Slide 1: Special Lectures: Applied Linguistics and Second Language Teaching Kitakyushu University, 2005 Richard Berwick Professor, Asia Pacific Management rba99126@apu.ac.jp Homepage: www.apu.ac.jp/~rba99126 1
Slide 2: Overview of Each Class 1. Beliefs, myths and realities 2. of second language learning and teaching: Wisdom from the past? Second language curricula, learning needs and materials, learner strategies: What’s worth teaching anyway? Materials analysis, good language learners and teachers’ roles: What makes a good learner? Language and culture: What does intercultural communication have to do with language learning? Language testing and language policy: Are we ready for the revolution? 12/24 12/25 12/26 3. 4. 5. 12/27 12/28 2
Slide 3: Primary readings will be drawn from the following source: Brown, H. D. 2000. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, (4th Edition). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall (ISBN: 0130178160). A recommended secondary source: Lightbown, P. M. and Spada, N. (1999). How Languages are Learned. Oxford: OUP (ISBN: 0194370003). 3
Slide 4: Friday, October 24 PART I: Beliefs, myths and realities of second language learning and teaching: Wisdom from the past? 4
Slide 5: 1. Questions to get us started How long have second languages been learned? • Consider the role of second languages in trade, war, conquest, occupation, settlement Do we need classrooms for second language learning? • • How about ‘natural’ language learning? How do children learning other languages so quickly? So what good are teachers and classrooms? • Consider the role of education (hints: ‘worthwhile’, ‘systematic’, ‘efficient’) 5
Slide 6: A deeper question: What are (ought to be) the goals and methods of second language teaching and learning? Maybe the past has an answer for us … The Roman Empire aside, here’s a quick tour of goals and methods over the last 125 years. •Grammar translation • Gouin’s Series Method •The Direct Method •The Audio Lingual Method •Designer methods •Communicative methods 6
Slide 7: The Big Question: is there anything new under the sun? Answer: probably not! 7
Slide 8: Here’s a video to sink your teeth into. When you get to the German lessons, let me know which one looks like a winner – and why! OHC: SLA Video 8
Slide 9: 2. Thinking about teaching and learning a second language – what’s a ‘language curriculum’? Let’s call it a general structure or plan for organizing instruction – Here’s an example: 9
Slide 10: NEEDS ASSESSMENT E V A L U A T I O N OBJECTIVES MATERIALS Figure 1. An enlightened general curriculum model TEACHING TESTING 10
Slide 11: Figure 1. An ‘enlightened’ general curriculum for language teaching • It’s got lots of parts that work together, like a machine. Most important, a good curriculum has feedback built in • Think of the language curriculum as a kind of chameleon – it changes ‘colours’ when the society changes. Here are some examples: 11
Slide 12: Facets of the curriculum – designs based on … • an organized body of knowledge (e.g. linguistics, • • • literature) specific competencies (e.g., ;the four skills’, confirming an order for a meal in a restaurant social activities and problems (e.g., survival language, experiences in the community) needs and interests of learners 12
Slide 13: Now let’s think about second language and teaching inside of the general curriculum … Testing and feedback are important, but today, because of time limitations, I’m going to try to use the first four parts of the model: Assessing needs, setting objectives, choosing materials and teaching. If we have time, I will give you a test. Oops, sorry, …better talk about ‘assessment’, a nicer word. 13
Slide 14: PART II: Second language curricula, learning needs and materials: What’s worth teaching anyway? 3. Needs Assessment: What’s that? What to teach? Let’s say that a need is the gap between what language learners know and can do, and what they don’t know, can’t do—but ought to know and ought to do. 14
Slide 15: So needs assessment is the way you go about describing the gap. X–Y=Z “You’re going to need that past participle when you tell the police where you were on the night of the crime, young man.” 15
