English language learning - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

English language learning:

A focus on

oral interaction for primary

school aged

leaners

Rhonda OliverSlide2

OutlineWhat is oral interaction?

Differences between oral and written language

Oral interaction in education

Oral interaction in the classroom

Oral interaction for social interaction

Oral interaction and SLA

Age as a factor in SLA

Interaction of younger children

Teacher talk to children

Teachers supporting

SLA

Pedagogy

for child

SLA

ImplicationsSlide3

Oral interaction: what is it?

One type of communicative exchange

The spoken

language that takes place between two or more people

The

type of speaking and listening that occurs in real time (i.e., in the present

)Slide4

When speakers talk in turn and respond orally to these turns (note: sometimes speakers do interrupt or talk “over” each other)

C

ollaborative

and most often

reciprocal

, with each speaker working to co-construct a meaningful exchangeSlide5

Oral interaction is often complementary:

A

: I’m hungry

B

: Me too

And it also can be quite complex

M

ostly face-to-face (except phone and Skype)Slide6

Oral interaction is not always verbal - responses can be non-verbal

M

: What are you doing?

G

:

Points to his head

R

: Did you get hurt?

G

: Nods head and clicks tongue.Slide7

Oral interaction differs from written language

Written language

- is

planned

- can be revised

- is

far more

permanentOral interaction - is unplanned/less planned

- is spontaneous

and

ephemeral

- is less

than

perfect

– consists

of

disfluencies

, false

starts, unnecessary

repetition, and redundant

information

.

Teachers should not assess oral interaction based on written language conventionsSlide8

Oral interaction in education

Oral interaction is important to

our everyday lives and to students’ success socially, academically, and

vocationally

When young children come to school there are many things they must adjust to in order to successfully learn

.

They

need to get used to

interacting:

in a new environment outside their home, w

ith many more peers,

with a range of different adults,

in

new ways with all these

people.

Clearly oral interaction is

an important part of education

And yet….

Slide9

Oral interaction skills may not be given the same priority in our classrooms as reading and writingAnd when

it is included, the focus is often

on presentational

language

And yet…. Slide10

Oral interaction in the classroom

Oral interaction can occur in the classroom such as when:

Teachers

and students are

discussing

aspects of a lesson;

S

tudents

are jointly working on tasks or activities;

Students are

engaging in social chit

chat;

Or

even when they talk

off-task

to someone

else.

Such interaction is particularly important for second language learnersSlide11

Oral interaction for socialisation

Oral interaction serves an important function of supporting their socialisation:

Developing appropriate behaviours (including language behaviours) for social situations, including in behaving appropriately in the classroomSlide12

Ms Jones: Oh no, Amy, you’re supposed to do that on your own

Everybody

needs to do this sheet on their own

I

need to know what everybody can do on their

own

Luke

:

Ms Jones, can I help Rita?Ms Jones: No

Luke

then goes to Rita’s desk. John, (classmate sitting next to Rita, says to Luke)

Luke: Ms Jones said no

Luke

sits on a bench near Rita

John: I’m keeping my eye on you

Linda

comes up to teacher, who is talking to an aide

Linda:

Ms

Jones,

Surjeet was helping Tiffany

Ms

. Jones: Thank you Linda.

Surjeet

do your own

work

Natalie

:

Ms

Jones, Terry and Amy are looking at our work.

Ms

Jones: Maybe you could

move

Toohey

, 1998, p.75Slide13

Oral interaction and SLA…Oral interaction facilitates second language acquisition by providing opportunities to:

Receive meaningful input

P

roduce meaningful output

R

eceive feedback on attempts

Have attention drawn to the form of the target language

Have new language scaffolded (see over)Slide14

Comprehensible inputT: ‘She was a bony old woman, she had bony legs, and

bony

fingers

and feathers on her bony arms.’

What

do I mean by bony?

Pia

?

St: BonesT: Right, where are your bones? Feel your bones (Teacher touches her wrist, elbow, shoulder)

St: Here

T: Good, you can feel inside you’ve got bones

Oliver

, 2009, p.44Slide15

Meaningful/pushed outputNNS 1: Where is the –the, where is the [life] go?

NNS 2: (Pause) What you say?

NNS1: The [life]

NNS 2: The life?

NNS 1: The b[r]

ead

knife

Oliver, 1998, p.378Slide16

FeedbackL: Shape like diamondE: Like diamond

s

?

L: Yeah

Shape like diamond

s

Oliver, 1995b, p.17Slide17

Focus on formT: right now we’re going to talk about all

thumbtacks.

