Checking understanding - practice

In a previous post I listed 7 practical ways of checking understanding. Now it's the time to put these ideas into practice.

Just to quickly remind you what they were:

1. CCQs.

2. Timelines.

3. Clines.

4. Personalisation.

5. Extension.

6. Translation.

7. Do you understand?

Below is a list of 10 sentences. The underlined phrases represent the target language whose meaning you have already presented (for ideas on presenting and clarifying meaning of target language read this post). However, now you want to check and make sure that the students have actually grasped the meaning.

Use each of the 7 techniques for checking understanding at least one. Justify why you decided to choose this particular technique and not a different one (as described in the previous post, some lend themselves better than others to certain language issues).

I haven't posted my suggestions, because I'd like to hear from you in the comments section. I don't want to influence your choices either. I'm also hoping I can learn a lot myself from your ideas and suggestions. Finally, for each example there's definitely more than one correct answer, so it should be interesting to see how different teachers approach each language point.

If you don't have time to do all 10, choose the examples that interest you most, or that are the most tricky.

Good luck! Looking forward to your suggestions and comments!

1. He’s sleeping under the table. vs. He always sleeps under the table.

2. I have to put up with lazy students.

3. I used to live in Poland.

4. He can take off any accent.

5. I’ve been drinking since midday.

6. I hope we’ll have finished this exercise by 2pm.

7. I’m still not used to the traffic here.

8. That can’t have been him.

9. He swerved to avoid hitting a pedestrian. 
10. Should you have any doubts, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Do you understand?

In one of my last posts I discussed different techniques which can be used for clarifying meaning of new language. Here I wanted to talk about the next likely stage, that is checking understanding.

I entitled the post "Do you understand?" because it's perhaps the most natural, yet the least welcome, way to find out whether your students have understood the explanation or not. And if you've done CELTA , then you know that it's THE persona non grata of language teaching. But I'll come back to this point later and first start with the more "acceptable" techniques for checking understanding:

1. CCQs: 

   The teacher asks a question or a series of questions which focus on the underlying meaning of the target language, and check if the student has grasped the concept. Keep the responses short so more students can participate, and less demand is put on their production, e.g. I bumped into a friend yesterday. CCQs: a) Did I meet a friend yesterday? (YES) b) Was it planned? (NO) c) Was it an accident? (YES)

2. Timelines:

   Very useful when dealing with expressions where the tense is the problematic bit (although can be culturally dependant), e.g. I've been teaching for 6 years.

3. Clines: 

   Useful for any language concepts which can be ranked, e.g. frequency adverbs, modal verbs for probability, degrees of reality/imagination, although it can be tricky to decide on the exact degree (e.g. I love, I'm crazy about, I'm keen on)
   

4. Personalisation: 

   Standard CCQs can be followed by something more personal, i.e. a question which uses the target language or one which elicits a response with the target language. For example, for the verb to ban you could ask:
   
   • Should the government ban smoking in public places?
   • Is banning soft drugs a good idea to prevent their use?

5. Extension: 

   Students finish a prompt given by the teacher; they’ll only be able to finish if correctly if they understand the concept, e.g. CC although:
   
   • T: Although it was raining...
   • S1: ...we went out.
   • S2: ...we went for a walk.

6. Translation: 

   This is normally frowned upon, especially on initial TEFL courses. However, if you speak students’ L1, it can sometimes be useful to translate in order to dispel any doubts. L1/L2 comparisons can also be a useful tool, raising students’ language awareness of similarities and differences between the two languages. It's also very quick and relatively unambiguous.

7. Do you understand?

   Well, technically this question is persona non grata and all CELTA candidates have a really hard time avoiding it. Probably because it’s the most natural thing in the world for god’s sake! Of course, it is not to say that it should be our only concept checking technique. Having said that, if we know that our students usually speak up when they don’t know something, asking do you understand? can:

• tell us when our previous concept checking has failed and we need to re–clarify
• save us time by avoiding unnecessary CCQs

Do you use any of the techniques more often than others? Are there any you use which I haven't put on the list? Would love to hear from you in the comments section.

