the teacher’s table)



2

T:

Ok, now let’s check together.



3



Here is the forecast of tomorrow’s weather condition of the three major Australian cities.



4



First, Sydney. (pause)



5

T:

Ok, now, for Sydney, please look at the map to fill out the blanks for the first two. What do you put in



6



the first blank?



7

Ss: Cloudy.



8

T:



9

S14: 36.



10

Ss: 6 to…



11

T:



12

Ss: 6 to 19.

Cloudy. Ok? It WAS, now past tense. In Sydney with a temperature ranging from?

6 to?

13

T:

6 to 19. Yes, you can write from 6 to 19. Or just a hyphen. (T turns around and writes “6–19” on the



14



board) Ok? Then.



15



The maximum temperature will be 22 Degree Celsius. (pause)



16

T:

Ok, it’s talking about WILL BE. So you have to fill out the blanks for the next one first, before you put



17



in “there will be”. The maximum temperature will rise to?



18

Ss: 22.

19

T:

22 and what’s the weather like? Listen.

20



And there will be some showers. (pause)



T:

Keywords?

21

22

Ss: Shower/sunshine

23

T:



Ss: Shower/sunshine.

24

Some?

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions



25

T:

Sunshine?! Terrible! (T rewinds the tape)



26



Degree Celsius, and there will be some showers (pause)



27

T:

Showers or sunshine?



28

Ss: Shower/sunshine.

29

Ss: 唔知呀，唔知呀，唔知呀。{don’t know, don’t know, don’t know}



30



(T stands up)



31

T:

Which one?



32

Ss: ***

33



(T writes “A: sunshine B: showers” on the board)

34

T:

A or B?

35

Ss: B.



36

T:



37

S15: Sunny day.

B. Showers. (T sits down) Ok, then Brisbane, please tell me, Brisbane had a…?

38

T:

Sunny day. Now, past tense. Sydney. Sunny day.

39



But today, Brisbane will also have sunny weather tomorrow. (pause)



T:

Ok. Listen again.

41



3 major Australian cities. First, Sydney, the maximum temperature will be 22 Degree



42



Celsius. And there will be some showers. But today, Brisbane will also have sunny



43



weather tomorrow.

44

T:

Ok. Key words. Now, you don’t have to fill in the first 3 blanks. Now, go to “it will continue to enjoy”?



45

S16: Sunny.



46

T:

Sunny weather tomorrow. Ok? Fill in these words first. SUNNY WEATHER. IT WILL



47



CONTINUE TO ENJOY SUNNY WEATHER. Ok? Now go back to the blanks.



48



The temperature range will be from 8 to 20 Degree Celsius.



49

T:

Ok, and then go on. Tomorrow with temperature ranging from? From? How much?

40

50

Ss: 8 to 20.



T:

51

8 to 20. Ok, now. For the last 3 blanks. Brisbane had a?

52

Ss: Rain.



53

T:

Look at Brisbane, past tense, what’s the weather like?



54



(Ss silent)



55

T:

Sunny day. You see the sun? sunny day. No, you look at the map, please!



56

Ss: 哦，哦，哦。{Oh, oh, oh}



57

T:



58

Ss: 7.

The lowest temperature was?

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4



59

T:

Listening

7. And the highest was?

60

Ss: 22.

61

T:

22. So, it will continue to enjoy sunny weather tomorrow, temperature ranging from 8 to 20.



62



Then, the last country, listen. Lastly, Melbourne, there was...



63

Ss: Rain.

64

T:



65

Ss: Heavy rain.



66

T:



67

Ss: 4 to 15.



68

T:

4 and 15. Yes, good. And then what about tomorrow. Listen.



69



Finally, tomorrow’s weather from Melbourne will be even worse. Storms are expected.

70



(Pause)

71

T:

Key word?



Ss: Storm.

72

What kind of rain? Heavy rain. Ok? HEAVY RAIN the whole day. And the temperature ranges from

73

T:

StormS S-T-O-R-M-S. Storms. The second last blank. And then, the temperature will drop



74



to?



75



And the maximum temperature will drop to 10 Degree Celsius. (Pause)



76

T:

10 Degree Celsius.

77



That’s it! We’ll update the information later today. (Pause)

78

S18: 好 {Hurray!}



T:

Ok, take a break.



(T stands up and chats with some students)

79

80

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“I just follow the textbook. You wouldn’t have choices coz you need to stick to the textbook that is dictated in the scheme of work. You need to do everything. But sometimes, I try to make it a variety but it was difficult. It’s time. Coz, I just got 9 lessons in Form 2. I could only spare 2 lessons for listening. And for the rest, I’ve got to teach other skills. So, for 2 lessons, you have to complete 1 unit. If you do something else, you may not be able to complete the rest of the unit. And you would have trouble in the end. You feel that psychologically coz other teachers are doing the right thing, finishing the task on time, but you are far behind.”

•

“I think in the unit, there are pre-listening tasks. The task may be a list of pictures asking students to describe the weather in the pictures. Sunny, cloudy, something like that, I can’t remember. And there are, some words given to the students that would be needed in other stages. That means in the rest. So, I think I just follow the pre-listening task straight forward. That’s all.”

•

“It’s difficult to deal with the speaker’s accent in this particular lesson. You just expose the students to the listening task, that’s all. But in general, in other lessons, I will sometimes tell the students that different people from different countries speak with different accents. But in general, in other lessons, I’ll tell the students that we have American English, British English, Australian English, Indian English, a lot of varieties. Sometimes I imitate the accents to the students. And they are aware of it. They say, ‘Oh! It’s different’.”

•

“It’s difficult to make the lesson purposeful for the students coz whether it’s purposeful or not depends on the textbook. If the activities are purposeful, the students will find it interesting, enjoyable, but the textbook I was using is not good enough. So I wouldn’t say I’d made the lesson purposeful for the students. If I have time, I’ll change it the other way round. For example, I’ll give the students... I’ll ask students to work in groups. They have to do weather report. Something like that.”

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4

Listening

Questions for Discussion 1. How does the teacher prepare the students for the listening activity? 2. How would you describe the relationship between the teacher and the students? 3. How did the teacher make this lesson purposeful to the students? 4. How did the teacher deal with the speaker’s accent? Is this an appropriate response? 5. In his comments the teacher mentioned a number of constraints that influenced the way he taught listening. What are these constraints and how could they be overcome? What are the constraints that influence your teaching and how do you overcome them?

Critical Commentary The situation described in this case is common to all secondary schools in Hong Kong: large class size; students perceived as quiet (unwilling to speak in English); and syllabus demands of completing a section of a textbook. To a large extent, Mr. Wong does a fairly good job. He keeps his class under control, involves them in the lesson—to a certain extent, and manages to complete the unit of work. But, the main issue with the listening lesson is whether or not his students actually developed their listening skills. As in many cases where listening is taught as a separate language skill, the focus of the lesson becomes testing listening rather than teaching listening (see Buck 2001). Although Mr. Wong does use several good teaching strategies in his lesson: giving clear instructions; activating schema by pre-listening tasks; and breaking up the listening exercise so that it is more manageable for the students, the focus still seems to be on using a combination of a discrete-point approach—focusing on isolated items e.g., grammar points and lexis; and an integrative approach—using gap-fill activities at the sentence level only. He does not seem to take the students to the communicative level with the listening activities (Hymes, 1972), and as such, his students may become proficient at passing a listening test in the future, but may not be able to listen to the weather forecast on, say, the television. In order to re-focus this lesson I would suggest Mr. Wong tries to get away from the constraints of the textbook—a difficult challenge perhaps, and integrate his listening lesson with more speaking activities. First, there is no need to throw away the textbook. Rather, the teacher needs to work with the prescribed tasks in a more imaginative way (see Nunan and Miller 1995 for ideas). Then, by integrating speaking with listening, the students will become more involved, see clear links between the skills, and listening will become part of a communicative process rather than a practice test situation.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Mr. Wong is obviously a good teacher with the interests of his students at heart. He now needs to re-examine his own attempts at autonomous learning, which he was forced into by his English teacher, and consider how the techniques he successfully used himself can now be integrated into his teaching. Lindsay Miller (Ph.D.)



Lindsay Miller is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Communication at City University of Hong Kong. He teaches methodology to BA and MA students and researches into the areas of self-access language learning and academic listening.

Reference Buck, G. (2001). Assessing listening. Cambridge: CUP Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. Extracts in Pride, J. B. and Holmes, J (Eds.), Sociolinguistics (pp. 269–293). Harmondsworth: Penguin. Nunan, D. and Miller, L. (1995). New ways in teaching listening. Virginia: TESOL Publications.

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5

Grammar

Grammar is a very important and essential part of our instruction as language teachers. Whether we isolate the teaching of grammar or contextualise it, or preferably do both, we know that a great part of our instruction rests on mastering the intricacies both implicitly and explicitly of the form, structure and functions of English. We believe however, that most educators would concur when we say that many of our pupils believe that grammar is boring. Grammar may be perceived as boring to our students because of how we as teachers conceptualise it and what we convey to them. Does our instruction entail the purposeful use of language? What contexts do we provide for our learners to practise the meaningful use of the language? When we correct, how do we do it? In helping our learners to become communicatively competent in their use of English, we need to ensure that we have provided rich and varied contexts to use the different registers of English where the use of various vocabularies, forms and structures of English can be applied and practised. If we remember that grammar is the engine of language, and when we consider its varied uses and applications, we believe that grammar would not be perceived of as boring by students because teachers would transmit the energy and force of grammar as vital for interesting speech and important for communicative competence. The same feeling of awareness and sensitivity would be conveyed when we correct errors. It takes a long time to master the grammar and subtleties of any language and learners do not always learn what we teach when we want them too. We must be concerned not only about accuracy but also about building confidence and about encouraging communication. What is perfect in one setting may be imperfect and inappropriate in another. Grammar teaching is about teaching our learners how to communicate effectively in different situations.

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Case 8

Explanations in Teaching Ms Tam’s Case

Teacher Ms Tam is in her second year of English Language Teaching. She has to think about how to deal with students’ discipline problems and sometimes she needs to think of how to arouse the interest of some weaker students. Her teaching is teacher-centred and her challenge does not come from English teaching but from the discipline problems of the students. Her heavy teaching load limits her time to develop interesting tasks to do with her students.

Context • School Ms Tam’s school is a CMI, non-subsidised and middle banding school. • Class Ms Tam’s class has a total of 38 boys and girls coming from three different Form 1 classes. Her students are of mixed ability and they come from different cultural backgrounds. They are generally quiet and do not enjoy the activities in the English lessons.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

1 Single lesson Classroom 38 boys and girls Whole class, pair work Grammar Lesson—Why and Because Teaching

*6 min

Whole class

– Teacher explains the use of “why” and “because”.

Exercise 1 6 min

Whole class

– Students match the “why” questions with the corresponding “because” sentences. – Teacher checks answers with the students.

Exercise 2 *3 min

T to individual S

– Teacher asks some “why” questions and the students have to answer the question with “because” according to the situation.

Exercise 3 20 min

Pair work

– Students work in pairs. Student A has to read out the question and student B has to select the correct answer for the question in the book. – Teacher checks answers with the student by asking pairs of students to report.

Conclusion 3 min

Whole class

– Teacher reviews with the students what they have learnt in the lesson.

* Extracted episode

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5

Grammar

Episodes T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s) (italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible



{ } = English translation



Boldface = Parts read from the book

Excerpt 1—Teaching of “why and because”

1

(T stands at the back of the teacher’s table holding a microphone.)



2

T:

What we are going to do in this lesson? Er, we are going to talk about one



3



grammatical form. It is “why and because”. You should know the meaning of “why”. (T writes



4



“why” and “because” on the board). Ok, “why”, it is a “wh”



5



question. So you should know what is, er, what’s the meaning of it? (S1: why) If



6



I ask you why do you like music. Or Why do you like collecting



7



stamps (T writes “Why do you like collecting stamps?” on the board next to “why”)



8

S2: Because (S says the word playfully)



9

T:

Okay. So, if I ask you “why do you, er, why do you like collecting stamps?”

10



Your answer maybe because



11

S1: It is so interesting. (S answers playfully)



12

T:

It is because it’s interesting. So, (T writes “It is because it is interesting.” on the board).



13



So, that means why, if you write a question beginning with “why”. That means

14



you are asking about the reason. So, just like the example in your book, (T reads



15



from the book) Why do you like the game? Now, here the game, in this text, in

16



this passage, is referring to the Internet game. So, why do you like the game?



17



So, the answer maybe… I like the game because it is interesting. Or you can



18



simply say it is because, it is because it is interesting (T points to the sentence on the



19



board). So, you, you should know the meaning of why. Can you give me some



20



more questions starting by “wh” question words? (T looks around. No Ss respond

21



to her). We call “why” (T circles the word “why”) as a “wh” question word. Can you



22



give me some other “wh” words? For example, when, when do you get up? So,



23



these are… when do you get up, what do you like to do...?



24

S1: ***

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

25

T:



S1: 哦! {Oh! I see.} (S says the word with a rising tone)

26

So these, I’m giving you the examples of “wh” questions.

27

T:

I’m asking you some examples of “wh” questions. So, you should know the



28



meaning of “why”. The next example, “why do some players kill others?” Now,

29



in this question, it is asking you the reason why some players kill others. So, the

30



reason is some players kill others because they are annoyed. Or you can simply



31



say “It’s because they are annoyed”. Please, er, please remember when you are



32



answering the questions, er, when you are answering these questions in written

33



language, you have to put “it is” (T underlines “It’s” and writes “It is” under it) in



34



front of “because”. We can’t say because. If I ask you, er, if the… Ok, for



35



example, if you have a test and the test paper gives you a question like “why do

36



you like collecting stamps?” So, you have to say it is because, Alex!

37

S1: 我無講嘢呀! {I didn’t talk}

38

T:

Can you pay attention? Ok, if you can’t pay attention, please leave this

39



classroom and go to the detention room.



S1: 哦! {Yes.}

40

41



(Ss Silent)



T:

Ok, so it is because it’s interesting. So, you have to start this sentence by it is.

43



But sometimes, when we are talking in English. That means in spoken English,



44



some people like “because” or simply use “cos”. (T writes “Cos” on the board.) So,



45



do you know the difference? That means when you are, when you are



46



answering questions in written language, you have to answer questions like this



47



(T points to “It is” on the board). If the tense is “why did you” (T writes “Why did you



48



go to the supermarket yesterday?” on the board) ok, if the question is “Why did you go

49



to the supermarket yesterday?”, Now, this time what is the tense?



50

Ss: Past tense.



51

T:

Yes, if the question is in past tense, we have to answer the question in past tense



52



as well. For example, now, here, (T underlines the word “did” on the board) in written

53



language, we have to say (T writes “It was because I wanted to buy some eggs” on the board

54



while she is saying it to the Ss) “It was because I wanted to buy some eggs”. It was



55



because I wanted to buy some eggs. So, this time, when you are answering the



56



questions, for example, when you are having the test, or when you are

57



answering comprehension questions, you have to answer questions like this -



58



“It is because”. But the tense is past tense, so you have to say “it was because”.



59



Er, in 8, on page 68, er, there are some exercises…

42

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5

Grammar

Excerpt 2—Exercise 2: situation

60

T:

I’ll give you some situations and please answer my questions. Every morning,



61



you have an assembly on the playground, so, you can’t be late. So, now,

62



imagine that, imagine the time is now. It is five past eight.

63

S1: 係{yes} (S1 says the word with a rising tone)



64

T:

Five past eight. And I see that you are running and I ask you “why are you



65



running?” So, why? Alex, you guess, please stand up

66

S1: 呀? {ar?}



67

T:



68

S1: Because I’m running.



69





70

S1: Because... (Ss laugh) because…

Please stand up. Be serious. (the S in front of the T’s table stands up) Why are you running? (Ss laugh happily. T is silent and looks at S1 seriously)

71

T:

Ok, Monica, (T moves to the front of the teacher’s table) why are you laughing? (Ss



72



laugh)



73

S3: Because, ar, jokes make me laugh.

74

T:

75

S3: Because I think so.

76

T:



77

S3: It’s different from, for every body.



78

T:

Ok, thank you. Please sit down. Imagine that now the time is five past eight.

79



Five past eight. So, you should know that if you are late for the assembly. So,





what is the result? Can anyone tell me? (S1 raises his hand)

80

Why do you think that it is a joke? Because you think so.

81

Ss: ***



T:

82

So, you’ll be punished. You’ll be punished. If you are late for two times or three times.

83

S1: 一個缺點 {one demerit}

84

T:



S4: ***

85

Yes, you’ll be given a demerit. So, very serious, 缺點 {demerit}

86

T:

Pardon?

87

S4: 幾多次呀? {How many times?}



88

T:

Three times or two times, I can’t remember. So, ar, if I ask you “Why are you running?” of



89



course the answer is “I’m late”. Because you’re late for the assembly, so, of course, you



90



should run as fast as possible. Please sit down. (S1 sits down) (T goes to the back of the



91



teacher’s table) ok, and then…

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“When I was a student, English lessons were quite boring. But I accepted it because I knew that English learning was important. I want my students to understand that.”

•

“When I asked the student why she was laughing, I did not expect her to use the structure I was teaching her. I wanted to know why she was laughing because I thought she might be doing something else. I thought this was a discipline problem. Because her English was very good, sometimes she found that she knew the things that I was teaching and she might do something else. My response to her might not be acceptable, but I didn’t want to waste time. I just expected her to give me the reasons. If I didn’t handle the case, the students might keep on making jokes.”

Questions for Discussion 1. What do you think is the teacher’s purpose in the first excerpt? Do you think this purpose has been achieved in this class? 2. What do you think about the teacher’s use of language in conducting the lesson? 3. Comment on how the teacher handled the situation in Excerpt 2. 4. Did the teacher personalise this lesson for the students?

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5

Grammar

Critical Commentary Ms Tam quite frankly describes her own experience in learning English. “English lessons were quite boring. But I accepted it because I knew that English learning was important.” Could it be that she is influenced to teach English the way she was taught herself? That her classes are teacher-centred and not interactive could be a source of discipline problems and off-task behavior, which in turn could perhaps be minimised by a shift in teaching focus toward authentic tasks that transcend mere instrumental motivation. Nunan (1988) suggests a shift to a more communicative approach including focus on communication and what the learner needs and sees as important. The language taught is determined by an emphasis on content, meaning and learner interest with an aim toward communication that is effective, appropriate, and contextualised. More to the point of teaching grammar, Larsen-Freeman (1999) emphasises the dynamic relationship between form (how the grammar structure is formed), meaning (what does it mean) and use (when or why is it used). The reasons why we say something (knowledge) are as important as the grammar rules as to how we say something (skill). She cautions that it is sometimes not the form, but the meaning and appropriate use of grammatical structure that presents the greatest long-term learning challenge for students. In Excerpt 2 in order to reinforce a deductive grammar lesson the teacher creates a scenario in which a late student is running to an assembly. Teacher: “Why are you running?” Student: “Because I’m running.” Something more than a tautology is in order, yet perhaps the student recognises the inauthenticity of the task and the fact that the teacher and everybody else knows the answer. Ironically, an authentic question arises and goes unrecognised as such. Teacher: “Why are you laughing?” Student: “Because, ar, jokes make me laugh.” The teacher continues the scenario into the negative consequences of being late, hardly something students may wish to dwell on or discuss. What structures are learned are likely to remain dormant and inactive. The fact that the student has to perform in front of his/her peers further limits communication. Ms Tam could consider occasionally changing the whole class teaching structure to cooperative groups in which students explore cause/effect relationships through content areas such as Math (Why can’t a number be divided by zero?) or Science (Why do leaves change color in the fall?). Students could discuss issues that relate directly to their lives (Why do we play sports? Why is it good to learn English?). In the process, real communication takes place through the exchange of information and negotiation of meaning. With teacher guidance, students could induce grammar rules while being asked questions about form, meaning and use of language structures.

