SPECIALIZAREA: LIMBA ȘI LITERATURA ENGLEZĂ LUCRARE METODICO-ȘTIINȚIFICĂ PENTRU ACORDAREA GRADULUI DIDACTIC I IN INVATAMANT COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC:… [307075]
UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST „VASILE GOLDIȘ” DIN
ARAD
DEPARTAMENTUL PENTRU PREGATIREA ȘI
PERFECȚIONAREA
PERSONALULUI DIDACTIC
SPECIALIZAREA: [anonimizat] I
IN INVATAMANT
COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC:
CONF. UNIV. DR. [anonimizat]: [anonimizat]. ALINA GEORGETA ARDELEAN
ARAD, 2018
UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST „VASILE GOLDIȘ” DIN ARAD
DEPARTAMENTUL PENTRU PREGATIREA ȘI
PERFECȚIONAREA
PERSONALULUI DIDACTIC
USING INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING ENGLISH
COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC:
CONF. UNIV. DR. [anonimizat]: [anonimizat]. ALINA GEORGETA ARDELEAN
ARAD, 2018
[anonimizat]. The role of English language as a lingua franca makes it a unique language in the world. This distinctiveness does not only refer to the language itself but also to the ways it is taught as a foreign language. Learning a foreign language takes place step by step in which a number of factors play a direct role. The process of teaching has to update itself to the current needs of today’s modern society in which science and technology play a vital role.
This paper, ‘Using Information and Communication Technology in teaching English’, intends to underline the importance of using modern ways in the process of teaching and learning English. I’ve chosen this topic because I [anonimizat], to step up to the challenges of this new age by being able to bring technology into the classroom and make it work.
The paper is structured in seven main chapters. The first chapter contains an overview of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education. As a result of the increasing application of ICTs in education, a number of new learning approaches have emerged. E-[anonimizat]-formal, using information networks such as the Internet. [anonimizat], [anonimizat]. [anonimizat] a time lag between the delivery of instruction and its reception by learners. [anonimizat], [anonimizat]. The Internet and the World Wide Web also provide access to learning materials in almost every subject and in a [anonimizat], at any time of the day and to an unlimited number of people.
The second chapter describes the changing world of the classroom addressing the issue of the resources teachers use and how they use these resources in teaching the four main skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing. If we take a [anonimizat], [anonimizat]-in speakers for audio material and computers with Internet access. [anonimizat]. However, there are schools which are not so privileged. In these cases, classes may be equipped only with blackboards and in best cases there may be overhead projectors. The most useful resources, however, are the students themselves. Through their thoughts and experiences they bring the outside world into the classroom, and this is a powerful resource for the teachers to work with.
The third chapter focuses on the importance of technology in the current system of education in which teaching has become less efficient by using the traditional methods. . In a new era of globalization and technological changes, in which the access to information grows rapidly, school has to become compatible with the expanding knowledge by being equipped with the necessary technology. Today, information technology has created a big share in improving education so that everyone gets to learn innovative techniques and share latest technology knowledge. Technology has a greater and important role as it provides benefits of educational technology in the present day education because technology is going to shape students’ future. Technology education has not only become a network of gathering and sharing ideas, but also a platform for students and teachers to research, collaborate, and differentiate. Effective technology integration must be done, at the interdisciplinary level, in a way that deepens and enhances student’s learning process.
The fourth chapter refers to the necessity of teaching language skills in an integrated way. Teachers tend to talk about the way language is used in terms of four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. These are divided into two types. Receptive skills is a term used for reading and listening, skills where meaning is extracted from the discourse. Productive skills is the term for speaking and writing, skills where students have to produce language themselves. There are somehow concerns about separating skills in this way, mainly because they are rarely separated in real life. Integrating the four language skills enhances the focus on realistic communication, which is essential in developing students’ competence in English.
The fifth chapter describes how teachers can use Information and Communication Technologies in teaching receptive skills. We can teach reading and listening with the help of different ways of modern technology, whether we talk about reading hypermedia (it can involve literature in programs that read aloud to students in realistic digitized speech; the text is accompanied by colourful graphics and students often can interact with both text and graphics) or listening to podcasts in order to enhance reading and listening comprehension.
The sixth chapter presents different modern techniques and activities that can be used in teaching productive skills using Information and Communication Technologies. The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, teachers can use a balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output, and communicative output. Like speaking, writing is also considered a productive skill; that is to say that the student is asked to produce language. The widely spread use of ICT for writing purposes is surprising; the internet provides nearly unlimited sources and facilities for educational purposes. A simple search will provide useful tools and programs for innovative ways and methods to teach writing, such as emails, blogs, e-groups, etc.
The paper ends with a research regarding the strategies of developing communication competences in an ESL class. My research regarding the strategies of developing communication competences in an ESL class took place during three semesters, in school years 2016-2017, 2017-2018, from February 2017 until the end of June 2018. During the given period, a number of 50 students were the target of my research regarding the development of communication competences in an ESL class. The students were divided into two groups. They were given questionnaires and tests. The objective of the tests and questionnaires was to evaluate the students’ level of English, their attitude towards the language and their communication skills in the target language. This research also aimed to discover the students’ ways of learning, in order to help them to develop their own learning strategies, but also to provide the teacher with important information regarding the students’ needs.
During my teaching career and mainly these last three semesters, I combined traditional methods (grammar-translation methods) and modern methods in the teaching-learning process. With the use of modern methods, I tried to bring a different new world in the classroom- the virtual one.
CHAPTER I.
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTs) IN EDUCATION
Information and communication technologies (ICT) include computers, the Internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television) and telephony. While the rise of computers and the Internet has provoked great interest in the ways in which they can be applied in education to improve its efficiency and effectiveness at all levels, older technologies, such as the telephone, radio and television have long been used as instructional tools. Radio and television have been used for open and distance learning, although print has remained the cheapest, most accessible and most dominant delivery mechanism in developed as well as developing countries.
As a result of the increasing application of ICTs in education, a number of new learning approaches have emerged. E-learning encompasses learning at all levels, formal as well as non-formal, using information networks such as the Internet, an intranet (LAN) or extranet (WAN) for course delivery, interaction and facilitation. Blended learning refers to learning models that combine traditional classroom practice with e-leaning solutions. The blending of different methods was developed after educators recognized that not all learning is best achieved in an electronically-mediated environment, in particular one that dispenses with a live instructor altogether.
Open and distance learning is a learning approach in which teacher and learner are separated in time or place and uses a variety of media, including print and electronic, to ensure a two-way communication that allows teachers and learners to interact. ICTs have the potential to increase access to education and improve the relevance and quality of education in developing countries. ICTs can be used to provide educational opportunities to people who have previously had no access to education, such as scattered and rural populations, groups traditionally excluded from education because of cultural or social reasons, persons with disabilities and the elderly. This is possible because such technologies allow asynchronous learning, which is characterized by a time lag between the delivery of instruction and its reception by learners. ICT-based educational delivery also dispenses with the need for the instructor and all learners to be in one physical location.
Some types of ICTs, such as teleconferencing technologies, make it possible for multiple, geographically dispersed learners to receive instruction simultaneously. The Internet and the World Wide Web also provide access to learning materials in almost every subject and in a variety of media, anywhere, at any time of the day and to an unlimited number of people. One of the most commonly cited reasons for using ICTs in education have been to better prepare students for a workplace where ICTs are becoming more and more ubiquitous. In addition, ICTs can improve the quality of education by increasing learners’ engagement and motivation, by facilitating the acquisition of basic skills and by enhancing teacher training.
However, there is lack of good monitoring and evaluation tools and processes for the use of ICTs in education. The scarcity of evaluation data has shown important biases in the work. There are also collected data, but this is often quantitative data related to infrastructure rather than data that can help gauge the impact of the use of ICTs on student learning. In addition, little is known about the real costs of ICTs in education. It is important to better understand the costs and benefits associated with different types of ICTs and their uses in various educational situations so that resources can be targeted effectively. There is some evidence that computers may be most cost-effective when they are placed in common areas, including libraries and teacher-training institutes.
Distance education is also often cited as a cost-saving investment. Although such programs typically require large up-front investments, economies of scale can be achieved. Overall, there are various financing mechanisms for ICTs in education. Countries and communities typically employ a variety of financing and cost recovery mechanisms because of the high up-front costs and large recurrent costs related to such projects. Public-private partnerships and user fees are important components of financing ICTs in education initiatives in many countries. The role of the teacher has not been diminished by the use of ICTs in the classroom or in distance education. ICTs also do not automatically change teaching practices. Traditional teacher leadership skills and practices have remained important, but experience has also shown that in order to optimize teacher use of ICTs, a variety of support and enabling mechanisms must be implemented.
1.1 The components of ICT
ICT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit and retrieve information. It involves transfer and use of all kinds of information. ICT is the foundation of economy and a driving force of social changes in the 21st century. Distance is no longer an issue when it comes to accessing information; for example, working-from-home, distance learning, e-banking, and e-government are now possible from any place with an Internet connection and a computing device.
1.1.1 Software
The software is the set of instructions that cause a computer to perform one or more tasks. The set of instructions is often called a programme or, if the set is particularly large and complex, a system. Computers cannot do any useful work without instructions from software; thus a combination of software and hardware (the computer) is necessary to do any computerized work. A programme must tell the computer each of a set of minuscule tasks to perform, in a framework of logic, such that the computer knows exactly what to do and when to do it. There are two major types of software: system software and application software. Each kind performs a different function.
The System Software: System software is a set of generalised programmes that manage the computer's resources, such as the central processor, communications links, and peripheral devices.
The Application Software: Application software describes programmes that are written for or by users to apply the computer to a specific task. Software for processing an order or generating a mailing list is application software.
1.1.2 Hardware
Hardware is the mechanical and electronic parts that constitute a computer system, as distinguished from the computer programmes (Software) that drive the system. The main hardware elements are the Computer Hardware, Connection devices and microphones.
Computer Hardware
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to accept data (input), process it into useful information (output), and store it away (in secondary storage devise) for safekeeping or later reuse. Equipment associated to that computer is called hardware and consist of the central processing unit, primary storage, secondary storage, input devices, output devices, and communications devices.
Connection Devices
Partially because of the popularity of the Internet, more and more computers of all kinds have some means of connecting to other computers. For desktop computers in schools and businesses, a Network Interface Card (NIC) is frequently used. Portable computers and home desktop units typically use a modem as a connection device. Modems connect a personal or portable computer to dial-up networks through a regular telephone line. This connectivity has served as a boom to telecommuting and changed the way work is performed in organizations. Modems and NICs can serve as both input and output devices, depending on whether the computer is receiving or sending information.
Microphones
Microphones transform sounds into electric signals for storage or transmission. Different types of microphones and different ways to work with them are described below:
A microphone can be fixed in a stand in front of a speaker who is standing or sitting.
Speakers can hold a microphone in their hands.
Information converted by a microphone into electrical signals can be transmitted via a wired or wireless channel to other devices.
1.2 Computers and teaching
Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is an approach to language teaching and learning in which computer technology is used as an aid to the presentation, reinforcement and assessment of material to be learned, usually including a substantial interactive element.
In the history of CALL there is a confluence of the latest technology as well as the most widely accepted language theories of the day.
The history of CALL is often divided into three phases:
Structural CALL
Communicative CALL
Integrative CALL
Structural/Behaviourist CALL started in the ‘50s and developed through the ‘70s. This marked the era of Stimulus and Response. The computer prompts the student with a question (stimulus) and the student gives an answer (response) by filling in the blanks or choosing from a given set of choices.
The methods used were the Grammar-Translation and Audiolingual methods. Language was seen as made up of discrete units, and these units were considered to be closely interconnected and interacting according to a predictable and explainable set of rules (grammar). Teachers taught the different rules of grammar and repetitively drilled their classes on different ways the rules can be correctly applied. Computers at this stage were mainly utilized as devices that could present stimuli repetitively in exactly the same manner without ever getting tired. Examples of this are the “listen-and-repeat” programs running in language labs at that time.
In the ’80s and ’90s came Communicative CALL. The Communicative Approach to language teaching came into being as a reaction to the Grammar-Translation and Audiolingual methods. This time, instead of teaching the language—its rules, syntax, phonemes and morphemes—teachers found ways to provide opportunities for students to actually use the language. They gave students tasks that can only be completed by using language. Communication and interaction were important, and because such technology always comes in service of the language paradigm of the day, computers were used to reflect these ideas. Language drills were increasingly placed in the context of a communicative task—like programs that feature some cartoon character where students help him find his way home. Computer programs were designed to gauge comprehension with drills like paced reading and sentence reconstruction. Developments in computer technology didn’t affect the “testing” part of CALL, but made teaching language more vivid. For example, the continued development in computer capabilities has resulted into crisper audio and video. So in addition to the drill formats, students could learn by watching videos of how native speakers actually interact. They could see how language was used in different situations, like in meeting a new person or asking for directions. Computers have given language learners a more vivid idea of what language is beyond the subject-verb agreements and the endless list of vocabulary words to be memorized.
The next phase of CALL is the Integrative Phase (starting from 2000 onwards). First came the drills of the structural approach, and then followed the skills in the communicative approach. Critics of the second phase say that the skills taught may be limited to the number and types of situations that may be presented to students. There needs to be an integration of the (general language) knowledge presented in the first phase as well as the communicative skills of the second phase. So we have the integrative phase which blended the virtues of the previous decades into a technology that, for its part, has found its stride. The development of the internet and hypermedia that can integrate, video and audio streaming, graphic-interactive content and virtual worlds, have redefined how learning is done. With today’s technology, we can develop speaking, listening, reading and writing skills concurrently and in the comfort of one’s private space and schedule.
With the rapid development of technology, more and more language teachers and learners are eager to use technologies such as computer and the Internet for language learning and teaching. Undoubtedly, the use of technology in education has a positive effect on the achievements of language learners, but it is a necessity to consider all aspects of this application.
We should take into consideration the distinction between two philosophical approaches: teaching from computers and teaching with computers. Teaching from computers includes things like computer-based instruction, computer-assisted instruction, and integrated learning systems. It can be a tutorial, game or independent learning programme. It values transmission of information and is supplanted in nature. Its goals focus on more effective delivery of knowledge and increased skills. The public education system no longer considers the integration of technology as a debatable issue in the classroom. In fact, many schools have started to incorporate the technological use of computers and mobile devices in the classroom to further the academic performance of students. Computer technology in the classroom has evolved beyond drill and practice programs. Today's technology can provide teachers and other school faculty with greater opportunities to bring information to their students. This allows educators to prepare students for the future, both in their personal and professional lives.
The development of information technology (IT) has permeated the application of computers as a teaching aid in the learning process. Computers are used for the sake of facilitating students in learning, such as learning language. There are many advantages of using the computer as a teaching aid in teaching and learning English such as:
it is a more interactive aid compared to others, such as tape recorder, film projectors, and such common equipment – marker and white board;
the computer may act as a teacher or tutor, providing material, guiding a student how to learn, and giving more information and explanations. As a tutor, it can also be utilized to communicate visually with students. The computer can be a partner for the learner to play educational games with, or, it can be used to generate examples, to illustrate certain operations, or to stimulate conversation.
the computer is also more flexible, being a more interactive aid compared to others, such as tape recorder, film projectors, and such common equipment – marker and white board. Books and recording can tell a student what the rules are and what the right solutions are, but they cannot analyse the specific mistakes the student has made and react in a manner which leads him to the correct solution.
1.2.1 Using AeL in teaching, learning and evaluation
Based on modern educational principles, AeL is a modern training and educational content management platform, dedicated to all the educational institutions. AeL is a flexible system that can be used in different regions, for different study levels and types of educational institutions.
The platform provides full functionalities for all the participants in the educational process – students, teachers, school managers, administrative staff and parents. The AeL eLearning Platform provides support for teaching and learning, testing and evaluation, digital content management, management and monitoring of the entire education process.
AeL is optimized for:
synchronous learning – teachers are entirely controlling the educational process, creating, adjusting and monitoring the training environment
asynchronous learning – students can study at their own pace and can collaborate for projects
testing and evaluation – to meet the needs of the education institutions for measuring the impact and efficacy of the teaching process
Benefits of using AeL
The main benefits provided by the use of the AeL platform in the teaching, learning and evaluating process are:
supporting the teaching process through modern IT-based means, providing teachers with a flexible and efficient complementary tool
monitoring the educational process and the students’ results, both during the courses and after their completion
efficient resources planning (teachers, classrooms)
facilitating the learning process, increasing the receptiveness and the degree of knowledge assimilation
multisensory stimulation in presenting information
individual exploring/search of information
exchange of information and collaboration in solving work tasks
diversity of information sources
stimulation of analytical thinking
results-oriented learning
stimulates the creativity and competition, of individual as well as team work
the possibility of simulating phenomena as substitute for the teaching materials and instruments that are costly or difficult to procure
transition from learning based on mechanical memorizing (learning by memorizing), to the learning based on experiment, on discovery (learning by doing)
General Characteristics of AeL:
friendly, adjustable interface, depending on the user type
easy to manage
the system is compliant with the latest international standards: MathML, SCORM and IMS
easy to install and administer
multilingual and regional support: AeL is easy to transpose in any language and easy to reconfigure
system security is ensured by the differentiated access on several layers configurable by the administrator
1.2.2 The Benefits of Computers in the Classroom for Students
Computers have changed the way society functions. Future generations will need to compete with the growing trends of a technologically-driven society that relies on computers to perform daily tasks. The classroom is a good starting point for people to learn how to use these complex machines. If students learn word processing skills and how to navigate computers and the Internet early on, they will be prepared later in life to utilize computers for more complex assignments. Computers grant access to the Internet, which hosts academic research and offers educational support. Computers benefit students by providing quick access to information and skill sets that might take much longer to acquire using traditional methods. Students do not need to be ignorant of their areas of strength or needed improvement with easy access to grades and achievement information. Historical records and social organizations are only a click away, providing a wealth of information for studying history and social studies. Students and teachers are now able to communicate with educators and other students anywhere in the world easily and instantly. This new phenomenon opens up opportunities for collaboration that did not previously exist. There are also many resources and online communities that are available to help students develop and improve mathematical and scientific understanding. Even though computers are extremely beneficial to the educational process there are some negative aspects. Students have access to greater distractions during research or study time, in the forms of games and social networking websites. There is also the risk of students interacting with potentially dangerous, anonymous individuals. Therefore, it becomes vitally important for teachers and school faculty to monitor computer use to ensure they are being used safely and for the right purposes.
1.2.3 The Benefits of Computers in the Classroom for Teachers
Teachers also benefit from access to thousands of resources for improving and diversifying curriculum with a World Wide Web of teachers that share presentations, reproducible worksheets, activities and ideas. Teachers use computers to process grades, analyse and input student achievement data, collaborate with peers, network with each other, and communicate information to their students. Teachers may encounter students who have already acquired computer skills. In fact, some students may have developed computer proficiency beyond their teachers. This can make it easier for the teacher to incorporate computers into the school curriculum. The majority of public and private schools have already begun the transition to using computers in the classroom. Computers offer teachers the unique ability to collaborate with other educators and professionals, opening up worlds of understanding, to them and their students. There are many networking sites available to teachers that offer teaching plans and project ideas.
CHAPTER II.
THE CHANGING WORLD OF THE CLASSROOM
If we take a look at classrooms from around the world, we could see fixed data projectors, interactive whiteboards, built-in speakers for audio material and computers with Internet access. Whenever teachers want their students to find anything out, they can simply get them to search on Google and the results can be shown to the whole class on the interactive whiteboard. However, there are schools which are not so privileged. In these cases, classes may be equipped only with blackboards and in best cases there may be overhead projectors. In many rural areas from our country even the blackboards are often not in very good conditions. There are also some classroom situations where neither teacher, nor students have anything at all in terms of educational technology or other learning aids. These different realities are represented by Jill and Charles Hadfield in a ‘reversed pyramid’ of resources (see Figure 1).