Slide 16: OUGHT is a very big word -- does it mean the same thing to everybody? Think about facets of the curriculum. Think about your values. What’s OUGHT TO in Japan? What’s OUGHT TO in Europe? ASCRIBED NEEDS – what some educational big shot thinks you need! In the bad old days of language teaching, and maybe even in schools today (!), it wasn’t hard to say what language learners needed: “Grammar, translation, plenty of work with that dictionary, and plenty of work to prepare for that test!”… (sound familiar?) 16
Slide 17: FELT Needs – gaps in knowledge that the learners themselves experience Today, it’s nice to think people learn languages to deal with life – What they think are their needs. This is what you could call FELT needs. Have a look at this: 17
Slide 18: Choosing goal and content alternatives in second language learning GOAL OF SOURCE OF LANGUAGE INSTRUCTIONAL USE CONTENT Language ‘Life’ Teaching/prac- Teaching Didactic (education) ticing language practicing Social content Talking/writing Talking/writing (re: language- re: nonas-content) language content 18
Slide 19: Can we get some ideas about what to teach from knowing about the students themselves? For instance do we teach children and adults the same thing? 19
Slide 20: Five areas of child – adult differences CHILDREN Intellectual development Attention span Sensory input Affective factors Focus: here and now, concrete Short in classroom settings Much variety required Fragile in presence of peers ADULTS Can handle abstractions Relatively long Some variety required Bring global self-esteem to classroom Tolerate less contextualization 20 Language use for Authentic, meaningful language immediate rewards
Slide 21: Can we get some ideas from knowing how the learners are going to use language in real social, work, travel, academic situations? 21
Slide 22: Two examples of approaches to needs Assessment-- (a) Socio-topical matrix - a form of needs assessment* The Topical Dimension: What are they talking about? SOCIAL Greet Street Food DIMENSION: -ings direcWHO – WHOM tions Adult strangers Small child Policeman Host Etc… *(Earl Stevick, U.S. Foreign Service Institute) 22 Work Etc. x x x x
Slide 23: (b) Language Needs Profile – 1 or 0 SUBSKILLS Explain how to replace a head gasket Introduce a colleague at a social function Write a letter apologizing for poor service Use High priority Problems Accuracy Etc. Etc. TOTAL 23
Slide 24: OK. You get the idea: What do students need? Answer: it all depends. Is this any way to learn a language? What do you think? 24
Slide 25: 4. Language and culture learning Issues: • intercultural communication • language socialization • curriclum implications: experiential learning and immersion 25
Slide 26: Now let’s look at some wild and crazy ideas – moving out of the language bag and into the culture box, out of the classroom and into the world. Is there really anything to second language learning beyond language? 26
Slide 27: – Short answer: Yes! – Long answer: Yes, but (language is a part of culture—so, how can you get cultured?) 27
Slide 28: I’m talking about the ways you ‘get’ culture. How about this list: • through social interaction (negotiated talk) • through ritual (rote participation) • through observation (passive participation) • through microchip brain implants – well, maybe not for a few years – So, are YOU acculturating? What do you think? 28
Slide 29: So there are many senses to the notion of ‘culture’ and how people acquire it. LK TA A TUA RI O L B C D ION VA T SER B 29
Slide 30: Back to nature: Is that the way to go? We’re going to look at a a couple of conversations between Canadian and Japanese kids. How does language-and-culture learning work in the ‘real world’? Have a look at these: 30
Slide 31: (a) learning ‘ant’ Paul: oh – oh Jim: What Paul: this (points to an ant) Jim: It’s an ant. Paul: ant 31
Slide 32: (b) ‘teaching’ or not? Harumi: It’s a garage. Come in garage. Takahiro: /kamen/ garage. /nai/ your. [not yours?] Harumi: This is yours. [‘ +s = teaching’?] Takahiro: /nai/ yours. Come back. Harumi: No the garage is too small. Takahiro: small garage? Harumi: Mmmm. I can’t come in. Right. Takahiro: OK. You’ll can. 32
