THE MILLENNIUM EXPERIENCE:

ITS CONCEPT, THEORY, & INSTRUCTIONS

INTRODUCTION
In the conceptualization of any language teaching endeavor, it is ideal to consult the
latest ndings of research in second language acquisition (SLA) and pedagogy. Today, for many
researchers in the eld such as Savignon, for example, Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT) is identied as the generally accepted paradigm in the eld of language teaching and it
is the currently recognized approach. (Brown, 2007, p.45). However, CLT comes with many
interpretations and manifestations and some (eg. Kumaravadielu) argue that it is laden with
issues of authenticity, acceptability, and adaptability and as a working solution to those
deciencies, Brown (2007) observes how there is a push towards task-based language teaching
(TBLT). How can this approach be implemented in a CALL context?

DESCRIPTION & RATIONALE
Considering the values and groundwork laid by CLT and TBLT, the project was designed
to be a fully functional language learning website built on the Weebly platform. Prototypical of
CLT way of approach, the project attempts to take into consideration (1) the intertwining of the
organizational aspects of language (such as discourse) with the pragmatic (such as functional,
sociolinguistic, and strategic) aspects; (2) form is less emphasized for the sake of creating a
linguistic environment of allowing learners to engage the pragmatic, authentic, and meaningful
purposes in the L2 to become more prominent; (3) to enable the ow of comprehension and
production to develop uency; (4) making the negotiation of meaning in real-world, native
speaker engagement to be a component outside of the classroom; (5) allowing learner
autonomy by carrying the learning process through independent usage; (6) having the teacher
become a facilitator rather than merely a source of knowledge; and (7) having learners become
active participants in acquiring linguistic and pragmatic skills where learning develops in way
that is collaborative and learner-centered (Brown, 2007, p.46-47).
The project, entitled The Millennium Experience, places a focus on the acquisition of
speaking and listening skills with emphasis in pronunciation. The activities are conceived in the
thinking of TBLT and will be centered on downtown Chicagos famous Millennium Park. Being
very closely related to CLT, TBLT is, according to Brown, one of the most prominent
perspectives within the CLT framework. (2007, p.50). The thinking is essentially composed of:
(1) meaning primary; (2) there is some communication problem to solve; (3) there is some sort
of relationship to comparable activities of the real world; (4) task completion has priority; and (5)
the assessment is measured by the outcome of the task (Brown, 2007, p.50).
Additionally, understanding that creativity is closely associated with production and
interlanguage development, the project is designed with a theme of artistic evaluation and the
learning experience is intended to incorporate descriptive language use as well as meaning-
negotiated language use for practical aspects of requesting information from the visitors of
Millennium Park. This feature is built in to encourage visual evaluation of artistic and thought-
inducing landmarks within the park by stimulating learner motivation. Along side these design
considerations, the curricular philosophy, being based on Paul Nations Four Strands system of:
1) Meaning-Focused Input; 2) Language-Focused Learning; 3) Meaning-Focused Output; and
4) Fluency Development --places each of learning component of the project into a framework of
systematic rationale of 4 purposeful segments which is organized into Stage 1 through Stage 4
(Nation & Macalister, 2010, p.97). Built in this learning experience is collaborative learning
consideration as the students are divided into two teams, while it is also inherently competitive
since the team with most points win and become Legacy Teachers.
Along with a collaborative learning scheme, a learner-centered instruction is
implemented in the project concept. A learner-centered approach help give students a sense of
ownership of their learning and as explained by Brown (2007), being the opposite of teacher-
centered, having the quality of learner-centeredness includes features such as:
1. techniques that focus on or account for learners needs, styles, and goals.
2. techniques that give some control to the student (groups work or strategy training, for
example).
3. curricula that includes the consultation and input of students and that do not presuppose
objectives in advance.
4. techniques that allow for student creativity and innovation.
5. techniques that enhance a students sense of competence and self-worth. (p52).

