D1b DELTA Pre Course Directed Reading Task

Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul The Pre Course Task You need to work out what to focus on before you start any of the Modules … This pre course task is designed to help you to do that. If you are planning to do Modules One or Two it will highlight the areas you can work on most usefully before you start the course. If you are planning to do Module Three, you should find you are reasonably familiar with all the things in the pre course task (and if you are not, think about doing Modules One and Two first). I recommend that you go through the questions noting your answers without referring to books or checking sources and then compare your ideas with ours as given in the answer key. The object of the exercise is not to establish how many of the questions you get right (some of the questions do not have one ‘right’ answer as such), but for you to decide which of the areas are more or less familiar to you so that you can prioritise your pre-course reading and activities. Recommendations as to what to focus on are given as part of the key.

A. Questions 1-5 : Classroom management / techniques / planning 1. What is a dictagloss ? 2. Is it better to pair stronger learners with stronger learners and weaker learners with weaker learners, or to pair a stronger learner with a weaker one ? Why ? 3. Of the four following statements, which one would be suitable as a stage aim in a lesson plan and which one would be suitable as a main aim for a lesson ? a. learners will be involved in a roleplay about where to site a holiday village b. learners are introduced to some examples of the target language in an appropriate context c. learners will have a heightened awareness of the speaking skills involved in initiating and responding to topic change in conversation d. learners will read the text in three minutes to find the answer to the question 4. What is a mill drill ? 5. What do you do about latecomers ?

B. Questions 6 – 10 : The four skills 6. Is predicting likely content from pictures a more top-down or a more bottom up approach ? 7. Editing and brainstorming are stages in which kind of approach to writing ? 8. Which skill are adjacency pairs most likely to be relevant to ? 9. At what stage of a skills focused lesson are you likely to do an activity to activate learners schemata ? 10. If you ask learners to choose a heading for a reading text, are they more likely to skim or scan to do so ?

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

C. Questions 11 – 15 : Structure For each of the following pairs of sentences say ... What is the difference between them in terms of form ? Does this difference in form change the meaning ? How ? At what level would you expect this to arise in course books ? 11. We’re going to Scotland next year. We’re going to go to Scotland next year. 12. If you go on a cruise, you’ll get bored. If you went on a cruise, you’d get bored. 13. Would you like anything to eat ? Would you like something to eat ? 14. He has few friends. He has a few friends. 15. She remembered meeting Mike the first time ... She remembered to meet Mike the first time ...

D. Questions 16 – 20 : Lexis Choose items from the box to answer questions 16 – 20. underneath to put it another way He shrugged his shoulders. take off in three days time There’ll be hell to pay. The ceasefire held.

radio station

16. Find a noun + verb collocation. 17. Find a multiword prepositional phrase. 18. Find a phrasal verb. 19. Find a fixed expression. 20. Find a discourse marker.

E. Questions 21 – 25: Approaches and techniques 21. List three advantages and three disadvantages of a PPP approach in the classroom. 22. What does CR stand for (in TEFL) and what does it involve ? 23. Which approach is Michael Lewis famous for popularising ? 24. Which series of course books was the first to proclaim itself to be task-based ? 25. Is a concordance likely to be more useful to a teacher, a learner or both ?

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

F. Questions 26 – 30: Discourse 26. What do you need to know to understand whether the following sentence is a request, an order or a complaint ? The phone’s ringing. 27. Where are you likely to see the following and which features of language are characteristic of that situation ? Safety goggles are to be worn at all times 28. Find the anaphoric and cataphoric reference in the following. They went to the forest together, Tigger, Pooh and Kanga, even though the weather was terrible and it didn’t appear about to get better. 29. What kind of substitution is evident in the following ? Will the game be postponed ? I hope not. 30. What’s the difference between cohesion and coherence ?

G. Questions 31 – 35 : Phonology 31. What word does /ɪndʒɔɪ/ represent ? 32. Is English a stress timed or a syllable timed language ? 33. What problems are Turkish learners likely to have with the pronunciation of key and why ? 34. How many syllables are there in economics and which is the stressed syllable ? 35. What is elision ?