Edgar H. McGee (M.Ed., M.A.)

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

In 2006 Mr. McGee completed a two-year appointment as an English Language Senior Fellow in Azerbaijan with the U.S. Department of State/Office of English Language Programs. Having recently completed a second M.A. degree in International Education at the School for International Training, USA, he currently teaches in the Intensive English Language Program at Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Kentucky, USA

Reference Larsen-Freeman, Diane and Celce-Murcia, Marianne. (1999). The grammar book: An ESL/EFL teacher’s course, 2nd Edition. Heinle & Heinle. Nunan, David. (1988). The learner centered curriculum. Cambridge University Press.

Suggested Readings Kagan, Spencer. (1994). Cooperative learning. San Juan Capistrano, CA: Kagan Cooperative Learning. [Uses the structure approach to CL (structure + content = activity)] Larsen-Freeman, Diane and Thewlis, Stephen H. (2000). Grammar dimensions. Heinle & Heinle. [Grammar series based on the concept of form, meaning and use of grammatical structures.] Watkins, D. and Biggs, J. (Eds.) (1996) The Chinese learner: Cultural, psychological, and contextual influences. The University of Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Center. Also see Teaching the Chinese learner, edited by David A. Watkins and John B. Biggs.

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Case 9

Making a Request Mr. Walter’s Case

Teacher Mr. Walter is a native speaker of English. He began his teaching career after he was ordained to the priesthood in 1958. After he had obtained his master’s and doctoral degrees in French, he went to Africa and taught there for 31 years in 4 different languages. He feels that English teaching in Hong Kong should focus on sentence structure, conversation, dialogue, and living language situations but not on preparation for examinations. He thinks that the students should be talking in correct English and doing a lot of repetitions and memory work. In practice, he usually uses 10 or 15 minutes in each lesson to give the students practice in English. Then, he teaches them something and then goes back to prepare them for their examinations.

Context • School This is a lower banding school. It has been a CMI school for about 2 years. • Class This is a Form 3 class consisting of 30 Chinese girls aged 14–16.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

3 Single period Classroom 30 girls Whole class, pair work Oral Lesson Poem

5 min

Whole class

– Teacher drills a short poem with the students.

Revision 10 min

Whole class

– Teacher has revision with the students about what they have learnt in the last lesson: present prefect. Present simple: I drink milk. Present continuous: I am drinking milk. Present prefect: I have drunk milk. – Teacher drills the sentence pattern with the students.

Teaching—How to Make a Request *8min

Whole class

– Teacher teaches the students how to make and answer a request. The students repeat after the teacher. – Teacher drills the pattern with different situations with the students.

Practice *2 min

T to S

– Teacher goes to individual students and makes a request to each of them and they have to answer.

*3 min

S to S

– Teacher asks pairs of students to make a request and answer the request.

Closure 1 min

Whole class

– Teacher ends the lesson by telling students what they will do in the next lesson

* Extracted episode

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5

Grammar

Episodes

T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s)



(italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



[ = Speaking at the same time

Excerpt 1 — Teaching how to make and respond to a request.

1

(T writes “ Making a Request” on the board.)



2

T:

What I want to teach you now is how we use English to make a request. What does that



3



mean? To make a request? It means to ask somebody for some kind of help. How do



4



you ask someone in English when you want to make a request? We have three



5



different ways. (T writes “ Can you



6



with the words “ Can you?” like we just had in the exercise at the beginning of the class.



7



Can you help me?



8

Ss: (The whole class automatically repeat after the teacher) Can you help me?



9

T:

Ok. Now that is the simple way of making a request in English. We call that number 1.



10



So, number 2, if you want to be more polite, (T writes “ 2. Could you



11



board while he’s speaking) you use could instead of can. Could is the conditional form



12



of the word. Can is the simple present. So, if you want to be very polite, you say “Could



13



you help me?”



14

Ss: Could you help me?



15

T:

Then the third one, if you want to be very very polite and it’s something very important,



16



you can say (T writes “ Would you mind helping me?” on the board) So, you say “ would



17



you mind”. Then the word that follows “would you mind” would be in the “ I-N-G” form,



18



present participle. Would you mind helping me?

?” on the board) The first one begins

?” on the

19

Ss: Would you mind helping me?

20

T:



21

Ss: Can you help me?



22

T:



23

Ss: Could you help me?



24

T:

And then the very polite form, specially showing that it is something very important.



“Would you mind helping me?”

25

Ok, so, simple form, not very polite, “ Can you help me?” Second form, more polite, “ Could you help me?”

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions



26

Ss: Would you mind helping me?



27

T:

Alright, and then the answer is over here. (T turns and writes “Yes, certainly” on the



28



board) Yes, certainly.



29

Ss: Yes, certainly.



30

T:

(T writes “Yes, of course”) Yes, of course.

31

Ss: Yes, of course.



T:

32

(T writes “Yes, I’m glad to help) Yes, I’m glad to help.

33

Ss: Yes, I’m glad to help.



34

T:

Alright, now, when the answer is no, you don’t just say no. (T writes “ No, I can’t”) No,



35



I can’t.

36

Ss: No, I can’t.

37

T:

38

Ss: No, I’m sorry.

39

T:

(T writes “ No, I’m sorry”) No, I’m sorry. And then you give the reason. You give the reason.

Excerpt 2 — Teacher drills the patterns with different situations with the students. 40

T:

Ok, now we take the sentence. Take a model. I’ll drill with you. I lost my money. I don’t



41



have any coins for the bus now. And I need to go home. So, I go to one of you and then

42



say to you (T writes “ Can you lend me some money?” on the board) Can you lend me

43



some money?

44

Ss: Can you lend me some money?

45

T:

46

Ss: Can you lend me some money?



47

T:

The word “lend” means the same thing as give. But when you say lend, it means I’m



48



going to give it back to you tomorrow, the next day. If you want to, you can put give here.

49



The meaning of lend and give is the same, but lend means you are going to give it back

50



later. Can you lend me some money?

51

Ss: Can you lend me some money?

52

T:

That’s not very polite. If I want to be very polite, I say to you, “ Could you lend me some

53



money?”



54

Ss: Could you lend me some money?



55

T:

And if it’s very important and I want it to be very polite, I say “Would you mind lending

56



me some money?”

57

Ss: Would you mind… lending some money?



T:

58

Can you lend me some money?

Lending me some money?

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5



59

Ss: Lending me some money?



60

T:

Would you mind lending me some money?

61

Ss: Would you mind… lending me some money?

62

T:



63

Ss: Yes, certainly.



64

T:

Ok, if you have the money and you want to give it to me and you say, “Yes, certainly”. Yes, surely.

65

Ss: Yes, surely.



T:

66

Yes, of course.

67

Ss: Yes, of course.

68

T:



Ss: Yes, I’m glad to help.

69

Grammar

Yes, I’m glad to help.

70

T:

But, if your answer is no, you don’t want to give me the money or maybe you don’t have





it, you say “ No, I can’t”

71

72

Ss: No, I can’t.

73

T:

I only have enough for the bus.



T:

I [only have enough for the bus.

74

75

Ss: [I only have enough for the bus.

76

T:

77

Ss: No, I’m sorry.



78

T:



79

Ss: I don’t have any money.

Or, no, I’m sorry. I don’t have any money.

Excerpt 3 — Teacher practises with individual students

80

T:



81

S1: (silent)

(T walks to the S at the corner next to the door) Can I, can I borrow your book?

82

T:



S1: No…

83

Can I borrow your book?

84

T:

No, no, no. say yes. Yes.

85

S1: Yes.

86

T:



87

S1: Of course.



88

T:



89

S1: Yes, certainly.

Of course. Or yes, certainly.

90

T:

Now, this time, tell me no. Can I borrow your book?

91

S1: (Silent) 89

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92

T:

No, I’m sorry.



93

S1: No, I’m sorry.

Excerpt 4 — Students practise in pairs

94



(T points to a S) Ask her for something.



95

S4: (Silent)



96

T:

Make a request to her. Ask her for something. Can you?

97

S4: Can you

98

T:

99

S4: Can you help me

100

T:

101

S4: Borrow pen

102

T:

103

S5: Yes, of course.

104

T:

105

S4: Could you lend me

106

T:

107

S4: Your pen

108

T:

109

S5: Yes, I’m glay (meaning “glad”) to help.

110

T:

111

S5: I’m glad to help.

112

T:

113

S4: Would you mind to

114

T:

115

S4: Lending

116

T:

117

S4: Your pen

118

T:

119

S4: [Would you mind lending

120

T:

121

S5: No, I’m sorry.

122

T:

Very good.

123

T:

Very good.

Do what? Can you help me do what? Study English? Ok, can you lend me your pen? Answer? Ok, now, make it more polite. Your pen Could you lend me your pen? Answer? I’m glad to help. Now ask her in the most polite way. Arha! Would you mind lending Me Again. Would you mind [lending Me your pen.

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Grammar

Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“I would call my approach ‘oral interaction’. What I tried to achieve in the classroom was students talking to me and students talking to one another. I wanted them to interact with me and interact with one another.”

•

“I asked the whole class to repeat what I said after me because I wanted them to say it in the correct intonation and the right music with the joining of the syllables so that it doesn’t sound like Chinese English. I found that their repeating after me told me what they heard. When it came back to me, I could tell whether the class was saying it in the right tone and the right music.”

•

“I like to have a little dialogue with a student in front of the class in loud voices so that other students can hear it. If it is good, then I will praise the student. It is just an oral illustration of what we are doing with the whole class. I have put pressure on one student and the others feel it too because they may be asked next. They don’t know if the next turns will come to them or not. I will go around and ask any student a question so that no one can hide behind somebody’s back. I usually pick a student who has good reputation to do the illustration.”

•

“I will not ask all students to talk in pairs at the same time. I really don’t know what each pair is doing when there are 10 or 15 pairs talking at the same time in the classroom.”

•

“It’s a pity that the students could not master the grammatical structures after all those drills. This was perhaps because there was not enough reinforcement.”

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Questions for Discussion 1. (a) What procedures did the teacher follow when he taught the students to make a request in this lesson?

(b) What are the merits and demerits of this teaching approach?

2. Now that the communicative approach is often used in English language teaching, is there still a place for the audiolingual method in English language teaching? 3. Comment on the way pair work (between the teacher and a student and between two students) was conducted in the lesson.

Critical Commentary Mr. Walter’s case illustrates the difficulty to create an English learning situation under the constraint of an examination-oriented secondary school in an ESL context. The solution, he has provided, is the use of drills to involve his students “talking” to him and to each other. The strength of his approach lies in the rich language input generated by establishing the theme for the new language of “making a request” and “responding to a request” as well as the use of English to manage this lesson. It also lies in the use of repetition in chorus to set up the use of the new language in different situations after the theme has been established. The importance of input has long been recognised in SLA and it would be a very valuable source of real English to Mr. Walter’s students in a learning environment where Chinese is the main medium of instruction. The role of repetition in this context can be viewed in terms of positive effects. A recent theory (Skehan, 1998) offers a new perspective on the advantage of using repetition in learning. Repetition is not viewed from the perspective of habit formation, rather from the advantage of providing learners with greater access to language form and opportunities to compare the language produced by themselves with the language produced by the teacher or other learners. What is more relevant to Mr. Walter’s case is that it may “act as an unobtrusive but effective scaffold for what is causing learning difficulty,” (Skehan, 1998: 33) and this can be seen from the interaction between Mr. Walter and S1 in Excerpt 3. However, the use of repetition has to be kept in perspective. It may not be appropriate to use drills in the stage of revision when more meaningful activities, such as guessing games, can be used. Another weakness of Mr. Walter’s lesson is the high control in the

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Grammar

pair work (See Excerpt 4). It might work better to provide carefully planned guidance to facilitate the interaction among students themselves. First, it would be useful to provide a complete sample conversation for the students. Then set up the role of A and B as well as the situation. It may be necessary to do a demonstration either between Mr. Walter and a student or between one pair of students before the students are put into pairs. To make the interaction less threatening, it would be important to do the correction at the feedback session. It is understandable that Mr. Walter may want to show his care to all his students by asking them to repeat after him and correcting their errors. However, variety and interest may be something that also counts in language teaching. Li Hong (M.A.)



Li Hong is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Chongqing University, China. She earned her MSc in TESOL from Aston Unviersity in Britain. She has taught English in many environments and was involved in two Sino-British teacher training programmes in China. She is currently doing her Ph.D. study in Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Her research interests include L2 vocabulary learning, teacher development and bilingual memory.

Reference Skehan, P. (1998). A Cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford University Press.

Suggested Readings Harmer, J. (1998). How to teach English. Addison Wesley Longman.

This book is an introduction to the practice of English language teaching. Chapter 6 provides several examples on controlled language practice and offers useful ideas on the use of repetition and error correction.

Nunan, D. (1999). Second language teaching and learning. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

This is a comprehensive book introducing practising teachers and in-service teachers to the contemporary issues in task-based learning and the learner-centred approach. Many theoretical issues such as comprehensible input and the effect of interaction on second language acquisition are discussed with interesting research findings.

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Reading Comprehension

All of us have had numerous comprehension passages and questions to read and answer when we were students. The question for us in today’s context of what we know about effective teaching and learning is: does this amount to good practice? We usually answered our comprehension questions by working in isolation and often by guessing an answer from the choices given. Usually, our teachers seldom gave us any strategies for how to select answers. We sat in our rows, usually in non-air conditioned settings, sweating as we took the class period to answer the questions usually in preparation for high stakes examinations. Many of us still work in non-air conditioned settings with very large classes but despite this, today, the literature offers us many alternatives to multiple choice questions and to working in isolation. We also have a greater variety of text types to work with including the vast array of texts that can be found on the Internet, books, magazines, and newspapers that can be found in school and community libraries, and other media sources such as television and radio. Our students can work in pairs, in groups or alone in working through questions which challenge us on a range of levels from factual and vocabulary to evaluation types including critical thinking. We can demonstrate comprehension by not only copying the words verbatim from the text but also by summarising in our own words, reporting orally, making a dialogue, writing a story, responding to a character, writing a journal entry or simply talking to a classmate about personal or text to text connections and recording our combined answers on graphs, maps or charts. We should not mimic the restricted ways in which many of us have been taught or limit the possibilities for how we can expand our repertoire of teaching skills and strategies. We can also model how we go about figuring out meaning and finding answers and thereby provide our students with precious insights into how they can work with challenging texts which can all be made easier when working with someone. We do not need to work alone to demonstrate learning or effective teaching.

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Case 10

Questions and Answers in Comprehension Mr. Yeung’s Case

Teacher Mr. Yeung is an experienced teacher with 14 years of teaching experience. He thinks that teachers need to use some gimmicks to arouse students’ attention. A reduced class size would result in more time and opportunities for the students to speak up. He would like to adjust the lesson so that the less capable students would enjoy coming to class. If he does not modify the lesson, he believes that discipline problems would result.

Context • School This is a lower banding CMI school. The passing percentage of English as a subject in this school is below 30 percent but the attitude of the school towards English is very positive. • Class This is a Form 6 class with 30 students. Only about 12 or 13 of them were promoted from the original school. The rest of the students are from other schools, which mostly belong to the higher bands. English is used as the major medium of instruction in those schools. Therefore, there is a difference in the English proficiency level of the two types of students. However, the learning atmosphere of this class is good. The students work hard and have a good relationship.

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Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

6 Double period Classroom 30 Whole class, group work Reading Comprehension Group Discussion

5 min

Whole class

– T asks Ss to form in groups of 4. – T instructs Ss that they have to do a role-play in their groups. Each of them has to give good reasons to support their role’s stand point and convince the others. – T tells Ss that they are going to use the reasoning skills when they discuss the reading comprehension exercise later.

13 min

Group work

– Ss discuss in groups. – T monitors.

Pre-reading 10 min

Whole class

– T asks Ss some pre-reading questions. – T gives Ss 2 mins. to skim the passage quickly. – T asks Ss questions to give them a general idea of the passage.

While-reading—Exercise 20 min

Group work

– Ss work in groups of 4 to do the reading comprehension exercise which is a multiple choice exercise. – T reminds Ss to give reasons to support their answers. – T monitors the Ss.

Post-reading—Answer Checking *30 min

Whole class

– T asks Ss to give him the answers in groups. – T asks Ss to justify their answers. – T explains if Ss have problems.

Closure *3 min

Whole class

– *T tells Ss the advantage of working in groups. – T asks Ss to finish the exercise at home.

* Extracted episode

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Reading Comprehension

Episodes T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s)



(italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible



1

T:

We start number one, Kawaye’s group. Kawaye, your group. (T turns his



2



head and speaks to the class) Ok, no more talking. Somebody is



3



expressing her opinion. (T walks to S1 pretending that he is holding a microphone.)



4

S1: C



5

T:

You can’t say C. Why will Andrew Gobea be important to medical history?



6



Because?



7

S1: ***



8

T:



9

S1: ***

(T goes closer to S1) Because?

10

T:

11

S1: ***

12

T:

This one ***. C. Ok. C. Any disagreement for C. I mean for number one,



13



anybody agree? Where is the evidence? Where is the evidence? Mabel,

14



can you try that? Any reason supports you? Or C? So you think the



15



answer is?



16

S2: B



17

T:

B. Why is B?



18



(S2 silent)

19

T:

He is the first person to be treated with gene therapy. He is the first person?



20



(T turns his head to look at S2)

21



(S2 silent)



T:

You can’t remember. Is he the first person… Well, if you take a look at

23



paragraph 2. If you take a look at number 2, I mean paragraph 2, you’ll

24



know that. You’ll know that…actually this baby was making history

25



because of what? Because?



S2: He’s a baby.

22

26

Because he was the first born

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27

T:

Yes, he was a new born. He was born with the immune system. Ok?, he

28



was so small, to do this. What about the others? If you’ve read through the

29



whole passage at the end, you’ll know that there are actually other gene

30



therapies in the world. At least 47, right? At least 47. And he is not the first

31



one to start with. So, the answer is C. Ok. If you don’t know, take a look at



32



line 11. Most of you are getting correct. Never mind, (T points to the group)

33



your answer is very close. What about group two, Tony’s group?

34



(S3 silent)

35

T:

We talk about Andrew, and his therapy is unique. Why is it unique? Why

36



is it so special? Why is it special? Of course just now, we said it is very

37



small, but something also special about Andrew, what’s that? What’s so

38



unique and special about Andrew?

39

S3: He has a question (points to S4)



S4: What does unique mean?

40

41

T:

Unique means special. So, what’s the answer?

42

S4: D.

43

T:

D. Anybody has a different idea? Anybody has a different idea? So, where can you find the

44



answers?

45

S4: Paragraph 3.

46

T:

47

S4: Line 14.

48

T:

Yes, that’s right, line 14. Paragraph 3, line 14, exactly. It’s because they

49



have not only cured the baby, but actually, it uses the blood of the baby to

50



cure the baby itself. Ok, that’s why it’s so special about it. Number 3.

51



Another group, Alex’s group. The answer is?

52

S5: A.

53

T:

A. Why A? If the treatment Andrew received does not work. If it does not

54



work. What will happen last? The answer is A. Why A? Where did you

55



find it?

56

S5: Line 16.

57

T:

58

S5: ***

59

T:

Yeah. Carefully monitor his health. So, that’s it. If it works he does not

60



need to take drugs. That means if it does not work, he has to take drugs.

Paragraph 3. Whereabouts, line?

Line 16. Yes. Why do you say so?

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Reading Comprehension

.

61



Ok, thank you. So, the answer is A for number 3. Ok. Line 16. Is it 16?



62



16 and 17 actually. 16 and 17, very good. What about number 4?

63



Amy’s group. Gene therapy, what’s gene therapy? Number 4?



S6: B.

64

65

T:

(T goes to the S). Yes? The answer? May be effective in treating other



66



genetic diseases. The answer is B, right? So any disagreement for



67



number 4. B, boy, he said is B. B. So, anybody has a different answer?



