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APRENDIZAJES PLURILINGÜES Y LITERARIOS.NUEVOS ENFOQUES DIDÁCTICOS

APRENENTATGES PLURILINGÜES I LITERARIS.NOUS ENFOCAMENTS DIDÀCTICS

ANTONIO DÍEZ MEDIAVILLA, VICENT BROTONS RICODARI ESCANDELL MAESTRE, JOSÉ ROVIRA COLLADO

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APRENDIZAJES PLURILINGÜES Y LITERARIOS.

NUEVOS ENFOQUES DIDÁCTICOS

APRENENTATGES PLURILINGÜES I LITERARIS.

NOUS ENFOCAMENTS DIDÀCTICS

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EL FACTOR LÚDICO Y LA MOTIVACIÓN EN LAS ACTIVIDADES DE LOS LIBROS DE TEXTO DE INGLÉS

COMO L2: REVISIÓN DE MATERIAL DIDÁCTICO

Sara Albaladejo [email protected]

Universidad de Murcia

KEYWORDS: foreign language, task, teaching resource, motivation.

ABSTRACT. Despite the fact that course books are nowadays increasingly being called into question, and that there has been a reduction in their use in favour of other resources –sometimes being completely replaced–, they are still widely recognised as the most widely exploited tool within educational settings. Besides, the fact that emotional bonding and a relaxed atmosphere significantly support the acquisition and internalization of content, not only in relation to learning English but also to any other subject, we can assume that the activities carried out in the classroom should hold a noticeable element of fun. The goal of this article is to analyse the tasks contained in two English course books published by Oxford University Press, which are commonly used in the final year of Primary Education and the first of Secondary Education. The purpose of the analysis is to identify the fun element and the motivational aspects in the activities of both course books; to this end, the evaluation framework proposed in “Materials Development in Language Teaching” has been applied. The aim of this paper is to assess the presence of this methodological approach in both books, to study whether or not there is a shift from Primary Education to Secondary Education, and to consider the consequences it involves for both educational stages.

1. introduction

Throughout history, text books1 have been proved to be a convenient tool for teachers of all countries and subjects, providing a learning structure and supporting teaching methods. However, controversy about whether or not they are still a versatile, useful and dynamic tool is still a frequent topic in education. What has not been so acknowledged and widely researched is the continuity of the materials students use when they move on from Primary Education to Secondary Education, even though there is a whole Article on it in the Curriculum of Secondary Education (Artículo 17. Integración de materias en ámbitos de conocimiento). Text books are a common resource in any subject, but the prominent place that English currently holds, and its increasing importance as lingua franca has triggered over the years the appearance of a wide variety of projects and programmes throughout all academic levels –e.g. Comenius, Erasmus+, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia Education and Science (M.E.C.) – British Council Bilingual Programme–, and the development of tools and new resources to aid teachers with the arduous duty of providing a well-rounded education while satisfying the increasingly demanding foreign

1 Both the terms course book and textbook, although not completely identical, will be mentioned to refer to books purposely made to be used as teaching materials.

Sara Albaladejo Albaladejo790

language curriculum. Although the establishment of English in the Spanish Educational System dates back to 1945 (Ministerio de Educación Nacional), the Communicative Approach, nowadays one of the most efficient methods, was not developed until the early 80s. Its widespread implementation was not incidental: learning is achieved through authentic language use within a cooperative and motivational environment, social bonding and enjoyable tasks. All this facilitates the acquisition of the L2 mainly through interaction (which was so overlooked in the past), yet also by means of the other three skills (listening, writing and reading). One would assume that the emphasis on communication would have meant a noticeable decrease in the use of course books, but it has not been so (Rodríguez, 2013). On the other hand, the design of the tasks and activities should stem from this methodology, and to that end educators ought to give special attention to assessing the materials they bring to their classrooms.

2. thEorEtical framEwork

Whether or not the way tasks are integrated and sequenced in a book is suitable for a specific approach and the context of a certain classroom depends on a vast number of interrelated factors, which are by no means easy to tease apart. The factors may be the methodology in use, the intention of the task or even the way it is conveyed. Some of the most influential variables, such as motivation and the element of fun when doing an activity, the way motivation affects how willing to speak students are, and the , will be examined in this paper.

