Inclusive Practice
CONTENTS 1. Introduction2 2. Inclusive practice2 3. 1 What is inclusive teaching? 2 3. 2 Why does inclusive teaching matter? 3 3. Resources in inclusive practice3 4. 3 Flashcards4 4. 4 Songs and music4 4. 5 Games5 4. 6 TV, DVD and Video5 4. 7 Computers and the Internet6 4. 8 Drama7 4. 9 Poetry7 4. Resources and individual learner needs7 5. Three resources8 6. 10 Project work8 6. 11 Newspapers9 6. 12 Videos10 6. Intellectual Property Rights and legislation12 7. Significance of IPR to organisations13 8. Conclusion13 9. Bibliography14 1. Introduction
A teacher is nothing without the proper resources to teach. Resources create the bulk of understanding surrounding a particular subject. Therefore, a teacher is helped greatly by the resources that back them up. Harmer (2006) says, resources help students understand the object of the lesson the teacher is conveying. Additionally, it helps the teacher to test whether the students have improved their understanding of the given subject. Without resources, the whole teaching process could be very boring, and there would be no information that backs up the topic that the teacher would be working on.
Scrivener (2005) observes that resources provide the questions that follow the current stage of the syllabus, and an in-depth understanding of the subject material at hand. The very basic purpose of a teacher is to convey information from one medium, whether that’s a book, a syllabus or themselves, to the student through a relatable manner. This relatable matter can come from many sources, but mainly from the teacher support that is provided through the school and the curriculum (www. xcellencegateway. com). 2. Inclusive practice Organisations which are working within the learning and skills sector face increasing challenges as Great Britain is becoming more diverse and multicultural. Differences are an asset and a diverse learner body and workforce enrich an organisation. However, misunderstandings, negative attitudes, or a lack of awareness, understanding and effective communication can all lead to segregation and underachievement (Lacey 2006).
We believe that all children and young people should have the chance to get a mainstream education. This benefits all children and young people and the wider community. The aim of our inclusive education policy is to make it possible for every learner, whatever their special educational need, learning need, ability or disability, to be educated within a mainstream school or have access to mainstream education through links from specialist provision (Northway 1997).
This means having access to the national curriculum and to all educational and social opportunities that mainstream education provides, and if appropriate access to alternative provision. We must support the principles of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 and accompanying codes of practice to ensure that access to the curriculum, physical access to schools and clear communication with parents/carers underpin our inclusion policy. 2. 1 What is inclusive teaching? Inclusive teaching means recognising, accommodating and meeting the learning needs of all our students (LSIS 1999).
It means acknowledging that our students have a range of individual learning needs and are members of diverse communities: a student with a disabling medical condition may also have English as an additional language and be a single parent. Inclusive teaching avoids pigeonholing students into specific groups with predictable and fixed approaches to learning (LSIS 1999). Inclusive teaching takes a coherent approach which is * anticipatory and proactive * has a strategy for delivering equal opportunities and diversity policies * involves the whole institution * matches provision to student needs incorporates regular reflection, review and refinement of strategies and methods that actively involve disabled students. (www. talent. ac. uk) Experience has demonstrated that adjustments made for disabled students can often benefit all students. Inclusive teaching is good teaching. For example, when reviewing how to describe a diagram to a blind student, it might become apparent that there is a better way to present the information for all students. In making our teaching inclusive we reassess the material we use in our teaching and the way in which it is delivered and assessed.
Providers should place learners in the best possible learning environment for their needs, whatever those needs may be. Several strategies may be required to ensure that the specific needs of an individual are met. Providers should devise a comprehensive strategy to tackle every aspect of an individual learner’s need – this may become complex and is a growing challenge for providers who have to cater to an increasingly diverse population of learners (Lawton ; Turnbull 2007). 2. 2 Why does inclusive teaching matter?
Inclusive teaching is more likely to be good teaching. We live in a diverse society: education should reflect, promote and facilitate this. More and more disabled people are entering higher education. Disabled students are increasingly aware of their rights and less prepared to accept inadequate provision. As Becta (2007) has observed, although provision for disabled students has dramatically improved in recent years, it is still patchy, under-resourced and inconsistent. 3. Resources in inclusive practice
The challenges in ensuring that teaching and learning is inclusive relate largely to the complexity and the number of issues that teachers, managers and organisations need to be aware of in order to meet the needs of all learners (LSIS 1999). The resources in this context include specific guidance on disability, learning difficulties, ethnic, cultural, religious and social diversity, gender, age and sexual orientation issues. They also provide guidance on using the pedagogy approaches to promote inclusion, and putting organisation-wide policies into practice.
