3rd TEFL Conference 'Towards Modern English Teaching'

1.Features of logically-extended responses 2.Information-expansion tasks 3.Benefits of information-expansion tasks 4.Final comments

Features of extended responses

What do you do on Saturdays? I go runningin the park in the morning for 25 minutes from 10 to 11 with a friend every Saturday but I never run in the evening. because it is healthy. because I love it I think it’s the best way to keep fit and then I do the housework

Place (at the park, inside) Direction (to the park, home) Time (tomorrow, on Sunday) Frequency (always, never) Manner (quickly) Company (with my sister) Reason (because I…) Purpose (to see the sunset) Opinion/ attitude (It’s awful, I love it)

Elaborations or expansions of an answer; Information units, provide different types of information; They can be simple or complex and formally expressed by means of phrases, clauses or sentences; They should show a logical progression of ideas; They are communication units and need to adhere to communication principles: quantity, quality, relation (Grice’s maxims).

Information- expansion tasks

American English File Starter Level.. File 7B page 67. Oxford: OUP After accuracy activities, choose one question and ask students to expand the expected answer.

Write responses on the board Try to organize them in a chart by degree of complexity After eliciting several choices for expanding answers, you can practice with the class answering to other questions and expanding them. For this unit, the final list was organized as follows:

Extended responses What? ________ Where? ________ What time? ________ When? ________ Who…with? ________ (- ), but ________ Why? I’m going to _____ I like it. I don’t like it. Because I always _____ I never _____ I have to _____ I want to _____ Opinion: It’s… good/ fun It’s going to be.. exciting relaxing bad boring…

For this particular activity, some examples of performances in the oral test were….. I’m going to have lunch with my family because I have free days. I’m going to do my homework this weekend because I always do. I have to work this weekend. I’m going to have lunch alone. I’m going to send this weekend because I need to send one e- mail an my mother. I’m going to go shopping. I’m going to buy a video game.

This activity can be used in addition to almost any lesson plan. Begin with practising a few possible extended answers and expand student’s repertoire in time. Begin with more simple expansions and progress to more complex / longer units Practice different tenses. Practice oral production as well as written production. Check coherence at every point.

It allows for system restructuring. It is a tecnique that promotes fluency by means of chunking and automatization. It is a technique that reduces anxiety levels by allowing students to know what is expected from them. It promotes self-study. It is in accordance with a competence-based model of learning if considered part of learning outcomes

Thank you! Questions?