Classroom Engagement Through Effective Questioning -- from a workshop

Here is the slide presentation and handout from a workshop delivered by English Language Support to graduate students at VIU on November 17th.

Classroom Engagement through Effective Questioning:

 A workshop for MASLM

November 17,  2015

Presented by Les Barclay and Bruce Cornwall

http://viulanguagesupport.blogspot.ca/

1.  Introduction   The wise man know what he does not know.

2.  Effective questions and discussion vs.  ineffective questions and discussion

                      

            Effective                                                                      Ineffective

3.   Fundamental Principles                                             & Strategies

        *  Attitude = spirit of inquiry                                            *   Have a clear purpose

        *  Be a critical thinker (reading & listening)             *   Practice

        *  Be collaborative                                                           *  Notice

        *                                                                                          *

What is the problem I am trying to solve?   What is the key concept I need to understand?

     

4.   What underpins engaged and critical reading and listening?

5.   Making good questions:

 a)   Principles                                                                   Strategies

  *   Build a conversation                                             *  Attend to grammar and vocabulary

  *   Focus on critical and higher order thinking          *  Use 10 Question Types

  *   Good questions have multiple answers                *  Don’t know/expect the answer

  *   Seek to build connections and understanding     *   Use follow-up questions

  *   Consider multiples voices and perspectives        *   Keep spoken questions simple and clear

  *   Good questions can lead to more questions       *    Save complex questions for written form

  *   Good questions are useful                                    *    Be guided by purpose

   Ten Higher Order Question Types

1.     Explore – facts, theories

2.     Challenge –assumptions, conclusions, interpretations 

3.     Relate/Compare – theories, ideas, issues

4.     Diagnose – motives, causes

5.     Action – to reach conclusions, actions

6.     Cause and Effect – look for causal relationships

7.     Extension – expand the conversation

8.     Hypothetical – what if

9.     Priority – identify most important issues

10.  Summary – bring it all together

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

           b)  grammar:  Statement usually goes

                   SUBJECT  (+AUXILIARY) + MAIN VERB (+OBJECT )

            But in a question it goes  QUASM    (QU=QUESTION WORD)

         Power is destructive. à

            Power can destroy. à

            Power destroys. à

            Power destroys communities. à

           

             Remember the 7 “WH”   questions:  

             Who   What  Where   When   Why   How   Which

               

            c) practice 1 – unscramble the questions

               Statement:   Inequality is the most important global social issue.

       

 Practice 2:    

People who serve as change agents in their organizations or communities also must work in intentional ways to produce the desired effects.

*****************************************************

The change agent, from this definition, is a person committed to a dynamic leadership process, lifelong learning,  and relationships.  

6.    Critical Listening

Think as you read,  watch listen …

• What surprised,  shocked, intrigued you?
• What didn’t you know?
• What do you disagree with?   What do you agree with?
• What was important?
• What was wrong?
• What was incomplete?
• What was biased?
• What came to your mind?
• How does this connect to you, your country, your
• What did you learn?

1 Question:  ____________________________________________________

1 Observation/Statement:  __________________________________________

7.      I will change the way I make questions by …

          

Participating in class -- some advice and strategies

An important part of being engaged in a university course is participating in class.   Because most of VIU's classes have less than 30 students,  this is relatively easy to do.  It is certainly easier than in a class of 100 or 200 students.     The main ways of participating are by

1.   Answering questions
2.   Asking questions
3.   Speaking in whole class and group discussions.



Unfortunately,  many international students hesitate to speak up,  particularly in the larger class.   There are different reasons for this.     

• in your country,  students are not supposed to speak up in class (especially not ask questions or give opinions)
• you are shy
• you feel your English is not good enough for others to understand you
• other students dominate -- they always speak up and ask questions before you get a chance to
• you cannot follow the conversation well enough to participate
• you cannot think and put the words together fast enough to ask or answer a question

All good reasons for not participating.    However,   just as for every problem there is a solution,  for each of these obstacles to participating in class,  there is a strategy to overcome it.

