GENRE BASED APPROACH

Education policy for English language teaching in Indonesia has undergone several changing. The changing aims at improving the outcomes of English language teaching itself . In 2004, the Ministry of National Education has decided to bring in a new curriculum in all subject areas, including English. The curriculum was known as Competence Based Curriculum or 2004 Curriculum which recommended a new approach that is the Genre Based Approach.

This new approach has been implemented for four years, however many English teachers in Indonesia are still in doubt, or lack knowledge and not familiar with it. Because of this reason it is necessary to give explanation what Genre Based Approach is, and the procedures to implement it.

1. Nature of Genre

The word genre itself comes from The French (originally Latin) word for kind or class. The term genre was first introduced in the area of English as specific purpose (ESP) in 1981, in an ESP journal article by Elaine Tarone and her colleagues on the language of scientific reports (Paltridge, 2001, p.2). In addition, Mahwah (2002) explains that genre as means for analyzing text has become a means for better pragmatic and linguistic understanding of texts It also supplies possible pedagogical applications. It devoted to genre pedagogy adds to pedagogical thinking because it stretches notions of what can be done in the reading and writing classroom. Further explanation from Chaldler ( 2005) that term genre is widely used in rhetoric, literary theory, media theory, and more recently linguistics, to refer a distinctive type of the texts.

From the description above a conclusion that can be drawn is that genre has the strong relation with the text. What is text? Texts are made of words. Words are around us. When words are used to make meaning the text is created (Rajan, 2003: v). So the text that we use in this research refers to Encyclopedia Britanica (2008) which says that text is a unit of connected speech or writing , especially composed of more than one sentence, that form a cohesive form.

There are thousands of texts around us. The text can be classified into genre through three characteristics, they are purpose of communication, organization structure and language features. The purpose of communication or social function is the reasons why we speak or write or create the text. Organization structure of the text or generic structure is the text organization or text arrangement. Language features or lexical grammar that is such things as the grammar, vocabulary and connectors that we use.

Further information from Lin (2006) says that genre refer to more specific classes of texts, such as newspaper reports or recipes. Furthermore Partridge (2001) genre describe types of activities such as personal letter, advertisement students essay and the term of text type represent group of text which are similar in linguistic form such as Procedure, anecdote, description. However, the term of genre in this proposal is means type of the text. This term has been widely used in the recent English curriculum in Indonesia. The definition of Genre or type of the text in this proposal refers to definition given by Martin , cited in Partridge (2001, p. 11) that is a staged, goal oriented, purposeful activity in which speakers engage as members of a culture.

There are twelve genre or type of the texts should be taught at Senior High School, they are recount, report, discussion, explanation, Exposition analytical, exposition hortatory, news item, anecdote, narrative procedure description and review.(depdiknas, 2005)

2. Genre Based Approach

To conduct the classroom activity in the process of teaching and learning based on genre, Genre Based approach is used. Yan (2005) says that this approach has become popular since the 1980s along with the notion that student writers could benefit from studying different types of written texts. According to Lin (2006) in Genre-based approach, teaching and learning focuses on the understanding and production of selected genres of texts. Teaching and learning around text genres has become increasingly influential in main stream ELT in a number of situations, including ”primary, secondary, tertiary, professional and community teaching contexts “ involving native speakers of English as well as ESL and EFL learners”. Furthermore explanation from Gao (2007) says that genre approach shows a powerful response to the deficit of process models.

To begin with, genre-based approaches start with the whole text as the unit in focus rather than the sentence. The focus on the whole texts implies that there is higher level of order and patterning in language than just in sentence-grammar at the level of discourse organization and meta-patterning of grammatical features. Genre –based approaches emphasize that this higher order must be attended to for effective language use. The specification of genres to be taught is based on the classification used by many systemic functional linguists, especially in application to classroom teaching of English (Lin, 2006).

The rational why genre based approach developed in Australia was Australian theorist, Halliday. Martin, concern about the exclusivity perpetuated by traditional approaches (Gee, 2005). Furthermore Gee adds that for the Australian theorists above, genre represented a stage or goal – oriented social process: “genre are referred to as social process because members of culture interact with each other to achieve them; as goal oriented, because they have evolved to get things done; as staged because it is usually takes more than one step for participants to achieved their goals”. The other rational for adopting genre based approach is that, genre based approach facilitates clear links to the student’ purposes for writing beyond the writing classroom (Lin, 2006).

To teach genres, the proponents of Genre Based Approach propose the framework of teaching, what they call as Curriculum cycle.

3. Curriculum cycle

In the classroom, the activities of genre approach looks like a cycle or wheel, so that it is known as the curriculum cycle, (Gee, 2005). The cycle consists of a number of stages. Each stages has special objectives and activities, such as the cycle described by Martin and colleagues in Chappell (2004) is as follows:

1. The field- building activities: that is the aimed at immersing the learners in the context of culture and social purpose of spoken text, their temporal and spatial context, the roles and relationships of the related components, and the role of the language within the activity, as well as medium chosen.

2. The text modeling and a deconstruction of the text. This involves analysis of the rhetorical staging on the spoken text, the lexical and grammatical resources used.

3. The joint production of similar spoken text is carried out by the teachers and learners

4. The independent construction of the text by the learners themselves.

One widely accepted classroom application of teaching English using the genre-based approach is the “teaching and learning cycle” or also referred to as “the curriculum cycle”. This cycle consists of four main stages; they are building knowledge of field, modelling of text, join construction of text and independent construction of text. It aims to provide support for learners as they go through each stage of the cycle. The following elaboration of the teaching and learning cycle is adapted from Paltridge (2001).

1. Building knowledge of field

This stage focuses on building up a shared experience and cultural context about the topic of text. The interactions mostly happen between teacher and class, and students and students. The focus is on the content information and the language of the genre of the text that is going to be used. It particularly focuses on controlling relevant vocabularies and grammatical patterns of the particular genre.

2. Modelling of text

This stage focuses on introducing particular genre though a model of text that deals with the field that the students have already explored in the stage of building knowledge of field. Through the model text, teacher and class work together exploring the cultural context, social function, schematic structure, and linguistics features of the text using spoken language to focus on written text.

3. Join construction of text

In this stage, when students are already familiar with all of the features of a particular genre, teacher and students work together to construct texts that are similar to the text that have already being learnt in the previous stage. In constructing the text, attention should be paid to the schematic structure, linguistic features and knowledge of the field of the text.

4. Independent construction of text

In this final stage, students are ready to work independently to produce their own text within the choosen genre. Teacher can let students to work on their own. In other words, teacher should minimize their support, scaffolding and interference on students learning process. It will provides students with the opportunity to show their ability to create a text that has schematic structure, linguistic features and knowledge of the field in accordance with the genre that is being studied.

Derewianka, cited in Lin (2006) describes that each lesson unit or cycle has its central focus a chosen text type or genre, and consists of a fixed sequence of stages. The descriptions of the cycle vary in minor ways, but four phases essential for developing control of a genre may be identified, namely:

1. Context Exploration

Cycle begins with context exploration, referring to the possible contexts of situation in which the chosen text- type or genre may be used. The function is like pre-listening/reading/speaking/writing phase that has come to be typical in communicative language teaching. From the teacher’s point of view, the function of this stage is to establish the learners’ ‘actual development’ or starting point.

2. Text Exploration based on Model Texts

The aims of this stages are to familiarize the learners with the target text-type or genre, and to draw attention to organizational and linguistic features commonly found in texts belong to it. The activities can be ‘communicative’ activities, such as the re-assembling of ‘jigsaw’ texts or information gap

Figure 1: The Curriculum Cycle

3. Joint Construction of a Text

In this stage the model text is exposed, and making use of the knowledge and awareness gained from the exploration of the text. The student work with the teacher to construct their own texts (spoken or written) in the text-type or genre. In the case of writing, the texts may go through a few rounds of drafting, editing, and re-drafting. The model texts continue to provide object-regulation, while others-regulation come not only from the teacher but also from other students, as more expert peers guide others, or as students refer each other to features in the models, and to ideas raised in the text exploration stage.

