HOW TO CREATE ACTIVE ESL LESSONS
Vera Homolka

I. INTRODUCTION

Cone of Experience

This paper will discuss the construction of ESL lessons which actively engage adult learners. Out of much pertinent information presented at the first module of the Adult Basic Education Teacher Training Institute (presented in Lincoln, NE on January 19 and 20, 1996, by John Dirkx and Cynthia Blodgett-Mcdeavitt), I was most impressed with a diagram entitled "Cone of Experience." This pyramid shape, listing 10 learner activities frequently practiced in ESL classes, has been adapted from materials produced by Dr. Katherine Tift for the National Drug Abuse Training Center. According to the Cone of Experience, people generally remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they see, 50% of what they see and hear, 70% of what they say and write, and 90% of what they say as they perform a task. In short, hearing, saying, seeing, and doing, better help students to remember than does verbal receiving (reading and listening). This Cone of Experience prompted my goal of constructing ESL lessons which would more actively engage the learner.

The Cone of Experience as an ESL teaching guide

Effective ESL teaching helps students to learn speaking, listening, reading, and writing competencies of a level of English as quickly as possible along with maximum enjoyment. Teachers may refer to the Cone of Experience in selecting and planning in-class learning activities for their ESL students. Since real experiences, simulated real experiences, role-playing, and workshop exercises involving speaking and writing result in the higher percentages of retention of learned materials, teachers may want to have their students working on these types of learning activities for the greater part of an ESL class period.

II. IMPLEMENTING "ACTIVE" LESSON PLANS

I teach adult ESL 14 hours per week plus two hours of volunteer teaching. My classes are in an apartment, at the city library, at the Farmland pork processing plant, and at the elementary school. I have tried to construct lesson plans which would more actively engage my beginning, intermediate, and advanced ESL adults. Here are 12 activities that I have tried:

Activity #1 - role-playing

The teacher writes a simple dialog on the board such as:
Would you like some candy?
Yes, thank you.
No, thank you.
The students repeat the dialog as a group. Then the students use the dialog while passing the dish of candy to one another.

Activity #2 - role-playing

An imaginary telephone rings. A student playing the part of a tenant talks to a student playing the part of apartment manager about something not working in the apartment such as the toilet or the stove. Or a student pretends to meet a friend on the street, and they go to the store together.

Activity #3 - following directions

The teacher reviews colors by asking students to choose 8 1/2" by 11" sheets of brightly colored paper. Then, working individually, one student follows printed instructions to make a paper cup while the other follows a different set of instructions to make an envelope with two pockets. Finally, the students take turns telling (not showing) each other how to mnake the second item.

Activity #4 - talking about actual objects

A group of students is given the following objects: a box of tissues, an aspirin bottle, a cold medicine bottle, a box of band- aids, and a bar of soap. A price is written on each item. Students practice saying the names of the objects and the prices by repeating after the teacher. Then, each student in turn identifies the objects and says the price of each.
This is a (an)___________________.
It costs_____________________.

Activity #5 - writing about actual objects

A group of students is given one box of cookies and one box of creackers. They may open the boxes and sample the contents. They are required to write sentences comparing the two boxes. Examples of comparatives used may be: sweeter, more (less) expensive, more (less) delicious, bigger (smaller), harder, (softer), older, (fresher).

Activity #6 - identifying actual objects by touch

The teacher collects about 10 small tools such as a hammer, vise-grip wrench, screwdriver, etc. These are wrapped in plastic grocery bags that are taped shut and numbered. Using their sense of touch plus a dictionary, students guess what tool is in each bag and write down its name on a numbered list.

Activity #7 - pictures and reading

Using a large piece or pieces of newsprint, the teacher writes 12 or more sentences about a chosen topic with a noun deleted in each sentence (cloze activity). A removable stick note tape is fastened to the back of each of the pictures which represent the missing nouns. The teacher gives each student a picture or pictures. Each student folds down half of the stick note tape on each of his picture cards and sticks up each picture in the correct blank.

Activity #8 - pictures, vocabulary, and listening

The teacher cuts out pictures of furniture, appliances, and rooms from a Sears catalog and staples these pictures onto colored construction paper. A stick note label with the name of a piece of furniture, an appliance, or a room in a house is placed on each picture. However, the labels are all on the wrong pictures and students have to change them around. After students have finished correcting the labels, the teacher tells a connected story using all the words on the pictures. As students hear each of the pictured words spoken, he or she must hold up the corresponding picture.

Activity #9 - pictures and speaking

Draw or copy eight or ten pictures showing a sequence such as going to the barbershop. Students work in groups to arrange the pictures in order. Then each person in each group retells part of the story.

