Integrating methods and materials: developing trainees' reading skills Jennifer Jarvis

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This article explores issues arising from a research project funded by the Overseas Development Agency which studied ways of meeting the reading needs of trainee primary-school teachers of English in specific ESUEFL contexts. After giving a brief background to the project, we discuss the issue of teacher confidence in using English to manage classroom events. We then turn to a discussion of whatcounts as teaching 'quality', and end by giving examples of an attempt to model the teaching process in a manual for teachers.

Background to th projmct

The project described in this article aimed to establish the reading needs, in English, of trainees who enter college after four years of secondary schooling. We also wanted to test our conclusions by creating a manual for college tutors, for use in situations of very scarce resources. Our interest in the research area arose from in-service teacher training at the University of Leeds, where, annually, we work with educationalists from over thirty countries. Many identify improved English-reading skills in their teaching force as a priority. We took Malawi (ESL) and Tanzania (EFL) as our research-base countries, and were fortunate in having full co-operation from the Ministries of Education of both countries. The Overseas Development Agency provided us with a three-year research grant which enabled us to employ a research assistant, Joanna Mingham, and to make the necessary visits to the countries in the study. In 1983, the first year of the project, we composed and administered reading tests to trainees in sample colleges. We created our own tests in an attempt to devise instruments which would tap the process of reading comprehension, rather than its product alone. We also observed classes, and held discussions with tutors. We then analysed the results and, in the second year, wrote trial materials for a teachers' manual. Thefinalyear was spent in rewriting, printing and distributing the manual. We were aware that any attempt to meet the trainees' needs would have to be made compatible with college tutors' and trained teachers' perceptions of reading and classrooms. We had, in other words, to confront the typical tripartite situation of teacher education, and investigate learner, teacher and trainer.
ELTJournal Volume 41/3 July 1987 Oxford University Press 1987

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As the work progressed, issues connected with classroom teaching assumed greater prominence than those connected with reading per se. It became very clear to us that teachers matter. It is a truism to say that the teacher is the most important influence in formal language classes, but in many Third World contexts this has added force. Where resources are limited, the teacher may be the only source of English, providing model, input, and source of evaluation. When we studied what teachers and tutors actually did, and the views of the teaching process which they held, we became more aware of the very real challenge they face. In many countries, the English teacher is expected to teach through English. However, teachers and tutors are given very little help with their own classroom English, despite the fact that they are operating in a personal second (or more probably third or fourth) language. Managing a class and implementing a textbook require extremely skilled and specific uses of languagefor example to set tasks clearly, expand learner utterances, influence behaviour, and summarize points made. Teachers' and tutors' success in meeting the challenge is greatly affected by the fact that many have .very little confidence in their own abilities in classroom English. This is so even among those who might appear to us to have near native-like control of English. Faced with classroom events which might undermine their confidence, many teachers naturally seek a defence. One reaction might be a resort to authoritarian relations with learners, where mockery of mistakes discourages learners from using English, and so removes any potential threat to the teachers' safety. Another result might be a very narrow adherence to a textbook or teaching pattern, allowing only predictable language use in the classroom. Some teachers resort to lectures, minimizing opportunities for learners to use English themselves. These seem to us to be very understandable reactions to a threatening situation. The problem is that the level of teacher confidence in managing classroom events has a direct effect on the quality of the learning opportunities offered to the learners. Teaching 'quality" Before discussing what we decided to do to help improve teachers' confidence in the classroom, I should like to raise the very problematic issue of what counts as 'quality' in teaching. We found that our attempts to investigate what was happening in teaching led to a need for a measure of what effective classroom management might be like. Mitchell's survey article (1985) on process research in second-language classrooms bears out the difficulties of elaborating what 'quality' means. If, therefore, we try to match our research with other work currently reported, afirstattempt at an elaboration changes 'quality' into 'quality of interaction' in the classroom.
As Ellis points out in an article in the International Review of Applied Linguistics (1984): Approaches, methods and techniques reduce to ways of communicating, of interacting and transacting social and propositional information. In other words, it is in setting up and controlling human communication in the classroom that a teacher embodies his or her methods and aims. Teachers may, of course, be influenced by the views of language incorporated in the textbook followed, but we have found that teachers' implementation skills may override or vitiate any textbook writer's aims. In the countries studied, the courses used are a legacy of ELT fashions of the 1960s and 1970s, and have a strong orientation to pattern-practice as a means of 180 Jennifer Jarvis

