Saturday, December 4, 2010

EFL/ESL Summer/Winter Camp for Elementary or Middle School in South Korea - Lesson plans, games, and activities for the last second planning of a camp

For something like two years now I've been trying to find the time, and energy, to post a list of books that elementary school and middle school level native English teachers in Korea would find useful for the absolutely ridiculous lack of planning, literally last second planning education culture that is prevalent across Korea.

Ah, before I continue, here are some links to other posts of mine that new teachers, and for that matter veteran teachers, might want to read if they haven't seen them before.

English Camps in South Korea – A Guideline for Foreign English Teachers

The Kimchi Icecream Guide for New EFL/ESL Foreign English Teachers/Instructors in South Korea, 2010 Edition – Public Schools, Hogwans, Universities, and Training Center/Institutes


ESL/EFL English Camp Guide for Native Teachers in South Korea – Getting ready for summer English camp (aka more classes, more studying) and final exam period at my school


While surfing Korean English native teacher blogs today I noticed this post Yet again, I’m annoyed! by a blogger I enjoy reading, strangelands. The sad thing is that as more and more time passes I see yet another expat teacher getting more and more frustrated by the ridiculous unprofessionalism of the education culture in Korea . . . but there's nothing we, as expat EFL/ESL teachers can do because the education culture is so utterly lost and chaotic that even the Koreans who can actually see the problems don't know how to manage them.

Anyways, on a more productive and proactive note I am posting a list of books that EFL/ESL native English teachers can use for their regular semester teaching, after school program classes, and for summer and winter camps.

This blog post stems from the comment I posted for Yet again, I’m annoyed!

Go buy “Projects for Young Learners” Resource Books for Teachers by Oxford, and do the Fantasy Island project with the kids. Unless you’re given kids who are beginners/false beginners you can do the projects with them in the fantasy island unit (about 10, I think), and just make lesson notes for yourself as you go through the camp each day. Actually, considering the fact that you’ve been given such little prep time you might consider doing the task-based project anyways. If you have a co-teacher who can translate, the kids can learn a little vocab, a few useful short expressions/questions-answers, or whatever you choose, and then do the project and while interacting with you they get some experience doing a project and having to try and use their English to communicate….after all, that’s all the Koreans want, right? For the students to learn English by osmosis and proximity to the foreign teacher; this is the embodiment of the general teaching culture in Korea that thinks it’s okay to give a teacher these kinds of teaching and learning conditions….

Also, try picking up “Games for Children” Resource Books for Teachers by Oxford. It’s full of different games with different levels, amounts of time, degree of difficulties in game concepts and cognitive levels, etc.

The cheapest book you can get is this one,
Oxford Basics: Simple Speaking Activities.
Jill Hadfield and Charles Hadfield. Oxford, 1999.
W5, 800

You can pretty much modify the vocab and language goals for each of the 20 or so lessons found in the book on the fly.

Get some books and then stress will disappear (well, it’ll be less anyways), and your prep is done in terms of before the camp. Photocopy the pages from the book, make some insanely small lesson notes for each thing you’ll use, and hand them to the idiots that ask you to do a camp with no info about location, classroom conditions, resources available, language learner levels, etc.

Other titles you might want to check out.

Five-Minute Activities for Young Learners
Penny McKay and Jenni Guse
Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers
W30,000

Lessons from Nothing
Activities for language teaching with limited time and resources
Bruce Marsland
Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers
W25,000

Games for Language Learning, Third Edition.
Andrew Wright, David Betteridge, and Michael Buckby. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers. Series Editor, Scott Thornbury.
W28 000

Oxford Basics: Simple Speaking Activities.
Jill Hadfield and Charles Hadfield. Oxford, 1999.
W5, 800

Oxford Basics: Presenting New Language.
Jill Hadfield and Charles Hadfield. Oxford, 1999.
W5, 800

Oxford Basics: Vocabulary Activities.
Slattery, Mary. Oxford, 2004.
W5, 800

Oxford Basics: Cross-curricular Activities.
Svecova, Hana. Oxford, 2003.
W5, 800

Storytelling With Children.
Wright, Andrew. Oxford, 1995.
Resource Books for Teachers, Series Editor Alan Maley.
W26 000

Very Young Learners.
Vanessa Reilly & Sheila M. Ward. Oxford, 1997.
Resource Books for Teachers, Series Editor Alan Maley.
W26 000

Games For Children.
Gordon Lewis and Gunther Bedson. Oxford, 1999.
Resource Books for Teachers, Series Editor Alan Maley.
W26 000

Drama With Children.
Phillips, Sarah. Oxford, 1999.
Resource Books for Teachers, Series Editor Alan Maley
W26 000

Art and Crafts With Children.
Wright, Andrew. Oxford, 2001.
W26 000

Projects With Young Learners.
Diane Phillips, Sarah Burwood & Helen Dunford. Oxford, 1999.
Resource Books for Teachers, Series Editor Alan Maley
W26 000

Art and Crafts with Children
Andrew Wright
Oxford University Press
W26,000

Creating Chants and Songs
Carolyn Graham
Oxford University Press
W26,000

Writing with Children
Jackie Reilly and Vanessa Reilly
Oxford University Press
W26,000

Drama with Children
Sarah Phillips
Oxford University Press
W26,000

Oxford Basics: Simple Listening Activities.

