10 February 2009

English Language Officers Discuss Teaching Strategies

CO.NX webchat transcript, February 10

Damon Anderson, a regional English language officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, answered questions with Kun Herrini and Wang Ping in a February 10 webchat on strategies for teaching the English language.

Following is the transcript:

(begin transcript)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
Webchat Transcript

CO.NX CHAT: ENGLISH ROUNDTABLE:  CONFIDENCE BUILDING STRATEGIES IN THE EFL CLASSROOM

Guest:    Damon Anderson
Date:     February 10, 2009
Time:     1 a.m. EST (06:00 GMT, 14:00 Beijing)

Roundtable Moderator: Everyone, welcome to our February 2009 Roundtable Web Chat.  Please feel free to post any pre-questions now.  The chat will start in about 10 minutes.

Comment [kun herrini]:  Students are motivated in the beginning of the class. Maybe the question is how to keep the motivation high. I think teacher play very important role in maintaining the motivation.

Comment [Wang Ping]:  Hi Kun!  Nice to see you again!  I like that you link boosting motivation with confidence building.

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  Everyone, welcome to the webchat.  Kun and Ping have already begun for us.  Let's start chatting about today's topic.  Please don't be shy!!!!

Comment [kun herrini]:  Hi, Ping. I am glad I can join this chat again.

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  I think that there is a direct link between motivation, confidence and competence.

Question [Damon Anderson]:  Generally, if someone's confidence is high and they are willing to make the attempt to use the language, then they will learn faster from their mistakes and become much more competent.

Do you think that there is too much emphasis put on accuracy in the early stages of learning a language?  Should teachers be more tolerant of mistakes?

Answer [Wang Ping]:  Before we move on to suggest some ways to help students become more confident, we could examine the factors that hinders them to express themselves, i.e. things that discourages them.

Comment [kun herrini]:  Once I attended Jeremy Harmer workshop, and he raised 5 As as keys to maintain motivation. All related to motivation, confidence and competence. They are Activity, Affect, Attitude, Agency, Adaptation

Webchat Moderator [Mark]:  Hi everyone, I'm going to increase the size of this webchat Pod...just one moment.

Answer [Damon Anderson]:  Those are great things to look at and consider, Kun.  Maybe we could explore them more.  Perhaps those are areas where we focus incorrectly and cause our students to lose motivation and confidence.

Comment [Wang Ping]:  I agree Damon.  When teachers tend to stress too much on form and accuracy, students will more likely be distracted from expressing their ideas and thoughts, which would in turn discourage their interest and motivation in learning

Webchat Moderator [Mark]:  If you are just joining us, welcome to the English Language Roundtable!

Q [Damon Anderson]:  Do you think that this lack of confidence is a cultural factor, or one due to the teacher's approach or methods?

A [Wang Ping]:  Only when students feel some control in what they're practicing and doing in class, will they feel more confident and comfortable to share with their peers and teachers.

Comment [kun herrini]:  Yes, Damon. Inside the 5 As, there are factors of how teachers should plan the lesson, approach materials, mistakes, and give confidence to students.

Webchat Moderator [Mark]:  I realize the PowerPoint slide is tiny...I will add a toggle button for "Full Screen".  Just one moment please, I will need to play with the PPT slide for a few seconds.

Comment [Lekhanh]: hi

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  Welcome, Lekhanh.  Please feel free to add to our chat.

Comment [kun herrini]:  I don't see the ppt, Mark.

Webchat Moderator [Mark]:  try now everyone...u can click the little button that says "Full Screen" to read the slide...then click the same button again to return the slide to original size.

Comment [Wang Ping]:  Thank you Mark for making the chat board more friendlier!

Q [Damon Anderson]:  Let me ask my question again: Do you think that this lack of confidence is a cultural factor, or one due to the teacher's approach or methods?

Comment [Fidelia]:  Thanks Mark. It looks great. The background is really nice. Hi everyone. Kun, can you refresh me on the 5 As?

