RAK REPORT

RAK Chapter Newsletter

April 2006

RAK Report Takes on an ESP Focus

This month the RAK Report will look at English for Specific Purposes. We have received a great deal of wonderful material that we hope you will enjoy. Remember, even if you don’t teach content material, there are still plenty of good teaching ideas that you can use in your classrooms. Be on the look out for the recently published English for Specific Purposes in the Arab World. This is the second volume in the TESOL Arabia Special Interest Group (SIG) Series. Copies should be available at the RAK ESP SIG Conference on the 27th of this month. Get involved in TESOL Arabia’s ESP SIG. For those of you who would like more information on ESP or joining the SIG, please contact Mabel Lahlou email English Language Center University of Sharjah P.O. Box 27272 Sharjah, UAE

TESOL RAK Chapter April Event

English for Specific Purpose SIG and

The RAK Chapter

invite you to the first regional

forum in Ras Al Khaimah on

27 April from 10:00 – 12:45 at Ras Al Khaimah Women’s College

Programme 9:30 Coffee and Networking 10.00 Welcome and Introduction 10.15 - 11.15 English Support for the Specialists – Mabel S. Lahlou 11.15 - 11.30 Coffee Break 11.30 - 12.30 Panel Discussion – How to Improve Your Qualifications Locally and through Distance Learning Jonathan Hadley, Julie Wasilewski, Raymond Sheehan

12.30 - 12.45 Conclusions

FREE to TESOL Arabia Members Non-Members 40dh

Inquiries to: Anna Bailey, RAK Rep Email: anna.bailey@hct.ac.ae (or) rakrep@yahoo.co.uk Mabel S Lahlou, ESP SIG Chair Email: eurekaable@hotmail.com

A Look at Business English

In response to an invitation as a Business (not English) teacher to write about ESP here are some random comments:

• However ESP is defined, and I have encountered a number of definitions in my career in education, most students I teach are combining English for Academic Purposes and English for Specific Purposes.

• Assignments in business courses use both general academic and

subject specific genres.

• An integrative approach of language/literacy across the curriculum is the best way of enhancing student progress. Students are able to transfer use of skills across subject and genre areas. For example, if a student has grasped the idea of an introduction in an essay, they are easily able to make the necessary adjustment to write an introduction to a report, thesis or whatever.

• Difficulties exist in defining exactly what English language skills

will be or are used by new graduate employees in their daily work. However, extension of vocabulary is always to the students’ advantage.

• Changes in international business results in messages such as e-

mails becoming more complex.

• Limited vocabulary is often the main factor preventing students from completing tasks in specific subjects.

Any lesson that increases students’ business English vocabulary is to their advantage. There are numerous Websites that offer ideas and support. Here are some examples.

http://bogglesworld.com/businessESL.htm http://www.businessballs.com/ http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/index.php http://www.bized.ac.uk/

Article contributed by Suzanne Storer

Dates for Your Calendar

Around the UAE in April – April 6: Al Ain ESP SIG Forum April 6: Z.U. An Action Research Study + Teaching Multi Level Classes (joint: TE Sig) April 13: Abu Dhabi ESP SIG Forum April 13: Sukaina Bint Al Hussain School Avtive IL Centre(Joint: IL Sig) April 20: Abu Dhabi Chapter + IL SIG – Tactile Tasks & Technical Tips Petroleum Institute April 27: Ajman/UAQ/Sharjah Research SIG and Ted SIG Teacher Research Symposium Around the UAE in May – May 4: Z.U. + TE SIG Developmental Spelling presented by Steven Lydiatt May 4: Workshop AA Chapter Multaqaa Islamic Institute UAE University May 11: Ajman LIT SIG David Palfreyman : (ZU) Using thinking hats for teaching writing Ajman University for ELT educators all levels May 11: Sharjah Year End members meeting TBA All members May 11: Abu Dhabi Chapter TBA

Members are free!