So

we’re going to talk about magnets…

Try

it this way, magnets

S: [attract thumbtacks

T: [attract thumbtacks let’s try it

S: magnets attract thumbtacksT: remember I’m not talking about just one I’m talking about all

magnets

I’m

talking about all thumbtacks so let’s try it again

S: magnets attract thumbtacks

T: the nail is magnetic … so you tell me

S: [the nail

T: [magnets

S: magnets attract the nail

The

nails

T: again

S: magnets attract nails

Gibbons

, 2006, pp.133-134Slide18

ScaffoldingTeacher

:

What

did you do in the garden?

Student

:

Mm

, cut the tree

Teacher

: You cut the trees Were they big trees or were they little bushes?

Student

:

Big

trees

Teacher

:

How

did you cut them?

Student

:

What

?Teacher: How did you cut them? Did you have a big

knife?

Student

:

You

know big knife?

Oliver

, 2000, p.140

Slide19

Age as a factor in language learning

The importance of age

and the impact this has on

language

learning, including second language learning (SLA),

will not come as any surprise to those working in

schools.Slide20

Interactions of younger children

Reflecting their interests and stage of development, their topics of conversation are quite different from those of older learners

Young pre-school

children also

Are less able to take turns

Switch quickly from one topic to

another

However, they are still able to interact with each other in ways that fosters SLASlide21

For example….Em that’s

blu:e

. What’s this? Zebra?

Y yeah

Em

Very

colourful

zebra [baby talk lilting intonation]

Em

what’s that?E the elephant

(several turns later)

Em

[Roberta arrives]

oh hello Roberta I thought you were sick.

R no mum XX

Y [excitedly] look at the zebra very

colourful

zebra isn’t it?

Very

very

colourfulR what’s this?Y tiger {laughing}

Em

I’ll eat you [sing song voice]

Y

eleeephant

Em

yeah elephant

Philp

& Duchesne, 2008, p.94Slide22

Ultimate attainmentAlthough children are the ‘tortoises’ in the language learning race (i.e., eventually they will do better), ultimate attainment will depend on:

quality of the learning environment, (e.g., the nature and quantity of input

provided, especially the opportunities created for meaningful interaction)

type

of language learning

context, (e.g., where

language input and time are limited, such as in foreign language classes

older

children, particularly adolescents, can have the

advantage)Clearly the classroom environment is KEY

And yet…. Slide23

Teacher talk to children

The

type of interaction that is most prominent in many classrooms is the teacher doing most of the talking, and addressing the class as a whole (i.e., one to many

)

Even though this does NOT align with what we understand SLA!

(

i.e.,

input, output,

feedback, negotiation, scaffolding etc

)Slide24

At the same time as children continue their education the topics of conversation in the classroom become:

increasingly complex,

more abstract,

further removed from their personal situation,

Very different to the type of talk that occurs outside of schoolSlide25

It is not just

how

teachers talk, but

what

they talk about:

T

eachers need to support language learners in their educational journey

LANGUAGE LEARNING = MEANING + USE

So….

Slide26

Teachers supporting SLA

What can teachers do?

Provide

a secure and welcoming

environment;

Create motivating situations (e.g., through use of tasks) where students can

meaningfully

use target language;

Give

students the opportunity to participate at their level … non-verbally and verbally;Provide situations that enable the production of comprehensible input and output, peer interaction, Provide meaningful feedback (see over)Slide27

For exampleProviding a recast in response to telegraphic speech

e.g

., when the student points to a snowman while doing a phonic matching activity and says

,

S: a man and snow

T: Yes, it’s a snowman

(

Oliver, unpublished data) Slide28

Or by providing scaffolding..T:

Select a picture. Select a picture or select a part of the story

that you like <

sh

(

quietens

other

chidren

) Okay now what was the story- show the picture- now what was the stor- what was that part of the story?

S: xx apple pie on the wolf

T: Right hit the wolf with what?

S

:

Apple pie

T: With an apple pie

With

a plate and had an apple pie on it

Right where did the wolf go from there?

When he hit the wolf- when Red riding hit the wolf

with

an apple pie where did the wolf go to?

S

:

Went to skate board

T:

Went to where the skate board was and then what

happened to

the wolf?Slide29

Overall there is a need to implement a pedagogy appropriate for child second language

learners, taking account of their stage of development, interests, motivations and way of interacting and then using this in the classroom.

Most importantly oral interaction should hold an important place in our classroom for all our learners!Slide30

AcknowledgementsMy co-author, Jenefer

Philp

My editors Nina

Spada

and Pasty

Lightbown

www.freedigitalphotos.net/Slide31

Thank you

<rhonda.oliver@curtin.edu.au

>