TE714 English Language Teaching Materials/GregNorman

In my first post on this blog I listed the following as some of the things I wanted to get out of the course/blog:

• An understanding of the underlying principles of materials design
• How to apply these principles to materials design
• Experiential learning of materials development (including the development of technical abilities necessary to produce materials)

I also listed the following as the principles I believed I operated under when making materials.

• The students do all the work
• Insofar as is possible, the students generate the materials themselves
• The materials are task-based
• The materials provide a safe environment practice of the real tasks that the students are learning English to perform.
• The task itself is the materials.
• Strategies and techniques: reading and writing need to be taught in terms of steps, approaches that can be applied to other texts, etc.

In my final post it is worth revisiting these ideas and seeing how they now compare with how I have developed.

First of all, I do not think I would I would change any of the principles I listed above. They all are still relevant to what I do and how I do it. I think it is more relevant to look at the principles I would add. First of all, the dialogic nature of materials, or rather how we use materials, has become apparent over the course: that there must be dialogue in the process of teaching and learning for learning to take place: dialogue between students, between students and teacher, in which materials and tasks play a central role.

Secondly, the role of technology is of great importance, but not in terms of the necessity of using it, and not in terms of only using digital cutting edge technology. We do not know what the results of using technology in terms of learning and teaching are. For that there needs to be more research. There seems to be a tendency to throw out the baby with the bathwater at times. This needs to be resisted. When the engine was invented we didn’t throw away the wheel, we integrated their use, using the engine to make the wheels turn faster. It is important therefore to integrate technology in the broadest sense – to use technologies such as pen and paper hand in hand with computers and digital devices in an integrated approach that gets the best out of what is to hand.

Thirdly, I think it is important to recognize the looped process of materials development, to produce materials and use them with a principled but also evaluative approach, developing the materials according to principles, but also changing and developing the materials on the basis of data gathered in the classroom and integrated in communities of practice (perhaps linked primarily via a blog) that could and should include team planning and ongoing development of materials on the basis of empirical research. This should take place at the level of individual lessons but also at syllabus level, clearly focused on outcomes and assessments.  Two ideas I have taken from this course for EAP are that (1) Bloom’s cognitive strategies are a useful way of informing evaluation of EAP materials since they correspond closely to what we need students to do to succeed, and (2) it is important not to overload students with too much input on time pressured EAP courses.  Each piece of text should be maximised to lessen the input burden on students.

Finally, as a natural result of developing materials in this way, the most appropriate format seems to be flexi-materials: a range of source materials that can be accessed, and a range of task types that can be implemented to use with these ‘raw’ materials. This makes sense in EAP where students essentially need to learn to take scaffolded approaches to various tasks, often following a series of steps to achieve the best results. Taking a flexi-materials approach would only serve to strengthen this tendency and their ability to deal with materials in this way.

It seems therefore clear that this course has given me a working set of principles, an evaluative framework and a clear idea of one approach that can be taken to facilitate a principled, evaluative and data-led ongoing process of materials development.

In the post on task evaluation I wrote up this basic outline for task evaluation.

1. Description of task in terms of objectives, input type, procedures and outcomes
2. Evaluation of task in terms of the objectives of the evaluation, the scope of the evaluation, who will conduct the evaluation, whether the evaluation is formative or summative, the types of information to be collected
3. Collection of data
4. Analysis of data
5. Conclusions and recommendations

I have not yet had an opportunity to teach the ‘lecture telling’ lesson outlined in my last post. However, as noted before, this lesson would need to be further developed in order to fully realize its potential in various ways. In order to do this it would be necessary to take a data-led approach, based on classroom practice. In other words, it would be necessary to teach the lesson and evaluate it before using that information to improve it. Below, I have mapped out the approach I intend to take when teaching and evaluating this lesson, based on the procedure above.

Lecture ‘telling’

The idea of lecture ‘telling’ is taken from Keddie’s video telling and is the same concept applied to lectures. Essentially, students are prepared for a video story through interactive story description with the teacher by using the story as the focus to develop vocabulary, concepts, prediction, etc. In the same way, lecture ‘telling’ can be used to prepare students for listening to and taking notes on a lecture.

My aim Is to prepare a specific lecture but also a general framework that can be used to prepare students for the following:

• concepts
• vocabulary
• signposting
• academic skills

I have also used a principled approach.

Preparation of Lecture Telling lesson

These are the steps I went through to produce the Lecture Telling materials.

1. Identify need: In the learner outcomes, assessments and general profiles for EAP students on pre-sessional courses in UK HE, students need to be able to listen to lectures, take detailed effective notes, review those notes and use them to answer questions, produce written texts example. Often students have a language skills that are barely at the required level and academic skills that are below it. They therefore need a great deal of training in both in order to be able to complete the tasks. More can be achieved in terms of academic skills in a short time, but specific vocabulary can also be improved, and noticing signposting, etc. structures is helpful. Most courses contain these elements, but often students spend more time practising than learning how to do this. EAP is also very task driven – in this case the notes and the identification of the relevant information are the main focus of the students’ attention. It is therefore necessary to find an approach of combining the two. Lecture ‘telling’ based on Keddie’s video telling seems to fit the bill.
2. I then checked my basic concept against various frameworks: the BALEAP can-do framework for HE students supports what I wrote above, listing the types of note-taking skills necessary. I also looked at the rough plan of what I intended to do in terms of Bloom’s cognitive strategies that I identified earlier as a useful way of evaluating materials. Finally I compared it with my own teacher beliefs and the principles I developed earlier. Once I had a clear chart listing what I intended to do, I needed to start to make the materials.
3. Identify source materials: The first step, as it is with most EAP materials, was identifying the materials. EAP materials need to be academic of semi-academic in nature. This means they need to follow academic structures, conventions and feature academic style and formal vocabulary. However, at a lower level, giving students practice with semi-academic materials is a useful way in: the materials are not so difficult as to be out of reach, making it possible to concentrate on the skills development and the task. I therefore took a text from an intermediate business book – Market Leader Intermediate – and adapted it.
4. Adapting source materials: The original text is an interview with a marketing executive. This was suitable since I could adapt it to make it more academic without it becoming too difficult. To adapt it I rewrote the text as an academic presentation including an introduction, different parts, conclusion and some references to source materials that I found and included to support the points made in the talk. This gave me a basic text to work with. I checked it for academic language by putting it through an online Academic Word List programme to see how much of the vocabulary was academic. The file produced showed there were sufficiently high levels of academic vocabulary for my purposes whilst maintaining a fairly accessible level of difficulty, which can be seen in the attached pdf. .  The title of my talk today is the Elements of Successful Advertising Campaigns-1dfmi6u
5. The next step was to produce a standard template that could be used with ‘lecture telling’ lessons. To do this, I looked through a few examples of Jamie Keddie’s video telling lessons online http://lessonstream.org/main-activity/videotelling/and also at Julie Moore’s book how to write EAP materials. Together with the learner outcomes and the BALEAP framework (Can_Do_Framework__with_sample_activities_April_2013-1tzk72g), this gave me a rough plan, which I then turned into a template.
6. On the basis of the template I wrote out a ‘scripted’ version of the talk, i.e. the Lecture Telling script that the teacher would use, and mapped out a rough example of the note layout that students could use.
7. Finally, in order to have a worked example of the task, I wrote up a short list of notes of the main points of the talk.