Slide 33: These are examples of second language socialization. That is, they show some real time acquisition of culture through language. • But what have they got to do with language teaching? • What do they imply for the second language syllabus? 33
Slide 34: 5. Objectives: The curriculum tells us that objectives (what we want learners to be able to do with the language) come from needs – not from tests, not from any old materials you have on the shelf. 34
Slide 35: Think about objectives and how well they are met: Think about the Monbusho guidelines for lower and upper secondary education in Japan – these are objectives: “To develop students’ basic ability to understand a foreign language and express themselves in it, to deepen their interest in a language….” Sounds great! When do you think these were written? 35
Slide 36: Objectives and ‘The Hidden Curriculum’ – this is what we call an eye-opener. Think about objectives in your English courses here, if you were taking English, at the Asahi Culture Centre, at Douglas College in Canada, wherever… That’s funny. They’re all about the same. What’s going on? 36
Slide 37: Let’s put the issue in Japanese terms: we’ve been talking about the public curriculum (let’s call that one tatemae); now let’s talk about the hidden curriculum (we’ll call that honne) Here’s the point: language learning objectives almost always look like the dreams we want to come true; language teaching almost always reflects our real view of what students need. 37
Slide 38: 6. Materials These can turn us inward too, or reflect life beyond the classroom. What’s old and what’s new here? 38
Slide 39: Sometimes these work together; sometimes they struggle against each other. Do our objectives stick to the analysis of language or the preparation for life? This is one way to judge if language teaching is an inward-looking or a forward-looking exercise. 39
Slide 40: What do you think the three most important materials are in English classrooms in Japan, and in many other countries? 1. 2. 3. 40
Slide 41: 41
Slide 42: Let me relate a recent experience to you. At the beginning of last semester, I asked the students to move their chairs together into a small group. Then I asked students to, “Make a list of the three most interesting points in last night’s reading. Work with your partners to decide. Choose a secretary to write the list.” What happened? Let’s talk about it. 42
Slide 43: Authenticity in texts Now let’s look at two very different texts, or ‘materials’, for teaching English as a second language (remember the language/life distinction?) — 43
Slide 44: TEXT 1: Add the name, Mr. Miller, to the following statements. He asked a question….. HE ASKED MR. MILLER A QUESTION He asked his name….. HE ASKED MR. MILLER HIS NAME • He asked his address • He asked his telephone number • He asked some questions • He asked a favour. (Etc.) 44
Slide 45: TEXT 2: Excerpt from a conversation between learners from two countries 1 2 3 4 5 6 C3: We should take them to the Commodore on Tuesday night. C1: Disco night. C2: Sneak me in. [laughter] C1: We can sneak you in. C2: [laughter] ++ you guys wanna go >>7 >8 9 10 J2: C2: J2: um + clubbing. Pa- pardon me? Dancing again? Ohhh I like dancing. 45
Slide 46: What are the differences between these two texts? In a word ‘Authenticity’. Imagine an ‘authenticity’ line. This is a way of suggesting the extent to which materials approach the use of language in the world outside of the classroom. Least Authentic (just language) More Authentic (language more from/for life) 46
Slide 47: Now you’ve got the idea. The new thinking is that your instructional materials 1) go back to the learners’ needs and 2) have something to do with the way language is used in the living, breathing worlds of, well, it’s an endless list: • playing soccer (‘English for soccer!’) • studying international relations (English for IR) • writing a thesis (English for academic purposes) • working in a hospital (English for health care) • solving crimes (English for police work) 47