2.1. Motivation and the fun element

Nowadays the teaching and learning of English using communicative tasks,, through which knowledge is acquired by means of authentic and meaningful use of the language, is emphasised. Thus, in order to accomplish this, the core purpose of the activities, and the fashion in which they are presented and expected to be accomplished have to be carefully considered. In L2 teaching, the motivation of the students plays an essential role. It can make a difference between success and failure, as motivated students normally make a significant effort to communicate and also achieve higher marks (Yule, 2004). Since this approach was established, the fun element as an aid for learning through tasks has become a primary factor to consider. It is understood that motivational and fun activities are those which portray real situations and give rise to the need to use the language with a fun but educational purpose (Andreu & García, 2000). For some authors it implies the modernisation of the present educational system so as to consider ludic activities as something other than meaningless and only used for leisure (Waichman, 2000). Torres (2004) states that playoriented or recreational activities should not be constrained to a certain age –although they are even more vital with younger learners whose motivation for learning the language depends essentially on what they do inside the classroom– but adapted to the needs, interests and aims of the educational stage. It is the planning and the choices the teacher makes that can turn these tasks into a pedagogical strategy: we can still use Pictionary to promote group work while revising vocabulary at the end of a lesson. However, success in prompting L2 acquisition from this viewpoint is nonetheless a challenging endeavour (Doughty, 2000). For obvious reasons, the topic of motivation has been researched widely (Anderman & Dawson, 2011; Dörnyei, 2014; Mayer & Alexander, 2011; Wenzel & Wigfield, 2009): it affects the performance of students and limits the content and resources they use, as well as the effort they invest in a certain task at all educational levels.

El factor lúdico y la motivación en las actividades de los libros de texto de Inglés como L2: ... 791

2.2. Course books

Suitable course books should not only support the work of the teacher but provide further materials (e.g. flashcards, audio and video CDs, workbook, early finishers activities) for learning and revising as well (McGrath, 2002). Besides, learning should be facilitated and the time for planning shortened. However, it has also been claimed that relying too much on textbooks can hinder teaching by limiting the process and causing the educator to become de-skilled when preparing and adapting them to the idiosyncrasy of their students, lacking the flexibility, spontaneity and creativity required (Richards, 1998). A state-of-the-art course book entails motivating activities, critical judgment and creativity so as to allow the student to comprehend and transform their reality, promoting affective and cognitive learning (Charalambous, 2011). It is easy to find a rich palette of materials to support any text book (workbook, DVD, teacher’s guide, EWB materials, websites, etc.), and as a consequence L2 publishing has quickly become a competitive industry. This abundance of resources means there should also be a close assessment before they are used. Tomlinson (2003:16) states that materials evaluation is ‘a procedure that involves measuring the value (or potential value) of a set of learning materials’, and Samuda (2005:232) that ‘materials development and design is often mistakenly seen as unworthy of serious study, being an essentially atheoretical enterprise’ Thus, if we did not fathom the details of the tools we are using in our teaching praxis, we could be triggering an untimely outcome.

2.3. Course book tasks

As we have previously seen, when it comes to learning a language at a young age, it is fundamental that teachers use activities that stem from communicative approaches focused on the acquisition of the L2 by means of socialising and motivational tasks that keep students engaged, encouraging them to be an active part of their own education. Moreover, advocates of the communicative approach claim that:

The best way to learn and teach a language is through social interactions. [. . . they] allow students to work toward a clear goal, share information and opinions, negotiate meaning, get the interlocutor’s help in comprehending input, and receive feedback on their language production. In the process, learners not only use their interlanguage, but also modify it, which in turn promotes acquisition (Norris et al., 1998, p.31).