68



Same? Same? Everybody the same? Wor, wonderful. It’s the answer.



69



(Ss laugh)

70

T:

We should’ve started earlier. It seems that we do better in groups than

71



doing individual work. It seems that after discussion, most of us get the

72



correct answer. Yes, it’s B. but why B, Henry, why is it B? Where can you



73



find it?

74



(S7 points to his worksheet and read the line)



75

T:

That’s right, line 25, exactly. It also cures other diseases. Line 25. Very



76



good, such as this and that. Such as this kind of disease. Very good!

77



Wonderful!

78

***

79

(Students continue working while the teacher walks around).



80

***

81

S:

The doctor helps Andrew because

82

T:

Yes, until doctors are certain. That means are they certain now? Are

83



they 100% certain now? Not yet certain. Until they are certain. That

84



means they have to keep their heads prepared, until they are very

85



certain that it works. Now it’s *** but who knows? After 6 months, right?

86



Who knows what will happen in these 6 months? Very good. Can you

87



count how many correct answers have you got? Simply out of ten. Out

88



of 10 first. Can you count how many correct answers you’ve got? Is it

89



better than before? When you do in a group? Yeah, how about your

90



group? How many have you got? Out of 10, how many?

91

S:

***

92

T:

8 or 9, because some have different ideas. This group? 8. How about

93



this group? 9. Pauline’s group? 9. Mabel’s group? 6. Connie’s group? 8.





Tony’s group? 7. Anyway, at least half, right? In the past, you think this kind of

94

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95



articles are really hard to understand. Then, it’s quite a difficult job for us to do

96



it in individual’s work. So, *** by putting in more answers, more ideas. You can

97



also develop your own ways of thinking, your own way of analyzing things, even

98



when ***. Ok? We’ll have one more year to do it. Don’t worry! You’ll find that



99



well, it’s very consuming, time-consuming. It’s about a double lesson or one

100



lesson and a half on just one single passage, but we have developed our own

101



way of thinking.

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Reading Comprehension

Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“When students work individually, they work very slowly and tend to wait for others to give their opinions. If they work in teams, they will be more motivated to speak up.”

•

“I’ll ask the students to find out the answers by themselves first. If they can’t find out anything, I’ll give them a clue. If there are three answers, I’ll give them one as a kind of stimulation and let them think about the other two.”

•

“Students in Hong Kong are quite passive and they are not used to this way of learning. There are usually some less active members in a group. It’s a bit too much for the less proficient students. They’d rather sit back and listen to the answers and maybe do the revision at home. Those who are active have a hard time urging the less active members to say something.”

•

“The main problem is that it is very time consuming. If I just give them the answers, it is quite straight forward. Even if I ask an individual student to give an explanation, I still don’t have to wait for so long. Now, I have to give them time to sort out the answers by themselves in groups. It takes double the time needed for such an activity.”

•

“Some students do not like spending so much time grouping together and thinking about the reasons themselves. They just want to know the answer directly. They only wish to get all exam-related tasks done as quickly as possible. If they think that the teacher ‘wastes’ their time, they will give the teacher low student-evaluation marks.”

•

“To save time, I will tell the students that there will be team work on the following day. They have to highlight all the problems on the paper before the next lesson. This helps them to get into the discussions in groups more quickly because they have thought about the answers the night before. If they do not have any questions to ask me, I’ll ask them to give me the reasons why a certain answer is better than the others.”

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•

“It really depends on whether you think getting the answers correct or having students to think independently and critically is the main goal of the lesson.”

•

“I believe that students should be given more chances to think independently. In the initial stage, maybe the students are shy. However, when they get used to this learning mode, their minds will be opened up. I think this method will somehow work for them in the long run.”

•

“Through discussions, they may come to a conclusion which is different from the answer given by the teacher. It is good to make them think deeply.”

•

“The students have learned to cooperate with others, to communicate, and to open up to more ideas from others through this activity. “

Questions for Discussion 1. How appropriate is the teacher’s method of asking the students to discuss the answers to the multiple choice questions in groups? 2. How did the teacher lead the discussion or elicit answers from the groups? Were his methods appropriately used? 3. The teacher said, “To save time, I will tell the students that there will be team work on the following day. They have to highlight all the problems on the paper. This helps them to get into the discussions in groups more quickly because they have thought about the answers the night before. If they do not have any questions to ask me, I’ll ask them to give me the reasons why a certain answer is better than the other.” How appropriate is this method in helping to solve the time problem? 4. What method is used in your classroom when checking the answers to the multiple choice comprehension questions? How would you compare your method and this teacher’s method?

Critical Commentary Teachers in Hong Kong have long been confronted with challenges, including the current education reform calling for independent learning, critical thinking and creativity. One of the major hurdles relates to the overall large class size in Hong Kong schools as it limits the

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Reading Comprehension

extent of class interaction and teacher’s provision of attention to individual students. The traditional passive learning mode, such as rote learning and the long-existing examinationoriented teaching/learning target often impairs student development in independent critical analysis and creativity. It is worthwhile for schools to create a learning environment where intrinsic motivation is fostered. The present case vividly demonstrates how a thoughtful Form 6 teacher, Mr. Yeung, tried to motivate his students in an English comprehension class to become more active and reflective learners. Mr. Yeung efficiently made use of questioning techniques (see e.g., Dillon, 1988; van Ments, 1990) and small-group cooperative learning patterns (Chiu, 1999; Slavin, 1990; Thomas, 1992) to facilitate students to brainstorm ideas, clarify concepts and state their opinions objectively. The lesson aims at getting a thorough understanding of the text and developing a critical thinking habit. It shows the importance of a close teacherstudent relationship in effective teaching (Verderber and Verderber, 1998). Having a good rapport with his students, Mr. Yeung maintained productive communication and fruitful discussions in class. He encouraged student participation by frequently soliciting group input. This helps students to foster group cohesiveness and reduce fears of making errors. Following clear and useful guidance, the students generally feel free to share their opinions and will improve their performance. As reflected in the case, there are pros and cons in this pedagogical approach. On the one hand, the method helps more students to get correct answers and enhances class interaction, in-depth critical thinking and group dynamics. In the long run, it may intrinsically motivate students (Ryan and Deci, 2000) to get involved in self-directed and independent learning (Cole and Chan, 1994), life-long learning or authentically apply higher-order thinking such as critical analysis and problem-solving in daily life (Inch, 1998). On the other hand, it takes more time to complete the tasks which involve thought, discussion and application (Nolan and Hoover, 2004). To sum up, the advantages of such an interactive approach overweigh its disadvantages. Hence, this type of pedagogical method is favorably recommended for practice in teaching and self-access learning.

Rebecca S. Y. Lam (Ph.D.) Rebecca S. Y. LAM is currently a principal lecturer at the Department of Education Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University. She has been an experienced secondary school teacher and student counselor in Hong Kong before joining the Hong Kong Baptist University in 1996. She got her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at McGill University, Canada and is specialized in Educational Psychology. Her major research interests include reflective teaching, communication skills, stress and resilience, problem behaviors in children and adolescents, and parental influence on children’s education.

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Reference Chiu, M. M. (1999). Teacher effects on student motivation during cooperative learning: Activity level, intervention level, and case study analyses. Educational Research Journal, 14 (2), 229–251. Cole, P. G., and Chan, L. K. S. (1994). Promoting self-directed and independent learning. In J. Whitton (Ed.), Teaching principles and practice (2nd ed.) (pp. 397–440). New York: Prentice Hall. Dillon, J. T. (1988). Questioning and teaching: A manual of practice. New York: Teachers College Press. Inch, E. S. (1998). Critical thinking and communication: The use of reason in argument (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Nolan, J., Jr., and Hoover, L.A. (2004). Teacher supervision and evaluation: Theory into practice. Danvers. MA: John Wiley and Sons Ryan, R. M., and Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55 (1), 68–78. Slavin, R. E. (1990). Cooperative learning: Theory, research and practice. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Thomas, G. (1992). Effective classroom teamwork: Support or intrusion? London: Routledge. van Ments, M. (1990). Active talk: The effective use of discussion in learning. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Verderber, K. S., and Verderber, R. F. (1998). Inter-Act: Using interpersonal communication skills (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

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Case 11

Group Work in Reading Comprehension Ms Chang’s Case

Teacher Ms Chang is a student teacher in her final year of a 3-year BATESL Programme. She believes that students need to have opportunities to use the language. She uses a variety of activities to teach her students. She chooses texts from different sources in addition to the textbook passages.

Context • School This is an upper banding co-educational school. English is used as the medium of instruction in the upper forms while the junior forms use Chinese. • Class This is a Form 3 class with 38 Chinese boys and girls. They exhibit low confidence in speaking English and their language proficiency is average.

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Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

3 Double period Classroom 38 boys and girls Whole class, group work with 4–5 students in each group Reading Comprehension Lesson

Stage 1—Bofore Reading the 1st Paragraph 8 min

T models the reading strategies.

– T uses think aloud to model predicting skills. – T activates Ss’ previous knowledge. – T distributes the role cards.

Stage 2—After Reading the 1st Paragraph: Activity 1 *8 min

Group Work

– Ss read the first part of the passage. – Ss refer to the questions on their role cards to begin the discussion. – Ss discuss the following 3 questions: Who are the characters in the story? What does the aunt do every day? Can the boy make decisions for himself? – T assists students’ discussions.

Teacher Modelling Activity 2 25 min

Group Work

– T gives Ss a list of adjectives and models how to match the given adjectives with the aunt and the father. – Students do the task in groups. – T facilitates the group discussions.

Stage 3—Before Reading the 2nd Part of the Story *10 min

Group Work

– Students are asked to discuss what they think will happen in the second part of the story. – T joins the discussions and writes down Ss’ predictions on the blackboard.

Stage 4—After Reading the 2nd Part. *15 min

Group Work

– –

Students discuss the following questions: Do you like the ending? Why? Do you like the boy? What would you do if you were the boy? Would you be happy if you do not save your aunt? T listens to the discussions.

Concluding the Lesson 5 min

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Whole class

– T selects some Ss to present their ideas.

* Extracted episode

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6

Reading Comprehension

Episodes

T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s)



(italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible



{ } = English translation

Excerpt 1 — Facilitating group discussion

1

T:



2

S3: Six.



3

T:



4

S3: Shout.



5

T:



6

S3: Shout at



7

T:

Shout at the boy. The main character is the boy. He lives with his family. But what does his aunt



8



always do, every day? Shout at the boy. If you were the boy, how would you feel? If you were being



9



shouted at by your aunt every day, how do you feel? Now you discuss, how would you feel if

10



someone always shout at you? Turn your back and discuss with your classmates.



S1: Unhappy.

11

OK. How many characters are there in the story, Ling? What does his aunt do every day? I heard something. Alan?

12

T:

Unhappy.



13

S1: And very sad.



14

T:



15

S3: He’s angry to kill his auntie. 點解呀, 我唔明 {Why? I don’t understand}



16

S2: The boy is very stupid.

What would you do?

17

S3: Yes.



T:

The boy is stupid. But, eh, when he saw the animal, he wasn’t afraid. He took out a drum and

19



played it.

20



He is not stupid at all. How do you feel about the story? Funny? Boring?

21

S3: The ending is no good.

22

T:

23

S3: Yes.

24

T:

You can talk now. Who is student A? So, you lead the group. You will be the leader, to lead the

25



group to discuss how you feel about the story. Maybe you help her.

18

The ending is not very good.

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26

S1: Discuss in English, quick.



S2: Say anything.

27

28

S1: Start discussing.

Excerpt 2 — Peer discussion: Giving opinions (Group 1) 29

S1: Can you give your opinion to me? What you think the story continue to

30

S4: To die?

31

S1: To die? Why?

32

S4: Because the boy’s aunt is die.

33

S1: What?

34

S4: The boy’s aunt is die.

35

S1: Why?

36

S4: Because he didn’t believe the boy and go to the

37

S1: Food place.

38

S4: Food place and get the food and the animal and the strange animal was eating her.

39

S1: Is not all the… His father, him and he also go to that place.



S4: His father is stand at the food place and the *** got a drum to help him, them. (S1 chuckles) and his

40

41



aunt don’t believe him and give the strange animal to eat.

42

S1: And then…

Excerpt 3 — Making predictions (Group 2) 43

S1: What do you think?



S2: What will happen?

44

45

S1: The boy will leave with the strange animal. Leave 離開呀嗎 {leave} let’s discuss the end of the





46

story, 你覺得呀, {you think} the boy will leave home and then

47

S2: The animal will catch him.



S3: And kill him. That’s a good result.

48

49

S1: What about his aunt.



S3: The aunt will killed by the strange animal too.

50

51

S3: Quickly.



52

S1: They will see the animal.



53

S3: Bullshit, oh bullshit. 到我啦 {my turn}



54

S1: Look after.

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Reading Comprehension



55

S3: 無可能，唔會，{impossible, no} They think the strange animal will kill everyone. At last,



56

S4: What do you think? What do you think? What do you think?

57

S1: Let me think. I think the boy is dreaming. I think the boy is dreaming.

58

S4: Oh dreaming.

Excerpt 4 — Personal response (Group 3)

59

S3: Do you like the ending?

60

S2: Yes.

61

S3: Why?



62

S2: The boy can change the, change his, aunt become good.



63

S3: How about you? Do you like the ending? Quickly Quickly Quickly



64

S1: 少少 {A little bit}

65

S3: A little.

66

S2: You think the question.

67

S1: I will be very happy

68

S3: What would you do if you were the boy?

69

S1: Hum.

70

S3: What would you do if you were the boy?

71

S1: I will, I will make the strange animal to kill my aunt.

72

S2: It is too bad.

73

S3: It is too bad. Student A.

74

S2: I should continue to play the drum and become a drummer, to help more people.

75

S3: What about you? Student B.

76

S4: I will hit the strange animal.



S3: What?

77

78

S2: Can’t hear.



79

S3: Can you say it again?



80

S4: I will hit the strange animal.



81

S1: And what about yourself.

82

S3: I will kill everyone.

83

S2: 黐線 {crazy}



84

S4: Including your father and mother, and grandmother?



85

S3: I’ll kill only one people.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“I have organized many group activities in my teaching practice because I believe students need lots of opportunites to use English. I have been successful with my groups because I selected interesting materials that were at the appropriate level.”

•

“When I observe the classroom or any reading class, the teachers usually ask students to check all the meaning of the words before any classes. And one time I gave them a passage which was slightly more difficult than what they had in the text book. After I gave them the passage, some of them started reading. But I could see that they were not understanding, though. They found it very difficult to follow the ideas and some of them right away took out their dictionaries to check the meaning. So, very passive; some of them just sat there, looking around. So, very, very difficult to check whether they understood the text or not.”

•

“So, I think the students need to have reading skills. They need to be taught. So, for example they can predict what they are going to read in the passage. And reading actually requires both the top-down and bottom-up processing. That is their mind is interacting with the text. So, I’ll ask them to first predict the meaning, the general meaning. After reading the first part of the passage, they have to summarise or gather the gist in the text. After reading, they connect or relate the text with their personal experience. Before doing the after reading activities, they will work on the vocabulary stuff like guessing the words or asking things. So, this helped them to understand the text and also interact with the text.”

•

“So, actually, you can see that the students are learning to express themselves rather than reading passively. They found they learned something because I found the word we didn’t know and we found the answer together. It seems that they like the way that they are interacting with each other and get the final result. Some of them said that they liked guessing something and with the given role. It helped them to learn.”

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•

Reading Comprehension

“So, it tells us that whenever we put students into groups, we have to give them roles. ‘Talking together makes it more interesting’. So, it is an interesting task. But some of them disagree because they don’t think that they have the language to discuss. And then, some of them are complaining about their classmates, boring because some group mates don’t express their feeling. So, within that group setting, I hope that the more-able students will help those less-able students.”

Questions for Discussion 1. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher models the reading strategy for the students. How important and effective is teacher modelling in assisting learning? 2. In Excerpt 1, the teacher is assisting the students’ discussion. How does she do this? Do these techniques work? 3. In Excerpt 2, we see interaction by two students in Group 1. Comment on the possible reasons for this. 4. The group discussions are designed for students to take turns leading. Can you discern the group leaders in Excerpts 2, 3 and 4? What are the strengths and weaknesses of having one student lead the discussion? 5. Comment on the types of questions to which students need to respond: “Give your opinion.” “What do you think?” “Do you like the ending?” How would you classify these questions? 6. How is this reading comprehension lesson similar to and/or different from typical reading lessons in your school? Discuss the strengths and limitations of using this type of approach to develop pupils’ reading for understanding.

Critical Commentary The lesson described here involves a preponderance of group activities. This fits with Ms Chang’s belief that students need to have opportunities to use the target language. As with the use of groups, students can speak much more than in the teacher-fronted mode (Long and Porter, 1985). Also important is Ms Chang’s recognition that choosing materials that are at the appropriate level is essential to successful group interaction, her awareness that when students work alone, they are more likely to be passive, and her successful experiences using groups in her class as she recounts in the Teacher’s Comments section.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Supporting Ms Chang’s belief in the efficacy of group activities is a large body of research conducted in many countries, in many subject areas and with many ages of learners strongly suggesting that properly designed group activities promote learning and other desired outcomes (for reviews, see Johnson, Johnson, and Stanne, 2000; Sharan, 1980; Slavin, 1995). However, putting students in groups does not create magic. For instance, if a task is too difficult, groups may fall apart, and if a task is too easy, students may do it alone. In terms of their use of group activities, four types of teachers can be identified. Type 1 teachers do not use group activities. Type 2 use group activities but just ask students to work together without the teacher doing much to foster effective group dynamics. Type 3 teachers use ideas from the literature on cooperative learning (see the Resources page of the website of the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education— www.iasce.net—for a sampling of this literature) and other sources to promote effective interaction among students. Type 4 goes beyond Type 3 by also attending to how to promote the use and development of thinking skills among students as they work in groups. Ms Chang seems to be a Type 2 teacher getting ready to move to Type 3. Her use of roles represents one technique she uses to enhance group dynamics and promote comprehension of text. Also, she has kept the groups reasonably small, 4–5. The smaller the group, the more each student can speak. Ms Chang might have done more to improve the group dynamics. A look at the transcripts of the group interaction shows that not all group members contribute equally. While group activities do provide opportunities for students to speak more, attention to group functioning makes it more likely that students will actually use these opportunities. Various principles of cooperative learning come into play here. One cooperative learning principle is individual accountability (Slavin, 1995). This means that each student is responsible for their own learning and that of their groupmates. Positive interdependence (Baloche, 1998) is the most important cooperative learning principle. This means that group members feel that they sink or swim together and depend on one another to succeed. The roles that Ms Chang used are one means of encouraging individual accountability and positive interdependence. Many cooperative learning techniques have been designed with these principles in mind (see Jacobs, Power, and Loh, 2002 and Kagan, 1994 for descriptions). Ms Chang could have also used some of these. As to moving to Type 4 use of groups in which teachers help students utilise thinking skills as they work together, Ms Chang did this a bit by modelling how to match adjectives. She also did a think aloud to model prediction skills. Students, too, can think aloud as they work together, alternating the roles of thinker, who thinks aloud while doing the task, and coach, who listens and provides feedback (Jacobs, Power, and Loh, 2002). Another means of fostering thinking among group members is the teaching of collaborative skills (Gillies, 2002; Johnson and Johnson, 1998), i.e., the skills and the inclination to work well together. Language plays a key role here, e.g., students need to know what to say to encourage groupmates to participate. Numerous other means exist for promoting thinking and the

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Reading Comprehension

comprehending of text through group work, including the teaching of evaluation criteria (Abram, Scarloss, Holthuis, Cohen, Lotan, and Schultz, 2002), the use of graphic organisers (Foley and O’Donnell, 2002) and reciprocal teaching (Palinscar and Brown, 1984).

