The Language
TeacherISSN 0289-7938 ¥950 JALT2007 Pre-Conference Special Issue
• Plenary Speaker articles from: Ronald Carter, Paul Nation and David Beglar, and Amy Tsui
• Featured Speaker articles from: Miles Craven, Richard Day, Steven Gershon, Leo Jones, Curtis Kelly and Chuck Sandy, Ryuko Kubota, Charles LeBeau, Jeannette Littlemore, Rob Waring, Ken Wilson, and John Wiltshier
• My Share by Patrick Miller and Ben Fenton-Smith
• Book Reviews by Toshiyuki Takagaki and Paul A. Crane
July, 2007 • Volume 31, Number 7 The Japan Association for Language Teaching
THE JAPAN ASSOCIATION FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING 全国語学教育学会 全 国 語 学 教 育 学 会 July JALT20072007 • vo •lu Featureme 31, dnu Spmbeaerker 7
CONTENTS In this month’s issue . . . JALT2006 Speaker Articles JALT2007 Pre-Conference Issue } Ronald Carter ...... 5 } Paul Nation & David Beglar...... 9 he July issue of The Language Teacher contains a selection } Amy Tsu ...... 13 of articles from both Plenary and Featured speakers who } Miles Craven...... 17 T will be presenting at this year’s National Conference. } Richard Day...... 19 JALT2007 will be held in Tokyo at the National Olympics Memo- } Steven Gershon...... 21 rial Youth Center November 22-25 with the theme Challenging } Leo Jones...... 25 Assumptions: Looking In, Looking Out. } Curtis Kelly & Chuck Sandy. . . . . 28 Plenary speaker articles included in this issue are: Ronald } Ryuko Kubota...... 31 Carter, Paul Nation and David Beglar, and Amy Tsui. Featured speakers who have contributed a paper include: Miles Cra- } Charles LeBeau ...... 33 ven, Richard Day, Steven Gershon, Leo Jones, Curtis Kelly } Jeanette Littlemore...... 36 and Chuck Sandy, Ryuko Kubota, Charles LeBeau, Jeannette } Rob Waring...... 38 Littlemore, Rob Waring, Ken Wilson, and John Wiltshier. For } Ken Wilson ...... 40 further information about the conference please refer to the } John Wiltshier...... 43 Pre-Conference Supplement in this issue or you can check online at
} JALT Notices...... 51 LTの７月号では、本年度の全国大会の基調講演者と特別講演者 } Member’s Showcase...... 52 の原稿をご紹介します。全国大会は、11月22日から25日にかけ て、東京の国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センターで行われま } Grassroots...... 53 T す。本大会のテーマは、Challenging Assumptions: Looking In, Looking Out です。基調講演は、Ronald Carter, Paul Nation & David Beglar, Amy Tsui. Columns が行い、特別講演者には、Miles Craven, Richard Day, Steven Gershon, Leo Jones, Curtis Kelly & Chuck Sandy, Ryuko Kubota, Charles LeBeau, Jeannette Littlemore, Rob Waring, Ken Wilson, John Wiltshier が予定されています。 } SIG News ...... 56 詳細については、本誌のPre-Conference Supplement をご覧ください。イ } Chapter Events...... 60 ンターネット上の
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Information
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THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007 • SPEAKER ARTICLE ABSTRACTS
Talk, talk, talk: Grammar and spoken dents–helping them to learn, travel with confidence, progress in their careers, make friends, and communicate as global citi- English—Ronald Carter zens in today’s world. However, interviews with Asian stu- The spoken language has been largely under-described and dents (which form the basis of this article) reveal a very differ- under-theorised within linguistics and accordingly teachers of ent picture from the learner’s perspective, one of widespread English have lacked adequate models. Recent analysis of spo- dissatisfaction at all stages of their language learning experi- ken discourse using multi-million word computerised corpora ence. So are we the paragons we think we are, or are we of authentic English usage is beginning to change this picture. simply parasites, happy to make a living from language educa- This article focuses on some of these changes drawing on tion, while failing to address students’ real learning needs? new evidence concerning the specific character of spoken English grammar. The study of spoken language also raises fundamental questions about the nature of standard English grammar and its basis in written examples, about the notion Learning to read in a foreign language— of choice in language and about materials development for Richard Day the teaching of English as a whole. This article examines intensive and extensive reading ap- 言語学の分野で、口語英語は理論的に語られたり十分な説明がされるこ proaches to teaching reading to second and foreign language とがなかったため、英語教師へのモデル提供が不足していた。最近になっ (FL) learners. It begins with a brief discussion of the nature て、この傾向は変わりつつある。数百万にもおよぶ実際に使われている英 of reading and how we learn to read. This is followed by 語の用法をコンピュータを使って集め、そのコーパスを用いた談話分析が an overview of three intensive reading approaches (grammar 始まったからである。本論では、口語英文法の特徴に関する新たな研究 translation, comprehension questions and language work, 結果に基づき、いくつかの変化に注目する。こうした口語英語の研究は、 and skills and strategies) and extensive reading. Next, there 根本的な疑問を投げかけるものでもある。それらの疑問には、「標準英文 法」の特質と文語例の中の基本に関するもの、言語における選択という概 is an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the four ap- 念に関するもの、英語を教えていく際の教材開発に関するものがある。 proaches. The article concludes with the claim that extensive reading is the only approach that provides learners with the opportunities to become FL readers. A vocabulary size test—Paul Nation & David 本論は、ESL/EFL学習者にリーディングを教えていく際の精読法と多読法 について検証する。始めに、リーディングの特性と学習法について論じる。 Beglar 次に、3つの精読法（文法訳読・読解問題と言語に関する問題・スキルと方 This article describes the making and purposes of a vocabu- 略）と多読法について概説する。また、これら4つのリーディング法の長所 lary size test that will test vocabulary knowledge up to the 短所についても分析する。最後に、多読法によってのみ学習者が熟練した 14th 1000 word level. The test contains 140 multiple-choice EFLの読み手になる機会を得ることが出来ると主張する。 items, 10 at each 1000 word level. The test itself is freely available
Classroom discourse as a semiotic resource for EFL learning—Amy B. M. Tsui Why don’t my students enjoy working in Adopting a sociocultural perspective of learning, this presenta- pairs and groups?—Leo Jones tion points out that EFL classroom discourse is a major semiotic Even though pair and group work is an essential and well-es- resource that mediates the construal of reality as well as the tar- tablished technique these days, we sometimes encounter re- get language. Using data from primary EFL classrooms in Hong sistance from students—and things don’t always go smoothly. Kong, it is argued that classroom discourse processes are inter- This article looks at some of the difficulties students may have, subjective processes in which the construal of reality through a and suggests ways we can encourage students to enjoy work- foreign language by each learner shapes and is shaped by the ing together and help them to get maximum benefit from construal of reality and the target language by other learners. working in pairs and in groups. In addition, the teacher with whom students interact and all ペアワークやグループワークは、ティーチングには欠かせない定評あるテ other resources such as curriculum materials and pedagogical クニックだが、学習者からの思わぬ抵抗にあうこともあり、いつもうまく行 activities mediate the learning process. Seen in this light, EFL くとは限らない。本論では、学習者が直面しがちな問題を取り上げ、学習 classroom discourse is an emergent process which opens up an 者がペアワークやグループワークを楽しみ、その利点を最大限に生かすた immensely rich semiotic space for EFL learning. めの方法を紹介する。
Paragons or parasites—are we failing our Rethinking activities to incorporate theories language learners?—Miles Craven of learning—Curtis Kelly & Chuck Sandy As educators, we like to think that we are helping our stu- Almost daily, brain studies, technological advance, and re- search in psychology are giving us a better picture of how
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007 Speaker Article Abstracts learning occurs. In concordance with this burst of research, conducted with a Japanese colleague, to assess the effective- a growing movement called brain-compatible teaching offers ness of two different techniques for promoting figurative lan- insights into why we need to develop teaching practices and guage production and understanding in Japanese university materials that focus less on language and more on how peo- EFL students: attribute matching and gestalt training. Attribute ple learn languages. In this paper, the authors discuss four matching training led to a significant improvement in the stu- brain compatible fundamentals of learning and their implica- dent’s ability to understand and produce figurative language. tions for the language classroom. Gestalt training made no difference. The implications of the 脳に関する研究、科学技術の進歩、心理学における研究が日進月歩で進 findings are discussed. み、学習がどのようにして行われているかが明らかにされてきている。そ 英語には本来の語義を発展させた比喩的表現が多く、key issues、the れに伴い、「脳の働きに合わせた教育」という考え方が広まり、教育の実 foot of the page、breaking promisesなどの言い回しがある。日本人の同 践や教材の開発を考えるようになった。従来の言語そのものに着目したも 僚との共同研究で、2つの異なる訓練法（属性合わせとゲシュタルト・トレ のでなく、どのように人が言語を学ぶかに着目ししているのである。本論 ーニング）が、EFL環境での日本人大学生の比喩的表現の理解と産出に、 では、脳の働きに合わせた４つの学習の原理を挙げ、実際の授業にどう生 どのような効果を与えるかを測定した。属性合わせでは、学習者による比 かすかを論じる。 喩的表現の理解・産出に、統計的に有意な改善点が見られた。ゲシュタル ト・トレーニングでは、変化は見られなかった。最後に、本研究が示唆す ることを述べる。 Critical approaches to language education: Focusing on race and culture—Ryuko Kubota The field of second language education has made a critical Bringing extensive reading into oral turn in the past decade, problematizing ideologies, discours- communication classes—Rob Waring es, and power relations that construct established knowledge This article shows how discussions can be introduced and and practices. Critical inquires aim to transform the status quo managed using Extensive Reading in an oral communication of power relations and create a more just society while af- class. firming multiple meanings and identities. The field, however, has been relatively silent on issues of race until very recently. Inquiry into racism, racialization, as well as culture, which is often used as a neutral category to talk about race, would Turning passive students into active provide language teachers and learners with more critical in- learners—Ken Wilson sight into power, social structures, and humankind. A lot of learning is passive—students have to spend a lot of 第二言語教育の分野は過去10 年間に大きな変貌を遂げた。イデオロギ time listening to the teacher and/or reading a text. Exercise ー、談話、既成の知識と慣習を構成する力関係に対して問題提起をしてき material is particularly passive. There is nothing wrong with たのである。厳密な研究によって、意味やアイデンティティの多様性を認 some passive learning—in fact a percentage of our students めるとともに、現存の力の関係を変革し、より公正な社会創造を目指して probably prefer studying this way. However, when a lesson いる。しかしながら、 人種の問題はごく最近まであまり取り上げられるこ becomes too passive, the ability of students to actually benefit とはなかった。人種差別、人種区分、そして人種を語るのに曖昧なカテゴ diminishes rapidly. This article will present some ideas about リーとしてよく用いられる文化を研究することで、力、社会構造、人類につ how to turn passive lessons into active ones. We will look いて、教師と学習者はより一層の洞察力を持つことができるだろう。 at the most common aspects of a passive lesson—teacher presentation of new language, reading passages, and exercise material—and look at ways to get students more involved. Balancing global issues and critical thinking I will aim to prove my main thesis—learners retain more of in the classroom—Charles LeBeau what they are taught when they are actively involved in the The assumptions governing what we as teachers choose for learning process. content in the classroom, and how we choose to approach 学習形態のほとんどは受動的である。つまり、学習者は、教師の言うこと that content, shape the learning experience of our students. に耳を傾けているか、テキストを読んでいるかに多くの時間を費やしてい This article suggests that classroom content begin locally with るのである。練習問題は、特に受動的である。こうした受動的な学習は、 the learner’s interests and experience. The teacher’s role 決して悪いものではなく、実際に、そうした学習法を好む学習者もいるの then is to design level-appropriate tasks that take the topic to である。しかしながら、授業が受動的になりすぎると、実際の学習者の能 力を伸ばす力は急速に落ちていく。本論は、授業を受動的なものから能 a global level of significance. With regard to critical thinking, 動的なものに方向転換するアイデアを呈示する。受動的な授業に多く共通 i.e. how we approach content, this article argues that explicit するいくつかの側面（教師による新しい言語、リーディング用テキスト、練 models for language learners are necessary. Also, this article 習問題などの提示の仕方）に注目し、学習者をもっと積極的に授業に参加 describes a simple metaphor to make critical thinking a con- させる方法に着目する。本論では、学習者は、学習過程に積極的に参加す crete, visual experience for the language learner. るときに、教えられたことを覚え、自分のものにするということを明らかに する。 教師が授業にどのような授業内容を選択するか、そして、その内容にどの ようにアプローチするかという前提条件が、生徒の学習経験を形作る。 本論は、授業内容は学習者の興味と経験に沿った身近なものから始める 事を勧めている。教師の役割は、まず、学習者のレベルに合った課題を取 Shadowing plus: Stepping stones to り上げ、高いレベルまで持っていけるようにデザインすることである。こ の場合のクリテイカル・シンキングである授業内容へのアプローチについ fluency—John Wiltshier て、本論は、学習者のために明確なモデルが必要であると主張する。そし This paper sets out to explain the merits of peer-shadow- て、クリテイカル・シンキングが言語学習にとって具体的で視覚に訴えるも ing classroom activities as one way to help students improve のになるような簡単なメタファーを説明する。 their fluency and also to explain the differences between shadowing and audio-lingual listen and repeat. Previous work on shadowing by other researchers is reviewed. Then the Helping Japanese language learners to use unique characteristics and focus of five varieties of shadowing are introduced. The differences of each variety of shadowing figurative language—Jeannette Littlemore are briefly explained. The second half of the article highlights In English, figurative extensions of word meaning are com- features of peer-shadowing classroom activities. These fea- mon; we talk about key issues, the foot of the page, and tures are compared to audio-lingual listen and repeat activi- breaking promises. In this article I describe a short study, ties to show how peer-shadowing is different.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007 • Plenary Speaker Talk, talk, talk: Grammar and spoken English
Ronald Carter 80s and 90s, the history of linguistics in the twen- tieth century has been largely a history of the School of English Studies, study of detached written examples with many of the characteristic features of spoken discourse University of Nottingham, UK dismissed as peripheral. Sponsored by Cambridge University Press The speech-writing continuum Keywords: spoken English, grammar, corpus, language There are of course several links between speech teaching and writing. There are many written messages such as text messages on mobile phones, emails, or communications in computer chat rooms Writing which work in a manner closer to spoken lan- For many centuries dictionaries and grammars guage. And most formal, public speeches, for of the English language have taken the written example, are carefully crafted, written-to-be-spo- language as a benchmark for what is proper and ken texts, even if they are often written to sound standard in the language, incorporating written spontaneous and natural. Generally, different and often literary examples to illustrate the best models have grown up for analysing spoken usage. Accordingly, the spoken language has been and written language and it is widely agreed downgraded and has come to be regarded as that there is no simple, single difference between speech and writing (see Halliday, relatively inferior. What is written and CHALLENGING what is literate is accorded high cul- LOOKING OUT 1989; Carter & McCarthy, 2006). tural status. Even dramatic perform- ances are often valued and studied Computer corpora primarily as written text. Even when spoken language has been preserved, In the latter part of the twentieth cen- it is in the form of a transcribed text tury there were very rapid advances which, as we can see below, is often both in audio-technology and in the laid out in such a way as to highlight development of tape-recorders and and to discredit its formless character. there are now extensive collections LOOKING IN available of people from different ASSUMPTIONS backgrounds speaking in both formal Speaking and informal contexts. Major collec- tions of such data are called corpora. The data Perhaps the greatest single event in the history collected on tape are transcribed and made com- of linguistics was the invention of the tape re- puter-readable so that very fast and sophisticated corder, which for the first time has captured computer programmes can then identify the most natural conversation and made it accessible to common structures alongside the actual contexts systematic study. (Halliday, 1994, p. xxiii) in which they are used. The spoken language has also been largely Inevitably, the presence of such forms causes under-described and under-theorised within lin- difficulties for our descriptions of English gram- guistic science. Examples of language for analysis mar and leads to questions about what it is now have been based on the assumption that language possible to call standard English, for such forms are consists of sentences and that, because of the standard in so far as they are used standardly by essentially detached and context-free nature of all speakers even if (for the reasons given above) written texts, context can be more or less removed these same forms do not appear or only very rarely from the equation. Until the advent of the disci- appear in standard published grammars of English plines of discourse analysis and pragmatics in the (see Carter & McCarthy, 1997, 2006).
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Carter Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker
A sample stretch of talk in another’s contribution or overlap in their The following example shows some of the kinds speaking turns. of units frequently encountered in a spoken cor- • The speakers co-construct each other’s dis- pus. Problematic areas for a traditional grammar course. There is backchanelling (Mm; Yeah), in are italicized: which speakers give supportive feedback to each other. [Speakers are sitting at the dinner table talking about a car accident that happened to the father • There are aborted or incomplete structures (It of one of the speakers] was a bit erm... A bit.) Incomplete structures can be collaboratively completed by others or Speaker 1 I’ll just take that off. Take that off. simply left as understood (That’s right). Speaker 2 All looks great. • This conversational extract involves more than Speaker 3 [laughs] two speakers. But the same features of conver- Speaker 2 Mm. sational management apply whether the talk be multi-party or two-party. Speaker 3 Mm. Speaker 2 I think your dad was amazed wasn’t The notion of sentence does not apply easily to he at the damage. the data. Speaker 4 Mm. • There are indeterminate structures (is the Speaker 2 It’s not so much the parts. It’s the second Take that off an ellipted form of I’ll just labour charges for take that off? Is it an imperative? Is All looks great well-formed? What is the status of And they’re Speaker 4 Oh that. For a car. like?). Like, for example, appears to function Speaker 2 Have you got hold of it? here to mark direct speech. Speaker 1 Yeah. • Ellipsis is common (fatal, isn’t it?). Ellipsis Speaker 2 It was a bit erm. occurs when words are omitted because it is Speaker 1 Mm. assumed that they can be understood from context or from shared knowledge between Speaker 3 Mm. speaker and hearer. Speaker 2 A bit. • There are phrasal utterances, communicatively Speaker 3 That’s right. complete in themselves, but not sentences (Oh Speaker 2 I mean they said they’d have to take that, For a car, Any problem). his car in for two days. And he • There are subordinate clauses not obviously says All it is is s= straightening a connected to any particular main clause (As panel. And they’re like, Oh no. It’s all soon as they hear insurance claim). new panel. You can’t do this. • There are words whose grammatical class is Speaker 3 Any erm problem. unclear (Wow, Now) For example, now seems to Speaker 2 As soon as they hear insurance claim. be organisational or structural, functioning to Oh. Let’s get it right. close down one section of the conversation and Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah. Anything to do with to move on to another topic. Such discourse markers connect one phase of the discourse Speaker 1 Wow. with another. Speaker 3 +coach work is er+ These phenomena, normal in everyday talk, Speaker 1 Right. raise questions about the nature of basic units and Speaker 3 +fatal isn’t it. classes in a spoken grammar. There is by no means Speaker 1 Now. a simple answer to these questions, but one’s stance towards them can have major implications [CANCODE data (1)] for what is considered correct or acceptable in a Here we may observe the following general grammar. External evidence points us towards a phenomena: socially-embedded grammar, one whose criteria • Punctuation is marked by the taking of turns for acceptability are based on adequate communi- rather than by a transition from one sentence cability in real contexts, among real participants. to another. These turns are not neat and tidy, It is evidence that cannot simply be dismissed as however. The speakers regularly interrupt each ungrammatical; only a decontextualised view of other, or speak at the same time, intervene language would sanction such a view.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker Carter
Basic forms of spoken grammar of business and the next. For example, items Here are some of the most common examples such as anyway, right, okay, I see, I mean, mind of specifically spoken grammar forms. They are you, well, what’s more, so, now. Thus, people not selected at random but on the basis of an speaking face to face or on the phone often examination of the extensive computer corpora of use anyway to show that they wish to finish spoken English outlined above. They are stand- that particular topic or return to another topic. ardly spoken by users of British English through- Similarly, right often serves to indicate that a out different regions, occupations, and contexts speaker is ready to move on to the next phase of use by speakers of different ages, gender and of business. social class, and occupation. The examples cited Anyway, give Jean a ring and see what she here are taken from the 1 billion word Cambridge says. International Corpus (CIC): Right, okay, we’d better try to phone and • forms which are termed heads. They occur at see what they have to report. the beginning of clauses and help listeners ori- The ordering of elements in the clause is ent to a topic: likely to be different in spoken and written The white house on the corner, is that where texts because of the real-time constraints of she lives? unrehearsed spoken language and the need That girl, Jill, her sister, she works in our in speech for clear acts of organisation and office. topicalisation, for, in other words, a kind of punctuation of speech. Discourse markers, for Paul, in this job that he’s got now, when he example, can, as it were, signal the start of a goes into the officehe ’s never quite sure new paragraph. where he’s going to be sent. • Vague language which includes words and A friend of mine, his uncle had the taxi firm phrases such as thing, stuff, or so, or something, when we had the wedding. or anything, or whatever, sort of. Vague language His cousin in Beccles, her boyfriend, his softens expressions so that they do not appear parents bought him a Ford Escort for his too direct or unduly authoritative and asser- birthday. tive. When we interact with others there are • forms which are termed tails. They occur at the times where it is necessary to give accurate and end of clauses, normally echoing an anteced- precise information; in many informal contexts, ent pronoun and help to reinforce what we are however, speakers prefer to convey informa- saying: tion which is softened in some way, although She’s a very good swimmer Jenny is. such vagueness is often wrongly taken as a sign of careless thinking or sloppy expression. It’s difficult to eat, isn’t it,spaghetti? A more accurate term should therefore be pur- I’m going to have steak and fries, I am. posefully vague language. It can leave you feeling very weak, it can, • Modal expressions: In most standard written though, apparently, shingles, can’t it. grammars modality is described mainly in • Ellipsis in which subjects and verbs are omit- terms of modal verbs (e.g., may, might, can, ted because we can assume our listeners know could, must, should, ought to). In spoken Eng- what we mean: lish, however, the picture is more varied and Didn’t know that film was on tonight. (I) modal expressions play a part in making sure, in particular, that utterances don’t sound too Sounds good to me. (It, That) assertive or definite. Like vague language these Lots of things to tell you about the trip to modal expressions can also help to soften what Barcelona. (There are) is said. They include words and phrases such A: Are you going to Leeds this weekend? as: possibly, probably, I don’t know, I don’t think, I B: Yes, I must. (go to Leeds this weekend) think, I suppose, perhaps. For example: [Students talking to each other in a group. They all know Ellipsis in spoken English is mainly situation- each other well and are talking informally al, affecting people and things in the immedi- about how they have changed since coming to ate situation. university.] • Discourse markers where particular words or A: But you don’t notice so much in your- phrases are normally used to mark boundar- self, do you? I don’t think so, on the whole. ies in conversation between one topic or bit
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Carter Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker
B: I don’t know. I definitely feel different and tone of voice? And the data presented here from the first year. I don’t think I look any offers an interesting challenge for the teaching of different or anything. spoken English between corpus and classroom A: You ‘re bound to keep changing really, (O’Keeffe, McCarthy, & Carter, 2007), as well as all your whole life, hopefully. raising broader ideological questions concern- ing the place of native speaker language in the B: I don’t know, I think it’s probably a classroom, issues to be considered in a plenary change coming away, I suppose. entitled Spoken English: Written English: Chal- • Modal expressions help to encode shifts in lenging Assumptions and other papers at the 2007 stance toward what we say. They are a particu- JALT conference. Analysis of spoken language is lar feature of the face-to-face nature of spoken thus still in its infancy. But things are moving fast communication. So, an utterance may start def- and, supported by new technologies, will move initely but is then softened before the utterance even faster from now on. is completed or an utterance starts tentatively and then becomes more definite before being softened again. Further reading I suppose it must be sort of difficult to phone Cameron, D. (2000). Good to talk? London: Sage. or whatever. Cameron, D. (2001). Working with spoken discourse. I feel they maybe should resign really. London: Sage. We maybe ought to perhaps have a word with Carter, R., Hughes, R., & McCarthy, M. (2000). Exploring grammar in context. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- him about it? sity Press. Eggins, S., & Slade, D. (1997). Analysing conversation. Conclusion London: Cassell. It would, of course, be a mistake to assume, how- McCarthy, M. (2001). Discourse. In R. Carter & D. ever, that these forms of grammar, though com- Nunan (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to teaching English mon in spoken English, are exclusive to spoken to speakers of other languages (pp. 48-55). Cambridge: English. For example, the relative immediacy of Cambridge University Press. forms such as email communication, advertising Nunan, D. (1994). An introduction to discourse analysis. copy, and some notes, letters, and memos means Harmondsworth: Penguin. that informality is often the preferred style and that a relative symmetry of relationship is deliber- ately constructed by such choices. References Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (1997). Exploring spoken Eng- At the present time there may also be a broader lish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. cultural explanation for the phenomenon of spoken forms entering written discourse. At Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (2006). Cambridge grammar of English: A comprehensive guide to spoken and written the beginning of the 21st century discourse has grammar and usage. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- become more democratic. As society has become sity Press. less formal and ceremonial in such domains as Halliday, M. A. K. (1989). Spoken and written language. dress and social behaviour, so too has the language Oxford: Oxford University Press. changed to more informal and symmetrical modes. Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). Introduction to functional gram- People speak to each other more as equals and it is mar. London: Arnold. inevitable that they should also increasingly write to each other in similar ways, especially in contexts O’Keeffe, A., McCarthy, M., & Carter, R. (2007). From corpus to classroom: Language use and language teaching. such as advertising or email communication where Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. it is important not to talk down to someone. This paper has attempted to prepare some ground and to offer material for discussion. It Ronald Carter teaches Mod- argues for the importance of greater knowledge ern English Language in the about grammar and that such knowledge should School of English Studies, go beyond single written sentences. It would University of Nottingham. be naïve to suggest that the forms of grammar He is the author of over forty described here represent the whole story by any books on applied linguistics, means. For example, in discussions of spoken English language studies and grammar how far is it possible to proceed with- English language teaching and out more detailed information about intonation learning. His most relevant
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker Carter / Nation & Beglar publications with regard to this article are: Explor- Acknowledgements ing Spoken English (Cambridge University Press, To Cambridge University Press for permission to 1997) and Cambridge Grammar of English (Cam- quote extracts from the CANCODE corpus (The bridge University Press, 2006) (both with Michael Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in McCarthy) and (with David Nunan) The Cam- English), part of the 1 billion word Cambridge Inter- bridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other national Corpus (CIC) and to Michael McCarthy, Languages (Cambridge University Press). co-director with me of the CANCODE project, for permission to draw on material for this paper which we have jointly collected and written.
