Criticality: Focus on the Form Diane Schmitt Nottingham Trent University

Are your students required to think critically? Do your students think critically?

What is criticality?  Taking a stance -expressing one’s own considered, supported views.  Evaluating - assessing what is, for example, good or bad according to clear criteria  Making connections - looking at things in new and different ways and applying knowledge. Alexander, Argent and Spencer (2008:256)  Criticality is task specific.

What is criticality?  Taking a stance -expressing one’s own considered, supported views.  Evaluating - assessing what is, for example, good or bad according to clear criteria  Making connections - looking at things in new and different ways and applying knowledge. Alexander, Argent and Spencer (2008:256)

Student Writing Sample + Lecturer Comment Negotiation of meaning aims at gaining ‘‘comprehensibility of message meaning’’ (Pica, 1994:494). What is the link between the following point made by Lyster to the preceding point by Pica? They seem to be in disagreement but you don’t indicate this. You need to use transitional words and phrases to show the relationships between the various ideas you are citing. The lack of these means that you are simply listing information without synthesizing how it all fits together. This is a problem throughout the essay. Teachers and students are able to negotiate meaning with little or no shared linguistic knowledge in common, by drawing on higher-order processes involving background and situational knowledge in common, by drawing on higher-order processes involving background and situational knowledge (Lyster, 2002).

Student Writing Sample + Lecturer Comment Negotiation of meaning aims at gaining ‘‘comprehensibility of message meaning’’ (Pica, 1994:494). What is the link between the following point made by Lyster to the preceding point by Pica? They seem to be in disagreement but you don’t indicate this. You need to use transitional words and phrases to show the relationships between the various ideas you are citing. The lack of these means that you are simply listing information without synthesizing how it all fits together. This is a problem throughout the essay. Teachers and students are able to negotiate meaning with little or no shared linguistic knowledge in common, by drawing on higher-order processes involving background and situational knowledge in common, by drawing on higher-order processes involving background and situational knowledge (Lyster, 2002).

Description  Literature reviews do involve a lot of description The cognitive approach, which has dominated the field of SLA to date, subscribes to the input-output model of language acquisition (Gass & Selinker, 2001)….

Description + Relationships  Grading criteria Demonstrates a thorough knowledge of a wide range of source material which is well synthesised. (High grade) Demonstrates an adequate knowledge of source material, although this may be poorly synthesised. (Fail)

Description + Relationships  description + contrast The cognitive approach, which has dominated the field of SLA to date, subscribes to the input-output model of language acquisition (Gass & Selinker, 2001)…. Whereas the cognitive approach views learning…. Note that sociocultural researchers have expanded the view…. While sharing the sociocultural view…, CA “does not provided a ready-made framework….”

Why reading to write?  The biggest culprit in students’ poor writing is a weak understanding of what they have read.  The language students need to sound/be academic is in the texts they read.

Criticality: Making connections in a literature review  The distinction is emblematic of the varying views on the utility of this three- part exchange structure. Whereas Seedhouse (1997) argued that IRF is not unnatural because …, Nystrand (1997) characterized it’s use as negatively correlated with learning. van Lier (2000b) also pointed out that learner opportunities …are extremely limited…. For Wells (1993) triadic dialogue is neither good nor bad…. In a similar spirit of neutrality, van Lier proposed and “IRF continuum”...

What is the language of criticality?  Many old friends from our writing textbooks: argued that… some…/others... because …in addition alsoon the one hand... foron the other hand... by contrast in a similar way  Some new characters who are useful to meet: whereas

Are small words sufficiently noticeable?  The distinction is emblematic of the varying views on the utility of this three- part exchange structure. Whereas Seedhouse (1997) argued that IRF is not unnatural because …, Nystrand (1997) characterized it’s use as negatively correlated with learning. van Lier (2000b) also pointed out that learner opportunities …are extremely limited…. For Wells (1993) triadic dialogue is neither good nor bad…. In a similar spirit of neutrality, van Lier proposed and “IRF continuum”...

What is criticality?  Taking a stance -expressing one’s own considered, supported views.  Evaluating - assessing what is, for example, good or bad according to clear criteria  Making connections - looking at things in new and different ways and applying knowledge. Alexander, Argent and Spencer (2008:256)

What is criticality?  Taking (or recognizing) a stance - expressing one’s own considered, supported views.  Evaluating - assessing what is, for example, good or bad according to clear criteria  Making connections - looking at things in new and different ways and applying knowledge. Alexander, Argent and Spencer (2008:256)

More language of criticality  Reporting verbs arguewrote assertshow claimreport maintainsuggest proposedescribe  When language items are given as lists in writing textbooks students often take a “pick and mix” approach to their use

Reporting verbs and stance In her study of negotiation for meaning in the ESL classroom, Foster (1998) found little evidence of negotiation in her data and interpreted her findings as suggesting that there is a difference between laboratory and classroom settings with regard to the amount of negotiation produced. Because of the small amount of negotiation in any of her tasks, she concluded that ‘‘uncoached negotiation for meaning’’ (p. 19) does not occur in the classroom.