H. Questions 36 – 40 : History of ELT / Second Language Acquisition Research 36. Who wrote about an affective filter hypothesis and what implications does it have for language learning ? 37. What is a learners interlanguage ? 38. Which came first: grammar translation or the audio-lingual method ? 39. Who challenged the idea that language was a habit, on the basis that if this were true, we could never say anything new ? 40. What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research ?

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

I. Questions 41 – 45 : Psychology 41. What does VAKOG stand for and what system of ideas is it part of ? 42. Name the seven types of intelligence originally proposed by Gardner. 43. What’s the difference between instrumental motivation and integrative motivation ? 44. Who developed community language learning and what does it consist of ? 45. What are cross crawl and hook ups a part of and how can they help language learners ?

J. Questions 46 – 50 : Culture / perspectives 46. What is linguistic imperialism ? 47. Is it better to teach English via texts about England and English culture or via texts about the learners own country and culture ? 48. What is your position on L1 use in the classroom ? By the teacher ? By the learners ? 49. What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis ? 50. Name one thing that learners can get from a native speaker (NS) teacher of English that they can’t get from a non native speaker (NNS) and one thing that they can get from an NNS English teacher, but can’t get from an NS teacher.

K. Questions 51 – 55 : Technology / Resources 51. What is a podcast ? 52. Name two advantages and two disadvantages of using powerpoint in a lesson. 53. What might you use a video clip for ? 54. If your learners are asking about dictionaries for their phones, what would you tell them to bear in mind ? 55. What might you use a class wiki for ?

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

Pre-course task – directed reading – key Some things to remember:  This task is not comprehensive – it doesn’t cover every area that you will need to know about for the all Modules in the DELTA, just some of them.  These answers are as short as we can make them without them actually being misleading. They are only intended to allow you to check if you were thinking in the right direction or not. Further information about any area can be found by following the reading recommendations.  You should balance what doing this task tells you with the reading that is recommended in the Module specific guides at the end of this document. Some things are more urgent for some Modules.

A. Questions 1-5 : Classroom management / techniques / planning 1. In a dictagloss a short text is read at normal speed to learners who then try to reconstruct it in groups. After that they compare their reconstructions with the original text. This enables them to notice features of the language they are personally ready to learn at that point in time and allows them to notice the gap between the language they produced and the language that was used by a native speaker in the original. 2. There is no one certain answer to this, but alternating between the two might be a good idea. If weaker learners are with stronger learners and the stronger learner is helpful, the weaker learner can be helped to understand and the stronger learner may benefit from the insights that guiding someone else can bring. However, it may also be the case that the weaker learner stops making an effort as they know they will be shown the ‘answer’ and the stronger learner will lack a challenge. Sometimes putting weaker learners together forces them to take the initiative and stronger learners will probably enjoy the competition of being in a stronger group.

3. While aims out of context are not ideal, b is a likely stage aim and c is a likely lesson aim. A is an activity rather than an aim and d is more about what is being done than why. 4. A mill drill is an activity which requires the learners to move about the class and ask all the other learners one or more questions. As a consequence, they practice the same items over and over again, hence ‘drill’. 5. The temptation is to hang on until you have a majority of the class in the room before starting to do anything challenging, but this can become a self generating trap, especially if you just chat to the ones who have arrived (this is not to say that you shouldn’t ever chat to learners, just that a lot of time spent in relaxed and unfocused chat may not be their best possible use of time), While in some cases, such as only having 2 of a class of 12, you may need to stall the beginning of the lesson, this does not reward the learners who did arrive on time and in fact acts as a disincentive for any of them to do so in future. Also in most institutions there are rough guidelines on how much material must be covered in courses and if a group gets into the habit of having coffee first and starting 20 minutes late you could be losing up to 20% of your usable classroom time. A warmer that is relevant to the lesson is a good idea, especially one that is short and flexible as regards the number of participants. IF THE IDEAS IN THIS SECTION ARE NOT FAMILIAR TO YOU THEN LOOK AT THE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT CHAPTERS IN Harmer, J. 2007 The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman Brown, H.D. 1995 Principles of Language Learning and Teaching Prentice Hall Hedge, T. 2000 Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom OUP Ur, P. 1996 A Course in Language Teaching CUP One of the above would be enough. All four cover roughly the same ground.

