The movie Kenny is, in my opinion, a masterpiece of Australian cinema. It is one of those mockumentaries that is so well done that, unless you knew better, you could be easily forgiven for thinking it is a real documentary. The realism of it also makes it perfect for exposing your ESL learners to everyday Australian conversation in action. Oh, and it might just give them a bit of a laugh as well...
I got the idea for the following clip after a recent stay in hospital for an operation. During the pre-op, I had to lie in a bed and listen to an old fella carrying on in rather similar fashion to the way Kenny's dad does here.
Unit C21 (VPAU502): Engage in casual conversation and straightforward spoken transactions.
Element 1: Interpret a casual conversation on everyday topics
Performance Criteria 1.1: Identify context/situation and relationship between speakers
Performance Criteria 1.2: Outline main topics, and opinions or attitudes expressed
Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting details and implied meanings, where apparent
Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify emotional state/attitude of speakers where apparent
Performance Criteria 1.5: Identify some conversational strategies used
Performance Criteria 1.6: Identify requests to clarify misunderstandings and ambiguous points
After seeing what your learners can glean and learn from the exchange, there are lots of different ways you could generate conversation and discussion with your class (for example, hospital experiences, opinions about hospital costs or doctors, dealing with older people, etc.). For discussion, your learners may benefit from the conversational strategies outlined here.
There would be some teachers out there who would tell me this isn't ideal material for an ESL classroom, citing the need to be sensitive to different cultural values and beliefs, etc.
Bollocks to that, I say. Gay marriage IS a big issue not just in Australia right now, but also in the United States and in many other parts of the world. It's an issue all of us need to think about, whether we were born in this country or are recent arrivals.
Penny Wong (Australian Federal Senator and Finance Minister) appeared on the popular program QandA on Monday and was caught by surprise at the end of the segment by an unexpected question. Given she is gay and a gay parent but has famously refused to campaign publicly about same-sex issues, her response here is being held up by many as a potential watershed (there's a good word to explain to your ESL students!) moment in the debate about the fundamental rights of gays and lesbians in Australia.
Here are my English Oz activity sheets to go with this discussion input:
Unit C21 (VPAU502): Engage in casual conversation and straightforward spoken transactions.
Element 1: Interpret a casual conversation on everyday topics
Performance Criteria 1.1: Identify context/situation and relationship between speakers
Performance Criteria 1.2: Outline main topics, and opinions or attitudes expressed
Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting details and implied meanings, where apparent
Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify emotional state/attitude of speakers where apparent
Performance Criteria 1.5: Identify some conversational strategies used
Performance Criteria 1.6: Identify requests to clarify misunderstandings and ambiguous points
You might like to also support this with the following article from the Sydney Morning Herald, which includes the video footage above and all of the key dialogue as written quotes, but also builds some context and commentary around them:
I think the following video is also brilliant material, not just for demonstrating that, for all her quiet and firm determination, Ms. Wong is not afraid to stand up to the conservative bully boys in Australia's parliament; there is also the prickly issue of gender equality and attitudes towards women in general in this country:
An amazing lady. I personally reckon she should be the country's Prime Minister, but that's just my opinion. See what your ESL learners make of her!
Adam Hills makes a very good point? About the way Australians inflect up at the end of many sentences? To make it sound like a question? 'Coz we're kinda insecure? And we need your approval? Or we just like to ask questions that don't actually need answers?
I think this is a brilliant resource for ESL learners (though Dutch students may not like the stereotype joke at their expense). Aside from the pronunciation/intonation points, there are nice opportunities to draw on the content for chats about Australian history, particularly the discovery of the continent by Europeans, and to have a bit of a larf along the way...
Activity resource sheets for learners and teachers:
This is a beautifully simple and accessible telling of the Rainbow Serpent story which is so central to so much of Australia's indigenous dreamtime culture.
Here are some activity sheets to go with the oral text:
Certificate III ESL (Access) components targeted and tracked through the activities:
Unit C22 (VPAU503): Give and respond to a range of straightforward instructions and informational texts.