If the objective of teaching to develop speaking, there should be much oral interaction, its nature and intention is different from that of most forms of communicative language teaching. Where the interactive activities in the latter are often designed to simulate real life interaction, directed at providing opportunities for talking in the language, the talk here is about using language, and is focused on a collaborative effort to learn to accomplish a purpose in the language.

4. Individual Application

The last stage in the Cycle, individual application, as the name suggests, requires learners to work individually and independently, for example, in the case of writing, to produce individual essays. Ideally, this is carried out only after the students have successfully produced a jointly constructed text or understanding of the text.

Both Martin and Partridge agree that the teaching and learning activities at the first stage of the curriculum cycle, Building Knowledge of the Field, aimed at immersing students in the context of culture, social purpose of the target text, controlling relevant vocabularies and grammatical pattern. However each of them put different emphasis on their view of the Building Knowledge of the Text stage. According to Derewianka, the activities involved at this first stage are functioned as the pre activities such as pre-listening, reading, speaking and writing. He urges that the first step which he calls Context exploration, functioned as actual development, or as the starting point. For Partridge the core idea of all activities at this is the interaction between teacher and class or students and students.

For the second stage, modeling of the text, both Partridge and Derewianka share similar opinion that this stage focuses on introducing the target text through a model of text by exploring the text’s social function, text organization and linguistic features. Martin points out that the activities involve analysis of rhetorical staging on the text, the lexical and grammatical resources used. Derewianka proposes the use communicative activities such as re-assembling of jigsaw text or information gap.

At the third stage, Martin, Partridge and Derewianka agree that teacher and students work together to construct the text of the focused genre. Partridge stresses that in constructing the text, attention should be paid to the schematic structure, linguistic features and knowledge of the field of the text. Derewianka adds that In the case of writing, the texts may go through a few rounds of drafting, editing, and re-drafting. If the objective of teaching to develop speaking, there should be much oral interaction, its nature and intention is different from that of most forms of communicative language teaching. Where the interactive activities in the latter are often designed to simulate real life interaction, directed at providing opportunities for talking in the language, the talk here is about using language, and is focused on a collaborative effort to learn to accomplish a purpose in the language.

At the last stage, referred as Independent Construction (Martin and Partridge) or Individual Application (Derewianka), students work independently and individually to produce the chosen genre. In the other word, at this stage, each student produces the text, as addition, derewianka stresses, it can be done ideally if the students have successfully produced a jointly constructed text or understanding of the text.

The stages of curriculum cycles explained by Martin, Partridge and Derewinka above present the material of teaching integratedly, therefore there is no explanation in which stages skills reading and listening developed. Because of this reason it is necessary to explain the stages which are suitable to be applied at Senior High School in Indonesia. The stages are implemented in two cycle, spoken cycle and written cycle. Spoken cycle especially to develop listening and speaking, and written cycle to develop reading and writing. The stages of each cycle is as follow:

1. Building Knowledge of the field

This stage is the preparation stage. So, the first activity is to prepare student to get into the new topic of the text. Suppose that the focus genre is narrative, students should identify the topic of the text, whether the text is about Lancang Kuning or Malin Kundang. The next step is to give students the experience about the content of the text. The activities can be in form of questions and answers about the narrative texts which have been read by students. Because this is the preparation stage, teachers should enlarge the students vocabulary as well as to make students interested in reading the text.

2. Modeling of text

In this stage teachers give example of the text. For spoken cycle this stage is used to develop listening, so the activities are listening comprehension. In

written cycle the activities are reading comprehension. Procedural knowledge or text organization are introduced in this stage.

3. Joint construction of the text

Self confidence is very important in developing language skills, so in this stage the teachers build students self confidence in productive skills either speaking or writing. For this purpose, the teachers give opportunity to students to cooperate in pair or in group. So that they can o learn from others. The example activities for spoken cycle are role play, games, interview, discussion and debate. For written cycle can be collaborative writing (Brain storming, organizing idea, drafting, revising, editing)

4. Independent Construction

At the end of the process of teaching and learning the individual achievement should be measured. So one of the purpose of this stage is to know haw far the students master the lesson individually and students must have the responsibility for their own learning. The teachers also have to try to encourage students’ creativity in this stage, because in this stage for spoken cycle each student should have monologue in focused genre and in the written cycle students should produce the text of focused genre.

More about → GENRE BASED APPROACH

A Genre-based Approach to Developing Oral Skills in an Adult Thai EFL Context

Paper presented at the Fifth Pan-Asian Conference on Language Teaching at FEELTA, Vladivostok, Russia, June 20, 2004
Phil Chappell
University of Wollongong, Australia
AUA Language Centre, Thailand


Orientation

This paper provides an outline of a cycle for the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) oral skills, taking whole texts, or complete stretches of discourse, as the point of departure. After a discussion of the constructs of the nature of language and learning, a teaching/learning cycle is outlined. Following this, a practical application of the cycle is detailed, with data taken from a lower-intermediate adult EFL classroom lesson in a language centre for adults in Bangkok, Thailand. Preliminary observations from this data reveal several positive outcomes from using the teaching/learning cycle, as well as several areas that would benefit from a more in-depth level of inquiry.

Oracy in a Thai EFL Context

Currently, the notion of English as a Foreign Language in Asian contexts is a topic of debate, as language educators seek to redefine the role of English in countries where communication in the language is often between two interlocutors from countries where the first language is not English.[1] The construct (EFL) as used in this paper is intended to foreground the following:

Most learners are in a high enclosure context (Brown, 2001) where they do not have ready access to communicative
situations in English outside of the classroom.

Most often, when learners do use English in social, commercial and academic situations, it is with a speaker of another
Asian language.

Many learners who elect to learn English outside of the mainstream education system, i.e. in private language institutions,
do so for reasons related to future opportunities, such as for employment or travel.


The task, then, for language teachers in EFL contexts is to create socially meaningful situations within the classroom whereby learners can gain control of using English for a vast range of communicative purposes. Unlike other contexts, such as ESL ones, where the lingua franca is English, learners in EFL contexts do not have real-life exposure to the ways that English is used to “get things done” (Halliday 1994). If we consider the difference between a Thai adult in Thailand learning an everyday social practice such as returning faulty goods to a point of purchase, and another Thai adult learning the same practice in Australia, it is immediately clear that the adult in Australia can not only try out the practice in “real life”, but can also observe how it is done by experts in “real life”. The same learner in Thailand does not have these ready-made opportunities, and is left at the mercy of the language teacher to create the situations within the classroom arena.

It is against this backdrop that a text-based syllabus (Feez, 1998) informed by a social theory of language (Bakhtin, 1952/1986; Halliday, 1978) and learning (Wood, et. al., 1974; Vygotsky, 1978), and utilising a teaching/learning cycle (Feez, 1998; Macken et. al. 1993) that is explicit in its coverage of the relationship between contexts of language use and forms and functions of language within those contexts has been applied to an EFL classroom.

A Social Model of Language

As outline above, curriculum objectives in Thai EFL contexts are most likely to focus on the communicative potential of language learning, rather than foregrounding the formal properties of the language. Therefore, a view of language as a systemic resource for acting on and in the world seems appropriate for this teaching/learning context. Russian language philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (1952/1986) outlines this view quite succinctly:

All the diverse areas of human activity involve the use of language. Quite understandably, the nature and forms of this use are just as diverse as are the areas of human activity… Language is realized in the form of individual concrete utterances (oral and written) by participants in the various areas of human activity. These utterances reflect the specific conditions and goals of each such area not only through their content (thematic) and linguistic style, that is, the selection of the lexical, phraseological, and grammatical resources of the language, but above all through their compositional structure. All three of these aspects – thematic content, style, and compositional structure – are inseparably linked to the whole of the utterance and are equally determined by the specific nature of the particular sphere of communication. Each separate utterance is individual, of course, but each sphere in which language is used develops its own relatively stable types of these utterances. These we may call speech genres. (Bakhtin, 1986, p.60)

Within his discussion of the nature of language, Bakhtin acknowledges the social nature of language in human activity, the social purpose of the activity and the language choices made by the interlocutors, the explicit recognition of a lexical and grammatical system linked to meaning making, and the argument that within a culture, there exists relatively stable types of texts (genres). This view resonates with the “sociosemiotic” theory of language developed by Halliday (1978), and which informs much of the application of genre pedagogy in Australia today[2], of which the main components are:

—Language is a resource for making meaning.

