t is also possible to have a less compartmentalised approach where thefour strands blend into each other.

opic type analysis works well with texts that have a clear communicativepurpose and that use only one or at most two topic types.

Detailed note-taking like this may be useful if the learners are eventuallygoing to write about what they have read.

Taking Notes from a TextAfter looking quickly at the text, the learners decide what topic type it is.Deciding on the topic type is similar to answering the general question“What am I supposed to learn from this text?”. If brief notes are going tobe taken, they should possibly focus on the obligatory part of the topictype, for example the steps in an instruction text, or the parts in a physicalstructure text. If the learner wants to take detailed notes, it may be worthfilling in an information transfer diagram based on the parts of the topictype (see Nation and Newton, 2009 for more discussion of informationtransfer). Here are some examples

Predicting from the Title of a Text

Knowledge of topic types is useful when predicting the kind of informa-tion that will be in a text, when taking notes from a text, and when evaluat-ing the adequacy of a text

The following skills are needed when using topic types to help gatherinformation for writing.1. The learners need to be familiar with the few topic types that arerelevant to their area of study. They need to know the parts of each ofthese topic types.2. The learners need to be able to relate a particular topic to a particulartopic type

Note that using topic types helps in the gathering of information butdoes not say how the information should be organised nor how it shouldbe expressed

Although texts may differ in the topic they deal with, they may be similarin that they are all based on the same topic type. For example, a recipe forcooking fish curry, a set of instructions for using a cell-phone, a set ofdirections to a place, and a description of a teaching technique are allexamples of the instruction topic type.

The purpose of this chapter is to look at one way of analysing the kind ofinformation that occurs in non-fiction texts. The reason for doing this is toprovide learners with a strategy for gathering information to write on aparticular topic, and a strategy for taking notes from a reading text or alecture. Using topic types is most suited to learners who are of at leastintermediate proficiency. It is particularly suited to learners with academicgoals. Topic type activities are well suited to group wor

Research on this activity with first language learners shows that learnersmake very substantial progress in accuracy and comprehension. The tutorsalso make progress in their reading (Rasinski and Hoffman, 2003; Topping,1989).

Theactivities are divided into three groups which are in order of development.The first group of reading fluency activities involve reading aloud. Suchreading is a very important first step towards the second group of activitieswhich involve careful silent reading. The third group involve “expeditiousreading” or skimming and scanning very quickly to get a particular pieceor a particular type of information. Skill in careful silent reading is animportant prerequisite to most skimming and scanning

The first condition needed for a fluency development activity is that thelearners should be focused on the message. In repeated reading this condi-tion is met by having a listener. The reader is trying to communicate themessage of the text to the listener. The second condition needed is that thematerial should be easy. It is important to choose texts for repeated readingwhere all the vocabulary is known and there are not too many irregularlyspelt words. The third condition for a fluency activity is that there shouldbe some pressure to perform at a faster than normal speed. In the repeatedreading activity the repetition provides this encouragement. To strengthenthis condition, the time taken to read the text could be noted for eachreading and the reader should be trying to beat their previous speed for thesame text. The fourth and final condition is that there should be quantityof practice. In repeated reading, the text is not very long but the repetitionsmean that there is quite a lot of reading practice. To truly be a fluencydevelopment activity these four conditions need to be met.

There are two main paths to fluency. One could be called “the well-beaten path” and the 4/3/2 activity is an example of this. In such activities,repetition of the same material is used to develop fluency. By doing some-thing over and over again you get better at doing it. The second path tofluency could be called “the rich and varied map”. In such activities, thelearners do things which differ slightly from each other but which draw onthe same kind of knowledge. A good example of this is easy extensivereading where learners read lots of graded readers at the same level. Thestories differ but the same vocabulary and grammatical constructionsreoccur and the learners develop a rich range of associations with thewords and constructions.

The 4/3/2 speaking activity involves learners working in pairs and onemember of the pair speaking on a familiar topic to the other (the listener)for four minutes. Then they change partners. The speaker remains as aspeaker and the listener stays as a listener. The speaker now has to give thesame talk to the new partner in three minutes. The partners change againand the same talk is given for two minutes. When the two-minute andfour-minute talks are compared, it is typically found that: (1) the speed ofspeaking has increased in terms of words per minute; (2) the number ofhesitations has decreased per 100 words; (3) the number of grammaticalerrors in repeated sections of the talk has decreased; and (4) there are twoor three more complex sentences in the two-minute talk compared withthe four-minute talk.

