Does the CEFR require different materials or teaching?

Hugh Dellar

Lexical Lab

Work in groups. Discuss these questions.

1 What do you know about the CEFR and its goals / objectives / rationale?

2 How much impact has it had on your job?

3 How would you describe your attitude towards it?

Attitudes to the CEFR…

• Ignorance • Paranoia • Worship • Anger / annoyance • Cynicism / complacency

An example of complacency?

• Uses some simple structures correctly, but still makes basic mistakes, for example tends to mix up tenses and forget to mark agreement; nevertheless, it is usually clear what they are trying to say. • Uses reasonably accurately a repertoire of frequently-used ‘routines’ and patterns associated with more predictable situations.

What the CEFR actually says!

One thing should be made clear right away. We have NOT set out to tell practitioners what to do or how to do it. We are raising questions, not answering them. It is not the function of the CEFR to lay down the objectives that users should pursue or the methods they should employ.

So does the CEFR

demand

different methods and materials?

NO!

Some questions for coursebook writers…

• On which theory of grammar have they based their work?

• What are the assumptions as to the nature of the learning process are the coursebooks based on?

• What language will the learner need / be equipped / be required to (a) recognise and understand (b) use?

Underlying political goals…

To ensure … that

all sections

of [the CoE’s] populations have access to them to

effective means

of acquiring a knowledge of languages…as well as skills in the use of those languages that will enable

satisfy their communicative needs

and in particular: • To deal with the business of

everyday life

…; • To exchange information and ideas …and

communicate their thoughts and feelings

…

To promote, encourage and support the efforts of teachers and learners at all levels… • by

basing language teaching

and learning on the

needs, motivations, characteristics

and resources of learners • by defining

worthwhile and realistic objectives

as

explicitly

as possible • by developing

appropriate methods materials

and

Do the CEFR

goals

require different materials and teaching?

NO ?

Learners needs, motivations, characteristics and resources

• What will they need to do with the language?

• What do they need to learn in order to be able to achieve those ends?

• What sort of people are they?

• How much time can they afford to spend?

• [and why do they come to a class to learn?]

Some Elementary unit titles…

• You • People • Time off • Work • Relatively famous • Pretty woman • Have a good trip • Food • Sea • How terribly clever!

• Mind and body • Bigger and better • Future plans • World records • Can you speak English?

• Neighbours from hell

Their theory of language learning…

• Grammar and words are separate.

• Students can learn a canon of grammar rules and grammar is generative.

• Words slot in to the grammar structures.

• Grammar needs to be taught in a particular order.

• Natural usage is relatively unimportant.

The effect of a grammar driven course:

Bad examples of usage

Angela’s running.

I’m not wearing a jacket, I’m wearing a jumper. Did people drive cars one hundred years ago?

Are you going to wash your hair?

Can you walk backwards in a straight line? Never will I forget holding him for the first time.

Explain the difference between these words: shack / hut / hovel / shed

The effect of a grammar driven course:

restricted examples of natural conversation

• What do you do?

• What are you doing …later?

• What did you do …last night?

• Have you been there / to …?

• How long have you …?

The CEFR is

not

prescriptive…

It is not the function of this guide nor of CEFR to state a preference for one [syllabus] strand over another. The choice of driving strands will depend on your own beliefs and preferences about language and language learning. However, CEFR does suggest a number of ways in which learners’ needs and wants can be described.

Meeting CEFR goals - an alternative approach

• Start from typical topics of conversation.

• Imagine the actual conversations. (What would you say, when, to whom, why?) • Devise language exercises to help students vary and personalise those conversations.

• Select conversations and grade tasks according to level.

A theory of language learning …

• Grammar and vocabulary are inter-dependent.

• Learners can learn and use grammaticalised chunks before they learn any underlying rule. • Grammar and lexis is learnt through repeated exposure over time to typical examples in their natural context / collocations.

• Learners need exposure to many more grammatical / lexical patterns outside the EFL canon.

In what ways should learners be expected or required to develop their vocabulary?

• Simple exposure in authentic texts?

• Learner elicitation or dictionary - look up / teach as needed?

• In context in texts and subsequent recycling in exercises?

• With visuals - pictures, mime, realia, etc?

• By memorisation of word lists? - with translations?

• Through semantic fields and mind maps?

• By dictionary training?

• By training in the application of lexical structure?

What distinction, if any, is made between learning for recognition and learning for productive use?