JALT2007 • Plenary Speaker A vocabulary size test
to friendly conversations. There is now data on Paul Nation the vocabulary sizes needed to perform such LALS, Victoria University of receptive tasks (Nation, 2006) and this indicates Wellington that learners need to have a vocabulary close to 8,000 word families to do this. This assumes that proper names do not need to be known. Table 1 David Beglar summarises the data from Nation (2006) show- Temple University Japan, Osaka ing the vocabulary sizes needed to reach 98% coverage of various kinds of text. When a learner Sponsored by Compass Publishing has 98% coverage of a text, adequate unassisted comprehension is possible (Hu & Nation, 2000). Keywords: vocabulary testing, vocabulary size, assessment, The goal of around 8,000 word families is an proficiency important one for learners who wish to deal with a range of unsimplified spoken and written texts. It is thus helpful to know how close learners are he Vocabulary Size Test was developed to this critical goal. to provide a reliable, accurate, and com- T prehensive measure of a learner’s vocabu- A second reason for measuring vocabulary lary size from the 1st 1000 to the 14th 1000 word size is to be able to chart the growth of learners’ families of English. There are several reasons vocabularies. There is virtually no information on for wanting to measure a non-native speaker’s how quickly non-native speakers’ vocabularies vocabulary size. One reason is to see how close grow. Measuring this requires a test capable of the learner is to having enough vocabulary to measuring a large range of vocabulary sizes both be able to perform certain tasks such as read a longitudinally and across a group of learners. novel, read newspapers, watch movies, and listen A third reason for measuring vocabulary size is to be able to compare non- Table 1. Vocabulary sizes needed to get 98% coverage native speakers with native (including proper nouns) of various kinds of texts speakers. Such comparisons could be useful in compar- Texts 98% coverage Proper nouns ing rates of growth in second language learning settings (Do Novels 9,000 word families 1-2% non-native speakers increase their vocabulary knowledge at Newspapers 8,000 word families 5-6% a faster, slower, or similar rate to native speakers?) and in de- Children’s movies 6,000 word families 1.5% termining if there is a thresh- Spoken English 7,000 word families 1.3% old, as suggested by the 98%
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 10 Nation & Beglar Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker coverage figure, where further increase brings fourteen 1000 BNC word lists (Nation, 2006). The no noticeable effects on comprehension, reading lemma-based Thorndike and Lorge (1944) and pleasure, or reading speed. Leech, Rayson, and Wilson (2001) counts are not suitable for measures of receptive vocabulary size because the more inclusive word family Other existing tests is a more appropriate unit for such a receptive The Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation, 1983; Schmitt, measure. The word family is more appropriate Schmitt & Clapham, 2001; Beglar & Hunt, 1999) because learners beyond a minimal proficiency is currently widely used to determine whether level have some control of word building devices learners need to focus on high frequency words, and are able to see that there is both a formal and academic words, or low frequency words. It is a a meaning relationship between regularly affixed diagnostic test that looks at separate slices of a members of a word family. There is also increas- learner’s vocabulary (the 2nd 1000, the 3rd 1000, ing evidence that the word family is a psychologi- the 5th 1000, the Academic Word List, and the 10th cally real unit (Nagy, Anderson, Schommer, Scott, 1000). There is no Academic Word List section & Stallman, 1989; Bertram, Baayen, & Schreuder, in the Vocabulary Size Test and words from the 2000; Bertram, Laine, & Virkkala, 2000). Academic Word List can be found from the 1st The word family unit used in the fourteen 1000 to the 10th 1000 of the Vocabulary Size Test. 1000 BNC word family lists (available for free The Vocabulary Size Test has a different purpose. download from
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker Nation & Beglar 11 ordering more closely represented the order in feature. This is probably because it indicates the which the intended test-takers might learn the part of speech of the word, orients the test-taker words. Frequency of occurrence however is only to view it as an item of language use, and pro- one factor, although a very important one, affect- vides a little extra associational help in accessing ing order of acquisition. the meaning. The items measure receptive knowledge of vo- The nature of the Vocabulary Size Test cabulary. That is, the learners are provided with The Vocabulary Size Test samples from the most the word form and have to access the meaning frequent 14,000 word families of English. The test of the word. They need to have a moderately de- consists of 140 items (ten from each 1000 word veloped idea of the meaning of the word in order level) (see the Appendix). Here is a sample item to be able to choose it from the four options. The from the 5th 1000 word level. Vocabulary Levels Test by contrast has distractors which are not related in meaning or form to the 1. miniature: It is a miniature. tested word, and thus in the Vocabulary Levels Test learners can get the answer correct if they a a very small thing of its kind have a small amount of knowledge of the word. b an instrument for looking at very small The Vocabulary Size Test is thus a little more de- objects manding than the Vocabulary Levels Test. c a very small living creature The fourteen levels of the test are a way of d a small line to join letters in handwriting organising the items in the test so that the test begins with the items more likely to be known. It The Vocabulary Size Test is a measure of writ- is not necessary to make learners sit all fourteen ten receptive vocabulary size. In order to answer levels when the test is used with elementary or the items, the test-takers have to have a moder- intermediate learners, but they should sit a few ately developed idea of the meaning of the word. levels beyond their present level. This is because This makes it a slightly more difficult test than frequency level is not a perfect indicator of which the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt, & words are likely to be known. Frequency level is Clapham, 2001), because the correct answer and the distractors usually share elements of mean- strongly related to the likelihood of a word being ing. known (scores at each level drop as a learner progresses through the test), but there are other factors involved in knowing a word and frequen- 1. innocuous: This is innocuous. cy counts can give differing results depending on a cheap and poor in quality the size and nature of the corpus used. In other b harmless words, a learner with a vocabulary size of 3,000 c not believable words is likely to know some words beyond this d very attractive‑looking level and is likely not to know some words within this level. The multiple-choice format was chosen: 1 to allow the test to be used with learners Making the multiple-choice test items from a variety of language backgrounds. The choices were all written using a restricted 2 to control the level of difficulty of the an- vocabulary. For the first and second 1000 sample, swers. That is each item attempts to tap only words from the first 1000 of West’s (1953) roughly the same degree of knowledge of a General Service List were used. As far as pos- word. sible, the words in the definitions were of higher 3 to make marking as efficient and reliable as frequency than the item being defined, but for possible. the highest frequency items, this was not always possible, for example, there was no possibility 4 to make learners demonstrate knowledge of for definingtime except with words of lower each item. frequency (e.g., hours). For words in samples from The test words were all put in a simple non- 3000 upwards, the defining words were drawn defining context. Research by Henning (1991) has from the first 2000 of West’s General Service List. shown that the use of such a context is a desirable Occasionally it was necessary to use some other
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 12 Nation & Beglar Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker item, but the frequency of the defining word and ity and validity of the test. The test is available at the item were always checked in the British Na-
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker Nation & Beglar / Tsui 13
Paul Nation teaches Applied lary in Another Language published by Cambridge Linguistics in the School University Press (2001) and there is a book on of Linguistics and Applied vocabulary teaching likely to Language Studies at Victoria appear in 2007 from Thomson University of Wellington, publishers. New Zealand. He has taught in Indonesia, Thailand, the David Beglar is a member of United States, Finland, and the faculty at Temple Uni- Japan. His interests are lan- versity, Japan. His primary guage teaching methodology research interests are vocabu- and vocabulary learning. His lary instruction and language latest book is Learning Vocabu- assessment.
JALT2007 • Plenary Speaker 13 Classroom discourse as a semiotic resource for EFL learning
1994; Lantolf, 2000). This paradigm shift has led Amy B. M. Tsui to a reconceptualization of language, context, and learning in profound ways. In EFL classrooms, The University of Hong Kong the learners, the teacher, and the context in which learning takes place are dialectically related and Sponsored by JALT they are constitutive of what is being learned. Within the SCT research paradigm, classroom Keywords: classroom discourse, sociocultural theory, discourse has been reconceptualized as an impor- semiotic resource, mediational tools tant resource that mediates learning in the class- room. In EFL classrooms, classroom discourse is ociocultural theory (SCT) and social an even more important resource because it is all theory of learning see learning as funda- at once the mediational tool for and the object of S mentally social rather than individual, the learning. Donato (2000) points out that instruc- relationship between the learner and tional conversations are relevant to language the social world as dialectical rather CHALLENGING learning because they capture a wider than dichotomous, and learning as LOOKING OUT range of communicative and cogni- mediated by cultural artifacts (Vygot- tive functions in pragmatically rich sky, 1978; Lave & Wenger, 1991). Class- contexts and they socialize students room discourse studies based on the into language learning. In my presen- input-output information processing tation, I argue that the importance of model have been criticized as predicat- classroom discourse goes beyond that. ed on a conduit metaphor of commu- Drawing on Halliday’s (1978) notion nication and the classroom is seen as a of language as a social semiotic and Lave and Wenger’s (1991) theory of context for providing linguistic input LOOKING IN to learners who then process the input ASSUMPTIONS learning as participation, I argue that and incorporate it into the interlan- EFL classroom discourse is a major guage systems inside their heads. This semiotic resource for the construal of model, a number of scholars have argued, repre- reality as well as the target language. Halliday sents an impoverished and a reductionist view of (1993) sees learning as a social process and lan- L2 learning (Atkinson, 2002; see Lantolf & Appel, guage as social semiotic. He points out that:
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 14 Tsui Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker
When children learn language, they are not from working class families. The teacher adopted simply engaging in one type of learning a task-based approach to story writing and the among many; rather, they are learning the task took several lessons to complete. She told foundations of learning itself. The distinctive the class a story about why there was a change of characteristic of human learning is that it is a seasons. The children were given story pictures process of making meaning—a semiotic proc- in sequence, introducing four characters in the ess; and the prototypical form of human semi- story: The Goddess of the Earth; Polly, the God- otic is language. (p. 93) dess’ daughter; the God of the Underworld; and the God of all Gods. The story went as follows: In other words, when children learn a language, they are construing reality through construing The God of the Underworld fell in love with a semantic system in which reality is encoded. Polly. He knew that he could not marry Polly Their acts of meaning should not be just taken as and so he kidnapped her. In the Underworld, they are but as “instances of underlying sys- Polly did not eat anything because if she did, tems—systems of meaning potential” (Halliday, she could never leave the Underworld. The 2004, p. 6, original emphasis). Hence, as an EFL Goddess of the Earth was very unhappy and learner learns the target language, he or she is stopped taking care of the plants and the plants simultaneously construing reality and learning started to die. People were very unhappy be- how reality is construed in the target language. cause there was no food and they asked the God On the basis of this, I argue that classroom dis- of all Gods to help. And so the God of all Gods course processes are intersubjective processes in told the God of the Underworld to send Polly which the construal of reality through a foreign back to Earth. However, when they were talk- language by each learner shapes and is shaped by ing, Polly ate three strawberries, thinking that the construal of reality and the target language by nobody could see her. Because of this, after nine other learners as well as the teacher with whom months, the God of the Underworld came to they interact as well as all the other resources take Polly away. And the Goddess of the Earth which mediate the learning process, including the stopped taking care of the plants again. This is curriculum materials, pedagogical activities, and why we have summer and winter. so on. Seen in this light, the importance of class- room discourse goes beyond capturing a wider After telling the story, the teacher introduced a variety of speech and cognitive functions: It is number of guided activities to ensure that learn- an emergent process which opens up a semiotic ers were familiar with the characters of the story space that is immensely rich and affords opportu- and the sequence of events in the story. She then nities for learners to appropriate these resources asked them to write an alternative ending to the for meaning making as they participate in the story. She also guided the students by asking construal of reality and the semiotic systems in them to decide first of all whether their story end- the target language (Lave & Wenger, 1991). ing was happy or sad. Studies of elementary foreign language class- rooms have shown that despite the limited Classroom discourse and semiotic systems proficiency of the learners in the target language, In this section, I will present one excerpt from a instructional conversation was as rich a mediat- group discussion that will be presented in my ing resource as any other (Donato, 2000). In this keynote presentation. The group decided to write presentation, data from a research project on a happy ending and the final draft that they pro- learner interaction in primary EFL classrooms duced is as follows: in Hong Kong will be used. The data consist of classroom discourse produced by children as they The God of the Underworld didn’t listen to complete a group task of writing a story ending. him. So the God of all Gods made him into In the following section I will present an analy- a pig. Then Polly went back to the earth. Her sis of some excerpts for illustration. In order to mother felt very happy. So they started taking understand the data, I will briefly outline the care of the plants again. This is why we have a context of the data. lot of rice and vegetables to eat.
Context of classroom discourse data [Excerpt 1.1] The data was collected from a Grade 6 primary S1: The end of the story is a happy ending or EFL classroom where the children were mostly unhappy?
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker Tsui 15
S3: Happy. Ss: … S2: You want happy? S1: The God of all Gods. S3: I want happy. S2: Kill him. S1: Very happy. S1: Kill him. S2: I want very sad (laughs)… You want very S2: But I want… happy? S3: Yes kill him. S4: Yes. Note. Ss indicates more than one student talking S2: And you? (pointing at S4) at a time. S1: Yes… S2: So happy. In these lines, the choice of a happy ending opened up a semiotic space in which the group In the excerpt we can see that the teacher’s explored how the God of the Underworld could instruction to decide on a happy or sad story end- no longer have power over Polly so that she ing provided the starting point for the collabora- could go back to the Earth again. S3 suggested tive discourse. This scaffolding from the teacher, that the God of the Underworld should die and or guided participation (Rogoff, 1990), served the this was agreed to by S2 and S1. S4 was silent important function of making the task manageable and taken as consenting. S2 proffered the idea for young EFL learners. Instead of having to work that the God of all Gods killed him and S1 and S3 with an open set of choices, they only needed to concurred. However, we will see from Excerpt 1.3 work on a system of two choices—happy or sad. that this suggestion opened up another system of This generated a decision-making process where meaning potential for S1. all members were asked to indicate their preferenc- es and the majority view was accepted. This selec- tion shaped the subsequent discourse. As Rogoff [Excerpt 1.3] points out, the process of guided participation is S1: Oh no, no, it’s not very good. I think the God characterized not only by the adult structuring the of all Gods make him into a ghost, uh … a children’s roles and participation, but also children ghost? shaping the interaction by seeking involvement S3: Uh. (biting her finger, thinking) and demanding support from the adult and their S1: Make him into a ghost. peers. In the remaining discourse, we can see that Ss: (thinking) a network of semantic systems emerged as each S3: Uh… make him, make him to be a people. learner tried to establish the intersubjectivity with S2: Yes, yes, people, and he can’t do something other participants in the construal of reality. to her. S1: Oh! I know, I know. Make him into a snake, a [Excerpt 1.2] dog, or a fish. S2: Pig. S3: I want he die. S3: Yes, pig. S2: I want it too. S1: A pig. Cow or pig? S1: Yes, we can… (verbalizing the first part of the S2: Cow. (laughs) sentence provided in the story) but he didn’t S1: So the God of all Gods make him into a listen… cow… pig… cow… S2: Yes, he didn’t listen… and the God kill him… S2: Cow or pig? Ss: (correcting S2) The God of all Gods… didn’t S3: Make him to be a cow. listen. S1 & S2: Into… into… S2: (rebutting) No, didn’t listen. S3: The God of the Underworld didn’t listen to him. Turning the God of the Underworld into a S1: Yes, yes, Underworld. ghost, suggested by S1, is an instance of the sys- Ss: (spelling out) u-n-d-e-r-w-o-r-l-d. tem of supernatural beings: A ghost is a lesser su- S1: Didn’t listen… listen to him. pernatural being than a god. The option of keep- S3: So… ing the God of the Underworld alive but turning S2: So… the God of all Gods. him into a lesser supernatural being opened up S1: The God of all Gods… The God of the… u-n- for S3 the possibility of denigrating him by turn- d-e-r. Underworld… ing him into a natural being, that is, a human S3: (correcting S1) The God of the Underworld being. This was immediately taken up by S2 who you have write already. not only supported this option but also provided
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 16 Tsui Jalt2007 Plenary Speaker the reason for his support (he can’t do something References to her). This suggests that for S2, the choice of Atkinson, D. (2002). Toward a sociocognitive approach human being was made over ghost in a system to second language acquisition. The Modern Language of meaning of natural and supernatural beings. Journal, 86(iv), 525-545. The choice of a human being opened up for S1 Donato, R. (2000). Sociocultural contributions to under- the further choices of non-human beings, such as standing the foreign and second language classroom. snake, dog, or fish which have even less power. In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second The choices of non-human beings proffered by S1 language learning (pp. 27-50). Oxford: Oxford Univer- consisted of higher (dog) and lower (snake, fish) sity Press. living things. The choice of turning the God of Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic. the Underworld into a reptile or a fish rather than London: Edward Arnold. a dog could have been selected as a more severe Halliday, M. A. K. (1993). Towards a language-based form of punishment, if they were construed theory of learning. Linguistics and Education, 5(2), as choices in a system of order of living thing. 93-116. Interestingly, S2 suggested pig instead. In Chinese Halliday, M. A. K. (2004). The language of early childhood. culture, pigs carry a negative connotation and London & NY: Continuum. are often used as a metaphor for laziness. Cows Lantolf, J. P. (2000). Introducing sociocultural theory. symbolize hard work and turning a person into a In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second cow means that one has to work hard for the rest language learning (pp. 1-26). Oxford: Oxford Univer- of one’s life after death and is considered also as a sity Press. form of punishment. In other words, we see that Lantolf, J. P., & Appel, G. (Eds.). (1994). Vygotskian the choices that were proffered and debated were approaches to second language research. Norwood, NJ: interpreted as instances in a system of forms of Ablex. punishment which are culturally rooted. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legiti- mate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge Conclusion University Press. The analysis shows that the systems of meaning Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking. New York: Oxford University Press. that emerged in the discourse were instantiations of a complex network of meanings which was Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of co-constructed by the learners. The processes of higher psychological process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. co-construction were shaped by a story that they had heard. The guidance provided by the teacher enabled them to participate in the discourse Amy Bik-May Tsui, Fac- and negotiate meanings and the linguistic and ulty of Education at the sociocultural repertoire of each group member. University of Hong Kong, In other words, the learners’ participation in the has published widely in meaning making process shaped and was shaped the areas of spoken dis- by the group’s collective effort to make sense course analysis, classroom of a task, the real world as well as the fantastic discourse, language policy, world of the fairy story. Each contribution from and teacher development. the learner was a strategic move made in the She serves on the edito- emerging discourse in response to what he or she rial boards of a number of perceived as meaningful at that particular point international journals. Her in the discourse. It was bound up with learning most recent books include the culture of that speech community, learning Understanding Expertise in Teaching (2003), Class- the way the language is used and for what pur- room Discourse and the Space of Learning, (2004, pose, and learning how to become a full partici- co-authored with Ference Marton), Medium of In- pating member of that speech community (Lave struction Policies – Whose Agenda? Which Agenda? & Wenger, 1991). My presentation will conclude (2004, co-edited with James Tollefson), and Lan- by pointing out that understanding the meaning guage Policy, Culture and Identity in Asian Contexts making processes in which learners are engaged, (2007, co-edited with James Tollefson). the cultural tools that mediate these processes, and the appropriation of such tools by learners in the participative process will help us to appreci- ate the importance of classroom discourse as a semiotic resource for EFL learning.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007 • Featured Speaker 17 Paragons or parasites—are we failing our language learners?
