Field Notes -- Academic Interaction 3
Course Description:
Academic Interactions 130 is a high-intermediate course in academic oral communication. This course prepares individuals to comprehend and produce academic English for a variety of academic encounters. Authentic classroom lectures, academic discussions, and other listening and speaking interactions are studied and analyzed. Feedback on content, pronunciation and pragmatics is a fundamental component of the course, and opportunity is given for speaking practice in a variety of genres.
Course Goal 1: Identify, analyze, and comprehend the content and function of academic talk at a high-intermediate level, including speaking strategies used in varied contexts.
Course Objectives for Course Goal 1:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the meaning of selected lexical items Identify and analyze the forms and functions of linguistic patterns
- Demonstrate an understanding of cohesive strategies in academic talk Identify and analyze the genre and purpose(s) of oral academic discourse
- Connect details to main ideas/themes in academic lectures
- Make inferences (e.g. speaker bias, speaker attitude)
- Analyze academic interaction strategies
Course Goal 2: Produce speech and use speaking strategies at a high-intermediate level to convey, interpret, and connect information and ideas in varied academic contexts.
Course Objectives for Course Goal 2:
- Use lexical items appropriately and accurately in speech
- Use advanced linguistic patterns appropriately, clearly, and accurately in speech
- Use various strategies to produce cohesive speech
- Articulate and support ideas and arguments with appropriate oral reference Use appropriate phonological choices in relation to audience
- Utilize appropriate academic interaction strategies
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Present on an academic topic (1 individual presentation [minimum], 7-10 minutes)
- Present on an academic topic (1 group presentation [minimum], 7-10 minutes)
- Participate in an interview (1 interview (minimum), 7-10 minutes)
- Produce an oral report including ethnographic/descriptive information on a PSU classroom observation
- Demonstrate proficiency on Course Objectives through tests and quizzes
- Take notes in real-time during academic lectures
- Engage in academic discussion appropriately
Pseudonym Key
Field Notes (Links to date: 10/01, 10/15)
Field Notes from Researcher 1
Time | Activities, descriptions, and noticings. |
4:00 | Roll call |
4:30 |
Agenda
|
5:40 |
Discuss Unit 3 test
Vocab terms Comprehension questions about listening Note taking activity (new listening material) |
7:10 |
Vocab practice (fill in the blanks)
|
12:40 |
Role-play
|
47:30 |
|
48:00 |
Each group presents their role-play
|
1:08:20 | Homework |
The role-play task was interesting in that it was designed to foster students’ rhetorical awareness. Through the activity, students learned to use language for specific pragmatic ends. This is different from regular language instructions which focus largely on grammar. Also interesting was when T asked students how to spell persuasive. Some might consider this as threatening the teacher’s authority. However, what happened was something positive; students seemed to receive the teacher’s spelling problem positively and helped her with it. Through this exchange, the class appeared to create rapport (although this claim needs to be substantiated through some analysis). C.f. Hall and Smotrova on teacher self-talk.
Field Notes from Researcher 2
4:47 – Agenda for the day
5:49 – discussion of unit 3 test (that coming Monday)
-vocabulary, comprehension questions, note-taking (record, reduce, reflect)
7:15 – vocab practice (fill in the blank) in groups
-end up doing it all together at first (brainstorm parts of speech), then break into groups
-word bank provided about sentence
9:06 – class goes through the task together (two groups say emulate, one says instill, emulate is correct)
-teacher gives a synonym, “to copy”
10:01 – move on to next cloze exercise
-brainstorm together: singular or plural? Noun?
-one student says “protocols” – don’t discuss in groups
10:57 – third cloze exercise
-part of speech, noun; singular or plural?, singular (point to the article, a, to confirm)
-one student says “phenomenon”
-discuss as whole class
-students offer synonyms as well
10:22 – plural of phenomenon?
-student gives the answer “phenomena”
12:40 – teacher introduces role-play
-part of the group has to convince the others that they should buy/use their product
-write what they’ll say on a notecard, underline the persuasive speech
-to practice propaganda, 2-4 minutes
-given 15-20 minutes to prepare
14:47 – teacher asks if there are questions
15:07 – teacher asks for a volunteer to distribute materials
-passing out of materials
16:30 – teacher passes out group assignments (products and techniques to use)
-teacher walks around during the group work
~45:30 – 2-minute warning, teacher checks in with groups to see if they’re almost done
46:17 – teacher picks group to go first; tells them they seem to have it together, so they’ll go first
47:05 – teacher writes on board:
Technique | Persuasive language | Vocabulary |
~48:50 – teacher assigns other groups to look for each of the above in the presentation
49:37 – first group presents (demonizing soccer team Real Madrid)
51:22 – teacher asks other groups what technique was used – demonization
-teacher says they’ll come back to the other two categories at the end of class if time allows
52:38 – second group presents (e-cigarettes)
54:33 – what techniques? – selective omission, glittering generalities
-used other techniques too – gray propaganda, transfer
56:10 – discussion over which group goes next
-rock-paper-scissors to decide
57:38 – third group presents (book recommendations)
-each student in group recommends a different book for different reasons
-techniques – white propaganda, demonization, transfer, calls of leadership
1:00:54 – fourth group presents (blue evil eye necklace)
~1:03:30 – techniques? – ad nauseum propaganda, black propaganda, white propaganda
1:04:34 – last group presents
1:06:45 – techniques? – bandwagon, fear, deception
-discussion of fear versus prejudice
1:08:13 – wrap up; teacher goes over homework (prepare for test) Go back
Field Notes from Researcher 1
Time | Activities, descriptions, and noticings. |
8:00 |
Agenda
|
9:00 |
Advice to PSU student interviews from group speaking task 3
Ryan’s advice about question numbers
Sung Jun’s advice
|
11:20 |
Interview analysis activity
(Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf1nRKV6YTE)
|
22:00 |
Video number two
Discuss the questions in groups. T reminded Ss of some tips for group work (@26:50)
|
T talked extensively with the group right in front of the SV camera during the group work. This might be captured in the SV camera. Worth checking. | |
1:06:00 |
Getting back to class.
