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! ! APPENDIXES APPENDIX I LEARNING UNIT APPENDIX II RESEARCH PROJECT ! ! 8. APPENDIX I: LEARNING UNIT 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. JUSTIFICATION This seventh learning plan called “School and studying” coincides nearly with the end of the course. In this unit, students will learn about the way we learn and the Multiple Intelligences theory, how to write an argumentative essay and a semi-formal email, the British Education system and they will also remember their school days. The plan will be developed in 3 lessons of two hours each, approximately. On the other hand, this leaning plan has been designed according to the Spanish Education Law: Orden de 3 de Mayo de 2007 which establishes the curriculum of the Intermediate level in Official Language Schools. At the same time, the Intermediate level is related to the level B1 in the Common European Framework of Reference of Languages. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 1.2. CONTEXTUALIZATION Main characteristics of the school: The EOI of Utebo is an Official Language School placed in a rural area in Zaragoza. It is placed in a quite area surrounded by a bank, a theatre, a primary school and some shops. This school offers the three levels (Basic, Intermediate and Advanced) of English, German and French as well as That´s English for distance learning English. The majority of the students are adults learning a second language for different purposes. It would be interesting to mention that this majority are mainly women. On the other hand, it is a small school with two floors. In the ground floor of the building there is a reception, an office, the library, the teachers´ room and a classroom whereas the first floor has seven classrooms. Every classroom is equipped with a computer with Internet access, a CD player, a projector and a digital whiteboard. The library, apart from books, dictionaries and films also has 3 computers with Internet access for the students. Main characteristics of the class: Second Intermediate includes 28 students; the amount of women is higher than men. Their age ranges between 25-56 years old. Generally speaking we can say that they have a positive attitude towards learning English and their knowledge of English corresponds to the course they attend to. Although some differences in the students´ levels can be noticed. Most of them have a very high reading and writing level, and they can understand English quite well. However, when it comes to speaking most of them are very fluent but they also make considerable grammatical mistakes. ! ! ! ! ! 2. GENERAL LEARNING AIMS This learning plan has been created according to the following learning aims: 1. Listen and understand specific information in oral texts clearly structured and in a standard language, articulated at medium speed. 2. Express themselves and interact orally in everyday communicative situations in a comprehensible and adequate way, and showing a certain degree of authority. Although sometimes there were evidences of a foreign accent or pauses in order to plan the discourse. 3. Read and understand diverse types of texts (stories, newspaper articles, discussions, etc) in a standard language about general topics and current issues, with the aim of extracting general and specific information. 4. Write simple texts with several purposes about everyday or imaginary situations in which they ask for or transmit some information of their interest by using the appropriate coherence and cohesion resources. 5. Develop learning autonomy by means of active participation in the planning and control of the learning process. 6. Appreciate the importance of the English language as a tool for the access to information and for the learning of diverse contents. 7. Acquire a wider view of the English culture and appreciate the contribution of the English language to personal development and to the relationship with the speakers of other languages. 8. Show self-confidence and receptive attitude in the ability to learn and use English. ! ! ! ! ! 3. METHODOLOGY My teaching is adapted to the characteristics of the students in order to improve their autonomy, participation and interest towards learning English. It is important to promote a positive attitude towards the English language, which can only be achieved by means of varied and motivating activities that take into account the needs and interests of the students as well as cater for the different ways of learning that students have. Following this trend, activities are varied; some of them demand group work (students will have to work in pairs or threes). Moreover, I also planned some activities which develop the students´ autonomy, for instance writing an e-mail asking for information about a course. All these activities are focused on the students´ interests and encourage them to participate. On the other hand, it is important to create a context of cooperative learning in which the students have the opportunity to help each other in the achievement of the objectives of the learning pan. For this reason, the emphasis will be on student-student interaction, pair work and group work. There will be some room for individual work and class discussion since this provides the opportunity to share ideas. In this learning plan, I want to make students aware that learning English has a real purpose, especially in communication. Therefore, I aim at a communicative use of the language, promoting many communicative exchanges. I also aim at integrating ICT in the learning process using most of the audiovisual means available in the school: computers, digital whiteboard, etc. ! ! ! 