LSA3 Merit Lesson Plan

LESSON PLAN AND COMMENTARY Name of teacher: Paulina Klaudia Wozniak Lesson: LSA3 Skill or system: Listening Title of assignment: Using top-down and bottom-up approaches to help upper-intermediate learners with listening comprehension Date of lesson: 18/07/2018 Level of class: Upper-intermediate Time lesson starts: 15:15 Time lesson ends: 16:15 Expected number of students: 8 A brief general overview of the group of learners and the course: This is a bilingual Spanish /Catalan group created especially for the purpose of this course. The students participate in lessons five times a week and typically have two lessons a day which last two hours. The age range in this group varies from 20 to 81. There are five female and three male students. Some of the students participate in the “DELTA English courses” regularly and know each other very well, some of them are new. The group is not very punctual. Some students come to class every other day and it may be difficult to predict how many students will actually attend the lesson. The group is quite ambitious and cooperative. However, the level is very mixed and, generally speaking, quite weak. Enrique (55, Spanish, Catalan) studies English for cultural reasons and because he travels a lot, therefore he is an extrinsically motivated student. He speaks French as a foreign language. Javier (44, Spanish, Catalan) studies English because he likes it and also hopes to find a better job, thus he is both extrinsically and intrinsically motivated. He thinks English is a universal language and wants to improve his vocabulary, speaking and fluency. Montserrat (81, Spanish, Catalan) loves English as a language and wants to increase her knowledge of it. She is definitely intrinsically motivated. Her hobbies include animals, cooking and going out with her family. Felix (48, Spanish, Catalan) studies English because he travels around Europe for his work, he’s extrinsically motivated. His hobbies include animals, nature, mountains and trail biking. He makes treats for dogs for a living. Josefina (69, Spanish, Catalan) studies English because she wants to be more fluent and thinks it allows her to communicate with more people. She is both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated and wants to improve her listening and speaking. Apart from English she also speaks German and a little French. In her free time, she likes swimming. Andrea (20, Catalan, Spanish) likes languages and communicating with other people. She thinks English is important and, during the course, she hopes to learn more vocabulary. She likes to communicate with new people and studies English for fun. In September, she is going to Scotland to live with her sister Jessica. Thus, she is both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. Apart from English, she speaks some French and likes to go horse riding in her free time. Araceli (42, Spanish, Catalan) studies English for work and thus she is extrinsically motivated. She also likes learning English from comics and TV series. She works in Parets and because of that will always be more or less 20 minutes late. She likes swimming. Montse(rrat) (2) (56, Catalan, Spanish) has studied English for five and two years with some breaks. She studies English because she would like to improve her skills. She thinks English is useful and helps her communicate with other people. This makes her both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated learner. She is a free-lance computer programmer and apart from English, she also speaks a little French. Information about individual learners relevant to the lesson: Enrique enjoys reading and listening activities, so I hope he will like this lesson as it starts with a quiz and then is followed by listening. He likes to know every word in the text and I hope he will feel reassured after pre-teaching some vocabulary. Javier wants to improve his vocabulary and speaking fluency. Doing a listening comprehension task should help him with these two skills indirectly. What is more, he likes to talk and I think he will have plenty of opportunities to do so in this lesson. Montserrat will probably enjoy this lesson a lot as she likes to improve her English. The advertising IQ questionnaire will expose her to some new language and will probably prepare her to be more accurate during the personal response stage. Felix likes reading activities and I hope he will like the fact that this lesson starts with a mini-reading task. He loves chatting with other students and as he has his own business I suppose he will have a lot to say about advertising. Josefina wants to improve her listening comprehension and so I think that she will benefit a lot from this lesson. Speaking and listening are her weakest points so I should monitor her closely and provide her with any help she might need. Andrea (20, Catalan, Spanish) is good at reading but not at listening. I hope that reading the questionnaire will boost her confidence and prepare her well for the listening comprehension task. The advantage is that she likes practising both despite difficulties. Araceli likes