taking flight vrome

Taking Flight from the

Intermediate Plateau

Antonia Clare

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photo by christinasadven

So what have you been learning?

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“Experts … engage in a very directed, highly

focussed routine - “deliberate practice.”

Scott Young - Learning Projects

So what can we learn from this?

Gap between receptive and productive

skills

Speech is fluent but not complex Limited vocabulary range

Speech not natural sounding

Jack Richards - Moving Beyond the Plateau: from Intermediate to Advanced Levels in Language

Learning

1. Tap into Intrinsic Motivation

What’s your ‘thing?’

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3000 words make up 95% of common texts (news items, blogs, etc.)

We need 8000-9000 word families to read independently (Nation, 2006)

Can’t teach these all explicitly.

Go into depth on one or two topics. (Try a padlet project?)

A Padlet project - www.padlet.com

videos / podcasts

songs

News !

Research: Art

Reading / Listening

2. Set mini goals and get feedback

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a dopamine ‘high’Photo by Myles Tan on Unsplash

‘I’ll improve my speaking by watching sub-titled videos of

shows and saying the words. 10 mins, 3 times a week.’ Sonia ‘I’m going to improve my grammar by doing 15 minutes of online exercises every day.’ Mario ‘I’ll improve my English by reading an article on the BBC news site every day and telling someone about it.’ Mehmet ‘I’ll improve my vocabulary by listening to a song & finding six new chunks of language twice a week.’ Tanya ‘I’m going to practise writing: I’m going to post on Facebook in English on the bus everyday.’ Chung ‘I’ll talk about my research on WhatsApp, listen then improve and re-record it.’ Sylvia

A Smörgåsbord of mini-goals

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How to build in feedback?

Word clouds for progress

Blog de Cristina - http://www.cristinacabal.com

ABCya.com/word_clouds

Ten things you didn’t know about coffee

WordArt.com

reception bell game

‘a frothy coffee’

“to crave coffee”

“have a sip of coffee”

“give up caffeine”

“a coffee addict”

3. Up the level of challenge and complexity

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Deepening knowledge of collocational patterns – multiword lexicon is at the heart of advanced

level lexical knowledge.

Collocational competence

verb adjective noun

coffeedrink spill sip

pour stir

fresh frothy

morning strong black milky hot

www.just-the-word.com

www.just-the-word.com

‘Chunky’ dictation

Are you an early _____ or do you go to bed late and get up late?

Do you _____ to a routine every day or does your routine change?

Do you lead an active _____ or a sedentary _____?

Do you often have to work long _____?

Questions from answers

Write down something you are sick and tired of.

Who was the last person who wined and dined you?

Do you enjoy getting up bright and early in the morning?

Gap between receptive and productive

skills

Speech is fluent but not complex Limited vocabulary range

Speech not natural sounding

Jack Richards - Moving Beyond the Plateau: from Intermediate to Advanced Levels in Language

Learning

4. Focus on PRODUCTION

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Trying to sound more natural

Focus on ‘interactive chunks’/ ‘middling language’

I ’m quite a …

I suppose…..sort of ..

I ’d like to think I’m …

…and things like that

I just (love)…

I’m quite a creative person. I just love inventing new recipes.

My flatmate is a real handy person. I’d like to think I’m a little bit creative.

I suppose I play the guitar. I write a few sort of lyrics.

I go to museums and things like that.

RACE THE TEACHER - (Sandy Millin)

5. Do something CREATIVE

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Recipe poem: friendship

A drop of… A cup of… A kilo of…

Two pounds of… A bunch of…

A clove of… and… A tablespoon of…

Put them all in a blender To make a … of friendship.

Recipe poem: friendship

A drop of humour A cup of kindness A kilo of tolerance

Two pounds of understanding A bunch of communication

A clove of laughter and silliness A tablespoon of trouble-making.

Put them all in a blender To make a mayonnaise of friendship.

(By Tan Bee Tin, Li Wei, and Hoai An)

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1.One subject in depth - do a padlet project - (Beatles)

2.Mini-goals: speaking / pronunciation / writing etc.

3.Word clouds to show progress (reception bell game?)

4.Collocations on just-the-word.com

5.Chunky dictation (whistle dictation…)

6.Questions from answers (lexical chunks)

7.Focus on ‘interactive chunks/middling language’ - short videos

8.Race the teacher (shy teacher’s drill)

9. Poems and creative associations (I’m like a kettle because …)

Super thanks to Jade Blue ELT…

jadeblueefl.wordpress.com

Jadesdoodles.wordpress.com Also to:

Cristina - Blog de Cristina Lexical Leo (Sullivan)

Sandy Millin Tan Bee Tin

Frances Eales for ideas and creative input ;)

Thank you!

antoniaclare@aol.com