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

B. Questions 6 – 10 : The four skills 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Predicting content from pictures is a top down approach. Editing and brainstorming are stages in the process approach to writing. Adjacency pairs are likely to be used in speaking. You are likely to want to activate schemata at a very early stage in a skills lesson. Choosing a heading usually involves skimming

Read the skills sections in ... Carter, R. & Nunan, D. 2000 Cambridge Guide to TESOL CUP Richards, J. & Renandya, W. 2002 Methodology in Language Teaching CUP Richards, J. 1990 The Language Teaching Matrix CUP Nunan, D. 1991 Language Teaching Methodology Prentice Hall OR look at Thornbury, S. 2005 How to Teach Speaking Longman Bygate, M. 1987 Speaking OUP http://www.oup.com/pdf/elt/catalogue/0-19-437134-4-a.pdf sample pages here Harmer, J. 2004 How to Teach Writing Longman Anderson, A. & Lynch, T. 1988 Listening OUP http://www.oup.com/pdf/elt/catalogue/0-19-437135-2-a.pdf sample pages here Lynch, T. 2009 Teaching Second Language Listening OUP Hudson, T. 2007 Teaching Second Language Reading OUP http://www.oup.com/pdf/elt/catalogue/978-0-19-442283-3-b.pdf sample pages here nd Nuttall, C. 1996 (2 ed) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language Heinemann

C. Questions 11 – 15 : Structure 11. We’re going to Scotland next year. A. Present continuous tense (be + -ing) for future meaning We’re going to go to Scotland next year. B. Going to + infinitive. My learners dislike the numerous ways the future can be expressed in English and particularly dislike it because of the huge overlaps between use. They would like all use to divide neatly so that only one choice was correct each time for clear reasons. (They have a point.) In context, it is likely that these sentences are both equally possible. Some books suggest that going to go should not be used if possible as it is clumsy in style, but it is widely used in everyday English (try Googling it). There is a slight difference in meaning between the two structures though, as you can see if you change the sentence to ... I’m putting my feet up this evening. Versus I’m going to put my feet up this evening. The first sentence doesn’t sound outrageous, but it does sound slightly odd. Going to + infinitive suggests a general intent, whereas present continuous for future meaning suggests an arrangement – something you might note in a diary. In the Scotland example both of these states are more likely to be true simultaneously, so both structures sound ok. This will come up in elementary course books. 12. A. If you go on a cruise, you’ll get bored. B. If you went on a cruise, you’d get bored. A is the first conditional: [If + present simple] + [will + infinitive]. B is the second conditional: [If + past simple] + [would + infinitive] A is used for things that are possible if the condition is met, B is used for things that are possible, but unlikely, or in which the condition cannot infact be fulfilled (e.g. If I were you ...). So the only difference between the two sentences in this case is the perspective of the speaker. A thinks a cruise is a realistic possibility, whereas B thinks it is doubtful. This usually comes up at pre-intermediate level.

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

13. Would you like anything to eat ? Would you like something to eat ? If you find this one interesting read Michael Lewis’s book The English Verb. Although elementary course books usually stick to simple rules about statements and questions, the relationship between some and any is actually about limits. (e.g. You can use this card in any machine versus You can use this card in some machines.) and this is something that can be explored more fully when learners have more language, say at intermediate level. 14. A. He has few friends. B. He has a few friends. A gives a negative feeling (he needs more friends), whereas B gives a more positive feeling. This also holds true for little and a little. This is likely to come up at First Certificate level. 15. A. She remembered meeting Mike the first time ... B. She remembered to meet Mike the first time ... In A she is remembering a previous act – the meeting happened first, then the remembering. In B she remembers first (that is necessary to meet Mike) then goes and meets him. There is a group of about 20 verbs that work like this, the meaning of the statement changes according to whether they are followed by an –ing form or an infinitive. This comes up at First Certificate level. If you teach in an adult language school and have done so for a while and over a range of levels, your language analysis is probably quite good, but if you are in a more specialised teaching situation, you may not yet have built your knowledge of this area to a level that will support you well through DELTA. If none of these questions were easy, then you should probably start with a self study grammar for learners, such as ... Swan, M. & Walter, C. 1997 How English Works OUP Eastwood, J. 1999 Oxford Practice Grammar OUP nd Murphy, R. 2000 (2 Ed) Grammar in Use CUP If, as sometimes happens, you spend a lot of time teaching at low levels, it would be worth finding an advanced level student grammar of the same ilk. You will need a good reference grammar – see reading for Module One later in this document. Consider buying Thornbury, S. 1997 About Language CUP as it is designed specifically to deal with the kind of language analysis DELTA teachers need, especially in the exam.

