1. REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE WHAT?WHY?HOW? Caroline Moore March, 2006

2. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE”? “...this is a stage for students to conduct reflective observation of language, which means that students themselves must try to make sense of how language works. By doing so, students move to a stage of abstract conceptualisation, in which they make generalisations about language. The teacher should seek to promote and guide reflection, and redirect it when necessary.” [Planes y programas. Inglés, p.18]

3. IN OTHER WORDS... “...this is a stage for students to conduct reflective observation of language, which means that students themselves must try to make sense of how language works. By doing so, students move to a stage of abstract conceptualisation, in which they make generalisations about language. The teacher should seek to promote and guide reflection, and redirect it when necessary.” [Planes y programas. Inglés, p.18]

4. WHY ENCOURAGE REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE? IT FITS WITH A CONSTRUCTIVE APPROACH TO LEARNING IT IS PART OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

5. The Experiential Learning Cycle CONCRETE EXPERIENCE ACTIVEREFLECTIVE EXPERIMENTATION OBSERVATION ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALISATION [Kolb 1984]

6. HUMANS HAVE A NATURAL TENDENCY AND ABILITY TO MAKE SENSE OF LANGUAGE AND TO SYSTEMATISE IT SUCCESFUL LEARNERS ARE ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN LOOKING FOR REGULARITIES IN LANGUAGE DATA AND IN DRAWING CONCLUSIONS FROM THOSE REGULARITIES.

7. AWARENESS-RAISING EMPOWERS LEARNERS TO TAKE A MORE ACTIVE AND CONSCIOUS PART IN THEIR LEARNING. AWARENESS – RAISING DEVELOPS A HEALTHY SPIRIT OF ENQUIRY WHICH IS A POSITIVE ‘SKILL FOR LIFE´.

8. HOW DO WE FACILITATE REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE? “...this is a stage for students to conduct reflective observation of language, which means that students themselves must try to make sense of how language works. By doing so, students move to a stage of abstract conceptualisation, in which they make generalisations about language. The teacher should seek to promote and guide reflection, and redirect it when necessary.” [Planes y programas. Inglés, p.18]

9. ISOLATE A SPECIFIC LINGUISTIC FEATURE FOR FOCUSED ATTENTION. PROVIDE SUFFICIENT DATA WHICH ILLUSTRATES THE TARGETED FEATURE ENCOURAGE LEARNERS TO UTILIZE INTELLECTUAL EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND THE TARGET FEATURE.

10. REFLECTION WITHIN THE EXPERIENTIAL CYCLE CONCRETE EXPERIENCE ACTIVE REFLECTIVE EXPERIMENTATION OBSERVATION ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALISATIONNOTICE DRAW CONCLUSIONS RE-ORGANISE VIEW OF LANGUAGE

11. TECHNIQUES FOR ENCOURAGING REFLECTION IDENTIFY / CONSOLIDATE Learners search a set of data to identify a specific pattern or use of a language form. CLASSIFY learners work with a set of data and sort it according to similarities and differences

12. HYPOTHESIS BUILDING Learners make generalisations about language and then check these against more language data. CROSS LANGUAGE COMPARISON Learners identify similarities and differences between L1 and L2.

13. RECONSTRUCT / DECONSTRUCT Learners recall and reconstruct elements of a text to highlight and reveal significant features. REFERENCE SEARCH Learners use reference books - dictionaries, grammars, study guides etc. – to find out about language.

14. WHAT AREAS CAN WE WORK WITH? REFLECT ON... VOCABULARY Meaning, Spelling, Collocation FUNCTIONS Exponents and their Forms and Use PRONUNCIATION Sounds, Reduced forms, Stress, Intonation GRAMMAR Forms and Use

15. WHAT MAKES A GOOD TRAINING SESSION? ACCESSIBLE The theory is digestible PRACTICAL Hands – on and task based. The content takes into account the level of the learners and is appropriate for the reality of the educational context. ENGAGING The content is both interesting and challenging.

16. Some Suggestions... Set problems, activities and tasks that raise relevant points. Encourage participants to fully engage with the tasks. Elicit as much as possible.

17. Provide appropriate examples. Make participants aware of what they have been learning Encourage self-evaluation