TEACHING QUALITY PACK

In this pack you will find a series of tasks as well as information and comments designed to be used as a follow-up to the Pre-Service and Online Induction Pack. The TQP is also a useful document for experienced teachers who wish to recycle concepts or focus on a specific aspect of their classroom practice. The pack will focus on three important aspects of EFL classroom practice: Elicitation, Monitoring and Error Treatment Pack Features: This booklet, contains summaries of essential points as regards Elicitation, Monitoring and Error Treatment It is divided into four sections: Elicitation................................ Monitoring .............................. Error Treatment..................... Some more practical ideas... Pag. 2 Pag. 10 Pag. 18 Pag. 28

Suggested Procedures: 1. Choose the aspect(s) of teaching you would like to focus on more closely. 2. Read the tasks related to the aspect(s) chosen and follow the procedures suggested in the booklet. 3. Read the comments that follow the tasks. If you want further practical examples or clarification of any points, you can count on your branch mentors or managers support.

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ELICITATION
I. What is elicitation? The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics defines elicitation as techniques or procedures which a teacher uses to get learners to actively produce speech or writing. II. Why is elicitation important? Eliciting student production is central to the teaching / learning process in two senses: a) its only when we elicit student production that we can check learning; b) as the learners are being asked to produce language, they are obviously getting further opportunities to use / practise the language they know, which is tantamount to saying that theyre being helped to recycle /consolidate their knowledge. Thus, it is useful to think about elicitation in terms of both its information value for the teacher (i.e. as a tool for checking learning) and its language learning / practice value for the students.

TASK 1
Consider the situations below, in which the teacher can elicit contributions from the learners: 1) Exploitation of a picture during the pre-listening / reading stage of a lesson 2) Pre-listening /reading discussion 3) Picture-cued drill (i.e. a drill in which the teacher uses pictures, MMClass slides to prompt the learners to produce the target language) 4) Messenger-dictation [* See pg.9 for a description of this activity] 5) Concept work done during the presentation of new language For each of these situations, consider the questions below and note down your answers. a) What practice/ learning opportunities will the teachers elicitation create for the students? b) What information can the teacher obtain about the students learning process from the contributions elicited? c) What decisions will the elicited language / contributions inform (e.g. about moving on to the next stage of the lesson, departing from the plan or doing remedial work?) When you have finished, compare your notes with the comments below and see to what extent they overlap.
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Comments:

Activities 1 and 2 are basically fluency-oriented, and as such provide opportunities for the
students to use the language they already know. It is important to note that activities like these can (and should) be seen as having two simultaneous aims: i) to establish the context and prepare the learners for the following listening / reading activity; and ii) to recycle and consolidate language previously taught. Needless to say, both aims will be better achieved if the teacher elicits student contributions which are as extended as possible. The language learning value of effective elicitation in situations like the ones described in 1 and 2 is obvious: language learning is not linear nor is there any guarantee that learners will learn what teachers teach immediately and / or fully. For internalisation to be really likely to take place, it is important that there are recurrent opportunities to practise / use already familiar language or language to which the students have been exposed before. And - although it is the learners responsibility to do the learning - it is the teachers responsibility to provide as many learning opportunities as necessary, as part of her management of the students progress. Such phases of the lesson as those described in situations 1 and 2 can be invaluable in providing further learning opportunities if the teacher is aware of their two-fold aims and elicits language effectively. It is also important to remember that - apart from the opportunity to consolidate language - such activities (if effectively conducted) will encourage peer teaching, i.e. there will also be the opportunity to learn more from what other students produce. The information value of the elicitation of extended contributions in fluency-oriented work is also obvious: as the learners make use of their linguistic repertoire to get their messages across, the attentive teacher is being given evidence as to what language they can use comfortably, where the gaps to be bridged are, and so on. Needless to say, important pedagogic decisions can be made on the basis of this information, e.g. what remedial work to do, what feedback to give to whom, and so on.

Activity 3 is an accuracy-oriented activity, and likely to occur shortly after a new language item
has been presented. The language learning value of this kind of controlled practice activity (i.e. that of providing the opportunity to notice and memorise the new language) will be enhanced if the teacher plans elicitation in such a way that the language the students produce is natural both in terms of form and in terms of appropriateness to the context / situation. Thus, they will be establishing links between form and use that will enable them to use the language practised both accurately and appropriately / naturally in real interaction later. The information value of the student contributions elicited in controlled phases of a lesson lies in that they allow the teacher to monitor to what extent the learners are succeeding in achieving the aims defined for each step in their practice. Its on the basis of this evidence that decisions can be made about whether its possible to move on to the next step, or whether further practice or more explanations / models are needed.

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Activity 4 is an accuracy-oriented activity, too, but more likely to be used to recycle /revise
language which has already been presented and practised previously. Its language learning value lies in the fact that - working collaboratively to write the dictation - the students have the opportunity to help each other correct any inaccurate sentences / phrases and - in the process give each other explanations and examples, which can result in quite a lot of productive peerteaching. Needless to say, monitoring their work carefully gives the teacher invaluable information about what remedial work is needed, and the opportunity to provide feedback and / or clarification while the activity is in progress or immediately after it has been completed.