When people read, three types of action areinvolved—fixations on particular words, jumps (saccades) to the next itemto focus on, and regressions (movements back to an item already lookedat). This means that while reading the eyes do not move smoothly alonga line of print, but jump from one word to another.

This discussion of guidelines for an extensive reading programme hasfocused mainly on learning conditions and research and has not givenattention to more practical factors such as how to organise and manage alibrary of graded readers, how to obtain graded readers, and how manyare needed to set up a library. These issues are well covered in Day andBamford (1998).

Elaboration involves the rewriting of texts but it involves adding to theoriginal text rather than removing or replacing what is there. Theunknown words in the text are, in effect, glossed in the text itself.

One of the best computer-assisted reading programs can be found onTom Cobb’s website www.lextutor.ca. Look under the heading Read withresources. The learner pastes in a text, clicks build, and then starts reading.By clicking once on a word, a spoken form of the word can be heard.By clicking twice, several concordance examples appear. These additionalcontexts can help with guessing the word’s meaning from context clues.By clicking on a dictionary link, the word can be looked up in one ofseveral possible dictionaries. To make use of this program texts need tobe in computer-readable form, but there are now thousands of suchtexts on the web—out of copyright classics at project gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/), and newspapers at the internet public library.Such support effectively individualises intensive reading, allowing learnersto seek help of various kinds where it is needed in a speedy way that doesnot take the learners too far away from the text.

In Japan, some English texts are printed with translations in a lightertype above the low frequency word in the text.

Glossing involves providing the meanings of words in L1 or in a simple L2definition in the margin next to the line containing an unknown word.Some glossaries come at the end of a text, but learners prefer glosses nearthe unknown word, probably because these do not disrupt reading toomuch.

teachers need to monitor learners’ progress carefully by looking at theirrecord sheets, observing them while they are reading, and talking withthem individually about their goals, progress and problems. When learnersare not enthusiastic readers, it helps initially to make extensive reading partof the programme during class time, with the teacher ensuring that thereading is done. When learners become hooked on reading, it can then beset as an out-of-class activity.

they may read a Level 2reader, then a Level 5 reader, then a Level 3 reader, and so on. This does notmatter too much as long as plenty of enjoyable reading is done.

Help Learners Move Systematically Through the GradedReader Levels

A deductive guessing procedure involves the learners making a guess atthe meaning of an unknown word in a text and then justifying theirguesses. This involves a discussion of the various available clues.An inductive guessing procedure involves looking at the availableclues—the part of speech of the unknown word, its immediate context, andthe relationship between the clause with the unknown word and the adjoin-ing clauses (for a detailed description, see Nation, 2001; Nation, 2008). It isworth spending small amounts of time over several weeks or months onpractising guessing because it is a very powerful and useful strateg

the teacher should model the procedure for the learners, then worktogether with the learners on some items, then get the learners workingtogether in pairs and eventually working individuall

ne way an extensive reading programme can contribute to proficiencydevelopment is through vocabulary growth. This can be encouraged inextensive reading by making the vocabulary learning more deliberate andless incidental. Care needs to be taken, however, that this vocabulary learn-ing goal does not overshadow reading for pleasure.

A speed reading pro-gramme involves the learners reading texts that are well within theirlanguage knowledge; that is, they contain no unknown vocabulary orgrammatical features. Their reading of each text is timed, and their speedand comprehension scores are recorded on graphs so that learners can easilysee their progress and are encouraged to increase their reading speed. Prop-erly designed courses are usually very successful with most learners soondoubling their speed. A good reading speed is around 250 words per min-ute. Most learners without training read at less that 100 words per minute.The essential requirements for such a course are: (1) easy texts (Quinn,Nation and Millett, 2007; Millett, 2005 Books 1 and 2; Nation andMalarcher, 2007); (2) regular practice (about three times a week); and (3) apush to read faster (see Chapter 5).

