1. ICT ideas that ‘minimax’

2. ICT ideas that ‘minimax’
Simple ideas for lessons that minimise teacher input and maximise student output, while seamlessly integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

4. Questions
Ever spent hours preparing materials or activities which only last a few minutes in class?
Ever felt you are doing all the work while the learners are unchallenged and uninvolved?

5. Problem
EFL teachers often overload themselves and underload their learners

7. Solution Become a ‘minimax’ teacher
Minimise preparation time and energy spent in the classroom and maximise learner output

9. A true ‘minimax’ artist
A tennis coach takes two steps to send learners running all over the court
Learners wouldn’t learn by just watching, so they do most of the work, pay for the lesson and thank the coach

10. ICT ideas that ‘minimax’

11. ICT ideas that ‘minimax’
involve minimum preparation
are learner-centered
result in effective, fun, communicative lessons, and
integrate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to help learner motivation

13. Warning! Always put pedagogy before technology
Ask yourself “How is ICT adding value to the lesson?”
IT equipment can fail. Have a backup plan

14. ICT ideas that ‘minimax’

15. ICT ideas that ‘minimax’
Developing listening skills
Exploiting the Internet
Task-based web quests
Using the web as a corpus

16. Listening

17. Question How do you ‘teach’ listening?
What are the stages of a typical listening lesson?

18. Typical listening lesson
Establish the context, pre-teach vocabulary
Get learners to predict
Play the cassette
Give learners comprehension questions
Play the cassette again
Check answers

19. Questions Are you teaching listening or just testing it?
Do you focus on the product of listening (right answers) rather than the process (what’s going on while listening)?

20. Problems Not much time spent listening No analysis of what went wrong
Learners denied freedom to develop strategies for listening
Learners as passive overhearers
No link between listening and speaking
Teacher expects 100% comprehension

21. ‘Minimax’ listening Give learners control over the cassette player
Let them listen in small groups as many times as they need
Let them discuss listening strategies
Use a tape script for micro listening activities to raise consciousness

22. Exploiting the Internet

24.
Native speakers often listen at 25% of their potential and ignore, forget, distort or misunderstand 75%
Concentration rises above 25% if they are interested, but never reaches 100%
Bone (1988)

25.
Do we expect too much of language learners?
No guarantee learners are interested or motivated, since they play no part in deciding what to listen to
Let upper-intermediate learners choose authentic listening material

27. www.youtube.com Short, interesting video clips that are free
Learners control video player
Half class watch one clip, half class watch other. Learners write questions and quiz other team exploiting natural information gap

28. www.youtube.com Why do learners like this? break from the course book
authentic
hands on
communicative

30. Question
How would you exploit this web site in an intermediate level reading skills lesson?
Think about lesson stages and learner interaction.

31. ‘Minimax’ news sites
Learners work in pairs, scan headlines, choose article
Learners predict vocabulary in the article from the headline
Before reading, learners write questions they want answered
Learners read for gist, then discuss their questions

32. ‘Minimax’ news sites
Learners read text again, record 5-10 new words/phrases, guessing meaning from context
Learners check predictions in dictionary
Learners write summary of article
Learners explain article to peers and teach them the new words/phrases

33. Task-based web quests

34. Task-based web quests Learners work in small groups
Teacher sets learners a task to complete by searching web content
Learners compare findings and decide on the best option

36. http://www.ikea.com/gb/en Task: refurnish your living room
Maximum budget £1000
Learners search, compare findings, and decide on best combination of furniture

38. http://uk.cars.yahoo.com Task: buy a used car Maximum budget £10 000
Learners search, compare findings, and decide who found the best car

39. The web as a corpus

41. What’s a corpus?
A large and searchable collection of samples of written and spoken English

42. What’s it used for? Corpus shows how language is really used
Dictionaries tell us what a word ought to mean
Corpus tell us what a word is used to mean
i.e. real-world examples of how a word/phrase is used

44. Question How can we use a web-based corpus for teaching?
Think about lesson stages and learner interaction.

45. ‘Minimax’ corpus Teacher gives learners a word
In pairs, learners think of as many phrases as they can using the word
Learners search the corpus for more examples of use
Learners present and practice these to peers

46. ICT ideas that ‘minimax’

47. ICT ideas that ‘minimax’
Conclusions:
Minimise teacher input and maximise learner output
Make learners produce more by engaging them in task-based communicative activities exploiting ICT
Teachers should set up activities and monitor language is being used correctly

49. Acknowledgements Exploiting youtube.com (Greg Gobel)
Exploiting news web sites (Anthony Griffiths)
Task-based web quests (Alex Davis)
Using the web as a corpus (Mel Hutton)

51. Colin Hoy Greg Gobel Regional ICT Coordinator
Senior Teacher Professional Development
British Council Somosaguas
Colin Hoy
Regional ICT Coordinator
Middle East & North Africa
British Council Syria

52. Web sites www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/index.shtml www.youtube.com