George Jacobs (Ph.D.) Dr. George Jacobs (www.georgejacobs.net) is an education consultant. He co-edits the newsletters of the TESOLers for Social Responsibility caucus (www.tesolers4sr. org) of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and of the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education (www.iasce. net). His books include Learning Cooperative Learning Via Cooperative Learning: A Sourcebook of Lesson Plans for Teacher Education on Cooperative Learning, published by Kagan (www.KaganOnline.com) and The Teacher’s Sourcebook for Cooperative Learning: Practical Techniques, Basic Principles, and Frequently Asked Questions, published by Corwin (www.corwinpress.com).

Reference Abram, P. L., Scarloss, B., Holthuis, N., Cohen, E., Lotan, R., and Schultz, S. E. (2002). The use of evaluation criteria to improve academic discussion in cooperative groups. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 22, 16–27. Foley, K. E., and O’Donnell, A. M. (2002). Cooperative learning and visual organizers: Effects on solving mole problems in high school chemistry. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 22, 38–50. Gillies, R. M. (2002). The long-term effects of cooperative learning on children’s behaviour and interactions. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 22, 28–37. Jacobs, G. M., Power, M. A., Loh, W. I. (2002). The teacher’s sourcebook for cooperative learning: Practical techniques, basic principles, and frequently asked questions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Johnson, D. W., and Johnson, R. T. (1998). Learning together and alone (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Johnson, David. W., Roger T. Johnson, and Mary Beth Stanne. (2000). Cooperative learning methods: A meta-analysis. Retrieved March, 2002 from the www.clcrc.com/pages/clmethods.html. Kagan, S. (1994). Cooperative learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publications. Long, M. H., and Porter, P. A. (1985). Group work, interlanguage talk, and second language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly, 19, 207–228. Palincsar, A. S. and Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprical teaching of comprehension­–fostering and comprehension–monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 2, 117–175. Sharan, Shlomo. (1980). Cooperative learning in small groups: Recent methods and effects on achievement, attitudes and ethnic relations. Review of Educational Research 50: 241–271. Slavin, R. E. (1995). Cooperative learning: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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7

Vocabulary Development

What is the size of your productive language vocabulary and how does it compare to your receptive language vocabulary? Most of us want to have larger vocabularies especially our productive ones because when we talk and write we want the words to come more quickly than when we are being receptive through listening or reading. At the same time, we educators always lament the view that our students do not read enough and their vocabularies are so limited. Who is to blame? Should we blame parents because they cannot afford to buy expensive English books or is it the school or the government because the class libraries are inadequate or non-existent or is it the teachers because we don’t give the children opportunities to read in class? Regardless of who is to blame as educators, we must look at what we can do and what is within our power to uplift our students by providing access to what is affordable through the opportunities that we give them in our language classes. How do we promote a love of reading and a love for the rich expressions that are available to us in another language? It starts with the teacher’s own love for language and learning first. What measures do you take to improve your vocabulary in English? Do you read English books, newspapers and magazines? Do you watch and listen to English television or radio? Do you listen and watch English videos and compact discs? Do you access English written websites and do you talk in English at your professional meetings? All of these activities promote vocabulary development for all of us, teachers as well as students and we can improve our vocabularies in different areas by working alone or with a friend or a group of friends. Do our instructional practices reflect this kind of mindset?

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Case 12

Elicitation in Vocabulary Teaching Ms Lee’s Case

Teacher Ms Lee is a trained and experienced teacher with a Masters degree in TESL. Ms Lee likes to use a variety of collaborative topics and methods to teach English. She enjoys trying out new things with the students. To put her beliefs into practice, Ms Lee tries hard to make her lessons interesting by giving students chances to speak in English in interesting contexts. When she introduces something new to the students, she often uses different elicitation or brainstorming techniques. She believes that her lessons should be manageable for students and they should have fun learning English.

Context • School This is an upper banding school with a long history. • Class This is a Form 1 class with 40 Chinese boys aged 12–14. The students are above average in standard. Several of them are very proficient in L2. No core text books are used in this Form one programme.

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Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

1 Double period Classroom 40 boys Whole class, pair work

**Critical Thinking Lesson Motivation *8 min

Whole class

– T shows Ss the picture of Tang Wing Cheung. – T elicits from Ss things they know about Tang Wing Cheung. – T draws a mind map on the board based on the points offered by the Ss.

Activity 1 Fact v.s. Opinion 6 min

Whole class

– T elicits from Ss what “facts” and “opinions” are. – T writes “fact” and “opinion” on the board in two columns and fills the Ss’ points in the columns, e.g., true and can be proved; feel and think, etc. – T asks Ss to state which of the points mentioned by them are facts and which are opinions. – T uses “Tang Wing Cheung” and “beautiful wives” as examples and asks Ss why they think so.

5 min

Pair work

– T asks Ss to work in pairs and list out which of the points are facts and which are opinions. – T monitors.

10 min

Whole class

– T checks the answers with the Ss.

Activity 2 Fact v.s. Opinion and Writer’s Purpose 5 min

Whole class

– T elicits from Ss the function of headlines, e.g., to attract the reader, summarise main ideas. – T asks the Ss if they have to write the headlines and what they would pay attention to.

8 min

Whole class

– T shows Ss some headlines and asks them to tell her the characteristics of the headlines. – T distributes the worksheets to the Ss. – T goes through the headlines with the Ss, asks what they don’t understand and explains the meaning to them.

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7

Vocabulary Development

15 min

Group work

– T asks Ss to form into groups of four. T distributes the worksheets to the Ss. – T asks Ss to decide whether the headlines in the news articles are facts or opinions, provide reason(s) and write down the writer’s purpose. – T does number one with the Ss.

10 min

Whole class

– T checks answers with the Ss.

Sum up 3 min

Whole class

– T reminds Ss to figure out their own opinions after they read a news article next time.

* Extracted episode **This is the same lesson plan as Case 1 but the excerpt selected for this case has a different focus. This lesson also takes place in a different school with a different class and teacher.

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ESL/EFL Cases—Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions

Episodes

T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s)



(italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible



{ } = English translation



1

S1: Philanthropist.



2

T:



3

S1: I don’t know how to pronounce it, “P-h-i-l-a-n-t-h-r-o-p-i-s-t”.



4

T:



5

S1: P



6

T:



7

S1: H



8

T:



9

S1: I



10

T:



11

S1: Lan



12

T:



13

S1: Ro



14

T:

Louder! Say it again? T (T begins to write the word on the board.) P H I Lan-th Ro

15

S1: pist

16

T:

17

S1: It means he gives money to charity.



T:

Oh, he gives money to charity. Have you brought a dictionary with you? Well, David has

19



introduced a new word to us. Come on, if you have got a dictionary, try to look up the

20



meaning. I will use the word, well, “charitable”.





What does it say, Tommy, in Cantonese, all right, what does it say?

18

21

pist, (T tries to pronounce it.) I don’t know, what does this word mean?

22

S2: She’s in…

23

T:

24

S2: ***

25

T:



S2: 慈善博愛 {charitable}

26

She’s in... (T puts her hand towards her ear.) Sorry? (T swings her hand.) Can’t hear you, louder!

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7



27

28

Vocabulary Development

T:

Oh, 慈善博愛 {charitable}, all right. Thank you for introducing this



new word to us. (T writes down the English meaning of the phrase on the blackboard.)

29

***

30



(Teacher examines her notes)

31

T:

Media. (T says the word while nodding her head.) Do you know this word?

32

Ss: No!

33

T:



S3: M-e…

34

“Media”, how to spell “media”? (T walks towards the blackboard.)

35

T:

(T is at the blackboard.) I’ve forgotten to bring the duster. Okay, so let’s erase it first.

36



Media, m-e-d-i-a. Some of you say that you know the word “media”; some of you say you

37



don’t know the word. Well, for those who know the word “media”, what is media, Jacky?

38

S4: 媒介 {media}

39

T:

40

S1: 傳播媒介 {mass communication}

41

T:

傳播媒介 {mass communication}, All right, the mass communication, and it includes a

42



number of things. When you say, well, it’s “mass communication”; it’s very abstract. Can

43



you give me some concrete examples? David.

44

S1: Radio broadcast.

45

T:

All right.

46



(Students read headlnes)

47

S5: The first word.



T:

The first word. All right. (T turns and walks to the blackboard.) Can you spell the word

49



for me?

50

S5: T-u-m-u-l-t-u-o-u-s

51

T:

Okay. (T divides the words into syllables with verticle lines.) Well, listen, this is pronounced as Tu-mul-tu-ous.

52



Everyone!

53

Ss: Tumultuous.



54

T:



55

Ss: Tumultuous.

48

Sorry!

Tumultuous.

56

T:

Well, any idea about what “tumultuous” means? Tumultuous funeral, you know a funeral,

57



fit for a king. King! Who is the king?

58



(T looks around.) Who is the king? Uh? Who is the king? Sam?

59

S6: Tang Wing Cheung.

60

T:

Tang Wing Cheung is a king? Why... why is he called a king? King of Wan Chai? Uh?

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61



King of Hong Kong? (T points to the standing student.) Sit down first! (T then points to



62



another student.) Yes!

63

S7: Chee Sin Ling Wong! {慈善伶王} {Charitable opera King}



T:

64

Chee Sin Ling Wong! (Laughs happily!)

65

Ss: (Laugh.)



T:

Well, all right, actually, he is...I would say that he is an opera king. (T turns and walks to

67



the blackboard.) And then he is a very charitable opera king.You know the word opera?

68



(T points to the word “opera” and knocks on the blackboard.) Yes or no?

69

Ss: Yes.

70

T:

Like drama, I think it’s like a Chinese Musical, all right. The musical thing, I mean, in



71



Chinese. So, opera king. And uh, he’s a charitable opera king. All right, here,



72



“Tumultuous funeral fit for a king”. So, what kind of funeral is fit for a king? A king is a... I

73



mean, superstar. So, can you guess the meaning of the word “Tumultuous”?



74



Imagine a king is dead! So, what kind of funeral is, I mean, fit for, this kind of person? (T looks

75



around.)

76



Well, try to think of words. David!

77



(T waits for an answer.)

78

S1: Extravagant!

79



(T waits for an answer.)

80

T:

Extravagant! Okay! Any others? Johnny?

81

S8: Splendid.

82

T:

Splendid. Any more? Do you know the words “splendid” and “extravagant”?

83



Well, maybe, in simple terms “noisy”.

84



All right? Not a quiet one. So, a “tumultuous”, “Tumultuous funeral fit for a king.”

85



(Students read headlines.)

86



(T consults notes.)



T:

Well, the third headline, “Emotions run high as family feud continues after funeral”. How

88



about this one? Any words you don’t know?

89

S9: The first one.

90

T:

91

Ss: Emotions.

92

T:

What? “Emotions run high”. So, what are emotions?



93



Oh, the weather is not very good, I don’t have the emotion, I don’t have the mood to have

94



lessons today. Yes. Well, he is a very emotional child. When he is happy, he laughs a lot.

66

87

The first one, “Emotions”. Everyone, say this word after me.

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7



Vocabulary Development

95



When he is not happy, he...he may cry suddenly, as he is having lessons. So, what is

96



‘emotional’?





(S10 raises his hand.)

98

T:

Yes?

99

S10: Feelings

100

T:

Yes. Something to do with the feelings. You are led by your feelings, all right? You would.

101



When you are happy then, you would act differently than when you are unhappy. So, this

102



is your emotions.

97

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Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“I have set a rule for the students to bring their own dictionaries to class. From time to time, I will ask them to check the meaning or spelling of the words from their dictionaries. It does not matter whether they bring an English dictionary, a bilingual dictionary or an electronic dictionary with them. So long as they can understand the word and are able to express themselves in English, it will be OK.”

•

“If the aim of my lesson is to teach a certain thing and if the flow of the lesson is bogged down by a new vocabulary item, to save time, I will let them explain the words in Chinese. I just wish to get through this obstacle quickly and move on to the main goal of the lesson.”

•

“I would like to call on the names of the students to answer my questions because I would like to build a kind of rapport between the teacher and the students. If I know the students’ names, there is no reason why I shouldn’t call them. I think it is a kind of respect and they know that they are the ones being called upon. In fact, the students are very eager to raise their hands in order to answer my questions. I usually do not penalise them when they say things wrongly. So, they are very willing to put up their hands. ”

•

“I like to elicit ideas from the students because I would like to help them develop a line of thought themselves instead of me telling them everything. I think I have used the elicitation technique more often in this lesson than in my other lessons.”

•

“I think the students found this lesson very challenging and they enjoyed it.”

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Students’ Comments •

The student who raised the word “Philanthropist” enjoyed this lesson. He found this lesson very interesting.

•

Some other students found this lesson too difficult for them. They had to think too hard throughout the lesson.

Questions for Discussion 1. What techniques did Miss Lee use to elicit information from the students? Comment on her use of elicitation techniques. 2. What methods did Miss Lee use to teach vocabulary? How appropriately were these methods used for this class of students? 3. When Miss Lee did not know the word, “philanthropist” raised by a student, how did she deal with the situation? Were Miss Lee’s reactions appropriate? 4. What understandings can be revealed by the students’ responses to the lesson?

Critical Commentary Education as inquiry suggests that the personal and collective questions of learners ought to be the heart of curriculum (Harste, 2001). An inquiry-based curriculum is problem centred. Students need time to find, as well as frame their own inquiry questions. Siegel (1995) says that teachers should think of education as inquiry as a model which “invites learners to see themselves as knowledge makers who find and frame problems worth pursuing, negotiate interpretations, forge new connections, and represent meaning in new ways.” Based on her beliefs, Ms Lee thinks that teachers should teach students things that are manageable by them and the lessons should be interesting so that students can have more fun learning the lessons. Language acquisition is a social activity. Students help each other make sense of content and meanings. To put her beliefs into practice, Ms Lee tries hard to make her lessons interesting by giving students chances to speak English. She calls on students’ names and she encourages them to answer voluntarily and help each other. She did an excellent job integrating the news headlines into her curriculum. From her teaching, we can see how she dealt with new vocabulary and elicited information from her students.

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Teacher as Learner It is far more important that teachers demonstrate themselves as “model learners” than as “model knowers” (Bissex, 1996). Being able to listen, question, explore, and discover is more important than having all the “right answers”. In Ms Lee’s classroom, she demonstrates to students that she is also a learner. She has new vocabulary, and she does not feel bad to ask students about the meaning. She also encourages students to guess the meaning of the word from the context. She likes to help them develop a line of thought themselves instead of telling them everything. She thinks that teachers need to give students tools with which they can outgrow her and yet help themselves. She applies good teaching strategies to elicit answers from those students and gives them time to think. In addition, she uses many different words to explain the meaning of words students do not know. For instance, she provides several hints for the meaning of emotion.

Elicitation Learning should take place in a supportive environment where students can build a positive attitude toward themselves and their use of language (Harste, 1989). Meanwhile, teachers should provide experiences that involve students actively, highlighting oral and written language as well as other communication systems. Ms Lee creates a good atmosphere in her class. She asks students to bring dictionaries and allows them to explain words in Chinese. Krashen (1982) points out that second languages are acquired in natural settings when learners receive lots of comprehensible, understandable input. He believes that the best comprehensible input is input in the first language. Ms Lee draws on Krashen’s theory successfully in working with her students. In addition, she understands the situation that for most Asian students, it is difficult to raise their hands and speak. Therefore, she uses the strategy to call on their names. She does not embarrass her students because she does not penalise them even if they say things wrongly. This strategy ends up having a good result that students feel less nervous and eager to raise their hands to answer the questions. For introducing new vocabulary, Ms Lee allows some of her students to use their first language to explain the meaning of the words to the whole class. Thus, code-switching was employed in Ms Lee’s class. She also encouraged her students to ask questions and to show the words they did not know. She would ask her students to guess the words first, and then give more detailed explanations later. It is not difficult to see that Ms Lee’s class is a learner-centred class (Paul, 2003). In her class, students are encouraged to develop peopleto-people skills such as cooperation. In addition, Ms Lee ensures her students feel as little anxiety as possible. Also, each child in her class is an active explorer and makes guesses about new words. In such a learner-centred class, Ms Lee is doing a great job for being a facilitator who steps back and encourages her students to learn the language effectively and naturally.

Ivan Yang (Ph.D.)

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Shih-hsien, Ivan, Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Applied Foreign Languages Department at Formosa University in Taiwan. He graduated from the Language Education Department at Indiana University. His research interests are computer assisted language learning and cross-cultural learning experiences.

Reference Bissex, G. L. (1996). Partial truth: A memoire and essays on reading, writing and researching. Portsmouth, NH, Heiemann. Harste, J. (1989). Fostering needed change in early literacy programs. In D. S. Strickland and L. M. Morrow (Eds.), Young children learn to read and write (pp.147–159). International Reading Association. Harste, J. (2001). What education as inquiry is and isn’t. In Boran, S. and B. Comber (Eds.), Critiquing whole language and classroom inquiry (pp.1–17). Urbana, IL: NCTE. Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New York: Pergamon Press. Paul, D. (2003) Teaching English to children in Asia. Pearson: Longman. Siegal, M. (1995). More than words: The generative power of transmediation for learning. Canadian Journal of Education. 20(4), 455–475.

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Case 13

Building Vocabulary Ms Wu’s Case

Teacher Ms Wu has been teaching for seven months. She became a teacher after she completed her bachelor’s degree in TESL. She wants a student-centred instead of a teacher-centred kind of teaching. Ms Wu likes to bring some daily life elements into her teaching. She uses authentic materials and chooses topics and activities that interest the students. She is concerned about students falling asleep in class and believes that group work would help to keep them alert. She also believes that the large number of students in a class results in the teacher spending less time on class preparation and more time on dealing with the students’ problems.

Context • School Ms Wu’s school is a higher banding EMI school. The school administrators, faculty and students have a very positive attitude towards English. • Class This is a Form 4 class. The students are very active. Their motivation for using English is very low. However, all of them want to improve their English because they know the date for the Certificate Examination is fast approaching.

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Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement: whole class

4 Double period Music room 40 boys and girls Group work with small groups of five,

Extensive Reading Lesson Preparation 15min

Individual

– Students read the book that they’ve chosen silently.

Activity 1—Sharing of Stories 15 min

Group work

– Students form into groups of 5 according to the classification of the books for example, classics, humour, autobiographies, and drama. – Students share their stories with their group-mates.

5 min

Sharing

– Teacher invites some students to report their stories to the class.

Activity 2—Vocabulary 15 min

Group work

– Students introduce to their group-mates the new vocabulary they had picked up during their reading. – Students were required to tell about the word’s meaning and parts of speech, offer a synonym and an antonym, draw a picture, etc.

*10 min

Sharing

– After the group exchange, the teacher invites some students to teach the vocabulary to the whole class.

Activity 3—Read Aloud 10 min

Group work

– Students read their favourite paragraphs to their group-mates.

5 min

Sharing

– The teacher invites some students to read their favourite paragraphs to the whole class.

Closure 5 min

Whole class

– The teacher ends the lesson by telling the students what they have to prepare for the next lesson.

* Extracted episode

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Episodes

T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s)



(italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



{ } = English translation

Excerpt 1 — S1 teaching the vocabulary (enormous) to the whole class

1

T:



2

S1: At the beginning.



3

T:



4

S1: The meaning is “exturmally” (meaning “extremely”) and



5

T:



6

S1: The meaning is “exturmally” and usually large.



7

T:



8

S1: “Guestic”



9

T:

So, which part of the story do you find this word, enormous? Enormous. At the beginning. Yes, stand close to the class. Sorry, sorry, I can’t hear you (T puts her hand to her ear) Any word has the same meaning of enormous? Face the class, and tell, tell, tell them the answer. Sorry? (T looks at the S’s paper) Gigantic or huge. Huge. So, antonym? The opposite meaning?

10

S1: Small.

11

T:

Ok, (T to the whole class) antonym is small. So, (T to S1) this word is just like the meaning of…?

12



Meaning…?

13



(S1 silent)

14

T:

Just like meaning what? This word? The opposite is small.

15

S1: Meaning large.



