Listening comprehension in ordinary life does not consist of true-false statements or multiple choice alternatives. So the whole process of testing is a bit artificial. But these two exam types come in handy because the answers are so easy to check and mark. Checking can even be done by a special machine.
Open-ended questions are closer to real-life situations. If the teachers are provided with a set of sample answers, marking becomes much faster and reliable.
Tips for listening comprehension in exams
Listening comprehension exams can be very stressful. However, we can make the situation much more comfortable if we teach our students some strategies or give tips how to deal with the situation.
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Criteria are hard to write and understand and that is why teachers have to practise using them with their colleagues.
There are three reasons why oral exam criteria are used:
we need them in order to justify our evaluation and the grades we give
the students need to know their strengths and weaknesses
they make self- and peer-evaluation possible
If we tell our students that their speaking is 7 out of 10 or B-, A being the highest grade, it actually tells very little about the student’s performance and what needs to be done next. That is why more detailed criteria are used.
In many countries speaking is unfortunately not part of language evaluation and that is why teachers need to get it right from the very beginning following their national criteria.
The criteria below is a sample to demonstrate how we can use any criteria effectively. Of course, depending on the age of the students we would have to modify the criteria to match the true competence of the students.
Criteria typically follow a pattern of decreasing scale (excellent–very bad / always–never / very clear–uncomprehensible)
How to use the sample criteria above
1Start with the yellow column Flow of ideas to get a holistic ideas of the performance.
Having listened to the speaker use this yellow column to decide what your first impression is like.
Go down from grade 10 until you arrive at the grade (1 – 10) that corresponds to your evaluation. You can of course use grades 3, 5, 7, 9 and even half points if you feel ilke it.
Fluent / mostly fluent / some fluent moments / hesitant with only a few ideas / next to nothing said. You can naturally change your opinion at the end of the evaluation.
2Do the same thing with the blue columnsContent / Language / Interaction / Pronunciation to get a more detailed picture of the speaker’s skills in these areas
Language: How rich is the vocabulary? How demanding and accurate are the structures? Type of mistakes?
10 No serious mistakes/ 8 some mistakes/ 6 many mistakes/ 4 very many mistakes/ 2 no proof of any structures
N.B.Some mistakes are more serious than others: Mistakes in basic vocabulary and structures are serious. Mistakes that cause misunderstandings are serious ones.
Content: How clear and how well argued are simple and complex ideas?
Message/Content: basic and simple ideas max 6, simple & complex ideas / opinions but no proof 7-8, complex ideas: arguments and opinions with proof /reasons 9-10elaboration techniques: plan and expand ideas with examples, proof and reasons, back up the ideas convincingly
Scale: Clear justified complex ideas/ Clear simple ideas and some complex ones/ Simple ideas/ Very simple ideas/ Only unclear ideas
How active, quick and sensitive is the speaker in responding to what another speaker says or asks?
Interaction: Excellent/ very good/ rather good/ satisfactory, very limited
N.B. None of the speakers in a group is supposed to dominate or be silent. The best students draw the quiet ones into the discussion by asking them questions?
Pronunciation: How close to a native speaker pronunciation does the speaker get? How much do mistakes in pronunciation affect understanding?
Often pronunciation and interaction are part of the same evaluation column.
3 Mark your grading in each appropriate column with any symbol.
You can also write your additional comments on the same page.
The same evaluation form below shows the student clearly the level of his/her performance in various skill areas. As a result the student knows which areas need the most improvement.
By studying the requirements for a higher grade in the form the students can set another goals for themselves. Finally they need to figure out the means and strategies that will lead to improvement. All these things increase motivation even in ordinary lessons.
The symbols in the evaluation form reveal immediately how well the student did in the exam.
We have to aim at being objective in giving grades even if there is always an element of subjectivity in evaluating speaking skills.
How to practise the use of the criteria with students
No matter what the criteria is like it makes a lot of sense to open it up to your students.
Go through the criteria with your students and explain how it is to be understood and used.
Listen to a short recorded speaking test twice as an example with your students, first all through and the second time in sections.
Analyse the section aloud so that the students follow your analysis looking at the criteria.
In advanced classes the students themselves might be willing to express their opinion about the section. Some teachers write down everything that is said in the interview, for example, to make the analysis even clearer. It takes a while to write it but you can use it over and over again.
Finally you can either verify the advanced students’ grading or present your own with justifications.
Spending 30 to 40 minutes on dealing with the criteria like I recommend above makes it possible for the students to evaluate their own and their peers’ performances.
Knowing the criteria well is the path to success if the student is willing to take the next steps and practise hard having the aims in mind.
The real test for the students’ speaking skills takes place in real-life situations. They are moments when the teacher or the textbook is not available. Every lesson is preparation for these moments.
Speaking is an extremely delicate matter to myself since I did not learn to speak English at school at all. That was back in the 1960s and early 1970s. I had a lot of passive knowledge and learnt to speak English at the age of 19 at the university. I swore to myself I would not let that happen to my students.
CLT principle: Mistakes do not matter if the message gets through. We all make mistakes, even in our mother tongue!
Language learning should be fun and enjoyable. In the old days everything was spoilt by focussing on mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. They do not really matter if the message gets through. So let the students keep on talking! And asking questions.
I will answer the following two questions in this article:
What steps are needed for beginners in learning to speak English?
Where does the learning of a foreign language take place?