FIGURE 1: Reversed resources
pyramid
In a world in which the pace of technological change is extremely fast, being at the bottom of the pyramid may be a minus to language learning. Still, there is a lot that can be done with minimal or even no resources.
Simple objects like a selection of pebbles for example, may become the focus for activities such as telling the story of pebbles’ existence; different words from sentences may be written on pieces of paper and then put on students’ backs- then, the rest of the class has to make them stand in order to make a sentence from the words; the classroom desks can be rearranged to become a street plan in order for students to practice giving and responding to directions. Most importantly, the students themselves can be used as source material as participants in quizzes about the real world or as informants in discussions about their families. The internal world of the student is the richest resource the teacher has, and for this reason, Jill and Charles Hadfield propose turning the pyramid the other way up (see Figure 2). The resources that are currently available are amazing; they offer a variety of ways for learning and discovery. However, we should not see them as methodologies for learning, but as tools to help us.
FIGURE 2: ‘Other way up’ resources pyramid
2.1. Useful resources in the classroom
By far the most useful resources in the classroom are the students themselves. Through their thoughts and experiences they bring the outside world into the classroom, and this is a powerful resource for the teachers to work with. They can write or talk about things they like or things they have experienced. The teacher can ask them what they would do in certain situations or get them to act out scenes from their lives, or for example, they can perform dialogues taking on the personality of some of the characters from the books that the other students know and the rest of the class have to guess who they are. Most students enjoy acting out.
A range of objects, pictures, cards and other things, such as Cuisenaire rods, can be used for presenting and manipulating language, and for involving students in all sorts of activities.
Realia (real objects)
It was mentioned above how a simple pebble can be used as a stimulus for a creative activity. However, this is only one possible use for real objects: realia. With beginners, using realia can be helpful for teaching the meaning of words. Objects that ate intrinsically interesting can provide a good starting-point for a variety of language work and communication activities. Jill and Charles Hadfield suggest bringing in a bag of ‘evocative objects that have a story to tell’. These may be a hair ribbon, a coin, a paperclip, an old photo frame, a key or a padlock. Students are divided into groups. Each group picks an object from the bag, without looking in first. Each student in the group then has to write one sentence about the object’s history as if they were that object. Members of the group share their sentences to make the object’s autobiography, and then they read it to the rest of the class. The teacher can find an object with an obscure use and ask students to speculate about what it is for (it might/could/probably is) and come up with various explanations for it (it is used for –ing). The class could vote on the best idea. Some teachers use a soft ball to make learning more enjoyable. When they want a student to ask a question or give an answer, they throw the ball to the student, who then has to respond; the student can then throw the ball to a classmate. The only limitations on the things teachers may bring to class are the size and quantity of the objects themselves and the students’ tolerance.
Pictures
Teachers have always used pictures or graphics to facilitate learning. Pictures can be in the form of flashcards (small cards which the teacher can hold up for students to see), large wall pictures, cue cards (small cards which students use in pair-or group work), photographs or illustrations. Teachers may also use projected slides, images from an overhead projector, or projected computer images. Pictures can be used in various ways, as the following examples show:
Drills: with lower-level students, an appropriate use for flashcards is cue-response drills. The teacher can hold up a flashcard (the cue) before nominating a student and getting a response. Then, he/she nominates a different student, and so on. Flashcards are useful for drilling grammar items, for cueing different sentences and practising vocabulary. Sometimes teachers use larger wall pictures, where pointing to a detail of a picture will elicit a response.
(Communication) games: pictures are useful for a variety of communication activities, such as ‘describe and draw’-one student describes a picture given by the teacher and a partner has to draw the same picture without looking at the original. The teacher may divide the class into four groups (A, B, C, D) and give each group a different picture that shows a separate stage in a story. Once the members of the group have studied the picture, the teacher takes it away. New groups are formed with four member each- one from group A, one from group B, one from group C and one from group D. these new formed groups have to share information and work out what story the pictures together are telling. Pictures can also be used for creative writing- the students may be asked to invent a story using some of the images in front of them.
Understanding: another use for pictures is for the presenting and checking of meaning. An easy way of explaining the meaning of a word is to have a picture of it.
Ornamentation: pictures are often used to make work more appealing. In many course books, reading texts are adorned by photographs; pictures enhance the text, giving students an extra visual dimension of what they are reading.
Prediction: pictures are useful for getting students to predict what comes next in a lesson. They may look at a picture and try to guess what it shows, and then they listen to an audio track or read a text to see if it matches what they predicted on the basis of the picture.
Discussion: pictures can simulate questions such as: What is it showing? How does that make you feel? Would you like to have this picture in your house? Why? Why not? One idea is to get students to become judges of a photographic competition. Pictures can also be used for creative language use: students may be asked to write a description of a picture or to invent the conversation taking place between two people in a picture.
Teachers can make wall pictures, flashcards and cue cards in a number of ways, the choice and use of them is a matter of personal taste, but we should bear in mind two qualities that pictures need to possess if they are to engage students and be linguistically useful. On one hand, they need to be appropriate both for the purpose in hand and for the classes they are being used for. If they are too childish, students may not like them. On the other hand, pictures should be visible; they have to be big enough so that all the students can see the necessary detail.
Cards
Apart from flashcards with pictures on them, cards of all shapes and sizes can be used in a variety of ways. Of the many uses for cards, the following are worth mentioning:
Matching and ordering: cards are especially good for matching questions and answers or two halves of a sentence. Students can either match them on the desk in front of them (in pairs or groups), or they can move around the classroom looking for their pairs. This matching can be on the basis of topic, lexis or grammatical construction. Cards can also be used to order words into sentences or to put the lines of a poem in order.
Selecting: cards work well if teachers want students to speak on the spot or use particular words or phrases in a conversation or in sentences. Words can be written on separate cards and then, after shuffling them, place them in a pile face down. When a student picks up the next card in the pack, he or she has to use the word in a sentence. Alternatively, students can choose three or four cards and then have to incorporate what is on the cards into a story. Students can also pick up a card and try to describe what the word on it feels, tastes or smells in order for the other students to guess it.
Card games: there are as many card game possibilities in language learning as there are in real life. Teachers can turn the card selection into a game by introducing a competitive element- having students in pairs play against each other or against other pairs. A simple vocabulary game can be played in which students have cards with pictures on one side and words on the other. If they pick the picture side, they have to produce the word. If they pick the word side, they have to draw it and then compare it with the original picture.
Cuisenaire rods
Originally invented by the Belgian educator Caleb Gatteno, these small blocks of wood or plastic of different lengths were originally designed for maths teaching. Normally, the set includes 10 rods of different length; from 1cm to 10cm. Rods of equal length have the same colour. Thus, every set contains 10 different lengths and 10 different colours. Each length is a different colour. Simple as they may be, they are useful for a wide range of activities. For example, a rod may represent a pen or a telephone, so by holding them up or putting them together a story can be told. Teachers can use the rods to demonstrate word stress: if one is bigger than the others (in a sequence representing syllables in a word or words in a sentence), it shows where the stress should be. Teachers can also teach prepositions by using rods. Sentences can be modelled with the rods, for example: The red one is on top of/beside/under/over/behind the green one. Teachers can show rods in different relative positions and ask students to describe them. Students can than position the rods for other students to describe. Rods can help teaching parts of speech: the words in the sentence can be colour coded to indicate the verbs, auxiliaries, endings, etc. Students can be invited to present sentences following the conventions of the colour code. Cuisenaire rods are also useful for demonstrating colours, comparatives, superlatives, and a whole range of other semantic and syntactic areas.
2.1.2 The course book
Methodologists have been arguing about the usefulness of course books for years, whether they questioned their role, defended their use or promoting their value as agents of methodological change. The use of course books has both advantages and disadvantages.
On one hand, good course books offer a coherent syllabus, satisfactory language control, motivating texts and extra resource material (audio cassettes, CDs, DVDs). They are often attractively presented; they come with detailed teacher’s guides, which provide procedures for the lessons in the student’s book and offer suggestions for extra activities and resources. On the other hand, course books, used inappropriately, impose learning styles and content on classes and teachers alike, which will eventually demotivate the students.
However, the vast majority of teachers use course books to help their students and to give structure and direction to their own teaching. The most important aspect of course book use is for teachers to try to engage students with the content they are going to be dealing with. As teachers, we should arouse the students’ interest in a topic and make sure that they know exactly what we want them to do before we get them to open their books. Many teachers use the course books as springboards for their lessons. They may base much of their teaching on the contents of the course book, but still, they reserve the right to decide when and how to use its constituent parts.
In the ESL classroom, materials, mainly course books are an important aspect of the curriculum. They are the most observable feature of a teacher’s methodology, and can contribute greatly to a course’s syllabus. Robert O’Neill provides 4 justifications for the use of course books. Firstly, a large portion of a course book’s material can be suitable for student’s needs, even if not specifically designed for them. Secondly, course books allow for students to look ahead, or refresh themselves with past lessons. They remove the element of surprise in student’s expectations. Thirdly, course books have the practical aspect of providing material which is well-presented in inexpensive form. Finally, and I believe most importantly, well-designed course books allow for improvisation and adaptation by the teacher, as well as empowering students to create spontaneous interaction in the class.
2.2 Ways of showing
Over the years, technology has changed the way that teachers and students are able to show each other things. There are four major presentation aids:
The board
The most versatile piece of classroom teaching equipment is the board- whether it is a blackboard, whiteboard or interactive whiteboard. Board provide a motivating focal point during whole-class grouping. Teachers can use boards for a variety of different purposes, including:
Note- pad: teachers frequently write things up on the board as they come up during the lesson; they might be words that students have to remember or phrases which students have not understood or seen before.
Explanation aid: teachers can use boards for explanation, for example, they can show the relationship between an affirmative sentence and a question by drawing connecting arrows (see Figure 3)
FIGURE 3: Using the board to show sentence/question relationships
Public workbook: for example, teachers can write up fill-in sentences or sentence transformation items and ask individual students to go to the board and write a fill-in item, or a transformed sentence. That way the whole class can see what the correct version is.
Game board: there are a number of games that can be played using the board, for example, a spelling game- two teams start off with the same word. Each team has half the board. They have to fill up their side with as many words as possible, but each new word has to start with the last letter at the word before. At the end of a given period of time, the team with the largest number of correct words is the winner. With noughts and crosses, teachers can draw nine box frames and write different words or categories in each box (see Figure 4). Teams have to make sentences or questions with the words and if they get them right they can put their symbol (O or X) on the square to draw their winning straight line.
FIGURE 4: Noughts and crosses
The overhead projector (OHP)
Teachers may use the OHP in different ways; they can show whole texts or grammar exercises, pictures, diagrams or students’ writing. By covering some of the transparency with a piece of paper, teachers can blank out what they don’t want the students to see. For example, they may show the first two lines of a story and ask students what is going to happen next, before revealing the next two lines and then the next, gradually moving the paper downwards.
The flip chart
Flip charts are useful for making notes or recording the main points in a group discussion. They are portable, relatively cheap and demand no technical expertise.
Computer-based presentation technology
Computers have changed the world of classroom presentation. Anything that is on the computer screen can be shown to the whole class using a data projector to put up an enlarged version of it on a screen or a white wall. Power Point Presentations increase teachers’ capacity to present visual material in a dynamic and interesting way.
2.3. Ways of listening
Students get exposed to spoken language from a variety of sources; much of it comes from the teacher whose voice is the most important source of language input. Students can also get language input from listening to each other.
As far as listening comprehension tasks are concerned, it is still common for teachers and students to listen to recorded audio material on cassette recorders. Tape recorders are rather cheap, versatile and easy to use. However, with the development in technology, the recorded material (video and audio) is now available in digital formats such as WAV and MP3, meaning that materials can be played directly from computers and MP3 players. The availability of podcasts means that both students and teachers can listen to a range of material whenever they want to. They can go, for example, to Podcast.net and search the site for ESL material.
2.4. Ways of discovering
It has never been easier to find things out as it is in the 21st century. The wide range of reference material both online and offline is almost infinite. Students can use various materials to find out things, from accessing dictionaries to searching the Internet.
Dictionaries come in various forms. There are paper dictionaries, CD-ROMs, electronic pocket dictionaries and online dictionaries. Dictionaries printed in book form have changed dramatically in the last few years. Now they are colourful and laid out in a way that makes issues such frequency, collocation, different meanings and pronunciation extremely clear. CD-ROMs can include greater amount of information than the paper dictionaries including audio material. Students can type in a word or a phrase and it will appear on the screen, together with collocation information and a phrase-store. Many dictionaries, however, are now freely available online; they have clear definitions and useful information. The Internet is a great source of information. Both teachers and students can find almost anything they want on the Internet. They can go to online newspapers or broadcasting associations such as the BBC or CNN, they can find song lyrics or access different sites of interest, such as webquest (an extended Internet-based project where a particular type of information is provided). This employs Internet resources for students to use for researching, but rather than have students search the Internet for themselves, in a webquest the teacher has prepared an introduction and then given students clickable sites to visit. Due to the wealth of material available on the Internet, students can do significant research at a computer screen rather than having to go to a library.
2.5. Ways of composing
The Internet and computers offer many opportunities both for students and teachers to compose material in other ways than using pens and paper. In today’s society, computers are used for writing emails, composing reports, completing homework assignments and making lists. Teachers tend to integrate the use of computers into their lessons. For example, in a classroom situation when groups of students are involved in a joint composition, the students can either be grouped around a flip chart, working together with one student acting as a scribe, or they may use word processing software, where anyone can offer and execute changes. Before computers, teachers asked their students to write letters to correspond with penpals in different countries in order to give students both meaningful and memorable experiences of using English. Penpals have now become mosepals or keypals; students can send each other emails instead of letters. Students can also be involved in chatting online. They may share facts or events in their lives by writing them on blogs. Teachers may sometimes write a blog to tell students how they are doing and what they should do next. Students can write a diary to tell others what they are doing and to provide feedback on how their learning is going.
Of considerable interest to teachers are the many sites that allow them to download software which enables them to design their own web-based material. The aim of such sites is to allow teachers to key in or import their own text and then, by using the software provided, create a variety of different exercises. Teachers can choose whether they want students to be given multiple-choice exercises, short answer exercises, jumbled sentences or crosswords.
CHAPTER III.
THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING ENGLISH
In the digital world, where everything is under control of the Internet and brand new technological inventions, it is difficult to undermine their contribution to foreign language teaching. Tools such as videos, podcasts, worksheet banks, special teaching platforms, applications, and websites alongside with technological devices, are extremely beneficial Second language learning is a process as complex as second language teaching: various factors contribute to and combine together in order to achieve the success of this endeavour. To result in a favourable outcome, teachers have to devote a lot of time and effort to determine the most satisfactory, suitable and effective methods of teaching. Not only everyday reality is affected by the new technology, but also the development of language skills started to depend on it. As the number of English learners is ever increasing, fortunately, more and more modern tools and technology devices are implemented into the process of teaching. Currently, teachers tend to use tools such as videos, podcasts, worksheet banks, e-learning platforms, applications, and websites, accessible through electronic devices such as personal computers, or smart phones. These inventions facilitate classroom environment and diversify learning activities.
3.1. The importance of technology in the current system of education
In the current system of education, teaching has become less efficient by using the traditional methods. The students are no longer interested, they lose the pleasure during classes, and they no longer pay attention. The teacher has the obligation to adapt to the new generation of students. From the first years of life, a child accesses the tablet, the phone; their way of thinking becomes adapted to the current technology. This is the reason for what the school has to use technology in the classroom. In a new era of globalization and technological changes, in which the access to information grows rapidly, school has to become compatible with the expanding knowledge by being equipped with the necessary technology.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs), which include radio, television, computers and internet, are seen as tools for educational change and reform. If used correctly, ICTs can help expand access to education, but also raise the quality of education by making teaching and learning an active process with connections to real life. ICT in education is technology dealing with the exchange of information and communication in the process of teaching and learning. Computer technology in education has always been an integral part of every individual. For generations, new approaches were introduced and adopted. New technologies were introduced in the sphere of teaching in schools, colleges, universities, research centres, etc. Today, information technology has created a big share in improving education so that everyone gets to learn innovative techniques and share latest technology knowledge. Technology has a greater and important role as it provides benefits of educational technology in the present day education because technology is going to shape students’ future. Technology education has not only become a network of gathering and sharing ideas, but also a platform for students and teachers to research, collaborate, and differentiate. Effective technology integration must be done, at the interdisciplinary level, in a way that deepens and enhances student’s learning process. Technology in the classroom is very beneficial in helping the students understand and absorb what they are being taught. For instance, since there are a number of students who are visual learners, projection screens connected to computers could be put in classrooms to let the students see their notes as opposed to simply sitting down and listening to the teacher.
Traditional school curricula tend to prioritise the accumulation of knowledge over the application of knowledge, and many school systems fail to adequately train students in digital citizenship and literacy.
Education reform is essential to provide learners with what are commonly called 21st century skills — those competencies and values needed to become responsible citizens in a learning society and sustain employability throughout life in a knowledge economy. At the administrative level, technology can make education systems more efficient by helping teachers and administrators streamline routine tasks and improve assessment and data collection. In the classroom, technology can be a powerful catalyst for pedagogical change, as students use technology to take a more active role in personalising their own education, and teachers take on new roles as facilitators of knowledge rather than knowledge transmitters.
Technology also has the potential to transform education by extending the learning space beyond the four walls of a classroom. Although brick-and-mortar schools will continue to play a leading role in education over the coming decades, technology offers a variety of learning opportunities beyond the physical limits of school. With the current accelerated growth in mobile devices, we are already witnessing the emergence of flexible, open learning environments that enable contextual, real-time, interactive and personalised learning. New technology and communication tools, enabled by a participatory and collaborative web, have gradually blurred the boundaries between formal and non-formal education, with much learning taking place outside traditional classrooms.
Distance learning, cooperative work in virtual environments, online learning communities and access to vast resources and databases are just some of the possibilities technology can offer to improve the quality in teaching and learning worldwide. Information and communication technologies in general, and broadband in particular, have the potential to create highly versatile education and training environments that can provide equal access to learners regardless of gender, geographic location, socio-economic or ethnic background, illness or disability, or any other circumstance that would normally hinder the provision of high-quality education.
3.1.1 Advantages of using ICT in education
One of the problems in the Romanian system of education is the lack of money for the funding of schools, still existing in our country. There are still schools which don’t have computers and internet. This has to be a question mark for the poor results of the students in various areas of the country. The school should have at least one IT laboratory, although it would be ideal that every school has a laboratory for teaching a foreign language which should consist of computers, video projector, audio-video system and internet.
It is important to know that technology demonstrates that when we teach English, things become flexible. In the last few years, the methods of teaching English developed and that is why it is important that the English teacher has knowledge in IT, knowing teaching methods adapted to the technology. Many jobs are directed towards using information, and knowing a foreign language is an advantage at the work place.
In the present days, teaching of English is a key element in the educational scenario and has pivotal position. Both the students and the teachers have to upgrade themselves to the latest developments. For a student to evolve, both professionally and spiritually, creativity in teaching is essential, and for this, the teacher has to create a friendly-teaching environment, resulting in highly motivational activities, opportunities for student-teacher interaction, efficient access to information.
There are advantages and disadvantages in the use of technology. The teacher has to pay attention to the way in which the student receives the information, the sites he/she accesses, and the on-line environment he/she finds. Also, there is the tendency the students use short forms and abbreviations in writing. It is important that the teacher explains to the students how to do their tasks on the computer (word, copy, paste, drawing, fonts, changing the colours), give deadlines, and monitor the activity. The teacher should ask the students questions and guide them. The Internet provides students with the tools they need to discover and own knowledge.
There are some advantages of student using ICT for learning:
Motivating Factor.
