Professional Development Consortium in MFL Oral Interaction

4 research based principles (1) Target language input is essential for learning but it can be made more effective if learners are allowed/encouraged to ‘negotiate’ their understanding of it by asking questions of what the teacher is saying   (2) Learners need to be encouraged to speak and to say things that they are not sure are correct (3) Although not all oral interaction can be ‘communicative’ (some will be practice and/or form focused), it has to nevertheless demonstrate measures of ‘quality’ (among other things, student initiated turns, student length of turn; adequate wait time; cognitive challenge; appropriate teacher feedback) (4) Students need to be given opportunities to develop oral fluency but also taught how to use communication strategies when faced with communication difficulties

National Agencies:UK (early 1990s) “From the outset, the foreign language rather than English should be the medium in which classwork is conducted and managed.” (Department of Education and Science) “The natural use of the target language for virtually all communication is a sure sign of a good modern languages course” (DES) “the lesson should be conducted through the medium of the target language....to avoid interference from the sound and syntactical patterns of the mother tongue....(and) to lessen any desire the pupils may have to engage in the process of translation” (my italics) (DE. Northern Ireland)

research: teacher beliefs (mid 1990s) Systematic observation; interviews; questionnaires Statement for teachers: “good language teachers use the L2 almost exclusively” Findings: Only 17% disagreed with the statement Most teachers equated good practice with L2 use to some degree (Macaro 1997. Target Language, Collaborative Learning and Autonomy. Multilingual Matters)

Findings Most teachers believed L2 should be predominant language Most teachers felt limited L1 was useful L1 facilitated setting up L2 tasks L1 sometimes needed to explain new lexical items which arise in interaction

Use of L1 by 6 student teachers (late 1990s) only 7.1% (Mean) as a proportion of total talk. Macaro (2001), MLJ

Other findings Student-Teacher use of L2 did not necessarily lead to pupil use of L2 No negative impact of “controlled” levels of codeswitching Evidence of a “threshold” at around 15% of L1 use Functions: instructions; explaining vocabulary; managing behaviour Student-teachers did not relate their decision-making to any theories of language acquisition (but to being ‘told’ by the NC)

Measurements of teacher L1 use by “two experienced teachers” In 6 lessons, only 7.3% (Mean) as a proportion of total talk. Macaro & Mutton (2002), LLJ

UK agencies post-2000 “pupils are expected to use and respond to the target language, and to use English only when necessary (for example when discussing a grammar point or when comparing English and the target language)” (learners) should use their knowledge of English or another language when learning the target language 2012?

Why the huge pendulum swing in UK? Frequent L1 use Early 1990s L1 use banned

Why the huge pendulum swing? Late 1990s Low % of L1 use Late 2000 L1 use predominant

One more piece of research Year 9 learners learning French in UK After listening to a text, the teacher: Selected and drew attention to new words Attempted to explain new lexical items using L2 definition, paraphrase and contextualization (video-recorded) Individual students looked at video and said how they tried to work out what the teacher was saying

Findings Students’ strategies for understanding the L2 word: almost entirely reliant on the cognate nature of the word Students’ strategies for understanding the teacher’s L2 explanations: almost entirely reliant on the cognate nature of any word in the explanation

Let’s stop using the expression: “Use of the Target Language”

Problems with ‘Use of the target language’ No theoretical explanation for ‘exclusive use of the TL’ – teachers told! Many teachers do not necessarily associate TL use with a ‘communicative’ approach (intralingual approach). Students in KS3 were/are not ‘trained’ to cope with teacher communicating information in L2

quality interaction in L2 It’s not about ‘use of the TL’ but about quality interaction in L2

Video clip 1

What constitutes quality oral interaction? (teacher-whole class) The TL is the predominant language for setting up tasks. Students try hard to work out what teacher is saying (use strategies) Students engage in ‘meaning negotiation’ (asking questions when they don’t understand; commenting)

What constitutes quality oral interaction? (teacher-whole class) Students taking risks with trying to say something Student initiated turns (occasionally they start ‘an idea’) Appropriate teacher feedback to risk-taking.

What constitutes quality oral interaction? (teacher-whole class) Balance of message (real/referential) and medium (practice/display) questions Longer student turns Reasonable wait times (allows processing) Students using lots of verbs (using grammar in real situation) Students using lots of different verbs (range)

What constitutes quality oral interaction What constitutes quality oral interaction? (either in teacher-whole class or learner-learner tasks Students use ‘classroom language’ spontaneously because they have been taught it thoroughly (not just on classroom walls) (in learner-learner tasks), students are given the opportunity to improve their oral output

Video clip 2

Principle 4 Students need to be given opportunities to develop oral fluency but also taught how to use communication strategies when faced with communication difficulties (This links with Principle 2 – if learners are to say what they want or need to say, they are not always going to have the exact word at their fingertips. They need to be taught ways of getting round the problem and keeping the conversation going)

Communication Strategies Paraphrase or contextualization Guessing (hypothesis testing) Word coinage (making L1/L2 word sound like L2) Intonation & exclamations Facial expressions/body language Fillers for gaps Repetition (to give time to think) Truc, machin Asking for help Avoidance (language or topic itself)

Research suggests that... Task repetition leads to greater fluency ‘Training’ students in use of ‘paraphrase’ and ‘fillers’ helps them to keep the conversation going

Video clip 3

Session plenary discussion