The aim of all these activities is to keep learners excited about readingand wanting to read more

The Extensive Reading Foundation has been set up to recognise qualityin the production of graded readers. Awards are given to the best bookseach year just like the Oscars for movie

ditional activities to motivate reading may take a bit more time. Theremay be a slip of paper in the back of each book for learners to record theiropinion of the book. Other learners considering whether to choose to readthis book could look at this slip of paper to see what others thought of it.

most extensivereading programmes do not require learners to do elaborate comprehen-sion tests or exercises on the books they read. Generally, learners are simplyrequired to fill out a short record form indicating the name of the bookthey have just read, its level, the date, how long it took to read, and a briefcomment on the quality of the book (Was it a good story? Would yourecommend it to others?). Twelve or more of these short report forms canbe printed on one piece of A4 paper, allowing the learner and teacher to seeat a glance how much has been read over what period of time.

eachers’ judgements of books are likely to be differentfrom learners’ judgements of books, and learners’ judgements shouldget priori

t is thus not important to stick to only one series of graded readers. It ismuch better to choose titles from any of the available series that are inter-esting and well written. Hill (in Day and Bamford, 1998) provides a veryuseful list of what he considers to be the best graded readers and this is avery valuable starting point in building a collection of graded readers. Asthere is no recent report of what learners enjoy most, it is worth collect-ing data on this. The Extensive Reading Foundation website (http://www.erfoundation.org/) is also an excellent source of award-winninggraded reader title

order to know at what level learners should begin reading, it is usefulto measure their receptive vocabulary size. This involves measuring theirknowledge of the most frequent 2,000 words of English. The test developedby Schmitt, Schmitt and Clapham (2001) provides a means of doing this.There are also very useful bilingual vocabulary tests which can be used todo this (see the Vocabulary Resource Booklet at http://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/staff/paul-nation/nation.aspx)

It is thus important to make sure that there are repeatedopportunities to meet the same vocabulary in reading, and these repeatedopportunities should not be delayed too long. Teachers considering settingup an extensive reading programme should understand very clearly thatsuch a programme needs to involve large amounts of reading and needs tocontinue for a long time. If this happens, the results will be impressiv

This quantity of input needs to be close to 500,000 running words peryear, which is equivalent to 25 graded readers a year, or one and a halfsubstantial first year university textbooks, or six unsimplified novels. Thisneeds to continue over several years. In the following discussion of plan-ning and running an extensive reading programme, we will look atthe conditions for learning that need to exist, the quantities of text thatlearners need to read, how to keep learners motivated, and the principlesthat teachers should follow in running the programm

Vocabulary

earning gainstend to be fragile and thus it is important to have quantity of input withsubstantial opportunities for vocabulary repetition.

To predict what will occur in the followingtext, the learners can draw on several generalisable systems of knowledge.These include features that we have looked at earlier in this chapter—grammatical features (particularly verb forms and noun groups), conjunc-tion relationships, and topic types

he vocabulary learning strategies of guessing from context, analys-ing words using word parts, and dictionary use deserve repeatedattention over a long period of time. These strategies can be practisedwith both high frequency and low frequency words.

Vocabulary teaching during intensive readingneeds to share the time in the language-focused learning strand of avocabulary programme with deliberate learning using word cards, vocabu-lary strategy training, and vocabulary teaching not related to intensivereading.

Concept-oriented reading instruction (CORI) is an integrated strategyapproach to reading comprehension (Guthrie, 2003). It involves systematicexplicit instruction in the six strategies of activating background know-ledge, questioning, searching for information, summarising, organisinggraphically, and structuring stories. The strategy instruction involves work-ing through the sequence of modelling, scaffolding, and guided practice.Strategy practice should involve a minimum of 30 minutes per day

alincsar and Brown (1986) designed a procedure called reciprocalteaching which involved the training and use of four strategies whichcould be applied paragraph by paragraph to the text: (1) prediction of thecontent of the paragraph before reading it; (2) making questions focusingon the main idea of the paragraph; (3) summarising what has just beenread; and (4) seeking clarification on difficult points in the paragraph. Theset of strategies has been called “reciprocal teaching” and the idea is thatthe procedure is modelled by the teacher and gradually taken over by thelearners working in groups, and finally learners working independently.

There are several examples of a range of techniques and strategies whichare put together in an approach that is then given its own special name.These approaches are usually more than just a collection of strategies andinclude principles to guide the teaching and learning, and a theory thatjustifies the particular approach. Some of these approaches, such asreciprocal teaching and CORI, have been the focus of experimentalresearch.

