Looking for excellence in ELT through evidence-based teaching’

1. Looking for Excellence in ELT
through Evidence-based Teaching
Carol Lethaby
clethaby@clethaby.com
clethaby.com
@clethaby

2. •Evidence-based teaching?

3. Why focus on research and evidence?
•We may be underusing strategies that have
been shown to be effective
•We may be (over)using strategies that
evidence shows are not really effective
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4. Where is the evidence?
Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K.A., Marsh, E.J., Nathan, M.J. &
Willingham, D.T. (2013). Improving students learning
with effective learning techniques promising directions
from cognitive and educational psychology.
Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14/1, 4-58.
doi: 10.1177/1529100612453266
http://nyphotographic.com/

5. Roediger, H. L., & Pyc, M. A. (2012). Inexpensive
techniques to improve education: Applying cognitive
psychology to enhance educational practice Journal of
Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1/4, 242-
248. Doi: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2012.09.002
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Where is the evidence?

6. Which of these strategies have you ever used
as a teacher (or learner  )?
•Work in pairs.
•Talk about the ones you have used
•Which have you felt were most
useful for learning?

7. Common learning techniques
• 1 Highlight and underline as you read.
• 2 Write a summary of a text in order to help you learn
the contents.
• 3 Compare Spanish and English words to remember
vocabulary.
• 4 Visualize and make mental images of what you are
reading.
• 5 Read a text more than once to learn the content.

8. Highlighting and underlining 1
•Using highlighting and underlining as you read
•Rating: Low usefulness – doesn’t seem to
improve learning

9. Summarizing 2
• Writing a summary of a to-be-learned text
• Rating: Low usefulness - hard to teach learners to do
it and research findings aren’t conclusive

10. Visualize what you are reading 3
•Imagery use for text learning: form mental images of
text material you are learning
•Rating: Low usefulness – benefits limited to imagery-
friendly texts

11. Mnemonics 4
• The keyword technique: making associations with
first and second language
• Rating: Low usefulness; not universally applicable and
benefits don’t appear to last

12. Re-Reading 5
•Re-reading: reading a text again
•Rating: Low usefulness; time could be better
spent

13. OK ….
…. So what does work?

14. Evidence-based strategies:
•1 Elaborative interrogation
•2 Self-explanation
•3 Distributed practice
•4 Interleaved practice
•5 Practice testing

15. Elaborative interrogation
Explaining why something is true
“Why?”
“Why is this true?”
“Why is this the case here, but not here?”

16. Research
• “Elaborative interrogation enhances learning
by supporting the integration of new
information with existing prior knowledge”
Dunlosky et al (2013:6)
• “ effortful, conscious processing”
Howard-Jones et al (2018:3)

17. •“moderate utility” Dunlosky et al (2013)

18. •Can this evidence-based
strategy be applied to ELT?

19. Elaborative interrogation
• Ask questions about grammar rules and
compare different structures
• Make connections between classroom
language and language heard outside
• Ask learners to explain answers to reading
and listening

20. Self-explanation
• Explaining features of your own learning to
yourself
“ How does it relate to what I already know?”
“What steps do I take to solve this problem?”
“How can I apply this in a different situation?”

21. Research
• Encourages learners to actively process
content and relate it to what they already
know
• “self-explanation can provide the kind of deep
learning that permits transfer” Roediger & Pyc
(2012:247)
• “moderate utility” Dunlosky et al (2013)

22. •Can this evidence-based
strategy be applied to ELT?

23. Self- explanation
•Reading and listening comprehension tasks –
How did I find the answers?
•Student explains thought-processes to a
partner
•Learners explain similarities and differences
between new and previously studied material

24. Distributed/spaced practice
•spreading out practice activities over time

25. • This “is one of the most
general and robust effects
from across the entire history
of experimental research on
learning and memory”
Bjork & Bjork in Coe et al (2014:17)
Ebbinghaus
Huge volume of research shows it leads to
much greater long-term retention

26. Research
• Studies in L2 vocabulary learning e.g. Bloom
& Shuell (1981); Bahrick et al (1993)
• Nation (2014:29) on the use of vocabulary
word cards: “spaced repetition results in
longer lasting learning”
• Recent research in L2 grammar practice :
Bird (2009), Rogers (2015), Suzuki &
DeKeyser (2017)
• “high utility” Dunlosky et al (2013)

27. •Can this evidence-based
strategy be applied to ELT?

28. Distributed/spaced practice
•Recycle vocabulary with increasingly greater
time spaces
•Don’t do the freer practice activities immediately
after the controlled practice
•Begin each lesson with a practice of target
language from a previous lesson
•Help learners plan their own study timetable

29. Interleaved practice
•mixing up different practice activities in a
single session
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✔ABC CBA BCA

30. Research
• Can improve brain’s ability to tell
concepts apart, lead to better transfer of
skills and greater retention
• “moderate utility” Dunlosky et al (2013)

31. •Can this evidence-based
strategy be applied to ELT?

