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LEARNINGUNIT. DODAIN. 1  LEARNING UNIT. MOVIES Noemí Ramo Molinero Diseño, or g anización y desarrollo de actividades para el aprendiza j e del In g lés. Master del Profesorado en Educación Secundaria. Universidad de Zaragoza. Learning Unit. Movies. 2 INDEX PAGE. Introduction Justification ……………………………………………………………….. 3 Contextualization ………………………………………………………….. 3 Organization of Learning Unit ……………………………………………. 4 Learning Unit of work Objectives ………………………………………………………………… 5 Contents …………………………………………………………………… 5 Methodology ………………………………………………………………. 6 Evaluation Criteria ……………………………………………………….... 6 Lesson plans Lesson 1 …………………………………………………………………… 7 Activities ……………………………………………………………7 Learning objectives or goals ………………………………………. 13 Expected learning outcomes ………………………………………. 13 Assessment and feedback …………………………………………. 13 Evaluation of teaching and learning process ……………………….14 Homework (if any) …………………………………………………14 Lesson 2…………………………………………………………………….15 Activities ……………………………………………………………15 Learning objectives or goals ………………………………………. 21 Expected learning outcomes ………………………………………. 21 Assessment and feedback ………………………………………… 21 Evaluation of teaching and learning process ……………………… 22 Homework (if any) …………………………………………………. 22 Lesson 3…………………………………………………………………….. 23 Activities …………………………………………………………… 23 Learning objectives or goals ……………………………………….. 27 Expected learning outcomes ……………………………………….. 27 Assessment and feedback ………………………………………….. 28 Evaluation of teaching and learning process ……………………….. 28 Conclusions ………………………………………………………………… 29 References ………………………………………………………………….. 30 Annexes …………………………………………………………………….. 31 Annex 1 …………………………………………………………… 31 Annex 2 …………………………………………………………… 37 Annex 3 …………………………………………………………… 46 Learning Unit. Movies. 3 INTRODUCTION JUSTIFICATION My monitoring teacher asked me to use Movies as the main topic of the unit since it was in her planning. This learning unit is designed for students of EOI, 1st Advanced level. I am not going to talk about key competences because in EOI they are not present, but all time it is make reference to the proper skills in languages: reading, writing, speaking and listening. My learning unit consists of three lessons, 135 minutes per lesson. I could implement the two first lessons consequently I could make an evaluation of my teaching and about the learning process. However, my lesson 3 could not be implemented, it is only an ideal unit, so I could not assess it. CONTEXTUALIZATION My learning unit was for people of the 1st advanced level in the EOI, in Utebo. There were twelve students in my class from different ages and they remained at a medium/high level. They were extremely motivated in learning English, consequently, they participated and helped me with my teaching practice. There weren´t basic competences in the curriculum, so I will not explain the contribution to the key competences. I had to use an interactive white board. I had never used this kind of tool before and it was absolutely amazing. Our teacher taught us the basis of this board for us to learn how we could design our activities using the IWB. Consequently, most of my activities which I implemented in my class were shown on the digital board. The implementation of activities is much more memorable with the use of the IWB since the input materials can be presented in many different ways, like photos, videos, Websites, texts, etc…and those can be modified instantly in class Learning Unit. Movies. 4 In the EOI, the lessons are of two hours and fifteen min, they are too long and the teacher must work very much. I could implement only two lessons, but in my learning unit I have added a third lesson with other activities which I would have liked to implement. In the EOI, the evaluation is at the end of the year so I couldn´t make an exam for my students. My tool for assessment was my last task which I asked them, a film review, which should compile all their learning of the two lessons that I implemented. My teacher gave me a useful rubric to assess the writing activity. ORGANIZATION OF LEARNING UNIT The learning unit is divided into three lessons; two of them were implemented in the EOI, while the third one could not be practiced. It is an ideal unit, which has some activities I would have like to implement with my students. The lessons are of 135 minutes. This is the duration of lessons in EOI, so we had to adapt our lessons to this time. I have developed my learning unit just in three lessons due to their length. Planning and designing of the learning unit was complicated and I had to change the sequence of the activities in order to give coherence to the lesson plan. The three lessons have activities in relation to the four skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing. Each lesson has coherence with the next one, and the activities were developing in order to acquire the knowledge, to practice and finally to produce it. The assessment of lesson 1 and 2 was made through a last task: a film review. Students should prove they learnt from the different tasks. The writing has to compile all aspects which students saw at lessons. The composition was assessed through a rubric given by our teacher in the EOI. Classroom management was important in the organization of the learning unit and in the control of the full lesson as well. The use of IWB, interactive white board was remarkable in the planning and organization of the unit, so the most activities were designed and subsequently shown on the digital board. Learning Unit. Movies. 5 LEARNING UNIT OF WORK OBJECTIVES At the end of the lessons, students will be able to…  Recognize vocabulary about cinema  Speak more specifically about cinema  make a distinction between positive and negative adjectives in relation to films  Talk about likes and dislikes  Understand accurately people talking about movies  Identify different genres of cinema  Learn the use of relative clauses  Distinguish clearly between defining and non-defining relative clauses  Improve their pronunciation /f/, /v/ and /b/  Do definitions of words related to cinema  Be able to write a good film review  Use a correct register speaking about classic cinema  Be able to read and understand properly a text about a film CONTENTS  Vocabulary about movies  Grammar: relative clauses  Pronunciation activities: /b/, /v/ and /f/  Authentic video activity  Activities( 4 skills):  Reading  Listening  Speaking  Writing METHODOLOGY Learning Unit. Movies. 