Classroom Interaction

Been a while since I've posted but my MA has taken over things for a little while. I've been a lot on Interaction Hypothesis (Long, 1996) which has given be cause to really start to think about 'how' my learners interact and communicate in my classrooms.

Some of the major features of the Interaction Hypothesis are:
Negotiation of Meaning
Negative Feedback
Pushed output
Modified output

Basically, these features point towards our learners pushing themselves to provide the next level of output, whilst using feedback (from either other learners or the teacher) to modify that output, and in turn notice gaps in their existing knowledge. Such noticing will enable them to revise their existing hypotheses regarding language use.

A good overview of this, and how it applies to your classes, can be found here:
The Interaction Hypothesis: What it is and How it Naturally Occurs in the ESL Classroom

To work towards providing such an environment I decided to employ some of the "Spot the Difference" style tasks that I'd been reading about in the literature.

If you're not familiar, these work as follows:
1) Learners pair up
2) Each learner gets one picture from the "spot the difference" pair of pictures
3) Learners then have to use oral language to find the differences (WITHOUT SEEING EACH OTHERS' PICTURES!!!!)

I was very surprised at the amount of language this generated. I had otherwise quiet learners engaging in 20 minutes of solid English speaking. Not only that, it required them to engage in deeper-processing of what their partner was saying, as well as seeking clarification from them.

So, where can you find some of these?
A good source is Penny Ur's book Discussions that Work (1989). It's part of the excellent Cambridge Handbooks For Language Teachers series.

Or, you can simply Google "Spot the Difference" and use pictures that come up.

Would love to hear from some other teachers as to how they generate high-quality interaction amongst their learners or from anyone who has tried similar tasks.

Thanks

NEWS NEWS NEWS!!!

Here are a few news activities for adult classes (high intermediate to advanced).

News Ranking Questionnaire
Discuss and rank news items
Focus - Practice expressing opinions / negotiate of choices

Functions of News
A discussion worksheet - why do we watch the news? Entertainment or information?
Focus - Expressing values - reported speech

Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)

Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)

Having been doing a bit of TBLT in my classes of late and have been really enjoying it – as have (some of) the students.

Specifically, we’ve been doing some of the ‘spot the difference’ exercises from Penny Ur’s “Discussions that Work” as well as some of the tasks from the “Pair Work” series published by Penguin.

Discussions that Work

Pair Work

In terms of TBLT I have 2 questions….

1) How do we motivate the unmotivated?

With every task I’ve done, I’ve had a group of learners who simply don’t do it? 80% of the class is engaged, yet there’s a few who are just not into it…

Now, this could be an issue with task design or it could be the learners are not interested in the topic… But I’ve found that every time I do tasks with teens, this is an issue.

Have you done tasks in class, and if so, have you encountered such a problem? If so, how do you overcome it?

2) How much TBLT is too much TBLT?

I would honestly love to teach in a 100% TBLT curriculum. However, in a secondary school in Taiwan, this is never going to happen.

Firstly, it doesn’t really gel with the image of classroom learning (i.e. not sitting quietly and listening to teacher). Secondly, some learners (perhaps those with low self-esteem) seem to sometimes struggle with tasks that require a large amount of oral production.

Therefore, how much TBLT do you do?

Here are a few good links:

http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?docid=154596

http://www.tblt.net/

http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?docid=144974

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/a-task-based-approach