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Increasing Awareness and Talk Time through Free Messaging Apps

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Shampa Iftakhar:
Consciousness-raising is in effect a form of self-monitoring that gives the learner the opportunity to pay attention to his or her utterances in the style of a review. The premise is that in order for language acquisition to take place, attention must be paid to a specific item or language feature. However, Ellis (2008) draws on the Noticing Hypothesis to conclude that noticing can be of assistance only if it is done consciously—and actively. This suggests that learners may need explicit coaching in how to perform such tasks in order for them to be effective.

Guided coaching in the art of noticing can be as simple as delayed corrective feedback, where the teacher monitors students’ production during class and makes note of utterances that are in need of correction. In the feedback stage of class, the teacher puts a selection of correct and incorrect utterances on the board and asks students to make suggestions on how they should be corrected, if at all. In this manner, students effectively take charge of their own learning via a form of noticing and consciousness-raising.

Delayed corrective feedback is a common and easily implemented technique, and it provides learners with concrete examples of how their own utterances may be monitored in a conscious manner. The by-product of coupling consciousness-raising and noticing with self-recorded learner production is that learner autonomy is drawn into the equation. For if the learners are made aware that they are able to “check” their utterances after the fact, they are able to continue their language journey beyond the gaze of their teacher—where responsible and autonomous learners become more equipped to take control of the language (Scharle and Szabo 2000).
- See more at: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-1#child-1880

Shampa Iftakhar:
Activities for free messaging apps and smartphone tasks
Over the course of several years, I have experimented with smartphones and free messaging apps with my students. These activities have ranged from simple text-messaging and group-chat tasks to the more complex simultaneous interpretation and translation. It would appear that the opportunities are endless, provided that sound pedagogical choices are made.

Three of the most successful and easily implemented activities are (1) Spoken Response, (2) Picture Prompt, and (3) Transcription, Consciousness-Raising, and Noticing.
- See more at: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-1#child-1880

Shampa Iftakhar:
Spoken Response activity
Having students practice speaking outside the classroom is an activity that is difficult to monitor. However, through the use of a messaging app that allows for recording to take place, the monitoring bridge can be crossed. The basic procedure is to assign students a topic or a question that they must respond to with a predetermined amount of detail, or provide a response that fills a predetermined time limit. I have found two to three minutes to be an optimal length, as this pushes students to talk about their subject in deeper detail than what might be required in a basic response. (For an abbreviated description, see Pollard 2014.)

Topics assigned to the students typically align with the overarching syllabus of the course—either thematic alignment or grammatical alignment, or a combination of the two (Widdowson 1990). For instance, with an elementary-level class that has a proficiency level equivalent to A2 of the Common European Framework (Council of Europe 2001), topics that satisfy grammatical alignment of the syllabus will make use of structures that are presented during the course.
- See more at: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-1#child-1880

Shampa Iftakhar:
Suppose one unit covers the thematic area of vacation and the vocabulary related to it, while another unit covers “–ed” and “–ing” adjectives. Combining these two units into a prompt as simple as “How was your vacation?”will push the students to be creative and descriptive in their responses, as they must meet the two- to three-minute response requirement. An additional example may combine, for instance, present perfect tense with superlatives and result in a prompt such as “What is the most memorable thing you have done?”It should be noted that it is not necessary to combine the foci of multiple units into one Spoken Response assignment if you do not feel it is needed. An example where the focus needs little adaption is with “used to,” as the prompt “Tell me about your childhood” is often sufficient for a developed and personalized response from the student. As is the case in any of the examples listed, the topics should focus on the target structures encountered in the course while also stimulating the student to personalize and expand on the subject.

A summary of the basic steps that make up this activity follows:

    In class, the teacher writes the topic on the board—for example, “What is your most memorable experience?”
    The class then brainstorms ideas, such as “My first bicycle,” “The birth of my baby sister,” “The time I saw a fire,” and so on.
    After each student picks a subtopic, the teacher asks students to design a graphic organizer according to “Who,” “What,” “Where,” “When,” and “Why.”
    The teacher asks students to tell their story to a partner.
    For homework, students practice the story once more and then record it, using only the graphic organizer as a reference, and send the recorded story to the teacher.

- See more at: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-1#child-1880

Shampa Iftakhar:
The most important point to emphasize with this activity is that the primary objectives are communication and fluency, and not grammatical accuracy. It should be made clear to students that they must not devise a script; instead, methods such as brainstorming or noting keywords to keep their thoughts on track are encouraged. Students will often rely on a preconceived script to speak in deeper detail on a subject, so it is a sound idea to demonstrate the use of brainstorming, graphic organizers, and speaking on a topic without a script in order for students to receive the greatest benefit (West 1960). An in-class introduction to brainstorming and speaking without a script as a fluency-based activity can incorporate the 4-3-2 technique, as described by Nation (1989). The 4-3-2 technique works on the premise that a student will first speak for four minutes on a topic, followed by an attempt to convey the same information in the shorter time of three minutes; a third recitation in two minutes is the final step. Nation (1989) suggests that not only does the 4-3-2 technique affect fluency development, but it can also develop skills in relation to discourse, which is an important factor when students must speak on a single topic for two to three minutes.

The Spoken Response activity does not explicitly call for the level of repetition seen in the 4-3-2 technique, since only a single audio recording is the submission requirement. However, if you introduce the activity in this manner, it will suggest to the students that, as with the production of drafts in a written project, the spoken rehearsal prior to producing a final recording provides them with a greater return on their overall learning.
- See more at: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-1#child-1880

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