4. OBJECTIVES By the end of this unit students will be able to: • Read and understand easy texts in order to acquire general vocabulary about education. • To internalize all the vocabulary related to school and studying. • To express their opinion about exams. • To understand oral texts related to: - learning styles. - later language learning. - schools in the past and now. • To write a semi-formal e-mail asking for information about an online course following a model. • To provide peer feedback by following a rubric. • To write a discussion essay following a model. • To talk about their school days. • To understand the British Education System. • To interact and communicate their ideas and opinions in class discussions. • To understand teacher´s instructions and work cooperatively. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 5. CONTENTS Block 1. Listening skills • Understanding relevant and specific information of an oral text related to later language learning. • General understanding of short clips related to Multiple Intelligences and schools in the past and nowadays. Block 2. Reading skills • Comprehension of relevant and specific information of written texts adapted to their level and competence about adult education and exams. • Composition of short texts close to the learner´s experiences and interests. Block 3. Writing skills • Composition of short texts closed to the learner´s experiences and interests such as the abolition of exams or writing a semi-formal e-mail asking for information about an online course. Block 4. Spoken interaction skills • Understanding and use of the common expressions in the context of an interview conversation. • Participation in communicative oral interactions to express ideas and opinions related to the topic of education. Block 5. Socio-cultural aspects and intercultural awareness • Use of the second language as a means to talk about the British Education System. ! ! ! ! ! 6. LEARNING ACTIVITIES Group: Second Intermediate Number of students: 28 Number of sessions: 3 Duration of each session: 1 hour and 45 minutes approximately. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 41! 5.4. LESSON PLANS: To Shop or Not to Shop. Warm Up and Vocabulary – Lesson Plan 1 Grade Level: Intermediate 2 Subject: To Shop or not to Shop Prepared By: Elena Chacón – 1st lesson day 1 (60’) Introduction of the topic Teacher Guide Learning goals (Specify skills/information that will be learned.) At the end of this lesson students will: • Understand the plot of a trailer. • Listen to get information from a video script. • Practice sharing ideas about shopping habits. • Review previously taught vocabulary related to shopping. Materials Needed • Paper, pen • Projector, laptop • Interactive Whiteboard Other Resources www.youtube.com www.moviesegments.com Games for Vocabulary Practice by Felicity O´ Dell and Katie Head. Critical input (Give and/or demonstrate necessary information) • Video. • Projection of activities on interactive whiteboard. • Vocabulary activities: cut sentences to match the beginning and ending of sentences. Learning Activities (Describe the activities to reinforce learning and how they will be organized i.e whole group, pairs, CL, individual) • Warm-Up: 1. In pairs, SS discuss questions related to people’s shopping habits (10’) 2. Students watch a segment from the film Confessions of a Shopaholic and answer some questions about the video, in pairs (15’) Quick feedback of what they have discussed (5’) • Vocabulary game: Work in pairs and match the questions with the answers, or statements (15’) • Create definitions of words and have their partners guess them (15’) Homework assigned (See Lesson plan 2) Verification (Steps to check for student understanding) • Concept Check Questions. • Pair share, peer feedback. • Walking around and monitoring students (Rubric.) • Taking notes. Summary (what has been achieved and what needs to be reinforced in future lessons) • It was my first lesson. • Students were engaged and liked the different activities. • The volume of the video was a little low, but they liked it and found it funny. • Instructions were clear, timing was a little bit difficult to manage. Speaking activity took longer than expected. • The vocabulary activity had them on task for a long time; perhaps I should have given them less sentences to match. I thought it would give me some information on the students’ previous knowledge, in order to adapt the following lessons if needed. Additional Notes The idea was using the video as a warm-up, but since they are some latecomers, I will start asking them about their shopping habits, and then I will play the video. 48# # APPENDIX II REASEARCH PROJECT !AUTHENTIC GAMES IN THE L2 CLASSROOM! 49# # # # # # Authentic games in the L2 classroom Curso 2011-2012 Máster en Profesorado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanzas de Idiomas, Artísticas y Deportiva # Authors: Beatriz Calvo Elena Chacón Catherine Dolan Mª Jesús Horno 50# # INDEX 1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...2 2. PREVIOUS LITERATURE ON GAMES………………………………….3-6 3. GAMES IN OUR SCHOOLS´ TEXTBOOKS…………………………….7-8 4. METHOD……………………………………………………....................9-12 4.1. PARTICIPANTS………………………………………………….......9-11 4.2. INSTRUMENTS………………………………………………………….12 5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………………………..…………13-18 6. CONCLUSIONS…………………………………………………..………..19-22 7. REFERENCES……………………………………………………….