tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90726694607745530172024-03-08T15:28:27.697+01:00Consonant VoicedZoltánhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12932907197517723891noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-43195037476070160602019-08-26T16:33:00.002+02:002019-08-26T16:33:06.738+02:00Inspire, Involve, Innovate (OUP Teacher Training Conference 2019)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Oxford University Press ran a three-day teacher training event in Budapest on 22-24 August 2019, where I delivered three workshops and a plenary talk. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">My workshop for Secondary teachers focused on the development of Writing skills for exams. <a href="https://app.box.com/s/5j0bt01pmkemh4n67suifq0otjpx1hp7" target="_blank">Click here to download a PDF copy of the presentation</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The workshop for Upper Primary teachers was about co-operative learning. One of the activities involved jigsaw reading, and you can <a href="https://app.box.com/s/z2x3jsigb3x179yr2msdaard3uzcsw9u" target="_blank">download a copy</a> of all four extracts we looked at together. If you're interested in the original article by Rebecca Alber, <a href="http://edutopia.org/blog/deeper-learning-collaboration-key-rebecca-alber" target="_blank">click here</a> to access it on Edutopia. <a href="https://app.box.com/s/1njvw7gv91pznlfmcau7iyvql966j3pe" target="_blank">To download a PDF copy of my presentation, click here</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The afternoon plenary looked at how we can prepare our learners for the B2 school-leaving examination (emelt szintű érettségi) with the help of Oxford Exam Trainer B2 (OUP, 2020). <a href="https://app.box.com/s/0bei4ny4606i71i27j7k3zm96iqqagzl" target="_blank">Click here to download a PDF copy of the presentation</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The final day of the event had repeated workshop sessions, of which mine focused on what motivated us first to become teachers of English - and how we could maintain that motivation throughout our professional careers. <a href="https://app.box.com/s/eutet534fb4kwcpw29ndutte9uhstepp" target="_blank">Click here to download a PDF copy of the presentation</a>.</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-56673956576163827092018-04-24T10:17:00.001+02:002018-04-24T10:17:31.558+02:00ELT Ideas conference 2018<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">At the Macmillan ELT Ideas conference in <span lang="PL">Žilina </span>I recently presented a <a href="https://app.box.com/s/kozo3r3pytuobpfwm34fkcrkmyeynct5" target="_blank">plenary talk</a> on student autonomy and a <a href="https://app.box.com/s/ghtb6h3wi0w2qu3zst6adxhvf1h8ogbi" target="_blank">workshop</a> on developing speaking skills for examinations. Materials for both talks can be downloaded by clicking on the links provided.</span></span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-44763939181037377622017-08-29T11:48:00.001+02:002017-08-29T11:48:12.902+02:00Budapest 2017 teacher training course<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At the recent OUP teacher training event and conference in Budapest, I presented three workshops and a plenary talk over three days. Materials for each session can be downloaded by clicking on the links below.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My <a href="https://app.box.com/s/7thvh47rf2x7t5zlymhyq09phwejj6ms" target="_blank">plenary talk</a> focused on the development of receptive skills: listening and reading. In the talk, I highlighted the importance of placing equal emphasis on both bottom-up and top-down processing skills (that is, knowing the language well - its grammar and lexis - and activating background knowledge - schemata) in aiding learners' comprehension. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In the <a href="https://app.box.com/s/n243kt1ze7ec8mphxt1conb0wup08mel" target="_blank">secondary workshop</a> for teachers of teenagers aged 14-19, we explored the development of writing skills - through focusing on both the product and the process of writing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In the <a href="https://app.box.com/s/l4fwavjkns10ak2flpf6bduke0es28xs" target="_blank">upper primary workshop</a> for teachers of younger learners aged 10-14, we looked at how the world has changed and is changing in the 21st century, and what it means for us in practice: what activities we can do to develop 21st century skills in the classroom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In the <a href="https://app.box.com/s/x0iou96jv94y0gh7i6sldjjns1gme1c7" target="_blank">conference workshop</a> on the final day, our focus was on using culture, art and creativity in English classes. My opinion is that you can turn practically any form of art into learning opportunities for English by designing simple but effective classroom activities - of which I offered a representative sample in my <a href="https://app.box.com/s/ant3ynw4kwp9vu3cvac9ie1dfcgev6a9" target="_blank">handout</a>.</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-51656831192059347552017-05-22T14:38:00.000+02:002017-05-22T14:38:08.930+02:00The way to exam success with teenagers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Read <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2017/05/18/think-thursday-6-exam/">my latest post on exam preparation</a> on Cambridge University Press's World of Better Learning blog! </span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-23243988131485646282017-03-29T10:52:00.000+02:002017-03-29T10:52:15.809+02:00Developing receptive skills for exams<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I recently presented two workshops at the Swiss Exams 2017 Spring Seminar in Horgen, near Zürich, on the subject of preparing students for B1 exams in receptive skills. Once I have a bit more time, this note will be expanded into a more substantial article on the topic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For now, here is a link for participants at the seminar if they would like to <a href="https://app.box.com/s/r595n1lf9439g16p9jb8y7af1s7kj54w">download</a> the materials we worked with in our workshops.</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-37952204200777641172016-11-30T11:07:00.002+01:002018-04-24T10:21:25.679+02:0010 uses of Teacher's Books in the English classroom<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Having written, adapted or edited countless Teacher's Books in my ELT career, I've often wondered just how much teachers (and, indirectly, students) appreciate the work that goes into developing these components and whether they really make full use of all the services they have to offer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vKtoYCKCut8/WD6h-VeMITI/AAAAAAAAALo/YvwplrKDFAYNkRQ52XpRxMmvmEPo658mACLcB/s1600/Zoltan%2BRezmuves%2BTB%2Bcovers%2Bmontage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vKtoYCKCut8/WD6h-VeMITI/AAAAAAAAALo/YvwplrKDFAYNkRQ52XpRxMmvmEPo658mACLcB/s320/Zoltan%2BRezmuves%2BTB%2Bcovers%2Bmontage.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is a list of just 10 key uses of teacher's books, off the top of my head:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1. Answer keys</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When I started out teaching, I didn't use a Teacher's Book. (Firstly, I didn't know or believe that I was supposed to. Secondly, penniless young teacher that I was, I economised by not buying any expensive components - just the essentials: a Student's Book and a Workbook for each course I taught.) When it came to checking correct answers at the end of an activity, I therefore always faced a challenge. At lower levels (Beginner, Elementary), I bravely improvised my own answers at the same time students were offering theirs. Which is all well and good if there is only one obvious correct answer. At higher levels, I basically had to do the exercises myself while the students were doing them - to produce an answer key for myself. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Answer keys in Teacher's Book are enormous time-savers. And since they have passed through multiple hands during their development, they likely cover all, or at least most, of the possibilities - as well as advice for the more problematic items.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2. Audio script</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Yes, a listening task is not really a listening task if you give students the text to read. And which skill do they find more challenging? Occasionally, you may want to exploit printouts of audio scripts for their language - but normally, you would prefer your students to really listen to complete their assignments. But this doesn't mean you'll also have to catch the specific details yourself - while you're also busy operating the equipment, monitoring the students' progress, providing help where necessary and watching the timing... not easy, even for a fluent speaker. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">However, if you give yourself a bit of an advantage by allowing you to read the text that your students are listening to, you'll be able to read ahead and better anticipate any issues that need extra scaffolding, and you'll also be more likely to catch the more problematic phrases (like homonyms, proper nouns, words with unexpected pronunciation - English has many of those, doesn't it?) - which means you'll be able to feel superior that you know even those bits that your students couldn't quite catch...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You'll also be able to use the text of the audio script itself for creating your own tasks (deleting words to make gap fills, jumbling paragraphs for ordering, or just using the text to provide grammar or vocabulary models) by simply photocopying them out of the Teacher's Book. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">3. Background information</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Let's face it, our students and we are usually from two different generations. Which means our interests and our knowledge may not fully be in sync. This is OK. There are some things they know a lot more about - as there are things that you know more about, like English itself. But have you ever been in a situation where your students asked you a question about something in the coursebook that you felt you ought to know the answer to but didn't? Or ran into a text on culture, which mentioned something you never heard of? Or taught a CLIL lesson and - being an English teacher - you had only vague recollections of what you were taught in Science or Art class? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We're not expected to know everything, of course. But to feel we are in control, it's good to be reassured that when unexpected things come up, as they inevitably do in our classes, we know where to turn. And what would be a better place for providing that background information than right next to the teaching notes for the exercise where they are likely to come up?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">4. Lesson planning</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Many teachers probably spend more time planning their lessons than delivering them. Teaching is a complex endeavour. You don't just have to devise a coherent, logical and varied chain of activities for each class - but you have to anticipate difficulties and plan solutions for them, and you have to justify (to yourself, to other stakeholders, and so on) why you are doing what you're doing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is just another thing Teacher's Books usually take care of for us. The lesson objectives, the timing for each class and each activity, the interconnected activity sequences - they are all worked out for us. All we have to do is prepare ourselves, think things through and maybe rehearse before we stand in front of a class, delivering the lesson.