Activity 5 is different from the ones above by definition, in that its aim is not to give the learners
opportunities to use or practise language, but to check that they have grasped the concept of a language item which has just been presented. Thus, it is likely that the teacher will not be concerned with eliciting extended contributions from them but will probably be asking leading questions which will help establish the concept clearly. There is, however, a very clear language learning gain for the students, as this concept work will ensure that the practice that ensues is not just mechanical practice of form but that it will also help to establish and strengthen the link between form and concept / use that will help them function as competent users of the language later. In terms of the information with which the students responses provide the teacher, its clear that they can show whether or not understanding of the concept has taken place, and that this information can therefore inform decisions as to whether further concept work, examples and / or explanations are needed before the group can move on to the next step. The comments above will have made it clear that effective elicitation is a pre-requisite, without which the teacher would not be able to make important decisions that concern the management of the students progress, and the learners would be denied the opportunities they need to recycle and incorporate the language they are being (or have been) taught. Eliciting language from the students, monitoring how well theyre doing, and taking action on the basis of the information obtained are at the heart of success-oriented teaching. The figure below summarises the points seen in this section: Why elicit?: to check learning of whats being taught (on the basis of which decisions can be made about whether or not to move on to the next stage of the lesson); of whats been taught previously or is presumed to be known (to detect the need for remedial work); to give students opportunities to use the language they know/are being taught; to recycle and consolidate their knowledge; to boost their confidence; to enlarge their linguistic repertoire.

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III. How can the effectiveness of elicitation be ensured? Not surprisingly, the effectiveness of elicitation is closely linked to what the teacher says and does to get the students to actively produce language. (If a Yes / No question is asked, for example, we can only reasonably expect the students to produce Yes or No...) Let us look at the case studies below to illustrate the point:

TASK 2
Consider the situations below, in which the teacher is trying to elicit contributions from the learners. For each of the situations, consider the following questions: a) What would you expect the learners to produce in response to what the teacher says / does? b) What are the relative advantages / disadvantages of the techniques in terms of their language learning value and their information value? Make notes of your answers as you go along: 1. Teacher 1: - Look at the picture on page 51... OK? - How many people are there in the picture? - What are their names? - What are they doing? - Do they look happy? 2. Teacher 2: - Look at the picture on page 51. Id like you to describe it... Look... How many people are there? What are they doing? Do you think theyre happy? Why? Tell me all about it! 3. Teacher 3: - (T. opens book) Theres a nice picture here, you know?... (T. looks at class)... Are you curious? Would you like to know what its like?... You can ask me questions then... Go on! (T. uses gestures/ prompts to get contributions from the students)... OK... (T. uses gestures to divide the class into groups)... Group A... Group B... Group A, you can open your books and look at the picture...Youre going to answer Group Bs questions now... Group B, go on asking questions... find out everything you want to know about the picture... Who wants to start? Now, compare your notes with the comments below:

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Comments:

Teacher 1 is probably getting short contributions from the students (e.g. Two, John and
Mary, Dancing, Yes), as a result of asking them questions which it would be unnatural to answer with more than a short answer. Theres also the fact that it is the teacher that dominates the discourse and makes all the decisions about how the topic develops. The reason for that is that it is the teacher that the floor goes back to after each short answer, and it is the teacher that gets to ask all the questions. Thus, although the students are being given the chance to use the language they know, they are doing so basically in terms of understanding what the teacher says and of exposure to the teachers language. But it would not be unfair to say that their active participation is being minimised, perhaps unnecessarily. As a result, it is perhaps the case that theyre being denied the opportunity to consolidate their knowledge through having to make an effort to retrieve the language they know from memory to express their meanings. As they are probably producing very little language, the teacher is also deprived of the information (s)he needs to be able to make decisions about remedial work that may be needed, and is not in a position to make the notes that would allow her / him later to give feedback or clarifications that could be crucial to help the students progress. It could be argued that the teacher could still get more extended contributions from the learners by simply asking for complete answers to the questions, or by prompting them to make complete sentences after theyve given their short answers. However, neither of these solutions succeeds in promoting interaction which is natural by any real-life standards. (In real life, people simply dont make complete sentences to repeat what theyve just said, nor do they usually give full answers to questions which require short answers...)

Teacher 2 is dealing with the same situation in a different way. Having thrown a number of
questions all at one go at the learners, (s)he has given them as much exposure to the language and as much practice in understanding as Teacher 1. The crucial difference is that Teacher 2s students will find themselves in a position in which theyll have to make extended contributions when they take their turn (e.g. There are two people in the picture. Their names are John and Mary. Theyre dancing... and so on). Thus, the discourse to develop naturally with plenty of active participation from them, without the teacher having to resort to subterfuges such as asking for complete sentences... As a result, there are more opportunities for the learners to use the language they are already familiar with, thus consolidating their knowledge more effectively. This is important not only from the perspective of their progress, but also from the standpoint of their motivation: nothing can be more motivating than the sense of achievement and the boosted selfconfidence that ensue from being able to express oneself in the foreign language successfully, even if not completely accurately (in grammatical or phonological terms). Inasmuch as there is more student production, there is also more information available to their teacher about their learning and the help they might need to improve. Thus, any inaccuracies in the learners production can lead to helpful remedial work later.

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It must be noted, however, that - for this kind of technique to work to its full potential - certain classroom routines need to be established. A very important factor is for the teacher to make use of wait time if the learners are not particularly forthcoming at the beginning; theyll soon get into the habit of filling the silence themselves.... (The extra time is especially important at lower levels, where the students are likely to take longer to comprehend what has been said and formulate their answers, but can lead to better learner contributions even at advanced levels.) Encouraging gestures, eye-contact, and also visual aids of some sort (e.g. pictures or miming) which can give the learners ideas as to what to say are also important, as is planning teacher language carefully to make sure that we know: i) what the learners can produce, and ii) how we can get them to produce at their best. Needless to say, for the learners to feel prepared to take the risks that making extended contributions entails, they need to be working in a constructive atmosphere in which errors are treated naturally and positively and are seen as what they are: a natural part of the learning process, which can give rise to a lot of fruitful learning opportunities.