…………23 8. APPENDIX (SATISFACTION QUESTIONNAIRES)………………..24-41 51# # 1. INTRODUCTION In this study we will try to observe how genuine games are integrated in the L2 classroom. Firstly we will look at games in three different textbooks (New English File Intermediate, Outcomes Intermediate, and New English Alive, all published by Oxford University Press). Secondly, we will introduce “genuine games” in our teaching and analyse how they work in the Official Language School of Utebo and in Ramón y Cajal, a Secondary School in Huesca. We have chosen this topic because we consider that authentic materials should be implemented in the L2 classroom, a principle set out in the Aragonese curriculum. As for the purpose of this research, we will try to demonstrate that textbooks do not offer real games at all but role-play situations which are unreal in most cases. In addition, we believe that introducing a “genuine game” in the classroom would be a motivating experience for our students, the idea being that if they are having fun they will learn better. Finally, we will pass round a satisfaction survey among our students to collect data and reflect on the use of “genuine games” in a learning environment. We hope this experience helps us to improve future teaching and go some way to finding the value of games in the classroom. 52# # 2. PREVIOUS LITERATURE ON GAMES “You must train the children to their studies in a playful manner and without any air of constraint with the further object of discerning more readily the natural bent of their respective characters” said Plato (ca. 428 a. C. /427 a. C. – 347 a. C.). In other words, teachers must train their students in a relaxed and “close to life” atmosphere encouraging them to develop their own attitudes towards life. Following this trend, foreign language teaching has always been a source of debate. Throughout history, there have been many approaches and teaching methodologies in the study of second language acquisition. However, not all of them considered a communicative side of the target language. Nowadays, there is an increasing demand of communicating in a second language and most of the current teaching methods are based on the communicative approach. In this sense, games help teachers to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. Therefore, in the following statements we will focus on the reason why games are effective tools, the contributions that games can make, the way we can use them, at which level they can be put into practice, real games in everyday life, and how games contribute to create a good classroom atmosphere. After this first analysis, we will focus on the Communicative Approach and the Affective Filter Theory in order to support our ideas. First of all, as we mentioned above, games help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. As A. Wright (1979: 1) suggests, students want to 53# # be part of the language lesson. In this sense, games give students the opportunity to initiate the communication, in contrast to teacher-fronted lessons. This is the main contribution that games can make in the L2 classroom. It is very important to take into account how we use these games in order to make them meaningful. We agree with A.Wright (1979:3), when he states: “it is essential to choose games which are appropriate to the class in terms of language and type of participation”. This links with our beliefs on using games for specific purposes, which implies being more specific about the type of games for which aspects of language learning. For instance, games for vocabulary acquisition, fluency development or specific grammar points. After carrying out exhaustive research, we noticed that most of the articles we found referred to games to be implemented with children or Primary students. However, we implemented games with both teenagers and adults and the results were satisfactory. This goes along with Wright’s thoughts on creating games according to the students’ level. On the other hand, games benefit from small group work and the interaction between students. We base our thoughts on the use of games in the L2 classroom on two well-known theories on second language acquisition: Krashen´s Affective Filter Theory and Motivation and Communicative approach respectively. The term "affective filter" refers to the level of anxiety or frustration that a student experiences when confronted with a learning task. This anxiety may prevent a student from learning or accomplishing the learning task. If there is a high anxiety level, or high affective filter, a student may be unable to focus on learning. Under conditions that lower the affective filter, students can concentrate on the learning task and learn what is being taught. 54# # In this sense, teachers can provide “low affective filter” conditions during instructions incorporating games. One of the advantages of including games in the L2 classroom is that learners are motivated to use the language when they are in the game. Students get absorbed in the game because there is a feeling of competitiveness arising, which stimulates their interest and as a result they become willing to learn. Many teachers believe that competition should be avoided because there is always a winner and a loser. However, our experience tells us the opposite, as we will comment on in our conclusions. The use of games in the L2 classroom echoes many of the principles of another theory: the Communicative Approach. This is reflected in the use of games, because when you play a game with your students the understanding and use of the language is necessary, whereas the analysis of the language itself is not. Also, when playing a game another principle of communicative methodology arises because the teaching situation must be learner-centred. In addition, Communicative Language Teaching makes use of real-life situations that need communication. When introducing games in the classroom, the teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. In this sense, learners are often more motivated with this approach as they have an interest in what is being communicated. What is more, playing games students seem to learn new vocabulary or grammar structures quicker and better than in a usual classroom situation. 