Category Archives: language learning

March 26, 2014

Bytheway (2014) Top 40 creations

Top40

Create language learning activities from Top40 songs to connect to child and teen language learners. Bring their outside-school world into classrooms. Don’t use your favourite ‘old’ songs. Use learners’ hot songs to to increase motivation and build respectful relationships.

Create these activities fast because you’ll throw them out within three months.

Quickly select a song. Is it 1) hot? 2) safe & 3) learnful?

Hot?
Use Google to find the Top40 songs in your country. In the Netherlands, about 35 of the Top40 are in English. Look at how many weeks songs have been in the charts. Teens consider a song old after about three months.

Safe?
Children enjoy many totally inappropriate songs. However in schools, swearing, sex and drugs are out. Use Google to find the lyrics and scan for anything inappropriate. Learners choose our songs and our agreement is that if principle walks in while the song is playing, I will keep my job. We never had any problems.

Learnful?
The song has to be learnful. If something is full of beauty, it’s beautiful; if something is full of learning, it’s learnful. Some say the word I need is educational; however learning and education are different! Know your learners and context and judge what suits your learners’ needs.

Balance the activities using Nation’s Four Strands.

1)      Use input for meaning-focused listening and reading. The learners are familiar with almost all the language. Support understanding by reading the lyrics while listening to the song.

2)      Use output for meaning-focused speaking and writing. Use the lyrics to scaffold speaking or writing activities. Replace words (verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions) to create original lyrics with similar structures or use phrases as sentence starters.

3)      Zoom in for language-focused learning. This is new language for the learners. Look at the details of the lyrics (e.g. pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary). Selects aspects for special attention.

4)      Zoom out for fluency development. The learners use language they already know faster and more automatically. Use issues and themes in the song for speaking, writing, listening and reading, activities.

 

Bytheway, J. (April, 2014). Create original language learning activities from Top 40 songs. Presented at 48th Annual International Association of Teaching English as a Foreign Language Conference. Harrogate: IATEFL.
Retrieve Prezi from https://prezi.com/avbqkk6plzwb/

Bytheway, J. (July, 2014). Create Language learning activities from Top 40 songs. Presented at TeachMeetNZ Virtual at the National Conference for Community Language and ESOL. Wellington: TESOLANZ & CLANZ.
Retrieve Slideshare from http://www.slideshare.net/Julie_Bytheway/julie-btw-createlearningtop4020140712.
Retrieve video from http://teachmeetnz.wikispaces.com/Bytheway_Julie

March 23, 2014

Nation (2007) The Four Strands

strands

 

Nation, I. S. P. (2007). The Four Strands. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1(1), 1-12

I frequently recommend Nation’s Four Strands to balance language learning experiences, so I re-read Nation’s original article just to check my understanding.

Nation’s Four Strands of 25% meaning-focused input, 25% meaning-focused output, 25% language-focused learning, and 25% fluency development continue throughout language learning experiences with approximately equal time spent on each strand.

Meaning-focused input and output are similar: input is reading and listening and output is writing and speaking. To define activities as meaning-focused input and output, learners must be familiar with most of language (95-98% of vocabulary), genuinely interested in understanding input and conveying output, and have enormous quantities of input and output. Examples of meaning-focused input are reading news articles online every day or watching several seasons of a TV series, and examples of meaning-focused output are frequently talking in conversations or regularly updating a blog. Nation supports his ideas with research (including Krashen’s (1995) Input Hypothesis and Swain’s (2005) Output Hypothesis) and the time-on-task principle, i.e. simply the more you do something, the better you will be at doing it.

Language-focused learning is the deliberate learning of language features (e.g. pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, discourse) and language learning strategies. To define activities as language-focused learning, learners must give deliberate attention to language features, process language in deep thoughtful ways, use spaced repetition for learning, and use features at appropriate levels that are used in other strands. Examples of language-focused learning are memorizing dialogues and using (online/app) dictionaries.

Fluency development focuses on using known language fast and automatically for all language skills. To define activities as fluency development, learners must be familiar with all of the language (100% of vocabulary), focus on understanding and/or conveying meaning, have a sense of urgency, and have enormous quantities of input and output. Examples of fluency development are quickly skim reading texts, 4/3/2 repetitious speaking activities, writing within limited time frames, and listening to TV presenters (e.g. Jamie Oliver) who speak fast!

Nation bases his Four Strands on ten sound language learning principles.

Learners need to
1. use enormous quantities of comprehensible input,
2. notice language during input,
3. use wide variety of genres during output,
4. use cooperative interaction,
5. learn language deliberately,
6. use language learning strategies,
7. develop fluency,
8. balance the Four Strands,
9. repeat useful language,
10. assess learning needs.

If you follow Nation’s simple framework, you’ll have good language learning.

February 28, 2014

Stepanek (2014) EAP creatively

Stepanek, I. (2014, February). Implementing creativity in language learning: A practical guide. Paper presented at conference 28. Arbeitstagung des AKS, Vorsprung durch Sprachen, Fremdsprachenausbildung an den Hochschulen, Technischen Universität Braunschweig, Germany.

Starting this blog has surpassed my expectations. I am in the habit of writing: it’s now normal for me to write every day. I’ve finally changed my mantra (after nearly 20 years of academic study) from “I HATE writing!” to “No worries, just write”. I trust learning through huge hours of practical experience, so am sure my writing style and speed will improve over time.

I’m at a foreign language learning conference in Braunschweig, Germany: 28. Arbeitstagung des AKS. The main conference language is German, so I’m limited to attending the occasional presentations in English, but I’ve have just been inspired by “Implementing creativity in language learning: A practical guide” from Libor Stepanek, Masaryk University Language Center, Brno, Czech Republic. Libor bases his teaching methods and learning processes on ideas about creativity from Robinson, Csikszentmihalyi, de Bono, Torrance, Treffinger, Runco, and Gillford among others. He aims to move learners from clear to unclear situations, and from clear to unclear solutions, breaking down students’ barriers of perception, tricking students into using and developing a variety of creative skills, specifically creative fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. I need to talk it him, but somehow he has obtained management approval of a huge university (43,000 students, with approx. 10,000 language center students) to teach without a prepared syllabus, flexibly, using the multidisciplinary class groups as active communities of practice. Libor uses creative practical activities to raise students’ awareness of language, and language learning processes and strategies. He expects time-consuming extensive listening and reading outside of the classroom as students source and select language learning materials for the current learning group. I’m impressed: I’d work on his team.

See Libor’s blog here: www.eapcreatively.blogspot.cz