Structural Element / Content / Instructional Method / Media
Introduction / “He who dares to teach never ceases to learn”
Teacher is also a learner. In this topic, you will have the opportunity to exchange and reflect your own teaching experience and the teaching methods you used; you will also learn how to use student-centered instruction (SCI ) in your English classroom.
In this professional development topic, you will view some video clips of teaching activities and discuss the following 4 effective English instructional strategies:
·Total Physical Response
·Language Experience Approach
·Dialogue Techniques
·Story Retelling
We choose the curriculum topic “school”for the lesson plans in this topic because school is the most familiar environment to our students with many familiar people and objects so that they may have a lot of common topics to share. The topic ‘school’ is one of the topics introduced at both Lever 2 and Level 5 of the National Standard of English Curriculum. / Explanation / Photos with teachers of different cultural backgrounds to illustrate various teaching strategies.
Link to Introduction to Student-Centered Instruction in Basic Education from course 1 text (p. ii & iii)
Link to National Standard of English Curriculum
Structural Element / Content / Instructional Method / Media
Initial Activity / Some students seem to be better language learners than other students. There are a number of learner characteristics that have been associated with good language learners.
The purpose of this activity is to engage you in a discussion with your colleagues about different views on what makes a good language learner.
To begin this activity:
- Click here for a list of characteristics of good language learners.
- Choose and rank five characteristics that you feel are the most important
- Join a colleague and in pairs take turns sharing the characteristics you chose and the reasons for choosing them
- Work with your partner to reach agreement on the same five characteristics
Now that you have reached a negotiated agreement, discuss your personal views about what makes a good language learner. Here are two questions to consider:
- Are the characteristics you chose similar or different from your own language learning characteristics?
- What kinds of support can a teacher provide that can help develop good language learning characteristics in their students?
Text
Link to ‘Characteristics of Good Language Learners’ document (attached at end of production plan)
Structural Element / Content / Instructional Method / Media
Presentation
(Page one) / This topic will introduce you 4 instructional strategies suitable for various English levels. Each strategy will answer three basic questions:
What is this strategy?
Why this instructional strategy is important?
How to use this strategy?
If you would like to study one of the strategies, please click one of the questions listed. Click Return after you finish study. If you want to know about these strategies, please click the Resource button on the top of this page and get more information.
Choose one strategy and start your learning.
Total Physical Response (TPR)
- What is TPR?
- Why is it important?
- How can we use TPR?
- What is LEA?
- Why is it important?
- How can we use LEA?
Dialogue Technique
- What is the dialogue technique?
- Why is it important?
- How can we use the dialogue technique?
- What is story retelling?
- Why is it important?
- How can we use story retelling?
/ Explanation
Interactive graphic (table) / An icon with the features of Presentation is on top of this page.
Text
Design a Return Button
A table of these 4 strategies with 3 linked questions for each.
Link to Web page What is TPR?
Link to Web page Why is TPR important?
Link to Web page how to use TPR？
Link to Web page What is LEA
Link to Web page Why LEA is important?
Link to Web page how to use LEA？
Link to Web page What is DT?
Link to Web page Why it is important?
Link to Web page how to use DT？
Link to Web page What is S-R?
Link to Web page Why it is important?
Link to Web page Why it is important?
Structural Element / Content / Instructional Method / Media
Presentation\Total Physical Response
(Page two)
What is Total Physical Response? / The instructional strategy known as TPR, or Total Physical Response, was pioneered by James J. Asher, a Professor of Psychology, San Jose State University, California, who discovered that second language learners achieved extremely positive results when he used the technique of giving commands, modeling the physical responses to them and having learners respond physically to the commands. Since those early days, Asher has continued his research and produced a variety of resources to support language teachers and students. As a result, the use of TPR as a second language instructional strategy has spread around the world.
TPR is basically a language acquisition technique thatcombines a speech act with movement. It is based on Asher’s premise that: “Understanding should be developed through movements of the student’s body” and on research into how children acquire their first language. Through speech, action and gesture teachers provide students with comprehensible input. As a result, the students are able to demonstrate their understanding by responding physically as they internalize the words and structures. In the hands of a skilled instructor, it can be used to teach most grammatical structures and thousands of vocabulary items in a target language.