—Users of the language construct texts to make meaning.

—The meaning potential of a language system is represented in its context of culture; “…the entire semantic system of the language” (Halliday, 1978, p. 109), and its context of situation, “…the environment in which the text comes to life” (1978, p. 109).

—The context of situation, often referred to as the social context, is created by the social activity in which the text is constructed, the role relationships among the interlocutors, and the function of language within the activity as well as the medium chosen (1978, p. 110).

—As Bakhtin (1952/1986) also notes above, texts are viewed from their overall “compositional structure” (1952/1986; p. 60) as well as at the lexical and grammatical level. In the Hallidayan model, texts are viewed at the level of the rhetorical structure of the text, the lexicogrammatical choices made, and the lower level of graphemes and morphemes.

A Social Theory of Learning

Given the nature of the language learning objectives in Thai adult EFL contexts, namely for learners to gain control over the co-construction of a variety of text types within a variety of social contexts, a social interactionist view of learning is posited. In fact, much genre pedagogy is firmly grounded in theories inspired by L.S Vygotsky (1978) and Jerome Bruner (e.g. Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976), both of whom foreground the social, contingent supporting role of expert others in the course of appropriating social processes. It is important to locate this view of learning within the broader context of educational theory, especially as related to recent curriculum-centred (Skinner, 1968) and student-centred (Piaget, 2000) theories of learning.

Approaches to learning that are grounded in the work of Vygotsky and Bruner are often labelled sociocultural approaches (Lantolf, 2000; Moll, 1990; Rogoff and Lave, 1984). A sociocultural approach to learning views learning as the transformation of participation (or the appropriation of new forms of social and cultural ways to act in the world) in concrete social activities (Engestrom, 1999), and can be contrasted with curriculum-centred approaches, which view learning as the successful transmission of knowledge from an expert other (c.f. Skinner, 1968). Further, student-centred approaches, which conceive of learning as the successful acquisition of knowledge from an expert other (c.f. Piaget, 2000) differ fundamentally from a sociocultural approach.

The pedagogical implications of this approach lie in the view that, rather than knowledge being transmitted or acquired, knowledge is socially and culturally constructed (Vygotsky, 1978), hence the metaphor of transformation, which suggests that at the individual level, learners internalise “…culturally given higher psychological functions” (Engestrom, 1999). Thus, what and how the English language learner learns is dependent upon what opportunities for the appropriation of new ways of acting in the world using English language meaning-making resources the teacher provides. Put simply, the sociocultural view of language learning foregrounds the interactions the language learner has with expert others (both teacher and fellow learners; Donato, 1994; Tharp and Gallimore, 1988) during meaningful, concrete human activity. It is neither a curriculum-centred approach nor a student-centred approach; rather, it is a teaching/learning centred approach.

A Teaching/Learning Curriculum Framework

A teaching/learning curriculum cycle developed by Martin and colleagues (Macken et. al., 1989, cited in Cope and Kalantzis, 1993) through the Disadvantaged Schools Program in Sydney, Australia forms the framework for the teaching/learning cycle used in this project. This cycle "…attempts to engage students in an awareness of the social purposes, text structure and language features in a range of identified text types or genres" (Callaghan, Knapp and Noble, 1993:180).

The cycle begins with field-building activities; that is, activities aimed at immersing the learners in the context of culture (Halliday, 1978) and the social purpose of the spoken texts, their temporal and spatial contexts, the roles and relationships of the interactants, and the role of language within the activity, as well as the medium chosen. This is essentially Halliday’s (1978) context of situation described above. The cycle then moves on to text modeling and a deconstruction of the text. This involves analyses of the rhetorical staging of the spoken text, the lexical and grammatical resources used, and prosodic features of the text. Next, joint production (or co-construction) of similar spoken texts is carried out by the teacher and learners, leading to independent co-construction of texts by the learners themselves. The cycle is recursive; the teacher can enter each stage where necessary, and return to the various stages based on the students' needs (see below). The attraction of the cycle is best summed up by Callaghan, Knapp and Noble (1993), "[the curriculum cycle] requires that teachers be clear about the reasons they are in any one stage at any particular time…the more clearly defined each language activity, the more specific each of the learning outcomes for the activity can be" (1993:181).

Teaching/Learning Cycle for Oral Skills Development

Below is an outline of the teaching/learning cycle that has been adapted for the teaching and learning of oral skills in the context outlined earlier in this paper. For sake of convenience, it is presented in a linear format, however it is important to reiterate that the cycle is recursive; it is possible to enter each stage of the cycle at any time during a lesson or unit of work. For example, the students may already be familiar with the social context, thus the first stage could be skipped. Further, some students may face difficulties in the independent construction stage, thus the joint construction stage may be re-entered (Feez, 1998) as a whole class or small group activity. This contingency management (Tharp and Gallimore, 1988) is a central role of the teacher, and is employed through a comparison of explicit goals and objectives of learning activities with actual student performance. If the goals and objectives are available to the learners, and, in fact if they are co-constructed with the learners (Nunan, 1988), it is possible that not only the teacher, but also fellow learners can assist performance throughout the cycle (Donato, 1994; Tharp and Gallimore, 1988).

The Teaching/Learning Cycle

Building the Context

Purpose

• What is the social purpose of the conversation?

• What is the goal of each speaker in this kind of conversation?

Field

• What objects, ideas, opinions, etc. are often talked about in this context?

• Where does this kind of conversation occur?

Speakers

• What role does each speaker have in the conversation?

• What kind of social relationship do they have?

• What kinds of attitudes, opinions and activities characterise each speaker?

Mode

• Is this face-to-face communication? Telephone? E-conferencing? Etc.

• What is each speaker doing while he or she is talking?

Modelling and deconstructing the conversation

Staging

• What are the major stages of the conversation?

• What stages are necessary and what kinds of optional stages could there be?

• How does this kind of conversation differ from others?

Grammar and vocabulary

Flow

• How do pronouns and conjunctions make the conversation more cohesive?

• What conversational gambits help the conversation flow?

Functions

• What key grammatical functions in the conversation should be focused on?

• What is grammatical form of each of these functions?

Vocabulary

• What key elements of the noun group, verb group and prepositional group should be focused on?

Pronunciation

• What key sounds, stress patterns, intonation patterns should be focused on?

Joint production of a conversation

• Modelling a conversation between teacher and students and between students.

• Teacher assists performance.

Independent conversation

• Students create their own conversations.

• Teacher and peers assist performance.

Assessment

• Individual conversational partners enact conversation for class, or for other groups.

• Teacher and peers assist performance.

• Enter any of the previous stages as needed.

Practical Application of the Teaching/Learning Cycle for Oral Skills

The teaching/learning cycle was trialled by the writer and a group of 13 adult and young adult EFL learners during a lower-intermediate course at the AUA Language Centre, Bangkok, Thailand. A vignette of one lesson is included in Appendix A. A series of possible activities, and a record of actual activities of the sample lesson are provided below.