“Can you research PSU students before you interview them?”
|
Today’s class looked as if it were an applied linguistics class. The activity of analyzing interviews to improve their own practice is very similar to what we are doing, i.e., observing classes and identifying the effective instructional practices and actions. The class engaged in this for the majority of the time. T had Ss discuss the first video as a class to demonstrate how to analyze data. Subsequently, T had Ss discuss in small groups and watch the videos on their own devices if needed. Like in other classes we have observed, T approaches academic skills from the bottom up; she has students discuss and identify the skills.
Field Notes from Researcher 2
~8:30 – teacher projects and discusses the agenda for the day
9:00 – watch group speaking task 3, submitted by 1 group
-teacher says she wants to share useful advice from this group
-teachers analyzed other students’ videos and gave feedback/suggestions
-feedback given by students in video: 1) question numbers, 2) summarizing format at the beginning
11:20 – interview analysis activity
-discuss what they came up with for the homework
12:51 – purpose of the interview?
-who is the audience?
-formal or informal?
-comparison of two interviews
-discussion of what to wear
-what topics did they focus on?
-discuss relationship between interviewee and interviewer
-discuss body language
-find examples on the video
-listener feedback
~18:57 – class goes through questions asked in the interview
20:00 – teacher asks how the interviewer prepared for the interview
21:25 – teacher asks: “did you notice anything else interesting?”
21:50 – break into small groups to discuss video #2
26:30 – teacher gives instructions for the next activity
-complete the handout (analyze other videos)
-stay engaged with group while watching/analyzing videos (even though wearing headphones)
-teacher walks around while groups do this
-teacher has a prolonged discussion with one group (goes through some of the questions on the handout with them)
1:06:00 – teacher brings the whole group back together
-asks students if they can research the PSU student they’ll interview beforehand
-shows them the PSU directory (teacher searches her last name as example)
1:08:50 – teacher asks each group to decide on one thing to share from their analysis
-as first group gives their idea, other groups still talking
1:09:40 – teacher gets everyone’s attention and asks the first group to repeat their idea
1:12:00 – teacher projects a slide with the homework on it, then asks students to put the desks back
Handout Used in this class - Interview Analysis Handout
Instructions: Watch about 5 minutes of each of these interviews as a group and complete the questions below.
Interview of a Graduate Coordinator at PSU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf1nRKV6YTE
1. Purpose |
|
2. Register | How formal/informal do you think the interview was? Why do you think that? |
3. Body Language | What are three examples of body language that you noticed? (and what time in the video did they occur?) |
4. Listener Feedback | What are three examples of listener feedback (mm hmm, yeah, I see, etc.) that you noticed? (and what time in the video did they occur?) |
5. Question 1 | What is the first question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
6. Question 2 | What is the second question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
7. Question 3 | What is the third question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
8. Reflection | What do you think the interviewer did to prepare for this interview? |
9. Reflection | How successful do you think this interview was? Why? |
10. Other | Do you have any other interesting comments or questions about the video? |
2. Interview with former PSU President: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlu3x8fYwjk
1. Purpose |
|
2. Register | How formal/informal do you think the interview was? Why do you think that? |
3. Body Language | What are three examples of body language that you noticed? (and what time in the video did they occur?) |
4. Listener Feedback | What are three examples of listener feedback (mm hmm, yeah, I see, etc.) that you noticed? (and what time in the video did they occur?) |
5. Question 1 | What is the first question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
6. Question 2 | What is the second question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
7. Question 3 | What is the third question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
8. Reflection | What do you think the interviewer did to prepare for this interview? |
9. Reflection | How successful do you think this interview was? Why? |
10. Other | Do you have any other interesting comments or questions about the video? |
3. Interview with a Harvard Student: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjZ5D4OniB4
1. Purpose |
|
2. Register | How formal/informal do you think the interview was? Why do you think that? |
3. Body Language | What are three examples of body language that you noticed? (and what time in the video did they occur?) |
4. Listener Feedback | What are three examples of listener feedback (mm hmm, yeah, I see, etc.) that you noticed? (and what time in the video did they occur?) |
5. Question 1 |
What is the first question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was?
|
6. Question 2 | What is the second question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
7. Question 3 | What is the third question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
8. Reflection | What do you think the interviewer did to prepare for this interview? |
9. Reflection | How successful do you think this interview was? Why? |
10. Other | Do you have any other interesting comments or questions about the video? |
4. Interview with a Career Center employee at the University of Wisconsin - Parkside
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7vxdKNfq4o
1. Purpose |
|
2. Register | How formal/informal do you think the interview was? Why do you think that? |
3. Body Language | What are three examples of body language that you noticed? (and what time in the video did they occur?) |
4. Listener Feedback | What are three examples of listener feedback (mm hmm, yeah, I see, etc.) that you noticed? (and what time in the video did they occur?) |
5. Question 1 | What is the first question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
6. Question 2 | What is the second question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
7. Question 3 | What is the third question that the interviewer asked? What do you think the purpose of the question was? |
8. Reflection | What do you think the interviewer did to prepare for this interview? |
9. Reflection | How successful do you think this interview was? Why? |
10. Other | Do you have any other interesting comments or questions about the video? |