Element 1: Interpret an informational oral text
Performance Criteria 1.1: Identify the context, topic and purpose of an informational oral text
Performance Criteria 1.2: Outline main ideas, opinions and attitudes expressed
Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or details
Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify the tone and register of the text, and any inferred meaning
Performance Criteria 1.5: Express an opinion about the ideas or issues raised
Just note that there is also a nice written text accompanying the video which gives some interesting background information about the dreamtime notion. It could make for a reading outcome as a natural extension or follow up from the oral text.
This English Oz reading resource draws on the online article located here.
It's an interesting article because of just how true many people will find some of the warnings, as well as a poll that has been conducted and attached to the end of the story.
Here are the associated learning activity resource sheets:
This is a current article in Melbourne's The Age newspaper and I think it could be an interesting one for ESL students to engage with. Aside from the growing number of families having the grandparents mind the children so that both parents can work (more) in Australia, this is very often the traditional way many families operate in many other countries (quite possibly ESL learners' own home countries or here in Australia as well).
There are also some interesting general statistics about childcare and costs in the article - plenty of good discussion points to explore.
Here are the activity/resource sheets I've developed to go with the article:
This was an interesting resource to research and develop. It presents two different versions of the same core song - Beds are Burning; the recent version produced as part of the Tck Tck Tck Campaign to promote awareness of climate change in the lead up to the Copenhagen Summit, and the original version from the band Midnight Oil, which was inspired by the Pintupi tribe and their move in from and then back out to the isolation of Australia's Western Desert.
Two very different 'causes', and it is interesting to look at how the lyrics are different for each version according to their purpose.
To best showcase this, I've built a webpage featuring both music videos and the lyrics for each in a scroll box beneath, side by side for easy comparison. In addition, for each version I've added a series of key words and links to graded (or gradable) texts on Google Search that explore a variety of issues or topics relevant to each rendition of the Beds are Burning song.
For ESL application, just listening to and comparing the lyrics can be a really interesting exercise. The main ideas and 'roots' in each set of lyrics make for clear comparisons, but at phrase level there are also some great opportunities to explore language (for example to take a stand versus to say fair's fair, or turning back versus give it back).
These texts are also well set up for Certificate III in ESL (Access) and the following element/performance criteria:
Unit C24 (VPAU505): Read and write a range of straightforward informational, instructional and other texts.
Element 1: Analyse a range of informational texts
Performance Criteria 1.1: Scan informational text and identify the context and topic
Performance Criteria 1.2: Identify the main ideas or issues
Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or examples
Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify conventions of informational texts
Performance Criteria 1.5: Analyse the structure and discourse features of the texts
Performance Criteria 1.6:Respond to the text, outlining any opinions expressed, and state own opinion about the topic
Learners could be encouraged to tackle both texts as part of this outcome, or the one that interests them most. Alternatively, they could follow the links featured alongside each set of lyrics and source their own reading text on a more specific topic (anything from climate change to The Pintupi Nine). This is a great way to marry extensive reading with some basic tech skills oriented around particular themes.
Besides reading, there are plenty of opportunities to have classroom discussions or negotiate writing topics feeding out of the content available on the web page.
One or more of the texts available through this resource could also build towards any of a number of ESL Framework Elective Units (for example, Current Issues, Indigenous Australia, Environment of Australia, Australian History, etc.)
See more of this these sorts of resources over at the English Oz section of this blog.
If you find (as I have done) that many of your adult ESL learners in Australia are also parents to young children, you might find this reading/discussion resource interesting to take into your classroom or offer up as a personal selection for students.
It's based on news just in (at the time of posting) about a 'spat' between the Federal and Victorian State governments about public kindergarten programs, how they are to be funded and what they will/should involve in terms of number of hours provided. The source is an article that appeared in today's The Age newspaper:
This is another theme or content area that Mrs. Raven has pointed me to, claiming that many female students like to engage with this sort of material. I must confess, even as a 'bloke' I found it rather interesting, in a "oh, so that's how they do it, is it?" sort of way...
In any case, this material is spot on for Element 3: Follow a set of verbal instructions for a familiar process or procedure in the Certificate III in ESL (Access) unit Give and respond to a range of straightforward instructions and informational texts.
Here's the video input (also referenced in the learning activity resource below):
Here are the worksheets for learners and teachers:
The lucky country. Bright weather, bright people, bright future.