Many of the ideas related to teaching speaking have already briefly been discussed under heading ‘The structure of a chapter-based lesson’, ‘Pronunciation’ and ‘CLT group work methods’. Still, Latin ‘Repetition est mater studiorum’ = ‘Repetition is the mother of studies’.
What steps are needed for complete beginners in learning to speak English?
N.B. At the beginning the pupils need a massive amount of help from the teacher. Still, it is the students that the teacher needs to make talk. Little by little the teacher speaks less and less and becomes the organizer and facilitator of learning.
1 Learning to speak English starts with words and simple phrases: The pupils say the words and phrases after the teacher and he/she shows them pictures and uses mother tongue translations if needed. The pictures and phrases with their written forms can then be left on the noticeboard for subconscious learning. Learning to write starts later on.
2 Two things are vital at this stage: the pupils learn the correct pronunciation of the wordsand phrases by repeating them often enough AND understand the meanings of the words and phrases. Teachers have to be aware of the snowball effect: if we pronounce words and phrases wrong, the mistakes will be made by all our students as well.
3 Learning simple phrases like ‘Good morning’ or ‘Hi, my name is …’‘I like apples/oranges/bananas …’ can then be practised in mini role-plays the pupils moving around the class using them in their own sentences (The aim is to move from a closed system to an open one; i.e, from a book-based system to an open one where the pupils use the words and phrases creatively in their own talk). In weak groups the Dodson method where the mother tongue is made use of might be useful.
4 When you start using a textbook, I recommend you follow my advice onhow to go through the chapter in a systematic way:vocabulary, listening, checking understanding, reading the text aloud in breath groups, answering questions, moving on the pupils using sentences and ideas of their own.
5 In brief, the aim in CLT is to move from a book-based teaching to an open learning environment where the pupils/students use language produced by themselves without any worries of making mistakes.Nevertheless, it is hard for me to imagine teaching without textbooks in elementary and junior high classes due to the extra work of finding suitable materials. In senior high it is possible in many advanced groups. Additional exercises and oral tasks offer us a change to bring in authentic materials easily.
Before testing speaking skills you have to teach and allow the students to practice the skill! Therefore use pair and group work in class as much as you can.
In Finland all student teachers have to observe and train teaching for a full year in a teacher training school which are linked with universities. This is one of the secrets behind the high quality of Finnish schools and teaching.
The students start learning to speak English when the teacher shuts up – and gets them working in pairs or groups in English.
The motto introduced by Rogers sounds provocative but once you agree that it is actually true, you truly have entered the CLT realm!
Where does the learning of a foreign language take place?
I already touched upon this question in my previous article but there are some additional comments to be made. Learning a foreign language mostly takes place at school in lessons. On the other hand, it can happen at home if the student is voluntarily exposed to the language. (computer games, songs, reading books, watching films/videos/Youtube or TV programmes). Or the learner visits or stays in a country where the language is spoken.
The logic is simple: We learn to speak by speaking the new language in all possible situations. The unfortunate truth is that most students do not speak English anywhere else than at school. Sometimes not even there. As a result, they do not learn speaking unless the teacher makes it possible.
The whole process of learning to speak a foreign language starts with the idea of the students
speaking itwithout being afraid of somebody pointing out every mistake they make.
speaking with no fear of making a fool of yourself!
finding the courage to speak the target language in classor in public
We teachers need to realize that in learning English in particular, there are many other sources available than our lessons. We do it in a systematic way following our beliefs and principles but if the learners find their motivation somewhere else the learning process can actually be very fast and enjoyable. Whatever the source of motivation is encourage the students to keep it up and respond to the idea positively.
How can the students learn to speak English if the teacher talks most of the time or makes them work silently on written tasks? NO WAY, MOST TASKS HAVE TO BE ORAL!
My next article deals with testing speaking and practising for the tests. Luckily the importance of speaking skills has been recognized in most countries and official speaking tests or exams with clear criteria are becoming part of the final examinations.
Throughout my career I have been taken by surprise how creative my students are and how much effort they have sometimes put on the tasks they have created.
In the previous article I argued that we teachers need to give space for the creativity of our students. Letting the students design exercises for others is an excellent opportunity for the students’ creativity to bloom provided we give them some ideas how to do it. That is why I am continuing with the vocab learning strategy list with some more ideas and justifications for using the ideas. Points 11 – 22.
It takes some time at first to introduce this possibility of producing vocab tasks but in the long run it is rewarding and the work done is so intensive that the students will remember it for the rest of their lives.
Maximized focus on something leads to learning. I remember every orienteering route, hill and ditch in competitions by looking at the map since I had to be so focused not to get lost. I can even remember why I got lost. Poor me!
Take your time to teach any of these techniques to your students. It gives them great variation for the lessons and home practice too.
Practical vocab task hints for the students and the teacher
Points………Photos, pictures
1 – 10 ……….Mother tongue hints
were ………..Word lists and mindmaps
dealt ………. Association technique
with ……….. Recording word lists
in ……………..Covering up word lists
the …………..Self-made tests
previous …Use the word in sentence
article ……..Make a story
………………….Two-sided cards in a game
Learn words in groups (linked with a topic, nouns, adjectives etc.). Write them down in a grid or an excel file.Fruit: banana, orange, apple, pear … Traffic: vehicle, pedestrian, cycle path, lane, speeding … Combined with the use of dictionary this is a great exercise.
