1. What lies beneath..
Action research underpinning our content for learners and
teachers
(and what you could do differently in the classroom)
http://esol.britishcouncil.org

2. Workshop Content
o Introduction to the ESOL Nexus project
o Interactive content for learners
o Five examples of activities underpinned by action
research
o Implications for classroom practice
o Other project resources
o Forthcoming content and new ideas

3. Starter for 10
Read the statements on the handout and decide
whether they are true about your classroom
practice or not.
Discuss with a partner

4. The ESOL Nexus project
The project is funded by
the European Fund for
the integration of third
country nationals (EIF)
Our main aim is to
support ESOL learners
and teachers via web-
based resources

5. The ESOL Nexus project
Three key aspects of the
project:
o The website
o Pilot centres and link
teachers
o ESOL resource
specialists

6. Interactive content for learners
• http://esol.britishcouncil.org – the learner homepage
• Speak, Listen and watch, Read, Write, Grammar and
vocabulary, English for work, UK life
• Activities are self-access and include sound and video
• Learners can rate activities and comment on them

7. Interactive activities
Activities are created using
the “Authorable Exercise
Tool” (AET) – in-house
software tool designed to
create a range of activities –
drag and drop, true-false,
multiple choice and others.

8. Our approach
To model good practice in designing resources for ESOL
learners and also..
– to do something different (and better)
– to take account of what is known to support language
development (action research)

9. Listening (Dictations)
Dictations are useful because:
– They foster unconscious thinking
– They are good for differentiation
– They are “safe” for the non-native speaker teacher
– For English, they are a technically useful exercise
And in the classroom:
– They keep all the learners active
– They are good for large groups
– They can lead to oral communication exercises
Rinvolucri and Morgan () Dictations – new methods, new possibilities

10. Listening (dictations)
Example
Try the gap-fill dictation activity
• Compare your answers with a partner
• How could you use this activity in class?
• How could you differentiate to allow for differing levels?
• What oral practice could the activity lead to?

11. Listening (lexical segmentation)
Why do learners misunderstand words they hear?
• Learner can’t tell the difference between two similar-
sounding words: e.g. won’t and want
• Learner might know the word in writing but not
recognise the spoken form e.g. vegetable
• Learner might overlook the syntactic implications of a
phoneme, e.g. I’ve lived
Field, J (2003) Promoting perception – lexical segmentation in L2
listening (ELTJ Volume 57/4 OUP)

12. Listening (lexical segmentation)
“Once identified, areas of difficulty can be tackled
by simple, 5 minute exercises – these might be
remedial or they might anticipate problems of
listening before they occur”.
Field, J (2003) Promoting perception – lexical segmentation in L2
listening (ELTJ Volume 57/4 OUP)

13. Listening (lexical segmentation)
What sort of activities help learners to develop lexical
segmentation strategies?
Here is one:
“One technique is to dictate ambiguous sentences, then to
disambiguate them by adding additional words”
Field, J (2003) Promoting perception – lexical segmentation in L2 listening
(ELTJ Volume 57/4 OUP)
Can you think of any more?

14. Listening (lexical segmentation)
Some other ideas:
– Word-counting
– Word identification
– Focussing on stressed syllables
– Working on weak forms
– Spotting assimiliation

15. Listening – lexical segmentation
Example

17. Reading (repeated reading and reading aloud)
The approaches:
Repeated reading:
Repeated reading is a group or individual activity where
learners read a text with a fluent reader, and then re-read the
text alone until they can read it as fast as the fluent reader
did. It has also been shown that repeated reading of a text
“against the clock” improves both reading speed and
comprehension.

18. Reading (repeated reading and reading aloud)
Reading aloud:
Reading aloud can be a useful tool in the classroom,
particularly for practising some aspects of
pronunciation and sound-symbol relationships if:
• the text being read is genuinely something
that someone would read aloud.
• The purpose of the activity is clear, e.g. to
practise pronunciation/intonation (not
comprehension)

19. Reading (Repeated reading and reading aloud)
• The effects on their learners overall were judged to be
very positive with regard to their enjoyment and
engagement in class, their confidence and their ability to
work independently.
• Two teachers thought that learners’ ability to read with
fluency and expression, and reading more widely/for
pleasure were unaffected; the others saw improvement.
• All but one considered that the strategy had an effect on
comprehension.
Burton, M (2007) Oral reading fluency for adults, NRDC

20. Reading (repeated reading and reading aloud)
Some classroom activities:
– Paired reading
– Choral reading
– Repeated reading
– Echo reading
– Performance reading

21. Reading (repeated reading and reading aloud)
Repeated reading – example
Reading aloud - example

22. Speaking (Task repetition)
The idea of task repetition is a key aspect of the task-
based learning approach.
A typical task sequence:
– Priming
– Preparation
– Target task
– Review/focus on form
– Target task

23. Speaking (Task repetition)
“The advantages of repeating tasks are many and varied.
There is a fair amount of research (Ellis 2003, Lynch and
Maclean 2001, Essig 2005, Pinter 2006) to show that
getting learners to repeat the same task but with different
partners results in a richer use of vocabulary and a higher
degree of accuracy and grammatical complexity.”
Willis, D and Willis, J (2007) Doing Task-based teaching OUP

24. Speaking (task repetition)
Example

25. Ender for 10
• Go back to the statements on the handout. Will you do
anything differently in the classroom after what you’ve
heard?
• Discuss with a partner