Jill Hadfield and Charles Hadfield. Oxford, 1999.

W5, 800


Do As I Say: Operations, Procedures, and Rituals for Language Acquisition.

Gayle Nelson, Thomas Winters, and Raymond C. Clark. Pro Lingua Associates, Publishers, 2004.

W19 000


Oxford Basics: Simple Reading Activities.

Jill Hadfield and Charles Hadfield. Oxford, 2000.

W5, 800


Sentences At A Glance, Third Edition.

Brandon, Lee. Houghton Mifflin Company 2006.

W10 000

Paragraphs At A Glance, Third Edition.

Brandon, Lee. Houghton Mifflin Company 2006

W10 000


Share Your Paragraph: An Interactive Approach to Writing, 2nd Edition.

George M. Rooks.

Longman, 1999.

W13 000


Oxford Basics: Simple Writing Activities.

Jill Hadfield and Charles Hadfield. Oxford, 2000.

W5, 800

Julianne and I also picked up these titles recently, and have found them to be VERY useful to have in our teaching library.

Reading Extra: A Resource Book of Multi-Level Skills Activities (Cambridge Copy Collection) by Liz Driscoll (Spiral-bound - Apr 26, 2004)

Pronunciation Games (Cambridge Copy Collection) by Mark Hancock (Spiral-bound - Feb 23, 1996)

Imaginative Projects (Cambridge Copy Collection) by Matthew Wicks (Paperback - Nov 27, 2000)

Writing Extra: A Resource Book of Multi-Level Skills Activities (Cambridge Copy Collection) by Graham Palmer (Spiral-bound - Apr 19, 2004)


Here are some more titles that might be worth checking out (but that we do not own).


Primary Activity Box: Games and Activities for Younger Learners (Cambridge Copy Collection) by Caroline Nixon and Michael Tomlinson (Spiral-bound - Mar 5, 2001)
Jason

I live to scoop Roboseyo's fun video links! Check out "Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See! "

I haven't been posting much here lately since Julianne and I moved to China, but since things are so tense in South Korea right now with the whole North Korea nutbar situation I thought I'd post this awesome new flash mob video on youtube.

At the time of this posting it was at 9,032,488 hits and climbing . . . here's the video.



Whoever the brain was behind this promotional use of a viral flash mob they are a genius! You can read more about the video and singers in this article.

I'd LOVE to see this done at COEX Mall in South Korea--seriously, can you imagine the reactions?!

I normally tend to just post videos I see online on facebook, but decided that this one was worth reopening my Korea blog cause it's so awesome.

PLUS, it's fun to scoop Roboseyo with the whole finding cool and fun videos and posting them on my blog first!!!

Hope everybody back in Korisneyland is well, and that nobody decides to get all anti-Merry Ho Ho and start a war--even Scrooge would say that's bad for business.

Stay safe, and happy.

J

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Post-Methodology – My EFL Teaching Method, and “Must Have Books” For EFL/ESL University Instructors

It's been quite a while since I wrote a post for my blog here, and I decided I'd write up a post since I left Korea and moved to China with Julianne.

We've been teaching at a military university's English program, and it's been good in many ways, and extremely challenging in others.

Over the course of the first two months of teaching at the university I met many Chinese English instructors of various ranks, and had several conversations. These conversations led to me being invited to give a presentation on my teaching methodology and philosophy of teaching. I should explain the larger context of the conversations involves a massive teaching reform project at my university that has been going on now for just over a year. The university powers that be want to update the teaching methodology that the instructors use, and I think also the English program's textbooks, testing, and overall curricula design. It's a massive project.

I decided that since I put about 3 weeks of work, and dozens of hours of reading and prepping a power point and handout, to post a story about the presentation, and my handouts, because I think other EFL/ESL teachers will find it interesting, and hopefully useful too.

You can see my handouts below, and also the list of my “Must Have Books” For EFL/ESL University Instructors.

Please feel free to comment and ask questions.