activities which involve speaking and I hope she will like this lesson as, despite the main focus on listening, there will be some focus on speaking too. Given the fact that she likes learning English from comics and TV, she will probably enjoy the interview we are going to listen to. Montse(rrat) likes all types of lessons, and I hope she will especially enjoy this one which involves quite a lot of listening and some speaking. As she is quite an active person, I suppose she will find this topic interesting. Main aim and learning outcomes: Students will have practised listening for specific and detailed information in an interview about advertising. Subsidiary aims Students will practise speaking about advertising. Students will be exposed to some new vocabulary to talk about advertising, Personal aims: I will reduce my TTT. I will control the volume of my voice. Analysis of target language: Language item/form Pronunciation Meaning / use appealing (adj.) /əˈpiːlɪŋ/ Attractive or interesting: The idea of not having to get up early every morning is rather appealing (to me). atractivo, interesante convey (v. T.) /kənˈveɪ/ to express a thought, feeling, or idea so that it is understood by other people: His poetry conveys a great sense of religious devotion. transmitir lacquer (n. U. US) /ˈlækər/ a shiny, hard substance that is painted on wood or metal to protect its surface: Elizabeth used lacquer to coat her new kitchen table. barniz *possible false friend, laca (SP) = lacquer, hairspray, barniz (SP) = lacquer, varnish, nail polish price (v. T. often used in passive) /praɪs/ to say what the price of something is: The car is priced at £28,000. tasar, valorar pricing (n. U.) /ˈpraɪsɪŋ/ the level at which prices are set by a company: Consumers will make their decisions based on competitive pricing, service, and credit terms. tarificación market share (compound noun, n.+n., U.) /ˈmɑːkɪt ˌʃeər/ the number of things that a company sells compared with the number of things of the same type that other companies sell: The company has increased its market share. participación en el mercado steam (n. U.) /stiːm/ the hot gas that is produced when water boils: Steam rose from the simmering stew. vapor undercut (v.) /ˌʌndəˈkʌt/ to charge less than a competitor: Big supermarkets can undercut all rivals, especially small family-owned shops. vender más barato que *definitions have been taken from Cambridge Dictionary: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/, Macmillan Dictionary: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/ and Word reference http://www.wordreference.com/es/ Relevant links between this lesson and relevant aspects of preceding and subsequent lessons: During my previous lesson, students used compound nouns to talk about inventions. The recording we are using in this lesson is going to expose students to some new compound nouns, e.g. Coke machine, hamburger chain, cigarette smoke. The topic of advertising fits into the theme of bright ideas. In the following lesson, students will study conditional sentences. The recording we are using in this lesson exposes students to the zero conditional, e.g. ‘If something costs more, it’s better.’, the first conditional, e.g. ‘If I see two similar products at different prices, I’ll buy the cheaper one.’, and second conditional, e.g. If I were to introduce a new lipstick and I wanted to compete with a product priced at €4.99. In the previous lessons taught by Jack, students have practised decoding skills in approaching a listening comprehension task. Maria presented her students with some strategies to help them read texts quickly and scan texts for key words. Assumptions: Students are familiar with the topic of advertising. Students are still unfamiliar with advertising vocabulary. Students might be familiar with some advertising techniques and/or tricks. Students are familiar with listening for gist. Students are familiar with note-taking. ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS: SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS: The computer or digital projector stops working. Carry on teaching the lesson and remember to write the answers on the board. Students might arrive late and miss the lead-in. Be welcoming and try to engage students in the activity asap. The audio does not work Have a copy of the transcript at hand. Read it aloud if necessary. Students want to listen to some parts of the recording more than once. Cut the audio into smaller parts corresponding to each question. Allocate some time to the listening for specific information so that you can play the corresponding parts more than once. Students don’t understand the meaning of new lexis related to advertising. Provide students with a meaning-matching task and ask meaning checking questions. Students might not understand some aspects of the connected speech. Have a copy of the transcript at hand with parts that students might find difficult underlined, e.g. watch showed /wɒʧəʊd/ and you’ll see /jɒsiː/ If necessary, play the recording (or the corresponding part of it) again. Materials and resources to be used: Hand-outs for students (8) – adapted from Speak Out – Upper Intermediate – Student’s Book p. 59 (Eales & Oakes, 2012) Audio file from Speak Out – Upper Intermediate – Student’s Book – Unit 5, Recording 3, Track 37 (Eales & Oakes, 2012) Audio tracks for each question which I edited myself. Transcript Speak Out – Upper Intermediate – Student’s Book p. 168-169 (Eales & Oakes, 2012) Power Point presentation, Computer, Digital projector, Scripted instructions Board markers. Commentary: How the lesson reflects the principles drawn from the reading and research in my background essay In this lesson, I am going to provide my students with quite a lot of information before the listening starts. The advertising questionnaire presents students with some vocabulary and conventions of advertising. When deciding how to approach this lesson I followed Penny Ur’s advice who says that “heard discourse which corresponds closely to what the listener expects and needs to hear is far more likely to be accurately perceived and understood than that which is unexpected, irrelevant or unhelpful” (Ur, 2004:4). Therefore, I believe it is a good idea to provide students with some pre-listening activities which can activate their schemata (Thornbury, 2006:202, skills 4j-k). Before students do the gist listening task (strategy 5m. ii), I need to orientate them about the recording. As I have mentioned in my background essay, it is important to let the students know that they will listen to an interview about advertising in which some tricks and techniques are going to be discussed. I do this because I agree that “it would seem a good idea when presenting a listening passage in class to give the students some information about the content, situation and speaker(s) before they actually start listening” (Ur, 2004:4). In this lesson, students will listen to the entire recording at least twice and to parts of it even three or more times. The aim of doing so is to “provide continual exposure to appropriate listening material with carefully sequenced practice activities which give the students opportunities to listen successfully and build confidence. They can also guide students towards more efficient listening through the teaching of strategies” (Wilson, 2008:17). One of the strategies I am going to encourage students to use in this lesson is note-taking (see: strategy 5e. ii). Students will have to take notes while answering the questionnaire and later during the gist listening task when they have to check if their answers to the ‘test’ were right or wrong (strategy 5o. i). I am also going to encourage students to take notes during the listening for detail stage when they have to decide whether some sentences are true or false. In order to make this more comprehension activity and less comprehension test, I am going to tell students to write down the reason why they are or are not true. I will do this to minimise the ‘testing not teaching’ outcome criticised in the comprehension approach (Field, 2008:80). I agree with Joh Field that “listening and reading are internalised skills: they take place in the mind of the learner and cannot be studied directly” (Field, 2008:80). Finally, I am going to apply listening skills and strategies in this lesson despite the fact that they have been criticised by some researchers (Ridgway, 2000; Ridgway, 2000, Swan & Walter, 2017). I believe that my students will benefit more from this structure of the lesson and I agree with Wilson who claims that “the long-term goal of teaching listening is to ensure a successful process (intelligent use of top-down and bottom-up information and good strategy use) as much as a successful product (the correct answer)” (Wilson, 2008:17). How the stages of the lesson relate to my learners’ needs First of all, as I have mentioned in the group description, this is a quite weak upper-intermediate group and the majority of students struggle a lot, especially, with listening comprehension tasks. That is why I have decided to put a lot of focus on the pre-listening stages. Students will have time and opportunity to get ready for the listening and I hope this will build up their confidence. I have also decided to include the vocabulary pre-teaching stage before the first listening as I know many students in this group like to know every word in the text and they will probably feel more relaxed about the task when they know what kind of vocabulary they might encounter. Finally, apart from listening, students in this group want to improve their speaking skills and a personal response stage will give them an opportunity to practise fluency-focused speaking about the advertising tricks and techniques. Word count: 696 References Eales, F., & Oakes, S. (2012). Speak Out - Upper Intermediate - Student's Book. Harlow: Pearson. Field, J. (2008). Listening in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ridgway, T. (2000). Hang on a minute! a reply to John Field. ELT Journal 54/2, 196-197. Ridgway, T. (2000). Listening strategies - I beg your pardon? ELT Journal 54/2, 179-185. Swan, M., & Walter, C. (2017). Misunderstanding comprehension. ELT Journal 71/2, 228-236. Thornbury, S. (2006). An A-Z of ELT (Methodology): A dictionary of terms and concepts. Oxford: Macmillan Education. Ur, P. (2004). Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wilson, J. J. (2008). How to teach listening. Harlow: Pearson.  Lesson grid STAGE TIME INTERACTION AIM(S) OF STAGE PROCEDURE Generate interest in the Topic 15:15 3 min. Lockstep Closed pairs Lockstep To generate interest in the topic in a fun and quick way Display the two logos on the board. Ask: Do you recognise these two products. Elicit the answer from students – Pepsi and Coke Say: Today we are going to talk about advertising Imagine this situation: There’s a Coke machine in the centre of Granollers. It sells a hundred cans of Coke a day. Pepsi comes in and puts a machine. After that, how many cans would each machine sell? Allow students 1 minute to discuss in pairs. Students discuss in pairs. Elicit possible answers from students but do not give them the answer. Generate interest in the Text 15:18 7 min. Lockstep Closed pairs Lockstep To generate interest in the text Show students the handout. Say: This is a mini questionnaire to check your 'advertising IQ'. Work in pairs and complete the questionnaire. There is some space for you to take notes. Let's do the first one together. You now have 3 minutes to complete the task. Students work in pairs. The teacher monitors to make sure students are completing the task and helps whenever necessary. Open class feedback: quickly ask students about some of their answers. Pre-teach vocabulary 15:25 8 min. Lockstep Closed pairs Lockstep To help students with key words in the text Tell students that they will soon find out the answers to the questionnaire. But, before they do that you would like to make sure they know some important vocabulary. Display the matching activity on the board. Ask the students to match the words with their meanings. Do the first one as an example. Students do the activity in pairs. Monitor and help wherever necessary. Open class feedback to check if students got their answers right. Ask concept checking questions to make sure students understand the meaning of the new words. When you price sth, do you decide how much it costs? (yes) Do you say what the price of sth is? (yes) When you undercut somebody do you charge more than the competitor or less? (less) If you want to undercut a competitor whose service costs €10, will you price your service at €9 or €11? (€9) When you convey an idea, do you express it or hide it? (express it) Does pricing refer to a level at which we set prices? (yes) Does “pricing” mean the same as undercutting? (no) When we talk about “market share”, do we talk about the number of things that a company sells? (Yes) Do we compare it with the number of things that other companies sell? (yes) Steam, is it a gas or a liquid? (a gas) Is it hot or cold? (Hot) Can you use lacquer to make sth shiny? (yes) Can you use it on your nails? (No) If sth is appealing, does it scare you? (No) Is it interesting or attractive? (Yes) Drill the new words, at least chorally! Orientation and listening for specific information task 15:33 10 min. Lockstep Individual Closed pairs Lockstep To prepare students for listening and allow students to deal with the text To provide practice in listening for specific information Tell students that they are going to listen to an interview with an expert in advertising. Tell students that it is quite long and lasts around 4 minutes. Tell them that they are going to listen for gist and they do not need to understand every word now. Ask them to listen and check their answers to the questionnaire. Tell them to take notes or correct their notes if necessary. Students listen to the recording and check their answers. Students compare their answers – monitor while students are comparing their answers to check if they need to listen to any parts of the recording again. If necessary, play parts of the recording again. Open class feedback: check the answers with the students and display them on the board (ppt). Detailed comprehension task 15:43 14 min, Lockstep Individual Closed pairs Lockstep To provide practice in listening for detailed information Tell students they will listen to the interview again. This time, they need to answer true or false questions. Allow students 1 minute to read the sentences. Play the recording again. Students do the task. Students compare their answers in pairs. Monitor closely as they do so. Re-play any parts of the recording when necessary. Open class feedback. Discuss the answers with the students. Use the transcript to respond to any doubts. Flexi-stage: Vocabulary from the text 15:57 8 min. Lockstep Individual Closed pairs Lockstep To draw students' attention to some of the words and expressions used in the listening Tell students they will now see some sentences from the listening. Ask them to choose the correct alternative. Do the first example together. Students circle their options. Ask students to listen and check their answers. Students compare in pairs. Open class feedback: display the correct answers on the board. Personal response to the Text 16:05 5 