Seminarcumworkshops on Promoting the 3Cs and Quality Interaction in the Primary English Classroom

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Seminar-cum-workshops on Promoting the 3Cs and
Quality Interaction in the Primary English
Classroom

• Organised by English Language Education Section
• Curriculum Development Institute
• Education Bureau
• Guest speakers from TELEC
• Teachers of English Language Education Centre
• The University of Hong Kong
• March 2005

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Aims of Seminar-cum-workshops

• To familiarize participants with the resource
  package Promoting Quality Interaction in the
  Primary English Classroom
• To introduce effective and flexible ways of using
  the resource package for a series of school-based
  facilitator-led workshops
• To help participants gain a better understanding
  of what interaction involves, and to enable them
  to bring about quality interaction and the
  development of 3Cs in their classrooms

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Purpose of Package

• To support the implementation of the English
  Language Education Key Learning Area Curriculum
  Guide (P1-S3) (CDC, 2002) and the English
  Language Curriculum Guide (Primary 1-6) (CDC,
  2004) by

• helping teachers of English to gain a better
  understanding of what interaction involves in
  their classrooms
• enabling teachers to bring about quality
  interaction in their classrooms
• providing resource materials for promoting
  quality interaction through school-based
  workshops and self-access learning (For
  English for Classroom Interaction, please refer
  to Appendix 4 pp. A23 A26 of the English
  Language Curriculum Guide (Primary 1-6) (CDC,
  2004) )

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Contents of Package

• 3 multimedia CD-ROMs containing materials to help
  teachers generate quality interaction in the
  English classroom
• A handbook for facilitators (facilitators guide
  and printable handouts for participants)

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Organisation of Sessions in the CD-ROMs

• Session 1 Developing good practices in
• language teaching and learning

• Session 2 Recognising and selecting appropriate
• oral activities

• Session 3 Generating interaction in the
  classroom
• the role of the teacher

• Session 4 Analysing student interaction in the
• classroom

• Session 5 Improving the quality of classroom
• interaction

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Components of Sessions

• Each session is divided into three components A,
  B C.
• Component A is designed for facilitator-led whole
  group sessions.
• Components B C are designed for self-access
  use, for individuals or small groups of teachers.

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Components, Options and Time Required
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Why focus on interaction?

• Language serves a social function for interactive
  communication in everyday life.
  (See p.142 of the English Language Curriculum
  Guide (Primary 1-6) (CDC, 2004) )
• Students should be given the opportunity to take
  risks, experiment with language and develop their
  creativity.
• Language output is critical for language
  development.

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Why do students need to participate in
interaction?

• When students are using language they are
  actively involved in the negotiation of meaning.
  (See Tsui (1996))
• Using language enables learners to test
  hypotheses which they have formed about language.
  (See Tsui (1996))
• Language learners need to have the opportunity to
  take risks, be creative and experiment with
  language. (See Rubin Thompson (1983))
• Contributions by students help to create the
  content of the lesson. (See Katz in Bailey
  and Nunan (1996))

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Interaction involves ...

• controlling ones own language production
• making decisions and choices on the content of
  their interaction and the way to express it
• using language in order to satisfy particular
  demands
• using language under normal processing conditions
  
• having conditions that require participants to
  reciprocate
• the participants in the management of interaction
• the negotiation of meaning (Summary based on
  Bygate (1987))

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What is quality interaction?

• Using the target language to communicate
  effectively with others in meaningful contexts
• Involving a two-way process with feedback
• Developing ability to clarify meanings during
  interaction
• Communicating with each other for a purpose
• Developing language and skills that are useful in
  real life

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How to promote quality interaction

• Teachers should
• provide activities which enable students to
  develop the skills that will enable them to
  participate in real-life situations and
• provide a range of activities and task types to
  help students develop the skills that enable them
  to manage interaction in and beyond the classroom.

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Promoting the 3Cs

• Communication Skills
• In learning to communicate effectively, learners
  should learn to
• identify purpose and context of communication
• convey a message in accordance with needs of
  the audience
• organize accurate and relevant information for
  the audience
• evaluate effectiveness of their communication
• identify areas of improvement for action (See
  pp. 73-74 of the English Language Curriculum
  Guide (Primary 1-6) (CDC, 2004) )

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Promoting the 3Cs

• Creativity
• To develop learners creativity, teachers need
  to
• ask them to go beyond given information
• allow them time to think
• strengthen and reward creative efforts
• encourage problem solving
• create a climate conducive to creativity (See pp.
  75-77 of the English Language Curriculum Guide
  (Primary 1-6) (CDC, 2004) )

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Promoting the 3Cs

• Critical Thinking Skills
• In learning to think critically, learners should
  learn to
• draw meaning from given data and statements
• evaluate accuracy of given statements
• evaluate and generate arguments
• question and enquire in order to make
  judgements (See pp. 78-79 of the English
  Language Curriculum Guide (Primary 1-6) (CDC,
  2004) )

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Developing the 3Cs
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Evaluating Activities

• Do these activities help students develop
  communication skills, creativity and critical
  thinking skills? If yes, to what extent?
• What kind of demands do these activities make on
  students speaking skills?
• What problems do you think upper primary students
  might have in carrying out these activities?

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A Visit to the Doctor

• Teacher shows students a flash card of an ailment
  and elicits responses by asking Whats the
  matter?.
• Teacher models the structure and vocabulary, e.g.
  Shes got a cough.
• Students listen and repeat.
• Teacher asks a question and nominates student to
  answer the question.

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Have you got any apples?

• Students work in groups of four.
• Each student has a shopping list with six food
  items.
• The group leader deals each player six cards with
  pictures of food items.
• Each student must try and obtain the items on
  his/her shopping list by asking other students in
  the group Have you got any i.e. the target
  language item
• If a student has the card, he/she must give it to
  the student who asked the question.
• They continue playing the game until someone has
  all the items on his/her shopping list.

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My New Festival

• Students work in groups of four.
• They brainstorm ideas for a new festival using
  headings as prompts for discussion.
• They organise their ideas as notes under the
  headings.
• They then use their notes and work
  collaboratively to write about their new
  festival.

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Visiting Hong Kong

• Students read an email from a cousin in Canada
  who wants to visit Hong Kong. In the email he
  wants to visit beautiful places and learn
  something about Hong Kong.
• Students plan an itinerary for their cousin using
  a map and some information about things to do in
  Hong Kong.

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Developing the 3Cs
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