For more information or to join TESOL Arabia visit the TESOL Arabia website at: http://tesolarabia.org/membership/membership.php

Book Recommendations

Teachers Exploring Tasks Teachers Exploring Tasks has been described as an innovative collection of thematically related 'classroom exploration' articles, prepared for language teachers by language teachers. In March 2006, it won one of the most prestigious annual awards for innovative publications in ELT: the Elton Award. The British Council says: ‘This rich resource of varied classroom experience encourages readers to use more tasks in their own lessons, giving insights into ways in which tasks can be designed, adapted and implemented in a range of teaching contexts. ’Each of the eighteen ‘explorations’ illustrates how tasks and task-based learning can be investigated as a research activity, inviting practising language teachers and student professionals to explore for themselves aspects of task-based teaching and learning through their own qualitative studies. One reader describes it as 'a great example of using small-scale projects to investigate aspects of the class you are teaching, demonstrating how teachers can give back to the academic community. I would recommend it to any teacher of English as a foreign language starting out or looking for a cure to feeling burnt out'.” David Nunan describes the book as “High quality, extremely readable and accessible.” Professor Rebecca Oxford commented that the book can ‘inform and enrich many classroom investigations.’ Professor Donald Freeman at the School for International Training says the book offers ‘an excellent example of …the variety of ways in which teachers use tasks to better understand their teaching and their students’ learning.’ Raymond Sheehan from HCT RAK Men’s College is one of the 18 teachers with an article in this volume. ‘Language as Topic: Learner Teacher Investigation of Concordances’ demonstrates how learners can develop elementary research skills to investigate computer-generated corpora of language in order to answer their own questions about grammar and usage. These skills are particularly useful in content areas such as business, technology and engineering when students need to cope with specialized vocabulary. Raymond gave a workshop on task-based learning at the RAK Chapter of TESOL Arabia in 2002.

7TH TESOL Symposium

Words Matter: The Importance of Vocabulary in

English Language Teaching and Learning The 7th TESOL Symposium took place at Dubai Men’s College on March 27th. The

keynote speakers were the well known textbook writers and researchers, Professor

Michael McCarthy and Professor Ronald Carter from the University of Nottingham,

UK.

Michael McCarthy commenced the symposium with an entertaining presentation on

how to become an advanced vocabulary user. Research has shown how advanced users

develop depth of knowledge, specialized vocabulary and act strategically when using

vocabulary. He also highlighted that they display independence in retrieving

vocabulary. Advanced users are able to maximize their vocabulary resources without

needing to reach ‘the edge of the universe’, 5000 words and beyond.

Ron Carter’s presentation and workshop focused on collocations and chunks in

vocabulary use. He suggested that our cultural focus is on the learning of single words

as in game shows, scrabble and crosswords. Taking examples from spoken language, he

appealed to teachers to build learners’ fluency by moving beyond the single word focus

towards a focus on collocations and chunks.

Michael McCarthy concluded that advanced users are learners who have developed an

awareness of how vocabulary works rather than learners who have an ever widening

number of words at their disposal. The role of the teacher is to speed up and scaffold the

progression towards advanced user.

Article contributed by Teresa Thiel

Michael McCarthy

Ron Carter

ESP for Engineering

Explaining complex concepts to learners possessing a limited technical vocabulary

OR If a picture paints a thousand words - an animation

is worth volumes!

One of the major problems faced by Engineering teachers is to develop their students’ technical vocabulary. Without this sound foundation, understanding new engineering concepts can be very difficult for our students. The majority of the engineering texts aimed at craft students have already restricted the vocabulary used to the absolute minimum. If this is reduced further, some of the key concepts may well be missed. In many cases, there are no alternative simple words that can be used as a direct replacement. Existing engineering texts utilise diagrams extensively to explain new ideas. However, these diagrams are still supported by text and are not particularly accessible to non-English speakers. How do you explain exponential growth!! One possible solution is the use of animations. Diagrams can be built up in simple stages, introducing new ideas or explaining technical terms. Motion can be used to support these developments. Simple animations are possible without great IT skills. Applications like PowerPoint can be used very effectively to build up diagrams, step by step. If this is used in the classroom, students understanding can be tested throughout the development process. If you are interested in looking at some of the examples I have produced please get in touch Richard.Summerfield@hct.ac.ae . You should find a Power Point file attached to this Newsletter which explains how I have used simple animation to get across exponential growth.

Article contributed by Richard Summerfield

Science Related Websites

My classes are currently doing Science Projects now, so here are some science related sites that may help other teachers.

