An evidence-based teaching TESOL blog

Building Great Teacher-Student Relationships (Part 1)

6/30/2016

Hey Team,

How is everyone today? (I am not sure how I will get the answer to that, with this being a blog and all.)

In this post I will provide you with five ideas to keep in mind when trying to build strong, healthy, and empowering teacher-student relationships.

The following list has been devised after reading several research articles, reflecting on positive and inspirational teachers and coaches I have had, as well as consulting with a handful of experienced teachers to get their opinions on the matter.

Josh’s Tips For Supporting Great Teacher-Student Relationships!

1. Build trust: Building trust can be done by listening to your students, being honest with your students, and being fair to your students.

2. Provide a culture of support: Providing a culture of support is very important. You need to support your students' growth, teach your students to support each other’s growth, and let your students support your growth.

3. Provide a source of positive input: For many students, the teacher is their only source of positive input and reinforcement. It is your job to provide a source of positivity and encouragement for your students. If you show you believe in them, then this might help them to believe in themselves.

4. You need to care: If your student is falling behind – care! If your student can’t tie their shoes – care! If your student seems upset or worried – care! If your content is boring – care! If your student can’t afford lunch – care! (If you don’t’ care, they won’t care – simple as that!)

5. Provide stability: Of course classrooms and learning environments should be dynamic, but they also need to have a certain amount of stability. Keep your emotions in check, keep incentives and punishments consistent, and set rules for the class that everyone can agree upon.

If you have any ideas that you would like to share, feel free to post them in the comments section.

Have a great day,

Josh
Keep English Real!

1 Comment

Making Homework Meaningful for EFL Students

6/24/2016

1 Comment

Hi All,

In this post I am going to discuss two things:
1: The practice of setting generic homework
2: How to set meaningful homework tasks for EFL/ESL classes (the main discussion will relate to this point)

First up – Generic Homework

You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? Yeah, I’m talking about the sort of homework that lazy or boring teachers give. I’m talking about the type of homework that teachers give when they feel like they need to give something (anything will do – right?). I’m talking about the sort of homework that makes kids (and adults) dislike learning a language (e.g. Hey kids, do the next five pages of boring, repetitive, decontextualized exercises for homework.). I’m talking about the sort of homework that lacks meaning and direction. I’m talking about the sort of homework that has no real place in professional education.

I’m not going to harp on about it; all I want to do is make a simple request. The next time you are going to give generic homework, please think twice before doing so. I truly think our students deserve better than just receiving generic homework tasks.

Your students aren’t generic. You aren’t generic. And so your homework tasks shouldn’t be generic.

Let’s move on to the main discussion: Setting More Meaningful Homework Tasks.

In the above section I mentioned that I didn’t think generic homework had a place in our classrooms. But what is generic homework? Well, generic homework is the type of homework that a teacher gives without paying any special attention to the needs of their students. It is the type of homework that is based on the idea that teachers must give homework as part of the job instead of being based on the idea that homework tasks need to have a purpose. That’s what I mean by generic homework.

However, homework should not be generic! Homework should be meaningful!

But in order for homework (out-of-class learning) to be meaningful I believe it must fulfill certain criteria. Check out the following list and let me know what you think in the comments section.

Josh’s 7 Tips for Setting More Meaningful Homework Tasks.

1. Have a purpose and let it be known: A homework task not only needs to have a clearly defined purpose (e.g. enhancing fluency, improving reading, finding gaps in a student’s knowledge, encouraging critical thinking, increasing input, etc.), but also needs the students (or their parents) to understand that purpose. If the teacher and the student both understand the purpose of the task then the task becomes more meaningful.

2. Personalize it: Once we have a purpose we can then start to personalize the homework. For example, if every student has to read the same chapter of a book for homework, does this mean that every student should have the same focus point? No, of course not. Some students might be slow readers, so their task might involve just re-reading the chapter again and again to help increase their reading speed. Other students might be faster or more advanced readers, so their task might include thinking about why the writer used certain words and then drafting a list of alternatives.

Note: There are so many ways we can personalize homework to suit the needs of the student – even when the students are doing the same activity. Try to give each student as much personalized care as possible.

3. Make it engaging: When setting homework tasks we should really strive to come up with ways to make these tasks more engaging. No one wants to do boring homework. Tap into your students’ interests and use these ideas to promote learning.

Note: Sometimes teachers need to set certain homework tasks due to school or national policy etc., but this should not mean that we can’t try to make these tasks engaging or novel in some way.

