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Unit III

D ISCOURSE AND VOCABUL ARY

We cannot deny the fact that is one of the most important components of any language to be learnt. The place we give vocabulary in a class can still be discourse-oriented. Most of us will agree that vocabulary should be taught in context, the challenge we may encounter with this way of approaching teaching is that the word ‘context’ is a rather catch-all term and what we need to do at this point is to look at some of the specific relationships between vocabulary choice, context (in the sense of the situation in which the discourse is produced) and co-text (the actual text surrounding any given lexical item).

Lexical cohesion

As we have seen in Discourse Analysis, related vocabulary items occur across clause and sentence boundaries in written texts and across act, move, and turn boundaries in speech and are a major characteristic of coherent discourse.

Do you remember which were those relationships in texts we studied last Semester? We call them Formal links or cohesive devices and they are: verb form, parallelism, referring expressions, repetition and lexical chains, substitution and ellipsis. Some of these are grammatical cohesive devices, like Reference, Substitution and Ellipsis; some others are Lexical Cohesive devices, like Repetition, and lexical chains (such us Synonymy, Antonymy, Meronymy etc.)

Why should we study all this? Well, we are not suggesting exploiting them just because they are there, but only because we can give our learners meaningful, controlled practice and the hope of improving them with more varied contexts for using and practicing vocabulary.

Halliday and Hasan (1976) gave lexical devices the name of Reiteration. Reiteration means either restating an item in a later part of the discourse by direct repetition or else reasserting its meaning by exploiting lexical relationships. Lexical relations Reiteration means either are the stable semantic relationships that exist restating an item in a later between words and which are the basis of part of the discourse by descriptions given in dictionaries and thesauri: direct repetition or else for example, rose and flower are related by reasserting its meaning by exploiting lexical hyponymy; rose is a hyponymy of flower. relationships. Reiteration is not a chance event; writers and speakers make conscious choices whether to repeat , or find a synonym, or use another device.

Unfortunately, Discourse analysts have not yet given us any convincing rules or guidelines as to when or why a writer or speaker might choose a synonym for reiteration rather than repetition or any other device. However, in practice, language teachers must content themselves with observing each case as it arises and, for the moment, work on raising an awareness of such phenomena where awareness is lacking, and, most important of all, providing the lexical equipment in L2 and practice of the skills to enable learners to create texts that resemble naturally occurring ones themselves. It means that it is important to make learners aware that synonyms are not just ways of understanding new words when they crop up in class, nor are they some abstract notion for the organization of lexicons and thesauri, but they actually are there to be used, just as any other linguistic device, in the creation of natural discourse.

Another implication for mentioned by McCarthy (1991), is that learning to observe lexical links in a text could be useful in the following way: it encourages learners to group lexical items together according to particular contexts by looking at the lexical relations in any given text. One of the recurring problems for learners is that words presented by the teacher or coursebook as synonym will probably be only synonymous in certain contexts and the learner has to learn to observe just when and where individual pairs of words may be used interchangeably. For example:

Start and commence in the first sentence are interchangeable, but not in the second.

The meeting commenced at six thirty. But from the moment it started, it was clear that all was not well.

I commenced* to climb the tree, I started to feel insecure.

Little is known about the transferability of these lexical features of text from one language to another. Some languages may have a preference for repetition rather than linking by synonymy. What do you think about Spanish? And English? Sometimes learners may find the transfer of these skills to be easy and automatic. In either case, the learner may need to use a range of vocabulary that is perhaps wider than the coursebook or materials have allowed for. Additionally, an awareness of the usefulness of learning synonyms and hyponyms for text-creating purposes may not always be psychologically present among learner; there is often a tendency for such areas of vocabulary learning to be seen as word study divorced from actual use, or at best only concerned with receptive skills. Conventional treatments of vocabulary in published materials often underline this word-out-of- context approach.

L EXIS IN TALK

So far we been focusing mostly on written texts and their Textuality, but what is there to say about spoken language? According to McCarthy, there is no reason why the lexical relations taken into account above should not also apply to spoken data. Discourse analysts have observed how Textuality is a concept in linguistics and speakers reiterate their own and take up one another’s literary theory that vocabulary selections in one form or another from turn to turn refers to the attributes and develop and expand topics in doing so. McCarthy names this that distinguish the text phenomenon as relexicalisation and we are certain to say that (a technical term through relexicalisation speaker follow or not the maxims of indicating any conversations, already studied in Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, communicative content last Semester. under analysis) as an object of study in those Let us look at a piece of data from the film If you are able to, see fields. It is associated in this film. I am sure you “Something’s gotta give” and find instances of will enjoy it and besides both fields with you’ll give the dialogue structuralism and post- relexicalisation: a clearer contextual framework which will structuralism. help you to understand the situation.

E_ You know my name.

H_ Erica Jane Barry. I have looked you up on the Internet. Do you know that there are over 8000 websites that mention you?

E_ That's not possible.

H_ Yeah, it's true. I know everything about you now, and not because of last night.

E_ Yeah, no, no. I understood. Actually, I looked you up too.

H_ You did?

E_ I know you grew up in L.A., which I think nobody did. You started your own record label at 29, very impressive and sold it at 40, even more impressive. Then you started a magazine, dabbled in the Internet, and then you invested in a small record company...which you turned into the second largest hip-hop label in the world.

H_ It's exhausting just hearing about it.

E_ Yeah, I know. I know, but...The truth is, it goes by fast, doesn't it?

H_ Like the blink of an eye.

