EN 4313 (Lecture 2)






Contextualizing teaching & language tasks
Personalizing teaching & language tasks
Using different sensory input
Making interactive-decisions
Engaging different classroom interaction patterns
Engaging different classroom discourse formats
Contextualizing your teaching
 Context = a situation in which
 there’s a call for meaningful or purposeful communication
 the communication calls for the use of a specific language item
(collocation)
 The context should signal to Ss the situation with which the
particular language item can be associated.
 To contextualize your teaching means to create a meaningful
communicative context for what students are going to learn
 Contextualize both your teaching and major language tasks so that
your students can learn the communicative use of the language
item(s)/skills
Examples of context and details
involved
 An event / a story: a robbery, a birthday party, a personal crisis /
problem, etc.
 A place: at MacDonald’s, at the Peak, etc.
 People involved: a policeman, a friend, a counselor, etc.
 The communication needed / particular language item needed:
describing an event, giving instructions, looking up information for a
project, etc.
 The communication mode: email, telephone, face-to-face
discussion,etc.
Task 1
Is Task A in the handout contextualized? If so,
is it well-contextualized? Comment. What can
we do to contextualize the task?
Is Task B in the handout contextualized? If so,
is it well-contextualized? Comment. What can
we do to contextualize the task?
Personalizing your teaching
Personalizing = signaling to Ss that what
you’re going to present or what you want
them to do is
related to them
generated from them
to be owned by them
Ways of personalizing your teaching
(presentation)
When presenting/teaching the use of a
language item or a skill,
draw on the experiences, views of your
students
solicit examples or linguistic data (language)
from your students
acknowledge the contribution of the above
Personalizing a learning task
 Assigning a topic / context that concerns your Ss or that
interests them
 Allowing Ss to personalize their own products by
encouraging them to
 express their views, thoughts about a topic in a piece of
writing
 create a personal title for their own products
 decorate their own products
 publish their work (creating a sense of recognition)
Why personalizing our teaching?
Personalizing can
create a sense of ownership of things produced
during the learning process
make your classroom a personal and ‘human’
place
motivate learning
lubricate the process of learning
Knowledge required of you:
Interests of youngsters
Your Ss’ interests
The practice of your CTs
Any other types of knowledge?
If possible, contextualize and personalize
when planning for a teaching unit and in
particular for the start / warm-up stage of
A major reading task
A major writing task
A major speaking task
A major vocabulary learning unit
A major grammar item learning unit
Making use of different sensory input
to spice up your lessons
Use
Music (e.g., MTVs)
Video clips
Internet resources, etc.
Pictures
Objects
Etc.
to stimulate thinking and to generate ideas
Making interactive decisions
Interactive decisions =
 ad hoc decisions made during your teaching
regarding
the pace;
the amount of input to give
the strategies of teaching for the next step of
your teaching
 in order to maximize the effectiveness of
your teaching
Observations to make for interactive
decisions
 pace of learning / ability to learn
 mood
 discipline
 level of interest in the activities /your
teaching
 the previous & the next lessons
Some likely scenarios in your PT which
may affect the progress ofyour lesson:
 Sleepy Ss (2:00 in a hot afternoon)
 Slow learners
 Confused learners
 A rowdy group
 Ss have returned from a P.E. lesson
 Ss have finished a test in a previous lesson
 Ss will be writing a test in the next lesson
 Ss have been punished in a previous lesson
 Students have suggested some good examples.
 Ss in a festive mood.
Solutions?
 Slowing down
 Repeating a teaching procedure
 Rephrasing your explanation
 Introducing a brief game / a fun activity
 Allowing several minutes for settling down
 Allowing a short break
 Allowing Ss to talk about the previous /
upcoming lesson
 Staying away from sensitive topics
 Adopting Ss’ examples
Interactive decisions on your use of
equipment, materials, etc.
 When equipment breaks down or when you
suddenly find a mistake in your materials,
quit using the equipment
quit using the materials if the mistake is serious
point out the problems of the materials
check the equipment / materials first before
the class starts
  think of some fallback strategies
Flexibility counts!
 Exercise flexibility in the execution of your plan.
 Don’t panic when things don’t run according to your plan.
 Do what you think is appropriate to the flow of your lesson
(logical enough?).
 Do what you think is conducive to the achieving of the lesson
objectives.
 Don’t stick to your lesson plan just because your CT or Tutor has
a copy of if and is observing your lesson.
Classroom interaction patterns
 T  Ss (lecturing)
 S—S—S (group)
 S-S (pair)
S
 What are the strengths and limitations of these
various interaction patterns?
Classroom Talk
(Discourse formats)
 T-initiated talk:





Monologue
IRF
IR(group discussion – group responding)F
IRF (F from peers – F from T)
I(Genuine questions)R-Inc (incorporation of ideas for
teaching)
 What are the various formats good for?
 What are the strengths and weaknesses of the variations
of IRF?
Classroom Talk (continued)
Student-initiated talk:
IR (teacher)
IR (peer) F (teacher)
I I (teacher) R(peer) F(teacher)
What are some strengths and weaknesses of
the above formats?
Initiation involves questioning/elicitation
skills (practised in Tut 2/3).
Response takes time, may need
motivation or encouragement, may mean
overcoming the classroom cultural barrier.
Feedback requires your interactive
decisions.
Implications?
Implications for MT / on-site PT?
You will be assessed on how well you can
do the following:
Contextualization
Personalization
Use of different sensory input
Use of different interaction patterns
Use of different discourse formats