Those were the messages that were consistently drummed into me as a young person growing up on this island continent. But as Iva Davies would tell you, it can also be a prisoner island hidden in the summer for a million years.
For all its brightness, this is a country with a shadow; and nowhere is that shadow more evident in the geographical and spiritual red centre of things, in a town called Alice.
The English Oz materials and activities on this page represent a collection of learning resources that can hopefully bring this issue to the ESL classroom. You can cherry pick from them as you please, or tie some or all of them together to create a larger ongoing project. Generally speaking the resources are selected and sequenced in a logical way that helps explore what is a very complex issue via a series of interlocked steps.
The first three resources target listening skills and align well with Certificate III in ESL (Access) unit VPAU503 (Give and respond to a range of straightforward instructional and informational texts) - in particular Element 1: Interpret an informational oral text.
The three that follow that are geared towards VPAU505 (Read and write a range of straightforward informational, instructional and other texts), in particular Element 1: Analyse a range of informational texts.
The astute teacher will also find ways to tie in speaking and writing elements from the various units in a nicely integrated way; the opportunities to do so are there in abundance.
At the very bottom of the page you will find a resource to facilitate the ESL Elective unit VPAU560: Investigate Current Issues, with the preceding materials and activities making for a nice resource list to draw on and (again) useful opportunities to extend out into speaking and writing elements.
All the relevant performance criteria has been built into the resource sheets, and you will find both blank versions for students and a TG version with some notes to help you scaffold the learners through the activities.
Okay, let's start with a bit of a contrast, shall we? Two very different sides to a red centre coin...
1. Get ceNTred in the Red Centre
Nothing like a good tourism advertisement, is there? Present the following video to the learners and apply the activity resource that follows:
Hang on... What happened to the lovely hot air balloons? And the glasses of bubbly and sparkling stars at night? And the amazing galleries of indigenous art?
So, poor old Alice is copping it because indigenous people can't drink out on their home turf and need to head into town... So has the so-called INTERVENTION improved the situation out in the camps, and was it worth the price of applying the equivalent of apartheid?
So let's get closer to the bottom of this whole idea of interventions and race discrimination acts. The BBC are sure to be a nicely reliable outside impartial observer, surely...
A song by one of Australia's most popular bands of all time, whose lead singer eventually decided to go into politics... Spot the current Federal Minister for Education in the clip, but also look at the lyrics and take a journey into the dying soul of a fiercely proud people.
(Another good one for blending reading and listening, and your students might enjoy a song at this point if they've been wading through the texts and listenings above):
So, what's the issue exactly? What is the significance? What do your learners make of it all?
Here's where you can tie on an ESL Elective Unit incorporating current issues in Australia, bringing together the 'research' conducted above and coming up with some conclusions. The material can then become a drafting process for a writing element or an oral presentation or discussion of some sort:
As I said at the beginning of the post, lots to choose from or work through here, but there are certainly multiple opportunities to help your learners meet a plethora of their ESL outcomes through this sequence of activities.
More importantly, the dialogue about how Australia handles its indigenous people needs to continue. Goodness knows the locals (both newer and older) haven't come up with too many effective answers; perhaps the newest migrants of all might have some better suggestions...
This marks the first (of what I hope will be many) reading resource I am putting together for my English Oz collection of learning activity resources for ESL classrooms.
Apps are pretty much an everyday thing now, so I think it's a topic likely to resonate well with a wide range of learners. I've sourced an interesting text from the Sydney Morning Herald with the title Top 1oo apps - the definitive guide.
The learning resources below are great for Certificate III in ESL (Access) and include both learner activity sheets and a TG version with instructional tips for using in the classroom and directing learners to the sorts of information they can include in each section.
Just note for the main ideas and supporting details sections, the idea is for the learners to select portions of the text that interest them rather than the entire article - though there are different ways that overall main ideas could be identified and listed.
Certificate III ESL (Access) components targeted and tracked through the activities:
Unit C24 (VPAU505): Read and write a range of straightforward informational, instructional and other texts.
Element 1: Analyse a range of informational texts
Performance Criteria 1.1: Scan informational text and identify the context and topic
Performance Criteria 1.2: Identify the main ideas or issues
Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or examples
Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify conventions of informational texts
Performance Criteria 1.5: Analyse the structure and discourse features of the texts
Performance Criteria 1.6:Respond to the text, outlining any opinions expressed, and state own opinion about the topic
Lots of ways this can be introduced or followed up via conversation and writing activities, as well.
