a highly-integrated complex er/el program: problems and prospects
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A highly-integrated complex ER/EL program: Problems and prospects. Stephen Shrader and Rob Waring Notre Dame Seishin Women’s University ERF World Congress, Kyoto, Sept, 2011. Our OC course. We believe in: Autonomy and self-selection The importance of tasks and interaction - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
A highly-integrated complex ER/EL program: Problems and prospects
Stephen Shrader and Rob WaringNotre Dame Seishin Women’s UniversityERF World Congress, Kyoto, Sept, 2011
Our OC courseWe believe in:
Autonomy and self-selectionThe importance of tasks and interactionThe value of some teacher guidance and controlNation’s four strands
meaning-focused inputattention to language features/items meaning-focused outputfluent 4 skills use of known language items
We see our course as complex (language targets; tasks) and integrated (the parts reinforce each other).
Reading Listening
Self- selected fluency work
Non-self-selected fluency work
Language focus work
Graded readers
Audio from graded readers
ELLLO (with T guidance)
Non-fiction material tied to course book topics (Footprints)
Course book audio
Course book video
Course book (Reading Explorer 2)
Word lists
Listening while reading in class (The Elephant Man)Teacher stories, demos
Posters and presentations
Reading Listening
Self selected fluency work
Reading Listening
Non-self selectedfluency
work
Reading Listening
Language focus work
Most of it is concurrent
Though we talked about it step by step, most elements run concurrently throughout the term!e.g. Alternating self-selected reading and listening week 1 with non-self selected materials the next.They read 6 GRs and 6 Footprints, 20 ELLLO, 6 Own ListeningsAdditional activities – reading reportsThe two classes met once per two weeks to do something (activity/presentation/poster or report their reading / listening).ExamView tests plus teacher quizzes
The data
Data collectionOne semester of data so farExpect 2-3 years of data to be collectedPre-course data collected in first week (85 items)End of semester data collected in July (66 items)
Background 40 female first year college students2 regular classes per week @ 90 minutes (plus homework)1 CALL class @ 90 mins
The data: Reading histories in English
Prior reading was mostly of textbooks and course and exam related materialsThey had done very little reading of English content materials (comics, novels, poetry, magazines, newspapers etc.)50% had read many / a lot of music lyrics, English webpages46% had already read easy story books in English88% read a lot/ often in Japanese
The data: Reading desires
They reported wanting to read most types of reading materials – from newspapers and magazines to webpagesGenre preferences were for fantasy, romance, drama, historical, adventure, crime, biographies but not sci-fi, sports and scienceNon-fiction was highly rated
The data: Little /no change over one semester
Similar tendency / rates for need to look up unknown wordsSimilar desire to be a better reader in English (high initially)Similar liking for listening while readingSimilar levels of desire to understand everything when reading
The data: Minor changes since high school
Our course book was less tiring and easier to understand than those in High SchoolIncreased desire to know more about the reading topic after readingIncreased desire / liking for reading in EnglishIncreased perception of ease in reading in English Lowering of perception that reading is hardIncreased desire in liking for listeningSlight increase in desire to read in Japanese
The data: Larger differences
They translated less frequently when reading (29% said a lot in April to 7% in July)Tendency to find their own non-course related reading materialIncreased desire to read something more challengingIncreased desire to read more (in general)Increased desire to read more non-fictionDecrease in perception that listening is difficultIncrease in preference for listening over readingLessening of the desire to study alone
The data: Massive gains
Self-perception of being a more confident reader78% lacking confidence -> 83% felt confident
The data: Some negatives (but to be expected)
Slight decrease in perceived English ability since entering uniSlight increase in realization they won’t be very fluent after graduation
The data: hard to interpret data
Lessening in strong desire to read easy story books (46% to 24% strong). BUT also a lessening in desire to read something very very difficult (39% to 17%) and an increase in desire to read something a little difficult (44% to 73%)
?? They want to read something at or about their level or just above it (not too easy and not too hard)
The data: Learning habits
Increase in autonomyIncreased desire to ask questions / ask for helpLess desire to stay quiet about their mistakes(but slight increase in desire for a teacher centered class)
Increased tendency to see reading as a communicative act rather than for language study Slight increase in desire to focus on grammatical itemsLarge increase in % of students who liked speaking in classMuch greater tolerance for making mistakesIncrease in clarity of the reason they want to study English
The data: Input preferences
Most useful
Most enjoyable
Liked the best
ELLLO (self-selected online listening) 34% 7% 10%
Self selected Listening CDs 2% 7% 5%
Self- selected reading (graded readers) 49% 76% 80%
Teacher selected reading (Footprints) 15% 10% 5%
The data: Post impressions
83% reported some gains in reading speed (12% said a lot)68% reported increasing reading speed is very important63% prefer self-selected reading to teacher selected readingMoodlereader quizzes were hard (51%) to very hard (39%) even though most tests were passed49% prefer Moodle tests to doing reports (39%)68% said the text book was okay, 5% easy, 27% hard46% said the amount of homework was just right, 29% a bit too much, 15% not enough63% said the videos were okay, 27% said a little difficult
The data: Post impressions - reading
The genre (54%) was most likely to determine if a book was borrowed, blurb 27%, cover 10%, recommendation 10%32% read a bit before choosing, 34% selected on interest, 17% on cover and 15% on genre63% said selecting the right reading level was important 29% very important, 7% not important
The data: Post impressions - listening
37% said selecting the right listening level was important, 59% a little important and 2% not important34% selected from the blurb, 41% genre and 20% cover17% can listen much faster, 76% a little faster than April54% reported chatting helped them listen better than, ELLLO (32%) and own listening (15%)80% report an increase in listening confidence63% still report listening is hard, 37% not so hard93% report wanting to listen more and 98% report they want to be a better listener than they did in April
The data: Post impressions - ELLLO
ELLLO listening71% selected on interest51% said it was not easy to find suitable level material39% said it was easy to find suitable level material37% use pictures or interest (27%) to select material27% read some of the text before listening37% did many online exercises, 51% did few
The data: The ER program
98% reported the borrowing system was easy to follow68% reported taking time to select their own reading / listening materials 10% quickly, 22% a long time
Some of the challenges:
Lots of complex parts and deadlines to keep track of for...students... so the full course calendar needed for orientation
by us… word lists were needed at the very startbook orders filled before term start (class sets)sometimes limited resources, so activities can't
overlap some tasks due on a certain day across classes, so schedule is important
And... we wanted to demo all important tasks with both classes together, so all of that needed to be ready and teacher roles decided.
Responding to needs
As the course progressed, we addedMoodlereader for assessmentSummer vacation weekly blogs (using blogger.com)Student portfolios
In the futurePut all audio and video on computer for students to self- access, add self study materials for songsAllow students to take Moodlereader quizzes / access ELLLO in the new self-access labAdd self access, self selected language focused study
Reporting
We’ll finish the year, collect more data and report the data in a future paper.
Thank you for your time.
Feedback please
Is this too complex?Enough integration?How extendable would this be?What data should we collect?Should we add strategy development?
Coursebook CD-ROM
www.elllo.org
Listening task for ELLLO
Our reader room
Self-selected listening…
Many students also borrow DVDs!
New computers for future listening tasks!
Some of our books…
Tasks for self-selected reading and listening.
A story in pictures…