J

Last Friday morning I packed up a suitcase full of about half the books in my teaching library, and headed out to do a presentation on my teaching methodology. I was excited about doing this presentation because I'd spent the last 3 weeks reading, and re-reading parts of my methodology books to clarify in my own mind what my current teaching methodology is since it's gone through quite an evolution during the time I spent teaching in Korea, and now over the last two months in China.

I was also happy that I was being given a forum in which I could explain how I see teaching through the framework of EFL (English Foreign Language) teaching (as opposed to the fractured and confused perspectives I'd been hearing from EVERY Chinese teacher I spoke to--I realized that there was an English program "identity crisis" as far as what kind of program we were all operating within, and I REALLY wanted to address that FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM!). One of the major issues I wanted to foreground during my presentation was the fact that I thought my university's English program was trying to function within three different types of English programs: ESP (English for Specific Purposes), EAP (English for Academic Purposes), and EST (English for Science and Technology). I got quite a reaction from my audience of teachers, and high ranking colonels and PhD professors when I talked about that, and later in the post-presentation discussion period I was really happy to hear others thought the same thing as I did!

I presented to 30 Chinese English teachers, some of who were the top ranking officers/administrators in the English program of the military university where I teach. Before I presented, two other presenters gave their content, and it was quite telling to see that they were essentially trying to introduce what native English speaking teachers take for granted about what a 'good teacher' is--for example, treating students equally. They were also touching on some aspects of CLT and TBL (Communicative Language Teaching Methodology, and Task-based Learning Methodology) but didn't really do anything other than scratch the surface in a manner that I would think should be used for student-teachers, or teachers who have never taught before and are just starting their careers--not a room full of teachers with years of experience.

Over the past ten days or so I have been fighting a head cold and cough, and also dealing with my regular teaching duities and the problems I've been trying to address with course objectives being unclear, and invalid testing and lack of info I needed to know about the final grading and exams . . . this unfortunately made me tired, and I actually needed two or three more days to nail my presentation materials; I finished my prep and first draft of my power point with 177 power point slides of pictures of my students DOING the things I wanted to talk about, and my 10 methodology approaches and principles . . . I then smacked myself up the side of my head and said, "JASON! You ONLY have 50 minutes to present this material--you can't present 177 slides no matter how good the material is in that time!"

Thursday night, the night before my presentation, I invited a Chinese English teacher over to the apartment so I could do a practice run through of my material, and try to get a clearer sense of what I needed to cut. I think I already knew what needed to be cut but by the time I was done my power point design it was Thursday at 6pm, and I didn't have the 2 or 3 days I needed to mull over what I could cut, condense, and revise in order to cull it down to a manageable amount of presentation material.

I even went and re-read Jeremy Harmer's "10 Things I Hate About Powerpoint" because I knew I was putting too much, lol .... but I was out of time, and too tired.

My Chinese teacher friend had a good response to my presentation, and good suggestions too. I cut as much of the material after she left as I could, but I could still see it was too much material. I forced myself, though, to go to bed and not kill myself for a presentation I was only giving once, and for a presentation I was not being paid a large fee for!

I printed off a two-page double-sided handout with some primary points from the power point, and a list of books I'd be referring to during my presentation (see below), and went to bed.

Back to Friday morning . . . I do my presentation and only make it to point 5 of my 10 points I'd used to organize my teaching methodology. With only 10 minutes left in my 50 minute presentation I skipped past several slides in each section, and got out the key ideas for my last five points, and was done. I was somewhat satisfied with my presentation, but knew that if I'd just had a few more days to prep I could have done something I think might have even impressed Jeremy Harmer a little--him being, in my mind, one of the best presenters I've ever heard and seen give a power point presentation (KOTESOL 2007, South Korea).

I'd been given 90 minutes to work with for my presentation, and I'd told the colonel and vice-dean of post-graduate studies at the university that I'd use 50 for my talk, then we'd take a short break during which the teachers could look at the 100 books displayed on a table at the front of the conference room. The break time was a rapid fire blitz of questions from THIRTY teachers all looking like kids on Christmas morning as they grabbed different books I had on the table, and began asking me questions about the books and different teaching needs they all had--holy cow!

I was really happy to see one of the high ranking teachers (not sure about the actual rank) ask me a lot about "A Framework for Task-based Learning" by Jane Willis. I referred to it as the 'bible of TBL' during my presentation, and THAT got her attention as she's one of the teachers assigned to the current massive teaching reform project that my university is currently doing. From what I've been able to piece together, she has to 'teach' and 'train' all the Chinese English teachers on how to teach using TBL, and how to test students too. But based on the fact that the winter and summer breaks don't seem to be used for in-service training, and that teacher training only seems to be done on Friday mornings each week of the semester with teachers giving lectures with no real training taking place in terms of trainees doing exercises and activities to apply what they've been learning about....well, I don't see how the Chinese English teachers are going to be able to get a solid grasp on what TBL is, and how they can use it in their courses.

