In my country and consequently in our institution, we have a significant deficit of English language teachers and associate teachers who already teach in other institutions, generally high schools constitute the bulk of our teaching staff .The teaching hours they do in our facility is overtime, and in general they “pick up” the listening/speaking course because “it’s easy to teach”.
The procedure is simple: put the cassettes (yes , we haven’t made the shift to CDs or MP3 format yet) in the old fashioned cassette operating language lab, make the students listen twice or three times and, give them some time to answer some questions about the piece they had just listened to. Some teachers base their speaking lessons on topics. I mean they would choose ‘Child Labor” and would let students discuss freely on the topic without previous teaching or presentation of language functions like “agreeing and disagreeing”, for example. The outcome is having students with poor speaking and listening skills. Because each teacher has is viewpoint on how speaking and listening should be taught students’ development in those skills is a matter of luck.
Myself, I hadn't be given the chance to teach speaking and listening, but if I had I'm quite sure that I would have taught it the way I was taught in university which is almost the same way the teachers described above do, apart from this idea of teaching topics instead of functional language. The main reason would have been the lack of relevant and interesting resources, but after this week I have no excuse: all these great sites within a keystroke. Just awesome!!!
I learnt this week that speaking and listening is not easy to teach. Listening, in particular, involves complex neurological and cognitive processes equivalent to other skills like reading and writing.
I was so excited that I decided to try something new this week.
This academic year, because an associate teacher resigned unexpectedly, the administration asked me insistently to take over the module of” Introduction to Linguistics Second Year”. I mused on the question and thought I could not let these students down. We were almost at the end of the first semester, and they needed a teacher immediately. I accepted mainly because I could rely on all the teaching materials I have been gathering for years, just in case.
Among these materials, I had videos of lectures in linguistics and one in particular on the topic I was going to lecture this week: Ferdinand de Saussure ”Course in General Linguistics”.
Instead of me lecturing, I said to myself why not using this video to improve their listening skills too. The English spoken by the lecturer was accessible to their level of proficiency. There was not an extensive use of the linguistic jargon.
My class objective was as follow:
After watching a videotaped lecture on Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General linguistics” (condition) second year students (audience) will be able to retrieve and explain some of the Saussurean dichotomies (behavior) with 70 % of accuracy (degree).
I wanted to follow the stages presented at http://www.esl-lab.com/ with pre listening, listening, and post listening stages.I didn’t spend much time on the pre-listening stage because they studied briefly these Saussurean dichotomies last year. During the listening phase they were supposed to take notes.
After watching the video, they went through their notes and I jotted down them on the board.I clarified certain things their didn’t grasp properly and I had them explain the dichotomies presented in the lecture.
It was the first time I used a videotape, and I think students who are used to more traditional ways find it refreshing and really enjoyed the class this week.However, with more experience I think I’ll do better next time
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Dear Hassina,
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that your students enjoyed the class since it was different from their usual lessons. I would like to give you a suggestion for an activity that you could use with a listening material. At the beginning of the lesson tell your students to draw a table with three columns and label the first one: 'Things I know', the second: 'Things I would like to know', and the third: 'Things I have learned'. So, before they listen they complete the first two columns. The first column gives them a chance to think about the things they already know about the topic, so it's a kind of revision and activation of their previous knowledge. The second column will make them think about things they would like to learn and at the same time it gives them a reason for listening and focusing on specific information. Before listening they share their ideas with the class, and they can add other things to the second column. After that they listen and take notes. After the listening they complete the third column, after which a class discussion follows in which the students tell the others if their questions from the second column were answered and what the answers are, as well as the other information they learned from the listening. I have used this activity with my students, and they like it a lot because it keeps them active,focused, and interested to see whether they will find the answers to their questions.
Best wishes,
Nina
Dear Hassina and Nina,
ReplyDeletewhat a wonderful piece of cooperation!
Hassina, what you did proves 1)that we should try to experiment with new things no matter what the general culture of our institution may be (in your case, you are obviously an early adopter!); 2) that simple solutions can often work miracles when applied appropriately; 3) that with using technology, just like with so many other things in life 'fear is the only thing we should fear'.
Congratulations and thanks for sharing this - I feel more eager to occasionaly use videolectures myself.
Best regards,
Andreja