1. Enhance Active Engagement “Discourse Oriented Approach”
in Learning Through a
“Discourse Oriented Approach”
Elite Olshtain
ETAI 2016

2. Main Issues The Discourse Approach The Strategic Learner
Instructed Contexts
Communication at the Center
The Understanding Skills (Reading and Listening)
The Production/Composing Skills (Speaking and Writing)
Language Resources

3. Why a Discourse Perspective?
“Discourse-based approaches to language teaching allow for target language engagement that focuses on meaning and real communication.”
“These approaches aim at enabling learners to become competent and efficient users of the language.”
(Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2005)

4. What is “Active Engagement”?
Success in language learning is related to sustained and active engagement in the learning process.
How does a learner become actively engaged in the learning process?
Motivation seems to be a prerequisite: much research and many publications have been concerned with “motivation” (Dornyei, 2014).
The notion of “investment” (Darvin and Norton, 2015) is added as a sociological construct to motivation: when learners are aware of the advantages that come with proficiency in the target language and they are willing to exert effort in the learning process.
Engaged learners, typically, become strategic learners.

5. Strategic Learners
Strategies are the conscious actions students take to improve their learning.
Strategies often require active involvement of the learner in their selection and use.
Strategies are not isolated actions but rather a process of orchestrating more than one action to accomplish a task.
Strategies are linked to individual learning styles. Teachers need to help learners become aware of their preferences and thus learn to monitor their use of strategies.
Anderson, N.J. (2005)

6. Communication is at the Core
Human linguistic communication can entail the transmission of: information, ideas, beliefs, emotions and attitudes.
At the production end this can happen through speaking or writing; at the receiving end – through listening and reading.
In a communicative situation there are three important elements that interact: the initiator of the communicative interaction, the message (or text) and the receiver.
The context within which communication takes place plays a crucial role.
Cultural norms and rules of appropriacy differ across languages

7. The Comprehension Skills: Listening-Reading
Understanding skills are very important in a changing world.
We need to become efficient in decoding and in interpreting texts, messages, instructions, requests, ideologies etc.
Both – language knowledge and content knowledge are crucial for the interpretation process.
Reading provides the biggest challenge since it is a vehicle for learning
It doesn’t seem obvious enough, that comprehension skills require engagement and the enhancement of active strategies

8. Listening
“Listening is not just hearing. It is an active process that may begin before the first speech signal is recognized, and it may go on long after the input or spoken information has stopped”, (Goh, 2014, p.73)
It requires construction of meaning during the entire listening act.
Reciprocal listening – takes place in face-to-face conversations
Non-reciprocal listening – is listening to recorded texts or messages. Here we usually have a well-defined goal. This kind of listening is most relevant to teaching contexts.
Strategic listeners – have developed good aural decoding skills and can segment the stream of speech into meaningful units. Their top-down strategies help them make sense of the oral discourse.

9. More on Listening
Teachers tell us: we don’t really ‘teach’ listening, we don’t know how to teach it
Research identifies a number of listening strategies: (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012)
Planning: awareness of what needs to be done
Focusing attention: paying attention to key issues and avoiding distractions
Monitoring: checking, confirming & correcting one’s comprehension
Evaluation: checking the outcome of listening
Inferencing: using prior knowledge to reach an interpretation
Prediction: anticipating further information
Contextualization: placing what is heard in a familiar context for further comprehension
Using linguistic and learning resources: use what you know to support listening and learning

10. Reading
Reading Comprehension – entails cognitive top-down processes as well as language focused bottom-up processes. Vocabulary knowledge and discourse structure awareness are crucial.
Strategic Readers – (Celce-Murcia & Olshtain 2000, Grabe, 2009):
1. adjust relevant strategies to the reading matter at hand
2. know how to abandon non-successful strategies
3. they move through a sequence of quick mental questions
4. they are quick and effective decoders
5. they know how to recruit all their background and linguistic knowledge to “make sense” of the text
6. they have had experience reading and have gained self- confidence which enhances their ability and drive to make sense of texts.

11. The Production/Expression/Composing Skills
Production of L2 speech and writing enables individuals to share ideas, wants, needs, perceptions and feelings in a language that is not their own.
Speaking usually takes place here and now with an interlocutor who interacts with the speaker while writing is usually removed in time and space from the “future” or “imaginary” reader.
In both speaking and writing, users need to choose relevant vocabulary and grammatical constructions that will transmit their intended message.
In the production process the initiator has the option of choosing the goal and focus of the message but s/he also has the responsibility for making the spoken or written text cohesive and comprehensible.

12. Speaking Requires Practice Leading to Fluency
In order for learners to develop fluency in an EFL classroom at least 3 things are needed (Goh, 2007): language support, knowledge support, strategy support
Pretask planning can be very important: prior to a ‘role play’ activity or any other speaking activity we need to assist learners in organizing their ideas, in activating knowledge of vocabulary and relevant grammar, in acquiring suitable expressions and in develop self confidence by becoming risk-takers.
Challenge: any activity focused on fluency should challenge the learners
Repetition: a successful fluency activity should be repeated and varied in a way that allows learners to increase their speaking ability

13. Strategic Writers
They use strategies related to the purpose of writing – planning and constructing a text to fit the goal of writing
They recruit their knowledge of discourse in order to make the text cohesive and coherent
They recruit their content knowledge related to the message in order to make the text informative
They recruit their language knowledge to serve the communicative purpose of the text
They develop their personal preferences in writing in order to express their own perspective

14. Effective writing
The cognitive perspective for choices of organization and effective communication
The socio-cultural perspective for a “reader-based approach”
Using Grice’s maxims for self-evaluation: quantity, quality, relevance, manner

15. Integration of the Language Skills: The Importance of Scaffolding
Scaffolding: support provided to learners to promote their effective learning of a subject matter, a set of concepts, a set of skills, etc. Help learners make the leap from what they know to new knowledge, by giving them guidance and tools.
Speaking can scaffold reading or writing or vice-a-versa
Listening and reading can scaffold the production skills
We use all the skills for communicative purposes on the road to become a strategic skill user.

16. Language Resources Serve Communicative Interaction
Vocabulary: Often viewed as the main language resource for communication Nation (2010) – suggests four strands: 1. meaning-focused vocabulary within comprehension skills – new words encountered within context 2. form-focused instruction: recognizing morphological and syntactic endings 3. meaning-focused output: Ls use new words in speaking and writing 4. learners use their knowledge of vocabulary – receptive or productive in relevant language skills

17. Grammar
Grammar plays an important role in the comprehension and production of discourse
“A discourse-oriented approach to grammar would suggest not only a greater emphasis on contexts larger than the sentence, but also a reassessment of priorities in terms of what is taught about such things as word order, articles, ellipsis, tense and aspect, and some of the other categories.” (McCarthy, 1991,p.62)
The type and amount of grammar necessary on the part of L2 users, varies greatly from skill to skill – for the comprehension skills learners need good receptive knowledge of the grammar of discourse, while for the productive skills: speaking requires some knowledge of the grammar of spoken language but the highest level of grammar knowledge is needed for writing; some examples can make that clear (Form, Meaning, Use)

18. Conclusion
A discourse oriented approach to English as an additional language seems to support the following positions:
1. Learners should have access to multi-modal language use.
2. Individual learners are best suited to identify their needs
3. Allowing more learner choices will motivate learners and enhance their personal investment in the learning process
4. Teaching should encourage learners to become strategic language users
It seems that today skills function interdependently to a far greater degree than ever before
Scaffolding activities can be enhanced by using technology

19. Thank you