Rugby players andfairy stories

Rob WaringNotre Dame Seishin University

JALT PANSIG May 21, 2011 Matsumoto

www.robwaring.org

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Fluency vs. Fluent

A fluent speaker (reader, writer, listener) can process the language automatically, smoothly, and without much effort.Fluency (in ELT) often refers to the development of the skill to become fluent in it (i.e. fluency practice). This often done by:

- speed reading / writing activities- speed word / sentence recognition activities- using graded readers / graded listening materials- pronunciation repetition- etc.

Someone can be fluent but not accurateOur challenge is to help them become fluent and accurate

Fluent Reading = Extensive Reading

This is NOT EXTENSIVE READING

This is LANGUAGE STUDY READING

This is NOT EXTENSIVE READING

This is LANGUAGE STUDY READING

What’s the optimum vocabulary coverage for building fluency?

SlowReading speed

High

% of known vocabulary100%

LowComprehension

High

90% 98%

ReadingPain

(too hard, poor comprehension,

high effort,de-motivating)

Intensive reading

(Instructional level, can learn new words and grammar)

Speed reading practice

(very fast, fluent, high

comprehension, natural reading,

enjoyable)

Extensive reading

(fast, fluent, adequate

comprehension, enjoyable)

A Balanced CurriculumINPUT

ListeningReading

OUTPUTSpeakingWriting

LANGUAGE FOCUS(Study)(Intentional learning)(Explicit knowledge)

Using a dictionaryIntensive readingAsking the teacher‘Teaching’Phonics….

Productive testsSentence / gap fill Pronunciation practiceControlled speaking tasksSentence level writing….

FLUENCY FOCUS(Communication)(Incidental learning)(Implicit knowledge)

Graded ReadingExtensive listeningWatching movies and TVListening to songs

….

Chatting and discussionKeeping a diaryWriting poemsMaking a speech……

What do learners need to know to be ‘good’ at English?

Learners need 4000 word families (7-9000 to read native novels easily) and their inflections and common derivations / multiple meaning sensesAbout 3-40000 common phrasal verbs and idiomsCommon phrases, fixed and semi-fixedCollocations and colligationsRegister, pragmatics, discourse level awarenessPronunciationSome basic grammarSkills and strategiesEtc. Etc. etc.

How long will it take to learn this?

An average word family needs 30-50 meetings for it to be learnt receptively from reading (more for productive use)An average word’s meaning takes 10-15 meetings to learn from intentional studyIntentional vocab learning is 16 times faster than incidentalTo learn the collocations and ‘deeper’ aspects of language learning takes MUCH longer than learning the words alone.There’s little research into the rate learning of collocation, colligation or lexical phrases from readingWe know nothing at all about how long it takes to master a particular grammatical form e.g. a tense, the articles, comparatives

Which collocations?

Transparent ‘weak’ collocations – easy to learn – don’t teachBeautiful flower, look out of a window, read a book, play a game

Specialized collocations – teach only if neededInsolvency act, habeas corpus, spaghetti bolognese

Infrequent collocations – don’t bother teachingRancid butter, a glimmer of hope, circle of friends, by and large

Those that need attention–Highly frequent collocations (not too many of these)

make/do + noun –False friends weak tea, *thin tea; meet friends / *play with friends

Most collocations aren’t worth teaching individually

Collocations will always occur less frequently than the words that make them upIn the British National Corpus (100m words)

Strong occurs 213 times / 1m wordsWind occurs 73 times / 1m wordsStrong wind occurs 3.06 times / 1m words

The ‘difficult’ word compromise occurs 31 timesMost collocations aren’t worth teaching individually

How frequently do lexical phrases occur (BNC)?Raw Rank Word Per million

words177 out of 490222 per cent 382272 such as 321285 of course 309378 for example 238

1538 in front of 651725 all right 582159 as soon as 472491 in general 412970 in addition to 343307 next to 303755 on top of 264378 instead of 215409 in charge of 175987 just about 157396 provided that 117885 as good as 109125 with a view to 8

Raw Rank Word Per million words

11459 in between 613507 by and large 514369 at random 416684 per se 419505 old fashioned 322060 grown up 228441 matter of fact 243572 sq m 148241 fait accompli 151717 straight forward 158511 habeas corpus 174321 self-same 076170 haute cuisine 082928 a good deal 083882 laissez faire 088912 thank you 089371 persona non grata 0

How well are our courses presenting the language students need?

