Notes from Amy Roe’s lecture “Brain-based Teaching”
Amy Roe’s background:
Teaching for 14 years, students from 3~18.
Using TCI for 13 years.
Training teachers in TCI since 2016.
Her story of learning Spanish and French:
How she Learned Spanish: Successful
1. Started learning Spanish from age of 14.
2. Studied Spanish through a language program at home.
It is primarily of stories that she could read and listen.
3. Learned from a video program after being back from Mexico (10~15 minutes every day).
4. Audiobooks, Spanish music, movies.
5. Enrolled a language lesson at the age of 16.
6. University: Spanish and Teaching Spanish. Graduate School: Master of Arts in Linguistics.
How she Learned French: A total failure
1. Bought a book of French vocabulary which is divided by theme, e.g., body parts, transportation. etc.
2. Made flash cards and labelled things with French words.
3. Gave up French after she found she didn’t learn anything despite of months’ effort.
Why didn’t she learn French?
1. The words were never in a meaningful context.
She studied words in isolation, e.g., in long list of individual words, in flash cards. She never saw the words in sentences nor stories.
2. She was studying words based on semantic clusters.
What are semantic clusters?
Semantic clusters: groups of words that all follow the same general category.
Transportation: car, truck, airplane, bus,bicycle, motorcycle…
Body parts: eyes, nose, ears, mouth…
Thomas Tinkham:
He noticed many ESL textbooks were organized by semantic clusters,which made up the units, e.g., family members, weather and seasons, clothing.
Hundreds of studies suggest human brain has really a hard time remembering similar information.
Semantic clusters are lists of words that are very similar to each other.
Students had more difficulty learning semantic clusters of words than unrelated words. (1993)
Robert Waring:
Learners need about 50% more time to learn related pairs of words than unrelated words. (1997)
The human brain was not designed to learn long list of isolated words from the same semantic cluster.
Implications:
You don’t need to teach completely unrelated words; you can teach words based on the same theme as long as they are not from the same semantic cluster.
Presenting words from the same theme actually help students remember vocabulary.
What’s the difference between theme and semantic cluster?
Same theme:
tiger, a noun and an animal
orange, an adj. and a color
striped, an adj. and a pattern
growl, an action verb
rain forest, a noun and a place
They are connected in a meaning way.
A tiger is orange and striped. It growls and it lives in the rain forest.
Same semantic cluster:
tiger, cheetah, lion, leopard…
They are all nouns and they are all animals,or rather, big cats.
What can you do if you have a textbook that organizes vocabulary by semantic cluster?
Teachers can go through the textbook and reorganize the words based on theme instead of basing the vocabulary on semantic cluster.
A challenging Game:
example of remembering long list of isolated words
I’m going on a trip…
1st player: I’m going on a trip,and I will bring my passport.
2nd player: I’m going on a trip,and I will bring my passport and a camera.
3rd player: I’m going on a trip,and I will bring my passport, a camera and a good book.
…
Why is it challenging?
Miller’s Law: Adults can hold 5-9 words in their short-term memory.
Implications:
Don’t introduce too much vocabulary at once. Introduce no more than 5 words per lesson.
Write target words on the board, with translations, in different colors. (Establishing meaning)
Establishing meaning is important to make sure everyone understands the words.
Whenever the teacher uses the new word, pause and point to the word on the board, give the students time to read the word and translation as well as time to think and process.
Batia Laufner:
Students retained new words better when they were glossed in the L1.
That means, words provided with translation in their target language.
Building Blocks of TCI Lesson:
1. Speak slowly.
2. Introduce no more than 5 word.
3. Words + translations.
4. Pause and point.
Ways to introduce vocabulary:
TPR
Total Physical Response by James Asher (Learning Another Language Through Actions)
Base TPR on the way parents talk to young children.
James Asher:
1. Listening comes before speaking.
2. Brain is programmed to learn language.
3. Use both hemispheres of the brain.
Physical movement (left hemisphere) +Language (right hemisphere).