A major point that I stressed during the discussion period after the short break and book gazing frenzy was that the current curricula at the university, and specific textbooks I'd seen, were not suitable for use with TBL methodology and testing. This got quite a stir from the teachers, and the colonel tried to diminish my comment/criticism of the curriculum not being compatible with TBL--to which I said, "Sir, you teach post-graduate courses, right? Have you seen the undegradate textbooks? No? I'd suggest you take a look at them and then we can discuss this again. But until then I strongly believe there are major problems that need to be addressed." I said this with as much respect, sincerity, and neutral tone of voice as I could, and he seemed to realize that he couldn't back up his opinion cause he had NOT looked at the undergrad textbooks, nor did he seem to be familiar with their testing either.

Anyways, I think some of the big things I walked away from this experience with were quite valuable. Assessing and articulating what my current EFL/ESL methodology and philosophy of teaching was a good experience. It showed me what I need to learn more about, and what I need to read more. It reaffirmed teaching principles and approaches that I strongly believe and practice. And it allowed me to establish more credibility with the powers that be at my university so that when I say something, or criticize something, they know it's not just a complaining foreigner who 'doesn't understand Chinese culture or the university's English program and teaching culture'--the comments and criticisms are based on knowledgea and experience gained from hard work, and a lot of experience.

The conclusion I came to after a lot of reading and re-reading, and reflection on my teaching, was that I was doing what Harmer refers to in his fourth edition of "The Practice of English Language Teaching," 2007: “We need to be able to say, as Kumaravadivelu attempted, what is important in methodological terms, especially if we concede one method alone may not be right in many situations” (page 78, my emphasis, Harmer).

Basically, I use a combination of CLT (Communicative Language Teaching methodology) and TBL (Task-based Learning methodology) with some of my own personal approaches to teaching all mixed up into one hybrid form of the two major methods. But in terms of how I practice and apply my methodology there is no fixed formula. How I teach depends on the needs and wants of the specific teaching situation, language learning situation and needs and wants, and the overall teaching and learning environment within which I'm operating. I think that I knew this before I began my prep for this presentation, but doing the work helped me to clarify and confirm what I do, and why I do it. I highly recommend other EFL/ESL teachers try something like this if they have the time and inclination.

Oh, a really bizarre moment occurred after the end of the discussion period. The colonel stood up, and walked to the front of the conference room. He then proceeded to say that he thought I had a lot of great ideas and opinions about teaching methodology, and EFL, and that he wanted to hear more about my ideas. He then said that "after learning more about Jason's opinions and ideas we may adopt them here as policy and practice at the university"--HOLY SHIT!

Sometimes I really don't realize how other teachers perceive what I say and do. Sometimes I really don't give myself enough credit that the hard work I put into my teaching craft, and continually trying to improve myself as a teacher, comes across to such a point as that I'd actually have my methodology used as a part of the basis for an entire English program's teaching methdology reform . . .

It's humbling, scary, and thrilling all at the same time.

I just have to hope that some degree of success can be achieved in their reform project because based on this article, The Impact of CurriculumInnovation on the Cultures of Teaching (http://www.chinese-efl-journal.com/Vol%20%201%20January%202008.pdf), I don't know if they can achieve their wishes.

But I'll help--if they ask (and hopefully pay more too!).

J

What is a good man?

A teacher of a bad man.

What is a bad man?

A good man’s charge.

If the teacher is not respected,

And the student is not cared for,

Confusion will arise, however clever one is.

This is the crux of the mystery.

Lao Tsu 1997, ch 27

From “Experiential Learning in Foreign Language Education, General Editor C. N. Candlin

Applied Linguistics and Language Study, Pearson 2001

Different types of foreign language learning . . .

ESP – English for Specific Purposes

EAP – English for Academic Purposes

EST – English for Science and Technology

EFL – English as a Foreign Language

ELF – English as a Lingua Franca

ESOL – English Speaking of Other Languages

CLIL – Content and Language Integrated Learning

EFL/ESL influences on my teaching methodology . . .

Jeremy Harmer

Scott Thornbury

Michael Rost

Sari Luoma

Penny Ur

Jane Willis

Michael J Wallace

Teaching methodologies . . . Which one? More than one? Or . . . Something new?