For more information on TPR and techniques, click here to read about ‘Four Basic Types of TPR Exercises’ , ‘Acquiring Tenses Through TPR’ and ‘Techniques, Testing and Checking Comprehension’.
You can also access these articles by clicking on the Resources button above. / Explanation / Text
Link to articles: ‘Four Basic Types of TPR Exercises’, ‘Acquiring Tenses Through TPR’ and ‘Techniques, Testing and Checking Comprehension’ (from Fluency through TPR Storytelling and TPR is More Than Commands: At All Levels)
Structural Element / Content / Instructional Method / Media
Presentation\Total Physical Response
(Page two)
Why Total Physical Response is important? / TPR is most effective in the development of listening skills and vocabulary, particularly verbs, names of objects, prepositions of place and many adjectives and adverbs. While some believe that it is effective only for beginning learners, many teachers also use it successfully with advanced learners.
Why is TPR effective?
- It allows beginning learners to gain initial confidence in understanding English before requiring them to speak. As a result, students’ stress and anxiety about learning a second language is lessened.
- It promotes students’ active participation thereby increasing their engagement in their own learning. Students in TPR classrooms are not bored. On the contrary, they are physically and emotionally engaged in their own learning.
- The utterances that students come to understand through TPR instruction are experienced directly. Instead of memorizing words and structures, students internalize them through repetition and physical response.
- It fits the model of first language acquisition more closely than other approaches.
Link to SCI principles in Course 1
Structural Element / Content / Instructional Method / Media
Presentation\Total Physical Response
(Page two)
How to use Total Physical Response? / There are many ways to structure a TPR lesson. In this section of the resource, TPR teaching is illustrated through a classroom video, articles on TPR techniques and a collection of sample lessons and unit quizzes.
The lesson and the video are divided into three phases:
- The Anticipatory Phase
- The Realization Phase
- The Contemplative Phase
Click here to see the classroom video and Lesson Plan #1
For further study and discussion, you may6 access articles about TPR as well as sample lessons and quizzes by clicking on the Resources button above.
*After you have had a chance to look at an example of basic TPR, where the focus is on language comprehension, take a look at the use of TPR in a more grammatically-driven lesson. Here you’ll see how the teacher uses language and action to help students understand structure. As you watch, think of another grammatical point that you feel is important for your level and imagine applying this technique. Click here to see the People and Places TPR lesson. / Explanation
Video demonstration / (Note: The voices and faces used for the ‘talking head’ and voiceover roles in all videos should be representative of both gender and ethnic minorities. When the scripted portions of the video are presented in a language other than Chinese, an audio button should be created to provide access to a Chinese audio track.)
Link to Lesson Plan #1
Link to Video Clips: (T1-1 and V1-1)
1. Talking Head (1 – 2 minutes): “In this classroom video you will see a TPR lesson introducing students to directions within the curriculum topic of school. You can see the whole lesson by clicking on Lesson Plan #1. This video is intended to help you better understand some of the basic principles of TPR in action. You’ll see the use of gestures and actions to support words, the use of comprehensible input, the move from single commands to multiple and novel commands. Finally, you will see the move from more controlled practice to more independent use. As you watch the video, pay particular attention to the way the teacher introduces new words, the way the teacher identifies errors and provides feedback and the way that the students engage in the learning process. The first section of the video shows students at the front of the room as they begin to learn the basic commands that they will internalize further as the lesson progresses.”
2. Clip #2: Anticipatory Phase (title on blue screen) (3 min ) Group of students at the front of the classroom following teacher’s directions – single commands, multiple commands and novel commands.
3.Clip #3: Realization Phase (title on screen)
Voiceover: “Once the teacher feels confident that the students are reasonably familiar with the words and phrases but have not yet perfected them, the teacher introduces a new activity that uses and builds on what the students have learned. We join the teacher as she provides new directions for students to follow on a map.”
(One group of students at the blackboard, others in their desks with maps following teachers’ single, multiple and novel commands (eg. negative).)
4.Clip #4 (fade/transition and voiceover)
Voiceover: “The students’ learning continues with the introduction of more independent practice.”
(Two students are creating directions to say to other students who will demonstrate their understanding at the blackboard map.)
