Learner Talk as Listening Material
Michel Thomas, Polyglot and Language Teaching Methodologist (1914-2005)
If you’ve ever tried to learn a foreign language as an adult, you may well be aware of the Michel Thomas Method. I used it myself to learn some Arabic a few years ago. One of the great things about his approach in my opinion, is that in the recordings of lessons that make up the bulk of the course, there are always real learners of the language in the room too, as well as the teacher. The teacher will ask questions to the learners about language, and the learners will attempt to answer these questions. The learners often make mistakes with the language and sometimes they don’t know the answer at all, and the teacher will generally correct them.
The process of listening to this definitely helps me to learn the language. The mistakes that the learners make are often mistakes that I might make myself, and I guess it’s less threatening for me if the teacher is correcting someone else. But I think there’s something else which is useful about it too. Those learners don’t speak 'perfect’ Arabic and because of that I think they’re probably a better model for me as a learner, than most native speakers. I know there are sounds in Arabic which I find extremely hard to make and which I will probably never be able to reproduce in the same way as a native speaker does. Listening to other learners who are a bit better than me gives me confidence that I don’t need to be perfect, and to have a go myself.
I realise that this view is a bit controversial. After all, the vast majority of listening material that is part of most coursebooks, uses the voices of native speakers of the language as a source of input. But why is this? If it’s to provide a model of English that the learners can aspire to, then do we really think that listening to native speakers will make them sound like native speakers overnight? Do we actually think it’s important to sound like native speakers anyway? Isn’t it better that we take a process based approach where they gradually acquire a level of English which is more and more intelligible, and which is more and more like advanced speakers of the variety of English that is used in their speech community?
With these questions in mind, and because in the Hands up Project we have a huge database of material which includes learner voices, I thought we might try to create some lessons around some of this material we have.
By way of example I’ve designed this lesson around the short video below, where 14 year old Tala in Gaza talks about the significance of the Palestinian flag. I was thinking about this lesson being for a group of teenagers or adults from different countries, presently in the UK, but I guess it could be adapted for different contexts too.
1) Organise the class into groups of three or four. Ask them to discuss how they feel when they see the flag of England or the flag of the United Kingdom displayed. What about when they see the flag of their own country? Open it up to the whole class.
2) Show the class the Palestinian flag. Ask them to discuss in their group what they think each colour might represent.
3) Play the video so they can check their answers. Ask them to compare what they got in groups.
4) If necessary play the video again to clear up any remaining issues. Stop the recording immediately after a useful utterance and ask the class to repeat it immediately in their groups. Maybe if they are comfortable they can say it for the whole class.
With my hypothetical class of learners I might chose these utterances.
Do you know what every colour stands for in the flag? ….If not take a wild guess….I’m gonna say what I think……I’m gonna start with the red one ….etc
5) Ask the class to discuss in groups the meanings of the colours on their own countries flags, or countries that they know. Allow them access to the internet to find out if they don’t know.
So now it’s over to you dear teachers…
It would be great if you could choose a video of learner voices from the Hands up project’s youtube channel - a poem, a play, a story, a conversation etc - and plan a lesson that you could do with it with a class. Please then add this as a comment below.
Nick