The Millennium Experience (TME) is designed to be supplemental to a Chicagoland-
based IEP program which is seeking to incorporate CLT and TBLT dimensions into their existing
programs. The TME is constructed for learners with an age range of college age+ who have
English prociency skills at the intermediate and advanced levels. Each of the four Stages are
intended to be split into 2 days of activity; thus encompasses 8 days of activity. As an option,
each of the four Stages may be planned to be completed in a single, intensive day perhaps as a
short-term Saturday school curriculum. Ideally, the number of student participants should range
from 6 to 16 in number. To ensure even participation from each of the members of the class and
to aid in good assessment, the teacher will need to make sure each members of the team are
contributing fairly. As a way to keep track on which student did what and to encourage students
to contribute, each of the teams are required to create and maintain a log of contributions by
each team member and submit them at the time of their presentations (Stage 4).
Gass (2006) notes that linguistic input creates communicative pressure to stimulate
language learning (Youngs, et al., 2011, p.25). On the subject of input, Youngs et al. (2011) nds
that a rich linguistic environment is essential of second/foreign (L2) learning and the rst step
begins with input (p.25). It is often the beginning of communication, as VanPatten (2003)
points out, input is any language with a communicative intent to which the learner is exposed
and for L2 learning to take place, input must exist (Youngs, et al., 2011, p.25).
In the rst stage, called Stage 1, the students visit the TME website and focus on the
development of input in listening skills. The mode of listening, especially seen through CLT
thinking, may be understood to be central in developing linguistic competency. Krashens
Noticing hypothesis, which shows the importance of input through noticing becoming intake --
this is postulated as the channel whereby new linguistic knowledge is attained (Brown, 2010, p.
300). Utilizing podcast content, multiple levels of comprehensible input such as word-level
pronunciation, sentence-level prosody, and dialogue, which will be produced through Audacity,
provides key linguistic vocabulary which will need to be used later in TME.
To make the most of listening activities, Chapelle (2003) nds, a central concept in
cognitive approaches to SLA is that learners have the opportunity to acquire features of the
linguistic input that they are exposed to during the course of reading or listening for meaning
and three key enhancements are understood to be benecial: (1) salience - the marking what is
pragmatically important; (2) modication - making input understandable; and (3) elaboration -
aiding understanding by adding helpful elaboration (p. 40). These are tips instructors can use to
improve linguistic absorption.
For assessment, students will create accounts with Voxopop and upload audio
recordings that focus on accuracy of pronunciation --this exercise is intended to: (1) bring closer
attention to their essential skills of listening carefully thereby fostering autonomy; (2) repetition
work with key vocabulary and phrases; and (3) bring attention to pronunciation which will aid
their speech to be understood by native speakers. Students will receive audio and textual
feedback by the instructor on each of the activities to facilitate development and improvement.
In addition to key vocabulary and phrases, a component of reading out loud a sample interview
script will focus on basic comprehension, blending, stress, intonation, and prominence. The
students will be introduced to core linguistic components and have an opportunity to try using
them. At this stage, the students will be divided into 2 teams (assigned by the teacher) and the 2
teams each compete against each other to gain points via teacher assessment. The points
(Millennium Points) are given individually and Team Points are the sum of individual member
points. A scoreboard is shown in the TME site for students to check team progress.
In the second stage, which is called Stage 2, the students will focus on linguistic
components through a two-step process of reading and writing. To facilitate this, students will
read short articles on the 4 sites (aka. 4 sights) at Millennium Park. Using a discussion board on
Weebly, students will write 1 paragraph on their initial opinions on the articles on Millennium
Parks 4 sites. Secondly, each individuals will formulate questions for the interviews they will
have with a Millennium Park visitor on the discussion board. These questions can be in the
topical parameters of general/specic artistic opinion at each of the sites in the park and asking
for their thoughts on the city of Chicago. Students will upload audio recordings (description
+opinion) that focus on accuracy of pronunciation and language use (accuracy of form) and
points will be assigned by the instructor for assessment. Like Stage 1, the activities of Stage 2
can be performed in a computer lab or in class in their team groups and the teacher will assess
to distribute points and upload student their written content onto the respective Weebly pages
for each team (Team Page).
In the third stage, which is called Stage 3, the focus becomes output of speaking and
pronunciation. At Stage 3, the teams organize and head out to Millennium Park accompanied by
the guidance of the instructor. Each team will need to make sure they are able to have access to
a basic digital camera and recorder of some type. As the teams visit the 4 sites of Millennium
Park, one by one, they will take a picture of each the sites which the teacher will upload into the
teams Weebly page. With the permission of the park visitor, students will use their interview
questions on them and audio-record for each of the interviews completed at the 4 sites. They
are allowed to do multiple takes at each site through nding another interviewee and later
decide on their best interviews. After submitting their 4 audio interviews to the teacher, the
teacher will upload them into the Team Pages. Assessment will be done on the contents to
distribute Millennium Points.
At this Stage, it can be expected that the students will undergo the most intensive
amount of interaction. Youngs, et al. considers the focus of Interactionist theory being the
creation of rich linguistic environment where the learners internal processes are triggered by
social interaction (2011 p.25). Yet, as Chapelle (2003) pointed out, interaction, which is part of
any kind of learning, can mean something very simple as buying something from a store clerk,
or a CALL drill which has a focused linguistic exercise (p.54). Ellis nds three frameworks on
understanding interaction: interaction hypothesis, socio-cultural theory, and depth of processing
theory (Chapelle, 2003, p.55). Interaction hypothesis derives from face-to-face (FTF)
conversation and the psycholinguistic benets it affords learners by directing their attention to
language, particularly during communication breakdowns (benets: negotiation of meaning);
sociocultural theory is also grounded in FTF conversation but theorizes the value of the
interlocutors help in accomplishing meaning-making through language while the learners
internal mental voice plays a role in learning through a constant internal dialogue (benets: co-
constructing meaning); and depth of processing theory hypothesizes the importance of the
level of cognitive processing that new input to the learner undergoes for recall and learning
(benets: prompting attention to language) (Chapelle, 2003, p.55).
During the next Stage, though not extensive, linguistic production is expected to be most
intensive. According to Chapelle (2003), from a cognitive perspective linguistic production sees
ideally that the learner would have the opportunity to produce comprehensible output which
refers to language that the learner produces to express a message, while in sociolinguistic
terms, the focus is on interlanguage development through the co-construction of meaning during
pair work (p.61).
In the nal stage, which is called Stage 4, uency in speaking and pronunciation are
evaluated. Using their Team Pages, the two teams will give a Team Presentation on the results
of their interviews and experiences at Millennium Park which requires each member to speak on
at least one component of their presentation. The two teams will be able to consult the work of
the Legacy Teachers on the TME site to get ideas on what components and other creative
methods to incorporate into their presentations. For classes that are starting out (no Legacy
Teachers yet) the instructor can be available to give ideas. The teacher will assess presentation
for points and the winning team will be announced after a grand total of Millennium Points are
calculated. The Team Page from the members of the Legacy Teachers will remain in the
database and be used in places such as the course website, newsletter, and the next time the
Millennium Experience will be in session in a program.

