classroom language teaching and learning in the era of technology wang haixiao nanjing university

Classroom Language Teaching and Learning in the Era of Technology

Wang HaixiaoNanjing University

Outline

• The “what”, “who” and “how” of language teaching and learning

• What is technology doing?

• What is missing?

• Classroom teaching design

The “What” of Language Teaching and Learning

• What is to be taught and learned?– 能力– 应用能力– 英语应用能力– 综合英语应用能力

综合英语应用能力

• Canale & Swain (1980) – Grammatical competence ( 语法能力 )– Discourse competence ( 语篇能力 )– Sociolinguistic competence ( 社会语言能力 )– Strategic competence ( 策略能力 )

• 前两者反映对语言系统自身的运用，后两者与交际的功能有关。

Grammatical competence

• Knowledge of pronunciation and intonation

• Knowledge of words

• Knowledge of sentences

Discourse competence

• Cohesion and coherence

• Paragraph organization– Topic, development, conclusion

• Rhetorical organizations– E.g., narration, description, comparison,

classification, argumentation, etc.

• Conventions governing conversations

Sociolinguistic competence

• How to do things with words– To exchange information, to manipulate

others, to imagine

• Sensitivity– To differences in dialect and register, to

naturalness, to cultural references, to figures of speech

Strategic competence

• Verbal and non-verbal strategies to compensate for breakdowns in communication and to enhance the rhetorical effect of utterances

Knowledge Structures

• Shared knowledge as prerequisite– General knowledge– Culture / subject specific knowledge

Who Are Learning?

• Age

• Intelligence and aptitude– 1) phonetic coding ability; 2) grammatical

sensitivity; 3) inductive ability

• Personalities and learning Styles

• Attitudes and motivations

• Learning needs

Learning Styles

• Concrete learning styles

• Analytical learning style

• Communicative learning style

• Authority-oriented learning style

• Field dependent vs. field independent

Attitudes and Motivation

• Stern’s classification of attitudes – Attitudes towards the community and people

who speak the L2– Attitudes towards learning the language

concerned– Attitudes towards languages and language

learning in general

• Gardner and Lambert: integrative and instrumental motivation

Personality

• Extroversion / introversion

• Social skills

• Inhibition

How Is Language Learned?

• Input, output and interaction

• Learning as construction

• Language learning strategies

Input

• The natural order hypothesis• The comprehensible input hypothesis

Why Output?

• Output enhances fluency.• Output promotes (gap) noticing (or consciousne

ss raising), which may trigger new learning. (relating to accuracy)

• Producing output is one way of testing a hypothesis about comprehensibility or linguistic well-formedness. (relating to accuracy)

• Output serves a metalinguistic function. (relating to accuracy)

Why Output?

• In addition to speaking and writing, certain other competencies can only be acquired in interaction.

• Can help teachers to check students’ comprehension, and probably English learning in general.

• Help with motivation, setting the objective of learning as communication, rather than passing examinations.

Interaction Hypothesis

• Interaction as a stimulus for effective output

• Negotiation for meaning engenders acquisition.• Modifications from interaction make input

comprehensible. • Feedback leads learners to modify their output.

– Learning as a student centered, active and constructive process

– Learning is interactive

– Learning is multidimensional

– Learning is situated in real contexts

Learning as Construction

Language Learning Strategies

• Memory strategies

• Cognitive strategies

• Compensation strategies

• Metacognitive strategies

• Affective strategies

• Social strategies

Memory strategies

• Creating mental linkages (for example, placing new words into a context)

• Applying images and sounds (for example, representing sounds in memory)

• Reviewing well (for example, structured reviewing)

• Employing action (for example, using physical response of sensation)

• Practicing (for example using formulas and patterns)

• Receiving and sending messages (for example, focusing on the main idea of a message)

• Analyzing and reasoning (for example, analyzing expressions)

Cognitive Strategies

• Guessing intelligently (for example, using nonlinguistic clues to guess meaning)

• Overcoming limitations in speaking and writing (for example, using a circumlocution or synonym)

Compensation Strategies

Metacognitive Strategies

• Centering one’s learning (for example, linking new information with already known material)

• Arranging and planning one’s learning (for example, setting goals and objectives)

• Evaluating one’s learning (for example, self-monitoring)

Affective Strategies

• Lowering one’s anxiety (for example, using music or laughter)

• Encouraging oneself (for example, rewarding yourself)

• Taking one’s emotional temperature (for example, discussing one’s feelings with someone else)

Social Strategies

• Asking questions (for example, asking for clarification or verification)

• Cooperating with others (for example, cooperating with proficient users of the new language)

• Empathizing with others (for example, developing cultural understanding)

What Is Technology Doing?

• Vocabulary knowledge

• Skills related to close reading

• Limited samples of oral communication

• Comprehensible input in rich context

• Drills in speaking

What Is Missing?

• Comprehensible output• Interaction• Content based practice in reading, writing,

listening and speaking• Learning strategies• Sociolinguistic competence• Strategic competence• …

Classroom Teaching Design

• Approaches• Teacher talk and student performance• Class arrangement• Control• The use of technology

Classroom Teaching Design

• Approaches– The top-down approach– The bottom-up approach

Classroom Teaching Design

Objectives Procedures Materials & Techniques

The top-down approach:

Classroom Teaching Design

Teaching materials

Treatment Objectives

The bottom-up approach:

Classroom Teaching Design

• Teacher talk– Giving information and explanation– Asking questions– Giving directions– Responding to students output– Modifying students output– Commenting on students output– …

Classroom Teaching Design

• Student performance– Note taking– Giving information– Recalling– Asking questions and giving answers– Offering opinions– Summarizing and synthesizing– Peer evaluation– Self-reflection– …

Classroom Teaching Design

• Class arrangement– Class as a whole– Class as individuals– Pair work– Groups of 3 or more– Teacher vs. student(s)– Student(s) vs. student(s)– …

Classroom Teaching Design

• Control– Controlled vs. free or spontaneous – Timed vs. untimed– Definite or indefinite results

Classroom Teaching Design

• The use of technology in a broad sense– Chalk and board– Paper and pencil– Overhead projector

Sample Classroom Activities (1)

• Asking questions for different purposes– Arousing interest– Bringing up background information– Understanding the main idea– Understanding details– Understanding implied meanings– Drawing conclusions– Applying to new situations

Sample Classroom Activities (2)

• Recalling – Read a paragraph and recall the main content

with the help of flow charts– Listen to a paragraph, take notes, and then

recall the main content with the help of key words

– Compose questions and recall with the help of the questions

Sample Classroom Activities (3)

• Modeling – Modeling sentences– Modeling paragraphs– Modeling passages

Sample Classroom Activities (4)

• Rearranging – Words and phrases from a sentence– Sentences from a paragraph– Paragraphs from a passage

Sample Classroom Activities (5)

• Blank filling – Articles– Pronouns– Prepositions– Conjunctions– Other Discourse connectors– …

Sample Classroom Activities (6)

• Transformation – Translation– Sentence transformation– Turning an argumentation into a dialogue– Turning a narration into a play

Sample Classroom Activities (7)

• Fast reading– Passage reading– Scanning for specific information– Spot the odd one out– Matching

Sample Classroom Activities (8)

• Evaluation– Performance evaluation with focus on task– Peer evaluation as language learning– Peer and self evaluation as consciousness

raising and strategy learning