The arrows show us the connections the speakers (Erica and Harry) are making to show acceptance or refusal of the topics brought up by them. For example, Erica finds it funny that Harry knows what her name is, so she makes that comment in order to know , we suppose, more about Harry’s thoughts about her and Harry responds with her complete name confirming that he actually does know her name. Then he brings up the topic of websites mentioning Erica’s name to which Erica reacts with a laughter and surprise saying that it is impossible that her name is mentioned in so many sites. Harry goes back to it claiming that it is true, making an innocent joke about how much he knows her already, linking the great number of websites plus the fact he saw her naked the night before. We can clearly see the way Erica avoids the talking about ‘last night’ and instead, she goes back to browsing-the-web topic. The choice of Harry of the short question ‘you did?’ is maybe not for confirmation but out of curiosity and surprise, and with it he is also encouraging Erica to say what she has found out about him. Erica gives him a report of his past achievements to what he answers, as a concluding comment, with the word ‘exhausting’, to which Erica adds in the same Relexicalisation of mood (conclusion) that it all goes fast, to which in turn, Harry shows some elements of the agreement by adding a synonymous phrase of ‘fast’: ‘like a blink of previous turn provides an eye’. just such a contribution to As we can see, the intimate bond between topic relevance and development and the modification and reworking of lexical items provides other already used makes the conversation develop coherently, seeming important ‘I am with to move from sub-topic as a seamless whole. Speakers can bring you’ signals to the up topics into conversations, but whether they are taken up or not initiator. depends on the other speaker(s). If one speaker insists on pursuing his/her topics, ignoring the wishes of others, this is precisely when we recognize deviance into monologue or complain later to our friends that ‘X was hogging the conversation’. Utterances by one speaker are the invitation to a response by another. Do you see the connection with the maxims by Grice more clearly now?

Relexicalisation of some elements of the previous turn provides such a contribution to relevance and provides other important ‘I am with you’ signals to the initiator.

Let us go over again this phenomenon of Relexicalisation. Keep in mind that is something done between speakers (oral language). We can also say that it refers to the use of lexical cohesive devices between speakers.

Reflect: we have mentioned before that Relexicalisation is related to Grice’s Maxims of the Cooperative Principle. In which way do you think it is?

In linguistics, a register is a variety of a

language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For REGISTER example, an English speaker may adhere Consider the following words: more closely to prescribed , pronounce words ending in -ing with a Problem- Drawback - Snag velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal (e.g. "walking", not "walkin'") and refrain Which one is more likely to occur in a from using the word "ain't" when speaking in a formal setting, but the formal scientific report? Which one may same person could violate all of these come up in a friendly conversation? prescriptions in an informal setting.

Clearly we might not expect to find snag As with other types of language occurring in a formal scientific report simply because of variation, we tend to find register the relationship between vocabulary and Register. continua rather than discrete varieties — there is an endless number of Lexical choice within the identified clusters will depend registers we could identify, with no clear on the context (textbook, magazine, news report, etc.), boundaries. Discourse categorization is the author’s assumptions about the audience (cultured/ a complex problem, and even in the educated/ readers of the popular tabloids press, etc.) general definition of "register" given above (language variation defined by use whether the style is to be read as ‘written’ or ‘spoken’, not user), there are cases where other and so on. This is close connected with the elements of kinds of language variation, such as communications introduced in Linguistics, Discourse regional or age dialect, overlap. Analysis. Can you see how?

Let’s see how these words are commonly used:

The only minor snag with the writing, is that Harris can be repetitive.

The main drawback of a final salary scheme, as far as employers are concerned, is that it is an unknown cost.

Maybe they're the real problem, not our way of life.

DISCOURSE AND GRAMMAR

Nothing we shall say will undermine the importance of grammar in language teaching, just the opposite; we should take as a basic premise that without a command of a rich and variable resource of the grammar offered by a language such as English, the construction of natural and sophisticated discourse is impossible.

I would like to share with you what Diane Larsen- Freeman suggests as regards the teaching of grammar. She challenges conventional views of grammar and instead of simply analyzing grammatical form, she includes grammatical meaning and use as well.

Most educators agree that speaking and writing accurately is part of communicative competence, just as is being able to get one’s meaning across in an appropriate manner. Moreover, research has shown that teachers who focus students attention on linguistics form during communicative interactions are more effective than those who never focus on form or who only do so in decontextualized grammar lessons. According to Freeman, focusing on grammar form during communicative interactions rather than form in isolation is one way to prevent the pendulum from swinging beyond its point of equilibrium. “Grammar is But… how can we make a balance between grammar and about much more than forms.” communication? Freeman claims that the first step to take is to come to a broader understanding of grammar than has usually been the case. She says: “ equating grammar with form and the teaching of grammar with the teaching of explicit linguistic rules concerning form are unduly limiting, representing what we have called myths, which only serve to perpetuate the pendulum swing between language form and language use. Grammar is about form and one way to teach form is to give students rules; however, grammar is about much more than forms and its teaching is ill served if students are simply given rules.” So, we need to change our attitude and add a more robust view of grammar.

A THREE-DIMENSIONAL GRAMMAR FRAMEWORK

As we were saying earlier, our goal should be to achieve a better fit between grammar and communication, then, it is not helpful to think of grammar as a discrete set of meaningless, decontextualized, static structures. Nor is it helpful to think of grammar just as prescriptive rules about linguistics form, such as injunctions against splitting infinitives or ending sentences with prepositions. Grammatical structures not only have (morphosyntactic) form, they are also used to express meaning (semantics) in context-appropriate use (pragmatics). And this will constitute our frame of reference. It will be this framework the one which will guide us in constructing an approach to teaching grammar.

