Brazil / Peru July 2007 Practical teaching ideas Conditional conundrum Aim to raise awareness of the conditional structure Level upper intermediate and higher Interaction group work and feedback Technology CD-ROM and Internet Rationale Learners need to be made aware of both standard constructions, and non- standard forms. The latter may include less frequent language, such as “If we would have….”, “If I’ve done it by then”, and unfinished conditionals such as “I’d never’ve done that”. The internet is a repository of such non-standard language; grammar reference material tends to showcase standard forms. This exercise promotes noticing and a process grammar approach as described by Thornbury in Uncovering Grammar. Before Bring in a few grammar reference books. Check the internet is available, and that learners can access a grammar reference CD-ROM Procedure 1. Ask learners to tell you how many conditional forms there are in English. Write their answers on the whiteboard. A typical group will produce answers ranging from three to six plus. 2. Divide the group into research teams. Tell them to check their assumptions using the following tools: Group 1: a grammar reference book, such as Oxford Practice Grammar Advanced (OUP) Group 2: a grammar CD-ROM, or the unit on conditionals in the courseware Group 3: the web. This group should create examples of conditional sentences in order to type them into search engine such as Google Groups re-form to include one person from each research team. The students discuss their findings. 3. The learners report back on any differences in the information provided by the various source materials, and any amendments they would like to make to their original figures (Step 1). 4. Debrief the task. What have they learnt about the conditional form? Which source do they find most reliable / complete? Dictionary comparison Aim: to raise awareness of the range of dictionaries available on CD-ROM Level: intermediate and higher Interaction: group work and feedback Rationale: students are often unaware of the features and benefits of using a monolingual English dictionary, and the types of media (CD-ROM, internet) available Technology: CD-ROM dictionaries Before class: ensure that you have the relevant dictionary sets on hand, plus computers with access to the web and the CD-ROM dictionaries loaded. Photocopy the worksheet. Pete Sharma for Macmillan Education
Transcript
Brazil / Peru July 2007Practical teaching ideasConditional conundrumAim to raise awareness of the conditional structureLevel upper intermediate and higherInteraction group work and feedbackTechnology CD-ROM and Internet
Rationale Learners need to be made aware of both standard constructions, and non-standard forms. The latter may include less frequent language, such as “If we would have….”, “If I’ve done it by then”, and unfinished conditionals such as “I’d never’ve done that”. The internet is a repository of such non-standard language; grammar reference material tends to showcase standard forms. This exercise promotes noticing and a process grammar approach as described by Thornbury in Uncovering Grammar.
Before Bring in a few grammar reference books. Check the internet is available, and that learners can access a grammar reference CD-ROM
Procedure 1. Ask learners to tell you how many conditional forms there are in English. Write their answers on the whiteboard. A typical group will produce answers ranging from three to six plus. 2. Divide the group into research teams. Tell them to check their assumptions using the following tools:Group 1: a grammar reference book, such as Oxford Practice Grammar Advanced (OUP)Group 2: a grammar CD-ROM, or the unit on conditionals in the coursewareGroup 3: the web. This group should create examples of conditional sentences in order to type them into search engine such as GoogleGroups re-form to include one person from each research team. The students discuss their findings.3. The learners report back on any differences in the information provided by the various source materials, and any amendments they would like to make to their original figures (Step 1).
4. Debrief the task. What have they learnt about the conditional form? Which source do they find most reliable / complete?
Dictionary comparison
Aim: to raise awareness of the range of dictionaries available on CD-ROMLevel: intermediate and higherInteraction: group work and feedbackRationale: students are often unaware of the features and benefits of using a monolingual English dictionary, and the
types of media (CD-ROM, internet) availableTechnology: CD-ROM dictionaries
Before class: ensure that you have the relevant dictionary sets on hand, plus computers with access to the web and the CD-ROM dictionaries loaded. Photocopy the worksheet.
Procedure:1 Write up some words on the whiteboard. These could be new words you wish to pre-teach, or words from a recent class which you have chosen to re-cycle. Divide the class into four sub-groups and ask each group to find out the meaning of the words.
Group 1 use an electronic translator or bi-lingual dictionary.Group 2 use a print monolingual English learner’s dictionaries.Group 3 use a CD-ROM dictionary.Group 4 use a web-based dictionary.
