App of the Week - Educreations

Educreations is one of those apps that are king in the classroom.
It is easy to use, really intuitive, and it gives a blank screen for students and teachers to record, draw, insert images.

Some activities that you can use Educreations for:

- students record examples of what they´ve learned
- students can talk about likes/dislikes, physical description of characters they draw...
- students can tell a story
- students can have a map in Educreations, one gives the directions, the other draws the way as they record the instructions to get to a place
- students can practice a dialogue
- students can interview each other and add images as they go along
- students can work on their book projects, drawing and recording a scene of the book
- teachers can use the app as an interactive whiteboard, even recording what they did as they explained something and then send it to the students
- teachers can record a lesson (explanations, tutorials) and send it to students

Learn how to use the tool and schedule some time during your lesson to add some Educreations fun to your classes:




Here are some examples of what teachers did with their students using educreations. Browse through the lessons our students and teachers have worked on in Educreations: http://www.educreations.com/profile/894009/?page=1

Browse through lessons from other teachers and students to get inspired at http://www.educreations.com/browse/

APPtivity of the Day - Using Dictionaries in the Classroom

Sometimes we think that we can only schedule to use the iPads when we feel confident enough, have practiced many times how to open, close, use the features in certain apps. We practice so much that we give up as insecurity increases exponentially when we give a thought about the students we have, the little time we have in our schedules, added to the responsibility of those devices in nervous hands.

WORRY NOT!

Ruben Puentedura´s model for tech incorporation can be a relief for teachers in the sense that it is OK to start with substitution practices that enhance the learning experience towards a more informed and bold move towards transformative uses of tech in the classroom.

So, instead of the distress of considering tech possibilities and never having the fearlessness to try it, start with a fun and very simple activity and then move on to more challenging activities. 

Did you know that in our CTJ iPads we have fantastic dictionaries you can use with your groups?

Here are some:

The first one on the list (LDOCE 5) is an expensive paid app which is worth every penny for the quality of its digital version - Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5th Edition. 

You can´t imagine how much fun my teen students have had with this app. We searched for some words they were studying, I asked them to check the pronunciation of American x British English and to see if there was any relevant difference. They could see the words in use, including collocations and idiomatic expressions. 

The activity was nothing new, but the teens spent some minutes having fun with the language and exploring the possibilities of use. We then played a game in which I´d say the word, they needed to check the meaning and come up with an example different from the dictionary´s. 

Later in the semester, when they had to write paragraphs, they asked me if they could look up for synonyms in the dictionary! 

Now, if it worked with a rambunctious group of teens, imagine exploring the wonders of the dictionary use with our adult groups! You could explore high frequency words (identified in red in the app); you could have a treasure hunt, pronunciation work, definition game. The world of possibilities using digital dictionaries in class is simply limitless...In addition to making your lessons more engaging, your students will start noticing the possibilities of the devices they use in their daily lives to learn English. 

So, the first part of your tech integration ladder is done: substitution activities using a dictionary app. 

Ready for the challenge?

What kinds of activities with dictionaries do you envision with your groups?

Let us know when you plan a lesson using the dictionary apps and what the outcomes were. 

Tip: Dictionary.com is a very good free app that your students can download to their smartphones and tablets.

Setting Guidelines for IPad Usage in Class

I was browsing through my reader when I came across a short but relevant post on Eudemic. The author tells us  a short story to convey the message that every house has different practices, and that  teachers should not assume all our students will have been taught the same way to take care of the expensive devices we bring to class. One thing is for sure: we do want students to use the IPads to be creative and enjoy the lessons, but we also want them to be careful and keep the devices fully functioning. The solution? The post aforementioned suggests we clearly communicate device usage guidelines to students. I`ll download a larger sized version of the  graphic below available at Teachers Pay Teachers (free) because it is well designed and very informative, go over the rules with students and use the IPads happily ever after.