The framework suggested by Freeman takes the form of a pie chart. Its shape helps us to make salient that in dealing with the complexity of grammar, three dimensions must concern us: structure or form, semantics or meaning, and the pragmatics conditions governing use. These dimensions, as the graphic below suggests, are not hierarchically arranged as many traditional characterizations of linguistic strata depict. Finally, the arrows connecting one wedge of the pie with another illustrate the interconnectedness of the three dimensions; thus a change in any one will have an effect on another wedge.

Morphosyntactic and Lexical meaning. lexical patterns. Phonemic/ Graphemic patterns. Gramatical meaning.

FORM/STRUCTURE MEANING/ SEMANTICS

USE/PRAGMATICS

Social context. Linguistic discourse context. Presuppositions about context.

In the wedge of the pie having to do with structure, we have those overt lexical and morphological forms that tells us how a FORM particular grammar structure is constructed and how it is sequenced with other structures in a sentence or text. With certain structures, it is also important to note the phonemic/graphemic patterns.

In the semantic wedge, we deal with what a grammar structure means. Note that a meaning can be lexical (a dictionary definition for instance) or it can be grammatical (e.g. the conditional states MEANING both a condition and outcome or result)

You must remember from Discourse how broad the definition of pragmatics is. For our purposes here we will limit pragmatics to mean “the study of those relations between language and context that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of a USE language”. We will leave the term context broad enough though, so that context can be social (i.e. a context created by interlocutors, their relationship to one another, the setting), or it can be a linguistic discourse context (i.e. the language that precedes or follows a particular structure in the discourse or how a particular genre or register of discourse affects the use of a structure), or context can even mean the presuppositions one has about the context.

The influence of pragmatics may be ascertained by asking two questions:

1. When or why does a speaker/writer choose a particular grammar structure over another that could express the same meaning or accomplish the same purpose? For example, what factors in the social context might explain a paradigmatic choice such as why a speaker chooses a yes-no question rather than an imperative to serve as a request for information?

Do you have the time?

Please tell me the time.

2. When or why does a speaker/ writer vary the form of a particular linguistic structure? For instance, what linguistic discourse factors would result in a syntagmatic choice such as the indirect object being placed before the direct object to create:

Jenny gave Frank a brand-new comb.

Jenny gave a brand-new comb to Frank.

Despite the permeable boundaries between the dimensions, we have found it useful to view grammar from these three perspectives. We trust that the utility of this approach suggested by Freeman will become clearer as we proceed and also as we encourage ourselves to use it. Let see how it works:

We should begin by asking the questions posed in the three wages of Freeman’s pie.

What How is it does it form? mean?

When/Why is it used?

Let us consider an example. A common structure to be taught at a high-beginning level of English proficiency is the ‘s possessive form. If we analyze this possessive form as answers to our questions, we would fill in the wedges as below (analysis based on Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1999).

Form of Possessive Meaning of Possessive Use of Possessive

This way of forming possessives in Besides possession, the possessive Filling in this wedge requires that English requires inflecting regular or genitive form can indicate we ask when the ‘s is used to singular nouns and irregular description (a debtor’s prison), express possession as opposed to plural nouns not ending in s with amount (a month’s holiday), other structures that can be used ‘s or by adding an apostrophe relationship (Jack’s wife), to convey this same meaning. For after the s’ ending of regular part/whole (my brother’s hand), example, possession in English plural nouns and singular nouns and origin/agent (Shakespeare’s can be expressed in other ways_ ending in the sound /s/. this form tragedies). Also, although all with a possessive determiner (e.g., of the possessive has three languages have a way of signaling his, her, and their) or the allomorphs: /z/, /s/, and /∂Z/, possession, they do not all regard periphrastic ‘of the’ form. which are phonetically the same items as possessable. For conditioned: /z/ is used when it example, Spanish speakers refer occurs after voiced consonants to a body part using the definite and vowels, /s/ following article instead of a possessive voiceless consonants, and /∂Z/ form. ESL/EFL students will have occurs after sibilants. to learn the semantic scope of the possessive form in English.

MEANING FORM possession, description, 's or s' amount, realtionship, /z/ /s/ /∂Z/ part/whole, origin/agent.

USE 's versus possessive determiner 's versus 'of the'

Thus, by using Freeman scheme, we can classify the facts that affect the form, meaning, and use of the possessive structure. This is only a first step. Teachers would not necessarily present all these facts to students, recognizing that students can and do learn some of them on their own. And certainly no teacher would choose to present all these facts in a single lesson or on one occasion. Nevertheless, distributing the features of the target grammatical structure among the three wedges of the pie can give teachers an understanding of the scope and multidimensionality of the structure. In turn, this understanding will guide teachers in deciding which facts concerning the possessive will be taught and when and how to do so.

Of course we can also use this three dimensional grammar framework to work with vocabulary. There’s another well known exponent of teaching language from a socio-constructivist perspective. We have mentioned her before, in our previous unit. She is Tessa Woodward and now I would like to introduce you to her examples and practical principles to bear in mind when working with everything that can go into a lesson. Here we go!

Mandatory assignment 1 (deadline October 3rd )

Answer the following questions:

1- What’s the difference between reiteration and relexicalization? 2- In which way is Relexicalization related to Grice’s maxims of the Cooperative Principle? 3- What is the usefulness of being aware of lexical cohesion for L2 learners? 4- Draw the three dimensional pie suggested by Freeman to present new language to students providing an example of your own to illustrate it.

CLASSES AND PEOPLE

Reflect on the following statements:

 Sometimes we forget that teachers can learn and students can teach.  Teachers need to learn how students are thinking about something already before they can settle on the best starting point and way to proceed.  Students can help us teach better, if only we pay more attention to them.

