C HILE

Did You Know ?

1. TESOL, Inc. -the parent organization of TESOL CHILE collaborates with 91 affiliates from around the world (including 12 in Latin America). 2. During 40 years, TESOL Inc.s membership has grown to more than 14,000 ELT professionals from 127 countries. 3. TESOL, Inc.s annual convention attracts 7,000-10,000 participants from all over the world. 4. TESOL, Inc. publishes a scholarly, refereed journal (TESOL Quarterly) and a magazine specializing in classroom practice (Essential Teacher), as well as books and professional papers. 5. TESOL, Inc. has an extensive website (www.tesol.org), a survey of employment opportunities (Placement E-Bulletin), and an enewsletter with links related to the ELT field (TESOL Connections).

IN

WOR D
MAKING SENSE OF WORDS

Volume 1, No. 1, Fall 2004

Newsletter of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages in Chile

By Andrew Sheehan
For centuries, languages have been changing, and English is no exception. Samuel Johnson expected that his pioneering dictionary, published in 1755, [S]hould fix our language, and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance have hitherto been suffered to make in it. In fact, English is changing faster than most languages. For teachers, the fact that English is constantly changing and evolving can be unsettling and sometimes even dispiriting. Thank goodness for good old reliable grammar! But of course, MAKING SENSE OF WORDS is what language teaching and learning is all about. A recent upsurge in the interest in, and importance of, vocabulary in ELT has prompted a host of new books on the subject, and the advent of corpus linguistics has added support to the movement. How far does this lexical revolution extend? It depends on where in the world you are, geographically and chronologically. While methods and approaches may have come and gone for many ELT academics in their universities, in many parts of the world where English is taught, and where contact with developments in ELT has been limited, working at the chalk-face has remained the same for decades. In my experience, the Lexical Approachor to be more specific, the research on which the hypothesis is basedhas not reached many parts of the world, and the majority of the teachers I have been working with recently are not familiar with corpus linguistics. (Continued on page 3)

In This Issue Ma Kings Ens Eofw Ords Welcome Message Multimodality English in the 21st Century English in Jail
2004, TESOL CHILE Edited by Marc Chevalier tesolchile@hotmail.com

pg. 01 pg. 02 pg. 13 pg. 18 pg. 22

Welcome Message

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A MESSAGE FROM

THE

INTERIM PRESIDENT
the Universidad Catolica and the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educacin. She has contributed to the results of a research study carried out at the Penitenciara de Santiago and in the Crcel de Mujeres, where some volunteer students did their teaching practice. We finish with an invitation to our first one-day conference to be held at DUOC on August 2nd. We plan to have a guest speaker (the specialists name is still a surprise!!) and some excellent local lecturers. Your participation is necessary to turn this event into a real success.

by Mary Jane Abrahams

Welcome to the first issue (and many more to come) of TESOL CHILE. We are very pleased to announce that we are back in circulation and that there will be a newsletter for you every quarter with information on events, new books, visiting lecturers, and articles on different aspects of EFL ELT in Chile and the world. Andrew Sheehan starts us off this time with a very interesting article on vocabulary. He works with the English team at Mineduc in the project El ingls abre puertas, and hes been in the field for the last 25 years, beginning in England as a primary teacher, and then as a teacher trainer in many parts of the world. Miguel Faras is the Director of the Master's program in Linguistics at USACH; he teaches in the undergraduate English Teaching Training program, as well as in the Master's and Doctoral programs in American Studies at USACH. In this essay, Farias approaches the reading process from a semiotic perspective, considering both the new text modalities and the new types of literacies they generate, and discusses their implications for TEFL. Melvia Hasman is the director of the English Language Programs Office at the U. S. Embassy in Brasilia. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, she taught at universities in the United States and in Kuwait and was a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Honduras. Ms Hasman has a B.A. in Middle East Studies, a M.A. in applied linguistics. Her PhD work is in curriculum development. Mary Jane Abrahams, RECAP Coordinator, is a teacher trainer who works at Vocabulary in ELT Page 3

TESOL CHILE

MISSION STATEMENT

TESOL CHILEs mission is to strengthen the effective teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language in the nation of Chile while respecting individualslanguage and cultural backgrounds. To this end, TESOL CHILE, as a national professional association, supports and seeks to inspire those involved in English language teaching, teacher education, administration and management, curricula and materials design, and research; provides leadership and direction through the dissemination and exchange of information and resources; encourages access to and standards for English language instruction, professional preparation, and employment; and supports the initiatives of its international parent organization, TESOL, Inc.

(Continued from page 1) This article will address the following questions: What is the current thinking on the role of vocabulary in ELT, and how does corpus linguistics support this? What does corpus linguistics tell us about lexis and the importance of lexical development? What are the implications for English language teaching and learning? How can we help students learn, store, and retrieve the words they need? What is the current thinking? Vocabulary has been the neglected Cinderella of language teaching; preference has always been, and still is, given to the two sisters Grammar and More Grammar. There are several reasons for the Cinderella status of vocabulary. First, there is the legacy of previous language-teaching methods, particularly the traditional Grammar Translation Method with its emphasis on the learning of rules and structures. As Brown (2000, 15) states: [T]he Grammar Translation Method remarkably withstood attempts at the outset of the twentieth century to reform language teaching methodology, and to this day it remains a standard methodology for language teaching in educational institutions. The Audiolingual Method (ALM), with its emphasis on repetitive drills, did nothing to change the balance. Brown goes on to observe that a key feature of ALM is that Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context (2000, 74). Many English language teachers like to stress grammar over vocabulary because grammar is a finite system, whereas vocabulary is not. The reasoning is that a language teacher especially one who rarely reads in English and has no access to English-language newspapers could not possibly keep track of even a fraction of the words the English language now contains, let alone its everexpanding lexicon. Consider, for example, such recent additions as greenhouse effect, global warming, hip hop, grunge, ethnic cleansing, cyberspace, CD-ROM, hacker, and embedded reporter. However, the argument in favor of placing greater weight on vocabulary is strong. Meara (1995) points out that knowing only 500 words is functionally useless. English learners with such a minimal vocabulary who try to process a text will encounter too many unfamiliar words, and frequently these are precisely the words that convey the meaning of the text. Consider, for example, the following: While Argentina was celebrating the victory of its team in the World Cup, the president and his family took the opportunity to go on vacation. Given enough time, students reading this sentence who have a low level of reading vocabulary might recognize the italized words because they are cognates, although they could easily misinterpret the key signal word while at the beginning of the sentence. But the same students listening to a native speaker saying this sentence at normal speed are not likely to understand or recognize most of the words, except perhaps, the words Argentina and World Cup. Even the cognates are likely to become

Vocabulary in ELT (Continued from page 1) incomprehensible because the pronunciation of these words in English is completely different from that of, say, Spanish. Even given Nations contention (1990) that learners need know only half as many words to understand spoken text as they need to understand written text because of the usually greater lexical density of written text listening, in my view, involves the additional problem of real time constraints in comprehension, which more than compensates for the discrepancy noted by Nation. Evidence from the field of corpus linguistics shows clearly that it is lexical competence, not the learning of grammatical structures, that must be the priority for language learners because lexical competence is at the heart of communicative competence. Richards (2000, xi) states: Vocabulary and lexical units are at the heart of learning and communication. No amount of grammatical or other type of linguistic knowledge can be employed in communication or discourse without the mediation of vocabulary. Indeed, vocabulary and lexical expressions can sustain a great deal of rudimentary communication without much support from other aspects of the language system. Understanding of the nature and significance of vocabulary knowledge in a second language therefore needs to play a much more central role in the knowledge base of language teachers. Implications for English language teachers and learners Richards insistence on the importance of vocabulary and lexical units has profound