The 'scienceclub' location is quite good as it's a non-profit organization and has lots of links to free stuff.

http://scienceclub.org/ or http://scienceclub.org/kidlink1.html

or http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/News/_SciFair2006.htm for a British

perspective

Use Google – Type in Primary or Elementary School or Secondary or High School for articles relating to School Science Projects. Here are some more good sites: http://www.amasci.com/scilists.html http://www.amasci.com/miscon/elteach.html http://www.homeworkspot.com/high/science/ http://www.madsci.org/libs/MAD_libs.html

Article contributed by Craig Ivory

Military English

English for Military Purposes in Ras Al Khaimah

This past September, HCT men’s campuses around the UAE became English language training venues for UAE Military personnel. Students arrived to not only bolster their skills in English, but also to study the very specific vocabulary necessary for their profession: English for Military Purposes. To make the vocabulary of ‘terrain features’ come alive, I sent students on a mission throughout Ras Al Khaimah to photograph those specific land forms. The results were amazing. Highly motivated to showcase their own community, we had mountain shots of Al Aim, near Aden, scrub land in Digdaga, a marsh from RAK proper, and an oasis near Dhaid. What’s more, rather than having my students focus on foreign images of these terrain types, my students were able to discover local examples, which I then used to create an authentic, more relevant, Terrain Features handout for them. In addition, their work was displayed in RKM’s ILC for all to enjoy, and has been used as a springboard for class activities by other HCT faculty. Teaching vocabulary has its challenges, and military lingo is difficult. It’s particularly difficult to pronounce – imagine, you’re beginning to learn English, but you need to learn ‘humanitarian mission’ in connection with your study of peacekeeping operations. To enable students to practice their pronunciation more independently, I decided to use Audacity software, which had been introduced to me by RKM’s ILC staff in its ‘Graded Reader’ project. Audacity is AWESOME! It’s free – available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and lets one record vocab for students to listen to, and then repeat independently.

Students can record themselves saying their new vocabulary words. They can re-record as many times as they like, until they are satisfied with their mastery of the words. I have them save their recordings to their folder, and I listen to (and grade) their efforts. As we all know, getting students to produce sounds in English intelligibly is a key desire: Audacity makes it oh-so-easy, and I found my students really got a kick out of hearing exactly how both they and their peers sound when they speak English. They were swapping headphones and listening to one another as much as listening to their own pronunciation! I always try to integrate the very specific military vocabulary into authentic, meaningful tasks which enable students to accomplish the goals of learning both General and Military English during their year of English language training. Both of these activities have helped me deal with the demands of teaching English for Military Purposes.

Article contributed by Sheri Henderson

Free ESP Journal

Would you like to read an ESP journal free on-line? Try this URL:

http://esp-world.7p.com/ You might also want to contribute an article to this journal!

Link contributed by Raymond Sheehan

ESP W RLD

Dictation and Writing

Learning the Write Way Here is a running exercise for writing which you can use with your students. This is especially useful if you have low level students. It is repetitious, but this helps students move from a simplistic teacher-centred exercise to a more complex and individualized exercise. It can be

carried out over a number of weeks. To begin with, have the students copy text you would like them to learn from the board/projector. The first time you do this start with something easy. A good text to start with would be the school’s rules and regulations. This gives the students practice in reading, writing, and knowledge of rules. It helps the teacher to assess handwriting, general neatness and organizational skills such as underlining, numbering and writing in straight lines (both horizontally and vertically). Once they are finished have them put the written papers away and give them a dictation using the same text. There are many kinds of dictations, but the simplest form is to read the exercise out loud and have the students write what they hear. This will give students a chance to listen to a text they have already seen. It will help the teacher to assess students’ skills in spelling and listening. Now ask the students to write the same text from memory. Students could do this alone or in small groups. This exercise is not only reinforcing the content, but helping students to focus their minds on what has gone before. The teacher can assess the students’ sentence structure and grammar, but spelling should be a secondary consideration. Finally get the students to write about what they believe the school’s rules and regulations should be. You could even have them write about what they think of the current school rules. Do not be surprised by how conservative their answers are! During this exercise teachers should assess originality and fluency rather than grammar and sentence structure. From here a teacher could do spin-off exercises which might include dictionary work for difficult words in the original text.

Article contributed by Ian Taylor

Accounting in the Business World

ESP IN BUSINESS/ACCOUNTING

I started my professional life as an EFL teacher working mostly in industrial training departments and specializing in ESP. After several years I went back to university and studied business with a major in Accounting. I worked in industry as an accountant and auditor for 16 years before returning to education as a business/accounting teacher at HCT. This background leads me to appreciate the importance of English language in my business classes. I do not find it difficult to raise awareness among my students of the new vocabulary they are exposed to

