I’d just like to share something that I’ve learned through applying a technique inspired by this course.
I’d just like to share something that I’ve learned through applying a technique inspired by this course.
I was given the task of running a series of one-hour ‘Grammar Workshops’ this term for some of our learners. Now, the way some teachers have run these workshops in the past has been something like this:
Step One: Present a grammar point the learners need to know or should already know.
Step Two: Get them to practice the grammar point via a few carefully prepared activities and tasks.
Step Three: Voila!
I know what you’re thinking.
So I thought, how can I utilize transcribing for these workshops?
The method – if you can call it that- that I came up with is like this…
I’ve been using a software tool called Flipgrid for some time now – it’s basically a means of enabling learners to produce short video recordings of themselves. They can use their laptops or smartphones to do this, so it’s convenient, and the videos are only accessible to the teacher and other members of the class.
So the first stage of the procedure for the grammar workshop is to give the learners a short prompt or question about a week before the workshop is due to take place, and they can record their response and send it to me via our group’s Flipgrid account.
I do set a couple of rules: firstly, the recordings can be no more than a minute long, and secondly, the learners cannot spend lots of time planning and preparing their responses- they simply read the prompt or question, start recording, and send it in one take.
So by the time the workshop is due to take place, I’ve got a batch of recordings from all the learners who will be attending. Some of them have been asked by our administration team to attend, while others have elected to attend because they think they will benefit from extra practice.
I’ll watch a couple before the workshop just to gauge their level and what types of problems might occur.
When the workshop takes place, we select one of the learners, entirely at random, and watch their video. Then, I get the entire group to transcribe the recording. I make sure to tell them that they must transcribe exactly what they hear, not what they think should have been said.
As they’re listening to one of their own, it’s unlikely that they’ll hear too many terms that are unknown to them or will get thrown off by accent and things like that, but this part still takes 15 to 20 minutes.
After this, I get one of the learners to take charge of playing and rewinding the recording, and I transcribe it on the board for the whole group to see. Again, I’m transcribing exactly what I hear, not what I think should be said, although as I progress, I can draw the group’s attention to different areas by writing text in different colours, or drawing brackets around phrases and chunks of language, or underlining and circling areas I want them to pay attention to.
Once the whole thing is on the board, we’ve still got about half an hour left, but I can do a lot with this small amount of time.
- I can get the learners to compare what they wrote with what I wrote – are there any differences? Why? This can be interesting as sometimes a small grammatical or pronunciation error means that learners have interpreted the message in different ways. I saw this happen just this week, when there was a little confusion over whether the learner whose recording we were analyzing had said “I won’t run my own business in the future because…’ or ‘I want to run my own business in the future because…” – a really small thing in itself, but we were able to see how it can carry a lot of significance.
- I can show them that probably 90 per cent of what they say is absolutely correct and accurate – this was the case last week with a learner who was using set phrases and collocations perfectly, she’d simply made a few errors with conjunctions and prepositions.
- I can show them that it can be difficult for learners to avoid ‘slips’ and other small errors when responding to a question or prompt that they haven’t had much time to prepare for.
Additionally, what I’m seeing is that grammar and pronunciation are inextricably linked. For example, a pause, or rising or falling intonation at what for us, as advanced speakers of English, would be the ‘wrong’ part of a set phrase or thought group can cause the listener to interpret a message in a way other than what is intended by the speaker, even when the grammar (in written form) seems accurate.
If, in the workshop, we find that (for example) preposition errors are common, then I will send the learners some extra materials for revision in this area, and will also ask them to watch their own recording again to look for the same thing. The student whose video has been watched in the workshop is spared having to do this, as the job has already been done by me, which I suppose makes up for the mild embarrassment of having their video repeatedly watched by everyone attending.
I’d just like to ask everyone what they think of this – any comments and criticisms are welcome. I will have a short break soon as the Lunar New Year means we have a one-week holiday in early February, so I may be able to reflect further and make a few ‘tweaks’ based on the feedback I receive.
Exploring, and loving it
Martin
I was given the task of running a series of one-hour ‘Grammar Workshops’ this term for some of our learners. Now, the way some teachers have run these workshops in the past has been something like this:
Step One: Present a grammar point the learners need to know or should already know.
Step Two: Get them to practice the grammar point via a few carefully prepared activities and tasks.
Step Three: Voila!
I know what you’re thinking.
So I thought, how can I utilize transcribing for these workshops?