6 Communicative approach was the most representative in my lessons. Oral interaction between teacher and students was present all time. Speaking English is one of the most important tasks to learn actually the language. The comfort zone is vital for students, they need to feel relaxed, and therefore, they worked in pairs or small groups. I tried to focus my tasks towards group work, so, they spoke better and felt comfortable. I tried to use English almost all the time, because in EOI students required it, but some explanations about relative clauses or even clear instructions to make tasks were in Spanish. I gave feedback to the students all time but especially at the end of the activities. At the same time, I asked feedback from students, but they did not like to speak individually in front of so much people, consequently to get feedback from them was the hardest task I did. Oral assessment is given all time in EOI, because interaction between teacher and students, and mainly, between students is always present. They preferred to talk to their partner to speak to the teacher, because as I said before they felt more comfortable. I looked for and selected a lot of materials in the Internet and from student´s books, which my teacher suggested me. I used all materials as support and subsequently I designed activities for my students. EVALUATION CRITERIA  No evaluation at the end of the lessons  Evaluation at the end o f the year  Oral assessment permanently given at class  Last task: A film review (writing)  Teacher gave us a rubric in order to assess the composition. LESSON PLANS Learning Unit. Movies. 7 LESSON 1 135 minutes aprox. Activity 1 Warm up Introduction to the topic. Brainstorm types of films. Questions: What kind of film do you like? Do you have a favorite movie or type of movie? (Genres)… Procedure Teacher directs students to the genres listed in the box and students should think of a recent film that fits into each of the categories. Timing 15´ Skills Learning Unit. Movies. 8 Speaking and listening Activity 2 Vocabulary Film poster (IWB). Procedure Teacher directs students to the photos (film poster) and gives them a minute or two to decide which film genre is shown in each photo and discuss which type of film they like/don’t like and why. Timing 10´ Skills Speaking and listening Activity 3 Learning Unit. Movies. 9 Listening activity How often do they go to the cinema? Procedure Teacher plays a cd with four people talking about their habits of cinema, likes and dislikes. And teacher gave to the students a worksheet with a box and they had to fill in the gaps with the habits of people who were talking. Students listen to the cd and fill in the gaps into the paper. (Annexes 1: Worksheet.Pg.29) Class audio CD´s. Natural English, Students´ book. Timing 12´ Skills Listening Activity 4 Adjectives. Positive or negative connotation? Procedure Teacher shows students the box in the IWB, and students have to distinguish between positive and negative adjectives. Students could think any example of film which has these features. Learning Unit. Movies. 16 Timing 15´ Skills Speaking and listening. Activity 3 Reading. The van that drove through Braveheart… (Annexes 2:Worksheets.Pg. 37.) Procedure • First stage: Before reading. (Annexes 2: Worksheets.Pg.38-39). Teacher gives to students some sentences about mistakes in films. Students have to invent new mistakes. Spoken interaction between them. • Second stage: While-reading. Teacher gives the text and students read it. In the same worksheet, students read some questions about the text. • Third stage: Students work in pairs and they have to answer the questions about the text with a partner. Learning Unit. Movies. 17 • Last stage: Students look for in the text some synonymous of some words. Timing 15-20´ Skills Reading and speaking. Activity 4 Pronunciation. Listening-speaking. Presentation of phonemes. BBC video . http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds Procedure • First stage: Teacher shows students a BBC video to introduce the phonemes /b/, /v/ and /f/, and students repeat the sounds. • Second stage: Teacher directs the students to the digital board, and students must repeat the sentences on the IWB in order to practice the sounds in context. • Third stage: Teacher explains the practice with the previous text (mistakes in films), and students should work in pairs. Student A and student B ( Annexes 2:Worksheets.Pg. 40-41). Students have to read the text to his/her mate and this one has to write down the correct letter filling the gaps in the text. Students make peer assessment. Learning Unit. Movies. 18 Timing 20´ Skills Reading and listening. Activity 5 Speaking. Let´s go to the cinema! GIVING REASONS FOR CHOICES I don´t like …, so … I (quite) like …, so … I don´t (particularly) want to … because … MAKING COMPROMISES I´ve already seen … but … so … It´s (an old film), but I like … Ok. Let´s go for that. Procedure • Students work in pairs. Students should imagine that tonight they are going to go to the cinema; they have to decide what you´d like to see this evening. Uses the words and phrases in the box to help you. • Students have to reach an agreement with his/her mate about which film they are going to watch this afternoon. • Teacher gives time and students practice spoken interaction. • Students must use the structures in the box. Timing 15´ Skills Speaking and listening Activity 6 Pre-writing. Learning Unit. Movies. 19 Correction of mistakes. “The Silence of the lambs” Procedure Students work in pairs or small groups (3 people). Teacher directs students to the text with typical mistakes which students make and they have to read it and find the mistakes. Students have to correct them and afterwards compare with his/her partner. Class assessment; students and teacher correct them together. Teacher gives a copy to students to simplify the activity.(Annexes 2: Worksheets. Pg. 42) Timing 15´ Skills Speaking and writing. Activity 7 Writing. Learning Unit. Movies. 20 A film review. Procedure Students have to think about the different parts of a film review. Teacher shows the correct structure of a film review on the digital board. Teacher gives the worksheet Write a film review (Annexes 2:Worksheets.Pg. 43). And she explains the homework. A film review. PARAGRAPH 1 Title of the film and director. Setting. PARAGRAPH 2 Plot and information about the main characters. PARAGRAPH 3 What y ou liked about the film, and an y criticisms y o u may have. PARAGRAPH 4 A summary of your opinion. A conclusion. Timing 10´ Skills Writing LEARNING OBJECTIVES Learning Unit. Movies. 