How can we make CLT work better in EFL contexts?
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How Can We Make CLT Work Better in EFL Contexts? Dr. Willy A Renandya National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University Singapore Plenary paper presented at the ETAK Conference, 14 June 2014
Transcript of How can we make CLT work better in EFL contexts?
How Can We Make CLT Work
Better in EFL Contexts?
Dr. Willy A Renandya National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University Singapore
Plenary paper presented at the ETAK Conference, 14 June 2014
http://nanyang.academia.edu/WillyARenandya
• CLT is widely used in Korea • CLT is an improvement over
previous methods • CLT gives more emphasis on
oral skills
Yes or No?
• In CLT, mistakes are tolerated. • Korean students speak better
English now than before. • We can make CLT work better
in Korea.
Yes or No?
Moderate Proficiency
Report Card from EF
5 Very High Denmark, Netherlands …
4 High Germany, Malaysia …
3 Moderate Indonesia, S Korea, Vietnam …
2 Low Brazil, Russia, France
1 Very Low Libya, Saudi Arabia ...
EF English Proficiency Index 2013: Asia
Koreans spend roughly 20,000 hours between
primary school and university
Whisper to your neighbour
You would do to make CLT work better …
F L A M I N G O S: 8 Elements
Fluency Lexis
Amount &
intensity Motivation
INput Grammar
Output Set phrases
F L A M I N G O S
Lexis Fluency
Amount &
intensity
Motivation
Grammar INput
Output Set phrases
Input
Exposure to language input
Comprehensible Abundant
Linguistic system
Linguistic System
This COMPLEX and IMPLICIT system is not dependent on learner practice of language, but rather is dependent on exposure to what is called input.
(Wong & VanPatten, 2002: 404)
Stephen Krashen
Language Input
Abundant Comprehensible
An NECESSARY (but not sufficient) condition for full
mastery of language
Cohen’s Story
• Sec school student in Turkey • Turkey = EFL • She writes so well that her
teacher does not believe her
“She wanted to know who had helped me write them... She pointed at a few underlined sentences and some vocabulary and asked me how I knew them …
… I had not even participated much in class. I was devastated. There and then and many years later I could not explain how I knew them...”
Krashen (2003: 18)
In her own words ...
Belicia
• Junior High • EL teachers not proficient • Lessons boring • Scored high on TOEFL
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Cohen and Belicia’s Secret!!
F L A M I N G O S
Lexis Fluency
Amount &
intensity
Motivation
Grammar Input
Output Set phrases
• Output Hypothesis – Merryl Swain • Focus on form • Try out newly learned language • Stretched output
Role of Output
• Swain: higher proficiency students!! • Immersion vs EFL contexts • EFL students are below threshold! • Underdeveloped grammatical system
Output: Issues
1
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What do you do with this?
The teacher can reading book about how to the other people can understand English
language very fast or the teacher can searching in internet or the teacher can write in Facebook or email, how to teach
English Language to other countries.
Produced by an EFL college student
• Send her (or her teachers:-) to jail? • Ban her from using English? • Give her more writing practice? • Your thoughts …
What do you do with this?
Grammar
• Talking is the highest anxiety-causing activity
• The worst: speaking in front of a class!!
• Allow but don’t force them
Affectively Speaking ...
Jerry Gephard, 2013, p 166 A Japanese postgrad student in the US: When I first attended classes, I suffered from not knowing how to join in the class. ... I was overwhelmed. All I could do is to sit in silence, listening and watching. Even thinking about a question made
me nervous.
F L A M I N G O S
Lexis Fluency
Amount &
intensity
Motivation
Grammar Input
Output Set phrases
• Methodological flavours dictate grammar teaching
• Too much vs too little (CLT) • Explicit rather than implicit grammar
Grammar
• Not whether; But which grammar and to what extent!!
• Native speaker grammar?
Grammar
Grammar
Criteria
Comprehensibility
Acceptability
Local National International
Lexis
F L A M I N G O S
Lexis Fluency
Amount &
intensity Motivation
Grammar Input
Output Set phrases
Vocabulary
Wilkin (1972, p. 111) writes: ‘Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed’.
Once upon a time:
Vocabulary
Correlation: Vocab and Language Skills
Grammar r = .64 Listening r = .61 - .65 Reading r = .64 Writing r = .70 - 79
Alderson 2005, p 88
“ ... the size of one’s vocabulary is relevant to one’s performance on any language test, in other words, that language ability is to quite a large extent a function of vocabulary size ”.
