1. The missing piece of the puzzle
Rob Waring

2. What do learners need to know?
Learners need word families to read native novels with high vocabulary coverage (98%).
About 2000 General Service word families occur in all types of English.
Learners need ‘specialist words’ as well.
There are two stages in word learning.
1. The form-meaning relationship (its pronunciation, spelling and meaning)
2. The deeper word knowledge
its nuances and shades of meanings
Its derivations (useful, useless, uselessness, etc.)
its collocations and colligations
if it’s typically spoken, or written
if it’s useful or rare, polite or pejorative
the discourse domains the word lives in (e.g. science, music, biology)

3. What collocations do they need to learn?
Verb uses of one word - Idea… “Abandon an idea.” abandon, absorb, accept, adjust to, advocate, amplify, advance, back, be against, be committed/dedicated/ drawn to, be obsessed with, be struck by, borrow, cherish, clarify, cling to, come out/up with, confirm, conjure up, consider, contemplate, convey, debate, debunk, defend, demonstrate, develop, deny, dismiss, dispel, disprove, distort, drop, eliminate, encourage, endorse, entertain, explode, explore, expound, express, favor, fit, fit in with, follow up, form, formulate, foster, get, get accustomed/used to, get rid of, give up, go along with, grasp, hammer out, have, hit upon, hold, implement, imply, impose – on sb, incorporate, inculcate, instill, jot down, keep to, launch, meet, modify, negate, oppose, pick up, pioneer, plant, play with, popularize, present, promote, propose, put an end to, put forward, put – into practice, raise, refute, reinforce, reject, relish, resist, respond to, revive, ridicule, rule out, spread, squash, stick to, subscribe to, suggest, support, take to, take up, test, tinker with, toy with, turn down, warm to …

4. What collocations do they need to learn? II
Adjective uses. “An idea is ………...” abstract, absurd, advanced, ambitious, arresting, basic, bizarre, bold, bright, brilliant, classical, clear, common, commonsense, confused, controversial, convincing, crazy, diabolical, disconcerting, elusive, enlightened, entrenched, exaggerated, extravagant, extreme, false, familiar, fantastic, far-fetched, feasible, feeble, fixed, flexible, foolish, grotesque, hazy, heretical, imaginative, inflated, ingenious, ingrained, innovative, instinctive, intriguing, irresponsible, mad, misconceived, mistaken, monstrous, new-fangled, novel, original, old-fashioned, outdated, out-of-date, outrageous, peculiar, persuasive, preconceived, preposterous, prevalent, provocative, (un)real, (un)realistic, remarkable, revolutionary, ridiculous, risky, sensible, silly, splendid, strange, striking, superficial, untenable, useful, vague, valid, well-defined …

5. What else do they need to know? III
Lexical phrases and chunks of language How’s things? I’d rather not … If it were up to me, I’d … So, what do you think? We got a quick bite to eat. What’s the matter? What do you mean by that? Well, what do you know? Look who’s just walked in. Plus THOUSANDS more

6. What else do they need to know? IV
The grammar systems (e.g. the present perfect tense)
A government committee has been created to …
He hasn’t seen her for a while, has he? No, he hasn’t.
Why haven’t you been doing your homework?
There’s been a big accident in Market Street.
Have you ever seen a ghost?
It’s very hard to see the patterns – there are many forms:
Statement, negative, yes/no and wh- question forms,
Simple or continuous
Active or passive
Short answers and questions tags
Regular and irregular - has vs. have walked vs. bought
Present perfect for ‘announcing news’, PP for ‘experiences’, etc. etc.

7. How well are our courses presenting the language students need?
Research suggests an average language course:
does not systematically recycle the grammatical forms outside the presentation unit / lesson
has an almost random vocabulary selection without much regard to frequency or usefulness (mostly based on topic)
rarely, if ever, recycles taught words either later in the unit, the book, or the series
provide minimal additional practice in review units or workbooks
has an overwhelming focus on new material in each lesson

8. The structure of our industry
We break the language up into ‘teachable chunks’ – years, semesters, weeks, lessons, and exercises
The focus is on new. Every unit has something new –
A new vocabulary focus
A new grammar focus
A new pronunciation point
A new a new reading skill
A new function
Etc. etc. etc.
Course books have a LINEAR structure with a constant focus on new

9. A linear structure to our syllabuses
Unit 1
Be verb
Simple adjectives
Unit 2
Simple present
Daily routines
Unit 3
Present continuous
Sporting activities
Unit 4
can
Abilities
Unit 5 ….
…..
Each unit has something new
Little focus on the recycling of vocab, grammar and so on
The theory is “We’ve done that, they have learnt it, so we can move on.”
i.e. teaching causes learning

10. What happens to things we learn?
We forget them over time unless they are recycled and memories of them strengthened
Our brains are designed to forget most of what we meet - not to remember it
knowledge
The Forgetting Curve
time

11. What will naturally happen to the learning?
Unit 1
Be verb
Simple
adjectives
Unit 2
Simple present
Daily routines
Unit 3
Present continuous
Sporting activities
Unit 4
can
Abilities
Unit 5 ….
…..

