タイトル

Katharine Scott is a teacher trainer and educational materials developer with over 20 years’ experience writing English language textbooks. She’s co-author of the Pearson Primary course - English Code and is based in Spain. Katharine outlines a number of practical ways you can help English language learners develop key literacy skills. 

What is literacy?

Teachers at all stages of education often complain about their students’ reading skills. The students are literate. In other words, they can interpret the graphemes, or letters on the page, into words. But they struggle to identify the purpose of a text or to analyze it in a meaningful way. We could say that the students have poor literacy skills.

Literacy is a term used to describe an active, critical form of reading. Some of the skills of a critical reader include:

Checking new information

A crucial literacy skill involves discerning whether a text is factually true or not. A critical reader always checks new information against existing knowledge. As we read, we have an internal dialogue: Where does that information come from? That’s impossible because ….   

Separating fact from opinion

This skill is essential for understanding many different types of texts from newspaper articles to scientific research. 

Understanding the purpose of a text

All pieces of text have a main purpose. This may be entertainment, in the case of a story or persuasion, in the case of advertising. A critical reader will know how to identify the purpose of the text. 

In the classroom, different types of text require different responses from the students. It’s important, as students grow older, that they know how to read and respond appropriately to a piece of written information.

Identifying key information in a text

This is an essential skill for summarizing information or following instructions. It is also important when we transform written information into something else, like a chart.

In many ways, literacy is the key skill that underpins learning at all stages. This may seem like an exaggeration, but consider the importance of the four skills outlined above.

Strategies to promote literacy

Many teachers and parents of early learners instinctively develop literacy skills before the children can even read. 

When we read a story out loud to a child, we often ask questions about the narrative as we turn the pages: What is going to happen next? How do you think …. feels? Why is …?  

These questions set the foundations for literacy. 

Working with a reading text

Too often, the comprehension questions that teachers ask about a text are mechanical. They ask the student to “lift” the information out of the text.

A tale of two dragons

"Once upon a time, there was an island in the sea. One day, people were working in the fields. The sun was shining and there was one cloud in the sky. The cloud was a strange shape and moving towards the island. Soon the cloud was very big. Then a small boy looked up." 

Taken from English Code, Unit 4, p. 62

Typical comprehension questions based on the text would be:

• Where were the people working? 
• How many clouds were in the sky?

These questions do not really reflect on the meaning of the text and do not lead to a critical analysis. While these simple questions are a good checking mechanism, they don’t help develop literacy skills.

If we want to develop critical readers, we need to incorporate a critical analysis of reading texts into class work through a deep reading comprehension. We can organize the comprehension into three types.

1. Text level

Comprehension at “text level” is about exploring the meaning of individual words and phrases in a text. Examples for the text above could be:

• Find words that show the story is a fairy tale.
• Underline a sentence about the weather.

Other text-level activities include:

• Finding words in the text from a definition
• Identifying opinions in the text
• Finding verbs of speech
• Finding and classifying words or phrases

2. Between the lines

Comprehension “between the lines” means speculating and making guesses with the information we already have from the text. This type of literacy activity often involves lots of questions and discussions with the students. You should encourage students to give good reasons for their opinions. An example for the text above could be:

• What do you think the cloud really is?

Other “Between the lines” activities include:

• Discussing how characters in a story feel and why
• Discussing characters’ motivation
• Identifying the most important moments in a story
• Speculating about what is going to happen next
• Identifying possible events from fantasy events

Literacy activities are not only based on fiction. We need to help students be critical readers of all sorts of texts. The text below is factual and informative:

What skills do you need for ice hockey?

"Ice hockey players should be very good skaters. They always have good balance. They change direction very quickly and they shouldn't fall over. Players should also have fast reactions because the puck moves very quickly." 

Taken from English Code, Level 4, p. 96

“Between the lines” activities for this text could be:

• What equipment do you need to play ice hockey?
• What is the purpose of this piece of text?

3. Behind the lines

Comprehension “behind the lines” is about the information we, the readers, already have. Our previous knowledge, our age, our social background and many other aspects change the way we understand and interpret a text. 

An example for the text above could be:

• What countries do you think are famous for ice hockey?