Teacher 3 has created an information gap by simply asking some of the students to look at the
picture, while others ask them questions. The setting up of the activity has allowed for exposure to the teachers language and for practice in understanding and responding appropriately. As in the example above, the use of this technique has maximised the opportunities the learners are given to use their linguistic repertoire, and more information will be available to their teacher about their strengths and weaknesses than if (s)he had asked all the questions and the students had only produced the answers. Like in the previous example, for this technique to work well, it is important to bear some points in mind during implementation. The following figure summarises the most central ones: Points to bear in mind: Plan elicitation carefully, bearing in mind what the students already know, and deciding what to say to elicit it from them in such a way that the resulting interaction is as natural as possible. In planning what and how to elicit, remember that - in most cases - itll be appropriate to aim to obtain contributions which are as extended as possible. When planning elicitation, also consider what visual aids, miming, gestures and body language might help the students. Remember that wait time is as important as teacher language in eliciting contributions from the learners. Having succeeded in getting the learners to produce language, listen carefully to what they say, and then act on the information youve extracted from their production (e.g. by eliciting a more natural realisation when a student produces halting language, by giving feedback, by treating errors or by preparing remedial work). Remember that a non-judgmental, constructive attitude to errors is an essential component of a success-oriented atmosphere. But this is not to say that errors should not be treated. Quite the
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contrary, if treated constructively and at the right time and in the right manner, theyll give rise to highly beneficial learning opportunities and the process will enhance the learners motivation and boost their confidence. IV. How can effective cues be given? It will be clear from what has been said above, and your experience will tell you, that there are a number of ways in which clear cues can be given and these may include: verbal cues: questions / incomplete utterances visual clues: pictures / miming / blackboard drawings / gestures (used to give the learners ideas as to what to say) wait time gestures used to prompt learners to speak (e.g. a hand movement used to nominate or to encourage a learner to continue) gestures used to give feedback on what has been said encouraging noises made by the teacher to show interest in what is being said body language which signals interest and empathy It is important to note that, whatever cues you decide to use, it is essential that their use should be planned carefully to ensure that they are suitable (e.g. in terms of Ss level) and clear. It is also important to note that, having elicited contributions from their learners, the three teachers we have observed monitor their production carefully and then take corrective action as appropriate on the basis of the information they have obtained. It is likely - as a result - that their learners will experience success. The text below summarises much of what has been said about elicitation in this pack: Elicitation is one means of ensuring students active involvement in a lesson. It consists in trying to encourage them to come out with what they already know (or even halfknow) and trying to avoid spoon-feeding them. Used successfully, it can help build up students confidence in English. It keeps students alert and shows that you value what they have to contribute. It can also serve a useful diagnostic function. In some cases students may have a passive or half-digested knowledge of the item that you will be going on to teach, in which case it is a good idea to elicit what they do know and then work on it with them as a basis for the next stage in your lesson. Elicitation involves giving cues. These may be questions, gestures, facial expressions, incomplete words, and so on. There must be proper feedback to guide students towards the target expression. There are potential difficulties. Cues must be given clearly, so that students know what you want from them. You must develop quick reactions to deal with what may be unexpected responses from the students. Finally, it is useless to continue to try to elicit something that is not yet in your students repertoire, once you have
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established that it is unknown to them. In this case it is quite appropriate to revert to straight language input or information giving. When doing a listening or reading comprehension task with students, elicitation is a particularly useful first stage. Before the students hear or read you could give the title or the topic of the passage - or show a striking visual connected with the topic - and encourage them to say what they know about it, or to give you any of the items of vocabulary that they think are connected with the topic. This has two major teaching benefits. First it allows students to share their knowledge with each other - they can pick up or be reminded of vocabulary and other language items through listening to their class mates and not to the teacher alone. Your role is to collect ideas on the board and to correct any inaccuracies in what is being shared. The second benefit is that it sets up expectations in the students minds, which will help them when they come to read or listen to the passage. Coming to a comprehension task with some ideas ready to be confirmed, or not, by the text itself tends to lead to greater initial success than coming to it completely cold.
(from Language Teaching and Learning, The British Council 1993: 25)

Note: * A messenger dictation requires a short text which is selected on the basis of its recycling / consolidation value and which is written on slips of paper (one short sentence or phrase per slip). In the classroom, students work in groups. Each member of each group will in turn act as the messenger, who has to go to the front of the class to read what is written on a slip of paper, and then come back to the group to dictate the sentence or phrase (s)he has just read. The group has to write the dictation collaboratively (perhaps taking it in turns to actually write each phrase/sentence, with the help of the other members of the group) as quickly and as accurately as possible. The teacher only has to show each messenger a slip of paper, making sure that the sentences are in the right order for each group to be able to reproduce the text. (Having a set of slips per group helps to avoid the problems that might arise if different groups work at different paces.) The group that finishes the dictation first without making mistakes or making only minor mistakes) will be the winner.

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MONITORING
Monitoring students participation in order to check their learning and involvement is one of the key issues related to success orientation.
(Induction Pack )

I. What is monitoring all about? Monitoring consists of keeping your eyes and ears open all the time, and involves the areas of checking learning, checking progress, checking motivation and providing feedback.

TASK 1
Consider the four terms mentioned above and associated with monitoring. What do you understand by each one of them? Think about it, and then read some possible definitions suggested below: Checking Learning - strategies used to verify whether the stated objectives of the lesson were achieved, and gather evidence regarding students ability to process and appraise new information. (Ur, P. 1996). Checking Progress - strategies used to throw some light on the match-up between teaching and learning, in other words, the way the learners act on the input provided throughout a series of lessons. (adapted from Wajnryb, R. 1992) Checking Motivation - strategies used to verify whether the learners are likely to synchronise their roles willingly with the teachers roles; and are likely to co-operate with the teacher in the various processes involved in the classroom. (Wright, 1987) Feedback - information that is given to the learner about his or her performance of a learning task, with the objective of improving this performance. (Ur, P. 1996) Now that you have compared your own interpretation with the suggestions given, try and analyse the relationship you see between the four terms. In terms of classroom procedures, how do the four interrelate, and how can one lead to the other?

