English Words in Context

Háskóli Íslands

Hugvísindasvið

Enska

An Unexpected Voyage: A Reading Adventure

Ritgerð til MA-prófs í Ensku

Jenny Berglind Rúnarsdóttir Kt.: 060166-5449

Leiðbeinandi: Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir Maí 2016 Abstract This paper is written in four parts and includes an introduction and a conclusion.

The first part reviews the literature on the status of Icelandic English learners in primary schools in Iceland, the current Icelandic National Curriculum for Foreign Languages (2014), and the role of the European Language Portfolio as a tool for promoting learner autonomy. The wide gap between English learners in the primary school system and the requirements for digital literacy supports the growing need for effective CALL material, that are learner orientated.

The second part of the paper is a review of research on different language methodologies and techniques that are relevant to the proposed learning material. Listening and vocabulary development is crucial to second language learning and the computer is an ideal tool to develop both, as well as, learner autonomy.

The third part of the paper will describe the literature on vocabulary acquisition and developing listening skills. The literature is relevant to the methods, techniques, and content of the proposed computer assisted teaching material , An Unexpected Voyage: A Reading Adventure, which is aimed at developing vocabulary and listening comprehension within the context of a remedial interactive story at a pre-intermediate level.

The final part of the paper is a discussion on the teaching material and its contents, the structure of the material, the objectives for the listening and vocabulary tasks, the plot outline, the characters and the setting, and how to implement in the classroom. It, moreover, discusses digital and teacher’s assessment and how the material relates to the Icelandic National Curriculum for foreign languages, the European Portfolio. And how the abilities listed in the CEFFL for study skills correlates to the teaching material. Finally, this paper will attempt to answer Chapelle’s questions on language learning potential related to this CALL material.

Table of Contents

Abstract ...... 1 Introduction ...... 4 1. The Learner, the Teacher and the Curriculum ...... 6 1.1 English Learners in Icelandic Primary Schools ...... 6

1.2 The Icelandic National Curriculum ...... 8

1.3 The European Language Portfolio ...... 9

1.4 The Common European Framework for Foreign Languages (CEFFL) ...... 11

2 Methods, Techniques, and Tools for Second Language Learning ...... 14 2.1 Predominant teaching methodologies in the early 20th century ...... 14

2.1.1 The Grammar Translation Method ...... 14

2.1.2 The Direct Method ...... 15

2.1.3 The Audio Lingual Method ...... 15

2.2 Communicative Teaching Methodologies in the 21st century ...... 16

2.2.1 Communicative language teaching (CLT) ...... 16

2.2.2 Task-based Language Learning and Teaching (TBLT) ...... 16

2.2.3 The Storyline Methodology ...... 18

2.3 Storytelling ...... 20

2.4 Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) ...... 21

2.4.1 Digital Remedial Reading ...... 24

2.4.2 Digital storytelling ...... 26

3 Listening and Vocabulary Development ...... 28 3.1 Corpus Linguistics ...... 28

3.2 The Semantic Transparency of Idioms ...... 29

3.3 Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition ...... 30

3.4 Strategies and techniques for deliberate Teaching of Vocabulary ...... 31

3.5 Listening Comprehension ...... 34

4 An Unexpected Voyage: A Reading Adventure ...... 37 4.1 The remedial navigational story ...... 37

4.2 Listen and do Tasks ...... 38

4.3 The Plot Outline ...... 81

4.4 The Settings ...... 81

4.5 The Characters ...... 82

4.6 Productive Tasks ...... 88

4.7 Assessment and feedback ...... 89

4.8 Implementation ...... 91

4.9 Language Learning Potential ...... 92

Conclusion ...... 93 References ...... 94 Appendix A ...... 99 Appendix B ...... 102 Appendix C ...... 104 Appendix D ...... 105 Appendix E ...... 106 Appendix F ...... 108 Appendix G ...... 110 Appendix H ...... 111

Introduction Since I began teaching English in 2000, I have noticed an increasing proficiency gap between English learners through the years. More and more Icelandic children are exposed to English on a daily basis. Their lexicon vary and often it is impossible for a teacher to fully establish the extent in which students’ lexicon vary. What is evident though, with this widening gap between learners, is that whole classroom teaching is no longer a suitable teaching approach. Addressing all individual learner types, at different levels, has become an arduous task, using the traditional methods. Additionally, finding suitable material for learners at different proficiency levels can be time-consuming, especially for class teachers that teach English along with other subjects. Hence, we need to find new ways of teaching and monitoring learners that are effective and efficient, that address individual needs, encourage cooperative creative learning and alternative assessments to traditional testing.

In 2012, I was employed by the National Center for Teaching Materials in Iceland, to come up with an idea for computer aided language learning material aimed at developing vocabulary based on the word list and images from Adventure Island of English Words, a set if learning materials for TPR teaching of young learners, which is divided into a box of flashcards, a handbook guide for teachers using TPR in the classroom, and printable worksheets and test sheets, accessible on the following website, http://vefir.nams.is/adventure_island/index.htm.The vocabulary selected were topic based and framed within a suggested storyline Shipwrecked on a Fantasy Island. (Runarsdottir, 2008, p 31-35)

An Unexpected Voyage: A Reading Adventure is an interactive story, also based on a shipwreck. The story is told in the second person, it is read aloud, it is illustrative, and it is navigational in that it allows the reader to makes choices in the narrative. The storyline is, furthermore, broken up with listening tasks aimed at developing vocabulary explicitly within the context of the story. It builds on the vocabulary of Adventure Island, but takes it to another learning level, pre-intermediate. The vocabulary is introduced in different context, with different collocations. It incorporates explicit teachings of some basic idioms associated with the vocabulary, for example, images of farm animals include idioms associated with these animals (like black sheep, wild goose chase, etc). The listening tasks aim at developing listening skills for comprehension and learning words.

This paper is divided into four sections. The first three sections are literature reviews: The first section reviews the literature and explores the Icelandic Educational context for English

4 language learning. It, furthermore, describes the European Portfolio and the Common European Framework for study skills. The second section is a review of research on different language methodologies and techniques. The third section describes studies on vocabulary development and listening comprehension. The final part describes the CALL material, An Unexpected Voyage: A Reading Adventure, in detail with reference to the literature. It describes; the content of the story, vocabulary selection, listening and vocabulary tasks and techniques, assessment, feedback and the follow up activities. In conclusion, I will discuss how the material relates to the Icelandic National Curriculum for foreign languages, the European Portfolio, and how the abilities listed in the CEFFL for study skills correlates to the teaching material.

Literature Review

1. The Learner, the Teacher and the Curriculum This section of the paper describes the educational context for English learning in Iceland. It is divided into four topics. Firstly, it describes Icelandic learners and their status as English learners in Iceland. Secondly, it describes the National Curriculum for foreign language teaching published in 2014 and how it based on the Common European Framework for Foreign Languages (CEFFL). Thirdly, it describes the European Language Portfolio, and lastly, it describes the abilities needed to develop study skills for autonomous language learning in the future, proposed by the CEFFL, and the teacher’s role.

1.1 English Learners in Icelandic Primary Schools Icelandic English learners know many words in English before formal training in primary schools. This has led to discussions on how they learn languages outside of formal training and the widening proficiency gap between learners in a classroom. In the past two decades, there have been major developments in the teaching of English in primary schools in Iceland. The changes in the National Curriculum in 1999 moved the compulsory teaching of beginner’s English from the seventh grade down to the fifth grade. But schools were given the option to teach English to even younger learners. (Torfadóttir, Ragnarsdóttir & Lefever, 2006).The number of schools teaching English from year one to four has increased in the passing years. A survey conducted by Samuel Lefever in 2007 showed that English was being taught in 30% of schools in the lowest grades, a rise of 20% since 2002. (Lefever, 2007)

In 2006, a research study was conducted on behalf of the research center of the Icelandic University of Education of Icelandic students in the 4th and 5th grade. The aim of this study was to test students’ comprehension and ability to communicate in English on familiar topics. The study tested their listening and communication skills. The results showed that a majority of the students could well understand and communicate in simple language on topics that were familiar to them.

The majority of Icelandic students are exposed to English in their daily lives. They develop their receptive skills through watching films and TV shows, the internet, computer games, and social networking. (Samuel Lefever, 2007; Anna Jeeves, 2015). A study on immigrant students in three primary schools learning English in Iceland found that students

6 would go as far as to say that they learn more English outside the classroom than within. (Sigtryggson, 2015, p. 58)

In 2009, Ásrún Jóhannsdóttir did a study comparing the vocabulary development of Icelandic learners in the fourth and the seventh grade through incidental and intentional learning. The results of her study showed that for the 7 th grade, intentional teaching facilitated more vocabulary acquisition. But her study showed little difference between the incidental and intentional groups she tested in the 4 th grade, her findings are more ambiguous and seemingly suggest that incidental learning is more beneficial for younger learners. Her studies, based on the CPH theory of optimal age as well as implication for cognitive development, showed that boys scored higher in final tests than girls, which could be attributed to the fact that they spend more time playing computer games than the girls. (Jóhannsdóttir, 2009)

Icelandic students are highly motivated when it comes to learning English. (Torfadóttir, Ragnarsdóttir & Lefever, 2006, Jeeves, 2015; Sigtryggsson, 2015.) Their frequent exposure to natural language in the form of media makes them even quite critical of teachers who have a strong Icelandic accent. This could maybe explain the reluctance of some teachers teaching at the primary level to conduct lessons in the target language. The survey conducted by Auður Torfadóttir, Brynhildur and Samuel Lefever revealed that only 10% of teachers used the target language in classroom, but 30% made use of both language.

On examining the status of English in Iceland, Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir proposes that learners’ status has more in common with English learned as a second language than a foreign language although neither definitions seem to fit with Icelandic English learners. The proficiency level between students varies as students begin their studies of English in primary schools. “This proficiency gap can only widen as the most proficient expand and fortify their skills, while others are learning the basics.” (Arnbjörnsdóttir, 2007, p.59) This gap between learners’ proficiency makes teaching a whole class more difficult with every year. Hence there is a need for a change in methodology in teaching and more diversity in the classroom, the need for changes towards a more autonomous based learning to bridge the gap between the learners. Birna suggests CALL material as a possible methodology.

Anna Jeeves and Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir point out in their studies that, despite the fact that children in Iceland use their receptive skill in English on a daily basis they, in later years, seem to lack the writing skills needed for tertiary studies. Hence there is a need for a form-focused

7 shift, a need for an autonomous learning approach, and a shift to developing English productive skills. (Arnbjörnsdóttir, 2007, p.71)

The National Curriculum for Foreign Language and the Common European Framework for Foreign Language Research suggest a learner centered approach to language learning. But the extensive research on English language teaching in Iceland has shown that,

On the whole, instruction is teacher-directed and textbook bound and innovative approaches towards more holistic, learner-centered teaching and assessment do not seem to have gained ground in Icelandic schools. (Lefever, 2009, p.122)

However, one needs to take into consideration that generally in Icelandic primary schools, from grade one to grade six, English is taught by the class teachers who has to teach more than one subject. For class teachers searching for alternative learning material to the available textbooks offered can be time consuming. But the problem often is that, textbooks on their own do not provide ample opportunities to develop all four language skills, nor do they address individual learner needs, and if overemphasized can demotivate learning. However, the use of digital technology in the classroom, provide opportunities to create teaching material that addresses both the needs of the learner and the teacher.

1.2 The Icelandic National Curriculum The Icelandic ministry for Education recently published a new national curriculum in 2014. It is based on six fundamental educational pillars; literacy, sustainability, health and welfare, democracy and human rights, equality, and creativity. These pillars are meant “to accentuate the principle of general education and encourage increased continuity in school activities as a whole.” Fullan and Longworthy (2013) refer to these, pillars as “deep learning on a global level.” In their introduction to Towards a New End: A New Pedagogy for Deep Learning, they discuss the crisis in the public school system in the US where there is a push-pull dynamic going on. The crisis they refer to is the current pedagogy where students experience increasing boredom at school and the teachers show signs of frustration. “Teachers are psychologically if not literally being pushed out of school. Meanwhile, prodigious technology is alluring all, kids and adults alike, to the digital world” but “not necessarily productively.”(Fullan & Longworthy, 2013, p. 1) They stress the need for a new pedagogy for deep learning on a global level, and so does our new curriculum. Two of these pillars are the foundations for An Unexpected Voyage, literacy and creativity, although the material can reflect other pillars depending on the use in the classroom.

Literacy in the guidelines refer not only to reading and writing skills, but digital literacy, media education, and media literacy. The National Curriculum Guide states that, the main objectives of Literacy is for pupils to become active participants in transforming and rewriting the world by creating their own meaning and responding in a personal and creative manner to what they read with the aid of media and technology that is available. (p.17)

As for creativity, for pupils to learn they must connect the things they learn to their previous knowledge. It is through creative stimuli that the learner makes these connections. But creativity is so much more, “it involves critical thinking and methods that constantly offer new possibilities… the creative process matters no less than the final product.” Furthermore, it encourages “reflection, personal education, and initiative in educational work.” (The Icelandic National Curriculum Guide for Compulsory Schools with Subject Areas ,2014 p.22)

These two pillars and the key competences of European languages in the Common European Framework of Foreign Languages (here on referred to as CEFFL) are incorporated in the National Curriculum Guideline for Foreign Languages in Iceland. The guidelines for Primary and Middle School are divided into three levels corresponding to level A1, A2, and B1 of the CEFFL. (p. 127) On completing the seventh grade, learners should have achieved level 2 in English. See Appendix A.

1.3 The European Language Portfolio The Icelandic Educational Ministry brought attention to the European Language Portfolio in the year 2000. (Yngvadóttir, Sverrisdóttir & Oddsdóttir, 2001) A year later, it was accessible on the web page of The National Center for Educational Materials (NCEM) In 2015, the NCEM merged with the National Center for Assessment (NCA) to form The National Centre for Education and Assessment (NCEA) where the ELP is accessible for Icelandic teachers in the three main languages taught at the primary level, Icelandic, English, and Danish. Detailed information about the Portfolio itself can be found on http://www.coe.int/en/web/portfolio.

The European Language Portfolio (ELP) is designed with the “pedagogical purpose of increasing students’ capacity for self-regulated learning through the processes of self- assessments of ability, strategy building, goal-setting, and self-reflection.” It is important to note that it is not a curriculum but “a set of activities to guide students toward becoming more autonomous learners.” (Ziegler. 2014. p. 934) The ELP consists of three parts, the language passport, the language biography, and the dossier.

The language passport gives basic information about the language learner and his skills. The language biography is a record of the learner‘s self-assessment forms, collections of achievement awards or certificates, and a writing journal reflecting on the learning process. The third part is the dossier, which is the collection of the learner’s accomplishments, their productive work, oral and written. The children collect work they take pride in, and reflecting what they’ve learned, whether it be a story, a poem, a song, a rap, a dialogue, a radio show, a weather forecast, a speech, a comic, a sketch, or a play, depending on the context of the learning material. This could be in the form of a folder for written work, or in digital format for oral work. (Creating an eportfolio would allow for data to be collected and analyzed, which in turn would help the teachers become active researchers in their classroom.) The objective of the ELP is to support language teaching and learning by promoting learner autonomy. But the ELP needs to be properly introduced to teachers and learners, otherwise teachers may perceive the ELP as extra, unnecessary bureaucratic form-filling work, teachers will not understand how it works in an ongoing way, teachers may be unwilling to follow the ELP guideline or “the teaching program of the institution is not in harmony with the Common European Framework of Reference.” (http://www.coe.int/en/web/portfolio/aim-of-an-elp) Although more research is needed on the use of ELP, Ziegler’s study shows that, students using the ELP reported characteristics consistent with self-regulated learners (ELP task value) and the more the students used the ELP, the stronger its effect and higher the student ELP evaluations (students’ self-reactions to the ELP).“ In other words, the „more you use ELP, the better. (Ziegler, 2014, p. 933) The children in Ziegler’s study found the self-assessments very useful in that it made them conscious of what they had yet to learn. Ziegler writes that there is “strong empirical evidence supporting the claim that the ELP accomplishes its pedagogical purpose.” (p. 921) Self – assessment (http://www.coe.int/en/web/portfolio/self-assessment-grid) is central to the ELP, the processes of planning, monitoring and evaluating learning, which means that it lies at the heart of learner reflection and learner autonomy.” And as David Little points out, “truly autonomous learners know what they have achieved, how they achieved it, and what remains to be achieved.” (Little, 2002, p.5) He writes that “learner reflection grows out of appropriate classroom interaction” and proposes the best way to stimulate them would be using Leni Dam’s five questions: What are we doing? — Why are we doing it? — How are we doing it? — With what results? — What are we going to do next? (p. 5) These questions help learners to think and reflect, which is essential to the learning process. The Common European Framework and our current National curriculum make a point

10 of learners becoming autonomous and teachers working side by side with their learners in developing skills to become autonomous learners, the CEFFL lists these study skills.

1.4 The Common European Framework for Foreign Languages (CEFFL) The CEFFL is an action oriented approach to learning languages. Learners are viewed as “social agents” who are given a set of tasks that need to be accomplished in a set of circumstances. Tasks are seen as actions “performed by one or more individuals strategically using their own specific competences to achieve a given result.” It “takes into account the cognitive, emotional and volitional resources and the full range of abilities specific to and applied by the individual as a social agent.” (CEFFL, 2001, p.9) Tasks activate learners’ sociocultural knowledge of the world, intercultural skills, practical skills, learning skills and communicative competence. Successful task accomplishment may be facilitated by the prior activation of the learner’s competences, for example, in the initial problem-posing or goal-setting phase of a task by providing or raising awareness of necessary linguistic elements, by drawing on prior knowledge and experience to activate appropriate schemata, and by encouraging task planning or rehearsal. (p. 158) One of the main aims is to develop learner’s self-awareness of his/her own competence and promote strategies for language learning is to develop learners’ study skills. The CEFFL defines it as “the ability to make effective use of the learning opportunities created by teaching situations.” (p.107) The CEFFL provides a list of ten aims that define ability. They are; 1. to maintain attention to the presented information;

2. to grasp the intention of the task set;

3. to co-operate effectively in pair and group work;

4. to make rapid and frequent active use of the language learnt;

5. ability to use available materials for independent learning;

6. ability to organize and use materials for self-directed learning;

7. ability to learn effectively (both linguistically and socio-culturally) from direct observation of and participation in communication events by the cultivation of perceptual, analytical and heuristic skills;

8. awareness of one’s own strengths and weaknesses as a learner;

9. ability to identify one’s own needs and goals;

10. ability to organize one’s own strategies and procedures to pursue these goals, in accordance with one’s own characteristics and resources. (p.107)

The focus on these abilities can easily be addressed through computer assisted language learning. A comparison between these abilities and the learning material will be covered in section 4.7.

In developing these skills in learners, the teacher’s role in today’s language classroom has become more as a researcher. Working with learners, the teacher is better able to grasp a learner’s zone of proximal development and hence assess the learners’ individual needs. According to Vygotsky, “the zone of proximal development furnishes psychologist and educators with a tool through which the internal course of development can be understood.” (Vygostky, 1978, p.33)

To support his case for this tool, Vygotsky claimed that the mental development to learn is not always equal with the same age group. The hypothesis is “the notion that developmental processes do not coincide with learning processes…rather that it lags behind… this sequence then results in zones of proximal development.”(p.35) Vygotsky criticized previous thinkers for “not focusing more on what children can achieve with the assistance of others as an indication of their mental abilities.”(p.32) Zone of proximal development (ZPD) “refers to the learner’s potential as opposed to actual level of development.” (Ellis, 2003 p.353) When it comes to learning a second language, ZPD is central to acquisition, as language needs to be comprehensible for the learner.