55# # 3. GAMES IN OUR SCHOOLS´ TEXTBOOKS Outcomes Intermediate, Huge Dellar and Andrew Walkey: The textbook contains sixteen lessons and eight lessons at the end which teach different styles of writing. Each lesson has a model text as well as speaking tasks to do in pairs or groups. There are lots of grammar and vocabulary exercises. As for games, there are four Review Units in which the students can only practice grammar and vocabulary of the previous four units. The first two pages of these reviews contain a board game, always the same in each Review Unit, a quiz and work on collocations and pronunciation. On the other hand, the teacher’s book offers a detailed plan of the lessons. It contains the answer key of each exercise, extra help for the teacher´ s management of the class and some tips, additional activities for early finishers and web pages for practising and revising the contents of the units. There is a complete absence of games and there are no additional activities implying cooperative work. Every activity is so guided that the teacher never has the opportunity of choosing between different options. New English File Intermediate There are some examples of games that teachers can find in New English File Intermediate. As seen, most of them are authentic games adapted to students’ levels. They are given as grammar and vocabulary revision. However, they can sometimes be used as warm-up, follow-up and even introduction of a topic or grammar point. The teacher’s book 56# # is an excellent guide for teachers but, at the same time, it gives a lot of freedom to the teacher to implement other activities. English Alive 3 and 4 Ben Wetz The textbooks contain nine units plus a starter unit and three Curriculum Extra units. Each unit is packed with activities which build from presenting the language to providing productive practice. At the end of each section there is also Practical English and either a section on Culture or a song. While there is some pair work there are no role plays or games. 57# # 4. METHOD 4.1. PARTICIPANTS The participants in this study are students in 4º E.S.O., First Intermediate and Second Intermediate Levels, from two different schools: • EOI Utebo: The EOI of Utebo is an Official Language School in a rural area of Zaragoza. It is located in a quiet area close to a bank, a theatre, a primary school and some shops. This school offers three levels (Basic, Intermediate and Advanced) of English, German and French as well as That´s English for distance learning English. It is a small school with two floors. However, every classroom is equipped with a computer with Internet access, a CD player, a projector and an interactive whiteboard. The library, apart from books, dictionaries and films, also has three computers with Internet access for the students. • IES Ramón y Cajal, Huesca: This secondary school is located very close to the centre of Huesca, and is surrounded by shops, bars and government buildings. There are just under 900 students and nearly 80 teaching staff. There are 56 immigrant students of 23 different nationalities. The school is spread between two separate buildings with 1º, 2º and 3º ESO in one and 4º ESO and Bachillerato in the other. Classes are from 8.30am until 2.30 pm and Ramón y Cajal is also the only centre in Huesca which offers afternoon/evening Bachillerato classes for older and repeating students. Almost all the ESO classrooms have an interactive whiteboard and in the library there are four computers with internet access available for students during break times. There is also internet on the computers in the computer room. There is Wifi within the school but not freely available, just for teachers who are given the password. 64# # 6. - Which feeling arises when playing genuine games in class? (Here you can choose more than one option) # Contrary to what we had thought at first, first year PAB and third year ESO students considered games to be a waste of time. Meanwhile, very few adults considered it a waste of time when they were playing games in class. In general, all of them agreed that games encourage group spirit and competitiveness. 7. - Where do you prefer playing genuine games? # 65# # We are not sure if the third year group can be taken as representative of their age, but they are largely against games in class. We have found it more interesting to compare the answers of both fourth year groups. As we can see in the graphic, group A prefers playing games both at home and in class whereas DD group mainly answer in class. This answer could be either misunderstanding the meaning of both or the vindication of games at school. It is also interesting to note that when we implemented games in our classes, we obtained the best response in 4th DD students. 8. - Were “genuine games” a worthwhile learning experience? # Despite saying that they preferred playing games at home, the third-year-ESO students overwhelmingly found games worthwhile, as did both the fourth-year groups. 