Transcript The missing piece of the puzzle

Rob Waring
Notre Dame Seishin University
What do learners need to know?
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Learners need 7000-8000 word families to read native novels easily
About 2000 everyday words occur in all types of English.
Learners need ‘specialist words’ as well.
There are two stages in word learning.
1. The form-meaning relationship (its pronunciation, spelling and meaning)
2. The deeper word knowledge
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its different meanings
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Its derivations (useful, useless, uselessness, etc.)
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if it’s typically spoken, or written
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if it’s useful or rare, polite or rude
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the topic are we usually find it in (e.g. science, music, biology)
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its collocations and colligations
What’s a collocation?
Collocations are words which often appear together.
We say
We don’t (usually) say
beautiful girl
handsome girl
blonde hair
yellow hair
big surprise
large surprise
black and white
white and black
go to work
go to job
catch fire
do fire / go fire
high cost
expensive cost
demand a response
ask a response
make a mistake
do a mistake
What’s a colligation?
Colligations are words which often appear together grammatically
We say
depend on someone
be good at something
ask for something
We don’t (usually) say
depend of someone
be good on something
ask on something
What collocations do you need to learn?
Verb uses of one word - Idea… “Abandon an idea.”
abandon, absorb, accept, adjust to, advocate, amplify, advance,
back, be against, be committed/dedicated/ drawn to, be obsessed
with, be struck by, borrow, cherish, clarify, cling to, come out/up
with, confirm, conjure up, consider, contemplate, convey, debate,
debunk, defend, demonstrate, develop, deny, dismiss, dispel,
disprove, distort, drop, eliminate, encourage, endorse, entertain,
explode, explore, expound, express, favor, fit, fit in with, follow up,
form, formulate, foster, get, get accustomed/used to, get rid of, give
up, go along with, grasp, hammer out, have, hit upon, hold,
implement, imply, impose – on sb, incorporate, inculcate, instill, jot
down, keep to, launch, meet, modify, negate, oppose, pick up,
pioneer, plant, play with, popularize, present, promote, propose,
put an end to, put forward, put – into practice, raise, refute,
reinforce, reject, relish, resist, respond to, revive, ridicule, rule out,
spread, squash, stick to, subscribe to, suggest, support, take to, take
up, test, tinker with, toy with, turn down, warm to …
What collocations do you need to learn? II
Adjective uses. “An idea is ………...”
abstract, absurd, advanced, ambitious, arresting, basic, bizarre, bold,
bright, brilliant, classical, clear, common, commonsense, confused,
controversial, convincing, crazy, diabolical, disconcerting, elusive,
enlightened, entrenched, exaggerated, extravagant, extreme, false,
familiar, fantastic, far-fetched, feasible, feeble, fixed, flexible, foolish,
grotesque, hazy, heretical, imaginative, inflated, ingenious,
ingrained, innovative, instinctive, intriguing, irresponsible, mad,
misconceived, mistaken, monstrous, new-fangled, novel, original,
old-fashioned, outdated, out-of-date, outrageous, peculiar,
persuasive, preconceived, preposterous, prevalent, provocative,
(un)real, (un)realistic, remarkable, revolutionary, ridiculous, risky,
sensible, silly, splendid, strange, striking, superficial, untenable,
useful, vague, valid, well-defined …
What else do you need to know? III
Lexical phrases and chunks of language
How’s things?
I’d rather not …
If it were up to me, I’d …
So, what do you think?
We got a quick bite to eat.
What’s the matter?
What do you mean by that?
Well, what do you know?
Look what the cat just dragged in
Plus THOUSANDS more
What else do you need to know? IV
The grammar systems (e.g. the present perfect tense)
A government committee has been created to …
He hasn’t seen her for a while, has he? No, he hasn’t.
Why haven’t you been doing your homework?
There’s been a big accident in Market Street.
Have you ever seen a ghost?
It’s very hard to see the patterns – there are many forms:
Statement, negative, yes/no and wh- question forms,
Simple or continuous
Active or passive
Short answers and questions tags (Yes, I have. …… hasn’t he?)
Regular and irregular - has vs. have walked vs. bought
Present perfect for ‘announcing news’, PP for ‘experiences’, etc. etc.
The forms of the present perfect tense
I have given.
You have given.
He/she/it has given.
We have given.
They have given.
Have I given?
Have you given?
Has he/she/it given?
Have we given?
Have they given?
I haven’t given.
You haven’t given.
He/she/it haven’t given.
We haven’t given
They haven’t given.
What have I given?
What have you given?
What has he/she/it given?
What have we given?
What have they given?
I have been given.
You have been given.
He/she/it has been given.
We have been given.
They have been given.
Have I been given?
Have you been given?
Has he/she/it been given?
Have we been given?
Have they been given?
I haven’t been given.
You haven’t been given.
He/she/it hasn’t been given.
We haven’t been given
They haven’t been given.
What have I been given?
What have you been given?
What has he/she/it been given?
What have we been given?
What have they been given?
I have been giving.
You have been giving.
He/she/it has been giving.
We have been giving.
They have been giving.
Have I been giving?
Have you been giving?
Has he/she/it been giving?
Have we been giving?
Have they been giving?
I haven’t been giving.
You haven’t been giving.
He/she/it hasn’t been giving.
We haven’t been giving
They haven’t been giving.
Yes, I have.
No, I haven’t.
Yes, you have.
No, you haven’t.
Yes, he/she/it has.
No, he/she/it hasn’t.
Yes, we have.
No, we haven’t.
Yes, they have.
No, they haven’t
……, have I?
