1. Teaching Oral Communication
1.1. Interpretation Teaching
1.1.1. Criticisms
1.1.1.1. 1. Lack of Explicit Teaching
1.1.1.2. 2. Disadvantage for students less familiar with the language.
1.1.2. emphasis on interactive and cognitive process
1.1.3. Teacher and children engage with information
1.1.4. Children interpret and actively evaluate information.
1.1.5. Teacher manages the appropriate learning experiences.
1.1.6. Interactive Discourse is crucial
1.1.6.1. Vygotsky
1.1.6.1.1. Learning takes place in social environment by interacting with More-Knowledgeable-Others.
1.1.6.1.2. Zone of Proximal Development
1.1.6.2. Bruner
1.1.6.2.1. Scaffolding: 'novices' to undertake tasks they would be unable to do independently and unaided.
1.1.6.2.2. Learning through problem-solving, that is done in a social context
1.1.6.3. Open questions facilitate interactive discourse
1.1.7. Process Talk/Exploratory Talk
1.1.7.1. Students articulate their thoughts and ideas.
1.1.7.2. Features: unrehearsed, untidy and characterized by false starts, repetition, backtracking, pauses, overlaps and interruptions
1.2. Transmission Model
1.2.1. Criticisms
1.2.1.1. 1. a curriculum sited solely within the dominant culture.
1.2.1.2. 2. Work against using language in interaction with others.
1.2.2. emphasis on students' ability to reproduce information.
1.2.3. "Banking" Model (Freire, 1983): Transmission of knowledge by teacher and reception of knowledge by students.
1.3. Show and Tell
1.3.1. Show and Tell is an activity in which students describe important thoughts and events in their lives. It develops personal, informative, and interactive functions.
1.3.1.1. 1. Speakers bring something that they think might be interesting to other people.
1.3.1.2. 2. Speakers prepare 3 points and 2 questions to ask listeners at the end of their sharing.
1.3.1.3. 3. Listeners ask questions to the speakers.
1.3.1.4. 4. Listeners either state something they enjoyed or appreciated about each presenters' talk, preparation, or thoughts or aska question.
1.3.2. Difficulties which may arise during Show and Tell lessons
1.3.2.1. 1. Students may direct their talk to you rather than to their classmates.
1.3.2.1.1. Eliminate this problem by taking a seat with the students or behind the students.
1.3.2.2. 2. Students may have trouble deciding the topic for show and tell.
1.3.2.2.1. Assist students by giving them a list of topics to choose from. Garner parents' help in preparing students for show and tell.
2. Tompkins (2005): Activities for teaching listening
2.1. Read Aloud
2.1.1. Less Teacher Structured
2.1.1.1. Sipe (2002) - 5 Types of Students' Responses
2.1.1.1.1. 1. Dramatizing, 2. Talking Back, 3. Critiquing/Controlling, 4. Inserting, 5. Taking Over
2.2. Aesthetic listening
2.2.1. 1. Directed Listening-Thinking Activity (DLTA): Teacher reads the story aloud to students who are actively listening by making predictions and listening to confirm their predictions.
2.2.1.1. Steps to Implement DLTA
2.2.1.1.1. 1. Activate Background Knowledge: stimulates students' interest in the book by discussing the topic, showing concrete materials to draw on students' prior knowledge.
2.2.1.1.2. 2. Make Predictions: asks students to make predictions about the story with teacher-guided questions.
2.2.1.1.3. 3. Read Aloud to Students: Teacher reads part of the story aloud and asks them to confirm or reconsider their predictions.
2.2.1.1.4. 4. Continue Reading and Predicting: teacher has to choose important pivotal points to repeat the predicting steps so that predicting really enhances students' comprehension of the story.
2.2.1.1.5. 5. Have Students Reflect on their Predictions: students talk about the story, expressing their feelings, and making connections to their own lives and experiences.
2.2.1.2. More Teacher Structured
2.2.2. 2. Responding after reading by talking about the story or writing in a reading log
2.2.3. 3. Minilessons: Teachers teach minilessons to introduce, practice and review procedures, concepts and skills related to aesthetic listening
2.3. Efferent listening
2.3.1. 1. Brainstorming ideas: teachers encourage students to activate background knowledge and build on that knowledge before listening when they ask students to brainstorm ideas about a topic
2.3.2. 2. Anticipation guides: stimulate students' interest in a topic and activate their background knowledge before listening
2.3.3. 3. Note-taking: Students make written notes about what they are hearing
2.3.4. 4. Reading aloud information books: power to intrigue and excite students
2.3.5. 5. Minilessons for teaching efferent listening
2.4. Critical listening
2.4.1. 1. using advertisements: students examine advertisements and decide how the writer is trying to persuade them or compare the amount of text to the amount of pictures.