L1 in the L2 classroom: from a sin to a possibility

 (cross-posted from http://isabelavillasboas.wordpress.com/)

As most people trained in the mid-80´s, I used to completely avoid using or referring to L1 in the L2 classroom. After all, as Scott Thornbury (2010) reminds us, the arguments against it are that:

• translation encourages a dependence on the L1, at the expense of the learner constructing an independent L2 system;
•  translation encourages the notion of equivalence between languages, yet no two languages are exactly alike (although languages from the same language family may be similar in lots of respects);
•  the L1 system interferes with the development of the L2 system;
• translation is the “easy” approach to conveying meaning, and is therefore less memorable than approaches that require more mental effort, such as working out meaning from context;
•  the “natural” way of acquiring a language is through direct experience and exposure, not through translation.

I confess to having taught numerous groups of true beginners without ever, ever speaking a word in Portuguese, our common native language, in class. After all, what if they were in the U.S or the U.K, right? No one would speak their language there, so we had to simulate this L2 environment. At that time, I truly and naively believed that native speakers were the model for an L2 classroom and that students’ L1 was mostly an interference to be avoided. I’m sure this belief was also reinforced by the fact that English in regular schools in Brazil, public or private, was based solely on translation and was very ineffective, so doing anything similar to that should be avoided at all costs.

It was only in the mid-90’s, when I first read what would be one of my most cherished methodology bibles, Douglas Brown’s (2007) Teaching By Principles, that I came across the idea that “the judicious use of the L1” can be beneficial. Wow! That was already quite a stretch for me. But still, in the Methodology classes I taught, I always emphasized the word judiciously, and explained that it was really an exception, when there was no other way to explain a word or concept.

As time went by and a growing number of experts began defending the idea that the native language can be a facilitative tool, rather than just a hindrance or an interference (Atkinson, 1987; Auerbach, 1993; Cook, 2001; Nation, 2003), I slowly began to rethink my beliefs about this issue and, as a teacher, adopt a greater tolerance towards the idea that we can use this tool learners already have, their native language, to help them learn a second language. Rather than a hindrance, the L1 can sometimes be a springboard, or maybe the key to understanding. When teaching the present perfect, for example, I started to show my students that in Portuguese you say “I have read that book” and “I read that book yesterday” using the same verb (li), the reason why it was difficult for Brazilians to understand the concept of the present perfect. I would thus warn them that relating it to Portuguese wasn’t going to help. Conversely, when Portuguese could indeed help them understand something, I began signaling this to students, saying, “It’s just like in Portuguese.” With children, the idea of giving them a few minutes in the beginning of the class to share whatever they felt like sharing about their lives in the native language became more acceptable. After all, they weren’t proficient enough to express themselves the same way in English, yet they really needed the emotional bond.

Even so, my understanding of the debate about the role of L1 in the L2 classroom was still very pragmatic and “apolitical”. It was only when I became more familiarized with Critical Applied Linguistics (Pennycook, 2001), the Local Versus Global English debate and World Englishes, and the Non-native-English-Speaking-Teacher movement (Braine, 1999) that my view of the topic expanded. I began to understand all the historical, theoretical, and political reasons behind the “English-only” policy, clearly explained by Mahboob (2011) and summarized in an earlier post. The fact that sharing the same L1 with my students was a strength rather than a weakness really empowered me and made me rethink my role as a teacher and teacher trainer and developer. I also enhanced my understanding that there was a difference between using translation as a method and using the L1 system as a reference for students, a facilitator. 

Though I had “seen the light”, I also still had many doubts:

•  How far should the teacher go in resorting to the L1 when it can be facilitative without transforming the communicative classroom into a translation-based one?
• Might the teacher’s reference to students’ L1 make them feel more comfortable to use their L1 in class and not make as much effort to communicate in the L2, wasting the only time they have to do so (in the case of an EFL environment)?
• Might an excessive comparison or reference to the L1 hinder the development of students’ automaticity in the foreign language, creating an unnecessary “L1 bypass” in their brains?