Aish, F., and Tomlinson, J., 2013. Lectures: Learn listening and note-taking skills. Harper Collins: London.

BALEAP, (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.baleap.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Can_Do_Framework__with_sample_activities_April_2013.pdf [Accessed 2 May 2017].

Moore, J. (2014). How To Write EAP Materials. 1st ed. ELT Teacher 2 Writer.

LECTURE ‘TELLING’ TEMPLATE

LECTURE TELLING: The Elements of Successful Advertising Campaigns

(Teacher’s script)

Pre-listening:

The title of the talk is the Elements of Successful Advertising Campaigns.

What do you expect to hear about?

What topics do you think the talk might contain?

Write down ten words to do with advertising you think might be used.

Introduction:

You are going to listen to the introduction. What information do you think this will contain?

The introduction divides the talk into three parts: what do you think these might be?

What linking or signposting words do you think the lecturer will use?

Now listen to the introduction and make notes on the structure of the talk:

My talk will be in three parts: First I will identify the key elements of successful advertising. The second part of my talk will detail the stages of developing a campaign. And the third part will analyse one of the most successful campaigns of all time. I will then summarise the main points of my talk and draw some conclusions.

You should now have an idea about the structure of the talk. Why does the lecturer outline the structure of the talk? (to make it easier to follow, allow students to prepare note-taking, etc.)

Decide on the best format for your notes. What formats are available? Do you need different formats for the different parts? Once you have decided, prepare a sheet of A4 to be ready to take notes on. What information should you use? Title, headings for the different parts, margin and space at bottom to make notes/summarise.

(The best format here would probably be Cornell style sheet, using various formats within that structure: bullet points for part one, flow chart for the process in part two, mind map in part three).

POSSIBLE NOTE -TAKING SHEET

You are in a moment going to listen to part one, but first of all we are going to talk about what it might contain. So the topic is the elements of a successful advertising campaign. The lecturer puts forward three main concepts. What do you thin they might be?

Ok, so the first concept is what elements decide on successful campaigns and he mentions selling propositions, tone, creative strategy, rational versus emotional appeals, and a brand-differentiating message. Can you define those terms?

The next point the lecturer makes is about the importance of the brief in terms of the success of the campaign. What is the brief, and why is it important?

And thirdly, the lecturer makes a difference in the aims of advertising campaigns by saying that the aim is not always to sell something. Can you think of any other aims?

So, before we start, the lecturer is about to start the first main part of his talk, what signaling language do you think they will use?

Now listen to part one.

Part one:

So first of all – what are the elements of a successful campaign? Most research would broadly agree with Frazer et al that that effective campaigns are similar in terms of selling propositions and tone but tend to differ in their creative strategy, rational versus emotional appeals and the presence of a brand-differentiating message. So in order to identify the key elements of a really, good advertising campaign, it is necessary to go back to the beginning and ask the question, what is the person who’s paying for the campaign trying to achieve? What are that person’s objectives, what is it that that person wants to happen as a result of spending money on this advertising campaign? So in order to decide whether it is good or bad, it is first of all most important to understand what it is that the campaign must try and achieve. This could be considered to be obvious: the aim of advertising is to sell more goods, to sell more services, to sell more bottles of Coca-Cola or jeans – and often, of course, it is simply to sell more of a product. But not always. Sometimes it is to change the image of a company. Sometimes it is to change people’s views of an issue. Sometimes it is to get people to drink less alcohol, to do up their seat belts, to change the way in which they use energy, or to stop smoking, as researched by Graham et al.   So a good or bad advertising campaign depends on what it is there to achieve.

Now compare your notes on part one. Do your notes make sense to you? Who has taken the most complete notes? Did you understand the same things?

Are there any words or phrases you did not understand? Also, what do you think of what the lecturer said? Make some notes in the margin in terms of your reactions, possible further research you could do to follow up, any questions that the lecture provoked in you.

In a moment you are going to listen to part two, which is about the stages of developing an advertising campaign. What do you expect to hear?

Write the following onto the board in a different order:

Briefing, articulation, presentation, execution

Ask students to define the words and decide what order they think they will come in.

Now students listen to the lecture part two, put the words into the correct order and make notes.

Part two

There are typical planning and launch stages of a campaign. These can be looked at in more detail in Hollensen’s book which is in my list of sources, but here I will just outline the main stages. When considering the different stages of a campaign, the briefing is usually the first part of the process. So the first stage is to identify the brief from the client and to agree the brief with the client. It is at this stage that the objectives I referred to earlier tend to be agreed- what will make the client happy after this campaign has been aired? The second stage is then to take that brief and articulate it for the people in the organisation who have to make recommendations and have ideas about the campaign itself. At this stage, creative people are briefed to come up with ideas and media people to ask, to have ideas about which channels those ideas will be seen in. The third stage will be the presentation of those ideas to the client. There is then some debate … that debate process can go on for quite a long time until there’s agreement. At that point of agreement, the execution phase begins. The execution phase is where the creative material is produced and space and the places in the channels of distribution for that material are purchased.

Now compare your notes on part two with a partner. Do your notes make sense to you? Who has taken the most complete notes? Did you understand the same things? Are there any words or phrases you did not understand? Also, what do you think of what the lecturer said? Make some notes in the margin in terms of your reactions, possible further research you could do to follow up, any questions that the lecture provoked in you.

