Grammarphobe: Emergent versus Explicit Focus

After reading the #ELTchat summary of the “Do you teach grammar explicitly? If so, how? If not, why not?” I started to ponder explicit grammar teaching versus clarification and practise of emergent grammar. One of the reasons for this was that as teachers I’m not sure if we have concrete information on which to base our conclusions; we base a lot of it on our experience in the classroom. In addition, I also spent some time thinking about what ‘explicit’ meant to me.

In the summary, the term was discussed and defined by many in different ways:

The early part of the discussion focused on what was actually meant by the term ‘explicit’.  @AlexandraKouk asked if was referring to an inductive vs. deductive approach while @ louisealix68 interpreted “explicit” as inductive followed by deductive. @teflgeek wondered if ‘explicit grammar teaching’ was just telling the learners “we’re going to do some grammar today” as opposed to teaching grammar by stealth.  @michelleworgan asked if asking students for or give examples of grammar and try to get students to notice the rules/differences counted as explicit.

http://eltchat.org/wordpress/summary/do-you-teach-grammar-explicitly-if-so-how-if-not-why-not-an-eltchat-summary-2/

Forgive me for being facetious, but I’m going around in circles trying to define this for myself. Explicit is defined in my dictionary as “stated in detail, leaving no room for confusion or doubt”. Such an explanation suggests that a teacher tells learners what the grammatical aim is and explain it, leaving no cracks for misunderstanding. Again, flippant, but does this refer to the aim or the teaching of that aim?

Let’s say for the sake of debate that this is the aim: stated before the lesson and followed through on in the lesson. The polar opposite of this would seem to me to be a focus on emergent grammar during the lesson, different from or with no specific aim given.

Explicitly teaching the present perfect:

Context: relationships, anniversaries and breaking up

Aim: clarify and provide practice of the present perfect simple for unfinished time periods connect to the present; to highlight the aspect’s focus on unfinished time.

1. Asked students to write questions to ask their partners on romance.

2. Students asked each other questions and came up with some definitions of what the word means and what it doesn’t.

3. Looked at emergent vocabulary, clarified and elicited examples of use.

4. Gave students two letters (separated in a jigsaw reading style), from two different partners to the other. Learners put the letters together. Checked answers.

*one letter concerned one couple that had broken up and the other one that was still together. The use of the present perfect showed that they were still in a relationship and celebrating their anniversary.

5. Directed students’ attention towards guided discovery questions to elicit the above mentioned information.

6. Clarified answers.

7. Gave students the task of writing a love letter to a partner. The class commented on if they thought the couple was still together or not.

Focusing on emergent present perfect

1. Students are chatting about their preferred careers and how they focus on career development. The conversation drifts in one group to one student’s past and how she lived in a squat. They talk about how Berlin is now a very different city from its past self.  A few students get involved and the conversation moves to purchase power, rent, wages and concentration of immigrants in the community.

At this point I noticed a lot of language missing to describe changes until the present (yep, you got it: present perfect).

2. Noted down some of the vocabulary they are using and clarify it on the board.

3. Drew four graphs on the board that represent the changes and put the vocabulary on the board in boxes for students to grammar up, making sure they knew the time axis on the graph was until now.

4. Learners copied graphs and wrote some descriptions to explain and then explain to their partners. I monitored and pushed students to give reasons for their grammatical choices.

5. Give students simulation on the original topic of career development. Throughout the simulation they use present perfect simple and continuous to describe developments until now.

Some Reflections

Gauging results is so difficult in this case; I prefer teaching in the second way. Nevertheless, I’m not 100% convinced of its benefit to students. One reason for this is student expectations of focused, explicit grammar tuition. In fact, after the first lesson type a student came to me and complimented my teaching style and expressed her satisfaction from the lesson. Another reason is that I am not certain I can recreate the same conditions time and time again. Anyway, back to results. I noticed much more fluent and accurate language use in the second lesson type than in the first. Does this mean type 2 is more conducive to learning and the first to learner expectations?

