Teaching methods- materials hub
see also DIY English
and see Duolingo
IELTS TOEIC
Duolingo tests 78 page guide
Linguaskill and here and owl
TOEFL
TOEIC test-net
good links here on my TOEIC page to other sites
60 tips
10 things I believe, natural acquisition order, SLA, exam materials( TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS, Duolingo)
see also https://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/
Stephen Krashen
Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding.
... 'comprehensible input' is the crucial and necessary ingredient for the acquisition of language.
The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear.
Krashen's theory of second language acquisition consists of five main hypotheses:
the Acquisition-Learning hypothesis;
the Monitor hypothesis;
the Input hypothesis;
and the Affective Filter hypothesis;
the Natural Order hypothesis.
Mike Swan
correctness
Some language learners need a high level of correctness; some don’t.
Perfectionism can be very damaging. If you correct all your students’ mistakes, you may produce students who never make mistakes because they never say anything.
Native-speaker-like correctness is a completely unrealistic aim. Very few adults learn languages perfectly. Everybody makes mistakes, including teachers. It’s normal, and it doesn’t matter very much. Good enough English is good enough.
There are two good reasons for insisting on correct production of a language point: because it will make a difference to comprehensibility or acceptability.
pronunciation
For some students, the main problem with pronunciation is not speaking but hearing. The words go by too fast, and listeners don’t catch what is said. Such students can benefit greatly from training in the perception of unstressed words and syllables.
testing
We can test too much. You don’t teach anybody anything by repeatedly asking them what they know.
Giving students marks creates failures as well as successes.
prioritising
The most important word in language teaching is ‘prioritise’.
Students are often taught too much without really mastering any of it. A well-practised confident command of a small range of English is the best platform for further development.
To design a language-teaching programme, we need to:
find out what knowledge and skills our learners need
subtract what they already know via their mother tongue or from earlier learning
subtract what they can get outside the classroom
of what is left, establish which elements matter most
of those, establish how many can be effectively taught and learnt under the instructional conditions in the time available
teach these by the methods that are most appropriate for each.
https://mikeswan.net/some-things-i-believe/
Scott Thornbury
The acquisition of an L2 grammar follows a ‘natural order’ that is roughly the same for all learners, independent of age, L1, instructional approach, etc., although there is considerable variability in terms of the rate of acquisition and of ultimate achievement (Ellis 2008), and, moreover, ‘a good deal of SLA happens incidentally’ (VanPatten and Williams 2007).
Learning, particularly of words, is aided when the learner makes strong associations with the new material (Sökmen 1997).
The more time (and the more intensive the time) spent on learning tasks, the better (Muñoz 2012). Moreover, ‘learners will invest effort in any task if they perceive benefit from it’ (Breen 1987); and task motivation is optimal when challenge and skill are harmonized (Csikszentmihalyi 1990).
ADAPTIVITY: Does the tool accommodate the non-linear, often recursive, stochastic, incidental, and idiosyncratic nature of learning, e.g. by allowing the users to negotiate their own learning paths and goals?
COMPLEXITY: Does the tool address the complexity of language, including its multiple interrelated sub-systems (e.g. grammar, lexis, phonology, discourse, pragmatics)?
INPUT: Does it provide access to rich, comprehensible, and engaging reading and/or listening input? Are there means by which the input can be made more comprehensible? And is there a lot of input (so as to optimize the chances of repeated encounters with language items, and of incidental learning)?
NOTICING: Are there mechanisms whereby the user’s attention is directed to features of the input and/or mechanisms that the user can enlist to make features of the input salient?
OUTPUT: Are there opportunities for language production? Are there means whereby the user is pushed to produce language at or even beyond his/her current level of competence?
SCAFFOLDING: Are learning tasks modelled and mediated? Are interventions timely and supportive, and calibrated to take account of the learner’s emerging capacities?
FEEDBACK: Do users get focused and informative feedback on their comprehension and production, including feedback on error?
INTERACTION: Is there provision for the user to collaborate and interact with other users (whether other learners or proficient speakers) in the target language?
AUTOMATICITY: Does the tool provide opportunities for massed practice, and in conditions that replicate conditions of use? Are practice opportunities optimally spaced?
CHUNKS: Does the tool encourage/facilitate the acquisition and use of formulaic language?
PERSONALIZATION: Does the tool encourage the user to form strong personal associations with the material?
FLOW: Is the tool sufficiently engaging and challenging to increase the likelihood of sustained and repeated use? Are its benefits obvious to the user?