In a moment you are gong to listen to part 3. How do you think the lecturer will link part three to part two – what linking phrases will they use?

Part three is about a successful campaign. What successful campaigns do you know?

The campaign discussed is a viral campaign. Can anybody give a definition of what a viral campaign is? Do you know any viral campaigns? Why are they successful?

Part three

As an example of a campaign, I will now look briefly at one of the most successful new media campaigns, from one of the companies that uses new media best, which is Nike. Nike, of course, have a young audience who are very literate about the new media and therefore live their lives in that media. And so rather than simply use advertising on television to talk to this youthful audience, what Nike does is they start seeding viral campaigns. And viral campaigns are pieces of film or pieces of content which they hope will be picked up by individuals who see it -perhaps on YouTube – and passed on to their friends with comments to say, ‘Look at this piece of film. Isn’t it fantastic?’ Perhaps the most famous piece of Nike viral was Ronaldinho, the footballer, appearing to be able to, er, lob the ball directly onto the goal bar – and it bouncing back to him, ten times – piece of outrageous skill which is just about believable, and then the viral campaign actually became about was it real or was it faked? So it was not only an entertaining piece of film, but it generated its own PR, public-relations exercise, it generated its own gossip on the web. The answer was, it was fake. If you are interested in this, you could read a more detailed analysis of it, again it’s in my sources, Miller and Lammas, did some research on this.

Now compare your notes on part three. Do your notes make sense to you? Who has taken the most complete notes? Did you understand the same things?

Are there any words or phrases you did not understand? Also, what do you think of what the lecturer said? Make some notes in the margin in terms of your reactions, possible further research you could do to follow up, any questions that the lecture provoked in you.

In a moment you will hear the summary of the talk. What linking words do you think the lecturer will use?

What will the lecturer include in the summary? What conclusions will they draw?

Now listen to the summary.

Summary/Conclusions

So to summarise, we have looked briefly at what makes a successful advertising campaign, and although there are many different elements, the most fundamental is delivering the campaign, or the message that the client stated. We looked at the different stages in developing a campaign from that point on. And we also looked briefly at an example of a new media campaign and how effective that can be. So that should give you an overview of the subject, but now it is necessary to look at specific elements in more detail.

Now compare your notes on the summary. Do your notes make sense to you? Who has taken the most complete notes? Did you understand the same things?

Are there any words or phrases you did not understand? Also, what do you think of what the lecturer said? Make some notes in the margin in terms of your reactions, possible further research you could do to follow up, any questions that the lecture provoked in you.

You will now listen to the lecture all the way through to check your notes.

Give out transcripts.

Read through the transcripts to check your understanding, and also underline all the signposting phrases.

Now in your group, make a mind map of the information in the lecture.

Now write a short summary at the bottom of your notes.

References

Frazer, C., Bartel Sheehan, K. and Patti, C.H., 2002. Advertising strategy and effective advertising: comparing the USA and Australia. Journal Of Marketing Communications, 8(3).

Graham, A., Milner, P., Saul, J. and Pfaff, L., 2008. Online Advertising as a Public Health and Recruitment Tool: Comparison of Different Media Campaigns to Increase Demand for Smoking Cessation Interventions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 10(5).

Hollensen, S., 2016. Global Marketing. Pearson Education: Reading

Miller, R. and Lammas, N., 2010. Social media and its implications for viral marketing. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, 11(1), pp.1-9.

Adapted from an interview with Marco Rimini in Market Leader Intermediate 3^rd Edition (2010) by Cotton, Falvey and Kent. Pearson and Longman

Transcript

Introduction:

The title of my talk today is the Elements of Successful Advertising Campaigns.

My talk will be in three parts: First I will identify the key elements of successful advertising. The second part of my talk will detail the stages of developing a campaign. And the third part will analyse one of the most successful campaigns of all time. I will then summarise the main points of my talk and draw some conclusions.

Part one:

So first of all – what are the elements of a successful campaign? Most reaserch would broadly agree with Frazer et al that that effective campaigns are similar in terms of selling propositions and tone but tend to differ in their creative strategy, rational versus emotional appeals and the presence of a brand-differentiating message. So in order to identify the key elements of a really, good advertising campaign, it is necessary to go back to the beginning and ask the question, what is the person who’s paying for the campaign trying to achieve? What are that person’s objectives, what is it that that person wants to happen as a result of spending money on this advertising campaign? So in order to decide whether it is good or bad, it is first of all most important to understand what it is that the campaign must try and achieve. This could be considered to be obvious: the aim of advertising is to sell more goods, to sell more services, to sell more bottles of Coca-Cola or jeans – and often, of course, it is simply to sell more of a product. But not always. Sometimes it is to change the image of a company. Sometimes it is to change people’s views of an issue. Sometimes it is to get people to drink less alcohol, to do up their seat belts, to change the way in which they use energy, or to stop smoking, as researched by Graham et al. So a good or bad advertising campaign depends on what it is there to achieve.

Part two

There are typical planning and launch stages of a campaign. These can be looked at in more detail in Hollensen’s book which is in my list of sources, but here I will just outline the main stages. When considering the different stages of a campaign, the briefing is usually the first part of the process. So the first stage is to identify the brief from the client and to agree the brief with the client. It is at this stage that the objectives I referred to earlier tend to be agreed- what will make the client happy after this campaign has been aired? The second stage is then to take that brief and articulate it for the people in the organisation who have to make recommendations and have ideas about the campaign itself. At this stage, creative people are briefed to come up with ideas and media people to ask, to have ideas about which channels those ideas will be seen in. The third stage will be the presentation of those ideas to the client. There is then some debate … that debate process can go on for quite a long time until there’s agreement. At that point of agreement, the execution phase begins. The execution phase is where the creative material is produced and space and the places in the channels of distribution for that material are purchased.