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">5. Methodology overview</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And since we're on the subject of justifying our aims and methods, wouldn't it be reassuring to find out that the practices we follow routinely or instinctively in class work because there IS an underlying theoretical foundation below them? Does a typical teacher have the time and energy to catch up on the academic literature to find such theories and relate it to their teaching practices? Not usually - they're too busy teaching (and doing the paperwork that goes with teaching... but that's beside the point). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Which is why Teacher's Books begin with a theoretical introduction - outlining the philosophy and its practical applications for the course. To help us, teachers, understand why we're following one methodology rather than another to achieve our objectives. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">6. Optional activities</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Teaching the same material over and over again can get quite tedious after a while. In order to keep the lessons well-planned but also fresh for ourselves, we need some pre-planned variety. (Spontaneity is good, but have you ever done a fun activity to replace, say, a boring grammar drill, then realised you actually needed the output of that boring drill later on - and so you had to squeeze that in anyway, toppling over your whole carefully constructed lesson plan?) And not just that, each of our classes is different - consisting of different individuals, with diverging interests and skill sets. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, we occasionally need optional activities that cover the same ground, linguisticially speaking, but do it differently. Yes, we can devise our own, and yes, we can find supplementary activites from a range of printed and online sources - but can we really be sure the replacement will do exactly what's needed in the lesson sequence? Well, if the optional activity comes from the Teacher's Book for our course, it was written to fit exactly - so there's the well-planned variety for you that you needed.</span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">7. Mixed-ability solutions</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Have you ever taught a class that was NOT mixed-ability? In my opinion, there's no such thing! So when you are faced with a whole group of learners at mixed levels and with mixed abilities, who do you deliver your classes to? The "average student"? The "typical B1 learner"? Both may exist as an ideal - a figment of our professional imagination, but I'm not convinced you always have a single person in your classrooms that fit either of those descriptions completely. In other words, when you are teaching at an average level, you aren't actually teaching any single person with maximum efficiency. Weaker learners or lower-level learners (not the same thing!) need more support than the average and need to slow down from time to time - while stronger learners or higher-level learners (again, not the same thing!) need more challenges to keep stretching their limits, as that's the way we all learn. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Which means in a mixed-ability class (that is, as we established, in ALL classes) you'll need to prepare a lesson for your "average/typical" learners + extra support and extra activities for the lower half of your group + extra challenges and extra activities for the higher half of your group = three entire lessons for each lesson delivered! (I'm exaggerating the point here, before you're tempted to interrupt me here to say "Hang on"!) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You can't NOT cater for all your learners, so you do need to do this to some extent all the time. But a Teacher's Book (and these days, most other course components) will take some of that burden from you by planning activites at different levels, and providing you with ideas for dealing with the complicated issue of mixed ability.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(If you'd like to find out more about mixed-ability teaching, I'd really recommend an excellent <a href="https://elt.oup.com/catalogue/items/global/teacher_development/into_the_classroom/9780194200387?cc=gb&selLanguage=en&mode=hub" target="_blank">resource book</a> on the subject by Erika Osváth and Edmund Dudley, published by OUP, 2016.)</span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">8. Ways to adapt the material</span></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No matter how carefully you planned, there will always be times when you'll need to take shortcuts or to extend the material. Or you may sometimes have learners in your class with particular needs your plans didn't cater for. A teacher needs to be flexible, but how can you be flexible and still deliver optimum content? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And just as much as every learner is different, every teacher is unique. The more we have pre-planned and provided for us by other people, the less it will all reflect our own personality. How can we tailor what's in the coursebook already to become more like us? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A good Teacher's Book will tell you where the key language or key skills are in the lesson sequence, which exercises can be dropped or set as homework or used with a different class dynamics. It will tell you (or at least give you pointers on) how to adapt (and what to adapt) to fit specific needs and requirements. It will also help you use the course material creatively, to better reflect your own personality through offering different paths through the material. </span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">9. Supplementary materials</span></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And let's not forget photocopiables and Teacher's Resource Discs. Language teachers spend countless hours printing, cutting up, assembling stuff to use in their classes. Of course, there are many great activity books, resource books, websites, grammar books, and so on, to provide us with an infinite source of supplementary materials.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But a Teacher's Book offers these supplementary materials - with the added benefit that every photocopiable and every resource disk material has been developed alongside the main coursebook. Which means that every supplementary there matches the level, the topic, the language focus, the skills focus, the age range and so on of the coursebook itself. Which means that if the coursebook was suitable for your group, all these supplementaries will be suitable, too. And you don't have to go out of your way to look for them, either!</span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">10. Inspiration for ideas</span></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And finally, Teacher's Books offer us the insights, suggestions and ideas of at least one other teaching professional (but normally several others) - making us think, reflect on, evaluate our own ideas, beliefs, practices, and hopefully inspiring us to fresh ideas.</span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Conclusion</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, have I left out anything important? Are there other great uses of Teacher's Books that I didn't think about? If you'd like to read more on this subject, visit the OUP ELT Global Blog, where Julietta Schoenmann posted an article in two parts (<a href="http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2011/06/03/why-use-a-teachers-book-part-1/" target="_blank">part 1</a> and <a href="http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2011/07/07/using-the-teachers-book-part-two/" target="_blank">part 2</a>). A more recent <a href="http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2016/11/11/the-what-why-and-how-of-writing-teachers-books/" target="_blank">post </a>by John Hughes offers another Teacher's Book author's perspective - and his article was directly responsible for making me write this one. </span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-63797408306175489502016-10-25T21:16:00.000+02:002017-05-22T14:51:19.531+02:00The pitfalls of exam preparation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What’s your main goal in teaching English? You’ll probably
say something along the lines of „enabling students to communicate well in
English” and perhaps also „developing students to be better people”. But have you
ever had a group of students preparing for an examination? Then you know that
your success or failure will be measured by not by how well they can express
themselves in real life, and not even by how well they fit into society. Where
there is an important exam at the end of the process, you can only succeed if
your students pass the exam. It’s that simple. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What many of your students (and their parents) will expect
you to do is to get them through the exam – which for them may also well mean
the end of learning. Which, of course, should not be the end of the process.
Learning is for life.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But what does this mean in terms of classroom practice?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">EXAM PREPARATION TO-DO LIST</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1. You will have to cover the exam syllabus (the topics, the
grammar and vocabulary, the skills and sub-skills), and make sure you don’t
miss out anything.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2. You will have to familiarise your students with all the
exam task types, and provide them with strategies to complete each type of task
with maximum efficiency.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">3. You will have to familiarise your students with the
assessment criteria – so they know how to maximise their point scores, and how
to avoid losing valuable points.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">4. You will have to provide students with practice and
rehearsal opportunities, so when they get to the real exam, it’s not their
first time completing it.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The above is just a rough shortlist of priorities. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To continue with the same train of thought, what does this
mean in terms of what you’re NOT going to do in the classroom?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">EXAM PREPARATION NOT-GOING-TO-DO LIST</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1. You are not going to cover language points that aren’t
required in the exam. Students probably won’t mind. But don’t forget that often
we only teach language points because we know they’re going to be tested.
Throughout my career as a learner, there has always been a massive emphasis on
irregular verbs. They are certainly useful, but the reason we spent so much
time memorising long lists of them was merely that they were going to feature
in our exams. Think about this – is there any language you’d skip or spend less
time on if it wasn’t in the exam?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2. You are going to prioritise the task types that do occur
in the exam over those that don’t – which means you’re probably going to reduce
task type variety. You feel responsible for your students’ success, so you make
sure their exposure to exam expectations is maximised. When it comes down to a
choice between, say, an open personalised speaking task and another
multiple-choice gap fill, perhaps you’re going to go for the gap fill... again.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">3. In order to prepare your students well and to make sure
you’re not leaving even your weakest student behind, you’re going to spend a
lot of time focusing on what’s needed for the exam. When pressed for time, you
are not going to do too many activities which have no connection to the exam.