T:

Yes, meaning large. Good, so can you tell the class your sentence with this word? Because this

17



means big, large (T dramatises the word), so you have to dramatise it, not just enormous. But

18



enormous, big, large (T reads with a dramatic sound and gesture). Ok? Just act out the word. Just

19



think that they are just, primary… primary 4 students.

20

S1: Exturmmally large. Large…

21

T:

22

S1: The room was enormous but it was full now.

23

T:

24

S1: People.

25

T:

Full of people. Even though it’s enormous, umhm… it’s full of people now. Uhuh. (T to the whole

26



class) Can we read the word together? This is a new word we learn today, right? So, enormous

16

So, you tell the class your sentence with this word. Ok, speak up. The room was enormous but it was full now. Full of what?

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27

S1: Enormous



28

T:



29

Ss: Enor — mous (Ss act out the word with their hands)



30

T:

Very good. When you say this word, you should act it out. Enor — mous. (with hand movements

31



showing big) Small, small (with gesture showing small). Enor — mous, like this, ok?

32



(Ss laugh)

Enor — mous (T acts out the word with her hands)

Excerpt 2 — S2 teaching the vocabulary (inkwell) to the whole class 35

T:

Ok, write the word on the board. Write it big, so that every one can see.





(S2 writes the word on the board)

37

T:

So, this word…how to read this word?

38

S2: Inkwell.



T:

36

39

Inkwell. You are sure that is inkwell? Inkwell? Ok.

40

S2: I guess.

41

T:



S2: It mean a hole, which is drilled on the desk… to hold, er, to hold the ink.

42

I think it’s correct. Ok, inkwell. Tell me, tell us the meaning.

43

T:

44

S2: A hole.

45

T:

46

S2: Like a container.

47

T:

48

S2: No, on the desk.

49

T:

50

S2: Yes.

51

T:

52

S2: I can… I can.

53

T:

54

S2: draw.

55

T:



S2: Noun.

56

To hold the ink? Something to hold the ink? You mean a container? A hole. Like a container. A hole on the ground? On the desk? Oh! To hold the ink? I see. What part of speech is it? Part of speech?

57

T:



S2: And…I can draw.

58

59

T:

It’s a noun. And? You can draw it?

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60

S2: Maybe if you don’t understand.

61

T:

62

Ss: Wooo.

63

T:

64

S2: This is a desk. (points to his picture)



T:

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Vocabulary Development

Ok. (T gives the S a white board pen, and the S draws the picture) So, (T to the whole class) if you don’t understand, you can look at the picture and it can help. Uhuh! This is a desk. (Ss laugh)

66

S2: Maybe a hole – maybe a hole is drilled here (S draws a hole at the top right hand corner of the desk).

67



Fill their ink.

68

T:

Um.

69

S2: Fill their ink into it.

70

T:

71

S2: Maybe… maybe, I think 10 years ago.

72

T:

73

S2: Maybe the desk is… Maybe the desk is, the…

74

T:

75

S2: Yes, in this way.

76

T:

77

S2: Yes, the students… if you… the students…

78

T:

Ok, let your classmates look at the picture. (T pulls the S a little bit aside so the Ss can see the

79



picture) Ok, the students what…?

80

S2: The students, if they have an ink pen.

81

T:

82

S2: They can put their ink pen into it and refill it.

83

T:

84

S2: Yes.

85

T:

86

S2: A hole.

87

T:

88

S2: Inkwell.

89

T:

Inkwell, ok? An Inkwell. I think is it because “ink” (T uses her hand to cover the “well” part). We all

90



know “ink”. And the “well”, do you know “well”? Have you ever seen “The Ring”, the film? The

91



Japanese film? The girl fell into the well and died? See?. The well... remember?

92

Ss: 貞子 (Ss saying the main character’s name in Cantonese)

93

T:

Um. Yes? All the desks are designed. To have this one.

Ink pen. Refill ink? I see. So, (T points to the picture) this is a desk. This is the drawer, and here we have the? A hole, how do we call that?

Remember the scary film last year? Fell into the well? 貞子{name of the main

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94



character}, right? Felt into the well.



95

Ss: Woooo.



96

T:

I don’t think it’s anything related to the film. So, inkwell, It means a small hole here for people to refill



97



their pen, ok? Very good. Thank you, Thank you Penny! (T claps her hands, and Ss clap their

98



hands too.)

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Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“I think they are really trying to use English and having group discussion with others.”

•

“Because they are enthusiastically wanting to learn the new words. And I think the 2 students especially Penny can explain because the students felt ‘Oh, he can draw the picture.’”

•

“If a student is there to teach the word, they will, they will listen more carefully. Because one of my classmates is a teacher now, teaching me the word. And so, it gives them, just like a newness, just like what I said, a newness to them and so, they will pay more attention in learning that word.”

•

“Sometimes they cannot find the antonym because actually, that word may have no antonym. But I think it is a better way to teach them vocabulary by their classmates instead of by the teacher.”

Questions for Discussion 1. What observations can be made about the teacher’s approach to developing her pupils’ vocabulary? 2. This lesson is part of an Extensive Reading Lesson. How are the two activities connected? 3. What are the similarities and differences in the pupils’ response in the two excerpts?

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4. Would you say that this is a typical ERS lesson? Why or why not? Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this ERS lesson. 5. Would you describe the approach to developing vocabulary as traditional or not? Explain and justify your response. 6. What other approaches, techniques and strategies do you use for developing pupils’ vocabulary in English language teaching?

Critical Commentary A strength of this English lesson lies in the active student participation through group work interaction and student sharing with the whole class their reading and words they learnt from the reading. This makes it a rather untypical second language learning lesson in Hong Kong where lessons tend to be teacher-centred (Watkins and Biggs, 2001). The studentcentred learning environment matches the teacher’s preference for a student-centred style of teaching and suggests that she has been able to teach according to her own pedagogical beliefs. The student participation and group interaction promote more target language use by the students, which is a necessary condition for second language learning to take place (Gass, 1997). Promoting target language use by students is a basic principle of second language teaching though the teacher has not explicitly articulated that this was what she aimed to achieve in the lesson. The teacher has also provided appropriate scaffolding to support students’ learning when some students were asked to teach a word to the whole class, as can be seen in the extracted episodes. In both excerpts, it is clear that the student-teachers have not really taken over the role of a teacher to teach the class. The interaction in each excerpt is not between the student-teacher and the students. Rather, it is between the teacher and the student-teacher. Both excerpts are started by the teacher (lines 1, 35). Then, the teacher leads the student-teachers through the teaching task by asking the studentteachers questions (e.g., lines. 7, 9, 11–13), instructing him/her what to do (e.g., so you have to dramatise it,… Just act out the word (lines 17–18); Tell us the meaning (line 41), elaborating and confirming the meaning (e.g., Even though it’s enormous, umhm… it’s full of people now (line 25); All the desks are designed (line 74); taking back the role of the teacher herself (lines 89–91). Scaffolding is an important strategy to support students’ language learning (Bruner, 1966, 1983) and the scaffold the teacher provides clearly helps the student-teachers to complete the task of teaching a word to the class. It helps the student-teachers to use language to explain and elaborate meaning. This directly supports the student-teachers’ language development and indirectly supports the other students’ language development. When we have to use language to make meaning clear to ourselves

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and others, we learn the language—learning language through using the language. When we listen to others’ explanation and clarification of meaning through language, we can also learn the language—learning the language through learning through the language (Halliday, 1975, 1978). The teacher can, however, provide more opportunities for the student-teachers’ language development if she can focus more on using the scaffold to elicit more lengthy and elaborated language use by the student-teachers. For example, 71 S2: Maybe…maybe, I think 10 years ago 72 T: Yes? 73 S2: Maybe the desk is… Maybe the desk is, the… 74 T: All the desks are designed 75 S2: Yes, in this way. Clearly the student is thinking of an inkwell being an old design but does not quite know how to explain it. The teacher also seems to see the problem and is trying to help by providing some scaffolding in the form of a sentence starter (All the desks are designed). Instead of helping/requiring the student to actually put the idea in full language, however, she lets the student off with him/her just completing the sentence starter provided. She could have required the student to explain the idea in fuller language, which would not only have made the idea clearer to everybody but would also have made the studentteacher use more accurate language to explain the idea. For example, the student-teacher could have been helped to explain that all the desks were designed with an inkwell 10 years ago (longer ago than that in fact) because there were no ink bottles then and an inkwell on a desk was a convenient design because everybody used ink to write then. This results in more elaborated, accurate and complex language use, which can lead to language development. The use of language to make difficult meaning clear requires correspondingly difficult and complex language use, thus facilitating language learning. If students only have to consistently use language they can already use, their language proficiency is not going to develop and improve. The focus of vocabulary learning in the lesson is on the meaning, the antonym, the pronunciation and an example of use of the word in a sentence for the first word enormous; and on the pronunciation, the meaning, the part of speech and the formation of the word for the second word inkwell. There can, however, be a wider scope of focus in a vocabulary learning lesson. Vocabulary learning strategies, for example, are an important aspect of vocabulary teaching. In the second excerpt, the teacher helps students to learn about how the word inkwell is formed. In lines 89–90, she shows students that the word inkwell is made up of two parts by covering the “well” part and helps students to get at the meaning of each part separately. Knowledge of word formation is an important vocabulary learning strategy because looking for word parts in a word can help students learn some unknown words. The teacher, however, can be more explicit in helping students to

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understand how to use knowledge of word formation as a vocabulary learning strategy by directly telling students that some words are made up of different parts and if they know the meaning of (some of) the parts, they may be able to access the meaning of such words even if they do not already know the words. There are other vocabulary learning strategies that the teacher can teach while teaching new words. Another useful strategy is guessing meaning from context following the CSSD (Context–Structure–Sound–Dictionary) procedure (Ruddell, 2005). With the word, enormous, for example, the teacher can ask the student in which part of the book s/he is reading the word comes from. She can ask the student to read out the sentence and the paragraph from which the word is taken and explain what the sentence and the paragraph are about—the context. Understanding the context from which the word comes can help to narrow down the scope of meaning of the word. Then, the students can be asked to find out the structural function (i.e. the part of speech) of the word within the sentence— the structure. This helps to further narrow down the scope of the meaning. The sound procedure is probably less useful to second language learners as sounding out the word may not help them to get at the meaning of the word as easily as first language learners can who have many more opportunities to listen to the language being used (sounded out) around them. The dictionary will be the last resort, i.e., if the context and the structure (and perhaps the sound) of the word cannot help students to get at the meaning, they may have to resort to the dictionary. The context in which a word is used is another important aspect of vocabulary learning. In this lesson, the words the students were teaching/learning actually come from a source (i.e., a book), yet the teacher has not required any reference to be made to the context at all. Students have to be shown how a word can mean differently depending on the context in which it is used because the context is an important part of word meaning. Indeed, learning a word involves learning quite a number of aspects of the word: the spelling, the pronunciation, the part of speech (i.e., the structural function), the meaning in different contexts, its relationships to other words (e.g., synonym, antonym), collocation, the formation of the word, origin etc. Only when students can get at a rich and all-round meaning of a word can they really know a word and be able to use it (Nation, 1990). In passing, it seems that students did not have an adequate knowledge of phonics in English and thus did not know how to pronounce words such as “extremely” and “gigantic”. The teacher did not give them the correct pronunciation of the words and did not use any words to teach students how to pronounce a word using its spelling or how to spell a word using its pronunciation (i.e., knowledge of phonics). Knowledge of phonics, however, can provide second language learners with another vocabulary learning strategy despite the less than perfect match between pronunciation and spelling in English. Without knowing how to pronounce a word, students have little access to remembering the acoustic aspect of the word, which can be a great hindrance to memory; without knowing how to spell a word by reference to its pronunciation, students have to resort to rote memory for its spelling, which can be a great burden to learning.

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Finally, there is a more general point which may be worth mentioning. A language teacher has to be very clear about the differences between what learning a language, learning about a language and learning through a language imply for students (Halliday, 1975). Students in schools only need to learn a (second) language, i.e., (second) language learning is successful if students can use the language for various communicative purposes and contexts. They do not need to learn about the language because they are not studying linguistics. This means too much focus on metalanguage and linguistic knowledge at the expense of language use is not helpful to students in schools, though some limited and sensible use of metalanguage can be an aid to second language learning. In this lesson, the teacher uses some metalanguage (e.g. antonym, part of speech, noun) to support students’ learning of the words taught, which seems to be helpful. There is not much sign of overuse of metalanguage at the expense of language use though there also seems to be a need for more focus on how the words are used in context, as discussed earlier.



Stella Kong (Ph.D.) Stella Kong is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, Hong Kong Institute of Education. She has been working as a teacher educator for 15 years, before which she was a secondary school teacher. She works very closely with English medium (immersion) teachers of various subject disciplines on an in-service programme. Her research interests are in language-content relationships and writing across the curriculum.

Reference Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction. Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Bruner, J. S. (1983). Child’s talk: Learning to use language. New York: Norton. Gass, S. M. (1997). Input, interaction, and the second language learner. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Halliday, M. A. K. (1975). Learning how to mean: Explorations in the development of language. London: Edward Arnold. Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold. Nation, I. S. P. (1990). Teaching and learning vocabulary. Boston, Mass.: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Ruddell, M. R. (2005). Teaching content reading and writing. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Watkins, D. A., and Biggs, J. B. (2001). Teaching the Chinese learner: Psychological and pedagogical perspectives. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong.

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Classroom Management

In our last case, we focus on classroom management and even though it is in the final position, this does not suggest that this area is of less importance than the topics that preceded it. While the other case topics address the content and ways of teaching English as a second/foreign language, classroom management covers not just discipline but the facilitation of teaching activities. How do we as educators carry out our teaching activities, in which order and which manner and what are our dominant practices in managing our classes? Classroom management spans everything that we do and it can be the main determining factor into whether or not learning takes place in a class. The best developed teaching plans can go awry if the procedures and class discipline are not managed well. For the novice teacher, classroom management is a major challenge. Our procedures are important for developing cohesion and fluidity in our teaching activities. The transitions that we make from whole-class to pair work or group work and from group work back to whole-class teaching are important for ensuring that momentum is not lost in our teaching and that learning time is not lost because of interruptions in the flow of our work. Class discipline usually becomes an issue at transitional points in our teaching as learners take advantage of the breaks in teaching to socialize with friends. How we move from one part of our lesson to another part, how we give instructions—what we say and the order in which we say it—all affect the fluidity of our work. Our tolerance level is also indicative of how we manage our classrooms and how we cope with potential difficulties. How much task-based or non-task-based classroom “noise” do we find acceptable? Are the activities that we design based around our tolerance levels for low, medium or high levels of student interactions which produce different degrees of “learning noise” in the classroom? Ultimately, we need to determine what is good learning noise for language learning and how best to facilitate this without causing disruption to the learning environment in class and to nearby classes. The culture of our classroom is dependent on how we view and manage the learning activities and the ways our students interact. Our classroom practices and expectations need to be clearly communicated to our learners. If we want only English used in our classrooms, we need to develop students’ competencies to enable them to do so and we must establish clear and consistent practices that reinforce this view. It takes time, consistency and perseverance to establish and maintain effective classroom practices.

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Case 14

Classroom Management Ms Liu’s Case

Teacher Ms Liu is a trained teacher and is in her third year of teaching. As a student in secondary school, she never spoke English in English lessons. She insists on speaking English in the classroom when she is teaching her students English. She thinks that Hong Kong students should learn English through more exposure to the language, but she allows her students to speak Chinese in her English lessons because this makes them feel comfortable. She believes that students should have a happy time in her class and she allows them to do what they like in class. She will not force them to do what she expects them to do in class. She wants to have a good relationship with her students. Because she cares about the students, she does not mind that they are not good students. She tries not to correct all their oral and written mistakes so that they will feel some degree of success in learning English.

Context • School This is a lower banding school. There are several remedial classes (split classes for low proficiency students. There are about 20 students in each remedial class) in Forms 1 and 2. • Class This is the weakest Form 2 remedial class with 18 Chinese boys aged 13– 15. Students vary in English proficiency. They have low motivation in learning English.

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Lesson Overview Form: Time: Place: Number of Students: Seating Arrangement:

2 Single period Classroom 18 boys Whole class, pair work

Grammar Lesson—Direct vs Indirect Speech Exercise 1 5 min

Whole class and Individual work

– T gives a review on how to change direct to indirect speech. – T asks Ss to do an exercise on changing sentences from the direct speech into indirect speech.

3 min

Whole class

– T checks answers with the Ss.

Exercise 2 *2 min

Whole class

– T distributes pictures to the Ss. – T gives instructions that Ss have to work in pairs and each pair has to produce one sentence of direct speech based on the picture.

5 min

Pair work

– Ss do the exercise. T monitors.

19 min

Whole class

– T nominates some Ss to write their sentences on the board and asks other Ss to change the sentences into indirect speech. – T explains grammar and discusses with the Ss how the sentences should be changed.

Closure 2 min

Whole class

– T asks Ss to do p. 8 as homework.

* Extracted episode

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Classroom Management

Episodes

T = Teacher



S(s) = Student(s)



(italicised) = Teacher/student(s) actions or behaviours



*** = Inaudible



{ } = English translation



1

T:

I’m going to give you some photos. You have seen them before, right?



2



(Two boys are copying down things written on the blackboard. On the other side of the room, one



3



student is moving over to another seat. Other students are beginning to talk to each other.)



4

T:

Okay, listen to me, okay? I’m going to give two boys one photo. When you’ve got it, think about



5



one sentence and just write down the direct speech.



6



(One student puts up his hand but does not get the attention of the teacher. One student is



7



chatting with another student.)



8

T:

Do you remember the direct speech?



9

S1: No!

10

T:

11

S1: I don’t know!



T:

12

No? Why not?! Chan Tai Man, what is direct speech? What is direct speech? If you don’t know, shut up your mouth and listen!

13

S1: 我都無大聲講



14



{We did not talk very loudly.}



15

T:

What is direct speech? Come on!



16

S1: 直述句子

17



{Sentence in direct speech.}

18

T:

Yes, good. It means what we are talking about. Okay? So, you think of one sentence, and then





you write it down, and I’ll ask you to change it into indirect speech. Understand?

19

20

S1: Oh!

21

T:

Right, two persons, one photo. Don’t choose photos for yourselves, okay?

22



(The teacher walks between the rows of desks to give out the pictures to the students.)

23



(The students get excited and begin to shout to each other and exchange photos to find out what



24



others have received. One student is crossing over to another desk in another row to look at his

25



classmates’ photos. When they discover an interesting character, they begin to make jokes





about it.)

26

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27

T:

Two persons, one sentence!

28



(Four boys are sitting by themselves without any partners. They are looking around. Some other

29



students who have partners are chatting.)

30



(The teacher walks to a desk.)

31

T:

Think and write out whatever you like. Write down one sentence in a statement. Do you



32



understand? (The teacher holds up a photo and shows it to the class.) For example, this one is

33



playing tennis and then he may say ‘I will win’. Right?

34



(One student is looking for something in his school bag on the desk. The other students are





doing other things.)

35

36

S2: 成龍, 成龍... 佢張*** 同我交換張成龍呀!

37



{Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan... He took my Jackie Chan away and gave me back a ***.}



38



(The teacher goes over to that corner of the room to help to solve the problem. Then she

39



continues to walk between the rows of the desks.)

40

T:

Hurry up! Hurry up!

41



(The students are talking and making a lot of noise. One student raises his photo and asks the

42



teacher a question. The teacher answers his question.

43



One student is crossing over to the other side of the classroom to look at other students’ photos.)

44

T:

(The teacher stops by the side of one student’s desk.)

45



Think of a simple sentence. (She holds up a photo, showing it to the class.) Who is she? It’s okay.

46



‘I love coffee. I love black coffee’. So this one is Lisa Wong, right? Okay, so, you just write down

47



a simple sentence, subject and verb, okay?



