There is one supertool in teaching:flexibility

This time I would like to share some thoughts which might sound self-evident but might not be so for many of us.

In my experience, those of us who teach have somehow associated certain methods with specific functions or parts of the teaching process. Perhaps exams, which are always standardised, have contributed to this attitude.

What I posit here is that different teaching aids or tools and different methods should be used to introduce, explain or test the understanding of each text. The teacher sets their goals in using a text and decides on ways to get their students to reach those targets.

By nature I am a maximalist, but I have learned how to lower my sights and get the most out of what I decide to be my priority in using a text. There are no hard and fast rules as to how we can make sure that our students comprehend what they read. Importantly we might want to limit ourselves to checking only gist. Personally I doubt the validity of the multiple-choice exercise though I admit I have created many all those years as part of my job involves preparing students for exams.

I will provide an example of the point I am making. I found a short news story on BBC (see links at the end of this post) which I chose to use with a group of students at level B1. I knew that my students had enough words to understand the story. At the same time I needed to test gist first before moving on to the gapped-text exercise. Therefore, I asked them to read the story and make a sketch of it in their notebooks. I wanted to elicit the father’s leap with his children in his arms and the way the children miraculously escaped almost certain death. To facilitate the process I asked my students to think of the natural features in their picture (wooded land) and include them in their picture.

My point is that we normally associate pictures with illustrating vocabulary items or as stimuli for conversation, but they may be used for anything depending on the circumstances. In this case the picture was designed to test gist.  

As for the words in the gaps, I normally choose them on the basis of what I have covered in this particular class or what has been taught recently that needs reinforcement or even what is a problem area and needs checking again and again.

I normally make a point of creating a vocabulary exercise so that my students see the words I want to focus on in different context.

You can see the student’s sheet and the teacher’s version here:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-JgIA9pNw-KUnhEQnRsR2hhT2c/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-JgIA9pNw-KZFhpMVN6b2VDUU0/view?usp=sharing

A teacher's rebellion

It is a common belief that young people are best suited to question set ideas, to challenge the status quo, to long for the revolution that will bring everything down and build the world from scratch. Maybe so.

However, I feel that no revolution can compare to the informed one, the revolution of those who know where they come from and what it is they are rebelling against.

Do I feel rebellious? I certainly do.

As a teacher of a few decades, having spent long hours with children of 7 to 17, I feel that almost all  the exams for obtaining  language qualifications do injustice to the different talents and abilities of students.

Think, for example, of all the research into language acquisition, of all the different methods which will allow people of different intelligences to approach a foreign language in a way that will help them assimilate structures and words. On the other hand, think of all the exam materials available for preparing successful candidates.

Now try to figure how much fun and how much real learning exam requirements enable. Am I the only one to think that nobody will be asked to write a film review in real life unless they pursue a career as film critics?

Am I the only one to think that completing two writing tasks of about 300 words each in 1 ½ hours is pointless and does not really allow the candidate to focus on either. Nor does it give the examiner a better understanding of the candidate’s proficiency in the language than just one would.

Am I alone in getting frustrated when two totally mismatched candidates try to interact in a speaking test and only succeed in ruining each other’s chances? What is the point in interaction if one has not made sure that the two candidates fulfil some basic requirements? And what is wrong with individuals examined separately?

When I work with dyslexic people and try to catch up with them trying out so many different answers in their heads—sometimes aloud too-- so they can get to the right one, I am at a loss. I couldn’t process half of this information so fast. Is some extra time thrown to them for accomplishing the tasks going to even give the examiner an inkling of the effort and the thinking process at work?

Please do not ask me what is to be done and should we do away with exams. I only know this one thing; I have reached this point in my teaching career where I feel an irresistible urge to rebel, to join ranks with my students.

Resources: advanced level

Resources in teaching language is a rather tricky issue. Even those  of us who like to think we create our own resources heavily rely on what has been said before. We build on foundations that have been safely laid for us. Therefore, what I am going to say in the next few paragraphs is said without losing sight of the mass of material already available to us thanks to which we can make our own contribution.

The point is that even the best thought-out presentation or resource works with some learners, not necessarily all of them, and a teacher knows their students’ needs, preferences and ability and can adapt activities accordingly.

I thoroughly enjoy creating my own activities and exercises or adapting already-existing ones . I normally use authentic material: poems, literary extracts and articles or news items and customise the activities for my learners.

I make a point of updating my material so as to stimulate the learner’s interest with items which are relevant to their reality. This means learners have the opportunity to read some of the latest news stories and do specific tasks on them.

Having said that, however, I do make exceptions for stories or articles that for various reasons never lose their appeal and can be appreciated regardless of the time of their publication.

Each text lends itself to different kinds of exercises and of course the activities are adapted to the learner’s goals and ability.

The range of topics is wide, from lifestyle and travel to scientific and philosophical, depending on the level of the learner.

I place particular emphasis on vocabulary practice and, therefore, accompany most of my texts with custom made vocabulary exercises which test the words unknown to a specific group of learners and which have been presented while working on the text and written in their vocabulary books.

Here is a sample of my work at an advanced level:

See pdf 1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-JgIA9pNw-KaExJUlFkc1o1REk/view?usp=sharing

See pdf 2

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-JgIA9pNw-KUXRmZjhfdDNTbm8/view?usp=sharing

The first document is the student’s worksheet while the second is the teacher’s copy with answers in bold type and a guide for the summary exercise. Surely different teachers have their own ways of making a teacher’s guide for convenience reasons and in order to focus on real teaching in class. This is just my way.

As regards the more essential question of choosing which words to remove in the first activity, there is a number of criteria. My students may have come across a grammatical or lexical item recently and I need to reinforce it by testing it. Or there may be some details which I can only explain in context or I might even want to throw a little challenge here and there!

Next issue, a really big one, is the type of activity chosen. As the popular saying goes, it is … complicated. The activities used in this particular case are very familiar especially to those who have sat a Cambridge exam and preparing for a higher-level qualification. However, by no means do I limit myself to those only. As one can see, there are comprehension questions, which, despite their removal from most exams, do provide the learner with the opportunity to talk on a subject using ideas from the text. There is also a summary question, which again does not figure in most exams but which is an old-fashioned (I say, timeless) method of digging deeper into the text and going home having really learnt something.