Use word formation technique. One word leads to a family of words. My favourite example is Latin word ‘volvare’ meaning ‘to go around’: car trade mark ‘Volvo’ means I go around‘, a revolver: the cartridge chamber goes around, a revolution: society goes around in a way, adj., revolutionary: turning around or overthrowing old ideas; revolutionize, revolutionist, counter-revolution, post-revolutionary etc. Word formation technique is an extremely powerful tool in expanding knowledge of words.
Find synonyms or opposites for the word. This can be done at any levels and practised in pairs. It actually means finding near synonyms or opposites. Pleased – content, contended, satisfied, happy, glad …)
Make a gap exercise of the lyrics of a song. In grammar school at the age of 12 I started to write down the lyrics of songs and learnt thousands of words and phrases, and nearly all grammar subconsciously.
Consult a dictionary (online or hard copy). Allow the students to use online dictionaries in the lessons. That’s something we all do in normal life. Teach how dictionaries work!
By doing various exercises (crossword puzzles, gap filling, hidden grid or a maze etc.) Finnish students love crossword puzzles and so do I. Just make sure the hints are not too difficult. I will have another article on crossword puzzle options. Gap fillings and hiding words in a maze appeals to weaker students in particular.
Guess the meaning of new words on the basis of the context. Rationalized guessing is to be encouraged in language learning. My ‘horrible’ example puzzles the minds of my students for a while: ‘The Queen was beheaded in the Tower.’ The students need to know something about the history of London, the Tower and laws in the Middle Ages. Secondly the need to notice that the word ‘head’ is hidden in the unknown word. So, what happens to ‘head’ in the Tower? Sorry, they were cut off, the Queen was executed with an axe.
Make use of free computer vocab exercises. Seach the internet for free programmes and encourage your students to make use of them in their free time too.
Give a definition of a word and your pair has to guess which it is (e.g. it is an adjective which means the same as ‘adequate’ – ‘enough’ or ‘sufficient’).The students need a few phrases to do this well. Pantomime or acting out without words is also great fun.
Your say a word and your pair has to give a definition for it or explain it in another way (a vaccination – well, it is a shot given with a needle so that you do not get a disease) This technique is also needed if you do not know the word and try to explain it.
Make use of the free vocab learning computer programmes in the internet. What you need to do is to google the internet (vocabulary learning programme) and find programmes that work at your school or in students’ homes. Many of them are free and commercial ones are also available.
When reading extra English materials such as magazines or books, take out your notebook and write down new words and phrases that you find interesting and useful. Surprisingly many students find this way of learning very effective. It is even more motivating if you let the students compare their lists, phrases and sentences at school and explain others how they utilize them. After all my advice to my students when they write essays is to use 10 fancy words (rare words that suit the text fine) and a few phrases to show they master some authentic language and vary their sentence structure to avoid monotonous flow of sentences.
Activate your students to design vocab tasks at home or at school. You will be amazed how enthusiastic and creative the students get in doing so.
We teachers need to give space for the creativity of our students. letting the students design exercises for others is an excellent opportunity for that. Let me move on to give practical tips what you can do in class to get the students more involved in learning new words.
Of course we need to check the tasks before they are published not to embarrass the designer. Of course there will be a lot of variation in the quality of the tasks and of course there will be mistakes in the tasks.
Nevertheless, the benefits are undeniable. All we teachers need to do is to check the tasks, maybe suggest some improvements and above all find a way how the answers can be checked: the task designer provides the correct answers or the pair or group does not even need one.
The whole point in this is that the students will learn at least the words they are working on. Besides, they become more curious and motivated to solve problems designed by others than doing workbook exercise.
“Good for you but I do not have time for any of this”, I hear you thinking. That is exactly what I thought before I started teaching my students how to design vocab tasks. It takes some time at first but in the long run it is rewarding.
Besides, who says I can’t skip chapters in our textbook and exercises in the workbook. No-one. I know best what my students need and appreciate doing.
Practical vocab task hints for the students and the teacher
Link the new word with a picture or photo.At the beginning of the year decide on the vocab themes of the year (fruit, housing, traffic etc.) Give each pair a topic for which they find 10 – 15 pictures in the internet, get them on one page and write the words at the bottom of the page. Then they send the file to you to be used later with a certain chapter.
Link the new word to your mother tongue. Using mother tongue in exercises is perfectly ok if the class cannot cope tasks in English only . Still, teachers should maximize the use of English in lessons.
Write the unknown words of the chapter on a paper and make up a mindmap or a story. The mindmap may consist of key words of the chapter or anything else as long as it makes the student think hard. The story may be oral onlyand done in group by each one taking turns sentence by sentence. The leader of the group helps the slower ones patiently.There will be a lot of laughter, believe me!
Associate the new word with another (funny) word, story or setting. Explain to your pair how the association works for you. My sample associations/images: ‘Rainbow trout’ a fish has rainbow colours on its back when it surfaces from water. ‘Roundabout’ it is round and may be found in the middle of nowhere in Britain. The reasons for the associations are very interesting to listen to and visualize. You will be surprised!
Record a word list on your phone ( word in mother tongue – 1 sec pause – word in English. Listen to the list many times. My wife’s favourite way to learn and remember words. She used to listen to the recording while cycling to evening classes. Excellent for auditive learners.