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Comments: By consistently checking students level of learning / progress as well as their level of motivation / interest, teachers develop their awareness of the two dimensions of the learning process: cognitive-linguistic - general level of accuracy and fluency affective-motivational - general level of interest, willingness to participate in the activities proposed and interact with the teacher and the other students. Keeping their eyes and ears open, teachers are able to perceive patterns of behaviour in the course of their lessons, in other words, they are able to detect whether a particular student shows the same positive/negative reaction regardless of the activity the students in general show the same positive/negative reaction in relation to certain kinds of activities This careful observation will enable the teacher to reflect on the possible causes of these reactions, and also think of possible ways of solving detected problems or building on positive aspects. II. The context of monitoring Monitoring of students participation to check their level of achievement and involvement takes place while classroom activities are in progress. However, the act of monitoring does not occur in isolation, but is part of a more general framework, depending on procedures that took place before and leading to procedures that will follow it. This general framework could look like this: A) Planning long-term planning: awareness of general aim of level. Critically reading lesson plans: - being aware of lesson aims - being aware of the appropriacy of activities vis--vis lesson aims - selecting aids/ resources to be used - identifying / selecting interaction patterns (if necessary). B) Monitoring of activities in progress: observing and listening in. instructions: clarity, objectivity checking of understanding modelling checking whether students engage in the activity without difficulty observing without interrupting the flow of communication intervening if / when needed encouraging learner independence collecting feedback

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C) Feedback whole group:

delayed correction recycling of language remedial lesson(s) assessment of learning (raising group awareness) continuous / formative assessment catering for different learning styles assessment of learning (raising individual awareness)

individual:

TASK 2
Below you will see three classroom situations involving management problems which render monitoring difficult or even impossible. Read them, and suggest the possible reasons that lead to those situations, as well as possible solutions or preventive measures. Situation 1: The teacher has planned a problem-solving activity for a group of adolescents at pre-intermediate level. S/he tells the class to form groups of five. After a confusing period, which lasts longer than anticipated, the students sort themselves out and the teacher starts giving them instructions for the activity even before they have settled down. Later on the teacher notices that only two groups can actually do the activity. What do you think has led to this situation? What can the teacher now do to enable students to perform the task? How can he / she avoid a similar situation in the future? Situation 2: The teacher has planned a reading comprehension lesson, in which a group of young adults have to answer questions about a text. When checking the exercise, the teacher asks one student at a time to read the answers aloud, and either says right, and moves on to the next student, or says wrong, and provides the correct answer. By the end of the activity, the students level of interest and their willingness to participate have dropped considerably. What are some of the reasons why students may lose interest during correction of classroom activities / homework? What procedures can be adopted to maintain students interest and motivation when checking exercises?

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Situation 3: After introducing the use of can to express ability, a teacher tells 10-year-old children to get together in small groups, and gives each group a set of cards with pictures illustrating different activities. The students are supposed to discuss which activities they can or cannot do, and later on report to the whole class. While walking round the class, the teacher notices that students are merely showing each other the pictures and saying yes or no, or are talking enthusiastically about the activities - in their mother tongue. What do you think has led to this situation? What can the teacher now do to encourage students to use English in connected streams? How can s/he avoid a similar situation in the future?

Comments: Situation 1 It seems there are two reasons for students unsatisfactory production: the teacher did not make use of grouping techniques, which left students to sort themselves out with the consequent noise and possible use of L1, and the teacher did not make sure he/she had everybodys attention before giving instructions for the activity. It is also possible that the teacher did not check comprehension of the instructions before the students actually started doing it. Situation 2 The students lack of interest during the correction of the task is probably due to lack of appropriate, meaningful feedback, and the predictable way in which the teacher asked them to answer the questions. It is also possible that the nature of the questions did not encourage discussion or expression of opinions, which is in itself a demotivating factor. Situation 3 The students inability/resistance to use L2 while doing the task might indicate that they had not had enough controlled practice of the target item (can you...?) before starting the group work activity. It is also possible that instructions were not very clear, or that the purpose of the task was not clear to students. If they had, for example, to fill in a chart/take notes then report to the rest of the group, they might be more willing to participate. To sum up, remember that in order to set up activities that will allow you to monitor students production, it is important to Plan your instructions carefully, gauging your language to the students level of ability. After giving the instructions, check students understanding, by asking them to repeat or rephrase your words. Avoid asking questions such as Do you understand?, or Is it clear? These will, in all probability, encourage students to say Yes - for fear of losing face in front of their peers - and will not provide you with accurate feedback regarding their understanding.
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Let students know that while they are working in pairs or groups, they are supposed to rely on their own knowledge and strategies to accomplish the task. Remember that students confidence in doing the task will probably result from a successful controlled practice stage preceding the pair / group activity. III. Monitoring learning and interest / motivation In order to monitor students learning and their level of interest, motivation and involvement, it is essential to systematically observe their behaviour with a view to identifying recurrent patterns. These behaviours can provide indication of high or low levels of learning and involvement, such as HIGH LOW accurate, meaningful production of inaccurate language language questions or comments showing relevant questions or comments lack of understanding willing participation in activities reluctance to engage in activities proposed proposed attempt at self- or peer-correction disruptive behaviour, slouching, yawning, looking at the watch

LEARNING

MOTIVATION

TASK 3
Peer Observation Select a class in order to do some peer observation and focus on monitoring skills. Observe how the teacher monitors during the lesson (either throughout the lesson or during a specific stage of the lesson). As you observe the teacher,
1. Notice how the teacher approaches individual students / pairs or groups. 2. List what s/he does to help the learners.