Slide 48: So, what’s new here is what we might call materials from/for ESP (not mind reading or making chairs rattle)—Materials from/for English for Specific Purposes. ‘I’m getting a headache thinking about that socio-topical matrix …’ 48
Slide 49: Friday, October 31 Part III: Good learning and good teaching: Do we really need classrooms? Next, let’s take a short tour of ideas for teaching ESL. I want to give you some ideas that build on our curriculum model. 49
Slide 50: Let’s make another contrast between the old and the new in language teaching 1. THE TEACHERFRONTED CLASSROOM 2. THE LEARNERCENTRED CLASSROOM 50
Slide 51: TEACHER-FRONTED (a) Teacher-fronted tends to get you an endless supply of ‘display questions’ that the teacher knows the answer to already (‘What colour is this pen in my hand?’). Teacher-fronted gets you a very primitive pattern: T: request for response: (Ex: ‘What colour is this pen in my hand, Tomoko?’ S: response: (‘Yellow?’) T: evaluate response (Yes. Very good!) 51
Slide 52: TEACHER-FRONTED (b) Or, how about this focus on grammar (here, practicing the past tense) at the expense of meaning in the usual sense of the word, ‘meaning’? T: request for response: (‘What did your frog do yesterday, Mr. Tanaka?’) S: response: (‘It died’.) T: evaluate response: ‘Very good!’) 52
Slide 53: LEARNER-CENTRED (a) Learner-centred these days means that learners are given some responsibility for their own learning—they won’t be ‘spoon fed’ by the teacher (imagine a baby getting baby food from its mother). There is much emphasis paid to • experiential learning [learning by experience]; • group work and taking advantage of diverse (different) backgrounds. 53
Slide 54: LEARNER-CENTRED (a) Here’s an example [From a lab worksheet]: “1) Click on Internet Explorer’; 2) Use the ‘search’ button to find two URLs about ‘global warming’; 3) Open Microsoft Word; 4) Type two sentences about the causes of global warming; 5) Send me an e-mail with the information as an attachment]” 54
Slide 55: LEARNER-CENTRED (b) Or, have a look at that chat about ‘clubbing’ during lunchtime. Question: Who is learning what? Diversity helps! Different backgrounds, different experiences, different knowledge makes this kind of learning possible. 55
Slide 56: So maybe we can contrast two teacher roles: 1. teacher as the source of all language knowledge 2. teacher as guide and organizer of tasks (activities) 56
Slide 57: 7. Learner Strategies: The Bridge we need? The ultimate learner-centred curriculum? Two issues: (1) When you redefine the teacher’s role, learners suddenly become more responsible for their own learning. (2) We’ve talked about ‘learners needs for language’ and second language needs assessment. So what does focus on learner strategies give us that we didn’t have before? 57
Slide 58: Learner autonomy Here’s the common-sense idea about learner strategies: Learners do all kinds of things better, faster, with more motivation and focus if the way they learn suits their preferences and temperament. We have general models for ‘the good language learner’ (see Joan Rubin’s work) – the things superstar learners do themselves to learn second languages. 58
Slide 59: But now we know that what really works is helping learners to be themselves: Learning Strategy Inventories. Here are some examples. What do you think? (1) Rebecca Oxford, 1990: Learning Strategies (2) Joy Reed, 1999: Perceptual Learning Style Preference Survey 59
Slide 60: Oxford, 1990 Language Learning Strategies LEARNING STRATEGIES DIRECT INDIRECT MEMORY COGNITIVE COMPENSATION METACOGNITIVE AFFECTIVE SOCIAL 60
Slide 61: Learning Strategies (examples) Memory Cognitive Compensation Metacognitive Affective Social “I use new English words in a sentence, so I can remember them.” “I try not to translate word for word.” “To understand unfamiliar English words, I make guesses.” “I think about my progress in learning English.” “I give myself a reward or treat when I do well in English.” “I practice English with other students.” 61
Slide 62: Reed, Perceptual Learning Style Preference Survey Strongly agree (SA) Agree (A) Undecided (U) Disagree strongly (D) disagree (SD) X 62