66# # 9. - How often would you include “genuine games” in your English classroom? # The fourth-year diversification group, who responded better than any others in class, wanted to include games every day. Students at the EOI liked the idea of games and generally agreed they should be included regularly, perhaps once a week or once a month. 10. - Which skill do you think you practised playing “genuine games” in the classroom? (Here you can choose more than one option) # It is interesting to see the students’ perception of the skills which were practised during the games sessions. Although all the games involved spoken interaction, students felt they were practising vocabulary most. 67# # How do you feel when playing a “genuine game” in class? # This question was only asked in the First Intermediate group. Due to the fact that we adapted the questionnaire. This question appeared in the first questionnaire. However, we would like to say that most of the students felt involved when they play games in class. Important factors to consider: not all the same games were played with each group. 1st and 2nd year PAB played Pelmanism/Memory and Taboo (adapted for their level). 3rd year ESO played a selection of board games, including Scrabble and Half Minute Topics. 4th year ESO played 20 Questions in teams. 4th year Diversification played team Pictionary (adapted for their vocabulary content). 68# # 6. CONCLUSIONS The following conclusions are based on our experiences in our teaching placements, which were IES Ramón y Cajal (Huesca) and EOI Utebo (Zaragoza). Firstly, we will explain the difference we found when implementing games with our students. Secondly, we will mention some of the advantages R. Ellis states when “doing small-group work and interaction” that we can apply to games as well. Finally, we will conclude with two main proposals for future teaching. IES Ramón y Cajal Huesca vs. EOI Utebo: In the IES Ramón y Cajal, games were particularly successful with PAB and Diversification groups. These groups tend to be considered low-ability and less ‘academic’ students but by introducing games they were taken out of the usual routine and able to use different skills. We will remember this for our future teaching careers and if we find ourselves teaching these groups, we will try to use games whenever appropriate. Adult learners from EOI Utebo responded very well to games, although at the beginning we were afraid of their reactions. What is more, in general students seemed to learn new vocabulary or grammar structures quicker and better than in a usual classroom situation. 69# # As we mentioned above, R. Ellis states some advantages of working in small groups and we observed a clear relationship between his words and our teaching experience. One of these advantages is the fact that anxiety can be reduced; since games create a relaxed atmosphere and sometimes teachers need to plan some activities just for fun. Another positive aspect of group work is that group activities help students to become independent learners because each of them has a responsibility within the group and at the same time working as part of a team enables them to get to know each other. Our proposals for future teaching will mainly be the following two: “Games are not just time-filling activities, but have great educational value”: We believe that games should be treated as central, not peripheral to the foreign language teaching syllabus, as we also believe in a student-centred classroom. Probably teachers use games as time fillers, because they think they take too long to prepare and they have no time to do that. However, new technologies make it easier for us and we encourage teachers to use games for revising, introducing a new topic or even to assess their students at the end of a learning unit. 70# # “Games are also equally valid learning tools for teaching teenagers and adults, but they need to have a specific didactic purpose”: Games are more interesting than traditional language instruction. Course books rarely offer any games or ideas for real situations in the classroom, neither additional ideas for games in the teacher’s books. For classes that have motivation problems, such as PAB and Diversification, it would be beneficial to introduce a gaming situation because it will increase opportunities for learning. In the case of adults they need to know what the aims are and what they are learning when playing the game in order to appreciate the use of games in the classroom. Following these trends, our research tries to demonstrate that games have an educational value and that they can provide a meaningful context for language use. Surveys have been very useful tools to strengthen our beliefs, since they have provided us with real data of their habits and opinions about how they learn best. 71# # 7. REFERENCES Articles: - (2011) Effectiveness of using games in teaching grammar to young learners; Gülin YOLAGELDL & Arda ARIKAN. - (2011) Digital culture and Education (DCE); Hayno Reinders (Middlesex University) & Sorada Wattana (Dhurakij Pundit University). - Games to teach English learners by International Teacher Trainer Organization (Date and place not available). - Learning Vocabulary through Games; Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen & Khuat Thi Thu Nga Asian EFL Journal. December, 2003 Books: - (2001) El-Shami, Susan.: Training Games: Everything You Need to Know About Using Games to Reinforce Learning; - (1982) Wright, Andrew; Games for Language Learning. Cambridge University Press. WEBS RESOURCES: - http://teachingenglishgames.com/adults.htm - http://www.superteachertools.com/millionaire/ 72# # 8. APPENDIX (SATISFACTION QUESTIONNAIRES) 73# # 80# # 81# # 82# # 83# # 84# # 85# # 86# # 87# # 88# # 89# #