but what is often problematic is the special use of words they may have already come across in other contexts e.g. capital. These words take a lot of repeated explanation and contextual practice. I make a point of drawing students’ attention to language we come across in our studies such as past simple forms. We have recently been talking about Withdrawals which lends itself to a brief discussion of draw/drew and therefore withdraw and withdrew. Another problem I run across frequently is the language used in business and accounting text books (even those published by HCT). The use of the passive is common in business but Diploma students just out of foundations are unlikely to be familiar enough with it to work out the meaning in business contexts and accounting transactions. I usually “translate” all I come across into the active and pass on without comment. It is also necessary to make sure power points and other teaching aids we develop are sanitized for non-essential structure and vocabulary that will confuse students. If in doubt, ask an English teacher! Spelling is also an issue. Students tend to think that correct spelling of even the most common words is only important in English classes and does not matter in business. It is essential to enforce correct spelling in all business exercises. I reduce marks for spelling mistakes and try to always ensure that the correct spelling of difficult words occurs elsewhere in the exercise or test. This means making sure that students are aware that the word may be somewhere else and encouraging them to notice words and use them. Some interesting vocabulary exercises are:

1. To review vocabulary at the end of a project or activity. The teacher writes all letters of the alphabet on the board. Groups of students are assigned certain letters and must then write on the board as many words to do with the project starting with their letters as they can. When this phase is finished, the teacher and class check the words for spelling and for validity. The validity check involves asking the group concerned to justify their choice and use it in a context related to the project. Valid words are entered into a vocabulary book by students and may be used for vocabulary tests and games.

2. Words and meanings are written on cards, each one in a different colour (eg red for words and blue for meanings) the cards are dealt to students who must make pairs by asking for and exchanging cards with other students. This also strengthens pronunciation.

3. For spelling the old games like Hang Man are useful as are spelling quizzes and competitions.

English language is extremely important in all subjects and all teachers are responsible for improving students’ use and comprehension. Many books are available that give examples of games and exercises for teachers to use in the classroom to enhance vocabulary.

Article contributed by Helen Morgan

Math Tip

Keywords Are Key in Mathematics I have always been aware of the need to teach appropriate vocabulary related to each unit of math that is covered. I like to spend the beginning of each lesson reviewing relevant vocabulary and introducing new words, phrases and such. So much of the Foundation course that I teach is related to solving word problems, so it's imperative for students to have practice in reading for the main idea. I like to teach - the KEY words that help them solve their word problems. I don't have any special strategies as such - only an awareness of the importance of these skills to the eventual success of the student.

Tip contributed by Lorraine Drew

Using Acting in the Classroom

Acting for Learning Concepts in a Second Language Environment

Now, let’s see! I’ve got my elementary language level group of students and I want them to learn the personal skill of assertiveness. This is a necessary skill for success in the workplace. But how am I going to teach this concept? How are the students going to know what I’m talking about? How am I going to have an idea that any learning has taken place? A method that can work for you is to use theatre and class judges. Assumption: The method assumes that the teacher has some knowledge of the L1 language. Theatre: The theatre method is based on learning through playlets. Stage 1- Explanation of the concept of assertiveness.

• Define • How can assertiveness help us? • How to be assertive?

-Method-

o Create or collaborate in the creation of three slides in the L1. Display these as you explain the concept using these three learning points.

Stage 2- Theatre preparation

-Method- o Convert the how to be assertive points into a

checklist in both languages. o Issue the checklist to the students. o Issue playlets that create a scenario where two

students have to interact in an assertive way (eg, manager and a worker, a friend who owes you money.).

o Students rehearse their playlets. Stage 3- The Theatre. Each pair/group takes a turn at acting and a turn as the judges. Class Judges: These guys are the peer and primary assessors. The teacher’s assessment is secondary. They sit to the side of the class in a position of authority (table and chair) with the actors’ checklists. They tick the assertiveness points they deem the actors have displayed in resolving the issue of the scenario.

-Method- o Rotate the pairs/groups through the acting and

judging roles. The judges should rotate directly to the playlet role as the points of the checklist should be fresh in their minds.

o The judges debrief the actors in the L1 at the end of each playlet.

o The judges hand the teacher the assessment checklist.

o The pairs/groups rotate.

Stage 3- The class concludes with a student summary in L1 of the main points that came out of the activity. The teacher does not need to participate, and thus ends a lesson of a tricky concept. Conclusion: The use of theatre emphasizes action and maximum class participation in the teaching of concepts. Teacher knowledge of the L1 is advantageous. However, the use of playlets and class judges allows the students to do the learning and the teaching for themselves.