Sometimes a lack of socio-cultural knowledge can lead to misunderstanding. Look at the text below. 

Is the relationship between Ms Turner and Jack Roberts formal or informal?

73 Highlands Road Oxbo, Wisconsin 54552
April 11th

Dear Ms. Tamer,
Some people want to destroy the forest and build an airport. This forest is a habitat for many wolves. If they destroy the forest, the wolves will leave the forest. If the wolves leave the forest, there will be more rabbits. This won't be good for our forest.
Please build the airport in a different place. Please don't destroy the forest.

Kind regards, Jack Robers

Taken from English code, Level 4, unit 5, Writing Lab

If your students are unaware of the convention of using Dear to start a letter in English, they may not answer this question correctly. 

Other “Behind the lines” literacy activities include:

• Identifying the type of text
• Imagining extra information based on the readers’ experiences 
• Using existing knowledge to check a factual account
• Identifying false information

Examples:

• What job do you think Ms Turner has?
• Do you think Jack lives in a village or a city?
• Do wolves live in forests?

Literacy is more than reading

From the activities above, it’s clear that a literacy scheme develops more than reading skills. As students speculate and give their opinions, they talk and listen to each other. 

A literacy scheme can also develop writing skills. The text analysis gives students a model to follow in their writing. In addition, a literacy scheme works on higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, deduction and summary.

Developing literacy skills so that students become active, critical readers should be a key part of educational programs at all ages. Literacy activities based on a reading text can be especially useful for the foreign language class. 

With literacy activities, we can encourage students:

• To use the text as a springboard for communicating ideas and opinions
• To analyze the text as a model for writing activities
• To see how language is used in context
• To explore the meanings of words

More crucially, we are developing critical readers for the future.

In today’s interconnected world, effective communication in English is more crucial than ever. As educators and language learners seek to measure and improve English proficiency, a resource like the Global Scale of English (GSE) offers a valuable framework for assessment. This blog post will explore how the GSE can be used to assess listening skills, providing insights into how it also helps tailor instruction and support language development.

For listening skills, the GSE focuses on how well learners can understand spoken English in different contexts. It assesses comprehension at varying levels of complexity:

Understanding simple information: At lower levels, learners are expected to understand basic information, such as simple instructions or everyday topics. The GSE provides learning objectives for how well learners can grasp essential details.

Understanding main ideas: As proficiency grows, learners should be able to identify main ideas and key points in more complex spoken texts, such as conversations and broadcasts. The GSE outlines how well learners can extract important information from various sources.

Understanding detailed information: At advanced levels, learners are expected to comprehend detailed and nuanced information, including implicit meaning and speaker intent. The GSE describes the level of detail and depth of understanding required at these stages.

The GSE also shows how students engage in different operations of listening, from global comprehension, recognizing information and identifying specific information to extracting information. By taking this into account, teachers can monitor students’ progress and assess their listening skills. An example will show this in action.

Let’s consider a level, say GSE 30-35 (equivalent to low A2 on the CEFR) and focus on how students process information. When checking a listening activity, rather than simply focusing on whether the answers are correct or incorrect, we can analyze our learners using the GSE and see what progress they are making and what we need to do as teachers to help them move on. Heres how:

ベルギン・エルマス博士は、TED大学教育学部外国語学部長であり、ピアソン・GSE・トルコ大使です。この投稿では、ベルギンが過去10年間のGSEでの彼女の教育の旅について、この驚くべき旅からの主な教訓と経験を含めて説明します。

2014年、学長は私にアナドル大学の外国語学部のディレクターになる機会を与えてくれました。3,500人の生徒、220人の教師、220人のスタッフを擁する繁栄する学校を運営するという見通しに圧倒され、私は躊躇していました。教育学部で現職教師を養成するという課題に直面していたにもかかわらず、私はその職を引き受けるよう説得されました。