Make word lists on paper (mother tongue – English), cover up the other side and say the words aloud or write them down before checking.Many textbooks have these lists ready-made. I myself used this method and mumbled the words at the same time.
Make or have a look at a word list (mother tongue – English). Then make an exam for yourself or others. The students are very surprised when you suggest this kind of exam. They think it is too easy which is not the case. They seldom get full points but they learn many words when writing the exam. My grading: one letter wrong >> half a point, two letters wrong >> zero points.
Say or write a sentence where you use the new word.Words learnt in isolation is not ideal and that is why I use this technique before we even listen to the chapters.
Tell a story where you use the new words. (Humour is the best medicine!)This is one of my students’ favourites since they always come up with fascinating stories in a couple of minutes.Every now and then we record the stories, I get them on Whatsapp and then later on we listen to them. For example, 30 students, 1 min / group, 8 groups >> 10 – 12 min
Make two-sided word cards and use them in a self-made game. This one requires an article of its own. I often combine it with cultural knowledge on the English -speaking words.
Colour photos are excellent sources for vocabulary learning and story telling because they stir imagination in a positive manner. This photo is from Central Park, New York City. I finally visited the city in 2016 having talked about it for 40 years. I actually thought I would not like the city but I was wrong. I’m looking forward to another visit.
Linguists argue that on average students have to do something with a new word 20 times before they ‘know’ the word.
‘Knowing a word’ is actually a complicated matter and it is not as simple as one might think. This article deals with the following questions.
What does passive and active vocabulary mean?
What does knowing a word really mean?
What is the Finnish way to introduce new words?
What can you do if you do not remember the right word?
Words are more important than grammar. Why? Because true communication is possible without grammar, but not without words.
A: ” I yesterday eat park hotdog.”B: Hyde Park, was it? Tasty?
Words are the building blocks of communication and we can communicate by using words only, with no knowledge of grammar. If someone says to you : “I yesterday eat park hotdog.” we can understand it with just a little thought even if the grammar is all wrong. “Yesterday I ate a hotdog in the park.”
Passive and active vocabulary
Our vocabulary can be divided in two:
Passive vocabulary – means that you recognize the word from English into your mother tongue – and it is much bigger than active vocabulary.
Active vocabulary – means that you can use the word both in writing and orally (you remember the word from mother tongue to English, too).
So, as a teacher do not hesitate to spend a lot of time in practising and repeating the use of new words in various kinds of exercises.
No-one knows how many words there are in English but it is estimated to be close to a million now. The best students at the age of 15 know about 6000 words and at A-level about 15 000 words. An ordinary person gets by daily with 3000 words.
Of course, sometimes we ‘learn’ new words instantly because we use a nearly similar word in our mother tongue or we make a funny association link to the word.
Speaking English on the Spanish stairs in Rome!
Knowing a word
You know a word …
if you know its meaning; i.e. know the meaning of the word in your mother tongue, you can link the new word with a picture or the sentence helps you to guess the meaning
if you know how it is pronounced; i.e. you can recognize the word in isolation or within a sentence and can pronounce it yourself
if you know how the word is written; i.e. you know the spelling of the word in isolation and recognize it in a text
if you know how it is used in speech and writing; i.e. you know its grammatical function and where to place it in the sentence
if you know words that mean nearly the same; i.e. if you know its synonyms (and opposites)
if you can recognize its secondary meanings, connotations; i.e. in poetry, for example, ‘sea’ can imply ‘freedom’ or ‘danger’ or ‘desire to go away’
The Finnish way to introduce new words
In the Finnish system the students study the new chapter in advance at home translating the text into their mother tongue if needed with the help of ‘English – mother tongue’ word lists of the chapter (or with the help of a dictionary).
This system means that the students have already done something with the new words maybe 5 times even before they come to the lesson. They have also seen how the words are used in a sentence context. This idea of flipped learning(studying the content in advance at home) has been a standard in the Finnish style of teaching languages for decades.
This system combined with new methods, styles, strategies, assessment and modern technology has made it possible for our students to learn and master several foreign languages instead of studying reluctantly only one.
I strongly recommend that when teaching a new chapter, teachers first make the students repeat the new words in isolation after them because it will remind the students of the content of the chapter and they will learn how the words are pronounced. Then the new words are used in an oral pre-task.
A: This is the place in New York where businessmen buy and sell … you know companies, banks, … the centre of the business world. B: Ah, you mean Stock Exchange. I was expecting a more elegant building with a massive entrance. (Compensation strategies are most useful!)
What if you do not know or remember a word?
There are sometimes situations where you do not come up with a word. What can you do? Use one of the Compensation strategies below and hope for the best.
Use pantomime, acting out a word
Use hands and body or show a picture or point at the target
Explain and describe the word
Give a home-made definition
Draw a picture of the word / idea
Use a synonym or opposite
Use a word from another language
We are all different and learn words in a different way. Visual learners prefer photos and videos, auditive learners need to hear the words spoken and kinesthetic learners like to get active with their hands. That is why all of us need to experiment and find our own style or strategy of learning new words.
What strategies and learning styles are best in learning new words?
What kind of exercises and activities are best in learning words?
How can we activate students to make vocabulary exercises themselves?
I will present 22 strategies in the next vocab article and you can try to identify them in an exercise. In the next two posts after that I will clarify the strategies in Points 1 – 10 and Points 11 – 22 in more detail, what to do in class.