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implications for English language teachers and learners. Six of them are discussed below: 1. What it means to know a word Evidence suggests that language learners need to learn as many words as possible as soon as possible (initial 2000 word target, with 10,000 words as an ideal longerterm target). Several definitions have been proposed concerning what it means to know a word. I have adapted Ellis and Sinclairs (1989) list of criteria for knowing a word: To understand the word when it is written or spoken To recall it when you need it To use it with the correct meaning To use it in a grammatically correct way To pronounce it correctly To know which other words you can (and can not) use with it To spell it correctly To use it in the right situation To know if it has positive or negative connotations To know when (and when not) to use it Of course, we know that all these cannot occur simultaneously. We know that learning and knowing words is an incremental process; it may take years of learning to fully know a word. A learner may learn the word red in terms of its spelling and pronunciation, and the learner may be able to apply it correctly

Vocabulary in ELT

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when describing color. However, all the idiomatic expressions associated with red, including in the red, to see red, and a red letter day, may never be learned. 2. Recycling and revising words We know that words should be recycled and revised as soon as possible after they are introduced; otherwise there is a tendency for them to be forgotten. There are several options for presenting and revising, or recycling, vocabulary. Nation (1990, 34) lists four typical ways, from most indirect to most direct, which teachers may follow. Here, I have chosen McCarthys (1990) categories as being particularly useful. According to this viewpoint, there are three main options: (1) By topic or theme, e.g., colors, rooms in a house, in the supermarket, on vacation, crime (2) By focusing on meaning, e.g., collocation, semantic sets, register, discourse analysis (3) By focusing on form, e.g., word formation, such as roots, suffixes, and prefixes; compounds; phrasal verbs I shall introduce each of these, and give examples, in the Three Options section to follow. The examples are meant to be representative of each category only; there are many excellent books available that include a wide range of similar activities. 3. Teaching vocabulary systematically Another implication from the findings of corpus linguistics is that vocabulary development will have to be given much more prominence in language teaching than it now

gets. I believe that vocabulary development in the language classroom should be systematic. There is, however, disagreement on the extent to which vocabulary can or should be taught. Nation (1990, 1) opens his book with the question, Should vocabulary be taught? Until recently, the unstated assumption has been that learners must somehow learn vocabulary but that teachers should not really try to teach it, at least not systematically. This assumption was clearly revealed by Coe in his 1997 article, Vocabulary must be learnt, not taught. Now, it seems, the introduction and development of lexis, defined here as the input, storage, and retrieval strategies for the development of an appropriate mental lexicon, should probably receive a much higher and more explicit profile in the ELT classroom. 4. Learning the principles and techniques of vocabulary development Teachers will have to gain expertise in vocabulary development principles and techniques so that they can provide appropriate introduction, storage, and retrieval activities for their students. There are many techniques, ranging from vocabulary notebooks and traditional word lists to mnemonic devices and word association methods. One technique, the keeping of well-organized vocabulary notebooks, should no longer be left to the discretion of the students, and perhaps instead should be mandatory. However, the system for organizing the notebooks should probably be the one that the individual student finds most effective and useful. Exactly what words should be introduced is not clear, and questions remain

Vocabulary in ELT

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about whether the decision should be based on a list of the most frequent words in the English language (such as Wests 1953and now rather outdatedGeneral Service List of English Words), the learners immediate needs, or whatever the course book writer deems appropriate. My view is that emphasis should be placed on learners needs. English language teachers need to familiarize themselves with the many excellent vocabulary development textbooks available today, most of which are filled with activities they can use to augment the activities they themselves devise. Teachers also need to encourage their students to take more responsibility for developing their own mental lexicon. As mentioned earlier, vocabulary notebooks, organized in whatever way works best for each student, should probably be considered essential items. At the moment, they tend to be used by some motivated learners but do not feature significantly in most ELT classrooms. 5. Learning the metalanguage of vocabulary Teachers need to be aware of what is happening in the field of research and development in lexis (corpus linguistics), and they will need to grasp and use the necessary terminology to talk about vocabulary with their colleagues and, as needed, with their students. Most English language teachers know and use the metalanguage of grammar, such as past perfect, first and second conditional, past participle, and irregular verb. But few English language teachers are familiar with and understand the essential terms and concepts associated with corpus linguistics and lexis, Vocabulary in ELT

such as collocation, chunks of language, fixed expressions, and sentence heads. These concepts need to be as familiar to English language teachers as grammar is now. Teachers should familiarize themselves, for example, with these four major categories of lexical items outlined by Lewis (1993, 1996): (1) words, e.g., push, exit, fruit polywords, e.g., by the way, on the other hand (2) collocations or word partnerships, e.g., an initial reaction, to assess the situation (3) institutionalized utterances or fixed expressions, e.g., Ill see what I can do, Its not the sort of thing you think will ever happen to you. (4) sentence frames or heads, e.g., Considerable research has been done in recent years on the question of...; At present, however, expert opinion remains divided; Some experts believe.... (from Lewis 1996, 10) Lewis also suggests that there are two distinct modes of English, spoken and written, and that in many ways they represent two virtually different languages. Native speakers have a vast store of words in both spoken and written modes. As Lewis puts it, It is now clear that students can usefully employ a repertoire of at least several hundred, if not many thousand, institutionalized expressions. Such expressions are central to effective spoken communication, both receptive and productive (1996, 15). Lewis argues strongly and convincingly that teachers should not be teaching traditional Page 7

grammar but instead should be focusing on these chunks of language, that is the fixed expressions, of which there are thousands. One immediate consequence of corpus linguistics research is that the expression chunks of language and the need to recognize and teach language chunks has become part of ELT terminology, and up-to-date books on ELT methodology and vocabulary contain this term (e.g., Hedge 2000; Cameron 2001). Teachers may need to make a mental shift from thinking that language is lexicalised grammar to thinking of it as grammaticalised lexis. 6. Updating mental lexicons Perhaps most daunting of all the implications is that English language teachers will need to update their own mental lexicons. Biber et al. (1999), in the Longman Grammar of Written and Spoken English (the title clearly reflects the current idea gained from corpus research that written and spoken English are different systems), examine language corpus in four areas, or registers: academic texts, newspapers, spoken texts, and fiction. Not surprisingly, nouns represent by far the most frequent lexical word class; every fourth word is a noun. Verbs are less frequent, occurring every tenth word, followed by adjectives and adverbs. Surprisingly, newspapers have by far the greatest range of lexis in terms of nouns, yet newspaper language is the least known and least understood among non-native English language teachers. Headlines such as POLICE CHIEF QUITS OVER PRESS SCAM and YARD IN GEMS SWOOP DRAMA leave most nonnatives (and many natives) completely baffled. It is the almost exclusive use of the simple present form of verbs in headlines, associated Vocabulary in ELT

with the often unfamiliar lexical items used by newspapers, that creates confusion. Coursebooks rarely, if ever, discuss this type of language, so EFL teachers and learners are rarely exposed to it. But they should be because newspapers keep pace with contemporary language usage, including newly coined words. Helping our students learn, store, and retrieve the words they need: Three options As indicated earlier, there are several options for presenting and revising or recycling vocabulary. Unfortunately, some traditional course books do not go much beyond topic or theme when dealing with vocabulary development. McCarthys (1990) three main options are described in this section. Option 1: By topic or theme This is the way most writers introduce vocabulary in course books, and it is a logical way to introduce the many important lexical sets that make up the bulk of learners early lexicons. Topic activity 1 Put these animals into groups: sheep dog goat lion pig zebra horse wolf turtle cow camel cat crocodile hamster giraffe tiger elephant guinea ig bear antelope There is no right or wrong answer for this task; the animals may be grouped in a variety of ways, for example, herbivores/ carnivores/ omnivores or pets/domestic/wild.

