Classroom as an Inspiration

Phuong thi Anh Le, Vietnam

Dr. Phuong thi Anh Le has been an EFL teacher trainer for many years and she is currently based at Nha Trang Education College in Vietnam. Her research interests include CLT, syllabus design, testing, cross-cultural communication and applied linguistics. She has numerous publications and presentations on various EFL issues. E-mail: leaphuong2003@yahoo.com

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Introduction
Background
Examples
Conclusions
References
Appendix: Sample videos and poems

Introduction

Motivation is crucial in language learning as it can help to improve the learning outcome (Hamilton 2010; Klein, Noe & Wang 2006; Oxford & Shearing 1994) Therefore, making learning fun is considered part of the teachers' job (Lewis & Hills 1985; Umstatter 2002). Teachers often apply various measures to create a favourable learning environment for their learners (Dornyei 2001), including enhancing learner autonomy or making learning relevant, interesting and fun to the learners (Tudor 2009). The use of teaching materials can also play a key role in providing the students with an enjoyable environment for learning. For example, literature can stimulate the learners (Baurain 2000; Hall 2003; Tran 2003), educate, entertain (Moon 2010) and encourage them to use the language (Elgar 2001; Tissington & LaCour 2010). In addition, literature can enhance the learners' emotional development and thinking skills (Ghosn, 2002), as well as introducing them to the social and cultural values of the target language (Hall 2003; Miccoli 2003). Similarly, multimedia resources (Tudor 2009) and music are beneficial in motivating the learners (Tissington & LaCour 2010) while pictures are highly effective in facilitating the learners' imagination (Wong 2004).

Background

In a survey conducted by the author in her own context with 249 college students who majored in EFL, two thirds of these students reported experiencing moderate to extreme pressure caused mainly from their studies at the college. Therefore, the need to motivate the students and to create a more stimulating atmosphere for them seemed to be highly compelling to change this undesirable situation. Also, it was considered useful to widen these students' general knowledge and social understanding as they had limited access to the mass media like the Internet, TV or newspapers.

To achieve these aims, various materials, such as films, video tapes and clips, poetry, music, stories, mini-dramas and pictures were employed. The choice to inspire the students in their learning with these materials arose partly from the realisation that many of the available language games did not correspond very well to the ability, interests and the maturity of our college students, who were in their early twenties. In addition, varied forms of assessment were adopted to maximise the students' performance by asking them to give presentations, tell stories, produce mini-dramas, conduct quizzes and create portfolios.

Examples

Warmers

In our context, we made use of various materials as warmers for our lessons. Warmers can be defined as small activities conducted at the beginning of each class to create some fun, relax the students, bring about useful general knowledge and/or to help students improve their language and thinking skills. Materials with relevant content to the main lessons were often chosen but sometimes even materials unrelated to the main lessons were adopted as long as they could generate a relaxing atmosphere for some learning to take place. Therefore, we often spent 5 to 15 minutes on warmers at the beginning of each class. The selection of the materials was always guided by the students' interest and ability as well as the time frame. Since the activities based on these materials were mainly developed for enjoyment and voluntary learning, there was no formal assessment.

Poetry and short stories

Instead of using famous literature, which is can be linguistically and culturally daunting to our EFL learners (Baurain 2000), we made sure that the poems and short stories chosen were simple enough for students to enjoy and appreciate. For example, poems with simple English and relevant content, such as those from Life in Words and Words in Life (edited by Maley, Mukundan & Rai 2009) and Asian Poems for Young Readers (edited by Maley & Mukundan 2009) were selected to help the students to appreciate the beauty of the language and the issues raised.

Common language activities varied from simple comprehension and interpretation questions to creative writing as these provided the students with opportunities to access poetry and to share their thoughts and understanding with friends. The students could also be asked to recite the poems in an expressive way, to state what they liked or did not like about the poems, or share a similar experience. Sometimes, these poems were used as an inspiration or springboard for the students to write about their own experience.

Short stories were another source of materials we used to enrich the students' feelings, living experience and literary appreciation. The stories were often introduced in the form of PowerPoint presentations or handouts. Students were often asked to give a summary of the story, to talk about a character that they liked or to share their thoughts about the story. Or, they could raise any questions related to the story itself. Observations showed that students preferred stories presented in the form of PowerPoint presentations, illustrated with music and pictures, to the printed form as these presentations were often more attractive to the students.. The stories chosen often had special artistic or literary values that could set the students thinking or leave a strong impression on them.