3. Consider how effective her/his attitude is towards students production and their involvement in the task. 4. Does the teachers monitoring foster learner motivation and learning in general?

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IV. What effective monitoring involves When students are engaged in an activity independent of you, you may need to keep an ear on what they are saying or glance at what they are writing. (...) Whether you help or correct will depend on the task and what effect it will have.
(Gower and Walters, 1983, p.45)

While teaching a lesson, it is important to reflect on these monitoring moments with the following questions in mind: what is being checked at each particular moment - learning or involvement? what may have caused high / low levels of learning and involvement? is the monitoring technique chosen the most effective one for that particular moment? These questions will lead you to consider ways to solve problems or build on the positive aspects detected.

TASK 4
SPOT THE PROBLEM Read the descriptions of classroom situations below. Each one depicts an instance of ineffective monitoring. Identify what may have led to each situation. 1. During group work, the teacher approaches a group of learners engaged in a problem-solving activity and interrupts them asking in a loud voice if everything is OK or if there is any problem. The students in that particular group, as well as some others, stop talking and look at the teacher with a puzzled expression. 2. During group work, the teacher approaches a group of learners engaged in an oral activity and sits next to them. The moment the teacher sits down, the students interrupt the activity and start asking him/her questions. Some students in other groups also stop the activity in order to listen to what the teacher is saying. 3. During pair work in a class of teenagers, the teacher walks round the classroom and monitors students production. As he/she passes each pair, he/she stops to listen. While the teacher is near them, the students speak English. When he/she goes away, they start speaking Portuguese. 4. During pair work in a class of adult learners, the teacher approaches a pair who is engaged in an information gap activity and sits next to them. He/she does not say anything, but looks closely at the students, who interrupt the activity and fall silent. Some other students nearby also stop working. 5. The teacher sets up a group activity in a class of young teenagers and as soon as it starts joins one particular group, sitting next to them and listening in. Some minutes later he/she realises that
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students in other groups seem to be having problems with the activity, as they turn to each other to seek clarification of doubts. 6. The teacher sets up a group activity and when the students start working he/she starts circulating, so as to be available in case one of them wants to ask him/her a question. The teacher helps the students who seek assistance, but does not notice whether the others are on task or how well they are performing it.

1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6.

Comments: The teachers attitude is disruptive, as it interferes with the students pace of work. They may get the impression that they are being pressed for time, or that the teacher does not trust their capacity to work unaided. It seems that monitoring routines have not been established with this group, and they tend to rely too much on the teachers help. As a consequence, the students may try to monopolise the teachers attention whenever he/she comes near. In this case students might regard the pair work activity as an opportunity to display knowledge to the teacher, instead of an opportunity to increase their talking time. Although the teacher is quiet, his/her physical presence makes the students self-conscious and is intimidating. Clear monitoring routines will make them aware that during pair/group work the teacher will sit next to some of them in order to listen in. This awareness might minimise their embarrassment. The teacher joined one of the groups too soon, without making sure that the other students knew what they were supposed to do. The teacher is physically present but his/her eyes and ears are not really open. Without closely observing and listening in, the teacher cannot really obtain information upon which to take action.

V. Guidelines for effective monitoring Monitoring what the students are doing is just as important a skill as teaching.
(Gower and Walters, 1983, p.45)

TASK 5
As a follow-up to the previous activity, and taking into account all the issues discussed in this printed material, suggest your own guidelines for effective monitoring. Now read our suggestions: Listen in really carefully, dont just circulate. Observe, watch out for signals of involvement and interest (or otherwise!) Make notes, so that you can take action on the basis of the information obtained.
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Avoid participation which can be disruptive. Establish monitoring routines, e.g. encourage students to carry on with their work when you sit next to them. Observe whether the students are on task, and progressing as anticipated. Be aware of your body language (its amazing how daunting it can be sometimes!) Remember to use a private tone of voice if you need to talk to a particular student / group. Avoid allowing one student / group to monopolise your time and attention.

Comments (taken from Gower and Rogers, 1983): Monitoring group / pair work Once you have set up the activity, stand back and allow a short time for students to get on with it. This will give you a chance to see which groups / pairs seem to be working satisfactorily, or having difficulties. Dont interrupt, unless: - a particular group / pair has misunderstood what it is supposed to be doing (so put it right), - some of the groups / pairs seem to be on the verge of finishing (give them something else to do) - a particular group / pair seems to be a long way behind (provide encouragement) Spread your attention, so that groups dont feel cramped by your presence or neglected. Be easily accessible. Take notes, on which you can base future action - whole group remedial work or individual feedback, via face-to-face interaction or notes handed to each student. Monitoring individual reading or writing tasks Make sure everyone has enough to do before you go round Be discreet in your approach Be encouraging Make sure everyone has some attention.

Bibliography Gower, R., Walters, S., 1983. Teaching Practice Handbook, London: Heineman Harmer, J., 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching, Harlow: Longman Ur, P., 1996. A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge: CUP Wright, T., 1987. Roles of Teachers and Learners, Oxford: OUP Wajnryb, R., 1992. Classroom Observation Tasks, Cambridge:CUP

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ERROR TREATMENT
Correcting errors that students make when they speak or write is usually considered one of the most difficult tasks in language teaching. I. Dealing with spoken errors

TASK 1
Here are three teachers approaches to correcting spoken errors. Teacher A:

I never let my students make mistakes. If they say anything wrong, I stop them and make them say it correctly. I dont want them to learn bad English from each other.
Teacher B: I correct students sometimes, but not all the time. If were practising one particular language point, then I insist that they say it correctly. But if were doing a freer activity then I try not to correct too much. If I do correct students, I try to do it in an encouraging way. Teacher C:

I try to correct errors as little as possible. I want my students to express themselves in English without worrying too much about making mistakes. Sometimes I notice points that everyone gets wrong, and deal with them later - but I never interrupt students to correct them.
Think of yourself as a learner. Which teacher would you prefer? Why? To what extent does your preference as a learner influence your approach to error correction?

