Plenary address at the Hokkaido 2012 ALT Skill Development Conference (Hotel Lifort Sapporo).

1. December 6, 2012
@ Hotel Lifort Sapporo
Roles of ALTs and JTEs for a
successful team-teaching
relationship
—From a second language acquisition perspective—
Ken Urano, Hokkai-Gakuen University
1

2. Before we begin...
• Please consider this talk as a
proposal, rather than a
lecture.
• Your questions and comments
are welcome at any time.
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3. About me...
• I’m a teacher of English.
• I’m a researcher in second
language acquisition.
3

4. About me...
• I’m a teacher of English.
• I’m a researcher in second
language acquisition.
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5. Researchers’ roles,
teachers’ roles
• Researcher
• Making guidelines
• Teacher
• Adapting the guidelines
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6. What we know
from research
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7. We know...
• Importance of input
• No input, no language
learning
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8. Importance of input
• Limited input sources
• Outside the classroom
• Textbook
• Teachers’ role as a main
source of input
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9. What about output?
• Output is also important, but
• Input is crucial.
Input
(Listening/Reading)
Output
（Speaking/Writing)
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10. What about output?
• Output is also important, but
• Input is crucial.
X
Input
(Listening/Reading)
Output
（Speaking/Writing)
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11. But...
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12. Not all input is good.
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13. It’s Greek to me!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnevill/2402430135/
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14. Comprehensible input
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15. By the way...
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16. I have two daughters.
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17. My daughters’ conversation
yesterday
MSR: こんどパフェ食べにいくって！
We’re gonna eat some parfait!
AKR: パフェ？
Parfait?
MSR: こんどアイス食べにいくって！
We’re gonna eat some ice cream!
AKR: アイス！
Ice cream!
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18. Even a 6-year-old knows
how to adjust her talk
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19. Speech adjustment
• Caretaker speech
• a.k.a. motherese, baby talk, etc.
• Foreigner talk
• Teacher talk
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20. Question
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21. Question
How do you adjust
your speech?
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22. We know...
• Language learning takes place
• When learners understand the
meaning of the input, and
• When they pay some attention
to the form,
• At the same time.
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23. Form-meaning
mapping
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24. Gestures & visual aids
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25. Gestures & visual aids
Statue of Liberty
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26. Gestures & visual aids
http://www.flickr.com/photos/philofphotos/249220155/
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27. Gestures & visual aids
• They are useful, but
• They need to be used with
caution
• Because students may not
pay attention to the form.
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28. Gestures & visual aids
Statue of Napoleon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zigazou76/3593523470/
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29. Gestures & visual aids
Statue of King Kamehameha
http://www.flickr.com/photos/irenetong/2570306240/
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30. Gestures & visual aids
Statue of Liberty
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31. Gestures & visual aids
Statues
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32. To simplify or not to
simplify...
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33. To simplify or not to
simplify...
• Everybody knows that Mike
is diligent.
Suppose your students
don’t know this word.
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34. To simplify or not to
simplify...
• Everybody knows that Mike
is diligent.
hard-working
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35. Simplification
• Replacing difficult items
with easy ones.
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36. Simplification
• The girl who is wearing blue
jeans is my sister.
There is a girl over there. She
is wearing blue jeans. That’s
my sister.
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37. Simplification
• Generally improves
comprehension, but
• Takes away the chance to
learn a new item.
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38. Instead of simplifying...
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39. Elaborate!
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40. Elaboration
• Giving additional
information to improve
comprehension without
removing the difficult item.
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41. Elaboration
• Everybody knows that Mike
is diligent, I mean, hard-
working.
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42. Or...
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43. You can interact!
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44. Interaction
• Everybody knows that Mike is
diligent. Do you know what
diligent means? (No.) It
means hard-working. So,
everyone knows Mike is hard-
working.
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45. We know...
• Simplification improves
comprehension, but it does
not help language learning.
• Elaboration does both.
• Interaction does both, too.
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46. Feedback
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47. We know...
• Students need to pay some
attention to form.
• Providing corrective
feedback helps increase
their awareness.
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48. Feedback options
• +/- Explicit
• +/- Correction
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49. Feedback options
Feedback type Explicit–Implicit Correction
Clarification request Implicit –
Recast +
Repetition –
Elicitation –
Metalinguistic clue –
Explicit correction Explicit +
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50. Clarification request
S: I go to the library yesterday.
T: Pardon?
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51. Recast
S: I go to the library yesterday.
T: Oh, you went to the library
yesterday. Did you borrow any
books?
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52. Repetition
S: I go to the library yesterday.
T: “I go to the library yesterday”?
S: Oh, I went to the library yesterday.
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53. Elicitation
S: I go to the library yesterday.
T: Yesterday, you ...
S: ... went to the library.
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54. Metalinguistic clues
S: I go to the library yesterday.
T: It’s about yesterday, so what tense
do you have to use?
S: Past tense. I went to the library
yesterday.
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55. Explicit correction
S: I go to the library yesterday.
T: It’s about yesterday, so you have to
use the past tense went.
S: OK. I went to the library
yesterday.
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56. Summary
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57. Summary
• Importance of comprehensible
input
• Elaboration and interaction to
enhance form-meaning mapping
• Corrective feedback to increase
awareness
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58. My last question
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59. My last question
• How will you incorporate
today’s ideas into your
teaching?
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