2.4.2. 2. teaching with trade books: evaluate themes, confront important issues, think deeply about controversial issues and challenge and expand own beliefs.
2.4.3. 3. Minilessons: teach minilessons to introduce, practise and review procedures, concepts and strategies and skills related to critical listening.
3. Language Input and Output for English-Language Learners (Anthony, 2008)
3.1. Input
3.1.1. Having communicative intent. E.g., In the classroom, teacher talk is the main source of input for students
3.1.2. Concept of Input in SLA: Second-language acquisition is a result of "comprehensible input" that is received by the learner (Krashen, 1985)
3.1.3. Strategies for providing comprehensible input for children learning to speak and read in a second language: -Develop oral vocabulary prior to using texts for instructional purposes, -Develop comprehension skills -Provide first-language support
3.2. Output
3.2.1. Product of learning: -How children demonstrate what they have learned (e.g., written, spoken, drawing etc.) -Teachers use output to determine what students have learned about a topic
3.2.2. Learning Process
3.2.2.1. Access: - Searching the lexicon in the brain to find appropriate words and forms of words necessary to express a particular meaning
3.2.2.2. Production: - Putting together strings of words accessed from the lexicon to form a sentence or utterance
3.2.3. Functions of Output
3.2.3.1. Noticing/triggering: - Production of output might trigger attention and direct learner to notice something he needs to explore further in the new language
3.2.3.2. Hypothesis testing: - Student begins with a hypothesis about what the message should sound or look like, tests this hypothesis by producing it, and then receives feedback from another person regarding its correctness.
3.2.3.3. Metalinguistic(reflective) functions: - Language is used to reflect on the language that a learner produces or is produced by others. - Through the process of speaking and reflecting the student must realize that he or she does not understand the use of a particular language form and then talk about that process.
4. Reader's Theatre
4.1. What?
4.1.1. Audience imagines from what they hear, based on the vocal expression of the readers.
4.1.2. Consists of readers, printed scrips, off-stage focus, reading the story
4.1.3. More suited to fiction
4.1.4. Elaborate version of the strategy of retelling used in lower primary
4.2. Why?
4.2.1. Improve reading skills through the development of speaking and listening skills
4.2.2. Motivate learning through entertainment
4.2.3. Easy to use, no special equipment required
4.2.4. Successful across ability levels, rapid results
4.2.5. Creates cooperative interaction
4.2.6. Adds liveliness to learning
4.2.7. Supports other teaching methodologies
4.2.8. Connects creativity and learning
4.2.9. Helps students improve self-image
4.2.10. Teaches oral and written skills
4.2.11. Repetition reinforces comprehension and retention
5. Listening to Learn
5.1. Listening process involves: 1. Receiving, 2. Attending, 3. Assigning Meaning.
5.2. Purposes for Listening
5.2.1. 1. Discriminative Listening
5.2.1.1. People use discriminative listening to distinguish sounds and to develop a sensitivity to nonverbal communication.
5.2.1.1.1. E.g. phonemic awareness activities, notice rhyming words
5.2.2. 2. Aesthetic Listening
5.2.2.1. People listen aesthetically to a speaker or reader when they listen for enjoyment.
5.2.2.1.1. E.g. Listen to stories read aloud, use Directed Listening-Thinking Approach (DLTA)
5.2.3. 3. Efferent Listening
5.2.3.1. People listen efferently to understand a message (an information). Students determine the speaker's purpose, identify the main ideas, and then organize the information in order to remember it.
5.2.3.1.1. E.g. Listen to informational books read aloud, anticipation guides, oral reports, note taking
5.2.4. 4. Critical Listening
5.2.4.1. People listen critically to evaluate a message. Critical listening is an extension of efferent listening. Listeners seek to understand a message, but they also filter the message to detect propaganda devices, persuasive language, and emotional appeals.