What can the writing teacher do?  Helping students demonstrate connections works best, when students need to make connections. Reading and writing about multiple texts  Likewise, teaching reporting verbs works best when we can illustrate both: The report The work being reported on  This takes us back to the value of a reading/writing link

A profitable reading/writing link: Text Chains for EAP  Route One Build up to a text with numerous citations Reading the actual references This provides opportunities to demonstrate how other authors make connections.  Route Two Identify one text that is widely cited Read the source text Follow it’s trail into other papers This is a “How to report” approach or a “Purpose for reporting” perspective

The Task and Worksheets  The Setting: A study support class for students on an MA in ELT. The MA task - Collect learner data using an information gap task, write an essay with a literature review in which you report on your findings in relation to negotiation of meaning.  The Study Skills task Select a main reading: Foster, P. (1998). A classroom perspective on negotiation of meaning. Applied Linguistics, 19, Intensive reading for meaning Look at use of Foster and her ideas in the work of others. Gass, Mackay and Ross-Feldman (2005) or with Nakahama, Y. Tyler, A. and van Lier, L. (2001) and others as a jigsaw.

Intensive (Guided) Reading Reading for your MA: Summarizing the article 1. What is the topic of this article and what does the author want to say about this topic? 2. Does the author have a specific research question or set of questions? (Look at the end of the literature review for these or at the start of the methodology section?) 3. What is the background to these questions? (Look at the literature review for this.) 5. What did the researcher find out? 6. What does the author conclude? Critiquing the article 11.How do the research questions and findings link up with (or not) other articles or chapters you have read?

Abstract: Gass, Mackey and Ross-Feldman (2005) While there is general agreement that conversational interaction can facilitate interlanguage development, much of the research on interaction has been conducted in experimental laboratory settings. Questions have been raised about the generalizability of the benefits observed in the laboratory to the classroom setting. The current research compared interaction in classrooms and laboratories. Seventy-four university-level students learning Spanish as a foreign language worked in dyads to complete 3 different communicative activities in classroom and laboratory settings. Analysis of the interactional patterns of each dyad provided insights into the nature of the interaction in each setting. The data suggest few differences in interactional patterns between the settings. Instead, there were differences depending on the type of task that the learners carried out.

Abstract: Gass, Mackey and Ross-Feldman (2005) While there is general agreement that conversational interaction can facilitate interlanguage development, much of the research on interaction has been conducted in experimental laboratory settings. Questions have been raised about the generalizability of the benefits observed in the laboratory to the classroom setting. The current research compared interaction in classrooms and laboratories. Seventy-four university-level students learning Spanish as a foreign language worked in dyads to complete 3 different communicative activities in classroom and laboratory settings. Analysis of the interactional patterns of each dyad provided insights into the nature of the interaction in each setting. The data suggest few differences in interactional patterns between the settings. Instead, there were differences depending on the type of task that the learners carried out.

Writer’s Purpose Lesson Focus: How do other authors use Foster as an external source to build and support their argument? Find your author’s research questions: 1. __________________________________________ 2. __________________________________________ 3. __________________________________________

Making meaning: Language Focus 1. Identify the section in which the reference occurs. 2. Propose a purpose for the author ’ s use of this reference. 3. Identify the reporting verbs used. Consider this What would happen if you changed the reporting verbs used by the author?

Sample Foster Citations  To date, many of the empirical studies that support the interaction hypothesis have been carried out in laboratory settings, and some researchers have suggested that the same patterns may not occur in L2 classroom settings (Foster, 1998). In Foster’s words, her research….  Foster (1998) has questioned the extendibility of laboratory results on negotiation for meaning in L2 classrooms based on her research findings that negotiation did not occur in the classroom she studied.  She goes on to say, on the basis of her classroom findings, that ‘‘learners appear to choose not to negotiate for meaning’’ (p. 20).  Of course, classrooms are not as easily controlled as laboratories, and Foster (1998) makes an interesting point when she claims that if ‘‘language acquisition research wants to feed into teaching methodology, the research environment has to be willing to move out of the laboratory and into the classroom’’ (p. 21).

Thank you for your attention!