The Internet can act as a motivating tool for many students. Young people are very captivated with technology. Educators must capitalize on this interest, excitement, and enthusiasm about the Internet for the purpose of enhancing learning. For already enthusiastic learners, the Internet allows teachers to provide them with additional learning activities not readily available in the classroom.
Fast Communication.
The Internet promotes fast communication across geographical barriers. The students can join collaborative projects that involve students from different states, countries or continents. This type of learning experience was not possible before the Internet. This is a unique learning experience very essential for each of our students, as the world is becoming one big community.
Cooperative Learning.
The Internet facilitates cooperative learning, encourages dialogue, and creates a more engaging classroom
Locating Research Materials.
Apart from communication, research is what takes many people to the Internet. There are more resources on the Internet than the school library can provide. We can encourage students to take advantage of this wealth of resources on the Internet for their research.
Acquiring Varied Writing Skills
If students are required to publish their work on the Internet, they have to develop hypertext skills. These skills help students gain experience in non-sequential writings.
3.1.2 Disadvantages of using ICT in education
However, the use of the Internet for education is not without problems. Therefore, one should expect the problems to be encountered in using the Internet in teaching to be evolving as well. There are some disadvantage of using ICT for teaching and learning:
Plagiarism.
Apart from Web sites that claim to help students write term papers, there are numerous cases of students downloading information from the internet and turning them in for grades. We can minimize this problem by requiring students to cite research sources.
Student Privacy.
Criminals, marketers, and other persons can easily get information from students when they are online. These could post danger to students’ lives or may even lead to litigation against the school. To avoid this problem, students should be educated on the dangers of giving information to people online. Parents and teachers need to supervise students’ online activities.
Preparation Time.
It takes a lot of preparation time to effectively use the internet for education. In addition to designing Internet based lesson plans, we may have to surf the Internet to download lesson plans and adapt them to support the curriculum objectives or visit sites to select those appropriate for classes.
New Administrative Responsibilities.
Teaching using the Internet brings to bear a new set of administrative demands on the teacher and the school administration. These include development and implementation of acceptable use policy, training, developing new evaluation criteria as needed, and addressing parents’ concerns.
3.1.3. Stimulating students by means of mass-media
Life can no longer be without technology. As education is a constant part of our life, information and communication technologies must be an integrative part in the process of teaching and learning. As teachers, we can make our lessons more attractive, by using various modern aids:
Picture and images:
Teachers have always used pictures or graphics to facilitate learning, in the form of flashcards, large wall pictures, photographs, illustrations, projected slides, and projector computer images.
The overhead projector
Overhead projectors (OHP) are extremely useful pieces of equipment since they allow teachers to prepare visual or demonstration material.
Board
The most versatile piece of teaching equipment is the board whether this is of the more traditional chalk-dust variety or the white board, written on the marker pens.
Language laboratory
Today language laboratories occupy a position within the whole range of audio-visual media which is rather different from what it was a few decades ago. The modern language laboratory has between ten or twenty booths, each equipped with a tape deck, headphones, microphone, and now computers. The technology is organized in such a way that students can work on their own, can be paired or grouped with other students, or can interact on a one to-one basis with the teacher.
Bits and pieces
Teachers may bring photographs, letters, or objects that interesting for the students.
Computer
Computer uses in education and mostly in the teaching of English, continue to increase at an extraordinary speed-quite apart from its use in language laboratories.
Video
The use of videotapes has been a common feature in language teaching for many years. To some people videotape is merely a glorified version of audiotape, and the use of video in class is just listening with pictures. The main advantage of video is the students not only just hear language, but they see it too.
Radio
Radio is an important source of high-quality material. The advantage of radio is that it is topical and authentic, and learners are generally motivated.
Tape recorder
Tape recorder plays a supporting role in teaching language. The advantages of tape recorder are that it can be used in all phases of the cycle of teaching or learning activities, can both reproduce and record spoken language, and can be used for individual as well as for group work. So, it is very flexible.
The internet is the easiest way of communication. The communication is rapid, economic and attractive. It offers various facilities:
social media ( a platform for sharing ideas where students can add themselves to learning groups, but also on Facebook, twitter, Instagram)
on line facilities ( e- teaching, e-books, e-library, e-magazines)
on line courses (they can be free or payable; there are a couple of agencies which provide on line courses: such as Concordia University, Futurea Learn, MOOC, etc.)
films ( documentaries, entertainment or educational films)
There are few limits of using technology in teaching English. Some students and teachers cannot assimilate the IT skills, repeated methods create boredom, the students may remain passive and inactive, etc. We should pay attention to many factors when talking about multi-media technology in English teaching. H. D. Brown claims that the impact of information and communication technology on the teaching and learning of language would have a great outcome. There were many debates in the past few decades on the pedagogical use of computers in the classroom. While some scholars admit to the benefits of using computers as aids in the teaching and learning process, others are sceptical considering there is no certainty about their use, mainly because there are still teachers who are not familiar with the technology and will not be able to use it and apply it in the teaching-learning process. (see Figure 5)
FIGURE 5: Communicative process of multimedia applications
In the future, the use of multimedia should have greater importance because language teaching should be approached in interactive ways and this is why the use of technology cannot be underestimated. The outcome of teaching and learning should be a positive one when using technology. We are living in an internet age and the most important interest of a teacher has to be students’ motivation.
There are few perils which are to be considered by the teachers:
3.2 Interdisciplinarity in teaching English
There is a theory according to which there is the question whether a teacher can approach education differently not only disciplinary. Which are the ways a teacher can establish relationships with the other subjects? The answer comes by approaching education interdisciplinary. In the teaching of English we make connections with history, geography, science, arts, etc. An interdisciplinary project is a challenge both for teachers and students. The selected materials which insert the information in everyday life by means of cultural, psychologic and social connections are important. The next step is finding the right methods. By using these methods, connections are made between past and present, focusing on synchronic study. The learner can discover himself, finding his place in the world.
Useful methods are:
learning to know
learning to do
learning to work as a team
learning to be
learning by discovering
Venn-Euler Diagram
debate techniques
writing techniques: creating, inventing, recreating and modifying
The cultural phenomenon may be understood by studying images and lecture. There are a few important goals of interdisciplinary approach:
synchronizing the learner with real life
developing life competences (to think, to action, to learn, to transfer, to search, etc.)
different approach of the learner
personal success
treasuring national and universal heritage
promoting interactive methods
transforming memorizing into developing life competences, informing into creating
FIGURE 6: ‘Travelling with books’
-an interdisciplinary activity-
An interdisciplinary activity done together with my students and a few colleagues was “Travelling by books” (see Figure 6). I was happy when the other teachers accepted this challenge. Virtually we all travelled to India, Spain, Italy and England. I will refer to the travel to England where 25 students from the 9th and 10th grade and 4 teachers took part. At the beginning of the activity, the students were asked what they knew about England (position on the continent, capital, population, touristic landmarks). The students received a worksheet where they had to write down what they were going to find out about England. My colleague, who teaches geography, Magulean Florica, using IT, presented England from a geographic point of view. We watched a documentary and listened to the teacher’s explanations. The history teacher, Palcu Sorin, presented facts from the past of England, emphasizing the royal aspects. Photos representing queens and kings produced a positive impact on the ones present at the activity. The religion teacher, Lupu Daniel, presented a material about Catholics and the most important cathedrals from England.
I presented the most important writers of English literature: Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Virginia Wolf, Jane Austin, Rudyard Kipling, the Bronte sisters, Daniel Defoe. The students were divided in groups. Each group had a task: using the computer and the internet each group had to choose a writer, searching as much information as they could about him/her. Then, some fragments from Shakespeare were read aloud. Each group had to dramatize a fragment in 5 minute.
The conclusion of this activity was that the students enjoyed it, participating in an active manner, wishing to read the whole texts. The final discussions were held in a relaxed atmosphere, the students sampling food and music from England.
FIGURE 7: “The tour of European countries”
-an interdisciplinary activity-
Another interesting activity was “The tour of European countries”(see Figure 7). The students were divided in 6 groups, each group having a teacher who coordinated them. The selected countries were: Romania, Spain, France, England, Italy, and Hungary. The activity had various parts:
building up a representative stand for each country which consisted of pictures, food, maps, flags, books, etc.
a representative moment: dance, poetry, presenting traditional costumes, etc.
a power point presentation, created by the students, with the main touristic landmarks of each country, the students gave information together with the coordinator
The impact of these interdisciplinary activities has been a successful one, the students showing happiness, pleasure, involvement, learning in an easier way. It is true that these activities involve much more effort and energy, but the outcome is a positive one.
CHAPTER IV.
TEACHING LANGUAGE SKILLS
Teachers tend to talk about the way language is used in terms of four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. These are divided into two types. Receptive skills is a term used for reading and listening, skills where meaning is extracted from the discourse. Productive skills is the term for speaking and writing, skills where students have to produce language themselves. There are somehow concerns about separating skills in this way, mainly because they are rarely separated in real life. Another commonly-held view is that receptive skills are somehow passive, whereas production skills are in some way more active. It is true that when we speak or write we produce language and language activation takes place by doing this, but reading and listening also demand considerable language activation on the part of the reader or listener, who has to think to understand by using language knowledge to get meaning from what he/she sees or hears. It makes little sense to talk about skills in isolation since, as Eli Hinkel points out, ‘in meaningful communication, people employ incremental language skills not in isolation, but in tandem’. When engaged in conversation, people are bound to listen as well as speak because otherwise they could not interact with each other. Lecturers often rely on notes they have written previously, and people listening to lectures often write notes of their own; even reading often provokes conversation and comment. Writing, too, is seldom done in isolation. Much of today’s communication is electronic; people read what was sent to them and then reply almost instantly. What people say or write is influenced by what they hear and see. The most important information about language comes from this input. The more people see and listen to comprehensible input, the more English they acquire notice or learn. This input may take many forms: teachers provide massive language input, so does the audio material in the classroom and the variety of reading texts the students are exposed to. Students may read extensively, listen to podcasts or interact with other English speakers both inside and outside the classroom. Students may get other input, too, mainly in relation to their output. When a student produces a piece of language and sees how it turns out, that information is fed back into the acquisition process.
4.1. Integrating skills
In order to replicate the natural processes of skill-mixing mentioned above, and also because teachers want to provide maximum learning opportunities for the students, it is advisable to integrate different skills, that is why many learning sequences are ‘Patchwork’ lessons as opposed to ESA ( Engage, Study, Activate) or Boomerang lesson types.
‘Patchwork’ lessons may follow a variety of sequences: for example, engaged students are encouraged to activate their knowledge before studying one and then another language element, and then returning to more activating tasks, after which the teacher re-engages them before doing some more study. A ‘Boomerang’ procedure follows a more task based approach; the teacher gets the students engaged before asking them to do something like a written task, a communication game or a role-play. Based on what happens there, the students will then study some more aspect of language which they lacked or which they used incorrectly.
Teachers often ask students to discuss a topic as a way of engaging them in a topic they are going to read or hear about; speaking sessions allow students to investigate their thoughts and feeling about a topic.
When students are working with genre-focused tasks, written and spoken texts are vital for providing models for them to follow. If for example students are asked to write a report, the teacher can show them some actual reports and help them to analyse their structure and style.
Much language production work grows out of texts that students see or hear; a reading passage may trigger discussions and debate. Listening to a dramatic story may stimulate students to tell their own stories, or it could be the basis for a written account of a narrative.
Skill integration is a major factor in lesson planning. ‘Weaving threads of different skills and topics is a major art of teachers who plan for a sequence of lessons’.
4.2. Receptive skills
Although there are significant differences between reading and listening, the basic classroom procedure teachers often use is the same for both. A typical procedure for getting students to read a written text or listen to a recording involves two types of tasks. On one hand, there are those tasks where teachers get students to read or listen for general understanding, rather than asking them to pick out details. On the other hand, there are those tasks where teachers ask students to look at the text in more detail, for specific information or for language points. Moving from the general to the specific allows students to get familiar with what they are going to see or hear.
The procedure for teaching receptive skills generally starts with a lead-in activity; teachers engage students with the topic of the reading and try to activate their pre-existent knowledge of the world. They can then predict what a text is likely to be about, and what they are going to see or hear. This kind of prediction can be provoked by giving students various clues, such as pictures, headlines or words and phrases from the text. Once the students are ready to read, a comprehension task should be set, so that they will read or listen in a general way. Sometimes teachers direct follow-up activities in which the students have to look at the text again and examine it in more detail.
However, there is a problem regarding the comprehension of written and oral text- the language issue. In case of written texts, some researchers state that texts with longer sentences and longer words are more difficult to understand than those with shorter ones; others claim that the problem is the number of unfamiliar words which a text contains. If readers and listeners do not know a great number of words in a text, they will have great difficulty in understanding the text as a whole. When students who are engaged in listening encounter unknown words they tend to stick to those words, thinking about their meaning, thus missing the next part of the speech. Unlike reading, there may be no opportunity to go back and listen to the text again, therefore comprehension is gradually degraded.
Teachers need to find specific ways of addressing the problem of language difficulty such as:
Pre-teaching vocabulary
One way of helping students is to pre-teach vocabulary that occurs in the reading or listening text, thus removing at least some of the barriers to understanding which they are likely to encounter.
Extensive reading and listening
Extensive reading and listening frequently take place outside the classroom, when students are on their own. Some scholars claim that extensive reading is the best possible way for students to develop automaticity- that is the automatic recognition of words when they see them. It is considered to be the best way to improve students’ English reading and writing overall. The benefits of extensive reading are echoed by the benefits of extensive listening: the more students listen, the more language they acquire and the better they get at listening activities in general. Whether they choose recordings or passages from textbooks, recordings of simplified readers or podcasts of radio programmes, the effect will be the same. Provided that the input is comprehensible, they will acquire more words and greater knowledge.
Authenticity
Because it is important for students to get practice in dealing with written text and speech where they miss quite a few words but are still able to extract the general meaning, teachers should use mainly authentic reading and listening texts in class.
4.3. Productive skills
Although the productive skills of writing and speaking are different in many ways, a basic model for teaching and organising them may be provided.
In the lead-in stage, the teacher engages students with the topic, for example, they may ask students what they know about a certain subject. When setting the task, the teacher explains exactly what students are going to do, making sure that the students have all the information they need to complete the tasks. Once the students have started, the teacher will monitor the task, by going round the class, listening to students working and helping them where they are having difficulties.
An important aspect, worth mentioning, is the structure of the discourse. In order for communication to be successful, the discourse has to be structured in such a way that it will be understood both by listeners and readers.
In order for writing to be successful it has to be coherent and cohesive. Coherent writing makes sense because we can follow the sequence of ideas and points; it uses devices to connect ideas within each sentence and paragraph. Main ideas and meaning can be difficult for the reader to follow if the writing lacks coherence. Cohesion is a more technical matter since it focuses on various linguistic ways of connecting ideas across phrases and sentences.
Conversational discourse, on the other hand, often appears more chaotic, partly because it is ‘jointly constructed’ by how many people are taking part. In order for this ‘construction’ to be successful, participants need to know how to take turns, and what discourse makers they can use to facilitate the progression from one speaker to the next.
Part of our speaking proficiency depends upon our ability to speak differentially, depending upon the audience and upon the way we take in their reactions and respond to them. Part of our writing skill depends upon our ability to change our style and structure to suit the person or people we are writing to.
Learners engaged in a productive task can become very frustrated when they do not have the words or the grammar they need to express themselves. Sometimes, they can research the language they want to use, but this can make writing a difficult process, and in speaking, such an option is not available. There are, however, a number of steps which will help students achieve success.
Before asking students to take part in a spoken or written activity, the teacher may check their knowledge of key vocabulary and help them with phrases or questions that will be useful for the task. As far as speaking is concerned, it should be taken into consideration the fact that language which students have only just met for the first time is often not available for instant use in spontaneous conversation; more exposure and practice is necessary before they can use new language fluently. Teachers should not expect that they can introduce new language and have students use it instantly in communicative activities. Instead, they need to plan in advance, activities that will provoke the use of language which the students had a chance to absorb at an earlier stage.
4.4. Projects
Teachers often ask their students to work on assignments that last for longer than one or two lessons; such long-term projects have always been a part of educational sequences. In schools in many education systems around the world, students may produce their own booklets or computer-based materials which combine a number of subjects they have been studying over a period of time. In order to complete their projects, students will look at books, consult websites, watch videos and may conduct their own mini-experiments. Thus the project becomes a perfect tool for skill integration and information gathering.
There are many possible areas for project work in an ESL class. For example, teachers may encourage their students to produce a class newspaper, or guides to their own town. Some projects look at people’s attitude to current issues or ask students to produce a brochure for a new company. Projects are longer than the traditional essay or other written task and they demand significantly more research.
Projects can be organised in a number of different ways, but they generally share the same sequence:
The briefing: projects start when the teacher or the students decide on a topic. Sometimes students may use their own ideas, sometimes the teacher offers a list of possible topics, and sometimes the teacher may ask all the students to do the same project. Once the choice has been made, a briefing takes place in which teacher and students define the aims of the project and discuss how they gather data, what the timescale of the project is, what stages it will go through and what support the students will get as the work progresses.
Idea generation: once the briefing has taken place, the process of idea generation starts. If students have come up with their own topics, they have to decide what goes into their project, they need to make a plan about what they have to find out and think about where they can find that information. If teachers are the ones who are directing the project, then students will be told what they are looking for and where they are going to find it.
Data gathering: data can be gathered from various sources. Students can consult encyclopaedias or surf the Internet to find what they are looking for. They can also design questionnaires so that they can interview people. In addition, they can watch television programmes or listen to the radio.
Planning: when students have got their ideas, generated topic-specific language and gathered the data they require, they can start to make a plan of how the final project will be set out.
Drafting and editing: if the project has a final written product, a first draft will be produced, consisting of sections or the whole project, which other students and the teacher can look at and comment on.
The result: finally, the goal at which the project has aimed has been achieved. The result may, for example, take the form of a written report or a blog accompanied by photographs. It may be a short piece of film, a drama production or a recording.
Consultation: throughout a project, teachers need to be available as tutors, advising, helping and prompting students to help them progress. Such consultations will focus on how the project is progressing.
CHAPTER V.
TEACHING RECEPTIVE SKILLS USING ICT
Receptive skills (also known as ‘Passive Skills’, or reading and listening) are often contrasted with productive skills (speaking and writing). When learning a new language learners tend to develop their receptive skills first and then acquire productive capability. It’s a complex relationship between the two as they all play a supporting role with developing other skills. For example, reading skills can be a supporting factor to the development of writing, whereas listening can improve speaking fluency. Developing receptive skills can be particularly challenging especially when communicating with a fluent or native speaker. Although starting a conversation may be done with relative ease, maintaining one poses greater challenges. Most likely learners may not recognize features of connected speech or idiomatic language which may lead to an unsuccessful interaction.
Similarly with reading, if the language or grammar is too complicated it makes the text unintelligible. The key difference between listening and reading is that when learners listen to information, they have much less support than when they are working with the written word on the page. Listening requires ‘real-time’ processing of language, and once the message has finished, there is no easy way to go back and check for meaning, as there is during reading.
The best way to improve receptive skills is from exposure whether from an enjoyable authentic text or a quality ESL text book. For example, television, music, books and magazines are great ways to build vocabulary while incidentally promoting learner autonomy.
5.1 Teaching reading using ICT
Reading is the most important skill in English language, reading lessons should be comprehensive; the clarity of text is important, the toner, voice, pausing. Reading is the construction of meaning, there is no reading without understanding. When we read, we pick up information and our brain works continuously to connect that information to our background knowledge, remember what is important, incorporate and interpret new ideas in different ways.
There are two types of reading: extensive and intensive reading. In order to get maximum benefit from their reading, students need to be involved both in extensive and intensive reading.