The Focus of Comprehension Questions

In predicting the passage the learners see about eight topic-relatedwords taken from a text they are going to read. They use these words topredict what sort of text it is and what content it will contain (Rinvolucri,1981). Learners can also be encouraged to make questions rather thanstatements based on some starting point. Their reading attempts to findanswers to those questions. The starting point for the questions can be: (1)the title or the first sentence of the text; (2) the theme of the text; (3) thepictures which accompany the text; (4) the previous parts of the text(Henry, 1984)

Focusing on clues for prediction in this way applies the principle men-tioned earlier, a good reading exercise directs the learners’ attention tofeatures of the text that can be found in almost any text. That is, studyingtoday’s text makes tomorrow’s text easier.

is possible to devise comprehension activities for young learners at differ-ent levels of challenge using Bloom et al.’s (1956) six-level taxonomy.These six levels, starting from the least demanding, involve the focuses ofknowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation,four of which are described above.

The value in having a list of such focuses is that it allows teachers tocheck the questions they set their learners to see if they are providing asuitable range of focuses.

At their easiest, such questions could beanswered by quoting parts of the text. These questions would bemore demanding if the learners were not allowed to look at the textwhile answering the questions.

Question Forms

Typically comprehension questions are used as the major means of focus-ing on comprehension of the text.

In spite of these disadvantages, comprehension questions are usefulways of practising reading and of motivating learners to read.

One of the most important steps in Munby’s technique is discus-sion between the teacher and learners in order to eliminate thedistractors.The value of Munby’s technique is that through the discussion itbecomes clear to the learners that they have made errors in com-prehension and that these errors, as long as their causes are clearlyidentified, can be avoided by mastering recurrent language features.

By setting carefully constructed distractors we can train [thelearners] to reason their way through the linguistic and intel-lectual problems posed by the text. (p. xxii). . . in comprehension training we want [the learner] to recognizethe areas of comprehension error (through the distractors) so thathe learns to respond accurately and more maturely to what hereads. (p. xiii)

Comprehension questions are local rather than general. They focusattention on the message of a particular text and, although they mayrequire the learners to use more generalisable knowledge (like theinterpretation of reference words or modal verbs), this requirementis usually hidden to the learner, and often to the teacher, by themessage-focusing effect of the question.

Also, if the teacher understands what an exercise is trying to teach,they can judge the value of the exercise according to what they thinkis important for teaching reading.

f the learners were not successful on some parts of the exercise, thenthey should be aware of what they have to learn in order to do theexercise successfully with another text.

A good reading exercise directs the learners’ attention to the readingtext. That is, the learners need to read the text or at least part of it inorder to do the exercise.

A good reading exercise directs the learners’ attention to features ofthe text that can be found in almost any text, or to strategies fordealing with any text, with the aim “to develop in the languagelearner the ability to comprehend texts, not to guide him to com-prehension of a text”

The effect of this teaching should be to get learners to actually learn spe-cific features or to make them aware of these so that they notice them infuture reading and thus have a greater chance of learning them later.

1. Comprehension. Intensive reading can aim at understanding a par-ticular text.2. Regular and irregular sound-spelling relations. This can be donethrough the teaching of phonics, through teaching spelling rules,and through reading aloud. This is covered in Chapter 2 on soundsand spelling.3. Vocabulary. Learners’ attention can be drawn to useful words, andthe underlying meaning and use of these words can be explained.Words from the text could be assigned for later study.4. Grammar. Difficult grammatical features can be explained andanalysed.5. Cohesion. Learners can practise interpreting what pronouns refer toin the text, what the conjunction relationships between sentences are,and how different words are used to refer to the same idea.6. Information structure. Certain texts contain certain kinds of informa-tion. Newspaper reports, for example, can describe what happened,what led to the happening, what the likely effects will be, who wasinvolved, and when and where it happened. Learners can be helpedto identify these different kinds of information. This is covered inChapter 9 on topic types.7. Genre features. The vocabulary, grammatical features, cohesive fea-tures and information all contribute to the communicative effectof a text. Intensive reading can focus on how the text achieves itscommunicative purpose through these features and what this com-municative purpose is.8. Strategies. Intensive reading can be used to help learners developuseful reading strategies. By working intensively on a text, learnerscan practise the steps in guessing from context, using a dictionary,simplifying difficult sentences and taking notes. They can alsoreceive training in integrated packages of strategies. In this chapter,strategies are included in the sections on comprehension, vocabulary,grammar and cohesion.