48



(Some students are shouting to their classmates or taking photos from one another. Two boys



49



next to the teacher’s desk are talking. Two boys take photos from each

50



other and look at them without saying anything. Three boys in the front rows are chatting with





one another. The teacher has not gone to their area.)

51

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Initial Questions 1. What is your first reaction to the case that you have read? 2. What do you understand about this teacher and/or this case and what the teacher is doing? 3. If this were your class, how would you have taught this lesson? 4. Consider the teacher’s comments, questions and answers for discussion and the case commentary and then revisit your answers to questions two and three.

Teacher’s Comments •

“I did not tell them how to form pairs. I expect they will form pairs with the persons near them by themselves.”

•

“I asked them not to choose and exchange the cards, but I am not serious about it. I don’t really mind if they exchange cards. They are interested in some cards because of the people they like. Of course, they will chat and look at others’ cards.”

•

“I don’t think it is necessary to write some more examples on the board. I have written some on the blackboard already. I think the examples on the board are sufficient. This is just an easy activity. I think it is easy to write only one simple sentence.”

•

“I am satisfied with this lesson. At least the students do not find it boring.”

•

“I think their participation is good. Most of them are participating in this lesson.”

•

“Yes, I think they are learning. I only expect them to understand what direct and indirect speech is. I know they may forget how to change the speech later.”

•

“I am not very happy with the students’ speaking a lot of Cantonese, but I think this is still acceptable because I want to have a happy atmosphere in the classroom. I think they will feel more comfortable speaking in Cantonese. They will feel pressured when they speak in English in class because everybody will laugh at them. I also don’t have enough time to wait for each one to struggle with the language. I have to spend around one minute to encourage each student to say one sentence in English. I do not have the time!… My colleagues are not speaking English in their English lessons.”

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Questions for Discussion 1. Comment on the following stages of pair work in this classroom:

(a) Organisation of pair work (i) Forming students into pairs (ii) Allocation of photos



(b) Preparing the students for the task (i) Giving instructions (ii) Equipping the students with the language and ideas to perform the task



(c) Monitoring of pair work (i) Checking whether the students are doing the work properly (ii) Facilitating the learning of the students



(d) The design of the pair work activity

2. How motivated are the students and how actively are they participating in the learning activity? Are the teacher’s ways of managing the students’ learning, spoken language and discipline appropriate for this class of students?

Critical Commentary Teaching is a constant negotiation between acting out planned activities and taking into account students’ understandings, abilities, and motivation to put the activity into practice. In other words, in this case how Ms Liu decides which activities to include in class, how she assesses the students’ performance in the task, and what she determines are reasons and remedies for success or failure are the basic units of the teaching moment (Ulichny, 1996). Ms Liu’s beliefs, assumptions and knowledge serve as an interpretive framework to guide her sense-making processes to inform practice and to shape and reshape her understanding of teaching and learning (Wood, 1996). She believes that Hong Kong students should learn English through more exposure to the language. She assumes that the students will feel some degree of success in learning English if she tries not to correct the students’ oral and written mistakes. Ms Liu also knows that students feel pressured when they speak in English in class because everybody will laugh at them.

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Golombek (1998) suggests that teachers’ personal practical knowledge, consisting of beliefs, assumptions and knowledge, is “mediated by their experiences as teachers, learners, persons outside of the classroom, personal and interpersonal factors and values, as well as their professional knowledge” (p. 495). As a teacher, Ms Liu cares for her students regardless of the fact that most of her students are not considered “good students”. Their English proficiency is limited, their learning motivation is low and they are inattentive in class. The experience that as a learner Ms Liu never spoke English in her secondary English classes has a great impact on her current instructional decisions. She insists on speaking English in the classroom although she may be aware that it will be a difficult task for most of her students. Ms Liu does not cease holding expectations for her students even though it is a remedial class. She brings in activities that will motivate her students’ learning. However, Ms Liu, like most teachers, oftentimes might possess a paradoxical viewpoint that reducing the task (“direct speech”) to a simple grammatical structure (“…you just write down a simple sentence, subject and verb, okay?” [lines 46–47]) will create a less threatening and thus less boring and much happier learning environment. In fact, students would have been much more engaged in their learning if they were invited to make sentences based on their opinions on the celebrities instead of strictly following a grammatical pattern. In addition, some of Ms Liu’s instructional actions seem to contradict with what she says her beliefs are. Although Ms Liu says that she allows her students to do what they like in class and she will not force them to do what she expects them to do in class, the two-minute episode shows that her English class is highly teacher-centered. The teacher decides what, when and how to teach and learn. It is not clear from the case whether or not Ms Liu has to teach under the pressure of following a centralised national curriculum or/and covering certain content in this particular school context. It is suggested that opportunities should be given to both pre-service and in-service language teachers to understand the dynamics of how they think and act in classrooms as they learn to teach (Johnson, 1996) and teach to learn (Connelly and Clandinin, 1999).

Yi-Hsuan Gloria Lo (Ph.D.) and Fenli Lin (M.A.) Yi-Hsuan Gloria Lo received her doctoral degree from the Department of Language Education at Indiana University-Bloomington, USA. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Foreign Languages at National Penghu University in Taiwan. Her research interests include narrative inquiry as professional development for language teachers and discourse analysis in language classroom. Fenli Lin is a doctoral student in Language Education at Indiana University, Bloomington.

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Reference Connelly, F. M. and Clandinin, D. J. (Eds.). (1999). Shaping a professional identity: Stories of educational practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University. Golombek, P. R. (1998). A study of language teacher’s personal practical knowledge. TESOL Quarterly, 32, 447–464. Johnson, K. E. (1996). Learning to teach: Instructional actions and decision of pre-service ESL teachers. TESOL Quarterly, 26, 507–535. Ulichny, P. (1996). What’s in a methodology? In D. Freeman and J. C. Richards (Eds.), Teacher learning in language teaching (pp. 178–196). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wood, D. (1996). An integrated view of teachers’ beliefs, assumptions and knowledge. In D. Wood (Ed.), Cognition in language teaching (Chapter 7). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Suggested Readings Babcock, S. P. (1993, March). The significance of cultural influence within the ESL/EFL classroom: A Taiwan experience. Paper presented at the International Conference on Teacher Education in Second Language Teaching, Hong Kong. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 375 681) Barcelos, A. M. F. (1999, May). The interaction between students’ beliefs and teacher’s beliefs and dilemmas. Paper presented at the First International Conference on Language Teacher Education, Minneapolis, MN. Britzman, D. P. (1991). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach. New York, NY: State University of New York. Clarke, M. A. (1994). The dysfunctions of the theory/practice discourse. TESOL Quarterly, 28, 9– 26. Day, C., Fernandez, A., Hauge, T. E., and Moller J. (Eds.). (2000). The life and work of teachers: International perspectives in changing time. New York, NY: Falmer Press. Freeman, D. and Johnson, K. E. (1998). Reconceptualizing the knowledge-base of language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 32, 397–417. Johnson, K. E. (1992). The relationship between teacher’s beliefs and practices during literacy instruction for non-native speakers of English. Journal of Reading Behavior, 24, 83–108. Johnson, K. E. (1996). The vision versus the reality: The tensions of the TESOL practicum. In D. Freeman and J. C. Richards (Eds.), Teacher learning in language teaching (pp. 30–49). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kagan, D. M. (1993). Laura and Jim and what they taught me about the gap between educational theory and practice. New York, NY: State University of New York. Kwo, O. (1996). Learning to teach English in Hong Kong classrooms: Patterns of reflections. In D. Freeman and J. C. Richards (Eds.), Teacher learning in language teaching (pp. 295–319). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Parry, K. with Su, S. (1998). Culture, literacy, and learning English. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers. Ponte, E. (1999, May). A study of the role of teachers’ beliefs and knowledge about assessment and instruction. Paper presented at the First International Conference on Language Teacher Education, Minneapolis, MN. Richert, A. E. (1991). Case methods and teacher education: Using cases to teach teacher reflection. In B. R. Tabachnick and K. M. Zeichner (Eds.), Issues and practices in inquiryoriented teacher education (pp. 130–150). London: Falmer. Ritchie, J. S. and Wilson, D. E. (2000). Teacher narrative as critical inquiry: Rewriting the script. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

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Case 1: Ms Mok’s Lesson

1. How did the teacher structure her activities? Was this beneficial for the students?

The teacher designed the lesson so that the whole class of students could first get a general idea of what they were supposed to do in groups, which was to write down what they knew about a popular person in the community who had died recently. Students then moved into groups to work with the task. Because the teacher had done a whole-class demonstration, the students knew exactly what to do in their groups. After students had done the group work and reported to the whole class, the teacher then gave some input on facts and opinions. The teacher then demonstrated with the whole class how to do the activity which they were to do next in their groups which was to assign fact or opinion next to each one of the statements that they had written. They also had to be able to explain their reasons for the classification. After the students had done this activity and reported to the groups, the teacher then did some input and demonstration on newspaper headlines and the writer’s purpose. Students were then required to do a similar activity in groups and then report to the whole class. A whole class demonstration followed by group work was the model that the teacher adopted for this class. It was more beneficial for the first two activities and least beneficial for the last.

2. Do you think the context/topic given by the teacher was appropriate for Form 3 students?

Tang Wing Cheung was a very popular Cantonese opera singer. After his death there were many newspaper reports about his life, some of which were not so flattering. At the time of this lesson, the students were very excited to discuss this person’s lifestyle. It is an appropriate topic for 14–15 year old teenagers.

3. Were the activities too cognitively demanding for this group of Form 3 students?

The last activity, working with the author’s purpose was probably the most cognitively demanding task for the students. This needed more support and a clearer breakdown in the activities to enable students to successfully complete this task. Classifying information as fact or opinion and giving a reason also proved to be difficult for some students but most could do this task successfully.

4. Were the activities linguistically demanding for these students? Explain your answer.

Offering explanations in L2 demands greater linguistic competence than simply answering yes or no questions. Greater expertise with word order, syntax and facility

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with L2 vocabulary are required to do well linguistically on this task. For all the tasks, the students were required to classify their answers and give reasons for the classification. Even though students had the opportunity to write their answers before reporting to the whole class, they were expected to discuss their answers in groups in L2 and this may not have been possible for many of the students.

5. This lesson is described as a critical thinking lesson. What other ways can critical thinking be developed in secondary students?

Critical thinking can be developed by designing activities which require the student to analyse a situation and make judgements based on the information given. Some examples are: unpacking or deconstructing television, billboards and newspaper advertising strategies such as “jumping on the bandwagon” and using testimonials of famous people to convince the public to buy goods; looking at arguments in essays and discerning the author’s viewpoints to decide and justify whether you agree or disagree; participating in debates and judging debates; participating in decision making tasks which requires the participant to analyse a situation and make a judgement on an appropriate course of action or make a decision on what or who is right or wrong.

6. How do you develop your students’ critical thinking skills?

Open response.

Case 2: Mr. Tsui’s Lesson

1. What observations can be made about the teacher’s approach to teaching writing?

The teacher believes that the introduction and conclusions should be given to the students to assist them with the writing task. However, in this lesson, the teacher himself states that this procedure does not really work as the students sometimes write the same answer over and over, indicating that some students have not understood what to do. In this lesson the teacher relies on himself to give ideas for the writing as the students seem not to offer any. The lesson is basically a teacher-centred lesson with the students merely copying what the teacher has written on the board. With no contributions from the students, it is doubtful that students would be able to write the body of the essay.

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2. What is the relationship between Mr. Tsui’s approach and his beliefs about the students’ ability and motivation?

Mr. Tsui believes that his students are lacking in interest and in ability to perform well in English. He provides the students with support to write an essay. However, the support that is offered may be lacking from several viewpoints. By copying verbatim the introduction and the conclusion, it is unclear the extent to which students understand what they are writing. No support is given for writing the rest of the essay, again it is unclear how this would affect students’ ability to write the remainder of the essay.

3. How would you respond to the following comments made by Mr. Tsui about his students’ writing?

“The students usually just copy the vocabulary and none of them is correct. One student likes to copy the vocabulary, for example ‘cancel cancel cancel cancel’, just like copying the words in a copy book.”



Students who copy the vocabulary without understanding what it is and how it is used reflect that the input may have been inappropriate for them because they did not understand what to do and so they resorted to copying.

4. How would you respond to Mr. Tsui’s comments about his colleagues’ views about getting students to write?

Mr. Tsui’s colleagues’ techniques ensure that students are able to submit something and thereby are able to obtain a grade for the assignment. However, this technique is merely a shortcut to awarding grades for something and does not ensure that some learning has taken place or that students can do their assignments on their own.

5. Comment on Mr. Tsui’s use of Cantonese in this lesson.

Mr. Tsui uses mixed-code in teaching his students. The English is usually followed by the Cantonese. If students are already weak in English, they will not learn very much English this way as they will be waiting for the teacher to offer the Cantonese and pay little attention to the English. Mr. Tsui’s level of comprehensible input must be increased to support the students’ long-term development of L2.

6. In your opinion, is Mr. Tsui a good teacher of English?

Mr. Tsui can be considered a teacher who really cares about his students and the quality of his teaching, but his methodology is very weak and contradictory as he himself states that this technique is doubtful in furthering pupils’ learning.

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Case 3: Ms Cheng’s Lesson

1. Comment on the amount of support given to this class of students in preparing them for the writing task:

(a) Has an adequate amount of support been given to this class of students? Why?



When the teacher designed the pre-writing activities, she intended to use the pictures in Task 1 to review the content of the story with the students. Then, she tried to help the students to brainstorm some ideas and vocabulary through the cloze exercise in Task 2. Through asking the students to answer the questions in Task 3, she attempted to provide the students with the language structures needed to put their ideas in complete sentences. Considering the form level of the students and the difficulty level of the topic, it can be said that the right kinds of support have been designed to help the students with their ideas, vocabulary and language. However, when the teacher carried out the activities, too much input was inappropriately given to the students. Not enough support was provided for the students to help them write creative compositions on their own.



(b) Have enough opportunities been provided for the development of creativity? Why?



Perhaps the students could be allowed more time to think about and give their answers during the pre-writing activities. It seemed that the teacher was too ready to give the answers to the students. More wait time could be given to allow the students to think. Opportunities could be given to the students to give the answers by themselves first. Alternative suggestions could be allowed. To stretch the student’s imagination and creativity further and to arouse the students’ interest in the activity, in the third exercise, for example, each student might be encouraged to suggest a different answer to each question in a game-like situation.

2. Comment on the difficulty level and relevance of the topic.

An easier topic which was related to the students’ daily life might be more interesting and motivating to the students than a remote topic related to a comprehension passage taken from a text book. If an imaginative topic was given to the students, it would encourage the students to exercise their imagination to the full. Close guidance may help students to produce more accurate language but this may be done at the expense of more original and interesting ideas which are more important in an imaginative composition.

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3. Comment on the teacher’s elicitation pattern in this lesson.

The teacher usually asked a question and then used different means, such as gesture or pointing to the pictures, to elicit the expected answer from the students. She praised the students when they gave the expected answer. Usually, she did not allow any wait time for the students to think about the answers but gave the expected answers herself. She did not encourage the students to give other possible answers.

4. How appropriate are the kinds of pre-writing activities for this class of students? Why?

The initial design as described by the teacher in her second comment is appropriate in giving the students step-by-step preparation for the composition. It is appropriate to help a Form 1 class to proceed from more closely-guided to freer pre-writing activities. What is also important is the right amount of freedom and support given to the students during the actual carrying out of the pre-writing activities.

5. Compare and contrast the situation in Hong Kong to that in your context and express your views on issues related to the amount of support given by the teacher to the students.

The Hong Kong situation was briefly described by the teacher in her comments. Here is an outline of the situation: – English is not the students’ mother tongue. Most students have problems with language accuracy and vocabulary. Most of them have difficulty expressing themselves in English. They need a lot of help and support from the teacher. – It is a usual practice that students in the lower forms are given close guidance in writing. – Usually, the teachers have to finish teaching the syllabus in the teaching progress plans designed by the form coordinators. The teachers must finish the syllabus before the examination to make sure that their students can answer the questions in the examination paper set for the whole form. – The teachers have a heavy workload and are very busy. For example, on top of teaching and marking, they have to do administrative work and /or help to carry out extra-curricular activities. With the introduction of information technology, the teachers have to attend computer courses and prepare teaching materials using information technology. Some teachers are also involved in school based projects carried out by the schools. Teachers usually try to find ways to help them mark essays easily and quickly.

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Case 4: Ms Siu’s Lesson

1. What observations can you make about the students’ discussion in Excerpts 1 and 2?

In general, the students in this group are having a very good discussion. From Excerpt 1, with the exception of S2, it is clear that they are familiar with their stories. We can see that in Excerpt 2, all students are actively contributing with the strongest student being S1. From the excerpts given, we cannot tell what each student’s role is but S1 takes on the role of leading the discussion and asking many elaborating questions. S1 also supplies the necessary language when needed. There are obvious language problems with the students’ grammar and vocabulary but these limitations do not hinder the engagement of all the students or the flow of their discussion. The students appear to be very interested, can be understood and are able to accomplish the task despite the language problems.

2. In designing this lesson what measures did the teacher take to facilitate pupils’ discussion?

The teacher provided lots of scaffolding to support pupils’ discussion. In the first part of the lesson, the use of the story circle cards gave each student a prop and required each one to participate in order to first elicit and then to record the information from their peers and then to use them as a reference to collate the information and come up with a design for representing those ideas in their collage. The story circle cards had prompts on them so that the students knew what information to elicit. They enabled the discussion to flow more easily and provided necessary visual and language support for these language learners.

3. What are your opinions on using Literature Circles with your classes? How is this approach different from or similar to the activities that you carry out in your regular English reading lessons?

In Literature Circles, pupils discuss the books they have read with or without teacher support. In the excerpts given, the teacher’s voice is only heard once, so we know that the group in this case was able to manage the activity quite well. However, in this class there are 42 pupils and if there were eight groups of four/five students, there would be quite a lot of groups for one teacher to manage. The students in this class however, had had many opportunities to engage in cooperative learning groups and this facilitates the ease of the task for the teacher. Your opinions on Literature Circles may be influenced by class size and by your beliefs about what pupils can or cannot do in English. This class is the strongest Form 4 class in a lower banding school but they are being challenged to engage in discussion about books they have read because of the teacher’s belief about

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what they can accomplish and the different ways they can develop their English and their reading habits in their second language.

The teacher in this lesson said that she integrates reader response theory and story grammar understandings into her lesson. She has a particular belief about ways of teaching, getting pupils to become personally engaged in what they have read by asking them to give their views and develop both their language and creativity by the types of tasks designed. These beliefs indicate a viewpoint that is different from a regular reading lesson where pupils may read the book and then respond to the questions in the book. Literature Circles requires pupils to become more dynamically engaged in sharing with peers what they have read.

4. The students in this selection have all read books from the classics. Comment on using these types of books to develop L2 learners’ reading habits. What other genres can L2 readers be exposed to?

Ms Siu said that to make the task easier, she asked the students to read books of the same genre. All types of books can be used to develop students’ reading in L2. However, because most pupils can relate more easily to narratives, because they are more familiar with the basic story grammar, then this would be a good starting point. As L2 teachers, we should also expose our pupils to the wealth and wide variety of interesting information texts that exist, as well as poetry, and a wide variety of both local, regional and international contemporary and classical prose. Reading comic books is also useful for developing pupils’ exposure to English.

5. Is there a reading programme in your school? If yes, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the programme. If no, state what type of programmme you would like to see implemented and why.

Answers are varied. Every school should have a well articulated reading programme to foster pupils’ reading development in both L1 and L2. Steps should be taken wherever possible to develop comprehensive reading programmes to support pupils’ reading development and habits.

Case 5: Ms Mok’s lesson

1. (a) What do you think is the teachers’ purpose in the first excerpt? (b) Do you think this purpose has been achieved in this class? (c) Is this a typical ERS lesson?

