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Learning from talking and writing

When students produce language in speaking and writing, they engage in three processes that help them learn language. The three processes are:

  • Noticing
  • Metatalk
  • Hypothesis testing.

Hypothesis testing – when students try out language – leads to feedback. Others give feedback to the person using the language. This kind of specific feedback can be a powerful source of new learning.

Certain types of language-learning tasks, especially those where students need to exchange information with each other in order to complete the task, promote interaction (talking directly with others) and negotiation (back-and-forth conversation to agree on something).

Split information activities are one of these types. In this activity, each student has only part of the information needed to complete a task. Thus, they must work with others to share information. In their efforts to make meaning and find out the full information, students speak or write to each other.

Three ways of looking at language development

Listening and reading are part of what leads to full language development. To be totally successful, students must also produce output through speaking and writing.

The following are three specific functions of output that help learning. 

Noticing

As learners learn a language, they are noticing something they need – something that allows them to express what they are planning to say or write (their output).

For example, Sione wants to talk about a picture. He realises he does not know the language he needs to do this.

He searches the page for a label, title, or picture description, and then he uses the words he finds to talk about the picture. Alternatively, he might listen carefully to other people talking about the picture and then use some of their words to say something himself.

"… the activity of producing the target language may prompt second-language learners to recognise consciously some of their linguistic problems: It may bring to their attention something they need to discover about their second language (possibly directing their attention to relevant input). This may trigger cognitive processes that may generate linguistic knowledge that is new for the learner or consolidate the learner’s existing knowledge." 

Swain,1998, page 67

Metatalk 

Metatalk is learners’ talk about language while they are using it for a purpose. They might clarify when and where to use certain words or forms, and how to use them. They are talking about the language they should use.

Metatalk is output that provides a context (setting) where learners can talk about language.

In metatalk, learners find out how to use the right words for certain situation. They also clarify (make clear) when and where to use certain words or language structures.

For example, a learner might ask, “Should I say, 'Then he cooked the leaves,' or 'Then he has cooked the leaves'?”

Hypothesis testing

Hypothesis testing is the third function of output. Learners use output to try out new language forms and to see if they are understood and accepted by other people. Hypothesis testing also helps them find out what does and does not work.

Learning through hypothesis testing depends on teachers or peers giving feedback on language usage. The language-related feedback can focus on the learner’s meaning.

For example, a listener might say: “I don’t understand that. Do you mean that you can eat taro leaves and taro roots?”

The feedback can also focus on the correctness of language forms. For example, if the person said, “You can eat taro leafs”, the feedback could be “It’s not ‘leafs’, it’s ‘leaves’.”

A note about feedback

From a teacher’s point of view, remember students receive feedback on only some of the language they use. Know, too, they might not take up everything they do get feedback on.

This means that at any one time, they learn only a small proportion of all the possible things they might learn.

Although research shows that focused teaching can help increase the amount of information taken up, a natural limit to the rate of language learning exists.

Exploring your practice

Learning from talking and writing

All of your students are learning new language. All of them are expanding their knowledge of English. Some of them are also expanding their use of a Pasifika or other language.

As your students work with you and with each other, look out for and record:

  • examples of what they are using their language output for
  • the kinds of language-related feedback described above.

It is more interesting (and easier to record) if you can get together with another teacher who observes you and keeps a record, and then you observe that person and record for them.

  Focusing on meaning Focusing on correct forms
Noticing     
Metatalk     
Hypothesis testing    
Asking for feedback on 
language usage
   
Uptake of new language    

Promoting Noticing, Metatalk, and Hypothesis testing

Get students to work in pairs or groups. Set up a task where all students need to communicate information that other students do not have.

The simplest kind of split-information activity, which a teacher can use at any time with a small group, involves these easy steps:

  1. Choose a text you want your students to work with.
  2. Make a copy of it.
  3. Cut the copy up with scissors so that each student has a piece of the text. (You may want to give specific bits to particular students.)
  4. Give the students a shared list of questions about the text to answer, or a task such as a problem to solve, based on the text. Make sure most of the questions cannot be answered from one piece of text held by an individual student. The students have to share their information (without showing the written text) and integrate it to answer these questions or complete the task.
  5. Give your students a specified short time for reading before they start sharing and answering questions.
  6. Give each student the role of "expert" on their own piece so that they feel a sense of responsibility for it.

