It feels right, but is it? Intuitions, hard evidence and teaching

1. It feels right, but is it?Intuitions, hard evidence and teaching Amos Paran MA TESOL (F2F & Distance) Institute of Education, University of London a.paran@ioe.ac.uk

2. Sources of knowledge Intuition/common sense Anecdotal evidence Practitioner evidence Systematic research

3. What is research? Answers a question Evidence Systematic data collection Reliable sources Valid and reliable methods Systematic analysis Interpretation Used in future decisions

4. Areas focused on in talk • The age debate • Guessing word meaning in reading • ‘Real’ English • Reading strategies

5. Is it better to start learning a foreign language at an earlier age? The intuitive answer: Of course it is! A more careful answer: contexts are very different and the answers may be different according to context. Anecdotal evidence Confirmation bias A celebratory approach

6. Differences between younger and older learners Mihaljevic Djigunovic, Nikolov and Ottó 2008: In previous studies, ‘the younger the learners were, the slower their development was’ (p. 434) Abello-Contesse 2009: older learners are more efficient

7. Mihaljevic Djigunovic, Nikolov and Ottó (2008) • ‘prompted by a general observation that young Croats seemed to be better at English than their Hungarian peers’ (p. 433)

8. Mihaljevic Djigunovic, Nikolov and Ottó (2008) • Hungarian learners start younger • Hungarian learners study in smaller classes • Hungarian learners have more classes a week.

9. Mihaljevic Djigunovic, Nikolov and Ottó (2008): Findings Croat 8th graders were better than the Hungarian 8th graders on all measures. This was statistically significant. But: in the Hungarian sample, earlier start was correlated strongly with better results

10. Mihaljevic Djigunovic, Nikolov and Ottó (2008): Findings ‘…early start, more classes and small groups, while extremely important, do not guarantee higher achievements. The importance of these factors as well as their interaction should be considered against a host of other variables, the most important of which, in our opinion, are the quality of teaching and exposure to and practice in the target language.’ (p. 448)

11. Pedagogical implications • Start later? • Invest in teacher training? Who are the implications for? Who controls the response?

12. Training language learners to guess infer words from context Each of the words below from the text can have the trhee different meanings given. Look back to the text and decided which is the correct meaning in the context 1. agenda (Text A) a. a list of things to be discussed at a meeting b. things to do c. a plan that is not made public 2. proper (Text B) a. correct or appropriate b. morally or socially acceptable c. real or serious (Baigent2004)

13. Training language learners to guess infer words from context You have by now discussed the following five techniques for guessing unknown words: • Relating the word to another word you already know • Understanding a word by contrast with another word in the sentence or the text • Understanding the sentence as a whole • Knowledge of the world • Relating the word to a word in your L1 (Paran 1991)

14. Training language learners to guess infer words from context For each of the words in bold in the extracts below, write down the meaning and the technique that you used to guess it. If you already know the word, think about the way in which someone who did not know the word could guess it. 1. This does not mean copying out passages….but rather jotting down the main ideas. Meaning: __________ Technique: ______________ 2. In reading, stop periodically (A, line 4) Meaning: __________ Technique: ______________ 3. When we concentrate, we’re only using the left hemisphere of our brain (B, line 10) Meaning: __________ Technique: ______________

15. Guessing Inferring word meanings The techniques do not always work: Galicia Fulget: ‘….el desarollo de Galicia entre 1460 y 1495…’ Rusia agrava la inestabilidad en Ucrania con su rechazo al nuevo Gobierno. El Poder judicial desmonta la ley de seguridad por inconsticional. El informe rechaza la regulacion de los cacheos y detenciones etc.

16. Guessing Inferring word meanings Catholic tastes a litany of ….

17. Inferring words from context (Haynes 1984/1993) The old baild licked his mouth happily as he lay on his side under the tall blue spruce. It was such a beautiful fall evening that he felt like taking it easy. “Tonight the moon is bright and the wind is silidon; I’ve had plenty to eat, the people have probably gone home for the night and I can enjoy a nice, quiet evening,” the old baild thought contentedly.

18. The old baild He had been really hungry earlier that day, tired out from many a useless chase. Upon his discovery of the smell of meat cooking, he had crept up on a campfire and, seeing no people or guns which could hurt him, had gotten his dinner quite easily by pulling it from the fire. Afterwards, he carried it in his mouth and ran up to the hilltop to tear it apart at his leisure. Finally, having finished his dinner, the baild looked around at the places where a hunter might come to find him.

19. The young brill • The young brill tapped his teeth together as he swam lazily in a wide circle around Brine Bay. It was such a peaceful spring afternoon that he felt absolutely on top of the world. “Today the sun is radiant and the waves are bimidor; I’ve got plenty to eat, the water has been getting warmer bit by bit, and I lead a most comfortable brill’s life,” he thought contentedly.

20. Haynes 1984/1993: Findings • The group was successful on the whole in guessing words that were locally constrained. • This was statistically significant for the Baild passage for three of the four language groups • For the Brill passage, difference between local and global not statistically significant: mainly because did not know ‘waves’. (Or thought it was ‘wives’).

21. Haynes 1984/1993: Findings (3) • Many resorted to non-contextual cues (e.g. using ‘tap-dancing’ to understand ‘tapped’). • Without contextual cues, guessing was very limited. • Mismatches: misreading ‘swam’ as ‘swan’; ‘crept’ is a kind of pancake; ‘silidon’ = ‘seldom’ • Uncertainty of familiarity

22. Factors influencing guessing from context (Nation 2001) Number of occurrences Proximity of occurrences Presence of relevant clues Number of relevant clues Local vs. global context (Proximity of relevant clues) Variability of contexts Density of unknown words

23. Factors influencing guessing from context (cont’d) Explicitness of relevant clues Importance of unknown word to understanding the text Prior knowledge of topic Familiarity of the content Familiarity of the references Concrete vs. abstract referents Amount of polysemy

24. Nassaji 2004 Correlated the depth of vocabulary knowledge with lexical inferencing success Learners whose depth of vocabulary knowledge was higher were able to infer the meaning of a larger number of words

25. Pedagogical implications • Just don’t do it….? • Do it with caution and check that the conditions are optimal? • Do it and hope that you are getting it right for some of the learners, some of the time? • Do it because this could be a good way to learn words? • Train the learners to do it because it is useful for language learning in general? (But training will take a great deal of time) .