5.2.4.1.1. E.g. Debates, commercials, political speeches and other arguments
6. Purposes for listening
6.1. Listeners must set a purpose and interact mentally with the incoming sounds and information, and obtain meaning from what they listened to.
6.1.1. Listener needs to pay attention to process the information
7. Levels of Listening Ability (Block, 2001)
7.1. Level 1: Receiving (Ensuring students can hear)
7.1.1. This level is essential for the other levels to be achieved. Stand a short distance behind the student and call his/her name. Then, ask a question. If the student does not turn around, the student might have hearing difficulties
7.2. Level 2: Auditory Discrimination (Instruction to distinguish sounds)
7.2.1. Discriminate between sounds and words, and between individual sounds within words. Auditory discrimination of phonograms provides students with a means of decoding many of the basic beginning words they must read.
7.2.1.1. E.g., Phonics songs (Ants on the apple, Jolly phonics etc.), Poems (Nonsense poem etc.)
7.3. Level 3: Attending to a message (Teaching students to pay attention)
7.3.1. Selective attention involves the ability of the sensory register to filter sounds into the mental control processing for meaning schematic folder.
7.3.1.1. Factors which may influence selective attention: intensity of stimuli presented, number of times students have heard the stimuli, degree to which the stimuli are concrete rather than abstract, amount of contrast or novelty involved in its presentation, speed which stimuli is presented.
7.4. Level 4: Building efferent listening abilities (Teaching students to comprehend)
7.4.1. Behaviours used to understand speaker's meaning, categorize information, monitor one's own comprehension during listening, ask questions for clarification, follow sequential ideas, and take ntoes.
7.4.1.1. Ways to improve students' efferent listening: Activate background knowledge, set a clear purpose, use manipulatives, create graphic organizers, have students take notes
8. Nunan (1990): Four types of contexts in which listening occurs in
8.1. One-way contexts where the listener is not called upon to respond verbally
8.1.1. Context 1: Information-based topics (e.g. listening to the radio or TV news, a lecture, or phone information)
8.1.2. Context 2: Interpersonal topics (e.g. listening to someonerecountinga personal anecdote, someonetelling a story or a joke)
8.2. Two-way contexts where two or more people take on the roles of listener and speaker in turn
8.2.1. Context 3: Information-based topics (e.g. taking partin a job interview, a conversation involving the giving of directions or instructions, a phone inquiry)
8.2.2. Context 4: Interpersonal topics (e.g. taking part in a conversation at a party, a conversation at the bus stop, a phone call to a friend)
8.2.2.1. The easiest listening context for ESL learners as topics are more familiar and they can seek clarification as listening is two-way. However, even though a phone call may be two-way and on familiar topics, listeners must reconstruct the intended meaning from language alone.
9. Corden (2000)
9.1. Group Work and Learning
9.1.1. Barnes and Todds (1977): importance of collaborative learning in the development of children's cognitive understanding
9.1.2. National Oracy Project: reflective and hypothetical learning potential of peer group discussions where speech is tentative and exploratory
9.1.3. Des Fountain and Howe (1992): children need worthwhile opportunities to work together in small groups, making meaning through talk
9.1.4. Palinscar and Brown (1984): value of dialogue in scaffolding children's comprehension skills
9.1.5. Rosenblatt (1989): teacher-pupil and peer-peer dialogue and interchange is a vital ingredient in helping children make connections between the reading and writing processes
9.2. Features of successful group work
9.2.1. use of hypothetical exploratory language
9.2.2. individual initiatives being accepted and developed by the group
9.2.3. participation of all group members
9.2.4. discussion developed through discourse rather than dispute
9.2.5. absence of excessive diversion from the task
9.2.6. avoidance of premature and unsatisfactory consensus
9.3. Stages in group discussion
9.3.1. Tann (1981)
9.3.1.1. 1. Orientation stage: children define problems, interpret task, set limits on the activity
9.3.1.2. 2. development stage: children generate ideas and use reasoning strategies
9.3.1.3. 3. concluding stage: increase acceptance of each other's ideas and more progressive focussing on specific strategies necessary for a successful resolution of the problem
9.3.2. Robertson (1990)
9.3.2.1. 1. orientation stage: children find out about one another and their place in the group
9.3.2.2. 2. norm establishment stage: children develop shared expectations of behavior and learn to organize themselves into an effective team
9.3.2.3. 3. conflict stage: group members test one another and the teacher. It is a signal that groups are on track, moving towards productivity
9.3.2.4. 4. productivity stage: group members focus both on the task and interpersonal relations
9.3.2.5. 5. termination stage: group members look back at their experience together and deal with the problems of parting. Look toward experiences with a new group and consider what they have learned that they can take with them
9.4. Small Group Work within a constructivist framework for learning
9.4.1. Engagement Teacher and children establish existing knowledge and understandings. interest is aroused; new information and stimulus are provided.