Using Role Plays

Upon reading the vignette of the lesson (Appendix A), it will be immediately apparent that role play has been utilised at various stages of the lesson. This is a conscious decision of the teacher, and reflects the need to promote communicative oral practice in the classroom. Role play also serves a vital role in assessing student performance at various stages of the teaching/learning cycle; it not only helps the teacher to assess performance, it also functions as an awareness-raising tool for the learners. For example, the third role play (discussed further, below) was undertaken at the context building stage of the cycle. The social purpose, field, role relationships and mode of discourse had been covered through the unfolding drama of the shopping expedition, however an examination and deconstruction of sample texts, including rhetorical staging, key lexis and grammar and salient pronunciation concerns was yet to come. By having the learners perform at their current level of ability at this stage allows both the teacher and the learners to gauge the actual developmental level through independent problem solving, and thus establish, in various forms, goals and objectives to raise performance to higher levels. Thus, in this instance role play is providing a measure (for the teacher and the learners) of a learner’s zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978), which is defined as:

…the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. (Vygotsky, 1978, p.86)

It is this synthesis of the construct of scaffolding (Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976) in the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978) that forms the foundations for the sociocultural theory of learning discussed earlier. In the context of the sample lesson described in this paper, role play provides data which helps the teacher develop an understanding of the learners’ acts so that, at the various stages of the teaching/learning cycle s/he can:

…recruit [the learner’s] attention, reduce degrees of freedom in the task to manageable limits, maintain “direction” in the problem solving, mark critical features, control frustration, and demonstrate solutions when the learner can recognise them. (Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976, p.99)



The Lesson within the framework of the Teaching/Learning Cycle

Bellow is the lesson applied to the framework of the teaching/learning cycle. The left hand column indicates in general terms activities that the teacher and students can engage in at each stage of the cycle. The right hand column indicates the actual activities that were carried out during the lesson described above.


Assisting Learning

Building the Context

Pictures, video, students' own recall of past experiences


Vocabulary building tasks, role plays (students role play achieving purposes and goals), focused listening of sample dialogues




Establish the relationship between the speakers (equal/unequal --formal/informal, etc)
Focused listening to a sample dialogue, analysing students' role plays
Is this speaking while doing something else, or is the main activity speaking?






Modelling and deconstruction of text
Jumbled dialogues, students reorder the stages, students name the stages


Delete stages and analyse whether the purpose and goals were achieved

Compare/contrast different dialogues


Gap-fills in dialogues, pronoun trace tasks, creating multiple clause sentences
Identifying words or phrases that "keep the conversation going"



Students analyse/identify "how someone said something" to achieve his/her goal
Grammatical tasks focusing on form
Relate vocabulary tasks in 'building the field' section above

Pronunciation recognition tasks, pronunciation drills, minimal pairs, etc


Joint construction of text
Open class Role plays, problem solving dialogues, casual conversations, etc between teacher and students and students together

Independent construction of text
Students work in pairs/threes to create dialogue


Assessment
Self assessment, peer assessment, teacher assessment using observation, video recording, audio recording Example

A service encounter: returning faulty goods to the store

Students discuss prior experience of purchasing and returning faulty goods


Students brainstorm items they like to buy (nouns) and problems that can occur with the item(participles e.g It's scratched).
Students role play returning a faulty item.
Students listen to a sample dialogue.



Check that students understand the level of formality and the service-customer relationship (check during role play above and through focused listening)
Video would be useful, but in this case, groups brainstormed all activities that accompany this dialogue (e.g. checking faulty good, handing over receipt, going to store room, etc)







Students were given strips, each containing one stage. In groups, they ordered the stages, then listened to the dialogue again and revised

This stage was omitted


The level of formality and staging of a previous dialogue were compared with this dialogue

The transcript of the dialogue was analysed for pronoun references (personal and impersonal) and ways to express more than one problem with a good. Also, ways that the salesclerk could offer reasons for the faults. Gambits not covered


Students re-ordered jumbled sentences that stated problems with goods (e.g. The handbag is scratched and there's a tear inside). Further vocabulary development was done through the students drawing the item and labelling problems

'ed' endings (e.g scratched, damaged) were highlighted - extra syllable noted and practiced in a pronunciation game with minimal pairs



Teacher and a student role play --class observes. Repeated with two students.




'Closed pair practice'



Students formed groups of 3 -- one student observed and gave feedback on the role play -- repeated changing roles
Teacher observed and assessed selected groups, giving feedback on role play and the process of peer feedback



Comments on the Performance of Two Learners during Dyadic Text Production[3]

May and Urn worked through most of the lesson as a dyad. In fact, throughout the course they enjoyed working together; they demonstrated many excellent examples of how students can assist each other in language learning activities. They each took on the role of expert other at different times, although May was more proficient in English overall.

Rhetorical structure, lexical and grammatical resources employed

In the lesson under discussion here, May and Urn took to role play activity 3 (returning faulty goods to the store) with enthusiasm, and demonstrated a firm understanding of the social purpose. The staging of their text indicates that they were not only familiar with the situation, but also with the social process of the service encounter[4]. The rhetorical structure of the text is:

Request for service>Statement of problem>Service available? Yes or no> Transaction of service> Exchange of goods> Thanks/Closure

In terms of the lexical and grammatical resources used, it is clear that both May and Urn used language appropriate to the register (a formal business encounter), as we can see by polite openings and closings, and the accommodating nature of Urn as service provider:

May: Can I change it?
Urn: Yes….you wait for me for for a minute/?
May: Yes/
Urn: /because* er I would like to check (o)first the stock room.
May: Okay. (enacted pause) YES, that's RIGHT. Can you wrap for me?
Urn: Yes.

It is interesting to note that the role play carried out in the independent construction stage is both longer (in terms of the amount of turns of each student), but also more complex in its staging. After significant scaffolding vis-à-vis the activities in the modeling and deconstruction stage, and the joint production stage, May and Urn clearly approached the creative, independent construction stage with much more knowledge of the field, particularly the optional stages that may be utilised. Hence, we find more authentic activities, such as the negotiating the complication of the exchanged item being bigger and thus more expensive, and the offering of a special service to offset the inconvenience of receiving a faulty good. The groundwork in the earlier stages of the teaching/learning cycle certainly appears to have provided the students with sufficient knowledge of the genre, a broader range of lexis and grammar, and the motivation to take to the independent construction stage without undue uncertainty, a problem with many “free practice” speaking activities in Thai adult language classes.

Part of the learning objectives (as dictated by the course syllabus) was to gain an awareness of the form and function of specific language features (describing the problem with a damaged consumer good). It is clear that neither May nor Urn utilized these resources in their initial role play (and the other six dyads, as far as the teacher could ascertain did not either). Therefore, this role play did suggest this as one area of focus in the forthcoming stages of the cycle. As can be seen from the independent construction stage later in the cycle, both learners employed more lexical and grammatical resources to describe faulty goods:

(Note May’s use of clauses using participles as adjectives)

May: Uh…Yes…uh yesterday I buy a… a BLACK bag..handBAG. A black handBAG. Yes. But...I went home I get uh some problem. This handbag inside there is uh… inside…inside the handbag is torn.
Urn: Is torn?=
May: =Yes a::nd the outside of the handbag is scratched.
Urn: Hm Mm?
May: And then I…I see the stripe…the strep (strap) of the handbag is loose so I would like t:o give this for this problem.


(Note Urn’s attempts to use the participles as adjectives by repeating the problems)

Urn: …Uh…is to::rn?
May: Yeah.
Urn: And…scrat.
May: SCRATCHED=



Peer assistance during independent co-construction of text

In the role play enacted in the context building stage, there is little to suggest that May and Urn provide assistance to each other in their endeavours to use English to get the job of exchanging a faulty good done successfully. However, in the follow up role play, two interesting phenomena emerge.

First, note how May assists Urn with her pronunciation of ‘ed’ endings, a feature worked on the deconstruction stage.

Urn: And…scrat.
May: SCRATCHED=
Urn: =scratch

Although Urn’s final production of the word ending is not successful, it is clear that May took on the role of expert other at this point. It might be inferred from this episode that the assistance offered was not within Urn’s immediate zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1986).

Second, note below how Urn has set herself the goal of attempting to successfully use the comparative structure, which was not a focus at any of the stages of the cycle, but had been in a previous unit of work. This indicates the agentive nature of the language learner (Lantolf, 2000) and is a good reminder of Vygotsky’s (1978) premise that learning always has a history and precedes development. It is also a reminder of the understanding within a sociocultural approach to language learning that learning is not a linear process, but a process where development moves forward at times, and backwards at others (Aljaafreh and Lantolf, 1994). Urn, an active agent in her own language learning, took a socially situated opportunity to develop her ability to use a grammatical structure more successfully.

Urn: Okay. I check the new one, but…uh…BIGGER THAN…than you…than uh bigger than than the one before yours…bigger than the one=
May: =okay never mind. I.. I.. I like this handbag. Can I exchange that?
Urn: Yes, but same style, but BIGGER than that one.
May: Okay. Never mind. I don’t MIND.