Grammar-Translation

Direct Method

Audiolingualism

Behaviorism

PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production)

ESA (Engage, Study, Activate); Boomerang Procedure, Patchwork Procedure

Four Methods: CLT (Community Language Learning), Suggestopaedia, TPR (Total Physical Response), and the Silent Way

CLT (Communicative Language Learning)

TBL (Task-based Learning)

The Lexical Approach

Teachers-Students Dialog Method

Post Method ???


My 10 EFL Methodology Principles and Approaches to ELT


1. Fun and Interesting. The “Magic X” factor.

2. Balance of accuracy and fluency language goals and content in lessons/course design.

3. Communicative and interactive style of TTT and STT.

4. Task-based learning.

5. Transparency in testing/evaluation, rubrics, and process.

6. Recode EFL language classroom with communicative power dynamics.

7. Games and Activities are a vital learning tool for learning, practicing, and mastering language goals and skills.

8. The 7 P’s: Proper planning and preparation prevent piss poor performance. Lesson planning/course design are critical in achieving teaching success, and language learner success.

9. “Variety is the spice of life.” Using a wide range of learning goals, language goals, skills, strategies, tasks, games, activities, and topics.

10. Empowering language learners to develop meta-cognitive learning skills (or ‘learner autonomy), and EFL language learning skills.

CLT - Communicative Language Teaching, and interactive style.

NOTE: There was a diagram on my handout that I cannot copy paste into blogger.

Post-Method: 10 Macrostrategies?

“What is needed, Kumaravadivelu suggests, is not alternative methods, but ‘an alternative to method’ (2006: 67). Instead of one method, he suggests ten ‘macrostrategies, such as “maximise learning opportunities, facilitate negotiation, foster language awareness, promote learner autonomy” etc.’ (Kumaravadivelu 2001, 2006)”

From, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Fourth Edition. Jeremy Harmer

Post-Method is my ‘one’ method . . .

“We need to be able to say, as Kumaravadivelu attempted, what is important in methodological terms, especially if we concede one method alone may not be right in many situations” (page 78, my emphasis, Harmer).

“We have to be able to extract key components of the various methods we have been describing” (page 78, my emphasis, Harmer).


“Must Have Books” For EFL/ESL University Instructors

Speaking

Conversation Strategies

David Kehe and Peggy Dustin Kehe

PLA (Pro Lingua Associates)

W20,000(?)

Basics in Speaking

Michael Rost

Longman

W15,000

Strategies in Speaking

Michael Rost

Longman

W15,000

Keep Talking: Communicative fluency activities for language teaching.

Klippel, Friederike. Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers. Series Edited by Penny Ur. W30,000

Oxford Basics: Simple Speaking Activities.

Jill Hadfield and Charles Hadfield. Oxford, 1999.

W5, 800

Getting Ready for Speech: A Beginner’s Guide to Public Speaking, by Charles LeBeau and David Harrington. Compass Publishing, 2002. W14,000

Pronunciation Pairs, Second Edition: An Introduction to the Sounds of English, by Ann Baker and Sharon Goldstein

Cambridge, 2008

W20,000

Conversation Gambits: Real English Conversation Practices. Eric Seller and Sylvia T. Warner. Thomson Heinle, 2002. W29,000

Small Group Discussion Topics for University Students, A Modern Approach to Fluency in English, Third Edition.. Jack Martire. Political, economic, environmental, and social issues facing the world in the 21st Century. Pusan National University Press, 2009. W12,000

Reading

Steps to Academic Reading Level 3: Across the Board

Jean Zukowsky/Faust

Thomson Heinle

W13,000

Steps to Academic Reading 4: In Context

Jean Zukowski/Faust, Susan S. Johnston, and Elizabeth E. Templin

Thomson Heinle

W13,000

Extensive Reading Activities for Teaching Language. Edited by Julian Bramford and Richard R. Day. Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers

W25,000

Reading Extra by Cambridge

College Reading Workshop, Edition 2.

Malarcher, Casey. Compass Publishing, 2005. W15 000

Curriculum Design

Materials and Methods in ELT, Second Edition. A Teacher’s Guide.

Jo McDonough and Christopher Shaw. Blackwell Publishing, 2003.

W35 000

Games and Activities

Games for Language Learning, Third Edition. Andrew Wright, David Betteridge, and Michael Buckby. Cambridge University Press, 2006. Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers. Series Editor, Scott Thornbury. W28 000

700 Classroom Activities.

David Seymour & Maria Popova. Macmillian, 2005.

W20,000

Grammar Practice Activities, Second Edition, by Penny Ur. Cambridge University Press, 2006. Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers. Series Editor, Scott Thornbury. Cambridge, 2009

W39,000

Debate and Critical Thinking

Discover Debate. Michael Lubetsky, Charles LeBeau, and David Harrington.

