Phone call to America: Use of Mobile Phone to Strengthen Motivation and Promote Ineraction in the English Language Classroom

Daniel Martín del Otero

Daniel Martín del Otero is an English teacher at Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Astorga, Spain.

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Background
Potential
Activities and ideas
Conclusions

"Got a mobile phone?" Good. "Did you bring it to class?" Even better. "Is it turned on?" Perfect then. Both teachers and students experience the inconvenience of mobile phones ringing in the classroom at the worst possible moments on a daily basis with their endless multiplicity of ring tones, buzzes and bleeps, which are particularly annoying when unexpected or unwanted. However, we can turn this "unwelcome" source of disturbance to our best advantage in the language classroom by applying some common sense. After all, we carry telephones with us because of our own need for communication. Isn't learning a language all about communication? In that case, it goes without saying then that the teacher has a precious tool in the mobile phone. If you can't beat the enemy… This technological device presents the teacher with a golden opportunity to bring real language communication into the classroom. Moreover, by integrating the use of the mobile phone into our teaching practices, we are breaking the boundaries of the language classroom as an artificial or unnatural environment in order to show the language as a living entity. Our students will be exposed to real communication as opposed to listening comprehension extracts, which are only one-way channels of communication, and otherwise drained of human emotions. We are connecting with our students in a two-fold way: connecting as in clicking or establishing rapport and connecting in a more literal sense of the term, as we are facilitating a channel of communication for specific purposes.

Teachers are obligated to find ways to bring a sense of purpose to language classroom teaching, where they are no longer the highest authorities on transmitting knowledge or passing on content but rather facilitators, mentors, motivators, and generators of tasks. Teaching professionals need to explore and provide avenues for authentic communication in whatever form or fashion that may be -use of the Internet, music, dramatization, new approaches in dealing with grammar, meaningful writing assignments addressed to real readers or, in this particular instance, by integrating the mobile phone as a relevant teaching tool. In this way, the more motivation generated in the classroom, the more incentive will be created for the student to operate on his or her own outside it, which, in turn, will be feeding motivation back into the classroom again.

As an English teacher myself, I use the mobile phone once a week with each of my classes. Before placing the actual phone call, the students in the class already picked up cards the day before. One of those cards has "Phone call to America" written on its back. This way whoever has to be engaged in a telephone conversation is aware of it well before hand. Additionally I think it is both important and fair that it is sheer luck and not the teacher what determines who the next person to talk will be, so nobody feels being in the spotlight for good or bad reasons, such as academic excellence or underachievement.

This is how it goes. The teacher takes his/her mobile phone, turns it to speaker mode so that everyone in the class can hear and calls a speaker of English. Notice the term speaker as opposed to native speaker. We may of course call a native speaker but also the English teacher next door, some other English classroom in our city or our country, a friend of ours, etc. May I point out that the use of languages is not solely limited to native speakers, least of all in the case of English, lingua franca in today's world for all aspects and needs. As a matter of fact, if a student of ours is using English for, let us say, traveling or conducting a business meeting, at least one of the speakers will not be a native speaker. The student or group of students will be talking on the phone for around three to ten minutes. During the conversation, the teacher may annotate relevant or troublesome vocabulary on the chalkboard for easier understanding or clarification. This conversation can center around particular topics to put specific vocabulary and expressions or functions into practice as a means of reinforcing, practicing or recycling but not necessarily.

I would like to present two particular study cases of telephone conversations in the classroom and from here offer a barrage of ensuing activities that could take place to promote further practice and interaction in the classroom. The first instance is that of an adult student in an upper-intermediate class who talks about his job as an economist. The second example is that of a teenager in a pre-intermediate class who talks about food in Spain and Britain and then simulates a situation in which he is making a reservation at a restaurant. It is not imperative to use these conversations as stepping stones for additional tasks but we might as well take advantage of real communication to instill motivation. The opportunities for extra tasks are almost endless and it is up to us to what extent we want to follow up on the conversations but, as a general rule, we should somehow use this authentic material -so much in vogue these days in teaching and even testing foreign languages. Depending on various factors, such as the nature, motivation and needs of the students, subject curricula or time constraints, I may decide to opt to do one or more of the following activities if I decide to videotape the actual conversations.

Listening comprehension exercise

The teacher prepares a set of listening comprehension questions appropriate for the class level. The students watch the recorded conversation and answer the relevant questions. It could be used in the classroom where the conversation took place or shared in other classrooms by other students and teachers.

Listening comprehension and writing output

The students write in their journals a summary of the conversation, which is a good opportunity to bring a sense of purpose to conventions of the language such as reported speech or passive voice, which in many other cases are dealt with in grammar drilling exercises.

Writing output

The students produce a piece of writing in the light of the conversation: making a reservation at a restaurant, a narrative account of their jobs, comparing food and eating habits between countries, a persuasive essay on the opinions harbored earlier on, etc. We are providing a context for the given assignment and, by doing this, making it genuine. Additionally, the students have already experience language exposure to relevant and specific vocabulary in a real life situation.

Speaking interaction

In pairs or groups the students talk about their jobs or practice making a reservation at a restaurant following modeling (the given task is, once again, contextualized and preceded by relevant vocabulary).

Grammar conventions

The students, in groups, watch the recorded conversation and take notes on possible grammar mistakes in it and make corrections. Here we are studying grammar in context.

Vocabulary

The students watch the recorded conversation and make suggestions as to which words or expressions could replace some of the vocabulary used in the conversation on the grounds of better accuracy. This activity is highly recommendable for higher level classes. Thus, the video recording in the pre-intermediate class could be used in the upper-intermediate class. For lower level classes, new vocabulary could be introduced by means of showing a recorded conversation from a higher level English class -in our case vocabulary and expressions related to jobs and employment.

Last but not least

Other interesting activities -that we are all to a greater or lesser extent familiar with- in which the students can take part in using the mobile phone are sending text messages or changing the language settings of their mobile phones to English and examining vocabulary in the target language. For visual learners we could ask the students to take out their mobiles and practice comparatives and superlatives in English by means of establishing comparisons with them (…smaller than…, …more expensive than…, …the best…, …the oldest…, …as big as…, etc.), or expressing possession (Juan's phone…, Silvia's phone…) or both (Juan's phone is cheaper than Silvia's). With state of the art telephones the students could record their own videos and share them in the classroom.

It is up to our imagination to devise interactive and motivating activities that can make our lessons meaningful and promote bonding in the classroom as well as genuine authentic learning.

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