Summary and Conclusions

The preceding section offers a brief but necessary view of some sample data from two of the stages from the teaching/learning cycle. This exploratory study was made in order to identify possible areas of future inquiry. The main area that this writer will explore is the nature of peer scaffolding during classroom language learning activity. Oral activities in the classroom are often done with simultaneous small groups of learners; therefore the possibility of the teacher being on-hand to provide assistance as needed is almost non-existent. The potential for learners to provide peer support in activities of this type offers some exciting future developments for language teaching pedagogy.

The teaching/learning cycle for oral skills developed here does not have universal application, but it is a highly useful heuristic for educators working with learners in high enclosure contexts. However, the application of the cycle requires practitioners to have a firm understanding of a sociocultural approach to learning and the social nature of language. Indeed, perhaps the only context in which the cycle can be successfully used is in a context where the practitioner has undergone a paradigm shift vis-à-vis the epistemological and ontological assumptions informing her or his approach to language and learning.


REFERENCES

Adolphs, S (2002) Genre and spoken discourse: probabilities and predictions, Nottingham Linguistic Circular 17

Aljaafreh, A. & Lantolf, P. (1994), ‘Negative feedback as regulation and second language learning in the proximal zone’, Modern Language Journal, 78, 1v, 465-483

Bakhtin, M.M. (1952/1986). Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Texas: University of Texas Press.

Brown, H.D., (2001) Teaching by Principles: An integrative approach to language pedagogy, New York: Longman

Callaghan, M., Knapp, P., and Noble, G. (1993). Genre in Practice in Cope, B. and Kalantzis, M. (1993) Ed’s

Cope, B. and Kalantzis, M. (1993). The Powers of Literacy: A Genre Approach to Teaching Writing. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press.

Donato, R (1994) Collective Scaffolding in Second Language Learning, in Lantolf and Appel (Ed's).

Engeström, Y., (1999), Activity theory and transformation in Engeström, Y., Miettinen, R., Punamäki, R-L (Ed's)

Engeström, Y., Miettinen, R., Punamäki, R-L (Ed's). (1999) Perspectives on Activity Theory, New York: Cambridge University Press

Feez, S., (1998) Text-based Syllabus Design, Sydney: NCELTR

Halliday, M.A.K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold

Halliday, M.A.K., (1978) Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold

Lantolf and Appel (Ed's) (1994) Vygotskian Approaches to Second Language Research, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing

Lantolf, J (Ed) 2000 Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning New York: Oxford University Press

Moll, L.C. (Ed.), Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications of sociohistorical psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press

Nunan, D. (1988c). The Learner-centred Curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Piaget, J., Weaver, H., Kagan, J., (2000) The psychology of the child, Basic Books

Rogoff, L., and Lave, J., (1984) Everyday cognition: Development in social context New York: Harvard University Press

Skinner, B.F., (1968) The technology of teaching, B.F. Skinner Foundation

Tharp, R.G. and Gallimore, R., (1988) Rousing minds to life: Teaching, learning and schooling in social context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society – The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Wood, D.J., J.S. Bruner, and G. Ross, The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1976. 17(2): p. 89-100.



APPENDIX A: CLASSROOM VIGNETTE

The Strep is Loose and the Inside is Torn: A Day out Shopping in an Oral Skills Lesson

In this lesson, the main learning aims were to:

q Become familiar with the staging of casual conversation related to a shopping encounter.

q Focus on interactants' motives and conversational goals.

q Gain an awareness of register, particularly tenor (interpersonal features), in casual conversation.

q Gain an awareness of the form and function of specific language features (describing the problem with a damaged consumer good).

q Utilise role play to improve conversational ability.


Warm up 1

Class started with an introduction to the staging of a casual conversation: a chance encounter with a friend while out shopping. The scene was set - while you are wandering through the World Trade Centre (a popular shopping mall in downtown Bangkok) on a shopping expedition, you happen upon a friend. I elicited the various stages that could characterise such a conversation by taking on the shopper's role, and asking a student to take on the other role. While we 'role played' for the class, I noted the stages and some language samples on the black board. The other twelve students were listening quite intently, and the model was interspersed with laughter and light humorous moments from we two actors as well as the audience. The final stages appeared on the board something like this:

Casual Conversation

Greeting

Small talk

Talk about…

Closing - Well, I have to go now. Nice to see you again. Nice talking to you.

Say Goodbye

After this model (and applause form the rest of the students), I asked a student to choose a partner and model the encounter for the class. As they progressed through their conversation, I assisted the flow a couple of times by pointing out the stage of the conversation that they could progress to. I did this once when a speaker abruptly ended the conversation, and a second time when there was a prolonged pause that if left unchecked may have caused discomfort with one of the speakers. After this model (and another round of applause), I directed the students to stand up and mingle around the room. Before they began, I reminded them of the context of situation - you are wandering through the World Trade Centre, on your way to begin some shopping, when you bump into a friend. You stop for a brief (5-minute chat). The class took to the task with smiles, energy and enthusiasm. I wandered around listening to various conversations, and noted that many of the pairs were spending most of the time talking about their shopping plans - where exactly they were going in the centre and what they were planning to buy. I also noted that they were referring to the stages written on the board, which seemed to help them keep going to a 'natural' close.

This prompted me to make an on-the-spot change to my lesson plan. Initially, I was going to have the students sit in groups of three and brainstorm things that they've bought recently and that they have had a problem with, naming the problems. I was going give them my own recent example as a frame:

a printer

- the paper doesn't feed

- the colours aren't clear

- the plug is loose

However, as the students seemed to be enjoying this mini role playing, and to help create a very clear context (in terms of field, tenor and mode) for the main part of the lesson, I made a quick call to extend this warm up.

Warm up 2 - leading in to the main context of the lesson

At a point during the role playing when it seemed most of the students had closed their conversations, I called everyone to attention and set a slightly different context. You have now finished shopping, and you're on your way out of the World Trade Centre. Just before you leave the centre, you see another friend. You stop for a brief chat and talk about things that you have just bought. The students commenced this second act of the morning with the same vigor and light-hearted fun that I always try to generate in free-speaking activities. I let this go on for a few minutes, and then asked all the students to sit down.

Context building: Using Role Play again

After the students had settled down, I elicited from a few of them what they had just bought on their shopping trip. A list went up on the board:

- a shirt

- a pair of shoes

- cosmetics

- a necklace

- a CD

- a T-shirt

- a watch

I then dramatised the next act of the morning. You have gone out shopping, chatted with a friend, bought what you needed, chatted with another friend, travelled all the way home, and now you are unpacking your bags. You open the bag, smiling and happy with your new purchase, and when you look at it (big frown on my face), you notice that there's something wrong with it. Look at my shirt, it has a (elicit from the class) tear in it (I frown…students laugh). What can I do? Students call out "refund", "go back to the shop".

"Okay", I said. "I'm the customer with my damaged shopping. Who wants to be the salesclerk?"

Ying[5] agreed, and we acted out for the rest of the class the conversation that takes place between the customer with a problem, and the salesclerk who is responsible for solving the problem. After this, I asked pairs (seated) to role play a similar situation.

At this point, I recorded May and Urn's conversation (see transcript 1, Appendix B).

Modelling a text

The next stage of the lesson involved listening to an encounter between a salesclerk and a customer - the customer bought a jacket and found several problems with it; therefore she has returned to the store. The listening task focused the students on the product, the problems, what the salesclerk offers to do, and how the customer responds. I played the tape and the students listened and discussed in small groups what they had heard.

Following this, I played the tape again, and asked the students to work in pairs and write down how the customer described the problems with her jacket. The following language features were reconstructed by the pairs and finally written on the black board by me:

It has a tear in the lining

It's torn in several places.

Some of the buttons are very loose.

There's a stain on the collar.