Ling Chung was typical in saying that she never Miles Craven spoke a word of English at high school, partly because the teacher never asked anyone to speak, Churchill College, University of and partly because to do so meant raising her Cambridge hand and standing up in front of a class of forty- five students. Sponsored by Macmillan LanguageHouse Other comments from interviewees echo these experiences; We only studied grammar and vocabu- Keywords: disillusionment, perception, responsibility, lary at high school, I never spoke at all in my class. change None of us did. Towards the end of high school, it seems many students did nothing but exam practice. We just studied English to pass the univer- re we failing our language learners? It’s sity exam. an unpleasant question, but one that Small wonder that students become disillu- A has to be asked. What happens to all the sioned. The system has failed them. We study a energy and interest so typically seen at the start of long time but feel ashamed that we can’t speak, says students’ English education? How does this result Motomasa. in such disillusionment and underachievement for so many learners in East Asia? Over the past several years, I’ve been conducting interviews Learner experiences at tertiary level with a cross-section of students between 18 and But, what of students’ experience of English at 23 from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The aim college and university? In fact, many students has been to find out how their journey with Eng- said that their enjoyment of English improved lish started, where it led, and how their language at university. This was attributed learning experience has affected them. CHALLENGING to factors such as greater resources, What I have found is a surprisingly LOOKING OUT improved teaching, and increased uniform picture. access to native English-speaking teachers. Pair and group work, and Learner experiences at even roleplay—unheard of at high school—were fairly widespread and secondary level much appreciated. Content-based In Japan, 19-year-old Yui is perhaps teaching at college and university, a typical example. English classes were where practised, was also popular. like a lullaby for me, he explained. His LOOKING IN However, even in higher education, memory of junior high school is of ASSUMPTIONS students complained of uninspiring, listening to his teacher reading aloud, old-fashioned textbooks. The textbook slowly and incomprehensibly, pas- topics were sometimes really strange, commented sage after passage from an old textbook. Another Tzu-Hsin, from Taiwan. In many cases, coverage interviewee from Japan, Motomasa, complained was superficial and clichéd, along the lines ofItal - that the teacher made the class repeat vocabulary ians like to eat pasta. Traditional teaching practices items, endlessly. Again and again, we had to say ap- again left limited opportunity to speak in class. ple, orange, things like that, for about thirty minutes. Weaker students often resigned themselves to Song-Ae, a 19-year-old student from South Ko- low-level practice of the same language they had rea, commented that while her primary English been repeating for years at high school. Again, the classes were fun, at middle school she simply had spectre of exam practice overshadowed students, to memorise, and be tested on long, complex texts with many restricted to studying for TOEFL or about things she couldn’t relate to. From Taiwan, TOEIC.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 18 Craven Jalt2007 Featured Speaker
Do native teachers make a difference? There are a lot of good textbooks for self-study. In One interesting perception among interviewees class, students want authentic practice in speak- was their view of native English-speaking teach- ing and listening, up-to-date materials, stimu- ers. Most students interviewed had been taught lating topics that reflect their lives, and more by native speakers at some stage. There is no opportunity to talk about things that interest doubt that students liked to be taught by native them. Interviewees stressed they wanted to learn. speakers because typically this would involve Even if it’s a difficult text, we are happy to read using more speaking, and students liked to listen to na- a dictionary and the Internet. tive-speaker accents. However, there were many complaints of poorly trained and unqualified na- Students taking responsibility tive teachers. Sometimes we thought we were wasting our time (Ling Chung, Taiwan). Many comment- Students from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan ed, I used to do my homework in my English class. are aware their mindset can sometimes hold them back. They often commented they were shy of Students were quickly able to identify teach- speaking their minds in class, and were wor- ers who were adequately trained from those that ried about making mistakes. Japanese are shy and were unqualified. They pointed out that native very slow thinking. But many went on to add that teachers who showed little knowledge of the lan- young people today are changing, and becom- guage or had few teaching skills found it difficult ing less shy. If the teacher is friendly, students will to maintain students’ motivation, or keep order respond. in class. The overriding view was that native English teachers were welcome as long as they were Teachers taking responsibility trained and able to teach. Even then, this did not There are signs that teachers are changing, too. guarantee success. One Japanese student com- As younger, better-trained teachers emerge, using mented his private high school had a high pro- more modern methodology, interviewees speak portion of native English-speaking teachers with of more interaction in class. Those with friends a military background. Their macho and rather or family in high school and college confirm this. intimidating behaviour actually made students Educators who keep informed, engage in profes- less forthcoming than with their Japanese English sional development, and attend conferences like teachers! JALT, are well-placed to continue pushing reform Many students valued the fact that non-native forward by encouraging more teachers to break teachers were able to help with specific language out of their comfort zone. We need to see less difficulties.They can explain the meaning of words emphasis on teaching for exams, more dynamic easily was a common observation. Students ap- teaching practices, and more investment in re- preciate non-native teachers for their better un- sources, teacher-training, and curriculum devel- derstanding of the language problems they face. opment so we can meet students’ needs. If a Korean teacher can teach us well, with interesting books, then it would be better to have a Korean teacher not a native English teacher. Non-native teachers Conclusion were considered better-trained on the whole than This study is the result of over 200 low-key, infor- native teachers. As one interviewee, Wen Chung, mal interviews over several years with Japanese, commented, Taiwanese English teachers know how to South Korean, and Taiwanese students studying teach. The general consensus seemed to be that a at language school or college in the UK. I have mixture of native teachers and non-native teach- simply tried to gather a snapshot of experiences, ers was best, and to have a non-native teacher with students talking openly and honestly from was always preferable to a poorly-trained native the heart. I have not taken a scientific or quantita- teacher. tive approach here. However, I expect that much of what learners have said may resonate with you. What students say they want We know change is needed. We can all do Students were clear that class time is valuable to something. The fact is, unless we accept this re- them. They were keen to use this time as fruit- sponsibility we are no better than parasites mak- fully as possible. They complained that there was ing careers out of a system that, despite modest too much focus on vocabulary and grammar. We improvements, is still failing our students. can improve our vocabulary and grammar ourselves.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Featured Speaker Craven / Day 19
Miles Craven is an author in many countries around the world, including of English language text- several years in Japan, and has taught students of books. He has worked in all ages, abilities, and nationalities. He is author English language educa- and co-author of many publications, including tion for nearly 20 years, and Get Real!, Reading Keys, English Grammar in Use specializes in materials for CDROM, and Breakthrough. His research interest East Asian students. He has a is the link between educational experience and wide range of experience as achievement among language students in East a teacher, teacher-trainer, ex- Asia. Miles is also Business English Programme aminer, and materials writer. Manager at the Møller Centre, Churchill College, He has lived and worked University of Cambridge.
JALT2007 • Featured Speaker 19 Learning to read in a foreign language
I find this definition useful because it applies Richard Day to both first language (L1) and FL contexts. It is important to note that this definition claims that Department of Second Language readers create meaning. Of course there are texts Studies, University of Hawaii that allow for only a single or literal meaning, such as: Sachiko was born in 1975. Sponsored by Oxford University Press Reading can also be looked at from an affective point of view. For example, I like to think of read- Keywords: foreign language reading ing as fun. And reading is also magic. It can take us to the most incredible places. Without leaving our chairs, we can travel to different countries he purpose of this article is to examine and experience different cultures. common approaches to teaching reading to Let’s now look at how we learn to read. Like T second and foreign language (FL) learners. I models and definitions, there are numerous ac- begin with a brief discussion of the nature of read- counts or explanations for the process of learning ing and how we learn to read. I then provide an to read. One that I like is relatively overview of four approaches to teach- CHALLENGING simple but, at the same time, has ing reading to FL learners and discuss LOOKING OUT major implications to the teaching of their strengths and weaknesses. FL reading: We learn to read by reading. Further, the more reading our students The nature of reading do, the better readers they become. Models and definitions of reading are thick on the ground. From a cogni- Approaches to teaching FL tive point of view, my definition that reading works well for FL reading teaching is LOOKING IN The three most widely used approach- this: ASSUMPTIONS es to teaching FL reading are grammar Reading is a number of interactive translation, comprehension questions and processes involving the reader and the text. language analysis, and skills and strategies. These Readers use their knowledge of the world, the three are often categorized as intensive reading. topic, the language, to interact with the text to Let’s look briefly at each of these three intensive create, construct, or build meaning. reading approaches.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 20 Day Jalt2007 Featured Speaker
Grammar translation It is common for grammar translation and com- Grammar translation needs little explanation prehension questions and language analysis to be for teachers and learners of English in Japan combined in the teaching of FL reading. and many other Asian countries. In countries where English is taught as a foreign language (in Skills and strategies contrast to countries where English is taught as a second language), the oral use of English (listen- This approach focuses on the skills exhibited ing and speaking skills) may not be as important by fluent readers, and the strategies that read- as a reading knowledge of English. In such cases, ers use to comprehend a text. Generally, a skills teaching English and teaching the reading of and strategies reading lesson begins with the English is often the same thing. As a means of teacher preparing her students to read a one or studying English, students may be taught to read two-page passage from a textbook by providing texts written in English by translating them into any knowledge that they might need to under- the students’ first language. stand the reading passage. This often involves pre-teaching certain vocabulary items that appear A grammar-translation approach to the teach- in the reading passage. Students then read the ing of FL reading often takes the following form passage silently at their own speed while keeping in the classroom: The teacher reads aloud a short in mind two or three while-reading questions, the passage in English while the students follow answers to which they will find in the passage. along in their textbooks. The teacher then reads After reading, the students share their answers to the passage sentence by sentence, and the stu- these questions, perhaps in pairs or small groups. dents read each sentence aloud after the teacher. Students then complete various tasks or exer- This is followed by an oral word-by-word, sen- cises that require them to demonstrate a global tence-by-sentence translation by students. Mean- comprehension of the passage and their grasp of ing is taken at the sentence level, with less atten- particular reading skills or strategies (e.g., finding tion paid to the meaning of the text as a whole. the main idea, making inferences). Meaning is also constructed via the students’ first language, not directly from English. Extensive reading Comprehension questions and language The fourth approach is extensive reading (ER). This is often seen as more than an approach to FL analysis reading instruction but as an approach to the teach- This approach centers on a textbook containing ing and learning of language that involves students short passages that demonstrate the use of for- in reading large quantities of easy and interesting eign-language words or points of grammar. These material in the FL. The goal is to improve stu- texts, short enough to encourage students to read dents’ overall FL proficiency and their attitudes them word-by-word, are followed by comprehen- toward FL and motivation for learning. ER can be sion questions and exercises. blended into any FL course and program, regard- In class, the teacher introduces the text to be less of the focus or methodology. read, and usually pre-teaches any new vocabulary. One of the major characteristics of ER is that The text is then assigned for reading as homework, students select their own reading material. Al- together with the comprehension questions from lowing learners to select what they want to read the textbook. In the next class, students read the is the key to ER and is based on the view, men- text out loud, with the teacher correcting pronunci- tioned previously, that we learn to read by read- ation mistakes. This is followed by students being ing. Students are more likely to read material in called on to answer the comprehension questions. which they are interested. Various grammar and vocabulary exercises from Another feature of ER is that learners read easy the textbook are worked through. The purpose of books–books and other material that are well using language exercises and texts that exemplify within their reading competence. Not everyone points of language is, like grammar-translation, the agrees with using easy materials. Many teachers teaching of the foreign language. The purpose of believe that learners must read difficult texts; they the comprehension questions, the heart of this ap- also believe that learners need to be challenged proach, is, however, less clear. It could be to check when learning to read. Perhaps they think that the students’ understanding of the text, to facilitate reading difficult texts somehow gets them used to learning, or to make sure that the learners have reading materials written for L1 reading. read the assignment.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Featured Speaker Day / Gershon 21
This is a mistake. It confuses the means with the Extensive reading, in contrast, does provide op- end. That is, our goal in teaching learners to read portunities for learners to engage in reading. It is is to have them read literature that is written for the only approach that offers learners the poten- native readers. But we should not start with that tial for learning to read and enjoying FL reading. goal! We need to start with books and material So if your goal is to have your students learn to especially written for beginning and intermedi- read, then consider an ER approach. ate levels of reading ability. Learners have to read texts they find easy and enjoyable to facilitate the Richard R. Day is the learning process. head of the Department of Second Language Stud- A brief critique ies, University of Hawaii, USA. He was recently a Intensive reading approaches have major draw- visiting professor at Ubon backs. A grammar-translation approach does not Rajathanee University, allow students to create meaning in English. It Thailand, and Ha Noi requires the students to translate the text word- University, Viet Nam. for-word. This is not reading; it is translating. Professor Day is the author The comprehension question-based approach of numerous articles and confounds the teaching of the FL with the teach- books, and has spoken at ing of reading. In neither of these two approaches many international conferences. He is the co- do learners do enough of the one thing they need author of Cover to Cover published by Oxford to do to learn to read: reading. University Press. Professor Day is the co-editor of A skills and strategy approach is really appro- the journal, Reading in a Foreign Language
are only an Amazon click away—in the guise of Steven Gershon Chicken Soup for the Soul. Now everyone, from Obirin University pet lovers to prisoners, can savor the comforting broth of stories to open the heart and rekindle the Sponsored by Macmillan LanguageHouse spirit. Well, almost everyone. What about the humble ELT professional, putting in countless classroom Keywords: ice-breakers, planning, collocations, fluency, conversation hours of PPP, searching endlessly for that perfect listening text, struggling stoically to get students into pairs? Where do we find inspiration when olfers, fishermen, and nurses have it easy. Keiko clams up, when Chiho chatters on her When the green is hidden by sand traps, keitai, when Hiroshi’s head hits the desk in silent G when that 20 kilogram tuna swims away slumber? We need our very own Chicken Soup to with the bait, when the clinic is full of coughs and affirm, justify, to motivate the ELT soul. But we’re sniffles… inspiration, affirmation, and insight busy people, planning lessons, making handouts,
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 22 Gershon Jalt2007 Featured Speaker judging speech contests. We want our Chicken English. Experience tells me that’s what the stu- Soup in bite-sized, daily doses, like those on the dents want too. And to make sure that happens, I note-pad sized page-a-day calendars offering a prepare the students with the language they need daily thought, curious quote or useless fact. for all the stuff that normally goes on in a les- So, let’s imagine we could find our very own son—on and off-task. They feel empowered. And inspirational ELT Page-a-Day calendar. What I feel I’ve given them the opportunity to work in would its daily offering be? A tricky grammar a more productive English Zone. point clearly explained? A classroom manage- ment tip to tame that class of 50 1st-years? A Wednesday: A little planning goes a long provocative proverb that shines a new light on our well-worn ways? way Here’s a week’s worth of pages from my It’s happened to me too often in class. We do a Chicken Soup for the ELT Soul calendar: warm-up, I introduce the topic (travel, shopping, work and jobs, whatever), I write a few things on the board, I get the students into pairs, I tell them Monday: The turtle progresses only when to talk to your partner about…, I say OK, go! and sticking his neck out then I stand there for a few minutes listening to… the sounds of silence. Most of us have taught classes in which the students were, for lots of reasons (unpleasant Teacher Training 101 taught us the basics of past experience, lack of confidence, enculturated instructional planning: how to plan courses, plan classroom passivity), reticent to speak in class. It’s units, and plan lessons. Fine, but here I’m talking that old, familiar, overdeveloped affective filter about planning from the learners side of things— that Krashen (1981) warned us about. language planning. Yes, I know it may seem weird to suggest students should plan their con- The problem is that if students are unwilling to versation. After all, conversations in real life are take risks, to stick their necks out and share expe- not normally planned, they just happen, right? riences, express opinions, volunteer to answer questions, then the classroom ends up becoming Well, yes and no. First of all, if we thought a dull, low-energy place. I’m therefore deter- about it, we’d realize how much internal re- mined to do whatever it takes to foster a comfort- hearsal we all do in the throes of oral interaction. able, supportive, risk-taking atmosphere. This And we also need to recognize that the classroom means lots of get-to-know-you activities early on, is not real life. It’s a bridge between the socio- even if that involves waiting a week or two to linguistic demands of real life interaction, and open the textbook. To me it’s time well spent, as the students’ developing L2 competence. And as the alternative can make for a very long semes- such, an element of imposed scaffolding, even for ter. So I start off with an armful of fun, doable seemingly natural conversation, is a useful part of ice-breakers to get students feeling comfortable the learning process. There’s also research (Foster, enough to stick their necks out. That helps them 1996) supporting the notion that a little structured and it helps me. planning time preceding oral tasks can go a long way to develop fluency, grammatical complex- ity, and range of vocabulary. That’s what I like, a Tuesday: Success waits at the crossroads small investment with a big pay-off. of preparation and opportunity I expect students to be on-task for a major chunk Thursday: A man is known by the of lesson time. But there are times in every lesson company he keeps when other class business takes place, like at the beginning and end of the lesson dealing with late- OK, maybe this isn’t really true for people. But comers and absences, or in the middle of the les- according to language corpus researchers, it is son transitioning between tasks or when students certainly true for words. Corpora (large collec- need to find a partner for an activity. tions of naturally occurring texts), aside from giv- ing us useful data about the frequency of words These are all opportunities to expand the use of used in daily life, also tell us a lot about common English in class and thereby turn our classroom collocations, or word combinations. into a more natural English Zone. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not hung-up about a little Japa- Now, it turns out that English is full of colloca- nese in class. But as long as we’re in an English tions (bright idea; heavy rain; make a point; take a lesson, why not function as much as possible in breath), which not only make speech more precise,
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Featured Speaker Gershon 23 but also more natural and fluent. In fact, many never a bad thing to find pithy proverbial support vocabulary experts say that native speakers’ for one’s pedagogic practice. Speaking of which, collocational competence is what mainly distin- I need to start thinking about the daily menu for guishes them from non-fluent language learners. the rest of the semester. Any ideas? The idea is that language basically consists of prefabricated chunks of lexis, with collocation be- ing a key ingredient of these chunks (Hill, 1999). References It follows that collocations (or lexical chunks) Foster, P. (1996). Doing the task better: How planning are the key to fluency. Actually, it makes sense. time influences students’ performance. In J. Willis & Native speakers have a large fund of ready-made, D. Willis (Eds.), Challenge and change in language teach- easily-accessible, chunks of language in their ing (pp. 126-135). Oxford: Macmillan ELT. mental lexicon, so they can speak (and write) Hill, J. (1999). Collocational competence. English Teach- more fluently. I like that idea, and so, I try to ing Professional, 11, April, 3-7. come up with vocabulary activities that focus on Krashen, S. (1981). Principles and practice in second lan- the company words keep. guage acquisition. London: Prentice-Hall International.
Friday: It takes two to tango Steven Gershon has a high school teaching qualifica- Although the bodies hip-hopping in their own tion from the USA and an private acrobatic space in trendy clubs might MA in Applied Linguistics persuade us otherwise, dance tends to be a social, from the UK. He has taught interactive activity. Partners move in sync to a in both countries as well shared rhythm, respond gracefully to each other’s as in France, Iran, China, leads, quickly repair any lapses in timing or and Japan. He is currently a direction, and (usually) manage to avoid stepping member of the Department on each other’s toes. of Language and Litera- That’s a bit like conversation, which also in- ture at Obirin University in volves a lot of mutual to and fro. And in order for Tokyo, where he teaches an the interaction to proceed smoothly, the partici- undergraduate course in TEFL and a post-gradu- pants often employ strategies to manage the com- ate course in curriculum design and materials municative flow, for example opening and closing development. Steve is the co-author of New Eng- conversations, introducing new topics, indicating lish Upgrade (Macmillan), Gear Up (Macmillan), understanding, seeking clarification, returning Sound Bytes (Pearson), and On the Go/On the Move a question, or softening a reply. In short, partici- (Pearson). In addition to his writing projects, he pants use techniques to keep the conversation gives teacher-training workshops in Japan, Korea, from getting stuck or breaking down. Taiwan, and Thailand. We all do this conversation management dance without much thought in our own language, and so do our students. The tricky bit is doing it in a foreign language, when the steps are not always CHALLENGING the same and the real-time linguistic demands LOOKING OUT can be daunting. I therefore introduce my stu- JALT2007 dents to simple strategies they can use in their conversation practice. To my mind, this empow- 22–25 Nov 2007 ers students with more awareness of the social and linguistic conventions of conversation. In turn, they can see their own communicative skills National Olympics develop along with their increasing command of Memorial Youth grammar and vocabulary. That means they begin LOOKING IN to see themselves as effective, confident commu- ASSUMPTIONS Center, Tokyo nicators in our Eigo tango. So, that’s this week’s worth of Chicken Soup
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Advert: EFL Press JALT2007 • Featured Speaker 25 Why don’t my students enjoy working in pairs and groups?