Activity 10 - interviewing

Give each student a single question typed on a sheet of paper. He or she is asked to use that question to interview each class member. After students have finished interviewing, each student presents his or her findings to the class.

Activity #11 - questions and answers

Each student receives one or more cards with different questions. In turn, each student reads a question and then calls on whomever he or she wishes for an answer.

Activity #12 - sentence structure

The teacher sticks 10 pink stick notes on the first half of 10 blank cards and 10 yellow stick notes on the second half of 10 blank cards. The teacher writes a 10 sentence sequential story about George Washington or about any topic. The first part of each sentence goes on a pink stick note while the second part of the sentence goes on a yellow stick note. The student, working in a group, must stick the yellow notes beside the correct pink notes. Then the group must put the completed sentences of the story in order and read them aloud.

III. ASSESSMENT

How successful have I been in using the Cone of Experience to help construct ESL lessons which actively engage learners?

None of the twelve activities involved the students as they went through a real experience. Activities which simulated a real experience or involved role-playing were Activity #1 - role- playing, Activity #2 - role-playing, Activity #4 - talking about actual objects, and Activity #10 - interviewing. In each of these four activities, participating students should have remembered 90% of what they said as they performed their assigned task.

The Cone of Experience suggests that people generally remember 70% of what they say and write. Only Activity #5 - writing about actual objects involved group speaking and writing.

The Cone of Experience suggests that people generally remember 50% of what they see and hear. Activity #8 - pictures, vocabulary, and listening and Activity #9 - pictures and speaking featured seeing and hearing.

Activity #3 - following directions and Activity #11 - questions and answers involved students in listening. According to the Cone of Experience, students should have retained 20@ of what they heard while doing these activities.

Students should have remembered 10% of what they read while doing Activity #7 - pictures and reading and Activity #12 - sentence structure.

Activity #6 - identifying actual objects by touch had no category in the Cone of Experience.

What has contributed to my ability to implement active ESL lesson plans based on the Cone of Experience?

  1. multi-level group - Two of my classes include beginning and advanced ESL students together. Group activities involving pictures, role-playing, and objects are adaptable to both levels simultaneously.
  2. need for variety and entertainment - Most class periods are two hours long. An ESL teacher must forestall at all costs the vacant, glazed over stare and the shuffling of papers as if preparing to leave.
  3. inadequate teaching materials - no matter how good an ESL book is, it is never the best choice for every student in the room, especially in a multi-level group. Also, if a room has an inadequate chalkboard, such as a small one propped up on a chair, it makes good sense to bring in my teaching materials already created.
  4. availability of materials - I have lots of small tools and other objects at home that can be used as props and for role- playing.
  5. freedom to plan my own curriculum - Though the three ESL teachers in our adult program have chosen to teach main topics simultaneously such as housing or health, and to use the Best Test to assess ESL students, we are free to write our own lesson plans using whatever materials and techniques we choose.
  6. volunteer class - Since students often do not arrive at the same time, suitable activities must be used at the beginning of class such as Activity #11 - questions and answers or Activity #7 - pictures and reading.
  7. restrictions on copying - If students do not have textbooks, creating teaching materials from cards, stick notes, newsprint, and real objects reduces the amount of printed materials.
  8. student response - I believe that adult students both learn English from and enjoy role-playing and "hands-on" types of activities. The only activity I would not repeat would be Activity #3 - following directions. The majority of my students are men who might regard paper-folding as a children's activity.
What has made it difficult for me to implement active ESL lessons based on the Cone of Experience?
  1. Lack of time - Creating an original idea or researching one takes time as does creating the materials needed for implementation.
  2. Expense of materials - All the newsprint, cards, tape, stick notes, construction paper, hole puncher, stapler, and food items were items that I bought.
  3. Difficulty of carrying materials - To each of four different locations, I need to carry the books needed, student forms, notebook with lesson plans, markers, scissors, tape, stapler, extra pens and pencils, notebook directory of students, materials to be handed out during class, tape recorder, plus any props to be used in role-playing.
  4. Misunderstanding of "active" - Though my "active" lesson plans involved physical movement or touching and manipulation of objects, only one fourth involved speaking while performing a task or simulated real experiences.

IV. GREATER FUTURE SUCCESS IN IMPLEMENTING THE CONE OF EXPERIENCE

Following are six actions I am going to take in order to implement the Cone of Experience even further within the ESL curriculum:
  1. I will ask students to help make some of the teaching materials. Helping to create these teaching aids will give them practice in writing English plus a feeling of unity with the class.
  2. I will read research studies involving adult ESL students and try out the new ideas in my own classes.
  3. I will visit other ESL programs this summer to observe other teachers at work.
  4. I will add more "real" experiences to my classes including:
  5. I will construct and use much more frequently:
  6. I will use improved assessment strategies to measure and document the new, faster progress of my students.