Compass Publishing, 2000.

W16 000

A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, Fifth Edition.

Wilfred L. Guerin. Oxford, 2005.

W22 000

The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, Second Edition.

Ross Murfin and Supryia M. Ray.

Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

W25 000

Becoming A Critical Thinker: A Master Student Text, Fifth Edition.

Ruggiero, Vincent Ryan. Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

W11 000

Listening

Tree or Three? Second Edition. Beginner Level. Ann Baker.

Cambridge, 2006.

Ship or Sheep? An Intermediate Pronunciation Course, Third Edition.

Ann Baker. Cambridge, 2006

Teaching Listening Comprehension

Penny Ur

Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers

W29,000

Dictations for Discussion, A Listening/Speaking Text, by Judy DeFillipo and Catherine Sadow. Pro Lingua Associates, 2006. W41,000

Listening.

White, Goodith. Oxford, 1998.

Resource Books for Teachers, Series Editor, Alan Maley. W26 000

Pronunciation Pairs, Second Edition: An Introduction to the Sounds of English, by Ann Baker and Sharon Goldstein

Cambridge, 2008. W20,000

Writing

Sentences At A Glance, Third Edition.

Brandon, Lee. Houghton Mifflin Company 2006.

W10 000

Paragraphs At A Glance, Third Edition.

Brandon, Lee. Houghton Mifflin Company 2006

W10 000

Share Your Paragraph: An Interactive Approach to Writing, 2nd Edition.

George M. Rooks. Longman, 1999. W13 000

Effective Academic Writing 1: The Paragraph

Alice Savage and Masoud Shafiei

Oxford University Press

W?

Effective Academic Writing 2: The Short Essay

Alice Savage and Patricia Mayer

Oxford University Press

W?

Effective Academic Writing 3: The Essay

Jason Davis and Rhonda Liss

Oxford University Press

W?

EFL/ESL Test Design and Evaluation

Assessing Speaking

Sari Luoma

Cambridge Language Assessment Series

W35,000

Testing Second Language Speaking

Glenn Fulcher. General Editor: C. N. Candlin. Applied Linguistics and Language Study. Pearson Education Limited, 2003.

W25,000

Testing for Language Teachers, Second Edition. Arthur Hughes. Cambridge Language Teaching Library Cambridge, 2003.

W30,000

EFL/ESL Research and Teaching Books

Teaching and Researching Listening

Rost, Michael. Longman, 2002.

Applied Linguistics in Action Series, Edited by Christopher N. Candlin & David R. Hall

W22 000

Teaching and Researching Speaking

Rebecca Hughes

Applied Linguistics in Action Series, Edited by Christopher N. Candlin & David R. Hall

W22 000

Teaching and Researching Reading

William Grabe and Fredricka L. Stoller

Applied Linguistics in Action Series, Edited by Christopher N. Candlin & David R. Hall

W22 000

Teaching and Researching Writing

Ken Hyland. Applied Linguistics in Action Series, Edited by Christopher N. Candlin & David R. Hall. W22 000

Culture/s and Cross-Cultural Lessons

Crossing Cultures in the Language Classroom, by Andrea DeCapua, Ed.D., and Ann C. Wintergerst, Ed.D.

University of Michigan, 2004.

W45,000

Culturally Speaking, Third Edition, by Rhona B. Genzel and Martha Graves Cummings

2010 Heinle, Cengage Learning

W21,000

101 American Idioms Harry Collis and Joe Kohl. Compass, 2004. W7,500; 101 American Customs Harry Collis and Joe Kohl. Compass, 2004. W7,500; 101 American Superstitions Harry Collis and Joe Kohl. Compass, 2004. W7,500

A First Look at the USA: A Cultural Reader

Milada Broukal

Longman

W13,000

More About the USA: A Cultural Reader

Milada Broukal and Janet Milhomme

Longman

W13,500

All About the USA: A Cultural Reader Second Edition. Milada Broukal and Peter Murphy. Longman

W13,000

EFL/ESL Methodology Books

The Practice of Teaching English, Fourth Edition.

Harmer, Jeremy. Longman 2007.

How to teach English.

Harmer, Jeremy. Longman, 1998.

W22 000, 000

How to teach Vocabulary.

Thornbury, Scott. Longman, 2002.

Series Editor, Jeremy Harmer.

W22 000

How to teach Pronunciation.

Kelly, Gerald. Longman, 2000.

Series Editor, Jeremy Harmer.

W22 000

How To Teach Speaking.

Thornbury, Scott.

Series Editor: Jeremy Harmer. Longman, 2006. W27 000

How to teach Writing.

Harmer, Jeremy. Longman, 2004.

