Schedule

Schedule

29 September 2015

WELCOME AND PLENARY TALK
8:45 - 10:30 Plenary talk: Adrian Tennant (UK) - Speak Out! – 10 issues about teaching speaking
  In this talk I will outline 10 issues connected to the topic of teaching speaking in ELT classes. For each issue I will discuss why it arises as well as suggest solutions to avoid the issue or overcome each one. The presentation will be interspersed with interactive activities and participants will be expected to share their own thoughts and experiences with each other. Some of the issues we will look at include: why there is no such thing as a speaking lesson; making pairwork work; assessing speaking; what we mean by fluency and accuracy; and from L1 to L2 (the use of L1 in the classroom). There are likely to be one or two surprises! ☺
 
COFFEE BREAK
10:30 - 11:00 
 
WORKSHOPSFirst Round
11:15 - 13:001. Adrian Tennant (UK)
What did you say?(This workshop will take place only once—the First Round)

This is a follow-up workshop to the Keynote talk. In this workshop participants will try out a range of speaking activities, look at how they integrate other skills (including thinking skills) as well as have a go at designing their own activity. The workshop will be hands-on and practical while trying to underpin everything with sound pedagogy. Participants should leave with some ready-to-use activities as well as an understanding of how to design their own appropriate speaking tasks.

 
2. Matthew George (Frankfurt)
Speaking skills through cooperative learning techniques and task based instruction
 

Using cooperative learning techniques to enhance communication in the classroom has proven to be very successful. Pupils also need a motivating and meaningful task to perform which enables them to use their communication skills. In task-based instruction, basic pair work and group work are often used to increase student interaction and collaboration. The focus is on the pupils completing the task and using the language as a real means of interaction and sharing. However, they still need structure and instruction. In this workshop more structured cooperative learning formats will be presented and tried out while caryying out a meaningful and motivating task. (Sponsored by Cornelsen)

 
3. Günther Sommerschuh (Kiel)
Scaffolding: A new buzzword? — A means to help learners tackle integrated tasks!
 

In this workshop the concept of scaffolding (i.e. providing support) is outlined in the context of what we know about learning a language and which consequences this implies in a differentiated classroom. Various practical activities that combine work on content and language will be demonstrated and tried out. The aim is to help learners individually cope with authentic, meaningful and challenging tasks and allow them to act and interact more and more autonomously in English. (Sponsored by BMS)

 
4. Anne-Kathrin Becker (Saarbrücken)
Everybody's talking - Speaking tests in the EFL classroom (Gymnasium) (This workshop will take place only once—the First Round)

“Weitaus die meisten Sprachkontakte basieren auf gesprochener Sprache, daher ist die Einübung mündlicher Kompetenzen im fremdsprachlichen Unterricht eine wichtige Voraussetzung für das erfolgreiche fremdsprachliche Handeln.” (Lehrplan Englisch, Gymnasium Sek I, S. 25)

Following this call to promote speaking skills, this workshop will focus on how to integrate and organize speaking tests in the EFL classroom. I will provide examples of monologic and dialogic speaking tasks, oral language assessment to measure students’ speaking performance as well as other tips and materials to prepare students for oral exams. To make sure NOT everybody’s talking, I will also introduce some creative activities and tasks to keep the rest of the class busy while conducting speaking tests.

 
5. Roger Charlton (Saarbrücken)
An integrated skills approach to listening, speaking and writing

This workshop takes the form of a lesson for adults attending Teachers’ Day (very advanced learners of English), but the approach can also be used with younger learners and learners at lower levels of ability. With the help of readily-available materials, I hope to demonstrate how learners can be motivated to perform a series of challenging, interrelated tasks which involve viewing, listening, speaking and writing, and how such an integrated approach can lead to more successful outcomes.

