Strategies and practices for integrating EnglishCentral activities, 2015.02.15
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Slides from a workshop at the JALT NanKyu Chapter co-sponsored Sojo University Teaching and Learning Forum; Kumamoto, Japan; February 2, 2015
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Strategies and practices for integrating EnglishCentral activities, 2015.02.15
- 1. Strategies and Practices for Integrating EnglishCentral Activities with Curricula A workshop by Paul Beaufait @ the JALT NanKyu Chapter co-sponsored Sojo University Teaching and Learning Forum Kumamoto, Japan; February 2, 2015
- 2. Abstract This workshop will serve as a nexus for networking and sharing among teachers who already use EnglishCentral in their classes and those interested in using it, as well as with user/administrators responsible for integrating EnglishCentral listening, viewing, vocabulary study and speaking activities within departmental or broader programs. In order to stimulate peer-to-peer discussion and feedback, the facilitator will encourage participants to outline their adoption, implementation and assessment strategies, and to share practical tips for integrating EnglishCentral activities with existing or planned language learning curricula. Brief summaries of action research findings related to such strategies and practices will be more than welcome, as will advice from service providers and technical support staff. Participants who wish to do so may bring or send digital or tangible artefacts with which to illustrate their programs or plans. With participants' permission, the facilitator hopes to aggregate and publicise those artefacts under a Creative Commons license.
- 3. Happy Groundhogs' Day! Groundhog prognostications by Giulia Forsythe, 2014.02.04 Some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
- 4. Except as otherwise noted, this work, Strategies and Practices for Integrating EnglishCentral Activities with Curricula, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Please attribute to Paul Beaufait. Creative Commons License
- 5. Anticipated outcomes Awareness: Affordances, Approaches, Alternatives, …; Concerns: Coordination, Integration, Suitability, …; Action plans: Adoption, Implementation, Assessment, …; Reflections: Face-to-face or Online; & Publication.
- 6. Integration w/ plans Roles/status: (Co-)Administrators, Tech. support staff, (Co-)Teachers, Learners, &/or Prospective users? Foci: Strategic action: Adoption, Implementation, Assessment; Reflective practices; Other?
- 7. Educational settings (institution, locales, …) Roles or status w/ regard to blended or online learning Interests in EnglishCentral Interlude (1) ♻
- 8. A chart of prospects Individuals Teachers Departments Institutions Types of use learner dev. learner dev. (teacher dev.) learner dev. teacher dev. (staff dev.) learner dev. teacher dev. staff dev. Curricular foci NA course goals departmental plans institutional agendas English Central affordances authenticity; content choices: genres, levels, … (premium content); & feedback classes, curricular choices, groups, progress reports, exports, ... curricular coordination, content management: course dev. & reuse; … ? branding, ...?
- 9. A flowchart of on-site activities (PB, 2014.01.09)
- 10. Possible trade-offs + Input quotas: Listening, Reading, & Viewing. Minimizing text dependence? - Output quotas: Pronunciation & Speaking practice.
- 11. Goals or not?
- 12. Concerns or questions Current practices Plans or strategies Interlude (2) ♻
- 13. Bridges on the Horizon (Louisville, KY) by Cindy Cornett Seigle, 2009.08.22, Some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Bridging & blending (1)
- 14. Bridging and blending (2)
- 15. Bridging and blending (3) Courses to choose from on Day 1 Beginning Shall We Talk ● http://www.englishcentral.com/courses/preview/13 22 ○ 6 units ○ 24 videos Conversation 1 ● http://www.englishcentral.com/courses/preview/28 ○ 12 units ○ 50 videos Intermediate Conversation 2 ● http://www.englishcentral.com/courses/preview/30 ○ 12 units ○ 50 videos Courses to choose from on Day 4 Beginning See: Other videos selected from search results, below. Intermediate Presentation Skills ● http://www.englishcentral.com/courses/preview/ 25 Other videos selected from search results Beginning (in order suggested for viewing) Presentation Rule No. 1: Your Audience is King ● http://www.englishcentral.com/video/19513/ ○ First of five videos in a series from beginning to advanced ... Extensive Listening (EL) at the PUK ELF Camp (2014): Notes, plans, reflections, and resources
- 16. Course text integration (DIY: Vocabulary) (Anderson, 2013, p. 165)
- 17. Course text integration (à la EC) (EnglishCentral, August 2014, Create a custom course [JPG])
- 19. EnglishCentral. (2014, August n.d.). Create a custom course [JPG]. Retrieved from http://englishcentralteachers.com/wp- content/uploads/edd/2014/08/create-custom-course.jpg Forsythe, Giulia. (2014, February 4). Groundhog prognostications [photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/12289512884 Seigel, Cindy Cornett. (2009, September 22). Bridges on the Horizon [photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/cindy47452/3848960110 Image credits
- 20. Anderson, Neil J. (2013). ACTIVE Skills for Reading, 3rd Edition, Student Book 1. Boston: National Geographic Learning. Beaufait, P. (2013). "Exploring ins and outs of EnglishCentral." 5th Annual North-East Asian Regional Language Education Conference. Nigata Prefectural University. Niigata, Japan: 25 May 2013. Beaufait, Paul (2015). Extensive Listening (EL) at the PUK ELF Camp: Notes, plans, reflections, and resources [online document]. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/OoT3QJ Deubelbeiss, David. (2014, June 16). Custom courses: You be the author! [web log post]. Retrieved from: http://blog.englishcentral.com/2014/06/16/custom-courses-you-be-the- author/ References
- 21. Keen on networking or collaboration? Please drop me a line. pab@pu-kumamoto.ac.jp Email contact
- 22. Strategies and Practices for Integrating EnglishCentral Activities with Curricula A workshop by Paul Beaufait @ the JALT NanKyu Chapter and Sojo University Teaching and Learning Forum Kumamoto, Japan; February 2, 2015
Editor's Notes
- You may be wondering what a Creative Commons license is. On the next couple of slides, for example, are the kinds of licenses I usually use on course materials, presentations, and websites.