Regarding extensive reading, the students are encouraged to choose for themselves what to read for pleasure and general language improvement. Most students will not do a lot of extensive reading if they don’t have the support and encouragement from the teachers, therefore the role of the teacher is crucial. The teacher needs to promote reading and persuade the students of its benefits, thus reading programmes could be organized where the students will be told how many books they are expected to read over a given period of time. The teacher can suggest that they could look for books in a genre that they enjoy and that they make appropriate level choices.
Intensive reading, on the other hand, is teacher chosen and directed. Thus, the students are to develop specific receptive skills such as reading for gist (general understanding- skimming), reading for specific information (scanning), reading for detailed comprehension or reading for inference and attitude.
5.1.1 Intensive reading: the roles of the teacher
The teacher should adopt the following roles when asking students to read intensively:
Organiser: the teacher needs to state the exact reading purpose, to give the students clear instructions and to set a time frame
Observer: the teacher can observe the progress of the students while reading without interrupting them. By doing so, the teacher is provided with valuable information about how well the students are doing, individually and collectively.
Feedback organiser: when the task is completed, the teacher can lead a feedback session to check if the students have completed it successfully. They may be required to compare the answers in pairs or in particular. The teacher should always ask the students to say where in the text they found the relevant information, because in doing so they have to study the text in detail. An important aspect, when organising the feedback session is for the teacher to be supportive if he/she wishes to sustain the students’ motivation.
Prompter: the teacher can prompt the students to notice language and text construction features within a text that they have read
In order to develop students’ reading skills, the teacher has to offer them a programme including materials, guidance, tasks and facilities, such as portable libraries of books.
Nowadays, the need of integrating ICT in the process of teaching English has become more and more important in order to deal with students’ appeal for reading, because they are no longer interested in the traditional methods of teaching.
5.1.2. Hypermedia
Regarding this matter, I would like to discuss the importance of hypermedia, which is being seen increasingly in educational environments.
There are several aspects of a hypertext. As Dr. Mark Horney and Lynne Anderson- Inman argue „ Hypertexts are electronic versions of texts presented via a computer. Hypertext versions of texts include resources that the reader can access while reading the text…including such resources as enrichment material, vocabulary support, prompted writing assignments, self-monitoring questions and graphic overviews”
Through a study done by Horney and Anderson- Inman, where they observed the reading patterns displayed by students reading hypermedia, there were six different hypertext reading patterns found. These patterns include „skimming, checking, reading, responding, studying and reviewing”. These are similar to the strategies that students use to read linear text. The students first skim the text looking for key words and graphics which help to display what the text will be about. Than the reader checks back over the text, systematically without reading, followed by the actual process of reading each page through all the text and diagrams. The students than began to access the interactive resources as they formed responses to what they had read. This may navigate them to various resources outside of the main body of text, providing them with more information. The students then studied what they read and reviewed it by re-reading and re-visiting resources.
Hypermedia can involve literature, which are programs that read aloud to students in realistic digitized speech. The text is accompanied by colourful graphics and students often can interact with both text and graphics. Examples are the programs in series such as: Living Books, Disney’s Animated Storybooks, Reader Rabbit’s, Reading Development Library, Discis books and Magic tales. These programs offer many advantages, but some levels of hypermedia offer more advantages than others.
There are three levels of hypertext in education based on the degree of the learner control:
read-only hypermedia
participatory hypermedia
exploratory hypermedia
Read-only hypermedia
At this level, the students are hindered from acquiring information, building sophisticated critical thinking and developing the habit of making connections with facts or information learned, thus they have minimal control over the training event. This level is great for students if they want to just read through something straight through linearly. The hypermedia guides the learner through what is available.
Participatory hypermedia
At this level, the student must be actively engaged in the learning process in order for training to be effective and the training itself must be meaningful and relevant to the learners’ current needs. This type of hypermedia goes beyond reading like a book. Participatory hypermedia is like a library where students can participate in several settings that allow the exchange of information. This type of hypermedia allows students to write their own material, while commenting on other’s writing.
Exploratory hypermedia
At this level, the students are enabled to explore and construct their own learning. Students can access other libraries or other learners thus the process of acquiring information becomes more meaningful and relevant. Video conference is one example of this type of hypermedia which develops the students’ ability to work as a team, to communicate, collaborate and solve different tasks together.
5.1.3 Advantages of Reading Hypermedia
Hypermedia systems have many advantages, but the major one is the opportunity for active student participation and information construction. The speed and sequence through the lesson are controlled by the learner as well as the content they work with and what feedback they receive, thus the responsibility of the learning becomes the learners’ and not the designer or the computer, as they choose a path of reading based on their interests and needs.
Though, hypermedia-based literature has many advantages, the most appealing aspect may be the advantages for students with learning disabilities. They often struggle to acquire basic reading skills. This type of literature can include text that is realistically speech-enhanced, appealing graphics and possibilities of students to interact with the material.
Another advantage of hypermedia-based children’s literature programs is that they offer opportunity to students to hear the story read aloud. This advantage can also be great for students whose second language is English. Students are provided with multiple opportunities to acquire new knowledge when they navigate themselves through the text as they reframe knowledge through cognitive reconstruction of text. Though there are many advantages, some of which I have listed above, there are some disadvantages to hypermedia also.
5.1.4 Disadvantages of Reading Hypermedia
These types of programs rely on discovering learning, therefore the students should have the skills to navigate through the programs and know how to interact with the text, which may be very difficult for some students. Readers may feel lost in text, overloading with words and concepts that they do not understand.
Some programs allow students to ignore the text and just play around without needing to decode any of the text. This type of media would not be effective in the students’ development of reading skills.
Another disadvantage regards the students with learning disabilities, who are often less skilled in the decoding process. These students need reading material that matches their interest, also enhancing their learning through slightly increased vocabulary.
5.1.5 Effects of ICT in the assessment of reading
Traditional methods require teachers to give assessments in the form of paper and pencil. With the use of ICT teachers can give personally created assessments using web-based quiz creation programs which enable teachers to create quizzes for students to take and review online. Students log in using personal usernames to identify themselves. Teachers may choose different options such as time limits, number of questions per page; ability for review before posting, possibility for re-takes. Therefore having these options in hand, teachers are able to customize quizzes to the needs of their students. ICT can be used to develop tests such as computer-based tests (often a digital version of the traditional paper-based tests), computer adaptive tests (e.g. able to change their form in response to the input from the learner being tested), and test-creation applications. ICT-based assessments may also incorporate simulation, interactivity and constructed response formats. There are sophisticated ICT programmes that score open-ended performances, measure learners’ reasoning processes, examine how learners go about thinking through problems and even provide feedback to learners. Technology has a vital role to play in effective and efficient assessment of learning. Modern technology offers educators a variety of new tools that can be used in the classroom. Technology can help teachers assess their students' learning as well as their performance in the classroom. Use of ICT in assessment involves the use of digital devices to assist in the construction, delivery, storage or reporting of student assessment tasks, responses, grades or feedback.
5.2. Teaching listening using ICT
Listening is the ability to understand and interpret messages in communication. It is an important key to effective communication. The most natural way to learn a foreign language is by listening. There are useful sources for listening such as:
YouTube
online listening labs ( Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab)
It has short and long listening activities for beginner-level as well as advanced-level students accompanied by pre-, while and post-listening tasks, transcripts, and cultural video clips.
radio/TV stations (ABC, BBC, etc.)
Short reports from the BBC World Service international radio news provide a short summary, transcript, and a glossary of some vocabulary terms. A very useful thing about the BBC audio/video is that it contains recordings of individual stories which are one to two minutes long. Learners can choose which topic they would like to listen to. There is a wide variety of different categories – Business, Technology, World News, UK News, Technology, and so on. Students can listen to or watch news on the computer, or download audio and video files to their mp3 players. Audio and video materials are accompanied by language practice activities that learners can do on their computers while they listen or watch, or print out and do them when they want to.
podcast/webcast (TED, RSA, etc.)
Podcasts are audio recordings which a user can subscribe to and download to his/her computer or portable listening device such as an MP3 player.
OpenCourseWare
While listening to digital audio or watching a video clip, students have the opportunity to pause at will, and listen and read a transcript. Moreover, students can get instant feedback on what they have done (e.g. you watch a video clip/listen to audio and check answers immediately after watching/listening). Students can access authentic websites, as well as websites for EFL/ESL learners. As students become used to selecting and evaluating listening materials, they are able to plan out their own use of web-based materials in their own time. This helps them become effective listeners and independent learners.
There are two types of listening: extensive listening and intensive listening. In order for students to improve their listening skills and gain valuable language input a combination of extensive and intensive listening material and procedures is required. Listening of both kinds is important because it provides the opportunity to hear other voices, not only the teacher’s. This enables students to acquire good speaking habits as they absorb spoken language, which helps to improve their pronunciation.
5.2.1 Extensive listening
„Extensive listening (where a teacher encourages students to choose for themselves what they listen to and to do so for pleasure and general language improvement) can also have a dramatic effect on a student’s language learning.” Usually, extensive listening takes place outside the classroom and the motivational power increases when students choose by themselves what they are going to listen to. We can obtain materials for extensive listening from various sources. Many simplified readers are published with audio versions on CDs, thus providing ideal sources of listening material. Students can also download podcasts from a range of sources, or they can listen to English language broadcasts online. These are authentic; it is normal, natural language, used by native or competent speakers where no concessions are made to foreign speakers. This is what our students will encounter in real life if they come into contact with target language speakers. Nevertheless, this may arise some learning problems for students at lower levels, but it is advisable for them not to worry if they don’t understand everything, they should set themselves simple listening tasks, because even if they are not aware they will take in a lot of language.
In order for extensive listening to be effective with a group of students, the teacher needs to make a collection of appropriate tapes, CDs and podcasts, clearly marked for level, topic and genre, from which students could choose. We can have students perform a number of tasks, such as recording their responses to what they have heard in a personal journal, or fill in report forms which the teacher has prepared, in which they are asked to list the topic, assess the level of difficulty and summarise the contents of a recording. They could also write comments on cards which are kept in separate comments box, add their responses to posters or write comments on a student website. The purpose of all these tasks is to give students more and more reasons to listen.
5.2.2 Intensive listening
When designing listening activities we should keep in mind that, in addition to global comprehension, we need to focus our attention on intensive listening. This is crucial to help students develop effective listening strategies and build bottom-up listening skills, in addition to the top-down skills that are emphasized in global listening activities.
Intensive listening involves zeroing in on particular segments of the text, and this should come only after the students have developed global comprehension of the text. Intensive listening may target different goals such as:
getting more detailed understanding of some segments of the text,
transcribing certain segments in the text,
guessing the meaning of a word or phrase from context,
looking at certain grammatical structures in the text to see how they can aid comprehension, etc.
Intensive listening activities can be done in class or in the lab or can be given as homework assignments. At the lower levels of instruction, we should consider doing global comprehension activities in class to work on strategies and utilize group work, and assign the intensive listening part for homework.
Many teachers use audio material on tape, CD or hard disk when they want their students to practise listening skills. This has a number of advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages: –
– the recorded material allows students to hear a great variety of different voices, not only that of their teacher. It gives them the opportunity to meet a range of different characters, especially where real people are talking.
– audio materials are portable and available. Tapes and CDs are cheap and the machines required to play them are rather inexpensive.
– teachers can also play recorded tracks directly from a computer
Disadvantages:
– it is often difficult to make sure that all students in a class can hear equally well.
– all students need to listen at the same speed, a speed dictated by the tape not by the listener
– students cannot see the speaking taking place.
– having a group of people sit around, listening to a tape recorder or disk player is not an entirely natural occupation.
As stated above, a disadvantage is that the students all have to listen at the same speed, a speed dictated by the tape and not by the listener. Nevertheless, there are a few things that can be done about this.
The students may control the speed of the recorded material; they tell the teacher when they want the recording to be paused.
If the space or resources allow it, students could listen to different machines in small groups, meaning that they can listen at the speed of a small group rather than at the speed of the whole class
Students could work in a language laboratory or listening centre. They can all work with the same recorded material, but they have control of their own individual machines, therefore they can listen at their own speed.
However, despite the disadvantages, we will still want to use recorded material at various stages in a sequence of lessons for the above mentioned advantages.
5.2.3 Intensive listening: live listening
A genuine communication can be ensured by live listening, where the teacher or visitors to the class talk to the students. This allows students to practice listening in face-to face interactions, but also to practice listening repair strategies, such as using formulaic expressions ( Sorry? What was that?), or rephrasing seeing if the speaker confirms the rephrasing. They can see who they are listening to and respond.
Live listening can take various forms:
Reading aloud: a pleasant activity is for the teacher to read aloud to the class, thus allowing the students to hear clear spoken version of a written text.
Story-telling: this provides excellent listening material, and at any stage of the story, the teacher can ask the students to predict what is coming next, to describe people in the story or to pass comments on it.
Interviews: the live interview is a motivating listening activity, mainly if students themselves think up the questions. In such situations, students really listen for answers which they have asked for.
Conversations: together with a colleague, the teacher can hold conversations, by doing so, students have the opportunity to watch the interaction as well as listen to it.
5.2.4 Intensive listening: the roles of the teacher
As teachers, we need to create student engagement through the way we set up listening tasks. We need to build students’ confidence, we should help them listen better and not only test their listening abilities. We should also acknowledge the students’ difficulties and suggest ways out of them. For the above stated reasons, the roles of the teacher are as follows:
Organiser: the teacher has to tell students exactly what their listening purpose is and give them clear instructions as how it can be achieved. Our responsibility as a teacher is to build their confidence by offering tasks that are achievable and texts that they can comprehend.
Machine operator: the teacher should test the recording out before taking it into class so as not to waste time. We should know where to stop the recording for particular questions and exercises. Also, the needs of the students should be taken into consideration, as when to stop and start the machine. In live listening, the teacher has to observe the students carefully to see how easily they understand and then adjust the way he/she speaks.
Feedback organiser: it is important to be supportive and sustain their motivation, because listening can be a tense experience
Prompter: when listening to a recording for comprehension purposes, the teacher can prompt the students to listen to it again in order to notice a variety of language and spoken features. They may also be given script dictations where some of the words are blanked out to provoke their awareness of certain language features.
5.3. Film and video
So far we have talked about recorded material as audio material only, but of course, teachers can also have students listen while they watch film clips on video, DVD or online. There are many reasons for encouraging students to watch while they listen because they get to see language in use. This allows them to see a whole lot of paralinguistic behaviour. For example, they can see how intonation matches facial expressions and what gestures accompany certain phrases (shrugged shoulders when someone says I don’t know), and they can pick up a range of cross-cultural clues. Film allows students to enter into whole range of other communication worlds: they see how different people stand when they talk to each other or what sort of food people eat. Unspoken rules of behaviour in social and business situations are easier to see on film than to describe in a book or hear on an audio track.
Film extracts can also be used as a main focus of a lesson sequence or as parts of other longer sequences. Sometimes, teachers can get students watch a whole programme, but at other times they will only watch a short two-or three-minute sequence.
Because students are used to watching film at home- and may therefore associate it with relaxation- teachers need to be sure that they provide students with good viewing and listening tasks so that they give their full attention to what they are hearing and seeing. It is worth remembering that students can watch a huge range of film clips on the Internet at sites such as YouTube, where people of all ages and interests can post film clips in which they talk or show something. Everything students might want is out there in cyberspace, so they can do extensive or intensive watching and then come and tell the class about what they have seen.
There are certain viewing techniques designed to awaken students’ curiosity through prediction so that when they finally watch the film sequence entirely, they will have some expectations about it:
Fast forward: the teacher presses the play button and then fast forwards the DVD or video so that the sequence shoots past silently and at great speed, taking only a few seconds. When it is over, the teacher can ask students what the extract was all about and whether they can guess what the characters were saying.
Silent viewing (for language): the teacher plays the film extract at normal speed but without the sound. Students have to guess what the characters are saying. When they have done this, the teacher plays it with sound so that they can check to see if they guessed correctly.
Silent viewing (for music): the same technique can be used with music. Teachers show a sequence without sound and ask students to say what kind of music they would put behind it and why. When the sequence is then shown again, with sound, students can judge whether they chose music conveying the same mood as that chosen by the film director.
Freeze frame: at any stage during a video sequence teachers can ‘freeze’ the picture, stopping the participants dead in their tracks. This is extremely useful for asking the students what they think will happen next or what a character will say next.
Partial viewing: one way of provoking the students’ curiosity is to allow them only a partial view of the pictures on the screen. Teachers can use pieces of card to cover most of the screen, only leaving the edges on view. Alternatively, teachers can put little squares of paper all over the screen and remove them one by one so that what is happening is only gradually revealed.
Listening routines, based on the same principles as those for viewing, are similarly designed to provoke engagement and expectations. The following techniques are worth mentioning:
Pictureless listening (for language): the teacher covers the screen, turns the monitor away from the students or turns the brightness control right down. The students then listen to a dialogue and have to guess such things as where it is taking place and who the speakers are. Can they guess their age, for example? What do they think the speakers actually look like?
Pictureless listening ( for music): where an excerpt has a prominent music track, students can listen to it and then say- based on the mood it appears to convey- what kind of scene they think it accompanies and where it is taking place.
Pictureless listening (sound effects): in a scene without dialogue students can listen to the sound effects to guess what is happening. For example, they might hear the lighting of a gas stove, eggs being broken and fried, coffee being poured and the milk and sugar stirred in. They then tell the story they think they have just heard.
Picture or speech: teachers can divide the class in two so that half of the class faces the screen and half faces away. The students who can see the screen have to describe what is happening to the students who cannot. This forces them into immediate fluency while the non-watching students struggle to understand what is going on, and is an effective way of mixing reception and production in spoken English. Halfway through an excerpt the students can change round.
Subtitles: there are many ways in which teachers can use subtitled films. One way to enable students to listen to authentic material is to allow them to have subtitles to help them. Alternatively, students can watch a film extract with subtitles but with the sound turned down. Every time a subtitle appears, the teacher can stop the film and the students have to say what they think the characters are saying in English. With DVDs which have the option to turn off the subtitles, the teacher can ask students to say what they would write for subtitles and then they can compare theirs with what actually appears.
As we know, no skill exists in isolation (which is why skills are integrated in most learning sequences). Listening can thus occur at a number of points in a teaching sequence. Sometimes it forms the jumping-off point for activities which follow. Sometimes it may be the first stage of a ‘listening and acting out’ sequence where students role-play the situation they have heard on the recording. Live listening may also be a prelude to a piece of writing which is the main focus of a lesson. Other lessons, however, have listening training as their central focus.
CHAPTER VI.
TEACHING PRODUCTIVE SKILLS USING ICT
Productive skills of writing and speaking have differences in many aspects but we can talk about a basic model of teaching them. The most important thing is that the teacher should organise the activity first. Students must be involved in this activity. When setting the task, the teacher has to explain exactly what students are going to do. During the activity the teacher monitors the task by going round the class, helping the students and being actively involved. The teacher must always give feedback because the students should know what was good. „ A successful communication, both in writing and in speech, depends, to some extent, on knowing the rules (…) and there are more general sociocultural rules, too, such as how men and women address each other, whether there is any difference between talking to people of the same age or people who are considerably older, and finally, how to perform certain common speech events such as agreeing, inviting, suggesting, etc. „
6.1. Teaching speaking using ICT
Speaking is the action of conveying information, to express thoughts, opinions, or feelings orally. Methods like role play, debates, group discussions, interview, dialogues, help students to improve their speaking skills, and also to develop emotionally by having self-confidence.
The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe the social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situation. To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, teachers can use a balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output, and communicative output. Language input comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities, reading passages, and the language heard and read outside of class. It gives learners the material they need to begin producing language themselves.
Language input may be content oriented or form oriented.
• Content-oriented input focuses on information, whether it is a simple weather report or an extended lecture on an academic topic. Content-oriented input may also include descriptions of learning strategies and examples of their use.