In the next post I'll present a few activities in which you'll be able to try out and practise some of the techniques described above, so stay tuned! :)

If you're teaching lexis soon, check out this post on clarifying meaning and this one on recycling vocabulary.

For now, you might find these two sources useful:

• Workman G. 2005. Concept Questions and Timelines. Chadburn Publishing

• Darn S. and White I. 2006. Checking understanding. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/checking-understanding

Clarifying meaning

From the Author:

Dear All,
The blog has been permanently moved to teflreflections.wordpress.com This particular post can be found here: http://teflreflections.wordpress.com/2014/03/01/clarifying-meaning/ I'm not going to publish anything on the blogspot address any more, and I'll delete the blog within a week or two.
So if you'd still like to follow my posts (I hope you do), please visit the wordpress version and click follow there: teflreflections.wordpress.com You can also find regular updates on the posts on the new blog's FB page by clicking here.
Thanks for reading and commenting on the posts here, and I hope to see you soon on wordpress.
Best,

Marek Kiczkowiak

Recycling: the best habit on Earth

From the Author:

Dear All,
The blog has been permanently moved to teflreflections.wordpress.com This particular post can be found here: http://teflreflections.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/recycling-the-best-habit-on-earth/ I'm not going to publish anything on the blogspot address any more, and I'll delete the blog within a week or two.
So if you'd still like to follow my posts (I hope you do), please visit the wordpress version and click follow there: teflreflections.wordpress.com You can also find regular updates on the posts on the new blog's FB page by clicking here.
Thanks for reading and commenting on the posts here, and I hope to see you soon on wordpress.
Best,

Marek Kiczkowiak

Mem up your memory

Although I've managed to learn various languages, I used to struggle and grapple with learning new words. I hated it. The endless lists of words and definitions, which you'd read over and over again. With and without music in the background. With and without yawns. With and without a concentrated look on your face.

All in hope that there was a method to this madness.

Yet, all in vain all too often.

I'm not a natural learner of words (if there are any at all). I need to see them. Look, peer and stare at them. Use, say and play with them. 7, but preferably more times, thank you very much Mr Thornbury. That's all great in the class. But how the hell do I do that at home, on my own? (speaking to the mirror was not on the cards - that's for alcoholics).

Then I had a revelation. A burning bush moment. Eureka!

The skies opened and a creaky old voice cheeped from above: Go to www.memrise.com and thou shalt be saved!

And so I did. No questions asked - even though the cheep and the awkward grammar begged a few.

It was about ten months ago. Since then, I've learned over 2200 new words in four different languages - with about 90% retention rate - and have loved every single moment of the process.

Memrise is so simple, but so effective that I wish it'd existed when I first went to a language school all those years ago. And the idea is not even knew.

Since antiquity, people have been using mnemonic devices (no, they're not iPhone aps) to aid their memory , whose paths are mysterious, roundabout and slightly illogical. For example, it is much easier to remember a new word if we link it to a sound, image, smell or a funny anecdote. All this will make it more memorable and vivid. To give you an example.

Forest is der Wald in German. A quick and easy way to remember it for me with Memrise was to create a mental image (a Mem) of the Walden pond:

 

Much easier to remember than a dry der Wald = forest, isn't it?

Then Memrise will automatically prepare a series of exercises, which will force you to use each word you're learning in that session - yes you've guessed correctly - the magical 7 times. All sharp and sweet - 5 new words in around 5 minutes.

Of course, one learning session is not enough for the word to anchor in your long term memory. For this you need repeated learning sessions at certain intervals of time. But we're all too busy all too often. We forget, and by the time we try to do some revision, the words are long gone, faded, and we have to start from scratch.

Here's the smart thing. Memrise will tell you when and which words you need to revise. Those you're having problems remembering will pop up more often until you start getting them right. Each revision session placed at a right interval of time to maximise your retention success.

Each learning session will finish with statistics, so you know how well you've done. You're awarded points for accuracy, every new learned word and every Mem created. And you compete against your Mempals.

Very geeky, I know. But very addictive. And incredibly effective.

You create your own courses or you join the thousands already out there. To top it off, it's not just languages, but also economics, Greek mythology, politics, art, trivia, you name it.

Can you hear the creaky voice cheeping from above? Mem up right now!