2 Issue worksheet ‘Using dictionaries’ (see: Worksheet. Each group completes the relevant section.
3 The class meet as a whole. Each group reports back on their sections, covering the pros and cons. Others can complete their worksheets by taking notes on the report backs.
4 Ask students what they have learnt in this class. Open up a discussion about the various media used: do students have any preferences? Will they take any action, such as visiting an on-line dictionary or buying an English-English Learner’s dictionary?
Mono-lingual English learners’ dictionary ………………………………
Advantages Disadvantages
CD-Rom ………………………………………
Advantages Disadvantages
On-line dictionary………………………………………
Advantages Disadvantages
From: “Blended Learning: using technology in and beyond the classroom” (2007) Barney Barrett and Pete Sharma (Macmillan Books for Teachers series)
Pete Sharma for Macmillan Education
Brazil / Peru July 2007
Blended Learning – definitions
Blended Learning refers to a language course which combines a F2F (face-to-face) classroom component with an appropriate use of technology.
From: “Blended Learning: using technology in and beyond the language classroom” (2007) Barney Barrett and Pete Sharma (Macmillan Books for Teachers series)
The term “Blended learning” has a range of meanings. This is not a new phenomenon in ELT where many terms
have several interpretations: ‘task’ and ‘authentic’ for instance. Here are a number of typical definitions:
a “combination of online and in-person, classroom learning activities”www.cybermediacreations.com/elearning/glossary.htm
Learning or training events or activities where e-learning, in its various forms, is combined with more traditional forms of training such as "classroom" trainingwww.intelera.com/glossary.htm
the combination of multiple approaches to teaching or to educational processes which involve the deployment of a diversity of methods and resourcesen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning
a “mixture of face-to-face …and distance learning” (Frendo)
“combining e-learning with …F2F” (Smith and Baber)
For many, blended learning is ‘nothing new’ (Claypole) – merely the logical extension of what we do already. The term has also been criticised. It can be seen as a ‘compromise position. A blended learning course run without a principled approach may be seen as ‘eclectic’ approach of blending together course components, and can end up as rather a mish-mash. There may be little or no relation between the taught and the on-line components of a course. In a worse case scenario, students may suffer the “worst of both worlds” – those not enjoying the on-line component being forced to participate in web-based communication, and those happier communicating on-line having to attend classes.
From: “Blended Learning: using technology in and beyond the language classroom” (2007) Barney Barrett and Pete Sharma (Macmillan Books for Teachers series)
Sources
Claypole, M (2003) ‘Blended Learning: new resources for teaching Business English’ in IATEFL Brighton Conference Selections Ed. Pulverness, A IATEFL: Canterbury UK
Frendo, E (2005) How to Teach Business English Harlow: Longman
Smith, D.G and Baber, E (2005) Teaching English with Information Technology London: Modern English Publishing
Driscoll, Dr M. (2002) ‘Blended learning: Let’s get beyond the hype’
Chapter 1 Blended LearningChapter 2 The web: Finding and using authentic
materials Chapter 3 ELT materials Chapter 4 Electronic dictionariesChapter 5 Office softwareChapter 6 Interactive whiteboardsChapter 7 Portable devices Chapter 8 Computer mediated communicationChapter 9 Creating your own resourcesChapter 10 A brief word on the future
Teaching Resource Bank
Pete Sharma
Pete started his EFL career as a business English teacher in Madrid, moving to Finland before returning to the UK. He has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer, Director of Studies and school manager. He was also the training and development manager for Linguarama, a business English organisation. He now divides his time between lecturing at universities and writing. He also works as a freelance consultant and trainer.
Blended Learning courses – new
Course 1: Blended learning: using technology in and beyond the language classroom is aimed at language teachers currently under-confident as to how to successfully integrate technology to create a blended learning course. It covers the contents of the new book from Macmillan.
Course 2: Technology in language teaching: breaking down the software barriers, and uses the virtual learning environment Moodle to help teachers develop and deliver teaching material in a blended learning environment. Both courses offer hands-on workshops. For more information, visit: www.te4be.com
Venue: Oxford Brookes University, UK Next dates: tbc Early-bird registration