1. Focus on items that occur with high frequency in the language as awhole (see Table 3.1 for examples). Such items will occur often inmany different texts.2. Focus on strategies that can be used with most texts (see Table 3.1for examples).

3. Quickly deal with or ignore infrequent items.4. Make sure that the same items and strategies get attention in severaldifferent texts.

First, the features given attention to may be anuncontrolled mixture of useful and not very useful items. That is, highfrequency and low frequency vocabulary, frequent grammatical items andvery infrequent or irregular grammatical items may get equal attention.Second, the topic of the text determines the salience of the items and theteaching gets directed towards this text rather than what will be useful in arange of texts.

Intensive study of reading texts can be a means of increasing learners’knowledge of language features and their control of reading strategies.

Fluency in spelling will come from large quantities of reading and writing,and from fluency practice in reading and writing. A typical writing fluencydevelopment activity is ten minute writing where learners write as muchas they can on an easy topic in a regular, timed ten-minute period. Theteacher does not correct spelling errors or grammatical errors, butresponds to the content of the text encouraging the learner to write more.The speed of writing in words per minute is kept on a personal graph byeach learner and their goal is to see their speed in words per minuteincrease. This is done about three times a week.

Learners should have familiar and well-practised strategies to follow to:(1) commit the spelling of a newly met word to memory; (2) find thespelling of a needed word when writing; and (3) decide how to pronouncea newly met word when reading. These strategies should be made up ofactivities that have already been practised in class.

1. Free vowels occur in the patternfree vowel+consonant+vowel.date, medium2. Checked vowels occur in the patternschecked vowel+consonant with nothing following the consonanthat, fetch, sip, lot, shutchecked vowel+consonant+consonant (+consonant)+vowelhappen, better,sitting, bottle, funny

Here are the rules associated with the free and checked vowels. Theserules apply only to stressed syllables.

free and checked vowels.

A few very common complicated rules deserve a bit of deliberate study,particularly for advanced learners.

The Deliberate Study of Regular Correspondences and Rules

The critical factor is making sure that there is an appropriate balance ofeach of the four strands so that there is some deliberate attention to spell-ing but this attention does not become excessive.

Writing activities that can help with spelling are copying, delayed copy-ing, read and write from memory, dictation, the various forms of guidedwriting, writing with the help of a dictionary, and free writing.

In the early stages of writing by young native speakers, teachers acceptthe invented spellings they produce as useful steps on the way to moreaccurate spelling.

The more learners read, the more their spelling will improve. Continualreceptive exposure to the written forms of words provides a useful basis forlater written production

The effect of age on learning Older learners are better at deliberatelearning.The role of developmental sequences Complex items need to be learnedthrough a series of stages.The treatment of error Letting students invent spellings canhave positive effects.

Phonological awareness affects readingand reading can affect phonologicalawareness.

Poor spellers have problems in writing—they use avoidance strategies.

eliberate versus incidental learning Deliberate analytic learning can speedup learning and can help with learningproblems. Regular tests help.Most learning is incidental.Substantial reading improves spelling.

System learning versus item learning Some words can be dealt with by rules,others have to be learned as uniqueitems.The unpredictability of the Englishspelling system is a major obstacle tolearning to spell.

Spelling is a very limited and clearly definedarea, involving only 26 letters and a definable set of combinations of letters.Working within this limited area makes the issues clearer and easier to dealwith in a comprehensive way.

A reading course should cover these purposes—reading tosearch for information (including skimming and scanning), readingto learn, reading for fun, reading to integrate information, reading tocritique texts, and reading to write. These are looked at throughoutthe following chapters.

Learners should be familiar with a strategy packageprocedure like reciprocal teaching or concept-oriented reading(CORI)

The way correction and pronunciation practice is done can affect thelearners’ attitude to changing their own pronunciation.

Learners need practice in transferring what they have practised in con-trolled situations to unmonitored spontaneous use.

Pronunciation is not given any special attention but meaning-focused speaking activities which can affect pronunciation are partof the listening and speaking programme.