Q [HH]:  I have students who keep thinking they are not good learners. One saying "I cannot learn, cannot express my ideas in English... I have problems in pronunciation, in grammar and word choice..." and they say that in perfect English. That student left the class after some time. I don't know how to encourage him/her

A [Damon Anderson]:  HH, this is a great point to ask.  I always tell my students that mistakes are an important part of learning.  If they make mistakes, I can help them.  I try to encourage them to just try and not be afraid of mistakes.

Comment [Wang Ping]:  Damon, I think it's both.  And I would also add personality factor, one's own personal traits may also make a difference.

Comment [kun herrini]:  Damon, I think it can be both cultural and teachers' approach.

Comment [kun herrini]:  Fidelia, the 5 As are: Activity, Affect, Attitude, Agency, Adaptation

A [Damon Anderson]:  I think the focus in Asia on tests forces people to focus all the time on accuracy.  Students don't always know how to separate the focus on accuracy from overall learning.

Q [HH]:  I think it has more to do with the teachers' approach and method. If it is cultural, then the cultural part of it is also partly formed by the classroom interactions that they've gone through

Comment [Wang Ping]:  HH, thanks for the question.  I had students like that before.  What I did was to encourage them to have patience with themselves. Meanwhile, to design the teaching in a way that they could feel the small progress in learning and derive some sense of achievement out of that.

Comment [kun herrini]:  The cultural background of Indonesian is not to express things, especially emotion, openly, and to always be in low profile. This is quite challenging for English teachers.

Q [Fidelia]:  HH, that is a confounding issue. Did this student express more explicitly their source of frustration? What gave them the idea their English was not good enough when they could express their feeling so well to you? As teachers one way we can build confidence is designing activities for success--language tasks and assignments we know they can do well.

Comment [kun herrini]:  So, for students like what HH pointed out, what I did was giving them activities where they pretend not to be their true selves, such as in roleplays.

Comment [HH]:  Thank you Wang, your ideas sound great. I haven't thought of that before.

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  Success is a key factor in both motivation and in building confidence.  We should focus our lessons so that students can see and feel and recognize success (when they achieve it of course!).

Comment [Wang Ping]:  The cultural factor plays a part but it's also undergoing some changes here in China. Younger generations now in the country are more willing to out speak for themselves, sometimes to the extent of boasting, at least to the eyes of older people like myself.

Comment [nhu 2]:  In my class, the problem is the speaking task always falls on a small number of students. That means the other students just sit quietly and listen to the "speaking" students.

Comment [HH]:  Fidelia, yes, it's confounding. I think it comes from pessimism, or perfectionist point of view. I didn't deal effectively with that case

Q [Damon Anderson]:  Are the students who just sit in class not saying anything still engaged in the class, or do you think they have mentally left the class and are thinking of other things?

Comment [Wang Ping]:  My pleasure, HH. I myself as a language learner had that experience, too.  another way is to practice, as the cliché goes, practice makes perfect.  The more students get to practice in the target language, the more confident they will become.  Teachers may create a variety of situations for them to use the language, and also encourage them to discover ways to practice themselves.

Q [Damon Anderson]:  But while practicing, Ping, they should not be afraid to make mistakes, correct?

Comment [Fidelia]:  I think Damon's point about a focus on testing really fits in my secondary ed context in Thailand. There's much more focus on getting the "right" answer. This overshadows emphasis on communicative competence. This may be straying to another topic, but I wonder how to get my students to value being able to communicate in English over getting their worksheet filled out.

Comment [nhu 2]:  Some of them are engaged and the others are not, I think.

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  Fidelia, you are so correct.  We need to lead them to understand that if they have the communicative competence, they will be able to pass any test which tests them to that level.