1. Remember that you are studying at a university in Canada and in Canada active learning is valued.     Teachers want students to ask questions,  answer questions,  make statements,  and give opinions.   This behavior is rewarded.     It also makes the class more interesting by taking the focus away from the teacher and directing it towards the students,  where it should be.
2. Overcoming shyness is not easy, but it can be done.    Most university classes are friendly and welcoming, especially small classes like at VIU.    Overcoming shyness requires taking little steps and practicing.    This blog post  (http://www.universitysurvival.com/student-topics/overcoming-shyness/)             gives some helpful suggestions.     It is important to talk to your teacher and let them know that you feel shy.   They will help you to participate more in class.
3. When you are speaking one-on-one with other students, do they understand you?  If they do,  they students in class probably will.    Your grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation don't need to be perfect.   Even Canadian students make errors in speaking.    Listen to what the other students say,  and model your speaking after that.  Your English will never be native-speaker perfect, but that should not stop you from speaking.
4. Sometimes in class several students dominate the conversation.   This is not good.  If this is the case in one of your classes,   tell your professor about it,  saying that you would like to participate more.     Ask your professor to call on you sometimes.   It is the teachers job to "enable"  learning.    
5. Poor listening skills is a serious problem if you want to participate in class.   But preparation can help.   Do the readings before class, so you are familiar with the ideas and vocabulary you need to listen to.      Improve your listening skills -- this blog post gives some useful advice https://wordpress.viu.ca/languagecoaching/2015/10/01/improving-your-listening-skills/
6. If you cannot think and put together the ideas, vocabulary and grammar fast enough, then a useful strategy is to plan ahead.    If you know there will be a discussion about a certain topic in class, then prepare some notes for possible questions or statements you can give in class.     And again,  ask your teacher to help you.   They can give you more time to think instead of asking you first.   It is usually very helpful to observe what other students are saying before you speak up.

 Additional Strategies

• Make a study group -- not all students who speak your first language -  where you can practice speaking (asking and answering questions, giving your opinions).
• Make some goals such as speaking at least once every class.
• Ask for feedback from your classmates and teacher.  Do they understand you?  How could you improve your speaking.    Your classmates and teacher will usually be happy to help you participate more in class.
• Study the grammar of asking questions.
• Sit at the front of the class, not at the back.

VIU's Learning Matters website (below) provides some other useful advice.   Please explore it.

Learning Matters

How to improve the flow of your spoken English

One of the challenges of improving your English is getting it to sound more natural.  Nobody wants to sound like a robot or a computer.    While English as second language speakers shouldn't expect to sound exactly like a native English speaker,  it is reasonable to improve the flow of your words and sentences.    


The average English speaker will speak about  120 to 150 words per minute, ranging from reading aloud at the slower end and conversation at the faster end.

 I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

This excerpt from William Faulkner’s acceptance speech for the 1950 Nobel Prize for Literature is 184 words.   Try to read it as naturally as you can while you record it.  Then calculate your speaking speed by dividing 184 by the minutes you speak.   (Ex.  184/1.5 =122.7 words per minute).   This is not conversation, so it will probably be at the slower end of the scale.   You could also record yourself speaking without reading,  then count the words and the time and calculate your speed.

You can read and listen to the full speech here


There are two main ways to make your speaking flow and sound more natural.

1.   Stress and intonation.    The following YouTube video explains intonation and the subsequent website explains stress.   For example, in words,  the difference between "desert"  (full of sand) and "dessert" (full of sugar) is simply a difference in stress placement.  But we can also stress entire words within sentences to change the meaning of the sentences.




Dictionaries or simply listening to others are the two best ways to learn where stress within words go.

Word Stress Rules


2.    The second way to make your speech choppy is to connect words within sentences, also called connected speech and linking.

This website and video provides a good explanation.

Connected Speech & Linking | English Pronunciation Lesson

Watching television sitcoms is a great way to learn this.   For example,  you could download Big Bang Theory Transcripts and then watch the episode while you read along,  noting how they 'actually speak'.

Some of the following resources will help you to improve your pronunciation and speaking flow..

Pronunciation Tips — A Guide to Better Speaking

English Pronunciation Practice  (Try the Listen and Repeat Machine  here)

The English Rhythm Rule

Practice Speaking and Listening to LImericks

Poemhunter   (This website has many popular poems where you can listen and read the poems.   Very useful for improving your pronunciation stress and flow.)

Poetry Out Loud  (Listen to some famous actors read these poems — you might want to find and print out the poem before listening to it)

Dr. Seuss Poems (These are fun to read and listen to)

VIU Global Roundtable Discussion Group Friday 13th 1:30-3:00 in Building 255 Room 115

Hello VIU Students,

There will be a Global Roundtable Discussion Group Meeting on Small Talk: if you are interested to learn how to master the art of small talk and develop your social skills, please come to join us on Friday Feb. 13th from 1:30-3:00pm in room 115 building 255.