Producing Sounds

Ifthe teacher wants the learners to make further improvement, she musteither explain to the learners how to make the sound, show the writtenform of the sound, or use some “trick”, such as forcing, to help the learnersmake the correct sound (George, 1972). As well as giving a model forlearners to copy, a teacher thus needs to be able to provide other help inteaching pronunciation.

The learners listen and repeat. Locke (1970) found that after alearner had copied a model to pronounce a new sound twice, there wasvery little further improvement.

The first step is for thelearners to repeat the sound copying the teacher. If this is not suc-cessful, learners can be helped to pronounce sounds if the teacherexplains the position of the tongue and lips, and explains what typeof sound it is. If the learners still cannot make the sound after tryingto copy the teacher and listening to the explanation, there are severaltechniques that they can use to force their mouths to the correctposition. The technique that is used often depends on the type ofmistake that the learners make.

each the learner to hear the wanted sound by using distinguishingand identifying activities. (Compare it with the sound the learnerusually puts in its place, and other sounds that are like it both in thefirst language and the foreign language.) Distinguishing shouldcome before identifying.

Tongue-twisters like “Round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran”or “She sells sea shells on the sea shore” are very difficult for nativespeakers of English. For learners of English as a second language theyare a cruel and unusual punishment.

reading aloud was more difficult than imitating forcorrect pronunciation if the spelling system was misleading

It is easier to pronounce a problemsound if it is in a word that does not bring other sound associations.

In general, it was found that classroom factors,like the quantity of English lessons and whether the teachers were nativespeakers, were not important factors.

f they are stable,there may be value in encouraging change. If they are changing it may bebetter just to observe.

This means thatteachers should not classify learners’ pronunciations too quickly as errors,but should look to see if they are stable or changing.

Just as there is an interlanguage stage for grammaticaldevelopment there is a developmental interlanguage stage for phonology.

• The first language has an allophone not in the second language(Samoan [t]).• The second language has an allophone that is not in the first language(dark [l], aspiration).• The second language has a phoneme that is not in the first language(/ð/).• The learner has to use a first language phoneme in a new position(final /t/ for Chinese speakers).

Learners’ pronunciation will improve when they feel more comfort-able about the way they sound when they speak the foreign languageand when they develop positive attitudes towards the native speakersof the foreign language.

It is thus important thatattention is given to pronunciation in the course so that learners canquickly develop a stable pronunciation, and become familiar with the pat-terns and rules that work within the second language.

If learners do not have a stable pronunciation for a word, itcannot easily enter long-term memory because it cannot be held in thephonological loop

There is a very important mechanism involved in workingmemory called the phonological loop. In essence, the phonological loop isthe brain saying a word or phrase over and over to itself in order to keep itin working memory or to help it move into long-term memory.

Aside from the content andlanguage difficulty of the text, the main factors influencing the degree ofchallenge in the activity, are:• the number of repetitions, speed or time that the learners have tocomprehend and retain the input• the length of the delay between the input and the production of theoutput• the degree of detail and resemblance of the input expected in theoutput.

If each learner has a different text, the retelling can combined with the4/3/2 technique (Maurice, 1983), where the same information is told bythe same person three times. Each time, however, it is told to someone whohas not heard it before and with less time (four minutes, then three min-utes, then two minutes) to retell it. This results in increasing fluency in theretellings (Nation, 1989a; Arevart and Nation, 1991)

In the dicto-comp the learners have to remember the ideas in atext of more than one hundred words long and express them in the wordsof the original or in their own words.

Dunn (1993) cau-tions that expecting learners to reconstruct a formally identical text mayresult in strange grammar in the reconstruction as the learners try to fittheir notes into the text. This problem may be solved through having longtexts, encouraging the learners to take non-linear notes, and expecting aninterpretive summary rather than an exact reconstruction.

Text comparisonbetween groups

Text reconstructionin groups

In the dictogloss activity (Wajnryb, 1990) learners listen to a short textread twice to them while they take notes. In small groups they reconstructa written form of the text from these notes.

Dictation and its related activities work mainly at the phrase and clauselevel. The dictation-based techniques described below work with muchlarger units of language

The relation of memory span to foreign language learning is greaterfor contextual material than for numbers.