Part three

As an example of a campaign, I will now look briefly at one of the most successful new media campaigns, from one of the companies that uses new media best, which is Nike. Nike, of course, have a young audience who are very literate about the new media and therefore live their lives in that media. And so rather than simply use advertising on television to talk to this youthful audience, what Nike does is they start seeding viral campaigns. And viral campaigns are pieces of film or pieces of content which they hope will be picked up by individuals who see it -perhaps on YouTube – and passed on to their friends with comments to say, ‘Look at this piece offilm. Isn’t it fantastic?’ Perhaps the most famous piece of Nike viral was Ronaldinho, the footballer, appearing to be able to, er, lob the ball directly onto the goalpost -er, goal bar – and it bouncing back to him, ten times – piece of outrageous skill which is just about believable, and then the viral campaign actually became about was it real or was it faked? So it was not only an entertaining piece of film, but it generated its own PR, public-relations exercise, it generated its own gossip on the web. The answer was, it was fake. If you are interested in this, you could read a more detailed analysis of it, again it’s in my sources, Miller and Lammas, did some research on this.

Summary/Conclusions

So to summarise, we have looked briefly at what makes a successful advertising campaign, and although there are many different elements, the most fundamental is delivering the campaign, or the message that the client stated. We looked at the different stages in developing a campaign from that point on. And we also looked briefly at an example of a new media campaign and how effective that can be. So that should give you an overview of the subject, but now it is necessary to look at specific elements in more detail.

References

Frazer, C., Bartel Sheehan, K. and Patti, C.H., 2002. Advertising strategy and effective advertising: comparing the USA and Australia. Journal Of Marketing Communications, 8(3).

Graham, A., Milner, P., Saul, J. and Pfaff, L., 2008. Online Advertising as a Public Health and Recruitment Tool: Comparison of Different Media Campaigns to Increase Demand for Smoking Cessation Interventions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 10(5).

Hollensen, S., 2016. Global Marketing. Pearson Education: Reading

Miller, R. and Lammas, N., 2010. Social media and its implications for viral marketing. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, 11(1), pp.1-9.

Adapted from an interview with Marco Rimini in Market Leader Intermediate 3^rd Edition (2010) by Cotton, Falvey and Kent. Pearson and Longman

EXAMPLE NOTES

Elements of Successful Advertising Campaigns.

Key elements of successful advertising.

Frazer et al : effective campaigns are similar in terms of selling propositions and tone but differ in their creative strategy, rational versus emotional appeals and the presence of a brand-differentiating message. To decide good or bad: What is the objective? = sell more goods, sell more services, change the image of a company, change people’s views of an issue, change behavior (Graham et al.)

Stages of developing a campaign

There are typical planning and launch stages of a campaign (Hollensen)

1. The briefing: identify the brief from the client and to agree the brief with the client.
2. Articulate brief to creative people for ideas of form and media, etc.
3. Presentation to the client and debate = agreement.
4. Execution phase: the creative material produced and space and the places in channels of distribution for that material are purchased.

Analyse one of the most successful campaigns of all time.

Nike viral campaigns = pieces of film or pieces of content on YouTube, that people ‘like’ , e.g. Ronaldinho viral campaign an entertaining piece of film, but it generated its own PR, public-relations exercise, it generated its own gossip on the web. (Miller and Lammas)

REFLECTION ON ‘LECTURE TELLING’ MATERIALS

The materials presented above were developed according to the principles listed and fulfil the criteria for use in an EAP teaching context.  As always they are in ongoing development.  Through teaching the class it would be possible to further develop the materials further:

by adding further sources to the talk to better inform the academic nature of the exercise

by developing a mapped out page of notes for students to compare with their own

by writing a short summary for students to compare to their own, including tasks on noticing language, conventions, etc.

by recording an audio and/or audiovisual version of the lecture for students to use in and outside of class

by further developing the talk to include visual elements such as slides and links and short films to give it the more the sense of a lecture

In order to continue to develop these materials it would be worthwhile evaluating them in terms of tasks as outlined in an earlier post.  By generating a description and evaluation of the task and collecting classroom data that could be analysed and used to inform possible developments, it is likely that better data-based results could be achieved.

The word task has a general use and a specified use.  Its general use means to activate learners to use materials by giving them a clear objective and necessity for language use.  This needs accuracy, getting language right, interesting non linguistic challenge, volume and repetition.  This can be contrasted with  activity which describes what we give students to do (Johnson , 2003).  The specialised use of task refers to task-based language teaching, in which tasks are devices to create conditions for language acquisition, learners need opportunities to negotiate meaning.

When designing and writing materials and tasks it is important to work with the teachers, students and context in mind.  Maley (2011) explains the circle of Materials – students – teachers and looks at what teachers can do to better integrate the three elements in terms of materials.  He comes up with the following list: give the materials a rest, change them, DIY: skills modules, resource option, process option, project work, CLL, drama techniques, extensive reading, creative writing, semi-materials, collections of raw materials, meta materials, and flexi-materials, use technology, use content based learning. It is also worth nothing that changing medium is fundamental to materials because it helps people to process information and language.

However, it is also important to work according to principles and evaluate the materials carefully, feeding this into their ongoing development.   First of all it is worth considering some basic principles. Hughes (2006) presents some basic principles of task design:

Make the aim clear, Give clear instructions, Give numbers for reference, Give an example, Remember to use I, you, we, he, she, it, they, etc., Make it relevant, Cater for early finishers, personalisation and communication.

However, it is also important to go into more detail.  Macro- and micro-evaluations of task-based teaching allow for greater insight and analysis. Task-based language teaching has a focus on meaning, there should be a need to communicate (often a gap), language to be used is not dictated and there should be a non-linguistic outcome.  This can be contrasted with a ‘situational grammar exercise’.  In TBLT Tasks can be: Focussed or unfocussed, Input-providing or input-prompting (many integrative), have closed or open outcomes.  In order to evaluate TBLT, it is necessary to consider Macro (courses) vs. micro (specific tasks).  Macro asks the questions How effective was the programme? How could it be improved?  Macro evaluations of task based teaching have used many approaches all through the range of research tools, such as questionnaires, video, interviews, etc. However, not so much attention paid to the actual materials and tasks themselves.  A difference needs to be made between the task (i.e. materials, etc.) and the activity, i.e. what the students actually do (Coughlan and Duff, 1994).  Ideas came up about how much material, whether it was from published books or the teachers made it themselves, etc.  Macro evaluation therefore sheds little light on the effectiveness of specific tasks.  For this we need micro evaluation:  Micro-evaluation is time-consuming but gives a great deal of insight and makes teachers assess own practice, etc.  