21 At the end of this lesson students will: • Do definitions of words related to cinema • Know the use of relative clauses • Speak accurately about cinema • Understand perfectly a written text about cinema matters • Improve their pronunciation /f/, /v/ and /b/ • Be able to write a good film review LEARNING OUTCOMES At the end of this lesson students will: • Know new vocabulary related to cinema • Understand a text about mistakes in films • Speak about movies giving reasons for choices • Repeat the sounds /f/, /v/ and /b/ integrated in an accurate context • Be able to discriminate the sounds /f/, /v/ and /b/ • Recognize the typical mistakes in a film review • Be able to write a well-structured composition about a film ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK In EOI there is not evaluation at the end of each lesson but oral assessment is permanently given at class. Teacher corrects the students both pronunciation mistakes and grammatical ones. Teacher monitors each activity and gives feedback to students at the end of each of them. Teacher directs the activities and controls the spoken interaction between pairs or groups, it depends on the task. Teacher gives direct feedback to students and she also asks questions all time in order to get feedback from her students. Learning Unit. Movies. 22 Spoken interaction between students and among teacher and student is present at class all the time. Peer assessment is given during some activities in this lesson and student a corrects to student b (Activity 2 and 4). Class assessment is present in other activities ( 3 and 6), students can correct to their peers and they could improve theirs answers. Teacher will correct the writing activity and she will give feedback to students on their mistakes. EVALUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS The control of time was a problem again. I spent too much time with the correction of homework, and later I had to skip some activity which I have designed. During my second lesson I was quite more relax, and I gave clearer instructions for activities. Classroom management was difficult in both lessons, because I felt unable to control all the aspects in a class: correction of mistakes, pronunciation, grammar, to give feedback, to get feedback, to encourage participation… But, in general, I have to admit that my lesson was amazing and everybody took part in the activities. HOMEWORK The homework is the last task of the lesson; students had to write down a film review, they must have clear the distribution in paragraphs to write a good composition. Students had two weeks to hand in this task. (Annexes 2: Worksheets) LESSON 3 Learning Unit. Movies. 23 135 minutes aprox. (This lesson could not be implemented: ideal lesson) Activity 1 Warm up. Review of grammar. Relative clauses. Quiz. Commas and make a competition in groups. Procedure • Students work in groups (3 or 4 people) and teacher gives a set of questions (Annexes 3: Worksheets.Pg.44) to each group. Teacher explains the game, a competition in groups. • Students write down commas where it is necessary. • Students correct themselves commas or ok. • Students complete the quiz with different answers which can confuse their mates. • One group asks questions to the next group and the group who has a higher punctuation wins. Timing 10-15´ Skills Speaking, listening Activity 2 Pre-listening. Horror films. Vocabulary: Adjectives. Procedure • First stage: Teacher gives students a worksheet (Annexes 3: Worksheets.Pg.45) with some words related to horror films. Students have to make a definition for these words. Students work individually. Learning Unit. Movies. 24 • Second stage: Teacher gives them another copy (Annexes 3: Worksheets.Pg.45), now with some definitions and students should match the definitions to the words given before. Students work individually. • Third stage: Class assessment. Teacher and students comment on the different definitions. Questions and feedback. Timing 15´ Skills Speaking and listening Activity 3 Listening. Horror films. http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/i-wanna-talk-about/horror-films Procedure • Teacher plays the audio file and students listen to it. Then students make the task to check the comprehension. • Teacher plays the audio file twice or three times if necessary, and for the last time teacher gives the transcript (Annexes 3: Worksheets.Pg.46) to read it while they are listening to. • Afterwards, teacher gives a copy (Annexes 3: Worksheets.Pg.47) with some true-false sentences, and students have to write down the correct answer. • In the same paper students have some questions (Annexes 3: Worksheets.Pg.47) to discuss with a classmate. They work in pairs. Timing 30´ Skills Learning Unit. Movies. 25 Listening and speaking Activity 4 Pronunciation. Chinese whispers. Procedure Teacher divides the class into two lines, and she gives a sentence of a film to each line, students have to whisper the sentence to his/her mate who is behind him/her and go on. The line which ends before is the winner, and they have to say which the sentence is. Timing 10´ Skills Speaking and listening Sentences for Chinese Whispers: Activity 5 Reading “Casablanca” Learning Unit. Movies. 32 “Moulin Rouge” REVIEW A One of the most spectacular and original films you’re likely to see is “Moulin Rouge”. A tremendously fast and crazy musical with great performances and stunning camera work, it has romance, comedy and tragedy all in one. Set in Paris at the turn of the last century, “Moulin Rouge” tells the story of Christian ( Ewan McGregor), a penniless writer who arrives at the infamous Moulin Rouge nightclub, Christian is contracted to write a musical show for the club and begins an affair with Satine ( Nicole Kidman) who, incidentally, has been trained never to fall in love. Although the plot is nothing special, Kidman and Mcgregor are stunning in their roles and both surprisingly good singers. The film was shot in studios in Australia but you would never know it. The sets, costume and make-up are absolutely fabulous, creating an amazing fantasy world. Brilliantly directed by Baz Luhrmann and filmed at an extraordinary rhythm, “Moulin Rouge” is so original, it has divided audiences around the world. But whatever your verdict, it will surely be remembered as a truly unique musical. If you love pop music and a good old love story, don’t miss it! READING B Learning Unit. Movies. 