All in all, in addition to the traditional workbook exercises I have three main arguments in teaching new words:
There should be a lot of oral activities, not only written ones, and the new words should be used in discussions.
We should teach various techniques or strategies to our students how to learn new words. As a result, they can start using the ones that appeal to them.
The students should be taught how to make exercises of their own; while making them they will learn the words subconsciously.
Task-based learning (TBL) is typically a group or pair activity where the target language is used in roleplay type of ‘real-life’ situations to achieve some communicative purpose.
N.B. Click the little triangle in the menu to access the two sample articles how to use TBL in everyday situations and in teaching grammar.
TBL is a simple but marvellous way to introduce situations where the students are in ‘real-life’ roles, the aim being a rehearsal for the same actual situation later on in their lives. Still, we should not rush into a TBL task just like that since the TBL task has to be based on things already learnt in class. We can simplify the whole process as follows: 1 Careful planning, 2 Pre-task, 3 Main task and 4 Feedback session
1 Careful planning: The success of the task is based on the teacher being able to foresee where the problems may emerge:
a)explain to the students what they will be doing and why you think this kind of practice is important;, even in our mother tongue once you get them to agree they are more willing to try it out, spend enough time on the preparatory work, the pre-task.
b) many students feel shy about talking to others in a foreign language, which is perfectly natural, so encourage them, tell them not to worry about mistakes (everybody makes them anyway, even in our mother tongue)
c)differentation is also vital: the weaker students have to be given prompts (vocabulary and phrases on paper or on the screen) to be used, they will learn at least some of the phrases by repeating them during the practice, most importantly they will have the guts to use the target language
d)the advanced students should be encouraged to use utterances of their own as well as help and challenge the others to talk
e)get hold of ‘authentic materials‘ (airport: electronic tickets – boarding passes, restaurant: a real menu – a white towel for the waiters etc.) to direct the focus off from the pressure of making mistakes and to create a more ‘authentic’ situation
2 Pre-task: Study the content, chapter, vocabulary or grammatical point in a normal way in class. Use google to find free videos on various situations in the internet. Teachers often stop at this point and the students do not get a chance to try out what they have learnt.
3 Main task: In its simpliest form once the pre-work has been done the idea is taken one step further in a roleplay where the students can use and develop their fluency. The teachers, in their CLT role, just have to organize and facilitate the oral learning situation.
4 Feedback session: The students give feedback to the teacher and the teacher gives general constructive feedback to the whole class. The teacher can ‘secretly’ pay attention to the level of fluency of the students while the acting is on. However, if there is any kind of assessment going on the students should know about it. I would recommend self-assessment.
In this article I am introducing two most common TBL task types that I have been using over the years: 1 Coping with everyday situations or 2 Using a particular grammatical structure in these situations. I am by-passing the extra theory and jargon on purpose in this context.
SITUATION-BASED or GRAMMAR-BASED TASKS
The most typical TBL tasks are either mimicking real-life situations such as ‘at the zoo’, ‘in hospital’ , ‘at the police station’ , ‘at a hotel’.
I hear you say ‘at the zoo’? What can you practise in that situation? Honestly, the sky is the limit: Making hundreds of questions about the life of the animals at the zoo and in nature, giving answers ‘as an expert worker at the zoo’, comparing the animals with each other using comparative forms of adjectives. TBL tasks boil down to imaginative roleplays that are as close to real life as they can ever be in schools.
At its best TBL tasks are an oral extension of a text or dialogue which was dealt with in the class.
TBL examples
After the pre-task the students are given phrases in a handout or on the screen which they can use while speaking and the advanced students can use utterances of their own. For example: At a hotel
A: Good afternoon madam/sir? How can I help you?
B: I’d like a double room for two nights with a shower, please. / We have booked a room with a bath for one night. Mr and Mrs Perks. …
A: That’s perfectly ok. We have some beautiful rooms facing the sea/the mountains/ the beach if that is ok with you.
B: Wonderful! How much is it for a night? …
OR grammar oriented tasks / situations where a some grammatical structure is practised in an ‘authentic’ situation. For example, the passive voice in the present tense to describe making food following a recipe. For example:
A: What is done first when mutton meatballs are made?
B: Well, of course the incredients are bought well in advance. The mutton is put in a bowl, half a kilo, and two eggs are mixed with the meat. Some bread crumps are added with mustard into the bowl.
A: What would you do in the following situations?
A questionnaire is given to the students and they move about in class asking a response from others. After 5 minutes they get in groups and explain others what kind of responses they got (using their notes).
Model: you see a child struggling in water >> If I saw a child struggling in water, I would run and save him. Then I would …
you see a traffic accident
If I saw … , I would …
you hear an old lady scream
If I heard … , I would …
you forget you phone at home
If I forgot …, I would …
…
OR using comparative and superlative forms of adjectives: A jury is deciding which of the three plans for a new recreational centre is the best one. (The plans were made by the students themselves in the previous lesson.)
In other words, TBL means student-centred learning, ‘learning by doing’ tasks, roleplays that help the students to cope with authentic communicative situations in the future. The aim is to increase the self-confidence and fluency of the students in speaking.
The motivational trick in TBL is to direct the focus away from language learning as such towards using the target language without the fear of making mistakes.
If the listener understands what is going on and can respond accordingly, we have a winner. This is also the way we can measure success in TBL: how well the task was completed rather than looking at the accuracy of the language. Assessment is primarily based on the task outcome (in other words, the appropriate completion of real-life tasks) rather than on the language being accurate. This makes TBL especially effective in developing target language fluency and student confidence.