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Comments: Some teachers are often afraid of their students making errors. Like teacher A, they feel that students might 'learn their mistakes', and so they must make sure that everything they say is correct. This idea derives from views of language learning which were very popular in the 1950s and 1960s _ the behaviourist theory; it was believed that language was learnt by repetition of correct forms until they became automatic, and so repeating incorrect forms would be harmful. It is now widely agreed that language is not learnt in this way; rather it is a system of rules that the learner has to acquire, and that 'trying out' language and making errors are a natural and unavoidable part of this process. Students' errors are a useful way of showing what they have and have not learnt. So instead of seeing errors negatively, we should see them as evidence of the student's creative efforts to build a new linguistic structure. Obviously, when we try to prevent students from making errors we are, in fact, missing an opportunity to analyse the cause of these errors and apply the knowledge gained from this analysis to the teaching process. Most teachers would agree (like teacher B) that we need to correct some errors, to help students learn the correct forms of the language. Most students would also expect this _ there is a danger in teacher C's class that students might feel that they were 'not being taught properly'. But this does not mean that we have to correct students all the time _ if we do, it might make them unwilling or unable to say anything at all. (adapted from Doff, A. Teach English.) II. Risks and chances

TASK 2
Think about these two learners. Comment on their possible attitude towards errors. Imagine a teacher asking a class: Teacher: Who knows someone who is a mechanic? Eduardo: Aaah (Sei l como se diz cunhado)... my friend is a mechanic. Teacher: Ok, can you tell us the names of any of the tools your friend uses? Teacher: Mrcia: Teacher: Mrcia: Who knows someone who is an engineer? *The man who married with my sister is an engineer. Oh, your brother-in-law is an engineer. Yes, my brother-in-law is an engineer.

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Comments: Eduardo is the kind of learner who doesn't like taking risks. He is careful not to say anything unless he knows it is correct. Unlike Mrcia, he would rather sacrifice meaning than make a mistake. In doing so, he wastes opportunities to experiment with the language and learn how best to say what he really wants to say. But where does this attitude come from? Partly, it depends on the learner: some people like to take chances and some don't. But to a very large extent, it depends on the teacher. If the teacher wants accuracy above all things and never minds what ideas the students express, then that teacher will get attempts at accuracy: no mistakes and no learning steps.

TASK 3
Comment on these teachers' reaction to their students' contributions: Teacher A: Tlapie: Teacher A: Kyoko: Teacher A: Teacher B: Student: Teacher B: Teacher B: Student: Teacher B: Has anyone ever seen a volcano? Ah, you have Tlapie. Can you tell us something about it? It was very big. Right. Anyone else? Yes, Kyoko? Yes, have see volcano. I was las year. I vis aunt near coast. There was -_ don know how you call in Enrish _ tsunami, very big wave. There is big volcano under sea. Make very big seas. Ver excitin. Goodness me! I wish I'd seen that! Thank you, Kyoko. Why are you so late? Im sorry, my mother is take to hospital. No, not is take, she has been taken to hospital. Why are you so late? Im sorry, my mother has been taken to hospital. Good! (taken from Edge, J. Mistakes and Correction)

Comments: Teacher A is attentive to the content and shows Kyoko (and the other students in her group) that she is interested in what they have to say by responding to her in a natural, communicative way. Teacher B (an obvious exaggeration for the sake of exemplification) reacts to the form of what the students say instead of to the content. It is important that we encourage answers like Kyoko's. Learners need the experience of being listened to as people with things to say.

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III. Why are learners' errors significant? Learners' errors provide information about the stage they have reached in their language learning process, and about how far they still have to go. Errors provide feedback. They provide feedback not only for the teacher, but, far more important, they provide feedback for the learner himself. Errors provide feedback for the teacher as to what students have been able to learn, what still needs to be learnt and if a different approach or different materials need to be used. Errors provide feedback for the learner as to where he is and what he still needs to know: he finds out whether his hypotheses about the language are right or need to be reviewed. The implications of the significance of errors are that learners must be allowed, not to say encouraged, to take risks. They must know that risk taking is important in the learning process and that they are not always expected to play it safe. It also means that their mistakes should, at some stage, be corrected, though this will not necessarily happen immediately. IV. Students reaction to correction You may have noticed that some students prefer to be corrected later in the lesson in order to get explanations and understand the nature of the mistake. They probably do not like to be interrupted when they are trying to communicate or feel embarrassed, like many students do. Other students like to be corrected on the spot - it is an indication that the teacher is paying attention and helping. It is important that teachers find out their students preferences in relation to error treatment and do their best to encourage a positive attitude towards error correction. This can be done if the teacher talks to students about correction at the beginning of the term, shows them the importance of taking risks in the process (and, consequently, of making mistakes) and shows them that even native speakers (and teachers!) make mistakes. It is also essential that, whenever an error is corrected, the teacher shows a non-judgmental attitude by treating it in as natural a manner as possible. The teacher can also minimise mistakes in the classroom by giving clear instructions, by balancing easy and difficult tasks and by providing enough controlled practice before students attempt to use the language more freely. V. Types of errors Besides treating errors differently according to students preferences, teachers should also consider the types of mistake made in order to deal with them in the most effective way. The areas of language affected by mistakes may be: pronunciation (sound, sequences of sounds, stress, linking, rhythm, intonation); grammar (word form, word order, right elements but wrong construction);
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lexis (word choice); appropriacy.