This includes games, drama, discussion of controversial / intriguing (depending
on your viewpoint) subjects, jokes and humour in general... can you continue
this list? Exams are neutral, non-controversial, and let’s face it, pretty
bland. Which is fine because tests are measurement tools, and it’s important to
reduce unwanted extra factors, like emotional responses. But bear in mind that
„pretty bland” is exactly the opposite of what language classes should be! How
are you going to motivate students if you’re spending so much time doing stuff
that isn’t motivating?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">FINDING A BALANCE</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The difficult solution is to prepare students in a way that
teaches them all the real-life communication skills rather than focuses on
mechanical test task preparation. For example, instead of aiming to practise a
format like four-option multiple choice cloze, your aim could be on the
communicative goal of the text you use, but using the mcq format to highlight
some of the cohesive devices of that type of text. Or instead of comparing and
contrasting two arbitrarily chosen coursebook photos, your aim could be sharing
personal experiences of special occasions – through comparing and contrasting family
photos of, say, weddings or graduation ceremonies. The trick would be to always
aim to do both: exams as well as real life.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What I’m saying is that our general aims in language
teaching and the aims of exam preparation are linked, but sometimes their
priorities clash, and it will be up to you to strike the right balance and to
blend learning for real life and exam preparation.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This article was originally
published on the <a href="https://oupeltglobalblog.com/" target="_blank">OUP ELT Global Blog</a> on 7 April 2013 as a preview of my workshop at the 2013 IATEFL conference in Liverpool,
and appears here in an updated form.</i></span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-20325613118866116112016-07-06T09:37:00.000+02:002018-04-24T10:27:45.210+02:00Learning in the 21st century<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
</h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The topic of 21st century skills has become a buzzword in English Language Teaching recently, and although more and more people are talking about it, there is a bit of uncertainty about whether they are anything new - anything specific to the 21st century. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Well, they are and they aren't. Learning is learning: acquiring new skills, building on and expanding knowledge, gathering experiences and so on. This has always been true, and it is still true in the 21st century. People in the past certainly used all four Cs: the four essential learning skills that are the cornerstones of 21st century learning: Communication, Collaboration, Critical thinking and Creativity. (You see? Nothing new.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What has changed in recent decades, and certainly in my own lifetime, is the pace of change: by the time we acquire knowledge, it may well be obsolete. By the time we learn skills, we already need to update them (a bit like the shiny new software package you buy and install, which then insists on updating itself immediately before it's even willing to run, as it's already 'critically out of date'). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, what is to be done? What we need to become good at, and what we, teachers, need to train our students to become good at is the skill of learning itself. The skill to adapt. And that's what we talk about when we talk about 21st century learning skills. In a very tight nutshell, obviously. It's more complicated than this, but should you wish to learn more, I suggest you look up my <a href="http://consonantvoiced.blogspot.hu/2015/02/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html">previous related post</a> on the subject with more details. Or <a href="https://app.box.com/s/9ved7xxv7ze8yuxl8skli9n4sm3kd0lg">download the materials</a> I used in my recent workshop at the <a href="http://iatefl.hu/">IATEFL Hungary</a> Creative Café event (on 1 July, Budapest at the <a href="http://nyelvkonyvbolt.hu/">Libra Bookshop</a>) with some practical suggestions for classroom activities to develop each of the four skills. (Although it goes without saying that a language class aimed at developing communication skills is already well-equipped to develop one of the Cs: Communication...)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There's still another 84 years of this century left, so I'm sure we'll have some further opportunities to explore the issue of 21st century learning - I'll keep you posted.</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-3748982763678506162015-08-31T11:41:00.001+02:002015-08-31T13:53:35.718+02:00How to train students for success in speaking exams<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Training for speaking exams is always a challenge. In an
average-size class (which, for many of us, means ’a class with too many
students’), we never have time to devote individual attention to all our
learners during speaking practice. We may either opt for trying to simulate the
exam tasks as closely as possible, and therefore train only a handful of
students at a time (during which what are the other students in class going to
do?) – or we do speaking exam practice as pairwork or groupwork, which allows
more students to speak, but of course, makes it more difficult for us, teachers
to monitor what they are doing and provide support or feedback as needed. It’s
a balancing act, there’s no denying that. All the time.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In this post, I’m describing a few activity ideas that I
used recently for a teacher training tour. If you like them, feel free to try
them with your own students in class, then perhaps you might also like to share
your experience here. Each activity targets a specific skill or strategy needed
for typical speaking exam tasks.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Conversation lead-in</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Most speaking exams start with a short conversation with the
examiner, more often than not focusing on some personal subjects or themes
immediately connected to the candidate’s own experience. This part of the exam
is not always assessed, but it is the learner’s first opportunity to make a
good impression on the examiner. And first impressions are important, even in a
tightly controlled exam situation.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The problem with learners is that their fear of making
mistakes is so strong that they begin playing a game of language avoidance –
they say as little as possible to limit the chances for error. But of course
that’s entirely the wrong thing to do in an exam. A speaking exam is about
taking a sufficient sample of the candidate’s communicative abilities to make a
reliable assessment of their competence. A learner who doesn’t speak enough is
more likely to fail than a learner who speaks fluently but with a lot of
mistakes.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Activity 1: Expanding your answers</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span></i>Give students a list of typical conversation
questions/prompts together with some (again, typical) limited learner
responses. For example:</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br />How do you usually spend your weekend
mornings? A: Sleeping late.<br />
How are you planning to celebrate your next birthday? A: With a party.<br />
What is the most unusual present you have ever received? A: A hammer.<br />
What is your best friend like? A: She’s nice.</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Put students in pairs or small groups, and ask
them to brainstorm what kind of information they could add to each answer so it
makes a better impression on the examiner. Ask them to consider expansions that
don’t make the language content any more challenging. (In other words, they
shouldn’t simply rephrase the answers with more sophisticated vocabulary, but
think about extra details they might be able to add easily.)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>In open class, elicit some ideas for the types
of things added. For example: examples, reasons (why?), details of
circumstances (where? when? with whom?). Students may also be able to add more adjectives (which are safe to use as they have no impact on the grammar) where they were going to use just one.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Encourage students to use these ideas in the
speaking exam to ensure their answers are as detailed as they can make them,
without making them sound like unnatural mini-essays. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Situational role-play</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Another common exam task type is the situation role-play,
either one-on-one with the examiner – where the candidate plays the more active
role, and initiates exchanges, or in a paired exam format – where two
candidates talk to each other.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">One of the problems with practising role-play in class is
that students are too familiar with each other. This means, role-playing as
themselves often creates no information gap – their partners can already
predict their most likely answers to most questions. Without an information
gap, there is no interest, and therefore little motivation for paying close
attention to each other.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Activity 2: Constructing a persona</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Before setting any exam practice role-play
tasks, prepare a series of background questions to help students create a
different persona for the task.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span></i>Ask students to imagine they are someone
else, then make very brief notes of their answers for your questions as that
imaginary person. Encourage them to take on a character as different from their
own as they like. Read out the questions one by one, allowing sufficient time for
students to think about their persona and write down their answers. Questions
may include things like:</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br />- Are you a man or a woman?<br />
- How old are you? When and where were you born? <br />
- What’s your dream job? What’s your actual job?<br />
- What makes you happy? What makes you sad? </i>(Mention just one thing for each
question here.)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br />
- How did you sleep last night?<br />
- How are you feeling right now?<br />
- What are your favourite items of clothing? What are you wearing today?<br />
- What’s your favourite dish? What did you have for breakfast this morning?</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Choose a role-play task from the coursebook, and
ask students to do it in pairs as their imaginary persona. As they do the
activity, ask them to listen carefully to each other and try to work out what
their partner’s imaginary character might be like.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>If you ask any pairs to perform in front of the
class, you can set the same listening task for the rest of the class (and
therefore ensure they keep quiet and pay attention to the speakers – which
doesn’t always happen automatically otherwise, does it?) – that is, to listen and guess who
the characters might be.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When students use a constructed persona, they can break down
a psychological barrier which sometimes prevents them from opening up in
conversation with a stranger (i.e. the examiner). In exams, we often have to
talk about fairly personal subjects: personal experiences, significant people