Procedure:

1.  Description of task in terms of objectives, input type, procedures and outcomes
2. Evaluation of task in terms of the objectives of the evaluation, the scope of the evaluation, who will conduct the evaluation, whether the evaluation is formative or summative, the types of information to be collected
3. Collection of data
4. Analysis of data
5. Conclusions and recommendations

Listings of task taxonomy and typology are useful for designing and evaluating materials either to individual specification or when working in a group or to order (for example, from a publisher).  For example, Maley (2011) lists the following:Expansion, Reduction, Media transfer, Matching, Selection ranking, Comparison contrast, Reconstruction, Reformulation, Interpretation, Creating text, Analysis, Project work.

I attempted to produce  a taxonomy based on the tasks in a unit from Cambridge Academic English and came up with the following:

Taxonomy of task types from CAE unit 1

Having read the articles summarised briefly above and attended the seminar I can look at the ‘taxonomy’ I produced before the seminar draw the following conclusions:It is far too vague and needs to be more detailed and specific of the actual task types, listing them in terms of their function, what students are actually being asked to do, rather than a more general description of the concept.

This is well-worth doing as it allows the materials designer to pinpoint exactly what the materials are demanding, whether they fit together in a progressive chain of development, whether there is enough variety, etc.  In other words, it is only through doing this kind of micro-evaluation that it is possible to arrive at a clear understanding and evaluation of the materials.  I therefore focused on one task from CAE (Hewings and Thaine, 2012) to produce a taxonomy based on Ellis (2011).

Taxonomy of tasks-1yuodcu

This taxonomy allowed me to analyse the task much more clearly.  it showed me in concrete terms what the task required of the students and what the different interchanges and processes were.  I can see that it is a sound task in terms of creating a realistic task that will engage and challenge the students in a way that it relevant to their studies and learning needs.  However, although Cambridge Academic English is a recent publication that incorporates many relevant and useful academic skills and a great deal of academic knowledge, etc., I do not use it much. Nor does it seem to be used much on courses I teach on. It is therefore interesting to investigate it further to see if there are some concrete reasons for this.

I have therefore analysed the materials again, this time against some different criteria. Since EAP involves a great deal of academic skills, and cognitive processes are perhaps more clearly in evidence than in other types of classroom, I have used Bloom’s cognitive strategies to focus my evaluation.  I made a chart using Bloom’s cognitive learning strategies to analyse pp. 14 to 18 from CAE. I have listed the task types and what students are required to do, and assessed which of the strategies the tasks belong to. My aim is that this should tell me a little about their perceived lack of usage. If the tasks do not require sufficient cognitive involvement or range of strategies, this could explain their lack of use.

page 14-2j13pi8

page 15-2bfnopl

page 16-1tuma65

page 17-1zpmkue

page 18-10p5ifq

Analysis of CAE Unit 1 pp-2jvedlp

It is informative that Bloom’s cognitive strategies are broadly well-represented across the materials. We can therefore safely say that students need to apply these cognitive strategies to achieve the tasks. However, the practice and production strategies are less evident in the materials, and this is why I think these materials are not so widely used on courses. It should be noted that I have not included the entire unit in the analysis. And later on there is a writing task in which the students are required to read a text, make notes and then write a summary. However, I think this is the problem. There is a tendency to overload students with input. Why is it necessary to read another text before they write a summary. With the original text they have already made notes, compared notes and analysed quite a lot of the language, etc. They are perfectly primed to now produce a summary. This is a missed opportunity. As stated later on this blog, EAP materials more than anything need to be worked through with finished examples. I believe that analyzing these materials with Bloom’s strategies allows for some insight into this.

Ellis, R. (2011). Macro- and micro-evaluations of task-based teaching. In: B. Tomlinson, ed., Materials Development in English Language teaching, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.212-235.

Hewings, M. and Thaine, C. (2012). Cambridge Academic English. 1st ed. Stuttgart: Klett.

Hughes, J. (2006) Over to you… designing an exercise. English Teaching Professional (43): pp. 8-9.

Johnson, K. (2003) Designing Language Teaching Tasks. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Maley, A. (2011). Squaring the circle – reconciling materials as constraint with materials as empowerment. In: B. Tomlinson, ed., Materials Development in language Teaching, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.379-402.

Brief summary of this week’s preparatory reading

There is ongoing discussion about the value of technology in teaching and the effects it has on learning.   Tomlinson (2012) in his state of the art article lays out some of the basic concepts of technology use in materials.  He mentions  both the negatives and the positives.  Mukundan (2008 in Tomlinson, 2012) raises the issue of the misconception that technology can drive pedagogy;  Reinders and White (2010 in Tomlinson, 2012) states that the effects of technology depend on how technology is used, and Maley (2011 in Tomlinson, 2012) sees IT as a resource that frees teachers and students from the coursebook. However, he also observes that change is rapid and that there is a danger of capitulation to technology, a point of view he shares with Wolf (2008 in Tomlinson, 2012) who fears that technology impairs thought processes.  Tomlinson (2012) also highlights the difference between CALL vs web sources , whilst drawing attention to the many possible uses of technology, among them a multi-modal approach, extensive access, the capacity for demonstrating, conferencing etc., developing localised materials, training digital literacy, and the increased opportunity for collaborative working.  Reinders and White (2010) bring up the idea of the theory and practice of technology in teaching and the gap between them: putting forward a framework of technology design which they conceptualize as a dynamic iterative process of task design.  There are distinctive features of CALL materials:  They can help with: computer literacy development, communicative skills development, community building, identity creation, collaborative learning, and mentoring, (Godwin-Jones, 2005).  Furthermore,  Zhao (2005) stated that technology can help language learning by enhancing access efficiency, authenticity, comprehensibility, give opportunities for communication, provide feedback, grammar and spelling checkers, automatic speech recognition software, tracking and analysing students errors.  There are also organisational advantages of CALL, in terms of access, storage and retrieval of behaviour records and outcomes, sharing and recycling of materials and cost efficiency.  There are pedagogical advantages of CALL in terms of authenticity, multimedia, new types of activity, feedback, a non-linear approach, monitoring and recording of learner behaviour and progress, control, and empowerment.   