33 “Moulin Rouge” REVIEW B Is it a musical, a comedy or a tragedy? Who can say? It’s hard to know what to make of “Moulin Rouge”. Directed by ex MTV video director Baz Luhrmann and set in Paris in 1899, it tells a typical story of impossible love between a poor writer (Ewan McGregor) and a sexy singer and dancer ( Nicole Kidman) who works in Montmartre’s famed nightclub Moulin Rouge. The plot is extremely disappointing and, though the Eiffel Tower appears in the background, the action of the film takes place in a series of Twentieth Century Fox studios in Australia, which gives the whole film a very artificial quality. Its fast rhythm is original but it doesn’t suit a 90-minute film and, in the end, it gets quite boring. The film’s saving grace are the performances themselves. Kidman has excellent presence and an extremely clear voice, and McGregor manages very well with some difficult songs. And if you like your pop, you’ll enjoy hearing Nirvana, Madonna and Elton John in this unusual context. In fact, the songs themselves tell the story. If Luhrmann had not been so concerned with the visuals, special effects and soundtrack, he could have written a more interesting story with some real emotion or human feeling. As it is, “Moulin Rouge” is only an empty, superficial and simplistic love story looks great but is instantly forgettable. RELATIVE CLAUSES, DEFINING AND NONDEFINING Learning Unit. Movies. 34 A.- COMPLETE THESE SENTENCES WITH A SUITABLE RELATIVE PRONOUN OR ADVERB 1. That is the man ________ helped me when I fell down in the street. 2. Is that your car? No, mine is the one ________ is parked just opposite the bank. 3. That is the woman ___________ complained about the room service. 4. This is the park _________ we first met. Do you remember? 5. So, James is the man __________ son came on the school trip with us? I din't know. 6. If you have any question, ask the girl ________ is standing at the desk. She'll help you. 7. They had to put away the dog __________ bit the boy. It was too dangerous. 8. I'm looking for a person ____________ surname begins with a "k". 9. Do you still go to that pub ____________ we used to go as students? 10. The heating is not working. Do you know anyone __________ can fix it? B.- JOIN THESE SENTENCES USING RELATIVE PRONOUNS BEGINNING WITH THE WORDS GIVEN. OMIT THE PRONOUN IF POSSIBLE. 1. The girl is my sister. I'm talking to the girl. The girl ______________________ is my sister. 2. This is the chair. The carpenter repaired it last week. This is the chair _______________________ 3. She is married to a man. He is richer than her. She is married to a man ______________________ 4. She is the friend. She helped me with my homework. She is the friendo ______________________ 5. That is the swimming-pool. I used to go swimming there. That is the swimmingpool ________________________________ 6. That is the man. His wife is a famous actress. This is the man ____________________________ 7. A doctor examined me last Friday. He was really kind. The doctor ______________________ was really kind. Learning Unit. Movies. 35 8. The woman called the police. Her car had been stolen. The woman _______________________ called the police. 9. I went to a restaurant last week. It was very expensive. The restaurant ________________________ was very expensive. 10. I saw a film last night. It was very interesting. The film _______________________ was very interesting. C.- ARE THESE RELATIVE CLAUSES DEFINING OR NON-DEFINING? 1. London, which is the capital of England, is one of the largest cities in the world. 2. This is the dress my mother has made for me. 3. Queen Elizabeth II, who is 83, has been the queen of England for 57 years now. 4. That's the dog that bit me. 5. Tom Cruise, who has starred a lot of films, is a famous American actor. 6. The village where I grew up is very small. 7. Greg, whose job involves travelling a lot, has been in nearly all the countries in the world. 8. The office I have just rented is near my home. 9. This is the officer that arrested the burglar. 10. Lady Gaga, who is a well-known pop star, is only 24 years old. D.- CHOOSE THE RIGHT RELATIVE PRONOUN TO COMPLETE THESE SENTENCES. 1. Jim, __________ I've known for years, is my best friend. 2. My new coat, _________ I bought in New York, is very warm and comfortable. 3. My boss, ___________ wife is French, travels to Paris regularly. 4. He didn't even say "thank you", ________ I found really rude. 5. Next summer I'm going to India, ___________ I've never been before. 6. My sister, ___________ is five years younger than me, is a lawyer. Learning Unit. Movies. 36 7. Galileo Galilei, _________ suppported the heliocentric theory, was arrested by the Inquisition. E.- JOIN THESE SENTENCES USING RELATIVE PRONOUNS BEGINNING WITH THE WORDS GIVEN. OMIT THE PRONOUN IF POSSIBLE. ADD COMMAS IF NECESSARY. 1. My school is very big. It is in Madrid. My school ____________________ is very big. 2. Robert Pattinson is an actor. He plays Edward Cullen in the Twilight saga. Robert Pattinson is ___________________________. 3. Robert Pattinson is a British actor. He plays Edward Cullen in the Twilight saga. Robert Pattinson __________________________ is a British actor. 4. I bought this cake yesterday. It tastes delicious. The cake ___________________ tastes delicious. 5. Michael is a policeman. His father is a judge. Michael _________________ is a policeman. 6. I bought a computer last month. It doesn't work properly. The computer ___________________ doesn't work properly. 7. Prince Charles will be the king of England one day. His mother is Queen Elizabeth. Prince Charles __________________ will be the king of England one day. 8. I was given a dog. It is very friendly. The dog ____________ is very friendly. 9. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain. I enjoyed it a lot. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ____________________ was written by Mark Twain. ANNEX 2. WORKSHEETS FOR LESSON 2. THEATER AND CINEMA Learning Unit. Movies. 37 STUDENT A: You have the words across and your partner down words. Define the words you have in your crossword to help your partner to complete his/her gaps. Your partner MUSN´T SEE your paper!!! . THEATER AND CINEMA STUDENT B: Learning Unit. Movies. 38 You have the words down and your partner across words. Define the words you have in your crossword to help your partner to complete his/her gaps. Your partner MUSN´T SEE your paper!!! Learning Unit. Movies. 39 Learning Unit. Movies. 40 READING. Before reading. 1. Sometimes mistakes occur in films. Work in pairs and predict the possible mistakes in these scenes. 1. In one scene, a blue car´s chasing a taxi; in the next shot ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________ 2. In a film set in the thirteenth century, you see that an actor´s wearing ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________ 3. In one scene, an actor dies; in the next shot you see ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Learning Unit. Movies. 41 After reading. 1. Read the article opposite and answer the questions with a partner. • Why did Jon Sandys create this list? • Find two examples of mistakes: a. to do with time/chronology. b. to do with clothing. c. made by the actors themselves. 