Research suggests a typical language courses:• do not systematically recycle the grammatical forms outside

the presentation unit / lesson• have an almost random vocabulary selection (mostly based

on topic) without much regard to frequency or usefulness • rarely, if ever, recycle taught words either later in the unit,

the book, or the series• provide little additional practice in review units or workbooks• ha an overwhelming focus on new material in each lesson

The number of words a learner will probably learn from course work plus graded readers

Probably known Partially Known Probably unknown

50+ 30-49 20-29 10-19 5-9 1-4 Total

Course book only 523 210 229 472 580 1,261 3,275

Data from Sequences, Foundations, Page Turners and Footprints by Heinle Cengage 225,000 60,800 570,000 174,000 (=1,029,000)

Add one reader a

week1,023 283 250 539 570 1,325 3,990

Add two readers a

week1,372 380 367 694 877 2,882 6,572

Uptake rates

When learning only from a course book over (3 years):Only 962 words will be learnt well (29.4%)A further 1,052 will be partially known (32.1% )1,261 words are likely to be forgotten (38.5%)

Adding one graded reader per week:1,556 words (40.0%) will be learnt well, plus 1,109 words

(27.8%) will be partially known and only 33.2% unknown.Adding two graded readers per week:

They will know 2,119 words well, plus partially know another 1,571 words

Notes:

40 function words (in, of, the, by etc.) accounted for 41.2% of the total words in the series

Typically one’s productive vocabulary is 20-25% of the receptive

Probably available

Partially available

Course book only 200 250

Add one reader / week 325 250

Add two readers / week 580 380

This does not include the learning of collocations, colligations, idioms, phrases, multiple meanings, lexical chunks, sentence heads… etc.

How many words do Japanese students meet in JH/ SH?

Types Tokens

Horizon 1, 2, 3 (Junior High) 1,124 9,440

Powwow I, II, Reading (Senior High) 2,857 27,221

Centre tests (680 types / 3000 tokens average per test) x 4

1,000 12,000

College Entrance tests (590 types / 1600 tokens average per test) x4

1,000 6,400

A total of approximately 55,000 running words will be met (not counting juku and self-study).A generous estimate is 100,000 words and about 3,500 types over 6 years.Listening input would be approximately 10% of this.

A linear structure to our syllabuses

• Each unit has something new• Little focus on the recycling of vocab, grammar and so on• The theory is “We’ve done that, they have learnt it, so we can move

on.” i.e. teaching causes learning

Unit 1

Be verb

Simple adjectives

Unit 2

Simple present

Daily routines

Unit 3

Present continuous

Sporting activities

Unit 4

can

Abilities

Unit 5

….

…..

What does this all imply?

A linear course structure • is focused on introducing new words and grammatical

features, not deepening knowledge of them• often leaves a lot to the forgetting curve • isn’t strong at building in repetitions of words and grammar

features for long-term acquisition to take place• is not focused on deepening and consolidating older

knowledge because the focus is always on new things

So what needs to happen?

We have to ensure our curriculums and courses:• build in some recycling and repetition of words and grammar

structures• give students chances to see how the grammar and

vocabulary are used together in real language• give students chances to deepen and consolidate the

language they learn in their course books (or they forget it)• allow students to develop their own ‘sense’ of how the

language works• give students chances to use language rather than just study

it

Course work and Graded Readers work together

Consolidating and deepening language knowledge

GRADED READING (Extensive Reading)

Unit 1

Be verb

Unit 2

Simple present

Unit 3

Present continuous

Unit 4

can

Unit 5

…. Introducing language

How are we going to teach what?

Discrete knowledge ‘Fuzzy’ knowledge

Individual wordsImportant lexical phrasesFalse friendsLoanwordsImportant collocations and colligationsBasic grammatical patternsImportant phrasal verbs, idioms etc.Word, phrase and sentence level awareness

Register, Genre …Pragmatic knowledgeRestrictions on useMost collocations and collocationsA ‘sense’ of a word’s meaning and useA ‘sense’ of how grammar fits with lexis - the tenses, articles etc.Discourse level awareness

Intentional learning Incidental learning

Selection issues – what do we teach?Sequence issues – in what order?

