Perceptions of Efficacy: If I'm not suffering, am I learning?
- 1. Perceptions of Efficacy: If I’m not suffering, am I learning? Bindi Clements PhD Instructional Design and Efficacy Manager bindi.clements@wallstreetenglish.com @bindi_clements Innovate ELT 2018
- 2. Fun and the WSE method
- 3. Who are we?
- 4. Interactive lessons ‘Bite-sized, entertaining, sitcom-style lessons.’ Digital workbooks ‘Fun, interactive exercises.’ Social Experience ‘Meet new people, have fun and practice your English.’ Fun at WSE
- 7. Students are more motivated if they are having fun. Students will learn without noticing they are learning so they will enjoy it more. A fun learning environment will make everything more memorable. But … Do learners pay enough attention and ‘notice’ language when they are having fun? In what way is it memorable? Why does ‘fun’ boost learning? I asked our staff...
- 8. When students are having fun, they don't mind spending more time doing their English learning activities. Students will do activities more frequently when the activities are fun and engaging. OK, but … is it (only) ‘fun’ that makes (digital) learning ‘sticky’? Why does ‘fun’ boost learning? I asked our staff...
- 9. When students are having fun, they will be more willing to try new things and not be afraid to make mistakes. The ‘affective filter’ is lowered by having fun in the classroom. Affective variables such as fear, nervousness, and boredom can affect the acquisition of a second language. OK, but … are we sure we know what learners find ‘fun’ in the classroom? Why does ‘fun’ boost learning? I asked our staff...
- 14. Listen
- 15. Pronounce
- 16. Practice
- 17. Speak
- 18. Confirm
- 19. • Listen (Video, audio or reading text with comprehension questions) • Pronounce (Listen, record and compare) • Practice (Variety of question types to practice language and draw attention to written form) • Speak (Digital conversation) • Confirm (Questions to review language) Which Interactive Activity sounds most ‘fun’?
- 20. Interviews with 12 students in China. Two types of responses: Fun, fun, fun ‘They should be fun, because I want to be absorbed into them.’ ‘Of course they should be fun. English is something that I love!’ Learning = fun 'We study the language, we should study it, not very interesting things.' ‘It's OK if they are tedious, because the purpose is to learn English.’ ‘Useful and fun is the same thing for me. I enjoy it and really think it's helpful.’ Should the interactive lessons be ‘fun’? I asked the students...
- 21. What the students said ... Which is most fun? Which is least fun? Which is most effective? Which is least effective? Which would you like to go back to? Listen 7 0 0 1 5 Pronounce 2 2 6 1 10 Practice 1 1 1 0 4 Speak 3 5 5 1 4 Confirm 1 4 1 7 5
- 22. • Don’t assume I know what learners are going to find ‘fun’! • ‘Fun’ (or engaging) for some students = I’m learning. • Being ‘fun’ doesn’t make it ‘sticky’ for all learners. Feeling they are learning is ‘stickier’ for these learners. • Even if they are not ‘delighted’ by the UX, they still value activities if they feel they are learning. What did I learn?
- 23. The WSE Classes
- 25. • Encounters: Assessed practice activities for unit language. • Complementary Classes: Practice activities and games using language taught at their level. • Social Clubs: Fluency class around a theme, same-level students. • English Corners: Teacher-led discussion around a theme, find out about something new, mixed-level students. • Parties: Fun social events with games and other practical activities, mixed-level students. Which do you think students thought were most ‘fun’?
- 26. • Social Clubs are definitely more fun for the students than Encounters. • Students feel stressed by being assessed in Encounters. That’s not fun. • Students most enjoy the parties. • They probably like the English Corners the most. • A lot of learners are feedback hungry. Fluency classes don't give them the feedback they want. What did the teachers think?
