1	So you want me to teach a class of 150 students??!!?? Andrew Lian Western Illinois University USA [email protected] – http://andrewlian.com
2	Once upon a time… The President of a university wanted language classes taught as follows: A “Master Teacher” would teach the “content” of an language lesson to 150 students “in one class” The students could then practice using that “content” with graduate assistants and tutors
3	This is not an isolated view and tells us that Some/many university administrators world-wide believe/hope that language-learning is based on arbitrarily-presented “information” and “information-passing” and that this information can be taken and practiced somehow – you give knowledge and then practice knowledge
4	Some/many/most people do not understand that language-learning for genuine communication has no simple, set and known “content” to be transmitted in a pre-determined sequence or that functioning in a language is an intensely personal complex task of meaning-construction and text-production resulting from interaction involving learners’ personal histories in contact with contextual settings or that functioning in a language makes us encounter an array of often unpredicted and unpredictable constraints
5	Actually… L2 learning is strongly context-dependent even at the beginning stages AND Although it may appear otherwise, the same also applies to science and other apparently information-based areas
6	It’s just that… teaching science is constructed on a highly elaborated logical sequence/order which so far at least, does not appear to exist (or has not yet been identified) in L2 learning L2 sequencing (in all of its complexity) still appears somewhat arbitrary AND does not take account of the crucial non-linguistic features of communicative behavior
7	So…. Where do we go next with our story?
8	Let’s try something different… Let’s set aside the misunderstandings of administrators an others and let our imaginations take us for a little ride In the face of powerful (i.e. from people who have power) misunderstandings, let’s look at this issue as an opportunity rather than as a cause of unhappiness or indignation
9	And also… set aside conventional wisdom and the accompanying dominant theoretical models and imagine a world with no administrative constraints where change is welcomed and experimentation encouraged
10	Maybe… We can make things better for everyone!
11	And… Move the field of language-learning forward
12	From a management perspective A class does not mean very much. It is not an educational unit – there are too many variables to it apart from size e.g. Content, activity, outcomes etc. there is no homogeneity across disciplines It is not a financial unit – costs and expenses can come from many places, sizes vary and costs per student At best, a class is only a way of talking about resources
13	So maybe…. We are asking the wrong question Maybe, instead of thinking in terms of how big a class we should be teaching
14	We should be asking a different question Which may be something like: How do we take a “bucket of money” of fixed size and Use it to best effect to achieve better or more efficient performance outcomes
15	Pedagogic research can be help But… – research does not HAVE to be fundamental research (although it could be). There is nothing wrong with “action research” and As thoughtful teachers each of us can be a researcher
16	Here is an interesting example… An Asian university I know decided to take up the challenge of “150 students per class” and has done the following Increased its class size from its standard 50 students (!@##$$!!) to 100 students Limited the field of study to reading comprehension These decisions are both very sensible
17	What happened The number of persons interacting with the teacher in reading comprehension activities was about 5 to 7 students This amounts to 5% - 7% - a very low participation rate This absolute number was about the same as in a standard class of 50 (i.e. 10% - 14% participation), no real change
18	This means that the participation rate in BOTH classes was actually quite low and needs to be improved even though people do learn by observing and listening however, in a very active class, there will be “dead” times for students – concentration levels can vary enormously
19	Would it not be better to have an infrastructure (IT-based is one possibility) where reading exercises could be provided with immediate feedback or assistance for EACH person or for for small groups of persons?
