Vicky Fang MATESOL 1

Activity 3 Target structure: The Omission of Indefinite and Definite Articles Level of students: advanced learners in an EAP class Time: 20 minutes Notes on prior work: Explicit grammar instructions on the use of articles Material: a handout with a cloze article: How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language1 (see p. 2). (I conducted a readability check of the text before I decided to use the article. [p. 3-4]). Procedure: 1. Give students a handout of a cloze exercise. 2. Give students 5 minutes to fill in the blanks using either a or the. 3. Ask students to discuss their answers in a group of 3. (5 minutes) 4. Teacher tells students to reconvene and discuss the answers with them. 5. Teacher gives students the article with answer keys.

Bhanoo, S. N. (2012, April 2). How immersion helps to learn a language. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/how-immersion-helps-to-learn-a-new-language.html?_r=0

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Handout: Instruction: use a or the to fill in the blanks in the following article. How Immersion Helps to Learn a Language Learning ______ foreign language is never easy, but contrary to common wisdom, it is possible for adults to process ______ language ______ same way ______ native speaker does. And over time, ______ processing improves even when ______ skill goes unused, researchers are reporting. For their study, in ______ journal PloS One, ______ scientists used an artificial language of 13 words, completely different from English. Its totally impractical to follow someone to high proficiency because it takes years and years, said ______ lead author, Michael Ullman, ______ neuroscientist at Georgetown University Medical Center. ______ language dealt with pieces and moves in ______ computer game, and ______ researchers tested proficiency by asking test subjects to play ______ game. ______ subjects were split into two groups. One group studied ______ language in ______ formal classroom setting, while ______ other was trained through immersion. After five months, both groups retained ______ language even though they had not used it at all, and both displayed brain processing similar to that of ______ native speaker. But ______ immersion group displayed ______ full brain patterns of ______ native speaker, Dr. Ullman said. He and his team used ______ technique called electroencephalography, or EEG, which measures brain processing along ______ scalp. ______ research has several applications, Dr. Ullman said. This should help us understand how foreign-language learners can achieve nativelike processing with increased practice, he said. It makes sense that youd want to have your brain process like ______ foreign speaker. And though it may take time, and more research, ______ work also could or should help in rehabilitation of people with traumatic brain injury, he added.

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Readability check of the text: To check if the text is appropriate for the EAP context and the level of the students, I performed the readability tests listed below. 1. From MS word:

Flesch Reading Ease ranges from 0 to 100. The higher the score turns out to be, the more comprehensible the text will be.

Score

Notes

90.0100.0 easily understood by an average 11-year-old student

60.070.0 easily understood by 13- to 15-year-old students

0.030.0

best understood by university graduates

(Screenshot from Wikipedia2, 2012) Notice here that Flesch Reading Ease scores the text 53.9. Thus, students may have some difficulties to comprehend the text.

Flesch Reading Ease. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2012from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_test)

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2. VocabProfiler results: http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/

(K1 words: the most frequent 1000 word families; K2: the second most frequent 1000 word families; AWL: the academic word list) Considering the results of the readability from the two tests, I conclude that the text is appropriate to use in this context, but teacher needs to be attentive to the comprehension problems students may encounter when they are doing the exercise.