4. Working collaboratively
Students in a FL or SL classroom can
be directed to help each other focus
on meaning and form after learning
specific strategies.
5. Why?
Strategic competence
Verbal and nonverbal
communication strategies that
compensate for breakdowns in
communication due to insufficient
grammatical or sociolinguistic
competence
(Canale & Swain, 1980)
6. Breakdowns in communication
occur
a) language form
b) language meaning
c) they lack strategies to keep the
conversation going
d) they lack strategies to make the
conversation meaningful for each other
8. Types of Oral Strategies
I. Oral communicative strategies:
strategies which help us to
keep the conversation going.
II. Oral negotiation strategies:
strategies which help us to
focus on form and meaning, so that
real communication is possible.
(McDonough, 2004) (Nakatani, 2005)
11. Time-gaining expressions (using filler
expressions to gain time to think)
really? de verdad?
¡Así!
uhm, let me see uhm, déjame
ver…
well….. bueno,
vale….
sure….. ¡Claro!
13. a.Make a positive comment or
a remark
- make a comment to keep the conversation
going
I don’t have a dog. Oh, how sad.
14. a. Comments or remarks show interest
and keep the conversation going.
I understand (entiendo)
I see
or, I see what you mean (ya veo)
Sounds good (suena bien)
Very good (muy
bien)
15. b. Shadow
by partially repeating
what the partner has said
I am from Kenya, Oh ! Kenya
and my family is !
very big.
16. 3. Help-seeking strategies
a. Ask for help
I don’t understand
What? What does XXX mean?
How do you say XXX?
b. Ask for repetition
Please repeat / can you repeat please?
c. Indicate there is a problem
louder please
I can’t hear you well
17. ¿Uhm.. I was
Ask for help
….uhm, I was….
¿How do you
born
say XXXX?
Oh, ok,
..I was born in
Holland.
18. 2 sets of strategies:
I. Oral communication strategies
II. Oral negotiation strategies
19. II. ORAL NEGOTIATION STRATEGIES
a. Clarification requests: one partner does not
understand well and requests an explanation.
A what? What did you say?
b. Confirmation checks: the listener checks that
he/she has understood his partner correctly.
Did you say XXXX?
c. Comprehension checks: to be sure our
partner has understood us.
Do you understand? Is it clear? Do you
agree?
(Oliver, 1998)
21. c. Comprehension checks
I have been to this
new store LIBRO
with my father, a
new store….
Do you
understand?
Yes, the
store is
LIBRO.
22. d. Negotiation strategies, which
focus on form:
Recast: your partner corrects your
language
Me like I like
golf. golf.
Yeah, I like
golf.
23. Explicit Correction: you correct
your partner by explaining what is
wrong
You need DO
You get up YOU before
early? GET UP.
DO YOU get up
early?
24. Benefits
1. BETTER LISTENERS
2. MAINTAIN A CONVERSATION
in the target language
3. TO FOCUS ON MEANING, to
achieve a coherent conversation in the
target language
4. TO FOCUS ON FORM and achieve
modified output
25. Final comments from the
literature
Knowing about communicative and
negotiation strategies may dispose
the students to work in a more
collaborative way, where both more
proficient and less proficient students
share more equally the role of expert.
(Storch, 2000)
27. • Language learners are frequently and
increasingly each other’s resources
for language learning.
(Pica et al. (1996)
• It is possible that they can also attend
to form.
(Long, 1996)
This slide is in Spanish, but I will show you the translation in English in a few seconds. There are two students talking about what they nave done. This dialog is authentic, I heard this coming from two of my students some years ago
These students are making mistakes, misunderstanding each other and accepting the misunderstandings without challenging each other. Research shows that Students often ignore breakdowns in communication in favor of task completion. I teach in an international environment and students come with many different language and cultural backgrounds. It is important to keep this in mind to understand why the girl perhaps did not understand her partner. So teaching students oral strategies come very handy and necessary.
I frequently ask my students to work independently in small groups because in this way they have more chances to practice new structures, vocabulary, new situations and to become more fluent in the target language. It is good that they work alone because they can help each other learn the language. But for this to happen, our role as teachers is to teach our learners oral strategies as early as possible.