Paul Seligson’s plenary in an event recently held at my ELT Institute – the 2^nd Alumni, CTJ, and Ibeu TEFL Conference – shed some light into this discussion and helped clarify it for me in certain ways. He reasonably argued that “L1 is a tool to be used appropriately like any other, and its use needn’t be verbal.”  It can involve parallel processing or systematic contrastive reflection, for example. He suggested a number of awareness-raising activities that involve students making comparisons between their L1 and EFL without having to say a word in their L1. For example, students can think about whether the stressed syllable in each of the months in English is the same or different from in Portuguese. This can be done between Portuguese and English because the months in the two languages are of Latin origin. Thus, we can capitalize on the fact that Portuguese is a Romance language, that as much as 60% of English is Latin-based, and that there are more cognates than false cognates between Portuguese and English. Students can be trained to notice cognates and near cognates and work out their meaning from context. This can be done without even using the L1 in the classroom, but rather, just asking students to think about it. Seligson (2013) also argues that if we capitalize on the vocabulary that is Latin-based when teaching beginners, we can speed up their learning and give them a sense of being able to communicate adequately sooner, even if the words they’re using aren’t necessarily the most frequently used by native speakers.

Some of the key ideas put forth by Seligson (2013) are:

• Highlight, use, and build on students’ strong, existing linguistic intelligence, addressing them as “insiders”, knowers, not “empty vessels” or aliens from another language planet.
• Consider making reference to L1 whenever it might help; celebrate and accelerate where things are similar, prioritize what’s harder, and make humorous links.
• L1 is a tool to be used appropriately like any other, and its use needn’t be verbal, e.g. parallel processing, systematic contrastive reflection, etc.
• Accelerate presentations using L1 contrast or references to give them more time for practice.
• Anticipate mistakes early on in lessons to help students avoid them.
• Use cognates to provide much richer text and input, and be explicit when you’re using cognates.
• Make systematic use of contrastive pronunciation to help break the habits they have acquired from L1.
• Our goal is to create successful language switchers, not just turn them into native speakers.

I opened this post with Thornbury’s (2010) list of arguments against the use of L1. Now here is his list of arguments in favor, which certainly inspired Seligson in his plenary:

• New knowledge (e.g. of the L2) is constructed on the basis of existing knowledge (e.g. of the L1), and to ignore that is to deny learners a valuable resource.
• Languages have more similarities than differences, and translation encourages the positive transfer of the similarities, as well as alerting learners to significant differences.
• Translation is a time-efficient means of conveying meaning, compared, say, to demonstration, explanation, or working out meaning from context.
•  Learners will use translation, even if covertly, as a strategy for making sense of the L2, so it may as well be used as an overt tool.
• The skill of translation is an integral part of being a proficient L2 user, and contributes to overall pluralingualism.
• Translation is a natural way of exploiting the inherent bilingualism of language classes, especially where the teacher is herself bilingual.

Just the other day I was teaching a group of low-intermediate adults and we came across the word “confident”, a false-cognate in Portuguese. Unhesitatingly, I pointed out that confident meant confiante, not confidente in Portuguese. Twenty years ago, I would probably not have resorted to translation and tried to explain the word in English. Maybe half of my students would have understood it, while half would still either be in doubt or think that it meant confidente.

As you can see, I’m now a believer and, as a teacher, I think I can make informed decisions about when to use or allow the use of L1 in my classroom. However, as a teacher trainer and developer in an ELT Institute with over 250 teachers, many of whom are novice, I confess I’m still reluctant to openly advocate the use of L1.  My fear is that the arguments above become an overgeneralization for any use of the L1 at any time, both by the teacher and the students. This would go against our institutional pedagogical principles, which emphasize the need to maximize L2 use in the classroom and authentic communication in L2 and, above all, our students’ expectations. Thus, apart from L1 use for classroom management purposes and others presented by Mahboob (2011), Seligson’s idea of having students think about their L1 rather than actually use it in class might be a sound suggestion.