Johnson (2003) offers a broad meaning of task, which normally refers to ‘what we give students to do in the classroom’. The scope of this definition encompasses exercises from ‘whole-class discussions on a text’ to ‘gap filling’, as well as activities that are not necessarily related to language learning, such as copying a chart without a specific purpose. Striking a balance between demands on learners and support for learning is best achieved through teachers having clear language goals (Cameron, 2001), and for this reason having a coherent set of activities is key.

3. thE prEsEnt study

The main goal of this small-scale research is to answer the following questions: 1) Are course book tasks pursuant to the communicative approach widely established in L2

learning? 2) With the communicative approach as reference, is there a consistent emphasis on com-

munication between the tasks contained in two course books used in the last year of Primary Education and the first year of Secondary Education?


In order to do so, an array of tasks presented in two different books by the same publisher, Oxford University Press, was analysed. The reason behind selecting OUP was the prominence of its ELT materials in the Spanish educational setting, nevertheless the units were chosen at random. Expecting to find a more motivational phase at the beginning of a unit (Estaire & Zanón, 1990), it was then decided that the first pages would be the ones to examine.

Amongst their catalogue and because of their significant appearance in most schools and secondary education institutions from the Murcia Region, the following books were chosen:

1) Casey, H., and Hipton, P. (2015). Oxford Rooftops 6 Course Book. Spain: Oxford Uni-versity Press España.

2) Wetz, B. (2014). Succeed in English 1. Spain: Oxford University Press España.

4. thE mEthod

A considerable number of evaluation frameworks were reviewed (Cunningsworth, 1995; Harmer, 2007; McGrath, 2002) before settling on the one offered in the chapter “The analysis of language teaching materials: inside the Trojan Horse”, by Littlejohn (2011)2. The framework was chosen according to our purpose of examining the tasks without making impressionistic judgements on whether or not a task was ‘desirable’ or ‘favourable’, but in accordance with the intention of ‘letting them speak’ before coming to our own conclusions about the suitability of the materials.

Using this outline two pages of the two books were randomly selected and analysed. For the purposes of this research, the evaluation was limited to the features of each task, focusing on three fundamental aspects:

A more detailed description of this framework can be seen in Appendix 1. a. what learners are expected to do: learners discourse role and discourse control; where

the learner is to concentrate their attention; what the mental process involve b. who the learners are to work with: teacher and students; whole class; pair work; indivi-

dually… c. what the nature of the content of the input and of the learner’s expected output is: form

of content offered to the learners; where the content comes from; type of content; form of content to be produced by learner; where the content originally comes from; type of content.

Following this examination and with the purpose of answering our first research question, the number of tasks based on communication, with a written/oral output and based on pair work, were identified, counted and compared to the remaining.

So as to elucidate the second enquiry (With the communicative approach as reference, is there a consistent emphasis on communication between the tasks of the course books used in the last year of Primary Education and the first year of Secondary Education?) the same analysis was performed when focusing on the tasks in the chosen pages, again randomly selected, of Success in English 1. Once the results of both analyses were drawn, the two sets were also compared.

5. rEsults

Are course book tasks pursuant to the communicative approach widely established in L2 learning? Oxford Rooftops 6: As can be seen in Table 1, the tasks where students had to respond to an auditive or written stimulus instead of initiating the interaction were abundant. The focus was primarily on the meaning, and the mental processes required for the tasks were, more often than

2 A more detailed description of this framework can be seen in Appendix 1.


not, simple repetitions. Also, the input, having its source in the materials, came mainly from written phrases. On the other hand, although in most tasks the expected output was apparently of a communicative nature (as it was expected to come orally) the product was a plain repetition of the sentences given in previous activities. Moreover, the opportunities for peer work were almost non-existent.


Figure 1. Oxford Rooftops 6 Course book. Unit 1, page 6.

Figure 2. Oxford Rooftops 6 Course book. Unit 1, page 7.


Figure 4. Succeed in English 1. Unit 5, page 51.

Figure 3. Succeed in English 1. Unit 5, page 50.


With the communicative approach as reference, is there a consistent emphasis on communication between the tasks of the course books used in the last year of Primary Education and the first year of Secondary Education?