D. Questions 16 – 20 : Lexis 16. Find a noun + verb collocation.

The ceasefire held.

17. Find a multiword prepositional phrase. 18. Find a phrasal verb.

In three days time

Take off

19. Find a fixed expression.

There’ll be hell to pay.

20. Find a discourse marker.

To put it another way

Thornbury, S. 2002 How to Teach Vocabulary Longman Gairns, R. & Redman, S. 1986 Working with Words CUP McCarthy, M. 1990 Vocabulary CUP http://books.google.com/books?id=GrZVfD6kl6EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=vocabulary+mccarthy&hl=en&ei= Rh1lTMT5FtShOPOdIsN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Any of the three above would be a good place to start for lexis.

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

E. Questions 21 – 25: Approaches and techniques 21. List three advantages and three disadvantages of a PPP approach in the classroom. PPP stands for presentation, practice and production. It gives a clear framework for everyone to follow – teacher and learners know what has been ‘covered’. Learners feel safe with it. Lots of people have successfully learnt languages this way. BUT It is very teacher centred. It doesn’t encourage learners to think for themselves or be creative. Language can’t be cut up into isolated bits. 22. CR stands for consciousness raising’ and according to Rod Ellis (1993) ‘like so many other terms in language pedagogy, the term ‘grammar consciousness raising’ is rather vague and is used with very different meanings. The essential difference really rests on the role of learner production in grammar activities. We can envisage grammar activities that will require a learner to produce sentences exemplifying the grammatical feature that is the target of the activity. And that’s what I mean by practice. Or we can envisage activities that will seek to get a learner to understand a particular grammatical feature, how it works, what it consists of, and so on, but not require that learner to actually produce sentences manifesting that particular structure. And that’s what I mean by consciousness raising. ‘ Ellis, R. 1993. SLA Research: How Does It Help Teachers ? An Interview with Rod Ellis ELT Journal 47/1 23. Which approach is Michael Lewis famous for popularising ? The Lexical Approach. He named it and popularised it, but this way of looking at languages had been proposed in the mid seventies and elaborated on in the eighties. 24. Which series of course books was the first to proclaim itself to be task-based ? Cutting Edge, though once you have read more about task-based learning, you might challenge that assertion. 25. Is a concordance likely to be more useful to a teacher, a learner or both ? Both as a reference to understand more about the language. A concordance is a list of instances of a word in context. e.g. ing on: fewer still had premises in any assertively un-urban that we affected a attention if he became too excitable, a anged and a manned craft was the best ed to the idea very gradually. The best

way way way way way

suitable: some turned out to be such of dressing quite unsuited to Unive whose success was, I think, due to of preserving flexibility. Photogr to do this, I decided, was to intro

This gives a lot of information about how a word is used (not just about how we think it is used). For more about all of these areas, consult

Larsen Freeman, D. 2000 Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching http://books.google.com/books?id=iJ3Y_wkkwa8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=larsen+freeman&hl=en&ei=UyFlT NmXHM6hOMGmiLgN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=f alse nd

Richards, J. & Rogers, T. 2001 (2 ed) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching CUP http://books.google.com/books?id=9mQ9l3K73BoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=richards+rodgers+approaches& hl=en&ei=iiFlTOu_LI7fOLCm8PEM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=on epage&q&f=false Willis, J & D. 1996 Challenge and Change in Language Teaching Macmillan http://www.willis-elt.co.uk/books.html two chapters are available as articles at the bottom of this web page

