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Working with emergent language - Richard Chinn

Article · July 2020

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Richard Chinn
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Working
with
emergent
language
I
Richard n the work I do, I am fortunate to have the Thomas Farrell and of Steve Mann and Steve
opportunity to observe teachers in a range of Walsh), I believe that pre-service and in-service
Chinn offers
contexts. I have found that, more and more, when schemes should have a focus on developing the
reflective we move beyond the technicalities of classroom teacher as a reflective practitioner. However, time
advice to management, what often becomes the focus of pressures on training courses and in teachers’
the teacher feedback on lessons is classroom interaction and, more daily lives can often leave little room for reflection.
specifically, the teacher’s intervention in response to With this in mind, I sought to help in-service
and the learner output or needs. This is a complex area, teachers on a training course to work with
teacher trainer. fraught with myriad choices and variables, such as: emergent language, engage in ‘exploratory
■■ Should the intervention be on the spot or delayed? practice’ and become researchers of their own
practice. In order to do this, they would need to
■■ What is an appropriate reformulation, extension
gather data from their teaching to make their
or upgrade?
reflection ‘evidence-based’. To facilitate this,
■■ Is it relevant to highlight a piece of emergent I designed a workshop which included awareness-
language for the whole class? raising and practical examples of teaching that
and so on. Because of all these questions, working related to the following dimensions of
with emergent language can be seen as a complex teacher knowledge:
teaching skill and, as such, needs to be addressed on ■■ What is emergent language? (the phenomenon
practical training courses. It can also be the focus and the types of language that can emerge, eg
for ongoing CPD initiatives. lexis, grammar, etc)
As Rod Ellis points out, there is a consensus ■■ Why include work on it? (underlying theoretical
that feedback on language can lead to learners principles and examining teachers’ beliefs about
developing linguistically. However, as Danny working with learner language)
Norrington-Davies stated in his article on emergent ■■ When should we address it? (the stages of the
language in ETp Issue 128, teachers can often be
lesson when language can emerge and the teacher
unsure about when, why and how to provide
can intervene)
feedback to learners.
■■ How should we deal with it? (techniques)
Considering this, I recently decided to examine
the type of help I provide on training courses by
raising the teachers’ awareness of how to work more
Incorporating reflective practice
with emergent language and offering ways in which into teacher development
they can examine their own practice. This article programmes
will suggest different reflective instruments that
readers may wish to experiment with on training The session provided the participants with reflective
programmes, INSETT sessions and on their own instruments that they could adapt and use to
action research projects. monitor their own teaching on the course. However,
these instruments could equally be used in other
teacher development schemes, INSETT sessions and
Teacher development and action research projects. The reflective instruments
reflective practice I used were using video, sensitising teachers to
As reflective practice is widely agreed to be highly learner language through transcripts and recordings,
effective for teacher development (see the work of and examining boardwork.

48 Issue 129 • July 2020 [Link]

Using video training room. To do this, they make recordings and short
In recent years, as shown in 2019 by Steve Mann and his transcripts of their lessons to analyse. By looking at their own
colleagues, there has been increasing interest in using video practice, they can notice effective techniques and gaps and
in teacher development and education. Video is often used identify areas that they want to work on. This means that what
as an awareness-raising tool by getting trainees to watch they learn is more likely to be ‘owned’ by the teacher, as it has
more experienced teachers in action. However, this can be been gained through experience. We also find the discussions
problematic, as many of the commercially-produced lessons about the nature of their classroom interaction very stimulating.
available for teachers to use can either be rather dated or are Through examining videos of experienced teachers
created to display particular teaching techniques and teaching, the ‘what’, the ‘why’, the ‘when to’ and the ‘how’ are
procedures. As a result, it is hard to find clips of natural addressed. In addition, these dimensions of knowledge
teaching with examples of genuine interaction and emergent surrounding emergent language are further explored when the
language in them. So, on my courses, we used a video of an teachers investigate their own teaching. The role of the teacher
experienced teacher teaching a normal class and isolated a part developer, in consultation with the teachers, is to stimulate
of the lesson where the teacher and learners are involved in open and non-judgmental discussion about interaction and to
genuine interaction, for example using genuine questions in help the teacher summarise findings and select goals for future
feedback to explore the learners’ answers. This captured the inquiry. It also works well if developing teachers can work
messiness of real interaction and allowed us to explore the collaboratively to compare and discuss findings, as this can
subtle moves the teacher made to prompt, probe, reformulate facilitate a collegial and supportive environment for
and extend learner language. Although we just noted emergent development and encourage communities of practice. Those
language and discussed teacher interventions, a task adapted teachers who may feel apprehensive about watching themselves
from Danny Norrington-Davies and Nick Andon’s taxonomy teach could look at how other hesitant teachers have benefited
could be used as an awareness-raising tool. For example, the from videoing themselves. A good resource for this and using
trainee teacher watches a stretch of video and fills in a table video in language teaching is the VILTE project ([Link]
(see Figure 1). This activity serves to focus attention on [Link]/items/show/13).
classroom interaction and how the teacher on the video
responds to emergent language. There is also scope to explore Reformulating learner language
how the learners respond to the teacher’s intervention.
A further way in which video and transcripts can be used is to
Observing how experienced teachers deal with emergent help sensitise developing teachers to learner language, which
language and respond to learner needs in everyday lessons can many of them suggest is difficult to hear and respond to in the
provide developing teachers with examples of what is possible moment. One way I have done this it to use a video of a learner
in a lesson and create an opportunity for conversation about or small group of learners doing a speaking task. The first time
the choices we have at different intersections of a lesson. In the I play the recording is to orient the participants to the topic, the
absence of videos, or when the sound on our recordings hasn’t level of the learner/s and their overall intelligibility. A good
been perfect, I have also used short transcripts of classroom question to ask is: How well have the learners completed the task
discourse to help awareness-raising on training courses. or answered the question? The second time the recording is
Teachers read the transcripts and complete the awareness- played, the participants are given the following simple note-
raising task. As well as raising awareness, this task also taking task on ‘What did the learner say/What would I say?’ (see
provides a framework for the teachers to use for examining Figure 2). First, the teachers watch the extract of the lesson and
their own classroom interaction. note down examples of learner language in the first column.
Additionally, following the advice of Steve Walsh, I Then, they consider what they would upgrade, reformulate or
encourage developing teachers to examine their own teaching extend, and discuss their choices with their peers. Once they’ve
and bring evidence of areas they wish to investigate into the chosen which items would be most useful to work with, they fill

