Workshop 2
Facilitator’s Notes
Understanding How We Use Language for Different Purposes
Duration:
1 hour 20 minutes – 2 hours 15 minutes
Purpose:
 develop understandings of the role of oral language in learning
 explore how language use is determined by its context, purpose and audience.
Sessions:
1. reflection on homework tasks... Page 2
2. how do we use language for different purposes? ... Page 2.
Materials
 scissors, sticky tape, paddle pop sticks, paper, post-it notes, textas (marker pens), pens,
butcher’s paper etc
 Workshop 2 PowerPoint
 Workshop 2, Participant’s Workbook
Resources Available in the Support Resource


Poster Graffiti Wall
Poster Register Workshop 2

Poster Scaffolding-Lesson
Homework Tasks
Read and be prepared to comment at the next workshop on the professional reading on
Register at the end of Workshop 2, Participant’s Workbook.
OR
Observe the use of register in the classroom.
Session 1: Reflection on homework tasks (10 – 15 minutes)
Reflect on homework task:
 Ask participants to write comments about what they did on post-it notes. These can be
added to a graffiti wall.
Graffiti Wall Posters - Available in Support Resources Folder
Homework Task 1: Developing a student profile
Already knew
Didn’t know
How it will
help me?
Homework Task 2: Observation of questioning strategies
What was
easy?

What was
difficult?
What I found
out?
Allow time for participants to read others’ comments and discuss the tasks.
Session 2: How do we use language for different purposes? (1 - 1 hour 30 minutes)
A.
Getting ready
 With the group, brainstorm a list of times they interacted with people on the previous day
or evening. This could include interactions they had with a family member or friend, with
people at work, or with a stranger and using any medium – speaking by phone or faceto-face; or writing using email, text letter, note etc. List who the person was, where the
interaction took place and what it was about.

Model on butcher’s paper, or use the PPT slide to give an example as participants’
record in Workshop 2, Participant’s Workbook page 2.
PowerPoint 2, Slide 2
Who?
E.g. Andrea



How?
Met her in the staffroom
before school – face to face.
About what?
Discussed the film festival.
As we all know, the way we communicate with others depends on the context. As
parents and educators we teach children how to use language.
Ask participants for examples of when children may have said an embarrassing thing.
To be successful at school, and to ‘get on’ in the wider world, children need to learn what
language to use in a range of situations.
2|W orkshop 2: Facilitator’s Notes




PowerPoint 2, Slide 3
A functional model of language sees the language used by anyone in any given
situation change depending on:

What the communication is about (the field).
What is the content matter or topic of the communication?

Who you are communicating with (the tenor).
Who are the people taking part in the communication?

How you are communicating (the mode).
Is it spoken or written communication and what media is used?
These three elements combine to make the register of any spoken or written text.
Register posters - Available in Support Resources Folder
To help explain the three elements above, use examples of relevance to the participants.
Explain that we can look at the register on a continuum moving from informal to formal
language use or from language that is more ‘spoken-like’ to more ‘written-like’:
1
PowerPoint 2, Slide 4
Language continuum
Informal
Text 1“It’s Bill’s
50th on
Saturday. How
about coming to
our place for
lunch? About
midday?”
Formal
Text 2 “Hello Fred. I
was wondering if you
received the invitation
to Bill’s 50th birthday
party. It’s at our place
on Saturday and will
start at midday. I hope
you can come.”
Text 3 You are
cordially invited to
attend a luncheon
party in celebration
of William Smith’s
50th birthday. The
luncheon will
commence at
12.00pm on
Saturday 16
November 2010 at 2
River St. Pretty Bay.
Spoken
Written
B.
Show me how (modelling)
 Ask participants to... as a group, complete the table below showing field, tenor and mode
and typical language patterns of the three texts we have just looked at. Workshop 2,
Participant’s Workbook page 3.
PowerPoint 2, Slide 5
Context
Text 1
Text 2
Text 3
Field: What was the text about?
Tenor: Who was taking part?
Mode: Was the communication
spoken or written?
1
Facilitator’ Note: That this is a ‘functional’ model may not be relevant to the participants. Make informed
decisions about what language is needed.
3|W orkshop 2: Facilitator’s Notes
C.
Help me do it (guided practice)
 Explain to participants that they will now be involved in an activity to demonstrate how
language used in the classroom also moves along a continuum. Two participants will be
involved in an activity as outlined while the remaining participants sit in a circle around
them and note (in their Workshop 2, Participant’s Workbook page 4) examples of the
language used. Explain that this is what is called a ‘fishbowl technique’.
PowerPoint 2, Slide 6
 Activity One - oral interaction
Provide volunteers with materials e.g. scissors, sticky tape, paper, paddle pop sticks.
Ask them to jointly construct an object that could be used to do something in the kitchen
using these materials. Observers note down the language being used.
PowerPoint 2, Slide 7
 Activity Two - oral interaction
‘Teacher’ comes into group and asks questions about what the volunteers made.
Volunteers show their construction and explain to the ‘teacher’ what it is and how they
made it. Observers note down the language being used.
PowerPoint 2, Slide 8
 Activity Three - oral presentation
Volunteers imagine they are reporting back to a class. Give them time to prepare this
requesting them to describe and explain what they made as well as the decisions made
in its construction. They may choose to do this as a group selecting one or two people to
deliver the presentation.
PowerPoint 2, Slide 9
 Activity Four - group negotiated oral presentation
Explain to participants that not all students would be able to report back to the class
without assistance. These students can be scaffolded into doing a report back by firstly
contributing to a group-negotiated oral text and then using that to prompt their reportback. While the volunteers are preparing their oral presentation the rest of the group
can contribute to the group negotiated oral text. This text could take the form of written
prompts for an oral procedural text, diagrams etc. Record prompts on butcher’s paper.
PowerPoint 2, Slide 10
D.
Let me do it myself (independent practice)
 Ask the volunteers to present their report to the rest of the group. Another participant
might also like to volunteer to present the group negotiated oral presentation to the
group.
 Add the typical patterns of language to the table.
4|W orkshop 2: Facilitator’s Notes
PowerPoint 2, Slide 11-14
Register activity 3: Examining language used in the classroom
Facilitator’s note: Likely patterns of language have been added (blue type) in this version
of the table.
Examples of language
used in the construction
activity (Indicative only)
Typical patterns in the language of each text
Activity 1 - oral interaction
while constructing the
object
Meaning is understood by being in the context /
participating in the activity:
 frequent commands eg stick it there
 contractions don’t,
 ellipsis2 (words left out without losing meaning) eg How
about....? Maybe ... We could always...
 use pronouns that only those present can understand
eg that one
 use of idiom3 Eg back to square one, if worse comes to
worse
 in the present or future tense
 conversational / dialogic
Language has to reconstruct some of the context:
 questions and statements rather than commands
 some evaluation by ‘teacher’
 less ellipsis
 few if any idiomatic expressions
 present and past tense
 dialogic
11
Language has to reconstruct almost all of the context:
 longer stretches of language
 statements (questions only come from those listening)
 fewer pronouns used
 mainly past tense
 generalisations
 mainly monologic4
13
Language has to reconstruct almost all of the context:
 see above
14
E.g. “put it here”
“Have you got any...?”
“I need two of these.”
“I’m all thumbs with this stuff.”
Activity 2 - talking to the
‘teacher’ about the
construction
E.g. “How did you...?”
“I used straws to...”
Activity 3 - oral
presentation to explain how
the object was constructed
E.g. “Our first step was to
discuss the model we wished
to make.”
Activity 4 - group
negotiated oral
presentation
See above
2
12
Ellipsis refers to the part of a grammatical unit that is left out of a phrase because it is believed to be unnecessary or
redundant. An example is in the answer to the question “Did you see him do it?” and the response is “Yes I did” instead of “Yes
I did see him do it.
3
Idiomatic refers to using, containing, or denoting expressions that are natural to a native speaker of a language.
4
Monologic refers to being like a monologue. A monologue is extended, uninterrupted speech by a character in a drama. The
character may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing another character, or speaking to the audience,
especially the former.
5|W orkshop 2: Facilitator’s Notes
E.
What did I learn?
 As a whole group reflect on the language used and the variations between the informal
to formal use of language.
 Note these on the Points to note:
This activity illustrates how oral language in different contexts develops from more
spontaneous and context-bound to more written-like. Discuss the field, tenor, mode and
formality of each interaction.