Thornbury's 12 observations
https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/s-is-for-sla/
Nicola Prentis
Scoot Thornbury on SLA, lesson planning, and dogme
Luke Meddings does a real live lesson
the https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/breathly
https://iscramble.net/c/word/hobbian
https://iscramble.net/c/word/kidly
duolingo
my local town has a fair every year- they have lots of stalls and attractions and rides. They sell food and drinks and people shoot guns to win prizes. It seems like the whole town goes and everyone is in a very good mood. I particularly like the rollercoasters and the ghost house and the dodgems- it's great for people of all ages and my children love it- I have to give them an allowance to spend on all the rides with their friends. I will definitely go next year- it's a great way to meet people and have a good time- the rides come on huge trucks and the workers sleep in caravans next to the rides. The roads are all closed so it's just people walking up and down the roads.
I think drugs will become more important in the future and as it gets harder to test for them and easier to cheat, I think the federations will abandon their attempts to stop people using illegal drugs and just let people enhance their bodies and their performance in any way they like (within legal limits!) So more records will get broken, everything will get bigger, faster, better, more exciting and more suitable for a society with a very short attention span. I suppose AI will also change things as it gets more and more difficult to stop people using ai I think it will be accepted.
duolingo
READ AND SELECT ANSWERS Level 1 A. answers, bookcase, nineteen, wait, waiting, walks, wants, watching B. back, birthday, cook, done, fourteen, from, girls, likes, red, same, some, table, well C. bicycle, bookshelf, funny, golf, keyboard, lost, mark, quiz, road Answers Answers | OFFICIAL GUIDE 76, | May 2023 Level 2 A. allows, amount, besides, bucket, click, countryside, despite, pipe, pose, scientific, shot, silk, talent B. disabled, frame, listener, registration, sharp C. calmly, candidate, educational, evidently, faint, functional, investigation, layer, overtake, phase, string, wipe Level 3 A. appliance, assumption, authentic, grumpy, misinform, thrive, violate B. complimentary, nest, remorse, scattered, strategically, totalitarian, underway C. astronomy, coherent, detrimental, dismay, explicit, hypocrisy, mediocrity, negligible, nostalgia, tenderness, traumatic
https://englishtest.duolingo.com/prepare/guide
a real lesson
more real lessons
100 tips Oxford?
https://stevebrown70.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/hes-not-the-messiah-hes-a-very-naughty-boy/
RE: evidence based aims coe
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/elp/elp-reg/Source/Key_reference/EAQUALSBank_checklists_EN.pdf
lesson aims
efl learning aims for a proficiency class
Russell mayne
http://malingual.blogspot.fr/p/videos-of-talks.html
http://malingual.blogspot.fr/2014/09/teaching-is-art-not-science.html
http://thesecretdos.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/baloney-detection-and-the-grandmas-of-sole/#more-2885
http://simpleenglishuk.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/homonormativity-in-efl-materials/
Here’s a couple of nice videos by Jo Budden on using vocab bags.
example of speaking test
good task at 2.50
also you could look at cefr B1.2 and see what else they need
https://www.eaquals.org/our-expertise/cefr/our-work-practical-resources-for-language-teaching/https://www.eaquals.org/our-expertise/cefr/our-work-practical-resources-for-language-teaching/
Puchta
http://www.herbertpuchta.com/wp-content/files_mf/1337008556Interview_Teacher.pdf
headway videos
https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/
https://www.lextutor.ca/
you paste in some text and it tells you how common the words are
90% of the time, speakers of English use just 7,500 words in speech and writing. These words appear in red, and are graded with stars. One-star words are frequent, two-star words are more frequent, and three-star words are the most frequent.
https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/t-is-for-task-based-learning/#comment-61009
Dictogloss
https://profesorbaker.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/rolfs-class-dictogloss-jeremy-harmer-jason-renshaw/
I target errors systematically and combine this with a broad overview of British and American science, culture and business, taking in topics like Richard Feynman and quantum physics, Peter Drucker and managerial styles, Elizabeth Holmes and unicorns, Peter Thiel and monopolies/education/threats, Aaron Swartz and activism, Tan Le and headsets, Taylor Grandin and autism, Demis Hassabis and AI, Yuval Harari and evolution, Janna Levin and astrophysics, Scott Aaronson and quantum computing, David Eagleman and the mind, Timothy Prestero and design, Nate Silver and data, Gary Slutkin and disease spread. And Ray Dalio's Radical Transparency.
(reprendre, continuer à faire qqc) sensible (sensé, intelligent) stranger (a) (un inconnu) traffic (la circulation des véhicules) will (la volonté)
https://www.furet.com/media/pdf/feuilletage/9/7/8/2/3/1/1/4/9782311405651.pdf
page 256
Empathetic understanding is enormously cognitively demanding.
brian bi
often find myself thinking that, not only do I lack social skills, I also lack something broader, which I've started thinking of as "generalized social skills". Generalized social skills means the aptitude to learn to optimize an objective function that isn't explicitly given but is simply based on the preferences of a large group of people (not necessarily an entire society).
