Dóczi Brigitta

Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem/University

Angol Alkalmazott Nyelvészeti Tanszék/

Department of English Applied Linguistics

doczi.brigitta@btk.elte.hu

22/23.08.191

Boosting incidental learning and story-

telling with graded readers and videos

mailto:doczi.brigitta@btk.elte.hu

Introduction

2

Introduction

Discuss the following questions in pairs or

small groups.

1. Do you read (enough)? What? When? In what form?

2. (What and how much) do your students read?

3. Is it hard to make them read?

4. Have you ever used graded readers or short stories in your

teaching? Why (not)?

5. If so, did you give them books/stories individually or as a

group? Why?

6. If not, what has stopped you or scared you?

7. What tasks did you use / can you imagine using with a

book/story?

3

1 WHAT

Graded readers, short stories & videos

• improve reading fluency

• encourage vocabulary acquisition

• help to understand how language works

• increase motivation

• help us make sense of the world

• share understanding and tolerance

• ’Matthew effect’ in reading (Stanovich, 1986)

4

2 WHY?

Aspects of knowing a word

Depth of word knowledge how well we know a word

Breadth of word knowledge vocabulary size, lexical coverage and frequency

Lexical fluency the speed and automaticity of access to lexical items (adapted from Daller, Milton & Treffers-Daller, 2010)

Treatment of vocabulary according to word frequency

based on Schmitt & Schmitt (2014)

Frequency

band

high-frequency words

(0-3,000 words)

mid-frequency words

(3,000-9,000 words)

low-frequency words

(9,000+)

Level of

learners

from beginner to

lower-intermediate

intermediate (3,000-

4,000 words)

upper-intermediate,

advanced

upper-intermediate,

advanced

Type of word

knowledge

needed

recall and recognition recall and recognition recognition

Type of

instruction

recommended

explicit teaching

(some incidental

learning)

incidental learning +

explicit teaching

incidental learning with

the help of vocabulary

strategies provided by

the teacher

Pedagogical

tools

coursebooks,

word lists,

form-focused

instruction,

graded readers,

learners’ dictionaries

coursebooks, graded

readers,

TED talks,

formulaic sequences,

form-focused

instruction,

pattern grammar

authentic texts with

vocabulary glosses for

explanation, text-profiling

tools (substitution of

words with more frequent

ones)

Depth of word knowledge

Comprehensive word knowledge

(Nation, 2001)

• word form → spoken form,

written form, affixes

• word meaning → connections

between meaning and form

• word use → grammatical

behaviour, collocational

behaviour, frequency, stylistic

register constraints

EXPERIENCE

translationtapasztalat

spoken form‘expieriens

written formexperience

associationswork, time,

professional,old, age

grammatical formnoun

Other formsto experience,experienced

Other meaningsélmény,felfedez

vmit

ProductiveKnowledge

Old men have a lot of exp.

Collocationshave some

expin sth

Incidental learning: benefits

• involves the use of authentic

language

• looks at language in context

• boosts vocabulary development

through extensive or narrow

reading, writing, listening and

communication

• increases vocabulary size

• promotes mainly receptive

knowledge (word form and meaning

link strengthened)

• provides autonomous learning

experience for the learner

Formulaic sequences

• more than 50% of

language (Conklin & Schmitt, 2012)

• pragmatic relevance

• stored together and

retrieved quicker

• better comprehension of

a given text + more

natural and fluent

production

• ‘Lexical Approach’ (Lewis,

1993)

• more encounters,

substantial exposure, focus

on noticing of form and

(literal) meaning

(Alali & Schmitt, 2012; Boers et al., 2006; Boers, 2013)

The interdependence of vocabulary

and grammar

• relevance of frequency in

lexical patterns ‘lexical

bundles’ Biber et al.,1999)

• lexis and grammar are

interdependent and

inseparable (Römer, 2009)

• understanding (context),

accuracy, fluency and

flexibility (Hunston, Francis & Manning, 1997)

• word consciousness

(e.g., grammatical or

collocational knowledge)

Nation’s (2008) four strands for vocabulary instruction,

Dóczi & Kormos, 2016)

Type

of

instruc

tion

Meaning-focused

input

Meaning-focused

output

Language-

focused learning

Vocabulary fluency

development

Aim practising listening and reading

practising

speaking and writing

rich vocabulary

instruction;

boosting word

consciousness;

fostering vocabulary

strategy use

strengthening the

existing links between

lexical items;

creating new

associations through

reorganizing existing

knowledge

How

to

achiev

e it

graded readers;

narrow reading;

movies; sitcoms,

series on TV

integrated output

tasks,

writing & presenting

short texts with new

vocabulary

focus on depth of

word knowledge

through form-

focused instruction;

vocabulary strategy

instruction;

training on

dictionary use

recycling and

rehearsing familiar

vocabulary and topics

11

3 HOW?

Task-based language teaching - TBLT

+ student-centeredness

+ real world knowledge

+ meaningful language use

+ focus on authenticity

+ language = a tool

+ learning takes place inside and outside class

+ teamwork

+ outcome

- cannot fully substitute PPP

- requires a level of independence of the learner(see Ellis, 2003, 2009; Willis, 1996)12

3 HOW?

Digital story-telling

+ provides opportunity to create tasks that are actually

engaging to learners

+ motivates students

+ promotes learning outside the classroom

+ Need for authentic materials is served by the vast amount of

samples of language use available on the Internet.