Comment [HH]:  Wang, yes the change in culture is much faster than what the stereotyical knowledge usually (mis)-inform us. We Asian students are not "reticent" as our preceding generation. This has been empirically evidenced

Question [Wang Ping]:  NHU2, we all have "silent" students in our class.  Some of them are shy, some may like Damon says, get distracted.  Could you assign them a role to participate to begin with, such as, as a note taker, or oral reporter?

A [Damon Anderson]:  We seem to be looking at engagement as a factor in developing confidence and competence.  This is a great point.

Comment [kun herrini]:  nhu 2, I think we have the same situation here in Indonesia. Our classes are big, up to 50 students in regular classes. To maximize the effectiveness, then we need to employ more pair work and group work activities.

Comment [Wang Ping]:  Sure, Damon. Teachers should make it clear that communication of ideas and thoughts outweighs the accuracy of forms.

Comment [Damon Anderson]: People can be engaged on different levels, some more actively than others.  But the point is they are engaged.  One way to do get them engaged to have them have to do something, in some form, with the information they are getting.

Comment [nhu 2]: A note taker is a good idea to start with but I'm not sure if it can help to improve their speaking skill.

Comment [kun herrini]: Also activities like jigsaw reading and listening can be encouraging.

Comment [HH]: Fidelia, how about trying to record (video or audio) the talk of the students when trying to fill the worksheet and then re-listen to the tape and discuss the process with them. Let them see how much they have made out of the talk acting like that

Comment [Wang Ping]: Hi Nina! Welcome to join us!  So glad that you make it!

Comment [nhu 2]: pairwork and groupwork only work with "active" student. they don't seem to work well for the "quiet" ones.

Comment [Damon Anderson]: The quiet ones, or independent workers, can be given other tasks to perform with the information that is being transmitted.  Such as note-taking, writing up a summary of a discussion, finding answers to questions, doing research for the project, etc.

Comment [Wang Ping]: NHU 2, taking notes is one way of engaging the students.  Once they realize that they could take good notes, that actually gives them an edge to summarize what's been discussed and then report to the class.  taking notes should be followed by other steps.

Comment [Li Wei]: Hello, I'm glad I can manage this time! Nice to meet you!

Comment [kun herrini]: nhu 2, I think there are different ways of assigning pair and group works, that will lead to 'kindly' force all students to talk. I think we need to keep exploring the ways.

Comment [Damon Anderson]: Welcome Li Wei.  We are happy to have you with us this time.

Comment [HH]: Nhu 2, have you tried teaching them group working skills before putting them into the groupwork

Comment [kun herrini]: I agree, Ping. There are ways we can always assign those 'quiet' gank.

Comment [Li Wei]: nhu 2, I also think that maybe the quiet student could feel more freely in the group work instead of talking in front of the whole class.

Comment Wang Ping: another thing to encourage students to talk is to identify the things that will get them excited.  Once they get excited, they will forget about their shyness and only focus on talk, talk, talk...

Comment Wang Ping: Hi Li Wei!  So nice that you made it!

Comment nhu 2: Thank you very much for all of your great suggestions.

Comment Damon Anderson: We need to focus on successful engagement that will keep their interest, not a forced engagement that will make them lose face (to themselves) or feel negative.

Comment [passionate]: Hi everybody!

Comment [Fidelia]: During group work, I like to get around to the groups with "quiet" ones, and give them more praise to encourage their efforts. Praise and support can really help confidence.

Comment [Li Wei]: Damon, I was supposed to have a trip to Sichuan today, but I managed to postpone the travel.  Yes, I'm sorry about missing the last time because of a whole day meeting

Q [nhu 2]: Some of my students just have no interest in speaking and they seem not to care about any activities taking place in class.

Comment [Wang Ping]: Games, tests, friendship, are some topics that could get students excited.

Comment [kun herrini]: Designing activities, assigning students, teachers' approaches to materials and value of accuracy or communication, students' deciding the topic, etc, are all included in the 5 As I mentioned at the beginning.

