Transcript The missing piece of the puzzle

Rob Waring
Notre Dame Seishin University
Japan
[email protected]
Short texts
A Typical Reading Text
Many
difficult
words
Definitions given
Many exercises
What do learners need to know?




Learners need 7000-8000 word families to read native novels with
high vocabulary coverage (98%).
About 2000 General Service word families 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

its nuances and shades of meanings

Its derivations (useful, useless, uselessness, etc.)

its collocations and colligations

if it’s typically spoken, or written

if it’s useful or rare, polite or pejorative

the discourse domains the word lives in (e.g. science, music, biology)
What collocations do they 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 they 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 they 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 who’s just walked in.
Plus THOUSANDS more
What else do they 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
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
receptively from reading (more for productive use)
 Little research has been done 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 minimal additional practice in review units or
workbooks
 has an overwhelming focus on new material in each lesson
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 forget most of what we meet
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 recycling and repetition of words and grammar
structures
 give students chances to see how the grammar and vocabulary
are used together in real discourse
 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
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 is Extensive Reading?
When reading extensively, students
Read something
Enjoyably and quickly with
Adequate comprehension so they
Don’t need a dictionary
SSR = Sustained Silent Reading
SURF = Sustained Uninterrupted Reading for Fun
DEAR = Drop Everything And Read
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 number of words a learner will probably learn from course
work plus graded readers
Probably known
Course book
only
Add one
reader a
week
Add two
readers a
week
Partially Known
Probably
unknown
50+
30-49
20-29
10-19
5-9
1-4
Total
523
210
229
472
580
1,261
3,275
1,023
283
250
539
570
1,325
3,990
1,372
380
367
694
877
2,882
6,572
Data from Sequences, Foundations, Page Turners and Footprints by Heinle Cengage
225,000
60,800
570,000
174,000
(=1,029,000)
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
Course book only
Add one reader / week
Add two readers / week
Probably
available
Partially
available
200
250
325
250
580
380
This does not include the learning of collocations,
colligations, idioms, phrases, multiple meanings, lexical
chunks, sentence heads… etc.
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
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’
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 they don’t need
to read much.
Intermediates - A book at week at their ability level
 They don’t meet unknown words all the time, but their
books are thicker, so they are reading more.
Advanced – 2 books at week at their ability level
 They rarely meet unknown words, so they have to read
more to meet language they don’t know.
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
Some objections
Nice idea but I have no time in my course.
-> If you don’t have graded reading where will your 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.
Summary
 Course books and graded readers are two sides of the same
coin – they help each other
 Graded reading should be integrated into our courses. It
should not be an option.
 Choose books at the right level for your students (so they can
read fluently with high levels of understanding and without a
dictionary)
 Students need to learn to listen fluently too.
Finally…
You can review this presentation by downloading the ppt and the
article from the following website.
www.robwaring.org/presentations/
www.robwaring.org/papers/
More information about Graded Reading (Extensive Reading) at…
www.extensivereading.net
www.erfoundation.org
Thank you for listening