Non-prescriptive key words from can do statements

• Memorised • Stock phrases • Patterns • Repertoire • Routine • Familiar • General topics • Range

My own attitude to the CEFR: Cautious optimism

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Teacher beliefs and theories of language and learning

Hugh Dellar Lexical Lab

Teacher beliefs and language: Grammar + words

1 Language is a list of grammar rules and vocabulary.

2 Grammar is the glue which holds language together.

4 to be It ’s unimportant if examples are invented and are unlikely used in real life as long as they clearly illustrate the meaning of the grammar.

5 We learn grammar by mastering one structure before moving on to the next.

7 the If you teach grammar, students can learn words to slot into grammar. 10 Students shouldn ’t see grammar that they haven’t been taught yet.

Teacher beliefs and language: A lexical view

3 6 Without grammar, you can say little; without vocabulary, you can say nothing.

Vocabulary should not be seen as single words, but as collocations and chunks.

8 Grammar can be acquired through unanalysed phrases. (i.e. you can learn and use

Have you been here before

? without ‘knowing’ the present perfect) 9 How we experience and use vocabulary develops and shapes ‘correct’ grammar.

11 You can ’t separate grammar from vocabulary.

Language: grammar + words

• It’s six less twenty • It’s two thirds of five • It exceeds 5 by forty • It’s twenty to six • It’s forty past five • It’s five forty • It’s ten after half five

Language: grammar + words

• There’s no pleasing some people.

• There’s no angering some people.

• It’s no satisfaction for some people.

• Making some people pleased is impossible.

• Some cannot be ensured happiness.

• A few can gain no satisfaction.

Grammar + words?

• I bark, you bark, he barks • You’re not going to go to Norway.

• Venus Williams is taller than Messi.

• Are you waving?

• I’ve only got one back.

• There’s a fat man sitting on a blanket playing the guitar.

Michael Hoey & Lexical Priming

• natural / actual usage and choices can’t be explained by grammar rules / ‘deep’ grammar • collocations, chunks and – to some extent – ‘grammar’ are formed through priming (which is essentially traces of how the words have been used thus far) • words that occur together are recalled quicker when one of them is heard / used.

Vocabulary and priming networks: what you know when you know a word

• Apart from knowing meaning, spelling and pronunciation, learners should (eventually) know / be primed for: – connotation – grammar / colligation – word forms – synonyms (That new thesaurus is nothing to write

house

about) – antonyms – collocation of – lexical sets (hyponyms / meronyms (

finger hand

) / metonyms (

government

)

Moscow

is a meronym is a metonym for the – co-text – register / genre

Some key ideas

• explain, exemplify, expand • vertical / horizontal development • understand, notice, do

Explanation : vocabulary

What does

grasp

mean?

A It’s this: mimes grasping a bag B Seize, clutch.

C If you grasp something, you take it and hold it firmly. D You

grasp someone’s arm

, or

you grasp a rope

like or

grasp a bag

this [demonstrate] – tightly.

E Translate into students’ language F

Grasp

? What was the sentence? What did they say?

Explanation : vocabulary

“The grammar is difficult to

grasp

.” What does

grasp

mean?

A

Grasp

means

comprehend

.

B Because the grammar is very complicated – there are lots of rules –

it’s hard to grasp

back – it’s difficult to understand. C Translate

grasp

into students language D It means it’s difficult to comprehend – to understand fully. So you often look and realise you didn’t fully understand something. For example:

I knew the changes were big, but I didn’t grasp how much they’d affect me.

I didn’t grasp how serious the illness was I didn’t grasp the importance of planning.

I didn’t grasp the significance of the decision at the time.

E It means XXX [translates]. For example:

I knew the changes were big, but I didn’t grasp how much they’d affect me.

I didn’t grasp how serious the illness was I didn’t grasp the significance of the decision at the time.

it’s difficult to grasp

How might you improve the way meaning is conveyed?

A B

a whale do up

“It’s a big fish, like a big dolphin. It’s in the sea. It jumps out of the sea. You know Moby Dick, the book. Moby Dick was a whale. Very big. Woosh! Woosh! [T mimes water blowing out of a whale’s spout].

“It means

refurbish

” C

rush

“If you

rush

, you run you do it quickly”. T acts out “rushing” by running to the door.

D

portion

“If you had a pizza and divided it into 4, you’d have a portion for each person” E

make

It’s ‘

hacer

’ in Spanish F

He was screaming in agony “

He was crying loudly because it hurt a lot”.

Exemplifying language

Think of examples of the words / phrase. When would you say it? Why? Who to?

whale rush make do up portion screaming in agony

Noticing : Examples and highlighting patterns.

