Dtlls_-_Analyse_a_Chosen_Resource

The text was taken from Writing Skills: A problem-solving approach by Coe, Rycroft and Ernest (see Appendix 1). The book is a FCE level textbook, originally published in 1983, and from this we can surmise that some, if not the majority, of the tasks will be more relevant to the lives of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students as opposed to ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). It is not an ideal distinction but for the purposes of this essay is taken to mean those students from overseas who are here to improve their English before returning home, or going onto university/further study and those who have settled in the UK and need English for their everyday lives, who often have a refugee/asylum seeker background or speak a community language respectively. Learners: This is a group of L1 learners, some of whom are working towards the Skills for Life examinations in all skills. The learners are all from outside the UK, with the largest country groups being represented by China, Iran and Afghanistan. One Chinese student is classed as a home student equivalent, whereas the remainder are Full-time Overseas Students (International). The majority of the students have a refugee/asylum seeker background, with a further two coming from Holland. Their ages range from 18 to mid 40s. Additionally, whereas the International students have all completed secondary education and perhaps the first years of a degree course not all the refugee/asylum seekers will have done so. This is especially so for the younger members of the class, who perhaps left their countries before completing secondary education. Few of the students have jobs; those that do are employed part-time in jobs ranging from taxi-driving to health and social care. The majority of the class are in receipt of some form of benefits, either Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) or NASS – payments made to asylum seekers. The text has been made to resemble a page from a travel brochure or one-page advertisement, which could appear in a newspaper, magazine or Sunday supplement. The body of the text is placed to the right-hand side of the page and consists of short paragraphs, lettered from a) to k). The paragraphs are of varying lengths. Some words and phrases in the text are emboldened. There is also greyed out images of palm trees, to the left of and behind the text. There is no variation in the font size and no title. The text is black and white, with the exception of the greyed-out image. The font size is quite small, less than 11pt but is consistent with the font size you would see in a newspaper, magazine or travel brochure. The text focuses on a cruise ship holiday - the types of travel involved, such as travel by both air and sea. It also gives details of what to expect on such a journey, whether it is the practical details of travel eg flying from Heathrow to the luxury and enjoyment you will feel on such a holiday. . The task was difficult one for learners to relate to, as over half the group are on some form of benefits eg JSA, NASS payments, in low-paid employment or are international students. It is unlikely that they are in a position to go on a cruise. Nor is it part of their culture – the exception being my South Korean student, who was not present. So the motivation for the task would have to come from another source. Motivation, as identified in Reece and Walker (2006) can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is seen as having a greater positive effect. Aspiration is one such factor influencing motivation – students may want to do well so they can pass examinations and progress to another level. Less than half the learners in Group C are entered for the Level 1 Reading or Writing exam, so we could no longer rely on this motivating factor. For those students deferred from the earlier Speaking and Listening exam, links had to be established to that exam. Two of the conditions were met in this case. Firstly, familiar material – the subject had been previously introduced and secondly, surprise – challenging the students and presenting work in a different context. For second language acquisition to take place, one of the most well-known theorists, Krashen has put forward 5 main hypotheses. Here, the focus will be on 2 of those. The Comprehensible Input hypothesis (Lightbown and Spada, 200') states that we acquire language by receiving input that is 'just beyond the learner's current second language complexity, so that a learner needs 'i+ 1', where 'i' represents the level of language already acquired and '+1' can be seen as different aspects of language mentioned previously. For the group this condition was met – but each student was at a different level. To balance this out the students worked in pairs, so they could put forward ideas, discuss them and have them rejected or accepted by their peers or the teacher. (Post Krashen) Barriers In Hedges (2000) it is said that different types of knowledge are needed to make sense of a text. These may be divided into linguistic and schematic knowledge. Linguistic knowledge refers to syntactic – looking at the grammar of a sentence – and morphological – information relating to words eg word families. Schematic knowledge, on the other hand, includes 'general world, sociocultural, topic and genre knowledge'. Certain words or phrases would be expected to 'activate prior knowledge'. For a British (read L1: language) learner the following: ships, cruiser, Caribbean, taken with the image of a palm tree, would instantly conjure up images of islands, white sand, blue sea and skies – in other words, a holiday abroad and not just any holiday but one that would incur great expense. If you go on a cruise, it is more than a journey by ship. It suggests a certain degree of luxury, where you eat, sleep, are entertained in a variety of ways. You can, if you wish, stay on board the entire journey or disembark to enjoy the sights. For L2 learners this connection would not be automatic and a series of guided questions asked by the teacher or some type of activity – vocabulary, reading or video, may need to be used to get them to the same point. As previously mentioned, these are outside the students' cultural reference. The Caribbean has many links to the UK, and is a ‘form of shorthand’ for holiday destinations as well as being a source of youth and street culture. The text consists of jumbled sentences and will therefore need to be reordered. To do this there has to be an awareness of certain features, which will enable the learners to determine the order of the text. Lexical cohesion: Paragraph (a) refers to ' these lucky ones'. Which raises the following questions, which lucky ones, who are the ones, why are they lucky' Students will need to locate theses 'ones' elsewhere in the text. It also shows it cannot be the first paragraph as it is referring to something else. Synonyms or related words: 'these lucky ones', 'the passengers', 'them';'sea', 'seafaring', 'cruise', 'cruiser' and 'on board'. Discourse markers or signposts will serve to move through the text. In the example, we have 'so' and 'what's more'. The vocabulary in the text focuses on leisure time activities, plus a number of adjectives, with positive connotations are employed. Thus, we are aware that the text is trying to portray something in a positive light. Why this activity' This lesson took place after a week of working on similar themes (see Appendix 2 -scheme of work featuring information sheets/leaflets). This was done as a consolidation activity as the learners' schemata had already been activated, in terms of task and what was expected of them. It further served the purpose of practising cohesion. As stated earlier the students have been entered for various Skills for Life examinations: Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing. I felt the text would prove beneficial on several levels. '/// talks of the importance of meeting the needs of individual learners and at this stage of their course the learners are concerned, as I am their tutor, with the exams at the end of their course. For reading, the exam the learners will take is the Literacy level 1, which is not an ESOL qualification but a national qualification taken by native speakers. Many of the texts in the exam will be unfamiliar to ESOL learners, in terms of context. However, they still have to answer the questions relying on the reading strategies they have learnt in class. The ESOL core curriculum Rt/L1.1a states that learners should ‘recognise that choice of language, structural and presentational features reflect the purpose and genre of a text’. The text serves this purpose in that it addresses the reader directly through the use of ‘you’; the style is informal as evidenced by the use of contractions, ‘it’s’ and ‘don’t’. ‘What’s more’ is chosen over the more formal ‘in addition’ or ‘moreover’. As mentioned earlier, there is also the use of lexis with positive connotations that suggest something special. For example, ‘unforgettable’, ‘holiday of a lifetime’ and ‘the world’s leading cruiser’. The description of the book says the ‘tasks provide practice in… developing the non-linguistic skill needed in writing, namely the ability to organise information’ (Coe et al, 1983). The task removes from the learner, the pressure of having to create the text and only to have to organise the information, using cohesive devices as a guide. Once the text is ordered the learners can ‘notice’ the language and the features relevant to brochures/leaflets. In other words, the text can serve as a model. The learners can then further analyse the text to confirm what features are used in brochures/leaflets. The task can be extended by getting stronger learners to create a suitable title. Even for those learners entered only for the Level 1 Speaking and Listening exam this task can be said to be relevant. In Phase 1b of the exam, the learners have to give a presentation. The presentation asks for ‘demonstrating an ability to develop detailed ideas on a topic, sequenced in a logical way,’ (Skills for Life Teaching Resource). By linking the text to the various exams or ILP targets learners were working towards this ensured that they were kept motivated and worked surprisingly well on the task. Whilst recognising barriers to learning that the text might create, overall the positives outweigh the negatives.