Scaffolding issues – how do we consolidate previous learning?

Presentation issues – what method?

Rough gradingEnsuring recycling

Engaging textMatching input text to intentionally

learnt materials

What do we know about ER?Beglar, Hunt and Kite (forthcoming): Learning from graded readers is better than reading ‘anything you like’ Nishizawa et al. (2010) found that the favourite ER materials for rugby players were fairy stories:- let learners decide/ They need to read 300,000 words before the benefits of ER kick in.

Claridge (2005)- patterns of use of structure, discourse markers, redundancy, collocations, and frequency rates are similar in original and graded versions of the same story.

Alshamrani (2003); and Allan, (2009) found GRs aided many aspects of language learning.

Wodinsky and Nation (1988) found that it’s not necessary to pre-learn the vocabulary at the new level if students read at the right level.

Do graded readers aid fluency?

Hafiz and Tudor (1990) found students reading GRs gained significantly in fluency and accuracy; GRs provide models assimilation of knowledge from linguistic input,

Iwahori (2008): ER improved fluency in a Japanese High School

Taguchi, et al. (2004): repeated readings lead to larger gains in vocabulary than reading once: Successful reading is almost impossible without good word decoding skills

Nation (2008) Speed reading practice gains transfer to normal reading

Some objections from teachers and schoolsNice idea but I have no time in my course.

-> If you don’t have graded reading where will the students get the massive exposure they need?

-> How else will they get the ‘sense of language’ they need?-> Where are they going to get the fluency practice?

We don’t have the money for this.-> Ask your schools to reallocate funds so this reading is done; ask

for donations; get some free samples etc.We have to go through our set curriculum.

-> Speak with your course designers to build in graded reading. Re-allocate resources and re-set class hours

We have to prepare the students for tests.-> Research shows students perform better on tests if they have a

general sense of language, than an incohesive‘bitty’ one.

Making them fluent

Give opportunities for fluency….

F ast and efficient reading and listening practiceL ink their practice to real tasks U nderstanding is primary E ncourage speed development work N urture confidence and motivation T ry extensive reading and listening

Finally…

You can review this presentation by downloading it from:www.robwaring.org/presentations/

More information about Graded Reading (Extensive Reading) at…www.extensivereading.net

The First Extensive Reading World Congress, Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto. Sept 3-6, 2011

http://erfoundation.org/erwc1/

How much reading should they do?

About a book a week or more.Beginners - A book at week at their ability level• They can meet unknown words easily, so you don’t need to

read much.Intermediates - A book at week at your ability level• They don’t meet unknown words all the time, but your books

are thicker, so you are reading more.Advanced – 2 books at week at your ability level• They rarely meet unknown words, so you have to read more

to meet language you don’t know.

Language (Accuracy) FocusINPUT

ListeningReading

OUTPUTSpeakingWriting

LANGUAGE FOCUS(Study)(Intentional learning)(Explicit learning)

• meet new language (e.g. grammar, vocabulary, lexical patterns)

• notice the features of language points

• learn strategies for dealing with the language (e.g. dictionary skills, reading skills, metacognitive skills)

• create new hypotheses to test

(NB this knowledge stays

largely atomised, discrete and isolated)

• practice / assess new (and partially digested) language points in a controlled way to ensure it is well known and can be used accurately

• check if the form and function of the new language is known

• make connections between discretely learnt language points to more accurately express a communicative intent

• get feedback on accuracy

Fluency (Communication) FocusINPUT

ListeningReading

OUTPUTSpeakingWriting

FLUENCY FOCUS(Communication)(Incidental learning)

• build reading speed, listening fluency and word recognition automaticity

• notice connections between knowledge which was previously isolated and abstract

• meet massive amounts of comprehensible text to consolidate knowledge

• develop a ‘feel’ for the language

• learn to predict

• communicate more smoothly and with less anxiety, effort

• pull together abstract and isolated knowledge through an active constructive process

• learn to communicate by communicating

• get feedback on performance• experiment with language

knowledge to achieve successful communication

• prepare for communication outside the classroom