And you? How do you feel about this issue as a teacher? And as a teacher trainer/developer?

References

Auerbach, E. (1993). Reexaming English only in the ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 27, 1, pp.

9–32.

Atkinson, D. (1987). The mother tongue in the classroom: A neglected resource? ETL Journal, 41,

4, pp. 241–24.

Braine, G. (Ed.). (1999). Nonnative Educators in English Language Teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by Principles – An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy – 3^rd Edition. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Cook, V. (2001). Using the First Language in the Classroom. Canadian Modern Language Review, 57(3).

Mahboob, A . (2011, August 31). Using local languages in English language classes [Web log post].  Retrieved from http://www.nnestblog.blogspot.com.br/

Nation, P. (2003) The role of the first language in foreign language learning. The Asian EFL Journal 5 (2). Retrieved from http://asian-efl-journal.com/quarterly-journal/2003/06/30/the-role-of-the-first-language-in-foreign-language-learning/#thethe-tabs-1-4 (August 04, 2013).

Pennycook, A. (2001). Critical Applied Linguistics – A Critical Introduction. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Seligson, P. (2013). Advantaging Brazilian Learners. Plenary delivered at the 2^nd Alumni, CTJ, and Ibeu TEFL Conference.

Thornbury, A. (2010, April 21). T is for translation [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/t-is-for-translation/

 Images courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

Practical Ways of Developing Fluency

What do you do when a student asks:

“How do I improve my fluency?”

I attended the 2nd Alumni, CTJ, & IBEU TEFL Conference last week.  One of the speakers, Michael McCarthy, talked about how fluency is one of these terms where everyone knows what it means, but have difficulty in defining it:  Think about readiness.  Think about spontaneity.  Does the speaker have their independent ideas about the subject at hand? Fluency means “not causing strain to either the person listening nor feeling strain while speaking”.

Ok, so what does that look like? Here are some terms you need to know:

• Speed of delivery--how many words per hour does your student speak? Casual conversation is 10,000 words per hour!  Your student doesn’t have to speak that fast when it comes to giving speeches, however.
• Pauses--your student should not pause for longer than half a second!  A big “NO NO” is pausing when it is your turn to speak or in the middle of fixed phrases such as “You know what I mean?”  You don’t want to say “You-- know-- what-- I mean.”
• Dysfluency--getting lost in your thoughts.  You say, “What was I talking about?”
• Automaticity--that knee-jerk reaction when it comes to having response to fire off right away.
• Confluence--the ability to carry out a conversation in a way where you create opportunities for your listener to understand when your turn is almost over so that they are ready to start their turn--and they provide you with that same courtesy!

Let’s go back to the original question: “How do I improve my fluency?”

Here are some of my ideas:

• Have your student find a reading passage that they really respect or enjoy and have them read the passage.  It should be a fairly decent length so that it can’t be done in two minutes.  Have them read the passage aloud for two minutes and mark where they stop. The following week, have them read aloud again for two minutes and mark it again.  How many words did they improve?
• Have your students keep up with current events.  A great conversationalist knows what’s going on in pop culture, sports, science, politics, and art.  Have them reflect on what they read and talk about it.  Have them share their opinions with the class. Moderate a short debate!
• Provide them some fixed phrases, 3 word chunks, and other fillers.  Ask them to insert these a few times during class discussions.  They can be things that open phrases such as “Well, basically...” and other words that will create the end of the turn such as “.. you know what I mean?”.  They have to use them quickly (speed of delivery) and automatically!
• Also, teach them how to stall for time such as saying “The whatcha-ma-callit?” or “thinga-ma-bob” and other phrases that native speakers heavily use when they are trying to claw their way through a conversation.  Give them works such as YEAH, OH, RIGHT, WELL, and BASICALLY and teach them how to combine them in to “Oh, right” or “Yeah, that’s right” or “Well, yeah” or “Well, basically”. Use these to avoid pauses and stall for time to think! Other great words are “actually...” and “I mean...” when used to elaborate further on what you’ve already said.
• Great speakers don’t think about what they’re going to say next while their partner is speaking. Instead, they listen to what is being said and react to some part of that.  Model how to do this for them and have them practice.  Give them useful phrases such as "I hate to disagree, but..." and "I see what you mean..." The better they are at creating flow, the more fluent they will become.
  