Unlike dictation, this technique is ideally suited forindividual practice

from book to brain, and then from brain to mouth. That interval ofmemory constitutes half the learning process . . . Of all methods oflearning a language, Read-and-Look-up is, in our opinion, the mostvaluable.(West, 1960: 12)

At first thetechnique is a little difficult to use because the reader has to discover whatlength of phrase is most comfortable and has to master the rules of thetechnique. It can also be practised at home in front of a mirror. West seesvalue in the technique because the learnerhas to carry the words of a whole phrase, or perhaps a whole sen-tence, in his mind.

The main difference between the four techniques is the medium ofinput and output. Dictation has listening input and written output.Delayed repetition has listening input and spoken output. Read-and-look-up has reading input and spoken output, and delayed copying has readinginput and written output.

Eachworking with a tape-recorder, the learners have to make their own tran-scription of the text, using the rewind and pause buttons on the tape-recorder to keep listening to the text until they can make an accuratetranscription.

Then when she reads a phrasefor the learners to write, she reads the phrase quite quickly so that the goodlearners can write it and then she waits a few seconds and reads the phraseagain more slowly for the other learners

If the emphasis is on speaking and listening and not reading and writ-ing, the teacher can sit outside the classroom and say the sentences to thelearners.

While readingit, the learners can be told to pay particular attention to verbendings, plural s, etc. by underlining them. The learners can practisepronouncing the words in the text.

This makes sure thatthere is a strong focus on wanted constructions, and the eventual dictationbecomes more like a learning experience than a test.

Focusing, hold-ing them in short-term memory, and repetition are the means of learning.

The value of a dictation is increased if the learners know what mistakesthey made.

A dictation text is a piece of connected language about 100 to 150 wordslong. It is usually chosen so that it is reasonably complete in itself andcontains material that suits the level of the learners for whom it isintended. The teacher reads the whole text to the class. Then she reads itagain, this time pausing after she reads a group of three to seven words, sothat the learners have time to write the words. After the text has been readin this way and the learners have written it, the teacher reads it againwithout pausing after each phrase but only at the ends of sentences.

Dictations help language learning by making learners focus on thelanguage form of phrase and clause level constructions, and by providingfeedback on the accuracy of their perception.

it remains a valuable teaching technique, and vari-ations on dictation such as dictogloss and running dictation are verypopular with learners and teachers.

This writing is affected by their skill in listening, theircommand of the language, and their ability to hold what they have heardin their memory.

Meaning-focused listening can be a very enjoyable part of the languagecourse.

An advantage of the topic type approach is that the learners becomefamiliar with a generalisable system that reflects the information structureof the topic and discipline that they are studying. This system is of valuenot only in note-taking from lectures but also in reading and writing.

While it is possible to envisage an unlimited range of topics whichmight be identified in ESP texts, there is a strictly limited set of topictypes. A topic type can be defined by means of its “informationconstituents”—certain categories of information which consistentlyco-occur over a wide range of different topics.

This finding fits in with the depth of processing hypothesiswhich suggests that the most important factor in remembering is not theamount of effort put in to remembering nor the motivation of the learner,but is the depth or thoughtfulness of the mental processing at the time thatlearning takes place

owever, as we shall see later, there are reasons why thiseffect may not be as important as the encoding effect.

Note-taking does two jobs: it stores information for later use, and itprovides the opportunity to encode information. These two effects arecalled the storage effect and the encoding effect.

Note-taking is a meaning-focused listening activity. It is also an essentialskill for academic study where learners have to attend lectures in anotherlanguage, but can be used in various forms at all levels of languageproficiency.

Learning strategies—strategies for noticing language forms in theinput in their independent listening, for example negotiating (seekingclarification), listening for patterns, focused listening.

Communication strategies—strategies to assist comprehension, forexample making predictions before listening, listening selectively,knowing how to interrupt politely, etc.

Learners may have problems with recognising word forms and keep-ing up with what is coming in.

Goh (2000) proposes that the first stepin strategy training involves finding out the particular problems that learn-ers face in listening comprehension.

This broad negotiation can improve com-prehension, help learning, and also help develop strategies for deal-ing with difficult input.

nteractiveactivities where learners can control the speed, repetitions andamount of accompanying explanation through interacting with theperson providing the input.

Listening while reading. While they listen the learners see the writtenform of what they are listening to. This can include a written text, aPowerPoint presentation, and captioned movies.