Comment [Damon Anderson]: nhu2, I had students who did not seem interested in a class.  So, I pulled them aside while others were working on another activity and we had a roundtable discussion on why they weren't interested.  The discussion was in English.  At the end, they realized how much they had to say and could say in English.  They were motivated after that.

Comment [Wang Ping]: Thank you Li Wei.

Comment [Kiki]: Hi, everyone! I think the support is also important, especially for very young learners,

Comment [Wang Ping]: Hi Passionate! Welcome to join us!

Comment [passionate]: Yes. I agree that activities & group work work well

Comment [Li Wei]: Damon, I agree with the the "lose face" idea, encourage is very important, and make the students understand that they could be better with the mistakes they made. Then they will put their mistakes into perspective.

Comment [Wang Ping]: Kun, I'm sure the five As would make a perfect summary for our discussion!

Comment [Fidelia]: That's a good story, Damon. I think it shows that students need to know we care and that we are interested in taking the time to get to know them and pull them in an a way that's meaningful to them.

Comment [Dzung]: Damon, your students were interested for how long?

Comment [Damon Anderson]: They stayed interested for the rest of the semester.  They actually became more aggressive and really began speaking their minds.

Comment [nhu 2]: thank you, Damon. I'll try that next time.

Comment [HH]: In the group work, the students interact with each other. Thus, it is the time they get encouragement and response from their peers rather than the teacher. It's important to teach students how to encourage and motivate their peers before putting them into group work.

Comment [Wang Ping]: Fidelia, couldn't agree more.  We shouldn't give up on silent or shy ones. Caring and showing interest in knowing them more will also help!

Comment [Damon Anderson]: It is important for students to learn how to work in a group.

Comment [Li Wei]: Ping, I agree with you. Aggressive students may have more motivations of showing themselves, while the more queite ones needs encouraging by teacher's more attention.

Question [passionate]: HH, How can we teach students to encourage & motivate their peers?

Comment [kun herrini]: I remember in one of the roundtable discussions we held in Jakarta, there was one student who joined the discussion because the topic was "Still Teaching Grammar these Days", and his reason for joining was because his teacher assigned him since his grammar was weak. And yet his sentences were astonishingly grammatically perfect. We were all convincing him.

Comment [Damon Anderson]: If there is a strong sense of competition between students for either grades or the teacher's attention, then they tend to be less encouraging to their peers.

Comment [Fidelia]: For young and high-school-aged learners, "fun" is really key in the classroom, to keep students engaged. But I think bringing "fun" into the classroom can also lower the affective barier thus allowing students to take more risks in speaking.

Comment [Kiki]: To creat the confidence for the shy and silent students, or the students in lower level, i think the idea of "scaffolder" is useful. When they try the new language, if the teacher can give them some kinds of support, such as useful wordslist, sentence pattern, model passage, etc, they may be more confident.

Comment [nhu 2]: I also had the experience that students will talk a lot more when they are put in a small class. The same group of students will be quiet when they are in a larger class.

Comment [Damon Anderson]: Kiki, that is a wonderful point.  Some students need more scaffolding than others.

Comment [HH]: I have watched a video in which children are taught "put-ups", "encouragement", asking questions.... Examples of "put-ups" include: That's great, Beautiful ... interesting ideas....  We teach students how to listen, how to make eye contact, appreciating others' ideas...

Comment [Li Wei]: passionate, I think the teacher should do the work of encouragement and the motivation in the class and soon the students will imitate the teacher's work and know how to encourage their peers. Teacher's example is very important.

Comment [Damon Anderson]: Teachers often set up classroom work with the assumption and expectation that everyone will do the same things at the same time.  Maybe we need to change this point of view.

Comment [Wang Ping]: Li Wei, that's a good point!  Teachers are role models in class.  Students follow their lead.

Comment [kun herrini]: Yes, HH, We included all those in our day-to-day contact. I even think that even working with adult, those things still needs to be practiced.

