Applications: Input-Based Teaching

 The first example illustrates a teaching strategy based on the idea of

implicit knowledge acquisition through exposure alone and the
second illustrates consciousness-raising activities.

 Example 1: Subject Specialist Texts for Comprehension.

 Setting: The ESP division of the English Language Center at
Cukurova University, Turkey
 Focus: the vocabulary of the students’ disciplines and how
concepts and ideas are expressed in them.
Applications: Input-Based Teaching
 It involves the use of subject specialist texts for comprehension
activities.

 An authentic text is chosen on the basis of topic and level. The topic
of the text needs to be relevant to learners’ specialist interests.

 The text also needs to be slightly above the students’ current level
of comprehension.
 It should contain some but not too many structures and
vocabulary items that are not well known to the students.
Applications: Input-Based Teaching
 The text is given out for self-study in the first instance.

 In class the teacher leads a discussion (Turkish, teacher and

students) on the meaning of segments of the text the teacher
preselects as ‘interesting’ from a content point of view.

 During the discussions, the teacher periodically draws students’

attention to linguistic features of the input arising incidentally when
engaged in the discussion of meaning of the text.
Applications: Input-Based Teaching
 Example 2: Awareness-Raising Activities.
 In both cases, the lessons try to help students develop their ability
to notice and become more aware of language use and
communication in their disciplines.
 Listen up: The aim is to raise students’ awareness of aspects of
nonverbal communication used in lectures.
 Genre Files: It involves students collecting documents from their
target environments and drawing students’ attention to genre-
related features in the input.
Applications: Output
 Two teaching activities are given next to illustrate the output option.
The first is a project (written production) and the second is a
simulation (spoken production).
 Example 1: E-Commerce Web Page Project.
 Crookes (2001) reports a project used for teaching English for
Business Purposes in Australia to call for the students to set up an e-
commerce web page for small business in the local community.
Applications: Output
 In this task the students were required to create an advertisement
that accurately conveyed information about the business (pushed
output).
 There are two emerged during a process of negotiation of meaning.
 First in terms of negotiated content with the business owners
 Second as the pairs negotiated the language needed to convey the
information about the business.
Applications: Output
• Example 2: Workplace Project Team Meeting Simulation.
• This task involves a simulation of a workplace meeting.
• The students are required to find a solution to a problem and present
the solution in the form of a flowchart.
• The impetus for pushed output comes in Steps 9 and 10. both steps
push students to report accurately on concepts and ideas. Step 10
requires students to make clarifications (a force for pushed input
suggested by the research findings of Pica, 1988).