2. Discuss these questions: • Which mistakes are the worst/most embarrassing? • Which aren´t important? • Would you visit this website? 3. Read the first three paragraphs of the article again. Find synonyms for these words. Film fans mistakes (2) compiled ruin Learning Unit. Movies. 48 Horror films Pre-listening. Vocabulary: Give a definition for the next words: On my own hurricane supplies tense loads of surrounded by Gory trapped hardware store special effects scary Match these definitions to the words in the previous activity: • Alone, with nobody else: • Unusual pieces of film action created with particular equipment: • Frightening: • A lot of (informal): • Food or other things necessary for living: • Shop selling materials and equipment for the house or garden: • Unable to move or escape from a place: • A film in which people, in particular young women, are killed very violently with knives: • Involving blood and violence: • Filled with suspense: • Something which is very bad and evil: • A dead person who has been brought back to life: Learning Unit. Movies. 49 • A tropical cyclone with very strong wind which occurs especially in western Atlantic: Horror films TRANSCRIPT I want to talk about horror films and why I like them and what my favourite types are. When I was young, I watched the classic horror films like 'Nightmare On Elms Street' and 'Friday The 13th'. My mum told me that when I was about six, she came downstairs in the middle of the night because there was a noise, and it was me watching 'The Omen' on TV in the dark on my own. So I guess I've always liked horror films. I really like what I called 'slasher films' - the really gory, bloody, violent films like 'Final Destination' and 'The Hills Have Eyes'. I just find them quite funny and I like the special effects. I don't really find them scary at all. I think the scariest sort of films are the ones that are very tense, like Hitchcock films. I think the scariest one for me is 'The Birds' because it's just very sinister the way that the birds come and sit and look at the people. And you know that it's going to be really bad very soon. But I think my favourite ... favourite sort of horror films are zombie movies. I've watched loads of zombie movies and I really like them. Again I don't really think they are very scary. 'Dawn Of The Dead' is my absolute favourite horror film I think. It's a film where people just wake up one morning and there are zombies everywhere. If a zombie bites you, you turn into a zombie. And the survivors end up in a shopping mall in a shopping centre and they are surrounded by zombies. And it does not have a happy ending. There is a British comedy horror film called 'Shaun Of The Dead' which is a bit of a joke on the idea of the 'Dawn Of The Dead' which is also really great. The most recent one I watched was a New Zealand film called 'Black Sheep' which is about zombie sheep. That was pretty funny as well. The most recent horror film I watched was on a plane last time I went back to the UK. It was a Stephen King film based on a Stephen King book - I think a short story. And it was called 'The Mist'. It was about people who lived in a small town in America and there was a hurricane, or typhoon as we call them here. And after the typhoon, they wanted to go into town to get some supplies to fix up the house. And it started to get misty or foggy. It was quite a strange mist - it didn't look normal. And these people ended up in a hardware store in the town all trapped together because there were sort of Learning Unit. Movies. 50 monsters in the mist - these unrealistic giant creatures that were in the mist that were killing people. There was quite a lot of blood and guts and people died in horrible ways which is what I like about horror films. I would recommend it if you like horror films as much as I do. True or false: 1. The writer has liked horror films since she was a child. 2. She finds all horror films amusing rather than frightening. 3. One zombie film she mentions does not end well. 4. Not all zombie films are supposed to be taken seriously 5. “The Mist” was based on a real incident in a small town in the UK. 6. The writer wasn´t convinced by the monsters in “The Mist”. Discussion Why do you think people enjoy watching horror films? What is your favourite film genre (e.g. action, comedy, drama, horror)? Why do you like that particular genre? Have you watched any of Alfred Hitchcock’s films? Do you think there are any differences between psychological thrillers and horror films? What do you think of this listening activity? Login and send us your own texts or your opinions and comments below. Learning Unit. Movies. 51 o Read the plot of Casablanca and decide where these adjectives and adverbs can go. (Many can go in more than one position). Brave deeply exotic extremely finally Gripping passionate precious reluctantly Casablanca is a thriller and a love story with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The film takes place during the Second World War in Casablanca, a city in Morroco. Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, owns Rick´s café which is a centre for war refugees who are waiting for visas to escape to America. Rick discovers that that his former love, Ilsa Lund, played by Ingrid Bergman, is now married to a Resistance worker, Victor Laszlo, whom he is helping to escape. With the enemy on their trail, Ilsa comes to Casablanca to collect the visas which will allow Laszlo to escape and continue his fight for freedom. To her surprise, she finds Rick there. Rick is still in love with Ilsa, but he decides to help the couple escape. It´s full of romance, intrigue, and suspense and it´s well-filmed. My favourite scene is at the end of the film, at the airport where Rick and Ilsa have to say goodbye and she leaves with her husband on a plane just before the enemy arrives. Learning Unit. Movies. 