- While it is a pleasure to be here today, I may get a little carried away in the excitement to get to the parts where you pitch in. So if at any time you'd like me slow down, back up, repeat something, or pause briefly for questions, please raise a hand.
- Acknowledgment & disclosure: Though I am grateful for initial and on-going support from the folks at EnglishCentral, Ryo Yamamoto in particular (who … [was] in attendance), and have collaborated with them from time to time on micro-research, pilot projects, and minor corrections; I have no vested interests in EnglishCentral other than in the continuity and convenience of uses with students and peers.
- This slide lists a few outcomes in which I hope we will share today, or collectively envision not far down the line. With regard to near-future publication, forum organizers were drawing up plans for conference proceedings about a week ago (personal notes, 2015.01.23). I expect that there will be an announcement during the closing ceremony on Feb. 2nd, 2015, if not before.
- To set off on the right foot, I'd like to ask everyone to share _briefly_ (in triads or groups of four): a) where they're from, b) what their roles and status are with regard to EnglishCentral or other local server or cloud-based (online) language learning venues, and c) what their current projects and plans are. Then, as the workshop continues, there will be additional opportunities to share both strategies and projections for integrating such learning venues and the activities they support with existing or planned curricula.
- Please note that there may be considerable overlap in affordances from one column to the next, from one role or situation to another. The question marks in the lower right corner of the chart indicated areas of great interest and concern for me, as all departments and faculties across the campus where I work spring–or perhaps tip-toe into action now that the university has acquired premium access for all students (and staff?). I was especially keen to find out whether participants (and service providers) saw eye to eye the potentially key affordances of EnglishCentral as a learning and content management venue.
- A central focus of learning activities at EnglishCentral, indicated in this flowchart by the magenta frame around integrated modes of audio-visual input (中心), can vary from institution to institution, department to department, class to class, group to group, learner to learner, and time to time. Granted, some learners, teachers, and administrators may see vocabulary study, or pronunciation and speaking practice as central, and thus locate the central frame of reference to the right. However, for purposes of discussion at the JALT NanKyu Chapter and Sojo University Teaching and Learning Forum, we may wish to concentrate on prospects for tipping the central focus towards listening, before exploring additional strategies and practices..
- If we think of the time that learners have to devote to activities as limited, sometimes far more limited than we may hope or they may need in order to ensure steady language development, shifts towards listening may come at the expense of time devoted to other activities, for instance: vocabulary study or pronunciation and speaking practice.
- This chart represents findings from a pilot project with two classes of 2nd-year students to which the presenter was introducing EnglishCentral. Their assignments either to an experimental class group for which he set standard weekly goals (view five videos, study 50 words, earn 500 speaking points) or to the control group with no explicit goals was not random. Though inaccurate, individual self-reported vocabulary size test scores may have distorted both maximum gains in one group and maximum losses in the other, there was a noticeable if not significant difference in group averages over the period of one semester (approximately 15 weeks). [Per a suggestion from a workshop participant, it will be interesting to revisit the data to try to identify and possibly eliminate outliers.]
- If, on one hand, you're interested mainly in assignments bridging between class meetings (a type of blending), I would advise against allocating much time in class for independent online activities at EnglishCentral, other than when students are just getting started using the site. However, especially for students who may not yet have acquired habits of self-regulation and distributed practice, setting aside a few minutes at the beginning of class once a week or so can be advantageous.
- However, as the bar charts on this slide suggest, students may not cooperate in bridging or flipping strategies; they may visit the site only in class. At a rate of approx. 15 min. of contact per week (max.), they should expect to make little if any progress.
- If, on the other hand, you are planning for an intensive course such as a summer camp, you may wish to set aside 60 to 90 minutes a day for concentrated learning activities and personal reflections.
- Here's an example of do-it-yourself integration based on target vocabulary: In a classroom or lab, you can demonstrate use of the search function with a word or two from a textbook vocabulary index (e.g.: Anderson, 2013, p. 165), then instruct learners to do their own searches and selections for each of the key words from each unit or chapter to focus their previewing or reviewing activities: Listening/Reading/Viewing, Vocabulary study, or Pronunciation and Speaking practice. If necessary–to remind learners, you also can instruct them to start with the most appealing courses, videos, or word forms, at the most appropriate levels for themselves: Beginner, Advanced, or Intermediate. Similarly, you can make readymade EC course or video selections beforehand, and add those selections as options or requirements to curricula for courses that you teach or administer.
- For details on how to build and brand courses, please check out the EnglishCentral blog post: Custom courses–You be the author! (Deubelbeiss, 2014), or talk to the EnglishCentral rep. here today!