The teacher‘s role is helping learners develop their study skills, teach them learning techniques, guide them in setting goals, and observe their self-regulated learning process. Children need special training on organizational skills, and in doing so learning objectives need to be salient. Ziegler’s study “showed students using the ELP (European Language Portfolio) more frequently had significantly higher mastery goal orientations, task value evaluations, instructor evaluations, and self-regulatory efficacy.”(Ziegler, 2014, p.933) The aim in the long run is to know how to learn, to be self-sufficient, set your own goals, being able to self-reflect, practice creative thinking, and bring about cultural and global awareness, which are just some of the goals for teaching towards the 21 st century. For further reading, I suggest Rebecca L.Oxford’s paper on Language Learning Strategies in a Nutshell published in Methodology in Language Teaching and written for ESL teachers.

In addition, the teacher is the facilitator of the learning environment and provides the suitable learning material for learners. Preplanned teaching materials can scaffold the work for teachers and learners and can “even serve as agents of change, provided they act as guides in negotiating points, rather than straitjackets.” (Crawford, 2002, p.88) Crawford’s article points out eight assumptions for effective teaching materials. They each reflect the following statements, which I quote here directly:

1. Language is functional and must be contextualized. 2. Language development requires learner engagement in purposeful use of language. 3. The language used should be realistic and authentic. 4. Classroom materials will usually seek to include an audio visual component. 5. In our modern, technologically complex world, second language learners need to develop the ability to deal with written as well as spoken genres. 6. Effective teaching materials foster learner autonomy. 7. Materials need to be flexible enough to cater to individual and contextual differences 8. Learning needs to engage learners both affectively and cognitively. (85-7)

An Unexpected Voyage fosters each of these assumptions. It is contextualized, it engages learners, it is realistic to some extent although based on a fantasy story, it fosters learning autonomy, incorporates technology, it is flexible in that allows for repeated listening, it engages learners affective and cognitively through listening games, and, additionally, it allows the teacher to monitor the learners’ progress, making it an ideal tool for gathering data for action research. The fact that it is digital means teachers can easily assist individual learners on a one on one basis.

2 Methods, Techniques, and Tools for Second Language Learning This second part of the paper will deal with methods, techniques, and tools for second language learning. It will compare the three predominant methodologies in the early 20th century in comparison to the current communicative methodologies and their techniques in the 21st century. It will, furthermore, describe the literature on the techniques used in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), digital remedial reading tasks, and digital storytelling.

2.1 Predominant teaching methodologies in the early 20th century At the beginning of the twentieth century, little of what is known about language learning today prevailed. The focus given to language teaching at that time period are inadequate for today’s theory on language learning and teaching. However, some of the techniques used have prevailed and been adapted in some form to current teaching practices. Today, eclectic teaching is not an option, it is a necessity, in order to teach all the language learning skills and all types of learners. I will discuss some of the methodologies and their techniques that are relevant to An Unexpected Voyage: A Reading Adventure.

2.1.1 The Grammar Translation Method The first pedagogical method used for foreign language teaching in educational institutions was the Grammar Translation Method. It was based on the ancient Classical Method of teaching Latin or Greek, (Brown, 1994, p. 52). Focus was given to teaching languages through grammar and translations, as well as teaching vocabulary “in the form of lists of isolated words.” Subsequent methodologies, such as the Direct Method and the Audio-Lingual Method, diverted significantly from Grammar-Translation method in that they emphasized speaking and listening skills. Furthermore, their approach towards vocabulary acquisition, the selection of vocabulary and techniques used to develop them, differed significantly.

The aim of the Grammar-Translation was, however, not to teach oral proficiency, but to read literature in another language. Teaching techniques included translations of a literary passage, reading comprehension questions, pairing antonyms and synonyms, recognizing cognates, deductive application of grammar rules, fill-in-the-blanks, memorization, using words in a sentence and composition. (Larsen-Freeman, 1986, p.13-14) Vocabulary is taught through translations and memorization mostly in the form of word lists.

2.1.2 The Direct Method In the early 20th century, the Direct Method approached language learning from a more natural perspective, adhering to the principles of how children learn first languages. The classes were instructed in the target language and “only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught.” (Brown, 1994, p.55) Unlike the Grammar-Translation Method, grammar was taught inductively and focus was given to modeling correct pronunciation and grammar. “Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects, and pictures; abstract vocabulary was taught by associations of ideas.” (p.56)

This method was later criticized by the Vocabulary Control Movement, “as it gave little guidance on the selection of either content or vocabulary.” (Schmitt, 2000, p.16) According to Schmitt, the Vocabulary Control Movement sprung in the 1980s when “lexical research concerned efforts to systematize the selection of vocabulary” (p.15) using computer analysis techniques.

The techniques used in the direct method included; reading aloud, question and answer exercises, getting students to self-correct, conversation practice, fill-in-the-blank exercises, dictation, map drawing and paragraph writing. (Larsen-Freeman, 26-8) Although both approaches use fill-in-the-blanks, they differ in use, depending on their view towards grammar teaching, inductive or deductive. The techniques are mostly task-based but whereas task-based learning is learner orientated, the direct method is teacher orientated, the teacher providing the input, explicitly teaching vocabulary through context, and selecting activities to practice and drill words. Many of these techniques are easily transferable to computer assisted language learning, where the computer, partly, replaces the role of teacher.

2.1.3 The Audio Lingual Method Whereas the Direct Method was primarily used in Europe earlier in the twentieth century, the Americans up until the Second World War adhered to the Grammar Translation Method. (Brown, 1994, p.57) However, the Second World War brought on the need for a new method in language teaching that would develop learners’ oral proficiency. The military provided the funding for many of the technological advancements at the time, the development of the computer as well as the development of a new method for language learning, the Audio-Lingual Method. A method focusing on the spoken language and pronunciation, the soldiers trained to sound like a native speaker. Listening in language classes “was perceived chiefly as a means of presenting new grammar,” where “dialogs on tape provided examples of structures to be learned.” (Field, p.242)

The techniques that were developed for this methodology were dialog memorization, different types of drills, use of minimal pairs, and grammar games. (Larsen-Freeman, 1984) The structure of the language was emphasized through imitating dialogs and repeating them until no mistakes could be heard. Pronunciation was taught right from the beginning and vocabulary was learned within the context of a dialog. Both the Direct Method and the Audio-Lingual Method use the target language in teaching and teach grammar inductively. In the ALM, words and the structure of language are learned through analogies as well as “linguistic and cultural context.” (Richards & Rogers, 2006, p.57)

2.2 Communicative Teaching Methodologies in the 21st century Unlike, the previous methodologies, current Communicative learning strategies focus primarily on meaning. Grammar is not taught explicitly, but rather implicitly. Listening plays a far more important role in the communicative act. Speaking and listening are intricately woven together in the speech act. Listening is the primary target and speaking the secondary target. Reading and writing follows with comprehension and ideas discussed in groups or in the classroom.

2.2.1 Communicative language teaching (CLT) Communicative language teaching grew from the theory of language as communication, the goal was to teach communicative competence. Second language is acquired much like the first language in that, it is a means of performing certain functions; instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, heuristic, imaginative, and representation. (Richard & Rogers, 2006, p.160) This means we use language to get things, control the behavior of others, interact with one another, express feelings, to learn and to discover, to create a world of the imagination, or communicate information. Unlike the audio-method where learners learn from a machine, CLT requires group and pair work, whether it be cooperative speaking and/or writing tasks.

Techniques used in CLT are role-plays, picture strip stories, scrambled sentences, language game and authentic materials. (Larsen-Freeman, 1984, p.135-7) It includes cooperative storytelling and story writing that are ideal for communicative language learning.

2.2.2 Task-based Language Learning and Teaching (TBLT ) TBLT is the “stronger version” of Communicative Language learning and “refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in language teaching.” (Richards & Rogers, 2006, p.223) Although the previously mentioned methodologies use tasks in the form of activities, the approach used in TBLT takes into account the socio linguistic and

16 psychoanalytic perspective of language learning, in other words communication, zone of proximal development, and comprehensible input.

Both communicative language learning and TBLT draw on similar principles. From a socio linguistic perspective, learning are activities that “involve real communication.” The target language is used “to carry out meaningful tasks” and both draw on the principle that if language is meaningful to the learner it “supports the learning process.” After all “comprehension is crucial for acquisition.” (Ellis, 2003, p.46)

A task can be more than just an activity. In the TBLT classroom, it involves all language skills, it can range from individual, pair, or group work, and it involves developing listening and speaking together. Cooperative learning is essential for communication. Language input is comprehensible and learners acquire vocabulary incidentally through communication and comprehensible input.

Ellis (2003) describes six critical features of a task in TBLT. Firstly, it is a work plan for learner activity. Secondly, its primary focus is on meaning in that learners engage in the pragmatic use of language. Thirdly, it involves real-world processes of language use. Fourthly, it involves all language skills. Fifthly, it engages cognitive processes such as “selecting, classifying, ordering, reasoning, and evaluating information in carrying out the task.” Lastly, it has a clearly defined communicative outcome. (Ellis, 2003, p.10)

Listening is either planned or unplanned, when speaking in groups, it is unplanned. But listening can also involve planned tasks. There are two types of functions for listening in planned listening activities, listening to comprehend and listening to learn. Listening to comprehend is more like listening to interpret because “listeners are involved in hypothesis-testing and inferencing, not just decoding what is said.”(p.39) When interpreting what they hear, learners use their schematic knowledge and the contextual clues provided, either in the context of what is being said or through some visual stimuli. According the Ellis, listeners use their schemata to interpret, predict, and in hypothesis testing. (p.41) Testing comprehension involves asking questions, offering true or false statements, asking learners to sequence events, or offering multiple choice questions.

Tasks that are designed using listen-to-learn approach involve listening to notice certain linguistic forms, or listen for particular words, or even listen to match items. (Ellis, 2003, p.37) Activities for the listen to learn approach would include gap-exercises, matching (with drag and drop activities), unscrambling letters, memory games, or even listening to poetry, songs, and rap.

Learning to listen to poetry also “deepens learners’ imaginative response” and learners “relish the varied ways in which rhythm and rhetoric can reinforce or reveal meaning.” (Cobbs, 2005, p.28)

Listen-and-do tasks are tasks that require learners to perform some action while listening. The goal for listen-and-do tasks is to promote close listening through some action. “The task input consists of both verbal information in the form of directions, and non-verbal information in the form of physical objects, pictures, maps, or diagrams.” It is “a one-way task.” (Ellis, 2003, p.50-51) and hence easily adaptable to CALL. In a classroom situation, listen-and-do tasks can be done as a whole class activity, group, or pair work. Either the teachers provides the input and the learners do, like in a drawing dictation, or the learners provide input for one another. The computer is also a great tool for learn-and-do listening tasks, using drag and drop activities matching words to pictures, choosing correct answers, or playing language games.

2.2.3 The Storyline Methodology The Storyline method is a cross-curricular story based teaching method where teacher and learners co-create the curriculum by integrating different subjects. It can be “regarded as one specific form of task-based and content based learning.” (Kocher, 2007, p.120) It was originally developed in Scotland in the 1960s by Steve Bell and a team of academics as a response to the fragmented curriculum at the time. The national policy developments demanded a cross- curricular approach that used a learner centered approach, included activity learning/discovery methods, differentiated group work, integrated subject areas and developed skills and concepts. (Bell & Harkness, 2006, p.3) The purpose was to create a more meaningful learning experience for learners based on learners’ knowledge and interaction in the classroom. The methodology has been used in teaching in countries such as Germany, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and parts of the USA and Thailand.

“Collaborative story making is the leading element in the approach.” (Letschert. 1991, p.21) The storyline is designed in episodes by the teacher, but the children are agents and creators of the story. The first two episodes involve creating characters, a family, and the setting. Some time is invested in the first two episodes as the more care is taken in creating the background, the more engaged learners become. In the third episode, the teacher brings to the story the first incident that kicks off the story. Each incident encourages discussion in the classroom on a particular topic or theme. The final incident leading to the climax of the story and finally and

18 ending. The final episode of the storyline is the high point of the story or the culminating event. At that point, learners put all their creative work on display,

The teacher is accountable for learners’ understanding so asking open key questions is an integral part of the learning process and it drives the logical and narrative sequence. (Bell & Harkness, 2006, p. 9) The teacher plans the key questions in advance, they are meant to “access prior knowledge or confront pupils with problems that can be tackled and solved in a number of different ways.” (p.22) For example, the teacher wants to focus on how electricity it produced. After kicking off the story, the teacher may create an incident where there is a blackout in their hometown. The learners must discover why that is. So begins their journey on learning how electricity is made.

Creativity, engagement, and language development is at the core of this methodology. Originally, this methodology was intended to develop the first language, but it is a powerful tool in the second language classroom and well suited to the objectives for the CEFRL. (Kocher, 2007, p. 118) Typical features of the storyline and the foreign language classrooms are word banks (posters, mind-maps, word lists), collages (two- or three dimensional figures, landscapes, objects or pictures created by learners), friezes (the processes and products of the lessons accumulated within the retelling of the story), materials and media (digital technology, magazines, books, travel brochures, newspapers, mono and bilingual dictionaries and other realia). For foreign language teaching the possibilities of creating storylines are endless. The benefits are that they are open in content and results, it improves all four language skills in a meaningful context, it is cooperative and collaborative, and it is cross-curricular.

Marie Jeanne McNaughton discusses the benefits of the storyline in incorporating drama in the classroom as a way of stepping out of the picture. Through drama and learning, it engenders sympathy and empathy, it develops skills of communication, collaborating and expressing ideas and opinions, it explores values and provides context of research. (McNaughton, 2007) Barbara Frame’s article talks about its capacity for promoting and fostering a thinking classroom, in which learning is memorable. (Frame, 2007) Gudmundur Kristmundsson sees storyline as a means of developing vocabulary. However, he feels that teachers must be skilled in using storyline. “They must know some of the main theories of teaching and learning vocabulary, and ensure that they include this element in their objectives and planning.” (Kristmundsson, 2007, p.102) Despite the fact that the storyline was originally aimed at young learners, its open architecture is also suitable for older learners. (Wrigley, 2007)

The storyline methodology is learner centered, the story is created by learners, but An Unexpected Voyage, which is based on digital technology, provides a readymade story. It still allows learners/readers a choice in the navigation of the story. It, furthermore, allows for deliberate teaching of vocabulary selected to fit the context of the story. Follow up activities encourage learners to expand the storyline with their own creative imagination through speaking and writing tasks.

Storyline is a method of approaching the curriculum through integration and it uses storytelling as a technique for learning contextually through learner input.

2.3 Storytelling Storytelling is the oldest technique for learning about the world we live in, dating back to oral traditions. Children like telling stories and therefore it is an ideal technique for productive learning, speaking and writing. It can be used individually and cooperatively, as described in Once upon a Time : (Morgan & Rinvolucri, 2004). It is easily adaptable to learner‘s abilities, as it can be done orally or in writing. Lower level learners write shorter sentences and use illustrations to tell their story whereas higher level learners writer longer texts. Storytelling can also be incorporated with grammar teaching, for example focusing on different tenses, or different sets of vocabulary.

Through storytelling learners make use of the vocabulary they learn to create new and novel sentences to tell a story. “In a storytelling event, the words are not memorized, but are recreated through spontaneous, energetic performance, assisted by audience participation and interaction.” (Isbell, Sobol, Lindauer, and Lowrance, 2004, p.158) It is a two way communication. A study on the language development of children between ages three and five found that storytelling and story reading were both “beneficial to the development of oral language complexity and story comprehension.” (p.162) This applies also to older learners. Children are far more engaged when reading a story together in class and they need every opportunity they can get to play with the words and language, and retelling or recreating in some form or another is the most effective way. It allows for the imagination to flourish and learners need to discover the words they need to express themselves.

In Once Upon a Time , John Morgan and Mario Rinvolucri (2004) provide skeletons for cooperative storytelling. Some of their ideas include creating a story out of comprehension questions, dictogloss, or part dictations, writing stories from words, or writing a scene in a story.

In many of these activities, learners think, pair, and share, and then consequently write their own story.

Other techniques for storytelling is spinning stories from a set of words, using on-line plot generators, or expanding on an existing story. Storytelling is the oldest method of learning a language and has been with us for centuries, before the concept of school was even invented. It is how young children acquire much of their incidental vocabulary. Storytelling is intrinsically motivating, everybody loves a good story.

2.4 Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) CALL is a vast subject and covers a wide range of activities and techniques for language learning. The fast-paced development of digital computing allows for various possibilities in today’s language classroom, whether it be through iPads, tablets, smartphones, iPhone, laptops or computers. These tools have become an ideal medium to develop all four language skills. The computer is, however, not ideal or efficient as an assessment tool for productive skills, despite its usefulness in developing speaking and writing. It does however provide great resources to develop and assess the receptive skills, reading and listening, through all types of activities such as answering questions, true or false statements, multiple choice. Reading can be contextualized in different ways and different resources can add to comprehension.

In a chapter written by Park, Zheng, Lawrence & Warschauer in Contemporary Computer Assisted Language Learning (2013), the authors describe ten resources to support etext which was developed by the National Center for Supported e-text. (p.278) Although it is aimed for general learning, these are useful tools for designing language teaching materials, but more research is needed in showing which of these typologies is more effective. The typology are defined as follows, a direct quote:

Presentational resources enable text and graphics to be presented in varying and customizable ways.

Navigational resources that facilitate movement within documents (e.g.,to glossaries).

Translational resources that make available alternative versions of texts such as through VSTF or text-to-speech.

Explanatory resources that provide supplemental clarifications or descriptions.

Illustrative resources that provide visual support.

Summarizing resources, such as through presentation of key ideas or timelines .

Instructional resources such as tutorial or prompts.

Notional resources that enable electronic highlighting or drawing.

Collaborative resources, such as blogs or threaded discussions.

Evaluational resources that provide formative assessments of student progress.

(Park, Zheng, Lawrence & Warschauer, 2004, p.267)

Reading can also take on different forms such as through interactive stories. The internet provides a great resource for all kinds of interactive stories for kids that can be incorporated in the language classroom, such as http://pbskids.org/games/story/ or http://www.education.com/games/stories/ for young learners.

Moreover, Vandergrift, in his study on listening to learn or learning to listen , made five observations useful in designing multimedia listening activities. Firstly, “limitations of working memory dictate that supports provided to the listener should related directly to the text and the listening task.” Secondly, although their value for listening is questionable, “captions, annotations, and computer programs to slow down speech may be useful for developing word recognition skills and learning vocabulary.” It is, however, noteworthy that this “may encourage word-by-word decoding rather than foster the development of compensatory strategies that can help students cope with the demand of real-time listening.” In relation to Icelandic learners, it may also not prove necessary to slow down speech. Repeated listening to normal speed might prove more effective and fosters narrow listening. (Krashen, 1989)

The third observation is that visual support provide contextual information. Which is important to listening as, fourthly, “listeners use any relevant information and their disposal to interpret what they hear.” The final observation Vandergrift makes is that

a strategies-approach to listening instruction with beginner-level listeners builds confidence, raises awareness of the process of listening, and helps listeners learn to use effective combinations of metacognitive and cognitive strategies to understand texts in real time. (Vandergrift, 2004, p.10)

Whereas listening in a first language is an automatic process, procedural knowledge, the time it takes for a second language learner to process what he hears takes longer, declarative knowledge. Not much research has been conducted that looks into the difference between first

22 and second language listening processes, but some “existing work suggest that the processes are similar.”(p. 48) In hearing a foreign language the first thing we notice is the sound and the sound pattern. This applies especially to young learners, which is why songs or simple stories read aloud are so important when teaching the first two grades in primary schools.