Comment [Kiki]: yes, the scaffolder can always be in the classroom even the English class has finished and the teacher has left the room.

Comment [Li Wei]: Kiki, I agree with the idea of the scaffolder, which might make new things much easier for the students. Maybe the teacher could help them by relating the new things to what they have already learnt that would certainly lower the difficulty of the new things.

Comment [HH]: Besides Li's ideas of "uncounscious" imitation from students, explicit teaching is essential

Comment [passionate]: That's great1 tks HH & Li Wei

Comment [Kiki]: Liwei, right, good sample is very important!

Comment [Damon Anderson]: I like that idea of "unconscious" imitation too!  Excellent.

Question [Wang Ping]: Damon, do you mean to say that even with the same project, teachers should encourage students to approach from their own perspective?

Comment [Damon Anderson]: That is one way to consider it.  Another is for different students to do different things with the same text or resource.

Comment [HH]: Kun, yes, even We as adult need to practice that. Passionate, you take up quickly: You've practiced "put-ups", :):)

Comment [kun herrini]: I agree,Damon. Since we know our students best, then we need to prepare different plans for our class and even be ready with different flexible activities.

Comment [Fidelia]: Teacher encouragement and peer to peer encouragement reminds me of a little chant I learned at a workshop recently: "End of the Day" You were wonderful! You were great! See you next class. And don't be late!

Comment [Kiki]: Don't forget "Be fun"! Make it fun for all Ss.

Comment [Damon Anderson]: Fun is good, but if you can't make it fun, at least make it interesting to them.

Comment [kun herrini]: Thanks HH. Also for Fidelia, I agree with the 'fun' approach. Again, even for adult students, not only for younger ones.

Question [Damon Anderson]: So, I think we are saying that the right kind of engagement that can lead to successful input by the students will help to increase motivation, thus increasing confidence and leading to competence.  Correct?

Comment [Li Wei]: It will be good that the teacher him or herself tries to look at the world from the students' point of view and think the way that the students' do, that will make the teaching more attractive.

Question [nhu 2]: What if students are envious of each other as they are not doing the same thing at the same time? Especially those who ware doing something harder than the others?

Comment [Damon Anderson]: nhu2, that is a good question.  In this case the teacher needs to let every student know that their work or contribution is equally as important, especially to their learning.  Remind them that they couldn't learn to run until they learned to walk.

Comment [HH]: Yes, Damon, and does "engagement" here mean "affect" by Harmer that Kun mentioned from the beginning of the chat today?

Comment [Damon Anderson]: It is included.  Yes.

Comment [Li Wei]: nhu 2, you could let the students choose what they are mostly likely to do, it is true that the students really like challenging things. they might be very proud that they could do harder projects than others.

Comment [Fidelia]: To add to your point Li Wei, if the teacher is willing to take risks similar to those the students must take, then perhaps students will feel more at ease to take risks to participate.

Comment [Damon Anderson]: Regarding making mistakes, I often tell my students that most native speakers make mistakes often.  I have them consider their own use of their native language.  This seems to relax them.

Comment [kun herrini]: Yes, it is included, and so is the idea of alwaays putting teachers in the students' shoes.

Comment [Kiki]: good point, Fidelia, i like the idea "teacher is accompany"

Comment [nhu 2]: Sorry but I don't thnk so, Li Wei. My students do not like challenging tasks and the ones who have more challenging tasks will often be jealous of the ones who get easier tasks.

Comment [Li Wei]: Fidelia, yes. And sometimes the teacher may also make some mistakes in the class. Do not feel ashamed about that. On the contrary, tell the students that everybody, even the teacher could make mistakes, which must make the students feel ease.

Comment [Fidelia]: Exactly!

Comment [Damon Anderson]: We should remember the i+1 approach.  Take them to their comfort zone then push a little to go out of it to something new.

Comment [Dzung]:  Some of my students complain when I don't correct their mistakes.

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  Everyone, Let's keep going.  Mark has a backup and will help us.