in our lives, and so on – and this makes some speakers more reluctant to speak
at length about them than ideal in an exam setting. And, as I said before, it creates
an element of unpredictability and interest during practice.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Thanks to Csilla
Járay-Benn for sharing this activity idea with me at the IATEFL Hungary
conference in 2014.)</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Picture description / Picture comparison and contrast</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Almost all speaking exams feature either a picture
description (working with a single image) or a picture comparison (working with
two or more related images) task. One of the challenges for learners is the
’blank sheet syndrome’ – it can be incredibly difficult to decide where to
begin, and then find things to say. The problem, of course, is that in this
setting, there is no real communication need: the examiner can see the pictures
just as vividly as the candidate, so what’s the point in telling him about
what’s in them?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The other great challenge for learners is the fact they have
to continuously speak about the topic at length. Again, the most typical
learner strategy to avoid errors and failure is to stop speaking: that is, to
stop providing sufficient evidence of their speaking skill. This is quite
possibly the worst strategy to apply.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">One way of helping students to overcome the ’blank sheet
syndrome’ is to allow them to brainstorm ideas about images before they begin
the exam task proper individually. Remind students to seek answers to the four
basic questions: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Who? (Who are in the
picture?) Where? (Where are they?) What? (What are they doing?) Why? (Why do
you think they are doing it?)</i> This is where all good descriptions begin,
and once students have answered these, it is much easier to move on to
speculate about what else the image might suggest.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Activity 3: Comparing the incomparable</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Choose two UNRELATED photos. They can come from,
say, two different units of your coursebook, or from your own collection. The
point here is that they should not be connected in any obvious way. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Instead of asking students to identify and
describe the differences between them, ask them to work in pairs and find and
describe 5 similarities between the two images. The more different the photos are
the more students will need to rely on their creativity to come up with
similarities. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">These two images were taken from <i>Oxford Matura Trainer
(basic level)</i> published by Oxford University Press for Poland in 2014
(copyright OUP). </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cCfJQAfaYZ8/VeQffPwf9BI/AAAAAAAAAHo/NpDiaw9u9-I/s1600/OMT%2Bbasic%2Bp128_operating%2Btheatre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cCfJQAfaYZ8/VeQffPwf9BI/AAAAAAAAAHo/NpDiaw9u9-I/s320/OMT%2Bbasic%2Bp128_operating%2Btheatre.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This activity helps students to notice key details in
images, and therefore to get them started with their descriptions. It also
makes the picture task more involving, and potentially more interesting for
students to do.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(This suggestion is
based on an activity idea by my fellow teacher trainer, Shaun Wilden.)</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Activity 4: Just a minute</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Put students in groups to work. Ask them to toss
a coin or roll a die, or use any other method you like to decide in what order
they should do the task.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>One student has to speak on the specified
subject for 60 seconds. This can be the subject from the current coursebook
unit, one of the topics from the exam specifications (either chosen by
yourself, or written up on prompt cards for students to select from at random).
Or, to make the task slightly less difficult, students may choose their own
topic.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>The point is to speak continuously and
meaningfully at the same time. If the speaker hesitates, repeats a key point
she has already mentioned, uses her mother tongue, or says something
irrelevant/off-topic or something completely untrue, another student can
challenge. The clock is stopped.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>The challenger, if the challenge is accepted by
the group as valid through a quick vote, must then continue speaking for the
remainder fo the 60 seconds. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>The winner in each group is the student left
speaking when the clock runs down. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Repeat the activity with another students until
everyone in each group had a turn.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Doing this activity helps students to develop conversational
strategies for gaining thinking time, and for building a coherent response. In
order for the first speaker to win the point in each round, they must learn how
to keep up the conversation without pauses, repetition or digression. The right
to challenge, in the meantime, provides the rest of each group with a reason to
listen and be involved.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(I learned this
activity idea from my good friend and colleague, Jeremy Bowell.)</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Stimulus-based discussion</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This task type is specific to the Polish Matura exam (taken
at the end of upper secondary studies, normally at the age of 18), but similar
tasks appear in other examinations. In the task, students must consider two (or
more) stimuli, including images, complex visuals like posters, web pages or
leaflets, or text input, and select and justify the selection of one of them
that in their opinion best meets the task parameters. There is no correct
answer – the task focuses on the learners’ ability to consider alternatives and
reason persuasively about their choices.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Activity 5: Reverse engineering</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Choose a suitable task (as described above) from
your coursebook. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Ask students to cover the task instructions and
look only at the stimulus provided. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Put them in pairs to speculate on what might
connect the two (or more) alternatives. Ask them also to find and describe
similarities as well as differences. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Based on their brainstorming in the previous
stage, ask them to write down what they think the exam task may be. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Ask them to reveal the instructions, check their
predictions, and then do the exam task.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Alternatively, you may like to allow students to
choose whether they want to do the actual exam task as printed, or the task
they wrote down as their own idea. This gives learners a bit of freedom in
selecting their challenge, and it makes them more personally engaged (and more
motivated) to complete the task. Also, students completing slightly different
tasks with the same stimulus makes it more interesting for the rest of the
class to listen to their performances when you ask some pairs to perform the task
in front of the whole class.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Controversial statement</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Some higher-level language exams feature a task where
candidates are required to argue for or against the ideas given as a statement,
as a short text quote/extract expressing someone’s opinion or other form of
text input.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Many learners find it very stressful to defend an opinion
against someone who disagrees with everything they say. Which is exactly what
happens in an exam setting, as the examiner’s goal is to provoke/inspire as
much discussion as possible by disagreeing with the arguments given. Students
should perhaps therefore train themselves not to argue automatically for the side of the
issue they personally believe in, but for the side that they can introduce more
arguments for. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Activity 6: Random opinions</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Ask students to read the input. Give them a
minute to think about about some possible arguments for and against each
statement.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Put them in pairs to work. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Students in each pair (Student A and B) take
turns to start discussing the input.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Give the following instructions. <br />
Student A: Use a coin. Before you discuss a statement, toss the coin. If it
lands on tails (the number side), you must give an argument FOR that statement.
If it lands on heads (the picture side), you must give an argument AGAINST the
statement. <br />
Student B: Disagree with whatever your partner says, and use one of your own
ideas to support the opposing view.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Ask students to swap roles and repeat the task the other way around.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>As a variant, you may like to act as the
playmaster. Allow a minute or so for the students to do the discussion one way
around, then simply announce: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Switch!</i>,
and ask pairs to switch sides in the argument, and start defending their
partner’s previous position – and vice versa. Encourage stronger students to
try to come up with new arguments rather than reiterate what they have already
heard from their partner previously. (You may even like to ask them to switch more than once.)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This activity helps students anticipate counter-arguments
better. It also reduces the element of personal involvement, and turns the task
into a demonstration of communicative ability – rather than a battle of views.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As I said at the start, feel free to try any of these ideas
in your exam preparation classes, and perhaps you might even like to share your
own speaking exam preparation ideas with me? </span><br />
</div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Good luck with your classes, and all the best for the new
school year – if you’re one of my colleagues in the Northern Hemisphere, facing
the imminent start of the 2015/2016 school year!</span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-88899388621050398922015-02-16T15:00:00.004+01:002017-05-22T14:55:29.612+02:0021st century skills: hovercraft to school and robots for teachers?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First impressions </span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When I first heard the latest buzzword in ELT: ’21st century
skills’, what immediately sprang to mind were those flawed visions I grew up
with (in the 1970s to the 1990s) of the impending new millennium: space
holidays, permanent bases on the moon and possibly on other planets, cities
under the sea, hovercraft or spaceships transporting us to work and school, robots
replacing teachers as well as those of computers in every home... (oh, hang on,
that’s actually happened!) and home schooling by computers... (which also seems
to be happening to some extent – with adaptive learning, online learning
platforms, LMSs and whatnot, more about all of which probably in a later post).