Article contributed by Daniel Zeytoun Millie

ESP for Non-ESP Specialists

ESP--A Technique for Non-Specialists

I have now taught ‘ESP’ in the UAE for almost 8 years. I use the term ESP very cautiously as much of the instruction is really general English. The students are all in various branches of the military. My role has been to teach both general English and some basic military English. Since I have no military training myself, I am limited as to how far I can go with the more specialized portion of the curriculum. However, it is this very limitation that I try to use in my classes. Since the students are often more familiar with military concepts and vocabulary than I am, albeit in their own language, it becomes their responsibility to provide the explanations. If they don’t know or are unsure of a word or concept, I give out dictionaries and ask them to do research on the Internet. In this way, I can kill several birds with one stone. Firstly, the lesson is immediately student-centered. Secondly, since the students, in pairs or groups are charged with the responsibility of attempting to explain in English the meaning of various words to others who genuinely don’t know the meanings (including myself), there is a degree of authenticity to the classroom communication. Thirdly, it is a step in the direction of enabling students to take charge of their own learning. Finally, it allows students to realize that the teacher doesn’t always have all the answers, that the students too can be the ‘experts’. This can be immensely empowering. I have used this technique as a starting point when introducing new language or mid-lesson when confronted with specialized terms. Although it can run against the grain bearing in mind student expectations of a ‘traditional teacher’, (i.e., one who conducts a more teacher-centered class), I have found this approach to be successful and believe the students have derived great benefit.

Article contributed by Paul McCullough

Researching Information

Using Keywords

Introduction

Keywords are a basic but very important part of Information Literacy. They are always used in any search for information - even if students don’t think of it like that. When looking for information – the “keywords” are the words we “search” for. A good example for students is their use of dictionaries. Every time they look-up the meaning of a word in the dictionary (which is a “search” for “information”) they automatically use that word as the “keyword” to find that information. We can extend this example of using a dictionary to include finding the dictionary on the library catalogue – i.e. the word “dictionary” itself then becomes the keyword to search the library catalogue. Having introduced keywords earlier in the course, the following exercise is a good way to get students thinking about their use of keywords and applying keywords to searching the library catalogue and books more effectively. The library catalogue searches for book titles or subjects. Broader keywords are often more effective for this. Narrower keywords become much more important after using the catalogue when we need to search for the actual book using the contents and index pages. Exercise The task of finding 3 related keywords, ranging from broader to narrower, is introduced by putting these 2 examples up on the board. (Depending on language ability the terms “broader” and “narrower” are better understood than “general” and “specific” and also can be easily demonstrated with gestures or physical examples).

BROADER NARROWER1) Animal Bird Falcon 2) UAE Ras al

KhaimahDigdaga

These examples give two ways of expressing the relationship between the broader and narrower which students find helpful. In the first example we can say that a falcon IS a bird and a bird IS an animal - emphasising that a falcon is a TYPE of bird and a bird is a TYPE of animal to really make the point. And the second example is described as Digdaga being IN Ras al Khaimah which is IN the UAE. Students should think of the broader word as being a book TITLE, the middle word as belonging in the book’s CONTENTS, and the narrower word as belonging in the INDEX. So, in the 2 examples above, a book titled “Animals” has a chapter or section called “Birds”, and lists “Falcon” in the index. Similarly, in a book on the UAE we might find Ras al Khaimah in the contents and Digdaga in the index.

Following this explanation students do the exercise below. Each student completes the table and then gives an example of their own. Students’ own examples can be written up on the board and discussed, which is usually a lively end to the lesson.

Broader and Narrower KEYWORDS Put each of the following terms in one of the empty boxes in the table below:

Broader Narrower

Cars

UAE

Astronomy

Football

Fruit

Pollution

Now do an example of your own:

Environment Science Acid Rain Solar Vehicles System Sport Grapes Ras Al Khaimah Gulf Mercedes Food Manchester United

Article contributed by Osagie Ehibor

RAK Representative

Anna Bailey is our local TESOL Arabia representative.

You may contact Anna at: rakrep@yahoo.co.uk , PO BOX 4792 HCT Women’s College Ras Al Khaimah,

UAE.

The next edition of the RAK Report will come out on May 1, 2006. It will have an Online Learning theme. To contribute articles, ideas or suggestions, please contact Darcy at:

Darcy.Harris@Hct.ac.ae

The RAK Report will come out on the following dates and feature the following topics: May 1: Online Learning June 1: Focus on the New School Year September 1: Reading and Phonics October 1: Vocabulary November 1: Independent Learning