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learning. However, in some classes observed, it was hard to see anything we could recognize (in today's terms) as providing opportunities for learning the inter-relationships of the formal system. Instead learners were involved in largely meaningless repetition of fragments of language. There were, certainly, few opportunities being offered for acquiring language through doing meaningful things through it (to use, again, today's terms). We felt that while the textbook orientation influenced this resort, the more fundamental influence was that many teachers did not have sufficient confidence in their classroom English to create more meaningful interaction in the classroom. Work at Leeds has shown us that while many teachers accept, in theory, the value of time-honoured procedures like group work, in practice they cannot utilize these until shown how, through work on teacher language for managing activities such as setting group tasks and discussing results. This is not a criticism of the individuals with whom we worked. It is much more an indictment of systems of training which have tended to separate theory and its application, and of school systems which isolate teachers without providing them with the support of effective models, either through colleagues or through helpful teachers' guides. We have tried, therefore, to elaborate which classroom language skills help a teacher to improve the quality of classroom interaction in his or her classroom. We tentatively conclude that the skilled teacher can: 1 set tasks clearly and make them meaningful and purposeful to the learners; 2 show the learners any necessary steps in achieving the tasks, and what their outcomes are expected to be; 3 encourage learner participation, and organize the class so that learner work takes up a large proportion of the available time; 4 give clear and encouraging feedback to the learners on their attempts; 5 correct mistakes gently; 6 clarify/summarize/expand learner talk as necessary; 7 convey a sense of 'teacher approachability'; 8 convey high expectations of what his or her learners can do; 9 teach English through English. If the mother-tongue is used, it is used as an occasional aid to the learners' understanding. It is apparent that the nine skills we have isolated relate to the creation of social relations in the classroom, and to the management of classroom interaction. They are the base of any method, and not specific to any one ELT fashion. We need a means of explaining why some teachers can make even unfashionable courses work highly successfully. Paulston's article (1984) suggests that the same basic principles underlie the work of those deemed 'effective teachers' in ESL contexts in North America. She says: Good teachers do make a difference. Methods and materials are not as important as principles of meaningful and interesting activities, on-task focus, clear activity objectives and comprehensible feedback. Our orientation differs only in that we focus on the language for implementing the principles. We do not assume, of course, that there is only one way of achieving the necessary interactions. Signals of'teacher approachability', for example, must be given in locally acceptable ways. What we do assume, however, is that many teachers and tutors need help to do these things, in locally acceptable ways, and need to be aware of their importance.
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We needed to embody our awareness of effective classroom management skilb in a manual for tutors. We had, in effect, to try to capture the teaching process within a producta textbook. We needed to give practical meaning to the skills by exemplifying them in the task of teaching reading comprehension. This led us to choose a 'modelling' approach in our manual. That is, the manual models what a tutor needs to say and do through the whole timeline of a lesson. We have found that materials rarely contain self-evident ways of implementation (see also Coleman 1985). Appendix 1, for example, is the passage that our trainees receive as part of a unit on the skill of scanning. Readers might like to consider what they would do and say if using it with their learners. Our answer was to base the manual on the classroom language through which the tutor would implement the material. The manual can be used as a jumping-off point by the tutor, who can use it as a script or adapt it at will. Ideas about reading are absorbed through their teaching application, and models of answers to trainee tasks are given as essential aids to tutor confidence. Appendix 2 gives part of the model for utilizing the scanning material in Appendix 1. Appendix 2 comes after some introductory work on scanning on another passage. Among other features, we hope that the excerpt provides models of: grouping task setting giving examples of how to perform the task rephrasing answers praising summarizing learning points questioning organizing 'reporting back' encouraging trainee-trainee interaction keeping silent. Also built-in to the model is an attempt to lessen the stress on correct answers and increase the stress on the process of scanning. The model retains a degree of formality between the teacher and the class, as this is culturally desirable. Lest it should be thought that the script of the manual does not allow for trainee error or for discussion, perhaps it should be pointed out that the traineetrainee discussion process in this particular unit allows trainees to assess their 'errors' against the 'correct' answers given on the blackboard. Ways of getting at the answer are abo discussed formally, so that reasons are made evident. The main reasons, of course, for giving the right answers here are that tutors need them, and we wanted to emphasize ways of getting the answers, rather than 'correctness' per se. In other units we build in wrong answers, to illustrate how the tutor can deal with them. We do not take exactly the same approach in every unit.

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Conclusion

In our trials of this material, we have found that non-native speaking tutors from a wide variety of countries have said that the approach helps them. They value having a model of what to say, as it increases their freedom. They find they are given a tool or reference point in a context where few other models are available. Perhaps the practical needs of teachers have not
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received enough attention in recent years, when the stress has been on the production of learner materials. What the teacher does with learner materials is, however, what gives them classroom reality. The manual is now in use, and we know that flaws and problems not yet apparent to us will become evident. We hope to evaluate the use of the manual, and further refine our understandings of classroom processes. D Received November 1986

AppmtdUl Changing our approach to fit our purpose in reading

Appendix 2
Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Leeds Metropolitan University on August 18, 2013 Tutor to trainees:

