Emma Meade Flynn - The real deal: getting more from authentic texts and tasks

IH ELT CONFERENCE, 2019

Emma Meade Flynn - The real deal: getting more from authentic texts and tasks

In this highly practical and thought-provoking talk, Emma introduced us to ‘A text and task-based approach’, which is based on the following principles:

- (It is) not the study of text as a purely linguistic object (Long, 2015), but rather...
- Using text as a source of rich input (ibid.)
- Uncovering the reasons why proficient users choose specific language structures (Norrington Davies, 2015)
- Using text as a stimulus for task-based, communicative interaction

As a starting point, Emma suggested that teachers usually consider the following questions when choosing texts for classroom use:

- What texts?
- How do I choose?
- Will learners like the text?
- Is the text useful for learners?

One of the fundamental principles to bear in mind when making this choice is the learners’ communicative needs:

As a novel and original approach to identifying these needs, Emma suggested conducting a Needs Analysis (NA) as a speaking activity based on learners’ Ideal L2 selves. This is based on the motivational theory of ‘possible selves’ (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Markus & Ruvolo, 1989), applied to language learning by Zoltán Dörnyei in his L2 Motivational Self System (2005, 2009). In this classroom activity, learners visualise the language learner they would like to become in the future (their Ideal L2 self) and compare and discuss this vision with partners.

(On a personal note, I was very pleased to be referenced in this slide – although of course it’s not in the photo I took!) as I’ve used this technique as a motivational technique to establish goals and motivate EFL learners https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X17306644 (if it’s now behind a paywall, please contact me and I can send you a copy).

A reference to my article appeared on this slide, honest!

By noticing the discrepancy between where they are now and where they want to be, learners start to identify their specific needs. Learners are asked to produce a written version of their visions, in which they can define the key elements that they need to focus on in order to achieve their goals. Here are some examples produced by Emma’s learners:

For me, the mark of a good talk is that it (like the texts in Emma’s presentation) is a springboard for further ideas and discussion. In a recent webinar by Marisa Constantinides (see her blog here http://marisaconstantinides.edublogs.org/ ) organised by the IATEFL Teacher Training and Development (TTEd) SIG https://ttedsig.iatefl.org/ Marisa used the idea of visualising your ideal future self as part of the professional development of teachers and teacher trainers.

Having identified specific needs, the teacher can introduce an element of learner choice into the activities that are done in class. In the activity shown on the slide below, learners are encouraged to react to potential reading and/or listening texts, and make a choice based on what interests them.

Give your learners a choice

Introducing a ‘negotiated syllabus’ gives learners control and input in the course content, and has a positive effect both on learner motivation and agency (one of the buzzwords at this conference, it was mentioned in many of the talks I saw). Broadly speaking, agency is the learner’s sense that ‘they cause and are in control of their actions, or whether they perceive what happens to them is controlled by other people’ (Williams & Burden, 1997: 127) and is considered to be an essential element of learner motivation.

One problem often associated with the choice of authentic material for reading texts is the level of difficulty. Once again, Emma referenced the work of Mike Long, who advocates a task-based approach to learning and teaching (TBLT).

Rather than simplify the text (and thus make it unrealistic and inauthentic), we can use the technique known as ‘elaboration’: expanding the text to make the meaning more explicit through added context. Here is an example, based on the ‘A letter to…..’ column in the Guardian newspaper https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/aletterto

Simplified v 'elaborated' text

The text on the right is ‘elaborated’. Without losing any of the original text, extra detail is added to facilitate comprehension.

With listening, it’s a good idea to create your own texts tailored to your learners’ needs. Make short recordings of colleagues or friends talking on the topic you choose. Teachers are particularly good at this as we know how to pitch our language. Examples of this can be found on Emma’s (and Shaun Sweeney’s) blog TD Lab: https://teacherdevelopmentlab.wordpress.com/about-2/

In the following slide, Emma shared a suggested list of tasks based around the theme of ‘festivals’ (a fairly frequent topic in ELT coursebooks).

As a conclusion, Emma suggested a simple but brilliant technique for obtaining immediate and honest feedback on the relevance and interest of the texts you have chosen: Ask your learners who they will tell about about what they’ve read in class and what they will tell them. If they answer ‘nobody’ and ‘nothing’, then you need to re-think your text selection process, or repeat the NA syllabus negotiation process.

Conclusions
To summarise, the key takeaways from Emma’s talk were:

- Involve learners in the selection of texts
- Generate your own authentic texts through recording or faciltate understanding of written texts through elaboration
- Think about the purpose of the text to generate authentic tasks
- Get feedback to evaluate the effectiveness of text and task choice


References

Dörnyei, Z., (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The L2 Motivational Self System. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 9-42). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Higgins, E. T. (1987). Self Discrepancy: A Theory Relating Self and Affect. Psychological Review, 94 (3) 319-340.

Mackay, J. (2019). An ideal second Language self intervention: Development of possible selves in an English as a Foreign Language classroom context. System, 81, 1-13.

Markus, H. R. & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible Selves. American Psychologist, 41 (9), 954-969. 

Markus, H. & Ruvolo, A. (1989), Possible Selves: Personalized Representations of Goals, in Goal Concepts in Personality and Social Psychology, Lawrence A. Pervin, Ed. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Williams, M. , Burden, R. L. & Lanvers, U. (2002). 'French is the Language of Love and Stuff': Student perceptions of issues related to motivation in learning a foreign language. British Educational Research Journal, 28: 503-528.