Real learning doesn’t happen only at primary school. It goes on at all ages. Every time students or teachers change groups, institutions or countries, there is always a lot to learn about dress codes, punctuality, turn-taking and routines and rules of the new setting. There is also a lot to learn about individuals, their memories, projects and personalities. Some points will be made explicit by the institution or by teachers, perhaps in pre-arrival information or in a group meeting before starting lessons. Some other may be negotiated continually throughout the course. Other may be less conscious of. They may remain largely unspoken. Woodward suggests the following points to consider as some areas that are legitimate subject matter for a lesson or part of one.

Examples in this category are how long a lesson, a break, a day, a week is in the place you work, how long students are used to spending on classroom tasks and Time homework, how late and how early it is normal for teachers and students to arrive, what happens to students and staff if they’re too late or too early, and how fast the pace of the teaching is. Questions of interest here are where staff and students are allowed to go, whether you Territory have a place to store your clothes or books; and what areas of rooms people are allowed to decorate. There may be differences between schools and countries in how much it is normal to Clothing cover or reveal, how different from other people you or your students may look, and how status is marked by clothing. Issues here can be how noisy students are allowed to be, whether physical contact is Conduct accepted, who you can talk to and look at, and whether students can help, cooperate, compete, laugh, turn round, ask questions. Things to learn about resources are: what belongs to whom, what you can touch or use with or without permission, whether anything is dangerous and what happens if Resources someone breaks something. You need to know who has the keys and which of the following are available or acceptable to work: word processors, newspapers, digital dictionaries, puppets, masks, mobile phones, internet access. Issues here are whether students are expected to regulate their own behaviour, whether they work well alone, in pairs, how much they are allowed to be physically or mentally present or absent, what the level of each student’s participation is and how Behaviour students can improve their own memory and confidence. Other issues worth considering are how you and your students can put yourselves into a resourceful frame of mind and actually enjoy classes. There is the issue too of how students prefer to learn. Classes operate differently in terms of confidentiality, making decisions, commenting Rules on attitudes and behaviour, and supporting others. The people in the classroom, the teachers and students, also form part of the content of lessons in their own right. Students draw on their own interests, jobs and projects, they express things they really want to say, and find out real things about each other. People in the Teacher use stories and examples from their own life experience. The groups class process(i.e. what is happening in terms of interactions, attitudes and behaviour between people in the group) can itself become one of the central topics. Some teachers and students who are used to working with language as an external subject distanced from themselves will not like the ‘unmaking’ that is involved in using the people in the room as human, personal subject matter. Others might feel that at last things are becoming interesting and relevant to them and that this is the only way to work with language, itself a social venture.

But what about language and it components?

When learning a new language people usually want to start translating and collecting names for things. Learning words, the names for things in a new language is very important and very natural. Words are instantly useful for making friends, getting enough to eat, avoiding accidents and thus are a natural place to start, don’t you think?

Isolated words

Do you remember any personal strategy you used to have or you still have to learn new useful words? Were you able to remember them from the first time you saw them? Ok, that would be wishful thinking

for anybody!

Students often berate themselves for not being able to learn words the first time they meet them. But there is a lot to learn about a new word. It may well take many meetings before you know most of the following things about a new word.

Students need to learn the following:

What a word means.

 There are several different sorts of word meaning to know about, such as a word’s closest in your own language, and its metaphorical meaning (e.g. Horsing around)  Part of meaning also comprises what the opposites are, what the synonyms are, and the hyponyms. Meanings is also about how the word is the same and different from other words in the same semantic field. Meaning also involves considering other words that look or sound the same, and what the connotations of the word are. Knowing about meaning includes understanding what the range of the word is.

Can you find examples for every aspect of meaning of ‘problem’? Let’s make the most of its meaning:

A problem Difficulty, trouble,

l

r

e

p b o m hassle, complication, ups and downs, snag, catch, fuss...

A problem that causes a delay or Hitch, setback, prevents you from doing something hiccup, hurdle, stumbling block, hindrance A complicated problem that makes it Dilemma, catch-22,

hard for you to decide what to do no-win situation, vicious circle Small problems that a new company, Teething troubles product, system, etc has in the beginning

How to say a word

 How to say the individual sounds, how to say the word in rhythm, with the right mouth setting, and with the correct intonation in a number of moods and voices, e.g. lovely or angrily.  Which words you find really difficult to pronounce.... a typical one is ‘communication’ isn’t it?

How to write it

 How to shape the individual letters and join them up and whether to use capital or small letters or a hyphen.

Morphology

What are the word’s constituent building blocks and its grammar or patterns? For example, how to pluralise it (one horse, two horses, a herd of horses...) what its word class is (noun, adjectives or verb, for instance) and how to change this, how to make plausible new words from it, and where it and its parts come from.

Its use in context

What order it can be used in with other words. What its function is in a chain of words, how fixed or free it is in combining with other words.

You see, there are many things we should make our students aware of every time they come across an interesting new word, actually any word can be interesting when you start to exploring its different possibilities. As you may have noticed already, what Woodward suggests here is closely connected to the grammar pie by Freeman, can you see in which way? Let’s analyse the word ‘problem’: HOW DO WE SAY IT? (präb′ləm)

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? HOW DO WE a question WRITE IT? proposed for problem solution or consideration problem

MORPHOLOGY CONTEXT: problematic not formal or problematical informal: neutral problematically

Now, but what about lexical phrases or grammatical patterns, including sentence types and stretches of discourse. It is important to remember that, at some stage, we may need to go into the kind of detail above with regard to whatever content we plan to include in our lessons.