  
  What are your ideas? Post them in the comments!

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) – Why should you try?

                              

It is two thirty in the afternoon. The teacher is introducing a new and important topic and almost all students are attentively looking at and listening to him. A couple of students, however, seem to be somewhere else. A teenage boy is looking at his lap with a silly smile on his face. The teacher suspects this has nothing to do with his class because once he is not telling any jokes at the moment. A teenage girl on the other side has her right hand inside her bag and is also involved in some kind of very important task. The teacher also knows it is not part of the class because he has not assigned any task yet. He has not asked students to make any sort of inventory of the content of their school bags. This scene looks familiar, doesn't it? The two fictional students are definitely texting or checking their social networks on their mobile phones. How can a teacher handle such distractions? How to deal with the handheld devices our students are bringing into our classes? In this post I will try to give some hints on transforming these gadgets into our allies and discuss some of the benefits of doing so.

The first solution that comes to our minds when facing class distractions due to the use of portable devices is banning them completely from coming into the temple of our classrooms. Banning can range from not allowing students to bring such gadgets to class to collecting them upon their arrival to asking students to turn their gizmos off while in class. However, we can ask, is banning handheld devices the solution?

Since students have to carry their mobile phones to communicate with parents, it becomes practically impossible to forbid them from bringing portable devices into the classroom or asking them to turn their gadgets off. The option of collecting mobile devices upon arrival is not very practical either and adds one more throng into the challenging task of achieving effective classroom management.

Banning not being an option, one thing the teacher can do to avoid episodes of disconnection from class is to make a contract with students telling them when they will be allowed to check their phones. One idea would be telling learners to restrict such activities to a time when they are done with written tasks and are waiting for the remainder of the class to finish and do a peer to peer check out. In regard to this rule, it is important to inform them that they should not rush through tasks to have extra time to use their devices. Such rule would mean never using mobile gadgets while the teacher is explaining something or when the class is involved in communication activities.

Once the teacher has addressed the banning issue and established a contract with his or her students, it is time to look into some alternatives to have students use their devices for other things than checking their social networks, chatting in their native language or playing games. Doing so will make them really happy and will probably reduce their craving for using their devices for other things than getting engaged in learning activities while in class.

There are some activities in which a teacher can substitute paper and pencil for a more engaging and fun task done using a mobile device. Writing does not have necessarily to be done in notebooks. Consequently, paragraphs can be written using mobile phones and be sent immediately to the teacher or afterwards for correction. A teacher will probably be surprised with students’ dexterity in using a mobile phone tiny keyboard to write a paragraph or a short message. You can also suggest a tour around the school to investigate or catalog new vocabulary. Images can be used to construct narratives or to simply describe pictured objects. Besides that, learners can record themselves and by doing this improve their pronunciation and intonation once they have the opportunity to play back and see how they sound. As you can see, there are lots of opportunities to use handheld devices in class.

Using students' devices bring many advantages. First, we can say that it solves the logistic and economic problem of having one mobile device for student. Why does the school need to buy these gadgets when students already possess their own. Second, it saves time once the instructor does not need to instruct the class on specific features. Third, it allows diversity instead if the unification of class sets of laptops or tablets. Finally, it sends a strong message of acceptance and inclusion to students once the handheld device they carry with them almost everywhere is being valued by their teacher and transformed into a powerful learning tool.