How do you get there?

Self visualisation

I cannot begin to tell you how important this is in every stage of your life. Perhaps you’re well clear of the exams you had to take or the important match you had to play at secondary or high school, but challenges keep on coming. From the smallest deadline to the biggest exam; they fly at you like there’s no tomorrow. The only thing you can do is visualise yourself beating them.

This man inspires me beyond belief, Mark Cavendish, current green jersey holder of the Tour de France. The fact that this guy manages to reach speeds of 70Km/h in a finishing sprint after races of 250km is just beyond belief. Sometimes I think that everything is too much for me, then I watch this and realise there are guys out there pushing themself to the real limit. Now I really think that says something, picture yourself at your goal, watch someone you see reaching theirs and visualise yourself getting to yours.

Colloseum

When i did the Rome marathon, I walked past the colosseum a few times (the last 1km of the race) and pictured myself running that last 1000 meters. When the time finally came I was 100% ready to do it, even with 41 km behind me.

This is the song I connected my experience to

Good to have music to associate success to. Helps to add to the self-visualisation.

Role Models

I have already mentioned Mark Cavendish, but there’s also Michael Phelps, as he shattered the 200m record for butterfly in the 2008 olympics. He’s another role model. During DELTA, I used his four lengths of butterfly as four LSAs and watched it before each of them, knowing that the final length of the pool would take me home.

 

 

Basically

What I’m trying to say is, whatever the challenge: exam, conference, class, race, marathon, it’s all about how you tackle it mentally, how you actualise yourself finishing the challenge. Negative thoughts get you n0-where. Positive ones see you through to the finish line.

 

Who inspires you? Mine are Mark and Michael, famous sportsmen. I use music and my heros to help me through, what gets you through?

The Edublog Awards 2011 – Nominations

This year is the first time I can participate in nominating for the Edublog Awards and I’m very excited to give my nominations. I get so much out of the blogs and online resources I use for teaching that it’s nice to give something back in a way to the people who dedicate so much of their time to this.

1. Best Individual Blog

An A-Z of ELT by Scott Thornbury was the first ETL blog I came across. It’s a complete no-brainer for the best individual blog. His posts have been a constant source of inspiration on Sunday mornings over a cup of coffee and I’ve really enjoyed contributing to the comments section.

2. Best Individual Tweeter

@harrisonmike

Prolific tweeter and sharer of resources. Mike crosses over to Facebook too where he is just as helpful.

3. Best New Blog

This one has to go out to Brad Patterson’s Journée in Language, although there was some tough competition. This guy could write the etymology of ‘bland’ and it would still be a thrilling read…

4. The Best Ed-Tech / Resource-Sharing Blog

Nik’s Learning Technology Blog

5. Most Influential Blog Post

Vicky Loras’s ‘What’s your Story?” is the stand-out choice in this category for the reaction it got from the blogging community. Well thought-out, the post achieved something beautiful by challenging teachers out there to share their experience, which I think sums up what is great about the PLN: sharing experience and reaching out to people.

6. Best Twitter Hashtag

#ELTchat

7. Best Teacher Blog

Anthony Gaughan’s Teacher Training Unplugged. This was a tough one, there should really be six or seven categories within this one to accommodate for the amount of great blogs out there. But in the end it is Anthony that gets my vote. He never fails to inspire me with his ideas, and there’s even more to be said about the discussions the ensue in the comments section

8. Best educational use of a social network

British Council’s Teaching English page on Facebook. That’s not just because they gave me blog of the month. It brings together truly the best selection of the ELT world in one place. Great resource. If you’ve not been there, where have you been hiding?