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then I looked into what the term meant and I found out it
was something quite different. (Being an ardent sci-fi fan, I was a bit
disappointed it had nothing to do with spaceships.)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Back in the 20th century </span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The reason we didn’t talk about ’20th century skills’ when I
began my learning then teaching career then was twofold: 1. we were too near
the end of the century to name anything after it, and more importantly 2. the
difference between the speed of change in the world we lived in. Our teachers’
generation and our teachers’ teachers’ generation passed on their accumulated
knowledge and life experience to a new generation, safe in the knowledge that
most of their skills are still relevant and useful for the young. Of course,
there were changes and developments, shifts in priority, but in broad terms,
the skills they could teach us, drawing on their own personal experiences, were
the skills we needed to learn. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As far as ELT was concerned, the teacher was the primary,
and in many countries, the sole source of knowledge and of learning materials
in English. Often, the teacher was one of the few people, if not the only person,
learners could communicate with at all day to day, using the foreign language
they were learning. Books, magazines, newspapers in English were difficult to
come by – and they were often expensive. (At least to us in the Eastern Bloc –
we’re talking about the 70s and 80s when we’re talking about my student years.)
Teachers were therefore the access points to English as well as the primary
role models of non-native language users.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">21st century developments</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Not so in the past decade or so. With the spread of the
internet, access to materials in English is unlimited – written, audio as well
as visual materials fill the web and spill over into the real world. Knowledge
and learning experiences can now be shared among learners around the globe 24
hours a day, thanks to social networks. A lot of this flood of English is free
of charge, too. ... and a lot of it is rubbish. What has changed quite
significantly therefore is that learners no longer really need a provider of
English, but they need a guide. They need someone to show them how to locate
relevant information, filter what is irrelevant or unreliable and to use
critical skills to judge the value of whatever is left to use. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The role of teachers is changing, and publishers all seem to
be queueing up to ride on the ’21st century skills’ bandwagon. A lot of this
activity brings benefits to the learning experience: there is more variety in
content and media, more integration of language and other disciplines than ever
before. Judging from some of the most recent frontlist publications, there is
also a renewed enthusiasm for original (or neatly updated) teaching concepts
after a couple of decades of ’if it works, don’t fix it’ formulaic curricula –
especially in schoolbooks publishing. </span></div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Find out more about 21st century skills </span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Steve Taylore-Knowles provides a rationale
for why ’21st century skills’ (or ’life skills’ in their preferred corporate
parlance) are vital (<a href="http://www.macmillanenglish.com/life-skills/why-should-we-teach-life-skills/">Why should we teach Life Skills?</a>)
on the Macmillan Life Skills website, while Robert Balaguer Prestes gives an informative
overview of how learners fit into this whole paradigm (<a href="http://www.pearsonelt.com/assets/pearsonelt/document/subsites/21stcenturylearning/21stCentStudentsAndSkills.PDF">21st century students and skills</a>)
on the Pearson 21st century learning website, where there are also a number of
related articles by Nick Dawson which I’ve found quite useful. OUP meanwhile runs workshops on the subject, some of which I recently delivered myself in Indonesia and Serbia.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What educators and policy-makers need to bear in mind about
21st century skills is that it is originally a business initiative, a sort of
corporate think-tank project (<a href="http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/">The Partnership for 21st Century Skills</a>)
to groom the next generation of workers especially skilled at being adaptable. It
was probably quickly realised by the stakeholders that if the scheme is to
work, introducing these flexibility skills must obviously start much earlier on
– when school education begins. They drew up a helpful diagram to illustrate
how this all fits together (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">image taken
from www.21stcenturyskills.org</i>).</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tnu-D2tf1jQ/VOH1z0L_5QI/AAAAAAAAAF4/KdANhH-1FCI/s1600/p21_rainbow_id254.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tnu-D2tf1jQ/VOH1z0L_5QI/AAAAAAAAAF4/KdANhH-1FCI/s1600/p21_rainbow_id254.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What's in it for us?</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But what exactly is new about teaching our students the
value of Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration or Creativity (the
famous 4Cs of ’21st century skills’)? Well, as far as I can tell, nothing
really. It is the application of these skills to how language is used as the
medium of interaction rather than as the subject of analytical study, to how
classroom skills become transferable to life skills, to how ICT skills become
integrated with language skills, that makes 21st century skills meaningful to
education. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In my opinion, the idea is certainly worth exploring further
– especially how it could be applied to benefit language learners. But the
concept of ’21st century skills’ is not without its sceptics. CUP organised a
debate in 2013 (<a href="http://education.cambridge.org/eu/whats-new/cambridge-news/2013/03/21st-century-skills-a-21st-century-problem">21st century skills - a 21st century problem?</a>)
where some of the speakers questioning whether there was anything novel about
these skills at all before exploring its implications for assessment
especially. One of the most vocal opponents is Diane Ravitch who outlined her
criticism in his article on the subject subtitled An Old Familiar Song (<a href="http://www.ridgeviewclassical.com/index.php?id=99">21st century skills - an old familiar song</a>).
Ravitch went on to dedicate her blog (<a href="http://www.dianeravitch.net/">Diane Ravitch's blog</a>) to the subject, where she even proposed the
promotion of ’19th century skills’.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Like it or not, though, 21st century skills are here to stay.
And if you’re a teacher, you’ll no doubt find a meaningful role of it all in
your classroom – as you always do with each passing trend in the profession.</span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-19017130493610000322014-03-03T15:13:00.002+01:002017-05-22T14:58:01.987+02:00Language Testing: The Road to Perfection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
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<br />
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
</h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Language testing is an unavoidable part of the language
teaching experience. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some of us have to create classroom tests to check progress
in the material, others join full-time testing teams charged with the task of
creating an assessment syllabus and a complex exam system for an institution. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At one point or another in our careers we all find
ourselves in situations where the responsibility of measuring students’
performance is thrust upon us – often without much support or advance
preparation. </span>Which
is precisely why we must seek opportunities to exchange experiences with
like-minded fellow professionals – more often than not to find that the issue you have long been
struggling with has already been solved in someone else’s institution. And vice
versa. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">TEAM 2014, Kayseri</span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I recently gave a series of talks and workshops at Meliksah
University in Kayseri, Turkey which hosted a three-day training event, in co-operation
with SELT Academy and <a href="http://www.turkey.idp.com/">IDP Education</a>,
called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">TEAM 2014: Testing, Evaluation and
Assessment Masterclass</i>. Professionals from 13 universities around the
country came together to share their insights. My fellow trainer Dr. Simon
Phipps and I were in equal measures pleasantly surprised and thoroughly
vindicated when, on day 2, one of the trainees stood up before a plenary to suggest
they all get together informally to continue discussing their testing
experiences. In their free time! It is precisely these grassroots initiatives
that will provide us with the support that we all need when we design tests.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A three-way
tug-of-war</span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No matter what the context is, there are some shared
principles that apply to us all. Creating a language test is always a balancing
act between three major forces: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">validity</b>
(how closely the test scores correlate with the students’ real-life abilities
as well as the teaching curriculum), <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">reliability</b>
(to put simply, how well it measures those abilities) and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">practicality</b>
(how user-friendly our test is). </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s7t-p5BEPb8/UxSKqwogHcI/AAAAAAAAAD0/rDA--lSWex0/s1600/Reliability+Validity+Practicality+3way+balance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s7t-p5BEPb8/UxSKqwogHcI/AAAAAAAAAD0/rDA--lSWex0/s1600/Reliability+Validity+Practicality+3way+balance.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is impossible to create a test where all three forces operate
at 100%. To give you an example: you can increase reliability by reducing the
margin of error. The more test items you devote to checking a particular
structure (or skill), the less likely it is that the obtained score are a
result of a random factor – like blind luck. However, as you increase the item
count, your test will gradually become less and less valid. The more items you
devote to a single structure the more you are also shifting the bias towards
this single structure – to the detriment to all other aspects of language. And
the higher the item count, the more time candidates will need to complete them –
which will also negatively affect practicality. It will simply not be worth
using a test if it takes so long to get a reliable score.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">All we can do is accept the best available compromise.
