As mentioned in my last post here, some higher education students use L2 (foreign/second language) to communicate with their instructors and peers and are also expected to improve that language. When it comes to speaking, if one wants to develop this skill, it is necessary to speak as much and as often as possible. Some students, such as English Studies students in Poland, study L2 in a country in which English is not an official language and it is more difficult for them to have opportunities to speak. For this reason, such students are often offered so-called “practical language” classes. When in class, however, many students do not speak much, which is because they do not have much to say. As a result, they do not profit from this class as much as they could. Given this, language instructors need to ensure the conditions that will allow these students to broaden their general knowledge. Specifically, apart from “communicative language competences” (encompassing grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.), their students will benefit from the opportunities to develop “general competences” (that is knowledge of the world, socio-cultural competence, etc.) (see CEFR chapter 2). In this post I share how I have developed English Studies students’ general knowledge in a face-to-face speaking class but these activities can be conducted fully online, too. Two learning activities. In my class I arrange two speaking activities: 1) taking about current affairs and 2) talking about the issues of students’ choosing. I make three key assumptions here:
Before class. The students have to prepare before each class and a reminder is posted in each Moodle module. First, to be able to talk about current affairs, the students follow news. At the beginning of the course I suggest some websites if they are not sure where to start looking for information, such as The Warsaw Voice or BBC News. Secondly, to be able to talk about the topics of their choice, the students are asked to select and read an online article (not too short) and to be ready to summarise it in 5-7 points in English. Again, at the beginning of the course I recommend some websites, such Nature, New Scientist, Scientific American, making it clear that they are asked to read only free articles published there. They are also asked to evidence reading by pasting a link into a Padlet page.
In class. Each class starts with conversations in pairs. First, I instruct the students to work with a partner, talk about what is going on in Poland, in Europe, around the world and comment on these issues. They have 5-7 minutes for this activity. Next, they continue in pairs to give summaries of the article on the topic of their choice. Each partner has 5 minutes to summarise his/her article and then to ask questions to engage the partner in a conversation on the issues raised in the text. This activity takes 10 minutes – 5 minutes for each partner. Submission and credit. Reading online articles is obligatory in this course and it is crucial that the students observe the deadlines that are provided in assignment description. The students paste links into a designated Padlet page before class. If they do not submit links in due time, they receive a penalty point and three penalty points result in a penalty assignment (in this class it is one extra 3-minute podcast). These two activities have proven effective and attractive for my students. They have “more to say” now, not only in class, but also outside. They use this knowledge in conversations with friends, family members, with clients, etc., also in their native language, which is an immense boost to their self-confidence. The idea of making reading obligatory drives some less systematic students to read, sometimes “last minute” on their mobile phone, just before class.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2020
Categories |