Please feel welcomed to bring your friends. Share your thoughts and experience relates to Small Talk while making new friends!


I'm looking forward to seeing all then!

Improve your pronunciation

This is a skill (which requires some knowledge) that is too often neglected except for the lower levels of ESL classes. As a consequence,  our speaking suffers in the numerous instances we must speak in academic classes.

• asking questions of the teacher
• answering questions asked by the teacher or other students
• participating in group discussions
• making presentations

Pronunciation also influences our listening in that how we believe a word sounds like influences our comprehension.   If we believe it sounds like our pronunciation which is incorrect,  then when we hear it spoken correctly or differently we will not know it.      

Pronunciation can even impact our writing.    I will often see words misspelled because the writer has written the word based on their incorrect pronunciation.    For example,  "friend"  might be written as "frand" because the writer confuses the short e sound in "friend"  with a short a sound (as in "hand").

It is not realistic to expect that you can sound like a native speaker unless you move to an English speaking country before age seven.    Your objective should be to speak well enough that others can understand you in your present context.     How do you go about achieving this?

As with all things language related,   you must first do a self-assessment.   Where are your pronunciation problems?    You may already know which English sounds and words you cannot pronounce very clearly. This is a start.   This questionnaire may be helpful:

from the Second Language Pronunciation Assessment Handout Packet 

                                         (Amy Gerhiser & Diana Wrenn ,  GA TESOL,  March 3, 2007 

                         http://teachingpronunciation.pbworks.com/f/Pronunciation+assessment+packet+.pdf)

Another easy way to develop a balanced picture of your pronunciation is by asking someone who does not know you very well (ie. a classmate) to listen to you speak (or read something) and give you some feedback. After 5 or 10 minutes they should be able to tell you which words or sounds you do not say clearly.    Then do the same with another person.   I suggest you try the first time with a native speaker such as a Canadian classmate.    The second time you should do this with a non-native speaker but of a different nationality/first language from you.

Another trick is to  record yourself using a smartphone and then identify pronunciation problems on your own.  Using Siri on an iPhone or iPad,  or Google voice search will tell you what words you speak clearly enough. Dictionary app voice searches also do this.   You could also do a voice dictation.   If the computer cannot understand you,  then it is likely there is a problem.   If they do understand you,  then these words/sounds are probably okay.

This text, also  from the Second Language Pronunciation Assessment Handout Packet, would be helpful to practice reading aloud.

A future blog post will look at Canadian English sounds,  some common pronunciation error, s and more techniques to improve your pronunciation.

Here are some webpages/websites you may find helpful to improve your pronunciation.

English Pronunciation Podcast    (an archive of numerous audio podcasts dealing with different sounds)

English Pronunciation    (this provides a great overview of the various English sounds, with words and sounds                                        you can practice)

American English Pronunciation

English Club Pronunciation  (a useful collection of links and resources)

Librivox    (22 recordings of a poem read aloud -- you can compare different pronunciations and even record yourself on your smartphone and then compare with these.  Read the poem here)

Improve your speaking and presentation skills with Toastmasters

For further information about Toastmasters at VIU,   contact Blessing at:   tsolurodavid@yahoo.com

If Thursdays don't work for you,  there are numerous other Toastmasters clubs in Nanaimo that meet on different days, times and places.  

 You can find out more by visiting the Toastmasters of Nanaimo calendar     here:   

   Nanaimo Toastmasters

A great opportunity to improve your English starts next week

Improve your public speaking with Toastmasters

A great way to improve your speaking ability (listening and vocabulary too),  build your confidence,  engage in networking,  and integrate into Canadian culture is to join Toastmasters.    This is a voluntary organization that meets weekly.   There are 12 clubs in Nanaimo,  and in particular there is one at Vancouver Island University -- Toastmasters on the Hill.  

You can read more about what Toastmasters does on their website.

Toastmasters International - Home

Are you a good presenter?

  vs.



Making effective presentations is a learned skill,  and there are terrific tools and resources available today that make it easier to give great presentations and develop your presentation skills.

Mobile devices like tablets make it even easier,  although their flash limitations make the creation of digital content difficult.     Some experts recommend creating slide shows on a pc,  then using the mobile device to deliver them.

There are far more options than Powerpoint these days,  although it may take some time to learn them.   One of the easiest is  Google Presentation (via Google Drive).     For more dynamic presentations,  you can use Prezi or Haiku Deck.

Compare two different style of digital presentation -- the first with Prezi




And the same content delivered more traditionally.

Presentation Tips from Jennifer Austin