4. Time matters: This is a no-brainer – don’t make homework tasks too long. Sure, we all know the importance of input and time-on-task for learning a second language (if you don’t then check out my lectures on Frequency & Time and F.I.T.T), but this needs to be balanced with the student’s time limitations. A busy businessperson usually does not have 2 hours a day to spend studying English, so why set 2 hours of homework? Wouldn’t it be better to set 20 minutes of meaningful homework?

Note: Remember you need to consider time constraints and attention spans. An activity with a high cognitive load requires more focus (that’s why tasks need to be interesting and engaging) than less demanding tasks – so asking a young child to watch a Disney film might be more feasible than giving the child one hour of grammar homework.

5. Empowerment, ownership, and choice: One of the goals of teaching should be to help your students acquire the valuable skill of self-regulation (i.e. the ability to monitor and control one’s own behavior, emotions, or thoughts, altering them in accordance with the demands of the situation or academic pursuit). By allowing our students to have a say in which homework tasks are set we can actively empower our students and encourage them to take ownership of their own learning.

6. Make it possible: Students need to be able to complete the task (with limited assistance). This can help to build confidence and competence.

Note: A task which is too hard may result in a loss of motivation. Also remember to give clear instructions and ensure that the students possess the required skills to complete the task.

7. X factor: Finally, a task should, if possible, have an X factor. You can create this by making tasks visually appealing, humorous, or novel in some way. If a task is enjoyable your students will probably be happy to do it.

Note: Your out-of-class learning tasks should be informed by current best practices and relevant research.

In closing I would just like to say that homework does not need to be an individual pursuit. Why not set tasks that require group or partner participation? These types of activities have been shown to help enhance teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills.

If you teach younger children why not set tasks that require parental participation (e.g. parent-child reading). Not only will this aid with language development, but it can also serve to strengthen the bond between parent and child.

That’s all I have for you on the topic of setting meaningful homework. I hope you and your students can all benefit from some of the above tips and that you are now more confident in developing homework (out-of-class learning) activities that will better suit your students’ needs.

Thanks for reading and have a great day,

Josh
Keep English Real!

1 Comment

Corrective Feedback 101 (for Speaking)

6/22/2016

1 Comment

Welcome to another blog post. In this post, I am going to examine the subtle art of making corrections and giving feedback.

First up, a confession. I can honestly say that during my first couple of years working as an EFL teacher I was guilty of not really knowing how or why to make corrections or give feedback (and the idea of feedforward had never crossed my mind). I would just make corrections because I thought that was part of the job. I would make corrections with the belief and hope that it was helping my students. For me, I thought I just needed to correct my students and they would learn. I paid no attention to how I was correcting them or what I hoped the student would gain from these corrections. I had no idea how often I should correct my students. I had no idea about the different types of feedback/feedforward techniques available. And on top of this, I didn’t even really know which mistakes to correct - all of them, or only the major ones? In short - I was clueless.

But never fear - I am not going to leave you to be as clueless as I was. Instead, I am going to use my firsthand knowledge, research, and the insight I garnered from other teachers on this topic to help you help your students.

(You know you have wanted to.)

Josh’s Lucky 7 Correction & Feedback Techniques.

Note: Although these tips are specifically related to corrective feedback/feedforward for speaking, they can also be applied (with a slight tweak) to writing (but you should really stay tuned for my post on corrective feedback for writing if you want more specific advice). Also, it is important that teachers understand that just making a correction will generally not lead to visible learning. You must ensure the student takes action on your feedback.

1. Explicit correction refers to the act of explicitly providing the student with the correct form/word and explaining why what they said was not 100% accurate or clear.

Example:
Student – The mouses are on the floor.
Teacher – Not mouses. Mice. Mice is plural. Mouse is singular. The mice are on the floor.

Pros: Good for explaining mistakes/errors. Good for correcting pronunciation (e.g. Not ‘P.’ - ‘B.’ Squeeze your lips together. ‘B.’). Good for learners who like to be shown their mistakes so they can learn by analyzing them. Good for providing explicit grammar instruction.

Cons: Can be confusing for students at lower levels, especially if the explanation is beyond their current level of comprehension. May detract from the flow of the class (if used too often), as explicit instruction often requires more time than other forms of correction. Not great for classes focused on promoting fluency, since this approach may break the flow of conversation.

2. Recasting is an implicit correction technique that involves the teacher reformulating all or part of a student’s utterance in order to provide an exemplar for the student.