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Topic activity 2: Word webs The teacher begins by writing the topic Food in large letters in the middle of the board. S/he then adds two categories of food: Meat and Fruit. S/he then extends the Meat category by adding Pig, Cow, and Sheep. Finally, the subcategory Beef is added. The board now looks like this: Food

collocate with other words. So, with the students we might discuss why it is acceptable to say a large dog, but not a vast dog, and we might work together to place the words on a continuum based on size. Focus on meaning activity 1 Which adjectives can be combined with which nouns? ADJECTIVES NOUNS sea cheese curry bed water wine cigarettes tea exam grapes skin surface

The teacher then explains that there are more categories that can be added (for example, Vegetables) and many more words for each category. Students, working in groups of two or three, copy the web onto a large piece of paper and are given a time limit to extend the web as far as they can. The webs are then displayed and compared. Similar webs can be done using topics such as Clothing, Rooms in a House, Animals, or Transportation. Option 2: Focus on meaning With the renewed interest in lexical development, the importance of focusing students attention on meaning has increased significantly. Better, more up-to-date course books now mention the word collocation and include activities focused on meaning, which is the second option to be considered here. In this option, we would look at collocations within a specific context. We could examine items such as final whistle, defending champions, off-side rule, and penalty kick, which would typically all come from a newspaper article about a soccer game. Or we could examine lexical sets that reflect semantic fields (for example, words that describe size, such as: large, enormous, big, gigantic, vast, and huge) and discuss the way they are used and how they do or do not Vocabulary in ELT

hot or mild hot or cold sweet or dry sweet or sour strong or weak strong or mild rough or calm rough or smooth hard or soft hard or easy

Adapted from Redman, Ellis, and Viney (1996)

This activity nicely points to the different meanings words may take when collocating with other words and the inherent dangers of teaching synonyms and antonyms too freely: for example, rough sea and calm sea; rough surface and smooth surface. In the Dictionary of Selected Collocations, a book made possible because of evidence obtained from corpus linguistics research, Hill and Lewis (1997, 6) identify the

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five most important kinds of collocations as: (1) adjective + noun, e.g., fatal accident, golden opportunity (2) verb + noun, e.g., accept responsibility, undermine (my) self confidence (3) noun + verb, e.g., the gap widened, a fight broke out (4) adverb + adjective, e.g., highly desirable, potentially embarrassing (5) verb + adverb, e.g., discuss calmly, lead eventually to Focus on meaning activity 2 Complete the table with the appropriate normal adjective. The first one has been done as an example: Normal word hot ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ Extreme word boiling enormous delicious tiny exhausted freezing awful filthy ancient wonderful

can learn that adding the prefixes im-, un- and in- produces the opposite meaning of the word to which they are attached (impossible, unsatisfactory, inexpensive), which can provide them with a useful strategy. Focus on form activity 1 Which of these words can be combined with -less and -ful? use home end harm tact care thought taste pain hope
Adapted from Redman, Ellis, and Viney (1996)

Focus on form activity 2 Most suffixes change the category of a word, for example, from a verb to a noun. This activity is based on a humorous song, When Youre Old and Gray, by Tom Lehrer. Lehrer is known for the black humor in his songs, and this one makes repeated use of the rhyme of the -ility suffix (in many cases, transforming an adjective into a noun). Since I still appreciate you Lets find love while we may, Because I know Ill hate you When youre old and gray. So say you love me here and now

Option 3: Focus on form The final option is to focus on form. Students who have some knowledge of suffixes and prefixes can often work out for themselves the meanings of words. Prefixes are particularly important because, generally speaking, they change the meaning of a word. Thus, students Vocabulary in ELT

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Ill make the most of that, Say you love me and trust me For I know youll disgust me When youre old and getting fat. An awful debility A lessened utility A loss of mobility Is a strong possibility. In all probability Ill lose my virility And you your fertility And desirability. And this liability Of total sterility Will lead to hostility And the sense of futility. So lets act with agility While we still have the facility For well soon reach senility And lose the ability. Your teeth will start to go, dear Your waist will start to spread In twenty years or so, dear Ill wish that you were dead. Ill never love you then at all The way I do today, So please remember When I leave in December I told you so in May. Conclusion In that 1755 dictionary, Samuel Johnson also admits that neither he, nor anyone, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay. While we shouldnt equate normal language change with corruption and decay, as language teachers we must accept the fact of change in the subject we teach. We must also accept the challenge of staying abreast of the Vocabulary in ELT

kinds of changes occurring in English, which are most apparent in its lexicon. Corpus linguistics, the study and analysis of large collections of written and spoken text, has contributed immeasurably to our understanding of how English is actually used. A renewed focus on teaching vocabulary and lexical items in English can help our students be more successful in learning, storing, and retrieving the words they need.
References Biber, D., S. Johansson, G. Leech, S. Conrad and E. Finegan. 1999. Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow, UK: Longman Pearson. Brown, H.D. 2000. Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). New York: Longman/Pearson Education. Cameron, L. 2001. Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Coe, N. 1997. Vocabulary must be learnt, not taught. Modern English Teacher, 6, 3:4748. Ellis, G. and B. Sinclair. 1989. Learning to learn English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hedge, T. 2000. Teaching and learning in the language classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hill, J. and M. Lewis. 1997. Dictionary of selected collocations. Hove, UK: Language Teaching Publications. Lewis, M. 1993. The lexical approach., Hove, UK: Language Teaching Publications. . 1996. Implications of a lexical view of language in J. and D. Willis Challenge and Change in Language Teaching. Oxford: Heinemann. Meara, P. 1995. The importance of an early emphasis on L2 vocabulary. The Language Teacher, 19, 2:810. McCarthy, M. and F. ODell. 1999. English vocabulary in use elementary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Nation, P. 1990. Teaching and learning vocabulary. New York: Newbury House. Redman, S., R. Ellis, and B. Viney. 1996. A way with words resource pack 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richards, J. 2000. Series Editors Preface. In N. Schmitt Vocabulary in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. West, M. 1953. A general service list of English words. London: Longman, Green and Co. BIODATA Andrew Sheehan is a member of the Chilean Ministry of Educations new English Project team; one of his main responsibilities is the coordination of the professional development of English language teachers. He is also the coordinator of the U.S. embassys teacher training project for the Chilean binational centers.

Sidebar 1

Important terminology
Corpus (pl corpora): a large collection of spoken or written text, nowadays stored on a computer. Examples of corpora include: The British National Corpus with over 100 million words (90 million written and 10 million spoken) The COBUILD Bank of English Corpus with over 300 million words (spoken and written) The Cambridge International Corpus with over 100 million words (spoken and written) The Longman Written American Corpus with over 200 million words of written American English Corpus linguistics: the study and analysis of these corpora of written and spoken text. Corpora-based research began in the first part of the 20th century. During the 1960s, computers began to play a vital

role. Today, with the use of powerful computers containing vast memories, high speed dataprocessing capability, and employing powerful new programs (such as concordancers), we know a great deal about the frequency of words used in English; how many words are needed to understand a particular text; which words tend to co-occur; and how words are used and which meanings are associated with them. All major dictionary publishers now rely on corpora stored electronically via computers. Words/lexical items: Linguists prefer to use the term lexical items for what we commonly think of as words for reasons that become clear when examining the following expressions: Saw is one word, but at least three lexical items. Take off is two words, but several lexical items. To put up with and to get along with are multi-word verbs, but each represents one lexical item. To be taken for a ride can be understood literally, or it can be interpreted idiomatically to mean to be cheated or tricked. A Black Hole is a lexical item in which two words, which mean entirely different things when isolated, have a special meaning when combined.