The study of the tasks by means of Littlejohn’s evaluation framework has given rise to interesting results. In spite of finding a slight change in the way the language is produced, the predicted shift towards a more natural communication was not developed; instead an increase in the written work expected from students was found, which is more consistent with form-focused methods which rely on grammar and out of context situations.

Figure 5. Comparison of oral/written output and pair work in Primary and Secondary Education.

After closely examining the activities it could be seen that there was a disagreement between the materials and the communicative approach’s construct of learning an L2 through motivating, student-centred tasks, actively engaging them in using language related to their interests in an authentic setting. The fun element was not found either, since the only task remotely close to resembling it was the “game” in Oxford Rooftops 6 (exercise 9) in which they only had to guess and repeat a specific linguistic pattern. This finding appears to be in opposition to the literature review on EFL-oriented course books claiming to ascribe to dialogic forms of pedagogy where learners are encouraged to articulate their learning. In regard to the development of the tasks from a Primary Education setting, as can be surmised from Figure 5, the main change was the shift from oral output, based on repetition, to written output in the form of short sentences.

6. discussion

In this article we have analysed a set of tasks with the intention of finding out whether these materials concur with the commonly accepted communicative methodology and its emphasis on learning an L2 by means of motivating and fun activities. Aside from this, we wanted to verify the emphasis on communication from the tasks in two books by the same publisher, one used in the last year of Primary Education and another one in the first year of Secondary Education. The way the language is presented at this stage, having more in common with convoluted mathematical formulae than a system of human communication, seems to be related to the general opinion of the EFL secondary students on the subject being uninteresting and monotonous (Csizér & Kormos, 2009).


6. conclusion

In the present paper we have attempted to discern whether two current course books adhere to the generally applied communicative methodology, which holds that motivational and meaningful tasks containing a fun element are both preferred and more beneficial when learning an L2. In our research an array of tasks from two units of two books by the same publisher, Oxford University Press Spain, was examined by means of a materials evaluation framework designed by Littlejohn (2011). It was found that once the tasks underwent an in-depth analysis, they echoed form-centred methods focused primarily on grammar acquisition. However, since this was a small-scale study, further research is required to provide more data and clarify the issue. The second question addressed the topic of task emphasis changing from Primary to Secondary Education. To that end, the number of expressive tasks and the nature of the output from the books (one used in the last year of Primary Education and the second in the first year of Secondary Education) were compared. According to the general sentiment of demotivation showed by learners from Secondary Education settings studying English as an L2, the production that was expected from them was mostly meaningless, written sentences. Therefore, it was ascertained that the design of the materials was not consistent with the current cognitive theories on promoting learning by communicative activities. The findings open the way for more studies on this matter. In conclusion, we consider that additional research with larger samples of books is needed. Having a greater selection of materials would help to get more accurate results concerning the fun element and motivation in tasks, and the progression from one educational stage to the next.

BiBliography

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doughty, C. (2000) “La negociación del entorno lingüístico de la L2”. En: Muñoz, C. (ed.). Segundas lenguas. Barcelona: Ariel Lingüística, 2000. p. 163-194. ISBN: 84– 3448-240-1.

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appEndix 1

The process of materials evaluation (Littlejohn, 1998) 1. Process:

1.1. Turn-take: the role in the classroom discourse that the learners are expected to take. It could be a scripted response to direct questions, using language largely supplied by the materials (for example comprehension questions or drills); they could be asked to ‘initiate’, using language not supplied (for example free writing or asking their own questions); it could be that they are not required to take any direct interactive role at all (for example listening to a grammar explanation).

1.2. Focus: refers to whether the learners are asked to attend to the meaning of the language, its form or both.

1.3. Mental operation: the mental process required (for example, repetition, deducing lan-guage rules, hypothesising, negotiating, etc.

2. Participation: whether the learners are to work alone, in pairs/groups, or with the whole class. 3. Nature of content of the input and of the learner’s expected output: written or spoken; in

individual words/sentences or extended discourse; where it comes from (materials, teacher or the learners themselves); if the nature is grammar explanation, personal information, fiction, general knowledge, etc.

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