Split-task activity in Pacific language

Arranging for students to do this kind of activity in Pasifika languages, based on Pasifika texts is easy. You can ask a bilingual staff member to write the questions or set the tasks, or two groups of students can set them for each other using different texts.

Students will learn just as much from setting the tasks as from completing them.

Split information: Primary maths

Split information activities are also called barrier or jigsaw activities.

The important feature of these activities is that each student has only part of the information they need to complete their learning task. Because of this, they must cooperate and share their information by speaking or writing to each other. Each student is required to participate, and it isn’t possible for one student to take over the task from others.

Using Gala in a split information activity

This activity is based on Figure it Out – Gala: Mathematics Curriculum Support Levels 2–3. Most of the material in this book and in the rest of the Figure it Out series can be split to create a context in which each student is required to speak about the curriculum material and is supported to do so.

In the two examples below, sharing the information is only the beginning. Students then have further tasks to do. For example, they:

  • discuss and rank options
  • give reasons for their rankings
  • interpret and expand on graphed data.

Classroom organisation

When you first introduce the activity, model it in front of the students. Doing so makes sure they understand how to share their information, evaluate it, and discuss it.

Make sure all the students understand that talking through possibilities and giving reasons are essential parts of the activities.

Try to establish (set up) an open and interested classroom climate where people are interested in exploring ideas, rather than being focused on giving and receiving the correct answers without reasons.

Have the students face each other so they cannot see the material their partner or partners have.

Design the activities so that the students are unable to write on them (so you can reuse the parts needed in the activity).

Example 1: Date dilemma, page 1

The students have to decide which is the best weekend in November for a school gala. They have to give their reasons.

They have a calendar for November showing the days of the week. They also have seven statements, such as:

  • Three teachers are going to a wedding on the second Saturday.
  • Rooms 6 and 7 are on camp from 14 to 18 November.

Splitting the information

To make the split information activity, divide the material for two, three, or four students. Let all of them see the calendar and make sure each person has only some of the statements of information.

Now, get students to:

  • record their information next to the relevant weekends
  • discuss and rank the possible weekends for the gala
  • provide reasons for their choices
  • explain their choices and reasons to you or to another group.

Example 2: Gala graphs, page 24

The two graphs show how many people were at the food stall at each half-hour during the day and how much money was taken. There are questions and activities based on the graphs.

Splitting the information

  • Have the students work in groups of three.
  • Give the students the graphs to share – but without any data recorded on them.
  • Ask one student to record the figures on the graph as the other two tell her what they are. One student has the figures recorded in the morning, and the other has the afternoon’s figures.
  • Each student has one of the discussion questions. When they have completed the graphs, they discuss the questions together.

You can find more examples of these types of activities at English Online.

Split information: Secondary science

Split information activities are also called barrier or jigsaw activities. The important feature of these activities is that each student has only part of the information they need to complete their learning task. Because of this, they must cooperate and share their information by speaking or writing to each other. Each student is required to participate, and it isn’t possible for one student to take over the task from others.

pH: Acid or alkaline

In this example, sharing the information is only the beginning. The students then have three further tasks:

  1. Decide whether their sentences are true or false, according to the written information they have.
  2. Rewrite the false sentences so they are correct.
  3. Describe the results of particular changes in pH (potential of Hydrogen).

Classroom organisation

  • Model the activity in front of the students when you first introduce it, so that they understand how to share and discuss their information.
  • Have the students face each other so they cannot see the material their partner has.
  • Design the activities so that the students don’t write on the sheets, and they can be reused.

Split information activity – Secondary science: pH – acid or alkaline by Dr Jane Gilbert

What follows is the simple text this activity is based on.

 

Acid things have pH values between 1 and 7.

These things are acid:

  • lemon juice
  • hair
  • skin
  • apples
  • Coca-Cola®
  • vinegar
  • hydrochloric acid

Only a few kinds of bacteria like to live in acid places.

