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A highly-integrated complex ER/EL program: Problems and prospects. Stephen Shrader and Rob Waring Notre Dame Seishin Women’s University ERF World Congress, Kyoto, Sept, 2011. Our OC course. We believe in: Autonomy and self-selection The importance of tasks and interaction
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A highly-integrated complex ER/EL program: Problems and prospects Stephen Shrader and Rob Waring Notre Dame Seishin Women’s University ERF World Congress, Kyoto, Sept, 2011
Our OC course We believe in: Autonomy and self-selection The importance of tasks and interaction The value of some teacher guidance and control Nation’s four strands meaning-focused input attention to language features/items meaning-focused output fluent 4 skills use of known language items We see our course as complex (language targets; tasks) and integrated (the parts reinforce each other).
Reading Listening Audio from graded readers Graded readers Self- selected fluency work ELLLO (with T guidance) Listening while reading in class (The Elephant Man) Teacher stories, demos Posters and presentations Non-fiction material tied to course book topics (Footprints) Non-self-selected fluency work Course book (Reading Explorer 2) Word lists Course book audio Course book video Language focus work
Most of it is concurrent Though we talked about it step by step, most elements run concurrently throughout the term! e.g. Alternating self-selected reading and listening week 1 with non-self selected materials the next. They read 6 GRs and 6 Footprints, 20 ELLLO, 6 Own Listenings Additional activities – reading reports The two classes met once per two weeks to do something (activity/presentation/poster or report their reading / listening). ExamView tests plus teacher quizzes
The data Data collection One semester of data so far Expect 2-3 years of data to be collected Pre-course data collected in first week (85 items) End of semester data collected in July (66 items) Background 40 female first year college students 2 regular classes per week @ 90 minutes (plus homework) 1 CALL class @ 90 mins
The data: Reading histories in English Prior reading was mostly of textbooks and course and exam related materials They had done very little reading of English content materials (comics, novels, poetry, magazines, newspapers etc.) 50% had read many / a lot of music lyrics, English webpages 46% had already read easy story books in English 88% read a lot/ often in Japanese
The data: Reading desires They reported wanting to read most types of reading materials – from newspapers and magazines to webpages Genre preferences were for fantasy, romance, drama, historical, adventure, crime, biographies but not sci-fi, sports and science Non-fiction was highly rated
The data: Little /no change over one semester Similar tendency / rates for need to look up unknown words Similar desire to be a better reader in English (high initially) Similar liking for listening while reading Similar levels of desire to understand everything when reading
The data: Minor changes since high school Our course book was less tiring and easier to understand than those in High School Increased desire to know more about the reading topic after reading Increased desire / liking for reading in English Increased perception of ease in reading in English Lowering of perception that reading is hard Increased desire in liking for listening Slight increase in desire to read in Japanese
The data: Larger differences They translated less frequently when reading (29% said a lot in April to 7% in July) Tendency to find their own non-course related reading material Increased desire to read something more challenging Increased desire to read more (in general) Increased desire to read more non-fiction Decrease in perception that listening is difficult Increase in preference for listening over reading Lessening of the desire to study alone
The data: Massive gains Self-perception of being a more confident reader 78% lacking confidence -> 83% felt confident
The data: Some negatives (but to be expected) Slight decrease in perceived English ability since entering uni Slight increase in realization they won’t be very fluent after graduation
The data: hard to interpret data Lessening in strong desire to read easy story books (46% to 24% strong). BUT also a lessening in desire to read something very very difficult (39% to 17%) and an increase in desire to read something a little difficult (44% to 73%) ?? They want to read something at or about their level or just above it (not too easy and not too hard)
The data: Learning habits Increase in autonomy Increased desire to ask questions / ask for help Less desire to stay quiet about their mistakes (but slight increase in desire for a teacher centered class) Increased tendency to see reading as a communicative act rather than for language study Slight increase in desire to focus on grammatical items Large increase in % of students who liked speaking in class Much greater tolerance for making mistakes Increase in clarity of the reason they want to study English
The data: Post impressions 83% reported some gains in reading speed (12% said a lot) 68% reported increasing reading speed is very important 63% prefer self-selected reading to teacher selected reading Moodlereader quizzes were hard (51%) to very hard (39%) even though most tests were passed 49% prefer Moodle tests to doing reports (39%) 68% said the text book was okay, 5% easy, 27% hard 46% said the amount of homework was just right, 29% a bit too much, 15% not enough 63% said the videos were okay, 27% said a little difficult
The data: Post impressions - reading The genre (54%) was most likely to determine if a book was borrowed, blurb 27%, cover 10%, recommendation 10% 32% read a bit before choosing, 34% selected on interest, 17% on cover and 15% on genre 63% said selecting the right reading level was important 29% very important, 7% not important
The data: Post impressions - listening 37% said selecting the right listening level was important, 59% a little important and 2% not important 34% selected from the blurb, 41% genre and 20% cover 17% can listen much faster, 76% a little faster than April 54% reported chatting helped them listen better than, ELLLO (32%) and own listening (15%) 80% report an increase in listening confidence 63% still report listening is hard, 37% not so hard 93% report wanting to listen more and 98% report they want to be a better listener than they did in April
The data: Post impressions - ELLLO ELLLO listening 71% selected on interest 51% said it was not easy to find suitable level material 39% said it was easy to find suitable level material 37% use pictures or interest (27%) to select material 27% read some of the text before listening 37% did many online exercises, 51% did few
The data: The ER program 98% reported the borrowing system was easy to follow 68% reported taking time to select their own reading / listening materials 10% quickly, 22% a long time
Some of the challenges: Lots of complex parts and deadlines to keep track of for... students... so the full course calendar needed for orientation by us… word lists were needed at the very start book orders filled before term start (class sets) sometimes limited resources, so activities can't overlap some tasks due on a certain day across classes, so schedule is important And... we wanted to demo all important tasks with both classes together, so all of that needed to be ready and teacher roles decided.
Responding to needs As the course progressed, we added Moodlereader for assessment Summer vacation weekly blogs (using blogger.com) Student portfolios In the future Put all audio and video on computer for students to self- access, add self study materials for songs Allow students to take Moodlereader quizzes / access ELLLO in the new self-access lab Add self access, self selected language focused study
Reporting We’ll finish the year, collect more data and report the data in a future paper. Thank you for your time.
Feedback please Is this too complex? Enough integration? How extendable would this be? What data should we collect? Should we add strategy development?