Sidebar 2 2000 words: The magic number For many years, the question How many words do we need and, therefore, how many words do language learners need? has been central to the

Vocabulary in ELT

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debate about the role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning. The figure 2000 as the basic number of words needed has been around for a while. West (1953) had 2000 head words in his list. In their Introduction to the student, McCarthy and ODell (1999, 4) suggest that .to speak and write English in normal situations you need at least 1-2000 words. The authors said this based on evidence provided by corpus linguistics research. Analysis of corpora tells us about word frequency and text-coverage. Not surprisingly, we could predict that the most frequently occurring words in English are words such as the, of, and, to, a, in, and that. These are functional words, which in themselves carry no meaning. By analysis, we know that the three most frequent words in English (the, I, you in spoken English, and the, to, and in written English) represent 11.5% of all word tokens, or occurrences, in texts. We know that the top 100 words represent 44% of texts. Perhaps the most significant figure, however, is the one corresponding to the most frequent 2000 words. The top 2000 words account

for about 80% of texts. In other words, a learner who knows the most frequent 2000 words will be able to understand about 80% of a text (or, to put it another way, one in five words, or 20%, will be unknown). From this evidence, we can surmise that 2000 words is the absolute minimum a language learner needsthe survival levelin order to be able to process a text. Any fewer, and the unknown gaps in the text will be too many to enable the learner to deduce meaning from context. This minimal 2000 figure is critical; there is only a 5% increase for the next 2000 words (up to 4000), and even less for each subsequent 2000 words (the figures are, approximately: 4000 = 88%, 6000 = 91%, 8000 = 93%). Analysis also shows that knowing 10,000 words means that 93% of a text will be understood, and this could be recommended as the next ideal target for a proficient language learner.

The New Literacy

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Multimodality in Times of Multiliteracies: Implications for TEFL

by Miguel Faras

INTRODUCTION
The research literature on reading, in general, and on reading comprehension in a second or foreign language, in particular, has been slow in integrating the visual components in reading comprehension models. As visually encoded information, in the manner of diagrams, pictures, videos, page formats, colors and layouts, has become more prominent than written texts in the last few decades, a new form of communication has emerged, multimodal texts (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996), which use a wide range of representation and communication modes. The monomodality of such traditional genres as literary novels, academic papers, official documents and reports has given way to documents which present color illustrations, different typographies and layouts and that may link to voice and video files. Thus, as language teachers, we need to move from a purely linguistic explanatory frame of the reading process to a semiotic perspective in which the visual accompaniments and arrangements of textual information provide and complement the meaning of these multimodal texts. In turn, digital technologies make us revise our conceptions of literacy to incorporate critical skills of cognitive engagement and social interaction made possible by digital and online communications. Some of the ideas presented in this essay come from a macro research project that tries to provide an account of meaning as conveyed in multiple signifying

media. This has long been an objective of semiology, as it is called in the European tradition started by De Saussure, or semiotics in its American (US) counterpart which follows the work by Pierce and now has relevant implications for the teaching of English as a foreign language, as the materials we use bring more and more multimodal formats into the classroom.

FROM PRINT TO SCREEN

Historically speaking, the advent of the printing press meant a change in the communication processes from an oral tradition and a tradition of scribes to a massification of the printed word. Little by little, as new technologies were invented and with the combining of photographs and texts, visual elements were incorporated into the texts as complements to the linguistic message. However, in the last decades, the computer and new forms of diagramming have sped up this process and the visual message has become central to comprehension. One of the first manifestations of this passage from print to screen is the creation of a new type of discourse in which the traditional relation between addresser and addressee is now mediated by a machine (Faras 2003) whose technology offers everyday new possibilities to users. Social groups, then, are differentiated between those belonging to the print generation and those to the post-

The New Literacy

typographic group. One subgroup of this latter category has been called screenagers, who have not only grown with computers but with non-stop connectivity that allows them to download music onto MP3 players, send instant messages online and text messages by cell phone all at the same time. Referring to the US culture, Brant (2003:52) has admitted that its no surprise that they (screenagers) think well beyond text. Since some of our students belong to this post typographic generation, we need to think about our objectives when teaching reading and writing skills. Although for some of us it may seem a commonplace to write and read from a computer screen, little has been said about the implications of the new communication technologies in the teaching of language. What are the new sociocognitive structures required and developed by these technologies? As we and our students use more and more computer mediated communication (CMC), new types of texts are emerging that require not only the mechanical ability to decode graphemes from the printing page but to make meaning of particular signs (emoticons: , , ), arrangements, layouts, coloring, linking possibilities, etc., which are available through the Internet, on the World Wide Web and in the products that incorporate multimodality, such as electronic dictionaries, computer games, (music) video clips, cartoons, web pages in general, etc.

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codes? More globally, what are the new conceptions of literacy that emerge from these new social practices? Similar to what has happened with the concept of intelligence (Gardners multiple intelligences), literacy needs to be pluralized and we have to talk about literacies; as Rocap (2003: 147) has pointed out, literacy definitions that traditionally include descriptions of material processes of encoding and decoding meaning increasingly need to accommodate and make sense of digital rendering on digital media as well. As we look at multimodal texts and the processes that make their production and comprehension possible, we depart from traditional notions of competence and performance to now integrate what some have called communication literacy, computer literacy, TV literacy, and media literacy. We hypothesize that the particular arrangements of this semiotic totality that is the multimodal text are socially and ideologically motivated. Just take a look at any newspaper and observe the different sections and their organization. What goes on the front page? How much text and visuality are included? Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) have studied the semiotic representation of newspapers in various countries and have concluded that in Western societies the visual space is arranged along a square divided in four. Since in Western literate societies reading proceeds from left to right and from the top to the bottom, these four squares indicate different meanings: the upper section represents the ideal domain and the bottom the real one. From left to right, the left is ascribed to the domain of

NEW LITERACIES
To what extent do we need to change our concepts of reading and writing in the face of media that integrates visual, sound and text

The New Literacy

given information, or what is taken for granted, whereas the right represents the new information, or what is supposedly unexpected. Examine any newspaper and see how this theory is played out.

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educationalists everywhere have become aware of the increasing role of visual communication in learning materials of various kinds, and they are asking themselves what kind of maps, charts, diagrams, pictures and forms of layout will be most effective for learning. In FLT in Chile, Silva (2002) has reported that multimodal processing of information may result in better retention of incidental learning as learners process input through both visual and verbal channels and that more referential constructions are made, leading to more paths for the retrieval of lexical information. In his study investigating the effects of different hypermedia annotations on incidental vocabulary learning, Silva concludes that the multimedia group performed significantly better than the sentence and the multiple-choice groups. If one of the aims of current educational policies is to develop individuals with critical thinking abilities (one of the cross-curricular objectives in the Chilean educational reform), in teaching reading comprehension, particularly in pre-reading activities, we may foster critical reading by paying attention to the meanings conveyed and supplemented by the visual codes included along with the linguistic code. In other words, we should focus on the visual grammar (the particular arrangements of the visual elements) together with the textual grammar. If the deconstructive movement (Derrida) incorporated the idea of reading as global understanding and interpreting (as in do you read me or that was a good reading of the issue), in teaching the English language we should also aid our students in reading the

GIVEN/IDEAL GIVEN/REAL

NEW/IDEAL NEW/REAL

The visual space in Western visual semiotics (Kress, Leite-Garcia and Van Leeuwen 2000)