TASK 4
Look at a few common errors and try to identify the types of mistakes. STUDENT ERROR 1.Why you are crying? 2.No one doesnt know the author. 3.Im here for two weeks. Im leaving tonight. 4.Please, remember me of the document we have to send. 5.(at a snackbar) Would you be so kind as to give me a hamburger, please? 6.Im staying in a big hotel. /htl/ 7.You are coming for supper, arent YOU? TYPE

Comments: 1 - This is a grammatical mistake involving word order in the interrogative form; 2 - Another grammatical mistake: a double negative; 3 - Another grammatical mistake: this time, in the choice of the verb form to express the intended meaning; 4 - A lexical mistake: the wrong word was chosen; 5 - This is a problem of style: the form used is too formal for the context; 6 - A pronunciation mistake: wrong word stress; 7 - Another pronunciation mistake: this time, in sentence stress (intonation). VI. What to do Having identified a mistake the teacher has to decide what to do. There are three ways in which the teacher may respond to spoken errors: do nothing; correct it immediately; store it away for later.

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TASK 5
Look at the following comment made by a teacher and see to what extent you agree with him/her: My policy for correcting depends more on the stage of the lesson than on the nature of the mistake. If its a language input lesson, I think I correct all the problems that the students have with the target language with great attention, sometimes it may be just a slip of the tongue or it may be that perhaps the language hasnt been presented properly, but at that stage of controlled practice I do correct a lot. But except when drilling a model sentence I would not at that stage correct other things which are not directly related to the target language. (taken from Bowen & Marks. Inside Teaching.) Now, in the following table, write down situations in which you would choose to tolerate the mistake, correct it on the spot or deal with it later in the lesson. do nothing correct it on the spot correct it later

Comments: You probably remembered a time when you decided not to correct a students mistake because students hadnt learned the form yet or because students were engaged in a communicative activity at the freer practice or production stage and the error did not hinder communication. You might also have decided to tolerate the mistake because that was not your teaching focus in the lesson or even because the student was too shy and was struggling to use the language. Language used in class for social interaction, like talking about the weekend at the beginning of a lesson, may also involve no correction at all. Teachers usually decide to correct mistakes on the spot when the wrong form produced is their teaching focus at the presentation or controlled practice stage. They might also choose this attitude if the mistake affects intelligibility or if the learner likes being corrected, but, in this case, the teacher should avoid interrupting the student too often. Learners who are very young may also benefit from immediate correction more than from later treatment as they tend to concentrate on meaning and not to remember the forms used.
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The third option, delayed correction, may be a good choice when the mistake was made during fluency work, does not affect comprehension but deserves further practice or explanation. Recurrent mistakes (made by the same or by various students) would be included in this group. One of the teachers hardest tasks in the classroom is to make a quick decision every time a mistake is made by a student. As mentioned in the comments above, in order to decide how to treat an error the teacher needs to balance factors such as: intelligibility, centrality to the teaching focus, type of activity, stage of the lesson, type of mistake, the learners level, age, preferences and needs, the frequency of the mistake.

Unfortunately, there is no mathematical formula to combine these factors, but if teachers are aware of them, decisions are more likely to lead to positive results. VII. Indicating and correcting spoken errors Apart from deciding whether to correct a mistake or not and when to do it, the teacher also has to decide how to do it. There is a number of techniques the teacher may use both to indicate that a mistake has been made and to make the correction itself. As far as correction is concerned, the teacher may decide to provide the correct form himself or to encourage self- or peer- correction. You may have noticed that some teachers provide the correct forms themselves. They reformulate what students say and ask for repetition of the correct form. With this choral repetition most students feel at ease and are able to produce the right language. Teachers may also encourage self- or peer-correction. The teacher may indicate that a mistake has been made by using gestures (the finger technique) or by verbalising his/her rejection of the form produced by the student ("uh, uh", "no a"). A good technique is to ask for clarification using words such as "sorry?" or "pardon?" or to echo what students say with a rising intonation ("husband?", "is?") and, once again, encourage peer- or self-correction. An alternative option is to ask a question ("wheres the stress?"), or show examples by pointing to visuals or to rules that have been explained before. Once again, the idea is to attempt to have students produce the right forms themselves. Some teachers use humour to indicate the mistakes. However, teachers should be careful and consider possible reactions by students. It is essential that a friendly atmosphere is built between teacher and students and that individual personalities are taken into consideration.

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TASK 6
Ask to observe a colleagues lesson and focus on the following: 1. the ways in which the teacher indicates to student(s) that there is an error of some kind in their utterance, 2. the technique(s) used to correct the mistakes and 3. the students reaction. By student reaction we mean you should notice whether the student was able to understand the correction and produce the right form, and if he felt comfortable (not embarrassed) with the correction. Use the table below to register your observation. INDICATION CORRECTION STS REACTION

VIII. What to do with recurrent mistakes The fact that students have been exposed to language and teachers have provided explanations and practice does not guarantee that students will not make mistakes. It takes them some time, a lot of exposure and practice to internalise correct forms and to be able to produce them. Even when they consciously know the rule, they continue making mistakes when producing language. It is important that teachers monitor students production and recycle language as often as possible. Clearer presentations may be offered, further practice may be provided and remedial and self-access work may be suggested.