• Form-oriented input focuses on ways of using the language: guidance from the teacher or another source on vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar (linguistic competence); appropriate things to say in specific contexts (discourse competence); expectations for rate of speech, pause length, turn-taking, and other social aspects of language use (sociolinguistic competence); and explicit instruction in phrases to use to ask for clarification and repair miscommunication (strategic competence).
In the presentation part of a lesson, the teacher combines content-oriented and form-oriented input. The amount of input that is actually provided in the target language depends on students' listening proficiency and also on the situation.
Structured output focuses on correct form. In structured output, students may have options for responses, but all of the options require them to use the specific form or structure that the teacher has just introduced.
Structured output is designed to make learners comfortable producing specific language items recently introduced, sometimes in combination with previously learned items. Teachers often use structured output exercises as a transition between the presentation stage and the practice stage of a lesson plan. Textbook exercises also make good structured output practice activities.
In communicative output, the students' main purpose is to complete a task, such as obtaining information, developing a travel plan, or creating a video. To complete the task, they may use the language that the teacher has just presented, but they also may draw on any other vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies that they know. In communicative output activities, the criterion of success is whether the student gets the message across. Accuracy is not a consideration unless the lack of it interferes with the message.
In everyday communication, spoken exchanges take place because there is some sort of information gap between the participants. Communicative output activities involve a similar real information gap. In order to complete the task, students must reduce or eliminate the information gap. In these activities, language is a tool, not an end in itself.
In a balanced activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities from these different categories of input and output. Students at all proficiency levels, including beginners, benefit from this variety; it is more motivating, and it is also more likely to result in effective language learning.
The best cognitive understanding and practice can be captured and communicated by ICTs applied to the task of growing minds in ways that improve the quality of learning for many, rather than few children. ICTs can give teachers access to great conceptualisers – inside or outside their own ranks – to assist them in planning and programming cognitive development. Best of all, the interactive capacity of ICTs provides more opportunities for student to engage as creators and participants in the learning process. ICTs support teachers in bringing together aesthetic as well as scientific considerations, allowing overlying knowledge and meaning with skill and competence. We can, for example, enable students to design in ways that demonstrate perspectives, difficult to create in classroom spaces, which reveal new ways of seeing; we can bring serious research more easily into creative speaking or we can incorporate story treatments into science using multi-media to enrich and stimulate better learning outcomes. We can, in short, use ICTs to qualitatively improve cognition by conceptualising more creatively, improving teachers' knowledge and by tailoring learning resources to meet the particular needs of a child of every stage of his or her education. ICTs provide many opportunities to more easily use a variety of pedagogies.
As a tool, ICTs can support didactic or facilitative approaches, collaboration and interaction across time and distance, enquiry or interrogation, open or closed research, lock step or mind-map. Online technologies support and make easier constructive approaches, just as they make behaviourist approaches easier. The capacity of ICT to deliver information or to communicate with a mass of students in quite individual ways opens up the possibility of tailoring pedagogy to the needs of a student in time and place without the limitations imposed by peer groups. For example in using ICT for teaching speaking, a learning object should be a single file such as an animation, a video clip, a discrete piece of text or URL or it could be a collection of contextual files that make up a complete learning sequence. The learning object is likely to be larger than a digital object – it is a unit that has an educational purpose. Key to the initiative is the expectation that, although the curriculum contents is designed in sequenced units of work, teacher will unpack, re-sequence and combine components with other materials of their own. It is Lego-like content, designed to fit the culture of resource borrowing, creation and combination amongst the teachers.
The integration of ICT requires some effective techniques that help teachers to provide students with different opportunities to practice the speaking skill; therefore, it is important to suggest the following essential techniques that are seen by many scholars as the key factors for the mastery of the speaking skill.
Using CD-ROMs
CD-ROMs is an abbreviation for „Compact Disc Read-Only Memory‟ and they have been used since the 1980s. The integration of CD-ROMs in the classroom is strongly emphasized by many scholars.
Using DVDs
DVDs is an abbreviation for „Digital Versatile Disk‟ and they are similar to CD-ROMs. A variety of data can be stored in them, but their capacity in storing data is much greater than CD-ROMs. DVDs were developed in the 1990s and were important devices to be integrated in the language classroom and replace CD-ROMs for their storage capacity and the high quality of audio and video. Teachers can apply the following techniques in their teaching:
1. The subtitles of a dialogue are hidden during a first (and even second) viewing. 2. Learners listen to short sections of a DVD dialogue several times, transcribe them and then check their version of the transcript with subtitles.
3. Learners watch a short DVD dialogue between two characters with the audio switched off, reading the subtitles several times. Pairs are then invited to each take a character role, and to read the subtitles for their character at the same time the dialogue is played again, still with the audio switched off. This can be repeated several times. Can the learner keep up with the lip movement of characters? Finally, the dialogue is played with the audio switched on.
Using Chat
One of the most effective techniques in improving students’ speaking skill is chatting especially if it is well organized and well timed. It is considered as a very important tool in improving learners’ fluency and accuracy. It is important to determine the reason of chatting for students. Three different types of chatting are of great importance:
1)Free topic chats: In free topic chats students may meet in pairs or small groups via an instant messaging programme to practice English together whenever they have time all together, and they are not asked to talk about specific subject or at particular time.
2) Collaborative, task-oriented chats: here the teacher asks students to complete a real task outside class
3)Practice chats: it is called practice chats because students are asked to practice a specific language form, any telephone situation or communication strategies in order to develop their speaking skill and to be able to participate in different speech situations. In addition to these chat programmes students can use Yahoo, Skype, and Facebook to engage into conversation with native speakers of English. This helps in testing their oral performance, enhance fluency and accuracy, and again knowledge about the culture norms of the target language community.
6.1.1 Classroom speaking activities
The aim behind learning English as a foreign language is to speak and communicate. Students speak for many reasons: to be sociable, because they need to be able to communicate confidently and appropriately with people from all walks of life: with those who are older or younger, with those in positions of power, with peers and family, with small and large groups. Students will, for example, learn how to interact productively with their peers, to speak confidently in class discussions, to listen strategically, to read with comprehension, and to write well-structured and coherent texts. Speaking skill is said to be an active or productive skill. This is why teachers should use some techniques such as group work, role-play and discussion which encourage students to take communicative initiatives. Thus, they can provide them with a wide and richer experience of using the language as much as possible. These previous mentioned examples of teaching methods are describes as following:
Group Work
Despite the need for whole-class teaching and individual work, or „seat work‟, the use of group work has great importance for the dynamics of a language classroom. A group work is a classroom situation where students are working within smaller units or groups. Through interacting with each other in groups, students can be given the opportunity to oral exchange. For example, the teacher might want students to predict the content of reading a text of five paragraphs. Then, they are divided into five groups. Each group selects a paragraph of the text, reads it and prepares to answer the questions put by the other groups. Each group has to scan a paragraph of the text for detailed comprehension and formulate questions to test the comprehension of the other groups. The aim is to get the students involved in oral interaction: asking and answering questions, agreeing and disagreeing on certain points of paragraph and proposing modifications. Indeed, it is through this kind of tasks that researchers believe many aspects of both linguistic and communicative competence are developed. Oral interaction, in group, is based on a real attempt to find a collective solution to problems. Group work is a meaningful activity because the students need to focus on meaningful negotiation and information exchange. For this reason, students should be familiar with the discussion topic. The main concern of the teacher is, of course to get the students to talk and to stimulate their interest and imagination. To conclude, group work involving communicative tasks is essential to develop oral proficiency because it involves students’ participation in an orally purposeful activity.
Role-play
Many students derive a great benefit from role-play. It can be used either to encourage general oral proficiency or to train students for specific situations especially where they are studying English for specific purpose. Role-play is an authentic technique because it involves language use in real interactive contexts. It provides a format for using elements of real-life conversation and communication. This implies that role-play invites students to speak through a fictitious identity in an imagined situation to present the view of a person without necessarily sharing them. Role-play is an effective technique when it is open-ended so that different people would have different views of what the outcome should be and consensus has to be reached. There is a dynamic movement as the role-play progresses with students who lack self-confidence or have lower proficiency levels. To succeed with role-pay, the teacher has to give each student who does not play his role appropriately a card that describes the person or the role played. The teacher needs not only to identify the situation which will stimulate the discussion but also give them the role that matches the requirements of their personalities. Topics for role play should be taken from students’ current interest and anticipated experiences. This will contribute to increase the students’ self -confidence as a speaker and will motivate them to participate more.
Discussion
Discussion is any exchange of ideas and opinions either on a class basis with the teacher’s role as a mediator and to some extent as participator, or within the context of a group, with the students talking among themselves. It may last for just a few minutes or it may continue for a whole lesson (in case of advanced learners who have a right command of foreign language). It may be an end in itself; a technique for developing oral expression through exchange of ideas, opinions, arguments and points of views. We can say that this technique is student directed and teacher guided discussion. For example, all students can be asked to read a single book or story which can be discussed in one session upon completion of the reading. Discussion groups (also called literature circles and book clubs) can last from one to two or three sessions depending on the length of the book. While discussion has many advantages, some benefits for second language learners include: increased comprehension levels; opportunities to improve listening skills and develop spoken language proficiency; increased participation of quiet and shy students and more time for teacher observation of students learning.
6.1.2 Speaking: the roles of the teacher
During the different speaking activities, teachers need to play a number of different roles, among which the most relevant are:
Prompter: students sometimes get lost, can’t think of what to say next, may lose the fluency the teacher expects from them. The teacher may either leave them to struggle out of such situations on their own or help them.
Participant: when asking students to produce language, teachers should be good animators; they may what to participate in discussions. That way they can help the activity by introducing new information. However they have to be careful as not to participate too much, dominating the speaking and drawing all the attention to themselves.
Feedback provider: there are different approaches of giving feedback in speaking activities. When students are in the middle of a speaking task the teacher may inhibit them if he or she over-corrects, thus taking the communicativeness out of the activity. When students have completed an activity they should be allowed to assess what they have done and the teacher needs to tell them what went well.
When organising speaking activities it is crucial that the teacher makes sure the students understand exactly what they are supposed to do, thus the teacher should give clear instructions.
6.2. Teaching writing using ICT
Concerning writing, ICT is a very valuable tool for teachers. The widely spread use of ICT for writing purposes is surprising, considering the fact that teachers work with students who always have access to computers.
Like speaking, writing is also considered a productive skill; that is to say that the student is asked to produce language. However the outcome is very different. This depends on the “tools” we use to produce this language skill. The tool we use for speaking is our mouth, which can hardly be replaced by any technological device. In contrast, the tools necessary to produce written language can be replaced by technological devices. Although we might consider a pen and paper as the conventional tools for writing, the use of different types of computers has increased dramatically in recent years. Despite the fact that computer typing is arguably faster and tidier than writing with a pen, computers also offer a wide range of language tools that help the writer. Some examples of these kinds of tools are spell checkers and grammar checkers.
However, the use of such tools can be problematic. Most spell checkers and grammar checkers were designed for native speakers. Therefore, they might not be able to detect certain errors. For example, if the student writes “their” instead of “they're” most spell checkers will not mark it as a mistake, since the word itself is spelled correctly and the mistake can only be realized by looking at the word in the context of the sentence.
Nonetheless, these interactive functions that computers can provide compared to conventional writing tools, such as a pen and paper or a typewriter, are a great resource for both the teacher and the students. They provide clear and fast corrections and thus enable the learner to work at his or her own pace, the individualization of language acquisition.
6.2.1 Modern ways of teaching writing
The internet provides nearly unlimited sources and facilities for educational purposes. A simple search will provide useful tools and programs for innovative ways and methods to teach writing, such as:
Email is the electronic mail service which gives us space to type our message and can be sent across internet and other computer networks. Nowadays, it is the most popular tool for communication. Today, it is available in most of the hand held mobile devices which makes it one of the web tools which is easy to find in classroom environments. However, basic knowledge in communication and technical skills is required before any attempts to carry on an email-based project. Students need to know that different levels of formality are to be taken into consideration when they want to write an email. The use of formal or informal language is determined by the correspondent. Students are also required to know basic skills of emailing such as attaching files and sending to multiple recipients. Apart from being a useful means of communication between teachers and students, and between students themselves, email can be used to enhance teaching writing through different activities and practices. Email, as an authentic tool, helps the writer engage in a real-like conversation. Email also provides the options of spelling and grammar-check, which make the writer aware of the mistakes. Students can send their last draft to their teacher and classmates to get instant feedback. Thanks to emails, all students of the same class can be engaged in a collaborative work: for example, they can develop a story together. The teacher may suggest a topic and send it to the first student who will develop the topic by adding an idea and forward it to another student. The process may continue until the story is fully constructed with the collaboration of all the students supervised by their teacher. The importance of this tool is that it helps students learn and practice writing outside the classroom in a fun and collaborative way.
Blogs
Blog is also known as Weblog. People use it for various purposes. It is a frequently updated personal journal chronicling links at a Web site, intended for public viewing. It is used for journal purpose writing, sharing photos and audio-visual material. Since blogs require minimum technical knowledge and are quickly and easily created and maintained, they can be used to involve students in writing activities in various ways. They can also be used to motivate students to write their own stories, especially those who are shy to participate in the classroom activities. Blogs provide a space where teachers and students can work collaboratively to further develop writing skills. Teachers can offer instructional tips and students can practice and benefit from peer review and teacher’s guidelines. Among the writing activities that can be done through blogs we should mention: reporting, keeping an online diary, posting comments and writing about topics suggested by the teacher.
Wordle
Wordle is a tool for generating “word clouds” from text the teacher provides. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. The teacher can tweak the clouds with different fonts, layouts, and colour schemes. These word clouds are useful to summarize large documents and it helps in teaching creative writing to the students.
E-Groups
E-Groups, initially, were just email list management websites. Now, they have developed into online discussion forums. It provides common platform for sharing common interests. They are also known as SIG – Special Interest Groups. For a text based activity on e-Group, the teacher may draft an email for the creative writing activities given in the text. In this email, the teacher asks students to complete the task and send reply mail to the teacher. It should be strictly instructed that the students shall not change the subject line. This is necessary to keep all the conversations threaded together. The benefit of the activities using e-Group over simple email is that, all students are able to view activities done by other students. This remains invisible to other students in case of email based activities. When the activities carried out of students are open to entire class, it gives several benefits. Firstly, the other students learn from their classmates. This is one of the most successful ways of learning. Secondly, the transparency in the assessment can be achieved as things remain open to entire class. Thirdly, students develop digital citizenship skills. It is very important to teach students to digitally communicate in public spaces in an appropriate way.
This is a multiplatform mobile phone messaging service that uses the phone's internet connection to chat with and call other WhatsApp users. As it is available across various operating systems on mobile phone and supports pictures, audio and videos, it provides better opportunities in academic environment to enhance creative writing.
WhatsApp can be the linking platform for all the activities carried out using ICT tools. Blog links, emails, group interactions, word clouds – everything can be shared over WhatsApp. It has been proved that more users use internet over mobile phones rather than PC or laptops, thus, it is advisable to use mobile platform for integration of ICT in classrooms. Apart from text related activities, teachers can share word-cloud of a story or poem or any other authentic material and various activities can be thought out. Students could learn creative writing skills along with various other skills like reading other media, using mobile digital gadgets for academic purpose and creative / divergent thinking.
6.2.2 Advantages of teaching writing using ICT
It is important to acknowledge that students are already interested and engaged in using technology. This creates many amazing opportunities for schools and teachers to benefit from integrating some forms of technology in the classroom and to make teaching and learning more effective. Here are some of the main benefits of using technology in the classroom.
Improves engagement
When technology is integrated into lessons, students are expected to be more interested in the subjects they are studying. Technology provides different opportunities to make learning more fun and enjoyable in terms of teaching the same things in new ways. For instance, delivering teaching through gamification, taking students on virtual field trips and using other online learning resources. What is more, technology can encourage a more active participation in the learning process which can be hard to achieve through a traditional lecture environment.
Improves knowledge retention
Students who are engaged and interested in things they are studying, are expected to have better knowledge retention. As mentioned before, technology can help to encourage active participation in the classroom which is also a very important factor for increased knowledge retention. Different forms of technology can be used to experiment with and decide what works best for students in terms of retaining their knowledge.
Encourages individual learning
No one learns in the same way; there are different learning styles and different abilities. Technology provides great opportunities for making learning more effective for everyone with different needs. For example, students can learn at their own speed, review difficult concepts or skip ahead if they need to. What is more, technology can provide more opportunities for struggling or disabled students. Access to the Internet gives students access to a broad range of resources to conduct research in different ways.
Encourages collaboration
Students can practice collaboration skills by getting involved in different online activities, for instance, working on different projects by collaborating with others on forums or by sharing documents on their virtual learning environments. Technology can encourage collaboration with students in the same classroom, same school and even with other students around the world.
Students can learn useful life skills through technology
By using technology in the classroom, both teachers and students can develop skills, which are essential for the 21st century. Students can gain the skills they will need to be successful in the future. Modern learning is about collaborating with others, solving complex problems, critical thinking, developing different forms of communication and leadership skills, and improving motivation and productivity. What is more, technology can help develop many practical skills, including creating presentations, learning to differentiate reliable from unreliable sources on the Internet, maintaining proper online etiquette, and writing emails. These are very important skills that can be developed in the classroom.
Feedback
Once texts are posted online, students can get feedback from a variety of audiences and not necessarily from their fellow teachers. Moreover, it is thought that posting online and getting positive (or even negative) feedback will encourage students to make more efforts to improve their writings.
Rich Content and Multimedia
By means of computers, it is possible to add images, videos, drawings and hyperlinks to other websites to accompany the posted text and this could make the meaning more comprehensible. This is typically of great benefit as far as creative writing is concerned because it makes the content so vivid and so enjoyable for the readers.
Availability of Tools
There are a number of tools available online to help improve students’ written products such as online dictionaries, grammar and spelling checkers, encyclopaedias, and on-line writing labs (OWLs). Likewise, reading materials are numerous – ranging from newspapers and magazines to books of all kinds. There are also websites that help students learn new vocabulary, translate or even proofread. With countless online resources, technology can help improve teaching. Teachers can use different apps or trusted online resources to enhance the traditional ways of teaching and to keep students more engaged. Virtual lesson plans, grading software and online assessments can help teachers save a lot time. This valuable time can be used for working with students who are struggling. What is more, having virtual learning environments in schools enhances collaboration and knowledge sharing between teachers.
6.2.3 Disadvantages of teaching writing using ICT
Just as any other modern technology, the application of information and communication technology in education comes with some drawbacks. These problems can be related to the teacher, the technical issues or regarding students’ attitude. There are some factors that may discourage teachers to use ICT tools in the teaching of English. Teachers are faced with some barriers which prevent them to employ ICT. Simply using material like TV or films, or teaching through presentations will not automatically prepare students to learn language skills. Listening and watching for several hours to professional recording may not prove to enhance students’ appreciation of dramas or poems. The mere presence of technology in the classroom will not insure more interest, cooperation or learning. Moreover, ICTs tools distract students’ attention in the classroom and provide a tendency for the students to use short forms and informal abbreviations in their writing tasks.
The presence of ICT tools in the classroom makes the students negatively involved during the class time and makes the class control difficult for the teachers. Another concern that teachers have about using technology such as Instant Messaging (IM) or blogs with their students is that students will not take the work seriously and will not use what they have learned in school in their postings. Moreover, although students could be exposed to a variety of reading materials and genres of writing, there is a danger that the reading skills that are developed from scrolling the computer screen lead to an accelerated but superficial, and often inaccurate, understanding of the content.
6.2.4 Writing: the roles of the teacher
Although the teacher needs to deploy some of the usual roles (controller, prompter, participant, resource, etc.), when students are involved in writing activities, the roles that are especially important are as follows:
Motivator: one of the main roles in writing tasks is to motivate the students, to create the right conditions for generating ideas, to persuade the students of the usefulness of the activity and to encourage them to make as much effort as possible for maximum benefit.
