Active Learning for Communication

Competence with …

Rob Peacock

Oxford University Press

Suken and Oxford Seminar For Secondary Teachers

2016

Today’s session

• Active Learning

• Classroom activities

• About Smart Choice

• Questions

Vocabulary – tourist attractions

公園 = park

動物園 = zoo

市場 = market

美術館 = art museum

Grammar – can & can’t

You can go to Nagoya Castle.

Where can I go in Nagoya?

Grammar – can & can’t

Yes, you can. You can eat miso

katsu.

Can I eat nice food in Nagoya?

Grammar – can & can’t

No, you can’t. It’s in Tokyo.

Can I see the Imperial Palace in

Nagoya?

Passive vs Active Learning

Think about the previous lesson (passive learning) .

Speak with a partner:

• What are the disadvantages of learning a

language this way?

• How could you have students learn the same

content actively?

What is active learning?

“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students … must

talk about what they are learning, … relate it to past

experiences, apply it to their daily lives. They must

make what they learn part of themselves.”

(Chickering and Gamson, 1987, p. 3)

Characteristics of Active

Learning

1. More than passive listening

2. Activities (e.g. reading, discussing, writing)

3. Emphasis on developing student skills

4. Exploration of attitudes and values

5. Increased motivation

6. Higher order thinking (analysis, synthesis,

evaluation)

(Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom,

Bonwell & Eison, 1991)

KNOWLEDGE: remember language,

facts, theories

COMPREHENSION: interpret,

summarize

APPLICATION: use skills/strategies

to complete a task

ANALYSIS: break down information; organize,

categorize

SYNTHESIS : combine information from different

sources

EVALUATION: critique information, conclude,

provide an opinion

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Teaching vocabulary

Lexical spidergrams

museum beautiful

busy

quiet

modern

old

expensive

Alex Marco

I’m going to

visit Mexico

City.

I went there

last year.

Can you tell

me some

things to see

and do there? scuba diving

museums

shopping

mountain climbing

Grammar – can & can’t

Can you tell

me some

things to see

and do there?

Grammar – can & can’t

What about

shopping?

Where can I

go?

Grammar – can & can’t

You can go to

the Zona Rosa.

Grammar – can & can’t

= stand up

= sit down

park museum palace zoo statue market tower cathedral

Reading

Project: make a tourist poster

Project: make a tourist poster

Project: make a tourist poster

Smart Choice 3rd edition

Active learning

Communication competence

4-skills practice

Convenient design

Online practice

Online Practice

Smart Choice 3rd edition

Active learning

Communication competence

4-skills practice

Convenient design

Online practice

Characteristics of Active

Learning

1. More than passive listening

2. Activities (e.g. reading, discussing, writing)

3. Emphasis on developing student skills

4. Exploration of attitudes and values

5. Increased motivation

6. Higher order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation)

(Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom,

Bonwell & Eison, 1991)