The design principles of CALL tend to focus on dovetailing between SLA and CALL.  ELT has been slow to focus on features of technology focussed learning environments, focussing instead on rethinking task design in order to take into account the technology, i.e. seeing how the same task can be done with technology, e.g. distance learning (Hampel, 2006).  Hampel puts forward a three-level approach to task development: approach, design and procedure (Hampel, 2006), with evaluation during implementation feeding back into how the task is understood in an online environment.  Hampel also looks at the difference between tasks as conceptualised and tasks as realised, for example, timing and stages, etc.  all altered to fit with learners.  Hampel also points to different levels of engagement of learners due to their level, technological proficiency, lack of marks awarded for tech aspect of activity, etc.  

A great deal of research focusses on the perception of the value of technology both from the teacher’s point of view and the learner’s.  Reinders (2006, 2007) found online learning environments were positively received, materials accessed, learner tracking used, etc.  However, learner plans, prompts from system etc, used less which shows that students do not change their learning strategies or materials that easily.  Therefore there is a need for more staff and learner training.  The general consensus seems to be that the gap between traditional materials and CALL materials is closing.  Underwood in (Burns& Kurtoğlu-Hooton, 2016) suggests the following three questions to use when using technology in the classroom.  Who do we want students to work with?  Why?  How might technology help?  By using the framework of learning plans with a narrative frame and getting students to devise their own learning plans with technology, he attempted to devise a strategy to encourage students to devise a plan that can also be used after the course.  Sevcikova (in Burns& Kurtoğlu-Hooton, 2016)  gave out a variety of tasks to group of trainee TEFL teachers, test writers and researchers. The tasks had IT integrated into them.  The feedback was very positive as the trainees felt they had learnt theoretical and practical skills and the course had enabled them to see the crossover between the courses.

References

Tomlinson, B. (2012) Materials development for language learning and teaching. Language Teaching 45 (2): pp. 143-179. doi: 10.1017/S0261444811000528.

Reinders, H. & White, C. (2010) The theory and practice of technology in materials development and task design. In: Harwood, N. (ed). English Language Teaching Materials: Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp.58-80.

Burns, A. & Kurtoğlu-Hooton, N. (eds) (2016) Using action research to explore technology in language teaching: international perspectives. London: British Council. Available at: https://goo.gl/ROVifZ Accessed: 10 May 2017.

Brief summary of this week’s seminar

The seminar gave us a more theoretical and philosophical understanding of some of the issues involved in the use of technology in the classroom.  We began by looking at the differences between instrumentalism, technological determinism, utopian determinism and dystopian determinism and through discussion arrived at Selwyn’s definition:

Technology is the processes and practices of doing things, understanding things and developing knowledge .. the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants.

(Selwyn 2011)

The word technology can be broken down into the original Greek: Techne (skill, art, craft ) and logia (understanding, a branch of knowledge).  Technological determinism is an autonomous force acting on society that will automatically bring about certain results, if you believe in it.  Technology can be terrifying as in Terminator’s dystopian future where technology is morally corrupt, destructive, dominant, etc.  On the other hand, utopian technological determinism offers prosperity, salvation and freedom.  The question ‘Is a hammer good or bad?’ illustrates instrumentalism, which states that technology is neutral.  These devices are just tools, which is the general view, and it is only under human control that they can be beneficial or disastrous.  But all of these views are too simplistic:  more elements come into play.  The critical theory of Technology shows that  use + design = impact.  Texting is a good example as it was not devised beyond use as a testing feature.  Its current use was not always intended.  This was a combination of technology, design, use and the societal context.  Each piece of technology is constructed by the technology and the use in its social context.  Technology is a social construct, combining bias and values determined by sociocultural perspectives.  This means that technology is not neutral.  It has values built into it.  A chair can only be sat on in certain ways and chairs do as much damage to our health as smoking.  Media tools are not the form through which we receive content .  But the medium is the message (Marshall Mcluhan).  This can be seen in  Trump getting elected because of social media and fake news.  The medium affects the message, so does the medium affect learning.?

The concept of there being no significant difference between teaching delivered in a different medium is widespread, for example in the USA where distance education has always been used.  However, each medium is an extension of human consciousness and perception so it shapes the world.  Each tool seeks to build the worked in a certain way, amplifying one sense or skill more loudly than another (Postman, 1993).  Therefore, certain technologies will privilege some learners over others.  The technology massages our consciousness into modes of thinking and viewing the world.  Media shapes our experiences in part through its selectivity.  When we interact with media we act and are acted upon use and are used (Chandler 1996).   What are the consequences of technology adoption?  It brings certain elements to the foreground others to the back.   An example of this is  BR Skinner’s  machine and programmed learning (1954), AKA operant conditioning.  This seems as relevant today as back then, only the technology is different: we saw a video of the learning machine with a voiceover explaining its function, followed by the same voiceover but this time the video showed ipads.  One argument put forward in favour of using technology in classrooms is that of internal and external forces: there are computers in society so we need to use them in the classroom.  

Digital literacies are ‘the capabilities which fit someone for living, learning and working in a digital society’  (Joint information systems committee (UK).

This idea is still popular.  The TED TALK in the link below is about how AI could be used to make a teaching machine.

Reflection on this week’s reading and seminar

One point that came up in discussion was the effect of technology on learning.  For example, do learners remember and learn better when writing on paper with a pencil, rather than typing into a computer?  Are cognitive processes deeper and richer and therefore more beneficial to learning when learners work on paper rather than digitally?  There is some evidence to support this.

 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/23/reading-writing-on-paper-better-for-brain-concentration?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211949312000038

I am unsure about this.  Personally I find it less effective to work digitally. However, I am a digital immigrant inasmuch as I grew up before digital technology was widely available.  My brain was programmed with pen and paper.  Might it be the case that digital natives’ brains are programmed differently?

However, even if that is true, it is not as straightforward as that.  Another argument often put forward for using technology in class is that we live in a digitised society and the classroom should reflect that.  A consequence of this is that courses are increasingly including technology as a course component, either as stand alone sessions, modules, or as a course aim.  This is increasingly true of EAP courses, where content, feedback and outcomes include technology, and training students in digital academic literacy is an implicit if not explicit aim.  