Social skills in the narrow sense are included under generalized social skills. Consider the stereotype of a Silicon Valley engineer who goes on a date and spends an hour talking about their job, not noticing that their date is not interested in this topic. They failed at the date because they didn't have good social skills; to be more specific, they failed at understanding what the other person would find enjoyable, which is a special case of generalized social skills.
But it also goes further: for example, I simply cannot look good in photos. I'm aware that posing for photos is something that takes a lot of practice, but even after having been in hundreds of photos, and having observed that some of them are slightly less bad than others, I simply don't understand how to change my behaviour to increase the likelihood that future photos of me will look less bad. I am as clueless about this as ChatGPT is about solving math problems. The issue is that, again, this is a high-dimensional optimization problem where the objective is to satisfy other people's preferences, i.e. their aesthetic preferences for what constitutes a good photo. My feeling is that neurotypical people are much better at this than I am.
In contrast, being good at math does not require a high level of generalized social skills (but various associated activities, e.g. convincing organizations to award you grants to do math research, might).
I can't speak for other autistic people but the lack of generalized social skills seems to be one of the main symptoms of my autism.
eloi laurent
2 nice bits here, Feynman on names
and Julian Baggini on Goldacre's way of dealing with abuse.
http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=1597
Goldacre writes the Bad Science column and blog, and I’ve interviewed him for the next issue of tpm. This is a story he told which I had to leave out because of space constraints. I’m not sure whether this is brilliant, terrible, or both. What do you think?
“I once wrote something about MMR and I got this huge long hate diatribe from this guy. It was about six pages long, calling me every name under the sun, saying that I was in the pay of the pharmaceutical industry to rubbish the concerns of anti-vaccination, when, in fact, I’m probably their biggest critic in the UK at the moment, or at least their biggest non-bonkers critic. There was this huge torrent of abuse, real screaming, screeching abuse: ‘I hope that your children are deformed, and when you’re sobbing holding your vaccine-damaged child, I hope you look up at the sky and ask, Why God me? Why did you punish me for the things I said?’ Really, really vicious, horrible stuff.
“I just wrote back a very polite, three line response, saying I guess it’s unfortunate that I have to put up with this kind of anger, but if it’s any help, I say what I say because of these references and I think the evidence is pretty clear. If you’re interested in more, I can send you the book chapter – don’t buy the book, I’ll jut email it to you. Something like that.”
Goldacre then digresses to talk about how, although it can be hard to deal with abuse, it is possible to set the tone of a conversation and that “If you scream and shout, people scream and shout. If you’re polite and sensible people generally tend to respond in a polite and sensible way.” Then he picks up.
“So I wrote back this really polite, straightforward email, and he immediately replied, saying ‘God, I’m really sorry. I don’t know what came over me. In my head, it was like you weren’t even a real person. It didn’t even occur to me that you would reply, let alone that you’d reply so straightforwardly and politely. I feel ashamed and humbled and please, all I ask is that you just accept that I wouldn’t normally speak like that and I will try to write you a much more sensible email about my worries and concerns. But I’m shocked at what I wrote to you.’
“And I replied, ‘F*** off.'”
***
From Russ Mayne’s malingual (sadly no longer updating…)
https://malingual.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-list-of-lists.html
There are some other interesting lists which are too long to include here. They include Swan's list of things he believes about language teaching, Thornbury's 12 observations, (above) and Hattie's list of principles.)
Mike Long (2014)
Use task, not text, as the unit of analysis
Promote learning by doing
Elaborate input (do not simplify; do not rely solely on “authentic” texts).
Provide rich (not impoverished) input.
Encourage inductive (“chunk”) learning.
Focus on form (TBLT)
Provide negative feedback
Respect “learner syllabuses”/ developmental processes.
Promote cooperative/ collaborative learning.