W22 000

Teaching English Through English.

Willis, Jane. Longman, 1981.

W20 000

A Framework For Task-Based Learning.

Willis, Jane. Longman, 1996.

W22 000

Listening, Practical English Language Teaching. Marc Helgesen and Steven Brown. McGraw Hill, 2007. David Nunan, Series Editor. W15 000

Speaking, Practical English Language Teaching. Kathleen M. Bailey

. McGraw Hill, 2007. David Nunan, Series Editor. W17,000

Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking, by I.S.P. Nation and Jonathan Newton.
ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series. Routledge, 2009. W25,000

Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing

by I.S.P. Nation and Jonathan Newton.
ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series. Routledge, 2008. W25,000

Monday, July 12, 2010

EFL/ESL Native English Teacher Speaking Tests in a Korean Public High School — Planning and giving speaking tests Part 1

At the beginning of the spring/summer semester at my high school I found out that I was going to be allowed to give speaking tests for my 12 ‘second’ grade classes. Last semester I dropped several comments every once and a while about how student motivation and classroom behavior are heavily influenced by whether or not there are test points assigned to the lesson content they are learning in my co-teachers ears . . . and apparently during a pre-semester meeting it was decided that I could have 10% of the English grade. For my 10 ‘first’ grade classes, though, at first I was told there weren’t any test points that I could get assigned to my classes . . . and then later, about six weeks or so, I was told I could write 3 questions of the 33 questions on the mid-term and final exams for the English section of the test . . . this just goes to show one of many examples of how hard it is for native English teachers to design a semester syllabus, choose the curriculum, and how testing points are all too often not assigned to their classes and/or they’re told about the testing points weeks after they have already prepared and designed their lessons . . . but I digress, and should get back to writing about the process I went through designing my speaking tests.

I have a lot of experience designing speaking tests and administering them with different kinds of EFL language learners (from middle school and high school to pre-service student teachers and in-service Korean English teachers). But I decided to do some research and re-read materials I have in my EFL/ESL library (see the list of relevant books at the bottom of this post) cause I hadn’t looked at them in a long time. While doing my research and writing up my speaking test design I thought to myself, “What do you do when researching “EFL/ESL speaking test +Korea +public school +high school” and your own writing is the only thing you find that is relevant? HAS NOBODY who teaches high school in Korea designed speaking tests, and then written about it online? Wow.”

Actually, there are bloggers who have written about speaking tests in Korean public high schools but they are a minority. Also, due to the nature of blogging as an informal genre most of them haven’t really gone into much detail about their test design process, why they chose the test format they did, and other details that I would have really liked to read about the experiences of other native teachers in Korean public schools doing speaking tests . . .

One teacher I did find, and I posted about, wrote this series by Supplanter‘s blog which I found pretty interesting–and which reinforced my decision to record all the speaking tests with my mp3 player (something I usually do anyways–Korean university students are notorious for trying to get their test scores raised if they don’t like them, so when they do come to ask for an increase I suggest we review their recordings and look at my notes for their test . . . this usually dissuades most of the complainers, lol).

The Grade Changing Fiasco Part 1

The Grade Changing Fiasco Part 2

The Grade Changing Fiasco – part 3

Finally, I come across something related to my search parameters, Evaluation of The Foreign Language High School Programme in South Koreaby Yvvette Denise Murdoch, a master’s dissertation submitted to the School of Humanities, University of Birmingham to fulfill requirements in the Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language”, 2002. Unfortunately, while it’s an interesting read, Murdoch doesn’t really provide much in the way of how she tested and what process she went through while designing her tests. But that being said it’s still a good read.

Anyways, I decided to give myself a research and writing project to kill time when I had no classes at school. I loosely based my writing goals on Chapter Six: Developing Test Specifications of “Assessing Speaking” by Sari Luoma, Cambridge Language Assessment Series, Cambridge University Press 2004.

Here is a list of things a teacher should be considering, at least some of them anyways, when designing a language test,

“the test’s purpose; description of the examinees; test level; definition of construct (theoretical framework for the test); description of suitable language course or textbook; number of sections/papers; time for each section of paper; target language situation; text-types; text length; language skills to be tested; test tasks; test methods; rubrics; criteria for marking; descriptions of typical performances at each level; description of what candidates at each level can do in the real world; sample papers; samples of students’ performances on task” from “Assessing Speaking,” Chapter 6, page 114.

The problem is the logistics (I’m going to use this word a lot) of designing and giving speakings tests in Korean public school English native speaker classes is that there are so many unforeseeable, unplannable, and unbelievable (from a native teacher’s perspective anyways) issues and challenges that come up throughout the whole process that trying to do a truly professional EFL/ESL speaking test is nearly impossible–in my opinion . . . but I’ll get into that in more detail in part 2 of this post.