Resource: during extended writing tasks, the teacher should supply information and language where necessary. The students need to know that the teacher is available and prepared to look at their work as it progresses, offering advice and suggestions in a constructive way.
Feedback provider: the way the teacher gives feedback on writing depends on the writing task the students have received. When doing workbook exercises based on controlled testing activities, the teacher will mark their efforts right or wrong. However, when it comes to creative or communicative tasks, the teacher should clearly demonstrate his/her interest in the content of the students’ work, by responding positively and encouragingly.
CHAPTER VII.
CASE STUDY
The context of the research
The research period:
Our research regarding the strategies of developing communication competences in an ESL class took place during three semesters, in school years 2016-2017, 2017-2018, from February 2017 until the end of June 2018.
The groups:
During the given period, a number of 50 students were the target of our research regarding the development of communication competences in an ESL class. The students were divided into two groups, who received a general name during the research as group 1 (G 1) and group 2 (G2):
G1 consisting of 27 students, ages between 14-15 years old, 9th graders from Liceul Tehnologic Chisineu Cris
G2 consisting of 23 students, ages between 16-17 years old, 10th graders from Liceul Tehnologic Chisineu Cris
Firstly, the students from the two groups were given tests and questionnaires. The objective of the tests and questionnaires was to evaluate the students’ level of English, their attitude towards the language and their communication skills in the target language. This research also aimed to discover the students’ ways of learning, in order to help them to develop their own learning strategies, but also to provide the teacher with important information regarding the students’ needs.
The subjects were generally cooperative, but there were a few who refused to collaborate:
G1: 7 students are not passionate about English, among them, 5 students state that they do not communicate in English, nor do they show interest in communication. These are negative attitudes which are often found among students who study a foreign language.
G2: 10 students are not passionate about English, among them, 6 students struggle to communicate in English. An increased interest is observed in older students who are aware of the importance of acquiring competences in a foreign language.
Students from both groups stated that interactive communication is of great importance in ESL classes, even if it is a simulated interactivity by communicating with their peers and their teacher. Their contact with English language outside the classroom is not limited; they come into contact with English on a daily basis by means of mass- media and modern technology.
4 students from G1 and 3 students from G2 often watch TV shows in English
5 students from G1 and 2 students from G2 read in English outside the classroom (they include here the time spent for preparing their homework), which suggests a reduced number of students who spend their time for extra study and learning at home.
13 students from G1 and 11 students from G2 surf the Internet for research purpose and for their homework
5 students from G1 and 7 students from G2 state that they do not avoid sites in English (although they do not acknowledge the benefits of these sites, they do exist; they are exposed to real-life language)
Regarding the use of the Internet, all the students state that they prefer Google translate to traditional dictionaries.
Nowadays, due to the use of technology, the class becomes an attractive place for teaching and learning English, communicating and collaborating. Still, there are some drawbacks in communication due to the fact that some students are shy: 15 students from G1 and 12 students from G2 say that they get stuck when they have to speak in English.
As favourite activities in the classroom, the students say that they prefer listening to comprehension exercises, PowerPoint presentations and watching short videos. The 10th graders also like writing tasks and vocabulary exercises.
The initial and final tests were conceived according to the curricula. Each evaluated competence received a maximum of 100 points.
The initial tests (see Annexes p.92-118) were set to evaluate listening comprehension, reading comprehension and language structures. G1 was given a level A2 test, while the students from G2 were given a level B1 test.
The first diagram, which evaluated the above written competences, presents the results of the students from G1.
Listening comprehension: Results above the average: 18 students
Maximum score: 90 points- 2 students
Minimum score: 20 points- 2 students
Reading comprehension: Results above the average: 25 students
Maximum score: 100 points-8 students
Minimum score: 30 points- 2 students
Language structure: Results above the average: 18 students
Maximum score: 100 points- 4 students
Minimum score: 0 points- 2 students
The second diagram marks the results of G2 regarding listening comprehension, reading comprehension and language structure.
Listening comprehension: Results above the average: 9 students
Maximum score: 100 points- 1 student
Minimum score: 0 points- 2 students
Reading comprehension: Results above the average: 13 students
Maximum score: 100 points-1 student
Minimum score: 30 points- 2 students
Language structure: Results above the average: 4 students
Maximum score: 75 points- 2 students
Minimum score: 0 points- 4 students
For G1 we observe:
The students prefer reading comprehension exercises
Language structures raise different problems for the students
For the listening comprehension exercises we used authentic recordings which made it easier for the students to understand.
For G2 we observe:
Language structures are not attractive for the students
Reading comprehension exercises are among their preferences
During the listening comprehension tests we used mp3 documents, which depicted real-life dialogues.
Taking into consideration the students’ responses in the another questionnaire, with regard to their interest for the English language, we may say that the best scores were obtained by the students who have a positive attitude towards the English language. All the students who obtained scores above the average, state that they love English and that they are interested in communicating in English.
Another stage of assessment was taken at the end of the research, when the students had to take a final test of evaluation. In this case, the students were evaluated based on the following competences: reading comprehension, listening comprehension and writing. The final tests given to the two groups are represented in the Annexes p. 119-143
In the following diagrams, we can observe an improvement as far as listening comprehension is concerned, but also regarding the students’ reading comprehension. If we are to take into consideration their writing scores, the results are not exceptional because during the tests they were not allowed to use neither the dictionary, nor the Internet, as they were sometimes allowed during the classes. It is also noticeable that there are no students who scored zero points in their tests.
Listening comprehension: Results above the average: 18 students
Maximum score: 90 points- 2 students
Minimum score: 20 points- 2 students
Reading comprehension: Results above the average: 17 students
Maximum score: 90 points-1student
Minimum score: 35 points- 1 student
Writing: Results above the average: 13 students
Maximum score: 90 points- 3 students
Minimum score: 20 points- 3 students
Listening comprehension: Results above the average: 4 students
Maximum score: 85 points- 1 student
Minimum score: 15 points- 4 students
Reading comprehension: Results above the average: 13 students
Maximum score: 90 points-1student
Minimum score: 35 points- 1 student
Writing: Results above the average: 9 students
Maximum score: 90 points- 2 students
Minimum score: 15 points- 4 students
During this stage of the final evaluation, the students’ progress is noticeable. They had better results, due to an increased effort from their part. Different methods of teaching were used in each class, adapted to the students’ needs.
Firstly, the students had to acknowledge that different activities are necessary in the ESL class in order to develop their skills: listening, speaking, writing and reading, taking into consideration grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. A foreign language is not only about words, phrases and exercises, but also about connecting with other people who share the same interests as Romanian students.
During my teaching career and mainly these last three semesters, I combined traditional methods (grammar-translation methods) and modern methods in the teaching-learning process. With the use of modern methods, I tried to bring a different new world in the classroom- the virtual one. Furthermore, I used activities that some people may consider childish ( at 17 years old they are still children from various points of view ), but which are, at some points appreciated by the adults: role-play, films, crosswords, songs, emails, blogs, online newspapers, online radio, power point presentation, e-portfolio. Before engaging into certain lessons I used icebreaker activities.
Icebreaker activities, used mostly at the beginning of a lesson, may be games or activities used to introduce people to each other so that they feel more relaxed together. To qualify as an icebreaker, an activity, exercise, or experience should have most of the following criteria:
should be fun
should be non-threatening
should be highly interactive
should be simple and easy to understand
should be success-oriented
In order to develop their listening skills, I worked with audio and video documents. During listening comprehension activities, I noticed that students found it difficult to stay focused on the information given by the recordings without having a visual support that is why videos were used more than mp3s. The students observed, then made connections between the images, sound and written information. Watching videos (documentaries or entertainment) was maybe the most appreciated activity during the research. Discovering information given by these authentic materials (interviews, documentaries) stimulated team work and debates.
During reading comprehension lessons, students were given different types of texts- narrative, descriptive, informative and argumentative- not to enrich their knowledge in literary styles, but to facilitate language use in different situations.
Speaking activities were present in every lesson (except for the written tests), emerging from other activities (reading, exercises and videos). With G1, poems were used mostly ( short poems ), which represented an excellent teaching aid, engaging students’ creativity and making them more active during classes, thus they all had something to say. But sometimes, because they are shy, or they fear not to say something wrong which would trigger their peers’ laugh, they prefer to stay silent. In these cases, the teacher should interfere and make them communicate. Regardless of the communicative competence developed in the ESL class- listening, speaking, writing and reading-it was noticeable during these three semesters of research that the methods used are not everything. Be it traditional or modern, it has to be an integrated part of a teacher’s strategy.
The research took place in ordinary conditions in the ESL class, without the students being subjected to exceptional activities. Still, I tried to bring novelty in the process of teaching and learning (weblogs, WhatsApp, YouTube).
Certain problems were raised during this period of research:
the great number of students in the class (27 students in G1) made it difficult for the teacher to observe all the students and make them take part in all the activities.
the insufficient number of classes in the curricula: 2 classes per week in high school and only one class per week at 10th grade, professional education system, resulting in difficulties organising English classes adapted to each student’s needs.
the lack of course books adapted to modern approaches, which should develop communication competences in students- in this respect, teachers have to search on their own expenses for extra materials to adapt to modern activities
the students’ lack of interest due to the system of education is another drawback, but the teacher’s gift and way of teaching may be the elements which can make the difference.
The decreased interest of students in English is also determined by extrinsic causes such as the current system of education and society. The specific conditions are seen as problems in the current system of education. The system should offer proper material conditions in the teaching-learning process, different material supports, accessible and adaptable to students’ needs without extra costs for students and teachers.
The last, but not the least important is the curricula, which should be simplified and adaptable to both students’ and teachers’ needs.
CONCLUSIONS
In today’s highly informational and technological world, it is extremely important to have good communication skills and presentation skills, which are the current needs and the basic requirements of any organisation. Emerging technologies make language teaching and learning process pertinent and practical to approach learning in new ways, that is why the use of information and communication technology cannot be underestimated in the process of language teaching and learning.
ICT has revolutionized society globally, including how language instruction is taught and delivered. Working with ICT in the ESL classroom can improve students’ practical language skills, which are helpful and useful to ensure and fulfil an effective result of teaching and learning. It is essential for a teacher to be familiar with modern ICT tools and use them properly to achieve the aims of English language teaching.
During the last few years we could notice that trying to integrate ICT tools in the process of teaching and learning was doubtful, both for teachers and students. Using ICT tools means that the teacher has to choose carefully the materials and spend extra time selecting and preparing these materials to suit the students’ needs. The problems regarding integrating information and communication technologies in the process of teaching and learning English are various and demand our attention. That is why this paper intends to emphasize the importance of using information and communication technologies in the ESL class.
I tried to bring arguments for the benefits of using ICT in teaching the four main skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing, by providing examples of useful techniques and activities suitable both for students and for teachers.
The first part of this paper presents and analyses how ICT works in the current system of education, because, at present technology has taken a leading role. The pages which present the theoretical aspects display a variety of teaching activities using ICT.
In the practical part I’ve chosen tests and worksheets in order to show the stages of different activities which can be accomplished with the help of ICT.
This paper pleads for using the new technologies in an ESL class for the benefits they provide because it is important for students to have access to a variety of learning tools suitable for this modern age.
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Richards, J. and Rogers, T., Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2001
Thornbury, S, How to teach speaking, Pearson Education Ltd.,2005
Thornbury, S, How to teach vocabulary, Pearson Education Ltd.,2001
Ur, P., A course in language teaching, Cambridge University Press, 1996
ANNEXES
Initial test paper
Level A2
Listening comprehension
Part I (50p)
Your friends Mark and Anna are talking about taking a dog on a trip. Listen to the conversation and choose the correct option (A, B or C.)
There is an example already done for you.
MARK’S DOG
EXAMPLE:
The dog…………..
A/ was a present for Mark. B/ chose Mark C/ ran away from Mark
1/ Mark works as a……………
A/ teacher. B/ pilot. C/ journalist.
2/ When Mark is away the dog stays with his…….
A/ mother. B/ friends. C/ neighbours.
3/ In South America they slept in………..
A/ the car. B/ a hotel. C/ a boat.
4/ The dog flew……….
A/ once. B/ twice. C/ many times.
5/ On trips dogs need to have a………..
A/ passport. B/ chip. C/ photo.
6/ A/ A month before travelling a vet should examine the dog.
B/ A week
C/ Some weeks
7/ Pets travel in………..
A/ a special container. B/ a basket. C/ next to the owner.
8/ Travelling with Pluffy is………..
A/ expensive. B/ fun. C/ stressful.
9/ On board of the plane the dog looked……..
A/ sad. B/ angry. C/ hungry.
10/ Pluffy can get into Mark’s bed………..
A/ when Mark is alone. B/ on cold days. C/ when it rains.
Part II (50p)
Listen to the interview and answer the questions based on the information you hear. Choose the correct answer (A, B, C)
1. Where did Randall probably grow up?
A. in Indiana
B. in Venezuela
C. in Utah
2. What was his undergraduate major?
A. English
B. Spanish
C. Japanese
3. How many children does he have?
A. two
B. three
C. four
4. What does Randall do on his hikes with his children?
A. He points out the wildlife and plants along the way.
B. He enjoys telling them stories about his life.
C. He teaches them how to survive in emergency situations.
5. What point does Randall make about raising children?
A. Enrol kids into schools early to help them learn better.
B. Be consistent in the way you administer discipline in the home.
C. Talk with your kids about problems so they learn how to solve them
ANSWER KEY
Part I 50points (10x 5p)
1-C; 2-C; 3-A; 4-B; 5-A; 6-C; 7-A; 8-C; 9-A; 10-B
Part II 50points (5x10p)
1-A; 2-B; 3-C; 4-B; 5-C
Transcript A2
PART I
A: Hey, Mark, you’ve got a great dog. Where did you get your dog?
M: Actually, my dog and I sort of found each other. I was moving from one house to another and as I was moving from the parking lot to my house I saw this really skinny dog who looked like he really needed food and also care. I patted him, he followed me back and forth, and the next day he was out in front of the gate of my house.
A: You are saying that you didn’t choose your dog. Your dog kind of chose you? So what’s cool about your dog?
M: Basically, my dog is the world greatest dog. He understands English and Japanese and French. He almost never barks. He likes lots of people. He’s a very intelligent, sensitive human being…ah, dog.
A: So, your dog speaks three languages?
M: He doesn’t speak them, but he understands them.
A: So, Mark, I know that your job involves a lot of travelling .As a journalist you have to be away from home frequently. What do you do with your dog when you travel? Who takes care of your dog?
M: Well, we have very good neighbours who love to have him. In fact sometimes my neighbours offer before we go. They know we are going: ‘’ Hey, can we take care of Pluffy?’’ and they take good care of him.
A: Have you ever actually travelled with your dog?
M: Actually, yes. Well, when we travelled in South America, he travelled with us almost everywhere. He sat in the car and sometimes we camped and slept in the car with him or we stayed in tents and he travelled with us. But we’ve also travelled overseas with him.
A: Wow, that’s cool! So, you’ve actually taken your dog on longer trips on the plane?
M: Yes, twice. We moved from South America to Senegal and he came with us there. We lived there for a while.
A: Wow, did you take your dog to Senegal?
M: Yes, and also we travelled in Guinea. In fact, we did some serious mountain climbing in Guinea with him.
A: So, like how do you take a dog when you travel? What do you have to do?
M: Well, depending on the country you have to check into the requirements. It may sound strange but all pets need some documents, a passport for example, just like people. Then he needs a lot of vaccinations, make sure he doesn’t….he has to be checked by a vet to make sure he doesn’t have any illnesses.
A: Ah, really?! Like how long does that take? I mean, do you have to take him to the vet, do you do this like a month before, or is it something you do just like before you travel?
M: Probably a couple of weeks at least are average.
A: So, how do you take a dog on a plane?
M: Well not every airline company would allow dogs, so you have to check into which do allow them. You can check their websites or call their customer service; then you have to have a special, nice sized container and you have to put a little bit of food in them and you make sure that the airline company tells everybody who’s working along like if there is any stops over they have to make sure everybody knows that there is a dog and then they’ll take care or make sure to check the water, make sure the temperature controls in the back of the plane are at the right settings.
A: When you got off the plane is your dog? Is your dog kind of freaked out, is Pluffy all stressed?
M: He was so happy to get off. He hates flying.
A: So, when he saw the cage, did he act in a funny way? Did he act, you know like with dread or fear?
M: He looked at me with his eyes, very sad and he tried to talk me out of it.
A: Does he ever succeed?
M: He succeeds in a lot of things. If he looks at me like this I give him extra food or let him into my bed if it’s freezing cold in winter. But if I have to move, I have to move, and we’re a family so he comes with me.
PART II
My name's Randall Davis and I'm originally from the state of Indiana in the United States. When I was 19 years old, I moved to Venezuela in South America, and later returned to the United States, where I attended Brigham Young University in the 1980s. I majored in Spanish education and TESOL, or teaching English as a second language. After graduating from college, my wife and I moved to Japan where we lived for eight years. Now, I work back in the States in Utah.
However, my greatest interests are my family. Years ago, I wanted to make something of myself in my profession . . . you know . . . get ahead in life. However, I realized that the most important things in life lived within the walls of my own home, and today, I try to put them first. My kids wouldn't remember me for the work I did outside of the home; they would only recall the moments we spent together.
Therefore, I enjoy spending time with my family. I have four children, and we go hiking and camping together, usually in Utah. On our hikes, we often talk about life, and I tell stories or share personal experiences. When I do this, I can focus on the kids without the distractions of video games or the Internet. Telling stories sounds easy, but when you have to think of a new story on a hot, 12-kilometer hike through the desert, you have to come up with ideas off the top of your head.
Now, this doesn't mean we don't have problems; all families face challenges in their lives, and our family is no exception. However, we try to talk openly about our problems, and we try to solve our problems together. Building a strong family takes time, but it is worth the effort.
Initial test paper
Level A2
Reading comprehension
Read about a woman’s job as a Christmas elf! Answer the following questions. (100 points)
A few years ago, I worked as an elf at a holiday resort in Lapland, in the north of Sweden. The resort was in a forest. Visitors and workers stayed in small wooden cabins all around the forest. There was one large cabin where people ate meals. I started work there in mid-November and stayed until just after Christmas.
Tourists used to stay at the resort for four days. On the first day, they arrived at the airport and travelled to the resort by coach. I didn’t have to work until the evening. Sometimes I went skiing. Then, while the guests had their evening meal, I worked behind the desk in reception. I helped people find their cabins, told them about the itinerary and sold tickets for extra tours. I didn’t dress as an elf at that time; I wore the hotel uniform.
On day 2, I and three other elves got up at about eight o’clock. Of course, it was still dark at that time. In Lapland it gets light at about half past ten during the winter, and it gets dark again soon after two o’clock. We dressed in our elf costumes and drove across the snow on skidoos to a cabin in the forest. Inside the cabin, there were huge presents and huge tools. We had to wrap the presents and pretend to make toys with the tools. There were mirrors in the cabin windows. These made us look very small. When tourists looked through the windows, they saw tiny elves using normal-sized tools!
On the third day, we went to a different cabin – Santa’s cabin! This was the day when the children finally met Father Christmas. The children would meet Santa and get a toy. Then they came into the elves’ workshop to meet us. This room was full of toys and beautifully decorated with a Christmas tree. I and the other elves pretended to make toys and chatted to the children in our own elf language.
The next day, the tourists went home and the next group arrived. I worked on reception again. Working as an elf was great fun, and a magical way to spend Christmas!