52 EIDIEI EVALUACIÓN E INNOVACIÓN DOCENTE E INVESTIGACIÓN EDUCATIVA EN EL ÁMBITO DE LA ESPECIALIDAD DE INGLÉS Maite Imas Raúl Martínez Noemí Ramo RESEARCH: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. Máster Universitario en Profesorado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanzas de Idiomas, Artísticas y Deportivas UNIVERSIDAD DE ZARAGOZA 2 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. CONTENTS Justification and context for the research Page 3 Scholars´ theories on the topic Page 4 Conclusions drawn from the theoretical approach Page 8 The questionnaire Page 9 Conclusions drawn from the questionnaire Page 12 The interview Page 12 Conclusions drawn from the interview Page 13 General conclusions Page 14 What next: possible continuations to our research Page 14 Our experience Page 15 Annex 1: the questionnaire Page 16 Annex 2: data collection tool Page 20 3 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. JUSTIFICATION We decided to work together as researchers because during our first Practicum we felt very good as colleges. We had a lot of talks and one of our interests was the apparent fail on pronunciation progress that the students from Advanced levels suffered. Our training teacher showed also her concern about this. The opportunity came to us when we were asked to prepare a research about any aspect of learning or teaching. We all agreed to choose Fossilization on Pronunciation, as it interested us even before the Observation period. Because of the lack of time, it was impossible to arrange an in-depth research; therefore, we can consider this work as an introduction or first step for a more exhaustive research. Our modest aim determined the procedure of the project and we did generalisations to find out some conclusions, still we know that it needs intensive work to become more rigorous and useful. Observers need to realise that the samples of data brought form the classroom are inevitably limited, and that sweeping generalisations should be avoided. We need to talk about what happened in the lesson (a particular observed lesson), and refrain from making the unwarranted leap to what happens in lessons (generally).1 CONTEXT We covered three main aspects: scholars’ thoughts and theories, the student´s perception on their knowledge and the teacher´s perception. ¾ It was difficult to find specific theory on pronunciation; most of the theories are focused on fossilization in general, or concerning grammar, morphology, syntax.... ¾ The tool we used for the student´s perception was a questionnaire designed by us. ¾ We had a lot of conversations with the teacher, but a specific interview about the topic was done to record the answers. The group of students we worked with were the two Advanced II levels from the E.O.I. Utebo on 2011/2012 English course, a total of 41 students. 1 Wajnryb, Ruth. Classroom Observation Tasks. A resource book for language teachers and trainers. Cambridge: CUP, 1992. Cambridge Teacher Training and Development. p. 19 4 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. SCHOLARS´ THEORIES THE CONCEPT The term fossilization comes from Selinker (1972) who described it as a moment in the acquisition of a L2 (second language) beyond which it becomes difficult for learners to improve without additional effort. “Fossilizable linguistic phenomena are linguistic items, rules, and subsystems which speakers of a particular native language will tend to keep in their interlanguage relative to a particular target language, no matter what the age of the learner or amount of explanation or instruction he receives in the target language”2 Selinker realized that many L2 learners (as high as 95%) fail to achieve TL (target language) competences as they had a level of proficiency they felt comfortable with. Fossilization can occur in every aspects of the language simultaneously or more strongly in one than in others; that is the case of our students in Utebo and their pronunciation, similar to “Joseph Conrad phenomenon”: Their [adults] apparent inability to attain nativelike proficiency in pronunciation has often intrigued linguist and nonlinguists alike. Scovel (1969, 1988) terms this lack of adult facility in acquiring second language pronunciation the “Joseph Conrad phenomenon” after the famous Polish-born author who, despite the brilliant control of the lexis, syntax, and morphology of English displayed in his literary works, was unable to reach anywhere near the same levels of perfection in his acquisition of English phonology. 3 We have to say that this concept of fossilization is closely related with Interlanguage: a stage during acquiring TL while a L2 learner creates a linguistic system that is different from both the NL (native language) and the TL. (Selinker 1972) [...] learners in their empirical studies often produced structures that were neither of the NL nor of the TL.4 It is also important to see how Selinker considers IL competences to be of three types: fossilised, functional and transitional. Fossilised refers to the stage described above; Functional refers to the idea that a L2 learner only gain the knowledge needed for an specific purpose; and Transitional (Corder 1981)5 represents learner´s `underlying knowledge of the language to date´ that makes process concern become knowledge concern. CAUSES 2 Selinker, L., Interlanguage , IRAL; International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 10:3 (1972) p. 215 (online: http://es.scribd.com/doc/88547455/Selinker-Interlanguage#download) 3 Celce-Murcia, Marianne. M. Brinton, Donna. M. Goodwin, Janet. Teaching Pronunciation. A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Research on the Teaching and Acquisition of pronunciation Skills. Cambridge: CUP, 1996. 4 Selinker, L. “On the notion ´IL Comptence´ in early SLA research: an aid to understanding some baffling current issues”; Brown, G. Malmkjær, K. Williams, J. Performance & Competence in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: CUP, 1996. p. 97 5 Coder, S. P. Error Analysis and Interlanguage. Oxford: OUP, 1981 5 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. There are many things to take into account and that influences the acquisition of pronunciation. Teaching of pronunciation “is not exclusively a linguistic matter,” and we need to take into consideration such factors as our learners´ ages, exposure to the target language, amount and type of prior pronunciation instruction, and perhaps most importantly their attitude toward the target language and their motivation to achieve intelligible speech patterns in the second language.6 Consequently, there could be many causes for learners to get fossilized and stop their progress. Pennington (1994) describes three barriers to pronunciation improvement: physiological, psychological and sociocultural. 