Other examples of TBL tasks:
Real-life situations such as ‘at a restaurant’, ‘at the doctor’s’, ‘at a railway station’, ‘at the airport’
Showing a friend the sights in the home community
Being in a job interview
Introducing oneself at a summer camp
Interviewing a film star: What have you been doing this week? What did you do last week? What will you do next month? etc.
As you have probably now realized nearly any material you are using in class can be turned into a TBL task after the pre-activity. However, this is not the whole story. There are certain logical steps we must take to achieve the communicative goals we have in TBL tasks.
I will give a couple of more practical and even more detailed examples of communicative task-based activities in my next article: ‘At the airport’ ‘Using comparative forms in explaining about a long holiday trip’
I am using ‘at the airport’ as an example of a TBL lesson. For many students this may be the only time in their lives someone gives them practical information on airports.
If this is the first time the students are facing situations at an airport, there are very many new things to be learnt at the same time when they are coping with English. Many students cannot even explain the things in their mother tongue, which makes the situation very challenging but rewarding at the same time.
One of my colleagues fell in love and spent all weekends in another town. On her way back home by train she had little time to prepare lessons for Mondays so she developed her own way of using ‘work stations’ in her lessons. And, to her surprise, with great success.
‘Work stations’ (or Station work) is just another special type of group work. One of my absolute favourites among lesson types. I have been using it for decades a couple times a month at least. It works well with all kinds of students and is a particularly good way:
to have a different but effective, fast-pacing kind of lesson
to change a teacher-oriented lesson into a student-oriented one
to differentiate teaching by offering choices for the students
to enhance social skills in the groups and let the students help each other
to practise for a future exam
The example above implies that ‘station work’ does not need to be a burden for the teacher. It may well be based on the exercises in the workbook. We only have to organize the lesson so that we do the very same things in the groups that we would do in a teacher-oriented lesson.
Central pedagogical ideas
A new motivation point after the transition to a new table.
Everyone proceeds at their own pace.
Students help each other (the social emphatic aspect).
Teaching others is a great way to learn yourself (the internalization aspect).
The teacher can be mobile or work in a particular group .
Essential practical advice on organizing work stations
The students are forced to be active and co-operate.
Usually 4 -5 groups, 4 – 6 students in each group
The desks are organized as in the photo below
Time in each group depends on the length of the lesson
First 5 min for organizing the groups, at the end 5 min for wrap up
Group members are randomly selected, mixed-ability groups but one student is appointed group leader
Each group has two sets of the same instructions on the numbered desk (this way everyone can see the written instructions)
There are more exercises than there is time for (and the students know it), extra tasks are available and marked with *
There is one extra task for all groups (for example: Ask each other the words of a particular chapter)
Two sets of correct answers (if there are any) are placed in an envelope on the desk.
Announce the change of groups 2 min beforehand, and let the students check the answers. Moving to the next table takes 30 seconds.
Usually the 1st group takes a bit longer and the last one is shorter.
Look at the two examples below. By all means, do not hesitate to make your own version. The 1st time may seen troublesome but once you get a hang of the things to remember you will realize this is one of the best lessons types ever. I hope to be able to add a video on a ‘work stations’ lesson at some point.
Types of tasks in each group
1 Listening to a recording of the chapter. In the corner of the room or with headphones on. Reading the text or part of it aloud. (See my recommendations on the structure of ordinary lessons.)
2 Questions on the text + answers, or explain the chapter content in own words, or tell a story related to the chapter.
3 Various vocabulary exercises, orally and/or written ones.
4 Practise the latest grammar point orally and /or in writing.
5 Let the students choose whatever woorkbook exercises they fancy.
An illustration how ‘station work’ can be used when we practise for an exam just before the exam itself.
Use the same types of tasks as you intend to use in the exam itself.
1 A couple of dictation sentences (read by you or a student) A short reading task: done alone and checked together with justifications for the correct answers.
2 and 4 Tasks testing recently taught grammar points, preferrably three difficulty levels (See my recommendations on ‘differentiation’ under heading ‘Grammar’
3 Crossword or any other vocab task, preferrably three difficulty levels 5 Practise orally the kind of questions you wish your students to be able to answer in the exam or have oral ideas for a written essay for more advanced students .
Students really enjoy ‘station work’ lessons since they can co-operate in a relaxed atmosphere and time passes quickly away and they have options on what to focus on.
We are all different and learn words in a different way. That is why we need to let our students experiment and find their own style or strategy of learning words. Here the term ‘strategy’ simply means a certain way or approach to enhance learning new words.
Miniature N.Y. Brooklyn Bridge in a Bangkok mall. I am a very visual learner and therefore I love to use photos and pictures in my teaching
It is sometimes argued that new words should be learnt in a sentence/context first and I agree. Still, I believe they should be practiced in isolation as well since there are many things to learn about every word. In the approach I recommend below most of the learning takes place at sentence/utterance level:
The other articles under Vocabulary heading are
Knowing a word, What does it really mean?
Identify 22 strategies to learn new words
Getting students to design vocab tasks, Points 1-10
Getting students to design vocab tasks, Points 11-22
A summary of my philosophy on learning new words
At home: in advance before the new lesson: New words are preferably first encountered in the sentences of new texts/chapters at home (as part of homework).