9. Lifetime Achievement

Ken Wilson

Practical Ideas for Retrospective Planning in a Reflective Journal

I want to offer my thanks again to the audience in my talk on Reflective Teacher Practice at TESOL France, who came up with a number of very practical ideas to create a retrospective plan to use in a reflective journal. Their wealth of experience they had to offer helped me come up with a number of ideas. I owe you all a big thankyou, and maybe a drink next time we see each other, you can hold me to that! I have synthesised the ideas into a few frameworks that could be of use to someone thinking of starting a reflective journal:

 

Circular snapshots

 

Hard-data stored in your brain is more easily accessed through emotions and visuals, in my humble opinion. This model encourages the teacher to first go back into the lesson and take a visual snapshot of it, then, give it an adjective. Having entered the lesson in this way, you’re ready to look at the focus, needs, opinions and feedback.

 

Questions about the teacher/questions about the learner

Reflecting and writing a journal has a number of benefits which I would espouse. However, at times, alone with your thoughts, it’s possible that reflection becomes inflection. By this I mean the teacher is the centre of everything. We are professionals and we take our practice seriously. Basically, we flagellate ourselves. This framework rebalances the situation by addressing the learners first and then the teacher. The questions in the first box focus the reflection on the learner, then expanded and refocused on the teacher; it’s beneficial not only to learners but also to the teacher to bear them in mind when retrospectively planning/evaluating.

 

Reflection into research

An area I touched upon in my talk was action research. This is the area in which I feel I short-changed my audience slightly. There was a missing link between how to synthesize the journal content into a well-focused and fruitful action research project. The idea below goes some way to bridging the gap; it takes you step-by-step through the lesson running order. The first part elicits your thoughts on the lesson. Unpacked, the most salient points are then questioned and re-packaged in the form of a focus or action research (by this point the number of point should reduce). By the time you arrive at the action research box, you’ll have a few ideas in mind. At this point it’s a good idea to get the opinion of other teachers. This could be done by asking them to read your journal or through an informal staff-room chat. Finally, you’re ready to start picking out literature to help research.

 

The two classroom pillars

I used this framework to analyse a Dogme lesson I did last week. I found it useful to start with the learner pillar. They focus on interactions: firstly communicative interaction, then the interaction between learners and the content of the class, difficult and easy.

Answering the three questions on the teacher-pillar accesses the teacher’s decisions through the lesson in relation to learner interactions. What I find helpful about this framework is that you can draw conclusions on your decisions in the classroom and link them directly to the learner.

It could be beneficial to revisit the lesson or start an action research project in the case of an imbalance between these questions e.g. Learners found it difficult to produce X language/I found it difficult to help them with X language, learners found it difficult to understand what was required of them in the lesson/I found it hard to give instructions.

 

Surprises and moments

It doesn’t always go according to plan, does it? Emerging interactions can come as some surprise. It’s how we deal with them that makes them learning opportunities. In reflecting on them, consider the cause: internal or external. E.g. students had a bad day, it’s 5.30 p.m. on a Friday and my teenager group wasn’t exactly thrilled to check into grammar 101, the material was pitched too high, etc etc. If these were surprises the next step is to reconsider your plan or classroom behaviour.

At the end of the process, give yourself a mark out of ten. It’s better at the end than at the start – again, reflection is better than inflection.

 

Moving from one lesson to the next

This idea focuses on how to move from lesson to lesson. As I mentioned in my talk, I often find the focus for the next lesson in the leftovers of the previous. Reactivating could be to address any one of the questions presented. This doesn’t necessarily have to something identified as a negative; one might want to reactivate to revise, add continuity or to introduce a new focus in the context created in the previous lesson.

 

Challenge

Here’s my challenge. To anyone out there: teachers: newly qualified or expert, trainers: teaching or training. Directors/ADOSs: running development sessions or teaching, try it out with a class. Maybe two if you have the time.

1. Which of these structures best fits your teaching style/beliefs about teaching/context? 

2. Do you find it helpful to reflect in this way?

3. Have you noticed and areas for improvement in your teaching? Would you like to improve these?

4. Have you identified any strengths? If so, how could you ensure your planning/preparation/teaching exploits your strengths?