Figure 1 Awareness-raising task Figure 2 Reformulation task

[Link] Issue 129 • July 2020 49

Figure 3 Completed reformulation task Figure 4 A teacher’s boardwork

in the second column with what they think is the most suitable provide opportunities to challenge and push the learners
reformulation (see Figure 3). linguistically as well. However, there is very little published
This is a very simple task, but it has proved highly effective advice on how teachers can work with emergent language,
for many of the teachers I have worked with. Teachers I have and this article has hopefully provided the reader with
interviewed after using this task have commented that they found awareness-raising and experiential activities to aid teacher
it a useful exercise when examining their own teaching or learning in this complex area. These activities do not set out
watching colleagues teach. Some found it a useful tool for to provide hard and fast guidelines for working with
monitoring, whilst others found it useful for deciding what emergent language, but, rather, to stimulate noticing of
language they could put up on the board for feedback on tasks. classroom interaction and the language that emerges from
Again, it is good if you can demonstrate how the task works in it, and to create a space for discussion about teaching and
an input session or workshop first, as, by having experience of learning. Finally, they seek to put the teacher in control
using the task and seeing how it works, you can encourage the of their own development and sow the seeds for further
teachers to try it out for themselves. This task mainly focuses on investigation of classroom interaction and how they
the ‘what’ of emergent language, and there are not necessarily respond to learners and learner language. n
correct or incorrect options: rather, choices that can be explored.
In turn, this can help frame discussions on when and how to deal Andon, N and Norrington-Davies, D ‘How do experienced teachers
with language – ie delayed or on the spot – and how to use the deal with emergent language?’ Paper presented at IATEFL,
board to record feedback. A further resource that readers might Liverpool, UK 2019
like to look at with more ideas like this is an IH London Blog Ellis, R ‘Corrective feedback and teacher development’ L2 Journal 1
from 2014 a colleague and I wrote on the topic ([Link]. (1) 2009
com/blog/posts/2014/giving-feedback-on-language/). Farrell, T S ‘Anniversary article: The practices of encouraging TESOL
teachers to engage in reflective practice: An appraisal of recent
research contributions’ Language Teaching Research 20 (2) 2016
Recording language on the board
Mann, S and Walsh, S Reflective Practice in English Language
The next task is one I still use myself when I teach, and this is Teaching: Research-based Principles and Practices Routledge 2017
something that I encourage teachers that I work with to do. Mann, S, Davidson, A, Davis, M, Gakonga, J, Gamero, M, Harrison, T,
Firstly, the teacher photographs their board, so that they can Mosavian, P and Richards, L ‘Video in language teacher education’
see what emergent language has arisen in the lesson and how it British Council ELT Research Papers ([Link]/
was dealt with. In a follow-up input session or workshop, sites/teacheng/files/J201%20ELT%20Video%20in%20language%20
teacher%20education%20FINAL_Web.pdf) 2019
participating teachers bring in examples of their boards and,
together, identify the topic of the lessons and the technique the Norrington-Davies, D ‘Emergent language’ English Teaching
Professional 128 2020
teacher may have used to draw attention to language, eg gaps,
Walsh, S Classroom Discourse and Teacher Development Edinburgh
blank boxes, colours to highlight form and phonology, etc (see University Press 2013
Figure 4). Good questions to ask are: What areas of language
are being focused on in the feedback? What techniques has the
teacher used to elicit reformulations? This activity can provide Richard Chinn is a teacher trainer at
teachers with options of how to draw attention to emergent International House London and visiting
language and involve the learners in reformulation work. It also teaching associate at King’s College London.
His professional interests are in classroom
provides a record of what has arisen in class, and what can be
interaction and reflective practice in teacher
followed up in future lessons. development.
[Link]@[Link]
t t t
Working with emergent language is necessary, as it responds
to the demands of the learners’ internal syllabus and can

50 Issue 129 • July 2020 [Link]