Groups of words

Since a language is made up of thousands of individual words, it might theoretically be possible to learn a language by learning thousands of individual words, just as it may be possible to become a teacher by learning thousands of individual teaching steps. ‘Chunking up’, or enjoying sequences and patterns, starts happening naturally and very quickly, however. Students will pick up multi-word chunks like ‘it’s the real thing’ , ‘Well, basically,..’ or ‘Turn it on’ from ads, songs, teacher talk and other places. These word groups can be noted, recognized and produced by learners as whole meaningful units which are simply reeled off as if they were just a single word. These groups can include quite long phrases such as, ‘One thing that really drives me crazy is....’ or shorter ones like: ‘the thing is...’

As long as they are helped with a meaningful setting and all the information and practise they need, students can pick up these lexical phrases as easily in class as if they were single words. They are thus a very useful thing to include in the language lessons.

Which chunks can we encourage our students to use with the phrase ‘ have a problem’ or with its synonyms? How about these ones:  Have a problem  Have difficulty/trouble with/doing sth  Be in (deep/ serious/ big) trouble  Be confronted with  Be faced with  Be up against  Have a lot on your plate  Not be out of the woods

Grammatical patterns

So far with Woodward, we have been taking words and groups of words as the starting place for things to include in the language lesson. It’s time now to think about longer stretches of language and thus, about grammar. For although it can be useful to learn ’have difficulty’, as a word group, it takes you a lot further in life if you can pop this word group into fuller sentences or utterances such as ‘I was having difficulty breathing!’ or You’ll be in deep trouble if you do that!’.

The form and meaning of individual words, groups of words, sentences and utterances are affected by their environment in longer chains of words or stretches of discourse. It’s similar to the way flowers in a garden are affected in a soil type, temperature and rainfall. We could say that grammar is to utterances and sentences as nature is to flowers. It is the patterning influence or rule-maker. It says which flower can bloom at a certain time of the year. Students will often start noticing similarity in:

Form, by which it is meant look and sound or identical first lines of new paragraphs and word order and also in meaning.

As a learner looks through a transcription of a conversation or other kinds of text, or listen to target language talk, patterns or similarities of these kinds will readily be noticed. This is useful because the patterns can act rather like templates from which we can turn out lots of similar versions for our own use. So, for example, when we learn the basic meaning and form of the word group, we can use it to express other similar phrases.

We need to select for teaching and learning the most generative, usable patterns, structures or ‘rules’ we can find. Finding them used to be a matter of one’s own intuition and recollection plus the invention of examples, or of looking in the textbooks and coursebooks to see what the authors, also working from intuition, memory or habit suggested. These days, people interested in describing and categorizing language and seeing how language works, can run huge numbers of texts (samples of natural writing and speaking known as ‘corpus’) through a computer program (known as a concordance’) to see which patterns are most widespread in samples of actual native speaker data. From these we can gather pattern which are really of proven use. Of course intuition is still useful as we need to consider how current and widespread a pattern is in the speech community that our particular learners are destined for. There follow a few brief ideas on the kinds of patterns that can be included in language lessons:  Normal word order (Subject, Verb, Object) as well as marked English word order. This is so that students whose language has a different normal word order can express their thoughts clearly in English.  Working on SVO pattern entails dealing with noun phrases every bit as much as verb phrases, so it’s important not to spend a disproportionate amount of time on the latter.  Work on four basic sentence types, e.g. declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative. Work on the form of these sentence types needs to be coupled with work on meaning and use, since we can use a declarative not just to declare some information but also to complain, request or ask for information depending on their circumstance and according to the speaker or writer’s intention and the listener or readers’ perception. As always concentrating on form cannot be divorced for long from meaning and use.  There are a number of reasons why it is useful to study language in sentences. Sentences are short, easy to write up on the board, well-described in grammar books and provide a secure framework for teachers and learners. Sentence level work also has disadvantages though. Sentences treat language as if it was a selection of discrete units almost divorce from language user meaning. Working with separate sentences doesn’t help learners to string discourse together. It’s important therefore to supplement work on patterning or grammar at the level of the individual sentence with work on stretches of language, also known as discourse of text. Apart from all the patterning that is already happening inside words and lexical phrases, and in sentences or single utterances, stretches of discourse or text have their own pattern too. When talking or writing, for example there are acceptable and non-acceptable ways in every language of doing the following:

 Indicating the topic of discourse, e.g. in speaking, ‘Erm, about this money you mentioned....’, or in writing, ‘This article sets out to ....’  Indicating a block of ideas that hang together.  Indicating change,  Suspension  Hanging things together physically using changes of vocabulary or pronoun,  Hanging ideas together intellectually by putting them in an interesting, logical or chronological order,  Taking turns, pausing and winding up...

Please, if there are any of these concepts that you don’t understand and you would like to know what they mean, don’t hesitate to ask me!

Discourse or text is thus a perfectly respectable thing to choose to work with your students and can be started at beginner level with the introduction of the word, ‘and’!

Functions

Another category of language we can work on in class is functional language, i.e. language grouped by what it’s used for. The ‘functions’ selected for study in EFL coursebooks are often clusters of language different in form but similar in purpose. Coursebook functions often end in –ing, e.g. thanking or inviting. We can invite someone with any of the following pieces of language, which are known as exponents of the function’:

Would you like a ...... ?

Fancy a ...... ?

X requests the pleasure of.....,

How about.....?, and more.

