Vol 09 No 1 TESL Reporter

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ML
teaching english as a second language
vol 9 no
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iai lme hawaii al

fall

1975

generating
STUDENT
by linda new levine
As a language teacher my definition of the nature of language is necessarily dif-

LANGUAGE THROUGH MEDIA production BY THE ESL audiovisual
with this definition in mind the job
of the language teacher acquires new meaning teachers can no longer teach language in the abstract as a body of knowledge that students must absorb rather they must teach students to use language bernard spolsky made this point in his article the limits of language education in the linguistic reporter spolsky 19712 when he said language teachers have seen their task as teaching language they have not realized that it is teaching students to use
language
a social setting for the purpose ing tasks is sometimes termed

ferent from that of the linguist or the anthropologist rather than perceiving I language as a system as linguists do 1 see language as a method of communication within a social context a vehicle for getting things done a set of skills useful for completing specific tasks

a generating language through mediln I page 1 by linda new levine h the art of changing ESOL or bow to create an elephant page 4 by larry E smith toward communicative competence with abby and ann page 6 by kenneth G aitken teaching conversation through student instruction page 8 by kenyon moss the lexinym A brand new concept for the language teacher page 10 by jason B alter a cloze testing an answer to
mr

goiwtnjvts ev e e c eOEN C

the ability to

use a new language within

of complet-

communiwilga rivers refers to cative competence this ability as spontaneous expression j sc u botn terms imply a sttuctents linguisttiic m ud competence in the language or his ability to produce grammatical sentences communicative competence also implies a students grasp of the social meaning of language an e cultural and social understanding of ve b amenities as well as the non verrbal behavior that occurs in language contexts

aitkens article by roger K williams

page

12

prefer the term conversational competence used by bruce fraser in his paper the development of

for my discussion

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TESL reporter F
social context of cooperating with others and to a large extent under their own 1 will I direction discuss six specific techniques which second language teachers can employ and adapt to their own curriculum in order to increase the conversational competence of their students student photography is a good way in to introduce second language which

communicative competence in second language acquisition at the 1974 TESOL conversational competence convention ver excludes the area of non verbal behavior I which 1 will not be focusing on in this I paper rather 1 will discuss some general methods for developing conversational competence in second language students and then some of the specific methods involving task completion and the use of media 1 which I have employed in my own middle schmool and high school ESL classes cho l in my attempts to teach students how I to use language 1 have made several assumptions about developing the most efficient system of learning to maximize learning I efficiency 1 assume that

linda new levine a doctoral student in ESL and linguistics at new york
university is currently teaching ESL in the bedford school district new york she has taught ESL with the peace corps in the philippines and in the new york city school system

learning is an individualized procedure students differ in intelligence achievement levels rates of learning interests and styles of learning and cognition therefore the most efficient learning situation takes these differences into account and attempts to provide various ways for learning a particu1

lar skill

language learning is socialized behavior to learn to use a language a student must have ample opportunity to practice using language as a skill therefore the most efficient language learning situation must provide a high density of interpersonal communication
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learning

self directed actively involved selection in the sequencing and timing of his own learning program will use his learning time in the most efficient way tourists traveling abroad are proof of this assumption as they quite easily learn the corresponding phrase for how much in as manylanguages langua as they find necessary therefore the most efficient learning system should provide for student input in my own middle school and high school classes of italian spanish and 1 students I have found that these three criteria may be met by implementing a program for student production of media students who produce their own slide shows filmstrips and movies are learning to use language to complete tasks and they are working on these projects according to their own individual styles within a

is most efficient when it is the language learner who is

they students to the world of media quickly learn how to use an inexpensive polaroid camera and are highly motivated by the fast 15 second results to produce more pictures the job of the teacher is to suggest appropriate topics as photowhen students are graphic subjects involved in a language lesson concerning a school building they can take a polaroid camera and shoot a roll of eight black and white or color pictures of their own school and the facilities within the building other language lessons which focus on the community the house and the furniture within the house the family or the drugstore provide a good setting for photography conversation necessarily occurs as an offshoot of the assignment as students must interact verbally in planning sessions prior to the actual photographic session the newly taught vocabulary and structures are more likely to be used by students during the planning session if the photographic topic is specific and directly related to the original classroom presentation of the new material therefore if students are planning to photograph their community they will be likely to use the target vocabulary and structures identified by the teacher if these structures have been questioned during the student planning
session

priate means of sharing their project with the others in the class this involves the

after the actual photography is finished students must then cooppeartaotn on an approoo er etne o i oe a

fall
student in a form of peer teaching and provides a goal for the completion of the photographic assignment they must write a story on the assigned topic and use the pictures as a visual accompaniment this becomes an attractive photo book if the students write the story neatly on unlined paper cover the book with an attractive cover and bind the pages together with a or with brass plastic punch binding fasteners the book can now be included in the classroom library for other students to read another method of sharing student photography is the photographic wall chart here students write a story on a large sheet of chart paper in letters large enough to be read by the class the photographs are placed on the chart as a visual accomthese charts can pani ment to the text be shared by the entire class here again the conversation that occurs as part of the planning and completion of the project the student to use the newly enables acquired language skills for the completion of a task this is in my view the real goal of language learning student photographs can also be used to create decorative and informative bulletin boards on particular subjects again the bulletin boards are created to be shared by all the students in the class because these projects are really a avariiety var e or experience chart they are espeecilay al 1 esp cia l y effective for those students in the class requiring reading remediation as the reading involved is usually well within the students aural oral command polaroid photography requires few equipment demands on the part of the teacher 1 however the next technique I will discuss student made slide shows requires more equipment but produces more satisfying resufts slide shows may be of two types results l v one type of slide show is in the form of a picture story the student may select a topic such as my neighborhood and then represent the topic pictorially ideas for shows of this type are endless for example my country my family or a slide show on jobs and occupations another type of slide show may be prepared to provide practice of a particular grammatical structure for example the present progressive may be simple present tense or the illustrated in a show titled what people do

1975

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all day

pictures will show the teacher teaching the children playing the farmer working and so on slide shows may also be produced to illustrate comparative adjectives such as big bigger and biggest or the plural of nouns
A slide show project involves either the use of a 35 millimeter camera or an instamatic camera and roll of color slide film for twenty or thirty six pictures students must again plan their photographic session before they begin to photograph so that they can cover the topic thoroughly and not waste their film allotment the teacher can aid in these planning sessions by appropriate questioning in this way students may be directed toward using the

here

target structures and vocabulary to accomplish their planning task after the slides are returned from the e processor students may arrange them in a logical sequence and write a script accompaniment which they can then tape on a tape recorder for presentation to the class another method of presentation is to ask students to relate the slide show extemporaneously this is a more difficult skill however and most students will require many practice sessions before they can extemporize before a class if the teacher has access to a kodak Ec a g a ph c V su ecttagrraphiic viisualmaker students may produce slide shows of more extensive subjects than those found in their immediate Vu environment the ektagraphiic viiisuallmaker h c v ssua make consists of an instamatic camera with a close up lens attached to a camera stand ose up the camera is permanently focused onto a table top background using this device students can produce quality slides from pictures found in magazines and books thus students can produce slide shows on a wide variety of topics zoo or farm animals scenes from their native countries various kinds of air land and water transpor tation biographies of famous people and many others these slide presentations and their taped accompaniments may be shown on a slide projector and then made a part of the ESL classroom library or catalogued in the regular school library guer

language through media will appear in the next issue of the TESL reporter

the concluding installment of generating