Richard Kiely

University of Southampton

The learning of second language teachers ◦ Language learning

◦ Language teaching

Exploring teaching ◦ Worth Seeing

◦ No

◦ Like for like

◦ Scooter

The learning of second language teachers ◦ Language learning ◦ Language teaching

Exploring teaching ◦ Worth Seeing ◦ No ◦ Like for like ◦ Scooter

Back to the 1950s

Curriculum revision in US

Concept of programme, programme effectiveness and programme evaluation

Industrialisation, new accountabilities, hierarchies, technologies and experts

Shift in the locus of knowledge construction

End of teaching expertise based on craft knowledge

Publication of Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour

Leading to Chomsky’s review (1959)

‘If the conclusions I attempted to substantiate in the review are correct, as I believe they are, then Skinner's work can be regarded as, in effect, a reductio ad absurdum of behaviorist assumptions’.

Chomsky (1959)

Chomsky L2 as L1 Internal rather than external syllabus Second Language Acquisition & Universal grammar ◦ Loss of forms and structures ◦ Gain of meanings and practices

Communicative competence ◦ Participation ◦ Language use

The revolutionary way

[The craft model of teaching] is basically static and does not allow for the explosion of scientific knowledge concerning the very bases of how people think and behave, to say nothing of the tremendous developments in the subject areas which teachers teach. In the case of language teachers, one thinks of the revolutions in the study of linguistics which have taken place in our lifetime, quite apart from the creation and rapid growth of totally new disciplines such as psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics’ (Wallace 1991:7).

Contemporary texts for the teaching of foreign languages at the college level often reflect Grammar-Translation principles. Consequently, though it may be true to say that Grammar Translation Method is still widely taught, it has no advocates.

Richards & Rodgers, 2001:7

A theory of language learning which works ….

A theory of language learning which works ….

… but not in language classrooms

I am, frankly, rather sceptical about the significance, for the teaching of language, of such insights and understanding as have been attained in linguistics and psychology”.

Chomsky (1966:52)

People who are involved in some practical activity such as teaching languages, translation, or building bridges should probably keep an eye on what is happening in the sciences. But they probably shouldn’t take it too seriously because the capacity to carry out practical activities without much conscious awareness of what you’re doing is usually far more advanced that scientific knowledge.

Chomsky (1988)

People who are involved in some practical activity such as teaching languages, translation, or building bridges should probably keep an eye on what is happening in the sciences. But they probably shouldn’t take it too seriously because the capacity to carry out practical activities without much conscious awareness of what you’re doing is usually far more advanced that scientific knowledge.

Chomsky (1988)

Being alive as human beings means that we are constantly engaged in the pursuit of enterprises of all kinds, from ensuring our physical survival to seeking the most lofty pleasures. As we define these enterprises and engage in their pursuit together, we interact with each other and with the world and we tune our relations with each other and with the world accordingly. In other words, we learn.

Over time this collective learning results in practices that reflect both the pursuit of our enterprises and the attendant social relations. These practices are thus the property of a kind of community created over time by the sustained pursuit of a shared enterprise. It makes sense therefore to call these kinds of communities communities of practice. (Wenger 1998:45)

Being alive as human beings means that we are constantly engaged in the pursuit of enterprises of all kinds, from ensuring our physical survival to seeking the most lofty pleasures. As we define these enterprises and engage in their pursuit together, we interact with each other and with the world and we tune our relations with each other and with the world accordingly. In other words, we learn.

Over time, this collective learning results in practices that reflect both the pursuit of our enterprises and the attendant social relations. These practices are thus the property of a kind of community created over time by the sustained pursuit of a shared enterprise. It makes sense therefore to call these kinds of communities communities of practice.

(Wenger 1998: 45)

1. Put ‘quality of life’ first.

2. Work primarily to understand language classroom life.

3. Involve everybody.

4. Work to bring people together.

5. Work also for mutual development.

6. Integrate the work for understanding into classroom practice.

7. Make the work a continuous enterprise.

(Allwright 2003: 128-130)

WHAT 1. Focus on quality of life as the main issue. 2. Work to understand it before thinking about solving a problem. WHO 3. Involve everybody as practitioners developing their own understandings 4. Work to bring people together in a common enterprise. 5. Work cooperatively for mutual development. HOW 6. Make it a sustainable enterprise.

(Allwright, 2011)

It has boundaries,

It has a centre of gravity,

It seems to involve learning.

(Kiely & Davis 2010).

