TLW Online English Classroom ~ Curricular Approach ~

You may have noticed that there are no written lesson plans in the modules. The reason for this is that teachers and learners are expected to choose the lesson files they need to work on, and by doing so, more closely match lessons to learner needs. This means teachers and learners are encouraged to become aware of language needs together and build lessons that include appropriate content and that promote higher levels of communication.

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One of the highlights of using this curriculum is the ability to choose appropriate files for lessons in the moment. On a 'microlevel', the same can be said of choosing content within the file itself. Move forward and backward from slide to slide using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Review or skip over specific slides. When the learners are ready to move on, click back to the main page and begin the process once again...

Combine activities in the curriculum on a needs basis: match files to learner needs. The aim is to surround the learners with meaningful language while indexing and referring to images and text. Using 'mediation' (shaping new language for meaning) and 'scaffolding' (making new language accessible) in interaction allows students to bridge the form-meaning gap. For example, pointing to the images on screen for elaboration and building dialog with simple questions affords learners opportunities to generate their own understanding of new language. This process is called 'self-regulation'.

According to Lyster and Ranta (1997, pp. 46-49), a taxonomy of corrective feedback can be described as follows:

1. Explicit correction refers to the explicit condition of the correct form. As the teacher provides the correct form, he or she clearly indicates that what the student said was incorrect.

2. Recasts involve the teacher’s reformulation of all or part of a student utterance, minus the error.

3. Clarification requests indicate to students either the teacher has misunderstood their utterance or that the utterance is ill formed in some way and that a reformulation is necessary.

4. Metalinguistic Feedback contains either comments, information, or questions related to the well-formedness of the student’s utterance, without explicitly providing the correct form.

5. Elicitation has three different techniques:

a. Elicit completion of their own utterance by strategically pausing to allow students to “fill in the blank” as it were.

b. Use questions to elicit the forms

c. Teachers occasionally ask students to reformulate their utterance

6. Repetition refers to the teacher’s repetition, in isolation, of the student’s erroneous utterance. In most cases, teachers adjust their intonation so as to highlight the error

Lyster, R. & Ranta, L. (1997). Corrective feedback and learner uptake: negotiation of form in communicative classrooms. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 37-66.

A broader and simplified list of feedback strategies and examples is added below. Note that some strategies (backchanneling, clarification requests, confirmation and comprehension checks, repetition, paralanguage and meta talk) may be used by students as well:

1) Recasts: (I see... THEY are chickenS)... this is simply to restate student errors using acceptable forms...

2) Elicitation: (Tell me about the picture... What do you DO?)... an attempt to engage the student in target language by asking questions...

3) Backchanneling: (Oh my! Really? or Hmmm...)... a summons to continue or signal that our interest is piqued, that we’re listening...

4) Explicit correction: (No, you need past tense for that)... straight forward correction...

5) Clarification requests: (Do you mean ________ ?)... trying to get at the heart of the matter, the gist of what the other is trying to say...

6) Confirmation checks: (Did you say _________ ?)... trying to establish joint understanding so the conversation can develop...

7) Comprehension checks: (Do you understand?, Is that right?)... trying to receive feedback about the clarity of overall meaning...

8) Repetition: (Oh, you went there... or with error: Goed?)... in the first case, a form of agreement, in the other, a mirroring of error...

9) Rephrasing: (Oh, you stayed home from school yesterday...)... aims to expand the student’s knowledge or to polish the utterance...

10) Paralanguage: includes pitch, volume and intonation as well as gestures and facial expressions (‘body language’) and may not necessarily be tied to speech. A complex and often overlooked form of communication... click link for more detail...

11) Metalinguistic explanation/exploration (Meta Talk): (Past tense uses regular and irregular forms)... an outright grammatical 'mini-lesson'...

Use these strategies and any others to keep the dialog flowing and the students focused and interested...

This approach is ideal and is recommended in all TLW curriculum lessons and activities.

General notes on TLW curriculum ~ all modules ~

One goal of the TLW Curriculum is to bring attention to essential English forms at the outset of their use and NOT to get students to 'memorize' sentences. This is the general approach to new forms (grammar and syntax) throughout the curriculum... outlined as follows:

1) Introducing form in the context of meaning (using photos, illustrations and specific contexts).

2) Offering opportunities for students to use these forms in practice and communication.

3) Mediating communication (building collaborative dialog) in the interactions with learners.

4) Scaffolding or assisting the learner to regulate and internalize their own second language.

Here’s an example to illustrate this process:

In relation to 'Verb' files, in the first module, three-word sentences are presented with present progressive questions and answers. Learners begin to associate the 'ing' ending with what is happening now (when past, future and habitual present and other forms are introduced, the learners will need to be explicitly informed). They associate the picture with the text and make a simple form to function 'map'. In time, using simple dialog, the student internalizes this function and begins using it in collaboration with the teacher and others.

This form-meaning 'mapping' won't happen immediately, but will develop naturally, over time, by pointing to objects and/or actions on the screen and in the immediate environment, by using tools, such as the electronic marker (on the menu bar in each file), the mini-grammar lessons (at the bottom of the web page) and by referring to objects in the classroom. The aim is to engage the knowledge of the learners with the content of the lesson files, other learners and, of course, the teacher.

This process of internalizing new forms will also 'play out' as learners pay attention to the verb structures (in red text) in relation to other words in the sentences. There are opportunities to match form and meaning simultaneously in this way. As they progress, students will use the components in the Action files (vocabulary, role plays and open questions) to construct dialog with classmates and thereby express their ideas and participate more freely with others and the teacher. Using all available opportunities, learners will internalize new forms.