troversial activities like listening and reading—or Leo Jones even grammar. Freelance writer For speaking practice, we may favor whole- class discussions. But, even in a small class, dur- Sponsored by Cambridge University Press ing whole-class discussions: • Only the brave, self-confident ones dare to speak. Keywords: fluency, speaking, advice, tips • Shy students say nothing (which they may prefer). Why do we have to work in pairs and • Students with no strong opinions, or interest- groups? ing experiences to share, keep quiet. Do these students’ remarks sound familiar? • Some students are afraid the others will laugh at them if they make mistakes—and so say nothing. I feel scared and stressed when I have to speak Eng- lish. • Most students are unwilling to expose them- selves by saying anything personal in public— I feel stupid talking English. I make mistakes and and so say nothing. don’t know enough vocabulary. In a whole-class discussion, most students are I feel embarrassed speaking bad English. silent most of the time—and have no chance to I don’t want to listen to other students talking bad improve their conversation skills. English because I’ll learn their mistakes. My teachers speak wonderful English. I want to learn from them. You do know enough. You can talk in English! I can’t talk English until when my English is much better. The first step is to persuade students to talk in English during pair work when they’re unsuper- Talking English is too difficult. vised. In a large class, we can’t monitor everyone, I can’t think of anything interesting to say in a so students on the other side of the room (or in discussion. the middle of a row) can talk Japanese if they There are too many students in the class for pair want to, switching to English when we get closer. work. My teacher can’t listen to all of us. We may need to persuade students that speaking If they do strike a chord, I’d like to share with in English all the time in an English class is essen- you some thoughts and ideas on making the most tial. But some students may not have the courage of pair and group work. at first. To begin with, we How can we encourage everyone to speak in CHALLENGING English in pairs and groups? Here are some ideas:
LOOKING OUT can’t assume that stu- dents will enjoy pair and • Some students may need a lot of guiding, coax- group work, especially if ing, supporting, encouraging, and praising. they’ve had bad experi- • Discuss with the class why pair and group ences in previous courses. work is necessary. Sometimes there can be • Persuade everyone that mistakes don’t matter so much resistance from for the moment. What’s important is talking in students that we spend English. less and less time on pair LOOKING IN and group work, prefer- • Try it in English, and I’ll help you to improve. ASSUMPTIONS ring to focus on less con- Careful, sympathetic monitoring helps each
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 26 Jones Jalt2007 Featured Speaker
group feel that you’re helping them. Positive B. ? feedback helps everyone feel they’re making A. Maybe she fright doing this? some progress—but they shouldn’t expect to B. Yes, maybe. make giant strides in a few weeks! A. Photo number two… • At first, we need to start with small steps, short tasks, and simple discussions. It’s unreasonable and encourage them to attempt conversations to expect students to talk in English for too more like this (though still with grammatical er- long at first. Even a whole minute of English rors and more hesitation): conversation may be stressful for students who A. Let’s look at the first photo. How does the woman are unused to pair or group work. feel, do you think? • Repeat after me. Choral repetition may seem B. I’m not sure but I guess she’s a bit scared. It looks childish, but a few moments having students like, you know, a scary situation. repeat useful expressions and conversational A. But she’s laughing. I think she’s having a lot of gambits in chorus can work wonders. Stu- fun. dents need time to get their tongues round B. Well, you could be right. But... er... but maybe new expressions, and doing this in chorus is a she’s just pretending not to be scared. non-stressful way of helping them. It also gives everyone a chance to practice the appropriate A. How do you mean? intonation and tone of voice. B. I mean... er… she doesn’t want the others to know • Pairs of three can help if students are tongue- she’s scared. tied or have little to say. Even if the book says A. Oh right! Yes, I see what you mean. How would Pair work, there may be fewer embarrassing you feel in that situation? silences in a group of three. Pairs of three are B. Me? Oh, I’d be quite excited. I’ve always wanted also more likely to talk in English than Japa- to try that. How about you? nese. A. Well, … • Separate persistent Japanese speakers and put them with different partners. (This may in- A tall order, for sure! But here are some ideas volve separating best friends, but never mind.) which may help: • Impose an English only rule. (Maybe you can • Brainstorming vocabulary beforehand and fine students who talk in Japanese—and spend writing up useful phrases on the board can the proceeds on a class party at the end of the help students to feel ready for a discussion. semester!) • Demonstrate or model a possible conversa- • If all else fails, model dialogues can help. tion while the class listens. Choose one of your A short dialogue of about four turns can be more confident students to be your partner learned, then practiced, and then acted out as you begin the conversation—but don’t go in pairs. And then the model dialogue can too far in case you discourage students from become the starting point or springboard for using their own ideas as their conversations spontaneous conversation. continue. • Ask everyone to be quiet for a few moments before they start talking to each other, taking Use your imagination! Take risks! time to reflect and plan what to say before they So, we’ve persuaded students to talk in English in speak—maybe making some brief notes to help pair and group work. The next step is encourag- them remember their ideas. ing students to experiment with English, and to • After a discussion in pairs, form pairs of pairs become more confident. This may not be straight- and ask everyone to share what they discussed forward, however. previously, and then continue the discussion in In this example, pairs of students are looking at groups of four. (For this to work there needs to some photos showing people doing scary things. be an even number of pairs to start with.) The task is to talk about the pictures and decide • If the pairs and groups are feeling isolated, how the people are feeling. How do we get stu- continue the discussion as a whole class for a dents to progress from conversations like this: few minutes at the end, asking some volun- A. Photo number one. The woman, how she feel? teers to report on what they talked about. B. I don’t know. • Encourage students to share personal experi- A. Maybe she fright? ences and ideas, using questions like: Have you
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Featured Speaker Jones 27
ever…? How would you feel? What did you do? Work in pairs. What are the next two numbers or let- What do you enjoy about…? Have you tried…? ters in each sequence? and so on. A puzzle that’s worded like this: A 31 28 31 30 __ __ man wants to get across a river… How can he do O T T F F S S __ __ this without…? is much less effective than one worded like this: You and your partner want to Y Y H L Y E Y __ __ get across a river… How can you do this with- out…? When faced with these puzzles students may • Encourage students to ask each other follow- do one of four things: up questions: Why do you think so? How do you 1. Think about them alone, in silence, then mean? Can you explain, please? Can you give me share their answers with their partner. an example? What did you do? What did you say? How did you feel? and so on. 2. Say nothing, feeling bewildered or frustrated, and wait to be told the correct answers. • Make sure students have at their disposal the kinds of emotional expressions that help them 3. Discuss them in Japanese. to express their feelings in English. Expressions 4. Discuss and brainstorm ideas in English, like Wow! That’s a great idea! Brilliant! Absolute- maybe consulting another pair to compare ly! Really? That’s interesting! and Fantastic! are ideas—the preferred approach, of course! essential if students are to feel fully involved in But how can we stop students doing numbers a discussion. (Choral repetition of these expres- 1, 2 or 3? (Incidentally, I’ve often tried this activity sions is necessary for students to be able to with groups of teachers and some of them have invest them with the right tone of voice and for done 1, 2 or 3—Why?) Here are some ideas: them to be able to say them automatically.) • Reassure everyone that getting the answers • Rearranging the class regularly helps students right isn’t as important as talking in English. not to get stale by always talking to the same • Explain that the purpose of the activity is to give people. Different ideas from new partners help everyone a chance to use their English. They’ll to stimulate students—there’s more to discov- be using English to communicate with each er, more to ask, and more to say. other as they try to solve the problems together, and as they say numbers and letters aloud. Don’t take it too seriously! Have fun! • Ask everyone to take their time—there are no We want our students to use English, not only in prizes for the first to finish. Some people like to discussions, but also to share experiences, narrate finish a task quickly and feel frustrated if time stories, and even tell jokes. Using English to solve is up before they’ve finished. But it’s actually problems is a particularly rewarding experience, better to be still talking when time is up than but not if the tasks are too serious or too difficult. be sitting in silence waiting for slower groups to stop talking. Before an activity we may need A professor told me recently that she wanted to remind students: Take your time with these her students to give short presentations to the questions. It’s not a race—it’s a chance to practice rest of the class. She gave them plenty of time to talking English together. prepare this in pairs—but everyone did it in their own language, and then gave the presentation • Tell the class how long they have for the task. in English. I’m sure this was because the task When students know how long they have for seemed important and complex, and everyone a discussion they can deal with each question wanted to do their best (and not risk losing face more thoroughly. If not, they’ll probably try in public). It was easier and more efficient to pre- to finish quickly, and their discussion will be pare the presentation in their own language. superficial, and unrewarding. The key is to give students achievable tasks— Exercises can be done in pairs too! Crossword tasks that they can, with a little effort, manage to puzzles, vocabulary exercises, and grammar complete. A light-hearted, not-too-serious ap- exercises can be treated as problem-solving tasks. proach works best. This puzzle-solving activity is Working together on an exercise is an excellent a good example: way for students to use English together in a natural way. And don’t forget the value of having students comparing and discussing answers in pairs (in English!) after a listening exercise or a reading exercise.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 28 Jones Jalt2007 Featured Speaker
You are making progress! I’ll help you to sion. Most students will opt for a short, quick improve! discussion so as to finish all the steps. Students are often unaware that their English is But time-limited discussions work well be- improving, particularly if the tasks they do are cause students can pace themselves, dealing with graded and get progressively harder. each question or section thoroughly. Having set a time limit, we need to keep track of the time We can help students to appreciate their with a timer—all cell phones have one, or use a progress in various ways: stopwatch. And it’s helpful to say: Another half • If we always spend some time after each minute to warn everyone that time is nearly up. activity, giving students feedback on their We should of course be flexible! If the activity performance, we can help students to benefit is going really well say: Do you need a bit longer? from the monitoring we’ve done. Pointing out Yes? OK, another minute then. Or if it’s not going mistakes and recommending conversation well: Do you need longer? No? OK, let’s stop in half techniques help them to move forward and to a minute from now. A loud signal may be needed appreciate that pair and group work isn’t just in a large class to make ourselves heard if every- fun but a serious technique. one is engrossed in their discussion! A little bell • Make notes for feedback in a notebook, not maybe? on scrap paper. This shows everyone that we take monitoring very seriously. It also leaves us Leo Jones is the author with a permanent record of previous lessons. of numerous well-known • Encourage questions during the feedback ses- and popular texts, and a sion. Questions arising from what they’ve just well-respected member done are a valuable way of helping students to of the ELT community. acquire new knowledge, or overcome doubts Formerly a teacher, he is and worries. now a freelance writer and • In a large class, it’s not feasible to monitor teacher-trainer, and lives in every pair in every lesson. If we’ve neglected Bournemouth on the south students in one lesson, we need to make sure coast of England. Among we monitor them in the next lesson, or the one his best-known books (all after that. Students who were inaccessible in published by Cambridge the middle of a row should move to more ac- University Press) are Functions of American Eng- cessible places in the next lesson. lish, Great Ideas, and Let’s Talk. New editions of • Doing an activity again, after feedback, can Let’s Talk 1, 2, and 3 have just been published. The sometimes help students to feel immediate Student-centered Classroom, a little book of practi- progress. First time: not so good. Second time: cal advice and teaching tips, is also out this fall. better!
You have four minutes for this! Students must always know how long they CHALLENGING have for every activity, be it discussion, problem LOOKING OUT solving or doing an exercise. (Not always four JALT2007 minutes, of course—different activities need less or more time.) Group work takes more time than 22–25 Nov 2007 pair work. And if we’re giving students time to reflect before they begin talking, the time starts National Olympics after that. Memorial Youth
Successful, interesting discussions can only LOOKING IN happen when students know they have plenty of ASSUMPTIONS Center, Tokyo time. Open-ended activities are particularly inef- fective in a large class. Groups who finish quickly will get bored waiting for slower groups to finish.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007 • Featured Speaker 29 Rethinking activities to incorporate theories of learning (Gardner, 1983), memory as a part of emotional Curtis Kelly system (Goleman, 1995, p. 21), and communi- cative competence as a product of mindfulness Osaka Gakuin University (Gudykunst, 1995, p. 16). Our understanding of learning is growing by Chuck Sandy leaps and bounds. Why then, is the way we teach so slow in following suit? As Knowles (1990) Chubu University points out, our standard educational pedagogy has not changed much since the 11th century Sponsored by Thomson Learning when it was developed to train monastic scribes. Teachers still deliver and students still memo- Keywords: brain-compatible teaching, fundamentals of rize. However, in concordance with the burst of learning, brain studies, teaching practices, materials design research on the brain, a growing movement called brain-compatible teaching (Jensen, 2000) offers insights on why such ineffective teaching must be hat a surprise. This year’s conference overturned. Let’s look at four such insights and theme, Challenging Assumptions and the consider their implications for language class- W posted question, At the core and micro rooms. level, how does learning occur? fit right in with work we’ve been doing over the past several years: developing a new speaking series based on brain The brain is not shaped like a grammar studies and recent theories of learning. We’d like syllabus to explain why. It is now apparent that the brain does not organ- ize language the same way it has been tradition- A window to the brain ally organized in textbooks. Nor is the brain very good at learning things it has no real and imme- Although language teaching has been informed diate use for. We don’t learn language and then by education, psychology, sociology, and com- wait for a chance to use it any more than we pick munication, historically it has been dominated by up a pen and wait for something to write. Such linguistics. For hundreds of years, from parsing to educational banking makes no sense. Unless the corpus studies, we’ve focused on how language need for language is there first, its acquisition will works. Only recently, has the focus shifted from be hard and shallow. Additionally, how language language to how language learning occurs–and is presented has an enormous effect. There is for a good reason. Whereas language has been evidence that the brain is better at processing easy to study, learning—since it happens inside music and stories than information presented the brain—hasn’t. Now, all that is changing. in other formats (Jensen, 2000). This might be Recent technological advances have made it because music and stories activate several areas CHALLENGING possible for the first time of the brain concurrently, making learning deeper LOOKING OUT to see inside the brain. and more active. All this suggests that language We can now, for example, learning needs to be organized around needed even observe neurons in language presented in ways that encourage deep the process of learning. processing. Such discoveries on the micro level are being bol- stered by findings on the Active learners learn more macro level: theories that The human brain is a multiprocessor. Most redefine intelligence as LOOKING IN times, various parts of the brain are doing differ- ASSUMPTIONS coming in multiple forms ent things, but when we get the parts working
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 30 Kelly & Sandy Jalt2007 Featured Speaker together learning occurs at deeper levels. This time non-verbal signals, adjust register, calculate suggests that language acquisition and retention personal closeness, sift through related informa- are directly related to how much of the brain is tion in memory, and so on and so on. used to process it. Deep processing leads to deep Although native speakers share huge areas of learning, causing thousands of new connections verbal and non-verbal code, non-native speakers to form across the brain. These channels of con- don’t, and therefore must consciously think about nections occur when we experience multi-sensory every aspect of an interaction. Gudykunst (1995) input, when we have to figure out rather than be calls this high level of cognitive activity mind- told things, and when we use what we learn. The fulness and claims it’s more than just a crucial widely used learning pyramid (Wood, 2004) sug- part of communicative competence: it’s critical gests this very phenomenon. thought that expedites learning when consciously monitored. Critical thinking, once mistakenly limited to the domain of written language, is now understood to be of vast importance to spoken in- teraction as well. Therefore, it seems obvious that we must work to integrate critical thinking into speaking classes to help learners actively monitor their cognitive processes.
Language is an instinct–an instinct of survival Language, our amazing ability “to shape events in each other’s brains with exquisite precision” (Pinker, 1994, p. 1) developed for the same reason our brains evolved—it gave us an evolutionary advantage. We’re built to remember whatever helps us survive and forget the rest. A huge range of natural language interactions helps us Figure 1. The learning pyramid adapt, grow, and so survive and thus are readily learned and internalized. The majority of text- book activities and dialogs, however, serve no In fact, recent research on neuroplasticity has such purpose and so are just as readily forgotten. shown that the shape of our brains changes all the Having students work through a dialogue about time, mainly through focused cognitive actions. Jack at some distant post office is the hard way Another finding is that new neural growth does to garner retention. For language to be acquired not happen from stimulation alone; it requires at- and retained it must be more than just compre- tentiveness as well (Begley, 2007). In other words, hensible. It must be meaningful, relevant, and being passive deters learning while being active needed. We even know why. Brain studies have incites it. The aim of teaching, then, should be shown that our emotional system not only regu- simple—to make learning as active as possible. lates memory, but also that these two parts of the brain overlap. The amygdala, the brain’s emotion Language proficiency is only a small part center, measures how meaningful information is of communicative competence and tags whatever’s relevant for retention. Jack and the post office will likely be tossed aside For language learning, however, the pyramid is while language that’s relevant, meaningful, and a bit off. Talking to someone is a hugely active engaging on an emotional level will more likely endeavor. We readily acknowledge the thinking be internalized and retained. involved in other language skills, but underes- timate how much thinking speaking actually requires. Even mindless chatter is highly cognitive. In conclusion Verbal interaction requires total engagement. We These four concepts all point in the same direc- watch, listen, gesture, and monitor our partner’s tion—we need to develop brain compatible eyes and facial expressions while monitoring our teaching practices and materials which focus own, construe meaning, check belief, establish less on language and more on how people learn credibility, synthesize our next utterance, mirror, languages. As we do, we’ll see even more clearly
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Featured Speaker Kelly & Sandy / Kubota 31 that language cannot be separated from meaning- Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. London: Pen- ful interactions nor be effectively taught without guin. learners’ needs and cognitive processes centrally Wood, E. (2004). Problem-based learning: Exploiting in mind. Otherwise, language is not language. It knowledge of how people learn to promote effective is just noise. learning. Bioscience Education Journal, 3. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 32 Kubota Jalt2007 Featured Speaker guistic, and institutional norms and advocating fests itself not just as personal bigotries but also for multiplicity of meanings and identities, they as an institutional and epistemological process aim to transform the status quo of power rela- of constructing and maintaining racial hierarchy tions and create a more just society. and inequality in social structures and discourses. Critical approaches range from a focus on social Racialization and racism are part of the legacy of contexts and categories including gender, race, colonialism and thus are closely related to second and ethnicity (rather than an exclusive focus on language teaching. This is evident when we cognitive aspects of learning) to explicit critiques think of the spread and imposition of English or of knowledge and power structures. These Japanese under British or Japanese colonial rules. critiques can be done through critical discourse Colonialism that created racial hierarchies still analysis, critical inquiry into language policy and remains as a discourse, forming people’s percep- planning including linguistics imperialism, and tions and social practices as seen in the privileged postfoundational approaches based on postmod- position that White teachers have over teachers of ern, poststructuralist, and postcolonial inquiries color in teaching English. (see Pennycook, 2004). The postfoundational ap- There are many inquiry topics that can be proaches to critical applied linguistics especially explored on issues of race. Learner or teacher question the established knowledge constructed identities would be one. A language classroom by positivism, enlightenment, and Eurocen- is the place where teachers and learners often trism which seek to discover universal truths experience direct or indirect cross-racial encoun- through scientific investigation. Postfoundational ters through various modes of communication. approaches have revealed how our views on A question might be how one constructs one’s language and culture as well as racial, cultural, own racialized identity or how it is constructed class, and gender difference are constructed by by others. Another question is how ideas of race discourse and power (rather than existing a pri- are manifested or challenged in pedagogy, cur- ori) and sought possibilities for transforming the riculum, materials, and technology. For instance, taken-for-granted views of the world, social and representation of a certain racialized group might linguistic practices, and power relations. As such, predominate teaching materials, while teachers knowledge and practices that shape our everyday can challenge racist discourses through simula- experiences are viewed inseparable from politics. tion exercises or antiracist projects (Hammond, Within critical frameworks, social catego- 2006; Taylor, 2006). From a broader point of view, ries—such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual issues of race can be explored in relation to lan- identities, culture, and language—constitute guage policies and ideologies. Language restric- topics of inquiry into how power and politics tionism or English monolingualism imposed on influence the groups formed by these categories. Native Americans or Latino immigrants in the While issues of gender, culture, and language United States, for example, is not just a matter have been discussed to a relatively great extent, of language but also a manifestation of a racist issues of race have been under-explored. This culture. In investigating these topics, we need to tendency seems peculiar when contrasted with keep in mind that in our contemporary discourse, other related fields, such as education, com- racial difference has been replaced with cultural position studies, sociology, and anthropology. difference to a large extent. Cultural essentialism, However, recent publications, such as Curtis and or a static and monolithic understanding of a cul- Romney (2006) and the 2006 TESOL Quarterly ture as a homogeneous entity, ends up privileging special topic issue, Race and TESOL, demonstrate a particular racialized group while degrading an increased interest in issues of race in our field. others (see Kubota, 1999, 2001). As Kubota and Lin (2006) and others remind us, There are many ways to investigate these race is a socially and discursively constructed topics. The method could be quantitative (see category rather than a biologically determined Rubin, 1992 for how racial images of the speaker one. In other words, there is no biological evi- affect listeners’ comprehension of the speech) or dence for racial differences; rather, racial group- qualitative including interviews, ethnographic ings are produced by racialization or the process observations, and so on. Critical discourse analy- of constructing the idea of racial difference based sis would also be a useful tool for revealing how on perceived phenotypes. Racism, however, does racism is manifested in oral and written discours- not necessarily result from racialization. Racism es. In terms of theoretical framework, critical race is the mechanism of including and excluding theory, which uses counter-storytelling to expose certain racialized groups with the consequence experiences of racially discriminated people, can of domination and subordination. Racism mani- provide insight into how racism gets perpetuated
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Featured Speaker Kubota / LeBeau 33 in everyday experiences (Delgado & Stefancic, Pennycook, A. (2004). Critical applied linguistics. In 2001). A. Davies & C. Elder (Eds.), The handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 784-807). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Learning second languages exposes learners to diverse people with different racialized and cul- Rubin, D. A. (1992). Nonlanguage factors affecting turalized backgrounds and identities. Investigat- undergraduates’ judgments of nonnative English- speaking teaching assistants. Research in Higher ing issues of race and culture in various aspects Education, 33, 511-531. of everyday instructional contexts would provide teachers and learners with critical insight into Taylor, L. (2006). Wrestling with race: Implications of integrative antiracism education for immigrant ESL society and humankind. youth. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 519-544. Zuengler, J., & Miller, E. R. (2006). Cognitive and References sociocultural perspectives: Two parallel SLA worlds? TESOL Quarterly, 40, 35-58. Curtis, A., & Romney, M. (Eds.). (2006). Color, race, and English language teaching: Shades of meaning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Ryuko Kubota is a faculty Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical race theory: member in the School of Edu- An introduction. New York: New York University cation and the Department of Press. Asian Studies at the Universi- Hammond, K. (2006). More than a game: A critical ty of North Carolina at Chapel discourse analysis of a racial inequality exercise in Hill. Her research interests Japan. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 545-571. include culture and politics Kubota, R. (1999). Japanese culture constructed by dis- in second/foreign language courses: Implications for applied linguistic research teaching, multicultural educa- and English language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33, tion, second language writing, 9-35. and critical pedagogies. Her Kubota, R. (2001). Discursive construction of the im- articles have appeared in such journals as Cana- ages of US classrooms. TESOL Quarterly, 35, 9-38. dian Modern Language Review, College ESL, Critical Kubota, R., & Lin, A. (2006). Race and TESOL: Con- Inquiry in Language Studies, English Journal, Japanese cepts, research, and future directions. TESOL Quar- Journal of Second Language Writing, TESOL Quar- terly, 40, 471-493. terly, Written Communication, and World Englishes. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). TESOL methods: Changing tracks, challenging trends. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 59-81. JALT2007 • Featured Speaker 33 Balancing global issues and critical thinking in the classroom
guistic factors alone, but also include developing Charles LeBeau the art of critical thinking. (Brown, 2004, p. 24) Language Solutions This quote highlights two fundamental class- Sponsored by Language Solutions room issues: topics of significance and critical thinking. The following article asks what exactly Keywords: Discussion, debate, global issues, critical think- are topics of significance? How is significance ing defined? Who defines it? Further, this article addresses what is critical thinking? What would A language class is an ideal locus for offering in- it look like in an EFL classroom? Is it culturally formation on topics of significance to students. The biased? Are there any adjustments we need to objectives of a curriculum are not limited to lin- make for our classrooms?