26. ‘Real’ English The ‘real language’ debate The importance of authenticity Corpora Carter (1998) vs. Cook (1998)

27. What kind of language should we teach? Tails: He’s a real problem, is Jeff. She’s got a nice personality, Jenny has. Reporting verbs: Yes, Pauline and Tom were telling me you have to …

28. At the hairdresser’s A: Do you want to come over here? B: Right, thanks (3 secs) thank you A: Tea or coffee? B: Can I have a tea, please? A: Do you want any sugar? B: Er, no milk or sugar, just black thanks C: Right B: I hate it when your hair just gets so, you know a bit long (C: yeah) and it’s just straggly C: Right B: It just gets to that in-between stage (C: Yeah) doesn’t it where you think oh I just can’t stand it any more (2 secs) I think when it’s shorter it tends to, you notice it growing more anyway (C:mmm) you know it tends to grow all of a sudden . . .

29. At the hairdresser’s Jane: …. Oh, yes my husband’s wonderful Sally: Really? Is he? Jane: Yes, he’s big, strong and handsome! Sally: Well, my husband isn’t very big, or very strong… but he’s very intelligent. Jane: Intelligent? Sally: Yes, he can speak six languages. Jane: Can he? Which languages can he speak? Sally: He can speak French, Spanish, Italian, German, Arabic and Japanese. Jane: Oh! … My husband’s very athletic. (…… ) Sally: Yes, and he can sew, and iron. . . He’s a very good husband. Jane: Really? Is he English?

30. Pedagogical Implications • Teach features of spoken language to all learners? E.g.: • So what have you been up to? • How was your grandmother then? • It was a bit of a drag. • What makes you go ‘yuk’? • Cheers. (= Thanks; = Goodbye)

31. Pedagogical Implications • Carter accepts that ‘total reality’ cannot be achieved and that at least certain grammatical features of language need to be modified. • Teach features of spoken language to advanced learners.

32. Reading strategies: skimming, scanning, and all the rest • Strategies such as skimming and scanning are important reading tools. • We don’t need to read every word of a text. But is this true?

33. The ultimate scanner Speed reading: ‘I went to a speed reading course and was able to read the 1000 pages of Tolstoy’s War and Peace in half an hour, and I now know what it’s about. It’s about Russia.’ (Woody Allen)

34. What does research tell us? Most readers read every word of a text Good readers and good comprehendersrecognise words automatically Learners need to automatise their word recognition skills Learners have great difficulties in skimming

35. Reading strategies: skimming, scanning, and all the rest • How do our eyes move when we read? • When reading, our eyes move in saccades. Between saccades, the eyes are fixated on one spot. • Processing print happens only during fixations. • During fixations, we process (through peripheral vision) 4 characters to the left and 14 characters to the right of the point of fixation. (See Paran 1996)

36. The importance of automatic word recognition • Reading speed depends on how long we spend processing the words. • Efficiency: speed-up vs. automatization and unitization • If readers learn to process words very quickly and automatically, they can increase their reading speed. • Ifreadersautomatisetheirwordrecognition, more cognitivecapacityisleftforcomprehensionprocesses.

37. The Simple View of Reading RC = WR X LC Reading Comprehension Word Recognition ListeningComprehension (Gough and Tunmer 1986; Stuart et al 2008; Kirby and Savage 2008; Verhoeven and van Leeuwe 2012 for L2)

38. Akamatsu 2008 Training in automaticwordrecognition: Part of a regular readingclass. Sevensessions, onesession a week A wordchaintask: sunbendgivebearpen shallsattheatclaimhome snakepastwellshiftnone Ca. 30 chains in 90 seconds 150 words, including 50 target words

39. Akamatsu 2008 Automatizationmeasuredbyreading times forwords and byreadingaccuracy: Improvedspeed of recognisingwords Improvedaccuracy of recognisingwords Improvedspeed and accuracygreaterforlowerfrequencywords.

40. Repeated Reading (Gorsuch and Taguchi 2008) Unassisted vs. Assisted Repeated Reading Texts: short stories from pre-intermediate graded readers, ca. 500 words long. Texts read five times: silent timed; twice while listening; twice timed. Part of regular English skills class.

41. Repeated Reading (Gorsuch and Taguchi 2008) Reading speed increased within sessions and between sessions: from 163 and 217 wpm (1st-5th) to 261 and 351 wpm However, this gain did not transfer to the post-test texts (possibly a test effect -reading more slowly). Experimental group did better than control group on comprehension measures.

42. Pedagogical implications • Repeated reading is important • Exercises in word recognition can help • Reading and listening are connected • Importance of extensive reading

43. Becoming a discerning consumer • Our intuitions often tell us things that are wrong • Be aware of confirmation bias • Many answers are context bound • Some answers are extremely complex • Some research has to look at extremely small slices of the world • Some researchers have a strong agenda • Statistics are not always easy to understand • Sometimes we just want easy answers :-) • Question everything

44. Ending (No 1) The truth is rarely pure and never simple (Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest)

45. Ending (No 2) Research, especially educational research, is often about process, not product. It is about questions, not answers. Through engagement with the questions, we may reach some answers.