We can often help students speak more fluently by showing ‘chunks’ of language or patterns in sentences.

Tenses are obviously one kind of pattern, but there are many more around words or that ‘frame’ sentences. For example: Sorry. I can’t stop.

I’m in a rush .

(chunk based on

rush

)

Do you fancy

a coffee a cigarette?

doing something later?

going out for lunch?

(pattern based on

fancy

)

Just because

I’m English, it

doesn’t mean

(sentence frame) I’m cold and unfriendly.

Can you see any chunks or patterns in these sentences and exchanges?

1 I stayed in and watched the latest episode of

Mad Men

.

2 Learning to manage a budget may be boring, but it ’s essential.

3 I didn ’t expect it to be so polluted.

4 More and more people are working longer hours.

5 I ’m going to run a marathon.

> Really? Rather you than me!

Chunks and patterns

1 I stayed in and watched the latest episode of

Mad Men

.

2 Learning to manage a budget may be boring, but it ’s essential .

3 I didn ’t expect it to be so polluted.

4 More and more people are work ing longer hours.

5 I ’m going to run a marathon.

> Really? Rather you than me !

‘Horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ development

Vertical development

Avoid the tendency to only look at single words – or sentences.

Think about the common patterns in conversations.

A: Have you tried . . . .-ing?

B: No.

A: Well, maybe you should.

B: Yeah, maybe. / Yeah, that’s not a bad idea, actually.

A: Have you tried …..-ing?

B: Yeah, but it didn’t work.

A: Oh, right. Well, in that case, why don’t you . . . Think about how conversations develop. Which questions would typically be asked? Which comments made? How would they be responded to?

A: I ’m pregnant.

Vertical development

A: I ’m

pregnant

.

B: That ’s great. When’s it due?

A: June.

B: Do you know if it ’s a boy or a girl?

A: No. / Yeah, it ’s a girl.

B: . . . . .

Horizontal development

• • • Different variations of chunks A range of answers to the same question Follow-up comments to the same answer / serving the same function Have you been to France?

No. I ’ve never really fancied it No, but it ’s supposed to be great.

No, but it ’s supposed to be awful No, but I ’d love to.

No, never. Have you?

I ’m really sorry. I’ll get a cloth I ’ll clean it up I ’ll buy another one.

I ’ll pay for the damage

Look at these sentences. Think about how they could be expanded vertically into dialogues – or horizontally by adding extra comments.

1 2 3 We’re going to get married.

Are you OK? You look a bit tired.

Did you see the game last night?

• • • • • • •

My beliefs

Language is essentially ‘lexical’ (collocations, chunks, ‘texts’) Lexis is teachable and learnable but grammar isn ’t – unless it’s taught as lexis!

To teach / learn, students need to understand (translate / explain / draw …) hear (even for reading?) notice / pay attention (explain, underline, do exercises) do something with the new language (skills, exercises, translate, drill) repeat over time in a variety of contexts in a variety of ways Language learning is essentially a long process. It is NOT linear and it ’s never complete.

All learners translate, whether openly or internally, and most will also do it for other people at some point.

You need a certain amount of self-motivation to succeed, but teachers can also motivate in a variety of ways.

The best motivation is learning something which can be used by the learner.

• • • • • •

Some more beliefs

Language may be lexical, but the vast majority of materials are grammar + words (+ skills) so we may need to adapt and to accommodate .

There is no single entity that is English and, therefore, no English which is strictly ‘correct’ – just usage that’s shared by more people. Teachers (and students) can only be correct within their experience of English. It’s up to them how far they want to find out and use the ‘native-speaker’ language. The process of teaching language in collocation, chunks, texts is more important than the ‘native-likeness’ of the language.

The process of teaching language to fulfil outcomes is more important than the ‘native-likeness’ of the language. (tour de france / describing a picture) Teaching in different ways is good , but learning styles can’t be defined and don’t work. Most successful learners do a lot outside class , but most students who come to class see the class as the learning time.

Explanation : grammar

• If students don’t know the jargon, the grammar term is useless.

• If you only use the grammar term, students may still not know what to say (e.g: you need the adjective of

safety

).

• Students may only know the form without understanding why.

• Avoiding the grammar term can be wordy.

• Just saying / telling does not mean students have understood.

Conclusion: – Examples are key (as we have already seen sometimes the answer will be – because that’s what we say!) – Questions to check / expand are helpful – Explaining changes with rules and terms may help. – But EXAMPLES are KEY

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