32. Interleaved practice
• Mix language & skills practice up in class – don’t be
too predictable
• Jumble up practice of language structures in one
session
• Review material in a different order
• Timetabling – integrate skills & language
• Train learners to switch between learning topics when
they study

33. Practice testing
• Practice testing: low/ no stakes and self-testing
• Rating: High usefulness – overwhelmingly shows
improved learning
By German.aiflc - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35405949

34. • Retrieval practice - (via self testing) for durable
learning;
• Having tests interspersed with learning – good for
long term learning
• Practice in retrieving information makes that
information easier to retrieve in the future (p 246)
• Experiments in language learning - retrieval practice is
a powerful means of improving retention in learning
foreign language vocabulary (e.g., Karpicke & Smith,2012; Pyc &
Rawson, 2010),

35. •Can this evidence-based
strategy be applied to ELT?

36. Practice testing
•Applications to ELT: vocab tests,
test yourself, practice tests
•formative assessment and
continuous assessment, self-testing
at different stages

37. From: English ID 1 by Seligson, Lethaby and Gontow Richmond Publishing

38. From: English ID 1 by Seligson, Lethaby and Gontow Richmond Publishing

39. From: English ID 1 by Seligson, Lethaby and Gontow Richmond Publishing

40. From:JustRight(SecondEdition)by
Lethaby,AcevedoandHarmerCengage
/NGL

41. Evidence-based strategies:
•1 Elaborative interrogation
•2 Self-explanation
•3 Distributed practice
•4 Interleaved practice
•5 Practice testing

42. Conclusions
•Evidence-based strategies exist – we should be
aware of them – and what the research says
•We already do a lot of these things in the
classroom (it’s good to know there’s evidence to
back them up – and why it works)
•Thought and time is needed to apply them to ELT
•But … we need to also consider how and which
parts are applicable

43. Looking for Excellence in ELT
through Evidence-based Teaching
Carol Lethaby
clethaby@clethaby.com
clethaby.com
@clethaby

44. Coe et al (2014:18)

45. • References
• Arbuthnott, K.D., & Krätzig, G.P (2014) Effective teaching: sensory learning styles versus general memory
processes. Comprehensive Psychology, 4,2.
• Bahrick, H.P., Bahrick, L.E., Bahrick, A.S., & Bahrick, P.E. (1993) Maintainence of foreign language vocabulary
and the spacing effect. Psychological Science, 4, 316-321
• Bird, S. (2010) Effects of distributed practice on the acquisition of second language syntax. Applied
Psycholinguistics, 31, 635-650
• Bloom, K.C., & Shuell, T.J. (1981) Effects of massed and distributed practice on the learning and retention of
second-language vocabulary. Journal of Educational Research, 74, 245 – 248
• Coe, R., Aloisi, C., Higgins, S & Elliot Major, L. (2014) What makes great teaching? The Sutton Trust
• Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K.A., Marsh, E.J.,Nathan, M.J., & Willingham, D.T. (2013) Improving student’s learning
with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology.
Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14 (1) 4 - 58
• Hattie, John and Yates, Gregory, "Plenary 4 - Understanding Learning : lessons for learning, teaching and
research" (2013). 2009 - 2017 ACER Research Conferences. 10.
https://research.acer.edu.au/research_conference/RC2013/6august/10
• Howard-Jones, P. A. (2007). Neuroscience and education: Issues and opportunities, A Commentary by the
Teaching and Learning Research Programme. TLRP/ESRC.
• Howard- Jones,P, Ioannou, C., Bailey, R., Prior, J., Shu, H.Y., & Jay, T.(2018) Applying the science of learning in
the classroom Impact
• Kang, S.H.K., & Pashler, H. (2011) Learning painting styles: Spacing is advantageous when it promotes
discriminative contrast. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26, 97-103

46. • Nation, I.S.P. (2001) Learning Vocabulary in Another Language CUP
• Nation, P. (2014) What do you need to know to learn a foreign language?
https://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/paul-nation/foreign-language_1125.pdf
• Roediger, H.L., & Pyc, M.A. (2012) Inexpensive techniques to improve education: Applying cognitive
psychology to enhance educational practice. Journal of Applied Research in Memory & Cognition, 1, 242-248
• Rogers, J. (2015) Learning second language syntax under massed and distributed conditions. TESOL
Quarterly, 49, 857-866
• Rogers, J. (2017) The spacing effect and its relevance to second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics
38/6, 906-911
• Smith, B.L., Holliday, W.G., & Austin, H.W. (2010) Students’ comprehension of science textbooks using a
question-based reading strategy. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47, 363 – 379.
• Suzuki, Y., & DeKeyser, R. (2017) Effects of distributed practice on the proceduralization of morphology.
Language Teaching Research, 21(2), 166-188
• Wong, R.M.F., Lawson, M.J., & Keeves, J (2002). The effects of self-explanation training on students’ problem
solving in high –school mathematics. Learning and Instructino, 12, 223-262