In the first excerpt, the teacher provides a purpose for making a slogan. This is so that students can advertise their books in the local newspaper. The teacher also may have

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wanted to give students an idea of how to develop a slogan because she tells how she developed her own slogan for the book that she was reading. The teacher tells the students to use a few words and then she gives some background information on the book and she tells the students the slogan that she came up with. If it was the teacher’s purpose to model or demonstrate how to make a slogan, this was not successfully accomplished. The teacher needed to be more explicit in telling students how to pull out the theme of the story and capture it in the slogan as she was able to do in her story of Robinson Crusoe. This is not a typical ERS lesson. As in most ERS lessons, students read quietly and then respond to a set of questions at the back of the book.

2. What are the difficulties that the teacher experiences in the second and third excerpts? How can these problems be resolved?

In the second and third excerpts, the teacher is trying to help the students to develop a slogan. Some of the students’ slogans appear to be unsatisfactory with rather long sentences so the teacher tries to help the students to derive a slogan with a few words. The teacher tries to get the student to tell her the gist of the story and from the gist, the teacher tries to help the student to make a slogan. The problems can be resolved if the teacher could explain to the class what a slogan is and the procedures that one might go through in developing a slogan for a book that one has read.

3. What are the particular problems that the students exhibit in Excerpts 2 and 3? How could the teacher help the students?

The students are unable to explain everything clearly in English and the teacher is allowing the students to help each other. However, the teacher does not use the students’ L1 to help them. We do not know the extent to which the students understand the teacher but we can see that they are working hard to communicate in English.

4. From the students’ comments we know that some students did or did not enjoy the activities. Why do you think this is so?

Answers vary.

5. How would you characterise the activity of making a slogan? Is it an easy or difficult task? Explain your answer.

This task could be difficult depending on one’s language proficiency and whether or not one has read and understood the central themes and events of the story book. Students also need summarising skills in order to deduce the essence or main points or message of the story or text. For this particular group of students the task appears to be difficult. This may also be related to the way the teacher explained what they were required to

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do. The teacher could be more explicit by providing clear procedures in a step-by-step manner of how one goes about deducing a slogan from a story. This could then be connected to the overall purpose which was to sell one’s book to the local papers to get people interested in buying and reading the book. Clear steps and an understanding of the purpose may have helped students to appreciate more clearly what they were required to do. If all the pupils had read the same books, the task might have been easier as they could help each other more.

6. This activity is taking place in an ERS lesson. Is this activity useful for supporting students’ reading development? Why or why not?

This is a very useful activity for supporting students’ reading development as the starting point was that students should have read their books. Because the students are working in groups and sharing their ideas, this can help them to appreciate the stories read by the other students and could possibly motivate them to read other stories. Because an interesting activity is connected with reading, students also get to see the potential of learning from English books.

Case 6: Mr. Lo’s Lesson

1. What observations can be made about the teacher’s approach to teaching a story book?

The teacher used a teacher-directed method to teach his students a story book. He simply read out the text line by line and translated each word or sentence into Chinese. He also used Chinese to give explanations, to ask questions and to give instructions. The students were only engaged in listening to the teacher and occasionally answering a few questions.

2. Comment on the use of the translation method with this group of learners.

It is not appropriate to use the translation method to the extent as demonstrated by the teacher to teach this class of students even though they are weak and unmotivated. This method encourages the students to read word by word and code-switch from the target language to their native language whenever they see a word or a sentence. Word-for-word translation can become a crutch or provide the wrong interpretation of target language materials. There are certain expectations about the way language works based on the native language and these expectations may not always be met in the target language particularly if it is quite different in structure from the native language. Students may form another habit of switching off when they hear English since they

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know that the Chinese translation will follow, thus losing the benefit of exposure to and use of English. Translating can sometimes slow students down considerably, forcing them to go back and forth constantly between languages. It is undesirable to confuse the students unnecessarily and increase their learning burden. If the students are used to relying on mixed code, they will not be able to read and write in any one language with the necessary fluency and proficiency.

3. Do you think that the teacher succeeded in achieving his aims in this lesson? Why?

The teacher aimed at arousing the interest of the students and helping them comprehend the story. However, the behaviour and reactions of some students as recorded in the episode (such as lying on the desk) showed that they were not interested in the lesson. There was no way to find out whether the students truly comprehended the lesson or not. In teaching the story book, the teacher should not only aim at helping the students understand the meaning of the words and sentences of the text. Reading is not a passive activity in which the reader sits back to absorb meaning effortlessly, but an active, purposeful and creative process in which the students need to vary their reading strategy and speed according to specific purposes of reading the story, such as thematic enrichment, language enrichment, cultural enrichment or personal involvement.

Case 7: Mr. Wong’s Lesson

1. How does the teacher prepare the students for the listening activity?

The teacher reviews the vocabulary and provides some help with understanding the context of the listening passage. The teacher also provides some help for students in how to fill in the blanks by looking at and listening for key words.

2. How would you describe the relationship between the teacher and the students?

The teacher seems to have a friendly relationship with the students. There is an interval when the teacher chats with the students. Students also appear to be quite relaxed in this class as they used their mother tongue spontaneously and spoke freely in the class.

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3. How did the teacher make this lesson purposeful to the students?

This lesson has not been made purposeful or meaningful to the students. The teacher has not personalised the lesson. The lesson could have been made more meaningful if the teacher had established a purpose or reason for listening. This could have been done by asking students some questions before the listening questions such as: “Why and when do we need to know about weather conditions?” “When did you last listen to the weather report?” “Was the report accurate or not?” etc. The teacher then needed to say why the activity for today’s class was going to be beneficial to students and go over some of the points that he made in the lesson prior to the listening task. However, in his comments the teacher states that it is the textbook that determines whether an activity is purposeful or not and due to limited time he could not make the activity more meaningful.

4. How did the teacher deal with the speaker’s accent? Is this an appropriate response?

The teacher chose not to draw a great deal of attention to the Australian accent. If students had expressed greater interest, the teacher could have talked more about different English accents and why it is important for students to be familiar with a variety of English accents. The teacher’s way of dealing with this issue is also dependent on how much instructional time he had left and wanted to devote to the topic. In his comments on the lesson, the teacher states that he would give the matter more attention depending on the focus of the lesson.

5. In his comments the teacher mentioned a number of constraints that influenced the way he taught listening. What are these constraints and how could they be overcome? What are the constraints that influence your teaching and how do you overcome them?

Mr. Wong mentions the need to follow the textbook which is influenced by the scheme of work which all the teachers of a given grade or form level must follow and complete. Mr. Wong also talks about the limited number of English lessons of which only two were for developing listening skills. He discusses the psychological pressure to keep up with the other teachers in completing the work. These constraints affected his teaching because he could not deviate from the textbook to incorporate other types of teaching. These constraints can be overcome by discussing with colleagues different ways of building on and incorporating into the scheme of work interesting activities which would support the textbook. If all colleagues elected to work together, this would reduce the workload of planning and encourage all teachers to build meaningful activities into their teaching. This might mean reducing the number of textbook dependent activities and allow for more creativity in teaching.

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Case 8: Ms Tam’s Lesson

1. What do you think is the teacher’s purpose in the first excerpt? Do you think this purpose has been achieved in this class?

In the first excerpt, the teacher’s purpose is to explain to the class the use of “why” and “because”. The teacher does a reasonable job of explaining the formal use of the two forms for responding to comprehension questions and in examinations, but she does not give any attention to the informal use of “because” in writing. Neither does she give any attention to the use of “because” as a conjunction. She does mention the different use of “because” when speaking and writing but it is not clear how well the students can appreciate this distinction. The teacher has only partially achieved her purpose of providing a clear explanation to the students on the use of “why” and “because” in writing whose purpose is restricted to school work: examinations and answering comprehension questions.

2. What do you think about the teacher’s use of language in conducting the lesson?

The teacher has used clear and simple language to explain the use of “why” and “because”. She has used some pedagogic language, “grammatical form” but her explanations provide adequate support to clarify the usage. The students should be able to appreciate the teacher’s language in explaining the grammar items.

3. Comment on how the teacher handled the situation in Excerpt 2.

In Excerpt 2, the teacher provides a situation and asks the students to answer the questions. When the students answer, the teacher cannot tell if they are being impertinent or answering the questions in a way to make the class laugh. The answer is also not the expected answer and the teacher is unsure about the students’ intentions. In the section on the teacher’s response to the lesson, the teacher states that she wanted to know why the student was laughing in the event that the student was not attending during the lesson. The teacher does not insist that the students answer correctly and nor does she acknowledge the humour of their remarks or the possible correctness of their responses. The teacher, in her comments, is more concerned about the possibility of a discipline problem and instead of losing time and dwelling on their responses or having the other students “watch your show,” she moves on to another student and then finally answers the question herself. The teacher has only one answer in mind and is striving to get that answer, “I’m running because I am late”. In focussing on the one answer, the teacher does not capitalise on the answers given to develop her teaching point.

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4. Did the teacher personalise this lesson for the students?

Few attempts were made to personalise this lesson for the students. The teacher asked a lot of potentially personal questions at the beginning of the lesson but did not allow the students to answer them. The pair work that followed after the situations was not modified to suit student’s personal life. The teacher could have personalised the lesson by allowing students to answer the questions that she had posed at the beginning of the lesson and by modifying the pair work to allow students to ask and answer personally meaningful questions which use “why and because”.

Case 9: Mr. Walter’s Lesson

1. (a) What procedures did the teacher follow when he taught the students to make a request in this lesson?

(b) What are the merits and demerits of this teaching approach?



(a) The teacher introduced the theme to the students and explained three ways of making requests and their differences. Then, he told the students how to give positive and negative responses to the requests made. The teacher read out each question and answer loudly to the class and had them repeat whatever he said after him. Then, he held a dialogue with students individually. After that, he asked pairs of students to hold a dialogue between them, one pair after the other.



(b) The merits and demerits of this teaching approach are:



•

The explanation of when a certain question and answer pattern should be used helps students to understand why they say certain things in a certain situation.



•

A quick lively drill (repetition in chorus and then individually) is helpful to establish sound and stress patterns before the words are used more freely.



•

However, if the students are only engaged in mechanical but not meaningful question and answer drills, they are deprived of the opportunity to use the language genuinely and communicatively to express meaningful ideas. Only when students can use the language patterns freely and appropriately in meaningful contexts can they be said to have mastered a grammatical structure.

2. Now that the communicative approach is often used in English language teaching, is there still a place for the audiolingual method in English language teaching?

A mere use of the audiolingual method throughout the whole lesson may result in boredom and unmeaningful communication. Pattern practice, drilling and memorisation

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may lead to language-like behaviours but they are not resulting in competence. Students are often unable to transfer skills acquired through audiolingualism to real communication inside or outside the classroom.

An occasional and a quick use of the audiolingual approach at the beginning stage of a communicative lesson may help the students to establish basic sound, stress and grammatical patterns. However, it is important that practice activities involve meaningful learning and language use. Students could be encouraged to use their creative abilities to make explicit the underlying grammatical use of the language.

3. Comment on the way pair work (between the teacher and a student and between two students) was conducted in the lesson.

The pair work could be less heavily guided and controlled by the teacher. Students could be allowed more room to express their ideas freely and completely on their own. It might not be appropriate for the teacher to jump in to correct the students’ “mistakes” at every minor point as this might not be conducive to the building up of the students’ confidence in their language use.



The teacher could feel free to ask all students to talk in pairs at the same time in the classroom so that all students could have equal chances to participate in the activity. The teacher could walk around the classroom to take note of the students’ language problems and then go over them with the class after the pair work was completed.

Case 10: Mr. Yeung’s Lesson

1. How appropriate is the teacher’s method of asking the students to discuss the answers to the multiple choice questions in groups?

It is good to ask the students to discuss the answers in groups first because they can have time to think about the answers and share their opinions with their classmates before they find out what the answer is. This helps the students to think independently, to broaden their minds, to communicate effectively, and to cooperate with others.

2. How did the teacher lead the discussion or elicit answers from the groups? Were his methods appropriately used?

He used four methods:



– He asked different groups for the answers.



– He asked if anyone had different ideas / answers.

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– He asked the students to explain why the answer should be X but not Y.



– He asked for evidence and reasons to support the answer.



All these methods were appropriately used.

3. The teacher said, “To save time, I will tell the students that there will be team work on the following day. They have to highlight all the problems on the paper. This helps them to get into the discussions in groups more quickly because they have thought about the answers the night before. If they do not have any questions to ask me, I’ll ask them to give me the reasons why a certain answer is better than the others.” How appropriate is this method in helping to solve the time problem?

It is good to ask the students to prepare beforehand so that they can start their discussions immediately when the lesson begins. To save time, the teacher does not have to carry out this kind of activity every time. However, if this activity is carried out, the teacher has to make sure that enough time will be given to the students during that activity so that the students can fully benefit from the activity.

4. What method is used in your classroom when checking the answers to the multiple choice comprehension questions? How would you compare your method and this teacher’s method?

Open-ended answers.

Case 11: Ms Chang’s Lesson

1. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher models the reading strategy for the students. How important and effective is teacher modelling in assisting learning?

Teacher modelling provides an example for students to see how to perform a particular task or carry out a particular strategy. In this class the teacher used thinking aloud to model the strategy. Thinking aloud provides a window into the teacher’s thought processes and allows the students to access the teacher’s thinking while s/he is engaged in carrying out a particular mental activity. By watching and listening to the teacher, the student may gain some insights into how s/he could do a similar task or strategy. Modelling may be a useful and effective technique for students to see and understand how to carry out a similar task or strategy. However, if the teacher’s explanations are unclear or if the teacher’s language is far above student’s proficiency level, problems may result.

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2. In Excerpt 1, the teacher is assisting the students’ discussion. How does she do this? Do these techniques work?

The teacher assists the discussion by questioning. She then builds on the student’s answer and tries to extend the answer through additional questioning. She also encourages the students to face each other so that the discussion would be more interactive. Later in the transcript, she offers a different point of view from that expressed by the students. Later she appoints a group leader to lead the discussion. All these techniques may facilitate group discussion. Questioning may help if it is not excessive and if it serves to extend and deepen students’ thinking and comprehension. Considering alternative answers could also be an asset to aiding comprehension. Seating students so that they can see each other allows for better face to face communication and aids the communicative process. In this lesson, the teacher has been assigning different leadership roles to aid the deeper comprehension of the text and to facilitate group work. The equal sharing of responsibilities allows every student the opportunity to lead the group and hold the job of asking the different comprehension questions.

3. In Excerpt 2, we see interaction by two students in Group 1. Comment on the possible reasons for this.

There could be a number of reasons for only two students speaking at this time. Maybe these two students are the most proficient and the quickest processors for the information. Maybe the other students had not read or comprehended the passage fully. In this case, if the others are attending, they will be learning from their group mates’ discussion. The other two members may also be off-task and may have lost interest. The passage could also be too difficult or may be uninteresting to the non-participating students. In this case, the teacher needs to build into the task an expected response from every member for every question asked. Also, in assigning roles, one student could be the checker or the person responsible for ensuring that all students are actively engaged in the task. If the passage is too difficult, the checker could also restate the questions and help the others to respond. If the teacher has mixed-ability groups, the more able students could aid the comprehension process for the less able students. To avoid having some students dominate the discussion, equal participation should be built into the task design as much as possible. This episode is also extracted from a longer text and it could very well be that the two other students join in at a later point.

4. The group discussions are designed for students to take turns leading. Can you discern the group leaders in Excerpts 2, 3, and 4? What are the strengths and weaknesses of having one student lead the discussion?

As mentioned in the previous answer, the teacher has designed the task so that the students take turns being the leader for different parts of the lesson.

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In Excerpt 2, Group 1, the leader appears to be S1 while in Excerpt 4, Group 3, the leader is clearly S3. However, no leader is easily discerned in Excerpt 3, Group 2. Here it appears that all the students, including the leader are actively engaged in developing meaning and giving their own interpretation. The task may be so interesting that the division of labour may become blurred. If this results in greater participation and better comprehension of text this is highly desirable. However, it would be good if the leader remains mindful of his/her role in order to facilitate the discussion. One problem that could arise is that the leader may be unable to read the prompts or write the answer to the question due to his or her limited proficiency. While this does not appear to be the case in Group 2, this way slows down the process. Despite the potential difficulty, denying some students a chance to be the leader could result in loss of self-esteem. Students usually assist each other when doing group work so some help would be provided for weaker proficiency leaders.

5. Comment on the types of questions to which students need to respond: “Give your opinion.” “What do you think?” “Do you like the ending?” How would you classify these questions?

These questions are different from the usually asked factual questions which tend to dominate comprehension lessons. These open-ended questions encourage students to give their personal opinions and to think beyond the level of the text thereby connecting with the text in a personally meaningful and relevant way.

6. How is this reading comprehension lesson similar to and different from typical reading lessons in your school? Discuss the strengths and limitations of using this type of approach to develop pupils’ reading for understanding.

Reading lessons tend to be individualistic or whole class in format. Students may be given a passage to read and questions to answer either individually or as a whole class. As noted in the previous question, the questions also tend to be factual in format. This lesson is atypical because it involves the teacher in modelling a particular skill or strategy and then the students in groups, led by a group leader, work through the answers to the questions given by the teacher. The teacher does the checking at the end of the class or as she walks around during the group work. The way the students read the passage is also unusual as the teacher has divided the lesson into different segments. The passage is read in chunks and thus allows time for students to predict and to apply other reading comprehension strategies. This is in stark contrast to reading the entire text and then responding to a host of comprehension questions. This type of lesson allows for more interactive participation of more students than the usual whole class comprehension format.

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Case 12: Ms Lee’s Lesson

1. What techniques did Ms Lee use to elicit information from the students? Comment on her use of elicitation techniques.

The elicitation techniques used were as follows: • The teacher basically used the IRF/IRE* patterns with modifications to provide more comprehensible input and help the students to get the answers more easily. • Other techniques that the teacher had used during the elicitation process were:



–

The teacher stopped in the middle of a sentence and waited for the students to complete the sentence for her



–

The teacher frequently called on the names of the students to answer the question immediately after asking the class a question though she sometimes waited for the students to volunteer answers.



–

When the teacher could not hear the answer clearly, she asked the student to repeat the answer.



It was good to elicit answers from the students for it made the students think. Though the teacher had varied the techniques used in elicitation, students might find the activity too nerve-wrecking if elicitation was the only method used throughout the lesson. The teacher might consider alternating the elicitation techniques with other input-giving techniques to lighten the intellectual burden put on the students. The students might also find it less scary if they were given more chances to volunteer answers than being called upon to answer questions too frequently throughout the lesson.



While almost all methods used were appropriate, it might not be necessary to introduce the meanings of the words to this class in Chinese for they are proficient in English. However, since the main aim of this lesson is not on teaching vocabulary but on teaching critical thinking, it might be acceptable for the teacher to use a quick way to get over the vocabulary obstacle in order to get back to the main goal of the lesson.

2. What methods did Ms Lee use to teach vocabulary? How appropriately were these methods used for this class of students?

The techniques that Ms Lee used were as follows: • Asking the students to look up the dictionary (as in explaining “Philanthropist”)

* Initiate Respond Feedback/Evaluate

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• Asking the students to read out the dictionary meaning in Chinese (as in explaining “Philanthropist”) • Asking the students to spell the word ( as in explaining “media” and “tumultuous”) • Asking the students to give the meaning of the word in Chinese ( as in explaining “media”) • Giving examples to illustrate the meaning ( as in explaining “media” and “emotions”) • Asking the students to pronounce the word together (as in dealing with “tumultuous” and “emotions”) • Asking students to guess the meaning of the word from the context ( as in explaining “tumultuous”) • Asking students to give the synonym of the word ( as in explaining “tumultuous”)

3. When Ms Lee did not know the word “philanthropist” raised by a student, how did she deal with the situation? Were Ms Lee’s reactions appropriate?

The teacher’s response was clever and encouraging. Students were encouraged to introduce new words to the class and learn new words together.