Why are we interested in these issues as language teachers? As teachers and as ordinary citizens, we are surrounded by images in the visual aids we use, the textbooks we work with, or the very images that we create when explaining something, making a sequence of events in a time line, pointing to the titles of texts in pre-reading activities, presenting a video on some topic or story. However, these images now come not as isolated signifiers that by some external arrangement come together, but as connected to other media, as text and sound. This interconnection of media creates multimodal texts which allow for the concretization of the ideal of integrated skills by providing a structured presentation of reading (text and images), listening (sound files), speaking (built-in mikes and computerized spectographs) and writing (answering questions about the particular text or image or sounds). Awareness of the power and importance of the visual code for teachers was expressed by Kress and Van Leeuwen in (1996: 12):

The New Literacy The New Literacy

world by paying attention to the other signifying systems beyond the mere linguistic. Attention to these issues can also help lead the way toward understanding the new types of literacy (London School) that the digital age is requiring and will require from us and the future generations we are now training . In this respect, Davis quotes Stein and Newfield saying that assessment of multimodal texts in the English classroom is a complex, multilayered task which makes new demands on teachers competencies and has implications for teacher education. When we apply these ideas to our context, the first issue to be discussed is that of access to multimedia. Although a lot of ELT professionals have jumped on the bandwagon of digital progress, access to computers has maintained and exacerbated the so-called digital divide by which social inequalities are maintained. The statistics for Chile show 120 computers per 1,000 inhabitants and 122 Internet users per 1,000. Warschauer 2000, in a qualitative study of the relationship between technology, reform and equality concluded that underlying differences in resources and expectations served to reinforce patterns by which the two schools (an elite private and an impoverished public school) channel students into different social futures. The second issue is the methodologies and means that are available and used in our educational institutions. Are teachers requiring students to send their projects and assignments by electronic mail? Are teachers using

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technological aids in their teaching by, say, preparing Power Point presentations, designing webpages, and compiling compositions in an electronic website? Are teachers of English taking advantage of the Enlaces program? How do we perceive the gap between my generation that grew up in the context of a print-based literacy and the post typographical generation raised and quite at ease with the use of computer technology? It seems to me that the demand for authentic materials contained in the new programs for English designed by Mineduc provides an opportunity to bring back into the classroom the images that have been displaced by the traditional textbook. If we remember our texts from when were children or look at our childrens books, we can realize that they are fully illustrated, but as the educational (logocentric) emphasis has been placed more and more upon the printed page, on text, these images were abandoned. However, todays every day newspapers, magazines, advertisements and books involve a complex interplay of written text, images and other graphic elements. Using authentic materials also implies bringing into the school certain types of literacies that have been marginalized in favor of the written text. Listening to music, reading cartoons, playing video games, chatting on the Internet, and watching music video clips are the kinds of reading activities in which our students are engaged within their daily life outside the school and that should now be incorporated into the EFL classroom.

The New Literacy The New Literacy

Some techniques that tackle the visuality in texts have already been introduced into the adult TEFL class: as attention to titles, graphs and images accompanying texts in prereading activities; the use of semantic mapping to build or establish background knowledge prior to reading; and the design of webpages in task-based activities or projects. For children, activities as those suggested by the Language Experience Approach, in which children draw pictures as prompts for language instruction, are ideal. In preparation for this multimodal cybernetic scenario, teacher training needs to introduce reflection on these emerging literacies and action in preparing multimedia materials that reflect these changes in human communication. . REFERENCES Brant, Martha. Log on and Learn, Newsweek, August 25, 2003. Davis, Harriet. Assessing Multimodal Texts in Multilingual Classrooms,
http://www.engl.polyu.edu.hk/ACLAR/ltrc_documents/ltr c_networks

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Sur. Homenaje a Juan Lope Blanch. Santiago: Sochil. Kress, G. Leite-Garcia, R. and Van Leeuwen, T. Semitica Discursiva, en Van Dijk, T. 2000.(ed). El Discurso con estructura y proceso. Barcelona: Gedisa. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge. Kress, Gunther and Van Leeuwen, Theo. 2001. Multimodal Discourse. The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold. Lankshear .1997. Changing Literacies. Buckingham: Open University Press. Rocap, Kevin. Defining and designing literacy for the 21st century, en Gwen Solomon, Nancy Allen y Paul Resta (eds.).2003. Toward Digital Equity: Bridging the Divide in Education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Silva, Roberto. 2002. The effects of Hypermedia Annotations on Incidental Vocabulary Learning, trabajo presentado en el Congreso de la Asociacin Chilena de Estudios Norteamericanos, Valparaso: Univ de Playa Ancha. Warschauer, M. 2002. Technology and School Reform: A View from Both Sides of the Tracks, English Language and Technology, Vol. 8, No 4.

Faras, M. Anlisis conversacional de un corpus reducido de lenguaje de salas de chateo, en Valencia, A. (ed). Desde el Cono

Role of English

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The Role of English in the 21st Century

by Melvia A. Hasman
The world is in various stages of social, economic, and demographic transition. Economically and politically, the world has changed more rapidly in the past few years than at any time since 1945. The emerging global economy is both competitive and interdependent. It reflects the availability of modern communications and production technologies in most parts of the world. So, do we need to be concerned about the future of the English language in the 21st century? According to The Economist (1996), English continues to be the world standard language, and there is no major threat to the language or to its global popularity. Even so, changes are coming. last year Johnson and Johnson products outside the United States United States. Hewlett Packard, companies, lost money when economy collapsed. sold than like the more in the many Asian

Joint ventures are no longer just theoretical possibilities. Mergers and acquisitions, like Chrysler/Daimler Benz and MCI and British Telecom, increasingly cross national boundaries. This trend is expected to continue into the next millennium. Such internationalization is illustrated in three ways. First, companies change their basic goals to conform to a global marketplace. Second, they adapt their products to local markets. But most importantly, they do not set up international bureaucracies; instead, they hire foreign nationals who understand the local markets. Why discuss economics together with the English language? Because the English language is closely associated with this economic modernization and industrial development. Information is sent and received at increasing speed. The competitive demands of governments, industries, and corporations, both national and multinational, for technological progress require an understanding of the

AN INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY
Two factors drive the global marketplace. First, many manufactured products have one or more foreign components. Ford cars and IBM computers are just two examples of this. Second, more than half of all imports and exports, which governments label foreign trade, are transacted between domestic companies and their foreign affiliates. The increasing globalization of the marketplace is forcing companies to pay more attention to international developments. Domestic firms are adjusting their structures and methods of operation to fit a broader and rapidly changing economic environment. They are increasing their geographic outreach because more of their suppliers and customers are located on various continents. For example,

Role of English

Page 19
in France, they and the ground controllers use English. When German physicists want to alert the international scientific community to new discoveries, they first publish their findings in English. When Japanese executives conduct business with Scandinavian entrepreneurs, they negotiate in English. When pop singers write their songs, they often use lyrics or phrases in English. When demonstrators want to alert the world to their problems, they display signs in English. Three factors continue to contribute to this spread of English: English usage in science, technology and commerce; the ability to incorporate vocabulary from other languages; and the acceptability of various English dialects. In science, English replaced German after World War II. With this technical and scientific dominance came the beginning of overall linguistic dominance, first in Europe and then globally. Today, the information age has replaced the industrial age and has compressed time and distance. This is transforming world economies from industrial production to informationbased goods and services. Ignoring geography and borders, the information revolution is redefining our world. In less than 20 years, information processing, once limited to the printed word, has given way to computers and the Internet. Computer-mediated communication is closing the gap between spoken and written English. It encourages more informal conversational language and a

language of that technologyEnglish.