There may be literally a hundred of ways of inviting someone depending on factors such as the situation and role relationship. We need to know their form, meaning and use, at sentence and utterance level and when embedded in discourse. Below are a few guidelines if you are thinking of including functional language in your classes:

 Don’t just teach positive functions such as accepting, thanking and complimenting, but also teach functions such as turning down an invitation and expressing displeasure.  Keep teaching plenty of vocabulary to go with the functional exponents and help students to sort all the functional phrases into learnable groups whether by using formal similarity, style register or range.  Don’t just teach short functions like blessing someone when they sneeze or the initial exchanges involved in a conversation, but remember to include larger, longer functional areas. Work on natural combinations of functions, such as greeting someone and then going on to enquire about health and recent adventures.  Choose functional areas that help students to combat their expressive limitations by for example, helping them to hesitate or draw someone else out in conversation.  Do more than just intuit examples of language which will fit each functional area. If we take a topic such as disagreeing, for example, and a setting such as meeting of colleagues at work, we may dream up phrases such as, ‘I’m awfully sorry but I can’t agree with you there’ or ‘I think you are right to a certain extent’. If we taped some real meetings and noted down the actual phrases used, we might find that ‘Yeah, but....’ is the most common exponent of disagreement in a particular meeting. Again, corpora and concordances can inform our work here.

Functions, as met and discuss in some EFL coursebooks, can seem a rather narrow way of working on language if the exponents are displayed as brief, decontextualized phrases. But if we are careful to include the kind of work above, setting them in time, place and role relationship, this can be an interesting and useful category of language to include in language lessons.

The original meaning of the term function is ‘purpose or use’. Thus we can ask the ‘function’ of any unit of language, e.g. What is the function of this paragraph in this essay? Or What is the function of this letter seen from the newspaper editor’s point of view? We can look not just at coursebook functions and not just at what is said or written in any conversation or text, but at what is done with what is said or written.

Practical principles for teaching words, words groups, grammatical patterns and functions

Teachers and students will decide to teach and learn some words and patterns perhaps because they appear in the coursebook, they occur frequently in an exam students are to sit soon or are of special interest to student’s academic, business or leisure pursuits. Other words and patterns will be picked up or acquired without special study. If we want to plan for the first kind of learning, we need to work through the following stages in our lessons: exposure, noticing, remembering, and use and refinement of language. We have already mentioned this in our previous unit, I hope you remember! We’ll take these four types of work one by one, explaining what they mean and suggesting guidelines or activities for each.

A. Exposure to language

To ensure that the students have the same chance to meet new language, whether it consists of individual words, word groups, patterns within sentences or texts and talks, we need to plan plenty of exposure so that students can encounter it in any or all of the following places:

 In mini-contexts such us lists, at the back of the coursebook and their units, on the board taken from texts that will be read later, in their notebook, spoken by the teacher or by fellow students  In short constructed spoken or written texts including one short meaningful sentence or exchange, or other short texts deliberately under or just at the level of the students  In elaborated and supported texts (original authentic texts, containing paraphrases, synonyms and other supplements such us glossaries and pictures to aid understanding  In longer and in increasingly unsupported stretches of discourse  In a variety of channels such us radio, TV, teacher or other language user talk including peer talk, faxes, e-mail, films, letters, and in a range of graded and unsupported text types such us readers, unabridged stories, dialogue journals and oral presentations

There are many potential language items and patterns to meet while learning a language. Once met, however, rather than trying to arrange for prolonged and detailed focus on each of thousands of words, phrases, patterns, functions and sentence and discourse types, the main idea in many classes is for the teacher to help students to adopt useful strategies for working with the language they are exposed to. This involves encouraging students to notice, learn, use and refine language.

B. Noticing

While working on words, groups of words, grammatical patterns and functions, plan to teach students how to notice therefore, meaning and use. This will reinforce what is already happening at an unconscious level and also encourages students to branch out and do more learning on their own. It starts a useful habit.

When planning your work on noticing, you’ll need to include how things look, how they sound, what they mean and how they work in context. Though they overlap in reality, let us deal with them separately.

NOTICING FORM_ THE LOOK

Once the students have encountered a new item of language, they will need to notice what it looks like, i.e. its spelling, capitals, hyphens, word order, punctuation or layout, what stays the same and what changes as the language is used. They need to get strong images of these forms.

These ideas will help:

 Associating the target language with a similar form or feature in the mother tongue.  Pulling the item out of its context and demonstrating, perhaps by using a table, which parts of it are fixed and what sorts of words and patterns go before and after the target language at phrase and sentence level or discourse level.  Transforming the item back and forth, for example, from mother tongue to target language, formal to informal language, active to passive, to reformulated natural English, or other appropriate states so that similarities and differences in visual form are thrown up and shown up.

NOTICING FORM- THE SOUND

In order to be able to say new language, students will need to notice the number of spoken syllables, initial and final sounds, contractions, stress patterns, pauses, and intonation and so on. This can be helped by:  Associating the new language with similar sounds in the mother tongue.  Writing down the sounds of the new items with sound symbols from the mother tongue.  Using rhymes, chants and songs, colours, mime and symbols.  Forward-chaining.  Back-chaining. This gets rid of fears about managing to get through to the end of a difficult utterance since .... you’ve already got there!  Again, transformations and reformulation as above.

NOTICING MEANING

Some students will want to hear or see language clearly at length and in context before they work on meaning. Others will need to notice the precise meaning closely before they want to focus on form. Yet other students will want to do both simultaneously. Whichever type of work students want to do first or you plan in first, go to the level of meaning the students require. Don’t go too much further as it will confuse and bore many students. The new item or patterns in the target language can be:

 Translating verbally into the mother tongue, from mother tongue to target language or back and forward between the two  Defined verbally in the target language  Explained by means of pictures, diagrams, sounds, mime. Video, metaphors, flowcharts  Partly guessed from context, layout or genre clues  Distinguished from words or patterns in the mother tongue that look and/ or sound the same but actually have a slightly or totally different meaning  Partly guessed from their constituent parts  Explained by reference to the semantic category they belong to, their hyponyms and super-ordinates, qualities, opposites, synonyms, sequences  Analysed by the components of the meaning  Understood by discussing connotation and association

WAYS OF AIDING NOTICING: PHYSICAL STORAGE

A lot of the ‘noticing’ mentioned above can happen during work on physical storage since this is when students concentrate on transferring information about a target language item into their notebooks. Some examples are these:

 Lists: for short items students can write one or two lists of items (with the target item on the left, say, and the on the right). Other information can be internalized if, for example, all the items in a certain category (such us nouns or verbs) are stored together in a block, or on different coloured paper. Symbols can be used to record whether patterns are F (formal) or N (neutral), etc.  Cards, tables, Mind maps, Scales, posters, flowcharts, can also be used for physical storage.