Now, let's try a different scanning task. Scanning to find particular pieces of information Please get into pairs, to help each other. Scan the Contents page below to find the answers to You work with him/her. You turn and face him/her. these questions: This row move to that one. 1 In which section will you find background inforYou will have to work as a three, etc. mation about texts? 2 Where might you find information about teaching We're going to try scanning the Contents page of a book, to see if the book will give us the particular the use of contrast meaning-markers? 5 You are interested in reading in different ways for information we want. It's a very quick way of seeing whether you need to read a book or not. different purposes. Where would you look? Turn to page 72 of your book. Make sure you are 4 Which section is clearly linked to learners' diffilooking at page 72. It has part of a Contents page culties with vocabulary? 5 You are interested in extensive reading. Which sub- printed on it. There are questions above the contents page. section will you read? Now, remember what to do. First, look at the ques6 Where could you find ideas on teaching the skill of tion to see the particular information you want. Think prediction? about the question, and work out what words you will CONTENTS look for. Chapter 3: Ideas for teachers of reading Think about where to look. Notice the headings, and 3.1. Some ideas about texts the numbering of the sections and sub-sections. 3.1.1 How texts are organised Let's do the first one together. Look at Question 1. 3.1.2 Cohesive devices What words are important here?
3.1.3 Word relationships 3.2 Helping learners be thinking readers 3.2.1 Using headings and sub-headings to predict Trainee response:

content
3.2.2 3.2.3 3.2.4 3.2.5 3.3 3.3.1 3.3.2 3.3.3 33.4 3.4 Using layout as a guide to meaning Asking questions as they read Using text-organisation to follow ideas Using meaning-markers to follow Ideas Helping learners solve difficulties Learning to 'read on' Using repetitions Using experience Using word-formation

'background information' 'about texts' 'section'.

Tutor to trainees

That's itwe're interested in 'background information', 'about texts' and we know we must look in a 'section'. So which section would you read?
Trainee response: 3.1 Tutor to trainees:

Good. It could be any part of 3.1 where we've got the

heading Some ideas about texts. (Write up: 1. 3.1 (all sub-sections)) Tutor to trainees:

Helping learners use different approaches to reading 3.4.1 Skimming

3.4.2 Scanning
3.4.3 In-depth reading 3.4.4 Note-making 3.4.5 Reading for entertainment

Notice, it doesn't say 'background information' in 3.1, but it does say 'Some ideas about texts'. We may not find exactly the same words as the ones we want. We 183

Integrating methods and materials

have to use our sense and see if the words mean more or Trainee response: 'reading' less the same. Also, we can use our experience of books. Back- 'different styles' ground information will probably come at the begin- 'different purposes' ning of a chapter, won't it? So, that makes 3.1 a good Tutor to trainees: choice too. Good. We know we must scan for something about Now work with your partner, and do the others. Just write numbers for your answer, as I did. Work out 'reading in different ways', and for 'different purposes'. what you are looking for before you read. You've got five Now, 3.4 docs not use exactly those words, but we can see that the heading Helping learners use different minutes only. approaches to reading must mean nearly the same. (Allow Jive minutes for the trainees to work. Do not give extra Often when we scan we can't find exactly the word we wantor all the words we want. We have to take time.) the nearest in meaningand get part of what we want.
Tutor to trainees:

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OK. Please stop there. How many pairs have finished? (The unit continues.)
Trainee response:

(Trainees raise their hands)

Tutor to trainees:

Well, it looks as if several of you are scanning well. Let's check. Each pair join another pair, and show each other your answers. You go with them. You face them. You move to them. You can make a five, etc. Now, compare your answers. Tell each other what words you had in mindwhat words you looked for. See if you can all agree on the answers.
(Allow up to eight minutes for the trainees to discuss. After about six minutes, write the correct answers on the board. The correct answers are given below.) Answers 1 3.1

Coleman, H. 1985. 'Evaluating teachers' guides: do teachers' guides guide teachers?' in J. C. Alderson
(ed.): Evaluation: Lancaster Papers in English Language

Education Vol. 6. Oxford: Pergamon. Ellis, R. 1984. 'The role of instruction in second language acquisition' in D. M. Singleton and D. G. Little (eds.): 'Language Learning in Formal and Informal Contexts.' 1RAL special issue. Jarvis, J. and J. Minghun. 1986a. Skilled Reading: The Tutor's Manual. University of Leeds. Jarvis,J. and J. Mingbam. 1986b. Skilled Reading: The Trainees' Book. University of Leeds. Mitchell, R. 1985. 'Process research in second language classrooms.' Language Teaching 18/4. Paulston, C. B. 1984. 'Communicative competence and language teaching*, second thoughts' in B. K.
Das (ed.): Communicative Language Teaching: Anthology

(all sub-sections)

Series 14. Singapore: Singapore University Press.

Th author

2 S 4 5 6

3.2.5 3.4 (all sub-sections) 3.3 (all sub-sections) 3.4.5 3.2.1

Tutor to trainees:

OK. Please stop your discussions now. Do you agree with each other? Do you agree with my answers on the board? Let's just check a couple of them. Let's look at Number 3. What words in the question show you what to look for?

Jennifer Jarvis is currently Director of Studies in ELT in the Overseas Education Unit, School of Education, University of Leeds. She has taught English in Tanzania, England, and Malawi, and now travels widely, giving seminars and acting as a consultant on ELT teacher training. She is particularly interested in applications of socio-linguistics and in ESP teacher training. She obtained her Master's degree and Diploma in TEFL from the University of London.

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