Resource Summary
The resource that I have chosen Gibbons' (2015) book, is based on the Systematic Functional Approach to language learning and embraces the Communicative Language Approach. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) arose in Europe and the USA in the 1970s and spread around the world. It moves away from learning language structures, to the importance of language functions and communication. The focus in this approach is on the learners and their individual needs.
Gibbons (2015, p. 229) states “language is best learned
through meaningful use in a variety of contexts, and the whole curriculum can
be viewed as a resource for language development.” Furthermore, Gibbons (2015, p. 231) notes the important role of teachers and that “individual teachers
can and do make a difference to children’s lives.”
Gibbons' (2015) book is divided into eight chapters which includes chapters on the four areas of language learning: speaking, writing, reading and listening. She suggests activities that encourage the development of the different language skills needed for EAL/D students, that can be incorporated into the curriculum by the teacher, within the mainstream classroom. Gibbons (2015) also describes the importance of scaffolding for language learning for EAL/D students and the importance of creating an integrated curriculum.Gibbons (2015) suggests that the language activities should be integrated with learning across the curriculum.
Gibbons' (2015) activities could be viewed as tasks which could be included in the regular classroom curriculum. To define what a task is Ellis (2003, as cited in Nation & Macalister, 2009, p. 80) describes a task as "an activity which requires learners to use language, with emphasis on meaning, to attain an objective." Willis and Willis (2007, as cited in Nation & Macalister, 2009, p. 81) propose six questions for teachers to ask to determine whether an activity is a task, which could be applied to the activities proposed by Gibbons (2015).
"Does the activity engage the learner's interest?
Is there a primary focus on meaning?
Is there an outcome?
Is success judged in terms of outcome?
Is completion a priority?
Does the activity relate to real world activities?"
Gibbons notes (2015, p. 99) that “genres are cultural and shared by members of that culture.” Each genre has a particular structure and language features, such as narratives and arguments. Gibbons (2015, p. 109) states “explicit teaching is related to real-life use, so that understanding about language is developed in the context of actual language use.”
As Swain (2000, 2005, in Gibbons, 2015) notes, learners need to use the language, the comprehensible output, through talking with others. Games such as information gap, barrier games and paired problem solving, are suggested by Gibbons (2015), to promote this interaction between learners. By also using open ended questions during group work, the teacher encourages talking. Gibbons (2015) discusses the importance of group work for language development, as it encourages interaction. As Gibbons (2015, p. 50) states, in group work “what they learn is contextualised: language is heard and used in an appropriate context and used meaningfully for a particular purpose,” improving comprehension. Gibbons (2015) notes that teachers need to give clear and explicit oral and written instructions for group work.
Gibbons (2015) describes the scaffolding needed for text writing using a genre approach for EAL/D students.
In the area of writing, Gibbons (2015) suggests that the teacher needs to build knowledge of the topic (field) first. This can be achieved by activities such as creating a class mind map and using the internet to find information on the topic. Gibbons (2015) suggests that the teacher then models and deconstructs the genre. Meta-language and grammatical structures, are introduced by the teacher. Joint construction of the text between the teacher and students then occurs. The teacher and students work together to create the text. Students are then encouraged to write their own texts independently, or in pairs. Collective peer scaffolding can occur in a group, where the learners jointly construct wording.
A study by Yasuda (2011) supports the activities proposed by Gibbons (2015) to help EAL/D students with writing in English. Yasuda (2011) investigated how novice foreign language writers develop writing competence. The course used a genre-based syllabus to promote language and writing development. The study was based on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) which according to Yasuda (2011, p. 112), views language as a ”resource for making meaning in a particular context of use rather than a set of fixed rules and structures.” The study linked genre to task. The study tested college level Japanese EFL writers on how they develop genre awareness and knowledge in a genre-based writing course involving email-writing tasks and how they develop linguistic and writing competence.
The results of the study implied, according to Yasuda (2011, p. 126), that “knowledge of a new genre gained in one language context, may be transferable to another language context.” According to Yasuda (2011, p. 127), “tasks provide instructional frameworks in which to organise writing classrooms in a sequential manner..this framework involves bringing a communicative environment into the classroom to encourage students to use a target language competently and confidently in a range of rhetorical situations in the classroom.”
Nordin (2017, p. 79) proposes “an eclectic approach to the teaching of writing, by synthesising the strength of the process and genre approaches for implementation in the classroom.” In this approach learners are aware of the social context of the writing situation and the purpose of the writing. This is related to the audience and the message that is wanting to be conveyed. As Nordin (2017) notes, learners create multiple drafts, editing and finally publishing the end product. A vital part of the process is the feedback from the teacher, both orally and written. According to Petronas (p. 81) “input and interaction through feedback play important roles in the writing process from peers or teachers.