Films and video clips

Short video clips, and films on YouTube, including advertisements and award-winning short films, were often exploited to develop the students' thinking. The inspiring content of the materials were often used as a starting point for the discussion which followed. As with the stories, tasks such as summarising the film or talking about the characters were among the most useful ones. We found it a good idea to stop the film after a few scenes for the students' discussion. Both films spoken in English or with captions in English were valuable teaching and learning materials. While funny videos like Mr. Bean and Charlie Chaplin's series created wholehearted laughter, award-winning short films were often highly beneficial in developing the students' critical thinking skills and these films could be exploited for the students to relate to their personal experience.

Music and pictures

Like films, music was always welcomed in our class. Both familiar and unfamiliar songs to the students could be effectively used. While unfamiliar songs could be used for listening tasks like gap-fill or comprehension questions, popular songs could provide great enjoyment, language practice, or to spark discussion among the students about the song, the songwriter, the singer, or about their taste in music and their favourite singers.

Pictures were another source of inspiration for the students. In our case, the students were introduced to a wide selection of pictures about nature, animals, people, places of interest, countries, and cultures. Activities accompanying these photos included writing or talking about the content of the pictures. For example, these pictures could aim to provide students with more knowledge about various social or cultural issues, or to provide cues for them to discuss relevant issues in their life. Students could also be asked to create a profile of a character based on certain details or building part of a story based on a picture (Wong, 2004).

Assessment

Various forms of assessment were also designed to measure the students' language ability and their knowledge of the content subjects (Le 2001). Specifically, students were asked to give presentations, conduct quizzes, tell stories, create portfolios and produce mini-dramas.

Presentations

Students worked in groups of three or four to give a presentation on an issue of their choice with teacher's guidance when needed. The topic of their choice had to be linked to requirements of the subject that they were learning. With subjects like American Life or British Life, students were encouraged to give a presentation on a researched topic about the USA or United Kingdom. Students often chose topics which were interesting to them, such as films in the USA, life of the Native Americans, modern British music bands, university life in UK or US, etc.

Story telling

Story telling could be used as part of the assessment in the literature course, public speaking course or culture course. Students were required to work individually or in pairs to do a book report, a film review, and a summary of a fiction or non fiction story. This type of activity allowed the students to combine their personal taste with academic requirements. While they could introduce to the class interesting books or films they had read or seen, they had the chance to demonstrate the skills of story telling. Mini-dramas Mini-dramas were conducted as a form of teamwork for the literature or culture courses. Students were asked to produce part of a story or a play of their choice. They developed and performed their own mini-dramas. The teacher often helped them in the preparation of the plot and offered guidance on staging. Even though dramatisation could initially be challenging to students, it became a memorable event for the students when their performance was appreciated by their peers. In this way, the assessment was not only a relaxing time but it also enhanced the students' self esteem. Quizzes Quizzes were another form of assessment tasks which the students were encouraged to do for courses such as literature or culture. Students would work in groups to prepare quizzes on the knowledge that they had learnt. As quiz organisers, students often motivated their classmates with small prizes for the correct answers and in this way, they successfully turned the assessment into an anxiety-free activity with lots of fun for themselves and for their peers.

Portfolios

As remarked by various authors (Le 2004; Zhenhui 2005), portfolios can enhance the learners' autonomy. In our context, students were often asked to produce a collection of useful materials for them in their future jobs. For example, for the literature course, students could provide the summaries of the stories that they had read, the poems that they liked, or wrote themselves. Their ideas about certain literary works also formed part of these portfolios. For the culture course, students could research and collect information and photos about certain topics of their choice about a country or they could collect critical incidents in intercultural interaction. For the English teaching methodology course, students could collect supplementary games and songs or activities for an English textbook of their choice so that they could use them in the future.

Poetry writing and English performances

As a way to maximise our students' abilities, we encouraged the students to write poetry. The poems introduced in the warmers served as a starting point for the students to make their own poems. Most of the students managed to write some poetry and regardless of their quality, these poems received great appreciation from their peers who found these poems a new discovery about their friends. Like poetry writing, music performances were a voluntary activity. Students were encouraged to organise or to participate in English performances on occasions such as Lunar New Year, Christmas, Halloween. At these events, they often carried out activities such as singing, dancing or dramatization. Though these activities were not formally assessed, they truly reflected the students' personal and academic progress.

Conclusions

In conclusion, teaching ESL was not simply teaching a school subject (Stockton 2001), but it was also aimed to create a favourable environment for learning to happen most effectively. From this perspective, our class seemed more than just a place to learn a language, but it also offered a source of motivation and inspiration for the learners to enjoy their time. With the use of various materials and activities, our class had been turned into a stage for the students' entertainment and performance. The pleasant atmosphere enabled the learners to gain a lot of practical knowledge and skills which moved beyond their classrooms to prepare the students for their lifelong learning.

References

Baurain, B. (2000). Learning and Enjoying Literature in English. Teacher's Edition, 3, 15-20.