Most bacteria like to live in alkaline places.

Alkaline things have pH values between 7 and 14.

These things are alkaline:

  • toothpaste
  • soap
  • caustic soda
  • sodium bicarbonate
  • dishwasher powder
 

These are the true/false statements, based on the above text and previous class work. Only three are false; most are true.

  1. Your skin is slightly acid.
  2. It has a pH of about 10.
  3. Your skin is the habitat for some special kinds of bacteria, which like to live in acid conditions.
  4. But most other bacteria like to live in slightly alkaline conditions.
  5. Your skin is acid, so it is not a good place for most bacteria to live.
  6. Soap is alkaline.
  7. When you wash your skin with soap, your skin becomes acid.
  8. Then your skin is no longer a good place for its own special bacteria to live.
  9. While your skin is alkaline, other harmful bacteria could take over your skin.
  10. It is a good idea to keep your skin alkaline, so that the right kind of bacteria for your body can live there.
  11. After you wash with soap, you can return your skin to the right pH by rinsing your skin with vinegar (or ____________).

Splitting the information

To set the split information activity, divide the material so that each partner in a pair has half the information.

Each partner should have half of the original text, and half of each sentence.

While working in pairs gives each student the maximum possible amount of speaking time, you could also divide the material into three or four for small groups of students.

Steps in the process

  1. First, the students join the sentence parts to make a whole sentence.
  2. Then they check against their parts of the text to decide whether the sentence is true or false.
  3. If it is false, they make the sentence correct.

Student A materials

Student A

Acid things have pH values between 1 and 7.

These things are acid:

  • lemon juice
  • hair
  • skin
  • apples
  • Coca-Cola®
  • vinegar
  • hydrochloric acid

Only a few kinds of bacteria like to live in acid places.

Complete the sentences below. Your partner has the other half of each sentence.

Some sentences are not true. Correct them.

Work by talking. Do not look at your partner's paper.

The person with the X next to the number speaks first.

  1. X Your skin is ___________________
  2. _______________ about 10.
  3. X Your skin is the habitat for some special kinds of bacteria _______________________
  4. ______________________ live in slightly alkaline conditions.
  5. X Your skin is acid, so it is _____________________________
  6. _______________________alkaline.
  7. X When you wash your skin with soap, ______________________
  8. _______________________________ for its own special bacteria to live.
  9. X While your skin is alkaline, __________________________________
  10. ________________________________ so that the right kind of bacteria for your body can live there.
  11. X After you wash with soap, you can return your skin to the right pH __________________________________________________________________

Explain to your partner why it is not good for your skin to have its pH changed.

Student B materials

Student B

Most bacteria like to live in alkaline places.

Alkaline things have pH values between 7 and 14.

These things are alkaline:

  • toothpaste
  • soap
  • caustic soda
  • sodium bicarbonate
  • dishwasher powder
   

Complete the sentences below. Your partner has the other half of each sentence.

Some sentences are not true. Correct them.

Work by talking. Do not look at your partner's paper.

The person with the X next to the number speaks first.

  1. ___________ slightly acid.
  2. X It has a pH of ________________
  3. ___________________________________ which like to live in acid conditions.
  4. X But most other bacteria like to _________________________
  5. ____________________________not a good place for most bacteria to live.
  6. X Soap is ____________
  7. _______________________________________your skin becomes acid.
  8. X Then your skin is no longer a good place________________________
  9. __________________________other harmful bacteria could take over your skin.
  10. X It is a good idea to keep your skin alkaline_________________________
  11. _______________________________________by rinsing your skin with vinegar (or ____________).

Explain to your partner what happens to the pH of your skin when you wash your skin with soap and then rinse it with lemon juice.

In these examples, the students communicate and evaluate information in pairs or small groups. The activities involve writing as well as speaking. To use this idea again, follow these models to construct an activity using your own curriculum material.

How are students interacting?

Observe how, as they communicate their information to each other, the students engage in:

Observe how the students use important vocabulary related to this curriculum topic. Do they:

  1. use correct terms?
  2. use simpler or less exact words?
  3. manage (or not) to find words to express themselves adequately?


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