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 34 LeBeau Jalt2007 Featured Speaker
Topics of significance look at and challenge any possible assumptions A key question here is who determines significance, that may underlie the issue and to explore pos- the teacher or the learners? Do we take a top-down sible alternatives” (Halvorsen, 2005, p. 1). approach with the teacher introducing particular ar- In summary, critical thinking includes: Con- eas of interest, or do we take a bottom-up approach sidering perspectives, challenging assumptions, with the learners bringing their topics of signifi- and exploring alternatives. Are these things that cance to class. This perhaps is a false dichotomy. A we do naturally? Are they human nature, or are better approach might be: start locally, and go globally. they learned? Is it natural for us to put aside Start locally with the learners’ interests. our perspective to consider another perspective, especially when our wants, needs, and interests are threatened? The value of critical thinking is Start locally that, with practice, it grants us a second nature, While writing Discussion Process and Principles a moment of grace, that lets us consider another (LeBeau & Harrington, 2006), we queried 1st-year party’s perspective before we entrench ourselves students in five universities to find out their main into our own. interests and what they wanted to talk about. However, second nature is learned through Here is a partial list of their responses: food, cos- practice. At first, riding a bicycle is awkward and metics, friends, movies, idols (celebrities), manga feels unnatural. (It is unnatural. We evolved as bi- (comics), and music. Not exactly topics of signifi- peds, not as bicycle peddlers!) But the gift of our cance, but a learner-centered class starts locally species is that something—like looking at another with the students. The challenge for the teacher is perspective—that is not our first nature can be- how to go globally with these topics. come our second nature. We can develop. We can improve. What was once awkward is now second Go globally nature. This, I believe, is the function of a univer- sity education. Ideally, a university classroom is In the end, we found that the key to creating topics where looking at various perspectives, challeng- of significance lies not in the topic but the task. ing assumptions, and exploring alternatives are Rather than introducing topics of significance to practiced until they become second nature. the class, the instructor’s challenge is providing Let us move now to what this might actually level-appropriate tasks that give the students’ topics look like in the context of an EFL class. What a global or universal significance. Let us take the activities best encourage the attitudes of critical first topic on the student list,food . Turn on the TV thinking? here in Japan at any hour of the day or night and you are almost sure to see a program about either eating food or preparing food. Food is next to an Debate obsession here. My students love to talk about their The best way to learn someone else’s perspective likes and dislikes regarding food. Moreover, they is to argue it. The best way to learn the weakness- love to ask me about my culinary preferences. Now, es of your own position is to defend it. However, how can we build on this? How can we take this to make debate feasible in the EFL classroom, beyond the small universe of this particular class’ there are at least two challenges to overcome. likes and dislikes to another level of significance? First, debate is an extremely sophisticated lan- Suppose the students were the planning commit- guage activity, even for native speakers. Second, tee for an International Student Welcoming Party debate is outside the cultural experience of many (LeBeau & Harrington, 2006, p. 93). Suppose they EFL students. Many Asians come from a different had to design a single menu for students from five rhetorical tradition. Most of my students have continents. What criteria and considerations might never seen a real debate, let alone participated there be? Religion? Dietary restrictions of vegans? in one. Clearly, we need a different approach to What Japanese dishes can students find that meet debate for non-native speakers than for native these criteria? Can they explain the final menu well speakers. enough in English to satisfy questions from vegans, Hindus, Muslims, and Orthodox Jews? In exploring new approaches, I stumbled on a metaphor embedded in the English language. Consider for a moment what words we use Critical thinking when we talk of argumentation and debate. We My favorite definition of critical thinking is: “…to speak of constructing and building an argument. consider that issue from various perspectives, to Lawyers, of course, talk about building a case.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Featured Speaker LeBeau 35
Moreover, we insist that an argument must have Conclusion a concrete foundation of evidence. Upon examina- The discussion of global issues and other topics tion, the language we use is the very language we of significance in the classroom should originate use for building a structure such as a house. We locally in the learner’s interests and experience. metaphorically build an argument. The opinion The onus is on the teacher to broaden classroom or resolution is the roof. The job of the speaker (or horizons by designing interesting, level-appropri- writer) is to build a structure strong enough to ate discussion and debate tasks. Similarly, critical uphold this roof. The pillars upholding the roof thinking about these topics should begin locally are the reasons; the concrete foundation of the by considering the learner’s language level and house is the evidence for the argument (Lubetsky, cultural background. LeBeau, & Harrington, 2000). In classroom debate activities, students can draw their house on poster paper or a white board References and use it as a visual aid as they present. The use Brown, H. D. (2004). Some practical thoughts about of this metaphor turns debate, a very abstract ac- student-sensitive critical pedagogy. The Language tivity, into something concrete, something visible, Teacher, 28(7), 23-27. something we can point to. The house becomes Halvorsen, A. (2005). Incorporating critical thinking both a graphic organizer and a presentation aid. skills development into ESL/EFL courses. The Inter- net TESOL Journal, 9(3). Retrieved February 28, 2007 from
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 36 JALT2007 • Featured Speaker Helping Japanese language learners to use figurative language
impact on learning, especially if a learner can ob- Jeannette Littlemore tain feedback on his or her figurative utterances University of Birmingham and interpretations (see Swain, 2005). However, it is unlikely that the ability to iden- Sponsored by David English House tify and produce figurative extensions of their ex- isting vocabulary will come naturally to all learn- ers (see Littlemore, 2001). One group of learners Keywords: language learning, metaphor, figurative language who may find it particularly difficult to engage in these types of figurative extension activities are Japanese learners of English, who are not gener- t has recently been proposed that playing ally encouraged to play with the language or to be with the creative potential of a target language experimental in their language classes. It would I can be a good way of learning that language be beneficial if we could help Japanese learners to (Cook, 2004, pp. 197-205). One of the most com- engage in figurative thinking as they would then mon ways of being creative in a language is to try be able to discuss a wider variety of topics using and employ its words figuratively. In English, figu- the vocabulary that they possess, which would rative extensions of word meaning are extremely be highly motivating. A range of techniques have common. For example, we talk figuratively about been suggested that might promote figurative key issues, the foot of the page, the firstleg of a thinking in language classrooms (Littlemore & journey, breaking a promise, and running through Low, 2006a, pp. 89-193; Azuma, 2005, pp. 304-308) an exercise. The ability to understand and produce but to date the relative strengths of these tech- figurative extensions such as these is likely to niques have not been tested extensively. widen the range of topics that a language learner can talk about, thus improving their level of com- municative language ability. Although for most An exploratory study at a Japanese native speakers, usages such as those mentioned university above are relatively conventional, for language learners coming across them for the first time, they In order to investigate ways in which figurative are much more likely to appear highly creative, thinking might be promoted in Japanese learn- and indeed to be processed as creative language ers of English, I recently conducted a study, with (Littlemore & Low, 2006a). Figurative language Masumi Azuma from Kobe Design University, production is also likely to involve a significant Japan, into the relative effectiveness of two degree of creative thinking in the first instance. techniques designed to promote figurative think- ing amongst Japanese university students. The When faced with a situation where they need study was conducted as part of a research project to understand or produce figurative expres- funded by the DAIWA Anglo-Japanese Founda- sions, learners have recourse to several strategies. tion, and is described in full in Littlemore and They can employ mental Azuma (forthcoming). We took two groups of CHALLENGING imagery; transfer expres-
LOOKING OUT 1st-year EFL students, 20 in total, at Kobe Design sions from their L1 (see University, and gave each group a set of pre-tests Kellerman, 1987), or work designed to measure their ability to understand with figurative extensions and produce figurative language in English. Each of their existing vocabu- group was then given a different type of train- lary. This last skill is of ing designed to promote their figurative thinking particular interest, as the ability. ability to figuratively ex- tend word meaning and The first group was givenattribute matching training. This involves encouraging learners to LOOKING IN to try things out in the L2 ASSUMPTIONS is likely to have a strong explicitly identify the characteristics of a particular
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Featured Speaker Littlemore 37 word in order to assess how that word might be and figuratively is likely to make a significant used figuratively. For example, the learner might contribution to this goal. be asked to think about the characteristics of a human eye (the fact that it is round, it is used for seeing, it sits in a hole in the head, and so on) and References to consider how these characteristics might be Azuma, M. (2005). Metaphorical competence in an EFL invoked in figurative uses of the wordeye (eyeing context. Tokyo: Toshindo Publishing. a piece of cake; get the eyes out of the potatoes; the Cook, G. (2004). Language play, language learning. Ox- eye of a storm; the eye of a needle, etc.). This is an ford: Oxford University Press. analytical, objective process that breaks figurative Kellerman, E. (1987). Aspects of transferability in second thinking down into its constituent parts. language acquisition. Unpublished doctoral disserta- The second group was given gestalt training. This tion, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands. involves asking learners to create analogies but not Littlemore, J. (2001). Metaphoric competence: A pos- to attempt to explain those analogies in any way sible language learning strength of students with whatsoever. For example, the student might be a holistic cognitive style? TESOL Quarterly, 35(3), 459-491. asked questions such as If George Bush were a colour, what colour would he be? What shape would he be? Littlemore, J., & Low, G. (2006a). Figurative thinking and What type of music would he be? At the end of and foreign language learning. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. the study, the groups were re-tested on their ability to understand and produce figurative language. Littlemore, J., & Low, G. (2006b). Metaphoric compe- Applied Statistical tests were conducted to assess whether tence and communicative language ability. Linguistics, 27(2), 268-294. either of the groups had shown any significant improvement as a result of the training. Littlemore, J., & Azuma, M. (Forthcoming) Promoting creativity in English language classrooms in Japan: The study was inspired by an earlier study by An investigation into how Japanese learners of Eng- Pitts, Smith, and Pollio (1982), which looked at lish can be helped to exploit the figurative potential the effects of these different training techniques of English. IRAL. on the ability of native speakers to produce or Pitts, M., Smith, M., & Pollio, H. (1982). An evaluation interpret novel metaphors. Pitts et al. (1982) of three different theories of metaphor production found that native speakers benefited most from through the use of an intentional category mistake the gestalt training. Interestingly, in our study, procedure. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 11(4), we found the opposite to be true; those learners 347-368. who had received the attribute matching train- Swain, M. (2005). The output hypothesis: Theory and ing improved significantly both in their ability to research. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook on research in produce (p<0.05) and interpret (p<0.05) figurative second language teaching and learning (pp. 471-484). language, whereas those who had received the Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. gestalt training made no significant improve- ment. This led us to conclude that the attribute Jeannette Littlemore has been matching training had been more beneficial to teaching and lecturing in Eng- these learners than the gestalt training. lish and Applied Linguistics for 18 years, in Spain, Japan, Conclusion and Belgium, and now at the University of Birmingham. These findings indicate that, in order to help Japa- She is particularly interested nese language learners understand and produce in the acquisition of figurative figurative language in English, it may be benefi- language by non-native speak- cial to train them explicitly in the technique of ers of English, and has recently attribute matching. If we can promote figurative published a book on the subject with Graham thinking amongst Japanese students of English Low, entitled Figurative Thinking and Foreign Lan- via the use of attribute matching training, this guage Learning (published by Palgrave MacMil- may lead to a rise in their levels of communica- lan). She is currently treasurer of the international tive language ability (Littlemore & Low, 2006b). Association Researching and Applying Metaphor This is particularly relevant given the Japanese (RAAM). She has a lively research group of post- Ministry of Education’s recent announcement of graduate students, many of whom are based in its aim to promote communicative competence in Japan and Korea. language classrooms throughout Japan. Develop- ing the ability to use English creatively, flexibly,
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 38 JALT2007 • Featured Speaker Bringing extensive reading into oral communication classes without the language tools to do so). Extensive Rob Waring Reading can provide this structure. Notre Dame Seishin University Stories are a part of our human nature. We tell stories all day— about what happened at work, Sponsored by Thomson Learning what we saw on TV last night, jokes, the gossip about a neighbor, what is on the news, and so on. Asking students to retell stories is a natural thing Keywords: oral communication, extensive reading, curricu- to do in a language classroom. Retelling stories lum, discussion, reading circles can be very supportive for less confident and low- ability learners because they have a predictable eading is sometimes taught in a special framework within which to produce language. If reading class, and at other times, it is learners are asked to talk about something they R taught as part of what is done in a general have read and understood (the definition of read- English class (i.e., from the textbook). In recent ing extensively assures us that what they have times, many teachers have added an Extensive understood what they read), they have sufficient Reading (ER) component to their classes to content from which they can exchange informa- broaden and widen the language experience and tion. Story discussions also provide a framework language exposure learners are presented with as for speech because the learners have something well as to give vital opportunities for language to talk about, as well as learning which books consolidation. However, the problem many teach- are best to read as a genuine reason to interact or ers face is knowing where to put ER into their exchange ideas and stories. curriculum. This paper suggests that the Oral Stories always have a structure (an opening, Communication class is a valid vehicle for this–or rising drama, climax, and resolution) which indeed, any class that has communication as its helps the learners to organize and structure their focus. thoughts. Story structure can help the learners to I often hear that students are reluctant to speak form their ideas into a logical flow and direction in class, especially if the topic is not structured when relating the story, or answering questions (i.e., free conversation), or one they may have lit- about it. Retelling stories that have been read tle to talk about (e.g., what they did last night), or extensively, not only provides content support have asked and answered to death (What are your but also provides a rich framework for practicing hobbies?). The mayhem of unstructured speech linguistic structures. When retelling or reporting can be threatening to beginner learners and espe- stories in speech or in writing, certain language cially to those lacking confidence in English. In structures will always be needed, such as connec- my experience, the main reasons that students do tives, time sequencers, past tenses, descriptive ad- not or cannot speak are either: the task they are jectives, and so on. Thus retelling stories provides asked to do is too difficult or too complex (e.g., extremely useful practice in the basic components being asked to debate of speech. If the learners are asked to read a book CHALLENGING and report on it on a regular basis, these language
LOOKING OUT when they have not been taught how to debate), or patterns will become second nature and a solid they are not adequately foundation of language development. prepared for the task Initially though, some learners may have to either linguistically or write their story summary out and be allowed in terms of content (e.g., to read it aloud. Once they have done this a being asked to talk about few times, they should be encouraged to try to something about which memorize parts of their summary and retell it they have insufficient from memory. If they forget, they could look at LOOKING IN background knowledge, the paper again but should keep it hidden as they ASSUMPTIONS or do not care about, and speak. In this way, the learners will add a few
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Featured Speaker Waring 39 extra sentences and ideas spontaneously and help groups of five or six, each with different tasks them on the road to freer speech. Towards the such as Discussion Leader, Organizer, Connector, end of the course, the learners should be encour- and Culture Collector (Furr, 2007). As each learner aged not to write summaries from which to read has specific tasks, the discussions are focused and or recite, but be asked to prepare an oral sum- have to be well prepared which make for smooth- mary without having written it first. er, more enjoyable and rewarding discussions. It is always wise to give the listener something Of course, story discussions are not the only to do, rather than just listen passively. If the thing that learners need to talk about, but I hope listener is required to ask two or three questions this article has shown that adding an Extensive after hearing the summary or opinion of the story, Reading component to an Oral Communication it makes the listening active and interactive. class can not only help learners to find something Less able learners may need considerable to genuinely talk about, but provide many oppor- language support to allow them to frame their tunities for language practice and enhance their questions. Support can be given by either giving a overall oral communicability. list of prompt questions, such as: References What kind of story is it? Furr, M. (2007). Reading circles: Moving great stories Did you enjoy it? from the periphery of the language classroom to its centre. The Language Teacher, 31(5), 15-18. Who was your favorite character? And then what happened? Rob Waring is a member of the faculty at Notre Or, if the learners are able to construct their Dame Seishin University own sentences, gap-fill prompts could be used, in Okayama, Japan. He is such as: an acknowledged expert in Extensive Reading and Who…? second language vocabulary acquisition. He has pub- What happened when…? lished over 40 articles and Why did…? has lectured in 15 countries on foreign and second lan- The above works best if each learner has her guage acquisition. He has just published a set of own book to report on. But if teachers do not graded readers for teenagers with Thomson ELT. have the luxury of enough books to allow for He is a board member of the Extensive Reading self-selected reading, the above is also possible by Foundation. Rob was also Co-Conference Chair structuring the tasks differently. Teachers can ask of JALT2005. different students to read different parts of the same book and report it to the others in a kind of jigsaw activity. This can however, be quite taxing CHALLENGING for lower-ability learners so teachers should be LOOKING OUT careful not to demand too much or it will lead to JALT2007 silence. Teachers who use a class reader (all learn- ers have the same book) can also lead discussion 22–25 Nov 2007 about themes in books such as discussions on honesty, bravery, loyalty, or whatever theme the story they read together has been about. In this National Olympics way the reading can be extended to the learners’ Memorial Youth own lives. LOOKING IN ASSUMPTIONS Center, Tokyo Recently many teachers have been using Read- ing Circles in their classes. Furr showed us in the May 2007 Special Issue on Extensive Reading
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 40 JALT2007 • Featured Speaker Turning passive students into active learners tence (a sentence which contains an example of Ken Wilson the new structure), through mime, by explaining, and so forth. Some teachers like to explain a new Sponsored by Oxford University grammar item in the students’ own language, Press others prefer to do it in English. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with any of these ways but I have noticed that most teach- Keywords: Passive, active, learner, exercise material, ers give all the information in the build-up to dialogues a new item, when in fact, they could easily ask the students themselves for details to add to the y main argument in this article is that story. Let me explain what I mean by giving an students learn more when they are ac- example. M tively involved in the learning process. I once saw the following story-presentation I want to suggest some ways in which students of the present perfect tense, introducing the use provide more core information and ideas during the with since and for. The sentence that the teacher lesson. Teachers need to give their students more was aiming to teach was: She’s been in New York chances to say what they know and to use their since 2000. imagination. And they can do this all through the The teacher had a series of flashcards, a picture class, not just in the designated freer activities. of a woman, a picture of a man, a picture of Lon- First of all, let’s examine what a typical passive don, another one of New York, and even a picture lesson consists of. The following seems to be the of the CBS TV studio in New York. norm for many teachers. This was the exchange between the teacher and 1 Students listen while the teacher explains a the students, who answered in chorus: new structure item. Teacher: This is Jane—what’s her name? 2 Students listen to a tape of a conversation illustrating the new structure. Students: Jane! 3 Students practice the conversation in pairs. Teacher: She comes from London. Where does she come from? 4 Students read a text and answer comprehen- sion questions. Students: London! 5 Students do an exercise from the workbook. Teacher: Now she lives in New York. Where does she live? 6 Teacher gives students some written home- work. Students: New York! The students aren’t very active in this lesson This behaviourist teaching method may seem plan! Let’s look at some of the aspects of this quite old-fashioned to you, but it is still common. passive lesson plan and The classroom is very noisy, the students speak CHALLENGING see if we can find ways every 20 seconds or so, but they are not involved. LOOKING OUT to get the students more So, how can we change this and make the stu- involved. dents more active and actively involved? First of all, why not let them give the details of the story presentation where it is possible for them to do Explaining new so? For example, the students can choose not only structure items the names of the characters, but also where they There are many ways to come from and where they live now. In fact, the present new language— teacher can elicit information to complete details
LOOKING IN through a story which all the way through the presentation. The only ASSUMPTIONS leads to a marker sen- thing that the teacher really needs to give is the
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Jalt2007 Featured Speaker Wilson 41 first example of the new language: She’s been in X doctors nurses, which makes the doctors feel quite since X. The rest can be supplied by the students. annoyed. And they also call the nurses doctors, which makes the nurses feel quite pleased.