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

F. Questions 26 – 30: Discourse 26. You need to know who is talking to whom, in what context and what their relationship is. 27. Safety goggles are to be worn at all times You are likely to see it in a notice, on a wall in a laboratory or factory. The features that are characteristic are firstly, that it is in the passive: This gives a more formal feeling, it gives importance to the goggles by bringing them to the front of the sentence and the wearer (or the doer of the action) is not mentioned as they are not important in so far as this rule applies to everybody. The second feature is that it is in the present simple tense, as most such notices are, in keeping with their generality. 28. Find the anaphoric and cataphoric reference in the following. They went to the forest together, Tigger, Pooh and Kanga, even though the weather was terrible and it didn’t appear about to get better. They refers forward to Tigger, Pooh and Kanga, which is cataphoric reference. It refers back to the weather, which is anaphoric reference. 29. What kind of substitution is evident in the following ? Will the game be pos tponed ? I hope not. Clausal substitution, as not is standing in for the clause ‘ that it won’t be postponed’ 30. What’s the difference between cohesion and coherence ? Cohesion is the mechanics that glue a text together: pronouns, reference or link words. Coherence is whether there is an overall sense to the text to which all the parts contribute.

Thornbury, S. 2005 Beyond the Sentence Longman (You may have noticed a pattern here, yes, he does seem to have cornered the market in recently published, DELTA friendly texts, but he is good at what he does.) Cook, G. 1989 Discourse OUP http://www.oup.com/pdf/elt/catalogue/0-19-437140-9-a.pdf McCarthy, M. 1991 Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers CUP http://books.google.com/books?id=XODcRdirBskC&printsec=frontcover&dq=discourse+analysis+for+languag e+teachers&hl=en&ei=zydlTLrdF82lONG11KgN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6A EwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Any one of the above would give you a good introduction to the area.

G. Questions 31 – 35 : Phonology 31. What word does /ɪndʒɔɪ/ represent ? It reads as enjoy. 32. Is English a stress timed or a syllable timed language ? No language is entirely stress timed or entirely syllable timed, but English is more stress timed: stressed syllables appear at a roughly constant rate and non-stressed syllables are shortened to accommodate this. Try saying the nursery rhyme three blind mice and you’ll see what I mean. Turkish is a more syllable timed language: syllables are given a more equal weighting.

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

33. What problems are Turkish learners likely to have with the pronunciation of key and why ? A lot of learners see key /kiː/ and pronounce it /keɪ/. This may well be L1 interference as that is how the letter e is often pronounced in Turkish in words that look similar (try saying bey or şey in Turkish and you can see why). 34. How many syllables are there in economics and which is the stressed syllable ? Four syllables, of which the third is stressed. 35. What is elision ? The disappearance of a sound – try saying next please quickly – the t disappears. Kelly, G. 2000 How to Teach Pronunciation Longman Kenworthy, J. 1987. Teaching English Pronunciation Longman Underhill, A. 1994. Sound Foundations Heinemann http://www.macmillaneducationbookstore.com/BookStore/pagedisplay.do?genre=book&pub=macedu&id=978 0230728509&page=S-3

H. Questions 36 – 40 : History of ELT / Second Language Acquisition Research 36. Who wrote about an affective filter hypothesis and what implications does it have for language learning ? Krashen wrote about it and the implications are that if the learner is not relaxed, the filter will limit what is attended to or acquired. 37. What is a learners interlanguage ? Selinker (1972) coined the term interlanguage to describe the learners construct of the language at any point in the learning process. He saw it as a construct rather than, as previously, a defective model. It is the interim grammar, that is a single system composed of rules developed via the correct understanding of the target language, but also through transfer, overgeneralisation or simplification. 38. Which came first: grammar translation or the audio-lingual method ? Grammar translation 39. Who challenged the idea that language was a habit, on the basis that if this were true, we could never say anything new ? Chomsky 40. What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research ? Quantitative research measures things, involves the collection of empirical data and is conclusive. Qualitative research is more exploratory, focusing on the reasons behind aspects of behaviour. It cannot be graphed or calculated in the same way.