There are many benefits to using multimedia in developing listening skills. A study concerned with the effectiveness of computer-based multimedia for developing listening skills showed that “more effective development of listening skills may be facilitated using multimedia technology than our traditional tools of the audio cassette player, language laboratory, and video cassettes combined with pen and paper.”(Brett, 1997, p.50) Another study showed a significant improvement in listening skills using multimedia because the learners “were not just exposed to an aural environment but a visual one,” (Nachoua, 2012, p.1150) which also motivated the learners. Another study revealed “that teaching listening skills by using interactive multimedia learning materials ...designed and developed with the Wondershare Quizcreator program are very effective. (Ampal, 2015) These studies were made for older students at the University level, but other studies with younger children have shown that digital storytelling improved listening comprehension.

Brown (1994) in his chapter on the principle for designing listening techniques, makes the point that “comprehension itself is not externally observable.” However, he points out that there are ways of inferring what they may understand by through verbal and nonverbal responses to speech. Brown quotes Lund’s article A Taxonomy for teaching second language listening, where Lund offers nine ways of checking listeners’ comprehension: doing (respond physically), choosing (selecting from alternatives), transferring (draw what is heard), answering (questions about message), condensing (taking notes), extending (provide alternative endings), duplicating (retelling in own or target language), modelling (imitate dialog), conversing (talking about information). (p. 245-6) In CALL listening activities, the easiest to program are the first two, doing and selecting. The other ways involve more writing and speaking and therefore alternative ways of assessing learners is needed, although the computer is beneficial when it comes to recording sound or writing text, it is not an ideal tool to assess the productive skills.

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) and speech processing technology in CALL may offer greater possibilities for future language learning materials, but the technology is limited as “recognizing and understanding human speech requires a considerable amount of linguistic knowledge: a command of the phonological, lexical, semantic, grammatical, and pragmatic conventions that constitute a language.” (Ehsani & Knodt, 1998, p.56) A machine can in no way 23 interpret language as a human does. The computer can provide means of recording speech and dialogue, but it remains the task of the teacher to assess spoken language.

The computer is also inefficient as a tool for assessing writing skills. There have been attempts to have the computer teach and test writing, but “the failure of such systems is usually rooted in the computer‘s inability to accommodate unpredictable learner output.” (Beatty, p.14) Furthermore, “in keyword answers the computer might overlook incorrect syntax, be confused by variations of grammar, fail to accept synonyms, fail to notice erroneous and extraneous words (13) and more specifically spelling errors. The computer is however ideal for developing all skills, although assessing receptive skills is more efficient than productive skills. It is still up to the teacher to assess these skills.

However, using a program or software or even a website that allows for teachers easy access to learners’ work makes the teacher’s role as action researcher easier to manage data. (Wallace, 2000, p.4) But as Beatty points out in his discussion on the pedagogical concerns for CALL software “in order for learners to learn, they need to reflect upon their learning in discussion with teachers and peers, in diaries and in reports. He furthermore, writes that. Through reflection, learners begin to examine learning materials and their strategies for approaching them, thus benefiting even when a CALL program or online learning resource does not meet their learning needs. (Beatty, 2013, p. 164- 165) Finally, if teachers are to incorporate CALL into their language classroom, they need to select and evaluate the right material for their learners. Chapelle (2001) summarizes the logical evaluation of CALL tasks according to the following qualities: Language learning potential, learner fit, meaning focus, authenticity, impact, and practicality. (p.66) See Appendix D. Three of these qualities will be discussed in the conclusion with relevance to the CALL material An Unexpected Voyage.

2.4.1 Digital Remedial Reading Digital remedial reading is an effective technique for learning words incidentally, not only for learners with reading disabilities, but learners learning a second language. When children first learn to read English in Icelandic schools, it is mainly through their textbook. Unlike native speakers who develop their reading skills through phonics lessons from a young age, Icelandic learners are not taught to read in English, rather they learn it along the way with the textbooks provided, phonics lessons seem less prevalent. Their receptive knowledge of English often helps

24 them predict the pronunciation of words, whereas unfamiliar words with complex spelling are often sounded aloud pronouncing the individual letters as you would read an Icelandic word. This leads to misinterpretation of the pronunciation and often meaning of the word. Remedial reading however can help learners identify familiar vocabulary. It can also help learners acquire vocabulary incidentally, as comprehension can be achieved not only through repeated listening and reading, but through visual clues.

A study investigating individual differences in gains from computer-assisted remedial reading shows “that reading aloud coupled with explaining words and showing their spellings is an effective instructional strategy for English language learners in middle school.” (Wise, Ring, & Olsen. 200 p.84) A further study by Elley Warwick (1989) showed that “young children can learn new vocabulary incidentally from having illustrated storybooks read to them” and that “teacher’s additional explanations of unknown words as they are encountered can double vocabulary gains.” Further evidence from this study showed that “students who start out with less vocabulary knowledge gain at least as much from the readings as the other students, and that the learning is relatively permanent.” (Warwick, 1989, p.184)

Krashen’s comprehensible input hypothesis stated that incidental vocabulary is acquired through extensive reading of text that is comprehensible to the learner. This means that words are learned through the context of the text. He also proposed learning words incidentally through narrow reading and narrow listening, repeated listening and reading. But in reading a text, the learner must be familiar with at least 95% of the words in the text for learning words in context to be possible. (Laufer, 1989) Nation claims it is even more, 98%. So learners must have an extensive vocabulary in developing their reading comprehension. Most researchers agree that extensive reading is not enough to learn words quickly and efficiently enough, attention should be given to vocabulary teaching. Nation (1982) proposed that words should be learned in context and through lists. Coady (1997) suggests that learners receive explicit instructions on the 3000 most common words in English before engaging in reading tasks.

Waring and Takaki’s research (2003) showed that learners through extensive reading learned on average only one word, but it did enrich the vocabulary already known by learners. Words can have different connotations and meaning, and through extensive reading familiar words seen in different context provide a richer understanding of those words. Extensive reading is though additionally beneficial, in my view, in familiarizing with sentence structure and grammatical knowledge, which can be inferred from texts. For example, I have found in my years

25 of teaching, that learners who read extensively, were more familiar with the past tenses of irregular verbs than learners who did not read as much.

Despite the possibility that digital remedial stories using visual imagery for contextual clues may help learners familiarize themselves with new words, the words will not be fully comprehended unless attention is brought to them and the words used. So any form of reading in order to learn words would require the learner to focus on the words with follow activities that require the productive use of language. The benefits, though, of remedial reading is that it helps reader focus on the pronunciation of words in the second language.

2.4.2 Digital storytelling Digital storytelling is a new tool that is now available for teachers to use at no cost in the classroom. Websites such as, www.storyjumper.com , allow teachers to register their schools and give learners access to a page in which they can write stories using the pictures provided or even upload their own pictures to use in their story. While setting up the learners’ account, the teachers must obtain permission from parents. It, furthermore, provides students the option to post their stories on Facebook. Both parents and teachers can easily follow up on the students’ progress as they write. Research has shown that storytelling is an effective tool for language learning.

Teachers have found that “digital storytelling projects could increase students’ understanding of curricular content” and that students enjoy “the idea of piecing together their thoughts and connecting them any which way they wanted to by titles, audio, narrations, motions, transitions and other Photo Story effects.“ (Sadik, 2008, p. 502) Sadik mentions, Robin’s approach to creating and integrating digital stories, which can be found in Appendix E, as a guideline for using digital storytelling in the classroom.

The benefits of digital storytelling is that they can easily use as “an e-portfolio tool of formative assessment for learning. Using digital storytelling as a reflective portfolio gives more opportunities for learners to collect, organize, reflect and communicate evidence of their learning with others, which is an essential component of classroom work and can raise standards of achievement more effectively than any other strategy. (p. 503)

A study in Taiwan showed that “storytelling is a practical and powerful teaching tool, especially for language learning, “ but that teachers“ hesitate to incorporate storytelling into language instruction because of an already overloaded curriculum.“ (Tsou,Wang &Tzeng, 2006, p.17) This could also be true for teachers that rely heavily on the textbook when structuring their

26 lessons. Despite the fact that a textbook alone does not address all the requirements of the National Curriculum, no textbook can.

Verdugo and Belmonte (2007) claim that “listening comprehension plays a key role in foreign language teaching, especially with young learners “ (p.78) They concluded in their studies on digital storytelling that, “the pedagogical practice of digital stories promoted concentration and focused children's attention on the oral input received. The ability for each child to play the story several times also guaranteed a longer time of exposure to the target language.” (p.96)

We also need to consider that there is a demand for a new pedagogy in future teaching, which includes incorporating technology in the classroom and developing deep learning skills so teachers must rethink their curriculum. The National Curriculum suggests that the future language teachers work alongside the learners encouraging learner autonomy. CALL can help teachers achieve this. While learners are working on the computer, it provides an ideal opportunity for the teacher to dialog with learners on a one on one basis, and, consequently, the chance to assess learner’s comprehension, as well as competence, verbally. The computer also provides an ideal tool for record keeping, easy access to assessments on learners’ vocabulary and grammatical knowledge, as well as observing students’ writings. Websites such as www.storyjumper.com provide the ideal tool for teachers to observe students writing skills. It can provide vast data for research purposes on learners’ writing development over a period of time, as all the stories written by students are saved into the teacher‘s account.

3 Listening and Vocabulary Development The fourth part of the paper will talk about how digital technology has helped to advance corpus linguistics research, how high-frequency are important to learning a language, the incidental and explicit learning of vocabulary, the functions of listening skills and the how learning-to-do can encourage vocabulary growth, especially with CALL.

3.1 Corpus Linguistics Corpus Linguistics is the study of words by gathering data, originally from texts, and analyzing the frequency of words in a language. The development of computer technologies in the 1980s computers have had a big influence on the development of corpus linguistics. It has provided it with powerful programs to scan texts and compile a corpus for analysis, a corpus being a sample of the real world text, whether in written or, as is now, in spoken format.

Corpus linguistics looks at language as a whole and aims at providing a list of the most common words in the English language. The General Service List gathered by West in 1953, provides a list of the 2000 most common words in the English language. It has proved a useful guide for material and curriculum writers. As the original version was based on written texts, technological advancements have allowed corpus linguists to update and create a new word list by including data from spoken language. The new version can be found on http://www.newgeneralservicelist.org/, which explains how it was created and provides access to online tools such as Quizlet where teachers can access on-line vocabulary quizzes on high- frequency content words. The study of the corpora of any text is a useful tool for language teaching. It provides teachers with a tool for analyzing high frequency words and low frequency words in any given text.

High frequency words should be given special attention in language teaching and taught explicitly, as it is crucial for learners to master them before moving on to the complexities of language. (Nation, 1982, Schmitt, 2000, Carter, 1989) On analysis, words in high frequency are function words such as prepositions, personal pronouns, conjunctives. Furthermore, they include contents words for use in people‘s daily lives. Vocabulary acquisition is incremental by nature (Schmitt, 2000, p.117) in that learners acquire, for example, learning high-frequency words or the basic meaning of common words before mastering low-frequency words, hence the importance of explicitly teaching high-frequency words. (Schmitt, Nation, 1990, McCarthy, 1989)

The corpus, furthermore, provides an insight into the collocations of words that seem arbitrarily put together, collocations being words fixed together to form a meaning. Norbert Schmitt groups them as grammatical, lexical, and pragmatic. Idioms or phrasal verbs are not included as they are a group of words that together form a fixed meaning. However, collocations are the subject of study for more advanced students and therefore will not be further discussed. However, some idioms are useful to teach although it is important for beginners and pre- intermediate learners to master high frequency words. In a few of the listening tasks provided in the learning material common idioms associated with color, farm animals, clothes and body parts are provided for explicit teaching and hearing it used in context. Idioms are easily mapped out semantically through visual representations created by students.

3.2 The Semantic Transparency of Idioms Boers and Demecheleer (2001), in their study, measuring the impact of cross-cultural differences on learners’ imageable idioms, describe the different factors that play a role in the degree of semantic transperancy of idioms. First, there are “idioms whose constituents individually contribute to the overall interpretation.” They give as an example the idiom to pop the question , which can be “decomposed” to substitute pop for ask. These types of idioms are easily transferable. Second, “idioms that belong to a cluster of expression which reflect a common metaphoric theme”, like to let off steam or she erupted reflect the metaphorical theme of “Anger is heat”. Third, idioms “with a clear etymological origin”, rather than an obscure one. Boers and Demecheleer’s research showed that conventions differ amongst cultures and sometimes L1 transfers can lead to misunderstandings. The pitfall may be that idioms that sound similar may produce “false friends” and lead to misinterpretations.

Learning the meaning of idioms depend much on how transparent they are. The higher the transparency the easier it is to infer meaning. If it is highly visual, or “imageable,” it is said to have a high semantic transparency. The idiom black sheep is highly visual, but it is also highly transparent because there is an equivalent expression in Icelandic with the same meaning, (in Icelandic svartur sauður). Other idioms, although highly visual may not have an equivalent in the first language and their meaning cannot always be inferred, the meanings must be explicitly taught, but are easy to remember because of their imageability. For example, it’s raining cats and dogs . In a given context, the reader or listener can infer that it is raining, but not to what extent, this must be taught explicitly, but the idiom would not have a high learning burden as it is very visual, and drawing a picture of the idiom may make it more memorable.

Idioms that are not so transparent and do not easily transfer to L1, need to be taught explicitly.

3.3 Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Incidental vocabulary acquisition refers to the vocabulary we pick up along the way without consciously thinking about learning them, like we learn our first language. In second language learning, incidental vocabulary acquisition is acquired through exposure to the second language whether it be through communication, playing computer games, watching films or TV series, reading books, comics, web pages or even ads. The English language is all around us, especially, in the digital world where we spend most of our time. It goes without saying that the more the exposure, the more words are picked up along the way.

Krashen not only proposed that we learn words incidentally through extensive reading but he also suggested a technique for narrow reading and narrow listening to develop comprehension and, consequently, vocabulary. In the case of reading, learners read extensively on a particular topic or by a particular author, but in the case for narrow listening, learners listen to an audio-recording by a native speaker repeatedly until the input has become comprehensible, then it is time for the learner to move onto the next listening. Digital listening activities are ideal for such a narrow listening techniques as learners can listen to an audio file as often as they need to. (Krashen, 1989, p.97) This parallels how young learners pick up words from watching and listening to the same cartoon over and over again.

Incidental learning is not only acquired through reading, much of it comes from communication. Spoken interaction requires far less vocabulary and typical conversations tend to mediate meaning through other contextual clues, such as tone of voice or gestures by hand, as well as repetition. In TBLT, incidental vocabulary acquisition is achieved through the communicative act of dealing with tasks. Learners learn vocabulary incidentally through following directions and communicating about them.

However, input does not always necessarily mean intake. One of the leading researchers in the field of vocabulary acquisition, Batia Laufer suggests that we “do not rely too much on uninstructed acquisition.” (Laufer, Meara & Nation, 2005) The research has shown that incidental learning together with the deliberate teaching of words proves more effective for acquisition and retention. A study made by Laufer and Reutblat (2011), on incidental vocabulary acquisition and the effects of task type, word occurrence and their combination, showed that

30 learners retained more words when reading and doing exercises that focused on forms than learners that read and looked up words in the dictionary.

Furthermore, “an increase in word occurrence was found to have an effect on retention in (tasks with focus on form) only.” (Laufer and Reutblat, 2011, p. 391) In TBLT, Focus on form is the term given to any explicit teaching of any linguistic component (pronunciation, spelling, or grammar), including words and word parts. Nation also emphasizes the need to come back to the words and see them repeatedly, hence the effectiveness of the word card strategy described in the next chapter.

Despite being exposed to large quantities of language, “what counts is the linguistic information that you ultimately glean from that exposure through conscious and subconscious attention, through cognitive strategies of retention, through feedback, and through interaction.” (Brown, p.234) This brings us to the importance of teaching words explicitly to learners and will be discussed in the following chapter.

3.4 Strategies and techniques for deliberate Teaching of Vocabulary Learning words is essential for language learning. “Some researchers suggest that learners need to know 5000 word families to reach a reasonable comprehension (70%) of authentic non-fiction texts.” (Laufer, Meara & Nation, 2005) It is essential for learners to expand their vocabulary. Learning vocabulary explicitly can be done two ways, readymade activities or by activities that take little preparation time. Most researcher advocate that learners build up their own lexicon of words, and develop learner autonomy. (Laufer, Meara & Nation, 2005) This is easier to achieve with techniques that require little preparation and where learners create their own activities.

Readymade activities include the traditional techniques common with the Grammar- translation method such as fill-in-the-blanks, memorization, matching opposites, and using words in a sentence. Other focus on forms techniques, adopted by the audio lingual method, include minimal pairs and drills. Various language games focus on vocabulary such as crossword puzzles, word searches, word scrambles, boggles, hangman, scrabble, bingo, memory games, and battleship. These games are easily created as CALL material using online software, like Hot Potatoes , or websites such as www.eslprintables.com. The latter is a webpage where English teachers all around the world share their printable English worksheets and they can create interactive vocabulary activities for their students. They can also create accounts for the students in their classroom, give their learners access to it on englishexercises.org, upload the exercise

31 and monitor learners’ progress. However, this is often time-consuming for the teacher to prepare although the ability to monitor students is a definite asset.

There are other easier ways of deliberately focusing on words without all the extra work for the teacher, especially considering that if learners are to build their own lexicon, the teacher will not have time to make exercises for all. But instead the learners can create their own exercises and games through free online resources such as https://crosswordlabs.com/ ,to create crossword puzzles and print them out for later revision, or http://www.puzzle-maker.com/ that creates both crossword puzzles and word searches. Creating their own puzzles would only encourage them to use online dictionaries and thesaurus.

Looking up words takes little preparation, but it is advised that teachers explicitly teach the learners how to use the dictionary and the thesaurus. The teacher should also according to most researchers teach the most common word parts in the English language. Teaching word parts is a strategy that helps learners understand a word. Nation (suggest using word cards. Learners write down the words they want to learn as they read or watch something in the English language, they look it up in the dictionary and write the Icelandic translation on the other side. The cards are kept with them at all times, and in pairs learners can quiz each other on these words. Once the learner has memorized a set of words, he could type it in a document to send to the teacher so he/she can keep a track of the vocabulary development and later use the words for assessment purposes.

Some words are easier to learn than others, others are more difficult. Nation calls this the learning burden of a word. Words like prince and princess would have little learning burden in Icelandic as the words sound almost the same. Longer words have a more difficult learning burden. In discovering the learning burden of a word the meaning, form and use is looked at. Knowing the word parts helps in reducing the learning burden of a word.