4. Stress inhibits language learning.
TPR Actions
Action verbs are easier to be taught through TPR than abstract words.
Step 1: Establish meaning.
Write the words along with translations indifferent colors.
Step 2: Teach the action.
Model: Teacher says the word and does the action at the same time. Then say the word “runs” in a simple sentence like “The class runs”. Students stand up and do the action with the teacher. OR: practice with individual student, e.g., “Emma runs.”
In modelling, teacher does the action when she says the word.
Delay: Teacher says the word, and waits a few seconds before doing the action.
Delay is important for retrieval, which is good for learning and memory.
Remove: When the teacher says the action word, students do the action, but teacher doesn’t do the action.
Step 3: Assess comprehension.
Close the eyes:Students close the eyes, and teacher say the word to see if every student does the right action. It is also important to check the translation from time to time.
Put the verb in a sentence. Add more details: Ask the student to act out the action,“Henry runs to the table.” “Run in slow motion.”Practice individually, in groups or as a whole class.
To keep students safe, the teacher should ask the students not to run in the normal speed in the classroom.
Chain of sentences/verbs: multiple actions in a row. “He runs to the front of the room,puts the book on the table, and jumps back to the chair.”
When students are tired, sleepy, have a lot of energy, or need a break, it is good to use TPR.
TPR extension:
Three Ring Circus by Bernie Segal
3 student volunteers are at the front of classroom. Each student does a different TPR action and continues doing it over and over again.
Lucas: is eating.
Anna: is sleeping.
Jack: is reading.
Teacher compares, contrasts, and asks a lot of questions.
E.g., Who is eating? Is Anna sleeping? Is Lucas sleeping or is Lucas eating?
Three Ring Circus can also be used in teaching adverbs: happily, sadly, slowly, quickly, dramatically,proudly…OR additional words like either, neither, also, too…
E.g., Anna is sleeping happily. Lucas is eating quickly. Jack is reading sadly.
Limits:
1. Some words are difficult to teach through actions.
2. It is challenging to provide sentences in different verb forms, esp. past tense or conditional mood. It is limited to present tense, -ing form, future tense, commands.
3. Students didn’t get to express their own ideas or creativity, they were just following instructions from the teacher and acting them out. They will get bored.
It is not possible to teach language through TPR alone, and it needs to be combined with other strategies.
TPRSr
Total Physical Response StorytellingR
Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and StorytellingR
More focused on stories and less focused on actions;
Teach new vocabulary and grammar structure through stories
Invented by Blaine Ray
Brain Games: TV Show
How many words can you remember in 60 seconds?
Memory Champions:
If you put words in a story, the words are in a meaningful context, and you can remember much more than 5-9 words specified in Miller’s Law.
However, Memory Champions memorize information in their first language, for students who are acquiring second language, focus 3~5 new words or phrases per lesson.
The human brain is wired for stories.
Teach new vocabulary words and grammar structures through a story.
1. Focus on 3~5 new words per lesson.
2. Teacher creates a story outline (a basic story with details left out).
When creating story outlines, think of the 3~5 new words, try to repeat them over and over again in the story.
3. Repeat target words.
4. Teacher asks questions.
5. Students answer the questions.
In this way, they add more details to the story.
6. They create the story together.
Example:
play (an instrument)
plays the violin (TPR action)
wants + verb (review)
to learn how + verb
Story Outline:
Character: a cat
Problem/Goal: the cat wants to learn how to play a violin, but it’s difficult to find a violin that is the right size for the cat. The cat is going to go to 3 places.
Place 1: Problem is not solved.
Place 2: Problem is not solved.
Place 3: Problem is solved.
Questions: There is a cat. What color is the cat? What is its name? How old is the cat? What is the cat like? Is the cat creative? Is the cat kind?
Student actor is acting the story out, playing the cat. When we create the story, the actors are acting on stage.
Give the main character a problem or a goal.
Skills:
Circling (specified way of asking questions)
Personalizing
Asking different types of questions
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