Slide 63: SA A U D SD 1. When the teacher tells me the instructions, I understand better. 2. I prefer to learn by doing something in class. 3. I get more work done when I work with others. 4. I learn more when I study with a group . . 5. I class, I learn best when I work with others. 24. I learn better by reading than by listening to someone. 63
Slide 64: PART IV Language testing and language policy: Are we ready for the revolution? 8. Language Testing – where do you begin? First, realize that any test is a compromise, a little slight-of-hand among several essential values – all of which are usually in conflict. • Validity • Reliability • Practicality 64
Slide 65: Values in Language Testing – There’s no Free Lunch VALIDITY PRACTICALITY RELIABILITY 65
Slide 66: Next, what kinds of tests are we talking about? And how have things changed since the TOEFL first raised it’s standard head in 1967? (Wow, that’s almost as old as I am!) 66
Slide 67: Making a Theory of Language Competence Inductively: TEST 1 TEST 2 Select the best response for B A: “Nice to see you today.” B: “_________________ .” Yes, I did not. (0) No, we couldn’t. (0) Yes, I think it very much. (1) No, it wasn’t. (1) Yes, it was. (2) 67 Select the correct form of the verb. “It was really nice to see you yesterday. I _____ a wonderful time.” a. b. c. d. e. helped have had (x) will have could
Slide 68: MAKING A THEORY OF L2 COMPETENCE INDUCTIVELY 68
Slide 69: How about ‘Needs Assessment for Language Testing’?! Here’s what it might look like. Remember the ‘socio-topical matrix’? This is a way to do test specifications with a template … 69
Slide 70: Using traits in planning second language proficiency assessment* Trait GRAMMAR Method ORAL MULTIPLE CHOICE WRITTEN COMP. (accuracy in sentences) Structured interview Sentence level ‘select correct forms’ Narrative and letter of suasion DISCOURSE SOCIO(textual LINGUISTIC cohesion and coherence) (social appropriateness) Role play, speech acts (requests, offers, …) Speech act-level ‘select the appropriate utterance’ Formal request letter and informal note story telling, argumentation, suasion Paragraph-level ‘select the coherent sentence’ Narrative and letter of suasion *(adapted from Brown, 2001, p. 397) 70
Slide 71: And if we have a little extra time, I’ll show you an example of what it looks like in the trenches: The OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) 71
Slide 72: THE ORAL PROFICIENCY INTERVIEW (OPI) PROTOCOL Warm Up Level Check Probe Wind Down 72
Slide 73: 9. Policy – a Case Study in Japan Let’s recall our Ministry of Education guidelines and see where we might be going. “To develop students’ basic ability to understand a foreign language and express themselves in it, to deepen their interest in a language….” 73
Slide 74: Here we are, back to language and life, language for life. Let’s think about the language/life balance in Japan for awhile. And then, let’s see what it looks like where you come from. 74
Slide 75: Are we on the edge of a great debate? Have a look at the handout excerpting ‘The Frontier Within: Individual Empowerment and Better Governance in the New Millennium ‘ • Work in groups of 3 – 4 • Discuss the issue of making English Japan’s official second language • Next, let’s choose two teams and turn the issue into a debate with arguments and evidence. 75
Slide 76: THE GREATE DEBATE: “English should become Japan’s second official language." PRO (+) Japan can participate in the global economy only if its people speak English. Japan will be able to accept foreign labourers and thus help to solve the problem of an aging society. Japan will be able easily to introduce its real culture to the rest of the world. CON (-) Japan will begin to lose its real culture; its language will be relatively devalued. Japanese will begin to lose their identity as Japanese. Not everybody needs the same level of language; the investment would be too great. Japanese companies will Japanese would lose its benefit greatly from an English diversity; only an ‘official speaking population version’ would remain. 76
Slide 77: Cognitively Demanding 1 Context Embedded 2 Context Reduced 4 3 Cognitively Undemanding Range of contextual support and degree of cognitive involvement in communicative activities (adapted from Cummins, 1984) 77