SPREAD OF ENGLISH

The global spread of English over the last 40 years is remarkable. It is unprecedented in several ways: by the increasing number of users of the language; by its depth of penetration into societies; and by its range of functions. Worldwide, over 1.4 billion people live in countries where English has official status. One out of five of the worlds population speaks English with some degree of competence. And by 2000, one in fiveover one billion peoplewill also be learning English. Over 70% of the worlds scientists read English. About 85% of the worlds mail is written in English. And 90% of all information in the worlds electronic retrieval systems is stored in English. By 2010, the number of people who speak English as a second or foreign language will exceed the number of native speakers. This trend will certainly affect the language. English is used for more purposes than ever before. Vocabularies, grammatical forms, and ways of speaking and writing have emerged influenced by technological and scientific developments, economics and management, literature and entertainment genres. What began some 1,500 years ago as a rude language, originally spoken by obscure Germanic tribes who invaded England, now encompasses the globe. When Mexican pilots land their airplanes

Role of English

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language and how it is used will change, reflecting patterns of contact with other languages and the changing communication needs of people. English is divesting itself of its political and cultural connotations as more people realize that English is not the property of only a few countries. Instead, it is a vehicle that is used globally and will lead to more opportunities. It belongs to whoever uses it for whatever purpose or need. One question that arises about the future role of the English language is whether a single world standard English will develop. This could result in a supranational variety that all people would have to learn. The widespread use of English as a language of wider communication will continue to exert pressure toward global uniformity. This could result in declining standards, language changes, and the loss of geolinguistic diversity. On the other hand, because English is the vehicle for international communication and because it forms the basis for constructing cultural identities, many local varieties could instead develop. This trend may lead to fragmentation of the language and threaten the role of English as a lingua franca. However, there have always been major differences between varieties of English. There is no reason to believe that any one other language will appear within the next 50 years to replace English. However, it is possible that English will not keep its

tolerance for diversity and individual style, and has resulted in Internet English replacing the authority of language institutes and practices. English, like many languages, uses a phonetic alphabet and fairly basic syntax. But most importantly, it has a large and extensive vocabulary, of which about 80% is foreign. Therefore, it has cognates from virtually every language in Europe and has borrowed and continues to borrow words from Spanish and French, Hebrew and Arabic, Hindi-Urdu and Bengali, Malay and Chinese, as well as languages from West Africa and Polynesia. This language characteristic makes it unique in history. Finally, no English-language central authority guards the purity of the language. Therefore, many dialects have developed: American, British, Canadian, Indian, and Australian, to name a few. There is no standard pronunciation. But within this diversity is a unity of grammar and one set of core vocabulary. Thus, each country that speaks the language can inject aspects of its own culture into the usage and vocabulary. However, the future is unpredictable. As David Crystal (1997) commented, there has never been a language so widely spread or spoken by so many people as English. Thus, there are no precedents to help us predict what happens to a language when it achieves genuine world status.

CHANGES IN THE 21st CENTURY

The world is in transition, and the English language will take new forms. The

Role of English

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monopoly in the 21st century. Rather, a small number of languages may form an oligopoly each with a special area of influence. For example, Spanish is rising because of expanding trade and the increase of the Latino population in the United States. This could create a bilingual English-Spanish region. A language shift, in which individuals change their linguistic allegiances, is another possibility. These shifts are slow and difficult to predict. But within the next 50 years, substantial language shifts could occur as economic development affects more countries. Because of these shifts in allegiance, more languages may disappear. Those remaining will rapidly get more native speakers. This includes English. Internal migration and urbanization may restructure areas, thereby creating communities where English becomes the language of interethnic communicationa neutral language. Universities using English as the medium of instruction will expand and rapidly create a generation of middle-class professionals. Economic development will only increase the middle class, a group that is more likely to learn and use English in jobs. While languages such as English, German, and French have been international languages because of their governments political powers, this is less likely to be the case in the 21st century where economics and demographics will have more influence on languages.

CONCLUSION
English has been an international language for only 50 years. If the pattern follows the previous language trends, we still have about 100 years before a new language dominates the world. However, this does not mean that English is replacing or will replace other languages as many fear. Instead, it may supplement or co-exist with languages by allowing strangers to communicate across linguistic boundaries. It may become one tool that opens windows to the world, unlocks doors to opportunities, and expands our minds to new ideas.

REFERENCES
Crystal, D. 1997. English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The Economist, 1996. London: The Economist, Profile Books. The Future of English. 1997 London: The British Council.

Affective Strategies

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Self-esteem and its Relationship to Language Learning. A Significant Example: Learning English in Jail
by Mary Jane Abrahams

I. INTRODUCTION
For many, the learning of a foreign language represents a threat to their security, to their need of acceptance and recognition by their friends and classmates, by their English teacher and, sometimes, even by their own family. It is hard for our students to accept that making mistakes is necessary to learn a new language. The fear of losing face and being laughed at is usually very negative for the motivational efforts of the teacher. Consequently, learning a new language implies having the will to run risks, to learn to tolerate ambiguity, and even to be ready for chaos. (Oxford, 1998 and Brown, 1996) It is interesting to note that, among the many strategies employed in the teaching of English, a fairly new type has been incorporated that is related to the emotions of the individual (Oxford, 1998 and Hadley O.,1997). These are called Affective Strategies, and they explain why the more basic negative emotions are detrimental to the motivation to learn, and to the results of such a learning system. Emotions such as shame, lack of selfesteem, insecurity and sense of being threatened cause a series of repercussions in the relationship of the student with the usual strategies, and the achievements in learning. It was thought that the penitentiary system was an appropriate frame for a significant study in this area, given that the people doing sentences for transgressions of the law generally claim that lack of self esteem is one of the main reasons for delinquency (Coyle, 2002). Consequently, a project was designed and an agreement was approved by the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educacin and the Direccin Nacional de Gendarmera, so that the last-year students of Pedagogy in English could carry out their professional practice in the jail precinct located in the Metropolitan Region. Four volunteers were accepted for this project, to teach English during a semester under the supervision of a teacher from the English Department and a counselor from the Departamento de Formacin Pedaggica at UMCE.

II. STUDY OVERVIEW

The subjects of this study were 42 (37 male and 6 female) inmate volunteers from two of Santiagos jails: the Ex-Penitentiary and the Penal Center for Women. They came from different sections of their institutions, depending on their behavior, their crimes and their sentences (in years left to serve).

Affective Strategies
The male inmates, ranging from 21 to 56 years of age and with low income levels, were in a atmosphere which they described as hostile and overpopulated: many suffered from mistreatment, physical as well as psychological, and abandonment. Their educational level was low: practically no inmates had completed primary school. The female inmates, ranging from 20 to 47 years of age and with low income levels, lived in better conditions. They were treated better because they had submitted to permanent psychological treatment in a voluntary manner. All of them entered under the agreement that the project would last five semesters, which would allow them to reach an intermediate level of English. The most common initial attitude, which was objectively observed by the practice teachers, was reflected in an evident shyness, problems dealing with other people, low expectations, absence of personal goals, lack of participation with opinions, and the constant use of phrases such as I cant do it! It was impossible to get them to participate spontaneously, as they felt uncomfortable and violently exposed whenever the practice teacher called any one of them by name and asked them to do an exercise or answer a question.

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b. Discover if increased self-esteem can help improve personal relationships. c. Determine if increased self-esteem amongst inmates improves English learning.

IV: SELF-ESTEEM, WORKING DEFINITION

ON

III. OBJECTIVES
1. General Objective To determine whether the inmates selfesteem can be significantly increased through a process of learning-teaching of the English language. 2. Specific Objectives a. ) Confirm the effectiveness of activities conducive to increasing self-esteem in a foreign language class.

