March 22, 2013 - PM - Communicative Approaches/Arabic/Other

Easy Collaborative Learning Activities for a Student-Centered Classroom, By Serena Chu, Laney College. Submitted by Jenell Beever-Powell 

Collaborative learning has many benefits for students. It creates a student-centered classroom where learners not only develop communication skills but also social interaction skills. It also addresses different learning styles and establishes an environment of cooperation. This kind of learning reduces anxiety, fosters faster critical thinking and students learn more quickly. Plus, it's fun!

 

A few of the activities were the Three-Step Interview (Student A interviews B then the pair shares the info with another pair); a Jigsaw;Think-Pair-Share; a KWL chart (very good for pre-reading); Inner-Outer Circles; Give One, Get One (Students fold a paper into 9 squares. Students then write down one piece of info they know about the topic in each square but do not fill in all the squares. Students then mingle and discuss what they know with their classmates. As they gather info, they fill in other squares.); and Gallery Walk (In groups, Ss discuss and respond to photo or quotation on poster boards. Hang posters on wall. Ss are given sticky notes. They peruse the "gallery", responding to their classmates with comments written on sticky notes. Students return to original poster and read/discuss comments. Follow up by students choosing one quotation/photo and doing a journal writing on it for homework.)

  

Stephanie Owens and Rebecca Guler

Effective Academic Intervention for Arabic Speakers. Presented by Rebecca Guler and Stephanie Owens. Submitted by VirginiaDelgado.Your takeaway:Any class with Arabic speakers can be an opportunity to develop needed metacognitive skills.

For discussion, the presenters presented summaries to consider:

--Saudi students who begin at lower levels are more likely to fail. Therefore, beginners need more intervention. In particular, they lack literacy and phonetic knowledge.
--Elicit and discuss their problems and solutions with them

Also, share and model successful problem-solving strategies. For example:  How would you approach this? If I were you...

You will likely see handwriting issues. These can be a symptom of problems with
--reading comprehension
--notetaking skills
--inability to keep up in listening speed

Discuss with your students what may be going on and help them compensate, or adjust teaching.

Help for reading comprehension difficulties: have students read short  passages with questions that are similar to questions in tests to help them prepare for final exams. Give them a goal for time: finish this reading in 15 minutes. Next time, 10 minutes. Work with detail questions: Arabic users excel in inference and gift but struggle with the detail level.

Metacognition is also an issue: they "don't know what they don't know." lead related discussions about what they need to learn and why.  Give study skills surveys with questions such as (give a continuum going from never to always):
--I bring a pencil to class
--I turn my phone off
--I take notes
--I ask when I don't understand
--I re-write my notes at home

Exit tickets: Before students leave the class, have them reflect to 'get out of class":  Reflections: what worked? What didn't work? What has been difficult?  One thing you learned that has been useful. One thing you are still not sure about.

Exam reflection: return essays with a questionnaire: where did you lost the most points? What section was easy for you? do you need to change your strategy? What word did you misspell most often?

Contact smatson@els.edu if you would like a copy of the powerpoint for Stephanie and Rebecca's presentation

Crossing Orthographies: Strategies for Improving Literacy in Arabic L1 ELLs. Presenters: Amanda Lanier Temples and Kimberly Kleiber, Georgia State University. Submitted by Ellie Leith

This very interesting session focused on issues faced by Arabic L1 learners when moving from writing (and reading) Arabic to English. With the recent increace of Arab student enrollments at US IEPs, it is timely and useful for our ELS program to understand why these learners have some of the specific difficulties that challenge them, and some precise ways in which to assist them even better with their language learning challenges.

The presentation began with a discussion of common problems instructors have noticed with Arabic L1 ELLs: spelling...especially using vowels, handwriting that doesn't stay 'on the line', and using the 'be' verb. The speaker went on to share some basics about Arabic which explain some of these problems. For example, in some Arabic orthographies, vowels are implied in writing; this explains why they often have such a difficult time using the correct vowels and why they seem to focus on the consonants more. The speaker equated this idea to Americans dropping vowels in situations such as text messaging ('thx', 'bfr', 'bcz'). According to the speaker, handwriting in Arabic has more freedom in artistic expression (moving above or below the line may be acceptable in some situations). The speaker also shared that the 'be' verb (in the present tense, specifically) is problematic for Arabic L1 ELLs because they simply don't use this verb in the present tense in the same way English speakers do. For example, in Arabic the sentence "I in the room" would be perfectly fine; the 'am' is implied in this situation and explains why these learners often need lots of work with the 'be' verb(she is, he is, we are, I am...etc.) as it may seem redundant or unnecessary to them.

This was an amazing session! I can't wait to learn more about how to help our large groups of Arabic speakers succeed in learning English.

Motivation and the Vision of Knowing a Second Language. Presented by Zoltan Dornyei, University of Nottingham. Submitted by Dan Manolescu

What attracted me to this presentation was the fact that, approximately half hour before it started,  Professor Dornyei was in front of the lectern, surrounded by several attendees, and welcoming everybody who entered the hall. The person who introduced him said that this was the equivalent of the keynote speech. And indeed it was…

The speaker began his outstanding presentation by joking about his accent and mentioned that vision is everywhere. After a quick definition, he gave us a quotation:

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.” (William Arthur Ward, 1921-1991)

According to Dornyei, in order to succeed in the ESL world, students and teachers are looking at three necessary ingredients: motivation, vision, and the individual. The L2 motivation has its own set of rules: the learner’s internal desire, social pressure, and the actual experience. Most teachers use the word goal but the presenter preferred vision because there is slight difference.  If you are an athlete and you want to go the Olympics, you have a goal, but if you already see yourself on the podium, you are talking about vision. The last, but not least, Dornyei says we should also pay special attention to each student individually because everybody is a separate entity.