9.4.2. Exploration stage: Children relate existing knowledge and understanding to new information and stimulus. They clarify existing beliefs, feelings and understandings.
9.4.3. Transformation stage: Children engage in activities in which they extend their knowledge and understanding.
9.4.4. Presentation and review stage: Children offer new knowledge and understanding to a critical audience. They review and evaluate the learning experience
9.4.5. Reflection and application stage: Children think and talk about what has been learned and consider how previous understanding will impact future learning
10. Dawes
10.1. Interthinking and its importance
10.1.1. Interthinking - the joint engagement with one another's ideas to think aloud together, solve problems or make mutual meaning - is an invaluable use of spoken language.
10.1.1.1. Talking with a partner is an opportunity to put half-formed ideas into words. Having to say what you mean - thinking aloud - is a way of making your thoughts clear to yourself; and having to explain and describe things to a partner is a way of developing a shared understanding of ideas. If your partner is prepared to accept your initial suggestion, without you having to justify or defend it, you have no stimulus to engage critically with your own thoughts. Also, you have no alternative suggestions to produce the creative friction from which new ideas arise.
10.1.1.1.1. Engaging in interthinking through rational discussion with other people is likely to help children develop clearer ways of thinking to support their development as an individual.
10.2. Exploratory talk
10.2.1. Exploratory talk allows a reasoned exchange of ideas and opinions. This sort of talk is likely to be of great value to the children educationally, because it means that they are using language to think rationally, and to consider and evaluate each other's ideas in a cooperative way. They can build up shared knowledge and shared understandings, as they engage in opportunities to collaborate as equals. Collaborative talk of this kind provides a supportive context for thinking aloud, and thinking aloud is crucial if children are to formulate their thoughts and ideas.
10.2.2. Exploratory talk used in group work specifically at computers
10.2.2.1. Problems arise when groups work at the computer:
10.2.2.1.1. 1. The children may understand what is required by the program, but they do not understand the intended purpose of their talk together. They do not know how to negotiate with one another, and using the computer will not teach them this directly.
10.2.2.1.2. 2. Self-appointed group leaders emerge and impose an inappropriate style of working on the group. Those with home computers are proficient with the keyboard and used to playing games where speed is more valuable than talk or cooperation. Keen to show their skill, they dominate the group.
10.2.2.1.3. 3. Friends tend to agree with one another on principle, and less confident children make no contribution at all, to avoid being held responsible later on. Difficulties with the program and each other may cause some children to withdraw from the group.
10.2.2.1.4. 4. Encouraged by the game-play feel of some software, talk may be of a casual or social nature. The children may engage in their constant testing and re-establishment of the class 'pecking order'; this process dominates the talk.
10.2.2.2. Advantages:
10.2.2.2.1. The computer can provide an excellent environment for practising exploratory talk.
10.2.2.2.2. Children who are aware of the importance of talk will benefit from using computer for group work. They can look at the screen, sit back and talk and think together about what decision to take or what to do next. It is the inclusion of discussion in the interaction between children and computer that has real educational potential.
11. Bromley (2001)
11.1. Implications for teachers
11.1.1. Teachers need time to have discussions with children and contemplate the questions they might ask, while getting to know books well before using them
11.1.2. Important to carefully plan questions to use with children
11.1.3. Engage pupils in quality conversations: have them committed to the conversations
11.2. Rationale for using picture books
11.2.1. Discussions about picture books provide pupils with a meaningful context to reflect not only on what they knew, but more importantly how they knew it. Children reflect on their own learning through interacting and talking with others.
11.2.2. Questions about the book encourage children to use a metalanguage to talk about the mental processes involved in reading
11.2.3. Being about to discuss the pictures allows pupils to operate at a higher cognitive level than discussion of the text alone would have allowed.
11.2.4. Pictures promote a wide variety of responses in older children especially