The method – if you can call it that- that I came up with is like this…
I’ve been using a software tool called Flipgrid for some time now – it’s basically a means of enabling learners to produce short video recordings of themselves. They can use their laptops or smartphones to do this, so it’s convenient, and the videos are only accessible to the teacher and other members of the class.
So the first stage of the procedure for the grammar workshop is to give the learners a short prompt or question about a week before the workshop is due to take place, and they can record their response and send it to me via our group’s Flipgrid account.
I do set a couple of rules: firstly, the recordings can be no more than a minute long, and secondly, the learners cannot spend lots of time planning and preparing their responses- they simply read the prompt or question, start recording, and send it in one take.
So by the time the workshop is due to take place, I’ve got a batch of recordings from all the learners who will be attending. Some of them have been asked by our administration team to attend, while others have elected to attend because they think they will benefit from extra practice.
I’ll watch a couple before the workshop just to gauge their level and what types of problems might occur.
When the workshop takes place, we select one of the learners, entirely at random, and watch their video. Then, I get the entire group to transcribe the recording. I make sure to tell them that they must transcribe exactly what they hear, not what they think should have been said.
As they’re listening to one of their own, it’s unlikely that they’ll hear too many terms that are unknown to them or will get thrown off by accent and things like that, but this part still takes 15 to 20 minutes.
After this, I get one of the learners to take charge of playing and rewinding the recording, and I transcribe it on the board for the whole group to see. Again, I’m transcribing exactly what I hear, not what I think should be said, although as I progress, I can draw the group’s attention to different areas by writing text in different colours, or drawing brackets around phrases and chunks of language, or underlining and circling areas I want them to pay attention to.
Once the whole thing is on the board, we’ve still got about half an hour left, but I can do a lot with this small amount of time.
- I can get the learners to compare what they wrote with what I wrote – are there any differences? Why? This can be interesting as sometimes a small grammatical or pronunciation error means that learners have interpreted the message in different ways. I saw this happen just this week, when there was a little confusion over whether the learner whose recording we were analyzing had said “I won’t run my own business in the future because…’ or ‘I want to run my own business in the future because…” – a really small thing in itself, but we were able to see how it can carry a lot of significance.
- I can show them that probably 90 per cent of what they say is absolutely correct and accurate – this was the case last week with a learner who was using set phrases and collocations perfectly, she’d simply made a few errors with conjunctions and prepositions.
- I can show them that it can be difficult for learners to avoid ‘slips’ and other small errors when responding to a question or prompt that they haven’t had much time to prepare for.
Additionally, what I’m seeing is that grammar and pronunciation are inextricably linked. For example, a pause, or rising or falling intonation at what for us, as advanced speakers of English, would be the ‘wrong’ part of a set phrase or thought group can cause the listener to interpret a message in a way other than what is intended by the speaker, even when the grammar (in written form) seems accurate.
If, in the workshop, we find that (for example) preposition errors are common, then I will send the learners some extra materials for revision in this area, and will also ask them to watch their own recording again to look for the same thing. The student whose video has been watched in the workshop is spared having to do this, as the job has already been done by me, which I suppose makes up for the mild embarrassment of having their video repeatedly watched by everyone attending.
I’d just like to ask everyone what they think of this – any comments and criticisms are welcome. I will have a short break soon as the Lunar New Year means we have a one-week holiday in early February, so I may be able to reflect further and make a few ‘tweaks’ based on the feedback I receive.
Exploring, and loving it
Martin
Hello Martin!
ReplyDeleteA very nice application of trascribing, I think. However, I would like to suggest a small change :) Do you think you can reduce the time you and your students spend on transcribing the randomly chosen video by doing it simultaneously? I mean, the teacher is transcribing the video at the same time as the learners are doing (not after they have finished). I believe, this will give you more time to discuss and reflect on the transcription with your students.
I understand that you need to put your transcription on the board for everyone to see and compare with their own. But I think there could be some ways to make it possible: in old times the solution was the overhead projector, nowadays this could be a projector connected to your laptop?
Dear M and A,
ReplyDeleteConsider how you can decrease the time students transcribe. Can the number of patterns be decreased? Can a few patterns be practiced that are related rather than a wide range of patterns
If they miss prepositions it means that the patterns they are trying to produce are beyond their level. I mean getting 90% correct is not sufficient and it means the structures are beyond what they can do.
Fewer structural words and sentence patterns all related to a similar text I think would enable students to master many of the sentence patterns and structural words that they have been using incorrectly for years.
To what degree can we make more simple the patterns and structural words we have students use and the range of activities we ask them to do.
