1. No category

Language Competence: Progression in
upper secondary school
Terje Lohndal
Fagdag for engelsklærere i vgs., Gyldendal
22.04.16
Language Competence
Central questions:
• What does our language competence consist of?
• How do we acquire this competence?
– What is the developmental path?
– What is the effect of explicit instruction?
• How do we make use of this competence, e.g., in oral
and written communication?
2
The problem of language acquisition
Input
Output
3
Today’s topic: Progression-Grammar
1st YearUniversity
Year10
Uppersecondary
school
4
Outline
•
•
•
•
•
Consider the curriculum
Discuss expectations at the university level
Conceptualizing progression
Language learning and progression
Discuss ways in which teaching grammar can be made
more exciting for students (and teachers!)
5
After Year 10 (Curriculum)
The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to
• use different situations, working methods and learning
strategies to develop one’s English-language skills
• comment on own work in learning English
• identify significant linguistic similarities and differences
between English and one’s native language and use this
knowledge in one's own language learning
• select different digital resources and other aids and use
them in an independent manner in own language
learning
6
Textbooks
(e.g., enter: Basic skills 8-10, Diskin et al.2015)
• Typically provide an overview of the main grammatical
features of English, with some comparison towards
Norwegian
• The main grammatical terminology is covered and is
expected to be in place
• Students are expected to master an advanced metalanguage by the time they finish secondary school.
7
Our expectations at the university
Expectations at the form level:
• Students know all the word classes, how to identify them
and how to distinguish them
• The building blocks of the English verbal system, its
components and labels (gerunds, future tense, present
perfect, passive, etc.), concord
• Nouns, the difference between nouns and pronouns
• The difference between adjectives and adverbs
8
Our expectations (ii)
Expectations at the function level:
• How to identify the basic functions in a sentence
(subject, direct object, adverbial, predicative
complement)
• Be able to distinguish form from function: A noun
phrase is not necessarily a subject or vice versa!
9
University intro level
• Sound properties (phonemes, phones, phonological
rules, syllable structure)
• Morphology (decomposition, morphemes, word classes,
word formation, inflectional vs. derivational)
• Syntax (constituents, phrases, functions, syntactic
structures, embedded sentences)
• Semantics and pragmatics (basic aspects of meaning,
language use)
• Coherence, text composition
10
In an ideal world
1st YearUniversity
Uppersecondaryschool
Year10
11
The real world (sometimes?)?
Year10
Uppersecondaryschool
1st YearUniversity
12
Progression
• The curriculum for English has undergone revisions
already to strengthen the focus on progression.
• We see evidence of progression through
– Verbs used in the learning objectives
– The context of the learning objectives
– The quality of the learning outcome
13
Progression: Verbs
Year 4
Year 7
Year 10
Vg1SF/Vg2YF
Converseabout
describe
comment on
evaluate
own work in
learning English
own work in
learning English
own work in
learning English
own progression
inlearning English
14
Progression: Context
Year 4
Year 7
Year 10
Vg1SF/Vg2YF
understandthe
maincontentof
nurseryrhymes,
wordgames,songs,
fairytalesand
stories
understandthe
maincontentof
oraltextsabout
familiartopics
understandthemain
contentanddetails
ofdifferenttypesof
oraltextson
differenttopics
understandanduseawide
generalvocabularyandan
academicvocabulary
relatedtohis/herown
educationprogramme
15
Progression: Quality of outcomes
Year 4
Year 7
Year 10
Vg1SF/Vg2YF
usesomepolite
expressionsand
simplephrasesto
obtainhelpin
understandingand
beingunderstood
expressoneselfto
obtainhelpin
understandingand
beingunderstood
indifferent
situations
expressoneself
fluentlyand
coherently,suited
tothepurpose
andsituation
expressoneself
fluentlyand
coherentlyina
detailedand
precisemanner
suitedtothe
purposeand
situation
16
Year 7 and Year 10
The aims of the studies are to
• enable pupils to identify and use
different situations and learning
strategies to expand one`s
English-language skills
• describe his/her own work in
learning English
• identify some linguistic similarities
and differences between English
and one’s native language
•
use digital resources and other
aids in one`s own language
learning
The aims of the studies are to
• enable pupils to use different
situations, working methods and
learning strategies to develop
one’s English-language skills
• comment on own work in learning
English
• identify significant linguistic
similarities and differences
between English and one’s native
language and use this knowledge
in one's own language learning
• select different digital resources
and other aids and use them in an
independent manner in own
language learning
Vg1 general studies/Vg2 vocational
The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to
• evaluate and use different situations, working methods
and learning strategies to further develop one’s Englishlanguage skills
• evaluate own progress in learning English
• evaluate different digital resources and other aids
critically and independently, and use them in own
language learning
18
Vg2 International English
Mål for opplæringen er at eleven skal kunne
• gjøre rede for grunnleggende trekk ved engelsk
språkbruk og språkstruktur
• gjøre rede for grunnleggende prinsipper for oppbygning
av tekster i ulike sjangrer
• analysere språklige virkemidler i ulike typer tekster
• gi eksempler på andre varianter av engelsk enn dem
som brukes i det angloamerikanske kjerneområdet, og
reflektere over deres særpreg
• gjøre rede for egne språklæringsstrategier og
språklæringsmål
• Link between Vg1 and Vg2?