1. How long did she work at the resort?
a. about 2 weeks
b. about 6 weeks
c. about 10 weeks
2. How many nights did tourists stay at the resort?
a. 3
b. 4
c. 5
3. How did she spend day 1 of the tour?
a. Collecting tourists from the airport
b. Giving skiing lessons
c. Having free time
4. On which days did she wear her elf costume?
a. Days 1, 2 and 3
b. Days 2 and 3
c. Day 2 only
5. At 8 o’clock in the morning it was…outside
a. very dark.
b. just getting light.
c. light.
6. The mirrors in the cabin…
a. made the elves looked smaller.
b. made the cabins looked bigger.
c. allowed the elves to get ready.
7. On Day 2,…
a. tourists only saw the elves through the cabin window.
b. the elves played with the visitors’ children inside a cabin.
c. the elves had to wrap the children’s gifts.
8. On day 3,
a. children met Santa and the elves in the same room.
b. children met Santa and then met the elves.
c. children met the elves and then met Santa.
9. The writer worked in reception…
a. every evening.
b. once every three days
c. once every four days
10. Which activity does the writer NOT mention?
a. skiing
b. riding a snowmobile
c. skating
ANSWER KEY
Total points – 100 ( 10x10p)
1-b; 2-b; 3-c; 4-b; 5-a; 6-a; 7-a; 8-b; 9-b; 10-c;
Initial test paper
LEVEL A2
USE OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE STRUCTURES
I. Put the word from the box in the gaps to complete the text. Each word is used once. There is an example at the beginning. (30 points)
a. name; b. to; c. for; d. any; e. than; f. as; g. can’t; h. a; i. each; j. the; k. between;
l. hardly; m. up; n. is; o. only; p. my;
My best friend’s a (0) is Simon. He’s about ten months older……..(1)me. We go to school together. He’s…………..(2) best student in our class and he usually has good results in exams. He’s a serious person and…………(3) ever has problems. This year, his report wasn’t as good………(4) usual. But he’s not worried about it. He had eight grades A and…………(5)one grade B! I would like to have Simon’s problems. I haven’t got……..(6)As or Bs on my school report. My problem…….(7) that I don’t have enough time to study. Our lessons start at 8.00 a.m.……….(8) day and finish at 2.00 or 3.00 p.m. After school I have basketball practice…….(9) five and seven p.m. I come back home in the evening and I'm very tired. I try to do……(10) homework but sometimes I just fall asleep and wake…….(11) in the middle of the night. My mum says: “Go…..(12) bed now and get up early morning!” But it's not that easy. At weekends I must study a lot to prepare everything…….(13) the next week. I don't have much time to see my friends so we……..(14) meet often. Maybe I'm not very good at maths and other school subjects but I would like to be……..(15) sport star one day!
II. Put the verbs into the Past Simple, Present Simple or Present Continuous. (35 points)
1) Jason……………………(be) very busy yesterday and he didn't come.
2) We always……………..(help) my grandparents when they're in need.
3) Erica…………..(study) in France at the moment. She went there two weeks ago.
4) Kevin…………………(catch) a cold last weekend.
5) She usually…………….(go out) with her friends twice a week.
6) I……………….(give) her a wonderful present one year ago.
7) Susan……………..(fly) to Chicago a few weeks ago.
III. Complete the sentences. Circle the correct answer. (25 points)
1) “What are……………?” “They are Paul's books.”
a) this b) these c) the
2) The Johnsons have five…………… .
a) childs b) childrens c) children
3) “What's your…………sport?” “Definitely volleyball. I love it.”
a) favourite b) popular c) finest
4) Fifty nine……………of students in Poland have part-time jobs.
a) percent b) percentage c) per century
5) My……………little daughter is two years old.
a) brothers b) brothers' c) brother's
6) “Would you like to speak………….?” “Yes, but it's too difficult for me.”
a) China b) Chinese c) Chinian
7) Jack is fifteen. He is my…………, my older sister's son.
a) brother-in-law b) nephew c) niece
8) My family always have………….together in the kitchen.
a) meals b) miles c) meets
9) Top speed of my new car is 200 kilometres………….hour.
a) a b) and c) an
10) “What do you do……………Sunday mornings?” “I just relax and read.”
a) at b) on c) in
ANSWER KEY
I. 30 points (15x 2p)
1-e; 2-j; 3-l; 4-f; 5-o; 6-d; 7-n; 8-i; 9-k; 10-p; 11-m; 12-b; 13-c; 14-g; 15-d;
II. 35 points (7x5p)
1-was;
2-help;
3-is studying
4-caught
5-goes out
6-gave
7-flew
III. 25 points (10×2,5p)
1-b; 2-c; 3-a; 4-a; 5-c; 6-b; 7-b; 8-a; 9-c; 10-b;
Initial test paper
Level B1
Listening comprehension
Part I. (70 points)
You are going to hear the story of the famous Native American leader, called Crazy Horse. Listen to the text and choose the correct answer (1-10).
There is an example (0) at the beginning.
Crazy Horse
0/ The people of Crazy Horse…………
A/lived in central Canada. B/moved to the North. C/ hunted wild animals
1/ The Lakota used animals to……..
A/make clothes. B/ pull their carts. C/ cultivate land.
2/ The Lakota Indians………
A/did not understand Crazy Horse. B/were very good warriors.
C/were defeated in a big battle.
3/ We do not know exactly……….
A/where Crazy Horse lived. B/ the wife of Crazy Horse.
C/Crazy Horse’s date of birth.
4/ In his childhood his father………..
A/taught him many things. B/took him to the Great Spirit.
C/went with him to the rivers.
5/Little Crazy Horse tried to………
A/act like his father. B/be good to others. C/hide the truth from others
6/ Crazy Horse………
A/prayed every day. B/killed only birds. C/became a hunter.
7/The Lakota chiefs……..
A/had no large families. B/gave food to the poor. C/ate a lot of meat.
8/ Crazy Horse liked………
A/living in his village. B/being a leader. C/being on his own.
9/His name means………
A/wild horse. B/strange man. C/the chieftain.
10/On the mountain he……….
A/did not sing. B/had no food. C/did not dream.
Part II. (30 points)
Listen to the conversation and answer the questions based on the information you hear. Choose the correct answer (A, B, C)
1. What is the first problem with the man's reservation?
A. The hotel confused him with another guest.
B. Rooms are overbooked for that evening.
C. There are no more rooms available for five people.
D. The price for the room is more than he expected.
2. For what day did Mr. Nelson make a hotel reservation?
A. the eighteenth
B. the nineteenth
C. the twentieth
D. the twenty-first
3. What is taking place in the city that makes getting another room almost impossible?
A. a marathon
B. an outdoor music festival
C. a conference
D. building renovation
4. How much is the initial discount on the honeymoon suite after Mr. Nelson complains about the hotel service?
A. $10
B. $15
C. $20
D. $25
5. How does Mr. Nelson respond when the hotel clerk offers to provide him with a free room on his next visit?
A. He thinks it will take a long time for him to receive the free coupon for the room.
B. He feels he should first receive an apology from the manager for what has happened.
C. He suggests that the hotel should give guests an additional 15% discount in cases like his.
D. He implies that he might not visit again because of the problems he has had.
ANSWER KEY
PART I -70 points (10x7p)
1-a; 2-b; 3-c; 4-a; 5-b; 6-c; 7-b; 8-c; 9-a; 10-b;
PART II -30 points (5x6p)
1-a; 2-a; 3-c; 4-d; 5-d;
Transcript B1
Part I
Today we will tell the story of a native American- Crazy Horse. He was a leader of the Lakota Indians. Crazy Horse’s people belonged to one of the seven great families who called themselves Lakota. The Lakota people were hunters; they moved with the seasons, they moved through the great flat lands and the great mountains of the North Central United States. The Lakota depended on wild animals for food and clothing and for the materials to make their tools and homes. They depended especially on the buffalo, the great hairy ox-like creature. Crazy Horse’s tribe, the Lakota had many powerful leaders and skilled warriors. Crazy Horse himself was greatly feared, the soldiers could not defeat him in battle. Most white people did not understand why the Lakota fought so hard. They knew little of the Indians’ way of life; they did not know Crazy Horse at all. Much of what we have learned about Crazy Horse came from his own people. Even today, they still talk about him. To the Lakota he was both a warrior and a holy man.
No one knows for sure when Crazy Horse was born, perhaps around the year 1840. There are no photographs of Crazy Horse but it is said that he was not very tall and his skin was lighter than most of the Lakota people. As a boy, Crazy Horse loved to listen to the teachings of the Lakota people. His father was a holy man of the tribe, a medicine man; he taught the boy to honour all things because all things had a life of their own. Not only people and animals had spirits he said, but trees and rivers as well. Above all was the Great Spirit. Crazy Horse’s father also told him that a man should be judged only by the goodness of his actions, so the boy tried hard to tell the truth at all times and not to speak badly of others.
Crazy Horse learned to be a hunter; he could lie quietly for hours watching wild animals. When he killed a bird or a deer he always sang a prayer of thanks and sorrow.
He always gave the meat to the poor and to the families that had no hunters. That was what Lakota chiefs did. Crazy Horse was a very quiet man, he used to go away from his village and spent days alone. His people began to call him ‘‘the strange one’’. The name Crazy Horse in the language of the Lakota meant Wild Horse. When it was time for him to plan his future, his father took him high into the mountains. Crazy Horse stayed on a mountain by himself for three days and nights. He did not drink or eat. He prayed that the Great Spirit would send him a dream to show him how to live.
Part II
Guest: Hi. I have a reservation for tonight.
Hotel Clerk: And your name?
Guest: It's Nelson. Charles Nelson. Hotel Clerk: Okay. Mr. Nelson. That's a room for five, and . . .
Guest: Excuse me? You mean a room for five dollars? I didn't know the special was so good.
Hotel Clerk: No, no, no. According to our records, a room for five guests was booked under your name.
Guest: No. No. Hold on. There must be some mistake.
Hotel Clerk: Okay. Let's check this again. Okay, Mr. Charles C. Nelson for tonight . . .
Guest: Ah. There's the problem. My name is Charles Nelson, not Charles C. Nelson. [Uhh] You must have two guests under the name.
Hotel Clerk: Okay. Let me check this again. Oh. Okay. Here we are.
Guest: Yeah.
Hotel Clerk: Charles Nelson. A room for one for the 19th . . .
Guest: Wait, wait! It was for tonight. Not tomorrow night.
Hotel Clerk: Hum. Hum. I don't think we have any rooms for tonight. There's a convention going on in town, and uh, let's see. Yeah, no rooms.
Guest: Ah come on! You must have something. Anything.
Hotel Clerk: Well. We do have some rooms under renovation with just a roll-a-way bed. [U-hh] None of the normal amenities like a TV or working shower or toilet.
Guest: Ah man. Come on. There must be something else.
Hotel Clerk: Well. Let, let me check my computer here. Ah!
Guest: What?
Hotel Clerk: There has been a cancellation for this evening. A honeymoon suite is now available.
Guest: Great. I'll take it.
Hotel Clerk: But I'll have to charge you two hundred fifty dollars for the night.
Guest: Ah. Man. I should get a discount for the inconvenience.
Hotel Clerk: Well. The best I can give you is a ten percent discount plus a ticket for a free continental breakfast.
Guest: Hey. Isn't the breakfast free anyway?
Hotel Clerk: Well, only on weekends.
Guest: I want to talk to the manager.
Hotel Clerk: Wait, wait, wait Mr. Nelson. I think I can give you an additional 15 percent discount and I'll throw in a free room for the next time you visit us.
Guest: That I'll be a long time.
Initial test paper
Level B1
Reading comprehension
Read the following texts and match the paragraphs (1-10) to their titles (A-J). (100 points)
Make the Most of your Free Time
1.
Studies say that people nowadays have more free time than ever before. Then why doesn’t it feel that way? These days, our free time is usually spent watching television, using computers or communicating on our phones. Images and information are constantly flashing into our brains, so it’s no wonder we don’t feel as if we have really switched off. To really wind down and help us regain our energy levels, it is important to use our free time wisely.
2.
Think about what you want to achieve in your free time. Do you want to get fit, get creative or simply relax? Don’t worry about what you ought to be doing, just think about what will make you feel more content.
3.
Plan when you are going to enjoy your free time, and treat it in the same way as anything else on your calendar. If something else more important comes along, you can choose whether or not to postpone it, but never cancel it!
4.
Make sure you have everything you need to enjoy your free time in advance. If you’re looking forward to a nice long bath, buy in bath oil and candles. If you want to get out in the countryside, get your boots and map ready, and don’t forget to check the weather forecast.
5.
Don’t let anything else encroach on your free time. Ignore the washing up and the vacuuming. Don’t check your inbox for messages and turn off your mobile phone. Otherwise, the lines between free time and everyday live will begin to blur, and you won’t feel refreshed.
6.
In many free time activities, we take the role of consumer. When we watch TV, play video games or read, we are only passively involved. Take on the role of producer for a change. Build a model, write a blog or make an animation film. You will use a different part of your brains and will feel more energised as a result.
7.
But don’t go overboard. Many people worry too much about their free time activities. They want to do things that will impress their friends, look good on their résumés or help them get a better job. But free time isn’t about that. It is about doing an activity for enjoyment’s sake, so don’t let outside pressures influence your choice.
8.
Take the opportunity to expand your social circle. Everyone has different interests, so don’t expect your mates to be into the same things you are. Give them a break for a while, join a club and get to know people with the same interests as you. You can never have too many friends!
9.
You’ll really know you’re using your time wisely if what you’re doing helps other people. So find out what’s going on in the community and lend a hand. Visit the elderly or help out in a children’s club. If socialising’s not your thing, why not volunteer for a wildlife organisation?
10.
Once you’re relaxed and energised, you can think about what you’d like to improve in your life. Want to get fit? Learn a skill? Improve your job prospects? There are plenty of groups, clubs and classes you can join that will set you on a completely new life path. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and enjoy yourself!
A. Get creative B. Change your life C. Why it’s so hard D. Meet likeminded people
E. Establish your goals F. Plan ahead G. Make a difference H. Guard your time
I. Set a date J. Do what you want
ANSWER KEY
Total points: 100 (10x10p)
1.-C; 2-E; 3-I; 4-F; 5-H; 6-A; 7-J; 8-D; 9-G; 10-B;
Initial test paper
LEVEL B1
USE OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE STRUCTURES
I.
Many health problems are caused by unhealthy habits that a person has learned. The most commonly discussed habits are smoking, drinking coffee, overeating, and addiction to drugs. Habits are automatic responses developed and used by the body to save time and energy. Because habits save energy, they are good if we want to keep the habit, but dangerous if we want to break the habit. Doctors often recommend that their patients replace an old habit with a new habit. For example, if a person wishes to break a smoking habit, the person might replace smoking with deep breathing or stretching exercises. When the person has a desire to smoke, he or she should then stand up and do the exercises briefly. This will be more effective than simply saying "no" to the old habit.
a) Read the text and decide if the following sentences are true (T) or false (F). On your answer sheet, write T or F next to the number corresponding to each sentence. (10 p.)
1. Few health problems are caused by unhealthy habits.
2. Habits save time and energy.
3. Breaking a habit can be dangerous.
4. Patients should not change old habits for new ones.
5. Physical exercises are more effective than refusing an unhealthy habit.
b) Write the main idea of the text. (10 p.)
c) Formulate questions to which the underlined phrases or words in the text are the answers. (10 p.)
II. Put the verbs in the brackets at the proper aspect and tense. ( 30 p.)
One day while I………. (sit) in a café, a man……….(come) over to my table and………..( ask) if he……… (may) sit down for a few minutes. After…….. (speak) for some time, we………. ( find) that we once……….. ( meet) in Europe. He said, "I……….. (arrive) here two weeks ago and I yet……… (not make) up my mind whether or not………….( stay) here." "If I……… (be) you," I said, "I……….(learn) the language as quickly as I…………. (can) and then…………( make) a tour of the country. It…………(be) easier than making up your mind."
III Write about your favourite movie or TV series (250 words). ( 40 p.)
ANSWER KEY
I.
a) 10 points (5x2p)
1-F; 2-T; 3-T; 4-F; 5-T
b) 10 points
c) 10 points (5x2p)
II. 30 points (15x2p)
was sitting / came / asked / might / speaking / found / had met / arrived / haven’t made / stay / were / would learn / can or could / would make, is.
III. 40 points
FORMAL ACCURACY- adequate use of structures with a number of inaccuracies not impairing comprehension (5p)
WRITTEN ACCURACY- mostly adequate punctuation, some spelling mistakes, lack of paragraphing (10p)
VOCABULARY- activation of vocabulary fully adequate for the topic (10p)
STYLE – entirely adequate use of relevant content; well organised text; use of appropriate basic register and style, and some cohesive devices (5p)
COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTIVENESS – task handled with good effectiveness, content sufficient and relevant to topic, adequate communication (10p)
Final test paper
LEVEL A2
Listening comprehension
Part I (40 points)
Listen to the radio advertisement and answer the questions. Choose the right answer
(A, B, C)
1. What is the man's main problem with his computer?
A. It crashes a lot.
B. His computer has a virus.
C. It has a lot of junk software.
2. What is the issue with the computer warranty?
A. The warranty has expired since he bought the computer.
B. The warranty isn't valid because didn't register the computer.
C. The warranty doesn't cover software issues and problems.
3. What can we infer from the first company's response to the caller?
A. They sent the man the wrong computer in the first place.
B. The company doesn't provide warranties for their products.
C. They are understaffed to handle customer complaints.
4. Which of the following is a main selling point for the second company being advertised?
A. Their products are the newest on the market.
B. The computers are cheaper than those sold by competitors.
C. The company manufactures secure and trustworthy machines.
5. What is the name of the second company?
A. Turbo Command
B. Turvo Computers
C. Turban Camando
Part II (60 points)
Eating out
A. Are the sentences true or false? (30 points)
1. The customers want two tables.
2. There are two customers eating together.
3. The two customers order the same starter.
4. Both customers order the Thai chicken for their main course.
5. The customers order cold drinks.
6. Both customers order a dessert.
B. Write the correct word to fill the gaps. (30 points)
1. A table ……………two, please.
2. Are you…………… to order?
3. What would you ………… for your starter?
4. I'd ……………a French onion soup, please.
5. What ………….. you like to drink?
6. I'll …………….. a fresh orange juice.
ANSWER KEY
PART I. 40 points (5x8p)
1-B; 2-A; 3-C; 4-C;5-A;
PART II. 60 points
30 points (6x5p)
1-F; 2-T; 3-F; 4-T; 5-T; 6-F;
B. 30 points (6x5p)
1- For
2- Ready
3- Like
4- Like
5- Would
6- Have
Transcript
Part I.
Phone Recording: Hello and thank you for calling computer technical support.
Caller: Uh, yes, I have a problem . . .
Phone Recording: Your call is important to us, and we will answer your call in the order that it was received. You are number 47 in the queue. Your approximate waiting time is 47 minutes.
Technical support: Jason, speaking. How can I help you?
Caller: Oh, I'm saved. I thought I was going to have to wait all day.
Technical support: Okay, what's the problem?
Caller: Yeah, well, I bought one of your laptop computers about three weeks ago, but it just isn't running right.
Technical support: Okay, well, sorry to say, but your computer is no longer under warranty. [What?!] It ran out yesterday.
Caller: What? A three-week warranty? [Yeah, great isn't it.]. Ah!!!
Technical support: Okay, okay, what seems to be the problem?
Caller: Well, first of all, the thing always freezes [Yeah.] and has crashed a zillion times . . . [Always.]
Technical support: Uh, sir . . .
Caller: . . . and I think the computer's infected with spyware and the big banana Trojan virus . . . [That's normal.] That's my biggest . . . that's normal? . . . That's my biggest concern.
Technical support: Oh, oh, uh, sir . . .
Caller: . . . and plus there was a ton of preinstalled, third-party programs that just clutter the computer, and I'm at wit's end trying to get this thing to work.
Technical support: Sir. I have to put you on hold.
Caller: What?
