Transcript Teaching English Speaking

Bridging Cultures
跨文化口语教程
English Speaking: a task-based approach
Why Bridging Cultures?

Students’ needs
- a globalized job market
-
Internationalized studies
Survival skills
Cross-cultural communication (more and more lao wai in China)

What we can offer them?
-
From communicative confidence to communicative competence
-
Bridging Cultures
(Foreign Language Teaching and Research
Press, 2005)
Inspired by real-life experience
Communicative confidence

Communication in context

An important part of fostering
internationalized talent
-
Awareness of other cultures
Understanding of one’s own culture
-
Why task-based?
To create an effective learning environment in the
classroom, we need to provide three essential
conditions: the provision of exposure to the
target language; the provision of opportunities
for learners to use the target language for real
communication; and the promotion of
motivation for learners to engage in the
learning process. (Willis, 1996)
Defining tasks
Ellis (2003)
A task is a work plan that requires learners to process language
pragmatically in order to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated
in terms of the correct or appropriate content that has been
conveyed. To this end, it requires them to give primary attention to
meaning and to make use of their own linguistic resources… A task
is intended to result in language use that bears some resemblance,
direct or indirect, to the way language is used in the real world.
Like other language activities, a task can engage productive or
receptive, and oral or written skills, and also various cognitive
processes.
Principles of a task-based
approach
Form and meaning 形式和意义结合原则
 Authenticity 真实性原则
 Recycling 循环性原则
 Task dependency 任务依赖原则
 Learning by doing 在做中学原则
 Scaffolding 扶助性原则

Difference between tasks and
exercises


What distinguishes a task from an exercise is the kind of
meaning involved.
Whereas a task is concerned with ‘pragmatic meaning’,
i.e. the use of language in context, an exercise is
concerned with ‘semantic meaning’, i.e. the systemic
meanings that specific forms can convey irrespective of
context. Thus, a ‘task’ requires the participants to
function primarily as ‘language users’ in the sense that
they must employ the same kinds of communicative
processes as those involved in real-world activities.
(Ellis, 2003)
Differences between “exercise” and
“task” (Ellis, 2000)
Exercise
linguistic form and semantic
meaning
Manifestation of code
knowledge

Internalization of linguistic
skills serves as an
investment for future use.
Task
Pragmatic meaning to
achieve communicative
goals / objectives
Achievement of
communicative goal
Direct relationship between
task activities and natural
communicative activity

Tasks – processes

Pre-task activities – building schemata （认知图式）: Warming Up
(brainstorming: open-ended questions)
Bridging Cultures, p1
1. Do you have plans to continue studying for your master’s degree? Why (or why
not)?
2. Do you want to study abroad? Why (or why not)?
3. Have you ever been on any job interviews?
If yes, please list in the table below the major questions you are asked in the interview.
If not, what do you think would be the major questions asked in the job interview?
Please list them in the table below.
4. What should you do to leave a good impression on your interviewer in a job
interview? Why? What you should not do? Why not?
Schemata

According to Reber and Reber's (2001) definition, schema
is a plan, a structure, a framework, and a program.

schemas (schemata) are mental plans that
are abstract and that they function as
guides for action, as structure for
interpreting information, as frameworks
for solving problems
How to build schemata?
-
Cultural knowledge (genre, context, etc.)
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Professional knowledge (vocabulary)
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Textual knowledge (structure and grammar)
Unit 1
(Bridging Cultures, P2, p13)
Ming’s email vs. Lily’s email
Hi Lily,I just got a call from the Department of Sociology at Columbia
University (cultural knowledge). They called me for an appointment
for a telephone interview (professional and textual knowledge). I’m
thrilled! You know how much I want to go to Columbia and how hard
I’ve tried to make it happen. But I also feel a little worried because
I’m afraid of talking English over phone—As an English major, you
may not have such worries. Anyway, I’ll do my best and make my
dream come true. Wish me good luck! Ming
Students will have some anticipation about what kind of schemata they
are going to utilize to accomplish the task (speech act) – a telephone
interview
Linguistic and cultural input
authentic input

Transcript of 3 conversations (P3-6; p14-16)

Cultural notes (p6, p17)
Tasks (dependency)
Activity 1 (recycling）p8-10; p19-22
 Activity 2: role-play p11-12; p22-24
 Activity 3: simulation p12; p24-25

A series of task in a lesson or unit forms a kind of
pedagogical ladder, each task representing a rung on the
ladder, enabling the learner to reach higher and higher
levels of communicative performance. (Nunan, 1999)
Scaffolding (building schemata)
Language notes p5
 Appendix p26-35 (language usage/ functions)

Technical considerations in
teaching

Class size
Question: In your own practice, do you have any experience in dealing
with large size classes?

Multi-level students
Question: How are you going to inspire quiet students to share their
ideas with others? How to motivate students?

Multi-media
Question: How are you going to utilize multi-media in teaching speaking?
Classroom instruction
Focused instruction – drawing attention to
language form – will help learners to
improve more rapidly and to continue
improving. (Willis, 1996)
Teachers’ role
Tasks remove the teacher domination, and
learners get chances to open and close
conversations, to interact naturally, to interrupt
and challenge, to ask people to do things and to
check that they have been done. (Willis, 1996)
Suggestion for conducting activities

Establish routines for group work and pair
work. Make sure learners understand the
value of group work and pair work; clear,
systematic procedures for structuring
tasks (collaborative learning)
Monitoring students’ development
Teaching is a process of decision making
 Teaching is a matter of choice
 Teaching is adaptation

THANK YOU!
张沂昀
南京大学大学外语部, 210093
[email protected]
[email protected]