For more ESL content and activity sheets, go to English Oz.
Are computer games addictive? Can they be destructive for young people? How can it affect families?
My wife pointed me to this issue via some recent discussions we've had about our 6-year-old son and his increasing obsession with the X-Box 360 and Skylanders game in particular. Is he becoming addicted? Does it account for some (at this stage) slightly worrying behaviour we've been having to deal with?
You can find an interesting report about this from the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Catalyst program, at this link:
The material, with both video and transcript, is great for Certificate III in ESL (Access) and the unit element interpreting an informational oral text.
Given this is a reasonably long presentation (around 10 minutes), I wouldn't be asking learners to analyze every part in detail, but there are certainly sections or stages that students could focus on. Section 1-2 might be used to gather all the general ideas/attitudes/opinions, while section 1-3 could be used to focus on one specific part/section of the report.
Certificate III ESL (Access) components targeted and tracked through the activities:
Unit C22 (VPAU503): Give and respond to a range of straightforward instructions and informational texts.
Element 1: Interpret an informational oral text
Performance Criteria 1.1: Identify the context, topic and purpose of an informational oral text
Performance Criteria 1.2: Outline main ideas, opinions and attitudes expressed
Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or details
Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify the tone and register of the text, and any inferred meaning
Performance Criteria 1.5: Express an opinion about the ideas or issues raised
This material and issue is, in my opinion, also ideal for extension into other elements, like having a casual conversation about the issue or coming up with a set of recommendations (in writing or as a presentation) on potential strategies to help cope with computer addiction in a family setting.
For more ESL content and activity sheets, drop by English Oz on this blog!
It's such an intrinsic part of any ESL program (or at least should be!), and yet raises all sorts of challenges in making it happen.
Many programs have a casual conversation requirement that is formally assessed in some way. Are the learners aware of it? Have they been given some basic tools and guidelines to help them understand not only how they will be assessed, but according to what criteria and with what development goals in mind?
Looking at the Australian ESL Framework, for example, for Certificate III ESL (Access) there is a unit titled Engage in casual conversation and straightforward spoken transactions. Four elements are included in the unit, one of which (Element 2) is Participate in Casual Conversation. The specific performance criteria for that element is documented as being:
2.1: Initiate conversations using appropriate expressions and conventions
2.2: Contribute comments, opinions or information on a range of topics
2.3: Give detailed responses
2.4: Use a range of conversational strategies
2.5: Clarify misunderstandings and ambiguous points where necessary
2.6: Close conversations using customary steps
In that list, I've highlighted what I think are the most helpful/salient terms to assist in remembering the criteria and making sure they are catered to, facilitated and tracked during classroom lessons.
To get this across to the learners, I think it's a good idea to, well - have an ongoing conversation about it, starting with some well documented information at the start of the course. For example, we could make the following available to a group of learners enrolled in Certificate III ESL:
Basically, what we're doing here is showing the learners the official element and performance criteria, providing some explanations about what each PC item involves and some tips and language that can help guide them. It doesn't cover the whole notion of casual conversation by any means, but I think it is a useful starting point and if it is to be used for assessment then we have a genuine responsibility to let the learners know about it!
Of course, each of the performance criteria items can be practised in a variety of ways, but generally speaking I've found a nice clear explanation of what we're looking for (and why/how) is often effective by itself in encouraging learners to get more involved in casual conversation sections of classes. If a handout like this is stuck inside their books or featured on the first page of their folders it can be a really effective reminder for learners to see before or at the start of (or even during) any given lesson.
We can go a little further than that and use the flip side of that handout in a variety of ways:
Using this sheet, at the end of lessons learners can be asked (as a whole group or in small groups or on their own) to reflect on what has happened over the course of the lesson and what sorts of things they and/or their classmates have done and said that could address the criteria for casual conversation. I like this beyond just the self-review angle; it makes for excellent self-assessment material that can be added to other evaluation documents to triangulate our evidence of competence.