I also found “Chapter Eight: Ensuring a reliable and valid speaking assessment” to be an extremely helpful unit to help me refresh on what I needed to be thinking about as I designed the speaking tests for the high school boys.

While reading Chapter 6 I came across three examples of how to do test specification write-ups: Example 1: An end-of-course classroom test, Example 2: A language test at university entrance, and Example 3: A general purpose proficiency test . . . after reading this chapter I decided to do my own test specifications write up . . . although I was unable to follow the models exactly due to the realities of planning lessons and tests that Korean public schools present.

Alright, that’s enough about why I decided to write this blog post . . . time to wade into the nitty-gritty of what I did while going the process of making speaking tests for a Korean public high school.

Before class/semester begins language learner assessment: There were no opportunities for me to assess the actual language learner levels of the students in each class. The only thing available was the students test scores from the previous semester which in terms of communicative ability and fluency really had no validity or relevance. The only thing I found useful about the test scores that I asked my Korean English co-teachers to show me was being able to see which classes might have a majority of low level students, or average to higher level students so that I could alter my teaching methods accordingly (or ‘differentiate’ them).

Test #1 format (of 4 over the course of the school year, 2 in the spring semester, 2 in the fall/winter semester) : one on one interview, teacher and student

Test #2: one on one interview, teacher and student

Test #3: Unfortunately I won’t be teaching as my contract finishes August 24th, 2010. I am, however, leaving all testing and lesson materials from the book I was using for the next native teacher. I hope that they will continue to teach from the same book . . . my original plans for the four tests were that in speaking tests 3 and 4 that the tests would shift from focusing on accuracy with a low degree of fluency to a higher focus on fluency in balance with the test point values for accuracy. The book I was using focuses on developing fluency and learning, practicing, and mastering speaking strategies so it will be interesting to hear from the new native teacher how the students progress throughout the fall/winter semester.

Test #4: fluency and accuracy have equal values on the rubric.

Class hours before Test #1: two fifty-minute classes.

NOTE: The logistical realities of teaching EFL speaking and conversation in a Korean public high school often necessitate the instructor exhibiting a degree of “flexibility” when it comes to following EFL methodology the way it “should” be practiced versus adapting to and dealing with the chaotic and extremely unstable school schedule and teaching/learning conditions. I scheduled the first speaking test with only 2 weeks of instruction due to several reasons: 1) My classes were not assigned time slots during the school’s official midterm exam and final exam periods (thus necessitating me having to schedule testing during regular classes). 2) The students do not understand fully (perhaps even not at all) how they will be tested (my test will be the first ever speaking test done at the school in its entire history), and this diminishes their ability to develop effective learning styles and habits specific to my classes (I made a “How to” study guide for speaking tests handout (look at the bottom of this post) and gave tips and strategies during my classes). 3) I fully expect motivation and attention levels to dramatically spike after Test #1 has been completed as students will have a much clearer idea based on first-hand speaking test experience with a native speaker/teacher in a public school setting.

Test #1 focus: pronunciation, intonation, grammar, and demonstrating/performing cultural rules for speaking and interactions during the test (for example, how to shake hands)

Test Duration: 2 minutes

Type of school: 2nd grade classes at an all boys trade/sports school transitioning into an academic high school, Seoul–the 2nd grade students were enrolled during the trade school standards for acceptance. The overall English abilities are lower. On average each class has 25% false-beginner, 50% low-intermediate to intermediate, and 25% high-intermediate to advanced levels of English language ability.

Class size: 30-40 multi-level high school boys

Language learners: mixed levels, on average each class has 25% false-beginner, 50% low-intermediate to intermediate, and 25% high-intermediate to advanced levels of English language ability.

Test location: in the native English teacher’s classroom, no other students are permitted to be in the room; also, no Korean English co-teachers (they’re presence would inhibit student speaking performance and test conditions), all other students will be waiting in their homeroom, and in groups of 5 come to the hallway outside, line up and wait for their turn.

General Conditions: each class of 30-40 boys will be divided into two groups, A and B. Boys will do a lottery that places them in one of the two groups, and also determine order of testing. This is to avoid the ‘not fair’ criticism that is a very big concern for Korean students in testing situations (whether or not what they’re saying has anything to do with ‘fairness’).

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Click on the link below to read more at Kimchi Icecream: The Second Serving . . . . I've moved over to wordpress.com and will be blogging there from now on.

EFL/ESL Native English Teacher Speaking Tests in a Korean Public High School — Planning and giving speaking tests Part 1


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