Global Scale of English: 成功のためのフレームワーク

ディレクターとしての初日は、仕事量に圧倒され、それをどう管理したらよいかわからなかったのを覚えています。このブログでは、詳細や感情のジェットコースターについては触れませんが、 Global Scale of English (GSE) がどのように私の命の恩人になったかを共有します。新入生の初年度に苦労した新入生に 英語 を教えるための堅牢なシステムを作成するという課題に直面した私は、 GSEを発見しました。この詳細なシステムは、学習者の言語学習の旅をガイドし、私はすぐに「はい、これはまさに私たちが必要としているものだ」と気づきました。

大学生に英語を教えるための堅牢なシステムを確立するという課題に取り組む中で、GSEが私を助けてくれました。GSEの詳細なフレームワークは、まさに私たちが必要としていたツールでした。私たちのチームは、このシステムをカリキュラムにシームレスに統合する方法について検討しました。生徒が必要とする具体的な学習成果の決定から、教育方法の選択、教材の作成、成果の評価まで、それぞれの決定は慎重に検討されました。このプロセスは、成長とコラボレーションを促進し、チームとしての教育経験を豊かにしました。

主要なリソース

GSEは、カリキュラム開発を形作る上で重要な役割を果たしました。GSEとの共同作業は、誰にとっても、特に新人監督の私にとっては、非常に貴重なものでした。私たちは、新しいカリキュラムの形成に長い時間を費やしました。

教材や形成的評価と総括的評価の要素を含むカリキュラム全体の決定は、何を教え、評価すべきかを明確に理解した上で、より簡単になりました。教師や生徒にレッスンを説明するのは、 GSEが提供する強固な基盤のおかげで、簡単になりました。このフレームワークにより、カリキュラムの開発と実施がはるかにスムーズになりました。

フィードバックへの適応と継続的な改善

2014-2015年度に新しいカリキュラムを導入したとき、教材、中間試験、小テスト、ペースなど、ほぼすべての側面について、生徒と教師の両方から広範なフィードバックを受け取りました。 私がディレクターとして在任した5年間、私たちはカリキュラムを継続的に改良し、毎年、カリキュラムの特定の側面を強化しました。例えば、ある年は評価方法に焦点を当て、別の年は教師の専門能力開発に専念しました。私たちは、ドイツ語、フランス語、ロシア語のプログラムにも同様の戦略を適用し、彼らが私たちの理論的根拠を理解し、カリキュラム開発に同等のアプローチを採用することを確認しました。

カリキュラムで GSE を使用した経験を共有することで、誰もがより効果的な 英語を教える方法を探していたため、多くの関心が寄せられました。学術会議でも非公式の会議でも、私たちのチームは彼らの知識と洞察を熱心に共有しました。

現在とそれ以降のGSE

Today、TED大学では、 英語 言語 教育学部の責任者を務めています。私の使命の重要な部分は、将来の語学教師に最新の進歩と GSE この準備の重要な部分を提供することです。この GSE を教員養成課程プログラムに組み込むことで、すべての教材、授業計画、評価製品に特定の学習成果が含まれていることを確認しています。これは、教師が自分の実践に自信を持つのに役立ちます。

GSEによる個人の成長

GSEでの10年間の旅は、私の仕事と私生活の両方に深い影響を与えました。スケールの原則は、私の日常生活のあらゆる面でガイドとして機能します。例えば、会話の中で、「ベルギン、あなたが説明しようとしていることはレベル70だけど、話している相手はまだそこにいないから、期待値を調整してね」と内心で対話することもあります。あるいは、「ベルギン、あなたはまだレベル55にいて、ここで何が起こっているのかを完全に把握するためにはもっと学ぶ必要があるから、このトピックについてもっと読む必要がある」と自分に言い聞かせるかもしれません。 GSEは、私の人生のあらゆる領域を導く羅針盤として機能しています。

もし私が国民教育大臣だったら、間違いなくこの GSE を国の言語教育システムに統合するでしょう。私は、スケールの背後にある理論的根拠を説明し、同様に詳細な教育フレームワークを実装するよう努めます。このシステムは、カリキュラムの各レッスンに必要なステップを、現在のレベル、進むべき場所、および手順を示すことにより、学習者と教師を導きます。これからの10年で、この GSE が世界中のより多くの人々の道しるべとなることを願っています。

これが GSE です-私はその存在に感謝しています。それは私の人生に大きな影響を与えました。お誕生日おめでとう！