 
6. Martin Genetsch (Trier)
Reducing or Mastering Complexity?: Understanding and Designing Integrated Speaking Tasks

This workshop will focus on speaking skills and how they can be taught in the EFL classroom. Taking “Task-Based Language Teaching” (TBLL) as the basic framework of teaching we will have a look at various models of task-based teaching which are informed by the idea that teaching languages works best when learners are confronted with complex real-world problems. If it is true that learning benefits from dealing with complexity, then teaching isolated skills seems of limited value for the EFL classroom and more integrated approaches are called for instead. Particularly interesting for the concept of integrated teaching is the “komplexe Kompetenzaufgabe” (HALLET 2011), which suggests that teaching speaking (or any other skill) cannot be conceived of in isolated terms but needs to take into account social and cultural contexts as well as other skills. The purpose of this workshop will be to introduce teachers to this concept and its implication and to practice designing complex tasks according to the model set out by HALLET. (Sponsored by Klett)

 
7. Stefan Diemer & Marie-Louise Brunner (Saarbrücken)
Talking across cultures: Language variety in the EFL classroom

In our workshop we illustrate and discuss the use of English as a spoken world language in an intercultural and applied teaching context. We present an integrated speaking approach with hands-on activities which enhance students’ language use in Anglophone and (inter)cultural settings. Through an intercomprehension angle, we also demonstrate how French and other Romance languages can serve as facilitators in learning English. Based on the Web as a Corpus approach (Hundt et al. 2007; Diemer 2009), Google Trends, memes, blogs, ads, and online corpora are introduced as teaching resources for the intercultural EFL classroom, with a particular focus on speaking skills and language variation (Brunner & Diemer 2014). The use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) as a means of successful communication in an international context is illustrated with regard to its relevance for the classroom setting. ELF resources, such as CASE (Diemer et al. forthcoming), provide real-life examples as basis for classroom discussions and applied topics such as linguistic and cultural mediation. We also aim to provide a first impression of the Awakening to Languages approach (Candelier et al. 2012). We will also investigate how mixing languages can lead to the construction of multilingual identities in English- and French-based dialects and creoles, as well as bilingual settings, enriching the intercultural EFL classroom.With our approach we aim to provide teachers with various possibilities of motivating students to speak while at the same time making them aware of the interplay of languages and contributing to their intercultural sensitization.

 
LUNCH BREAK
13:00 - 14:00 
  
WORKSHOPSSecond Round (See First Round [above] for abstracts and affiliations)
14:15 - 16:001. Matthew George
Speaking skills through cooperative learning techniques and task based instruction
 
2. Günther Sommerschuh
Scaffolding: A new buzzword? — A means to help learners tackle integrated tasks!
 
3. Sandra Bollenrath, Stephanie Glauben and Barbara Johannes (Saarbrücken)
Mündliche Klassenarbeiten in der Gemeinschaftsschule (This workshop will take place only once—the Second Round)
As part of the changes in the school system of the Saarland the so-called Gemeinschaftsschule opens up a new possibility for exams: at least one oral exam every year in each grade. We want to give you a short guideline and examples to make these oral exams as successful as possible for you and your students.
 
 4. Roger Charlton
An integrated skills approach to listening, speaking and writing
  
5. Martin Genetsch
Reducing or Mastering Complexity?: Understanding and Designing Integrated Speaking Tasks
 
6. Stefan Diemer & Marie-Louise Brunner
Talking across cultures: Language variety in the EFL classroom
 
7. Bernd Wick (Tübingen) (This workshop will take place only once—the Second Round)
"Practice makes perfect!" – Teaching Speaking in SEK I and SEK II (Gymnasium)
The compulsory (and marked) assessment of students’ speaking skills has led to a stronger focus on teaching speaking in the classroom—a fact that can (and must) be considered one of the more positive “backwash effects” triggered by education policy in recent years. In basically all (final) oral exams students are awarded one comprehensive mark for their performance in language, content, and (discourse) strategy. In this workshop we will take a look at how these three areas can be taught in an integrated approach that in turn builds on and incorporates concepts like scaffolding and generic learning and promotes performing speaking tasks in context. (Sponsored by Klett)
 
RAFFLE 
16:00 - 16:30Join us again in the Aula and win great prizes!
 
 
END OF EVENT
16:30

 

 

Location: Saarland University

PresentationBldg. A3.3 (Aula)
Workshop TennantBldg. A3.3 (Aula)
Workshop GeorgeC5.3, 4.08
Workshop SommerschuhC5.3, U.13
Workshop BeckerC5.3, 1.20
Workshop Bollenrath/Glauben/JohannesC5.3, 1.20
Workshop CharltonC5.3, 2.06
Workshop GenetschC5.3, 2.09
Workshop Diemer & Marie-Louise BrunnerC5.3, 3.24
Workshop WickC5.3, U.10

 

Book exhibition

Building A3 3 (Aula)

 

(See university map)

Parking

Since parking on campus has become very expensive, we suggest you park in one of the parking garages (€1,00/hour, €3,00/day).