19
Vg3 Societal English
Mål for opplæringen er at eleven skal kunne
• drøfte sammenhengen mellom form, innhold og stilnivå i
setninger i samfunnsfaglige tekster
• analysere språklige virkemidler i tekster i ulike sjangrer
og vurdere virkningen av dem
• vurdere egen språklæring i forhold til oppsatte
språklæringsmål
20
Vg3 Literature and culture
Mål for opplæringen er at eleven skal kunne
• drøfte sammenhengen mellom form, innhold og stilnivå i
setninger og tekster
• beherske terminologi til å analysere skjønnlitteratur, film
og andre estetiske uttrykksformer
• drøfte språklig særpreg ved tekster i ulike sjangrer fra
ulike perioder og regioner
• vurdere egen språklæring i forhold til oppsatte
språklæringsmål
21
Progression Vg2 à Vg3
• gjøre rede for grunnleggende prinsipper for oppbygning
av tekster i ulike sjangrer
• analysere språklige virkemidler i tekster i ulike sjangrer
og vurdere virkningen av dem
• drøfte språklig særpreg ved tekster i ulike sjangrer fra
ulike perioder og regioner
METALINGUISTICKNOWLEDGE!
22
Progression and the curriculum
• The curriculum is overall doing well when it comes to
incorporating progression as an important factor
• Discrepancy between Vg1 and Vg2 (International E.)
• What about the way we teach English?
– Language learning itself, the development of grammar
– Employing language skills in composing and understanding texts
(literacy).
• One example to illustrate the point:
Marit Westergaard. 2003. Unlearning V2. EUROSLA
Yearbook 3: 77-101.
http://ansatte.uit.no/marit.westergaard/PUBLICATIONS/
MRW-Eurosla03.pdf
23
Progression - language learning
•
•
•
•
Do-support is difficult, also for native speakers!
*Where sits the cat?
*What gives Emma to Paul?
Where does the cat
sit?
• Where is the cat
sitting?
24
Textbooks
• Westergaard (2003: 96): “[S]entences with do-support
are avoided in the teaching material until 7th grade,
presumably because of the complexity of this
construction”.
• Questions with V2 are very frequent in the material.
• “Therefore, one could argue that by being exposed to
such limited input, the children are actually led to believe
that English is like Norwegian” (Westergaard 2003: 97).
25
Interim summary
• Progression is a natural aspect of the curriculum
• How is this actually achieved in textbooks and in the
classroom?
• A crucial aspect involves the development of the
student’s own meta-perspectives on language learning
and development.
• Progression of language learning needs to involve a
sufficient amount of relevant input!
• How, then, can we convince students that learning a
metalanguage for describing language is FUN?!
26
Grammar teaching
• Metalinguistic knowledge
• Students already know all aspects of grammar when it
comes to their native language(s)
• They also know a lot about English as a a second (or n)
language
• Q: How can we make use of their existing (but tacit)
knowledge to teach them the relevant metalanguage?
• Hypothesis: An answer to Q will make grammar seem
more fun and more exciting to students (and teachers!).
27
Away from memorization
• Jan Kristian Hognestad (2013, Norsklæreren):
«paradigmegymnastikk: mekaniske puggeøvelser som
ikke formidler noen forståelse av hva språk er, og som er
dørgende kjedelige».
• Form before function!
28
Language mixing
• Det er place-en å
hang-e out.
• The happy couple er
out of town.
• Å, det er så freakings
teit!
• Adda! Du hoppet ned
fra taket.
• Jeg spaca ut during
den første sessionen.
Aftenposten22.10.14
Not new… American Norwegian
• Så playde dom
gamer.
• Så happ[e]n-a de så
at e kåm inn på
office-en te stats
kasserar-en då
• officen sin
• great aunty mi
(Haugen 1953)
Spoken Corpus of American Norwegian
• Men jeg still f- # fant folk who hadde # hørt of him
(decorah_IA_01gm)
• og så gikk han på # husparty og danser da veit du så
hadde han en stor # overcoat med lommer i den # så
hadde han den full med halvpinter (westby_WI_01gm)
• og så er det et company i # Minneapolis som sendte
meg stuff og så # (westby_WI_01gm)
• Verbformer: catcha, watcha, walkte, shute, spende, visita
http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/nota/NorAmDiaSyn/index.html
31
Multiethnolects
• Suna: Egentlig jeg synes det er bra på en måte
• Olav: Etterpå jeg skal ta alle de brus
• Kine: [skal de være norske] de må ha brune øyne og
brunt hår
(Opsahl 2009: 117)
• All three are teenagers born and raises in Oslo, the latter
two by parents born in Norway.
32
More examples
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Aysha: [Uansett hva hun sier] jeg forstår det.
Samir: [Hvis man er på skolen] man skal lære.
Mike: Plutselig jeg spiller.
Anders: Nå de får betale.
Suna: Egentlig jeg synes det er bra på en måte.
Anders: [Når vi spiser] vi spiser med fingra.
Lukas: I dag hun lagde somalisk mat.
(Opsahl 2009)
33
Implicit knowledge
• Petter liker is og brus
–
–
–
–
Hva liker Petter?
Is og brus liker Petter.
Hva liker Petter is og __?
Hva liker Petter __ og brus?
• The teaching of grammar should take the implicit
knowledge of the student as the point of departure
34
Suggestions
• Nouns vs. verbs
– Mari kicka ballen.
• Verbs are not adjectives
– *Mari sparket den kicka ballen
• Verbal inflection:
– *Jeg saved dokumentet.
– Jeg savet/sava dokumentet.
• Even those of us who are not balanced bilinguals from
birth, have intuitions about these phenomena!
35
Suggestions (ii)
• Multiethnolectal varieties and other second/n language
varieties can be used for many purposes:
– Discussion of language variation and registers
– Structural differences between the languages
– Discuss why immigrants learning English (or Norwegian) make
certain errors and thereby raise awareness and understanding of
their grammar and speech.
36
Summary
• The curriculum for English already incorporates
‘progression’.
• Does the teaching itself and the teaching material make
sufficient use of research on language development?
• The teaching of grammar and metalinguistic knowledge
ought to focus on the student’s tacit knowledge and
based on examples from their own speech.
37