They have to experience the same structural words and sentence patterns dozens of times to master them--listening to them, transcribing them, doing read and look up with them and saying them.
Just doing a pattern one or two times has no effect.
Consider how many times we have to practice a musical piece to master it with no errors?
Ditto movements. After I had a hip replacement I had to walk in a certain way--foot forward rather than pointing to the right or left. Well, it took me like scores of times to get my foot pointing forward--a one dimensional activity much less complex than saying a pattern correctly.
Fewer structural words and sentence patterns more and more times is the only way learners can master a new language
Thanks John. I guess I had the wrong idea. I'll go back and rethink the way I run these workshops.
ReplyDeleteMartin, there are no wrong ideas. There are ideas we have and alternative ones. Neither are right or wrong but as we explore we can see how some ideas we have do not produce the consequences we desire and some do produce the consequences we desire.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy.
Hi Martin Cooke
ReplyDelete(hope it's not too late to respond here: catching up!)
I loved the idea of this workshop: did I get it right that it is for teachers who are also language learners? If so, their proficiency level should be quite high (hence 90% accuracy you mentioned)
I wonder if there is a 'right' or 'wrong' way to run such workshops (isn't the course about a number of alternatives and options to explore?) I like the 60 sec max length in this idea, and offering many learners/attendees to see theirs being analyzed (and feel safe about the idea to share a recording). I guess such a format can become a 'trend' or 'series' so that more recordings were made by members, and some could be discussed, as suggested. Or they could be paired up (as we were!) and work on a specific piece together, and then share the findings. All in all, one of the objectives could be to help develop the habit of reflection by looking closely at the language produced.
Can I borrow your idea for a future session with teachers?
It was a pleasure to read your comments in the course (using a chance to say it, better late than never!)
Zhenya
Hi Zhenya, of course - go ahead and let me know what adaptations you make (google plus might be dead by this point so feel free to send an email).
ReplyDeleteI ought to have stated that it was learners, rather than teachers (B2 to C1), in the workshop but they were transcribing recordings of themselves speaking, rather than trying to transcribe 'native speak' or advanced uses of English in contexts they were unacquainted with. My idea was that, if the learners transcribed a minute's worth of their own speech - with errors and slips included - I would be able to identify which errors could be self-corrected by the learners themselves and which ones I would need to address in future lessons. As John stated, it does need some adjustments, but I think something like this may work better than the if-it's-Tuesday-we-have-to-learn-the-second-conditional approach some teachers use.
Dear Martin and Alexandra, I re read the initial description of what was done and then what happened in class and then comments from both of you.
ReplyDeleteYou have both done what I alway hope after I suggest activities--alter my suggestion and create alternatives. Also you both looked at the results and saw ways to make small changes.
Over time, also ask the students to write comments about the activity--what was useful and what was not useful.
Re the words they leave out--prepositions, etc. Of course the reason they leave them out is that we do not hear them either live or from a recording. We have to know that they belong where they do and put them in even though we do not hear them.
In the sentence "I was born in Chicago." "was" and "in" are almost impossible to hear since they are not stressed. So learners say "I born Chicago." Who was born in Chicago? Were you born in Chicago or New York? What year were you born in Chicago? and other questions students have to write and say and read silently/look up and say and them over and over.
Of course the same is true in all languages. In Japanese the pattern "Watakushi wa John desu." most learning Japanese leave out the wa.
The point is that if we write what we hear we are going to write incorrect English. We have to know that certain slots in a sentence need certain words. Ditto for suffixes. In NY when you buy flowers from a Korean florist the person will say "Five dollar" even after living in the US for 50 years. We cannot usually hear the "erz" at the end; we have to know it exists.
In many comments teachers mentioned that when a student says "five dollar" all we have to do is say the word correctly and the student will learn the correct form.
I have had hundreds of students transcribe parts of lessons and so far none have written "five dollars" when the student says "five dollars" after the student has said "five dollar"--not one. Because they cannot hear the correct form. They only know the incorrect form.
Knowing the rule--we add s or es to form a plural--has no effect.
Sometimes writing the words using the phonetic alphabet helps them remember the form. I saw a teacher draw a bee on the board at the end of dollar once and some students suddenly realized that there was something needed at the end of dollar other than r.
I am constantly surprise, bewildered by the fact that transcription is so rare in our field. In all other service industries recordings are crucial to understand what is happening.
How exciting exploration is because we do not now what we will discover except that we will discover something we did not previously know.
John Fanselow
ReplyDelete