Letting them know what we're looking/hoping for in the way of casual conversation is one thing, of course; making it actually happen and assessing it effectively and responsibly is another. I look forward to returning to these follow up issues in future English Oz posts!
What sorts of conversations happen around the build up to someone being told their services are no longer required?
The English Oz resources below target this idea, catering to Certificate III in ESL (Access) and in particular the unit Engage in casual conversations and straightforward spoken transactions and element 1: Interpret a casual conversation on everyday topics.
The following input is drawn from the popular Australian television series Packed to the Rafters and incoporates a collection of short scenes that build up to a part-time worker being fired from her job.
Here are the student activity sheets and Teacher's Guide documenting options for how to use/apply each section (source video is listed in the materials):
Note that there are actually a number of scenes in the source material; I would recommend using the whole sequence to generate a full story with main ideas, opinions and attitudes, and then perhaps a single scene to go into more detail about information, conversational strategies, emotional states and attitudes, implied meanings and ambiguities, etc. Students might also be broken up into groups to explore and document different scenes in the overall sequence.
The TG version recommends a number of things you might cover, but I wouldn't try to do every point/item in every section. It is, to me, preferable to target 1-2 aspects at a time and make sure there is volume and variety in conversational input to notice different things about spoken discourse in different scenes/situations with different speakers.
As with all of my English Oz materials, there are also a range of follow up activities suggested, whether to go deeper, wider or across skill sets.
Cert III ESL (Access) Documentation:
Unit C21 (VPAU502): Engage in casual conversation and straightforward spoken transactions.
Element 1: Interpret a casual conversation on everyday topics
Performance Criteria 1.1: Identify context/situation and relationship between speakers
Performance Criteria 1.2: Outline main topics, and opinions or attitudes expressed
Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting details and implied meanings, where apparent
Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify emotional state/attitude of speakers where apparent
Performance Criteria 1.5: Identify some conversational strategies used
Performance Criteria 1.6: Identify requests to clarify misunderstandings and ambiguous points
Using Melbourne's Metro system can seem complicated if English isn't your first language, but it isn't really all that hard once you know the drill...
This resource is similar in format and broad aims to the one I posted about previously (see the example of interpreting an informational oral textfor Certificate III in ESL, plus an overview of what this whole English Oz thing is about), but in this case we are looking at Element 3: Follow a set of verbal instructions for a familiar process or procedure.
Here's the input (also referenced on the activity sheets):
And learner activity sheet plus TG version with tips on how to apply each section:
A new section of the blog opening up here, new project and all that... English Oz is a gathering of teaching/learning resources catering to units, elements and performance criteria featured in the Australian ESL Framework, and in particular the Victorian Certificates in ESL. No doubt they should cater well to a variety of other formal EFL/ESL programs around the world as well (hopefully without requiring too much in the way of adaptation).
The resource featured here in this post is geared at Certificate III in ESL (Access) and interpreting an informational oral text.
It features one of Mrs. Raven's hand-chosen topics of interest (L'Oréal and one of Melbourne's fashion festivals), so I am assuming there may be teachers out there with students who have similar fashionable interests!
Here's the source video/listening text:
This is the activity sheet that can be downloaded, printed and used in class with learners:
And here is the TG version with prompts and ideas to help you apply and scaffold each section of the activity sheet in a classroom, small group or even online teaching setting:
The style of the activity sheets is rather open, to encourage a flexible discussion-based and exploratory style of teaching/learning rather than pre-set questions with closed answer options. There are also some pointers to extension activities to apply the content more vigorously or to connect with other outcomes in reading, writing and speaking.
You may notice that the formal aspects of the unit are well signposted. In many ways this resource is set up to facilitate very clear learning outcomes that can be easily audited and/or used for private study/application and in turn become clear evidence for RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) in formal award-based programs.
For those interested, here are some of the formal Cert III ESL components targeted and tracked through the activities:
Unit C22 (VPAU503): Give and respond to a range of straightforward instructions and informational texts.
Element 1: Interpret an informational oral text
Performance Criteria 1.1: Identify the context, topic and purpose of an informational oral text
Performance Criteria 1.2: Outline main ideas, opinions and attitudes expressed
Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or details
Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify the tone and register of the text, and any inferred meaning
Performance Criteria 1.5: Express an opinion about the ideas or issues raised
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