Using dialogues One day at the hospital, a patient, a man, ap- The first dialogues appeared in English teach- proached a doctor. ‘Excuse me, nurse,’ said the pa- ing materials more than 300 years ago (in a tient. ‘When can I see the doctor?’ book which was written to help French dress- ers–French people who came to England to help ‘Listen,’ said the doctor. ‘I’m a doctor, and the man aristocrats who didn’t know how to put on their over there that you think is a doctor is actually a own clothes!). Dialogues or other examples of student nurse.’ spoken English then disappeared from course material until the middle of the 20th century. My ‘Oh, sorry,’ said the patient. ‘The last time I came French and German course books in the 1960s, for to this hospital, that doctor, sorry— that nurse— example, had no dialogues. that nurse said that you were a nurse.’ However, in about 1950, the Berlitz School pub- lished a book that contained a series of dialogues ‘Well, I’m not,’ said the doctor. ‘I’m a doctor, not which presented new language. The dialogues a nurse.’ were between two people called John and Mary Brown. We presume that they were man and wife, ‘Well, once again, sorry about that,’ said the pa- but you couldn’t tell, as they started most conver- tient. ‘By the way, what’s your name?’ sations by introducing themselves to each other! Thereafter, some of the exchanges were frankly ‘Nurse,’ said the doctor. ‘Doctor Nurse.’ surreal. Here’s an example: When I use a reading text like this, I always ask John Brown: Hello, I’m John Brown. students questions which they cannot answer Mary Brown: Hello, I’m Mary Brown. just by reading the text itself. For example, I ask Where’s the hospital? The students’ answer Near John Brown: Have we a house? where I live or Near where you live. Mary Brown: Yes, we have a house. I reply that it’s actually near where the writer I wonder who they thought they were writing lives. Where’s that? for—amnesiacs? At first, students are confused about this. I say, Dialogues are much more realistic nowadays, none of us know, so let’s invent. By the end of the but they are also predictable and often quite dull. sentence, we know that the hospital is in Chicago, The worst ones are the ones that try to be amus- it has seven floors, two hundred beds, 60 doctors ing. But the real problem is not the dialogues, and 150 nurses. All this information has come but the teachers who slavishly accept them as the from the students. It is now their story. They are one possible way of expressing a certain idea. We actively involved. sometimes forget that they are not set in stone. When you do this the first time, the students are In other words, they are just one example of how confused and a little suspicious. Once they realise people speak to each other. Teachers should offer that you are not looking for one correct answer, students the chance to adapt, change, re-write— and they can offer any ideas they want, they even the conversations between the central char- enjoy the chance to contribute. They can write the acters in a book. enhanced version of the story for homework. The only problem is that they may want to do it with every reading text. Reading texts Using a reading text in class can be a very passive activity, but there are ways that you can enliven Exercises the lesson by allowing students to contribute Exercises make students feel either bored or extra details and information. Take this rather stressed. This is the result of the conspiracy be- ordinary reading text, for example: tween publishers and teachers. Publishers know that teachers like exercises because they can take At the hospital near where I live, all the doctors are a mental break for a few minutes. The problem is women and all the nurses are men. When new pa- that the students take a mental break, too! tients arrive at the hospital, they always call the
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 42 Wilson Jalt2007 Featured Speaker
The problem is in the perception of exercise Learners retain more of what they are taught material as some kind of simple mathematical when they are actively involved in the learning equation, when in fact, good exercise material process and statistics suggest that, if students provides you with conversation starters. My learn passively, an incredible amount of class- feeling is that you should always put students room information is forgotten within a very in pairs and ask them to turn the examples into short space of time. You can of course revise mini-dialogues. As with reading texts, sometimes and recycle, but information gained from active the students are a little uncertain how this works, involvement usually sticks, making revision and but as soon as they get the idea, they enjoy it. recycling a more rewarding process. More importantly, the exercise material starts to Active learning can be enjoyable and fun. There feel like real English, not just de-contextualised is a definite relationship between laughter and sentences. learning. Some people involved in education Here’s an example. Imagine that you are doing argue that students who are having fun are not this exercise with your class. getting full value from the lesson. I think that this attitude is not just wrong, it’s unhelpful. Choose an appropriate future tense An astonishing number of teachers think that 1 We…(visit) my grandparents this weekend and knowledge is power and that this means they are I’m really looking forward to it. more powerful and more valuable if they have all 2 I’m tired— I think I…(go) to bed. the knowledge. This is a dangerous attitude! 3 What time… the next train… (leave) for Boston? Allowing students to be more involved in their 4 I…(let) you know as soon as Adam arrives. own learning may mean that teachers have to give up some of the power and authority that Put the students in pairs and tell them to think they have in the classroom. And, they have to rely of sentence 1 as the first line of a conversation. less on the coursebook. At this point, don’t worry about the right answer. Just help the students think of it as a real piece of Finally, remember—in a class of 30 students, discourse. there are 32 potential sources of information: you, the book, and the students themselves. Take the example in number 1. Give the right answer (we’re going to visit, or we’re visiting) and then ask students to think of possible re- Ken Wilson trains teachers all sponses to this stimulus. Examples here are: Why? over the world and is a prolific Where do they live? How old are they? and so forth. author of ELT materials with It is really important to make the students realise more than twenty titles to his that there isn’t just one right answer. name. His latest course material Again, when you first do this, the students will is Smart Choice, published by be a little surprised, but you will be amazed how Oxford University Press. Ken’s quickly they get the idea. first ELT publication was a col- lection of songs called Mister Monday, which was released Conclusion when he was 23, making him at the time the A lot of learning is passive. Students have to youngest-ever published ELT author. Since then, spend a lot of time listening to the teacher or he has written and recorded more than 150 ELT reading a text. Exercise material is particularly songs, published as albums or as integral parts of passive—stimulus sentences are usually written course material. so that reasonably aware students can do them in He has also written more than a hundred ELT their sleep. A lot of students enjoy passive learn- radio and television programs, including 50 radio ing. They are the ones who smile when you start scripts for the Follow Me series, 30 Look Ahead TV talking, or look really pleased when you tell them scripts and a series of plays called Drama First. to open the book and read something. Ken was one of the authors of the New Standard But the reality is that these students represent at English course for China, of which more than a most 25 per cent of the class. The other 75 per cent hundred million copies are being used. do not benefit from a diet of mainly passive learn- ing. Also, when the balance of the lesson swings too far to the passive, the ability of students to ac- tually benefit from the lesson diminishes rapidly.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007 • Featured Speaker 43 Shadowing plus: Stepping stones to fluency I owe a huge debt to Tim Murphey for first John Wiltshier introducing me to shadowing. Tim has been actively using shadowing in his classes for many Miyagi University years and how I use shadowing in my classroom was heavily influenced by his work (see Mur- Sponsored by Pearson Longman phey, 1998, 2000). There is not just one type of shadowing rather there are many, many varieties. Keywords: Shadowing, fluency, speaking, classroom practice Murphey (2000) describes three continuums that can vary when using shadowing:
luency is a faraway place for most language 1. silent <------> out loud learners. Often setting out with unrealistic 2. complete <------> selective F expectations, the leap across the brink to a 3. non-interactive <------> interactive fluency level, whereby the individual becomes a user of the language, is often too big a leap to Using these three continuums different shad- make. Stepping stones break down the huge leap owing activities can be designed. I use the follow- into small steps or jumps. Such is the case with ing 5 practical classroom shadowing techniques: shadowing in our classes. 1. Full shadowing–continuous, flowing no This paper sets out to explain the merits of class- pauses. room peer-shadowing activities as one way to help 2. Slash shadowing–speaker cuts their speech students improve their fluency, and also to explain into small chunks with pauses between the differences between shadowing and audio-lin- –shadower has more time to shadow. gual listen and repeat. 3. Silent shadowing–sub-vocalization, not actu- ally saying the words out loud. What is shadowing? 4. Part shadowing + comment: pick up key- word and add a comment. When I use the term shadowing I am referring to the name of a technique; a language practice 5. About you shadowing–full shadow but technique. The technique of shadowing involves change I --> you, my --> your, etc. active bottom-up listening whereby the shadower (see Helgesen, Brown, & Wiltshier, 2007, p. borrows someone else’s language in order to SS1; Wiltshier, in press) practice oral production. Kadota and Tamai (2004) use shadowing tech- Peer-shadowing as a classroom activity is usually niques they call mumbling, contents shadowing and done in pairs; one person is a speaker and the other prosody shadowing. Each has a different purpose or is a shadower. The speaker speaks and by so doing focus with mumbling focusing on the sounds that provides the target language input for the shadower. can be heard while mumbling the words. Prosody The shadower processes the language input in order shadowing focuses on the rhythm, stress, intonation, to immediately repeat it. The shadower is under speed, and pause of the language. Content shadow- pressure to actively process the input. This peer- ing focuses on trying to understand the meaning of pressure to pay attention and process the input is the language. All three are varieties of shadowing. important. Without this pressure it is Is not shadowing just listen and repeat– quite conceivable for many students the audio lingual revisited? input would simply Shadowing is different from the audio-lingual go in one ear and out listen and repeat in many ways. In a shadowing the other without classroom activity the language is initially gener- ever being attended ated by the students themselves and as such the to and processed. activity becomes student centered. This is very
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 44 Wiltshier Jalt2007 Featured Speaker different from textbook provided pattern practice The teacher’s role is to set up and run the activ- which is unconnected to the students’ world. ity and provide selective language input in order The second major difference is the fact students to allow the students to say what they want to speak to other students rather than into a tape say. During the activity the teacher may be listen- recorder or computer. My own memories of lan- ing, but is careful not to interrupt. guage laboratory work in French are not positive. Error correction, if done at all, happens after the Speaking into a tape recorder is not interesting. shadowing activity has finished or while chang- Computers are not good at smiling. In contrast a ing partners. The teacher can provide correct classmate’s positive reaction and smile is encour- models of the language students are attempting aging and motivating. to use by writing them on the board or saying Shadowing as I use it in my classroom is com- them aloud to the whole class. In this way the municative because a transfer of information, teacher does not interrupt the students when they thoughts, or ideas is taking place. Original speak- are speaking and does not single individual stu- er generated language is invariably interesting dents out in front of classmates. Feedback about for the listener. This statement is easy to verify by their partner’s understanding is provided to the observing the amount of chatting in Japanese that speaker by the amount and ease of repetition and usually follows shadowing activities: chatting on the facial reactions of their partner. the same topic, trying to find out more, or check- ing what was just said in English. In conclusion The challenge to students is to understand and The title of my featured speaker workshop is repeat what their partner is saying not to focus on Shadowing Plus: Stepping stones to fluency. As I whether it is grammatically correct or not. Avoid- wrote in the introduction, fluency is a faraway ing focus on form, I believe, reduces student place for most language learners—a place that inhibition enabling students to more freely have a many language learners will never, in fact, reach. go at speaking English (lowering affective filters). Just as stepping stones are necessary for people to cross from one side of a river to the other, The classroom dynamic plays an important role classroom shadowing activities provide practice in the success of any classroom activity. Shad- which is necessary to allow students to improve owing is no exception. Speaking in pairs with their fluency and progress from passive language close friends is not always conducive to optimal learners to active language users. performance. However, asking students to find a partner can be time-consuming and somewhat References uncomfortable especially for the less popular members of a class. Structured, random partner Helgesen, M., Brown, S., & Wiltshier, J. M. (2007). First- hand success teacher manual. Hong Kong: Longman. selection is a key component of my shadowing activities. Students are organized in concentric Kadota, S., & Tamai, K. (2004). Eigo shadouigu [English circles or parallel lines. Using such classroom shadowing]. Tokyo: Cosmopier. organization the teacher can easily provide stu- Murphey, T. (Ed.). (1998). Language hungry!: An intro- dents with new speaking or shadowing partners. duction to language learning fun and self esteem. Tokyo: The roles of speaker and shadower are alternat- Macmillan Language House. ed—this dynamic maintains energy levels as the Murphey, T. (2000). Shadowing & Summarizing (video type of active contribution from each student is cassette). National Foreign Language Resource Cen- frequently changing. Shadowing is a cooperative ter, University of Hawaii. learning experience. Classmates are very good at Wiltshier, J. M. (in press). Fluency through shadow- accommodating their partners and the language ing–what, why, and how? JALT2006 Conference Pro- ceedings. Tokyo: The Japan Association for Language level naturally adjusts to ensure successful com- Teaching. pletion of the task. Part of a classroom shadowing activity is think-time. Simply, students are given time to consider what John Wiltshier has been a teacher for 17 years, 11 they are going to say. This makes successful com- of which have been in Japan. John has presented in pletion of the task easier and leads to an increase in Europe and the US. He has been a guest presenter language complexity. The shadower does not need at Columbia University Tokyo, invited speaker on to worry about creating their own language as they the ETJ Teacher Training Tour across Japan and simply borrow the language their partner uses. This plenary speaker at PANSIG 2007. He is co-author reduces the mental load and provides a stepping of the new edition of English Firsthand Access and stone to improving their own oral fluency. Success and currently works at Miyagi University.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007Res o• urcesFeature • dmy Sp shareeaker 45
complished during the first day or first week of …with Jerry Talandis class:
MY SHARE ONLINE A linked index of My Share articles can be found at: This lesson is designed to address these goals in one first-day activity. In this activity, you can im-
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 46 Miller / Fenton-Smith Resources • My share
Step 3: For about 25 to 30 minutes, have each stu- Appendices dent ask you a question from their strip while the The appendices can be viewed at
Expansion Ben Fenton-Smith • Students interview a classmate using questions Kanda University of International like those on the Get to Know Your Classmates Studies sheet. Later, partners introduce each other to the whole class, a small group, or another
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Resources • my share Fenton-Smith 47 one of the TOEIC (you can cut them out from Step 6: Tell the Bs to get ready to move. Point out magazines or an old textbook). Clearly mark each that it does not matter which order they go to the one with a number between 1 and 10. pictures. Step 2: Prepare a worksheet (see Appendix). Note Step 7: Start the activity and let it run until a few there are verbs in parentheses in the table—these pairs have completed the entire worksheet. describe actions in the pictures, so change them Step 8: Check the answers, allowing for the fact accordingly. that multiple responses are possible. However, Step 3: Make enough copies for half the class (one refer to the grammatical guidelines laid down per pair). at the start of the activity—sentences that do not Step 4: Before the lesson, stick the pictures up conform to the pattern should be corrected. around the walls of the classroom. Comments Procedure To make the activity more exciting, a competi- Step 1: Put the students in pairs and have them tive element can be introduced, such as awarding decide who is partner A and B. points for the fastest pairs, and more points for the most grammatically accurate pairs. If you are Step 2: Give one copy of the handout to each pair. feeling generous, offer a small prize to the cham- Tell the students that the numbers 1 to 10 on the pion pair. worksheet refer to the numbers 1 to 10 on the pictures around the walls. Step 3: Explain the roles: Partner A stays at his Conclusion or her desk as the writer, while partner B goes Once the activity is completed, review the target around the room gathering information. B’s job is sentence patterns. Tell the students that the to study a picture carefully, then return to A and present progressive is typically used to describe explain (in English!) what he or she saw. Then A temporary states, which is why it is suited to and B have to agree on a single sentence to de- descriptions of snapshots of actions. Similarly, tell scribe the picture, and write that sentence in the them that there is/are is commonly used to say that appropriate space on the worksheet. After they something exists, which again is why it is suited have done this for pictures 1 to 5, they should to descriptions of pictures. Point out that these change roles and complete pictures 6 to 10. two simple patterns account for the majority of Step 4: Explain the rules: the listening items in this section of the test. Such 1. Sentences must be constructed around either an explanation serves as a good prelude to listen- of two verb forms since these are the major ing practice for part one of the test. patterns found in this part of the test: a. verb + ing Appendices b. there is/are The appendices can be viewed at
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 48 Resources • Book Reviews
seen in the subtitle, the major theme of this book …with Robert Taferner is centered around the importance of kotoba no
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Resources • book reviews Takagaki / Crane 49 of seven chapters and includes a variety of practi- cal issues at the micro level, ranging from basic Japanese points in teaching elementary school students to lesson plan samples. Moreover, this edited book is accompanied by a wealth of useful annotations, Sentence Patterns sample teaching materials, and a CD, making it extremely user friendly and attractive. for Effective Needless to say, few books can completely sat- isfy all readers and this book is not an exception. Communication In my opinion, this book would have been more [Taeko Kamiya. Tokyo: Kodansha comprehensive had the opposing or skeptical International, 2005. pp. vi-311. ¥2,625. ISBN: views regarding teaching English at elementary 4-7700-2983-7.] schools been treated in more detail. For exam- ple, I questioned the effectiveness of elementary Reviewed by Paul A. Crane, school English in Japan based on my analysis of Nagoya University of Foreign the core French program in Canada (Takagaki, 2003). As a matter of fact, many of these views Studies see the concept kotoba no kyōiku from different perspectives. I believe those who teach English at the elementary school level should give seri- Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communica- ous thought to such questions as (a) What is the tion is an accessible book for learners of Japanese rationale of conducting language education only targeted at advanced beginners of Japanese as through English activities (alongside of Japa- well as intermediate to advanced learners need- nese) when the practical skills of English as an ing to review Japanese syntax through the study international language are less emphasized?, (b) of 142 basic sentence patterns. The 12 chapters Could any language, including artificial and sign are organized according to general functions, for languages, serve the purpose of the language example Chapter 3 Making Comparisons, Chapter education?, and (c) Is there any possibility that 10 Expressing Conjecture and Hearsay, and Quoting teaching only English may help students form People, and Chapter 11 Using Conditional, Pas- distorted ideas about communication such as: all sive, Causative, and Causative-Passive Forms. Each foreigners speak English, or English is superior to chapter is divided into other languages? smaller, manageable areas of study intro- I should also acknowledge that this book is not duced by one of the intended to be research-oriented but is aimed to 142 sample sentence be practical in sprit, and it successfully serves the patterns, first in Eng- purpose as an introductory resource. I would, lish with the Japanese therefore, recommend this reference text for both translation below it, in-service and pre-service teachers at elementary followed by an expla- schools, as well as anyone interested in early Eng- nation of the grammar lish education in Japan. and linguistic func- tion of the sentence. References Following the explana- 「小学校英語活動実施状況調査（平成17年 tion are three to four MEXT. (2006). more sample sentence 度）]の主な結果概要」 [Survey on English Conversation Activities at Elementary Schools in 2005]. Retrieved patterns to further February 10, 2007, from
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 50 Crane Resources • book reviews & Recently Received have a grasp of the Japanese writing system. Resources • Recently Received My first impression of the book was that it was rather easy for an upper-intermediate learner like ...with Scott Gardner myself. However, by the time I reached Chapter 4
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT Focus • JALT Notices 51 …with Joseph Sheehan JALT Notices
Please submit the following by 15 Sep 2007 to Mark Shrosbree
Multiple submissions will be accepted. Upon acceptance, a more detailed workshop overview will be asked for.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 52 JALT Focus • JALT Notices / Showcase
New JALT Associate Members English language proofreaders and Japanese lan- JALT is pleased to welcome the addition of a guage proofreaders. couple of new Associate Members to our organi- JALT2007 Conference Proceedings zation. Young English System
52 JALT Focus • Showcase
My search set me on a 3-year quest that led …with Theron Muller through small Japanese farming villages, dusty
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 JALT Focus • Grassroots 53
rewarding and highly educational as well. As …with Joyce Cunningham & co-liaison for FS, I was able to meet world-famous teacher-researchers from around the globe, and I Mariko Miyao am happy to say that each and every one of them
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 54 JALT Focus • Grassroots effect. If you are interested in sharing your abili- never even heard of conceptual integration or ties and talents with the JALT team, feel free to Suggestopedia know the same things from their let someone know. What you have to contribute teaching experience. won’t go unnoticed in a group like this! Eric Skier Why not? Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences Of course there are reasons that people report
How do you use music? Music can be used in many ways. A lesson plan Using music in EFL can be based on the cultural, linguistic, or techni- cal aspects of songs. The scientific, sociological, in Japan or geographic features can become the basis for linguistic activity. Lyrics may be conceptualised According to our online survey administered in as texts, social discourse, discussion themes, or 2007, 93% of English teachers in Japan are doing vocabulary and grammar examples. As with any it. They’re doing it in children’s classes, at high text, the words may be used for cloze, listening, school, at university, and even with pensioners. grammar, or vocabulary activities; creative writ- Music is a popular ingredient in the classroom. In ing; and so forth. Techniques such as rhyme and this article, we discuss the why and how of music rhythm may be taught. Tables 3 and 4 bring you in EFL in Japan. ideas from your colleagues in Japan. Music’s effect on the brain is significant. The Society for Neuroscience reports that adult musicians have larger primary motor cortexes What music/songs do you use? and cerebellums than non-musicians. Childhood The EFL jukebox plays an eclectic mix including musical training results in more neural stimula- The Carpenters, Potato Pals, and Elvis. University tion, more synapse connections formed, better teachers liked songs with a story. Kids’ teachers academic achievement, and a better-developed liked songs with lots of repetition. Everyone loves individual. Even for non-musicians, classical mu- a good melody and rhythm. sic affects mood (the Mozart Effect), and baroque music is a core method in Suggestopedia. A new theory called conceptual integration provides an Other comments explanation: new knowledge is not learnt as is, Here are some of the many funny and thought- but rather incorporated into our existing frame- provoking comments that we received: work of experiences and knowledge. Music acts • Students remember the music and lyrics long as a powerful trigger of this framework, and new after they forget the rest of the course! experiences are assimilated more deeply. • Music can be very motivating for students but All this is just a complicated way of saying, it can also be very distracting. It should serve a “Music helps us learn.” Tables 1 and 2 show that purpose in the lesson. teachers in the survey know it. 74% of teach- ers believe that students learn language easily • Songs are essential. Any teacher who doesn’t from songs; 67% think that music creates a good use them should be drummed out of the pro- learning atmosphere. Teachers in Japan who have fession at once. Finis.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 JALT Focus • Grassroots 55
• A class without music is like sashimi with no Brian Cullen soy sauce—pretty near tasteless! Nagoya Institute of Technology If you’re not using music in your lessons, we Jim Smiley hope that the ideas in this article will encourage Tohoku Bunka Gakuen University you to bring soy sauce to your sashimi and songs to your students. Table 1. Why do you use music?
Table 2. Other responses
It’s a good break for students in long classes. It can make a hidden grammar practice.
It can signal the start of an activity or break states. Music provides a good “memory hook.”
[My students] want to learn two Destiny’s Child songs. It helps them to understand English rhythm.
It is fun listening for low level learners. It helps pronunciation. It’s motivating.
Table 3. How do you use music?
Table 4. Other responses
Listening comprehension using visual aids. BGM, other listening activities (ordering etc).
We read the words and color pictures on the pages. Songs are used to reinforce a grammar point.
[Our students will] sing two songs at the Festival! As cues for the beginning or end of set activities.
To model the language targets. I play the keyboard.
I use it to target key vocabulary and for singing. Matching rhyming words.
