Pranjana Kalita Nath PhD student, Dept of ELT, Gauhati University, Assam, India &

1. The Role of Printed Materials in Promoting Reflection in Distance ELT Teacher Education Programmes PranjanaKalitaNath PhD student, Dept of ELT, Gauhati University, Assam, India & Master trainer, AHA Project, British Council - SSA Assam

2. The context • Regular Vs Distance training (DE) • Different approach in DE • Discussion on reflection often situated in regular training (Teacher present as facilitator)

3. Why discussion on printed materials • Most common practice of course delivery in DE in India • Even now, printed materials are used more than other options • Discussion applicable to other modes to some extent

4. Self learning materials (SLMs) and Reflection • Characteristics • Self-learning, self-directed, self-explanatory, self-guided • Apprehensions

5. Promoting reflection Presenting print materials in such a way that they • Provide stimuli for thinking • Engage learners in activities • Help them use the ability to reflective skills • Why • Adult learners • Learner autonomy • Fill the gap created by absence of teacher

6. What to do ‘…….instructional designers and academics should allow distance learners to be more reflective, to give personal views on topics, to debate and argue their points of view, to question information given by the instructor and textbooks, based on personal observations and knowledge acquired elsewhere.’ (Tam 2000) • Balance between support/input and reflection or thinking

7. A Demonstration • Model used: Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson et al, 2000) • Create • Evaluate • Analyze • Apply • Understand • Remember • Reason for choosing

8. The original text (slightly modified) Inter-language Interference There is an influence of the properties of the L1 on the course of L2 learning. The learners transfer sounds, structure and usage from one language to the other. Transfer is of two kinds – the positive transfer and the negative transfer. Positive transfer is the result of similarities between the L1 and L2, while negative transfer is the result of differences between the two. The latter is known as interference. Positive transfer makes it acceptable to use the L1 habits in the L2 settings. For example, the assumption that the subject goes before all other units in a positive sentence satisfactorily transfers from Telegu to English. On the other hand, in negative transfer L1 habits cause errors in L2. For example, Subject-Object-Verb order does not satisfactorily transfer from Telegu to English.

9. R E M E M BER & UNDERSTAND Introducing the topic Language Transfer/Interference English is not our mother tongue. In most cases in our daily life, we talk in our mother tongue, i.e. in Tamil, Telegu, Assamese, etc. So when we speak in the second language, i.e. English, it is often influenced by our mother tongue. This is called interference or language transfer. For example, Assamese people often find it difficult to pronounce /f/ or /ʃ/ because it not there in their mother tongues. So while speaking in English, they often pronounce ‘ship’ as /sip/ instead of /ʃɪp/and /phan/ instead of /fæn/. Have you ever noticed such influence among the people in your region? If yes, make a list of them below. (If you are an in-service teacher, you might think of your students coming from different regions, and note if you observed any such influence among your students.) …………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………… Example Think of own context Think of own classroom context

10. Examples & information In the example given above regarding Assamese speakers, the speakers transfer sounds from their mother tongue to English. Sometimes the structure or other features might also be transferred. For example, Telegu speakers easily transfer subject in the sentence-initial position to English language, because it is there in Telegu language also. For example, In Telegu, ManamuandaramuBharateeyulam. (Subject) In English, We all are Indians. From the above two examples (the first one in Assamese context and the second one in Telegu context), we can see that language transfer can be of different types. In the first case, transfer happened due to differences between the two languages (Assamese and English). This phenomenon is called negative transfer. In the second case, transfer was the result of similarities between the two languages (Telegu and English). This is called positive transfer. Now think of some more examples of positive and negative transfers from your own mother tongue to English language. Make some notes in the following space. …………………………………………………………… More info APPLY

11. ANALYZE According to you how is language transfer relevant to language teaching? In case of positive transfer, we don’t need to worry at all. But negative transfer calls for specific strategies for language teaching. As a language teacher, which of the following things would you do with your students if you find negative transfer? • Ignore it • Explain the concept of negative transfer • Ask students not to be influenced • Design activities focusing on areas of negative transfer to minimize it When you are aware about the areas of negative transfer among your students, that will help you to identify the areas to work on to help your students improve their English. For example, if you find that many of your students find it difficult to use the verbs ‘drink’ and ‘eat’ because there is one single word to refer to both in their native language, you can design activities around this learning point. So we can see that Option 4 given above is correct. Now look at the following case study.

12. Next steps: • (Case study) a teacher designs an activity focusing on an area of negative transfer. • A list of a number of activities. Learner will choose which one is appropriate for a particular case of negative transfer. • Guiding learners to design an activity appropriate for addressing a particular case of language transfer. EVALUATE CREATE

13. Analyzing the activity • Scaffolding for reflection • First step may not be reflection oriented; gradual shift to advanced reflective skills • Input between steps • Other features of SLM • personalization (personal pronouns, slightly informal language, direct questions) • simple language: short sentences, small paragraph • Contextualization

14. THANK YOU