Another way to give attention to words is Hulstijn’s keyword method, which “works by combining elements of phonological form and meaning in a mental image.” The learner conjures up a mental image of two things, the target word in English and a word that begins with the same sound in the mother tongue, these two clashing images conjure up a mental picture that “help fix target words in memory.” (Schmitt, 2000, p.121)

To add, the following is a list of the ten best ideas for teaching vocabulary according to the three leading researchers on vocabulary acquisition, Batia Laufer (University of Haifa, Israel), Paul Meara (University of Swansea, UK) and Paul Nation (Victoria University of

Wellington, New Zealand). These are quoted from the article in The Language Teacher Ten Best Ideas for Vocabulary Teaching.

Bautia Laufer recommends that we;

1. Do not rely too much on uninstructed acquisition. 2. Create your own lexical syllabus. 3. Do not count on guessing strategies to replace vocabulary knowledge. 4. Increase learners’ vocabulary size. 5. Recycle words that have been introduced earlier in the course. 6. Give frequent vocabulary tests. 7. Draw learners’ attention to “synforms” (words that are identical in sound). 8. Pay attention to interlingual semantic differences. 9. Do not ban the L1 translation of words. 10. Practice the use of collocations that differ from the learners’ L1

Paul Meara suggests:

1. Teach your students to use a mnemonic system. 2. Set demanding vocabulary targets for your students. 3. Teach words in context. 4. Get the students to read something new every day. 5. Get your students to write something every day. 6. Get students to review their vocabulary regularly. 7. Play word association games. 8. Watch videos with subtitles. 9. Listens to songs. 10. Learn a book by heart.

Paul Nation proposes that we

1. Apply principles of teaching and learning. 2. Approach high and low frequency words differently. 3. Use the four strands of meaning-focused input (learning through communicative listening and reading activities), meaning-focused output (learning through communicative speaking and writing activities), language-focused learning (form-

focused instruction), and fluency development in the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. 4. Implement an extensive reading program. 5. Carefully design speaking and writing activities. 6. Use a variety of activities aimed at fluency development 7. Provide extended training and practice in guessing unknown vocabulary from context. 8. Train students to use word cards. 9. Teach the high frequency affixes of English. 10. Encourage learner autonomy.

They all emphasize the importance of the explicit teaching of words and word parts knowing the meanings of commons prefixes and suffixes can help with comprehension. They all agree on the importance of learners building up their own lexicon and the importance of knowing word parts, where learners are taught the meaning of common prefixes and suffixes. Regular reading and writing is recommended by all.

Words can also be given focus to in the context of a text. And readers use contextual clues to figure out the meaning of the word. The strategy includes reading the sentence that comes before and after the words and try to figure out the meaning. The next step is to try to break it down into word parts and see if that adds to comprehension and then once again read the sentences before and after. Some words are easy to figure out this way, other unfamiliar words one can only guess, and this could lead to misunderstanding, so it is always good to resort to looking the words up in the dictionary.

Memory also plays a big role in learning words. Words are also easy to forget if they are not put in use. Nation recommends giving words repeated attention. Using word cards is a useful technique, although productive use of words does more for retention.

3.5 Listening Comprehension Listening comprehension is essential to language learning and for vocabulary acquisition. It involves various mental processes such as listening for the sound, pronunciation, and intonation of the language, applying ones schematic knowledge to what is being said, and by using other senses to look for other contextual clues for interpretation. Hence, visual clues are very effective in listening comprehension tasks. Listening requires time and effort. Naturally, the more learners are exposed to the sound of the target language the more words are learnt incidentally through repetition, as is with Icelandic learners. On a broad level there are two types of discourse the

34 listener hears, planned and unplanned. Whereas the former is more like a polished text (like planned listening activity using audio or multimedia or a dialog in a film), the latter is spontaneous and involves collaboration with the listener (speaking the target language in the classroom). (Buck, p.9)

In the classroom, listening is developed through teacher student interaction, students talking in pairs or in groups, or a planned listening activity. Brown makes a distinction between six types of listening performance in the classroom; reactive, intensive, responsive, selective, extensive and interactive.

Reactive listening means listening to surface structures of language such as “choral and individual drills that focus on pronunciation” or chants focusing on simple dialog structures.

Intensive listening makes use of bottom up skills where learners “listen for cues in certain choral or individual drills” in order to notice specific elements of language such as intonation, contraction or a grammatical structure.

Responsive listening refers to learners responding to language by “asking questions, giving commands, seeking clarification, checking comprehension.” The longer stretches of discourse provide for selective and extensive listening. “Techniques promoting selective listening skills could ask students to listen for people’s names, dates, certain facts or events, location situation, context etc, main ideas and/or conclusion.”

Extensive listening uses a top-bottom approach which “range from listening to lengthy lectures to listening to a conversation and deriving a comprehensive message or purpose, may require to invoke other interactive skills for full comprehension, (such as, note-taking and discussion)” (Brown, p. 242-4) Interactive listening involves both speaking and listening, incorporating the five previously mentioned types. This type of listening is crucial to task- based learning.

Nation (2008) writes that vocabulary is rarely tested in listening except in the form of dictation. Vocabulary, however, can be taught through listening tasks in the classroom. The teacher explains the meaning of words in the target language, or uses pictures to elicit vocabulary or use the words in context. Most researchers agree that listening and speaking should be taught together, which is the dominant feature in TBLT. In task based learning, learners learn from one through all kinds of activities they work on together such as using pictures to describe differences

35 and similarities, putting events in a certain order, gap-activities, or listening using an information table.

In order to support vocabulary learning through a meaningful listening tasks, Nation writes that the learning conditions must focus on the message of the input, the learners must be interested in what is being listened to, and “they must be familiar with 98% of the running words in the input.” Furthermore, they must have “the support and skill to guess the remaining 2% of the running words in context” and have “plenty of input that provides repeated opportunities to meet and establish the previously unknown vocabulary.” (22-3) Furthermore, these conditions must be met in order to develop fluency. (35)

There are many benefits in creating planned listening activities teaching vocabulary using the computer as a tool using bottom up methods. If the above criteria for is not met for all learners and some listening tasks may prove more difficult than others, it is always possible to use the technique of narrow listening. The computer as a tool, additionally, makes it possible to create new ways of presenting text with sound and picture that require the learner to respond to the listening task through some action, such as drag and drop activities matching words and pictures. And, finally, learners’ response can easily be programmed for monitoring where teachers can infer learners’ comprehension through their answers.

Discussion

4 An Unexpected Voyage: A Reading Adventure The concept for An Unexpected Voyage: A Reading Adventure was partly inspired after attending a Storyline for Foreign Language Teaching course in Glasgow in the summer 2013 and coordinating a European Comenius project, Protect Nature, Teaching Environmental Sustainability through Storyline on behalf of Áslandsskóli in 2011-2013. Like the storyline methodology there is a storyline that threads the curriculum for An Unexpected Voyage : A Reading Adventure together. What intrigued me about the Storyline methodology for foreign language teaching was how easy it was to incorporate vocabulary teaching within the context of a storyline in little mini lessons developed from learners’ lexicon. This means that learners brainstorm the words they know and then expand on them. For example, one storyline I did with my students was to create a story of a family travelling to Canada to experience the culture and nature. As the students were creating their characters I could conduct in between little mini- lessons and quiz students on vocabulary needed to create the characters such as; describing appearances, hobbies, jobs, home, etc. Within the storyline, when the family are getting ready to leave and are packing their suitcase, I could conduct a little mini lesson on clothes. When the family arrived at the airport, the students brainstormed a lexicon of airport words etc. This was in the back of my mind when I decided on a structure for this curriculum.

An Unexpected Voyage is a web-based navigational learning material. Its design can be summarized into four categories: remedial story, listen-to-do, creative follow up activities, and learner access, which will be discussed hereafter in more detail.

4.1 The remedial navigational story An Unexpected Voyage is told in the present tense. The aim is to keep the language simple in order to develop vocabulary incidentally through visual and audio stimuli. The personal pronoun in its singular and plural form appear in high frequency as the story is written in the second person “you.” The objective is to involve the reader in the reading process (hence the term A Reading Adventure), and motivate the learner by offering choices. Additionally, the material aims at developing vocabulary incidentally and deliberately through interactive listening games which is linked to the story through the illustrations. The story is read aloud to help with comprehension and pronunciation of words. The assumption is that it helps readers identify the words that appear unfamiliar in the written language but familiar through sound. One of the aims of the storyline is to provide a medium for incidental vocabulary acquisition through narrow reading and listening

37 with visual support for comprehension. The audio can easily be turned off by the computer, should the learner feel he would prefer to read the story on his own. The text can also be listened to more often than once with the click of a mouse.

The material has certain features that support comprehension, it is illustrative in that the story includes pictures described in the text. It is remedial, but the learner can always turn off the sound if he/she wants. It is summarized, as a map appears of the island throughout the story showing the reader the places he has explored on the island. The story is interactive in that the reader has a choice of place and people to meet and his choices determine the sequence of events in the story.

Readers will experience the story differently and hence the story will provide an ideal platform for speculations and creative thinking. As mentioned before, the story involves the reader as part of a fictional family (See Appendix G for a list of family names) that is planning a voyage to Australia. In the next two parts I will describe the basic plot outline and how the interactive features work within the plot outline.

4.2 Listen and do Tasks The tasks integrated in the storyline are aimed at the deliberate teaching of words through listening, visual imagery, and short texts that are incorporated within the storyline.

As the learner reads the story, the text appears with a scenic picture illustrating the text. The reader reads while listening to the narrative. After reading, the reader clicks on the arrow and the next page appears. The same picture reappears, but this time with stars within the illustration and a remedial text with instructions on completing the tasks.

The number of stars in each illustration depend on the number of vocabulary activities. To access these listening tasks, the learner clicks on the stars. They are situated next to an image that represents the topic of the task. Learners may select the order in which they do the activities on that particular page. The student must complete all tasks and gain a 90% total score for each star before he/she continues to read the story. All scores are saved automatically, the learner can exit and come back to it another day. To add, as the learner returns to the story, he/she can flip back the pages he/she has read to revise the story before continuing the reading adventure.

Each listening tasks is aimed at developing vocabulary through listen-and-do activities, and repeated listening is encouraged. The tasks include visual imagery for contextual clues, the instructions are remedial and offer repeated listening by clicking on the appropriate icon. The

38 program highlights learners’ error and learners must redo the activity until the target score is achieved.

In the beginning of the story, the topics for the listening activities are very general although thematically related to the content of the story. However, as the story progresses some of the listening activities become more relevant to the storyline, as they are little stories within the story.

The aim of these short stories is to listen for idioms and phrases used in context as well as, to enrich the content of the storyline. The learner may listen as often as he needs, as these activities are not aimed as tests on vocabulary, but rather as listening exercises and identifying the words and phrases used in context.

When aimed at comprehension, the listening script serve as little stories within the story, whether as a flashback, or a digression, or a script that relates to an action in the storyline, in the beginning of the storyline, they are of a general nature based on the seasons, transport, weather, and preposition, to mention a few. Some relate to actions in the story like packing a suitcase to go on a trip, or buying a pet in the pet store. Others give insights into some character’s life on the island.

The following is a detailed analysis of the listening tasks in terms of the pre-intermediate level. Some of the tasks include revision of the vocabulary taught at beginner‘s level that are well worth revising and fit contextually within the storyline sequence. This analysis describes each activity; the content of the listening task, the aim for learners, the target words, the focus of linguistic components where relevant, and suggestions for productive follow up tasks.

The Park

The first picture sets the scene of a family picnic at the park where the father tells the good news that they will be going on voyage to Australia in a couple of days.

Task 1

Listening Content

The learners hear a voice telling of the days of the week. As the learner listens he must drag and drop words and pictures, as well as write the days of the week, the days of the week,

39 accurately, in the gaps. A scrambled list of the days is given with the vowels omitted. This activity is reactive and selective.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to revise vocabulary for days of the week and weather. • to listen for words in context. • to write the days of the week. • to listen for missing vowels. • to match pictures with words.

Target Words

Days of the week : Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Weather: sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy, snowy, foggy, stormy

Linguistic Components

• The capitalization for the names of the days in a week. (focus in writing) • short vowels and long vowels. • The phonetic “ee” sound of “y” at the end of a word. (focus on sound)

Productive Tasks

Journal writing – students write in their journal on a daily basis for a week what the weather is like, include the practice of writing dates.

Write the word Tuesday on the blackboard and underline the two long vowels. (Tuesday is an ideal word to focus on, it is often confused with Thursday, it seems to have a high learning burden for Icelandic learners, probably because the initial sound of þríðjudagur and Thursday is phonetically the same.)

Give every other learner a sound, ue or ay , tell them to individually think of as many words in English that end with that sound . Inform learners that spelling is irrelevant as some words sound the same but might be spelled differently. Compare the sound Tue with the sound you. The objective is for learners to notice the spelling of these two long vowels.

Give them around five minutes, then pair up learners with different sounds and get the partners to share the words with each other and together add more words to both lists. Give another five minutes and then share with the classroom.

Task 2

Listening Content

A family photo is described and the characters in the storyline are reintroduced, family words and some prepositions revised.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for words. • to drag pictures and drop in appropriate place on the screen. • to drag names under each correct picture of person.

Target Words

Family : mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, cousin

Prepositions of Place: in front of, behind, next to, between.

Phrases: on the right, on the left

Linguistic Components

Teachers may want to focus on the following questions in this context and see if learners know or can explain this difference. Compare to first language.

What is the difference between saying to the left and on the left ? What is the difference between saying to the right and on the right ? Productive Tasks

Learners can pair up and create their own drawing dictation of a family photo, elaborating on who is who in their imaginary family. While one learner tells, the other draws. The learners describe their physical appearance, such as facial features, or the clothes they wear, or any additional accessories they may have on.

This task requires little preparation, only a pencil and a piece of paper. The teacher may want to demonstrate on the blackboard first by getting the students to dictate while the teacher draws.

Task 3

Listening Content

Learners click on pictures and listen to a sentence, or two, describing a facial feature using the word for the image. Learners listen for descriptive words (adjectives) and drag the correct word next to the appropriate picture.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for words describing a picture. • to unscramble letters for words. • to drag descriptive words next to the correct picture.

Target Words

Facial Features: eye, mouth, hair, tongue, teeth, ear, nose, lips, head, nose.

Adjectives : big, small, straight, thin, wet, thick, short,

Colors: yellow, pink, brown, blue, white.

Linguistic Components

• focus on words in context.

Productive Tasks

Learners select a picture of a celebrity online, or any other picture. Write a description of the face. Think of other words that can describe a face. Brainstorm with the learners.

Here are some suggestions to start with freckles, beard, mustache, sideburns, fringe, goatee, beauty spot, wears glasses, bald, curly hair...

The learners brainstorm a list. It is always a good idea to brainstorm and see what words they know and then add onto that. Words that are unknown and useful can be added to the word cards for memorization and further use.

Task 4

Listening Content

This listening task is a description of four members of the family and what that can and can’t do in sports.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to description. • to listen for what each person can or can’t do. • to drag and drop the sports images next to the appropriate column for can or can’t.

Target Words

Sports: basketball, football, handball, tennis, karate, skiing, gymnastics, volleyball, swimming, iceskate.

Linguistic Components

• focus on can / can’t (cannot)

Productive Tasks Journal writing – write about the sports you can and can’t do. Write about the sports you haven’t tried but would like to. Why haven’t you tried it? What’s stopping you?

Task 5.

Listening Content

Listen to simple sentence using prepositions in a memory game matching words with pictures. As you click on the word or the picture you will hear the sentence it is used in.

Learner’s aim

• to listen for words • to match words with pictures • to play memory game

Target Words

Preposition of Place: on, in, beside, above, in front of, next to, under, over, behind, between

Linguistic Components

• focus on preposition of place

Productive Tasks Use drawing dictations, examples of scripts for drawing dictations can be found in the teacher’s handbook for An Adventure Island. (Runarsdottir, 2008, p. 16-20)

Task 6

Listening Content

This listening tasks is a dialog between the sales person in a pet store and a young boy who wishes to buy a pet but doesn’t have a lot of money. He is asking for the prices of each of the animals in the story.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to the dialog. • to listen for the prices and drag and drop them beneath the correct pet. • to select the correct word from a drop option box.

Target Words

Pets: frog, rabbit, snake, cat, dog, hamster, parrot, goldfish, mouse.

Numbers: one, three, five, seven, eight, ten, thirteen, twenty, thirty six.

Linguistic Components

• asking for prices

Productive Tasks Write a funny sketch that happens in a pet store. To get ideas, you can watch the Monty Python pet shop sketch. (Copy and paste the following link, https://youtu.be/Oj8RIEQH7zA )

The Neighborhood

The second picture illustrates the story on the way home from the park and describes what the reader sees. At this point there are five listening tasks.

Task 7

Listening Content

Learners listen for comprehension. They are presented with a picture of an apartment block and images of family members. The learners listen to three audio files describing where the people are and on which floor of the building. While listening, they must drag the correct person into the correct window.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions • to listen for where people are in the building. • to drag pictures of people into the correct window.

Target Words

Family words revised

Linguistic Components

• ordinal numbers (first, second)

Productive Tasks Journal writing – practice writing ordinal numbers for dates.

Task 8

Listening Content

Learners are presented with images of rooms and places in a house and family members. They click on the image of each family member and listen to a sentence describing where they are in the house.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for words

• to match correct pictures together.

Target Words

Attic, garage, garden, laundry room, kitchen, bedroom, living room, dining room, and bathroom and family words revised.

Linguistic Components

• focus on words.

Productive Tasks

Write an action scene that happens in a house. Try to use all the Target WordsWho is in the house? Where are they? What are they doing there? Imagine if someone was being chased all around the house and goes into all these rooms and places. How would you write that story? What would it be about? How would it start?

Task 9

Listening Content

Listening to the family talking to one another over breakfast. The mother is giving chores for who is to do what around the house. The same images of the places in a house as task 8 are used and the learner listens for who does what where.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for phrases and drag them in correct order next to the correct image of the place or room. • to listen for names and select the correct name from a drop option box for each chore.

Target Phrases

Chores around the house: lay the table, clean the sink, do laundry, mow the lawn, mop the floor, tidy up, vacuum clean, make the bed, clean out, wash dishes, make the bed, take out the trash, pick up off the floor, polish the furniture.

Linguistic Components

• focus on phrases for chores

Productive Tasks Journal writing – write about your family and who does what around the house. Try to use as many phrases as possible. If there is a chore that no one does, you can say so, for example. We don’t have a garden, so we never have to mow the lawn.

These phrases can also be added to the story scene for task 9.

Task 10

Listening Content Learners listen to similes in a memory game matching two pictures that are associated together in a simile.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to similes • to play a memory game

Target Similes

Similes: as nervous as a cat, as happy as a pig in mud, as hungry as a wolf, as cunning as a fox, as scared as a mouse, as tall as a giraffe, as ugly as a toad, as angry as a bear, as sad as a bunny with no carrot, as stupid as a goose.

Linguistic Components

• focus on similes

Productive Tasks

Learners can select some of these similes to use in their action story for task

Task 11.

Listening Content

Learners are presented with nine images for feelings. They click on each image and listen to a couple of sentences using the synonyms. They write the two words from a word list next to each corresponding picture illustrating the emotion/feeling.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for synonyms.

• to write synonyms.

Target Words

Feelings: sad, unhappy, scared, afraid, overjoyed, happy, famished, hungry, thirsty, parched, sleepy, tired, surprised, shocked, fed up, bored.

Linguistic Components

-synonyms

Productive Tasks Learners can create their own memory game by using the words in a sentence.