As a starting point for writing. Identify genres as part of music likes/dislikes.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 56 Column • SIG News
software, podcasting, and even the pedagogical …with James Hobbs applications of digital video clips. We thank the
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 Column • SIG News 57
Junior and Senior High School Other Language Educators [ � curriculum, native speaker, JET programme, JTE, ALT, inter- [ � FLL beyond mother tongue, L3, multilingualism, sec- nationalization ] [ & The School House—3-4x year ] [ ó teacher ond foreign language ] [ & OLE Newsletter—4-5x year ] development workshops & seminars, networking, open mics ] [ ó Network with other FL groups, presence at con- [ ô ] ventions, provide information to companies, support job searches and research ] The JSH SIG is operating at a time of considerable change in secondary EFL education. Therefore, OLE participated in PanSIG 2007 in Sendai this we are concerned with language learning theory, year for the first time with a plenary speaker, teaching materials, and methods. We are also in- Martine Gunske von Koelln of Fukushima tensely interested in curriculum innovation. The University and six other presentations on various large-scale employment of native speaker instruc- aspects of Spanish, French, German, and further tors is a recent innovation yet to be thoroughly foreign language learning in general (info availa- studied or evaluated. JALT members involved ble from
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 Advert Column • SIG News 59
を考えている多くの学習者に対してわれわれ語学教師 Teaching Children が貢献出来る課題は多く、これからの研究や活動が期 待されています。ＴＯＬでは日本全国の教師が情報交 [ � children, elementary school, kindergarten, early 換、勉強会、研究成果の出版を行い共にこの新しい分 childhood, play ] [ & Teachers Learning with Chil- 野を開拓していこうと日々熱心に活動中です。現在オ dren, bilingual—4x year ] [ ó JALT Junior at nation- ンライン
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 60 Column • Chapter Events
tute of Technology (Maebashi Koka Daigaku), 460-1 …with Aleda Krause Kamisadori, Maebashi; one-day members ¥1000.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 Column • Chapter Events 61
Japanese learners are likely to face. He will also James Venema, and Kathi Emori, Nagoya give an overview of tasks included on the new Women’s University. The speakers will discuss TOEIC: Speaking and Writing Tests. Sat 14 Jul three aspects of curriculum innovation. Doug will 19:00-21:00; Kitakyushu International Conference talk about the politics of change and the neces- Center, Room 31 (a 5-minute walk from the Kokura sary conditions for implementing curriculum train station); one-day members ¥1000. renewal. James will offer some suggestions for curriculum and teacher coordination based on lessons learned over the last few years. Kathi will Matsuyama—Motivation From Natural Resourc- talk about assessing courses and implementing es: Genuine Communication Through Surveys by curriculum innovations. Sun 18 July 13:30-16:00; Erin Peter Kourelis, American Language School, Nagoya International Center, 3F, Lecture Room 2; one- Matsuyama. How do you get your students day members ¥1000. motivated? The speaker will discuss the use of surveys to get real questions—from the minds of Japanese students—answered by native English Okayama—Computer-Mediated Communication speakers. He will show how this can be applied (CMC) by David Mcloughlin, Nagoya Univer- to all ages and levels. There will be opportunity sity of Commerce and Business, and Jo Mynard, for attendees to discuss their own ways of moti- Koryo International College. The presenters will vating students. Sun 8 Jul 14:15-16:20; Shinonome show examples of CMC and how it can be used in High School Kinenkan 4F; one-day members ¥1000. a language classroom to promote both language acquisition and higher-order thinking. Using a Student Newspaper to Promote Communication Miyazaki—Promoting a Holistic Approach to by Jason Williams and Chris Creighton, Notre Speaking in the Classroom by Simon Capper, Dame Seishin University. The presenters will The Japanese Red Cross Hiroshima College of demonstrate how to set up an English-language Nursing. Many language learners (and teachers) newspaper for students in order to increase inter- have a tendency to focus excessively on linguis- and intra-class English communication. Sun 22 tic features at the expense of paralinguistic and July 15:00-16:50; Sankaku A Bldg. 2F, near Omotecho nonverbal aspects of communication. Similarly, in Okayama City; one-day members ¥500. language teaching materials often fail to acknowl- edge the importance of these crucial channels. This workshop will demonstrate materials and Omiya—1) Picture Books, Storytelling, and Im- activities that raise awareness of these important aginative Learning by Patricia Daly Oe. Author features. Participants will be invited to share their Oe will discuss the value of using picture books own teaching and learning experiences, activities, and storytelling when teaching children, and and ideas. Sat 14 Jul 16:00-18:00; Miyazaki Munici- show examples of techniques for small and large pal University Room 310; free for all. classes and a range of levels. 2) Native English Teachers: Ideas for Self-Introductions at Elemen- tary School by Irina Babanova. A first step in Nagasaki—Gender in Language and Giving reducing the strangeness of a language for young Peace Studies a Chance with Clem Hiemstra, children is a self-introduction, letting them know Nagasaki, and Tim Allan, Kwassui Women’s about us, their teachers. Babanova will demon- College. This meeting will be about global issues strate a self-introduction lesson. Sun 8 July 14:00- and content-based instruction from two perspec- 17:00; Sakuragi Kominkan 5F (near Omiya Station, tives. Hiemstra will guide us through a session west exit); one-day members ¥1000. on the topic of gender and language. We will list some obvious examples where we can see gender at work in language, comparing Japanese Sendai—Reading Children’s Picture Books by examples with English ones. Allan will introduce David Gilbey. We know how to read text in some activities, rationales, and materials for local English-speaking cultures: it’s left to right and peace studies classes. More information at
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 62 Column • Chapter Events children’s picture books. Sun 29 July 14:00-17:00; come evident in spontaneous spoken and written Sendai Mediatheque; one-day members ¥1000. utterances. Sun 8 Jul 13:30-16:00; Aichi University, Bldg. 5, Room 543; one-day members ¥1000. Tokyo—Expressing Causation in English and Japanese by Chikako Shigemori Bucar, Univer- Yamagata—North Dakota in Terms of its Histo- sity of Ljubljana. The Japanese causative affix ry, Culture, Education, and Language by Rachel -(s)ase- is usually taught in the beginning level. Henkelmann, Yamagata City ALT. The topic will English speaking learners are not eager to pro- be presented in terms of English as a means of duce the causative in Japanese, perhaps because global communication in the 21st century. Sat there is no comparable morpheme in English. 7 Jul 13:30-15:30; Yamagata Kajo Kominkan Sogo Added to this, -(s)ase- has various functions Gakushu Center, Shironishi-machi 2-chome, 2-15 (t: besides causation. Based on contrastive research 023-645-6163); one-day members ¥800. and corpus studies, the presenter will explore when the causative should really be taught. Space Yokohama—Teaching Yoga to Children Through is limited for this seminar. If you are interested, English by Elizabeth Knight. After a 75-minute contact Megumi Kawate-Mierzejewska
wrong and what is deemed useful and wasteful. …with Heather Sparrow In socio-cultural terms we construct our identity,
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 Column • Chapter Reports 63
East Shikoku: April—Why Extensive Reading is The factors that truly give life to the story are the Necessary in all Language Programs by Rob War- storyteller’s voice tone and body language. After ing. Waring explained the various components his demonstration, he introduced three group ac- needed for successful language learning, begin- tivities to help the participants make their stories ning the presentation by highlighting the differ- come alive. ences between intensive and extensive reading and Throughout the workshop, he explained how demonstrating why there needs to be much more introducing learners to stories from unfamiliar attention given to extensive reading. By introduc- cultures can foster world peace. As the peace ing recent vocabulary learning research findings activist Gene Knudsen Hoffman explains, “an and noting the daunting task an L2 learner faces enemy is one whose story we have not heard.” in the area of vocabulary acquisition, Waring From this viewpoint, peacemakers are not only made a strong case for extensive reading through the great heroes of history such as Gandhi or graded readers as the only way for students to get Mother Teresa, but we, language teachers, can be massive language exposure at a level suitable for peacemakers. The workshop ended successfully individual learners. Among the many advantages with all the participants becoming storytellers graded readers offer, Waring focused on how they and telling each other stories of peace from other allow learners to work at their own pace and at cultures. their own level, and how they provide opportuni- Reported by Natsue Nakayama ties for learners to get a feel for how words col- locate and the grammatical relationships between words. Waring concluded by offering a statistical Hokkaido: April—Tips on Giving Effective Pres- analysis of the number of English words a learner entations by C. A. Edington, Wilma Luth, and has to meet in order to learn a particular word. Chris Perry. Edington and Luth elicited points Reported by Darren Lingley that made presentations effective. These were categorized into the areas of delivery, logistics, and preparation. In addition, Edington showed Gifu: April—Meaning-Focused Learning Through a slideshow that demonstrated effective and Drama by Kathi Emori. Emori spoke about the ineffective uses of media such as PowerPoint or challenges and the benefits of using drama in the Keynote. Perry gave a brief heads up on what, language classroom. She presented a five-step ap- from his experience as a vetter for national JALT proach to drama instruction—an approach which conferences, is important in writing an abstract begins with the instructor leading basic voice that will be accepted. Participants talked about and movement exercises and builds towards the what they were excited about in their own teach- students independently planning, writing, and ing and started to plan how they might turn that performing their own skits. Emori led partici- into a presentation. This presentation produced a pants through a number of practical activities to valuable lexicon of ideas and suggestions for de- be used at each step. She asked participants to veloping and presenting our research or activities perform short skits and apply many of the tech- in a presentation format. niques and ideas presented at the meeting, then Reported by B. Bricklin Zeff introduced a number of texts, one-act plays, and other materials that instructors may find valuable for their own classes. She concluded by discuss- Ibaraki: April—Getting Your Foot in the Publish- ing the practicalities of introducing drama activi- ing Door by Satoko Shimoyama. Shimoyama ties beyond the university setting to students of advised how to enter the realm of publishing various ages and abilities. and answered questions concerning academic Reported by Jon Rozhon publishing. She addressed the question, How do publishers decide what to publish? explaining that publishing plans are influenced by competitors’ Gunma: April—Stories to Heal the World by titles, long-term market trends, pedagogical Charles Kowalski. Kowalski began his workshop considerations, and the publisher’s budget and with a heart-rending Cambodian story of abuse, resources. compassion, and transformation, sharing kam- Shimoyama explained the publishing process ishibai-like pictures made from the original pic- beginning with the idea/concept stage in which ture book. His emotional narrative drew the par- proposals are reviewed internally and examined ticipants into the world of storytelling. His way in light of market research. If the decision is of speaking proved that it is not only pictures made to continue, the process enters the approval and words of a story that convey its message.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 64 Column • Chapter Reports stage: a publisher-author agreement is signed, closes are not suitable for use with pop lyrics be- and staff arrangements and schedules are drawn cause of the unnatural meters forced upon them up. The productive stage finds the author writing by the music; 4) a focus should be put upon the and rewriting the manuscript within a cycle of personalization of the meaning because Japanese editing and classroom piloting. The finalizing (not explanations of meaning are not always helpful; final) stage involves design, layout, and proofing. and 5) songs that have a narrative structure with The manufacturing stage completes the process provocative imagery are often the most effective. with printing, binding, and delivery. Shimoyama Using samples of lyrics he found effective vs. warned authors to be prepared to find substantial those that he felt were less effective, Hullah em- differences between their initial conception and phasized that the ultimate goal of such a course the final product. or lesson should be to liberate the English that Besides submitting one’s own proposal, an- students have already internalized, and cautioned other first step is to offer to review or pilot others’ against “dumbing down” content by using child- materials. Likewise, contributing small portions ish or vapid lyrics. Hullah also outlined how he to workbooks or teachers’ resource books may get typically used a single lyric as a full lesson in his your foot in the EFL publishing door. own classroom. Reported by John Racine Reported by Mike Guest
Kitakyushu: April—Writing Class: A Fun Part of Nagasaki: April—1) The Place of Placement Senior High School by Takashi Inomori. Inomori Tests by Melodie Cook. Cook highlighted the outlined the brief history of teaching creative purposes, processes, and outcomes of a place- English writing in Japan, which was first little ment system for 1st-year university students. 2) more than translating from Japanese to English Ideas for New Classes. Participants shared ideas and has not developed much further due to for first classes. teachers’ lack of experience with it themselves. Reported by Melodie Cook He demonstrated how he makes his classes fun while guiding the development of writing and Nagoya: April—Japanese in the EFL Class? The learning techniques, first with a “chain letter” Why and the Way by Mark Rebuck. Rebuck gave activity, where paragraphs are passed from writer a questionnaire to his students regarding his teach- to writer, each adding a sentence supporting ing method using Japanese in the classroom—the the theme or disputing it. The end result is an students’ L1. More than 78% viewed a native Eng- amusing icebreaker to begin a term with. Classes lish speaking teacher’s (NEST) use of L1 positively include timed writing exercises and discussion with a qualification. However, his students at the of common errors, always allowing enough time British Council, whose average score of TOEIC for brainstorming and pre- and post-writing is 800, didn’t appreciate his teaching style. His activities, as well as peer feedback and correction university students, in the 1st year of the medicine (Japanese permitted). Perfect accuracy is stressed or pharmacy faculty, were positive. The purposes less than writing fluency so that up to 13 essays of the NEST’s use of L1 in class are to explain can be completed per term, the best of which are vocabulary, grammar, English text, and cultural posted on his school’s website. He usually does background, etc. Positive responses to the ques- the assignment first, as an example, and always tionnaire were: 1) Japanese is essential in teaching gets the students started writing before the lesson about subtle differences in nuance; 2) it reduces the ends. Inomori’s expertise and enthusiasm has chance of falling behind; and 3) it is good for the resulted in some quality student writing. atmosphere of the class because the teacher’s im- Reported by Dave Pite perfect mastery of L1 promotes students’ empathy. Negative views were: 1) opportunity is wasted; Miyazaki: April—Sing Your Life: Effectively and 2) it is detrimental to the atmosphere for Using Pop Lyrics in EFL by Paul Hullah. Hul- learning a foreign language. In his self-monitoring lah emphasized several points that he felt would video lessons, Rebuck explains difficult English make the use of pop lyrics more effective for vocabulary and grammar in Japanese to speed up university-aged EFL learners. Among these were: comprehension and promote student participation. 1) the lyrics chosen should have some relevance It helps as a break, adding variety, and encourages to students’ lives; 2) the vocabulary level should autonomous learning. be appropriate; 3) pronunciation practice and Reported by Kayoko Kato
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 Column • Chapter Reports 65
Sendai: February—Off to the Onsen by Paul Na- Shinshu: April—Raising English Ability tion. JALT Sendai’s annual 2-day retreat featured Through Making Speeches by Dennis Wool- vocabulary expert Paul Nation in the restful en- bright. Woolbright provided valuable insights vironment of Akiu Onsen. Two workshops, three in the major steps involved in teaching Japanese sumptuous meals, and a number of visits to the university students how to prepare for and give onsen baths made for an interesting, informative, a speech: non-threatening beginnings; getting and relaxing break. ideas; speech construction; drafts, drafts, and Nation presented his four strands approach to more drafts; making a tape of the speech by a language learning, a robust framework that in- native speaker; a tape by the student; memoriza- cludes meaning-focused input, meaning-focused tion using the tape, not just the manuscript alone; output, language-focused learning, and fluency body gestures; and finally, the presentation itself. development in approximately equal proportions. He offered several unique methodologies and This approach provides a practical tool for teach- valuable advice. For example, he suggests that ers planning curricula or lessons. students write out 21 ideas for speech titles— His second session explored the deliberate good, bad, and crazy ideas. Any idea can make learning and teaching of vocabulary, including a perfect speech topic choice. If a student can’t study techniques such as using word cards for think of an idea, then they should write a speech drilling, as well as teaching approaches such as on why they cannot think of an idea! Also, never adapting tasks and activities in order to maximize start with a question—it has been overdone and students’ vocabulary learning potential. has lost any impact it may have once had. How- ever, the first 5 seconds are very important so Reported by Ben Shearon make them count to capture the audience. Reported by David Ockert
Column • Job Information Center 65 …with Derek DiMatteo In-service teacher
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 66 Column • Job Information Center
The first in-service seminar in which I par- portfolio development (TLT 31.2, 42-43). Other ticipated in the States was held bi-weekly on examples of professional development activities Wednesdays, and was limited to 10 teachers include action research, reflective teaching, men- from various departments. It was led by a pair of tor-mentee partnerships, peer observations, and experienced faculty who had planned a syllabus lesson study. and devised activities in advance. Readings came Finally, a note about Professional Development from a variety of sources, including newspaper Points (PDPs) for teachers planning to return to articles, journal articles, and selections from text- their home country to teach. Official record keep- books. We read, wrote journal responses, and dis- ing and documentation of professional develop- cussed the readings with each other. Even when ment activities are necessary for teachers who the reading focused on something very specific need to work towards recertification of teaching (e.g., peer leadership among high school students licenses issued in their home country. Credit for or a selection of differentiated-instruction case overseas professional development activities studies), the conversations we had were focused may require extra documentation, so check with on how the issues raised in the article related to the appropriate officials at your Department of the contexts of our students, the community, our Education, e.g.,
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 Column • Job Information CentEr 67
Location: Hokkaido, Asahikawa Location: Osaka-fu, Higashi-Osaka School: Hokkaido University of Education School: Kinki University, Faculty of Law Position: Foreign instructor (full-time) Position: Instructor of English (tenure track) Start Date: 1 Oct 2007 Start Date: 1 Apr 2008 Deadline: 13 Jul 2007 Deadline: 17 Jul 2007
Location: Kanagawa-ken, Fujisawa-shi Location: Saitama-ken School: Keio Shonan-Fujisawa Junior & Senior Company: Shumei Gakuen High School Position: Teacher of English (full-time) Position: English teacher (full-time) Start Date: 1 Sep 2007 Start Date: 1 Apr 2008 Deadline: Ongoing, until filled Deadline: 12 Jul 2007
Column • Conference Calendar 67
1-3 Aug 2007—ICTATLL Workshop 2007: In- …with Alan Stoke formation and Communications Technology in
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 68 Column • Conference Calendar
5-8 Oct 2007—Third International Conference 27-28 Oct 2007—15th Korea TESOL Interna- of the Independent Learning Association: Ex- tional Conference: Energizing ELT: Challenging ploring Theory, Enhancing Practice: Autonomy Ourselves, Motivating Our Students, at Sookmy- Across the Disciplines, at Kanda U. of Inter- ung Women’s U., Seoul. Contact:
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 Column • Conference Calendar 69
Calls for Papers or Posters followed by a social event. Contact:
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THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 70 The Language Teacher • Submissions
The editors welcome submissions of materials concerned with all aspects of language education, particularly with Submissions can be sent through the JALT Notices on- relevance to Japan. If accepted, the editors reserve the right to edit all copy for length, style, and clarity, without line submissions form. prior notification to authors. Materials in English should be sent in Rich Text Format by either email (preferred) or 掲示板：日本での論文募集や研究計画は、オンライン
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 The Language Teacher • Staff 71
Editorial Staff } Member's Profile & Showcase } Editorial Advisory Board } JALT Publications Board Chair Theron Muller Michael Carroll – Momoyama Gakuin [email protected] University Kim Bradford-Watts } Grassroots Torkil Christensen – Hokusei [email protected] University Junior College } Editors Joyce Cunningham Steve Cornwell – Osaka Jogakuin Mariko Miyao College Jacqui Norris-Holt [email protected] [email protected] Michael Furmanovsky – Ryukoku t: 029-228-8455; f: 029-228-8199 Ted O’Neill University [email protected] } Outreach Scott Gardner – Okayama University Chiaki Iwai – Hiroshima City } Associate Editor David McMurray [email protected] University Theron Muller Masataka Kizuka – Hokkaido [email protected] Regular Column University of Education } Japanese-Language Editor Masaki Kobayashi – Kanda University 高橋幸子 (Sachiko Takahashi) Editors of International Studies [email protected] Robert Long – Kyushu Institute of } SIG News Technology } Japanese-Language Assoc. Editor James Hobbs Laura MacGregor – Gakushuin 稲森美穂子 (Mihoko Inamori) [email protected] University [email protected] } Chapter Events Daniel J. McIntyre – Creative } Assistant Editors Communications Aleda Krause Chieko Miyanaga – Osaka Prefecture Aleda Krause [email protected] University Paul Lewis } Chapter Reports Bern Mulvey – Fukui National [email protected] Heather Sparrow University } TLT Online Editor [email protected] Tim Murphey – Dokkyo University Yoko Nakano – University of Kochi Malcolm Swanson } Job Information Center [email protected] Jonathan D. Picken – Tsuda College Derek DiMatteo } Contributing Editors Stephen M. Ryan – Eichi – Sapientia [email protected] University Robert Long } Conference Calendar Lorraine Sorrell – Macquarie Amanda O’Brien Alan Stoke University Scott Gardner [email protected] Toshiyuki Takagaki – Onomichi University } Old Grammarians Deryn Verity – Osaka Jogakuin College Resources Editors Scott Gardner Christopher Weaver – Tokyo University } My Share [email protected] of Agriculture & Technology Fukiko Yoshida – Rikkyo University Lorraine Sorrell Jerry Talandis Production } Additional Readers [email protected] } Proofreading Team Leader Lyle Allison, Wade Carlton, David } Book Reviews Dycus, Heidi Evans Nachi, Timothy Paul Lewis (see Assistant Editor) Gutierrez, Kent Hill, James Hobbs, David Robert Taferner } Proofreaders [email protected] Hufford, Yoko Ichiyama, Aleda Krause, Alan Stoke, Hiroko Lewis, Joseph Wilma Luth, Steve McGuire, Theron } Publishers’ Review Copies Liaison Sheehan, James McCrostie, Damian Muller, Andrew Obermeier, Andrea Scott Gardner Rivers, Myles Grogan, Ben Shearon, Simon-Maeda, Eric Skier [email protected] Okayama University, Faculty of Education, Torkil Christensen, David Stephan, 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Okayama 700-8530 Kim Bradford-Watts, Junko Izawa, Peer Support Group } TLT Wired Greg Rouault,Troy Miller, Shari Young, David Ockert, Ben Lehtinen, } Coordinator Paul Daniels & Malcolm Swanson Marcos Benevides Torkil Christensen [email protected] [email protected] } 和文要旨作成協力者 } Members (Japanese abstracts) JALT Focus Editors Paul Beaufait, Torkil Christensen, Loran 阿部恵美佳 (Emika Abe) } JALT Focus Editor 伊藤勝己 Edwards, Mark Hamilton, Katsumi Ito, (Katsumi Ito) Wilma Luth, Steve McGuire, Theron Joseph Sheehan 迫 和子 (Kazuko Sako) Muller [email protected] 宮尾 真理子 (Miyao Mariko) } JALT News Liaison } Design & Layout Donna Tatsuki Pukeko Graphics JALT Central Office [email protected] [email protected]; www.pukeko.ws t/f: 093-962-8430 Urban Edge Bldg. 5F, 1-37-9 Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0016 } Printing t: 03-3837-1630; f: 03-3837-1631 Koshinsha Co., Ltd., Osaka [email protected]
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 72 JALT • Membership Information
The Japan Association for Language 支部及び分野別研究部会による例会や研究会は日本 Teaching (JALT) 各地で開催され、以下の分野での発表や研究報告が 行われます。バイリンガリズム、CALL、大学外国語 • a professional organization formed in 1976 1976年に設立された学術学会 教育、共同学習、ジェンダーと語学学習、グローバ - ル問題、日本語教育、自主的学習、語用論・発音・ • working to improve language learning and 第二言語習得、児童語学教育、生涯語学教育研究部 teaching, particularly in a Japanese context 会、試験と評価、教材開発。 -語学の学習と教育の向上を図ることを目的とし ています JALT cooperates with domestic and interna- • over 3,000 members in Japan and overseas JALTは以下の国内外の -国内外で約 3,000名の会員がいます tional partners, including [ 学会と提携しています]: Annual international conference 年次国際大会 • IATEFL—International Association of Teach- • 1,500 to 2,000 participants ers of English as a Foreign Language -毎年1,500名から2,000名が参加します • JACET—the Japan Association for Teachers • hundreds of workshops and presentations of English -多数のワークショップや発表があります • PAC—the Pan Asian Conference consortium • publishers’ exhibition • TESOL—Teaching of English to Speakers of -出版社による教材展があります Other Languages • Job Information Centre -就職情報センターが設けられます Membership Categories 会員と会費 JALT publications include: All members receive annual subscriptions to • The Language Teacher—our monthly publica- The Language Teacher and JALT Journal, and tion - を毎月発行します member discounts for meetings and confer- ences. 会員はThe Language TeacherやJALT Journal等 • JALT Journal—biannual research journal の出版物を購読出来、又例会や大会にも割引価格で を年2回発行します - 参加出来ます。 • Annual Conference Proceedings • Regular 一般会員: ¥10,000 - 年次国際大会の研究発表記録集を発行します • Student rate (undergraduate/graduate in • SIG and chapter newsletters, anthologies, Japan) 学生会員（日本にある大学、大学院の学 and conference proceedings 生）: ¥6,000 - 分野別研究部会や支部も会報、アンソロジー、 研究会発表記録集を発行します • Joint—for two persons sharing a mailing address, one set of publications ジョイント Meetings and conferences sponsored by lo- 会員（同じ住所で登録する個人2名を対象とし、 cal chapters and special interest groups (SIGs) JALT出版物は2名に１部）: ¥17,000 are held throughout Japan. Presentation and • Group (5 or more) ¥6,500/person—one set of research areas include: publications for each five members団体会員 • Bilingualism （５名以上を対象とし、JALT出版物は5名につき • CALL １部）：1名6,500円 • College and university education • Cooperative learning For more information please consult our web- • Gender awareness in language education site
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 Humor • Old Grammarians 73
Old Grammarians�...... by Scott Gardner
was waiting in my car at a railroad crossing the discussion. For example, in a conversation the other day, speculating about the availa- with my wife, I may present a gambit in telling I bility of a nice little studio apartment along- her that traffic was terrible and there was no side the tracks just opposite (I later discovered it way I could possibly have made it to the super- was an abandoned freight container), when all market to buy milk before closing time, while in of a sudden the scales fell from my eyes and the the back of my mind I’m thinking, “Let’s see if Truth was revealed to me like a pickled plum in she believes this one.” the center of a bowl of rice: Communication is like Linguists also like to use the term tickets to de- Twister. scribe utterances that indicate a speaker’s desire Yes, that scandalous party game for contor- for a new or longer turn. They’re like Life cards, tionists that has entertained generations of which you pull out and employ as needed to pre- suburbanites who can’t think of more evolved serve your status in the game/exchange. Some ways to socialize at neighborhood gatherings. examples of tickets include “Have you heard the (For those of you unfamiliar with Twister, here’s one about the three penguins on an ice floe?”; a quick summary of the rules: Players take “It’s just like my cousin Abner always told me”; turns spinning the dial for a color and append- and “I hear they’ve got special prescription oint- age—hand or foot—then placing the designated ments for that now.” However, once you’ve been appendage on one of the designated colored given a turn you must be careful to be timely spaces on the floor. They spin again and place and considerate. Go on talking for too long and another appendage on another color, without re- you’re liable to get your ticket punched. moving the first one. Imagine trying to prevent The gaming formula of communication has half a dozen golf balls from rolling off the deck been ingrained in us to the extent that gaming of a ferry in choppy seas. Then think of three terms make regular appearances in our everyday other people trying to do the same thing, in the conversation. Who hasn’t at some point felt the same place, at the same time, and you might urge to add their two cents to a conversation, as have a good image of what Twister demands of if engaged in penny-ante gambling? Or when its participants.) pressed to reveal private information, to tell their Communication—as I was saying before I interrogator to go fish? I knew an English teacher rolled off deck—can be likened to Twister. In who, whenever a few of us met up at the café to any given conversation I put forth a proposi- mull over plans for the coming semester, would tion (e.g., left foot red) and my interlocutor often interject with “I’d like to trade my notional responds with a completely irrelevant rejoinder syllabus for what’s behind Door Number 2!” (right hand blue), which may or may not cause None of us knew what he meant by that. me some degree of discomfort (“Watch where So there you have it. Communication in many you’re putting your left knee, pal!”). In an effort respects resembles a game. Recognition of this to understand what my companion is getting at, fact may help lighten the mood of your next I try to bend over backwards and establish some conversation, no matter what the topic: “Boss, common ground (right hand green), whereupon the Board of Health called. Five of your custom- my partner rewards my trouble with an even ers from lunch last Thursday are being treated more egregious irrelevance (left foot yellow) for food poisoning.” “I’ll see your five and raise which ultimately leaves one of us either sitting you two stomach pumps!” Unfortunately I’m on the other’s head or else sprawled out on the not very good at games, and when I lose I usu- carpet nearby nursing a strained calf muscle. ally sulk in my chair for several minutes and The conversation ends there. start eating the playing cards, so I much prefer Of course the gamelike aspects of commu- written communication—such as this column— nication are not a new area of study. Sociolin- wherein I can make all of my moves at once guists discuss the concept of gambits, which are before anyone else even gets a chance to roll the little communicative bets that people place in dice. Checkmate—your turn! hopes of having a winning hand by the end of
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • JULY 2007 The 33rd JALT International Conference — JALT Domestic Forum 2007 — English language education at secondary schools in Japan: Today and into the future
n Action Plan to Cultivate “Japanese with English Abilities” was implemented by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) in 2003. The A SELHi (Super English Language High School) project was one of the objectives of the plan from which various activities and trials have already started. In this forum, we would like to review the results of the project, and suggest future steps. The invited panelists include a specialist from the International Education Division, Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau of MEXT, a JACET representative, members of the MEXT Planning and Evaluation Committee of SELHi, and a representative from JALT's Junior and Senior High School SIG. Also, a SELHi teacher from Hiroshima will demonstrate with video the types of classroom activities he is implementing, After each panelist speaks, questions and comments will be taken from the audience. Anyone who is interested in English language education at secondary schools in Japan is most welcome to attend.