Dornyei, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Elgar, A. G. (2001). Student Playwriting for Language Development. ELT Journal, 56/1,22-28.

Ghosn, I. K. (2002). Four Good Reasons to Use Literature in Primary School. ELT Journal, 56/2, 172-179.

Hall, G. (2003). Poetry and Second Language Learning Classrooms. Applied Linguistics, 24/3, 395-399.

Hamilton, R. (2010). YouTube for Two: Online Video Resources in a Student-Centred Task-Based EFL/ESL Environment. Contemporary Issues in Education Research, 3,8, 27- 31.

Klein, H. J., Noe, R.A. & Wang, C. (2006). Motivation to Learn and Course Outcomes: The Impact of Delivery Mode, Learning Goal Orientation, and Perceived Barriers and Enablers. Personnel Psychology,59, 665-702.

Le, T. A. P. (2001). Task-Based Syllabus Design and Public Speaking. Teacher's Edition,7, 12-17.

Le, T. A. P. (2004). Challenges and Responses in Teaching a British Culture Course. Teacher's Edition,15, 16-21.

Lewis, M. & Hills, J. (1985). Practical Techniques for Language Teaching. Heinle and Heinle Publishers.

Maley, A. & Mukundan, J.(Eds). (2009). Asian Poems for Young Readers. Malaysia. Pearson.

Maley, A., Mukundan, J. & Rai, V. S.(eds). (2009). Life in Words and Words in Life. Bagbazar, Kathmandu. Bhundipuran Prakashan.

Moon, J. (2010). Using Story in Higher Education and Professional Development. Routledge.

Oxford, R & Shearing, J. (1994). Language Learning Motivation: Expanding the Theoretical Framework. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 12-26.

Stockton, J. (2001). English Is a Language, Not a Subject. Teacher's Edition, 6, 4-7.

Tissington, L. & LaCour, M. (2010). Strategies and Content Areas for Teaching English Language Learners. Reading Improvement, 47,3; Proquest Education Journals, 166- 172.

Tran, T. N. (2003). Incorporating Literature into English Classes in Vietnam. Teacher's Edition, 11, 20-25.

Tudor, I. (2009). Promoting Language Learning in European Higher Education: An Overview of Strategies. European Journal of Language Policy,1/2, 188-206.

Umstatter, J. (2002). English Brainstormers. San Francisco, California: Jossey Bass.

Wong, R. M. H. (2004). Facilitating imagination in teaching creative writing. In T. B. Tin (Ed), Creative Writing in EFL/ESL Classrooms (p.30-41). Serdang. Universiti Pura Malaysia Press.

Zhenhui, R. (2005). Developing Learner Autonomy through Portfolios. Teacher's Edition.19, 20-24.

Appendix: Sample videos and poems

Father and Daughter (2001 Oscar for animated short films) available at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgdsfRDxIeQ

Oktapodi (2009 Oscar for animated short films) available at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BolgBSXjxeE

Loneliness
Lin Lihua

Loneliness is, abandoned when born
Loneliness is, looked down upon after failures
Loneliness is, misunderstood by friends.
Loneliness is, laughed at on stage.
Loneliness is, buried under the ground.
Loneliness is, lost among the jungles.
Loneliness is, deafening in the end.

(From Maley, A. & Mukundan, J.(Eds). (2009). Asian Poems for Young Readers. Malaysia. Pearson.)

Living Alan Maley

I am the grass.    I am the sand
I am the tree.      I am the granite
And I am you.     We're all connected.
And you are me.   On this planet.

I am the earth.    I am the earthquake, the typhoon.
I am the sun.      I am the dark side of the moon.
And I am you,     I am the drought.
And we are one.    I am the flood.
I am the dead leaf.
I am the air.         I am the bud.
I am the sea.
And I am you.    I am in everything.
And you are me.    And so are you.
So what can we,
I am the ocean.    Together, do?
I am the weather.
And you and me.
Must stick together.

(From Maley, A., Mukundan, J. & Rai, V. S.(Eds). (2009). Life in Words and Words in Life. Bagbazar, Kathmandu. Bhundipuran Prakashan.)

Talk, talk, hear, touch
Bao Dat

You talk
with your eyes,
so words are not necessary
Eyes become words.

You travel
with your mind
when distance
is purely a mater of geography.
Minds connect

You hear
with your heart
when silence
is the only sound
from someone who helps,
expecting nothing in return.

You touch
with your kindness
when no one else cares
for the ones you do.

(From Maley, A., Mukundan, J. & Rai, V. S. (Eds). (2009). Life in Words and Words in Life. Bagbazar, Kathmandu. Bhundipuran Prakashan.)

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.