Home

The reader is at this point given his first choice in the story, where he lives. The narrative describes the same content. The family head home to plan for their voyage, pack their suitcase and clean up the house. (Linking the story to the previous listening activities on chores and rooms in the house.) The taxi arrives on the day of departure, taking them to the harbor.

Whichever home the learner chooses, the listening tasks are the same and links to the same tasks, a boy brushing his teeth by the window, a bird’s nest in a tree, a suitcase in front of the building and a taxi parked outside.

Task 12

Listening Content

There are four pictures of people to click on and listen. The learner listens to each person describe what he did that morning. The voices alternate between a British and an American accent, this is to accentuate the difference between having and taking a shower or a bath. The British have a shower, while the Americans take a shower.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions.

• to listen to a description. • to drag and drop phrases in the correct order.

Target Phrases

Daily activities: brush teeth, wash face, comb hair, wash hair, have lunch, get dressed, wake up, get out of bed, have breakfast, have dinner, take a bath, take a shower, have a bath, have a shower, make the bed, read the newspaper.

Linguistic Components

UK and US difference: take a shower /take a bath vs have a shower/have a bath

Productive Tasks

Journal writing – describe in your journal your morning what you did from the moment you woke up until you got to school.

Task 13

Listening Content

Three listening dialogs of different people describing what they are packing in their suitcase. The learner drags and drops the correct picture of clothes and accessories that the speaker is packing. When done, the learner clicks on next listening task and the screen clears and a new speaker is heard, and again the listener drags and drops the items in the suitcase. There are three such tasks.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to a dialog for comprehension. • to listen for words and match with pictures. • to drag correct pictures into a suitcase.

Target Words

Clothes: skirt, shirt, underwear, sweater, jeans, t-shirt, dress, swimsuit, jacket. shorts.

Accessories: glasses, cap, beanie, tie, hat, mittens, gloves, scarf, hat, sunglasses.

Footwear: socks, boots, shoes, sandals, sneakers.

Linguistic Components

• focus on words

Productive Tasks Create your own speaking activity where you are talking on the telephone with a friend making travel plans and telling of the things you are going to take with you.

Create a drawing dictation on what to pack in the suitcase. A picture of an open suitcase to print out is accessible at http://vefir.nams.is/adventure_island/pdf/16.pdf

Task 14

Listening Content

The learner is presented with the images of the transport and clicks on each one to listen to a short dialog.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to twelve short dialogs. • to listen for the days of the week and select the correct one from drop option box. • to write the word for each transport vehicle. • to listen for whether they will or will not travel by this vehicle and tick yes or no.

Target Words

Transport: bus, helicopter, train, airplane, ambulance, motorbike, truck, ship, ferry, bicycle, and days of the week

Linguistic Components

-to travel by … (using the preposition by when referring to transport.)

Productive Tasks

Journal writing - If you had one year to travel and money was no option where would you go and how would you get there . Write a travel plan for three different places you’d go to. Why would you go there and what would you see.

Task 15

Listening Content

The learners are presented with 12 illustrations representing each month of the year. They click on each picture to hear a description of that month and hear the ordinal numbers used in describing each month. Above the illustrations are some words. The learner clicks on each image and listens to a description of that month. As he listen he identifies the words he hears from the word list and drags and drops them in the correct order next to the picture. Learners can listen as often as they need to.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for words. • to drag and drop the words heard in the correct order next to the picture.

Target Words

Months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

Proper nouns (holidays & country) : St. Patrick, Thanksgiving, Labor Day, Halloween, Great Britain, Easter, Ireland, Bank Holiday.

Other words and phrases: harvest, wise men, camping, cultures, autumn, crowberries, a break, firecrackers, feast, seventh, second, worldwide.

Linguistic Components

• ordinal numbers • focus on words. • capitalization of proper nouns, months, days of the week.

Productive Tasks

Tell the learners to listen to the Christmas Song, 12 Days of Christmas. Tell them to practice the ordinal numbers by writing their own version of the song. Write your own version of the song with a partner or on your own.

See the PDF document for follow up activities.

On Board the Ship

The reader is on board the ship and they hit a storm. In the distance, they see an island. Here we have three listening activities, two that target nature words and one where learners listen to weather forecasts revising weather words.

Task 16

Listening Content

Learners listen to three different weather forecasts. They are presented with a map. For every listening forecast the learner must drag the weather symbols where they are described on the map.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to a weather forecast. • to identify the weather and drag images on a map. • to write the temperature in each in a box for each direction on the map.

Target Words

Directions: north, south, east, west, and weather words.

Linguistic Components

• listening to comprehend /focus on words.

Productive Tasks

Create a weather forecast for TV and record with an iPad or iPhone/Smartphone.

Task 17

Listening Content

For this task there are two separate listening activities. The first task involves listening to simple sentences to learn nature words through a memory game. The second task is solving a crossword puzzle with the same words. The learner clicks on the image to hear descriptions, which help in solving the puzzle.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for words. • to play a matching game. • to listen for clues. • to write the words in a crosswords.

Target Words

Nature: forest, pine tree, river, jungle, cave, ocean, beach, desert, waterfall, cliff, lake, mountain.

Linguistic Components

• focus on words

Productive Tasks

Learners may review the vocabulary using the technique for a drawing dictation. A map is available to print to use under the heading of Nature at http://vefir.nams.is/adventure_island/

Task 18

Listening Content

The learners listen to a description of an island. As they listen, they drag and drop the correct nature picture where they belong on the map.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for directions. • to drag pictures to the correct place on a map.

Target Words

Nature words, the same as in task 17.

Linguistic Function.

• following directions.

Productive Tasks Create a table with columns and rows. Label the rows with numbers and the columns with letters. Swap word cards with a partner and dictate to each other where to write the word in the table.

The Shipwreck on the Beach

The family gets shipwrecked on an island because of the storm. The ship is broken and the family is stranded. They spend the next two days on the beach and the captain takes trips with the boat to the ship to rescues things they need and food.

Task 19

Listening Content

The listener is presented with an I Spy listening game where they need to click on the items they hear inside the cabin of the ship.

Learner’s aim

• to listen for words and identify the item in the picture.

Target Words

Objects: lantern, first aid kit, tarp, fishing rod, broom, towel, plates, cereal, chest, sword, box of matches, nail, blanket, axe, spear, portholes, cookie jar, picture frame, striped fish, jacket, shelf, rat, hairbrush, knives, fishing net, coat rack, telescope, magnifying glass, mugs, jug, football, cabinet, books, rope, rifle, hammer, cap.

Linguistic Components

-Focus on words.

Productive Tasks

Encourage the learners to write the words they didn’t know on word cards.

Task 20

Listening Content

Learners click on six people and listen to them talk about the weather and the things they like to wear.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to a description. • to identify two items the person is wearing and the weather. • to drag and drop the appropriate pictures next to the person speaking.

Target Words

Clothes and weather words.

Task 21

Listening Content

This listening task is twofold.

Firstly, it introduces ten different idioms associated with clothes. There are ten pictures of clothing items and an idiom next to each. Next to it there are ten definitions with a box to write in the number for each idiom. Learners click on each image and hear it used in context. From the context they infer the meaning and find a matching definition.

In the second listening task, the learners listen to scene of the family and the captain getting ready to sleep on the beach and the learners listens for the idioms used in context. The learner will hopefully recognize some of these idioms as they are used in the narrative for the storyline.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to idioms explained. • to match idioms with definitions. • to listen for idioms used in a sketch. • to drag and drop the idioms in the order they hear them.

Target Words fit like a glove, to put a sock in it, to put on your thinking cap, to keep your shirt on, to get your knickers in a knot, at the drop of a hat, put yourself in someone’s shoes, tough as an old boot, have ants in one’s pants, to dress up.

Linguistic Components

• idioms – fixed meanings. • to get your knickers in a knot is an Australian idiom that evolved from the British idiom to get your knickers in a twist. It is worthy to point here out to the learners that the word knickers is unfamiliar to the Americans. It refers to female underpants. • the silent k in words that begin with kn.

Productive Tasks

Write the idiom don’t get your knickers in a knot on the blackboard. Stress the pronunciation of knickers and knot. In groups get the learners to brainstorm as many words as they know that start with the silent k.

Some examples could include knight, know, knead, knife, knowledge, knave, kneel, knee, knock, knuckles.

Learners can investigate online to find more words. See if they can create one long sentence with as many words that start with kn. (Extension – talk about alliteration)

See the PDF document for follow up creative writing tasks.

Task 22

Listening Content

In the storyline at the beach, the father is feeling hungry and is thinking back to a time when the family were eating at Madam Souffle’s restaurant. The listening activity is a flashback scene depicting the scene, focusing on comprehension and food items.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to a dialog at a restaurant between a family and a waitress taking down their order.

• to identify the person ordering the food. • to drag and drop the food items next to the person ordering it. • to match the prices to each food item (drag and drop). • to add up the total price of the bill and write the number.

Target Words

Food: cheese, hamburger, chicken, butter, rice, ham, streak, pizza, hot dog, fish, bread.

Linguistic Function.

• ordering food at a restaurant

Productive Tasks Learners role-play a scene at a restaurant.

The Forest Foothills

At this point, the learner has started navigating through the story. If the reader travels south, he comes to the forest foothills.

Task 23

Listening Content

Similar to task 17 on nature words, the vocabulary for fruits is introduced through a memory game and revised in the plural format in a crossword puzzle.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen and match pictures and words • to play a memory game. • to listen to the plural of the word. • to write the plural form in the crossword puzzle.

Target Words

Fruits: pineapples, apples, oranges, lemons, bananas, grapes, cherries, watermelons, coconuts, strawberries. grapefruits, and peaches.

Linguistic Components

• singular and plural

• this and these

Productive Tasks

Write the words you don’t know in your word cards.

Task 24

Listening Content

The listeners are presented with a map of a zoo shaped like a turtle (the printable format of the map of the zoo can be found in the pdf document on wild animals for Adventure Island at http://vefir.nams.is/adventure_island/pdf/23.pdf ) Learners listen to three short description of where to find the animals in the zoo. It begins by describing the shape of the zoo and then focuses on where the animals are.

Learner’s aim

• to listen to a description of where the animals are in the zoo. • to drag and drop the animals in the enclosure described.

Target Words

Animals: turtle, tortoise, crocodile, giraffe, tiger, bat, fox, deer, wolf, monkey, zebra, elephant, bear.

Other words that may seem difficult: enclosure (appears eight times in the three listening tasks), concrete (appears three times in the listening tasks).

Linguistic Function.

• following directions.

Productive Tasks

Learners can create their own drawing dictation with different animals using the map which can be found in a printable format of the map of the zoo can be found in the pdf document on wild animals for Adventure Island at http://vefir.nams.is/adventure_island/pdf/23.pdf ,

The Desert.

If the reader choose to travel east from the beach, he comes to the desert. All he sees is sand and cacti and a broken bottle in the sand reminding him/her of how thirsty he/she is. The family stop and rest.

Task 26

Listening Content

The learner is presented with a time line from 1 to 24 and listens to a description of a day. While listening the reader identifies the time phrase and drags it onto the correct place in the timeline.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow directions. • to listen to a description of a day. • to listen for time phrases. • to drag and drop time phrases onto a timeline in the correct order.

Target Words

Time phrases: in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, in the night, at noon, at dawn, at dusk, at sunset, at sunrise, at midnight.

Linguistic Components

• time phrases using the prepositions in and at. (in for time period , at for precise time )

Productive Tasks

Journal writing – a write a schedule for the day using the time phrases.

Task 27

Listening Content

This listening activity is linked to a cactus. The word cactus can both be cacti or cactuses in the plural, in the narrative the former is used. This brings us to the subject of the irregular form of plural nouns. These need to be revised often. In this listening task the learners click on each picture to hear the singular and plural form in an explanatory sentence.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to explicit sentences. • to drag and drop the correct plural next to the picture. • to tick the correct answers to the question of why they are called irregular verbs.

Target Words

Irregular plural nouns : foot-feet, tooth-teeth, goose-geese, sheep-sheep, deer-deer, goldfish- goldfish, man-men, woman-women, cactus – cacti, mouse-mice.

Linguistic Components

• irregular plural form

Productive Tasks

Create a memory game with matching singular and plural forms of these nouns. Use the cards to memorize the words and their plural form.

Task 28

Listening Content

This listening activity is also on irregular plural nouns that regularly need revising. In this listening task the learners click on each picture to hear the singular and plural form in an explanatory sentence, like the previous tasks, except this time they write the plural form and the spelling must be accurate.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to explicit sentences • to write the irregular plural of a noun

Target Words

Irregular plural nouns(f/fe and ves): knife-knives, wife-wives, life-lives, elf-elves, wolf- wolves, loaf –loaves, leaf-leaves, half-halves, thief-thieves, dwarf-dwarves.

Linguistic Components

-irregular plural form ending in f/fe in the singular and ves in the plural.

Productive Tasks

Create a memory game with matching singular and plural forms of these nouns. Use the cards to memorize the words and their plural form.

The Forest

When the family comes to the forest the first time, the learner must do the listening tasks. But the next time, they arrive, they find a satchel on the tree stump. When they are about to pick it up they hear a voice telling them to leave the satchel alone. (It’s either the hunter’s, the knight’s, or the fairy’s satchel.)

Task 29

Listening Content Homophones are explained in the instructions. Learners listen to the words in context and match the words to definitions. Most of these words appear in the narrative.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to click on words and listen to the word in context. • to infer meaning from context. • to flip over cards and read the definitions of each word. • to drag and drop the correct word under each definition.

Target Words flower-flour, fairy-ferry, meet-meat, knot-not, where-wear, son-sun, hear-here, nun-none, night-knight, bred- bread.

Linguistic Components

• homophones (words that sound the same but have different spelling)

Productive Tasks

Brainstorm more words on homophones.

Task 30

Listening Content

The knight’s satchel contains a letter to the mad king, Charles Percy the thirteenth, on the island. The listening activity reads the content of this letter. The letter which is addressed to the king is from an anonymous informant, who tells the king about a traitor on the island planning to steal his golden sword. This is a dictation activity. The learner is presented with the letter with gaps and must listen for and fill in the missing words.

Learners can listen more than once.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to a letter • to listen for missing words. • to write the missing words in the gaps of the letter.

Target Words

Know, live, and, servant, some, for, island, plot, steal, belongs, have, would, out, letter, knight, should, who, me.

Linguistic Components

• Focus on words in context.

Productive Tasks Journal writing – writing in your journal tell of the things you have done on the island, whom you’ve met, and what you’ve done. (Story revision /retelling)

Task 31

Listening Content Listening to learn the names of sounds certain animals make and hearing the sound.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions.

• to click on the icon next to each picture and listen for the words for the sounds each animal makes. • to match the word with the sound. • to click on the picture to hear the actual sound.

Target Words animals/insects: parrot(s), turkey(s), ladybug(s), cow(s), cat(s), donkey(s), lion(s), frog(s), sheep, mosquito(s).

Sounds animals make: squawk(s), gobble(s),drone(s),moo(s),meow(s),bray(s), roar(s), croak(s), bleat(s), whine(s).

Linguistic Components

• third person singular s. • singular and plural.

Productive Tasks

Write an interactive story for children about animals in a zoo. Find the sounds of the animals to download online and insert into your digital story. Google it or use the following websites. Use the words to describe the sound they make. http://www.animal-sounds.org/jungle-animal-sounds.html http://www.orangefreesounds.com/category/sound-effects/

Task 32

Listening Content

Learners listen to explicit directions on how to write a Cinquain (five line) poem and listen to two animal cinquain poems.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to familiarize with the structure of a Cinquain poem. • to listen to poems. • to drag and drop words in the correct order while listening.

Target Words

Adjectives: majestic, dangerous, playful, naughty.

Verbs: running, hunting, roaring, swinging, screeching, chattering, and throwing.

Nouns: lion, Leo, monkey, ape.

Linguistic Components

• adjectives. • the “ing” form for verbs.

Productive Tasks

Learners write their own poem, see follow-up tasks in pdf.

The Waterfall

The family arrive at a waterfall where they rest and bathe. They’ve come to this place either from each side of the lake, along the forest foothills, or climbing over the mountain.

Task 33

Listening Content

This listening activity is linked to the colorful flowers and listen to explanatory sentences for the meaning of color idioms and the words used in a sentence. Most of these idioms appear in the narrative.

Learner’s aim

-to listen for the meaning of color idioms.

-to select the correct definition

Target Words

Color Idioms: to feel blue, to see red, to be tickled pink, to see pink elephants, to be yellow- bellied, to be a black sheep, gray matter, wave a white flag, to brown nose.

Linguistic Components

• focus on idioms

Productive Tasks

Creative writing task using idioms are in the follow up activities in pdf.

Task 34.

Listening Content

The learner is presented with nine images of different insects. As they click on each image, they hear a description of that insect and must identify the name of the insect. Furthermore, the learner is presented with phrases that must be identified and the words dragged, in the correct order heard, next to the picture.

The task is divided into two parts, the first part deals with five insects appearing on the screen and the second one with four.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to descriptions of insects. • to unscramble letters for the insect word. • to identify phrases in the listening. • to drag and drop phrases in the correct order next to a picture.

Target Words

Insects: housefly, mosquito, bee, ant, wasp, spider, butterfly, ladybug, caterpillar

Content phrases:

Part 1. the workers build nest, queen survives winter, longest living insect, female sucks blood, 12000 known species, common fly, all die except the queen, lays 1500 eggs a day, 4000 lenses in eye, hardworking insect, the queen builds nest, the most deadliest insect, breed near water, workers store honey, carries bacteria,

Part 2 . not an insect, Virgin Mary, beetle, 40000 different species, lives less than 2 weeks, builds a cocoon, increases weight by 1000, feeds on insects, can’t fly if body is cold, eats its eggshells, eats other bugs, migrate south.

Linguistic Components

• focus on words and phrases,

Productive Tasks In groups learners create a jeopardy game with animals using PowerPoint, see task 39 as an example of a jeopardy game and the follow-up activities in PDF for instructions.

Task 35

Listening Content

The learner listens to two senses poems and must drag and drop the phrases in the poem while listening.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to two senses poem. • to identify the phrases. • to drag and drop phrases and words in the correct order. • to listen to a dictation of a poem and write.

Target Words

Phrases and words in poems: salt in my mouth, a forest, blood, sweat dripping down my face, the trunk of a tree, footsteps in the grass, the ground, scared as a mouse, a carcass, a bear growl, the breeze, a lion.

Linguistic Components

• the five senses.

Productive Tasks

Journal writing – learners write their own unique senses poem.

The Mountain Range

If the family is coming from the desert and climbs the mountain, it starts raining and in the distance they see a cave. In that cave, they come across a dragon in shackles. They run out scared and head in another direction.

Task 36

Listening Content

Similar activity as task 29 but focusing on different homophones.

Learner’s aim

Target Words

Homophones: sea-see, maze-maize (the two are used in context of the story, the scene where the nun leads the reader through a maze in the cornfield), stair-stare, steal-steel, there-their- they’re, to-too-two, hour-our, fair-fare, hole-whole.

Linguistic Components

• homophones

Productive Tasks

Pair up the learners. Each student write six sentences using six different homophones and dictates to his partner the sentences, who in turn writes it down. Learners check for spelling errors.

Task 37

Listening Content

Learners are presented with nine images of weather words. They click on each image to hear an idiom described and used in context. Most of these idioms are used in the narrative.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for the definition of weather idioms. • to listen to the words used in context.

• to select the idiom associated with each picture. • to select the meaning for each idiom.

