Guided Practice: A Proficient Approach to Teaching Oral Communication

1. Guided Practice: A Proficient Approach to Teaching Oral Communication Ms. Haning Z. Hughes – Assistant Professor of Chinese Lt Col Barry L. Savage – Assistant Professor of Chinese United States Air Force Academy

2. Guided Practice: Background United States Air Force Academy • Chinese programs • Textbooks for 1st , 2nd, and 3rd year Chinese courses: Integrated Chinese by Yuehua Liu and Tao-chung Yao • Chinese Courses and Class Sections • Beginning Chinese: Chinese 131, Chinese 132 • Intermediate Chinese: Chinese 221, Chinese 222 • Advanced Chinese: Chinese 321, Chinese 322 • Advanced Chinese – Special Topics • Chinese 365: Chinese Culture and Civilizations • Chinese 376: Chinese Literature Introduction • Chinese 491: Chinese Idioms; Learning Chinese Through Daily Newspaper Reading • Chinese 495: Chinese Military Studies • Chinese 499: Independent Study • Total Student Enrollment: 225 • Total Class contact hours: 160 for 1st year, 80 for subsequent years • Chinese Immersion Programs • Spring Break Military Academy Exchange Program • Summer Language Immersion Program • Cultural Immersion Program • Semester Study Abroad Program

3. Guided Practice: Conceptual Framework • Cognitive Theory • Second-language learning: acquisition of a complex cognitive skill • Proficiency results from practiced, automatized, integrated, and organized rule systems that are constantly restructured as language develops • Automatization: making a skill routine through practice • Automatic processing built through consistent practice so that it becomes a learned response over time (McLaughlin, 1987) • Controlled processing: response has not yet been automatized • Skilled automatic performance can be interpreted as a sequence of transitions from controlled to automatic processing (Shiffrin and Schneider, 1977) • Automatized and controlled processes: viewed as ends of a continuum • Complex information-processing skills involve a shift with practice, from controlled to automatic processing (Schmidt, 1992) • Organizational structure imposed on new information • As new information is learned, existing organization must be restructured (Anderson, 1995)

4. Guided Practice: From Theory to Practice • A need for guided practice • Break out of comfort zone • Avoid repetition of familiar words and grammar • Encourage use of newly learned words and sentence structures New Input Oral Proficiency

5. Guided Practice: From Theory to Practice • Automatized, communication-focused practice • Monologue • impromptu speeches • Real life experiences • News at the academy and around the world • Dialogue • Student to student • Discussion on any suggested subjects • Student to teacher • Discussions on questions raised by the teacher • Content-aimed communication practice • Review textbook material contents via questions and answers • Review theme-specific contents via questions and answers

6. Guided Practice: From Theory to Practice • Controlled, guided oral communication practice • Monologue • Prepared speeches • Previously prepared /written passages • Designated vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures • Emphasizes new learning • Dialogue • Student to student • Previously prepared / written passages • Designated vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures • Emphasizes new learning • Encourages collaboration and mutual learning through group work • Student to teacher • Focused questions generated by teacher to enhance guided practice • Examines and assesses newly learned materials • Maintains focus on the targeted subjects • Synthesizes authentic and classroom learning experiences

7. Guided Practice: From Theory to Practice • Controlled, guided oral communication practice • Specific guidance given at the beginning of each new chapter • Guided practice only on lessons three and four of each chapter • 53 minutes lesson total every other day • Oral communication practice takes place at the beginning of each lesson, approx. 15-20 min. • Students choose their own dialogue partners • Clear, precise instruction provided • Specific topic • Minimum number of new vocabulary must be used • Minimum number of specific grammar points/sentence structures/useful phrases must be employed

8. Guided Practice: From Theory to PracticeAn Example of Guided PracticeChinese 322 (Third Year, Second Semester Chinese)Chinese 222 (Second Year , Second Semester Chinese)第二十课：运动 • Monologue: at least 5 sentences • Scenario: talk about your workout routines or your favorite sports • include 10 new words of your choice from the vocab list • choose 5 of the following sentence structures/grammar usage • 当然 • 简单 • 多… 哪/啊 • 愿意 • 那么 • 被 • 担心 • Dialogue: at least 5 sentence per person • Scenario: discuss what types of exercise will help the most with one’s health • include a total of 12 new words of your choice from the vocab list • choose 5 of the following sentence structures/grammar usage • 没… 了 • 最 • 应该 • 看/想/猜不出 • 说/胖/吃下去 • 为了 • 跑/说/起来 （打起球来）

9. Guided Practice: From Theory to Practice -- 4th year (Senior) -- Semester Study aboard -- Previous Chinese experience -- 2nd year (Senior) -- summer immersion -- 3rd year (Freshman) -- high school -- 2nd year (Sophomore)

10. Guided Practice: Discussion Advantages • Comfort zone breakthrough • Utilization of new vocabulary and grammar • From controlled processing to automatized processing • Improvement in other language skills • Listening, reading, and writing • Improvement in presentation skills • Thoughtful choice of word usage • Enhanced collaboration and mutual learning among students • On-the-spot error correction • Immediate feed back • Enhances memory on correct usage of terms • Reduces mistake reoccurrence • Learning opportunities for others in class • Assessment/evaluation • Oral proficiency continuously assessed vs. once or twice per semester • Extremely positive student feedback Points to ponder • Connections between chapter themes • Better oral assessment tools • Students hand in guided practice written scripts • Appropriate time distribution for speaking practice in classroom • Further research on this approach

11. Guided Practice: Questions ? Contact info: • Haning.Hughes@usafa.edu (719)333-2298 • Barry.Savage@usafa.edu (719)333-3199