4. What understandings can be revealed by the students’ responses to the lesson?

Varied responses.

Case 13: Ms Wu’s Lesson

1. What observations can be made about the teacher’s approach to developing her pupils’ vocabulary?

We can say that the teacher has adopted a learner-centred approach to developing students’ vocabulary in that she has allowed students the choice of selection of the words and of locating the appropriate answers with the aid of their dictionaries. The teacher has allowed students to share their new words in small groups and then has one person from the group to come out and share one word. In essence the students are learning from each other with the teacher’s guidance but first they must select the words from the books they are reading and look up their meanings.

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2. This lesson is part of an Extensive Reading Lesson. How are the two activities connected?

First the students had to do some reading for 15 minutes. While reading they came across many different new words. In the group work that followed, they had to discuss the new words and find synonyms and antonyms in the dictionary as well as other associates of the target words in order to explain the meaning to their group mates before explaining the words to the whole class.

3. What are the similarities and differences in the pupils’ responses in the two excerpts?

In Excerpt 1, the teacher asked the student which section of the book she had found the word as well as to give the word in a sentence; provide a synonym and an antonym and the teacher also dramatised the word “enormous”. However, in Excerpt 2, the student drew an illustration of an ink pen and the teacher tried to associate the word to a well that she had seen in a Japanese movie. The teacher also requested the part of speech and also divided the word into two parts. No synonym or antonym was given in the second excerpt as the word is a noun. In both excerpts the teacher got the whole class to pronounce the words after her.

4. Would you say that this is a typical ERS lesson? Why or why not? Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this ERS lesson.

Most ERS lessons in Hong Kong are not conducted in this way. Most lessons allow students to read for the entire period. Because the teacher is allowing the students to engage in some interesting activities during the lesson, the students have less time to read. This is a limitation. However, the time spent sharing could be very productive as students get to learn from each other through the reading related activities and this could encourage them to read and learn more. This could be seen as a strength or an advantage in conducting this type of activity in an ERS lesson. To make up for the lack of reading time, students could be encouraged to read in their spare time.

5. Would you describe the approach to developing vocabulary as traditional or not? Explain and justify your response.

This approach is more non-traditional than traditional as the students are doing this as a group activity originating from their individual story reading. In more traditional approaches to developing vocabulary, students would tend to work in isolation with few opportunities for sharing. Even though students may be required to give the same types of answers such as the word meaning, part of speech, antonym, synonym and usage in a sentence, they may not be required to illustrate it or pronounce it.

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6. What other approaches, techniques and strategies do you use for developing pupils’ vocabulary in English language teaching?

Some other approaches used by teachers are: Students could keep a vocabulary book; students could also be required to give the collocations of the words; some teachers also give students the translation from L1; students are taught how to figure out the meaning of words by the context and the words nearest.

Case 14: Ms Liu’s Lesson

1. Comment on the following stages of pair work in this classroom:





(a) Organisation of pair work The teacher may organise the pair work in a more effective way by making sure that each student has a partner. The teacher could help the students to get into pairs. Since there are so many empty seats in the classroom, the pairs could be seated in such a way that they are spaced out to give less chance for the pairs to exchange the photos easily. If the teacher has given the instruction that the students should not exchange the photos, she has to make sure that this instruction is followed. The teacher may put the photos in a bag and ask each pair to draw out one photo from the bag so that it will be fair to everyone. (b) Preparing the students for the task Clear instructions could be given to the students as regards what they are supposed to do when they have received their photos before the activity starts, but not during the activity. Details regarding what each pair should do could be included in the instructions. Some examples of sentences written in the direct speech and indirect speech could be written on the board to give the students an idea about how the sentence should be written. Important grammatical points and points related to punctuation could be highlighted on the board to help the students write correct sentences. Some tryouts with the class as a warm up activity may help the students understand better how to carry out the activity. (c) Monitoring of pair work The teacher has made attempts to give help to individual students. However, it would be better if she could monitor how work is going on in the whole class, not only focusing on several students. If more than half of the class is not really performing the task properly, the teacher may have to stop the pair work for the time being and get the attention of the whole class first. Then, the teacher could explain the activity to the class again or get them motivated to do the task before breaking them into pairs again.

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(d) The design of the pair work activity It is good to use authentic photos of famous singers and actors as they help to arouse the students’ interest in the activity. However, the activity could become more meaningful and communicative if an information gap is built into it.

2. How motivated are the students and how actively are they participating in the learning activity? Are the teacher’s ways of managing the students’ learning, spoken language and discipline appropriate for this class of students?

The students can only be said to be motivated or participating in the learning activity if they are really engaged in learning. A relaxed atmosphere in the classroom may give the students a moment of happiness, but this will not help the students learn or do them any good in the long run. A laissez-faire policy on the part of the teacher only helps her to gain short-term popularity but this is at the expense of some long-term harm brought to the students’ learning, English language ability and morality.

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Concluding Remarks It has taken us several years to compile these cases. We stuck with this project over the years because we had a very strong belief in the efficacy of what we were doing. We hope that you have found this book useful for your discussions with peers and in deepening your thinking about where you are and want to go in your professional development as a language educator. We never stop learning and we never stop improving. May you always seek to become a more effective educator no matter how long you remain a teacher and regardless of your teaching context. Please contact us if you wish to share your comments about the usefulness of this book. Happy Teaching!

Gertrude TINKER SACHS ([email protected]) Belinda HO ([email protected])

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About the Authors

Dr. Gertrude TINKER SACHS is teaching in the Division of Language Literacy and Social Studies in the Middle Secondary Education Instructional Technology Department of the Faculty of Education at Georgia State University in Atlanta Georgia, USA. Previously, she taught pre-service and in-service teachers of English at the graduate and undergraduate levels in Hong Kong for twelve years where she worked at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (formerly the Institute of Language in Education) and the City University of Hong Kong. Dr. Tinker Sachs earned her Ph.D. at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE at the University of Toronto) in Toronto, Canada. She became a certified teacher in the Bahamas where she taught for ten years at secondary and primary levels. Her research interests include first and second language reading, teacher professional development and critical instructional approaches to teaching. Contact information: Middle Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dept. Georgia State University P. O. Box 3978 Atlanta, GA 30302-3978 USA e-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Belinda HO is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Communication in City University of Hong Kong. She holds a Ph.D. from Macquarie University in Australia. She has taught English as a second language for fourteen years and she has eighteen years’ experience in teaching English for specific purposes. She has also been a teacher educator for eleven years. Her research interests include reflective teaching, reflective learning, teacher education, learning strategies, learning style, diary studies, journal writing, writing, and issues related to the teaching of English for specific purposes. Contact information: Department of English and Communication City University of Hong Kong Tat Chee Avenue Kowloon Tong Hong Kong e-mail: [email protected]

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Index A abilities 150, 170 Abram P. L. 115 accents 72, 167 advantage 92, 98, 143, 176 Amanti, C. 55–56 Ambrosini, Michelle 22 answers xviii–xx, 4, 8, 18, 24, 29, 43, 53, 55, 62, 68, 72, 78–79, 82, 91, 95, 97–98, 100–105, 112, 120–121, 126, 128, 137, 146, 148–149, 155, 158, 160–161, 163–164, 168, 170–176 approach 18–21, 44, 56, 62– 64, 73, 84, 91–93, 113, 137–138, 158–159, 162, 165, 170, 173, 175–176 communicative 83, 92, 169 integrative 73 interactive 105 learner-centred 93, 175 pedagogical xii, 105 teaching 63, 92, 169 assess 150 atmosphere 23, 97, 128, 149, 178 attention 1, 7, 10, 13, 21, 29, 80, 97, 105, 114, 120, 137, 147, 159, 167–168, 177 attitude of school 97 audiolingual method 92, 169 authentic tasks 83 autonomous learning 74

B Babcock, S. P. 152 banding xxi–xxii, 3, 15, 23, 35, 47, 57, 63, 67–77, 85, 97, 107, 119, 131, 145, 162 system xxi Barcelos A. M. F. 152 belief 20, 45, 113–114, 162–163, 179 Biggs, J 84, 141 Bissex, G. L . 129 brainstorm 29, 105, 160 Britzman, D. P. 152 Brookes, Arthur 22 Brown, A. L. 115 Bruner, J. S. 138, 141 Buck, G. 74

C Celce-Murcia, Marianne 84 centralised national curriculum 151 Chan, L. K. S. 105–106, 147–148 Chinese ix, xv, xxi–xxii, 10, 23, 58, 62, 64, 68, 84–85, 91–92, 107, 119, 124, 126, 128, 141, 145, 165–166, 174–175 Chiu, M. M. 105–106 chorus 92, 169 Clandinin, D. J. 152

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Clarke, M. A. 152 Clarke, Pier J. ix class interaction 105 closure 86, 98, 132, 146 cognitively demanding 9, 157 Cohen E. 115 Cole, P. G. 105–106 collaborative skills 114 commentary xvii, xix, 8–9, 18, 20, 29–30, 43–44, 53, 55, 62–63, 72–73, 82–83, 91–92, 103–104, 112–113, 126–127, 137–138, 149–150 comments xvii–xx, 8, 18–19, 29, 43, 53–54, 62, 72–73, 82, 91, 103, 112–113, 126–127, 137, 149, 159, 161, 164, 167–179 communicate 43, 45, 75, 104, 164, 170 communicative approach 83, 92, 169 process 73, 172 composition 16–19, 24, 30–32, 160–161 comprehensible input 44, 46, 93, 128, 159, 174 comprehension xxii, 62–63, 80, 95, 97–98, 105, 107–108, 113–115, 160, 168, 172–173 Connelly, F. M. 152 conversation 46, 85, 93 cooperate 104, 170 cooperative groups 83, 115 learning 45, 84, 105–106, 114–115, 162 correction 55, 93 creativity 13, 30–32, 43, 104–105, 160, 163, 167 critical commentary xix, 9. 20, 30, 44, 55, 63, 73, 83, 92, 104, 113, 127, 138, 150 reading skills 1, 9–10, 13, 95, 104–105, 158, 174 thinking 1, 9–10, 13, 95, 104–106, 158, 174 curriculum xviii, 46, 84, 127, 141 centralised national curriculum 151

D Day, C. 152 Deci, E. L. 105–106 deductive grammar 83 demonstration 48, 93, 157 dialogue 85, 91, 95, 169 dictionary 122, 126, 140, 174–176 Dillon, J. T. 106 direct speech 146–147, 151, 177 discipline problems 45, 77, 83, 97 drill 88, 169

E education as inquiry 127, 129 reform 104

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effect of interaction 93 elicit ideas 126 information 127, 174 elicitation 30, 119, 126–128, 161, 174 technique 126–127, 174 English proficiency level 97 episode xvii, 4, 16, 20, 24, 36, 48, 58, 68, 78, 86, 98, 108, 121, 132, 146, 151, 166, 172 error correction 93 ERS lesson 43, 54, 138, 163–165, 176 examination(s) 16, 65, 85, 95, 168 oriented 92, 105 exercise 21, 24–27, 31, 68, 73, 78, 81, 87–98, 146, 160 expectations 31, 143, 151, 165 exposure 33, 57, 145, 150, 163, 166 extensive reading 33, 44

F fact 4– 8, 20, 55, 63, 83, 120, 126, 139, 151, 157 feedback session 93 Fernandez, A. 152 Ferris, D. 32 Foley, K. E. 115 Freeman, D. 152

G Gass, S. M. 141 Gillies, R. M. 115 Goldblatt P. F. xv, xx Golombek, P. R. 151–152 grammar deductive 83 explanations in teaching 77–84 making a request 85–93 rules 83 graphic organiser 1, 115 group activities 112–114 dynamics 105, 114 interaction 113–114, 138 work, 4, 36, 45, 48, 55, 98, 108, 115, 121, 131–132, 138, 143, 157, 172–173, 176 Grundy, Peter 22

H Halliday, M. A. K. 139, 141 Harmer, J. 93 Harste, J. C. 56, 129 Hauge, T. E. 152 Hedgcock, J. S. 32 Holmes, J. 74 Holthuis, N. 115 Hoover, L. A. 105–106 Hymes, D. 74

I in groups 4–5, 48, 72, 95, 98, 101, 103–104, 108, 114, 157–158, 165, 170–171, 173 Inch, E. S. 105–106 independent learning 104–106 indirect speech 146–147, 149, 177 individual accountability 114 students 86, 89, 105, 177 information text 163 initial questions xviii–xx input xviii, 16, 36, 44, 46, 92, 105, 128, 141, 157, 159–160, 174 instructions 45, 48–49, 54–55, 65, 73, 143, 146, 150, 165, 177 integrative approach 73 interactive xviii, 83, 105, 172–173 approach 105 interest xviii, xvi, 3, 21, 31, 44, 47, 62–63, 77, 83, 93, 131, 159–160, 166–167, 172, 178 interpersonal communication skills 106 interpretations xiii, 127 intonation 65, 91 intrinsic motivation 105–106

J Jacobs, George ix, 114–115 Johnson, David. W. 115 Johnson, K. E. xv, xx, 152 Johnson, R. T. 115 John-Steiner, V. 11

K Kagan, D. M. 152 Kagan, S. 84, 115 Kong, Stella ix, 141 knowledge xi, xviii, xx, 9–10, 29, 31, 56, 83, 108, 127, 139–141, 150–153 Krashen, S. 46, 129 Kwan, Becky ix, 22 Kwo, O. 152

L Lam, Rebecca ix, 105 Language acquisition 127 development 138–139 form 92 meta 21, 141 proficiency 3, 47, 107, 139, 164 second language acquisition 45–46, 93, 115, 129 second language learning 44, 138, 141 situation 85 structures 1, 31, 83, 160 target 113, 138, 165 teaching xiii, xxii, 57, 92–93, 138, 152–153, 169, 177

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Index

Larsen-Freeman, Diane 83–84 Lau, Angel ix learner-centred approach 93, 175 learning autonomous learning 74 difficulty 92 independent learning 104–106 rote learning 105 self-access 105 Lee, C. D. 11 Lee, Kenneth ix Lee, I. ix, 32 Lee, M. 32 Li, E. S. L. 32 Li, Hong ix Lin, A. M. Y. ix, 64 Lin, Fenli ix, 151 linguistic competence 157 linguistically demanding 9, 157 literacy 10–11, 56, 129, 152–153, 181 development 10 literature circles 43 Lo, Gloria ix, 151 Loh, W. I. 115 Long, M. H. 46, 115 Lotan, R. 115 Lung, Jane ix

M Madden, C. G. 46 make a request 86–87, 90, 92, 169 McGee, Edgar ix, 83–84 meaningful activities 92, 167 Medium of instruction (MOI) xv Meek, M. 56 memory work 85 metalanguage 21, 141 method 18–19, 64, 104–105, 165, 170–171, 174 audiolingual 92, 169 translation 62, 165 Miller, Lindsay ix, 74 mind map 4, 120 mistakes 29–30, 43, 55, 67, 145, 150, 170 mixed-code teaching 159 model(ing) 9, 20, 33, 45–56, 88, 95, 108, 114, 127–128, 157, 164, 171 Moll, L. C. 56 Moller, J. 152 monitoring 150, 177 Morretta, Teresa M. 22 Morrow, L. M. 129 mother tongue xv, xxi, 161, 166 motivate 9, 31, 35, 105, 151, 165 multiple choice 95, 98, 104, 170–171 comprehension 104, 171

N Nation, I. S. P. 140–141 native speaker of English 85 natural setting 128 negotiation 44–46, 83, 127, 150 Nolan, J. 105–106 Nunan, D. 74, 84, 93

O O’Donnell, A. M. 115 opinion(s) 1, 3–5, 8, 10, 16, 44, 58, 103, 105, 110, 120–121, 151, 157, 162, 170, 173 Or, W. W. F. 32 oral interaction 91 lesson 86 organisation of pair work 150, 177

P pair work 24, 48, 55, 78, 86, 92–93, 120, 143, 146, 150, 169–170, 177–178 pairs 78, 86, 90–91, 93, 95, 120, 146, 149–150, 169–170, 177 Palinscar, A. S. 115 Panofsky, C. P. 9, 11 Parry, K. 153 participation 9–10, 105, 138, 149, 172–173 passive 103, 105, 112–113, 166 learning mode 105 Paul, D. 129 pedagogical approach xii, 105 Pemberton, R. 32 perspective xviii, 1, 31, 92 phonics 140 Pierson, H. D. 32 poetry 163 Ponte, E. 153 Porter, P. A. 115 positive interdependence 114 post-reading 63, 98 Power, M. A. 115 practical knowledge 151–152 practice xiii, xv, xviii, xx, 20, 32, 56, 64, 73, 85–86, 93, 95, 105–106, 112, 115, 119, 127, 129, 150, 152, 161, 169–170 pre-listening 72–73 pre-reading 98 present continuous 86 present simple 86 present perfect 86 pre-writing activities 30, 160–161 Pride, J. B. 74 problem 57, 63, 67, 82, 103–105, 127, 139, 148, 168, 171, 173 procedure 63, 140, 158 185

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R reader response theory 43, 163 reading comprehension 95–115 extensive 33, 44 pre- 98 post- 63, 98 skills 1, 9–10, 13, 95, 104–105, 158, 174 while- 98 reciprocal teaching 115 reinforcement 91 remedial class 145, 151 repetitions 85 request 85–87, 92 respond xix, 19, 31, 53, 79, 87, 113, 159, 163–164, 172–174 to a request 92 Richard, J. C. xv, xx, 152 Richert, A. E. 153 Ritchie, J. S. 153 Roger, T. Johnson 115 rote learning 105 Ruddell, M. R. 140–141 Ryan, R. M. 105–106

S scaffolding 43–44, 46, 138–139, 162 Scarloss, B. 115 scheme of work 72, 167 Schultz, S. E. 115 second language acquisition 45–46, 93, 115, 129 learning 44, 138, 141 self-access learning 105 sentence 4, 60–62, 73, 79–80, 85–86, 88, 133, 139–140, 146–149, 151, 165, 174, 176–177 pattern 86 structure 85 Sharan, Shlomo 115 Siegal, M. 129 Skehan, P. 93 Slavin, R. E. 106, 115 Smagorinsky, P. 11 Smith, D. xv, xx Smith L. W. 11 social activity 127 speech direct 146–147, 151, 177 indirect 146–147, 149, 177 Stanne, Mary Beth 115 stimulation 103 Strickland, D. S. 56, 129 student-centred 131, 138 Su, S. 153

Swain, M. 46 syntax 44, 157

T Tang Wing Cheung 4–9, 120, 123, 157 target language 113, 138, 165 task 22, 30–31, 43, 45, 54, 64–65, 72, 83, 93, 108, 113–114, 138, 143, 150–151, 157–158, 160, 162–165, 167, 171–173, 177 teacher centred 63–64, 77, 83, 131, 138, 151, 158 student relationship 105 teaching approach 63, 92, 169 language xiii, xxii, 57, 92–93, 138, 152–153, 169, 177 mixed-code 159 reciprocal 115 strategies 73, 128 teams 103 Thewlis, Stephen H. 84 think independently 104, 170 Thomas, G. 105–106 Tompkins, Gail E. 22 translation method 62, 165

U Ulichny, P. 152

V van Ments, M. 105–106 variety 1, 13, 45, 72, 93, 95, 107, 119, 163, 167 Verderber, R. F. 106 Verderber, K. S. 106 vocabulary 8–10, 18–19, 29, 31, 43–44, 53, 55, 93, 95, 112, 117, 119, 126– 128, 131–134, 137–141, 158–162, 166, 174–177 development 117–141 item 8, 53, 126 learning strategies 139–140

W Wallace, C. 11 Wang, Yan ix, 46 Watkins, D. 84, 138, 141 while-reading 98 Whitton, J. 106 Wilson, D. E. 153 Wong, Shelley ix, 10 Wood, D. 152 word formation 139–140

Y Yang, Ivan ix, 56, 128–129 Yeh, Vicky Hui-chin ix, 56 Yung, Catherine ix

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