PRACTICE: Pairwork

PRACTICE: Pairwork

PRACTICE: Teacher

correcting

PRACTICE: Pairwork

PRACTICE: Teacher

correcting

PRACTICE: Teacher

circulating

PRACTICE: Pairwork

PRACTICE: Teacher

correcting

PRACTICE: Teacher

circulating PRACTICE:

Taking notes

What does the teacher correct?

What does the teacher correct?

Should the teacher

interrupt a fluency

activity like this?

What does the

teacher correct?

Should the teacher

interrupt a fluency

activity like this?

What is happening

here? Is this good?

What does the

teacher correct?

Should the teacher

interrupt a fluency

activity like this?

What is happening

here? Is this good?

“I corrected her because she loved grammar. I knew

she would appreciate it – and

she did!”

Episode – NO SS are reading a text in sub-groups; T is monitoring having encouraged SS to help each other or to ask T for help with unknown items. T sees one S in a group of three using an electronic dictionary to find a new word. Other SS in the same group are working together. T approaches S seeking to engage.

1T : Do you need a word? Can I help? 2S: (not looking up from dictionary) No. 3T: (moves away) 4S: (continues to use electronic dictionary)

Episode – NO SS are reading a text in sub-groups; T is monitoring having encouraged SS to help each other or to ask T for help with unknown items. T sees one S in a group of three using an electronic dictionary to find a new word. Other SS in the same group are working together. T approaches S seeking to engage.

1T : Do you need a word? Can I help? 2S: (not looking up from dictionary) No. 3T: (moves away) 4S: (continues to use electronic dictionary)

Teacher assisting,

offering help.

Student has

options.

Episode Teacher’s (T) lesson – like for like

Slightly later on during the same vocabulary activity while we were all checking as a class one of the sts wanted to return to a word, which we’d checked 2 answers before. The word was ‘assessment’. This student had a thesaurus on her desk, which she had borrowed from the library and I had noticed earlier she had copied down the title and ISBN number, I presume because she intended to buy a copy for herself. She was unsure of the meaning of ‘assessment’ and asked if it meant ‘determination’ – I had to think for a bit and then replied that no it didn’t in the noun form but as a verb yes it could mean the same. (I remembered that the week before we had been reading a survey report and the model sentence introducing the purpose of the report used the verb ‘assess’ - the purpose of the survey was to assess the levels of student satisfaction).

…/…

Episode Teacher’s (T) lesson – like for like

She wasn’t happy with this explanation and called me over to her desk and showed me the entry in the thesaurus, which indeed had ‘determination’ as a noun under the entry of synonyms for ‘assessment’. I then tried to explain that although it was listed as a synonym, use of synonyms all depended on context and you couldn’t just substitute one word for another. What I actually said was that you cannot use the words ‘like for like’ using my hands to demonstrate this expression. The student sitting next to this girl, just the week before, had asked what expression he could use in a particular situation. The expression that I offered him was ‘like for like’, so as I used the expression in my explanation of the use of synonyms I turned to him as I was speaking to check he remembered the phrase – he smiled and acknowledged that yes he had remembered.

Researcher

This student brought the Thesaurus into the lesson – was her use of it based on your recommendation?

Teacher

Absolutely not – I’m in complete agreement with you here and my heart sank when I saw it on her desk – in a similar way when an elementary student proudly produces an advanced level grammar book that they have borrowed from the library.

Researcher ‘like for like’: […] And the benefit for

learning is in the connection between the two.

Teacher

Yes, exactly and I find great enjoyment in making the link with previous phrases introduced that I consciously re-use later on in the lesson or week to give real life examples to the new language. Easier when you teach one or two groups, not the 6 I do!

6 T (gesturing with hands and foot) Do you know ‘scooter’?

7 SS Yes 8 T How many wheels has a scooter got? 9 SS Two, Three (many students

speaking) 10 T It’s got handles. You put one foot on

the scooter, and you push (emphasising and gesturing) with the other foot. Can you imagine it? (students enter the room)

11 T No? OK /….

Turn

12 S2 =Shall I draw it for them?

13 T =(to S2) Could you draw it while I explain to B. what is happening?

14 S3 (addressing S2) Good boy! (laugh) […] is it yourself?

Sec 48

Sec 62

Sec 58

Classrooms as social spaces Student initiative: respect, encouragement

and the appropriateness of resources Serendipity: mapping and tracking brief

encounters (the consciousness of) Teaching as cognitive activity, linking

language, people, and pedagogy Teacher learning awareness The conditioning of the teacher response:

learner-centred; teacher-led.

Engage with the complexity of language classrooms

Understand what works – don’t focus on the deficit.

Develop a view of teacher learning which has complementary individual reflective and community dimensions

Innovative to transform learner practices.

Thank You

R.N.Kiely@soton.ac.uk

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