Do you think that it is useful to keep a record of all the vocabulary we are learning?

What if students think they don’t need to do it?

Would you try to encourage them all the same? Or you would respect their decision?

C. Remembering (or mental storage)

If the students use the physical storage systems mentioned above this will help most of them to start getting the language into memory. Most remembering is helped by both the frequency of meeting the target items and the quality and depth of processing of the items. More ideas for both of these aids to memory are described below.

FREQUENCY OF MEETING.

Although features of some words, patterns and discourse types are doubtless learnt first because they are of importance to the learner, other items may need as many as 16 meetings before they are well and truly in the learner’s repertoire. This means planning lots of varied practice. Here are some ideas:

 Grouping or organizing items.  Ordering, by letter, chronology, size or other criteria that can make sense to the student.  Rote learning: copying, repeating silently, or aloud in different voices. It can be more fun if it involves different activity types such as , songs, poems, short talks or writing texts within differently shaped outlines.  Reference work.  Serial practice, reading faster and faster each time, or dictations involving both languages,  Matching exercises  Spot the difference exercises.

D. Use and refinement

The fourth type of work you will need to plan is use and refinement. By trying to recall language and use it, learners will be able to gauge whether they have really noticed and learnt the form, meaning and use.

If they find they have not, they can try to get closer on all these points. Use of new language can thus involve all the categories of activity mentioned above as well as:

 Tests  Reconstructions of texts from notes followed by comparison with the original  Essay writing, talks and presentations  Reading and listening comprehension  Rewriting or restating events, ideas or arguments in different moods, times, styles, channels or for different purposes  Face-to-face interaction and negotiation on tasks that are designed to help tease out form, meaning and use at ever increasing levels of subtlety  Personal research where students come back to class with examples of language items found in real situations (such as on soup tin labels or in newspaper articles or in the lyrics of pop songs)  Personal reflection where students look back through past work in order to make a list of, for example, ‘my favourite mistakes’

The process that is indicated in this phase is recall, generalisation and transfer, followed by further noticing and refinement of understanding. The feedback, so vital for helping students to notice when further refinement is necessary, can come from the students themselves, peers, teachers or other language users. Time must be allowed for this and students should be encouraged to see its importance.

We have looked at four really important elements of learning new language: exposure, noticing, remembering or mental storage, and now, use and refinement. These different elements work together as shown

Exposure

Noticing

Learning (and

more learning Use / refinement)

Taken from: Designing Sequences of Work for the Language Classroom by Woodward, Tessa.. Cambridge University Press. 2001.(page 91)

The four elements

In language learning then, first we need some exposure to the language, then we need to do some noting. Much of the noticing will be at the unconscious level and teachers try to make it conscious. Some fast learners or learners who are highly motivated will be able almost straight away to use the language they have been exposed to. Other students may be exposed to lots of new language and may even notice things about it, both consciously and unconsciously, but because they are tired or unmotivated, or motivated NOT to remember or learn, or because they are working with language they perceive as being difficult, will not be able to remember or use it. They will need lots of motivating and many moves through the noticing, remembering, using and refining cycles before they feel they have got the hang of it. I have put the ‘use‘ stage slightly to one side because it is also possible to use language again and again without noticing much about it or caring that you are using it wrongly, thus without refining it.

Although the order of the stages of exposure and noticing seem logical. Learning and refinement and use happen in many different orders and simultaneously in the experience of the learner. It’s highly unlikely that all the stages of work mentioned above can be got through for all the new language in one lesson! It is likely, however, that most of the stages are necessary over time for new language to be learned, and thus they need to be planned in.

Mandatory assignment 2 (deadline October 14th)

1- Choose a word and analyze it according to Tessa Woodward’s principles as in the example of the word “problem”. The analysis has to be as complete as possible.

2- Take one of the coursebooks you are using to teach, or ask for one if you are not teaching, and analyse it in terms of the 4 stages presented by Tessa Woodward. Is the unit poor in exposure (no much reading or listening?) Does it have a section for noticing? (Sometimes they are called Grammar/Vocabulary Spot) etc. How much learning and refinement it contains? What about use? Make a complete analysis.

Teaching with technology

Before starting reading some useful information about technology, written by Kellie Dearman, (and from time to time some comments of mine) I would like to know how you feel about it. How often do you use technological devices? Is it available at the school/s you are working? How do students react whenever you vary their classes? Do you think it may improve learning? How much?

Methods and Means

Six years ago, the internet was limited both in what it could do and in who used it. Many people had heard the word but did not have a clue what it was. Today, teachers have not only been exposed to the internet but also have access at home or at school. In fact, some schools are being retrofitted to place the internet in every classroom. Even more exciting than this is the newest technology: Wireless. A school can purchase a 'Portable Classroom'. This consists of laptops networked together, allowing students to work at their desks WITHOUT wires. If the laptops are networked to a printer, students can print from their personal computer to the classroom printer. Imagine the possibilities! Yes, I know what you are thinking: we are in Argentina. However, this is true in some school in BA, and let us be positive.... some day it will be part of most schools. That’s why we need to get to know the different possibilities that technology brings us.