• CLT people say:
Vocabulary
• Listen/read for a purpose • Predict based on contexts • Guess when things aren't clear • Do not listen/read for every word
Directive, non-directive and misdirective context
• Low success rate • 95-98% words should be known • Context clues not always useful
Guessing words from context
Context Clues
1. Yeong Hwa released the GROF. (ND)
2. The GROF was slightly confused and then swam away. (GEN)
3. Yeong Hwa has a GROF in her throat. (MD)
DIRECTIVE Clues
The GROF is an excellent swimmer. It is an amphibian with smooth skin and has four legs.
How many words your students need?
?
20,000
100,000
1 million No of words
Words in use
Words proficient users know
Your students?
Tom Cobb 2007
"... after decades of guesswork, there is now widespread agreement among researchers that text comprehension depends heavily on detailed knowledge of MOST of the words in a text ... “(p. 38)
3,000 – 5,000 words to read non-specialist texts
• At least 2,000 word families • Deep knowledge of these words
– Know multiple meanings – Know how to use these words in various
contexts
Sensible Target for Students
• Give it back to me • I gave you my word. • She gave her all to save her child. • He gave me the flu. • I’ll give it a shot. • Frankly dear, I don’t give a d**n
To Give or Not to Give
Set phrases
F L A M I N G O S
Lexis Fluency
Amount &
intensity Motivation
Grammar Input
Output Set phrases
• Fixed phrases or expressions • Lexical chunks • Formulaic speech/language • Grammaticalized language
Set Expressions
Set Expressions
First, learned and used as whole units (early grammar)
Gradually, broken up into grammatical units (mature grammar)
Fluent, Idiomatic language
Proficient users of English have
thousands of these set
phrases
It’s up to you Up and down
I’ll take a rain check I woudn’t do it if I were you.
Nicely done!
All of a sudden
Case Study: Chinese Learners
Winners of national EL competition
Thousands of hours of practice
Repeated listening and viewing of
audio and video materials
Ding, Yanren. (2007). Text memorization and imitation: The practices of successful Chinese learners of English. System, 35, 271-280.
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Highly Successful Chinese Learners
Ding, Yanren. (2007). Text memorization and imitation: The practices of successful Chinese learners of English. System, 35, 271-280.
I was so slow in the beginning. With the same
tape, I had to listen to it many more times … I gradually
developed some feel for the language (p. 277)
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“I feel that I just have countless
patterns sort of swimming around in my head”. (p. 278)
“… lines from movies often
naturally pop out …” (p. 275)
Highly Successful Chinese Learners
Ding, Yanren. (2007). Text memorization and imitation: The practices of successful Chinese learners of English. System, 35, 271-280.
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F L A M I N G O S
Lexis Fluency
Amount & intensity
Motivation
Grammar Input
Output Set phrases
• Fluency in productive skills • But also in receptive skills
Fluency
• Rapid word recognition • Fast reading/listening rate • Fast syntactic processing • Low level, bottom-up processing!! • Low = bad?
Fluency
Fluency
“Fluency development is often neglected in courses, partly because teachers and learners feel that they should always be learning something new. Fluency development involves making the best use of what is already known.”
Nation, 2009, p2
Motivation
• Repeated talking – To a partner – To group of 2, then 3 etc.
• 3-2-1 speaking activities • Whispering game
Fluency Activities
F L A M I N G O S
Lexis Fluency
Amount &
intensity Motivation
Grammar Input
Output Set phrases
• EL learning is easy but long • Success depends on sustained
enthusiasm and commitment
Motivation
Dornyei
.. learners with sufficient motivation can achieve a working knowledge of
an L2.
(2001, p 5)
• Student problem? • Teacher problem?
Motivation
The 5 Ts
Teacher
Teaching methodology
Text
Task
Test
Amount & intensity
F L A M I N G O S
Lexis Fluency
Amount & intensity
Motivation
Grammar Input
Output Set phrases
• 1,200 hours • Spread over 6 years • Impact = diluted • Low success rate
Amount & Intensity
Analogy
• Normal: 90 hours over 3 months
• High success rate
Driver’s License
Analogy
• 3 Years • 5 mins per day • Success rate?
Driver’s License
Amount and Intensity
1,200 hours
Compact / intensive
Stronger Impact
Wrap up
Wrapping Up … FLAMINGOS
F L
A M
IN G
O S
Dec Issue 2013
English Teaching