For me this means that the question is not up for discussion.  I am required to use at least those technologies that the students will need to use such as grade mark and online libraries, etc, and to help students to use them successfully.  The use of digital learning technologies is also encouraged.  The technological element should therefore feature as part of the lesson plan. But, I think it is vital as with any other element of classroom practice to take a critical and principled approach.  In this respect, a typical EAP classroom task might involve a non-linguistic task that requires successful implementation of academic, linguistic, cognitive and general skills and strategies with which some of the students will be struggling.  If we add to this mix digital literacies as TPACK etc., suggests, we may overload students.  In other words if we are still in the process of technological normalisation in the classroom then the technology is another element for students to cope with.  In the same way as we predict difficult vocabulary in a text and pre-teach it to make it easier for students to understand, we need to consider how to help them develop the necessary digital literacies.  If we are trying to join the circle between content, pedagogical and technological knowledge, we need to at times also break that circle in order to focus on specific areas.  

This brings us back to paper and pens.  If students are struggling to complete a complex task involving digital and other media, it might be worth taking a step back and working on paper to clarify their thoughts before returning to digital media.  This is exactly the way that I approach almost any task, with a mix of paper and digital technologies, changing between the two in order to process  and evaluate information, language, etc.

Also, one of the fundamentals of using technologies in terms of learning and developing is to change between technologies and media to process information differently.  It can be useful to use more than one form of technology in the classroom simultaneously.  For example, most classrooms have only one IWB, but often there are additional whiteboards or flip charts or simply paper.  It can be interesting to divide the class up so that some are working digitally, some on WB, some on paper, and then to compare the work produced.   It is also possible to have different stages in a task where students move round and adapt, develop and improve other students work and at the same time change from one media to another.
In conclusion, I think it is important to go back to the definition of  technology:  if technology is the medium and the way in which we interact with it and use it, and digital technologies are simply one form of technology, it seems to be worthwhile to integrate digital technologies with a view to augmenting rather than replacing existing technologies, to use technologies in combination using a critical approach to identify the worth of different approaches, taking into account variables such as context, availability, learner need, course aims, etc.  Typically, if we ask learners to read, watch and listen to a variety of text sources in order to take notes to answer a research question, they could take notes on google docs, but they could equally well use a pad and pen, a voice recorder, or post it notes to make a mind map out of the notes, before going on to plan a first draft of their synthesised answer on the classroom whiteboard, take a photograph of that plan on their Iphones before writing the actual draft on their computers at home which they would print out and deliver to the teacher on paper, etc.  In an increasingly digitised society, it is worth remembering that  new technology interacts with rather than replaces existing technology.

On a more practical level, one of the most interesting aspects of digital technology is its availability.  EAP courses are especially time-constrained and often important aspects of language development take a back seat to passing assessments.  Technology can help here by making information, etc. available round the clock. One of the main aspects to suffer on EAP courses is pronunciation training.  I recently did some research on this  (ESSAY- ED TECH -1ke64dw )and found that there are many useful ways of helping students improve pronunciation outside the classroom.  Indeed, if students are going to improve it will need to be a process that they work through.  however, I still struggle to find time to fit the initial stages into classroom teaching.  It would be better to have a way for students to access this information in their own time, for example through videos or web pages.  As an example of this, I uploaded a short film to youtube where I explain how to use a pronunciation APP.  https://youtu.be/48Sc92VaRpI

You can also read more about the APP here:  https://oupeltglobalblog.com/tag/say-it-app/

and see the advert here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d-b1_g4cyk

Just a few brief reflections on ‘What makes a successful brand?’

1.  The lesson plan is deliberately brief because EAP teachers generally know what they are doing and how to adapt the materials to their classes (See Julie Moore’s book How to write materials for EAP.)  However, what seems to be more fundamental with EAP materials is that the teachers work through the task themselves.  The texts, topics and tasks are generally at a complex level and it is often necessary to interact with the materials from the learners point of view, for example, by reading texts to identify relevant information and paraphrasing that information into your own words.  In the materials produced here I have worked through the tasks as outlined below in (2); however, the best results will come from the teacher working through the materials in advance of the lesson, or indeed in the lesson.
2. What seems to be paramount for EAP materials is that they are thoroughly worked through, i.e. that the task has been done so that there are examples of all the stages of development and a final product that can all be used to model the task at each stage of the process, in this case the research and synthesis of sources in answer to a research question.  Often these materials are used to show students, but I believe the most effective approach is to get students to do the tasks themselves and then show them other versions, examples, etc. with which they compare and evaluate their own work.  This tends to engage their critical faculties much more effectively since if they have done the task themselves they understand it, have an opinion and a stake in it as they want to see if they have the answer right.  This is basic and simple, but I believe it is more effective than simply showing Power Points of examples and then getting the students to do a different task.  Materials, as a rule, move on much too quickly before all the benefit has been taken from one set of materials, tasks.
3. In light of (2), it is important to stress that the materials presented here are working documents in continual development, either in terms of improving the existing materials, e.g. by improving the sample synthesis, or extending them, e.g. by making a Power Point to make it easier to give feedback, developing an unsuccessful synthesis that could be peer reviewed by the students or also annotated to show how it could be improved.
4. One important point is that by always using something new, we are putting additional workload on the students in terms of (often high level subject-specific academic) vocabulary and language which will slow down their progress in terms of academic skills development.

Evaluation of ‘What makes a successful brand?’ in terms of the principled approach:

Aims: The materials take students through the different stages of synthesis writing: reading for specific information in answer to a research question, note-taking, evaluating sources, organizing notes and drafting and editing a synthesis; summarizing, paraphrasing and referencing; outlining a standard procedure/strategies for the task. The materials have been trialled in paper form with satisfactory results, and the paper option remains. The digital version can be more easily used as a flipped classroom approach, maximizing class time and responding to stated aims of certain HE institutions to incorporate this approach more.

Selection principles: since the task is an EAP task, the materials need to be academic in style and purpose. There is a certain amount of scope since business students often use materials that are not strictly speaking academic, and also the tasks, learning outcomes and assessments allow for this to an extent. The texts are therefore from a range of sources. The two unsuitable sources should be discarded as soon as possible for reasons of reliability and unsuitability. The remaining materials are not all academic; some are quality newspaper reports, summaries of interviews, or talks with business figures. Across the range, but not all individually, these source texts respond to the requirements of academic structure, academic style/register, are more specific academic than general academic, are culturally sensitive inasmuch as they do not contain anything of a sexual, religious, etc. nature. They are accessible to learners at this level, with the more challenging texts being the academic sources, and the less academic texts being a little more accessible. This is done to facilitate the students’ interaction with the source materials, and also reflects a similar range to the assessments.