Technical support: It's going to take us a minute or so to diagnose the problem. [Huh?!] I'm going to transfer you to our ONE technician.
Caller: One . . . one!? But . . .
Phone Recording: Thank you for waiting. Your call is important to us. You are number 84 in the queue. You approximate waiting time is 2 hours, 17 minutes or whenever we get around to answering your call.
[ End of call and continuation of computer advertisement . . . ]
Caller and Narrator: Does this experience sound familiar? Then, do what I did. If your computer is holding your hostage and you can't get the service you deserve, then call Turbo Command, creators of the safest and most reliable computers and operating system on the planet.
Listen, while the competition is spending all of their time trying to imitate our computer's performance and features, our company is innovating the computer industry. So, why buy a computer that hiccups every time you turn it on when you can be the owner of the sleekest and friendliest machine ever.
Call us today or visit our Website for more information, and let us introduce you to the ultimate computer experience.
Part II
Waiter: Hello
Customers: A table for two, please.
Waiter: Of course. Over here please. Here’s the menu.
C: Thank you.
W: Are you ready to order?
C: Yes, we are.
W: What would you like for your starter?
C: I would like French onion soup, please. And I’ll have a tomato salad, please.
W: And for your main course?
C: I’m not sure. I don’t know whether to have the steak or Thai chicken. Oh, I’d like the Thai chicken and rice please. Ah, ok. Me too.
W: That’s two Thai chicken and rice. What would you like to drink?
C: I’ll have a fresh orange juice and …I’ll like some mineral water please.
W: Ok. Thank you.
Final test paper
Level A2
Reading comprehension
Part I (60p)
Susie is writing in her diary about her new job. She works at a television company. Read her diary below. Then match the first parts of the sentences (1-10) with the possible endings (A–N).There are three sentence endings which you do not need. There are only 10 right answers. The first one (0) was done as an example
DIARY
Monday
Today I started my new job. It is so exciting! I work in a big room with three men: Mark, Dan and Peter. Mark can speak English, Norwegian and Chinese. Our boss is Annie. We all work very hard. We are a bit afraid of Annie.
Tuesday
Today Annie and I had lunch together in the cafe. She is really quite nice. She travels all over the world. I asked her which country she liked best. She said she liked India best.
Wednesday
I did a TV interview with a man and his pet monkey Pipo. The man taught the monkey to write. Pipo wrote his name in front of the cameras. It was fantastic! I always wanted to have a pet, so I went to buy a dog in the afternoon.
Thursday
Peter, Mark and I went to an Indian restaurant today. It has won a Best Food prize. Peter filmed me while I ate a very good meal. He did not have any food that day. Poor Peter! He was very hungry!
Friday
Annie invited us all for a drink to a new bar tonight after work. Peter couldn’t come, so we went without him. We had a great time. Dan was so funny. We laughed and laughed all evening.
Susie started a new job ( 0-I)
0. Susie
1. Susie, Peter, Mark and Dan _____
2. Mark _____
3. Susie and Annie _____
4. Annie _____
5. Pipo _____
6. Wednesday _____
7. We don’t know _____
8. Peter _____
9. Dan _____
10. Friday evening they _____
A. is very funny.
B. travelled to India.
C. wrote his name on TV.
D. won a Best Food prize.
E. had a good time.
F. went swimming.
G. speaks three languages.
H. work in the same office.
I. started a new job.
J. could not go to the bar.
K. ate a pizza on Saturday.
L. Susie bought a pet.
M. the name of Susie’s dog.
N. had lunch together on Tuesday.
Part II (40 p)
Travel guide
You are planning your holiday and you find the Travel Guide website. Match the pieces of advice and the pictures. There are more pictures than advice. You have to mark ten pictures. There is an example (0–A) for you.
0/ If you want any electrical machines to work, you’ll need an adapter in the United Kingdom.
1/ It is important to have good and comfortable shoes. You won’t enjoy your sight-seeing if you want to get them off.
2/ It is always good to take photographs when you are on holiday. Do not forget to take your camera with you when you travel.
3/ Travellers do not like liquid (shampoo, water) in their luggage. Shampoo on your shirts, sun cream on your socks? Nobody likes that! Only take small bottles with you.
4/ Always put some extra bags in your luggage. One or two little bags can be useful. You can keep your wet swimsuit away from everything else.
5/ Do not forget your slippers. When you travel to hot countries they are useful for keeping your feet cool.
6/ Carry a photocopy of your passport/ID. You might lose your documents or somebody might steal them.
7/ If you travel with your pet never leave it alone in the car – even for a short time. The car can be very hot for them.
8/ You might lose your luggage. Put a label on your suitcase inside and out with your name, airline, flight, where you travel and your address.
9/ If you want to stay at a hotel you should book to that hotel early. It is important especially in the summer months and at popular holiday places.
10/ If you are planning your holiday to an exotic country (e.g. Africa) you probably need injections.
Go to your doctor.
Final test paper
Level A2
Writing
Part I (45p)
You would like to join an English internet forum. Introduce yourself (in about 75 words):
Why do you want to join the forum?
What is your job?/ What do you study?
What do you do in your free time?
Ask questions about the other members
Hello,
I am from………………………………………
Part II (55p)
Use the pictures and write about what housework you do at home (75 words):
ANSWER KEY
PART I (45 points)
FORMAL ACCURACY- adequate use of structures with a number of inaccuracies not impairing comprehension (10p)
WRITTEN ACCURACY- mostly adequate punctuation, some spelling mistakes, lack of paragraphing (10p)
VOCABULARY- activation of vocabulary fully adequate for the topic (10p)
STYLE – entirely adequate use of relevant content; well organised text; use of appropriate basic register and style, and some cohesive devices (5p)
COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTIVENESS – task handled with good effectiveness, content sufficient and relevant to topic, adequate communication (10p)
PART II (55 points)
FORMAL ACCURACY- narrow range, a number of inaccuracies, some of them impair comprehension (10p)
WRITTEN ACCURACY- meaningful paragraphing, some inconsistencies in punctuation (10p)
VOCABULARY- activation of vocabulary fully adequate for the topic (15p)
STYLE- entirely adequate use of relevant content; well organised text; use of appropriate basic register and style, and some cohesive devices (10p)
COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTIVENESS- task handled with good effectiveness, content sufficient and relevant to topic, adequate communication (10p)
Final test paper
Level B1
Listening comprehension
Part I. 40 points
Listen to the conversation and answer the questions. Choose the right answer
(A, B, C, D)
1. What is the current time in the conversation?
A. 3:40 PM
B. 4:15 PM
C. 4:30 PM
D. 4:45 PM
2. How does the driver figure out that the passenger is a first-time visitor to the city?
A. The passenger catches a taxi for a short one-mile trip.
B. The passenger does not understand the rules for tipping drivers.
C. The driver finds the passenger lost on the street before picking him up.
D. The driver notices the passenger gazing upward at the tall buildings.
3. What sort of restaurant is the man looking for?
A. one that is relatively inexpensive
B. one that is not very crowded
C. one that offers large servings
D. one that is situated close to his hotel
4. What is one item the driver did NOT mention about the restaurant?
A. the price
B. the service
C. the interior design
D. the serving size
5. The driver suggests that the passenger go ______ to the restaurant.
A. by taxi
B. by bus
C. by subway
D. on foot
Part II. 60 points
A.(30 points)
You will hear a radio announcement about weekend activities in Fishport. For each question, fill in the missing information in the numbered space.
WEEKEND ACTIVITIES IN FISHPORT
YOUR CHOICE OF ACTIVITIES
BIRD ISLAND WALK – 10.00 a.m.
Don’t forget to take your (1) ……………….. with you
GUITAR DAY
Will be held in the (2) ……………….. Centre
PLAZA CINEMA – 2.30 p.m.
A programme of (3) ……………….. films for all the family
CYCLE RACE
This year’s route is through the (4) ………………..
GREEN STREET THEATRE – 3.00 p.m.
‘The Long (5) ……………….. ’ – a play for children
CAMFORD CASTLE – open all day
Display of (6) ……………….. used in medicine
B. (30 points)
Look at the six sentences for this part.
You will hear a boy, Ian, and a girl, Sally, talking about cooking.
Decide if each sentence is true or false.
1. Sally knows that Ian is an excellent cook.
2. Sally is happy to eat less meat than she used to.
3. Ian learned about cooking by watching other people
4. Ian and Sally agree that schools should offer more cooking classes
5. Sally is willing to pay more for dishes that are already prepared
6. Ian suggests that simple recipes are best.
ANSWER KEY
PART I. 40 points (5x8p)
1-C; 2-D; 3-A; 4-B; 5-C;
PART II 60 points
A. 30 points (6x5p)
1-boots; 2- art(s); 3- cartoons; 4- forest; 5- journey; 6- plants;
B. 30 points (6x5p)
1-B; 2-A; 3-A; 4-B; 5-A; 6-A;
TRANSCRIPT
PART I.
Passenger: Hey Taxi! Ah great. Thanks for pulling over.
Driver: Where to?
Passenger: Well, I'm going to the National Museum of Art, and . . . .
Driver: Sure. Hop in. No problem. Hang on!
Passenger: Uh. Excuse me. How long does it take to get there?
Driver: Well, that all depends on the traffic, but it shouldn't take more than twenty minutes for the average driver. [Oh]. And I'm not average. I have driving down to an art, so we should be able to cruise through traffic and get there in less than twelve minutes.
Passenger: Okay. Uh, sorry for asking [Yeah?], but do you have any idea how much the fare will be?
Driver: Oh, it shouldn't be more than 18 dollars . . . not including a . . . uh-hum . . . a tip of course.
Passenger: Oh, and by the way, do you know what time the museum closes?
Driver: Well, I would guess around 6:00 O'clock.
Passenger: Uh, do you have the time?
Driver: Yeah. It's half past four. [Thanks] Uh, this IS your first time to the city, right?
Passenger: Yeah. How did you know?
Driver: Well, you can tell tourists from a mile away in this city because they walk down the street looking straight up at the skyscrapers.
Passenger: Was it that obvious?
Driver: Well . . .
Passenger: Oh, before I forget, can you recommend any good restaurants downtown that offer meals at a reasonable price?
Driver: Umm . . . Well, the Mexican restaurant, La Fajita, is fantastic. [Oh] It's not as inexpensive as other places I know, but the decor is very authentic, [Okay] and the portions are larger than most places I've been to.
Passenger: Sounds great! How do I get there from the museum?
Driver: Well, you can catch the subway right outside the museum. There are buses that run that way, but you would have to transfer a couple of times. And there are taxis too, but they don't run by the museum that often.
Passenger: Okay. Thanks.
PART II.
A.
Announcer: This is Radio Wessex, bringing you the best in fun and entertainment on Saturday. We’ve got a whole programme of events for you in and around Fishport. Do you like walking? Why not join a walk round Bird Island with a guide, starting at 10 o’clock. It’s important to bring boots because the sea-shore’s too wet for trainers.
Then there’s the Guitar Day in Fishport. This was going to be held at the Music Centre, but it will now take place in the Arts Centre which is much bigger. It’s a chance you shouldn’t miss if you play the guitar.
What about a film? Or in fact, several? At 2.30 the Plaza Cinema is showing a programme of your favourite cartoon films. This is sure to be a great afternoon for the whole family. Then, later in the evening, there’s a weekend festival of French films – the first starts at 8.00 p.m.
Are you keen on cycling? If so, you’ll probably remember the exciting race round the lake last year when 500 cyclists took part. This year, the route takes you through the forest – more information from the Fishport Town Hall.
Or perhaps you prefer the theatre. Well, at the Green Street Theatre there’s a performance of a modern play for children. It’s called ‘The Long Journey’, and it’s about a young boy’s adventures as he travels across the world with his family. That’s at 3.00 p.m.
For a real adventure, Camford Castle’s open today and you can climb its six towers, each with amazing views. On the ground floor you can visit the old kitchens and see an exhibition of plants which were used to make medicine – you’ll find that really interesting! Refreshments are also available.
So, no reason to stay at home today!
B.
Ian: Hi Sally. I’m just going to the supermarket to buy something to cook tonight. Would you like to come round for a meal?
Sally: Great! I’ve always wanted to find out whether you’re as good a cook as everyone says! What’s on the menu for tonight then?
Ian: Well, two of the people in my house are vegetarian, so it’ll be meat-free. Is that OK?
Sally: Yeah, sure. I’ve never actually stopped eating meat but I prefer to eat other things, and at college it’s much easier to do that. When I was at home, I always ate everything my Mum or Dad had cooked, but we had so much meat.
Ian: My parents were the same, though I didn’t mind because I like eating meat, especially dishes with lamb.
Sally: Did your parents teach you how to cook?
Ian: Not really, my Mum was never very keen on letting me work in the kitchen! What made the difference for me was when I had a Saturday job in a restaurant kitchen – looking at what the chefs did there was amazing. I hardly did any cooking at school and I really think more time should be spent on it.
Sally: But there just aren’t enough hours in the school week, Ian, and I think other subjects are more important. Anyway, you don’t need to know much about cooking. I just get pasta meals or buy something else that can go straight in the oven.
Ian: But that’s really expensive!
Sally: Yeah, but it’s convenient, isn’t it, so you should expect higher prices.
Ian: The thing is, Sally, you don’t need expensive ingredients or detailed instructions to make something really special. It’s more important to really care about what you’re preparing. I’ll show you how tonight
Sally:[Laughs] I’m feeling hungry already!
Final test paper
Level B1
Reading comprehension
Part I (40p)
You are reading a report on summer programmes and weather in Britain. There are some places where one or two words are missing. Find the right missing parts. There are more parts given than you need. Give your answers in the boxes below.
There is an example done for you. ( 0-I )
Bring me sunshine
It's late, and it's at the end of storms and floods, but summer………(0) again for the bank holiday. Millions of people went to Britain's parks and beaches this weekend to celebrate……..(1)of dry, warm weather. As the temperature………..( 2)28˚C in the south-east of England, there was a picnic concert at Battle Abbey, a kite competition in Portsmouth, a sailing show in Southend-on-Sea and a historic………..(3)in Bristol. Final preparations were also made for carnivals in London, Leeds and Silloth – one of the few
places to experience rain. In London, …………(4)a week of rainy weather finally gave way to bright sunshine, drummers in Hyde Park started the annual Notting Hill Carnival. The spectacular costumes, massive sound-systems, hundreds of stalls and fashionable parties attracted more than two million people to west London today. The sunshine, together with the three-day bank holiday weekend,……….(5)traffic chaos. There were
more than 18 million vehicles on the roads, each travelling an average of 77 miles. Brighton, Bournemouth and Blackpool were the most common searches on the online……..( 6)as families travelled to the coast to enjoy the weather. The weather forecast showed yesterday that most of England and Wales had ………..(7) in August, while
Scotland and Northern Ireland had a lot. There were………..(8)clouds and regular, light showers. We did not really have a long period of calm weather in the summer.
That should………(9) this week as most of the country enjoys mainly dry weather, with a bit of sunshine. The weather is going to stay dry although it may cool, to a maximum of 24˚C today and 21˚C tomorrow. The only places that will be less calm are the north-east of England, where it is expected………(10), and Scotland, where more rain is forecast.
Possible missing parts:
A. all change
B. where
C. the return
D. festival
E. will show
F. caused
G. to be cloudy
H. reached
I. is here
J. little rain
K. route planner
L. never
M. a lot of
Part II ( 60p)
You are going to read an interview with Sir David Attenborough. On the basis of the text answer the questions below with 3-5 words.
There is an example done for you.
An afternoon with Sir David Attenborough
He has lived more intensely with the natural world than many of us. He thinks in terms of evolution, orang-utans, sea creatures and population increase. On television he has taught generations the marvels and terrors of the natural world. He has infected us with his enthusiasm, surprised us with his views of nature's wide variety. The story of his life is the story of birds and long journeys to get to know the beautiful plants and animals of the earth. He is 83 years old and to see him walking down the stairs of his house could make you think he is a middle-aged man.
Do you remember your understanding of the world as a child?
Very much so. My father gave me a fire salamander when I was eight. It was glossy black with yellow spots on it. I remember now it has a body like rubber and it smells of vanilla.
What happens to us when we grow up?
We lose a great deal of pleasure for sure, because our sense of beauty comes from the natural world, in my view. And in a practical sense you stop understanding the world in which you live. You begin to think the only thing in the world is human beings, and that's catastrophic. One can see a world where there's almost nothing left in the natural world because the population is increasing. Three times as many people are alive today as when I made my first TV programme.
Did you know that your first television programme was going to work?
Goodness, no. Remember, in 1952 television was almost entirely live. I said I'd like to do a programme about animals, and when it was agreed I went to the zoo and asked for a cobra and some others, and they put them in a sack and I took them back to the studio. We simply had the most famous biologist of the day, sitting at a desk, reading my words and then we'd show different shots of animals.
How did you discover such an intimate tone?
Well, if you're standing here and there's a gorilla few metres away, I am sure you would say in a low voice "There's a gorilla over there," rather than shout "IT'S A GORILLA!"
You do it when it's not a gorilla.
Animals should be respected, and if you're in the presence of even an ant colony, you should speak about it with respect.
Example:
0. What is in the centre of his life?
The natural world
1. How did he get information about nature?
2. What does he look like?
3. What was his first experience with nature?
4. What does nature give us?
5. What do adults focus on?
6. Why is the natural world getting smaller?
7. Who thought of doing a TV programme about animals?
8. Why did he need a cobra?
9. Who wrote the text for the biologist?
10. How does he speak about an ant colony?
ANSWER KEY
PART I. 40 points (10x4p)
1-C; 2-H; 3-D; 4-B; 5-F; 6-K; 7-J; 8-M; 9-A; 10-G
PART II 60 points (10x6p)
1.-he travelled/ from journeys/from his father. NOT: television
2.-a middle-aged man/much younger than his age/energetic/very fit.
3.-a salamander
4.-the sense of beauty/a great deal of pleasure
5. – human beings/themselves
6. – the population is increasing
7.-he (did)
8.-to show it on TV/for a programme about animals/a TV programme
9.-David Attenborough
10.-with respect
Final test paper
Level B1
Writing
Part 1 (40p)
Your English friend is coming to you for a month. She/he likes running and asks you whether she/he could go running in your town. Write an e-mail (ca. 125 words) and inform her/him about the following:
where you can go running in your town
would you go running with her/him (why/why not)
what sports you like (why)
what other sports your town offers (e.g. swimming, tennis, etc.)
Hello……….
Thank you for your letter………………………..
Part 2 (60p)
Last week you saw a new film. Write an e-mail about the film to your English friend (ca. 125 words) and speak about the following:
write about the film (story, location, actors …)
why you liked / did not like the film
where you like watching films: in the cinema, or at home on TV/DVD (why)
if you prefer watching films alone or together with others (why)
ANSWER KEY
PART I (40 points)
FORMAL ACCURACY- adequate use of structures with a number of inaccuracies not impairing comprehension (5p)
WRITTEN ACCURACY- mostly adequate punctuation, some spelling mistakes, lack of paragraphing (10p)
VOCABULARY- activation of vocabulary fully adequate for the topic (10p)
STYLE – entirely adequate use of relevant content; well organised text; use of appropriate basic register and style, and some cohesive devices (5p)
COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTIVENESS – task handled with good effectiveness, content sufficient and relevant to topic, adequate communication (10p)
PART II (60 points)
FORMAL ACCURACY- narrow range, a number of inaccuracies, some of them impair comprehension (10p)
WRITTEN ACCURACY- meaningful paragraphing, some inconsistencies in punctuation (10p)
VOCABULARY- activation of vocabulary fully adequate for the topic (15p)
STYLE- entirely adequate use of relevant content; well organised text; use of appropriate basic register and style, and some cohesive devices (15p)
COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTIVENESS- task handled with good effectiveness, content sufficient and relevant to topic, adequate communication (10p)
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