20	Once... this structure is developed then it can be used in at least three contexts: Private study contexts (with online human help) Supervised classroom contexts (you can have a class of 150 students all in the same room) (teacher is there to help) Supervised but distributed classroom contexts (with online human help)
21	By doing this… You have saved at least one face-to-face class thus Reducing costs but, more importantly Also increasing the effectiveness of the learning experience
22	But wait there’s more… Reading, together with listening, is an intensely personal meaning-construction activity If individuals are to modify their internal comprehension systems then they need work and they need feedback
23	The good news is… That if you are doing a CALL program, you cannot be inactive You are either doing it or not doing it And this is better than yawning your way through a standard class
24	Another piece of good news… Is that once a good CALL program has been created it can last for many years and help many generations of students Good teaching does not go up in hot air It may even be possible to set up a database of teachers explaining problems relating to specific texts that students can turn to for help
25	And The range of programs available to support language-learning is also growing We have increasingly better programs in listening and reading And we have emerging programs in speaking and writing All need improvement of course
26	Now… do these programs… Actually have to be better than face-to-face programs? Well… No… If there is no significant difference between classroom-based work and computer-based work, then it is good enough to remove these activities from the classroom and reserve precious class time for other activities
27	Approaches such as these Increase time on task and Improve participation rates And potentially lead to learning efficiencies and cost efficiencies
28	But… Do we not need to harness the goodwill of students? Many of our students just “don’t want to learn English (especially) or Chinese or French or…” Well yes of course… BUT Sometimes that is not possible – life does not always let us do what we want
29	So… As we do in much of education, we can create sets of compulsions and monitoring mechanisms But won’t that increase the amount of work we have to do? New options are available: we can lighten this significantly (remove it?) with advanced/automatic software monitoring – e.g Tell Me More or ExTemplate
30	If… We do these things together and Share infrastructures Not just hardware and software but Research and development too Then there are genuine economies of scale These lower the demands on our “bucket of money” by reducing the number of classes or increasing class size
31	Of course My suggestions do not make great cost cuts in the short term. Now… So far, I have chosen to speak principally of the impact of technology, BUT Many of you will have guessed by now that proper implementation will have an impact on other sectors of our work e.g. it may require different ways of categorizing and hiring teaching staff
32	Maybe… (in departments with a critical mass) We ought to have a two-tiered pay/work structure (Research-teaching + teaching only) With more people with specialised training to teach in a way which is Supervised, educated and monitored by the researcher-teachers (maybe TAs & GAs but they would not be in sole charge of courses) Teaching programs created by the researcher-teachers and taught jointly with them We might also have different assessment systems which move students faster in/out of the system
33	In turn… This changes the functions, roles and values of people in the language teaching industry, not to mention job prospects BUT It does also enable the potential development of new pedagogic models for language-learning
34	In the Asian context with its special issues, it is important To have a properly Asian and original perspective on Language learning theory and CALL Thus, potentially, shedding a totally new and original light on both of these at world level
35	Let me share three remarks (from last year) These are truly exciting times for language-learning and teaching in Asia They offer wonderful opportunities for world class research No one owns learning and no one owns research – Asia too has a right to it
36	To summarise Can we simply treble the number of students we currently teach by simply trebling class sizes? NO!
37	To summarise Is it possible to imagine that we will be able to treble the number of students we currently teach at about the same cost? This is uncertain 3 x anything is a huge increase
38	But… If it is going to happen at all, then it needs to be done In a thoughtful way As part of a long-term planning process which is likely to Take time Need to be negotiated intellectually rather than imposed
39	Such changes Will require methodological change… Growth of Quality Assurance mechanisms Growth in shared infrastructures, shared resources and intellectual effort leading to Economies of scale Salary redistribution through the creation of different categories of university staff
40	This will imply Changes in management processes for university staff with Possibly a significant change in the shape of our profession Perhaps greater (prestige-driven) competition for certain kinds of jobs Significant growth in our research effort to inform all of the above
41	Can we make some marginal cost-savings right now? Yes we can! Maybe only 5% - 30% But that still requires real investment in research, infrastructure and maintenance Even if we cannot save real money, we can improve quality by improving access, participation, time on task and moving students through the system faster
42	As a consequence I renew my call J for an Asian CALL consortium supported by governments to develop properly-rewarded, research-based high-level methodological frameworks for CALL in Asia together with a common IT infrastructure and delivery framework which will yield some results no matter what (even if the main project fails) [pict]
43	Further I urge AsiaCALL and its membership to take the leadership in this matter The time is right We need to move forward now The future really IS today!
44	When all of this has been done… Then there will be a chance to move fully toward the achievement of Improvements in efficiency, even “classes of 150 students” In the meantime there is much that can be done already both to relieve slightly the financial burden and to kindle the process of intellectual change
45	As you can see… New demands on the profession require new and intelligent solutions You cannot simply take what is there and change it in some simplistic arbitrary way The teaching of “a class of 150 students” can, at best, only happen through a combination of well thought-out measures to create a win-win scenario
46	So… The real question that I have been raising has very little to do with the financial hopes of beleaguered administrators – although it may ultimately be helpful to them
47	The real issue is As it always has been Teaching and learning practices together with their administrative structures are the product of the (explicit or implicit) intellectual frameworks (including management) which conceived them No solution is possible without working on those frameworks
48	"And I look forward to..." And I look forward to working with you in this very exciting endeavour Thank you!