V. CONCLUSION

The heart of this paper has been the group of 12 activities which I have created, adapted, or gone to various conferences to learn. It has been my goal to construct ESL lessons which actively engage learners in the belief that adult ESL students learn most by performing activities that involve hearing, saying, seeing, and doing. In other words, going through the real experience, simulating a real experience, role-playing a situation, or doing an exercise involving saying and writing results in greater retention of learned material than just reading or hearing words alone.

Though the 12 activities almost always actively engaged and interested students, they were not always in the "90% retention after speaking while performing a task" category according to the Cone of Experience. Sometimes they were just a more interesting way of reading, reviewing vocabulary, or writing. Or they were intended to add variety to a long period of time of studying with the same teacher. Or they were a convenient way of teaching one group while the teacher was working with the other group.

I am still at the beginning of all the teaching techniques of the future, but the Cone of Experience always serves as a handy guide to remind me that I need to create more opportunities for simulation of real experiences, role-playing, and saying-writing combinations in my adult ESL classes. Drawing upon the wisdom of this simple diagram, I believe that tomorrow I will teach better, and that tomorrow my students will learn faster.

HOW TO CREATE ACTIVE ESL LESSONS - Part Two

Part Two of "How to Create Active ESL Lessons" will describe and rate according to the Cone of Experience the successful learner activities of adult ESL students learning English vocabulary in three separate situations.

Sweet Valley Kids

This case study by Kyung-Sook Cho and Stephen D. Krashen sought to prove that the right books would promote more free reading and improved ESL learning, especially of colloquial vocabulary. The participants in this study were three Korean- speaking women and one Spanish-speaking woman. They were between the ages of 21 and 30; their time in the U.S. varied between five months and seven years. They had studied English anywhere from three to ten years. Only one felt confident speaking English with native speakers. For several months during their free time, these women were asked to read books from the Sweet Valley series published by Bantam. These books are extremely popular among high school girls. Generally, the women were left to use their own reading strategies. Individualized tests showed that all of the women learned substantial new English vocabulary as a result of their reading on their own in English. Their ability to speak and understand everyday English improved as well. The case study condluded that it was not necessary to use a dictionary in order to profit linguistically from reading. The study also proved the value of "narrow" reading texts in only one genre or by only one author. Reading multiple texts of a series allows the reader to take full advantage of the knowledge gained in previously read text. (Cho and Krashen, 1994) (2)

While the diagram of the Cone of Experience shows that people generally remember 10% of what they read, the diagram does not clarify the number of new words ESL students may be expected to gain from reading in English. According to Cho and Krashen (1994), statistics show that native speakers gain about 3,000 words per year from reading one million words. One woman in the case study (Cho and Krashen, 1994) gained words at a much greater rate because she used a dictionary, but she also read the fewest books. The other women, who read more books, acquired vocabulary at below the native speaker rate. One of the women in the study read an impressive 45 books from the series in only four months. The Cone of Experience would be even more valuable for ESL teachers if it specified the percentage of English vocabulary that students might be expected to remember from the various learner activities.

Including the specified rates of vocabulary aquisition of the case participants was a strong point of the Cho and Krashen (1994) study. Including a greater number of participants, having more variety in their ages, and including participants of both sexes would have strengthened this study further. Also helpful would be a listing of a series of men's books that would be comparable to the high interest and low reading levels of the Sweet Valley series.

In spite of its weaknesses, this case study proves to ESL teachers that free voluntary reading does indeed help develop literacy in ESL. Language is understanding messages rather than learning rules, and reading often can be fun if one can find both interesting and comprehensible books. (Cho and Krashen, 1994) When I was a child learning English as a second language, there were many such books available, and I read them voraciously. They were comic books.