Provided, of course, that the compromise doesn’t involve sacrificing any of the
measurement qualities.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What are we testing?</span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before we begin developing a test, we must first and
foremost pin down what it is what we want to find out. I often define testing
as „the systematic gathering of information for the purpose of making decisions”
(Weiss 1972, quoted in Bachman 1990) – so the questions are:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">1. What decisions do
we want to make? </i></span></span></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
</i>For example: a) which candidates have the required skills and knowledge to
enter tertiary education; b) which candidate is most suitable for a particular
job, and so on.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">2. What information do
we need?</i></span></span></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
</i>For example: a) how much do they know about the foundations of their chosen
subject, how developed are their research and academic writing/speaking skills;
b) what would they do in a typical workplace situation, how well do they co-operate
during teamwork, and so on.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">3. What’s the best way
of collecting that information?</i></span></span></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
</i>Now, the point here is that the answer won’t always be: "through a test"!
Multiple-choice tests, for instance, are all very impressive and professional-looking, but
they will never give us a complete picture of someone’s complex set of skills. The trick is to select those particular sources of information and evaluation
methods that give us the information we need. And not something else completely.
And not a jumble of a lot of factors that we cannot untangle. And not a lot of
irrelevant information just because it was easy to measure it.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What we do with our test must always be appropriate to our
purpose, and do just what we need it to do rather than become a burden on
candidates. We shouldn't test for testing's sake - we should test because there's information without which we can't make that important decision. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">It cuts both ways</span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But let’s not forget that testing and teaching both have an
impact on each other. Tests should reflect prevailing teaching practices
(otherwise they are not measuring what candidates have learnt and how they have
learnt it), as well as they should have a positive effect on the teaching
process – a positive "washback”. (I will blog more on washback later - being a hobby-horse of mine, it would soon become a considerable diversion here.)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The importance of using yardsticks</span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Obviously, our responsibility doesn’t only extend to what
measurement tools we use, but also to how well we use them. Which is why following
accepted standards (like the far-from-perfect but nonetheless essential <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Common European Framework of Reference,</i> <a href="http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Framework_en.pdf">CEFR</a>)
and, within their internationally transparent framework, establishing our own
standards is so vital. To quote Alderson et al. (1995), we need „an agreed set
of guidelines which should be consulted, and as far as possible, heeded in the
construction and evaluation of a test”.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(In case you want to find out what I meant in my comment
above, see my presentation from TEAM 2014 on Slideshare at: <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/SeltAcademy/21-applying-standards-to-testing-plenary-ctsacademic">http://www.slideshare.net/SeltAcademy/21-applying-standards-to-testing-plenary-ctsacademic</a>.)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The long road to
perfection</span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Test development is a long, time-consuming process. I’m not
suggesting here that, for a ten-minute flash test you must go through all the
stages of test planning and writing – simply that you don’t forget about what
goes into the development of a good test and take some time to consider all the
key factors. The principles are still the same, no matter how big or small your
test is.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Test development doesn’t finish when the first complete test
is finally written. It’s a cyclical, on-going process, which – I’m sorry to say
– never actually ends.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v2rnKki1JEk/UxSKxcmu6wI/AAAAAAAAAD8/23jzNQR9VY4/s1600/Test+development+cycle+diagram.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v2rnKki1JEk/UxSKxcmu6wI/AAAAAAAAAD8/23jzNQR9VY4/s1600/Test+development+cycle+diagram.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The key to developing good, reliable, valid and practical
test is never to rest on your laurels. Plan them well, write them with due care
and attention, use them wisely – but never forget to look back on the testing
experience, to analyse your data and use them to make improvements to your test
before it is used again. In order to find out what needs improving, we must learn the art of feedback - which will, again, be the subject of a future post on this blog. (For those who attended our training, a gentle reminder: remember "sandwich".)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Test development is an ever-rising spiral, with our tests
becoming better and better as we go on. Perfection may be far off yet, but that doesn’t
mean we shouldn’t be travelling towards it all the time.</span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-57488263738084992192013-11-22T11:51:00.003+01:002013-11-22T12:03:51.027+01:00Speaking and writing in exam training: blended solutions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 150%;">I presented this paper on behalf of OUP at the IATEFL conference in Liverpool in April 2013. For those of you who couldn't be there, here's a summary of what we discussed in the session.</span></i></span></span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Success factors in exam training </span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">When
teachers are faced with the task of preparing a group of students for a given
exam, there is one known constant: the students, without exception, must attain
the level required by the exam. Although this objective – exam success
– is clear, there are several factors that necessitate teachers’ attention
in the classroom. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">First
of these is the current level or starting <i>level</i>
of the individuals comprising the group. Teachers need measurement tools, both
valid and reliable, to efficiently measure students’ level of English in order
to establish the starting point for the exam training syllabus. Online and
computer-assisted as well as printed placement tests cater for this need. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Another
key factor in exam success is <i>familiarity</i>.
As one delegate aptly put it in the session: ’there ought to be no surprises in
the exam’. Learners need to be familiar both with the test itself (its
structure, the types of tasks involved, the amount of time available for each
paper and part and so on) and its assessment criteria (to put simply, how candidates
can obtain or lose scores as well as the relative weighting of the various
papers and parts). The simplest solution is to select course materials designed
around the particular exam that learners are preparing for – or to
supplement a core course material with such dedicated exam training materials.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Finally,
teachers must also provide a <i>balanced
coverage</i> of all the language (grammar, vocabulary, functions) and all the skills
tested in the exam, both receptive and productive skills. To ensure exam
success, the focus should not be on what is easier to quantify and to teach, or
what is practical to fit into a lesson timeframe, but on what each learner will
be expected to do in the exam.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;">Potential problem areas for training for productive
skills</span></b></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Writing
and speaking both present a number of practical difficulties that teachers must
find solutions for. By their nature, productive skills are less predictable
(there is often no such thing as ’the’ correct answer) and more challenging to
break down into classroom activities. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;">Writing issues</span></b></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The
writing process proper takes an inordinate amount of time – often more than how
much time is feasible in the contact hours available. Writing activities
therefore often take place outside the classroom – that is, outside the
environment controlled by the teacher. Only the lead-in work, and occasionally
some form of follow-up is usually done in class. Task-setting may be done in or
outside class, but subsequent monitoring is difficult, impractical, often even impossible.
Teachers only find out that some learners got on the wrong track after students
have completed their assignments. This then leads to further complications like
more unplanned remedial work or a repeat of the writing task, preferably with
modified parameters to avoid duplicating the task for those learners who got it
right first time around.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Furthermore,
if marking is to be thorough, by necessity it will be extremely time-consuming.