Individualize instruction
Rod Ellis (2005) principles of instructed language learning
Instruction needs to ensure that learners develop both a rich repertoire of formulaic expressions and a rule-based competence
Instruction needs to ensure that learners focus predominantly on meaning
Instruction needs to ensure that learners also focus on form
Instruction needs to be predominantly directed at developing implicit knowledge of the L2 while not neglecting explicit knowledge
Instruction needs to take into account the learner’s ‘built-in syllabus’
Successful instructed language learning requires extensive L2 input
Successful instructed language learning also requires opportunities for Output
The opportunity to interact in the L2 is central to developing L2 Proficiency
Instruction needs to take account of individual differences in learners
In assessing learners’ L2 proficiency it is important to examine free as well as controlled production
Nation's principles of vocab learning (2013)
1. Provide clear, simple, and brief explanations of meaning
2. Draw attention to the generalisable underlying meaning of a word
3. Give repeated attention to words
4. Help learners recognize definitions
5. Prioritise what should be explained about particular words
6. Help learners remember what is explained
7. Avoid interference from related words
Hunt and Beglar (1998) principles of vocab learning
1. Provide opportunities for the incidental learning of vocabulary.
2. Diagnose which of the 3000 most common words learners need to study.
3. Provide opportunities for the intentional learning of vocabulary.
4. Provide opportunities for elaborating word knowledge.
5. Provide opportunities for developing fluency with known vocabulary
6. Experiment with guessing from context.
7. Examine different types of dictionaries and teach students how to use them.
Lightbown generalizations drawn from research (1985)
“Adults and adolescents can ‘acquire’ a second language.”
“The learner creates a systematic interlanguage which is often characterized by the same systematic errors as the child learning the same language as the first language, as well as others which appear to be based on the learner's own native language”
“There are predictable sequences in acquisition such that certain structures have to be acquired before others can be integrated”
“Practice does not make perfect”
“Knowing a language rule does not mean one will be able to use it in communicative interaction”
“Isolated explicit error correction is usually ineffective in changing language behaviour”
“For most adult learners, acquisition stops—'fossilizes'—before the learner has achieved native-like mastery of the target language”
One cannot achieve native-like (or near native-like) command of a second language in one hour a day
“The learner's task is enormous because language is enormously complex”
“A learner's ability to understand language in a meaningful context exceeds his/her ability to comprehend decontextualized language and to produce language of comparable complexity and accuracy”
Palmer's principles of language teaching
(1) The initial preparation of the student by the training of his spontaneous capacities for assimilating spoken language.
(2) The forming of new and appropriate habits and the utilization of previously formed habits.
(3) Accuracy in work in order to prevent the acquiring of bad habits.
(4) Gradation of the work in such a way as to ensure an ever-increasing rate of progress.
(5) Due proportion in the treatment of the various aspects and branches of the subject.
(6) The presentation of language-material in a concrete rather than in an abstract way.
(7) The securing and maintaining of the student’s interest in order to accelerate his progress.
(8) A logical order of progression in accordance with principles of speech-psychology.
(9) The approaching of the subject simultaneously from different sides by means of different and appropriate devices
Van Patten 5 implications of research
1. The more input the better
2. The more interaction the better
3. All learner production should be meaning based or communicative
4. Focus on Form should be meaning based or tied to input or communication
5. We should watch out for what we expect from our learners
Ortega 5 generalizations of interlanguage research (2009)
1. Instruction affect the route of L2 development in any fundamental way
2. Instruction can have some effect on processes, fostering some and inhibiting others
3. Instruction can be ineffective and even counterproductive when it ignores developmental readiness
4. Not all sequences present equal challenges for instruction
5. Instruction has a large positive effect on rate of development and ultimate attainment
Ferris’s principles of preparing teachers for written error correction
1. Teachers of L2 writers need to study aspects of grammar that are particularly problematic for non-native speakers of English.
2. Teachers of L2 writers need practice in recognizing and identifying errors in student writing.
3. Teachers of L2 writers need practice in developing lessons and teaching grammar points and editing strategies to their writing students.
4. Teachers of L2 writers need to understand the principles of second language acquisition and of composition theory.
5. Teachers of L2 writers should become familiar with language structures needed for different task types and academic disciplines.
Dornyei's 10 commandments of motivation
1. Set a personal example with your own behaviour
2. Develop a good relationship with the learners
3. Increase the learners’ linguistic self-confidence
4. Make the language classes interesting
5. Promote learner autonomy
6. Personalise the learning process
7. Increase the learners’ goal-orientedness
8. Familiarize learners with the target culture
9. Create a pleasant relaxed atmosphere in the classroom
10. Present the tasks properly
Grabe and Stoller reading syllabus principles (2020)
1. Ask students to read a lot and often for well-defined purposes.
2. Incorporating deliberate practice into reading curricula supports reading skill development
3. Promote discussion about the text
4. Build students motivation to read
5. Teach vocabulary as the foundation to reading
6. Make students aware of textual features
7. Work on fluency
8. Teach learners to be strategic readers
9. Teach rather than test for main idea comprehension
10. Reading lessons should be pre- during post style
11. Texts should be selected based on students needs and ability
12. Digital literacy needs should be considered
13. Connect reading to writing
14. Assess their progress
***