A presentation of the language requirements, content and methodology suitable for Language Development for Teachers courses. Useful to Cambridge DELTA candidates working on their Module 3 and the LDT Specialism Useful, possibly to syllabus designers of such materials Useful to teachers who are looking for ways to enhance their own language knowledge and performance If looking for such a course, please have a look at the course at my centre: http://www.celt.edu.gr/english_for_teachers.htm delivered both face to face and online.

1. Free DELTA Webinar 18/09/2011
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
LDT
FOR TEACHERS
PRESENTER: MARISA CONSTANTINIDES,
CELT ATHENS

2. Language Needs
Preparation Instruction Feedback

3. Lesson Preparation &
Materials Design
Evaluate, Select, Adapt, Design, Create, Supplement, Research

4. Selecting Adapting Creating
1. Is the language accurate?
2. Is the language appropriate for
the context?
3. Does it sound like natural
spoken or written English
4. Are the contexts real to life?
5. Is it right for the level of
instruction?
6. Do the activities promote natural
language in context?
Note
A NEST non-teacher may have an intuition about 1-4 but
not about 5 or 6

5. Classroom Instruction
Instruct, Initiate, Elicit, Comment, Model, Evaluate, Correct, Nominate, Accept

6. Example of analysing Teacher Talk
A lesson can be said to constitute a hierarchy of discourse events, a kind of system of ranks:
From Sinclair, J. M. and R. M. Coulthard (1975). Towards an Analysis of Discourse: The English
used by teachers and pupils. London, OUP.

7. Classroom Discourse Task 1
Look at the transcript of a transaction on the next page [from Papaefthymiou-
Lytra S (1990), Explorations in Foreign Language Classroom Discourse] and decide
how you would divide it into exchanges, moves, and acts.
T: Can you guess/think of one reason why doesn’t he like city-life?
L: Because the city is with many θορύβους
T: There is too much noise or too many noise?
Ls: Much noise.
T: Much noise.
L: City have a lot of buildings.
T: Cities have a lot of buildings.
Big buildings.
L: There are much cars/many cars.
They are ugly.
T: There are many cars.
L: And they must work.
T: They must work.
People in villages work even more.
L: All the city people are in a hurry.
T: Yes.

8. Classroom Discourse Task 2
Look at the definitions below [from Sinclair and Coulthard (1975), Towards an
Analysis of Discourse] and label the transcript in the previous task
accordingly.
A transaction typically consists of an initial boundary exchange followed by a series of
teaching exchanges.
A boundary exchange consists of a move which marks a boundary between larger stages
in the discourse (frame) and a move which indicates which direction the lesson is likely to
proceed in (focus).
A teaching exchange characteristically consists of an initiating move followed by a
responding move or moves. the typical teaching exchange consists of Initiation (by the
teacher), Response (by the learner) and Feedback (by the teacher).
More specifically, teaching exchanges may belong to one of the following categories:
teacher elicit [IRF], teacher direct [IR(F), where R is a nonverbal action], teacher inform
[I(R)], checking [IR(F), where I represents a genuine teacher question, ie, one to which
the teacher does not know the answer], pupil elicit [IR, where I is performed by the
pupil] and pupil inform [IF, where I is performed by the pupil]

9. Feedback Correction
Identify Errors, Indicate, Recast, Explain, Present. Check Understanding

10. Error Gravity
Students’ sentences Corrected Mark Type of
version (if error?
wrong)
Only one woman’s arms was broken
He was driving with a high speed
The people are too many and so the cars are too many
Dizzys from the wine we decided to go home.
The people who were in the taxi were seriously injured
Neither of us feels quite happy.
There are many accidents because we haven’t brought
roads.
The ambulance left to go the injured to hospital.
All the people in the bus began to calling for help.
One children was slowly crossing the street.
Selection from T.Hughes & C.Laskaratou
research reported in ELTJ

11. Grammatical Accuracy only?
Functional
pronunciation Tenor
appropriacy
Use Concepts Collocation
Sociolinguistic
Connotation Idiomaticity
Appropriacy

12. What language structures &
functions needed for each act?
What level of Competence is
required?
TSA PSA

13. Assessment?
• Validity
• Reliability
• Clarity
• Practicality
• Discrimination

14. How can you assess Language Teachers?
By using an exam from an official
examining body?
By creating your own test?
By recording a T during a lesson?
All this will depend on your TSA and
what level the Ts are required to
reach.