children need to be given lots of opportunities to develop more formal or
‘performance-type’ language that is required for most learning tasks

Many children will need considerable support to develop the ‘decontextualised’
type of language required by Activity 3 - oral presentation to explain how the
object was constructed. Activities 1 and 2 were supported by concrete and
visual aids and required less language to complete the task.

Para-professionals play a key role in scaffolding children to use the more formal,
written-like language required for learning in school
 Use this opportunity to remind participants about the model used by the facilitator in the
session – relate back to Workshop 1. (Or refer to poster)
A.
Getting ready
B.
Show me how (modelling)
C.
Help me do it (guided practice)
D.
Let me do it myself (independent practice)
E.
What did I learn?
 Remind the participants about the tendency to just jump straight to the Independent
Practice stage.
PowerPoint 2, Slide 15
Community circle

What did you learn from this session?

What skills/help/understandings did you need to be able to participate in the activities?

How did you feel while doing and after completing the session?

Have you ever observed the language used by students before? If so how did it help you
to find out more about your students?

Will you use/adapt the fishbowl activity in the work you do with students?
Journal entry
Participants make notes (by writing or visually representing) in their journals about these
questions. They can work in pairs or individually. Allow 5 minutes for writing.
6|W orkshop 2: Facilitator’s Notes
Homework task (5 – 15 mins)
PowerPoint 2, Slide 16
Read and be prepared to comment at the next workshop on the professional reading on
register at the end of the Workshop 2, Participant’s Workbook.
Facilitator’s Note: Consider your context and your participants before setting this as a
between workshop task. It may be more effective to incorporate it in the workshop time
where discussion can follow and participants can support each other to understand.
OR
If you choose to do the reading in the workshop then a homework task might be:
Observation of use of register in the classroom
Facilitator’s Note: Negotiation with the teachers in the school/s participants are from is required for all
homework tasks. As facilitator you may be a part of the school and can arrange this for the participants.
If you are not part of the school you will need to ask the school in advance. This is true for all the
homework tasks involving working with children.
Certificate Training: If you are doing this with certificate trainees, and you are not from the registered
training organisation (RTO) yourself, it is important to liaise with the RTO to ensure that the homework
tasks reflect their assessment requirements.
Glossary (5 – 15 mins)
PowerPoint 2, Slide 17
It is important that paraprofessionals are not excluded from educational discussions and
learning by language that is commonly referred to as ‘teachereze’.
Give time for people to talk about any words they had trouble with or may need to put in their
glossary.
Take five minutes to look at the Glossary Poster to see if there were any words that needed
explanation. Invite participants to write these in the glossary page of their Workshop 2,
Participant’s Workbook to look up later.
PowerPoint 2, Slide 18
End of workshop 2
Remind participants of the next workshop and any requirements or preparation needed.
Send meeting invites electronically and include on the school’s calendar of events.
7|W orkshop 2: Facilitator’s Notes