The scaffolding process adheres to Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (1985), Long’s interactional modification (1989, as cited in Nordin, 2017) and Swain’s (1995, as cited in Nordin, 2017) negotiation of meaning. According to Nordin (2017), teachers provide input at the beginning of the lesson to introduce a genre of writing explaining the features of that genre and providing models of the genre of writing. This integrates the two approaches, process and genre. The process approach is the planning editing part and genre is understanding the purpose, audience and context of the writing. The two approaches complement each other. Gibbons' (2015) activities supports this eclectic approach to teaching writing to EAL/D students.
Goodman (1967, in Gibbons, 2015, p. 137) noticed that readers use three kinds of knowledge to attain meaning from a text: semantic knowledge, knowledge of the world or field, syntactic knowledge, of the structure of language and graphophonic knowledge, the relationship between sounds and letters. These different kinds of knowledge are incorporated in the activities described in Gibbons' (2015) book.
Gibbons (2015, p. 139) supports schema theory for reading where “effective readers draw on particular kinds of culturally acquired knowledge and language to guide and influence the comprehension process.” This means, according to Gibbons (2015), that the teacher provides activities before reading the text, that prepare students for the language, cultural and conceptual difficulties. The teacher supports the students' prior knowledge on the topic and helps them to predict what the content of the text may be.
Before reading the text activities suggested by Gibbons (2015) may include, showing an illustration from the text and discussing what the picture is about, predicting main ideas, predicting text content from the title, first sentence or key words from the text, sequencing pictures relating to the story and storytelling in the Mother Tongue. According to Gibbons (2015) the teacher should also model good reading, such as using expression and fluency. Strategies including skimming a text for main ideas and then rereading for detail, should also be modeled by the teacher.
After reading Gibbons (2015) suggests activities including, Readers' Theatre and creating a story map of the main points of the story. Other activities suggested by Gibbons (2015) include hot seat, where one student is a character from the text and cloze activities, where students fill in carefully selected missing words form the text. Activities to increase phonemic knowledge are provided by Gibbons (2015) including using familiar poetry and rhymes and segmenting and blending sounds orally. To build up phonic knowledge of sounds Gibbons (2015) suggests activities such as creating an alphabet book and memory reading games using known words.
Gibbons (2015) notes that the distinction from speaking and writing is more blurred these days due to technology such as texting with visual emoticons.
For the listening component of language learning Gibbons (2015) refers to Krashen’s (1982) comprehensible input which supports the need for learners to understand what is said to them. Gibbons (2015) advocates using activities where the teacher uses the mother tongue to introduce a topic on a familiar experience and then using resources such as the internet, to link what the teacher is saying to prior knowledge.
As Gibbons (2015, p. 183) notes, listening is like reading as they both involve comprehension, rather than production to construct meaning. As Gibbons (2015, p. 184) states, listeners also need to use their “available schema and knowledge of the language system.” Gibbons states (2015, p. 188) “approaches to the teaching of listening should be primarily focused on meaning.” Gibbons (2015) suggest listening activities that involves one or two-way listening including listening to sounds in the environment, sound stories involving different noises students identify and map games where students in pairs have maps with roads and buildings missing. In these activities students need to collaborate to complete their maps.
Dictogloss is another activity that Gibbons (2015) suggests to encourage listening. In this activity the teacher reads a short passage at least twice at
normal speed and on the next read students write down as much as they can using
key words. In pairs students compare notes. In groups of four, students
adapt their notes together. Students can then either independently or in a group, write out their notes. Other activities include matching games using pictures and oral descriptions
and an aural/oral cloze, where students fill in gaps as text is read to them. Gibbons suggests
(2015, p. 204) that “designing listening tasks in the context of understanding
and learning subject content provides many authentic situations across the
curriculum for listening skills to be developed.”
Gibbons (2015) acknowledges that it may be appropriate to withdraw EAL/D students from the regular class, who are new arrivals to a country for a short program of English intervention. Gibbons (2015, p. 2017) states however, that for most EAL/D learners “the regular classroom offers the best opportunity to learn a new language, because it provides an authentic context for a focus on the language most relevant to subject learning. Language is more effective when learners are presented with meaningful language in context.”
According to Gibbons (2015) the teacher needs to conduct assessment for learning of the student’s language needs through ongoing informal assessments such as observation, written work, oral presentations and reading assessments. Initially the teacher needs to assess the learner's current language ability. The teacher analyses the language demands of the curriculum and takes a scaffolding approach to writing tasks.
Gibbons (2015) believes that an integrated approach to language learning creates the best environment for language attainment for EAL/D students in the mainstream classroom. Gibbons (2015, p. 208) further states that ”the curriculum can be seen as providing authentic contexts for the development of subject-specific genres and registers…an integrated program takes a functional approach to language by placing its teaching focus on language as the medium of learning rather than on language as something separate from content.” Gibbons (2015) notes that the integrated approach can also benefit all mainstream students. The ideal model according to Gibbons (2015), is where the mainstream classroom teacher and EAL/D specialist teacher can plan the program together and team teach. Mainstream classroom teachers can however, according to Gibbons (2015), use the approach alone.
Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. London: Longman.
Nation, I.S., & Macalister, J. (2009). Language curriculum design. Routledge.
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