- 27. ● Parties, English Corners and Social Clubs are most fun. They enjoy the opportunity practice their English in a stress-free environment. ● They see the value of Encounters for practising and reinforcing what they learned. Assessment is not stressful, but they are not the most fun classes as more controlled by the teacher. B1 (and higher) students
- 28. • ‘A mix of different level students make it hard. Low level students don't have chance to speak much. I listen a lot. Don't like it.’ • ‘They are not good. Sometimes I can't understand. I don't know what I can say.’ • ‘I don’t like being with higher level students, I can’t participate.’ • ‘Yesterday there was a party - student all star night. Four students talked about their experience learning English. I liked that, I could understand them, I felt motivated.’ A2 and lower students: Social Clubs, English Corners and Parties
- 29. • ‘Encounter is like a test. This is a good thing. We learn from tests.’ • ‘I think Encounters are very good. The teacher can correct my mistakes.’ • ‘I enjoy Encounters a lot because I get a lot of error correction, so I feel I learn a lot. But I don’t enjoy so much Social Clubs because there is less error correction.’ • ‘I feel good in Encounters. Teachers correct mistakes in the middle of the class, so I think Encounters are very good.’ A2 and lower students: Encounters
- 30. • Fun is producing (correct/corrected) English for some students, not (necessarily) playing games. Make sure ‘fun’ activities have a learning aim. • There might be a gap between what teachers think is fun, and what learners think is fun. Ask yourself why your learners need to have fun! • Activities which teachers think are ‘fun’ might be stressful for (lower level) learners. Lack of purpose or clarity is not engaging for your learners. • Learners value learning more than ‘fun’. What’s ‘sticky’ for learners may be a perception that they are learning, not that they are having ‘fun’. What can we learn? How can we improve our product?
- 31. Thank you for coming! bindi.clements@wallstreetenglish.com @bindi_clements
Editor's Notes
- #2: First of all, thank you for coming, right at the end of the conference! I’m Bindi, I work as Instructional Design and Efficacy Manager for Wall Street English. Compared to some of the speakers here, I’m a relative newcomer to EFL - around 12 years, but have worked in education, particularly designing online and blended learning, for over 20 years.
- #3: I recently joined WSE. Fun is important to the WSE method, and to how our method is sold to our learners. Take this conference as opportunity to think about this. I did some research with students and learners in China.. Do our learners agree that fun is important? And is what we think our learners find fun the same as what the learners tell us they find fun?
- #4: Has anyone heard of WSE? Founded in 1972, has over 400 centres in 28 territories in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, over 170,000 adult students worldwide. Blended learning. Watch this clip and think about how important fun seems to be.
- #5: Quote from the website.
- #6: Core method. Today I’m going to look at fun in the interactive lessons, and in the class types. First going to look at what and why we want to build in fun. Then question what we think fun is, and what our students think fun is.
- #8: I asked staff here in the product department why we would want to build in fun.
- #11: WHY are we looking at this? Want to know what makes interactive lessons ‘sticky’. How can we motivate our learners to complete these lessons? And does making them fun actually make them any more effective? Study of 12 students in China.
- #21: From this I thought for students from the ‘fun, fun,fun’ group, videos would be most fun, pronounce least fun (repetitive and right now no feedback). And I thought for some for whom ‘fun’ and ‘effective’ were the same, Practice and Confirm would be highly scored.
- #22: Listen Only 7/12 said the video activities were the most ‘fun’. Nobody thought the videos were the most effective. Some students felt they didn’t learn anything (no explicit learning) so wanted to be able to skip watching the videos. Pronounce Most enjoyable for 2 students. VERY surprising! Most effective for 6 students (but not about pronunciation) 10 students would like to go back and do it again (despite UX issues) Confirm Those who wanted to go back and repeat was to repeat questions they answered incorrectly. For those who did not like this section, it was largely not related to UX, but that they felt it was too easy.
- #24: Second area I looked at was the classes. 18 students, 5 focus groups of teachers.
- #28: Not so many surprises for higher levels. Even student who likes encounters, unsurprising, we can expect assessment to be less stressful for them at this level.
- #29: Find it difficult when they can’t participate. Not fun. Remember that teachers on the whole did not recognise this.