15. Develop Professionally
Research Connect Develop
What

17. SPEAKING List of Items
a box of flash cards
a box of coloured board markers
a world atlas
a cassette player
a box of old glossy magazines in English
a laptop
a box of transparencies
20 overhead transparencies
a box of coloured markers
a notebook
20 metres of white metre paper
a box of coloured chalk
a box of toys
10 student books of the same level
a set of colour crayons
a book of photocopiable communication games
a grammar book
a dictionary
a box of blank cassettes
Desert Island Type activities a set of class readers
a box of blue ball point pens
a video camera
a television set
a video player

18. WRITING -----Original Message-----
From: Khalid Shammad
[mailto:kshammad@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2001 11:08 PM
To: celt@celt.edu.gr
Subject: drama disertations
I'm interested in applying dramatic
techniques in teaching English in my
country, so I want you to provide me
with some abstracts of studies related to
this subject in order to conduct a study
about using drama in
our schools.
Thank You
I did not reply to this letter as I felt it was too
demanding/aggressive. Can you rewrite it so it
becomes more likely the writer will get a response?

19. PRONUNCIATION – HUMOUR – PLAYING
WITH LANGUAGE
I Read /listen to the original one...
- My wife's gone to the West Indies
- Jamaica?
- No, she went of her own accord.
Where is the misunderstanding?
What is funny about it?
Write some punch lines on the next page

20. PRONUNCIATION
1. My wife's gone to St Petersburg.
- Is she Russian?
- No, she's ____________.
2. My wife's had an accident on a
volcano
- ___________?
- No. She broke her leg.
3. My wife's gone to Malawi
- Lilongwe?
- Yes, ___________.

21. PRONUNCIATION - CHUNKING
Task 2: Read these sentences in two different ways
so as to make two different interpretations possible.
I'm eating Mummy
We stopped wondering where to go
As a matter of fact she said I was too tall for my age
Teachers need to read aloud to their students a lot

22. PRONUNCIATION
There was a man in the shop. He was a dirty man in an old
coat with a cigarette in his mouth. “What do you want?” he asked.
“I’d like to see the Elephant Man, please,” I said.
The man looked at me carefully. Then he took the cigarette out
of his mouth and smiled with his yellow teeth.
“All right, sir,” he said. “Give me two pence then.”
I gave him the money and he opened a door at the back
of the shop. We went into a little room. The room was cold
and dark, and there was a horrible smell in it.
A creature sat on a chair behind a table. I say a creature,
because it was not a man or a woman, like you or me.
The creature did not move or look at us. It sat very quietly on
the chair in the cold, dark, dirty room. On the table in front of it,
there was a dead flower.
Read this text aloud and record yourself – send me the recording

23. LANGUAGE VARIATION
TASK A:
Which of these statements is: a) formal, b) casual, c) impersonal, d)
informal.
All candidates shall proceed to the examination room.
Those taking part should go to the examination room.
Could you please go to the exam room?
Go to the exam room.

24. LANGUAGE VARIATION
When his dad died, Jack had to find Father was somewhat fatigued after
another apartment. his lengthy journey
Translate ‘up’ and ‘down’ as on previous page

26. Course & Syllabus Design
should follow similar steps
.

27. EXAMPLES YOU CAN USE IN MODULE 3
Use the CELT Athens English for Teachers Course
webpage to explore syllabus elements you could
include on such a course for your Module 3
Assignment. Look for Syllabus ideas on the Cambridge
ESOL website and especially the language awareness
elements in ICELT & TKT KAL

28. Spread the Message!
That’s all
good folks!

29. CELT ATHENS
http://www.celt.edu.gr/
TEFL MATTERS BLOG
marisaconstantinides.edublogs.org/
CELT SN
http://celt-athens.grou.ps/home
Marisa Constantinides
@Marisa_C
What’s Your Message?
@info@celt.edu.gr