GRAMMAR and BEYOND

1. GRAMMAR and BEYOND Is it reallygoingbeyond? Seyit Ömer Gök GEDIZUNIVERSITY izmir 12 Dec 2013

2. Outline • What is innovative in thistextbook? • Context • Findings of Pre-use & In-useevaluation • Q & A

3. Introduction * 4-level series • * TeacherResources • TeacherSupport Resource • Bookwith CD-ROM • 2. Class Audio CD • 3. TeacherSupportWebsite • * Components forStudents • Student’sBook • Workbook • WritingSkills Interactive

4. Introduction * research-based * content-rich * contextualized grammar * students of North American English. * focuses on the grammar structures most commonly used in North American English * an emphasis on the application of grammar structures to academic writing. * practices all four skills

5. What Makes Grammar and Beyond Different? * Corpus-based information * Common mistakes sections * Writing practice in class

10. Context • - Izmir Gediz UniversityPrep School • 750 students • - Modular System (CEFR) / 2 montheach / B2 exitlevel • -At thebeginning of theacademicyear: • 60 % - A1 • 25 % - A2 • 10 % - B1 • 5 % - B2 • - 30-32 hourperweek in eachmodule

11. List of books A1 - Grammar&Beyond 1 (16 hour) + Grammar&Beyond 1 WB (3 hour) LL Elem (9 hour) 2 Readers (2 hour) A2 - Grammar&Beyond 2 + Grammar&Beyond 2 WB (22 hour) LL Pre-Int (8 hour) 2 Readers (2 hour) B1 - Grammar&Beyond 3 + Grammar&Beyond 3 WB (18 hour) Q-Skills 2 Reading (8 hour) Contemporary Topics Intro (4 hour) 2 Readers (2 hour) B2 - Grammar&Beyond 4 + Grammar&Beyond 4 WB (18 hour) Q-Skills 3 Reading (8 hour) Contemporary Topics Intro (4 hour) 2 Readers (2 hour)

12. Stages of Evaluation AdaptedfromMcGrath 2002

13. ‘Pre-use evaluation involves making predictions about the potential value of materials for their users’. Tomlinson 2003, 23 ‘In-use evaluation is most reliable when it draws on the experiences of several teachers and several groups of learners’ (McGrath 2002, 15).  ‘Post-use/retrospective evaluation’ carried out to weigh up the effects and outcomes of the materials (Ellis 1997; Tomlinson 2003; McGrath 2002)  ‘the most valuable’ type of evaluation (Tomlinson 2003)

14. Methodology •  EvaluativeCase Study • Central Phenomenon: The coursebook series • Mixed-Methods:‘QUAN + QUAL’ (Dornyei 2007, 169) -Questionnaire (Quantitative) Interpret: Interpretationbased on quantitativeandqualitativeresults

15. ResearchQuestions • To what degree does the coursebook series meet the needs, wants and interests of the end users, namely teachers and students? • 2. What are the attitudes of the teachers and students towards the coursebook series?

16. Data collectiontools andparticipants * In-classobservation + VSR (7 teachers) * Semi-structuredInterview (9 teachers) * Semi-structured Questionnaire (4-point LikertScale / 45 items in total) (160 students) * Semi-structured Questionnaire (4-point LikertScale / 81 items in total)(14 teachers) * Focus-groupinterview (19 students)

17. Findings Grammar and Beyond Level 1 A1 Module

18. Pre-use ‘+’ Integration of Writing Contextualized In the writing section, the studentsgo beyond sentence level and see themselves in real practice. This is a big plus, I suppose. The grammar structures are given in context, so the students can be asked to deduce the functional meaningsofgrammar topics. Activities Avoidcommonmistakesareveryuseful as showingwhat is grammaticallyincorrect is a goodwaytoteachwhat is grammaticallycorrect. I personallylikedthe ‘avoidcommonmistakes’ part.It is like a FAQ section of a website. Design Grammarchartsareembeddedwellintotheunits.

19. ‘-’ Level Level Thereadingtexts at thebeginning of eachunitare at timesmoredemandingthanthesubjectto be taught. The passages are long and a little complex at times. Content Pacing Thebook is tooloadedconsideringtheallocated time period. Thestudentsare not givenenough time todigestandmasterthegrammartopics. Activities Not enoughpair&groupworkactivities. Writing It is a good idea tointegratewritingintogrammar; however, thewritingsection of thebook is unnecessarilytoodetailed.

20. In-use GENERAL APPEARANCE

21. DESIGN AND LAYOUT LEVEL

22. LEVEL (VOCABULARY) Thevocabulary is toodemandingandthesentencesarecomplicated. I had tosimplifythetextsandgrammarpoints. GRAMMAR PRESENTATION

23. MOTIVATION

24. OtherFindings *Almost half of the students in A1 Level want to have explanations in Turkish. *Some of the students and teachers would like to have a revision part after every three units. * Most of the students inteviewed said that they found the ‘avoid common mistakes’ and ‘writing sections’ the most useful for themselves. They also stated that the book improved their writing skills best.

25. * Some of the teachers found the grammar charts unnecessary. However, the students said that these charts help them a lot. * The teachers and students find the book too intensive to be covered in eight weeks. * The teachers said that the ‘avoid common mistakes’ parts highlight the mistakes which are very similar to the ones their students usually make.

26. * The writing tasks require students to use certain structures, which sometimes constrains the students. * The listening tasks are used only for checking the answers.

28. Thank you! seyit.gok@gediz.edu.tr twitter.com/SeyitOmerGOK Website: www.seyitomergok.com GEDIZUNIVERSITY izmir