How to Integrate Technology

*Research

Research is the number one reason to use the internet in education.

One concern which will be discussed later is the quality of the information found online. However, with some advance 'footwork' of your own, along with stringent recording requirements for sources, you can help the student determine whether their information is from a reliable source. This is also an important lesson for them to learn for research in college and beyond.

The possibilities for assessment of research on the internet are endless, many of them involving other forms of technology. Some ideas include essays, debates, panel discussions, role play, video presentation of information, web page creation and PowerPoint(tm) presentations.

*Creating a Website A second project that can help integrate technology while truly getting the students excited about school is website creation. You can publish a website with your class about information the students have researched or personally created. Examples of what this page might focus on include a collection of student-created short stories, a collection of student-created poems, results and information from science fair projects, historical 'letters' (students write as if they were historical figures), even critiques of novels could be included. To see what a group of students can really do, visit Why is Mona Lisa Smiling?

How would you go about doing this? Many places offer free websites. First, you can check with your school to see if they have a website, and whether you could create a page which would be linked to that site. If that is not available, Geocities is just one example where you can sign up and get room to upload your information onto your own page. Other ideas are, for example to built a blog for the school or the English department you are part of, students post their written works, questions, puzzles for other students. This is really rewarding, I personally have experience this at Modelo School in San Juan, a place I miss a lot!

How hard is it to learn? HTML, the basic language of the internet, is not that difficult to learn at all. Here is a great HTML Workshop to help you along. You will need some sort of editor to make your life easy. If you have Macs at school, read these reviews to learn more about two programs, one of which your school probably already has--Adobe Page Mill and Claris Home Page. HTML editors really take the headache out of creating pages. If you are using a geocities as mentioned above, they have a text editor which you can use to help you create your site along with a lot of preformatted pages.

Online Assessment

A newer area of the internet to explore is online assessment. You can create your own tests online through your own website. These require knowledge of the internet, so many new users might not be quite ready for this. Although, it might be a great way to interact with Advanced Placement students over vacations and the summer if you still have some energies!!. In the near future, there will be many companies who will offer not only online testing but also instant grading of exams. Does it ring a bell?

Concerns and Issues

It is important to consider problems that might arise when integrating the internet into the classroom. Talking about this may be not new to you, since you have decided to do your studies long distance. Have you ever had technical problems? How did you solve them?

Concerns

1. Time Objection: Teachers hardly have enough time to do all that is expected of them as it is. Where do we find the time to implement this into the curriculum without 'wasting time'?

Possible Solution: Teachers have to do what works for them. The internet, just like any other technology, is a tool. Many times information can only be passed on through books and lectures. However, if you feel that integrating the internet is important, just try one project each year.

2. Knowledge Objection: Learning about new technology and the internet is confusing. You will be teaching with something you may not completely understand.

Possible Solution: There are some online help sources. WebTeacher is a great place to get started with online tutorials.

3. Quality Objection: Quality on the internet is not guaranteed. It is easy to run a biased and inaccurate website with no regulation whatsoever.

Possible Solution: First, when you are thinking about having your students research a topic, do a search to make sure the information is available. A lot of time is wasted searching for obscure topics on the web. Second, review websites either on your own or with your students. Here is a great site with information about evaluating web resources. http://www.fno.org/jun97/eval.html

4. Plagiarism

Objection: When students research off the web to produce a traditional research paper, it is often difficult for teachers to tell if it is plagiarized. Not only that, but students can BUY papers off the web.

Possible Solution: First, educate yourself. Find out what's available. Here are some resources with which to start. Also, a solution that works well is oral defences. Students answer questions I pose and must be able to explain their findings. If nothing else, they have to learn what they have stolen (or bought) off of the internet.

5. Cheating Objection: There is nothing stopping students from cheating with each other while on the internet, especially if you are giving online assessments.

Possible Solution: First, cheating off of each other has always existed, but the internet seems to make it easier. Many schools make the sending of emails and instant messages against the school code because of possible abuses. Therefore, if students are caught using these during an assessment, they would not only be guilty of cheating but also of violating school rules. Second, if online assessments are given, watch students carefully because they could switch back and forth between the test and web pages that might give them answers.

If you are interested in getting to know more about cheating visit this webpage suggested by Dearman: http://712educators.about.com/od/cheating/Cheati ng_and_Academic_Integrity.htm

6. Parental and Community Objections Objection: The internet is full of items that most parents would rather keep away from their children: pornography, foul language, and subversive information are examples. Parents and community members might fear their children would be able to access this information if given the opportunity to use the internet at school. Also, if students' work is to be published on the internet, it might be necessary to gain a parent's approval.

Possible Solution: Unlike public libraries, school libraries have the ability to restrict what is viewed on the internet. Students caught accessing information that is questionable can be subject to disciplinary action. Libraries would be wise to make sure that computers with internet access are easily observable in order to monitor student activity. Classrooms pose a different problem, however. If students are using the internet, the teacher needs to check and make sure they are not accessing questionable material. Fortunately, teachers can look at the 'history' of what was accessed on the internet. If there is any question whether a student was viewing something that was inappropriate, it is a simple matter to check the history file and see which pages were viewed.

As far as publishing student work, a simple permission form should work. Check with your school district to see what their policy is. Even if they do not have a set policy, you might be wise to get a parent's approval, especially if the student is a minor.

Is it Worth it?

Do all of the objections mean that we should not use the internet in the classroom? No. However, we must address these concerns before we fully integrate the internet into the classroom. The effort is definitely worth it because the possibilities are endless!

END OF UNIT 3