promoting academic listening and speaking skills with adult esl learners
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Promoting Academic Listening and Speaking Skills with Adult ESL Learners. Betsy Parrish Hamline University NCTN Conference November 2012. Objectives. OBJECTIVES Today we explore…. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Promoting Academic Listening and Speaking Skills with Adult ESL Learners
Betsy ParrishHamline UniversityNCTN ConferenceNovember 2012
• Explore the impact of integrating language and content to challenge and engage students in listening, speaking, and pronunciation instruction.
• Experience parts of lessons and classroom activities.
• Assess activities for their value in teaching academic listening and speaking strategies.
• Reflect on their use in your own settings.
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Objectives
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Benefits of integrating language and content
• Multiple options proposed (Snow et al., 1989; updated 2003)
• Benefits of collaborative tasks in content-based instruction (Swain, 2001)
• Gains in both accuracy and fluency (Burger & Chrétien, 2001)
• Represents most closely what mainstream/content courses demand (Early, 2001)
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Challenges/Obstacles• Many programs don’t have resources to teach
content-based courses.
• Many ESL programs are not co-located with content-based courses.
• Students in ESL classes have very different backgrounds, interested and experiences with content areas.
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Possible Solution
• Create content-based units.• Choose content that would appeal to a variety of
learners.• Integrate both content and language objectives.• Include practice in skills and strategies needed for
academic success.
Language skills/strategies development Note-taking Higher-order thinking/Critical thinking
Others identified- see Johnson & Parrish (2010)
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Some identified gaps between ABE/ESL and Post-secondary instruction:
ABE teachers rated the frequency at which a particular skill was included in classroom instruction
ABE/ESL transitions-level instructors
• College faculty rated the importance of particular skills needed for students to be successful in their classes
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College instructors: developmental education, Health care and technical/trades
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The disconnect between ABE/ESL and post secondary instruction
82.6% of ABE/ESL sometimes or rarely addressed. While 44.7% of college faculty report it is very or
extremely important.
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Listening/Higher-order Thinking:Ability to synthesize information from lectures with other sources
82.6% of ABE/ESL sometimes or rarely addressed.
While 44.7% of college faculty indicate it is very or extremely important.
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Note Taking During Lectures
Group/collaborative work Emphasis on group projects in college. Limited use of group projects in ABE/ESL
Teaching Listening Skills
Academic• Directions• Lectures • Interaction with classmates
Purposes for Listening
Workplace• Directions• Meetings • Interaction with customers
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Strategies that play an important role in listening
Teaching Adult ESL pg. 93
• Anticipating content• Listening to confirm predictions• Listening for gist• Listening for specific information• Listening for details-intensive listening• Making inferences
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Interactive top-down and bottom-up processing
“In top-down processing, the listener’s background knowledge (of the topic, general world knowledge, and of how texts “work”) interacts with the linguistic knowledge drawn upon in bottom-up processing…”
(Graham and Macaro 2008, p. 748)
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What we can do in class• Make students aware of strategies they are using;
• model selected strategies;
• provide guided and structured practice of the new strategies;
• include action planning, goal setting and evaluation.
(Graham and Macaro, 2008)
Teaching Oral Communication Skills
Academic• Oral presentations• Classroom participation• Small group work e.g., team
projects
Workplace• Train new workers• Clarification questions• Work in teams• Social interaction
Purposes for Speaking
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Nature of communicative speaking tasks
Teaching Adult ESL pg. 101
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Why do we need to integrate pronunciation instruction?
• Meet the demands of jobs (Parrish, 2004)
• Face the reality of NS’ attitudes (Munro, M.J., and Derwing, T.M.,1995).
• Learners perceived need to become intelligible (Derwing, T.M., and Rossiter, M.J.,2002).
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC 1995)Guidelines
• How frequently is English needed in the job? • How complex is the language that is needed for the
job? • Would miscommunication have grave results? • Is communication done under high-stress conditions? • Is communication with one-time listeners, or would a
listener have to time to become accustomed to the speaker’s accent?
Ask yourself those questions for each of the jobs below and see what you notice.
• Restaurant server
• Nursing assistant
• Manufacturing line operator• Supervisor in manufacturing• Doctor • Nurse
• Dental Hygienist • Dishwasher• Housekeeper• Teacher• Landscaper • Truck Driver
• Receptionist
Teaching Adult ESL p. 109
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A focus on suprasegmentals(Field,2005; Hahn, 2004; Levis, 1999)
• Question intonation• Word stress• Sentence stress-Emphatic and contrastive• Reduced speech• Thought groups
Who is Muhammad Yunus ?
The Nobel Peace Prize
• What is the Nobel Peace Prize?• Why do you think the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded
to someone for an economic development project?
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KWL ChartsMicro-financing
What do I know?
What do I want to learn?
What did I learn?
Research on empowerment of women
Professor Fahima Aziz at Hamline University has been conducting research on the ways in which membership in the Grameen Bank has affected the lifestyles and well-being of women in rural Bangladesh.
These are some of the hypotheses she tested:Participation by women in Grameen bank willlead to:• greater decision-making power• more control over fertility decisions• decision making for children’s marriages
Husband decides
Wife decides
Both decide
God decides
Don’t know
Row Total
Grameen Bank Loan Recipients
1 19 57 2 79
Non-Grameen members
28 6 33 11 78
Group A Fertility Decision: Number of Children
Groups presentations
Create new groups of 4 (one member from each of the original groups). Present your findings and your graph to your classmates.
Summarize the findings Considering ALL of the information you have gathered
from your classmates…1. In which area was there the greatest improvement in
the lives of women as a result of membership in the Grameen Bank?
2. How do these results compare to your own predictions?
3. Were there any developments that surprised you? If so, what?
Something that surprised you about another culture
Sentence stress
Table 4.3Content WordsThese are the words that carry the most meaning in the sentences. We stress these in natural discourse
Function WordsThese are the small words that are the glue of the sentences. We tend not to stress these words.
Nouns ArticlesVerbs PrepositionsAdjectives Short conjunctions (and, but)Adverbs Auxiliary verbsConjunctions (however, therefore) Pronouns
Teaching Adult ESL p. 113
VenturesTransitionsp. 3
Integrate note-taking
Ventures 4, p. 97
Combine listening and critical thinking
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Teaching Adult ESL Task 4.4
Group A Nowrouz in Iran Bastille Day in France
History/origin of holiday Freeing of Bastille PrisonFrench Revolution 1789
Special Food Fresh fruitWhite Fish
Activities MarchesMilitary marchesDances and music
Clothes New clothes
Group B Nowrouz in Iran Bastille Day in France
History/origin of holiday Celebrates start of spring
Special Food Eating outside
Activities Visiting FamilyGoing on picnicsJumping over fire
Clothes Anything red, white and blueTeaching Adult ESL pg. 96
Use listening grid activities
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Mingles
Teaching Adult ESL pg. 105
Give learners tools/templates for organizing information Help learners recognize text types or genres Act as precursor to formal note-taking Promote deeper listening, thinking Provide tools for building autonomy
Use them for Pre-listening While -listening tasks Note taking while listening Sorting and categorizing ideas, concepts, words Preparing for speaking to organize ideas
(Parrish and Johnson; 2010)
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Graphic Organizers
• the impact of integrating language and content to challenge and engage students in listening, speaking, and pronunciation instruction.
OBJECTIVESToday we explored…
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REFLECT
• In what ways did the activities promote critical thinking and prepare students academically?
• What did you hear about that you hadn’t tried before?
• Which activities/topics would be appropriate for the learners you serve?