min. Lockstep Closed pairs Lockstep To provide fluency speaking practice by encouraging students to respond to issues in the text and make a link to the students’ lives Display the question on the board. Tell students they are now going to talk in pairs and discuss the question. Demo: I was shocked when I heard about the watches but apparently it's true (display the photo of the watches) Students discuss the question in pairs. Monitor and take notes of any mistakes students make and also interesting or correct sentences. Open class feedback: ask students about what shocked or surprised them the most. Feedback 16:10 (5 min.) Lockstep Closed pairs Lockstep To correct any errors heard and to allow the students to participate in the correction of these Write down some of the mistakes you have written down and some correct sentences. Ask students to discuss the sentences in pairs and decide whether they are correct or not. If they are incorrect, can they correct them? Students discuss the mistakes in pairs. Open class feedback: Elicit the corrections from the students.  Appendices Appendix 1 – Student’s handout  Appendix 2 – Power Point Slides  Generate interest in the Topic Generate interest in the Text Pre-teach vocabulary Orientation task and gist task Detailed comprehension task Flexi-stage: Vocabulary from the text Personal response to the Text Appendix 3 – A transcript I = Interviewer E = Expert I: We often hear that competition is beneficial but how exactly does it work? E: OK. Let’s imagine a Coke machine somewhere, anywhere, selling a hundred cans a day. Now, Pepsi comes along and puts up a machine next to it, how many cans would each machine sell? I: Fifty? E: That’s what most people think. In fact, each machine would probably sell two hundred cans a day, unless the market was saturated. I: That’s hard to believe ... What’s the explanation? E: Well, what happens is that the question in the consumer’s mind is no longer ‘Should I get a Coke or not?’ but ‘Which soft drink should I get?’ Choice makes people want things. I: Ah, that’s interesting. What about pricing? E: Well, there are several schools of thought on this. People are expected to think ‘If I see two similar products at different prices, I’ll buy the cheaper one’ but, in fact, that’s often not how consumers behave. For example, if I were to introduce a new lipstick and I wanted to compete with a product priced at €4.99, should I price mine above or below the competition? I: OK – I have a feeling you’re going to tell me above, but it seems natural to undercut your competitor. E: We’ve found that with certain types of products, if you price your product just above the competition’s price – so let’s say €5.49 –you’ll actually end up with a bigger share of the market. I: Why’s that? E: We intuitively feel that if something costs more, it’s better. People will pay more provided the difference is small. They’ll think, ‘Well, why not? I deserve the best.’ I: OK. Turning to the appearance of advertisements, what tricks are used to make products more appealing? E: Take this advertisement for a hamburger chain. Big picture of a juicy hamburger with fresh tomatoes and lettuce... I: Makes me hungry just looking at it. E: Yes, it’s fine to look at ….as long as you don’t eat it. It probably has a hundred per cent beef in it, real tomatoes and lettuce ... but to make it so shiny, a food stylist has painted the meat with oil or maybe lacquer; and what appears to be steam rising off the meat is probably cigarette smoke blown onto the hamburger just before the picture was taken. I: I’ve just lost my appetite. E: And look at these advertisements for watches. What time is it on this watch? I: Ten past ten. E: And on these? I: Ten past ten – in all of them. Why’s that? E: There are two theories. One is that with the hands in this position, the face of the watch conveys a smile. The other theory is that it’s a bit like a tick symbol. In either case, the consensus is that the message is positive. I: And if a watch showed 8.20 it wouldn’t sell as well? E: Presumably not. 8.20 is a very sad-looking time. I: What about colour in advertising? E: It’s crucial. We have built-in associations for every colour, for instance, red is associated with risk and with energy, so you see it in adverts for energy drinks, cars and sports equipment. Green, on the other hand, denotes safety, so it’s often used for medical products. Yellow and orange supposedly stimulate the appetite, so they’re used for food ads; blue on the other hand suppresses the appetite … it’s linked more to intellect and precision, so you see it in adverts for high-tech products. And purple is an interesting one: surveys show that around seventy-five per cent of young children prefer purple to all other colours. So you’ll see bright purple in advertising for toys for example. I: Well, thank you. I’ll never shop the same again. And neither will our listeners. Legend: connected speech which might cause students difficulties with comprehension answers to the gist listening task answers to the detailed comprehension task answers to the post-listening task  Appendix 4 – Teacher’s