The term self-esteem has been defined in many ways. Robert Reasoner, president of the International Council for Self-Esteem, defines it as a quiet trust in ones own potential (Reasoner 2000). Veronica De Andr defines it as our capacity to accept and recognize our light as well as our shadow (De Andr 1999). Stanley Coopersmith, a child psychologist and pioneer in the field of selfesteem research, defines it as an evaluation an individual has about himself; expressing an attitude of approval or disapproval, and indicative of how far the individual believes himself able to be successful, significant, capable and transcendentIts a personal judgement of value, expressed in the attitudes the individual has towards himself (Coopersmith 1967). The California Task Force (1990) gives this definition: Self-esteem is appreciating my own value and importance, and having the strength to hold myself accountable for my acts, and be responsible towards others. Essentially, they all seem to agree on the fact that self-esteem is how much value I assign to myself, the individuals personal perception of his/her self in relation to the areas of influence around him/her: physical, social, academic, emotional and interpersonal; and reactions of commitment, or lack of it, towards all of them.

Affective Strategies
Hence, it is understood that this is a characteristic to be developed from childhood onward, through experience and interaction with others. As long as work and effort are stimulated, the child receives support for his integral growth is motivated to achieve goals within his/her reach. Taught to evaluate his/her potential, this child, upon reaching his/her adolescence, will stop needing explicit approval from his/her elders, and start looking for it in his/her peers (Branden 1994).

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low self-esteem and criminal behavior; in this sense, it becomes of paramount importance to find alternatives that might motivate inmates to change their behavior, thus changing their lives once their sentences are completed. Learning English is, then, a way of forming relationships with others, feeling competent, establishing goals, feeling ones individuality, and having a sense of purpose that goes beyond the immediacy of jail life. If we focus primary and high-school students, we come to similar conclusions. Teachers play a decisive role in developing their students self-esteem, since they are the ones who create the conditions that surround students an environment in which each one of them has feelings of pride and belonging. The teacher must make sure that each student is recognized as an individual, and for his/her own traits. It would, therefore, be desirable for teachers to develop self-esteem-designing activities in which students could voice their opinions and make suggestions and choices of their own. In the same way, it is necessary to give feedback in a specific and informative manner that will strengthen self-esteem, instead of just complying with a duty. (Branden 1994) Williams and Burden (1997) use Feuersteins theory of mediation, formulated in relation to learning experience, to explain factors conducive to social development, sense of belonging, the desire to share, and the value of each individual, and apply it in activities to teach a foreign language with the thought of transforming it into an integral part of teaching strategy to collaborate in the development of

V. SEARCHING FOR LINKS

The result of an individual having positive self-esteem is reflected in his/her confidence when handing out judgement and opinions, believing and defending his/her principles and values, in his/her tolerance and flexibility, in taking actions in terms of the responsibility he/she holds (without blaming others), in acquiring goals within his/her grasp, and in adapting to difficult situations. If these characteristics are not developed, the individual will react negatively to anything which means showing confidence and faith in him/herself. In this way, be it acting as a law-abiding citizen, or risking ridicule by learning a foreign language, the individual will face his/her challenges with respect for him/herself and with responsibility. Christy Camp (1995) establishes that the level of self-esteem an inmate attains when he/she is about to be released determines his/her potential to commit further crimes. Rosenberg (2001) says that adolescents with low self-esteem commit crimes as a way of getting back at the system. We think that there are few doubts about the relationship between

Affective Strategies
the self-concept: ...the wholeness of a complex and dynamic system of learned beliefs which each individual thinks to be true about his personal existence, and which give consistency to his personality of which self-esteem forms a part.

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was that of beginners. The activities were then combined with what the students felt, thought and knew, and with the knowledge of what they were learning of English. The activities were geared to be fun, interesting, motivating towards the use of English; at the same time, they satisfied the necessary requirement of being perceived as relevant and pertinent to the students as individuals. Their objective was directed towards the development of six primary components regarding self-esteem: 1. Awareness about their lives (understanding both the internal and external world) 2. Self-acceptance (the will to live without evading or denying aspects of oneself) 3. Responsibility towards oneself (accepting the results of ones decisions and choices) 4. Self-assertiveness (respect and authenticity) 5. Living with a purpose (identifying long and short-term goals, formulating plans to get there) 6. Personal integrity (being congruent to what one believes, knows and does). Branden, 1994 To achieve these goals, the activities were divided into four substantial areas: 1.) Artistic Expression The intention behind this activity was to help make the students feel free to express themselves in ways that were unexpected to them. There was a combination of humanistic and artistic sculpting techniques to help them discover themselves, have fun and improve

IV. METHODOLOGY
The four practice teachers worked on the development of a series of attitudes in the 47 inmates; these attitudes were related to the ability to express opinions and feelings openly, and to think positively in regard to themselves. The following steps were put into action for the development of the project: The application of a Coopersmith selfesteem test to evaluate the problem. The results were between medium and low levels. The selection and application of activities for English language learning that develop self-esteem. The selection and application of qualitative tools, such as class observation, check lists and selfevaluation forms. All of these had the clear objective of evaluating the changes that would develop. An increase in self-esteem was hoped for, which would make itself apparent in their performance and attitude towards learning. Interpretation of the data. Conclusions.

V. ACTIVITIES
The selected activities were generally based on the humanistic approach. Some were adapted to the context of the inmate students, whose level

Affective Strategies
their self-esteem. These techniques favored self-discovery and self-awareness, contact with their feelings and increasing creativity. Example: The Best Product: Me Objectives: Introspective thinking, stimulating creativity and imagination, practicing the use of the Present Simple, practicing the use of Adjectives. Materials: A sheet of paper per student, magazines, scissors, glue and felt-tip pens. Procedure: The teacher explains that they [the students] will design an ad about themselves. The students will consider why they are special and then design their poster explaining their qualities. When all are finished, the results are to be shared with the group. 2.) Literature This activity had two purposes. One was to develop vocabulary and language skills, a fundamental need for these adults, for whom English is a foreign language. The other was to stimulate self-acceptance and selfunderstanding through thought-provoking questions that would serve as the basis for the analysis and discussion of the texts, as well as for debating over important subjects such as faith, respect, individuality, etc. Example: I am Special (Author Unknown) Objective: For students to think about themselves introspectively, considering their individuality, practicing the use of be, can, have got, and practicing expressions related to personal characteristics.

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Materials: A photocopy of the text per student. Procedure: The teacher starts out by brainstorming about what makes someone special. The students read the text in silence, then the teacher reads it out loud. A circle is formed for its discussion and analysis, where everyone gives their opinion and talks about their emotions. Finally, the students give their opinion about the activity itself and what they have learned.

3.) Creative Writing These activities were a group of tasks directed to helping the inmates understand themselves better, expressing their individuality and listening to others. From the point of view of actual language learning, the linguistic achievements were incredible, possibly due to the nature of the activities that facilitated the expression of feelings in a creative and original way. Example: Weather Forecasting Objectives: Realizing what one feels in different situations, practicing words and expressions related to the weather using the right tense. Materials: Photocopies and a series of questions. Procedure: The teacher explains that in any given situation there is a multiplicity of feelings, and that they [the students] will learn to respond to each situation using terms related to the

Affective Strategies
weather: hot, warm, chilly, freezing, bright, dark, blue, foggy, cloudy, sunny, etc. 4. Music The songs selected were aimed at developing listening comprehension and helping students get in contact with their feelings. The music created a relaxed and agreeable working environment where feelings appeared more easily. Example: Fantasy by Earth, Wind and Fire. Objectives: Learning about themselves through fantasies, practicing the use of imperatives and Present Simple. Materials: Radio cassette player, cassettes, a photocopy of the lyrics per student, a photocopy of the fill-in-theblanks exercises. Procedure: The teacher introduces the song to the students, asking them to guess what the song is about through the title. The teacher asks vocabulary questions, the inmates listen to the song and fill in the blanks. Finally, the deep meaning of the lyrics is discussed and students reach their own conclusions. The concepts chosen to explore and develop in the suggested activities were the following: Individuality The need of a clear sense of self-awareness. Feelings Learning to react emotionally, without previously analysing their feelings. Respect Particularly towards the knowledge, opinions and abilities of others.