Through careful eliciting and focusing, I made the students aware of the grammatical form of these now decontextualised statements (use of have + a noun; use of is + past participle adjective). I then elicited three more examples from the students' recent role play (attempt to recontextualise) and wrote these on the black board. I led some pronunciation practice of the stress patterns and problem sounds of these statements, then I had the students work on some sentence-level exercises from their textbook to reinforce the grammatical forms of these language features. Finally, the students wrote the problems that they had had with the products they recently bought at the World Trade Centre.

To focus the students on the rhetorical staging of this kind of conversation, I next assigned them to groups of three and gave each group a collection of paper strips. Each strip had a functional label for each of the stages of the conversation that they had listened to. Their task was to put the strips in the correct order, as shown below.

Greeting and offering service

State what you want

Ask for details of the problem

Give details of the problem

Offer to solve the problem

Accept or refuse the offer

Offer to solve the problem again

Each group came up with slightly different orderings of the strips, so I played the tape and had them re-think their results. I then asked each group in sequence to tell me the functional stage of the conversation, which I wrote on the board (as above). A discussion emerged about what alternative ways there are to redress a problem with a recently purchased item, and I gave time to allow the students (as a whole class) to discuss these.

Joint production of the text

We were now ready to move on to a scaffolded, joint construction of the conversation, this time allowing the students the opportunity to use language features recently focused upon, as well as to follow a more 'scripted' act (however, as can be seen from the transcripts of May and Urn (see transcript 2, Appendix B), this did not result in any kind of formulaic or prescriptive framework, but rather, it gave the students access to a bigger tool kit form which to choose than before.

I asked for a volunteer and, like above jointly produced a conversation with the rest of the class looking on. I did this with another volunteer, and then had the same pairs as previously perform their role plays.

At this point, I recorded May and Urn's conversation (see transcript 2, Appendix B).

APPENDIX B: TRANSCRIPTS 1 AND 2

TRANSCRIPT 1

(Students negotiate roles)

Urn: May I help you?

May: Yes. Yesterday I..yesterday I bought a new shirt, but I get home..this shirt is too SMALL.

Urn: Small?=

May: =Yes.

Urn: We:ll…what can I do?

May: You can help me?

Urn: Yes…you have receipt?

May: Yes. Let me see. Here's a receipt.

Urn: Okay……How 'bout the shirt?

May: Yes. I would like to aah…same…aah…same colour? Uh the size I would like aah…size L large size=

Urn: =uh huh.

May: And…uh… uh this style.

Urn: Oka::y?

May: Can I change it?

Urn: Yes….you wait for me for for a minute/?

May: Yes/

Urn: /because* er I would like to check (o)first the stock room.

May: Yes wait a minute. Yes minute.

(Enacted pause 3 seconds as salesclerk goes to collect new shirt)

Urn: Oka::y? You can exchange.

May: Yes.

Urn: Uh. Little? You can check it again.

May: Okay. (enacted pause) YES, that's RIGHT. Can you wrap for me?

Urn: Yes.

May: Okay. Thank you very much.

Urn: You're welcome.

May: Okay. Bye by::e.

Urn: Bye by::e.



TRANSCRIPT 2

Urn: May I help you?

May: Uh…Yes…uh yesterday I buy a… a BLACK bag..handBAG. A black handBAG. Yes. But...I went home I get uh some problem. This handbag inside there is uh… inside…inside the handbag is torn.

Urn: Is torn?=

May: =Yes a::nd the outside of the handbag is scratched.

Urn: Hm Mm?

May: And then I…I see the stripe…the strep (strap) of the handbag is loose so I would like t:o give this for this problem.

Urn: May I take a look?

More about → A Genre-based Approach to Developing Oral Skills in an Adult Thai EFL Context

Information Reports

Information Report ( What an entire class of things is like )
Purpose
The function of an information Report is to document, organize and store factual information on a topic. Information Reports classify and describe the phenomena of our world, we used them when we talk about a whole class of things, e.g. “ Bike “ , By contrast, a Description only talks about one specific thing. e.g. “ My Bike “ information Reports are written about living things like plants and animals, and non – living thing like phones, bikes, or oceans.


Types

The term “ report “ is used in everyday language to refer to many different types of factual text – news reports, science reports, weather reports, etc.

Information Report can contain information of various kinds, e.g.
Classification into different types ( subclasses )
- Are there different kinds of energy ?
- What are the different types of cloud ?
- What is the difference between frogs and toads
- How are plant cells different from animal cells?

An examination of components
- What is the earth made of ?
- What are the parts of compound microscope?
- What do fireworks consist of ?

A look at various aspects
- How big is the universe ? ( size )
- What is a gyroscope used for ( function )
- What do bears do in winter ( behavior )
- How is parliament organized ( system )

Language Features
- Generalized participants ; a whole class of things( e.g. volcanoes, newspapers, the royal family rather than specific participants.
- Some actions verbs ( material process ) , especially when describing behavior ( climb, eat, erupt )
- Many linking verbs( relation process ) ( is , are, has, have , belongs to etc. )
- Usually in the “timeless “ .
- Descriptive language , but factual and precise rather imaginative or lively e.g.
What they look like( color, shape, size etc )
What they have ( body parts, components . )
What they do ( habits, behavior, function , )

More about → Information Reports

UNIT 2 TEXT SCRIPT 1

RECOUNT

One day, when I was 8 years old, I was in the second grade of elementary school. My father always picked me up before and after school at that time.
One Saturday, I got back from school earlier because all of my teacher had a meeting. So, I got back an hour faster than usual. I wanted to contact my father about this thing, but there was no cell phone at that time and it was hard to find any public telephone around my school. Then, I decided to wait for my father.
I had been waiting for 3 hours, but no one came to pick me. I was very confuse and scare. Then I started to cry because everyone had gone, at that time I was alone.
After I waited for 4 hours, my father finally came. He told me that he forgot to pick me because he had a meeting in his office.
I was very angry to him and did not want to talk with him for one day.

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TEXT SCRIPT 2

AYRTON SENNA

Some say he is a genius, others call him arrogant. What is certainly true is that Ayrton Da Silva Senna is the fastest man in motor racing. He won the World Championship in 1988 and 1990 and he has won more than twenty Grand Prix altogether.
Ayrton Senna was born on 21st March 1960, in Brazillia. At 5ft 9in ( 1m 76cm ) Ayrton is a little taller than most other racing drivers. He is good-looking, with short, wavy, dark hair and dark brown eyes.
Senna does not like to talk about his private life. His marriage in the early 1980s lasted a year. ‘To be married to a Formula One driver,’ he says, ‘Is an impossible lifestyle for a wife. But I will get married again’.
He has an older sister an a younger brother. His parents live in a large house in the north of Sao Paulo but Senna himself lives in Monaco, in Europe.
As far as hobbies go, he likes flying model planes. He also enjoys jet-skiing on water and flying with his father over the cattle country which his family owns in Brazil.
What motivated him to win ?. ‘ Driving doesn’t seem like a job. I started driving when I was four. I Love feeling the power of the engine and the wind in my face. When I drive, I experience new sensations and I always want more. That’ s my motivation ’.

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UNIT 1 TEXT SCRIPT 1

Eli My Best Friend


I Have a close friend. Her name is Eli. She is my classmate. She sits beside me in my classroom.
Eli is very beautiful. Her eyes are big with curve upward eyelashes. Her nose is pointed. Her lips are small and attractive. Her teeth are white and well arranged. She has a black spot under her left eye. Her height is 165 cm and her weight is 55 kg. She has and ideal body. Her skin is fair.
Eli has a hobby of singing. She usually sings in every event in my school. She likes to sing Malay song. Her favorite song is “ Laksemana Raja Di Laut “.
However, Eli has also a bad habit. Chewing gum during the lesson is her bad habit. She said that it is good to lessen stress.