Example:
Student – The mouses are on the floor.
Teacher – The mice are on the floor.

Pros: Recasts are quick and easy for the teacher to use. Good for correcting performance mistakes (i.e. you know the student knows the correct form or word, but for some reason they ‘slipped up’). Good for students who have a good ‘ear’ for hearing differences (so they can hear where the implicit correction is), or know that a recast is a form of feedback that they need to pay attention to. Recasts do not overly detract from the flow of a conversation.

Cons: Not so good for students who cannot distinguish between the subtle differences in the recast (making the recast ineffective). Not so good for helping students understand rules. Students, especially at lower levels, might take your recast to be a direction or question and not understand it as being an implicit for of correction.

3. Clarification requests are used to indicate that either a student’s utterance has been misunderstood, or that the utterance is ill-formed in some way and that a repetition or a reformulation is required.

Example:
Student – I went to go to my brother-in-law’s house yesterday.
Teacher – What do you mean ‘you went to go’?
Student – Oh, my…um, I went to my brother-in-law’s house yesterday.

Pros: Good to allow students to think about what might be incorrect. Good to challenge the student to question their own output. Good for involving other students if the original student can’t clarify. Good to show the student that they can, with a little bit of effort, make themselves understood. Good for uncovering gaps in knowledge.

Cons: Can be frustrating for students if they are unaware of their mistake. Not suitable for times when the student does not know the right vocabulary (in these cases you will needed to provide it, or have another student do it for you). Clarification requests might not be good for students with really low levels of proficiency as they might not know how to restructure, or just think that what they said was correct.

4. Meta-linguistic feedback contains either comments, information, or questions related to the well-formedness (or accuracy) of the student’s utterance, without explicitly providing the correct form.

Example:
Student – I did went to my brother-in-law’s house yesterday.
Teacher – Hmmm. Do we say ‘did went’? ... ‘I did went’?
Student – I went. I went to my brother-in-law’s house yesterday.

Pros: Makes the student think about the mistake/error and offer their own solution. Good for uncovering gaps in knowledge (as the student is required to offer a solution).

Cons: Probably not good for lower-level students as they might get frustrated if they are constantly being asked to self-correct but lack the ability. Often gives the illusion of learning/teaching, but without the results (best to couple this with many implicit examples).

5. Elicitation aims to elicit the correct form from the student. Three of the most common ways teachers try to elicit output from their students are:
1. Recast with a strategic pause to allow students to “fill in the blank”. (Example below)
2. Teachers ask questions to elicit correct forms (see points 3 and 4).
3. Requesting students to reformulate their utterance (see points 3 and 4). .

Example:
Student – I went to the park. It was funny.
Teacher – It was …
Student – It was fun.

Pros: Elicitation techniques often require the student to think about their output. Elicitation techniques usually make it clear that something was incorrect, therefore allowing the student an opportunity to address this issue. Elicitation techniques encourage the students to speak more.

Cons: Allows the student to guess the answer (A correct guess could just be luck and not an indication of learning.). Some elicitation techniques can break the flow of a conversation – especially if it takes the student several attempts to form the correct response.

6. Repetition requires the teacher to repeat the student's error and adjust their intonation to draw attention to it. This is usually done to show the student the error/mistake and encourage them to proffer a correction.

Example:
Student – I did went to my brother-in-law’s house yesterday.
Teacher – I did went to my brother-in-law’s house yesterday.
Student – I went to my brother-in-law’s house yesterday.

Pros: Allows the student to think about the problem. Repetition allows the student to self-correct. Repetition is easy for the teacher to use. Repetition can help uncover gaps in a student’s knowledge. Repetition can be a good tool to encourage other students to offer advice and support.

Cons: Repetition may not be suitable for students who can’t uncover their own mistakes (often due to their lower proficiency levels). Not an ideal method for teaching a rule or structure.

7. Exemplar feedback (an approach I have developed over the course of 10 years) is a type of feedback that is similar to recasting (see point 2), however instead of the teacher making a recast of the student’s erroneous utterance, they provide a series of exemplars using the same pattern. Then the student must create their own examples (several examples)!

Example:
Student – The boy is run.
Teacher – The boy is run? Hmmm. The boy is swimming. The boy is shopping. The boy is reading. The boy is…
Student – The boy is running.
Teacher - Please give me 5 examples.
Student – The boy is running. The boy is swimming. The boy is kicking a ball. The boy is reading. The girl is sleeping.