….., haven’t I?
……, have you?
……, haven’t you?
….., has he/he/it?
….., hasn’t he/she/it?
….., have we?
..…, haven’t we?
….., have they?
….., haven’t they?
How long will it take to teach them?
 An average word needs 30-50 meetings for it to be learnt
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receptively from reading (more for productive use)
An average word’s meaning takes 10-15 meetings to learn
from word cards or word lists
To learn the collocations and ‘deeper’ aspects of language
learning takes MUCH longer.
There’s little research into the rate learning of collocation,
colligation or lexical phrases from reading
We know nothing at all about how long it takes to master a
particular grammatical form e.g. a tense
How well are our courses presenting the
language students need?
Research suggests an average language course:
 does not systematically recycle the grammatical forms outside
the presentation unit / lesson
 has an almost random vocabulary selection without much
regard to frequency or usefulness (mostly based on topic)
 rarely, if ever, recycles taught words either later in the unit, the
book, or the series
 provide little additional practice in review units or workbooks
 has an overwhelming focus on new material in each lesson
How often do words appear in course books?
The structure of our industry
 We break the language up into ‘teachable chunks’ – years,
semesters, weeks, lessons, and exercises
 The focus is on new. Every unit has something new –
• A new vocabulary focus
• A new grammar focus
• A new pronunciation point
• A new a new reading skill
• A new function
• Etc. etc. etc.
 Course books have a LINEAR structure with a constant focus on new
A linear structure to our syllabuses
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Be verb
Simple
present
Present
continuous
can
….
Simple
adjectives
Daily
routines
Sporting
activities
Abilities
…..
 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
What happens to things we learn?
 We forget them over time unless they are recycled and
memories of them strengthened
 Our brains are designed to forget most of what we meet - not
to remember it
Knowledge
The Forgetting Curve
Time
What will naturally happen to the learning?
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Be verb
Simple
present
Present
continuous
can
….
Simple
adjectives
Daily
routines
Sporting
activities
Abilities
…..
What does this all imply?
A linear course structure
 is focused on introducing new words and grammatical features
 does not fight against the forgetting curve
 by its very design cannot provide enough 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
Does this mean course books are bad?
 This is NOT a criticism of course books.
 There’s too much to actually teach.
 Thousands of words plus their collocations, multiple meaning senses etc.
 Thousands of lexical phrases
 The grammar systems
 The pronunciation, reading skills, listening skills etc. etc. etc.
 No course book can teach all this.
 Course books are designed to introduce new language and give
minimal practice with it not to deepen that knowledge.
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
How do we expose them to massive amounts of
language?
 Massive amounts of easy fluent reading with graded readers
 Massive amounts of fluent listening
 The focus should be on deepening and consolidating
knowledge of things they learnt in their course books
Course work and Graded Readers work together
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Be verb
Simple
present
Present
continuous
can
….
Introducing
language
Consolidating and deepening language knowledge
GRADED READING
(Extensive Reading)
What are graded readers?
 They are books written for learners of English written at
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various difficulty levels
Level 1 books have very few words and only the simplest
grammar
Level 2 books have slightly harder vocabulary and grammar
Level 3 increases the difficulty … and so on
The students progress through the levels reading books that
mirror what they learnt in their course work
Course work and Graded Readers work together II
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Be verb
Simple
present
Present
continuous
can
….
Simple
adjectives
Daily
routines
Sporting
activities
Abilities
…..
Level 1 books
Level 2 books
Level 3 books ….
Graded readers
Non-fiction too
Beginner level
 Easy vocabulary
 Present tenses only
 Very simple plot
High beginner level
 Little bit more difficult
vocabulary
 More difficult grammar
 Harder plot
High Intermediate
 Some
difficult
vocabulary
 More
difficult
grammar
The aim of graded reading
 To recycle important and useful words and grammar time and
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time and time again to aid acquisition
To provide massive fluent reading practice
To build reading speed
To be enjoyable – so they read more
To build depth of knowledge
To consolidate and strengthen partly known language
Reading at the right level
Students MUST read at their comfortable reading level so they:
 can read it quickly
 can read it fluently (so they can read fast)
 can read a lot (as they need to meet a lot of language)
 can read with very high levels of understanding (i.e. something
they can read without a dictionary)
 can enjoy the reading
 can get the reading habit which they can keep all their lives
Read something
Enjoyable with
Adequate understanding so you
Don’t need a dictionary
The missing piece of the puzzle
Graded readers:
 allow students to see how the language in their course
books is actually used
 provide the massive practice course books are not
designed to do
 recycle, revise and consolidate the language
 give fluency practice and help build reading speed
 allow students to build a “sense” of language
If the reading is too difficult
If students read something too difficult:
 the reading is slow and they can’t read much
 the students can get tired easily
 it becomes a form of ‘study’
 It’s easy for students to give up
How much reading should we do?
About a book a week or more.
Beginners - A book at week at your 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.
Some objections from teachers and schools
Nice 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?
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, not a deconstructed ‘bitty’ one.
What to read?
 Read something interesting to you
 Don’t be afraid to read something ‘childish’ – you may like
it
 Read something that is easy
Summary
 Course books and easy reading are two sides of the
same coin – they help each other
 Everyone needs to do easy reading. It should not be
an option.
 Choose books at the right level (so you can read
fluently with high levels of understanding and
without a dictionary)
 You need to learn to listen fluently too.
Finally…
You can review this presentation by downloading the article from
the following website.
www.robwaring.org/papers/
More information about Graded Reading (Extensive Reading) at…
www.extensivereading.net