More about → UNIT 1 TEXT SCRIPT 1

Teaching Listening

Using Textbook Listening Activities
The greatest challenges with textbook tape programs are integrating the listening experiences into classroom instruction and keeping up student interest and motivation. These challenges arise from the fact that most textbook listening programs emphasize product (right or wrong answer) over process (how to get meaning from the selection) and from the fact that the listening activities are usually carried out as an add-on, away from the classroom.
You can use the guidelines for developing listening activities given here as starting points for evaluating and adapting textbook listening programs. At the beginning of the teaching term, orient students to the tape program by completing the exercises in class and discussing the different strategies they use to answer the questions. It is a good idea to periodically complete some of the lab exercises in class to maintain the link to the regular instructional program and to check on the effectiveness of the exercises themselves.
Integrating Listening Strategies With Textbook Audio and Video
Students can use this outline for both in-class and out-of-class listening/viewing activities. Model and practice the use of the outline at least once in class before you ask students to use it independently.
1. Plan for listening/viewing
• Review the vocabulary list, if you have one
• Review the worksheet, if you have one
• Review any information you have about the content of the tape/video
2. Preview the tape/video
• (tape) Use fast forward to play segments of the tape; (video) view the video without sound
• Identify the kind of program (news, documentary, interview, drama)
• Make a list of predictions about the content
• Decide how to divide the tape/video into sections for intensive listening/viewing
3. Listen/view intensively section by section. For each section:
• Jot down key words you understand
• Answer the worksheet questions pertaining to the section
• If you don't have a worksheet, write a short summary of the section
4. Monitor your comprehension
• Does it fit with the predictions you made?
• Does your summary for each section make sense in relation to the other sections?
5. Evaluate your listening comprehension progress
Teaching Listening
Assessing Listening Proficiency
You can use post-listening activities to check comprehension, evaluate listening skills and use of listening strategies, and extend the knowledge gained to other contexts. A post-listening activity may relate to a pre-listening activity, such as predicting; may expand on the topic or the language of the listening text; or may transfer what has been learned to reading, speaking, or writing activities.
In order to provide authentic assessment of students' listening proficiency, a post-listening activity must reflect the real-life uses to which students might put information they have gained through listening.
• It must have a purpose other than assessment
• It must require students to demonstrate their level of listening comprehension by completing some task.
To develop authentic assessment activities, consider the type of response that listening to a particular selection would elicit in a non-classroom situation. For example, after listening to a weather report one might decide what to wear the next day; after listening to a set of instructions, one might repeat them to someone else; after watching and listening to a play or video, one might discuss the story line with friends.
Use this response type as a base for selecting appropriate post-listening tasks. You can then develop a checklist or rubric that will allow you to evaluate each student's comprehension of specific parts of the aural text. (See Assessing Learning for more on checklists and rubrics.)
For example, for listening practice you have students listen to a weather report. Their purpose for listening is to be able to advise a friend what to wear the next day. As a post-listening activity, you ask students to select appropriate items of clothing from a collection you have assembled, or write a note telling the friend what to wear, or provide oral advice to another student (who has not heard the weather report). To evaluate listening comprehension, you use a checklist containing specific features of the forecast, marking those that are reflected in the student's clothing recommendations.

More about → Teaching Listening

The desire is point of departure OF ALL BUSINESS SUKSES to obtain

1. Encouragement that brings PROPERTY
Some time ago the commander of a war face a situation that he should be encouraged to take a decision win in the battle field. He must send pasukannya to battle against the enemy terrain which is far greater than pasukannya own. So he told the child fruit forward with a road ride a number of boats, sail away, then landed in the enemy. After all the troops that came down, he commanded pasukannya to burn out all the boats that they tumpangi.
Before the war, he said progress on child fruit like:
"You see that our boat has become a gray, is not it? This means that we can not go home again leave this country before the beach steal victory in the battle dipihak us!
Because for us there is no other choice, we are ahead and win or we perish destroyed.
In fact they are winning!
Everyone who wants to win, then he must be willing to burn perahunya and cut out all the possible routes it can reverse. Only thus will he be able to achieve success is sure.

2. Fire bring SUKSES.
The morning after the big fire occurred in the city of Chicago, a group of traders gathered in the street while state visit to the puff of smoke that is still, that has been building and swallow stores them. They negotiate to make decisions, whether they need to rebuild the building that they, or should be moved to another place. In fact they all decided to move the course from chicago, but only one person called Marshall Field.
Traders who intend to stay that point toward a puff of smoke and said: "I will go back up a shop that tersbesar in the world, just above the fire place, and although I do not care how many times a store is to be burned again! "
Events that have lasted a century ago. Building that stood with perky, high-pitched clouds, as evidence of a determination that has been expressed in hasratnya unanimously.
In fact Marshall Field can only lead the way as easy as that adopted by the colleagues. If the situation has become difficult, so a trader can move where it ketempat a better, comfortable and profitable.
Note the difference between the location of Marshall Field with his friends the other traders. For this is the difference between the overt discrimination that is a reflection of the nature of success with people who give up easily.



How can change be a fact desire?
There are six ways how the desire to become a reality:
First, fill your mind with the amount of money (the target) that you want to get.
Not enough for you just say: "I want to have a lot of money!"
But you must specify the exact amount!
Set both with clear, what you want to give (korbankan) instead of money (the target) that you want.
Third Set a date (time) when you want to have money (target) is
Fourth Susunlah a plan to implement your desire, and start immediately. No matter whether you're ready or not, to change the plan berujud into one berbuatan real.
Fifth Write a short and clear statement about the amount of money (the target) that you want to get.
It is important for you to follow the instructions from the sixth step is the fruit. There is a possibility that you will complain that it does not you may be implemented before you sebdiri have the money. So the tendency is disinilah fiery is necessary to help you.
The desire that fiery akan it more easier for you to be sure of what you want it. The target is money or wealth or success of others. That way you'll convince yourself, that will surely obtain it.
Once you have the desire, desire that is believed will be achieved, along with do'a, then your mind will always want to prove that it can be achieved. But if you do not have the confidence to achieve the purpose, then your mind will always be working to prove / against that it may be impossible to achieve.

Imagine that you are a millionaire
For someone who does not like to take the initiative, or that it does not menghayati principles, then these instructions will not appear practical for him. This guidance will be helpful for people who are six steps that menghayati.
•         Look to Andrew Carnegie, the starting position as a regular worker in a mill. However, starting from the situation that is completely simple, then the principle that after the run, he successfully reached the money and property hundreds of millions of dollars.
•         Edison themselves acknowledge that the six principles that not only works to collect money, but also for the purpose of achieving any goals in life.
Steps that do not require working furiously from us. No request of any kind. Does not require higher education. Just enough people that have a strong imagination to see, understand, that to obtain money and property that we can not do it on the basis of chance, or disposed to chance, fate or wait for the fall straight course.
All those rich people who have succeeded, in the first dream was the first property, please put on it, want to obtain it, and crave a strong and to plan how to get rich before they successfully get the money.
Now you may also know that Andapun can become rich. Andapun but may not become rich without having your own desire to get that money. At the bottom you must make sure that the right you have a property that.

How strong is the influence of a dream!
The world who are searching for property this race we must realize that this is now required all new ideas, new ways, new leadership style, new invention, methode teach the new way of marketing the new, new reading materials, television is a new tool , progress in new techniques.
Behind all this there is one thing that we can not ignore, that is, the determination to achieve the goal and desire that fiery.
Those who successfully become rich is that they change what is impossible to be practical, which was not visible can be achieved, the latent energy to be processed building skyscraper, city-city factories, aircraft and anything that can add life This became more flamboyant and delicious.
In preparing the plan for the property, then you need not be affected by other people. Simply keep your spirit in the people most in the past that have left the value of human civilization. We can develop our talents and abilities in accordance with their example of that.
If what you want is good, and you believe that it is both correct, teruskanlah! not need to pay attention what other people say, because they also do not know that it is often kegagagalan also bring the possibility for us.
•         Edison dreamed of a lamp can turn on the power by electricity. He began to apply the dream becomes a reality. Perhaps he has experienced more than a thousand failures, but he was determined to stay on until the illusion that the dream into a reality. Those who dream of practical work into a reality and did not want to give up just so.
•         Wheelan has been a dream of cigar factories in the United States. It was later to become a reality.
•         Wright brothers dream of a machine that can fly in the air. Now all the people witnessed the man traveling with the aircraft into the ordinary.
•         Marconi dreamed of energy in the air, ether. Evidence is now so the fact that we can hear the news via radio and television around the world. But in the first of Marconi has been considered that he was mad, and throw him into prison and hospital insanity, because the presumption at the time impossible to send and receive the news without using a wire rope. Meanwhile, our world is full of opportunities plentiful, which is not likely to be. For those that can not understand it through their imagination.