Students learning a new language often lack strategic competence Communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing (1980) There are 3 components which are very component in the Communicative Approach: grammatical component, the sociolinguistic component and the strategic component.Very important if we are in an IB program is to emphasize the ATL : approaches to learning
They occur at the level of Language forms: errors in grammar, in morphology They also occur at the level of Language meaning; lack of vocabulary. expressionsWhat we realize from these breakdowns is that students lack Strategies to keep the conversation going: They also lack strategies that can help them to gain time to think ; to think of how to proceed with the conversation, and/or to mend these breakdowns and go back to a meaningful conversation
There is a clear breakdown in communication. There is a long pause and awkwardness.. They boy does not understand what the girl asked him. The girl does not really know what is the problem with what she is saying . They try a few things, which are good. What could have they done? The boy could have said WHAT DOES CUAL MEAN?
Communicative strategies: are more related to the sociolinguistic aspect of communication (maintaining communication) They also provide learners with a sense of security in the target language when they experience communicative problems (Dornyei, 1995)Negotiation strategies: are more related to the language aspect of communication. Strategies or expressions used by the speakers to make each other focus on specific structures or words and to negotiate their meaning or grammar, and hopefully modify language to make it more correct.When we teach them comm. strategies we have to teach them a variety of expressions in the target language that they can use to maintain comm.
Communicative strategies help the speakers to MAINTAIN COMMUNICATION and they give them a sense of security during the conversation. It helps them to have time to think, to avoid long awkward pauses and to ask for help. It helps them to STAY in the conversation, even if they cannot keep up with the topic of the conversation, because they can at least keep speaking in the target language. We, teachers, will provide them with certain expressions in the target language for this purpose.
In this case, both are talking about what they like to do, but the second girl (red haired) needs time to come up with something to say to continue the conversation. She needs time to think, so she uses an expression.
Some time-gaining expressions (some call them fillers) are these expressions in the target language which will help them to gain time to think.These expressions will help them to maintain the conversation. To avoid long pauses. We have to model them.
These strategies use expression that will help the students to show interest in what their interlocutor is saying and at the same time maintain the conversation.
The student is listening to his partner and making a remark before changing the topic. (The students begin to listen)
These are example of possible expressions we can give and teach our students to use to show interest.
b. Shadow to show that you are listening by partially repeating what the other had said. Shadowis useful when a student cannot come up with a comment or remark and so he can just take a segment of what his/her partner is saying and repeat it.
This expressions should be in the target language that we teach. The important thing is for the student, is to develop and havea repertoir of expressions in the target language that they can use in any conversation, but we teachers have to provide it to them, We have to model themSo, if the students cannot follow or keep up with the topic of the dialog, they can still be in the conversation speaking in the target language using the expressions of that repertoir.
So, teach them how to say HOW DO YOU SAY in french, german, spanish AND INSIST THAT THEY USE THEM.
These strategies focus more on the language itself. They are used to negotiate meaning during a conversation when the message is not clear.In a CLARIFICATION REQUEST, the listener, who has not understood well, request an explanation. It is similar to ASK for HELP
The listener checks that he has understood correctly a message, a word.In other words, Did you say XXXX? Or just paraphrase like in the example. Also, the girl might attempt to modify her output and say Many FRIENDS? (you want these modifications to occur)
This strategy is used to make sure that our partner has understood what we are trying to say. The speaker checks that his partner is understanding him.
Negotiation strategies work when we teachershighlightsthe importance of focusing on language and insitst to the learners that they have to help each other and correct each other
1. Working in small groups or pairs helps students to become better listeners, more attuned to their partners.2. Teaching oral language strategies help our students to know how to act or proceed when they encounter difficulties in a conversation, so that the conversation can be maintained.Learners can help each other to focus on forms (grammar structures). They can be good sources or knowledge for each other and point to mistakes.This happens when students change their speech, they make it more correct, in order to be understood by their partners.
In part, these are ideas are based on The constructivism movement in education: is a cognitive approach to learning from the 20th century. It views the learner as actively involved in his/her own learning and making sense of the world through his/her thoughts and experiences. It allows for a more child-centered type of education.
