I. Review from last week: main points (see Week 1)

   A. Some key elements of effective motivation (revised version of concepts from Oxford and Shearin (1994))
          Oxford, R.L. & Shearin, J. (1994). Language learning motivation: expanding the theoretical framework. Modern Language Journal, 78: 12-28

• Your attitude: toward the English language and its speakers and toward the importance of learning it
• Beliefs about yourself: confidence in success, ability to see your actions as leading to your objectives, and your level of anxiety about the process
• Your goals: the ability to see your goals as concrete, relevant and achievable
• Your involvement in the learning process: the intensity with which you engage in the language learning process and find it rewarding
• Support: from teachers, friends, family, colleagues and others
• Your personal attributes: language learning aptitude, age, first language, previous language learning experiences

You may be used to having teachers take responsibility for your motivation--now it's your turn: see "learning on your own" (below)

            B. General Information - reminder
                 - Course Objective
                 - Meetings

           C. Homework: www.elllo.org and http://ecorner.stanford.edu assignment--discuss in groups

                1. What parts of ELLLO/Ecorner did you try?

                2. What do you think ELLLO/Ecorner can help you with?

                3. What are some effective ways to use ELLLO/Ecorner?

   Discuss the following in small groups (do the first three first)

1. What is your attitude toward English, English speakers, and the importance of learning English?
2. How confident are you in your success (if you make the effort)?
3. Do you have clear learning goals that you believe are relevant and achievable?

1. How intensely do you plan to be involved (hours per week after the summer program)?
2. Will you be supported in your efforts or will you be undermined?

V. Advice for selecting listening materials (general--there are lots of exceptions)

• Material you're interested in

• Material you know something about

• Material at about the right level (not too easy or too hard)

• Good sound quality

• Video generally better than audio only (but some radio and podcasts are also good)

• Material with transcripts

• Material with captions

VI. Reading basics (similar to listening)

            A. Bottom up theories: reading as decoding from letters to words to phrases to sentences to paragraphs, etc. Includes phonics (the linking of sounds to letters and letter combinations) & sight recognition of words

            B. Top-down theories: reader creates/recreates meaning; you don't have to read or understand every word

                        1. Use of knowledge schemas: the connections/associations you make to what you already know

                        2. Use of structure schemas: the connections/associations you make to familiar text organization

                        1. General service list (GSL--2000+ highest frequency words); Academic word list (AWL--highest frequency academic words not on GSL): see http://www.stanford.edu/~vaibhavc/cgi-bin/vgsl/main.html to check your vocabulary at this level.

                        2. www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/levels/: a set of tests at various levels: Activity: test at 5,000 word level

                        3. Google definitions (type "define: " as an operator in the search box); Answer Tips for Firefox

                        4. Keeping a list and  reviewing it:
                            a) note new words that you've seen before or that seem important
                            b) get the word, its definition, and a sentence from the context you saw it in
                            c) collect in groups of 15-20 and review regularly (till you know them)
                            d) try actively to notice these words in other contexts; google the word for more examples

                        5. Other techniques for learning: analysis of roots and affixes, context guessing practice, learner dictionaries (e.g., Longman's)

                        6. Finally, remember how important phrases are, not just individual words

            D. Importance of speed (but be careful of "speed reading" claims): Activity: timed reading exercise

            E. Developing skills and strategies: pre-reading, skimming, scanning, etc.

            F. Intensive vs. extensive: the pleasure principle (read what you like!)

            G. Remember, familiar is better for language learning: read in areas you already know

VII. Reading assistance on the web: 

            - http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/bell/article.pdf: article on the value of extensive over intensive reading           

            - http://www.muskingum.edu/~cal/database/general/reading.html:  reading comprehension strategies

            - http://college.cengage.com/collegesurvival/watkins/learning_companion/1e/students/timed_reading.html and http://www.freereadingtest.com/free-reading-test.html: timed reading exercises--good practice

VIII. Help with finding the right level of materials: Google News or many other sites for news material; http://textbookrevolution.org/ for academic material.  You can also use blogs or anything else that appeals to you.

1. After identifying the material, copy it into a word document for a word count

2. Then go to http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/ for a word frequency count. Try to find material that is not too far beyond your level (has too many unknown words). I recommend the BNC 20 or classic version first, but you could try the BNL list as well.

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HOMEWORK: See www.stanford.edu/~efs/689e Week 2 Notes

1) FOR THE INDIVIDUAL MEETING this Wednesday or Friday - Test your reading rate at www.readingsoft.com/ and your vocabulary level at www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/levels/ (2,000 and 3000 OR 3,000 and 5,000 levels, depending on level--Form A only). Be prepared 1) to discuss needs and goals related to reading and vocabulary; 2) to propose a topic and direction for an individual learning project (note, it doesn't have to be reading or vocabulary).

2) FOR NEXT CLASS - Try at least two of the dedicated ESL sites in (III) above and two of the native speaker sites in (IV). Spend a minimum of 10 minutes on each one. For each site, take notes about a) how useful the site might be for you and b) what you think would be a good way to use it. Come prepared to discuss in class. If you are not in the intensive program, explore some more!

3) FOR MONDAY, JULY 23 - Write a short report on the individual assignment you'll begin this week. Email it to me (efs@stanford.edu) by 10:00 PM Monday, July 23. The report should state

1. What you did; what material you used (if any)

2. How you did it--the process

3. When you did it (starting and ending times)

4. At least two important things that you learned about learning from the experience

Bring a copy of your report to class to discuss with the other students

What is Listening?

I. Three types of listening activity

A. Learning to comprehend more effectively

§       Getting the meaning

§       Retaining important points (notes & memory)

§       Interpreting and integrating

B. Improving processing

§       Comprehending faster speech

§       Comprehending a range of accents

§       Making processing more automatic: improving accuracy, speed, and capacity

C. Increasing language knowledge

§       Sound system

§       Vocabulary (words and phrases)

§       Grammar

§       Discourse

II. Some elements involved in effective listening

            A. Attention to the context

            B. Discrimination/identification of sound forms (words)

            C. Comprehension of words and propositions

            D. Retention of meaning; association with existing knowledge

            E. Recognition and retention of new forms (words, phrases)

            F. Recognition of differences between grammatical forms and internal rule

                system (note: this one's pretty hard)

            G. Automatic processing

III. A processing approach to listening comprehension

             A. Top-down elements

                        1. Activation of attention

                        2. Activation of background knowledge

                        3. Focus on meaning

                        4. Recognition and use of physical context

                        5. Recognition and use of discourse context

            B. Bottom-up elements

                        1. Sound system knowledge

                        2. Grammar knowledge

                        3. Vocabulary knowledge

                        4. Focus on form

                        5. Speed, clarity and familiarity of signal

                        6. Sentence processing skill: grammatical, lexical, and phonological. The more automatic the better

            C. Interactive approach

1. Blends strengths of top-down & bottom-up

2. Affected by cognitive resource limitations: the more that is automatic, the better

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Learning on your own