Ilaria aliberti

LONDON 3rd -7th OCTOBER 2016LANGUAGE LINK SCHOOL OF ENGLISH

The Class

Problems with methodologies sharing experiences

The questions below are only dumb at first sight an attempt to answer them may make you go ‘hmmm’ • Do most methodologies address teaching or learning? What’s your understanding?• Is it possible that teachers are involved in Professional Development activities for

the wrong reasons, and they don’t necessarily have their students in mind as the ultimate reason why they want to be better teachers?

• Do you choose/plan activities to demonstrate your knowledge/teaching skills or do you plan activities with your students in mind?

• Detailed attention to the teaching going on in the teacher as opposed to the learning going on in the learner- which option should be our priority?

• Should we be theorising about methods or theorising about learning? • When planning a lesson do you fall victim to the infinite choice of resources? Or do

you start with thinking about your learners and what they need? How do you choose your activities knowing that every choice we make has the ‘opportunity cost’ of the myriad of other options not taken?

• Teaching differently means loss of identity and wish for failure. Do you agree?• How often do you do something new? • Do you sometimes feel stuck? Are you in a rut?

What do you do to get out of it?• What keeps us from trying out new ideas?

Bored teacher = Bored students

Creativity Principles

Creativity Principles

• Do the opposite• Reverse the order• Expand or reduce something • Use the random principle • Use the association principle • Use the constraints principle

DO THE OPPOSITE

• Essentially it involves observing the routines and activities we consciously or unconsciously follow, doing the opposite and then observing what happens. Examples would be: if you always stand up to teach, sit down; if you teach from the front of the class, teach from the back; if you usually talk a lot, try silence.

REVERSE THE ORDER

• Here you would do things backwards. For example: in dictation, instead of giving out the text at the end, you would give it out at the beginning, allow students to read it then take it away, then give the dictation. If you normally read texts from beginning to end, try reading them starting at the end; if you normally set homework after a lesson, try setting it before; if you usually give a grammar rule, asking them to find examples, try giving examples and asking them to derive the rule.

EXPAND OR REDUCE

• For example increase (or decrease) the lenght of a text in various way; increase (or decrease) the time allotted to a task; increase the number of questions on a text; increase or decrease the number of times you do a particular activity.

• (Maley’s books Short and Sweet suggest 12 different generic procedures including this to develop more interesting materials).

USE THE RANDOM PRINCIPLE

This is essentially using bisociation-putting two or more things together that do not belong together-and finding connections. For example:• Students work in pairs- all the As write ten adjectives

on slips of paper, all the Bs write ten nouns. The slips are put in two boxes. Students take turns to draw a slip from each box, making an unusual combination, e.g. a broken birthday. When they have ten new phrases they combine them into a text.

USE THE RANDOM PRINCIPLE• Students are given

pictures of five people taken from magazines. They have to write a story involving all five characters.

USE THE ASSOCIATION PRINCIPLEThis involves using evocative stimuli for students to react to. For example:• Students listen to a sequence of sounds, then describe

their feelings or tell a story suggested by the sound.• Students are given a set of character descriptions and a

set of fragments of dialogue-they match the characters with what they might have said. • Students are given a natural object ( a stone, a leaf

etc.). They then write a text as if they were their object.

USE THE CONSTRAINS PRINCIPLEThe idea is to impose tight constrains on whatever activity is involved. For example:• Limit the number of words students have to write-

as in mini sagas, where a story has to be told in just 50 words.• Limit the amount of time allowed to complete a

task-as when students are given exactly one minute to give instructions

N L PNeuro-Linguistic

Programming

‘There is no such thing as

failure.There is only

feedback.’

‘Our ‘successes’ and ‘failures’ are determined by the thought and behaviour patterns we use subconsciously all of the time.

By recognising our own

patterns, we can change the ones which are not getting us

the outcomes we want.’

‘There isn’t a student who can’t learn but there are

teachers who can’t teach.’

How to integrate different learning styles into your lesson...

AUDITORY LEARNERS Solve problems by talking about them. Allow students to work

in groups or pairs (group discussions, brainstorming activities, role plays, dialogues).

Like verbal instructions, explanation of what is coming (sign posting the lesson) and a summary of what has been learnt.

Like music; use music to set up the mood, signal a change introduce a theme, as energisers, background music, language generator, relaxation, guided fantasy.

Oral summary of a written text. Telling stories, songs, audiotapes and videos, memorisation. Use sound and rhythm to memorise. Drilling


VISUAL LEARNERS

Recognise words by sight, like looking at wall displays. Use many wall displays and posters.

Bring in realia. Use graphs, chart illustrations and photographs. Mind maps and/or lists to organise thoughts (brainstorming ideas

as a pre-task; lesson plan for the day/week/term). Video based lessons Look at the teacher’s face intently. Gestures and visualisation. Writing in different colours and sizes. Overhead projector.


KINESTHETIC LEARNERS Like to move around while learning and work in different

groups/pairs. Intersperse activities which require students to sitquietly with activities that allow them to move around.

Plan energising activities that serve as punctuations not language- learning activities in their own right (stand up, change partners, come up to the board,mingles, write our name in the air, mime a word that someone calls out).

Bring in realia to hold or touch. Use demonstrations, mime, act things out. Learn best when involved and active; use physical activities,

competitions, board games, role plays, questionnaires, surveys.

‘C’ Group: Creativity for Change in Language Education

http://thecreativitygroup.weebly.com/

CREATIVITY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHINGedited by Daniel Xerri and Odette Vassallo.