Learner outcomes/assessment: In accordance with institutional outcomes, broadly summarized from the BALEAP can-do framework for students:

Decode and respond appropriately to task requirements: there is a task and instruction which should correspond broadly to the tasks set in the institutions formative and summative assessments.

Demonstrate conceptual understanding of writing purpose: In order to complete the task successfully, students will have to be able to conceptualize the task. This is something they tend to struggle with. With weaker classes the task will probably have to be done in class so that the teacher can take a more hands-on approach.

Adopt a critical stance towards source materials: in order to exclude two of the sources, the students will have to approach them critically. Students will also have to demonstrate critical thinking and understanding of academic literacies in order to identify, synthesise information into a cohesive, cogent, convincing argument with supporting evidence, relating material from one source to another, incorporating relevant literature to create and support argument, and commenting on the sources.

(BALEAP, 2017)

Teacher beliefs:

The materials are culturally sensitive since they do not contain sexual or religious references although it should be noted that they do present a western Anglo-Saxon viewpoint, and the open research element could present problems depending on the mix in the class.

The materials are clearly linked to the curriculum they serve since synthesis is one of the key elements/assessments.

The materials require and facilitate learner investment since the students have to input their own evaluation of the materials, potentially working in groups to construct their response, and bring their own research and critical skills to bear in the process.

The materials allow learners to develop learning skills and skills in learning by having a clear task to achieve that focuses on content rather than just language, and is directly relevant to their studies.

The materials encourage learners to apply their developing skills to the world beyond the classroom because they need to research and analyse to achieve the task which is directly relevant to their studies.

The materials provide learners with opportunities to use the target language to achieve communicative purpose, which is the synthesis of ideas, not to mention the process of producing the summary.

The materials direct learners attention to linguistic features of input (noticing) by providing an example summary that can be analysed for this purpose.

What makes a successful brand?

There seem to be three main factors that can contribute to a brand’s success: image, how this image is communicated to the customers, and strategy. First of all, to be successful, brands need to have high levels of awareness and recognition, through product, design or visual identity, but also need attractive ideas and a clear identity in order to allow customers to differentiate from other brands (Cleaver, 2010). In order to do this it is important to identify core values: who the brand is, what does it stand for and how to communicate this (Jobs, N.D). This strong brand awareness, exposure and recognition can be developed into brand preference and brand loyalty; however, increasing levels of ‘brand blindness’ due to the proliferation of brands means that there is a developing need for companies to communicate their message more successfully through attitude branding and personality branding to make psychological and emotional connections to customers (Corballis and Jennings, 2009). In terms of brand image and communication of that image, current developments seem to point towards technology companies having particularly strong brand images with 7 of the top 10 brands being technology companies; also, big names like Steve Jobs seem to attract followers (Gapper, 2010). Various approaches to strategy can be put forward. Most of these seem to focus on adapting the brand to the target consumer. Hollensen (2011) sees two possible approaches: either have the same product and marketing everywhere or adapt products to local markets. And Friedmann (n.d.) reports on the necessity of going to customers, anticipating their needs and wants, and investing early in new markets. In the same way, Yu (2012) stresses the importance of international experience and local market knowledge to inform strategic posture to standardization and adaptation, which can have a major impact on success or failure. In addition, with the rapid development of social media it has become vital for brands to develop online strategies to develop a dynamic and interactive online presence, with a clear strategy of how to communicate with customers in a two-way communication (Rowley, 2009). In conclusion, there seems to be no successful single formula for attempting to make a successful brand, but rather a range of concepts and strategies that need to be considered and implemented on an individual basis to create something which is unique.

Best marketing strategy ever! Steve Jobs Think different / Crazy ones speech (with real subtitles) – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keCwRdbwNQY

Corballis, T., and Jennings, W. 2009. English for Management Studies. Reading: Garnet Publishing Ltd.

Gapper, J., 2010. Big names prove worth in crisis. The Financial Times, 28 April.

Rowley, J., 2009. Online Branding Strategies of UK Fashion Retailers. Internet Research, 19 (3), pp. 348-369.

Yu, H., 2012. Foreign Firms Brand Extensions in a Host Market: Strategic Factors in International Branding Strategy. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 20 (1), pp. 105-118.

Interview with Chris Cleaver: Successful brands.

Cotton, D. , Falvey, D. and Kent, S. 2010. Market Leader Intermediate. Harlow: Pearson Longman.

Friedman, V. n.d. Restless pursuer of luxury’s future. The Financial Times

Interview with Sven Hollensen in

Cotton, D. , Falvey, D. and Kent, S. 2011. Market Leader Upper Intermediate. Harlow: Pearson Longman.

Topic sentence:

There seem to be three main factors that can contribute to a brand’s success: image, how this image is communicated to the customers and strategy.

Brand image:

7 of top 10 brands are technology companies

Also big names like Steve Jobs seem to attract followers (Gapper, 2010)

To be successful brands need to have high levels of awareness and recognition, through product, design or visual identity, but also need a set of appealing ideas and a clear identity in order to allow customers to differentiate from other brands (Cleaver, 2010)

• Strong brand awareness, exposure and recognition = brand preference and brand loyalty BUT ‘brand blindness’ means developing need for attitude branding and personality branding to make psychological and emotional connections to customers (Corballis and Jennings, 2009)

Communicating that image:

• Strong brand awareness, exposure and recognition = brand preference and brand loyalty BUT ‘brand blindness’ means developing need for attitude branding and personality branding to make psychological and emotional connections to customers (Corballis and Jennings, 2009)

• Identify core values: who you are, what do you stand for and how to communicate this (Jobs, N.D)

Strategy:

• Two approaches possible: same product and marketing everywhere or adapt products to local markets (Hollensen, 2011)

• Brands need to go to their customers. Anticipate their customers’ needs and wants. Invest early in new markets (Friedmann, N.D.)

• Online strategies: need to develop dynamic and interactive online presence: clear strategy of how to communicate with customers in a two-way communication (Rowley, 2009)

• International experience and local market knowledge + strategic posture to standardization and adaptation + major impact on success or failure (Yu, 2012)

Concluding sentence:

What makes a successful brand?