A new theme-based programme of study designed for intermediate-level freshman English majors at Kanda University has as its core a project-learning framework similar to that outlined by Legutke and Thomas (1991). Each theme-cycle consists of three stages: (1) input --topic orientation; (2) project--research, data collection, analysis, and presentation; and (3) reflection--evaluation and self-assessment. The programme requires high levels of active participation, cooperation, and negotiation as learners collect and analyze data, and give feedback to their peers in the form of a presentation. This process engages learners in real-world management tasks, interdependent and interactive language learning, self and peer assessment, and making choices about content and language within the parameters of a particular theme. In this way the overall programme goal of developing learners' communicative competency (Ford & Torpey, 1998) is supported. This paper will describe one theme-cycle: the Living Abroad Interview Project.
The Living Abroad Interview Project
The Living Abroad Interview Project is an example of an encounter project in that it "involves face-to-face encounters with speakers of the target language, while the preparation and making sense of data collected is firmly embedded in the classroom" (Legutke & Thomas, 1991, p. 161). An encounter project has the following features indicative of active learning:
- It takes learning beyond the classroom.
- It raises learners' awareness of the importance of process in language learning, and extends their procedural and organizational skills.
- Learners make decisions and carry out plans while using the instructor as a source of advice and guidance.
- It requires the pragmatic use of language for carrying out real-world tasks such as arranging interview times and negotiating the use of resources with their instructor.
- Awareness-raising, exploration, and self-discovery in language development are given precedence over teacher explanation following the Observe-Hypothesize-Experiment paradigm (e.g., Lewis, 1993), rather than a traditional teacher-directed Present-Practise-Produce paradigm in which the teacher gives explicit instruction and controls class pace and content.
Overview and Goals of the Project
The students, in classes of approximately 30, meet for 90 minutes four times a week. Each theme-cycle requires 12-16 class periods to complete. Students receive a handout outlining the project requirements (see Appendix). In groups of three, they arrange, conduct, record, and later transcribe a 15-minute interview with a native or bilingual speaker of English about the speaker's experiences outside their native country. Learners are encouraged to find interviewees outside the university environment. Though the project is described as an interview, it is hoped that the encounter will be conversational and interactive in nature rather than simply a question and answer session.
The main objectives are for students to gain insights into the potential difficulties of adapting to a different culture, to increase awareness of what cultural stereotyping is, and to collate information that might help students live abroad in the future. Analyzing the transcription is expected to improve students' ability to understand spontaneous native-speaker discourse, with its hesitation markers, fillers, false starts, and occasional grammatical slips.
Stages of the Project
Input stage: Prior to the first class, learners are assigned reading homework and vocabulary preparation which highlight some of the key issues related to living abroad. The six classes that make up the input stage are as follows:
- Discussion and vocabulary. This class focuses on promoting discussion in small groups about living abroad, homestay experiences, cultural differences, gaffes, and stereotypes. The students are encouraged to use the vocabulary from their reading preparation (i.e., culture shock, first impressions, homesick, host country, appropriate behaviour, and social customs).
- Listening. A five-minute tape of five native speakers responding to the question, "What advice can you give us for travelling or living abroad?" taken from tapes made by students from previous years is played. Learners working in groups of three answer comprehension questions, discuss and evaluate the advice given, and then choose one of the responses to transcribe. The students analyse the transcription for examples of native speaker discourse fillers and hesitation markers such as well, err, let me see, and I guess.
- Split video viewing. Half of the class watches a video interview about an Australian teacher's experience of living in Papua New Guinea while the other half watches an interview of an American teacher's experience of living in Indonesia. These interviews were also from a previous year. The students analyse the model interviews for both content and for positive examples of the interviewer's skill in maintaining conversational interaction, asking appropriate follow-up questions, and giving appropriate responses and supportive comments such as Really? and I see. After viewing the videos, the two groups come back together and work in pairs comparing the interviewees' experiences.
- Dictogloss. A grammar dictation, using Wajnryb's (1990) dictogloss format, about a foreigner's first impressions and culture shock on arriving in Japan for the first time is given.
- Reading and Values Clarification - Learners discuss and evaluate the appropriacy of a set of questions taken from Whitsell (1989) which Japanese students are known typically to ask including "Can you use chopsticks?", "What are you doing here?", and "When are you going home?" With teacher guidance, the learners conclude that while such questions might be appropriate for tourists, they are not appropriate for foreigners who reside in Japan.
- Review. This class period is for completing supplementary reading tasks about experiences of Japanese people living abroad and any unfinished class work. The instructor summarises the main points covered during the input stage and clarifies the project stage requirements.
Project stage
Students spend one class working in their interview groups preparing interview questions and determining the logistics (time, place, and subject) of the interview. They have a deadline of four weeks to conduct and record the interview. The students use small hand-held tape recorders with built-in microphones to record the interviews, many taking place off campus. During this time, work on a different theme-cycle begins.