Target Words

Weather idioms : going to bed with the sun, to be on cloud nine, a storm in a teacup, raining cats and dogs, liked greased lightning, to chase rainbows, to be snowed under, to be in the fog.

Linguistic Components

• focus on idioms

Productive Tasks

Learners select an idiom and create an illustrative poster with the idiom, the definition, and sentences using the word in context.

Task 38

Listening Content

Listening to learn the names of sounds certain animals make and hearing the sound.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to click on the icon next to each picture and listen for the words for the sounds each animal makes. • to match the word with the sound. • to click on the picture to hear the actual sound. • to write a sentence with the “ing” form of the verbs.

Target Words

Animals: bear, goose, pig, horse, hen, bee, elephant, monkey, wolf, dog.

Animal sound: growl, honk, squeal, whinny, cluck, buzz, trumpet, chatter, howl, bark.

Linguistic Components

• third person singular s. • the “ing” form of verbs.

The Cove

On the north east coast, the family arrive at a cove where they see footprints in the sand, they decide to follow the footprints and it leads to a person sitting on a rock (it could either be a fisherman, a princess, or a monk/hermit).

Task 39

Listening Content

Listen to four different tongue twisters. Listen to the pronunciation of the words.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to tongue twisters. • to listen for the pronunciation of words. • to verbally repeat tongue twisters until memorized. • to listen to a dictation and write the tongue twister. • to practice repeatedly saying the tongue twisters and recording it.

Target Tongue Twisters

1. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. 2. How much ground would a groundhog hog, if a groundhog could hug ground. 3. She sells seashells on the seashore. The shells she sells are seashells, I’m sure. 4. If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch?

Linguistic Components

• focus on pronunciation

Productive Tasks

Learners record themselves saying the tongue twister as fast as they can. Learners find out what a woodchuck is? Google for images.

Task 40

Listening Content

Listen to synonyms through a memory game.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to the words. • to play a memory game. • to listen to adjectives in context. • to identify the adjectives that compare with more and use the most for the superlative,

Target Words

Pretty-beautiful, ugly-hideous, brave-courageous, dumb-stupid, short-tiny, tall-lanky, skinny- thin, fat-obese, smart-clever, funny-amusing.

Linguistic Components

• Focus on synonyms. • adjectives (the comparative and the superlative)

Productive Tasks

Teach the learners how to structure a dialog, punctuation within speech marks. Pair up learners to write a dialog between two people talking about a place they’ve both been to. One likes it and the other one doesn’t. Use the comparative form and superlative form to describe the place. For example,

“The hotel I stayed at was the most expensive hotel by the beach.” “Really? Mine was the cheapest and we got no breakfast.” “Well that is a shame. We had the finest breakfast buffet money could buy.”

The Jungle

At some point in the story, the family come to a crashed plane in the middle of the jungle and see a skeleton in the cockpit, it looks like the pilot. The plane is not explained in the storyline, rather it serves as platform for further creative writing, which can be found in the pdf copy for the follow up tasks. The learners create their own story of why the plane crashed there.

Task 41

Listening Content

Learners are presented with pictures of ten different body parts with an idiom associated with that body part. By clicking on each body part they listen to an explanation of what the idiom means, applied in context. These idioms are used in the storyline narrative.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to descriptions of body idioms. • to drag and drop the meaning over the correct idiom.

Target Words

Body Idioms: with open arms, to rub elbows with someone, to be on your toes, to give a cold shoulder, to cross your fingers, to get cold feet, to be soft as a baby’s bottom, something turns your stomach, to break a leg, to be knee deep, and a pain in the neck.

Linguistic Components

• focus on idioms

Productive Tasks

Journal writing – select three idioms and write about a day at school.

Task 42

Listening Content

Learners are presented with twelve images of animal. They listen to five riddles and identify the animal.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to a riddle. • to drag and drop the correct animal below the riddle icon. • to select the word for the animal.

Target Words

Animals: bat, fox, monkey, bear, lion, tiger, deer, crocodile, zebra, elephant, wolf, giraffe.

Words in riddles: mammal, nocturnal, carnivore, prey, reptile, whiskers, fur, pachyderm, trunk.

Linguistic Components

• focus on words and comprehension

Productive Tasks

Learners look up the words in the riddle in the dictionary. What is a mammal? What does the word nocturnal mean? What is a carnivore or a pachyderm? Look up these words and create a poster with animals that are nocturnal, mammals, carnivores, or pachyderms. Write the name and about these animals on the poster and put it up in your classroom.

Learners write their own riddle.

Task 43

Listening Content

Learners listen to description of action word. They, furthermore, hear the words regular verb and irregular verb explained. As they click on each of the twelve images for the verbs, the learner listens to the verb used in the past tense and must identify if it is a regular or irregular verb.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to action verbs, regular and irregular verbs, explained. • to identify regular and irregular verbs and tick appropriately by listening to the verb used in context.

Target Words kick-kicked, catch-caught, throw-threw, pull-pulled, play-played, hit-hit, push-pushed, run-ran, jum-jumped, swing-swung, touch-touched, fight-fought.

Linguistic Components

• past tense, regular and irregular verbs

Productive Tasks

Journal writing – the learners write an action scene, could think of a movie and describe a scene from it or make up their own scene using all of the verbs if they can in their narrative. Here is one example to show,

John ran across the roof top. He jumped from one building to the next. He ran as fast as he could. He looked over his shoulder, the police were still chasing him. He saw a door and pushed it open. He ran down the stairs, but a policeman caught him before he hit the ground floor.

The Bay on the West Side of the Island

The family come to a bay and camp for the night. Here the reader only has one activity.

Task 44

Listening Content

Listen to the pronunciation of three tongue twisters and memorize.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow directions. • to listen to a tongue twister.

• to drag words in the correct order in the sentence.

Target Tongue Twisters

1. I thought I thought a thought. But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought. 2. A big black bug bit a big black bear and made the big black bear bleed blood. 3. A cocky cook could cook cookies as well as a clever cook could cook cookies cleverly.

Linguistic Components

• focus on the pronunciation

Productive Tasks

Learners record themselves saying the tongue twister as fast as they can. Learners find out what it means to be cocky.

The Bay on the South Side of the Island

As the family walks along the bay on south side of the island, they come across a message in the bottle. The listening activity that follows contains the message in the bottle.

Task 45

Listening Content

The learner is presented with a gapped letter. It is dictated to the learner, who must fill the missing words. The letter tells of a prisoner locked in a tower begging for help. As the family reach the east coast of the island, they will come across this tower and maybe save the prisoner.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for missing words. • to write missing words. • to double check spelling of words.

Target Words me, this, been, here, know, island, sea, night, across, knights, anyone, where, high, my, because, hear, letter, throw, there.

Linguistic Components

-focus on spelling

The Cottage in the Fields

The family finally see a cottage on the island with a vegetable field. They are famished and pull up a carrot from the ground, but at that moment they hear someone shout “who is stealing my carrot?” It’s either the nun, Wilhelmina, the wizard, Wallace, or the witch, Wilda)

Task 46

Listening Content

The learner is presented with twelve images of vegetables and a crossword puzzle. The first listening task is to click on the images and hear the word pronounced and write in the crossword puzzle. The second listening is an additional scene to the narrative. It describes the scene as the villagers (the Conficturians) are preparing a feast for the shipwrecked family. The page includes images of five characters in the story and pictures for fruit, vegetables and food. As the learner listens to the conversation between the villagers, they match the food that each prepares.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for words. • to solve a crossword puzzle • to listen for and match the food the characters are preparing for the feast. • to drag and drop the food items in the same order heard next the character.

Target Words

Fruits (Task 23) Food (Task 22) revised.

Vegetables: carrot, cauliflower, cabbage, cucumber, lettuce, tomato, onion, garlic, turnip, pumpkin, broccoli, pepper.

Linguistic Components

-Focus on words.

Productive Tasks Learners write the words they do not know on their word cards.

Task 47

Listening Content

This learning task is twofold.In the first listening activity, farm idioms are introduced and explained. The second listening focuses on comprehension and listening for the idioms used in context. This is another little extended story that describes a scene on another island not far away, where dwarves live now.

The king of the dwarves on the isle of Pumilius is feasting with his men. The king is telling them that they have an inside man on the isle of Confictura, who is going to steal back the golden sword that once belonged to the dwarves. A servant overhears this conversation and decides to write a letter to the king, telling him about the plot. (This is the letter the knight carries in his satchel.) Some of these idioms are also used in the narrative.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to idioms and hear them used revising parts of the narrative of the storyline. • to infer the meaning from context and match the idiom with the correct meaning. • to drag and drop the meaning of the words next to the idioms. • to listen to a story. • to listen for the story again in three parts to identify the order in which the idioms appear. • to number the idioms in the correct order.

Target Words

Farm idioms: to act the goat, to hold your horses, wolf in sheep’s clothing, talk turkey, to do the donkey’s work, as scarce as a hen’s teeth, wild goose chase, to have a cow, and to pig out.

Linguistic Components

• focus on idioms

Productive Tasks

Journal writing – select three idioms to describe a person.

The Cave by the Cliffs

Once the reader enters the cave, he sees a golden sword, a treasure chest, and glaring eyes. The reader at this point encounters either the vampire, Vanessa, the dwarf, Dorak, or the thief, who we discover is the village policeman, Constable Clark. The thief is there to hand over the golden sword, the dwarf is there to pick it up, and Vanessa has been kept hidden there for years, we find out that she is in fact the queen’s mother.

Task 48

Listening Content

This listening tasks is twofold.

Firstly, listeners listen for eye idioms used in context, from this they infer the meaning and select from a drop option box the correct meaning of the idiom.

Secondly, they listen to a diary entry written by a character in the story, Vanessa the vampire. The eighteen eye idioms presented may prove to be challenging so the learner must first listen and become familiar with the content of the story. The learner, then listens to the story in three parts, each part may be listened to more than once. The learner listens for these idioms and numbers the idioms heard in the correct order. Five idioms appear twice, the rest once. This demands narrow listening on behalf of the learner, some may need to listen more often than others. However, some of these idioms are more transparent than others.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen for idioms used in context. • to match the idioms with the meaning. 77

• to listen to a story for comprehension. • to identify idioms in listening task. • to listen repeatedly. • to number idioms heard in the correct order.

Target Words keep an eye on, apple of someone’s eye, all eyes, to catch someone’s eye, to cry your eyes out, to keep an eye out, in someone’s mind’s eye, stars in someone’s eye, in the twinkling of an eye, to only have eyes for someone, sight for sore eyes, make sheep’s eyes at someone, the public eye, can’t believe your eyes, in the blink of an eye, to take your eyes off something, and to turn a blind eye to something.

Linguistic Components

• focus on idioms.

Productive Tasks

Journal writing – select five eye idioms and write a short story.

The Prisoner in the Tower

The family approach a tower and hear a voice rapping in the distance, as they come closer, they see someone in the window. The learner must first click on a listening activity that follows is the rap song the reader hears. Once done, he has a choice of three individuals locked in the tower (Albert the actor, Philip the prince, Patrick the priest.)

Task 49

Listening Content

The learner listens to the prisoner’s rap song. Every time the reader comes to the tower, he listens to the same rap song and fills in the missing rhyming words.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow directions. • to listen for missing words in a rap song.

• to write the missing rhyme words.

Target Words power, mad, stay, knock, knights, floor, be, free, misery.

Linguistic Components

• rhyme words.

Productive Tasks

Pair up the classroom. Give each couple a different on syllable word. Give learners five minutes to write as many rhyming words. The learners write their word list on the blackboard and share with the class. Go through the word lists adding more suggestions from the other students.

In pairs use the rhyming words to create the lyrics for a rap song. bad rock right boot train sun sky king wall steak cook bear mine

The Village

The family arrives at the village. Who brought them there? It could have been any one of the four characters they may have met on the island: the nun at the cottage, the hunter in to forest, the thief/policemen they meet in the cave, or Fred the ferryman by the river. In the village, the reader has the choice of meeting three people at the market, Brad the baker, Butch the butcher, and Ferdinant the florist. The narrative text differs depending not only on who they select but also depending on who brings them to the village. In the village, the reader may have a possible ending to the story, or not, it all depends on the choices he/she makes. Nevertheless, this page offers the final two listening tasks.

Task 50

Listening Content

The learner is presented with twelve different places and listens to a story about the island Confictura. Before listening, the reader clicks on each image to hear the word and then

79 unscrambles the letters beneath. Then while listening the learner identifies whether these places can be found on the island.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to the sound of words. • to unscramble letters to match the sound of the words. • to listen to a story. • to listen for information. • to tick yes if the place can be found on the island, and no if it can’t be found.

Target Words

Places: church, bakery, village, police station, tower, castle, road, cemetery, clothes shop, prison, bridge, supermarket.

Linguistic Components

• focus on words in context.

Before the story ends, the learner must complete one final task, which is to assess whether some of low frequency that appeared in the narrative were retained receptively, some were explained in the story, and others were provided with contextual clues.

Task 51

Listening Content Learners listen to definitions and match with words. These are words that appear in low-frequency in the narrative, some were explained in the narrative. This is to assess learner’s recall of these words.

Learner’s aim

• to listen and follow instructions. • to listen to definitions. • to click on the correct word to match the definition.

Target Words an archipelago, flabbergasted, exiled, a nincompoop, outrageous, notorious, hospitality, transform, colossal, horizon, sweltering, eventually silhouette, twilight, approach.

Linguistic Components

-testing word recognition of low frequency words.

4.3 The Plot Outline The Smith family are about to embark on a voyage to Australia only to become shipwrecked on an island, Confictura. The name of the island will not be apparent at first, but the learners may discover it as they journey through the reading process. The island was named Confictura , the Latin word for fiction and hence the inhabitants were named Conficturians, This could lead into a discussion with the learners how words are made up in the English language.

The ship is stranded between two rocks that poke up from the sea like fangs of a tiger. There is no way of returning to the ship so the family explore the island in search of rescue. In their exploration, they come across different landscapes and meet characters along the way. Characters that will either lead them somewhere or provide to be unhelpful, yet give the reader further insight into the island and its habitants. Some of the characters lead you to a climax in the story and a possible ending. But before that happens the learner can view his scores and decide not to end the story and continue on his reading journey.

The storyline has five different endings. You find a boat and drift off to sea, a ship finds you, but the captain tells you that you are delirious and that there is no island, called Confictura, nor archipelagos on his map. After helping the princess rescue her dragon, the dragon flies the reader off the island to the mainland. After someone’s made a wish with the ruby red stone, the reader, magically, wakes up in his/her own bed or appears in front of his/her Grandparent’s ranch in Australia. The final option is that the villagers offer the reader a place to stay and settle on the island.

4.4 The Settings The story is illustrated by the same artist who crafted the flashcard pictures for An Adventure Island, Bodvar Leo. The illustrations are colorful and add meaning to the text. The text narrates the story and describes these settings.

Before the reader is shipwrecked on the island, the illustrations show a day at the park, the neighborhood, the home (apartment block or house), and the voyage at sea and inside the cabin. The only navigational choice the reader has in the beginning is deciding whether he lives in a house or in an apartment block.

Once on the island, the reader begins to navigate the story in different directions. Every time, the reader is given a choice, a page appears with a compass showing the direction of north, south, east, and west. The landscape is surreal in that you all types of nature settings; a bay (with and without a bottle with a message in the sand), a beach, a castle, a cave in the cliffs and inside that cave, a cliff, a cove, desert, the dragon’s cave, a dungeon, an estuary with a chest buried in sand, a cottage in a field, inside the cottage, a forest, forest foothills, a jungle, the same lake from two viewpoints, a mountain range, a river, a village, and a waterfall.

In some of these settings, the story takes a turn when you meet three characters: In the forest (a knight, a fairy, and a hunter), the cove (a fisherman, a monk, and a princess), the tower (a priest, an actor, a prince), a cave (a thief/a policeman, a dwarf, and a vampire) and the cottage in the field (a wizard, a witch, and a nun).

The storyline possibly ends when the reader comes to either the village or the castle. But the only way, the reader can get to these two places is if a character in the story takes them there. On the one hand, Fred the ferryman, Harold the hunter, Constable Clark (the thief), and nun Wilhelmina all offer to take you to the village and the reader is given the choice to accept. On the other hand, Wallace, Prince Philip, Albert Anderson the actor and princess Peyton offer to take you to the castle.

Once the reader is in the village, he comes to the market square and is tapped on the shoulder by three other character he meets, the baker, the butcher, and the florist. But when the reader is in the castle, he approaches the throne to see either the king, the queen, or the princess sitting on the throne. The next part will describe the characters in more detail and what they contribute to the overall story.

4.5 The Characters The characters in the story are relevant to the storyline as they tell tales of the island or lead the reader to two places, the castle or the village. As the reader encounters some of these characters two things may happen, first, the character may give you a choice of doing something or going somewhere and, secondly, they may only provide you with a story that gives the reader a little insight into the island and its inhabitants. The story on the island is broken up into little scenes that can be rearranged in different order of occurrence, depending on the reader’s choices.

The following is a brief overview of the characters that appear on the island and what the reader learns about them while reading and listening to the story. Provided the reader reads every

82 page of the whole story, which is unlikely, as the author assumes to leave gaps in the reader’s knowledge, the idea is that learners fill in the gaps of knowledge by communicating with each other on the content of their storyline. The different choices learners make will render a different timeline of events, meeting different characters and thereby learning different things about Confictura. The selection of these odd and interesting characters are aimed at motivating learnings to want to read more, even start the story again from the beginning. While reading, learners are encourage to discuss the characters they meet in the follow up activities and encouraged to create characters of their own. See Appendix H. The characters appear as follows in alphabetical order.

Albert Andersen is a love-sick actor, who the king locked up in the tower for wanting to declare his love for the princess Peyton. He‘s a bit of a fool and can‘t tell the twin princesses apart. He is convinced that the princess feels the same way towards him because she laughed at his jokes while he entertained them at their birthday party. He lives in the hidden village in a two- floor house in an apartment above Brad Baker, his friend. When people had a chance to make a wish with the ruby red pebble, he wished for a fancy suit to impress the princess. He disappeared after climbing the mountain holding a bouquet of flowers on a quest to declare his love to Peyton. Once the reader rescues Albert he offers to take the reader to the castle as he is eager to see his love. He tells the reader about what happened when the king locked him up.

Brad Baker is one of the Conficturians and lives in the hidden village in the same house as his best friend Albert. From him the reader learns that both he and Albert his friend are in love with the twin princesses, he loves Paige and Albert loves Peyton. Brad is the town’s baker and when he had the chance to make a wish he wished for a new oven. He offers the reader to stay in Albert’s apartment. While staying with him the reader has the chance to wish himself off the island, provided he/she has found the ruby red pebble along the way.

Brad also tells about the disappearance of Albert and his intention of wooing the princess. He‘s the one who tells the read the name of the monster in the lake, Pipkin, and that he‘s harmless. He tells you the story about the ruby red pebble and hints that Pipkin may know of its whereabouts. From Brad you learn also that Wilda, at the age of eight, started to dabble in dark magic after her mother‘s disappearance.

Butch Butcher is the local butcher and lives in the hidden village. The reader meets him at the market. He likes to gossip and tells different tales depending on who arrives with the reader in the village. For instance he tells about the ruby red stone and its magical powers to grant

83 anyone one wish, and how everyone on the island wished for silly and weird things. He tells stories about Wilda. He mentions the dwarves and talks about the island. We know little else about the butcher except that he is friends with Harold.