Lightbown, P. & Spada, N. 1993 How Languages Are Learned OUP http://books.google.com/books?id=wlYTbuCsR7wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=how+languages+are+learned&h l=en&ei=HS5lTNDhEcXGOIm6zcwN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=o nepage&q&f=false nd Howatt, A. 2004 (2 ed) A History of English Language Teaching ELT OUP http://books.google.com/books?id=g2e7iw_FZcC&pg=PR3&dq=howatt+history&hl=en&ei=blZ6TOfgItKPOL2w1JYG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resn um=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false nd Richards, J. & Rogers, T. 2001 (2 ed) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching CUP (see link under E. Approaches and Techniques)

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

I. Questions 41 – 45 : Psychology

56. What does VAKOG stand for and what system of ideas is it part of ? VAKOG is one part of NLP (neuro linguistic programming) which includes ideas on how we experience the world with our five senses and how we represent it in our minds (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory and gustatory), the way the language we use shapes and reflects our experience of the world and how we can train ourselves to think, speak and act in new ways. 57. Name the seven types of intelligence originally proposed by Gardner. Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal and interpersonal. 58. What’s the difference between instrumental motivation and integrative motivation ? Instrumental motivation is wanting to learn a language in order to be able to do something with it, to be able to study abroad, for example. Integrative motivation is wanting to learn a language in order to become part of a culture. 59. Who developed community language learning and what does it consist of ? Curran developed CLL. He was a psychologist and took a lot of the ideas from the roles adopted in counselling. It works best in a monolingual situation as in CLL learners are helped to say what they want to say by a teacher, so at low levels, the teacher needs to be bilingual. They record their dialogue piece by piece as a group, with the aid of the teacher and then look more carefuly at the language they needed to express their ideas. 60. What are cross crawl and hook ups a part of and how can they help language learners ? These are movements from Brain Gym, otherwise known as educational kinesiology and presented initially by the Dennisons. They claim that different movements activate/ connect / stimulate different areas of the brain. These cross crawl movements are part of the group of movements that help activate both sides of the brain, thus combining logic and creativity. (Other movements in the other two groups help you combine receptive and productive powers and emotion and abstract thought).

There is no one book that covers all of these areas, but the site www.hltmag.co.uk/ has information on many of them. Revell, J. & Norman, S. 1997 In Your Hands Saffire Press (NLP) http://books.google.com/books?id=JgIKNzpAnd8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=in+your+hands+revell+and+norm an&hl=en&ei=5y5lTNGKEYyUOI_moYoN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA #v=onepage&q&f=false Williams, M. & Burden, R. 1997 Psychology for Language Teachers CUP http://books.google.com/books?id=lSWiKzjuFf4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=psychology+for+language+teacher s&hl=en&ei=uS5lTOTIIGQOL3f3KgN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false nd Richards, J. & Rogers, T. 2001 (2 ed) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching CUP (see link under E. Approaches and Techniques)

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

J. Questions 46 – 50 : Culture / perspectives

61. What is linguistic imperialism ? Phillipson in his book of this name sets out the idea that English has achieved dominance over other languages and there are a variety of mechanisms that serve to keep that dominance in place, the British Council being a notable culprit in his theory, propagating as it does ideas such as the supremacy of native speaker teachers. 62. Is it better to teach English via texts about England and English culture or via texts about the learners own country and culture ? There are arguments for both and papers putting either side of the argument are to be found in the book edited by Rossner and Bolitho. 63. What is your position on L1 use in the classroom ? By the teacher ? By the learners ? While unthinking use of L1 by anyone is not helpful and use of L1 by the teacher in the early days is likely to lead to learners communicating with the teacher in L1 from that point on, there are times when carefully thought through learner study of differences between the two languages, (such as in double translation activity, or in creating and acting out subtitles for a favourite soap opera) can be very productive, particularly at higher levels. That’s my position. Yours may differ. There are quite a few articles on this subject in hlt magazine - the site listed above. 64. What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis ? The language that you grew up speaking will affect the way you think. There are stronger and weaker positions to beheld within this, but different languages certainly carve up the world in different ways. 65. Name one thing that learners can get from a native speaker (NS) teacher of English that they can’t get from a non native speaker (NNS) and one thing that they can get from an NNS English teacher, but can’t get from an NS teacher. An educated native speaker of English is likely to have a much wider range of lexis than even a high level non-native speaker and as such is in a position to understand and explain subtle distinctions between very similar items. A non-native speaker has learnt English as their learners are trying to do and as such has an insight into that process that cannot be fully understood by someone who has not been in that position. Incidentally, this means that a true bilingual who has grown up speaking both languages can only offer the advantages of a native speaker.