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Abilities Admitting their own potential and developing it proudly. Creativity The ability to generate or recombine in an original fashion. Communication Exchanging information or expressing ideas and feelings. Optimism Believing that things will always get better. Faith Believing that one can trust others, and that one can do the right thing.

VI. RESULTS
Check Graphs.

VII. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

The results show a significant increase in the self-esteem of the inmates, seen in their social interactions and their performance in English. The number of inmates with low self-esteem dropped considerably from July to September. Interpersonal relationships improved and their academic performance showed an important increase. Statistics recorded improvement, going from 16% of inmate students with good achievement levels, to 48%. There are several explanations for this: 1.) The implementation of self-esteem activities in class. The ten implemented activities during this study managed to increase the self-esteem of the students, which became evident in: An increase in their awareness of their strengths and weaknesses. Their capacity to establish goals. Their creativity. Their responsibility towards the results of their actions. Their optimism.

Affective Strategies
2.) Strategies used by the practice teachers, some of which were used in all of the classes and in tandem with the aforementioned: Referring to the students by their given name. Talking to each student so that they could share their hopes, fears and achievements with the teacher. These conversations took place after class. Giving multiple alternatives on how to go about the activities so that the inmate could feel they were achieving the goals, particularly by giving them tasks in accordance with their skills. Exhibiting the students work on the walls. Giving opportunities for open discussion of their peers work and their own evaluation of it. This was quite difficult in the beginning, given that the inmate were loath to do it. The situation changed after some time, after they learned how to manage giving opinions and receiving criticism. Taking time to help those who had problems or were falling behind. Stimulating students to take risks and accept challenges. Stimulating and accepting suggestions and decisions: for example, selecting subjects, texts and work. Stimulating paired and/or team-work. Highlighting achievements enthusiastically.

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became more frequent. This was accompanied by a better disposition towards learning a foreign language. The efforts towards learning and participating were more and more noticeable, in the same way that their willingness to work in groups increased, along with their responsibility for their homework. Perhaps the best way to appreciate the increase in self-esteem and academic performance is to check the self-evaluations.

VIII. CONCLUSIONS
Very often, English teachers tend to think that their classes have little or no impact on their students, that they dont get beyond a few interesting discussions on some common topics. However, throughout this study there is increasing evidence of the necessity to select teaching strategies and systematize activities that develop fundamental values, specifically self-esteem, for each individual. These activities should simultaneously help to improve the performance in the learning of a foreign language. English teaching is very versatile: in fact, it lends itself to a great variety of subjects and exercises. This means that it allows students to talk about their reactions, emotions and opinions about them. Students can relate to these subjects through their memories and experiences (both positive and negative), their hopes and their fears. Through all the different subjects that must be seen in class, the foreign language teacher can provide the students with a highly significant subject matter: the study of themselves.

There was a visible increase in the inmates academic performance when voluntary participation in oral and written activities

Affective Strategies IX. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brown, H.Douglas. (1994) Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Heinle & Heinle. Branden, Nathaniel. (1994) The Six Pillars of SelfEsteem. New York: Bantam Books. California Task Force. (1990) To Promote SelfEsteem and personal and Social Responsibility. Towards a State of Self-Esteem. Sacramento, C.A.: California Department of Education. Camp, Christy. (1995) Time's up. July 29th www.lairdcarlson.com/celldor.htm Coopersmith, Stanley. (1967) The Antecedents of Self-Esteem. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company. Coyle, Andrew. (2002) La Administracin Penitenciaria en el Contexto de los Derechos Humanos. Londres: Centro de Estudios Penitenciarios.

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De Andr, Vernica. (1999) What is Self-Esteem. May 22nd www.newrenaissance.ibs.ee/veronica/ english/frame/index Hadley Omaggio, Alice. (1993) Teaching Language in Context. Heinle & Heinle. Oxford, Rebecca. (1990) Language Learning Strategies. Boston, Mass. Heinle & Heinle. Reasoner, Robert & Malhi, Ranjit. (2000) Enhancing Self-Esteem. Kuala Lumpur: SelfEsteem Seminar. Williams, Marion & Burden, Robert L. (1997) Psychology for Language Teachers. London: Cambridge Language Teaching Library, CUP.

Editorial Information and Event Notices

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UPCOMING SYMPOSIUM

Bilingual Minds: English for Chile 2010

Symposium organized by Universidad Diego Portales on the occasion of the opening of its new major in English Language and Culture 2005. Date: October 20 - 21, 2004 Time: 9:00 a.m - 18:30 p.m every day. Venue: Auditorium Facultad de Ingeniera: Ejercito 441. Universidad Diego Portales

NEWSLETTER SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

IN A WORD solicits submissions on an ongoing basis. Submissions may be shortentries (250-750 words) on teaching methods/tips, professional development, material writing, book reviews or issues related to specialized areas such as basicasecondaria education, adult education, or teacher-training. Longer, pedagogicallyoriented articles (1,000-1,500 words) on any of these issues are also welcome. Please send submissions by e-mail or on a 3.5 diskette. Text should be in ASCII format. Relevant illustrations may be included. Citations should conform to APA (American Psychiatric Association) style. Please include a printed copy of your manuscript. Please include an autobiography (50 words or so) with your name, affiliation and area(s) of specialization. Please send submissions to: tesolchile@hotmail.com IN A WORD also welcomes announcements about upcoming events, calls for papers, conference notices, links to notable websites, and news about the activities of TESOL CHILE members. Please include day and evening phone numbers, a preferred postal address, and e-mail (if possible) with all correspondence. IN A WORD reserves the right to edit all manuscripts accepted for publication. A writers request for final approval is honored whenever possible.

Professor John Swales from the University of Michigan and Professor Ray Fleming from Florida State University (FSU) have confirmed their participation as guest speakers.

This symposium is free of charge. .

Contact information and registration: Roxana Orrego e-mail: roxana.orrego@udp.cl Jaime Correa e-mail: jaime.correa@udp.cl Facultad de Humanidades Universidad Diego Portales 6762396 - 6762810 - 6762395

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Because you want to be part of a team that will:

Improve language teaching in Chile by fostering the exchange of ideas, resources, information, and experiences among English teachers through national and regional conferences, print materials (such as this newsletter), and an Internet website; Promote better standards of teacher training (both pre- and in-service); Encourage research and scholarship; Advise teachers, when appropriate, in dealing with government and official bodies on professional matters; Serve as consultants and advisors to other educational groups; Communicate regularly with TESOL affiliate organizations in other Latin American countries (especially the Southern Cone region); Maintain beneficial contacts with other language associations; and Benefit from organizational support from our U.S.-based parent organization, TESOL, Inc., which offers opportunities for networking, information exchange, grants and other services.

By becoming a member of TESOL CHILE , you will

Receive information from TESOL CHILE about conferences and other related news; Receive free admission to TESOL CHILEs upcoming conferences (we only ask that you register for the conferences you wish to attend); Be able to vote in TESOL CHILEs executive committee elections, and to run for office; Be eligible to attend TESOL Inc.s annual convention in the United States or Canada; Receive exclusive, password-protected access to certain services on TESOL CHILEs upcoming website (e.g., newsletters, forums, bulletin boards and chat rooms); and Be entered in a directory of member names and contact information that is distributed to all members. For information on how to become a member of TESOL CHILE, please contact

tesolchile@hotmail.com