As there are no writing skills presented in this curriculum, teachers who need materials that focus on speaking and listening may use the TLW files to supplement their writing focused textbooks. The modular approach offered here simply means a teacher (or students) may choose WHICH files to use in any given lesson. Need drives lesson content.

Teachers who aspire to discern specific student needs and who wish to transfer this ability to the learners will benefit from this approach. They will be able to choose specific files to 'present' in any given lesson, not only because they are familiar with their learners in terms of level and developmental needs, but also in terms of their learning styles ('how' they learn best) and in terms of their barriers to becoming self-motivated learners. This is a 'hand-over/take-over' model: less able learners become active and self-directed...

Familiarity with the curriculum will be necessary to carry out this approach successfully. But take your time. At the beginning, when exploring the curriculum files with learners, there will be opportunities to 'change course' by simply opening a new file. The key word is ‘flexibility’.

Indeed, when the files are used optimally, change of course in any given class time may become ideal as different files are chosen to conform to student needs in real time. This is an approach that addresses the age old problem of fitting lesson plans to immediate student needs. The main goal (and related objectives or 'micro-goals') in this curriculum is to present and make available a broad set of choices to be made by both teachers and learners not only in the long term... BUT ALSO as the lesson is in progress and as the learning is in process.

The objectives then are both fixed and fluid. Fixed in the sense that specific file content and the opportunities for constructing meaning from that content is unchangeable. Fluid in the sense that teachers and students can select content according to immediate learner needs. Further, assessing student progress can more easily be realized as lesson content will be familiar in the assessments as well. In this way, assessments will be reflective. The content of instruction is a direct match with what is assessed...

The Assessment Instruments are in development but a print-out is currently offered as a general assessment form. This format reflects the basic principle: assess the aspects of language use that the students have been exposed to in the lessons or course. We are currently active in developing further instruments, but we’d like to offer the possibility that the files themselves (and portions of files) may all be used as assessments...

All grammatical elements are presented in order of difficulty from three frames of reference:

1) From the point of view of the native speaker:

(What parts of the English language are "illogical?")

2) From the point of view of the non-native speaker:

(What parts of the English language are different from mine?)

3) From the point of view of other curriculums:

(What parts of other English language curriculums work best?)

The Lesson Planner is a lesson plan in action. You may wish to choose files before a lesson begins

and 'stay the course' in a more traditional approach to language teaching. On the other hand, you may

choose to begin with one file and proceed with a sequence of files related to how 'file one' transpires.

The following is a list of questions/criteria for choosing files, whether it be in the moment, or as a plan:

1) Student engagement with the activity: Do the students require more lesson structure (Nouns, Verbs,

Forms, Mixed Questions) or do they prefer less (Role Plays, Photo Talk, Actions, Pronunciation)?

2) Student use of form/syntax: Do they require attention to grammar (Verbs and Forms)?

3) Student understanding of conversation/dialog/discourse as a structure: Do they have a concept

of how people communicate effectively (Role Plays)?

4) Student collaboration in activities: Can they construct knowledge of the target language by using

English in collaboration with their peers and with the teacher (Photo Talk, Actions, Pronunciation)?

Of course, this is an incomplete list and teachers and program designers may have other criteria

(ways of making decisions) regarding the implementation of files and lesson plans (file plans). In

this curriculum, however, the choice of files IS the plan and the objectives and outcomes are variable to the

extent that the content of each file is variable. The 'Lesson Planner' above accommodates this approach.

We see language learning as a dynamic process (changing unpredictably over time for each leaner individually)

and therefore attempt to expand and even transform the traditional role of the lesson plan. The file plan can be

a moment to moment creation of teacher and students. Any file may be chosen at any given point in the lesson.

What transpires in the lesson itself is, optimally, an engagement with all the affordances/opportunities the

environment presents: teachers, learners, files, tools, interactions, scaffolds, feedback, repairs, jokes, laughs,

stories, ideas, pictures, books, and any other objects or things tangible or abstract... We hope that these files

allow you to participate in the language and in the lessons with a continual sense of wonder and excitement.

TLW—April, 2009.

Notes on File Plans and Activity Selection ~ all modules ~

Some students find it helpful to read and perform dialogs. The activities in the curriculum (and especially the role plays) often contain 'formulaic chunks' or common and useful patterns of words that are used over and over again in everyday speech, for example: "What's that?", "I don’t know...", "Who has it?" or "I can’t find it...". These 'modes' of speech may have a variety of useful functions in different situations. Encourage students to identify some of these formulas and patterns as you engage in the role plays and other activities in the curriculum. Let the students experiment and offer feedback when they are unable to make the form-function connection.

It will also be useful to encourage learners to notice the order of words in the activities and how they relate to sentences (subjects, verbs and objects) as a whole. Learners will benefit from becoming aware of English word order (SVO) and 'syntax' (how words relate dynamically).

Finally, provide incentive to look up new words and require a notebook of vocabulary or enlist another device to develop a repertoire of lexicon. As students build their vocabularies, they share this knowledge with others. Collaboration and construction with new language allows learners to achieve a greater degree of participation. This in turn affords learners more opportunities to mediate and internalize the elements of communication necessary to them and opens the possibility of a 'snowball effect' while language is in use. In this process, using language promotes further understanding and learning and paves the way for the introduction and cycling through to higher/next level forms.