7 PSYCHOLOGICAL One psychological point is related with the concept of transfer and the Contrastive Analysis, which was used to explain why some items of a TL are easier than others to learners. The L2 is acquired through the learners´ L1 that facilitates the process in some cases and it interferes in other. Scholars recognise that transfer is more frequent in pronunciation: There is widespread recognition that transfer is more pronounced at the level of the sound system than at the level of syntax. The existence of “foreign accents” in L2 learning is so well attested that it hardly requires documenting. In general, native speakers have little difficulty in distinguishing the language background of different learners. [...]8 Spanish learners of English have this problem of using Spanish phonemes to pronounce English words; this transfer has also relation with comfort. The problem of student comfort is another cause of fossilization. Easier things become more frequent and so then they stayed as a rule. That is what it happens with “Spanish-like” pronunciation for Spanish students of English. [...] the existence of avoidance one has to show that second language learners, given a particular task, are using a particular word or structure they find difficult with a significantly lower frequency than native speakers performing the same task.9 6 Celce-Murcia, Marianne. M. Brinton, Donna. M. Goodwin, Janet. Teaching Pronunciation. A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Research on the Teaching and Acquisition of pronunciation Skills. Cambridge: CUP, 1996. p. 14 7 Ibid. 8 Ellis, R. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: OUP, 1994. Oxford Applied Linguistics. p. 316 9 Celce-Murcia, Marianne. M. Brinton, Donna. M. Goodwin, Janet. Teaching Pronunciation. A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Research on the Teaching and Acquisition of pronunciation Skills. Cambridge: CUP, 1996. 12 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE As it was already mentioned, the conclusions we extract from the questionnaire are to be contrasted with those of the interview, anyway, there are some ideas we would like to present: 1. The comfort areas for the students are grammar and written skills, with listening in a middle position and speaking and pronunciation, clearly, as the most unmanageable parts of their learning. 2. Only a 30% of students regard themselves as competent in oral English. Definitely, it is a surprisingly low number of students. The reasons for this low percentage are not a too big number of students in class or a low number of communicative activities but a mix of personal circumstances (shyness, difficulty, etc…) 3. The students are very reluctant towards individual speaking tasks. They tend to avoid any kind of individual exposure to the rest of the class. 4. Only 3 students out of 57 declare themselves competent in pronunciation. This figure is absolutely clear about the level of proficiency the learners have and feel they have. 5. 85% of the students know just a few or none of the phonetic symbols. This figure could be considered important as a possible reason for pronunciation difficulties among advanced level students. 6. Surprisingly enough, isolated sounds bear almost no difficulties for them. The marks given to clusters, fricatives or other sounds are quite low, showing no signs of being so demanding for them. Is this a fossilization feature? Which is the grade of awareness of the class? THE INTERVIEW TO THE TEACHER We had uncountable interviews with our monitoring teacher during the practicum period. She taught us many different aspects to be competent teachers. And, one of these interviews was about the topic which developed our research: Fossilization. We felt extremely interested on this topic, and our teacher´s point of view was very relevant for us, because she knows perfectly her students, and furthermore we wanted to know her solid opinion about fossilization. She was not affected by personal issues or unawareness. The main aim of this interview was to contrast her ideas to those of the students, so we had the students´ opinion, but we needed a point of reference more realistic, professional and largely awareness. We carried out an interesting interview with our teacher, and we have made a transcription from the questions: 1. What rhythm is carried out by students in advanced levels? Do you feel OK about their progress in learning English? Is there a considerable improvement in order to get their certificate? 13 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. 2. Students´ marks are significantly related to their real level? What do you think as their teacher? 3. Where do students feel more comfortable: speaking, writing, grammar…? Which is their comfort zone? Has their comfort zone changed in advanced levels? 4. From your point of view, which is the most difficult skill for students? Are they progressing in their most difficult skills as quick as you would like? 5. Do you feel that your students are competent in oral English? Could their pronunciation affect their level of spoken English to be understood in a foreign country? 6. Are your students fossilized in the same mistakes related to pronunciation? 7. How do you focus your pronunciation activities? 8. Regarding pronunciation; what do you think is more difficult for them? Consonants, vowels or clusters…? 9. Are they aware of their own mistakes? Are realistic enough to know their level of fossilization? 10. Do they try to imitate English intonation? 11. Could students improve their pronunciation? What should they do for improving their pronunciation? From your point of view, is there any key? CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE INTERVIEW The answers of our monitoring teacher allowed us to get to the following conclusions:  Students remarkably improve in the basic levels, when their process of learning is extremely effective. Improvement is much slower in advanced levels.  Their comfort zone is doing Reading activities, but they prefer to speak. They especially enjoy it.  Speaking and listening activities are the hardest tasks for them.  As far as pronunciation is concerned, many of them are totally fossilized, there would have an endless list of mistakes. Mainly: cluster sounds, the final /–ed/ in past tense, “could” and “would”, intonation, word stress …  The reasons for this low level of pronunciation are too many: shyness, they don´t have a good ear for languages, comfort, their mistakes are always the same and they become a `habit´ for them…  She makes an attempt to disguise the pronunciation activities by correcting mistakes in exercises, but in some cases she does effective pronunciation activities in order to make the students aware of their own mistakes. 14 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English.  Students are not aware of their fossilization level. The main problem is that they don´t know the correct pronunciation of many words.  The teacher must always give a good model of pronunciation to the learners. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS After contrasting the conclusions drawn both from the questionnaire made to 41 advanced students and the interview made to their teacher, some general conclusions can be stated: 1. Students regard speaking and pronunciation as tough tasks. 2. They do not feel competent in oral English or, more specifically, in pronunciation, but are not aware of their mistakes. 