At home: The students automatically try to guess/figure out the meanings of the new words. If they fail, they consult the workbook word lists or a dictionary. An excellent learning situation because a lot of thought is involved in the silent mental process.
At home: If the student doubts he/she will not remember the words, I advise them to write the translation on top of the textbook line or in their notebooks. Still, occasionally we learn new words without knowing the exact meaning because the words are constantly repeated in a context.
At school the words are repeated after the teacher to learn how they are pronounced and at the same time the meanings of the words are revised.
The use of words is practised orally in pairs, preferrably by making sentences or even stories of one’s own using as many of these new words as possible.
The chapter is listened to, read aloud and reading comprehension checked in many ways, all of it at sentence level.
Invisible differentiation(the students choose freely from options what to do, no stigma attached on tasks) is involved all the time and the final stage for the best students is to produce ideas of their own making use of the new words under the topic in question. Even the weakest students learn new words in a relaxed atmosphere answering questions on the text in pairs.
We all learn new words differently depending on our style and personal characteristics. That is why we teachers need to offer our students a set of options / strategies and then they can start using the strategies that appeal to them.
There is so much more we can do to learn new words than doing exercises in the workbook.
22 strategies to learn new words
Which ones have you already been teaching? Which one have you never thought about? Choose the 5 best ways YOU learn new words best!
I hope to be able to add some videos on these strategies later on.
Link the new word with a picture or photo.
Link the new word to your mother tongue.
Write the unknown words of the chapter on a paper and make up a mindmap or a story.
Associate the new word with another (funny) word, story or setting. Explain to your pair how the association works for you.
Record a word list on your phone ( word in mother tongue – 1 sec pause– English word). Listen to it many times. (The favourite of my wife!)
Make word lists (mother tongue – English), cover up the other side and say the words aloud or write them down before checking. (My favourite if followed by oral practice)
Make or have a look at a word list (mother tongue – English). Then make an exam for yourself or others.
Say or write a sentence where you use the new word.
Tell a story in your group where you use the new words. (Humour is the best medicine!)
Make two-sided word cards and use them in a game.
Learn words in groups (linked with a topic, nouns, adjectives etc.). Write them down in a grid or an excel file.
Use word formation technique. One word leads to a family of words.
Find synonyms or opposites for the word.
Make a gap exercise of the lyrics of a song.
Consult a dictionary (online or hard copy).
By doing various exercises (crossword puzzles, gap filling, hidden grid odd one out, etc.)
Guess the meaning of new words on the basis of the context.
Make use of free computer vocab exercises provided by publishers.
Give a definition of a word and your pair has to guess which it is (e.g. it is an adjective which means the same as ‘adequate’ – well ‘enough’ or ‘sufficient’)
Your say a word and your pair has to give a definition for it or explain it in another way (a vaccination – well, it is a shot given with a needle so that you do not get a disease)
Make use of the free vocab learning computer programmes in the internet.
When reading extra English materials such as magazines or books, take out your notebook and write down new words and phrases that you find interesting and useful.
Let the students do a lot of vocab exercises orally. And – open up the vocab learning strategies, teach them how to write exercises of their own for themselves and others. Use free computer programmes. LEARNING BY DOING – WORKS HERE AS WELL!
Students learning new words by designing exercises
As you can see above many of the exercise types can be done orally and if the students move from word level to making sentences or stories of their own, we are beautifully applying CLT and differentiation principles. Instead of asking your students to do ready-made vocab exercises you can also teach them how to design vocab exercises for others.
As a result you, the teacher, do not have to come up with all the exercises if you notice workbook exercises do not work well. Start by going through the list of strategies little by little in your lessons and let the students then make the written exercises.
I don’t have the time, you say! Yes, you do. Leave out some of the workbook exercises and do these ones instead. The students enjoy these ones more than the workbook exercises. Or ask them to write the exercises at home and exchange them with each other in lessons. If you take copies of these student-produced exercises, you can use them in work stations, for example. Especially if you are rehearsing for an exam. It is simply a matter of organization.
There is no need to check all the tasks made by the students since learning takes place when they are writing the task. If there are problems, others will point them out. You, the teacher, just move about and offer help if needed. If needed, you can always take copies of the tasks or show them on the screen.
Students subconsciously learn the words they are working onwhile talking or writing vocab exercises. Why? Since they need to think a lot and make reasonable decisions.
Still, even if they never make any exercises themselves, knowledge of the vocab learning strategies will help them a lot.
The next article deals with what is meant by knowing a word and some other basic ideas on vocab learning
Then you will have a chance to practise identifying the strategies in real vocab exercises in my 3rd article.
In the following two articles I will demonstrate what you need to take into account when you make you students write vocabulary tasks themselves. (See the links above)
Let’s be honest. Nobody likes exams. Teachers do not like to write or mark them and students don’t like to study for them. The whole exam situation is full of stress and you feel miserable if you get a bad grade. But …
OK, I admit it. I am being a bit provocative. Evaluation and assessment of students has always been there and will never disappear. So we had better accept it and see how communicative language teaching has drastically changed our views in this area of teaching.
Six things about assessment are vital for CLT teachers:
To understand the difference between Assessment of Learning (AoL) = official exams and test and Assessment for Learning (AfL) = all measures that enhance learning (See the next article ‘Assessment of and for learning’)
To know how to use the tools for Assessment for Learning in class. (See AfL Tools 1 – 4 and AfL Tools 5 – 6 in the next two articles for more information)
Due to practical reasons summative testing (AoL) will never disappear but we can make these situations less stressful.