With the completion of the four-week interview period, learners have two classes in which to prepare the feedback session. First, they select a three to four minute section of their interview to use as the basis for their presentation. The instructor assists learners by explaining difficult linguistic structures and vocabulary items, checking the accuracy of transcripts, and offering criteria (interest level, language used, and variety of input to peers, for example) to help students make their selections. Then, students transcribe this section, write a summary of the rest of the interview, identify and check new vocabulary, and prepare listening comprehension questions to ask their peers. The feedback classes (as well as all listening activities) are held in a classroom equipped with ten portable tape recorders and thirty headphone sets. Listening activities are done interactively in groups of three.
In the feedback session (two class periods), learners form groups of three with classmates who have conducted different interviews. Each learner in the group has about 25 minutes to make a presentation to the other two students (see Appendix for details). Each group of three concludes the feedback session with a short discussion about their feelings and experiences about the project. The whole process is repeated with different partners in the second feedback class. Therefore, each participant listens to four different interviews and presents twice.
In the past, a variety of input and interviewee experiences have been presented. In addition to advice for living abroad and aspects of culture shock, feedback topics have included first impressions, embarrassing incidents, expectations, stereotypical images, prejudice and discrimination, experiences in the workplace, and strategies for language learning.
As a homework task, learners exchange tapes with classmates and listen to the interviews they did not have a chance to hear during the feedback classes. They write comments on the quality of the interviews as part of an ongoing listening diary assignment (based on Fujiwara, 1990, p. 208). For this assignment, learners keep a weekly record throughout the semester noting dates, times, content, and vocabulary learned for all audio/video activities done outside of class.
Reflection stage
In the final reflection stage of the project (one class and assigned homework), learners evaluate their preparation and feedback performances. In particular, they focus on how appropriate the interview questions were, the kind of information collected, the quality of the interaction, and how well they managed to conduct a conversational style interview. Learners then complete a self-assessment sheet for both the process and product aspects of the project, commenting on group and individual contributions. The instructor also evaluates learners using the same criteria.
The input and orientation materials are evaluated on the basis of how well the materials raised the learners' awareness about stereotyping and cultural differences, and on the usefulness of the materials in helping the students to prepare for the interview. Finally, in learner diaries, the students summarise what they learned from the project, in terms of both content and language.
Conclusion
Many Japanese students come to university from an educational background which has trained them to be passive recipients of knowledge transmitted by the teacher. However, educators can encourage learners to take a more active and independent role in developing their language skills. The Living Abroad Interview Project is designed with this in mind. By involving learners in the decision-making process, they became both researchers and peer teachers.
Giving learners the opportunity and responsibility of contributing to the class proves to be a major factor in generating high levels of motivation, participation, and communication in the language classroom. Project learning should continue to be an option for fostering the development of learners' communicative proficiency.
Appendix: Project Outline
Living Abroad - The Interview Project
1. Main Requirements
- you need to arrange an interview with a native (or bilingual) speaker of English who has experience living abroad
- your interview should be about 15 minutes long
- you need to record it on audio tape
2. Preparation and Interview
- thoroughly prepare the questions and check them with your teacher
- make sure you have enough questions to last 15 minutes
- get used to using any equipment before the interview
- tell your teacher when you know the time of the interview and book the necessary equipment: hand-held tape recorder, microphone, etc.
- when you arrange the interview you should make the purpose of the interview very clear, and you should explain that you need to record it
- during the interview, try to respond naturally to the interviewee's answers and make it into a conversation when appropriate - it should not be simply a question/answer format
3. Analysis of Recording
- - try to understand everything that was said by your interviewee and get your teacher to help you if necessary
- - select a 3-4 minute section of your recorded interview to present to a small group of classmates
- - transcribe this section, get your teacher to check it, and then type it
- - give your teacher a copy of the completed transcript, and a copy of your tape
- - prepare some questions and exercises for your classmates based on the content of your 3-4 minute section
4. Feedback Classes
For the feedback classes each person will need the following:
- 6 typed copies of your transcript
- 1 copy of your 3-4 minute tape (A tape to tape recorder is available in my office)
- 1 copy of notes for giving a 2 minute summary (not to be read)
Each person in the feedback group should (for a total of about 25 mins each):
- Give a short summary about who they interviewed and what they told you, but do not tell them about the content of the 3-4 min section;
- Present your classmates with any difficult vocabulary used in the 3-4 min section;
- Dictate 4 or 5 comprehension questions (including multiple choice and True/False);
- Play the tape twice and then ask the questions and discuss the interview with your partners;
- Have a concluding conversation about your feelings and experiences of arranging and doing the interview;
- Hand out transcripts and play the tape again (if you have time).
References
Ford, K., & Torpey, M. (1998). Principles and practice of materials design for promoting interaction and interdependence in the EFL classroom. The Journal of Kanda University of International Studies, 10, 397-436.
Fujiwara, B. (1990). Learner training in listening strategies. JALT Journal, 12 (2), 203-217.
Legutke, M., & Thomas, H. (1991). Process and experience in the language classroom. London: Longman.
Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and a way forward. Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications.
Wajnryb, R. (1990). Grammar dictation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Whitsell, M. E. (1989). Bright idea. Turning "English conversation" into communication. Cross Currents, 15 (2), 51-59.
Keith Ford has taught EFL in Mexico, Spain, England, and Japan. From 1995-98 he worked at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba where he contributed to a programme of curriculum renewal and syllabus design aimed at promoting learner autonomy within a classroom-based framework. He currently teaches at Waseda University.