Some other ways of
tweaking the simulation
include the following:
All of these are
tweaking tricks I have
used to push learners to
experiment with new
language and provide
more focus on the
process of completing
the task rather than
completion of the task.
• Pair interviewer and interviewee up with a silent partner to
offer support with language and content and to provide
post-simulation feedback;
• Provide each group with a posture and body language
guide to offer each participant advice in the simulation on
these elements;
• Provide each group with a back-channelling monitor (eye
contact, words like “right”, “ok”, “hmm”, “yes” “ah”) to
provide feedback and input on these;
• Ask one participant to avoid eye contact with the other or
take a more aggressive body language stance towards
the other;
• Record the interview on learners’ mobile devices for them
to play back with another group after to evaluate;
• Aim to repeat your message in as many ways as possible;
• Aim to provide a fictitious or real-life experience for each
point made in the interview (it might be also interesting to
evaluate these afterwards in terms of true/false);
• Give participants a hidden agenda in their simulation like
play devil’s advocate, act uninterested in the job.
I find it helps me to
record the simulation to
provide more detailed
feedback post-task
feedback. There
benefits to me are twofold: firstly, I have more
opportunities to be
involved in the
simulations as a
participant. I avoid
teacher-like questions that test or quiz learners on
their language knowledge. Secondly, I can design
future simulations based on the information and give
language feedback in much greater detail to each
participant.
The advantage of simulating over role-playing is that it
involves more person-experience, during the process
of simulating the
parameters can be
changed to add new
layers on the penumbra
of learners’
communicative ability,
the affect of which is
that they will produce
more authentic
language and be
pushed to deal with the
unpredictable – that’s
life.
I would like to thank
Douglas Mackevett,
lecturer in Business
English at Lucerne
School of Business,
whose talk at ETAS SIG
Day 2012 inspired and
influenced my teaching
of simulation.
Dale Coulter
Here is where a profile will be written for this author. It
will contain a few details about him or her and a link
to his or her website. The aim is to keep it short and
to be more personal and informal.
Variety Is The Spice Of
Language Learning
Everyone involved in English language teaching would agree that most of the major developments of recent
years, including those related to the opportunities created by new technologies (blended learning, interactive
course books, etc.), the (almost) all-conquering rise of the communicative approaches and the commitment to
lifelong learning, are all connected in some way to empowering learners, catering to different learning styles and
an overall shift from teacher-centredness to learner-centredness.
But what does learner-centredness actually encompass? In what ways does it have an impact on our approaches
to teaching and how do we implement it (in concrete terms) in our classrooms on a day-to-day basis?
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