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Group 5

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Group session report: Group 4

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Group session 2 ENG6015 (Camilla Bangsund Degerstrøm)

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Participants: Camilla, Sigvat, Ida and Ole Anders

We had a nice and enlightened, but rather semi-structured and expansive discussion. During this session, we tried another platform, Skype, without succeeding. But luckily we stayed at Google as well and were able to reconnect there. We agreed to discuss learning strategies and some issues concerning the role of the teacher as well. We started by comparing the importance of grammar and vocabulary to learning the language and the need to apply both as a teacher, as both can be needed to be able to communicate clearly. We also discussed whether how much one favour one or the other can depend on the level of the pupil.

We referred to Lightbown and Spada's proposals for teaching methods and research related to those. One of the fundamentals of language learning is to feel safe, and being a role model, the teacher should encourage the student to ask questions and not be afraid of making mistakes. We also elaborated the overreaching goals in the Norwegian curriculum and the fact that the main goal for English in Norwegian Schools is to be able to communicate with others. As a guiding model, we discussed Nation´s equal focus on input and output, as well as both fluency and form awareness, and how this may imply more than just cramming grammar. We talked about the problem in a secondary school of the teacher being seen as both a coach and a judge, and how the pupils can become too fixated on the teacher as a judge and be afraid to communicate because they are afraid to do mistakes. We discussed the value of pre-arranged dialogues, with negotiation for meaning, as a means to fulfil all four of Nation´s strands of language learning: input, output, form consciousness and fluency.

We talked about finding useful methods in Munden, and elsewhere, and we briefly talked about how the age of the teacher can be a factor of willingness to try new things. We talked about Vygotsky´s zone of proximal development and understanding our own thought processes, have our eyes and ears open to see who needs what. We talked a bit about sentence structure in English and how it differs from Norwegian, and how teachers need to know the language they teach well enough to know such details, while the necessity of directly teaching such details to all pupils depends on their level

We talked about Reader´s Theatre as a way of sensing how deep we expand into topics and readings with dramatization. We talked a bit about what to correct as a teacher (from Harmer) and when, and how to also model that it's okay to make mistakes when speaking and not become fixated on your mistakes when speaking. We talked about the differences between various ways of speaking English, whether the students prefer a certain native sound on their teachers and the possibility of listening to different local varieties.

We also discussed the necessity of a certain gold standard, such as the Oxford dialect. We talked about how using drama in the classroom can make a good context and make the children forget they are unsafe because they are just playing. We talked about the importance of playing with language and how it might be easier in primary school to accomplish this, but that it is doable at higher levels too. We discussed the power of taking on a role - both in a way of overcoming some of the anxiety (you are not yourself) and as a way to internalize the subject you are studying. Letting the students do role-playing or small conversations in groups where they do not necessarily show the role play in front of the class or the teacher can be a way to avoid this, and the anxiety issue.

We talked more about different goals for different pupils and the sense of achievement for both the pupil and the student when they overcome their anxiety. We concluded that giving pupils confidence might be one of the main tasks of a teacher. But also being a role model, to acknowledge our own mistakes as teachers and show the pupils that this is not a big deal.

We also expanded to questions such as if "The Julekalender" and if these types of Language models are a good or bad thing. Bad: Not correct English. Good: Example of how to communicate and play with the Language even if you're far from fluent. We used "hot seat" as an example of role-playing in front of others, and to a greater extent letting student play board games during class, but with the rule of only speaking English while they play. Depending on the class one can also keep scores. Mystery meeting, with English classes from other countries, were also discussed. The pupils in the respective classes take turns asking questions to guess where the other class is from.

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Group