Checking Learning and Understanding When should we

Checking Learning and Understanding

When should we check understanding? • when we are introducing or revising new language • when, during an activity, we realise that our learners haven’t understood something • when we are giving instructions for an activity • when we are correcting errors • when feeding back for comprehension of a listening or reading activity

How can we check understanding? • Using synonyms and antonyms Example: hot “What’s the opposite of hot? ” • Eliciting or giving definitions or examples Example: software “What are some examples of software? ” • Getting the students to mark language on timelines

How can we check understanding? • Asking for personal responses Example: bear “What would you do if you saw a bear? ” • Using pictures or realia • Discriminating between different forms Example: “I ate my dinner when you arrived” / “I was eating my dinner when you arrived” – What’s the difference? • Using translation

Concept questions 1. Target sentence: Look! They're painting the wall Is it happening now? Yes 2. Target sentence: She’s a shop assistant. She works in a shop Can you see it? Yes Checking questions Is the painting finished? No Has she got a job? Yes Are they painting now? Yes Is she working now? Don’t know Is this the past, present or future? Pres ent Does she work there every day? Yes Is this the past, present or future? Present, but also past and probably future Checking questions 3. Target sentence: If I won the lottery, I'd buy a new car Checking questions Have I won the lottery? No Am I going to win the lottery? Probably not Am I going to buy a new car? Probably not Has he got a lottery ticket? Maybe

Paraphrasing According to Svinicki and Mc. Keachie (Mc. Keachie’s Teaching Tips, 14 th Edition) For example,  trying to paraphrase in our own words what we are  reading in a textbook is a good way to help build meaning,  but it  also helps us to identify gaps or errors in our understanding.  If we  try to apply our knowledge and have difficulty using it,  or if we try  to explain it to someone else and cannot do it,  we would also know  that we have some comprehension problems.  Monitoring our  comprehension is an important part of strategic learning that  fosters self-regulation.  Only if we know we have a problem in our  understanding or a gap in our knowledge can we do something  about it.

Cooperative learning Mc. Keachie explains cooperative learning as a method that builds on peer tutoring: We have long known that in many traditional tutoring  situations the tutor,  not the student receiving the tutoring,   benefits the most.  While processing the content for presentation,  the tutor is consolidating and integrating his or her  content knowledge.  At the same time,  the tutor is also learning a  great deal about how to learn.  The tutor needs to diagnose the tutee’s learning problem,  or knowledge gap,  in order to help the  tutee overcome it.

Checking understanding of instructions • Modelling the activity with one student • Asking one pair of students to model the activity • Asking students to repeat the instructions back to you – if you have broken the instructions down into clear steps, this becomes easier

How not to check understanding

Do you understand? • Learners may be afraid or shy to admit that they don’t understand. Loss of face with peers or the teacher can be an issue. • Learners may think they understand but don’t. False friends are one reason for this. For example, a French student may think “actually” translates as “actuellement”. (“Actuellement” in fact translates more like “at the moment”, “currently” or “nowadays”).