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IX. Delayed correction Clearly a major part of the teachers job is to assess the students work, to see how well they are performing or how well they performed.
(Harmer, J., The Practice of English Language Teaching, p.237)

Depending on the stage of the lesson, or the aim of the activity, this assessment can take the form of on-the-spot correction or delayed feedback. Delayed feedback takes place after students have been involved in a communicative activity, and the teacher brings to their attention the errors they have made, commenting on how well they have performed linguistically. In order to record the errors and organise feedback, the teacher can make use of pen and paper listening in and writing down the errors that are made while the activity is in progress. When the activity is over, the teacher can encourage the whole group to discuss the most prominent or serious errors from the list, ask pairs of students to identify the errors and correct them, give small cards to individual students, detailing the errors they made and suggesting remedial work. As regards error correction, the basic principle is that students learn more effectively if they are guided in such a way that they eventually correct themselves rather than if they are given the correct version of something straight away (Gower and Walters, 1983). Teachers may: allow the students to produce utterances, and experiment with the language, without interrupting the flow of communication; take notes while the activity is in progress, in order to show to students, later on, that some utterances were not accurate; isolate the parts of the utterances that were wrong, and indicate precisely what kinds of errors were made; try to involve all the students in the correction process, so that individual students dont think they are being picked on. X. Dealing with written errors Dealing with written errors also implies the teacher has to balance several factors and make decisions. Different techniques may also be used depending on the kind of written work, on its purpose, on the teaching focus, on the students level and on the teachers aim when giving feedback.

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TASK 7
Select a piece of writing developed by one of your students. Correct the written piece of work and then analyse your correction with your Branch Mentor, explaining the rationale behind the marking process. When marking written work, teachers should: encourage self- or peer-correction as much as possible (e.g. use of a code) use some minutes of class time for correction be selective about mistakes (e.g. the most serious ones or mistakes in verb tense choice) make correction look neat and not aggressive respond to content as a reader, not only as an assessor point out positive aspects of students work offer suggestions of ways to improve

Bibliography: Bowen, T. & Marks, J. Inside Teaching. Oxford, Heinemann, 1994. Doff, A. Teach English. Cambridge, CUP, 1988 Edge, J. Mistakes and Correction. London, Longman, 1989. Hubbard, P, Jones, H, Thornton, B, & Wheeler, R. A Training Course for TEFL. Hong Kong, OUP, 1983 Teaching and Learning in Focus - Volume 6. The British Council, 1984.

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SOME MORE PRACTICAL IDEAS

Apart from the ideas given in the body of this pack, here are some more that you might want to try: More ideas for elicitation If you want to elicit a series of contributions from different students (e.g. when doing a collaborative oral narrative or an association game) without intervening to nominate, you could use some sort of hot potato (e.g. a soft ball or a fluffy toy). When a student finishes what he has / wants to say, (s)he throws the hot potato to another student, who then has to take the turn to speak. (N.B. This type of stimulus will not work well with restless students.) If you want to elicit plenty of contributions from the students during the pre-listening/reading stage of a lesson, you could write some words / phrases taken from the text on the blackboard in random order, and then get the students, in groups, to try to reconstruct the contents of the text. If the words chosen are slightly ambiguous, different predictions will be generated and interest will be enhanced when the class listen to / read the text to check their predictions. An alternative to the activity above is to write quotes from the text on the board and, again in groups, ask the students to speculate about who could have said that to whom, and why. Again, they will predict a context for the utterances, and more interest will be generated if the quotes also have a degree of ambiguity. More ideas for monitoring of classroom activities: establishing monitoring routines If your students tend to stop their pair/group work when you approach to monitor, you could say something like Dont let me interrupt you, Im just listening, or Carry on, Im just listening. If your students look at you as if they were about to ask you questions, gently gesture to them to go back to their work, and at the same time (while still smiling) look at your notepad and go on making notes. More ideas for treating spoken errors: If you want to indicate that a mistake has been made, roughly in the same way as you would if you were using the finger technique, you could use cuisenaire rods instead of your fingers. When giving a model, place the rods (different colours, different sizes) where the students can see them, leading them to associate each rod with a word. When a mistake is made, point to the rod that stands for the word that contains the error or has been left out. If you want to personalise the feedback on language you give after a fluency-oriented activity, use a sheet of paper per group to note down mistakes while you monitor the activity. Having taken meaning-oriented feedback and praised the groups for accomplishing their task, give each group their feedback and ask them to correct the mistakes made (which are now anonymous).
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Monitor this activity, too, and give help / further explanations if necessary, to ensure successful correction. (NB: the groups can be asked to produce posters with the corrections, to share the result of their work with the rest of the class, and this can be left on the notice-board for some time.) A variation on the activity above is to ask the students themselves to note down anything they think is a mistake (or anything they wanted to say but didnt know the word in English for) while theyre doing their fluency-oriented task. After the activity, they can add their notes to the teachers and request the group to clear up their doubts. If you want to encourage peer-correction / peer-help but think the students might feel embarrassed if you asked another student to correct what they cant produce accurately, you could establish a routine whereby they themselves say Help or Pass when they are in doubt about something, or when you have indicated a mistake which they feel they cant correct. More ideas for correcting written errors If you want to indicate where mistakes have been made and what kind of errors they are without using a code such as SP= spelling, WO= word order, etc, you could circle or underline different kinds of mistakes using different colours. Having done that, you could ask the students to work in pairs or in groups to correct the mistakes that have been indicated in their assignments. If you feel your students need personalised help to be able to overcome their difficulties, you could write a number next to their error and write comments at the end of the work (positive comments, rules, explanations, questions for clarification, etc.). If you want the whole class to work together on correcting common errors, you could write a selection of these, taken from a recent writing task on the board or on a transparency, and do whole-group correction. A variation on the idea above is to divide the class in groups, write sentences with mistakes on the board and have a competition in class. (The teacher calls out a sentence and a group corrects the mistake to score points.) If you want to make sure that a neat copy is produced after the errors have been corrected, you could place the inaccurate sentences on the board under a heading that reads Dont, then get the students to write the correct sentences down on slips of paper which they would then stick up on the board to build up a new column under the heading Do. The above are only some of the good practical ideas that abound in each branch. Most of those described above have been contributed by branch staff, whom we would like to take the opportunity to thank warmly once more. Perhaps you would now like to get together and add to the list?

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