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Using the Dictogloss Method and IELTS Materials in Adult ESL Listening Classes 3/23/2021 GATESOL PD MEETING Using the Dictogloss Method and IELTS Materials in Adult ESL Listening Classes Ji Ma Georgia State University Ji Ma ● MA. Ed. in Reading ● Ed.S. in ELL ● TESOL Certificates ● Reading Specialist Endorsement ● 15-Year TESOL teaching and leadership experiences ● Board Member at Yi Hwang Dual Language Immersion Charter School ● Ph.D. in Language and Literacy The problem Chinese Students IELTS & Listening Skill Problem Statement ● The number of Chinese ● International English There is a need to students studying Language Testing explore effective abroad exceeded System (IELTS) teaching strategies to 600,000 in 2018 ● Chinese students’ improve Chinese ● The largest population average IELTS score students’ listening of international students around the ranked 34 out of 40 performance in IELTS. world (Ministry of countries in 2017. Education of the ● Listening skill. People’s Republic of China, 2019). Why Listening Skills? ● Listening is the main input resource for SLA (Tyagi & Misra, 2011; Vasiljevic, 2010). ● Weak listening ability and poor test performance are predictors of a higher level of Foreign Language Learning Anxiety (FLLA) (Chow, Chiu, & Wong, 2017). What is your listening class look like? 3 Check answers together Traditional Teach Teacher vocabulary and Centered grammar method 1 2 - Teacher plays the recording several times (TM) with instructions. - Students listen to the recordings while working on workbook questions. Preparation Dictogloss Analysis and Student method Correction Centered Dictation (DM) Reconstruction The Standard Dictogloss (DG) Method The standard dictogloss ● Preparation (20 minutes) ● Dictation (5 minutes) ● Reconstruction (30 minutes) ● Analysis and correction (30-45 minutes) In the classroom Dictogloss is often regarded as a multiple skills and systems activity. Learners practise listening, writing and speaking (by working in groups) and use vocabulary, grammar and discourse systems in order to complete the task (Wajnryb, 1990). Modified Dictogloss (MDG) method Preparation Dictation Reconstruction Introduce the background Play the recording three times. The The students were asked to recording was played at a normal speed reconstruct the listening knowledge of the listening for the first and third time, listening material in five minutes and material, for example, the target materials were chunked into sentences vocabulary, related culture, and and phrases for the second time. During present it to other groups in language structure. dictation, students can write keywords English. to help with reconstructing the material. Correction and feedback The teacher noted the students’ errors in common during their presentation and corrected the errors as a whole group. The students were asked to compare their dictation to the original context and note errors in their journals. All the errors were reviewed in the next class. Effectiveness of Dictogloss Method ● Researchers found out that dictogloss is effective on improving ESL learners’ writing performance (Abbasian & Mohammadi, 2013; Kooshafa, Youhanaee, & Amirian, 2012; Younis & Batineh, 2016) ● The dictogloss method is effective in teaching problematic linguistic structures in a meaningful context ( Yuan, 2014). ● The Modified dictogloss method is effective on improving L2 learners’ memory on English formulaic sequences (FSs) in later writing (Lindstromberg, Eyckmans, & Connabeer, 2016) . Why IELTS? ● Researchers found that there is a positive correlation between IELTS scores and student GPAs in undergraduate and graduate studies (Bayliss & Ingram, 2006; Feast, 2002; Yen & Kuzma, 2009). ● IELTS has been widely acknowledged by over 140 countries and 10,000 higher education institutions in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and many schools in the United States since its establishment in 1989. ● In recent years, the number of IELTS test-takers grew rapidly and reached three million a year in 2017. ● High reliability of the tests: The average Cronbach’s alpha amounted to above .91 across the listening and reading tests in 2017. IELTS Listening Test Answer 40 questions (four sections) in 40 minutes: A. a conversation between two people set in an everyday social context; B. a monologue set in an everyday social context, e.g. a speech about local facilities; C. a conversation between up to four people set in an educational or training context, e.g. a university tutor and a student discussing an assignment; D. a monologue on an academic subject, e.g. a university lecture. (IELTS, 2017) Discussions ● Researcher suggested doing adequate preparation, for example, discuss the topic and introduce new vocabulary at the first stage (Gallego, 2014). ● Study shows that allowing students to get acquainted with the target knowledge in a meaningful way was able to increase their competence in using the language forms (Snoder & Reynolds, 2018). ● Authentic materials ● Life-related topics ● Opportunities to practice the target language References Abbasian, G. R., & Mohammadi, M. (2013). The effectiveness of Dictogloss in developing general writing skill of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. Journal of Language Teaching & Research, 4(6), 1371–1380. Bayliss, A., & Ingram, D. IELTS as a predictor of academic language performance. In International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Research Reports 2007: Volume 7. [Canberra]: IELTS Australia and British Council, 2007 Chow, Bonnie & Chiu, Hey & Wong, Simpson. (2017). Anxiety in reading and listening English as a foreign language in Chinese undergraduate students. Language Teaching Research. 22. 136216881770215. 10.1177/1362168817702159. Gallego, M. (2014). Second language learners’ reflections on the effectiveness of Dictogloss: A multi-sectional, multi-level analysis. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4(1), 33–50. IELTS (2017). The official IELTS website. Retrieved from https://www.ielts.org/en-us/news/2017/new-milestones-confirm-ielts-as-the-worlds-leading-test-of-english References Marashi, H., & Khaksar, M. (2013). Dictogloss or dicto-phrase: Which works better for listening comprehension? Journal on English Language Teaching, 3(1), 22–29. Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (2019). Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xxgk/xxgk_jyta/jyta_gjs/201902/t20190220_370266.html Kooshafar, M., Youhanaee, M., & Amirian, Z. (2012). The effect of Dictogloss technique on learners’ writing improvement in terms of writing coherent Texts. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 3(4). doi:10.4304/jltr.3.4.716-721 Tyagi, K., & Misra, P. (2011). Basic technical communication. New Delhi, India: PHI Learning. Yuan, F. (2014). Focused Dictogloss, peer collaboration, and guided reconstruction: A case of time expressions in L2 Chinese. In N. Jiang (Ed.), Advances in Chinese as A Second language (pp. 121-140). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars. Wajnryb, R. (1990). Grammar dictation. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. Vasiljevic, Z. (2010). Dictogloss as an interactive method of teaching listening comprehension to L2 Learners. English Language Teaching, 3(1), 41–52. Ji Ma - [email protected].
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