3. Their learning rhythm is now slower than in previous levels. Fossilization is clearly present 4. The reasons for their problems are personal and very varied. 5. The teacher´s efforts do not seem to be enough. 6. The teacher´s role is very important as a model. WHAT NEXT: POSSIBLE CONTINUATIONS OF THIS RESEARCH Fossilization is a wide topic. We would like to have more time to develop this area, because it made a profound curiosity on us. After making this research, we have found several topics to discuss and different questions in order to develop next researches.  Is fossilization also present in other levels of the School?  Is fossilization also present in other Official Schools?  Are teachers of the different levels of EOI´s devoting enough time to pronunciation?  The knowledge of phonetic symbols is basic for a good pronunciation level?  Is pronunciation well taught in Official Schools? 15 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. OUR EXPERIENCE The experience of carrying out a research has provided us with some interesting ideas:  Students take their teacher as a model of learning.  A good teacher should be competent.  Fossilization is a curious topic, we have learnt a lot about our problems with pronunciation with this project.  To know the subjective opinion from students was very interesting and encouraging in our work as researchers.  Working in group has been a nice experience, because each of us contributed positively to the project. 16 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. ANNEX 1 QUESTIONNAIRE 1- Which are the reasons why you are studying English? (you can tick more than one) Certification Learn Academic English Learn English for Communication Socialize 2- How is your learning rhythm in the advanced level? Faster than intermediate level Just the same Slower the intermediate level 3- Where do you feel more comfortable? Mark 1-5 (1 is very uncomfortable, 5 is very comfortable) Grammar Vocabulary Speaking Pronunciation Reading Writing Listening 4- Which is the most difficult task for you? Mark 1-5 (1 is very difficult, 5 is very easy) Grammar Vocabulary Speaking Pronunciation Reading Writing Listening 5- Is your learning of English for communication going as quick as you want? Yes No I feel I do not improve at all 6- Do you feel competent in oral English? Yes No Sometimes, in familiar situations 7- If not, the reason is (you can tick more than one): I am not good at speaking My pronunciation is not good enough 17 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. I am shy My ears are made of wood We pay too much attention to grammar The classes are not communicative enough Too many students in class for communication Other reasons…………………………………………………………………………… 8- Do you like communicative activities in class? Yes, I always participate No, I feel awkward They are OK, but prefer other tasks 9- So you think they are: Fewer than needed More than needed Just fine 10- Which are your favorite activities? (again, you can tick more than one) Listening to dialogues, descriptions, etc… Listening to songs Role-play speaking activities Individual speaking tasks Group work for searching information Pronunciation practice Other…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11- Regarding pronunciation, do you feel? Very competent An average learner Not very good I cannot make myself understood 12- Do you know the phonetic symbols? Of course! Almost all of them Not too many Ups! 13- What do you think is more difficult? Pronunciation of vowels Pronunciation of consonants Both 14- Grade from one to five the difficulty of the underlined sounds: (1 is easy, 5 is very difficult) Fire Better Spain Listen 18 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. John Work Wars Bottle Shoes Beer Vision Garden Others……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 15- Grade from one to five the difficulty of the following features: (1 is easy, 5 is very difficult) Linking sounds (words pronounced `together´) Word stress (where stress falls) Stress of prefixes and suffixes Pronunciation of contracted forms (These´re mine) 16- Do you try to imitate English intonation? Always, I feel comfortable doing it Only if I have heard someone saying the sentence before I tend to speak English with my Spanish intonation I speak Spanish with English words. 17- Do you think intonation affects your level of spoken English? Yes indeed Only sometimes Almost never Never 18- Do you think that learning pronunciation and intonation is important? Yes. I want to be correctly understood every time. It is important only if you make big mistakes It is not as important as other skills like reading or writing It is not important at all 19- Do you think you are improving your pronunciation skills? I Improve a lot I improve little by little I feel I don´t improve much I don´t improve at all. 20- What would you like to do in class for improving your pronunciation? Monographic lessons 19 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. Watch more videos What we are doing is just fine We do too many pronunciation exercises Other………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 21- Do you practice English outside the school? (You can tick more than one option). I watch TV in English I read English novels or magazines I have some English speaker friends I do nothing 22- Can you think of any measure to improve your learning of pronunciation in English outside your school? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23- Give us your impressions regarding pronunciation: how you feel, what you find more difficult, what you like most, etc… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………… 20 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English. ANNEX2: DATA COLLECTION TOOL We used an Excel data base for collecting and studying the answers to the questionnaire. We include an example: 8- Do you like communicative activities in class? Yes No I prefer other tasks Answers 28 5 8 41 Percentages 68,29% 12,20% 19,51% 100,00% 9-they are fewer more than fine Answers 10 2 29 41 Percentages 24,39% 4,88% 70,73% 100,00% 10- favorite activities dialogues songs role play individual sp group work answers 26 24 23 4 16 percentages 23,64% 21,82% 20,91% 3,64% 14,55% 11- Regarding pronunciation, you feel: very competent average not very good lost case answers 3 19 16 4 42 percentages 7,14% 45,24% 38,10% 9,52% 100,00% 12- know phonetic symbols yes almost all not too many none answers 1 5 28 7 41 percentages 2,44% 12,20% 68,29% 17,07% 100,00% 13- what is more difficult for you: vowels consonants both answers 11 8 22 41 percentages 26,83% 19,51% 53,66% 100,00% 21 EIDIEI • Research: Fossilization in Pronunciation in Advance levels of English.