Charles Percy the 13 th , the king , – the reader learns about him as a distant figure and hear tales of his madness, his missing sword, and how he throws people in the dungeon or in the tower for no reason at all. The reader knows little about him, except he married Wanda Worthington, who comes from a wizarding family. He doesn‘t like her sisters, so he‘s exiled them from the castle. The reader meets him in the castle but he persistently has an excuse to throw the reader in the dungeon.

The king has a big ego. We learn from the queen that when holding the ruby red stone he wished for superpowers. He has chained up his daughter‘s dragon in a cave in a mad fit and told her it was gone. The prince tries to find the dragon, but when he finds it, he gets thrown in the tower. Every time the reader enters the castle and selects the king, he immediately throws the reader in the dungeon. But what the king doesn’t know is that in the dungeon are tunnels, and two ways of escape off the island, or maybe not.

We learn from the princess that once he had confessed to her his fear of the dungeon. He told her that he had never gone there. His father had threatened to throw him in the dungeon as a child if he didn‘t eat his food and he‘s been afraid of it ever since.

Constable Clark is the thief . As the reader enters the cave by the cliffs, he may choose to encounter a thief. The thief has stolen the king’s golden sword and has left it in the cave for Dorak the dwarf. His reward for the golden sword awaits him in the cave, a treasure chest. He makes the reader swear not to tell anyone about the sword. Should the reader promise not tell anyone about his secret, the thief promises to take them to the village. The thief,gets changed and puts on his uniform in the cave and the next text appears with him in uniform and he introduces himself as Constable Clark.

Constable Clark in his policeman’s uniform. As Clark takes the reader to his village, he tells the story about the history of the island. He tells you that his job is to protect the villagers. He stole the king‘s sword for a chest filled with treasure to share with his people. He tells you about their enemy, the king, how the Conficturians had to live in hiding for the past ten years from him, and about the history of the island.

Dorak Durzak is dwarf that you meet in the cave on the south east side of the island. He has come from the isle of Pumilius, which is an island inhabited by dwarves. He‘s come to meet the thief that stole the king‘s precious golden sword. He is going to return the sword to its rightful owner, the king of the dwarves. He has just met with the thief and given him a chest full of emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. He offers to introduce you to the thief. Otherwise, you know little else of this dwarf. Should you want to meet the thief, the story eventually links to the narrative where Clark could possibly take the reader to the village.

Ferdinant Flores is the local florist in the hidden village. The reader meets him at the market. He likes to gossip and tells stories about the sisters’ exile from the castle, about his business with Wilda and how Butch and Harold are friends. We learn little else about him except we hear from others that when he had the wishing stone he wished his house was a green house. Now he lives in a glass house in the village filled with plants.

Finn Finnegan is a fisherman you see sitting on the a rock near the cove. The reader asks him for help but his boat is too small. He tells the name of the islands and that it is a part of an archipelago. He comes from another island to fish in these waters illegally. He tells that he knows that people live on this island but doesn’t know where, and suggests to stay away from the east side because there’s only sand and the desert.

Fiona Frankenstein is seen as a fairy in the forest. She has been enchanted by the wicked witch Wilda, for an hour a day she is seen as a fairy in the forest, but then she transforms into a Monarch butterfly. Before she transforms she asks the reader to help her and promises to tell her story the following day. If the reader chooses to wait a day, she tells the story of her transformation and begs the reader to help find her brother and tell him what happened to her. If the reader decides to wait, he learns her story, and in helping her he comes to a river and finds her brother Fred.

Fred Frankenstein is the ferryman that helps the reader cross the river for a fee, either for a penny or a green pebble. The reader is unaware that he is searching for his sister, but when the reader encounters Fiona and decides to help her, Fred offers to take you to the village in gratitude for telling him the news of what happened to his sister.

Sir Greg Knight is a knight riding through the forest. He is passing through on his horse delivering an urgent message to the king from his spies to tell him that his arch enemy, the king of the isle of Pumilius, has bought his precious stolen sword. He won‘t help you. One of the listening activities in the forest setting is a letter that he has in his satchel addressed to the mad

85 king. The letter tells of a plot to steal the golden sword. (This is in fact the letter that links to a listening activity on farm idiom’s, which serves the purpose of adding information to the storyline, it tells of the king of the dwarves plotting to get back the golden sword that belongs to his people.)

Harold Hunter is a hunter the reader meets in the forest, hunting illegally. He offers to take the reader to the village and tells tales along the way. The reader finds out that he is a Conficturian and he‘s friends with Butch, but little else is known.

Paige Payton, the princess is the twin sister of princess Peyton and daughter of the mad king. She is the nasty sister – we know very little about her. The reader may discover that the baker is in love with her, but is too afraid to tell her. The reader meets her in the castle by the throne, she is seen as inhospitable and grumpy, and either she throws the reader out of the castle and into the mountain range, or into the dungeon.

Patrick Parson Parish is a priest locked up in the tower. If the reader selects him as the prisoner, he tells the reader that he came to the island in search of his friend Solomon, the hermit. When he came knocking on the castle door the king had him thrown in the tower rambling about a golden sword. He tells you he came to the island on boat and promises to help you later, but you never see him again.

Peyton Percy, the princess sits on a rock near the cove. She’s a princess mourning her dragon. She tells the reader about her dragon and her crazy father, the king. She asks the reader to help her find her dragon, this may lead to a possible exit off the island and ending the story, or not. She has a twin sister and her brother disappeared when searching for her dragon. She does not know what became of him.

Philip Percy, the prince is locked up in the tower. He is considered by the king the black sheep of the family, but he‘s not. He loves his sister Peyton so much that he goes to great lengths to find her lost dragon. When he finds the dragon the king throws him in the tower. He is determined to help his sister. If the reader chooses to help him, he learns about his search for the dragon and how he found it. He offers to take you to the castle to confront his father.

Solomon the Hermit is sitting on a rock near the cove. He is of no help to the reader and can tell him/her very little except that he came to this island to live alone as a hermit. However, should the reader come across Patrick Parson Parrish in the tower, he/she will discover that the monk is Patrick’s long lost friend Solomon. Solomon won’t help the reader and tells him to leave.

The Monster in the lake appears on the north east side of the lake, when the reader wants to go fishing. We know little of him or where he came from. All we know is that he wants green pebbles. What he wants them for is left to the reader’s imagination. He sends the reader on a mission to find them and in return the reader may fish in the lake. The reader may possibly learn from Brad the Baker the monster’s name, Pipkin, and that he is a harmless create. Or is he? In a follow up activity, it is suggested that the reader create and tell his tale.

The reader, eventually, finds the green pebbles and with it, the ruby red wishing stone.

Vanessa Worthington is the Vampire. When the reader meets her in the cave, he/she runs away scared. The truth about how she turned is made known to the reader when the family meets the queen. The queen tells you that Vanessa is her mother who vanished 20 years ago. She had accidentally wished to be a vampire while holding the red pebble while reading Vampire Diaries.

Before choosing Vanessa as a character the reader meets, the glaring eyes in the cave link the learner to a twofold listening activity where eye idioms are introduced and heard in the context of Vanessa’s diary entry.

Wallace Worthington the Wizard is visiting his niece in the cottage by the field. He has come by on his daily visits to Wilda. But, she‘s not home. He tells you about the king and the queen and her sisters. He tells you he is their uncle and brother to their mother. He lives in the castle as advisor to the queen and offers to take you to the castle to see her.

Wanda Worthington Percy, the queen is the king’s wife. She is also Vanessa’s daughter (the vampire in the cave) and Wilda and Wilhelmina’s older sister. The reader meets her in the castle sitting on the throne. Every time the family encounters her on the throne, she asks them whether they have the ruby red pebble. Should the reader say yes, she will ask for the reader’s wish to help transform her mother back to normal. We learn that her mother transformed into a vampire when Wanda was ten years old. The Queen talks about the wishes she and others made on the island, and the learner receives more information. Her youngest sister is the nun, Wilhelmina, and Wilda, the wicked witch, is two years younger. The exact age is not defined and irrelevant.

Wilda Worthington the Witch lives in the cottage by the fields. We hear about her from other people. We hear that she is the youngest of the Worthington sisters. She became “wicked” after her mother‘s disappearance. She likes to dabble in dark magic, and likes to transform people

87 and animals. She loved the same knight Fiona did. In a jealous fit, she lures Fiona to her cottage and transforms her first into a butterfly and then for an hour a day into a fairy. The reader may meet her in the cottage and should he/she accept the tea offered, the reader is knocked out and later woken up by the nun, her sister, Wilhelmina, who has come for a visit.

Wilhelmina Worthington is a nun and Wilda’s sister. She comes frequently by the cottage in the field. She likes to joke around and play with words. She is helpful and kind. She sacrificed her wish to protect the villagers from the king. She offers to take the reader to the village, but they must hurry as her sister is mean and might be back. At one point, she might even rescue the reader from her sister’s clutches.

4.6 Productive Tasks It is not sufficient for any learning material to provide only a passive learning experience, despite the fact that this learning material provides learner’s active involvement both in the reading process and the vocabulary tasks. In order for the teacher to assess comprehension, the material includes speaking and writing tasks using the storyline as a platform for creative thinking and using the words explicitly taught in context. Learners are encouraged to keep a journal and use the word card strategy to memorize new words.

During the process of reading through an Unexpected Voyage, it is unlikely that learners will be at the same page of the story. Hence, it is up to the teacher to break up the pattern of reading and listening by introducing speaking and writing tasks in the classroom, which are included on the webpage in a pdf document. These tasks link either to the story or back to the listening activities when the follow up tasks require working with words or structure. To save time, the worksheets provide a QR code that link the learner directly to the particular activity the teacher has planned. At that point, some learners may have already done this activity, others not. Whether they have done the exercise or not, should be inconsequential, either way it presents learners with a model to work with.

The story provides a background and activates the learner’s schematic knowledge for the It has been established that receptive knowledge alone does not suffice for vocabulary acquisition, some words need to be explained and the learner needs to use the words productively. The curriculum provides ample opportunities for developing reading and listening skills, but the follow up tasks target speaking and listening together in TBLT, as well as scaffolding writing tasks. The tasks could be categorized into two broad levels: Think Outside the Box (extended comprehension) or Work Within a Frame (writing from words or modeling a structure).

When learners Think Outside the Box , they use their imagination to create their own tales to the story. The aim is for this story is to create a platform for other ideas. Although, the overall plot outline of the story is about a family shipwrecked on an island. There are a lot of stories within this story. There is the story of the princess in search of her dragon, there is the story of the mad king who lost his precious sword, there is the story of a village girl enchanted by a jealous witch, the love-sick actor in pursuit of his love, etc. A few of the creative writing tasks offer the readers a chance to enrich the story with their ideas and input to the storyline. In the digital age we live in, learners can use various apps to recreate their own stories whether orally, through role-playing or making short videos, or in written format.

Work within a frame would include activities that retell the story or work with the vocabulary from a given structure, such as creating a dialog by counting syllables, each line working backwards from thirteen syllables, reducing each line by one syllable. The next line would include twelve syllables and so on until the dialog ends with a one syllable word.

Some of the follow up writing activities link back to the listening activities through a QR codes. A QR code is a barcode that any QR reader app in smartphones or iPads reads and instantly opens up the set webpage. The learners revisit an exercise for words to use in writing, or model the structure of a poem, practice tongue-twisters and record, or get ideas for writing riddles. See Appendix H for some of the follow up activities.

Speaking activities for a Language Portfolio can be recorded digitally and saved into a folder or can be submitted to the teacher via online shared. The follow up activities exercise learners’ speaking skills. They include cooperating storytelling, creating dialogs, and working with vocabulary. Furthermore, learners while reading the story discuss and compare their reading experience, after all, the learners will choose different directions and hence experience different angles of the story in a different timeline. By comparing and contrasting their experience, learners will understand better the content of the story. The story functions as a platform to compare and contrast (places and characters), analyses cause and effect in the narratives, retell narratives, create narratives and scenarios, and create alternative endings or stories of their own, see Appendix H.

4.7 Assessment and feedback After completing each listening task, the learner is provided with immediate feedback. The errors are pointed out and the learner must redo the activity until he has reached a score point

89 of 90%. These scores are added up and are visually displayed for the learner, so he knows how many points he/she has achieved out of the possible scores.

The teacher can monitor the learner’s progress through the score points and view how many times a learner has completed each listening task. This will reveal what types of words learner finds easy or difficult, and the teacher may decide to focus on other activities that revise these words. The teacher can then further assess whether or not some of these listening tasks are out of a learner’s zone of proximal development or not. Some may prove to be more challenging than others, in that case, the learners can always repeat an activity until it is mastered. However, we cannot determine whether that knowledge is only receptive unless the learners put the language to use in productive tasks.

As pointed out earlier in the literature, writing assessments are hard to accomplish with CALL technology alone, but it can provide easy access to learners’ writing, whether it be through an online writing program like S toryjumper or receiving attachments in an email, or through other media. Writing should however be assessed according to the learners zone of proximal development. Learners that are closer to beginner’s level might find the task of some of these writing tasks challenging. The follow up material aims to address the objectives for level 2 for writing in the National Curriculum. These are to

• write various types of text, with the support of, for example, a checklist or models; write in a way that is suitable for the subject matter and the recipient, • write a fairly fluent narrative and react to what they have read, seen or heard, • describe a course of events or what they have experienced and use vocabulary that describes the development of speed, anticipation, etc. • write an imaginative text. In comparison to level 2, level 1 writing aims are to write in simple language what they know well, family, friends and surroundings. And write their own simple text with support, such as cartoon strips, messages, short letters or email. At the second level, learners should have a better command of the grammar of the language. It is important to teach the specific language features for the written language. Learners must “apply fairly well the basic rules of grammar and spelling, have mastered fairly well everyday vocabulary and vocabulary that has been worked on, create cohesion in the text and use for that purpose the most common linking words and punctuation.” (National Curriculum, 2014, p. 132) The follow up tasks are ideal for the learner’s language portfolio, which the teacher can use as part of the learner’s assessment. The learner’s creation can be in any media format, whether 90 through the use of a Book creator in digital format, audio recordings, video recordings or paper and pen. Ziegler’s study also confirmed that learners found the dossier, the gathering of their work, the most fun part of the ELP. (Ziegler, 2014, p. 931)

4.8 Implementation This curriculum is web-based and easy to implement in the classroom. The learners log onto the page by creating their own username. For the sake of convenience and time-saving, the teacher has easy access to each listening activity. QR codes are inserted into each follow up activity that link back to a particular listening task and a set of vocabulary items to work with. At this point I would like to compare this learning material to the abilities listed in the CEFFl, and discussed in chapter 1.4. The abilities are listed as:

-to maintain attention to the presented information.

An Unexpected Voyage: A Reading Adventure maintains learner’s attention through a remedial story, with colorful pictures of the settings. It, furthermore, maintains learner’s attention by its interactive and navigational features. The listening tasks provide immediate feedback, and learners can redo an activity as often as he/she needs to.

-to grasp the intention of the task set;

The instructions are visual and remedial, and examples are given where necessary. Learner may click on an icon for repeated listening.

-to co-operate effectively in pair and group work;

The material offers follow up tasks to promote pair and group work for co-operative speaking and creative writing activities. These can be produced on paper or through use of digital technology.

-to make rapid and frequent active use of the language learnt;

Learners work with word cards and frequently revise with a partner their words or phrases. Additionally, learners should keep a creative writing journal using the words in context.

-ability to use available materials for independent learning;

The material is web-based. Students may log onto their account at school or at home, and read, listen, and do at their own leisure. Activities can be redone as often as needed. The story can be revised and heard again.

-ability to organize and use materials for self-directed learning;

The learner keeps a record of his performance through his score points.

- ability to learn effectively (both linguistically and socio-culturally) from direct observation of and participation in communication events by the cultivation of perceptual, analytical and heuristic skills;

The teacher has a record of the learner’s progress, the activities completed, how often they were done, and the score points. This helps the teacher identify the learner’s weaknesses and strengths, and discuss it with the learner.

-awareness of one’s own strengths and weaknesses as a learner;

The learners are constantly aware of their progress through score points and a summarized map giving a clue as to where they may yet find more tasks to complete before their story ends.

-ability to identify one’s own needs and goals;

Learners should easily identify the tasks they find difficult through their scores. They should write down these words on word cards, revise them, and use them in journal writings.

4.9 Language Learning Potential Chapelle poses two questions on language learning potential. What evidence suggest that the learner has acquired the target forms that were focused on during the CALL task? And, what evidence indicates that learners were focused on during the CALL task? I will attempt to answer these questions on An Unexpected Voyage.

To answer the first question, the learners have their own sign in name to the web based reading adventure. The teacher has access to the learners’ accounts and can view their learning curve and progress of the listening learn-and-do tasks . As learners journey through the remedial story, the story is paused along the way for the learner to solve either listening for comprehension tasks, or tasks related to listening for learning focusing on vocabulary items or linguistic features, although the linguistic features are limited to the content words in the story.

The second question to the language learning potentials is, what evidence indicates that learners were focused on during the CALL task?

The program saves the learners’ status each time he/she has completed an activity. The teacher can view learners progress on the teacher’s page and the learners can view their status by viewing their score in the corner of the page and a map shows what parts of the island they’ve

92 been on and what they have yet to explore, giving the learners a clue as to where they may come across more listening activities.

As for learner fit, the vocabulary activities are aimed towards pre-intermediate learners, although later listening tasks may prove to be a little more challenging. The listening activities vary depending on context, but they all include visual stimuli with pictures depicting the meaning of words or phrases. And they can be repeated at will until the learner has reached a satisfactory score to continue reading.

Some activities are simple drag and drop activities, fill in gaps, selecting the correct answer from drop box. The instructions for each task is remedial, it is to help learners pay notice the given instructions, a small step toward scaffolding self-regulation, as learners rarely read instructions in my and many teachers’ experience here in Iceland.

A list of the listening activities is included in the appendix and describes; where the tasks are set in the context of the story, the type of listening activity and script, the learner‘s task and level, and the targeted vocabulary items or linguistic features and when listening to comprehend, how the script links to the storyline as story enhancements with the aim of teaching vocabulary items in context.

Conclusion An Unexpected Voyage is a reading adventure aimed for learners from grade 5 to grade 7, at a pre- intermediate level (level 2). It is currently at the programming stage so the QR codes used in the follow up activities in Appendix H do not as yet link directly to the intended task. The CALL material focuses on developing vocabulary as well as listening and reading skills, but the follow up activities focus on communication in the classroom, speaking and writing skills.

The narrative, characters, navigational features, and score points aim to motivate learners to read for comprehension and learning words, and additionally encourage productive creative writing and speaking. Teachers can easily monitor students’ progress in the listening activities, and the ELP is suggested for assessing productive use of language.

Learners need to revise words regularly and it is suggested that the word card strategy be used alongside, which takes little time to plan and is an effective strategy for memorizing words.

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Appendix A The Icelandic National Curriculum for Foreign Languages.

At the completion of Level 2, pupils are able to:

Listening Comprehension understand simple language concerning themselves, their interests and daily life when spoken in a clear and understandable manner,

• understand most of the conversations and interviews on subjects related to daily life and subjects concerned with their studies and use this inspoken and written language,

• understand the main points in mass media and popular culture that appeal to them and are able to retell or process them in some way,

•listen for specific, precise issues when necessary, as for example, announcements or instructions in familiar circumstances and react verbally or through action.