Conversely, if it is to be done quickly and promptly, it will be superficial.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;">Speaking issues</span></b></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">All
speaking work, on the other hand, is normally done in class – precisely so that
teachers can control it. This means learners either have to perform
simultaneously, where again the issue of proper monitoring arises, or they
perform individually (or in open pairs or groups), which reduces all other
learners’ chances to speak. Teachers face the dilemma of providing either
maximum opportunity–minimum control/feedback or maximum
control/feedback–minimum opportunity.</span></span></span></div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;">Blended solutions</span></b></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Blended
learning: the amalgamation of face-to-face and course material-driven
approaches with online approaches can provide a solution for the above issues.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The
following diagram shows a possible model for covering writing training.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V2P9asLpG2w/Uo811EbZl-I/AAAAAAAAACU/gUx0I0uwaI8/s1600/Rezmuves_diagram1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V2P9asLpG2w/Uo811EbZl-I/AAAAAAAAACU/gUx0I0uwaI8/s1600/Rezmuves_diagram1.jpg" height="243" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The
difficulties caused by the practical necessity of completing writing
assignments out of the classroom can be remedied through the use of a Learning
Management System (LMS) which allows teachers to set up and monitor tasks
remotely. Many online services also offer an automatic (or at least a guided
semi-automatic) marking facility for more closed types of writing.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Speaking
can also be aided through the use of online learning services (online
workbooks, practice tests, etc.), which often offer a speak-and-record
facility. Teachers can find similar free-to-use web services online. Embracing
social media channels, like online video chat can also enhance exam preparation
and extend contact time. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Blended
learning may not provide solutions for every exam training issue, but is well
worth considering.</span></span></span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-59713655159043346202013-11-22T11:42:00.001+01:002013-11-22T12:04:20.279+01:00Go digital - life is peaceful there... or is it?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Digital was a big thing at this year's IATEFL in Liverpool - some publishers didn't even bring books to their stands! I fondly recall a confused teacher walking up to said publisher's stand, asking: "You don't have any coursebooks any more?" - to which the marketing person replied: "Of course, we do. Have a look in our catalogue." The teacher, relieved, "So, may I have a catalogue then?" Marketing person, slightly embarrassed, "Actually, we haven't got any printed copies with us, but use one of the iPads at our stand to browse our online catalogue." The teacher ambled up to the row of iPads, then stood around helplessly until the same marketing person walked up to her to find out what, if anything, was the matter this time. "Can you show me how to use this thing, please?", the lady said... No comment. </span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">BEBC didn't refrain from commenting on the subject, though: <a href="http://bebcblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/so-is-the-elt-textbook-dead-or-not/">http://bebcblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/so-is-the-elt-textbook-dead-or-not/</a></span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So is digital a bandwagon we should all be in a hurry to jump on? I read this thought-provoking article on eltjam.com where Laurie Harrison made a compelling case for iterative publishing - that is, continually updated online teaching materials replacing coursebooks: <a href="http://www.eltjam.com/iterative-publishing-in-elt-10-reasons-why-it-will-and-wont-work/">http://www.eltjam.com/iterative-publishing-in-elt-10-reasons-why-it-will-and-wont-work/</a></span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">To me, the cons still outweigh the pros. This is where my reservations stem from: digital is simply a different medium, but the pedagogical values and teaching/learning objectives should neither be restricted by the medium's limitations or by its vast technological potential. We shouldn't be doing only what the format allows us to do, but we should mould the format to allow us to do what we want to do. We pay a lot of lip service to "blended learning", but what I'm missing here is old-fashioned (yes, coursebook) values blended with a mixture of media to provide a more stimulating as well as more familiar environment for learners. </span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For more food for thought, have a look at Hugh Dellar's insightful blog post into the wider ramifications: <a href="http://hughdellar.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/technology-and-principles-in-language-teaching/">http://hughdellar.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/technology-and-principles-in-language-teaching/</a></span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm not against digital in principle, obviously. Digital media open up opportunities for real communication as well as communication practice, they provide access to vast amounts of information as well as stimulating materials, and they come equipped with the facilities for differentiated, personalised learning experiences. None of which was around when I was a student, then a teacher of English. I had to make do with what limited amount of support I could find around me in a non-English-speaking environment. Before the advent of digital, that wasn't a lot.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Anyway, I just thought I'd throw in this topic for all of us to think more about. I believe there is a way in which digital can work in our favour - but we, teachers, should be mapping the route and leading the way, not technology. What do you think? </span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-68227680480614653012013-09-19T14:38:00.003+02:002013-11-22T11:43:20.404+01:00Teaching phrases and expressions: Tamás Lőrincz on OUP ELT Global Blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I came across this article on OUP's blog today and I just found it too good not to share here: <a href="http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2013/09/17/teaching-phrases-and-expressions-a-language-teachers-nightmare/">Tamás Lőrincz on OUP's ELT blog</a>.</span> Enjoy!</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-46869794290461955122013-09-09T16:01:00.000+02:002013-09-09T16:01:22.670+02:00Nyelvparádé 2013: Egy mindenkiért, mindenki egyért<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A 2013-as Nyelvparádén a pozitív csoportdinamika kialakításáról és fenntartásáról tartottam foglalkozást - a más nyelveket tanítókra figyelemmel kivételesen magyar nyelven. Áttekintettük a csoportdinamika négy főbb fázisát, és megismerkedtünk néhány olyan gyakorlattal és technikával, amelyek ezzel kapcsolatban segíthetik munkánkat az osztályban. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Egy-egy közösség sikereinek kulcsa az ezeket alkotó egyéniségek közti ko-operatív viszonyok kialakulása, és az egyének egymásért tenni akaró és tenni tudó közösséggé formálása. Azzal a ténnyel már minden nyelvtanár szembesülhetett pályája során, hogy míg egyes tanulócsoportokban működnek a bevált technikák és ezt az elért eredmények is igazolják, más csoportokban ez mégsem így van - és néha magunk sem tudjuk, miért nem. A pedagógus szerepe szüntelen egyensúlyozás a versengés és együttműködés, az egyénekre figyelés és a csoport minden tagjának mozgósítása, bevonása között. Hogyan találjuk meg tehát a helyes egyensúlyt? Erről a témáról még írni fogok a blogban, addig is az alábbi linkről letölhető a foglalkozás anyaga PDF formátumban: <a href="https://app.box.com/s/ovtc7w0yufgg2vm66xxl">https://app.box.com/s/ovtc7w0yufgg2vm66xxl</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Ajánlom továbbá a blogon már szereplő, hasonló témájú angol nyelvű cikkeket is. </span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-70078357456160922112013-09-03T14:53:00.000+02:002013-09-03T14:53:19.192+02:00Back to school: Your first class with a new group<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">September is here - many of us are returning to school, with anticipation mixed with dread about the groups we are going to teach. Some of us will be starting the long journey of language learning with a new group of students. Macmillan's Onestopenglish offers a very helpful article by Melissa Martin </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">on <a href="http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/methodology/teaching-approaches/approaching-a-first-class-with-a-new-group/155899.article#.UiXZXpMZTWw.blogger">Approaching a first class with a new group | Onestopenglish</a></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Incidentially, building and maintaining cohesive and supportive group dynamics in our English classes will also be the subject of my talk at this weekend's Nyelvparádé language learning fair in Budapest, Hungary (6-8 September 2013, Millenáris B épület - with my own talk scheduled for the Friday afternoon), so those teachers wishing to attend will find Melissa Martin's article an excellent primer for it. I will be posting again on the subject after the event. <a href="http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/methodology/teaching-approaches/approaching-a-first-class-with-a-new-group/155899.article#.UiXZXpMZTWw.blogger"><br />
</a></span></span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-53789538177875836342013-06-12T11:04:00.001+02:002013-06-12T11:04:29.667+02:00Who's afraid of the summer break? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In the Northern Hemisphere, summer is upon us. For teachers, that also means that the long summer holidays are upon us. Students are already getting into their holiday mindset (that is, thinking ahead to what they will be doing <i>away from</i> school, instead of thinking about what their teacher is asking them to do <i>at </i>school), so they are slipping away from our lovingly crafted supportive learning environment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">After the summer: back to school, back to square one? </span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you are a teacher, are you dreading the autumn restart? Are you concerned about how much your students will have fallen out of practice, how much they will have forgotten of everything you taught them over the past months, perhaps years? Do you then, every autumn, drop back the level and re-teach some of what you consider the problematic essentials? Well, that IS the responsible thing to do, but how much better would it be to get your students back with exactly the same level of knowledge they had before the summer break? The same level of practice, already warmed up for further study? How would you prefer progressing from where you left off rather than having to repeat yourself?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Summer assignments - do they work?</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Many of us set our students summer assignments - like reading texts we think they might enjoy reading, "fun" grammar exercises to fill their time, perhaps a project for them to do while on holiday? (If you do have a successful idea that has worked in the past, perhaps you'd like to share it - feel free to use the Comments feature below.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Will students complete these assignments? Sure, some will - most probably just a couple of days before they're due back to school, in a rush and without proper care for quality of content. They know you won't have time to check and assess their work properly anyway! You'll be too busy repeating what you taught them in the spring...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Well, there are no foolproof recipes for all this. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Here's an idea: social networking </span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">One thing you can try to do is to capitalise on students' obsession with social networking. Yes, yes, you and their parents would love them to go outside and get some fresh air rather than to sit in their rooms or in Wi-Fi hotspot cafés, facebooking... Resign yourself to this! They'll be facebooking all day long, anyway. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But how about creating your own network? (Nik Peachey's excellent blog on technology in education might help - here's an article from 2008, most of it still valid: <a href="http://nikpeachey.blogspot.hu/2008/06/create-your-own-social-network-7-steps.html">http://nikpeachey.blogspot.hu/2008/06/create-your-own-social-network-7-steps.html</a> - have a look!) Social networks are meant for precisely the same purpose as the whole of language education: communication! Why not let students communicate the way they like communicating then?