Rossner, R. & Bolitho, R. 1990 Currents of Change OUP Phillipson, R. 1992 Linguistic Imperialism. OUP http://books.google.com/books?id=4jVeGWtzQ1oC&printsec=frontcover&dq=linguistic+imperialism&hl=en&ei =Jld6TM6TJ6KUOLGq_d8G&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage& q&f=false

K. Questions 51 – 55 : Technology 51. It is a recording that has been saved in a format you can store electronically (so on computer or in an MP3 player of some kind), could be audio or video. It was initially called a web cast, but the iPod was rising in popularity at about the same time as this way of storing / using audio files. Many podcasts are available on the net, some designed specifically for teaching (try the BBC learning English site for a whole range of things), others just available (for higher level learners BBC Radio 4 or Voice of America) and can be exploited for class or homework.

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Modular DELTA with ITI Istanbul D1b Pre Course task

52. You can name a lot more than two of both … but … Advantages It means you can present quick pre-prepared professional looking chunks of information. It is one way of introducing colourful visuals. Disadvantages It means the class are staring at a screen and are passive. As with any other resource, it is only as good as the time you spend making it fit the learners needs. 53. Again, you could spend a long time answering this question. But you could use video to ... Introduce a topic / subject (set some kind of gist question before you play it) Kick them off to brainstorm a subject Ensure learners know what something is (if they are not so familiar with what a sport or a festival or something like that might be like). Get them to watch with no sound and predict what the people are saying ? (or even write a script) Let one watch and describe to their partner what is happening Play up to a certain point, stop and encourage speculation on what happens next. Get them to act out a very short segment, not only saying the words, but using the gestures of the actors. 54. Lots of different options now exist for learners and dictionaries that they can use with phones. Some use on line dictionaries. Great if the company is paying the phone bill, otherwise an expensive choice. Some phones come with built in dictionaries. Some of these were not designed for learners, but for native speakers (the monolingual one in the iPhone) and can put a learner off monolingual dictionaries because they are difficult to use and don’t give grammar information or example sentences. You can buy software downloads (try mobi for example) of some learner dictionaries, but if your learners are anything like mine, they need a specific link to go to as they are not aware of what to look for when trying to make sure they get the learner’s version. 55. As with podcasts and powerpoint, it is easy to be bewitched by the idea that you need to introduce new technology. You need to be up to date with it and there are some great things it can be used for, but it no more ‘saves’ you time than your computer does – it is a complete time sink hole. Wikis are interesting because you can make them accessible, so everyone can add to a document and then later you can see who changed what and how. So that has quite a lot of possibilities for in class group writing projects. They can be locked or unlocked – if you lock them you can stop others changing them and can use them to present things to classes – documents, images, homework in a variety of forms. Alternatively, make them invitation only and get the learners to do a lot of that. So masses of teaching potential, but for it to work well, know that it will take you a couple of hours every week to keep it working, beautiful and useful (just setting it up is almost never enough). Dudeney, G. 2007 The Internet and the Language Classroom CUP http://books.google.com/books?id=WGGGLt9ne7EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=teaching+english+technology& source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1#v=onepage&q=teaching%20english%20technology&f=false Erben, Ban & Castaneda 2008Teaching English language learners through Technology. Routledge http://books.google.com/books?id=eukOlhsnMkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=teaching+english+technology&hl=en&ei=hYt6TMavN4WS4AaQ143ZBg&sa =X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Smith, D. & Baber, E. 2005 Teaching English with Information Technology Modern English Publishing http://books.google.com/books?id=sHGJc66R0hMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=teaching+english+technology&s ource=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

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