Panel Chair: • Kensaku Yoshida –Sophia University, MEXT SELHi Committee member
Panelists: • Satoshi Tsuzuki –Senior Specialist, MEXT International Education Division, Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau • Hideko Midorikawa –Showa Women’s University, JACET representative: MEXT SELHi Committee member • Itsuhiro Nishi –Hiroshima City, Irifune SELHi High School teacher • Roger Pattimore –JALT Junior-Senior High [JSHS] SIG representative
Details: • Time & Day: 13:15-16:00, Friday, November 23, 2007 • Place: National Olympics Memorial Youth Center, Tokyo, Japan • Admission fee: Free * Special Note: Simultaneous translation (English to Japanese/Japanese to English) is available.
For more information
A vocabulary size test Paul Nation LALS, Victoria University of Wellington David Beglar Temple University Japan, Osaka
Appendix jump First 1000 7. jump: She tried to . a. lie on top of the water 1. see: They saw it. b. get off the ground suddenly a. cut c. stop the car at the edge of the road b. waited for d. move very fast c. looked at d. started 8. shoe: Where is your shoe? a. the person who looks after you 2. time: They have a lot of time. b. the thing you keep your money in a. money c. the thing you use for writing b. food d. the thing you wear on your foot c. hours d. friends 9. standard: Her standards are very high. a. the bits at the back under her shoes 3. period: It was a difficultperiod . b. the marks she gets in school a. question c. the money she asks for b. time d. the levels she reaches in c. thing to do everything d. book 10. basis: I don’t understand the basis. 4. figure: Is this the rightfigure ? a. reason a. answer b. words b. place c. road signs c. time d. main part d. number Second 1000 5. poor: We are poor. 1. maintain: Can they maintain it? a. have no money a. keep it as it is b. feel happy b. make it larger c. are very interested c. get a better one than it d. do not like to work hard d. get it 6. drive: He drives fast. 2. stone: He sat on a stone. a. swims a. hard thing b. learns b. kind of chair c. throws balls c. soft thing on the floor d. uses a car
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007 Nation & Beglar
d. part of a tree 10. pro: He’s a pro. a. someone who is employed to find 3. upset: I am upset. out important secrets a. tired b. a stupid person b. famous c. someone who writes for a c. rich newspaper d. unhappy d. someone who is paid for playing sport etc 4. drawer: The drawer was empty. a. sliding box Third 1000 b. place where cars are kept 1. soldier: He is a soldier. c. cupboard to keep things cold a. person in a business d. animal house b. student c. person who uses metal 5. patience: He has no patience. d. person in the army a. will not wait happily b. has no free time 2. restore: It has been restored. c. has no faith a. said again d. does not know what is fair b. given to a different person c. given a lower price 6. nil: His mark for that question was nil. d. made like new again a. very bad b. nothing 3. jug: He was holding a jug. c. very good a. a container for pouring liquids d. in the middle b. an informal discussion c. a soft cap 7. pub: They went to the pub. d. a weapon that explodes a. place where people drink and talk b. place that looks after money 4. scrub: He is scrubbing it. c. large building with many shops a. cutting shallow lines into it d. building for swimming b. repairing it c. rubbing it hard to clean it 8. circle: Make a circle. d. drawing simple pictures of it a. rough picture b. space with nothing in it 5. dinosaur: The children were pretending to be dinosaurs. c. round shape a. robbers who work at sea d. large hole b. very small creatures with human form but with wings 9. microphone: Please use the microphone. c. large creatures with wings that a. machine for making food hot breathe fire b. machine that makes sounds d. animals that lived an extremely louder long time ago c. machine that makes things look bigger 6. strap: He broke the strap. d. small telephone that can be a. promise carried around
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Nation & Beglar JALT2007
b. top cover c. show fairness to both sides c. shallow dish for food d. say what you really think d. strip of material for holding things together 4. tummy: Look at my tummy. a. cloth to cover the head 7. pave: It was paved. b. stomach a. prevented from going through c. small furry animal b. divided d. thumb c. given gold edges d. covered with a hard surface 5. quiz: We made a quiz. a. thing to hold arrows 8. dash: They dashed over it. b. serious mistake a. moved quickly c. set of questions b. moved slowly d. box for birds to make nests in c. fought d. looked quickly 6. input: We need more input. a. information, power, etc. put into 9. rove: He couldn’t stop roving. something a. getting drunk b. workers b. traveling around c. artificial filling for a hole in wood c. making a musical sound through d. money closed lips d. working hard 7. crab: Do you like crabs? a. sea creatures that walk sideways 10. lonesome: He felt lonesome. b. very thin small cakes a. ungrateful c. tight, hard collars b. very tired d. large black insects that sing at night c. lonely d. full of energy 8. vocabulary: You will need more vocabu- lary. Fourth 1000 a. words 1. compound: They made a new compound. b. skill a. agreement c. money b. thing made of two or more parts d. guns c. group of people forming a business 9. remedy: We found a good remedy. d. guess based on past experience a. way to fix a problem 2. latter: I agree with the latter. b. place to eat in public a. man from the church c. way to prepare food b. reason given d. rule about numbers c. last one 10. allege: They alleged it. d. answer a. claimed it without proof 3. candid: Please be candid. b. stole the ideas for it from someone else a. be careful c. provided facts to prove it b. show sympathy
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007 Nation & Beglar
d. argued against the facts that sup‑ a. a very small thing of its kind ported it b. an instrument for looking at very small objects Fifth 1000 c. a very small living creature 1. deficit: The company had a largedeficit . d. a small line to join letters in hand‑ a. spent a lot more money than it writing earned b. went down a lot in value 8. peel: Shall I peel it? c. had a plan for its spending that a. let it sit in water for a long time used a lot of money b. take the skin off it d. had a lot of money stored in the c. make it white bank d. cut it into thin pieces 2. weep: He wept. 9. fracture: They found a fracture. a. finished his course a. break b. cried b. small piece c. died c. short coat d. worried d. rare jewel 3. nun: We saw a nun. 10. bacterium: They didn’t find a singlebac - a. long thin creature that lives in the terium. earth a. small living thing causing disease b. terrible accident b. plant with red or orange flowers c. woman following a strict religious life c. animal that carries water in lumps on its back d. unexplained bright light in the sky d. thing that has been stolen and sold to a shop 4. haunt: The house is haunted. a. full of ornaments Sixth 1000 b. rented 1. devious: Your plans are devious. c. empty a. tricky d. full of ghosts b. well‑developed c. not well thought out 5. compost: We need some compost. d. more expensive than necessary a. strong support b. help to feel better 2. premier: The premier spoke for an hour. c. hard stuff made of stones and sand a. person who works in a law court stuck together b. university teacher d. rotted plant material c. adventurer d. head of the government 6. cube: I need one more cube. a. sharp thing used for joining things 3. butler: They have a butler. b. solid square block a. man servant c. tall cup with no saucer b. machine for cutting up trees d. piece of stiff paper folded in half c. private teacher d. cool dark room under the house 7. miniature: It is a miniature.
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Nation & Beglar JALT2007
4. accessory: They gave us some accessories. d. slid sideways without the wheels a. papers giving us the right to enter turning a country b. official orders Seventh 1000 c. ideas to choose between 1. olive: We bought olives. d. extra pieces a. oily fruit b. scented pink or red flowers 5. threshold: They raised the threshold. c. men’s clothes for swimming a. flag d. tools for digging up weeds b. point or line where something changes 2. quilt: They made a quilt. c. roof inside a building a. statement about who should get d. cost of borrowing money their property when they die b. firm agreement 6. thesis: She has completed her thesis. c. thick warm cover for a bed a. long written report of study carried d. feather pen out for a university degree b. talk given by a judge at the end of 3. stealth: They did it by stealth. a trial a. spending a large amount of money c. first year of employment after be‑ b. hurting someone so much that they coming a teacher agreed to their demands d. extended course of hospital treat‑ c. moving secretly with extreme care ment and quietness d. taking no notice of problems they 7. strangle: He strangled her. met a. killed her by pressing her throat b. gave her all the things she wanted 4. shudder: The boy shuddered. c. took her away by force a. spoke with a low voice d. admired her greatly b. almost fell c. shook 8. cavalier: He treated her in a cavalier man‑ d. called out loudly ner. a. without care 5. bristle: The bristles are too hard. b. politely a. questions c. awkwardly b. short stiff hairs d. as a brother would c. folding beds d. bottoms of the shoes 9. malign: His malign influence is still felt. a. evil 6. bloc: They have joined this bloc. b. good a. musical group c. very important b. band of thieves d. secret c. small group of soldiers who are sent ahead of others 10. veer: The car veered. d. group of countries with a common a. went suddenly in another direction purpose b. moved shakily c. made a very loud noise
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007 Nation & Beglar
7. demography: This book is about demog- 3. null: His influence wasnull . raphy. a. had good results a. the study of patterns of land use b. was unhelpful b. the study of the use of pictures to c. had no effect show facts about numbers d. was long‑lasting c. the study of the movement of water d. the study of population 4. kindergarten: This is a good kindergar- ten. 8. gimmick: That’s a good gimmick. a. activity that allows you to forget a. thing for standing on to work high your worries above the ground b. place of learning for children too b. small thing with pockets for hold‑ young for school ing money c. strong, deep bag carried on the c. attention‑getting action or thing back d. clever plan or trick d. place where you may borrow books
9. azalea: This azalea is very pretty. a. small tree with many flowers grow‑ 5. eclipse: There was an eclipse. ing in groups a. a strong wind b. light material made from natural b. a loud noise of something hitting threads the water c. long piece of material worn by c. the killing of a large number of women in India people d. sea shell shaped like a fan d. the sun hidden by a planet
10. yoghurt: This yoghurt is disgusting. a. dark grey mud found at the bottom 6. marrow: This is the marrow. of rivers a. symbol that brings good luck to a b. unhealthy, open sore team c. thick, soured milk, often with sugar b. soft centre of a bone and flavouring c. control for guiding a plane d. large purple fruit with soft flesh d. increase in salary
Eighth 1000 1. erratic: He was erratic. 7. locust: There were hundreds of locusts. a. without fault a. insects with wings b. very bad b. unpaid helpers c. very polite c. people who do not eat meat d. unsteady d. brightly coloured wild flowers
2. palette: He lost his palette. 8. authentic: It is authentic. a. basket for carrying fish a. real b. wish to eat food b. very noisy c. young female companion c. old d. artist’s board for mixing paints d. like a desert
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Nation & Beglar JALT2007
9. cabaret: We saw the cabaret. 5. whim: He had lots of whims. a. painting covering a whole wall a. old gold coins b. song and dance performance b. female horses c. small crawling insect c. strange ideas with no motive d. person who is half fish, half woman d. sore red lumps
10. mumble: He started to mumble. 6. perturb: I was perturbed. a. think deeply a. made to agree b. shake uncontrollably b. worried c. stay further behind the others c. very puzzled d. speak in an unclear way d. very wet
Ninth 1000 7. regent: They chose a regent. 1. hallmark: Does it have a hallmark? a. an irresponsible person a. stamp to show when it should be b. a person to run a meeting for a used by short time b. stamp to show the quality c. a ruler acting in place of the king or queen c. mark to show it is approved by the royal family d. a person to represent them d. mark or stain to prevent copying 8. octopus: They saw an octopus. 2. puritan: He is a puritan. a. a large bird that hunts at night a. person who likes attention b. a ship that can go under water b. person with strict morals c. a machine that flies by means of turning blades c. person with a moving home d. a sea creature with eight legs d. person who keeps money and hates spending it 9. fen: The story is set in the fens. 3. monologue: Now he has a monologue. a. a piece of low flat land partly cov‑ ered by water a. single piece of glass to hold over his eye to help him to see better b. a piece of high, hilly land with few trees b. long turn at talking without being interrupted c. a block of poor‑quality houses in a city c. position with all the power d. a time long ago d. picture made by joining letters together in interesting ways 10. lintel: He painted the lintel. 4. weir: We looked at the weir. a. beam across the top of a door or window a. person who behaves strangely b. small boat used for getting to land b. wet and muddy place with water from a big boat plants c. beautiful tree with spreading c. old metal musical instrument branches and green fruit played by blowing d. board which shows the scene in a d. thing built across a river to control theatre the water
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 JALT2007 Nation & Beglar
Tenth 1000 7. pigtail: Does she have a pigtail? 1. awe: They looked at the mountain with a. a long rope of hair made by twist‑ awe. ing bits together a. worry b. a lot of cloth hanging behind a b. interest dress c. wonder c. a plant with pale pink flowers that hang down in short bunches d. respect d. a lover 2. peasantry: He did a lot for the peasantry. 8. crowbar: He used a crowbar. a. local people a. heavy iron pole with a curved end b. place of worship b. false name c. businessmen’s club c. sharp tool for making holes in d. poor farmers leather d. light metal walking stick 3. egalitarian: This organization is very egalitarian. 9. ruck: He got hurt in the ruck. a. does not provide much information about itself to the public a. hollow between the stomach and the top of the leg b. dislikes change b. noisy street fight c. frequently asks a court of law for a judgement c. group of players gathered round the ball in some ball games d. treats everyone who works for it as if they are equal d. race across a field of snow
lectern 4. mystique: He has lost his mystique. 10. lectern: He stood at the . a. his healthy body a. desk made to hold a book at a good height for reading b. the secret way he makes other people think he has special power b. table or block used for church or skill sacrifices c. the woman who has been his lover c. place where you buy drinks while he is married to someone else d. very edge d. the hair on his top lip Eleventh 1000 5. upbeat: I’m feeling really upbeat about it. 1. excrete: This was excreted recently. a. upset a. pushed or sent out b. good b. made clear c. hurt c. discovered by a science experiment d. confused d. put on a list of illegal things
6. cranny: We found it in the cranny! 2. mussel: They bought mussels. a. sale of unwanted objects a. small glass balls for playing a game b. narrow opening b. shellfish c. space for storing things under the c. large purple fruits roof of a house d. pieces of soft paper to keep the d. large wooden box clothes clean when eating
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Nation & Beglar JALT2007
3. yoga: She has started yoga. 9. emir: We saw the emir. a. handwork done by knotting thread a. bird with two long curved tail b. a form of exercise for the body and feathers mind b. woman who cares for other peo‑ c. a game where a cork stuck with ple’s children in Eastern countries feathers is hit between two players c. Middle Eastern chief with power in d. a type of dance from eastern coun‑ his own land tries d. house made from blocks of ice
4. counterclaim: They made a counterclaim. 10. hessian: She bought some hessian. a. a demand made by one side in a a. oily pinkish fish law case to match the other side’s b. stuff that produces a happy state of demand mind b. a request for a shop to take back c. coarse cloth things with faults d. strong‑tasting root for flavouring c. an agreement between two compa‑ food nies to exchange work d. a top cover for a bed Twelfth 1000 1. haze: We looked through the haze. 5. puma: They saw a puma. a. small round window in a ship a. small house made of mud bricks b. unclear air b. tree from hot, dry countries c. cover for a window made of strips c. very strong wind that sucks up of wood or plastic anything in its path d. list of names d. large wild cat 2. spleen: His spleen was damaged. 6. pallor: His pallor caused them concern. a. knee bone a. his unusually high temperature b. organ found near the stomach b. his lack of interest in anything c. pipe taking waste water from a c. his group of friends house d. the paleness of his skin d. respect for himself
7. aperitif: She had an aperitif. 3. soliloquy: That was an excellent solilo- a. a long chair for lying on with just quy! one place to rest an arm a. song for six people b. a private singing teacher b. short clever saying with a deep c. a large hat with tall feathers meaning d. a drink taken before a meal c. entertainment using lights and music 8. hutch: Please clean the hutch. d. speech in the theatre by a character a. thing with metal bars to keep dirt who is alone out of water pipes b. space in the back of a car used for 4. reptile: She looked at the reptile. bags etc a. old hand‑written book c. round metal thing in the middle of b. animal with cold blood and a hard a bicycle wheel outside d. cage for small animals c. person who sells things by knock‑ ing on doors
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 10 JALT2007 Nation & Beglar
d. picture made by sticking many d. dance step of turning round very small pieces of different colours fast on the toes together Thirteenth 1000 5. alum: This contains alum. 1. ubiquitous: Many weeds are ubiquitous. a. a poisonous substance from a com‑ a. are difficult to get rid of mon plant b. have long, strong roots b. a soft material made of artificial threads c. are found in most countries c. a tobacco powder once put in the d. die away in the winter nose d. a chemical compound usually 2. talon: Just look at those talons! involving aluminium a. high points of mountains b. sharp hooks on the feet of a hunt‑ 6. refectory: We met in the refectory. ing bird a. room for eating c. heavy metal coats to protect against b. office where legal papers can be weapons signed d. people who make fools of them‑ c. room for several people to sleep in selves without realizing it d. room with glass walls for growing plants 3. rouble: He had a lot of roubles. a. very precious red stones 7. caffeine: This contains a lot of caffeine. b. distant members of his family a. a substance that makes you sleepy c. Russian money b. threads from very tough leaves d. moral or other difficulties in the c. ideas that are not correct mind d. a substance that makes you excited 4. jovial: He was very jovial. 8. impale: He nearly got impaled. a. low on the social scale a. charged with a serious offence b. likely to criticize others b. put in prison c. full of fun c. stuck through with a sharp instru‑ d. friendly ment d. involved in a dispute 5. communiqué: I saw their communiqué. a. critical report about an organiza‑ 9. coven: She is the leader of a coven. tion a. a small singing group b. garden owned by many members of a community b. a business that is owned by the workers c. printed material used for advertis‑ ing c. a secret society d. official announcement d. a group of church women who fol‑ low a strict religious life 6. plankton: We saw a lot of plankton. 10. trill: He practised the trill. a. poisonous weeds that spread very quickly a. ornament in a piece of music b. very small plants or animals found b. type of stringed instrument in water c. way of throwing a ball c. trees producing hard wood
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 Nation & Beglar JALT2007 11
d. grey clay that often causes land to b. at the top of slip c. on this side of d. on the far side of 7. skylark: We watched a skylark. a. show with aeroplanes flying in 3. marsupial: It is a marsupial. patterns a. an animal with hard feet b. man‑made object going round the b. a plant that grows for several years earth c. a plant with flowers that turn to c. person who does funny tricks face the sun d. small bird that flies high as it sings d. an animal with a pocket for babies 8. beagle: He owns two beagles. 4. augur: It augured well. a. fast cars with roofs that fold down a. promised good things for the future b. large guns that can shoot many b. agreed well with what was ex‑ people quickly pected c. small dogs with long ears c. had a colour that looked good with d. houses built at holiday places something else d. rang with a clear, beautiful sound 9. atoll: The atoll was beautiful. a. low island made of coral round a 5. bawdy: It was very bawdy. sea‑water lake a. unpredictable b. work of art created by weaving b. enjoyable pictures from fine thread c. rushed c. small crown with many precious jewels worn in the evening by d. rude women d. place where a river flows through a 6. gauche: He was gauche. narrow place full of large rocks a. talkative b. flexible 10. didactic: The story is very didactic. c. awkward a. tries hard to teach something d. determined b. is very difficult to believe c. deals with exciting actions 7. thesaurus: She used a thesaurus. d. is written in a way which makes a. a kind of dictionary the reader unsure of the meaning b. a chemical compound Fourteenth 1000 c. a special way of speaking d. an injection just under the skin 1. canonical: These are canonical examples. a. examples which break the usual 8. erythrocyte: It is an erythrocyte. rules a. a medicine to reduce pain b. examples taken from a religious b. a red part of the blood book c. a reddish white metal c. regular and widely accepted exam‑ ples d. a member of the whale family d. examples discovered very recently 9. cordillera: They were stopped by the cordillera. 2. atop: He was atop the hill. a. a special law a. at the bottom of
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 12 JALT2007 Nation & Beglar
b. an armed ship c. a line of mountains d. the eldest son of the king
10. limpid: He looked into her limpid eyes. a. clear b. tearful c. deep brown d. beautiful
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 1 My Share • Resources
Making first impressions count Patrick Miller Chubu University
Appendix A. Sample questions about • When are your office hours? course and instructor First Day Questions • How long have you been in Japan? • Where did you teach before coming to Japan? You will receive some questions on a small slip of • Why did you come to Japan? paper. Be ready to ask your questions. Also, listen • Where do you live? carefully and write the answers you hear. • What do you think of Chubu University? • What do you do in your free time? Expectations / Attendance, Performance Policy • What should we do if we miss a class? Appendix B. Sample questions used to • What should we bring to every class? interview and present a classmate • Will we have homework? Get to Know Your Classmates • What happens if we forget to do the home- work? Interview a classmate. Be ready to tell us • Should we speak only English? about him or her. • Will we have any tests? • Can I use my cell phone in this class? 1. What’s your name? 2. Where are you from? General Questions about the course description 3. Where do you live? • What will we learn in this class? 4. What’s your major? • What kind of activities will we do? 5. What do you do in your free time? 6. What do you think of Chubu University? Schedule Questions 7. Why are you taking this class? • What is the homework for Week 1? • How many graded readers reports are there?
Evaluation • What is the grading system? • What percent of our grade is for homework?
Teacher/Course information / Personal Information • What is your name? • What should we call you? • Where are you from? • Where is your office? • What is your email address? • Can we call you or email you if we have a problem?
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007 1 My Share • Resources
A communicative introduction to part one of the TOEIC Ben Fenton-Smith Kanda University of International Studies
Appendix: Sample worksheet
You must use the –ing form of the verb in parentheses ( ), OR There + is/are… Every sentence must contain at least two nouns.
Examples: 1. The boy is playing tennis. (noun) (V – ing) (noun) 2. There are three men in the shop. (There + are) (noun) (noun)
Change roles after you have completed the first five sentences.
1. (hold)
2. (wait)
3. (paint)
4. There is/are
5. (shake)
6. (play)
7. There is/are
8. (look)
9. (clean)
10. There is/are
THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 31.7 • July 2007