Reading comprehension read for instruction and pleasure various readable texts on everyday life and interests that involve general vocabulary and apply different reading strategies depending on the nature of the text and the objective of the reading, • understand the main points in readable newspaper narratives, magazines and web media and react and discuss their subject matter, • find key information in texts with the objective of using it in assignments, • read for instruction and pleasure simple books and magazines for young people and discuss their subject matter and understand instructions and information concerning everyday life, for example, leisure and travel. Spoken Interaction show that they are capable of carrying on a conversation on topics that they know well, use language, pronunciation, stress and intonation with some confidence, understand and use common phrases of everyday speech and common conventions of politeness, and know ways to make themselves understood, for example with gestures. • take part in an informal chat about their interests and everyday life, • manage in common circumstances, for example, in shops, restaurants and when travelling, • use the language for spoken interaction in class; prepare, have and give an interview.

Spoken Production talk about their everyday life and what is familiar to them in language that is well understandable, with regard to usage, pronunciation, stress and choice of words, • describe fairly well their experience, future plans and opinions, • talk about or describe events and actions with the support of checklists, music, pictures, etc. • recite a simple, prepared presentation of material related to their studies and recite their own material or that of others, for example, short sketches or a story, alone or with others. Writing write a continuous text on a topic that they are familiar with, apply fairly well the basic rules of grammar and spelling, have mastered fairly well everyday vocabulary and vocabulary that has been worked on, create cohesion in the text and use for that purpose the most common linking words and punctuation, • write various types of text, with the support of, for example, a checklist or models; write in a way that is suitable for the subject matter and the recipient, • write a fairly fluent narrative and react to what they have read, seen or heard, • describe a course of events or what they have experienced and use vocabulary that describes the development of speed, anticipation, etc. • write an imaginative text. Cultural Literacy show that they are familiar with certain key cultural characteristics of the culture and speech community regarding the everyday life and circumstances of the inhabitants, especially those of young people, and are able to put themselves in their position, • show that they are familiar with customs and traditions of the culture and speech community and are able to compare them to their own, • show that they recognise the relationship of the foreign language with Icelandic, their mother tongue or other languages that they are studying. Learning competence set themselves fairly realistic goals, know fairly well their status regarding their studies and apply learning strategies to organise them and improve where necessary, • apply key learning strategies to facilitate understanding and usage and select a method suitable for the task, for example rephrase if they are missing a word and interpret a situation and guess what a conversation is about,

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• apply self-evaluation and take part in peer assessment in a realistic manner and give reasonable feedback with the assistance of the teacher, • use their experience and knowledge when acquiring new knowledge, • take part in cooperation on various assignments and show regard for others, • use common aids, such as reference books, online dictionaries, spelling and grammar checkers and web portals.

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Appendix B Paskitt’s on Designing Valid and Reliable Assessments within a Storyline Topic.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Description of Thinking Verbs used for learning outcomes 1. Knowledge Ability to remembers define, memorize, record, something previously list, label, describe, identify, learned match, locate 2. Comprehension Demonstrate basic restate, summarise, discuss, understanding of concepts explain, report, convert, and curriculum. Translate to estimate, give examples, other words. show symbols 3. Application Transfer knowledge learned solve, interview, apply, in one situation to another use: guide, maps, charts demonstrate, dramatise, illustrate 4. Analysis Understand: how parts relate classify, compare, contrast, to the whole structure. categorise, investigate Note fallacies diagram 5. Synthesis Re-form individual parts to compose, design, invent, make a whole create, hypothesise, construct, forecast, rearrange parts, imagine 6. Evaluation Judge value of something judge, give against criteria. Support opinion,/viewpoint, evaluate, judgement. recommend, critique, prioritise

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List of possible outcomes, linked to Bloom’s Level of Thinking .

Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation workbook drawing of recipe Survey lesson plan decision pages diagram model questionnaire song rating/grades quiz response to artwork plan poem editorial test teachers’ demonstration solution story debate vocabulary questions crafts report advertisement critique factual revision of map chart invention recommendation recall progress sound –carpet letter play Award criteria timeline cartoon strip interview puppets act out event diorama poster masks brochure diary entries

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Appendix C Questions for the empirical evaluation of CALL tasks. (Chapelle. p.68)

Quality Questions Language learning What evidence suggest that the learner has acquired the target forms that potential were focused on during the CALL task?

What evidence indicates that learners focused on for during the CALL task?

Learner fit What evidence suggests that the targeted linguistic forms are at an appropriate level of difficulty for learners?

What evidence suggest that the task is appropriate to learners’ individual characteristics. (e.g. age, learning style, computer experience)?

Meaning focus What evidence suggests that learners’ construction of linguistic meaning aids language learning?

What evidence indicates that learners use the language during the task for constructing and interpreting meaning?

Authenticity What evidence suggests tha t learners’ performance in the CALL task corresponds to what one would expect to see outside the CALL task?

What evidence suggests that learners see the connection between the CALL task and tasks outside the classroom?

Impact What evidence suggest that learners learn more about the target language and about strategies for language learning through the use of the task?

What evidence suggest that instructors engage in sound second language pedagogical practices by using the task?

What evidence suggest that learners and teachers had a positive experience with technology through the use of the task?

Practicality What evidence suggest that hardware, software, and personnel resources prove to be sufficient to allow the CALL task to succeed?

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Appendix D Extracted from Vandergrift’s study Listening to Learn or Learning to Listen. (p.11)

Stage of Listening Instruction Related Metacognitive Strategies Planning/predicting stage 1. Once students know topic and text type, they 1. Planning and directed attention. predict types of information and possible words they may hear.

First verification stage 2. Students verify initial hypotheses, correct as 2. Monitoring required, and note additional information understood. 3. Students compare what they have written with 3. Monitoring, planning, and selective peers, modify as required, establish what needs attention. resolution and decide on details that still need special attention.

Second verification stage 4. Students verify points of disagreement, make 4. Monitoring and problem solving. corrections, and write down additional details understood. 5. Class discussion in which all contribute to 5. Monitoring and evaluation. reconstruction of the text’s main points and most pertinent details, inters persed with reflections on how students arrived at the meaning of creation word or parts of the text.

Final verification stage 6. Students listen for information that they could 6. Selective attention and monitoring. not decipher earlier in the class discussion.

Reflection stage 7. Based on discussion of strategies used to 7. Evaluation compensate for what was not understood, students write goals for next listening activity.

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Appendix E Robin’s approach to creating and integrating digital stories (Sadik 493)

1. Define, collect and decide

• Select a topic for your digital story

• Create a folder on the desktop where you can store the materials you find

• Search for image resources for your story, including: pictures, drawings, photographs, maps, charts, etc.

• Try to locate audio resources such as music, speeches, interviews, and sound effects

• Try to find informational content, which might come from web sites, word processed documents, or PowerPoint slides

• Begin thinking of the purpose of your story

2. Select, import and create • Select the images you would like to use for your digital story

• Select the audio you would like to use for your digital story

• Select the content and text you would like to use for your digital story

• Import images into Photo Story

• Import audio into Photo Story

• Modify number of images and/or image order, if necessary

3. Decide, write, record and finalize

• Decide on the purpose and point of view of your digital story

• Write a script that will be used as narration in your digital story AND provides the purpose and point of view you have chosen

• Use a computer microphone and record the narration of your script

• Import the narration into Photo Story

• Finalize your digital story by saving it as a Windows Media Video (WMV) file

4. Demonstrate, evaluate and replicate

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• Show your digital story to your peers

• Gather feedback about how the story could be improved, expanded and used in your classroom

• Help other groups how to create their own digital story.

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Appendix F Nation’s Word Card Strategy retrieved from Teaching Vocabulary: Strategies and Techniques.

Word Card Strategy Steps.

Step 1. The learners makes some small cards about 4cm by 2cm from paper to carry around, held together with a rubber band.

Step 2. The learner writes a useful word, phrase, or sentence on one side and its translation on the other.

Step 3. Learner goes through the pack and tries to recall meanings.

Step 4 Learner place those words that were easily recalled at the bottom of the pack. The others in the middle for revising.

Step 5. Put the pack away and look again at after half an hour.

Step 6. Put away and look at another day.

Step 7. Transfer words that were hard to learn in a new pack.

It would be useful for the teacher to have a list of the words that the learners have memorized for that school year. So the next step would be for the learners to type in the words with the translations and send it digitally to the teacher. The words selected by the learners will give teachers a good insight into the learners’ lexicon. Therefore,

Step 8. Write the list of words you memorized this week in a word document and send it to your teacher.

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An outline syllabus for training learners to use word cards.

Extracted from Nation’s Teaching Vocabulary: Strategies and Techniques

Part of the strategy Training Monitoring Choosing words or Show learners how to get frequency Observe the learners’ skill in phrases to put on information form dictionaries or word finding this information. cards lists.* Show learners how to choose words and phrases to meet their language use needs. Explain to learners about interference and Test learners’ skill in identifying the types of interfering relationships. interfering word sets. Going through the Explain about receptive and productive Test learners’ understanding of cards retrieval. retrieval and non-serial learning. Explain about changing the order of the Get learners to reflect and report cards (avoid serial learning). on their recent experience with the cards. Train learners in the keyword technique Test learners’ ability to apply the eventually working through about 20 keyword technique. examples. Train learners in the word part strategy. Test learners’ ability to apply the Get learners to learn the most common word part strategy. 15-20 prefixes. Test knowledge of the prefixes. Repeatedly coming Explain about spaced and distributed back to the words learning. Get learners to report on their success rates over a series of spaced repetitions. Motivating to use and Get learners to work in pairs testing each Check to make sure the learners keep using strategy. other on their word cards. are making and using the cards. Get learners to keep a graph of repetitions and successful recalls. Get learners to report to the class on their success in using word cards,

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Appendix G The Smith family. (The ten people exploring the island)

1. Paul Smith (referred to throughout the story as the father. Only mentioned in the beginning)

2. June Smith (referred to throughout the story as the mother. Her name is only mentioned in one ending of the story where they are outside her old ranch home and her mother calls out her name. We also discover at that point that Auntie Jay‘s real name is Jane.)

3. Jane Smith (the younger sister, aged 10)

4. Jason Smith (same age as the twins (although not mentioned))

5. Auntie Jay (Sara‘s sister, we find out at the end of one version that her real name is Jane)

6. Robert Smith ( the uncle, brother of the father and the divorced father to the twins)

7. Mary Smith(12 year old twin, Bob‘s daughter)

8. Tom Smith (12 year old twin, Bob‘s son)

9. The Captain, Cornelius Capitani (referred to as the captain throughout the story. You only find out his name when he introduces himself to Vanessa in one story ending or when he introduced himself to the villagers.

10. You. The story reader.

11. Paul and Robert‘s parents, your grandparents, appear shortly at the beginning and at the end of one story.

12. Jane and June’s mother appears shortly in one ending where you wished yourself off the island to your grandparent’s ranch in Australia.

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Appendix H Task 1. Spoken Interaction – talk about characters

Discuss in English with a partner the characters you met in the story.

• What characters did you meet on the island? • Do you remember their names? • Where did you meet them on the island? • What did they tell you? • Where do they offer you? • Where do they take you? • What do you think of them? • What kind of person do you think he/she is? • Who do you like the most and why? • Who do you like the least and why? • Which of these characters have you not met yet?

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Task 2. Speak, Write, and Count syllables

Read in pairs the following dialog between Vanessa and Dorak.

Vanessa the Vampire meets Dorak the Dwarf in the Cave.

Vanessa: What / are / you / do / ing / in / my / cave? / Get/ out/ of / here. [12 syllables]

Dorak: Are / you / kid / ding? / This / is / not / your / cave, / it‘s / mine . [11 syllables]

Vanessa: Since / when? / I‘ve/ lived / here/ for/ the/ past / ten / years . [10 syllables]

Dorak: This / was / my / home / a / long / time / a/ go .[9 syllables]

Vanessa: But / where/ have/ you/ been/ all /this/ time? [8 syllables]

Dorak : on /the / isle / pu/mi/li/us. [7 syllables]

Vanessa: Who / else / lives /on /that / isle? [6 syllables]

Dorak: We, / the /ex /iled / dwarves. [5 syllables]

Vanessa: Well, / you / must / leave. . [4 syllables]

Dorak . I / will / not. . [3 syllables]

Vanessa . Please/go. . [2 syllables]

Dorak : No! . [1 syllable]

Write a dialog between two characters in the story. Structure the dialog like the example shown.

Count the syllable of the words you use

Start the first sentence with twelve syllables.

Each sentence that follows has one syllable less.

The last person ends the dialog with a one syllable word.

Use the pictures with the characters‘names to help decide on who the two characters are.

What is a syllable in Icelandic? ______

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Task 3. Speaking and Writing Activity Create a Character Profile

1. Choose a character from the story and create a character profile. Fill in the character profile worksheet on the next page. Use your imagination, not all answers can be found in the story. 2. Or create a new character to include in the story, include a picture drawing. 3. Pair up with a partner and interview one another using the questions and your answers. 4. Role-play with a partner and record your interview. You may want to add questions of your own. Add your recording to your language portfolio.

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Task 3. Cooperative Speaking and Writing Task Character Profile Worksheet What‘s his/her name? ______When was he/she born? How old is he / she now? ______Where does he/she live? ______What are his / her favorite hobbies? ______What is his/her favorite food? ______What is his/her favorite music? ______What does he/she love the most? ______What does he/she hate the most? ______What does he/she fear the most? ______What does he/she dream about? ______What makes him/her sad? ______What makes him/her happy? ______Who is his/her hero? ______Who is his/her archenemy or nemesis? Why? ______

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Task 4 Co-operative Storytelling Step 1. Discuss with a partner in English the questions and possible answers. Step 2. Create a story from the questions. Step 3. Retell your story and record it. Step 4 . Add your audio to your English Language Portfolio. Step 5. Write your story in your journal or Step 5. Write your story on the webpage www.storyjumper.com or Step 5. Write your story in a word document. (Your teacher will provide you with an account.) Look at the following picture from the story. The story doesn‘t tell you why this plane crashed on the island. Together with a partner make up a story about what happened to this plane.

-----

Here are some questions to help you get started.

Where was this plane coming from?

Where was it going?

Who was on board the plane?

Why were they there?

What cargo was it carrying? What is inside the crate?

What made the plane crash? Where are they now?

Who survived the plane crash? What are they doing there?

What happened to the survivors? How does their story start? How does it

Where did they go first? end

Whom did they meet on the island?

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Task 5 Co-operative Storytelling. Step 1. Discuss with a partner in English the questions and possible answers. Step 2. Create a story from the questions. Step 3. Retell your story and record it. Step 4 . Add your audio to your English Language Portfolio. Step 5. Write your story in your journal or Step 5. Write your story on the webpage www.storyjumper.com or Step 5. Write your story in a word document. Look at the following picture from the story. The story doesn‘t tell you much about the creature Pipkin that lives in the lake, except, he won‘t let you fish in the lake unless you find him some precious green pebbles. But who is Pipkin? And what is he?

Make up a story about Pipkin with a partner. Use the questions to help you think of a story of who he may be. Retell your story and record it. Add your audio to your English Language Portfolio.

Discuss the following questions with a partner in English to get you started with ideas.

What kind of creature is Pipkin?

Why does he live in the lake?

Who lives there with him?

What does he eat?

What does he like?

What does he want?

Why doe he want it? Who are his enemies? What is he like? What is his story? Who are his friends?

Think of a story titled One day in the life of Pipkin or Pipkin‘s Revenge.

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Task 6 Co-operative Storytelling Step 1. Discuss with a partner in English the questions and possible answers. Step 2. Create a story from the questions. Step 3. Retell your story and record it. Step 4 . Add your audio to your English Language Portfolio. Step 5. Write your story in your journal or Step 5. Write your story on the webpage www.storyjumper.com or Step 5. Write your story in a word document. (Your teacher will provide you with an account.) In the story you come to the desert. There is no one around, but you see a broken bottle in the sand. What could be the story behind that bottle. Work in pairs and discuss the following questions to get you started with ideas for a story.

How did the bottle get there?

Who broke the bottle?

Why did it break?

When did this happen?

Why was he/she in the desert?

Where did he/she come from?

Was he/she alone?

Where did he/she come from?

What happened to the person that left it there?

Think of a story associated with this picture.

Task 7 Creative Writing

Choose one of the settings on the isle of Confictura and write a Senses Poem . Cut and paste the picture next to your poem.

To see an example of a Senses Poem, use the QR reader to link you back to the listening activity.

Add the poem to your English Language Portfolio.

Use this QR code to link you back to the Listening Activity and listen again to the structure of the poem.

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Task 8 Cooperation, Interaction, and Spoken Production

Step 1. Listen again to the weather reports. Use QR READER to link you to the listening activity and complete the listening tasks.

Step 2. Write your own script for the weather forecast for the next three days.

Step 3. Find a map of a country to use (such as Australia). Or use the map below.

Step 4. Create weather symbols and add to your map to match your script.

Step 5. With a partner or in groups make a video of your weather report and add it to your language portfolio.

Use this map or find your own map online.

For further ideas, watch weather reports on YouTube.

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Task 9. Speaking about An Unexpected Voyage, the story. While reading – discuss the story with a partner the following questions. Who are the characters you meet in the beginning of the story? What happened at the start of the story? Where did you choose to live? What does the family do after the picnic? Where are they going and how do they plan to get there? What happens on the way? What happens to the ship? What is the first thing the family does on the island? Where is the first place they go? Where do they go after that? Did you go in the same direction? How many places have you been to on the island? Which places have you been to more than once? Did anything happen in these places? Have you met anyone on the island? Where did you meet them? What did they tell you? What did you learn about the character? How many people do you think you will meet on the island? What do you think they will tell you? Describe the most memorable character. Have you found out the name of the island? What do you think it means? How would you go about finding out what the word means? How do you think the story will end? How many tasks have you done? What words did you learn? Which words did you select for your word cards? Did you learn any new words?

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Were there many words you did not know in the story? Were there many words you did not know in the listening activities? Which was the hardest? Which was the easiest? How many words did you know

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Task 10. Cooperative Project Work about Australia

Developing Speaking, Writing and Digital Skills.

The Smith family were on a voyage going to Australia. What do you know about Australia?

Step 1. Think about the following questions on the next page.

Step 2. Pair up with a partner and discuss your answers.

Step 3. Share what you know with the class.

Step 4. Look for Australian travel magazines or other online sources such as as http://www.australiantraveller.com/

Step 5. Create a travel plan for two weeks in Australia.

Step 6. Use Google Earth to find where they are on the map.

Step 7. Write what your plans are for each place.

Step 8. Decide on how you will get to Australia and the transport you will be using when travelling around Australia. Australia is a continent. It takes over five hours to fly from Melbourne to Perth.

Step 9. Present your travel plan to the classroom and tell it in English.

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Use powerpoint to describe your travel plan for one week. Include pictures of the places and information about activities you‘d like to do there.

CHOOSE A PARTNER TO WORK WITH AND SPEAK IN ENGLISH AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. REMEMBER WE LEARN THE MOST WHEN WE TRY TO SPEAK.

The Questions

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What do you know about Australia?

Why is it called Down Under?

What does the flag look like?

Where is it on the map? Find it on Google Earth.

What animals live in Australia?

What people live in Australia?

Who were the first people to live there?

Who discovered Australia and when?

Why did people move there in the beginning?

What is the landscape like?

What is the climate like?

How many states does Australia have? What are they called?

What is the capital city of each state? What is the capital city of Australia?

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