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you decide to go with Facebook itself, make sure you create a closed group so only your students and yourself can see the posts in it - your students' safety is your responsibility, and preserving their privacy is vital. But there are other options are to explore - free web services which allow you to create your own noticeboard (check out <a href="http://boardhost.com/">http://boardhost.com/</a> or <a href="http://www.proboards.com/">http://www.proboards.com/</a> or <a href="http://www.runboard.com/">http://www.runboard.com/</a> for example - note that I cannot personally vouch for any of these three sites, but there are literally dozens of similar services available) where students can post comments, updates on their activities and photos. You can even create your own private social network (for example: <a href="http://www.mixxt.net/">http://www.mixxt.net/</a> or <a href="http://www.yooco.org/">http://www.yooco.org/</a> - again, note that I haven't personally vetted these two, but have a look yourself to decide whether they offer what you need). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Here are a few tips to get you going:</span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Don't frame this network project as a school assignment - make it sound like fun. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Don't set too many rules. One rule that is worth setting: English only (or as much as possible).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Involve students in setting up the network or noticeboard. You might even like to allow them to pick the service they like best. If the service allows page design, get students to customise your network page - this can even turn into a classroom project as well as proper language work (practising the language of planning and co-operation, for example: making, accepting and rejecting suggestions, <i>should </i>/ <i>ought to</i>, modals for obligation, necessity and permission, and so on).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You might want to kick things off by writing the welcome message together in class. Discuss the sort of things <i>they </i>would like to see on their network. (NB. Steer them gently towards coming up with the kind of things <i>you </i>want out of it - don't tell them explicitly what to post. Don't worry, you're a teacher, you're good at making them come up with your own ideas.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Encourage students to be active. There's no point in having a noticeboard or network with only one or two boring posts on it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Join in. Be active - post about yourself regularly. Posts don't have to be long (students won't be interested in ALL your holiday snaps, for instance - just pick one or two that will make them laugh or that will make them interested in finding out more), just make sure you're seen. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Don't be TOO active. The network isn't a news service for your students about your life - it's a place for them to share experiences, thoughts, feelings.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If the selected service allows it, post comments (or, at least, "like") on what students have posted. Show them you're interested.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Don't correct any errors. Make notes of any glaring mistakes students make, but go over them in your autumn revision classes - without mentioning that you've picked up on them in the network.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Moderate posts and comments. Make sure things don't get personal or inappropriate - but don't make a huge issue about it all. Use private messaging to warn misbehavers rather than public. Intervene only as a last resort - most conflicts, if any occur at all, can be sorted between your students. It's their network.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Am I saying this will work? Hard to say. But students are more likely to give it a go than to complete a worksheet on, say the third conditional. Who knows, perhaps next summer it'll be them who suggest repeating the experience!</span><br />
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-77767401783466404842013-05-28T11:25:00.002+02:002013-05-28T11:39:30.126+02:00Children's literature in ELT? Why not?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Although throughout most of my TEFL career I have been working with teenage and adult learners, I now have two "young learners" of my own back home, so I'm learning the ropes through experience. One might think that language teaching is language teaching, irrespective of the age group, but that's not quite true - and this goes beyond the obvious differences in attention spans, activity type preferences, or cognitive maturity... teaching kids turns out to be a different ball game altogether. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">One thing I quite like about young learners is that it is much less result-oriented, and a lot more focused on the learning process itself. Children don't usually question <i>why</i> we're doing something. As long as it's fun, in the sense that it becomes another game for them to play, they're happy to play along. As their teacher (parent, au pair, tutor... whatever), you may set goals and forge plans (which you simply must be prepared to abandon if necessary, as with young children things, as a rule, never go according to plan), but the children don't need to be aware of these. I suppose it's important for them to sense that there <i>is </i>a point to an activity, and sometimes they may even ask what that is - but this is a lot less vital than the actual activity itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Another nice thing about young learners is that teaching them is not coursebook-bound. Anything can, and will, become a tool for learning. (A brief aside: but should that not be true for a learner of any age? Why exactly then do we get bogged down in "covering the coursebook" a lot of the time...?) Their favourite toys, furniture, natural objects, people, and obviously, books, too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think reading is fun. I also think reading SHOULD BE fun. But how about turning the joy of literature to our advantage in teaching the language? How about setting those goals and forging those plans - while allowing the kids to immerse themselves in a world of imagination, knowledge and inspiration? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I've only just found out about a new publication called CLELE journal, which focuses exactly on that theme: children's literature in language teaching. Find our more here: <a href="http://clelejournal.org/">http://clelejournal.org/</a>. I'll definitely be following it from now.</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-29827510409630033702013-05-14T10:38:00.000+02:002013-05-14T21:53:23.534+02:00Motivated to motivate? Reflections on the ELTA 11th Annual Conference, Belgrade<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">ELTA, the association of English language teachers in Serbia, organised its annual conference last weekend at the Pedagogical Faculty in Belgrade. Despite the hot weather, lots of teachers attended (and hopefully enjoyed) a wide range of plenary talks and workshops. I wouldn't personally have expected to participate in any "Bollywood dancing", for example - if you were there, you know what I'm talking about. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I had a double slot before the lunch break on Friday, starting with a 45-minute workshop on classroom dynamics, followed by a 60-minute plenary on teacher motivation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />Although devised as a workshop, my first session (All for one, one for all) didn't really work as such. We were given the main lecture hall, which meant that on the stage I was separated from my training group by several metres and I had to use a microphone as well because of the big space - not really conducive to good two-way interaction. I'd planned several questions where I was going to elicit trainees' responses first before exploring the issues myself, but standing on that stage, I simply couldn't hear them... Note to self: perhaps next time try to find out which room I'll be given further ahead of time so I can plan accordingly? Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, I hope teachers benefited from the content.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The workshop was organised around activity ideas for each stage in the formation of a working group from Forming to Storming to Norming to Performing (terminology from Tuckman, 1969, quoted in Argyle: Social Interaction. 1969, Tavistock Press, London - in case you wanted to know) which I encouraged teachers to consider trying in their own classes as they start in their new groups in the next school year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For anyone wanting to download a handout copy of my workshop (with said activity ideas and a short recommended reading list), follow this link: <a href="https://www.box.com/s/24r3zzdwpemkewohmxv7">https://www.box.com/s/24r3zzdwpemkewohmxv7</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In my plenary, the focus was on teacher motivation: where it comes from, and what teachers can do to maintain their own motivation. The idea actually came about as an extension of a talk I did on 23 February at the OUP Day at the Sava Centar in Belgrade. The February session explored student motivation, which got me thinking about how this was connected (assuming at that point that it was) to teacher motivation, then I shared the results of my further research with the delegates at ELTA. For anyone wanting to explore the subject further, here are a few recommendations:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">M. Praver and W. Oga-Baldwin: What motivates language teachers. Investigating work satisfaction and second language pedagogy. In: Polyglossia Vol.14, February 2008.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">G. Demes da Cruz: From limitation to motivation: fourteen tips on how to enhance motivation in the EFL class. From www.developingteachers.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">L. Bartlett: Teacher development through reflective teaching. In: J.C. Richards and D. Nunan (eds): Second language teacher education. 1990, Cambridge University Press.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I have also contributed a short article on student motivation to the April issue of the ELTA Newsletter, and those interested can check it out here: <a href="http://www.britishcouncil.rs/predavanje-engleskog/elta-e-bilten/april-2013">http://www.britishcouncil.rs/predavanje-engleskog/elta-e-bilten/april-2013</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I really enjoyed ELTA - Serbian teachers are always a joy to work with. Look forward to my next opportunity to re-test this impression. :-)</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072669460774553017.post-33830975870223052752013-04-19T22:17:00.001+02:002013-05-15T08:15:07.840+02:00Consonant finds a voice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What is 'Consonant Voiced'? </span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Due to popular demand, I am creating a blog space, mainly for my activities within English Language Teaching.The blog will feature articles, news and updates on my activities, any relevant media appearances, and materials for sharing - and that's just the basic plan.</span></span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Why 'Consonant Voiced'? </span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Consonant is the name of my own limited company, which I set up at the beginning of 2012 to provide a range of services to clients, primarily in the fields of publishing and language teaching. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Playing on the meaning of the word 'consonant', I chose 'voiced' - to suggest this blog will become the soapbox for all those themes connected with what I do on behalf of my company.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For those of you who have never succumbed to the elusive charms of phonetics, consonants (that is, to use the simplest definition, all the speech sounds which aren't vowels: A, E, I, O, U) can be voiced or unvoiced. An unvoiced consonant doesn't produce vibrations in your vocal chords - unlike voiced consonants, which resonate.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I sincerely hope that many things you'll read here in the future will resonate with you, in the best figurative sense of the verb...</span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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