A Student-written Textbook

At a railroad workshop in Australia, unskilled, middle-aged immigrant workers, mainly from Southern Europe, were offered an opportunity to enroll in at least two 100-hour English courses during working hours. Having had an average of four to five years of schooling in their first country, they were, nevertheless, able to communicate fluently in non-standard English. (on the average, they had been working at unskilled positions in Australia for 15-30 years.) Though some had taught themselves to read, none could write. They also had low literacy levels in their own language. In spite of feeling they were too old to learn, and facing ridicule from fellow workers and immigrants, the majority of immigrant worker students progressed from illiteracy or near-illiteracy to minimum survival proficiency by the end of the first 100 hours. By the end of 200 hours, the majority of students were able to write totally self-generated, mainly correct sentences in English for their everyday needs. (Wales, 1994)

To overcome the challenge of finding text with both mature content and simple structure, students produced their own writing text. They would talk about a piece of news, some event at work, or any item of interest, and the instructor would write the text on the board with nonstandard forms and word order but with correct spelling. Then the group, with the help of the instructor, changed the text to standard English. This adjusted text was then used for reading and writing activities by everyone in the group. (Wales, 1994)

Saying and writing, a major learner activity in this program description (Wales, 1994), results in a retention rate of 70% according to the Cone of Experience. Besides having the students write their own text, the instructor in the study (Wales, 1994) also provided lots of dictation and writing practice. From the beginning, students learned to write words from the Dolch list (220 most frequently used words in English). (Wales, 1994) The instructor showed students five to eight words, read them aloud, checked their use and meaning through sentences given by the students, and conducted practice with flashcards. The students then copied the words in a column in their notebooks. After examining the words, students covered the column and wrote the words from the instructor's dictation in a second column alongside the first. Then students corrected their own spelling, comparing both columns. If students preferred, they could simply copy during dictation rather than covering the original column. Within two to three lessons, students could write from dictation simple sentences and had learned 15 to 20 words. (Wales, 1994)

Since my teaching preparation often tends to overuse the copy machine, I found this program description especially useful and tried it in my classes immediately. I was pleased when even the lowest level beginners learned to write the words. Sometimes teachers are made to feel guilty for correcting spelling and grammar, so I was happy to read how this instructor taught ESL students to write correctly.

Self-directed Vocabulary Learning

This research study conducted at a Canadian University included both lower and higher level ESL students taking an intensive vocabulary course. The participants were asked to describe the various aspects of their approaches to vocabulary study. Participants seemed to fall into one of two groups. Participants in Group A supplemented in-class learning by self- created learning activities such as: listening to the daily news on the radio, listening to audio tapes, watching TV programs, engaging in monologues in the language while jogging, asking friends to make tapes, performing translations, completing cloze, reading self-study books, doing "mental practice," writing down unknown words, and studying with audio tapes while driving. Group B engaged in a minimal amount of independent study. This group of participants kept minimal records of vocabulary items they had learned or were learning. They wrote words because the act of writing helped them to learn the words rather than writing with the intent of reviewing their notes later. In short, Group B relied largely on classroom activities for vocabulary practice and review. Self initiated learning activities, independent study, records of vocabulary, and practice and review of vocabulary all were minimal or nonexistent. Results of statistical analyses indicated that learners who had a structured learning approach (Group A) were more successful in retaining vocabulary taught in their classes than were learners who had an unstructured learning approach (Group B). (Sanaoui, 1995)

The study (Sanaoui, 1995) listed and explained several mnemonic procedures used by various participants. These procedures can usually be classified using the categories of the Cone of Experience. Using a word in a conversation with someone and connnecting a word with a particular situation would be closest to role-playing or a real experience. Repeating the word is an example of verbal receiving. Writing down the word in an attempt to remember it is an example of visual receiving. However, the Cone of Experience includes no clear category for linguistic associations or for connecting the word with a known word in the first or second language. Research on how ESL learners acquire vocabulary is significant because ESL learners must develop large vocabularies in order to be proficient in English.

CONCLUSION:

I have used the Cone of Experience as a guide in constructing ESL lessons which would more actively engage the learner. I have included detailed summaries of the previous three research studies because they contained superior ideas for improving my ESL teaching such as:
  1. Free-reading is an enjoyable way of increasing ESL vocabulary and English speaking competency.
  2. Students and teacher writing their own reading texts has been proven successful in teaching ESL students to read and write correctly.
  3. Dictation combined with speaking and immediate reinforcement teaches illiterate ESL students how to write.
  4. Teachers must encourage learners to reflect upon and document how they learn vocabulary. (This reflection and documentation will help students gauge the effectiveness of those practices in addition to sharing those practices with other students and teachers.)

REFERENCES

Cho, K., & Krashen, S.D. (1994). Acquisition of vocabulry from the sweet valley kids series: adult esl acquisition. Journal of Reading, 37, 662-667.
Sanaoui, R. (1995). Adult learners' approaches to learning vocabulary in second language. The Modern Language Journal, 79, 15-28.
Tift, K. Cone of experience.
Wales, M.L. (1994). A language experience approach (lea) in adult immigrant literacy programs in australia. Journal of Reading, 38, 200-208.
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