Pros: Engages the student in listening and figuring out rules/structures. Good for highlighting common forms/structures.

Cons: Does not explicitly teach rules. Not suitable for mistakes that have original or novel forms. Not ideal for uncovering gaps as the student is already given the correct form. Giving exemplars requires the teacher to think on their feet.

KEY POINT: You must ensure your feedback encourages the student to act on the feedback. Feedback without student action is generally pointless.

In closing, I would just like to say that the above ideas are not the only ways to offer corrective feedback – you can also use gestures, mouthing, mime, note taking, or anything else that draws attention to an error or mistake. Just make sure you try to incorporate different strategies to help your students get the most out of your lesson.

I would also like to say that my ideas are just that – ideas. Of course, other teachers may disagree with my suggestions (and pros and cons), and that’s great. The point of my list is to simply get you thinking about the best ways to provide correction and feedback to your students in order to help them learn.

Have a great day,

Josh
Keep English Real!

1 Comment

What's In A Name?

6/18/2016

2 Comments

Today guys and gals it’s all about names.

I have a confession to make. I’m not proud of this, but I feel it is important that you know. So here goes. Sometimes, just sometimes, I can’t remember some of my students’ names. Now I’m not talking about the students I see every day. No. I’m talking about the students I see once a month or once every two months etc.

I see them walking toward me and suddenly a feeling of dread rises up inside of me. What can I do? I frantically search the recesses of my mind. I come up empty. I quickly backtrack. Hold on a minute - do I have any students without names? Am I in luck? Is this that one poor anomaly whose parents decided they didn’t need to name their little bundle of joy?

Sadly, no. This person has a name – I just can’t remember it (grr). Defeated, and with no way out, I’m left with only one option. I look that student right in the eye and I say (in my happiest of voices to cover for my patheticness) – “Hey buddy. How are you?”

What a total cop-out. This student deserves more than that. And from now on, I will try and be more than that. I will try to remember every student’s name, not just the names of the students I have frequent contact with, but every student.

(Yeah, I'll even try to remember the hard to pronounce ones. Just like this dude does.)

How about you? Do you strive to remember each and every student’s name? Do you think that your students deserve more than just generic greetings because you can’t remember (or can’t be bothered to remember) their names? Do you think that all of your students should be treated with care and respect? Of course you do. And showing this care and respect can be as easy as using the student’s name when you greet him or her. Simple as that!

That little rant concludes this post. I hope you got something out of it.

Have a great day,

Josh
Keep English Real

2 Comments

Teacher Talk Time - Making Cutbacks

6/17/2016

1 Comment

Howdy folks,

I hope you are looking forward to the final installment (unless I do a prequel - Star Wars style) in my three-part series on teacher talk.

Today’s topic is entitled: Teacher Talk Time – Making Cutbacks.

In this post we are going to be making some suggestions on how we can minimize teacher talk time in order to provide our students with more opportunities to be active participants in class.

To begin with, let me ask you a question: Who needs to practice speaking and communicating the most in an EFL/ESL class?

If you answered “the student” then you would be correct. Well done. Advance to Go and collect $200.

Sadly, however, in many situations it is the teacher who does all the talking – reducing the amount of time that students have available to practice. It is this phenomenon that EFL/ESL teachers need to be aware of.

Now, before getting into my tips about reducing teacher talk time, let’s take a look at the following clip and see if you agree or disagree with what James has to say.

How did you find the tips and advice James gave us? I personally think his ideas are useful and easy to implement. I would just like to add that as the teacher you should be listening in and monitoring for times when you might need to offer advice or support. Don’t just tell the students to communicate and then wander off (see my point below on actually teaching students how to interact in groups and pairs).

In relation to ‘echoing’, as mentioned by James, I think it is important to know the difference between ‘echoing’ as a means of teaching (e.g. to increase input, as positive feedback if the student used the phrase for the first time, etc.) and ‘echoing’ as just an annoying teacher habit.

Got it? Great! Let’s move on to my thoughts on the subject of cutting back on teacher talk.

First, you might be wondering why we need to cut back on teacher talk. Well, the simple fact of the matter is that the more time a teacher talks the less time a student has to talk. And in an EFL class, especially one that is supposed to be communicative or aimed at developing speaking skills, having a teacher talk more than a student is a complete travesty (I like the word travesty).

Second, in many cases our students have very few opportunities to communicate in English outside of the classroom. This means that the classroom environment itself needs to provide as many opportunities as possible for our students to speak in English.