Most of the activities described above provide some kind of supportthat makes listening easier

Other topics include movies to see, places to visit, job advertisements,ranking topics such as favourite weekend activities, prediction about thefuture, favourite books, favourite foods, ways to save money and livecheaply . . . the list is endless!

1. Cut out a few “to let” ads from the newspaper.2. Record a conversation between you (“Tom”) and a friend (“Ahmed”)in which you discuss:• information in the various ads and personal preferences regardingthis information• a ranking of the flats in terms of preference.3. Design an information transfer table such as Table 3.2 below.

who then draw it, thus adding another valuable listening opportunity tothe activity. The same diagram can become a template to be used regularlyin lessons.

In this way, information transfer provides an intermediary bridgeor link between input and output which discourages learners from relyingtoo heavily on direct copying from the original text, but which still pro-vides them with a conceptual scaffold for rebuilding the original text intheir own words or for another purpose.

information transfer also hasa useful role in pushing learners’ production. It does this by providing asimplified or diagrammatic representation of the original input whichlearners can use to “reconstitute” the text in their own words.

Information Transfer

In other words, the conceptual workthat learners must do in a well-designed information transfer activityencourages deep understanding and is particularly good for intellectualdevelopment in young learners.

almer (1982) has an excellent list of other suggestionsclassified according to the type of diagram used. He uses the categoriesof maps and plans, grids and tables, diagrams and charts, diaries andcalendars, and miscellaneous lists, forms and coupons. The followingsuggestions add to Palmer’s examples.• The learners listen to a report of a robbery and draw the robbers’route through the house on a diagram of the house.

Most information transfer activities focus the learners’ attention on thedetails of the information used in the activity.

This support acts as a temporary bridgewhich learners use to reach the target.

n note-taking activities learners canwork in pairs to take notes, and if the lecturer provides time for learners todiscuss the input with each other at points during the lecture this can helpthose who are getting left behind keep up with what’s going on.

Learners can be guided through the text by using completion activitieswhere part of the text is provided but the learners must fill in the gaps, byusing ordering activities where the main points are provided and thelearners must put them in the correct order, having questions to answerthat cover the main points of the input, and having information transferdiagrams to fill in or pictures to label.

Similarly, working ona theme that continues over several days can provide useful contentsupport for listening activities, because the learners’ content knowledgeincreases as they keep working on the theme.

The topic of the text can come from the learners’ previousexperience and may be based on a first language text.

Supporting Listening

By setting up cooperative learning arrangements (for example,shared reading approaches).

By providing prior experience with aspects of the text (i.e., withlanguage, ideas, skills or text-type).

There are lots of variations on the listen and draw exercise. For thefollowing exercises each learner needs to have a copy of a picture

The descriptions should not be brief;they should add several bits of irrelevant information, should be repeti-tive, and should be interesting and lively.

Listen and choose exercises are similar to picture ordering and sameor different. The learners listen to a description and choose the picturethat is described from a set of similar but slightly different pictures. It iseasy to tape-record such descriptions without much preparation so thatthey can be used for self-study listening

The What is it? technique (Nation, 1978) has already been described as away of guiding early listening and speaking. It can also be used to producelarge quantities of recorded material for developing the listening skill, andas well is useful as an impromptu technique

In picture ordering (Flenley, 1982) the learners see a set of pictures thatare in the wrong order.

In oral cloze exercises the listeners listen to a story and occasionally(about once every 50 words) the teacher pauses so that the learners canguess the next word in the story.

How is stress and anxiety being controlled?

Can the learners understand the input?How are the learners assisted with understanding the input (e.g.through controlling the difficulty of the input or through activitiesthat scaffold learning)?How are new language items being made comprehensible andhow is skill development being scaffolded?

What learnable language, ideas, skills or text types (L I S T)

Does the input contain useful or interesting information that willattract the learners’ attention?What features of the input make it useful or interesting and willengage learners’ attention? How are activities associated withlistening engaging the learners’ interest?

Is the input a piece of meaningful communication?

In children’s classes, the prototypical teacher-fronted listening techniquefor meaning-focused input is listening to stories.

Teachers need to find anappropriate balance between providing opportunities for listening skilldevelopment through meaning-focused listening and through language-focused learning which focuses on bottom-up listening practice.

bottom-up listening skillsand presents some detailed proposals for assisting learners with lexical