12. What does this all imply?
A linear course structure
is focused on introducing new words and grammatical features
does not fight against the forgetting curve
by its very design cannot provide enough repetitions of words and grammar features for long-term acquisition to take place
is not focused on deepening and consolidating older knowledge because the focus is always on new things

13. Does this mean course books are bad?
This is NOT a criticism of course books.
There’s too much to actually teach.
Thousands of words plus their collocations, multiple meaning senses etc.
Thousands of lexical phrases
The grammar systems
The pronunciation, reading skills, listening skills etc. etc. etc.
No course book can teach all this.
Course books are designed to introduce new language and give minimal practice with it not to deepen that knowledge.

14. So what needs to happen?
We have to ensure our curriculums and courses:
build in recycling and repetition of words and grammar structures
give students chances to see how the grammar and vocabulary are used together in real discourse
give students chances to deepen and consolidate the language they learn in their course books (or they forget it)
allow students to develop their own ‘sense’ of how the language works
give students chances to use language rather than just study it

15. Course work and Graded Readers work together
Unit 1
Be verb
Unit 2
Simple present
Unit 3
Present continuous
Unit 4
can
Unit 5 ….
Introducing language
Consolidating and deepening language knowledge
GRADED READING
(Extensive Reading)

16. The aim of graded reading
To recycle important and useful words and grammar time and time and time again to aid acquisition
To provide massive fluent reading practice
To build reading speed
To be enjoyable – so they read more
To build depth of knowledge
To consolidate and strengthen partly known language

17. Summary
Course books and graded readers are two sides of the same coin – they help each other
Graded reading should be integrated into our courses. It should not be an option.
Choose books at the right level for your students (so they can read fluently with high levels of understanding and without a dictionary)
Students need to learn to listen fluently too.

18. Some objections Nice idea but I have no time in my course.
-> If you don’t have graded reading where will your students get the massive exposure they need?
-> How else will they get the ‘sense of language’ they need?
We don’t have the money for this.
-> Ask your schools to reallocate funds so this reading is done; ask for donations; get some free samples etc.
We have to go through our set curriculum.
-> Speak with your course designers to build in graded reading. Re-allocate resources and re-set class hours
We have to prepare the students for tests.
-> Research shows students perform better on tests if they have a general sense of language, not a deconstructed ‘bitty’ one.

19. Why people don’t do ER Teacher belief / mindset Responses
Childish / not serious books / too easy
I teach and if I do ER I’m not teaching
They should read authentic materials
I have to teach for the test
Responses
Choose books are at the student’s fluent reading level
‘intermediate’ learners can’t read intermediate graded readers
ER = LEARNING our job is to help people learn not to ‘teach’
Native materials are too hard, demotivating, inappropriate
Research suggests students learn better from more holistic learning

20. Why people don’t do ER II
Teachers think they know what ER is, but don’t
Intensive reading
Extensive reading
Language focus
Why?
Fluency meaning focus. ‘real reading’
Very little
Amount?
A book at week at their level
Hard
Difficulty?
Easy – so they can read fluently
Teacher
Who selects?
Student
Text books
What?
Materials at fluency level
In class
Where?
In class at first , then home reading
With exercises
Comprehension check?
Not always necessary as students choose a book they can already read

21. Why people don’t do ER III
No space in the curriculum
No one to ask how to do it
Don’t know what is available
Don’t know how to assess the reading
Don’t know how to choose materials correctly
No money / resources

22. Why do ER programs fail? Curriculum changes Inappropriate materials
Change to ‘test’ / speaking / CLT ….. focus
ER enthusiast leaves the school
Inappropriate materials
Too difficult
Age inappropriate
Books don’t get replaced when lost
Starting badly
Too fast, Too high, Too much to read too soon
Students don’t understand why they need ER

23. Promoting / adopting ER
Work within the system – don’t expect miracles
Understand where teachers are coming from
What is at stake for them / what would prevent them from adopting ER? Solve those problems first.
Demonstrate with an intensive reading book to show the difference
Show a simple chart of ER / IR
If they think they know ER, then used the term ‘graded reading’

24. Promoting / adopting ER II
The websites
Show the GR catalogues
Set personal targets for
Your own school
Mentoring other institutions
Giving your own presentations / workshops
Finding information that may unblock roads for others
Conduct your own research