5. Clip #5: Contemplative Phase (title on screen)
Voiceover: “ The process of internalizing new words and structures will need to go on beyond a single lesson, but in order to help students reflect on what they have learned, this lesson closes with a chance for the students to think and talk about their learning in their first language.”
(Teacher is standing at the front of the class commenting on the lesson and asking students about the difficulty of the words they learned. She expresses interest and asks further questions about students’ suggestions for strategies to remember the new words. She provides students with a closing activity (homework).)
6. Talking Head (1 min.)
“What you’ve seen is only one example of the use of TPR in language learning and teaching. T
PR can be an incredibly effective means of internalizing vocabulary and structure. It provides teachers with easy and obvious evidence of student understanding. For the students, learning through doing is an effective and motivating approach.”
*Link to People and Places lesson video clips.
(A4-1 & V4-2)
Structural Element / Content / Instructional Method / Media
Presentation\Language Experience Approach
(Page two)
What is Language Experience Approach? / The Language Experience Approach (LEA) is a learner-centered method that uses student-generated texts to promote reading and writing. LEA is appropriate for children and adults, both English language learners and native English speakers. It is most effective with students at the early stages of literacy.
In its simplest form, the student works individually with a teacher, tutor, or a more advanced student. The process begins with a conversation about a shared or common experience, which may be sparked by a picture, a text, an event, or a topic of interest to the students. The teacher may ask questions to help the students expand or focus the topic. Then the students orally recount a story, poem, or report, incorporating personal and shared experiences, which are transcribed by the teacher. The teacher then reads and rereads the text until the students can read the lines alone and begin to associate the written and spoken words.
LEA can also be used as a group activity based on an experience the class has shared; for example, a movie, a field trip, a holiday, a class debate or any common experience. Through discussion, the class generates a text together. The teacher guides the students by asking questions about what the group wants to say, sentence by sentence. Each sentence can be discussed and elaborated before the teacher transcribes it on the blackboard. It is important that the teacher transcribes the story without corrections so that the kinds of errors that the students are making become visible and can be addressed. The completed text then becomes the basis for identifying common errors and improving the grammatical structures. It also serves as a commonly understood text to which new phrases and vocabulary items can be added. One great advantage of LEA is that the text that is produced is both interesting and comprehensible to the students because it is based on their personal experiences and uses vocabulary and grammar that they themselves can produce and understand.
In order to provide enough repetition to assist learners in the language learning process, teachers can ask students to read the text aloud as a group and individually, focusing attention on fluency and pronunciation.
To help students internalize the vocabulary and structures, a commonly used extension activity is known as ‘disappearing text’. In this activity, the teacher asks students to read the text aloud as a group. After each reading, the teacher erases one word from each sentence and then challenges the students to read the text and remember the words that are missing. The challenge increases with each reading and the disappearance of more words. / Explanation / Text
Structural Element / Content / Instructional Method / Media
Presentation\Language Experience Approach
(Page two)
Why Language Experience Approach is important? / Here are some benefits of the Language Experience Approach:
- It brings together writing, reading, speaking and listening.
- It provides the learner with a real purpose for communicating using the language that they have learned.
- It provides a text of a greater complexity than any single member of the class might be able to produce and yet is within the reach of all members of the class.
- It provides a meaningful context for correcting common and individual errors as students develop their language ability.
- It provides students with the opportunity to creatively collaborate under the guidance of a teacher.
- It is learner-centered and demonstrates that the learners' thoughts and language are valued.
- It provides reading material that is predictable and comprehensible because the learners generate it themselves.
- It provides a very accurate and authentic record for assessing the development of the English language proficiency of the class.
Structural Element / Content / Instructional Method / Media
Presentation\Language Experience Approach
(Page two)
How to use Language Experience Approach? / There are many ways to structure an LEA lesson. The text can be very guided (e.g. driven by specific questions like , “What did we do?”… “What was the hardest part?” … “What happened next?… “What did you learn?”), or the text can be more freely constructed by the students with questions like, “What do you want to say first?” Regardless of which approach the teacher uses for encouraging the contributions of students, it’s always a good idea to repeat the sentences and ask the students if there is anything they want to add or change before writing the sentence into the text. This can produce both richer sentences and sometimes address simple errors in the sentences that are recognized by the class as a whole, leaving only the more developmental errors to be addressed after the completion of the text.