Finally, in many cases teachers are blissfully unaware of the positive benefits that reducing teacher talk time can bestow upon our students. All too often teachers believe that they need to be talking to be teaching – and this is just not the case (actually one of my professors gave me this exact feedback while I was studying for my MA in Applied Linguistics). Absolutely not! Honestly, I have enough to do in class without having to talk as well. I need to listen, prompt, collaborate with students, have students collaborate with each other, provide materials, facilitate discussion, offer feedback and advice, motivate, innovate, mark homework, cultivate a positive learning environment, and think of new ways to make learning enjoyable. You tell me – how can I do all of that if I am constantly talking? That’s right. I can’t. So that’s why I try to remain as quiet as possible and let my students talk. After all, they are the ones here to practice.

Josh’s Tips for Reducing Teacher Talk Time!

Right, now we understand some of the most important reasons for reducing teacher talk time, let’s take a quick look at ten ways this can be achieved.

Teachers need to ask more challenging (especially open/referential) questions as a way of promoting higher order thinking skills within their students. Tips: Think about the way you phrase your questions. Think about the purpose of your questions. Ask questions that require the student to give an opinion or expand on an idea etc.

Teachers need to help students learn how to be active participants in group discussions. All too often teachers tell students to get into groups and discuss a topic without realizing that in many situations this does not increase talk time at all. All it really does is ensure the more confident or vocal students talk, while the shy and/or less advanced students just listen. Tips: Teach your students how to have a discussion and the importance of having everyone involved. Make sure each student I encouraged to be an active participant.

Teachers need to ensure that they are allowing sufficient time for students to gather their thoughts before jumping in to offer assistance or complete a student’s sentence. Tips: Wait. Keep waiting – but give a small hint. Wait – give another hint (better still, get another student to help). Have the students offer support – why should a teacher do all the teaching?

Understand your talking habits in the classroom. Do you have a point? Are you talking because you think talking and teaching are the same things? Are you stuck in the IRF mode of communication? Tips: Check out part one and part two of this series. Record your class and then watch it to see how you can improve your communication skills and reduce your talk time (if needed).

Teachers need to do things that encourage real communication and interaction between students. Tips: Implement meaningful tasks in order to encourage productive student talk. If a student finds meaning or value in a task then they will probably be more willing to get involved and communicate.

Teachers need to empower students to communicate with each other. Tip: Encourage students to ask each other questions and initiate conversations. Just make sure they do it in the target language.

The teacher can use pair or group work to enhance student-to-student learning. This is very useful in large classes to ensure all students are getting a chance to talk. Students are often very good at helping each other learn. Although teachers still need to remain active and spend time with each group listening in and offering advice/feedback etc. Tips: Have students create their own dialogues. Teach students how to communicate in groups and pairs – don’t just instruct them to do so. Teach students how to help each other.

Teachers need to make sure that students know it is OK to make mistakes. If a student knows there are no negative repercussions for making mistakes they might be willing to talk more. Tips: Praise effort. View ‘mistakes’ as learning opportunities.

When it comes to student talk time it is really important that teachers not only listen to what the students are saying, but also how they are saying it. Letting your students talk in long-winded monologues just to increase their talk time is probably not ideal. Tips: Make sure your students are learning how to speak in socially appropriate ways. (For more on this please check out my lecture - QASI(R).)

Your students’ ages and ability levels will greatly impact the ratio of talk time in your classes. Usually older and/or more advanced level learners need less teacher-centered instruction. Tip: Make sure you monitor your teacher talk to suit the students’ needs, levels, and ages.

And there you have it – ten ways to increase student talk time in class. Woohoo!!!

I trust you will find the above list useful and hope that you will be able to implement some of the ideas in your next class.

Thanks for joining me in this post and remember to get involved by leaving a comment or feedback. You can even leave some of your own tips for increasing student talk time.

Have a great day,

Josh
Keep English Real!

1 Comment

<<Previous

Building Great Teacher-Student Relationships (Part 1)

Making Homework Meaningful for EFL Students

Corrective Feedback 101 (for Speaking)

What's In A Name?

Teacher Talk Time - Making Cutbacks

Joshua Wedlock

Archives

Categories

Building ﻿Great Teacher-Student Relationships (Part 1)

Making Homework Meaningful for EFL Students

Corrective Feedback 101 (for Speaking)

What's In A Name?

Teacher Talk Time - Making Cutbacks

Joshua Wedlock

Archives

Categories

Building Great Teacher-Student Relationships (Part 1)