Webchat Moderator [Mark]:  HI everyone...for some reason our chat Pod cleared.

Comment [Kiki]: I think ''Correction'' is worth another roundtable meeting:-)

Webchat Moderator [Mark]:  I have a backup!

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  Actually, we are just about to the end of this great chat.

Comment [kun herrini]:  Fidelia, I agree that we sometimes are in a hurry and end up hanging the fruit too high for the students to reach. I think that was the time when we forget putting ourselves in the students' shoes. Or sometimes we did it on purpose to challenge the students, but then we should be ready with the necessary scaffold.

Comment [Dzung]:  for mistakes in pronunciation, if we don't correct instantly, especially the one that is repeated many times, other students may make the same mistake. I had some experience in it.

Comment [Li Wei]:  It's a pity that we soon must end

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  Yes, time seems to fly when we have such great chats.

Comment [HH]:  It's been very productive and profound talk today

Question [Damon Anderson]:  What do you recommend our topic be for our March chat?

Comment [Li Wei]:  It's so great to have a chat here and I'm sure I'll be a frequenter in the future

Comment [Fidelia]:  This has been so valuable! It's really great hearing from everyone. So energizing to discuss this with you!

Comment [kun herrini]:  So soon, Damon? Just before I forget, if any of you are interested in my ppt presentation on the 5 As, please send me email. Kunherrini.

Comment [Kiki]: It's my first time joining you, i'm very glad!!

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  Please come again Kiki and everyone!!!

Comment [Li Wei]:  Another question, does anybody reorganize our talk? I think it must be useful

Comment [Wang Ping]:  Thank you everyone for all your passionate contribution!

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  Mark will post the transcript of our chat on the website.

Comment [kun herrini]:  Mark, Damon, and Ping, thank you for organizing this discussion.

Webchat Moderator (Mark):  I will send Damon a transcript of your excellent discussion...don't worry, it is saved.

Comment [Li Wei]:  kun herrini, I'm late today and I'm sure I want one, I'll email you

Question [Damon Anderson]:  Any thoughts on a topic for our next chat?

Question [Wang Ping]:  Any idea for next topic?

A [Damon Anderson]:  Mark, thank you for saving our chat!!  Thank you for being such a great moderator!

Comment [Kiki]: correction

Webchat Moderator [Mark]:  My pleasure, good day everyone!

Comment [Kiki]: or mistakes, seems everyone interested in that

Comment [Dzung]:  next topic: how to make boring grammar more interesting?

Comment [kun herrini]:  Topic: Correcting without Hurting? I think it is important.

Comment [Li Wei]:  I agree

Comment [Wang Ping]:  Effective Correcting without Hurting?

Dzung:  I like the topic suggested by Kun Herrini.

Comment [Damon Anderson]:  Thank you all for your suggestions.  We will look at correction during our next roundtable on March 10.  We hope to see you all there.  Please tell your colleagues to join us!!!

Thank you all for such an excellent chat/dialogue today.  I am sure we all got some great ideas.  Thank you.

Comment [Wang Ping]:  Thank you all very much!  Looking forward to talking to you next time!

Comment [Fidelia]:  Looking forward to it!

Comment [kun herrini]:  It was a nice and valuable chat. Bye everyone, talk to you again on March 10....

Comment [Kiki]: Hope c u all soon!

Comment [Dzung]:  ciao, see you all again in March

Comment [Wang Ping]:  Kun, thanks for pointing out the time for next Time. March 10th, see you then!

Comment [Li Wei]:  So glad to meet you today! Looking forward for the next one!

Comment [passionate]:  c u all again next month! Goodbye & nice day!

Comment [Bal]:  Hi I want to read the whole transcript in the future\

Webchat Moderator [Mark]:  The English Roundtable chat for February has concluded.  We will post a full transcript of the discussion to this page.  The transcript will be up within the next hour or so.

(end transcript)