How to launch towards the dream a reality?
To dream that launched towards the target the right fuel that is needed: the desire fiery.
That dream may not become a reality when we have the indifference, or do not malasan offs. Remember, good things, that all those who are successful in the first should have the beginning of the bitter, the struggle that takes energy, in order to be able to survive. When determining the most for a time it is experiencing a crisis.
•         John Bunyan wrote the famous book "The Pilgrin's Progress." After he dijebloskan into the prison, and punished by the others because pandanganny with the implementation of the religion. But the book that became one of the beautiful books in the world of English literature.
•         O'Henry has found himself as the author of great talent when he was a disaster in their lives. He entered the prison and suffered extraordinary, but he adored as a great poet in the United States as criminals and not criminal.
•         Charles Dickens started his career as a labor carpenters paste factory paint on the brand. Failure in love the first hole to penetrate his heart, so that he transform into one of the authors in the world but he percintaannya encourage composing the book. "David Copperfield" first, followed by many other books that reveal extraordinary spiritual wealth for the welfare of the soul many readers.
•         Hellen Keller a blind and mute since the period of child-kanaknya, but his name is now listed as one of the leaders of the world. All evidence of life is one that no one can be defeated by fate, unless he resign itself as a defeat.
•         Robert Burnsadalah an illiterate in pedasaan, living and lack of self-love drunk mabukan. Penderitaannya but he has brought in a beautiful garden. There he menanm pluck pluck thorns but rose as a beautiful result.
•         Bethoven is deaf. Milton blind. But their dream cast and the way they thought a reality that is very valuable for other people.
There there is a difference between want something with the ready to receive something. Not possible that someone can receive something not sure if he can obtain it. Therefore the way to be sure pikirannya first, and not just hope or want it. The open road is needed to inculcate confidence that. Mind that the road is closed and insular confidence or does not encourage the spirit of trying.
Camkanlah, that no business is higher that can bring prosperity and abundance for us than through scarcity and suffering.
A great poet ever write as follows:
I begin to live this normal,
the limit Rejeki milikkupun cheap.
But when I meet up lumbungku night,
hasilku the full abundance.
Life is for the employer.
That the wages of all weary payahku.
But once we determine the wage level for us,
pantaslah then the task is to bring the reward for us.
If I only work to redeem hutangku course,
then I will be disappointed and suffer.
But when I set the value of life,
then life will be paying a high price to myself.

Lack of desire to surpass our life
I once knew someone who according to the doctor since the birth will be deaf and dumb to contemporary life soon. But my opinion against the doctor. And I have the right to medical opinion against it, because I Himself the father of small children is it. But I save that resistance secretly in my heart.
In pikiranku I realize that my son should be able to hear it and talk. How?
I believe that must have way out. I am confident that I can surely find the way out. I will remember the words of gold speech Emerson "The whole way of life teaches us one for our confidence. Therefore we are only just be obedient. For each person there is always help available. We only listen to it. We need is the words the exact instructions. "
What word is the right guide? Nothing else is' desire 'and' willingness' us. That is the most precious above all. I crave that my child not to be deaf and dumb. Have a period of decline that is the desire, then I do not ever move back.
What can I do for the child? Pikiranku way to move in otaknya without assistance through the ear.
Once the child is mature enough to be working, then I can meet the streets pikirannya with a desire that fiery that he must hear. That we can carry akan kalahkan with one fact. And every day I updated this willpower, that my child can not be dumb and deaf.
The increasing age of the child and began to consider the environment, he could hear little by little. He really can not talk, but I believe he can hear.
I am happy to see this fact. For if he could hear a little, then surely he can develop the ability to hear is greater. Then there were something that gives great hope for me. Come from sources outside the allegations at all.
One event that change lives.
We bought a tool phonograf. When our children are listening to music, for the first time he appeared very cheerful while a fringe of the box phonograf. This phenomenon indicates a significant habit. And then we find out new, tulangpun that the dealer can be a good voice.
Not long after the events that happened, then I noticed that he could hear me clearly, that is, pay attention to the way gestures my lips, my hands while I put the finger on the bones of his head.
After he realized that the sound can catch me, then I shall inculcate in the consciousness that he pikirannya eager to hear and speak. Therefore I menceriterakan stories that contain elements to him feeling confident about yourself, raise imagination, and the earnest desire to be able to hear and speak normally.


He win a new world with only six cents.
After analyzing this event, then I tanamkan him confidence that he can achieve more than the other brothers. And that ability can be achieved with many roads. Teachers and friends in sekolahpun treat him with many friendly and encouraging hope for him.
Takala he started selling newspapers, I say that he can be a child who is ahead, because he was diligent and strong. His mother does not agree it sells newspapers. But secretly he borrow money from neighbors six Sen. That was the first capital to sell newspapers. On the first night he returned home, he sleeps soundly with the money clasped ditangannya Sen 45.
Seeing this my wife crying. He was compassionate. I even vice versa. I laugh because cheery. For precisely this self-trust for the son. And ability to stand on one's own is what makes him successful throughout his life age.

Deaf kid who can hear.
Children that we successfully passed the primary school, secondary school, to university. I do not care, even if teachers or friends to speak with a voice less loud or cry to him. However, we do not want to send him to school for exceptional children's education deaf mute. No! We wish that our children live in the middle of its normal environment of the normal.
And after the many times he heard the other person as normal. It directly handle the phone and speak with his mother. Teachers and friends now do not have to cry again. Now he can interact with everyone without receiving treatment mouthed.
A new world opens for him now.

Thought that the way to create miracle.
Akan ability menghayati aware that new world, so he wrote a letter to the company's electronic organ of hearing, about her experiences and propose specific suggestions. Company itupun hearing him make the call letter.
He was given important positions in the factory, because the fruit pikirannya many technical refinements to improve organ of hearing, thereby providing opportunities for millions of people with disabilities who are deaf can hear and think like normal people.
He has participated to bring hope and relief for millions of people, if without that assistance will still be only a man deaf and dumb forever.
One desire that fiery himself in order to be able to listen, speak and live as a normal human being after he was encouraged that idamannya achieved. He was born in a deformed body, which impede the very progress for him. But now he can fully overcome the obstacles.
Indeed, there is no wrong or something that does not actually wrong. Provided that people have confidence fiery desire, then that person can change the constraints that bitter bitter reality that it becomes sweet. And the possibility of such a wide-open to anyone also.

FIRST STEP TO BECOME Rich Barnes
When Edwin C. Barnes for the first time coming down from the ship at the time of more than fifty years ago, tampangnya such as the beggar, but the way pikirannya rich as kings.
In the way to the Edison home, the road pikirannya can not be silent. He imagine himself standing before Edison the opportunity to ask something that can fill their lives. He truly has a desire that fiery.
Hasratnya is not just a hope, not just the one desire, but a desire to be flaming that can transform things. One tendency is certainly figured.
Some years later, Barnes faced again with Edison, but hasratnya is already a reality. What he first dreamed of it has become a reality.
Barnes succeeded because he chose a target that. He share all your energy, attention, business, and what to achieve that target.

People burn the bridges
Barnes five years working as a business partner Edison. What he is tired as a result of what he hasratkan before. That he place the target on all the other targets. He plan to achieve that purpose. He burnt all the bridges that have been behind it skip back. He still hold the firm until hasratnya it became a reality
Time Barnes initially wanted to meet Edison, he does not say: "I will try to be there pengaruhi Edison buatku job."
No, he even said: "I'd like to meet and ask Edison attention, that I am truly eager to be a friend sekerjanya"
He also does not say: "I will see another see-first, if I fail with this Edison"
But he said: "There is only one thing that I intend to do, which is a collaboration with Edison. I will burn all that I've lalui in the past, and begin to build a future based on the ability of myself "
Bit he does not want to let him step back. He was determined to win, if not, then he will have a downfall.

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