We need to find and use easy and quick ways to test all language skills reliably. In many countries some language skills are not tested at all. ‘Not tested’ often means ‘not taught’ either.
In CLT we spend some time in analysing and applying the official national criteria for each language skill area. The students need to understand what is required from them and it is best learnt if they assess themselves and the work of others and get feedback on how when they succeed in doing it.
Studying for exams is a skill of its own and how it is done depends on the students’ style of learning. In the 1990s CLT teachers started using practice exams to reduce exam stress among their students. Over the last 15 years we have also paid attention to exam strategies:what the students ought to do in exam situations if they face a problem and how the teachers can make the returning of the exams a learning situation.
N.B. Exam strategies are dealt with in separate articles under the skill headings. Direct links are provided here for you.
The other articles in this unit, under heading ‘Assessment’ are:
Assessment
Assessment of and for learning
How to apply AfL in class, Tools 1-4
AfL, observation with criteria, self-assessment, Tools 5-6
AfL, giving constructive feedback, traps and samples
Development discussions, feedback forms
Positive feedback – comments and phrases
The main point in AfL is that the student realize they can and should affect their own learning and results. And that the teachers are there to assist them.
An example of an AfL style discussion at school
Me: “Which grade do you want in scale 4 – 10?”
” Student: “Which grade? What do you mean? 10, of course.”
Me: “But your grade is 7 at present. Is 10 a realistic goal?”
St: “Well, maybe not. But I’d like to have 9 out of ten. I have not tried very hard but I think I can do it.”
Me: “Ok, if that is what you want, I can help you. What are your strongest skill areas? Listening, writing or what?”
St: “Listening, definitely, and vocabulary. But I always get lousy points for my essays and grammar tests.”
Me: “Ok, let’s think about them first. What do you think you should do to improve in them?”
St: “I have no idea. Last week you talked about learning styles and strategies but I had a headache and I did not get it really. Do you have the handout with you? Maybe I should try out something in it.”
It is important the answers come from the students themselves. This way they become committed to solving the issues themselves.
If the purpose of school is to develop the students’ personalities as a whole, not just fill them with knowledge, traditional assessment (AoL) is not very effective. That is why AfL and CLT methods are needed even if they may never show in school reports.
It may be interesting and vital to note at this point that … we teachers need to change the way we think about student evaluation and assessment: CLT principles recommend reducing drastically the time we talk to the whole class and use most of the lesson in observing and guiding indivuduals, pairs or groups.
The ideas above should remind us that our job is mainly to facilitate learning, not to focus on exam results.
Even if I think we teachers are assisting our students more than assessing them in lessons, I decided to stick to the term ‘Assessment for Learning’ because it is so established. The original term could have beeen ‘Assistance for Learning’ …
The point in the articles under ‘Assessment’ is to show
that applying AfL principles does not mean extra work for the teacher but are a natural part of any CLT lesson
that traditional exams cannot be totally avoided but the focus should be turned to the learning process in an encouraging atmosphere
that it is not really the grades achieved that matter in life but what is truly learnt: we are looking for the ability to apply language skills and knowledge
that continuous follow-up of learning with appropriate feedback is often more important than final grades in learning; not by stalking and harrassing the students but by boosting their self-esteem genuinely
that the most important tool for Assessment for Learning is getting to know each individual by observing them and talking to them: knowing which string to pull with each person
that observations lead to teachers having individual discussions with their students and thus the relationships become much more emphatic
that it is not only the teacher who can assess the students since it can be done by their peers and by themselves as long as they know the criteria and what to observe in each other’s activities
that we need totake off the pressure from testing; a thing that can be done by offering individual help, teaching how to learn more effectively, practising for the exams and getting feedback from them as well as doing evaluation by other means than summative exams
that the students have to realize all our AfL efforts aim at them learning more and that we are on their side and truly try to help them
that many of the important things we learn at school are not actually tested at all but are skills needed in life later on: e.g. social skills such as group/pair work and emotional intelligence, skill to learn new things independently, critical thinking and presentation skills (= 21st century skills)
that using AfL and continuous assessment does not mean one exam after another but it means letting the student know where he/she stands at the moment and supporting their growth and self-esteem
So why do we have to assess or evaluate pupils and students?
For four reasons + the latest CLT one, number 5: to enhance learning
1 Firstly, we are human and we often do not try our best if we are not forced to do something useful. In an ideal situation the motivation to learn is internal, not set by an outsider psychological reason
2 Secondly, parents are accustomed to exam results and grades being good indicators on how well their kids are doing at school. parents’ role
3 Thirdly, school administrators and authorities are tied by law to follow up the progress of the students. requirements set by law
4 Fourthly, the admission of students to other schools and higher education is often based partially or totally on the grades given at school and/or the final examination. admissions to further education
5 Fifthly, the CLT reason: The students, teachers and all people involved need to know how the students are making progress from the very beginning of a course and how the students’ learning process can be improved.
A photo of Finnish students taking a senior high ‘matriculation’ exam, which corresponds to the English A-level exams taken at the at of 18 or 19. More and more exams are done on a computer with no access to the internet or any other sources. The questions often force the students to apply their knowledge rather than test merely knowledge as such.
