Task-supported CALL in an English for Academic Purposes Course James Sick Daniel Jackson Obirin...

Task-supported CALL in an English for Academic Purposes Course

James Sick

Daniel Jackson

Obirin University, Japan

Presented at: EUROCALL 2006 University of Granada, Spain

September 6th, 2006


Introduction

• Overview of the EAP course

• EAP pedagogic corpus

• Computer-mediated communication tasks

• Discussion


EAP pedagogic corpus

• What is a pedagogic corpus?



• What is a pedagogic corpus?• “A corpus consisting of all the language a learner has been

exposed to. For most learners, their pedagogic corpus does not exist in physical form. If a teacher or researcher does decide to collect a pedagogic corpus, it can consist of all the course books, readers etc a learner has used, plus any tapes etc they have heard.” (Hunston, 2002)



• What is the EAP pedagogic corpus?• A corpus of 12 reading texts used during the spring

semester of the EAP Reading course

• Includes newspaper articles, online news reports and student questionnaires

• Corpus size is about 12,000 words



• How useful is a pedagogic corpus?• “The best way to exemplify language for learners is to

draw their attention to … texts which are familiar to them.” (Willis, 2003)





1. Process reading text for meaning

2. Consciousness-raising (C-R) activities

3. Recycle language in writing activities





• The corpus is a tool to raise awareness of lexical items in reading materials that students can recycle in their writing

1. Process reading text for meaning

2. Consciousness-raising (C-R) activities

3. Recycle language in writing activities



• Example text from the EAP corpus



• Example text from the EAP corpus





to study hard and think carefully about own future.



to study hard and think carefully about own future.

are always idling away.





motivate

Furthermore

job

credits

attitude

ensure

• “A task-supported approach”

• Integrating CMC tasks into the course

• Tasks used in the course

• Classroom procedures

• Student interaction during CMC tasks


Computer-mediated communication tasks

• What is a task-supported approach?• “Here tasks are not seen as a means by which

learners acquire new knowledge or restructure their interlanguages but simply as a means by which learners can activate their existing knowledge of the L2 by developing fluency.” (Ellis, 2003, p. 30)



• How do CMC tasks fit into the course?

• “the formality and complexity of language in electronic discussion suggests that it might be an excellent medium for pre-writing work” (Warschauer, 1997, p. 22)

1. Focus on lexis in the EAP reading course

2. Tasks designed to make pedagogic corpus vocabulary useful

3. Rehearse words in a collaborative, text-based environment



DebateJigsawDecision-making



• Classroom procedures:• Students did three CMC tasks in dyads • Task sheets were distributed at the start of

class• Teachers provided a brief oral explanation• Students logged in to the chat• 20 minutes allocated for each task…
























Contact information

James Sick

[email protected]

Daniel Jackson

[email protected]

Thank you

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