EAQUALS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Budapest 24–26 April 2014

Demand High:

Are we challenging the full learning potential

of our language students?

Adrian Underhill

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meme the Demand-High

Am I engaging the full human learning potential of the students in my class?

What is Demand-High? Are my learners capable of more? Am I under-challenging my students? Would my students learn more if I demanded more of

them? How could I do that? Are we “covering material” rather than focusing on the

potential for deep learning? Do our sophisticated coursebooks steer us towards

attending to the mechanics of task rather than to the learning?

Am I counting on the task do the teaching? What shifts or tweaks can I make to what I already do

to meet each student at their learning edge?

Demand High:

Is about using any activity to challenge every student individually at their own learning edge.

Is not so much about setting differential tasks, but a way of requiring differential responses from learners as they engage with the task.

Is essentially a teacher quality, rather than a resources quality

The root problem….1

…we do not see the learning - we see the activity in front of it, ie the task

And we let the task do the teaching. We see the task, but not the learning.

We see what sts do, but not what they have to do to do it…

The root problem….2

And because we don’t see the learning we don’t see how it gets lost …

Here are some obvious sites where learning can get lost through undemand ….

plus some familiar solutions….

Take the familiar meeting point between T and Sts:

Checking answers round the class One learning point; one student at a time; lockstep…

Some obvious sites where learning can get lost through undemand ….

And some familiar solutions….

Take the familiar meeting point between T and Sts:

Checking answers round the class One learning point; one student at a time; lockstep…

In the dark hour before dawn long golden ropes dropped down from the sky… and sky women climbed down them and into the field, where they began to milk the cows. Once their bowls were full they climbed elegantly back into the sky. In spite of rubbing his eyes and pinching himself, incredulity prevented the farmer from running out from behind his rock to challenge the sky women and save his precious milk.

The Demand High tweak:

once for the task,

twice for the learning,

third time ‘in English’!

9

How We Learn and How We Should be Taught Young and Messum, 2011, Duoflumina

The student cannot concentrate on all aspects of production at the same time. But the teacher can encourage the St to go back over what s/he is saying several times, integrating a new variable each time - word order, pronunciation, melody of the sentence, rhythm, intonation…until St has captured something of the spirit of the language.

= ‘Practice without repetition’ by constantly making new doable demands

Making learning visible…

Letters and sounds in a passage

Unlocking my front door at night;

Buying a pair of shoes

The task is not the point….

What do the sts have to do to do it?

What task would get the sts to do that?

“…While activities we use in the classroom for language teaching may be considered communicative and enjoyable, they do not necessarily involve depth or meaningfulness..”

From: Meaningful Action:

Earl Stevick’s influence on language teaching

Arnold and Murphey 2013, CUP

Andrew Littlejohn (2008 RELC Journal 39/2) finds that many learners … “appear to see their classes as mainly consisting of ‘exercises’ free of any memorable content” Even in a class based on communicative language teaching, activities may not seem relevant to learners. Something more, perhaps at times elusive, is needed to make what goes on in class meaningful action, something with depth, as Stevick might call it. Quoted in: Meaningful Action: Earl Stevick’s influence on language teaching Arnold and Murphey 2013, CUP

Does Demand-High mean making everything more difficult?

At moments in the classroom the demand

fully challenges the learning. But the two

easily come adrift when the teacher is no

longer informed by the learning.

When the demand uncouples from the

learning it degenerates into over-demand, or

under-demand, or irrelevant demand.

Six (provisional) qualities of a Demand High teachers 'mind set’

Teaching by learning

Class leadership, holding open the learning space

Learning to see learning

Upgrading Feedback: enabling intelligence to flow

Spontaneity

Optimal challenge, demand and support

EAQUALS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Budapest 24–26 April 2014

THANK YOU!

For more on Demand High see:

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