scripted instructions STAGE TIME PROCEDURE Generate interest in the Topic 15:15 3 min. Display the two logos on the board. Ask: Do you recognise these two products. Elicit the answer from students – Pepsi and Coke Say: Today we are going to talk about advertising Imagine this situation: There’s a Coke machine in the centre of Granollers. It sells a hundred cans of Coke a day. Pepsi comes in and puts a machine. After that, how many cans would each machine sell? Allow students 1 minute to discuss in pairs. Students discuss in pairs. ASK: What do you think will happen? Generate interest in the Text 15:18 7 min. Show students the handout. Say: This is a mini questionnaire to check your 'advertising IQ'. Work in pairs and complete the questionnaire. There is some space for you to take notes. Let's do the first one together. You now have 3 minutes to complete the task. Students work in pairs. The teacher monitors to make sure students are completing the task and helps whenever necessary. Open class feedback: quickly ask students: Tell me about your answer for Q1, etc. Pre-teach vocabulary 15:25 8 min. Say: You will soon find out the answers to the questionnaire. But, before you do that I need to make sure you know some important vocabulary. Display the matching activity on the board. Ask the students to match the words with their meanings. Let’s do the first one together. Students do the activity in pairs. Monitor and help wherever necessary. Open class feedback to check if students got their answers right. Ask concept checking questions to make sure students understand the meaning of the new words. When you price sth, do you decide how much it costs? (yes) Do you say what the price of sth is? (yes) When you undercut somebody do you charge more than the competitor or less? (less) If you want to undercut a competitor whose service costs €10, will you price your service at €9 or €11? (€9) When you convey an idea, do you express it or hide it? (express it) Does pricing refer to a level at which we set prices? (yes) Does “pricing” mean the same as undercutting? (no) When we talk about “market share”, do we talk about the number of things that a company sells? (Yes) Do we compare it with the number of things that other companies sell? (yes) Steam, is it a gas or a liquid? (a gas) Is it hot or cold? (Hot) Can you use lacquer to make sth shiny? (yes) Can you use it on your nails? (No) If sth is appealing, does it scare you? (No) Is it interesting or attractive? (Yes) Drill the new words, at least chorally! Orientation and listening for specific information task 15:33 10 min. Say: You are going to listen to an interview with an expert in advertising. Tell students that it is quite long and lasts around 4 minutes. Say: you are going to listen for gist and you do not need to understand every word now. Say: listen and check your answers to the questionnaire. Take notes or correct your notes if necessary. Students listen to the recording and check their answers. Say: Now compare your answers. Students compare their answers – monitor while students are comparing their answers to check if they need to listen to any parts of the recording again. If necessary, play parts of the recording again. Open class feedback: check the answers with the students and display them on the board (ppt). Detailed comprehension task 15:43 14 min, Say: You will listen to the interview again. This time, answer true or false questions. Allow students 1 minute to read the sentences. Play the recording again. Students do the task. Say: Compare your answers. Students compare their answers in pairs. Monitor closely as they do so. Re-play any parts of the recording when necessary. Open class feedback. Discuss the answers with the students. Use the transcript to respond to any doubts. Flexi-stage: Vocabulary from the text 15:57 8 min. Say: You will now see some sentences from the listening. Choose the correct alternative. Let’s do the first example together. Say: Do the task individually. Students circle their options. Say: Listen and check your answers. Say: Compare in pairs Students compare in pairs. Open class feedback: display the correct answers on the board. Personal response to the Text 16:05 5 min. Display the question on the board. Say: Talk in pairs and discuss the question, for example: Demo: I was shocked when I heard about the watches but apparently it's true (display the photo of the watches) Discuss in pairs Students discuss the question in pairs. Monitor and take notes of any mistakes students make and also interesting or correct sentences. Open class feedback: ask students about what shocked or surprised them the most. Feedback 16:10 (5 min.) Write down some of the mistakes you have written down and some correct sentences. Say: Discuss the sentences in pairs and decide whether they are correct or not. If they are incorrect, correct them. Students discuss the mistakes in pairs. Open class feedback: Elicit the corrections from the students.  Appendix 5 – Original materials Adapted from Speak Out – Student’s Book p. 59 (2012) LSA3: Listening 7 | Page Adapted from Speak Out – Student’s Book p. 59 (2012)