Classroom Language Teaching and Learning in the Era of Technology Wang Haixiao Nanjing University

Classroom Language Teaching and Learning in the Era of Technology

Wang HaixiaoNanjing University

Outline

• The “what”, “who” and “how” of language teaching and learning

• What is technology doing?

• What is missing?

• Classroom teaching design

The “What” of Language Teaching and Learning

• What is to be taught and learned?– 能力– 应用能力– 英语应用能力– 综合英语应用能力

综合英语应用能力

• Canale & Swain (1980) – Grammatical competence ( 语法能力 )– Discourse competence ( 语篇能力 )– Sociolinguistic competence ( 社会语言能力 )– Strategic competence ( 策略能力 )

• 前两者反映对语言系统自身的运用，后两者与交际的功能有关。

Grammatical competence

• Knowledge of pronunciation and intonation

• Knowledge of words

• Knowledge of sentences

Discourse competence

• Cohesion and coherence

• Paragraph organization– Topic, development, conclusion

• Rhetorical organizations– E.g., narration, description, comparison,

classification, argumentation, etc.

• Conventions governing conversations

Sociolinguistic competence

• How to do things with words– To exchange information, to manipulate

others, to imagine

• Sensitivity– To differences in dialect and register, to

naturalness, to cultural references, to figures of speech

Strategic competence

• Verbal and non-verbal strategies to compensate for breakdowns in communication and to enhance the rhetorical effect of utterances

Knowledge Structures

• Shared knowledge as prerequisite– General knowledge– Culture / subject specific knowledge

Who Are Learning?

• Age

• Intelligence and aptitude– 1) phonetic coding ability; 2) grammatical

sensitivity; 3) inductive ability

• Personalities and learning Styles

• Attitudes and motivations

• Learning needs

Learning Styles

• Concrete learning styles

• Analytical learning style

• Communicative learning style

• Authority-oriented learning style

• Field dependent vs. field independent

Attitudes and Motivation

• Stern’s classification of attitudes – Attitudes towards the community and people

who speak the L2– Attitudes towards learning the language

concerned– Attitudes towards languages and language

learning in general

• Gardner and Lambert: integrative and instrumental motivation

Personality

• Extroversion / introversion

• Social skills

• Inhibition

How Is Language Learned?

• Input, output and interaction

• Learning as construction

• Language learning strategies

Input

• The natural order hypothesis• The comprehensible input hypothesis

Why Output?

• Output enhances fluency.• Output promotes (gap) noticing (or consciousne

ss raising), which may trigger new learning. (relating to accuracy)

• Producing output is one way of testing a hypothesis about comprehensibility or linguistic well-formedness. (relating to accuracy)

• Output serves a metalinguistic function. (relating to accuracy)

Why Output?

• In addition to speaking and writing, certain other competencies can only be acquired in interaction.

• Can help teachers to check students’ comprehension, and probably English learning in general.

• Help with motivation, setting the objective of learning as communication, rather than passing examinations.

Interaction Hypothesis

• Interaction as a stimulus for effective output

• Negotiation for meaning engenders acquisition.• Modifications from interaction make input

comprehensible. • Feedback leads learners to modify their output.

– Learning as a student centered, active and constructive process

– Learning is interactive

– Learning is multidimensional

– Learning is situated in real contexts

Learning as Construction

Language Learning Strategies

• Memory strategies

• Cognitive strategies

• Compensation strategies

• Metacognitive strategies

• Affective strategies

• Social strategies

Memory strategies

• Creating mental linkages (for example, placing new words into a context)

• Applying images and sounds (for example, representing sounds in memory)

• Reviewing well (for example, structured reviewing)

• Employing action (for example, using physical response of sensation)

• Practicing (for example using formulas and patterns)

• Receiving and sending messages (for example, focusing on the main idea of a message)

• Analyzing and reasoning (for example, analyzing expressions)

Cognitive Strategies

• Guessing intelligently (for example, using nonlinguistic clues to guess meaning)

• Overcoming limitations in speaking and writing (for example, using a circumlocution or synonym)

Compensation Strategies

Metacognitive Strategies

• Centering one’s learning (for example, linking new information with already known material)

• Arranging and planning one’s learning (for example, setting goals and objectives)

• Evaluating one’s learning (for example, self-monitoring)

Affective Strategies

• Lowering one’s anxiety (for example, using music or laughter)

• Encouraging oneself (for example, rewarding yourself)

• Taking one’s emotional temperature (for example, discussing one’s feelings with someone else)

Social Strategies

• Asking questions (for example, asking for clarification or verification)

• Cooperating with others (for example, cooperating with proficient users of the new language)

• Empathizing with others (for example, developing cultural understanding)

What Is Technology Doing?

• Vocabulary knowledge

• Skills related to close reading

• Limited samples of oral communication

• Comprehensible input in rich context

• Drills in speaking

What Is Missing?

• Comprehensible output• Interaction• Content based practice in reading, writing,

listening and speaking• Learning strategies• Sociolinguistic competence• Strategic competence• …

Classroom Teaching Design

• Approaches• Teacher talk and student performance• Class arrangement• Control• The use of technology


• Approaches– The top-down approach– The bottom-up approach


Objectives Procedures Materials & Techniques

The top-down approach:


Teaching materials

Treatment Objectives

The bottom-up approach:


• Teacher talk– Giving information and explanation– Asking questions– Giving directions– Responding to students output– Modifying students output– Commenting on students output– …


• Student performance– Note taking– Giving information– Recalling– Asking questions and giving answers– Offering opinions– Summarizing and synthesizing– Peer evaluation– Self-reflection– …


• Class arrangement– Class as a whole– Class as individuals– Pair work– Groups of 3 or more– Teacher vs. student(s)– Student(s) vs. student(s)– …


• Control– Controlled vs. free or spontaneous – Timed vs. untimed– Definite or indefinite results


• The use of technology in a broad sense– Chalk and board– Paper and pencil– Overhead projector

Sample Classroom Activities (1)

• Asking questions for different purposes– Arousing interest– Bringing up background information– Understanding the main idea– Understanding details– Understanding implied meanings– Drawing conclusions– Applying to new situations


• Recalling – Read a paragraph and recall the main content

with the help of flow charts– Listen to a paragraph, take notes, and then

recall the main content with the help of key words

– Compose questions and recall with the help of the questions


• Modeling – Modeling sentences– Modeling paragraphs– Modeling passages


• Rearranging – Words and phrases from a sentence– Sentences from a paragraph– Paragraphs from a passage


• Blank filling – Articles– Pronouns– Prepositions– Conjunctions– Other Discourse connectors– …


• Transformation – Translation– Sentence transformation– Turning an argumentation into a dialogue– Turning a narration into a play


• Fast reading– Passage reading– Scanning for specific information– Spot the odd one out– Matching


• Evaluation– Performance evaluation with focus on task– Peer evaluation as language learning– Peer and self evaluation as consciousness

raising and strategy learning

Documents

Classroom Language Teaching and Learning in the Era of Technology Wang Haixiao Nanjing University