References:

My colleague Erika Oya and I gave a presentation on the topic of BYOD in Brasilia at The 2^nd Alumni CTJ and IBEU TEFL Conference. See our slides on Prezi 

Hockly,N.(October 2012). Tech-savvy teaching: BYOD. Modern English Teacher, volume 21(number 4). Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/2065524/Tech-savvy_teaching_BYOD

Technology in the Language Classroom

 

                                           photo credit: Bent Kure via photopin cc

by Jose Antonio da Silva

According to an article on Wikipedia, the history of education if considered as passing down traditions from one generation to another is probably as old as the history of civilization. However, as developmental psychologist Peter Gray reviewing the history of education in a 2008 blog post reminds us, the idea of universal education arouse in the 17th century. It was then that, according to him, learning started being children’s “work” aided by the expertise of adults. If in the beginning of its history methods and techniques for teaching were mostly dictated by the adult in a position of power, as time went by the pendulum shifted to cater more and more to the needs of learners no matter how old they were. The advent of computer technology made this relationship even more complex once these machines gave tremendous power to students and placed higher and higher demands on teachers. So, the objective of this post is to address some issues related to the integration of technology into the EFL class.

An EFL teacher who started teaching in the early 90s in an institution that tried to keep up with the latest technological gadgetry would probably have at his disposal a slideshow projector, a tape recorder, and a TV set with a VCR on the corner. By the end of the decade, the only item remaining would be the TV set, the others would have been replaced by a computer on the teacher’s table connected to the TV set which still might be connected to a more modern VCR. Fast forward ten more years and changes in this area are dramatic. The 21st century has brought with itself a lot of progress in this field and things have not stopped evolving since then. Computer technology has miniaturized and thus become ubiquitous and accessible to almost anyone. In Brazil, according to a National Household Survey (PNAD) study, the number of Internet users in the country increased by 10 million between 2009 and 2011. As more and more technology makes its way into students’ lives and the classroom, teachers have more and more trouble coping with these demands. The solution to this problem may lie in finding ways to use this same technology not only as a means of delivering content, but as a way of practicing inside class, and lastly of extending learning beyond classroom and into students daily lives.

The first issue with such widespread use of computer devices and connectivity arises with students bringing their portable devices into class. If such devices are connected to the web, teachers are divided between asking students to turn their devices off or using them in class for practicing language and generating content. The argument for banning is reasonable and is supported by some educators (Yamamoto, 2007). Devices can be a distraction and really make students lose focus and let a teacher literally talking to the walls. However, as Nicky Hockly (2012) claims, adopting a BYOD (bring your device) approach gives students some autonomy and creates a ground for negotiation between teachers and students. Students can use the photos they have in their mobile phones to talk about themselves and show to classmates what matters to them. Alternatively, they can go around school on photo treasure hunts and do similar activities. The audio capabilities can be used to record conversations that can be replayed in class or used to assess pronunciation or other skills.

In contexts that are low tech and students do not carry fancy mobile devices there is always at least a computer lab. If such facility is not available, students can be encouraged to use their computers at home. The idea is to move from a push content mind set to a pull content one, an approach in which teachers see learners as active participants and producers or content. So, instead of adopting a closed LMS environment in which educators exert control and push content to students, a teacher can opt for the so called web 2.0 platforms that allow more freedom and customization, allowing the teacher to push content from learners. The flipped classroom (Gerstein, 2012) idea advocates exactly that, using blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networking and other media to get extended practice and student generated content. Once teachers connect students and their classes to the web, his initiative allows them to see themselves as 21st citizens that are no longer just consumers of content, but as creative and active participants in making their own learning, creating content, and contributing to the learning of others.

References

 Gerstein, J. (2012). The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture. Kindle Edition. Gray, P. (August 2008). A Brief History of Education. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education

Hockly,N.(October 2012). Tech-savvy teaching: BYOD. Modern English Teacher, volume 21(number 4). Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/2065524/Tech-savvy_teaching_BYOD

Yamamoto, K. (January 2008). Banning Laptops in the Classroom: Is it Worth the Hassles? Journal of Legal Education, Volume 57 (Number 4). Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1078740

Wikipedia, History of education, Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education