13

4 EXAMPLES

https://elt.oup.com/teachersclub/subjects/grade

dreading/?cc=us&selLanguage=en&mode=hub

14

https://elt.oup.com/teachersclub/subjects/gradedreading/?cc=us&selLanguage=en&mode=hub

4 EXAMPLES

• bookworms library

• online level tests (downloadable)

• book tests

• worksheets

• teaching and learning resources

• blog

• videos

15

4 EXAMPLES

Digital story-telling

Humans of New York (Facebook)

https://8ms.com/2013/05/21/6-great-examples-of-digital-storytelling

Khan Acedemyhttps://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/hass-storytelling/storytelling-pixar-in-a-

box/ah-piab-we-are-all-storytellers/v/storytelling-introb

Film English

http://film-english.com/tag/efl-video/

Inspirational stories

http://www.inspiremykids.com/

https://ed.ted.com/

https://www.weforum.org/videos/archive/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV3Nm3T-XAgVhKH9jT0ViRg/featured

https://www.youtube.com/user/TestTubeNetwork16

https://8ms.com/2013/05/21/6-great-examples-of-digital-storytellinghttps://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/hass-storytelling/storytelling-pixar-in-a-box/ah-piab-we-are-all-storytellers/v/storytelling-introbhttp://film-english.com/tag/efl-video/http://www.inspiremykids.com/https://ed.ted.com/https://www.weforum.org/videos/archive/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV3Nm3T-XAgVhKH9jT0ViRg/featuredhttps://www.youtube.com/user/TestTubeNetwork

4 EXAMPLES

Mini sagas

17

Conclusion

GRs, short stories and videos provide

• an enriched lexical environment, varied and systematic

exposure

• focused and repeated encounters of words

• autonomous learning with guidance

• formulaic language and lexical bundles on the right level

• Matthew effect

• motivation and a sense of achievement

• personal development

• input and a chance for output

18

THANK YOU FOR YOUR

ATTENTION!

Dóczi Brigitta

Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem/University

Angol Alkalmazott Nyelvészeti Tanszék/Department of English

Applied Linguistics

doczi.brigitta@btk.elte.hu19

More links

20

https://elt.oup.com/teachersclub/subjects/gradedreading/?cc=hu&selLangua

ge=hu&mode=hub

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/short-stories-for-esl-students/

https://owlcation.com/academia/Very-Short-Stories-For-High-School

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/using-graded-readers

https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2018/10/24/the-novella/

https://www.audible.co.uk/search?advsearchKeywords=Bookworms&WT.ac

=oxford-bookworms-audio-books

https://www.wevideo.com/blog/for-schools/3-powerful-examples-of-digital-

storytelling-to-amplify-student-voice

https://goinswriter.com/tell-story/

https://beoutsideofthebox.wordpress.com/how-to-write-a-mini-saga/

https://www.storylineonline.net/

http://aj3000.com/wp/free-graded-readers/

https://elt.oup.com/teachersclub/subjects/gradedreading/?cc=hu&selLanguage=hu&mode=hubhttps://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/short-stories-for-esl-students/https://owlcation.com/academia/Very-Short-Stories-For-High-Schoolhttps://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/using-graded-readershttps://oupeltglobalblog.com/2018/10/24/the-novella/https://www.audible.co.uk/search?advsearchKeywords=Bookworms&WT.ac=oxford-bookworms-audio-bookshttps://www.wevideo.com/blog/for-schools/3-powerful-examples-of-digital-storytelling-to-amplify-student-voicehttps://goinswriter.com/tell-story/https://beoutsideofthebox.wordpress.com/how-to-write-a-mini-saga/https://www.storylineonline.net/http://aj3000.com/wp/free-graded-readers/

References 1

21

Alali, F., & Schmitt, N. (2012). Teaching formulaic sequences: The same or different from

teaching single words? TESOL Journal 3 (2), 153-180.

Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). The Longman grammar

of spoken and written English. London, UK: Longman.

Boulton, A. (2011). Data-driven learning: The perpetual enigma. In S. Goźdź Roszkowski (Ed.),

Explorations across languages and corpora (pp. 563-580). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

Conklin, K., & Schmitt, N. (2012). The processing of formulaic language. Annual Review of

Applied Linguistics, 32, 45-61.

Daller, M., Milton, J., & Treffers-Daller, J. (Eds.). (2010). Modelling and assessing vocabulary

knowledge. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Dóczi, B., & Kormos, J. (2016). Longitudinal developments in vocabulary knowledge and lexical

organization. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ellis, R. (2009), Task-based language teaching: sorting out the misunderstandings.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 19(3), 221–246.

References 2

22

Nation, I.S.P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge, UK:

Cambridge University Press.

Nation, I.S.P. (2008). Teaching vocabulary: Techniques and strategies. Boston:

Heinle.

Römer, U. (2009). The inseparability of lexis and grammar: Corpus linguistic

perspectives . Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 7, 141-163.

Schmitt, N., & Schmitt, D. (2014). A reassessment of frequency and vocabulary size

in L2 vocabulary teaching. Language Teaching, 47, 484-503.

Stanovich, Keith E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of

individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly,

22, 360-407.

Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. Harlow: Longman.