CONCLUSION
Ideally, CALL implemented learning projects, as identied by Chapelle (2003), forms a three-
way relationship between the knowledge about classroom teaching, knowledge about materials
development, and knowledge about CALL (p. 38). Alternatively, Pica (1997) observes another
important relationship observed between the interest of cognitive and the social processes of L2
learning: from the cognitive perspective, among the most prominent [interests] are L2
comprehension, planning, and production; motivation; and attention to, and awareness of, L2
meaning and form. Social processes include various forms of communication and interaction,
ranging from collaborative dialogue to instructional intervention, with mediation through
negotiation of meaning (Chapelle, 2003, p.38). In other words, pedagogy, materials knowledge,
and CALL are important components which require thought in creating and implementing
projects such as TME; while both cognitive and social aspects are also crucial to incorporate.

The learning goals are:
Students will acquire skills in pronunciation-centered speaking.
Students will learn how to formulate series of linguistically accurate questions for requesting
information.
Students will communicate in speaking and writing modalities with descriptive content.

Millennium Point (MP Point) System:
Assessment will be prioritized in the order of accuracy in the skills of speaking, pronunciation,
listening, reading, thoughtful content, and artistic sense based on the teachers evaluation.
Super: 5 points
Excellent: 4 points
Good: 3 points
Effort: 2 points
Get Up: 1 point

Equipment:
Each team will need to make sure someone has access to:
Digital camera (1 or 2 qty) -phone camera is ok.
Voice recorder (1 or 2 qty) -phone recorder or mp3 recorder.


WORKS CITED

Chapelle, C. (2003). The potential of technology for language learning: Chapter 2. In English
language learning and technology. John Benjamins, Philadelphia: PA.

Arnold, Nike (ed.) & Ducate Lara (ed.) Present and future promises of CALL: From theory and
research to new directions in language teaching (2011) by , CALICO Monograph Series,
Volume 5, 2nd edition, CALICO: San Marcos, TX:USA.

Nation, I. S. P., & Macalister, J. (2010). Language Curriculum Design. New York: Taylor &
Francis.

Brown, H. Douglass (2007). Teaching by Principles - An Integrative Approach. New York:
Pearson Longman.