The varied nature of the resources provides a wide range of material to stimulate learners’ thinking and enable them to benefit from others’ experience. Videos show teachers, managers and learners explaining their own inclusion challenges and how they are resolving them, giving you an opportunity for modelling. Case studies explain how good management and teaching practice aids inclusion in other organisations, and provide ideas they can adapt to suit their own circumstances. Research reports, checklists and detailed guidance offer a menu of suggestions for them to adopt (Meyer 20001).
Not all teaching materials and resources are appropriate for all learners, either due to specific needs relating from a learning difficulty and/or disability, or because of the way they deal with issues such as race, gender and sexual orientation. The challenge for teachers is to create and adapt teaching materials that are accessible to all, promote inclusivity by avoiding stereotyping, and reflect the diverse nature of the local community and British society (McKay 2010). In the following section, I am discussing some ESOL resources paying particular attention to their effectiveness in meeting individual learner needs. . 1 Flashcards Flashcards is ELT jargon for pictures, diagrams or words that you can show to students, typically something you can hold up when standing in front of the whole class. They are so useful for handing out as part of various activities. Flashcards are very useful teaching resources especially if you are teaching a class of diverse learning styles. Flashcards can be appealing for visual learners, students of any age and level, cultures and religions, languages and backgrounds. Flashcards can be used for * Quickly showing the meaning of a lexical item Illustrating presentations of language, for example by giving a visual od an imaginary character * Telling a story, providing occasional images * As prompts to remind learners of a specific grammar point or typical error * As prompts for guessing games, definition games, description games etc. (Scrivener 2006) 3. 2 Songs and music Many course books nowadays include songs that specifically focus on grammatical or functional items; these may be selected because of their content or specifically written and recorded for students of ESOL.
Songs are particularly effective for audio and musical learners. Songs can be used for a wide range of activities like * Reading or listening comprehension * Listen and discuss * For setting the mood at the start of a lesson * A background music while students work on exercises * Simply for pleasure or as a break between activities * To help students relax * Gapped text exercises * Song jumble * Song along * Matching pictures * Dictation * Picture dictation (Davis & Rinvolucri 1988) 3. 3 Games Many well-known games can be used in the classroom as fillers or as integrated practice activities.
Games can be designed in any manner or style according to the needs of the learners – kinaesthetic, visual, auditory and so on. Students of any sort will find games interesting. Some examples of the most common games in ESO classrooms are * Back to the board * Category list * Dominoes * Word jumbles * Getting To Know You games * Hangman * Bingo * Anagrams * Quizzes (Davis & Rinvolucri 1988 3. 4 TV, DVD and Video Video activities can be effectively used to teach lexis, grammar, sounds, pronunciation, listening, speaking and so on. TV, DVD and Video are all similar materials or tools that teachers can use in their lessons.
If properly planned and executed, these can be wonderful tools to deliver excellent lessons. Some activities that can exploit TV, DVS and Video are * Discussion and interpretation * Role-play * Writing a letter from one character to another * Planning what the character should do next * Prediction activities * Worksheet based activities * Quizzes (Davis & Rinvolucri 1988 3. 5 Computers and the Internet Many teachers nowadays have access to computers and the Internet, whether in a separate computer lab or perhaps with single machines in the students’ normal classroom.
Reactions to this high-tech equipment vary a lot among teachers, and the popularity of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) seems to go in waves over the years. Sometimes it is ‘the future of language teaching’’ and at other times a fairly expensive white elephant (Scrivener 2005). Teachers have increasingly found ways to exploit technology in classroom. Some of the common activities using technology are: * Writing texts * Marking students’ work * Peer-correction * Live text communication with other online users (messenger etc. ) * Live audio chat with other users (webcam etc. ) Reading web-based text (newspapers etc. ) * Designing their own web pages and websites * Delayed-response text communication (emails etc. ) A survey conducted on Inclusion in Australia shows that the majority of teachers (75%) acknowledge that ICT tools and resources may have a great potential to foster and actualize inclusive practices in schools. They appear to be confident in the new opportunities offered by technology and declare their interest and willingness to personally explore its potential benefits. However, many children are still excluded from, and within, education for a variety of reasons.
So, it is important to address the issue of promoting e-inclusion through e-learning by helping teachers to make effective use of ICT educational products. Since inclusion requires new approaches to teaching and learning (Lacey 2006) as well as the use of valuable, new, suitable and barrier-free tools it’s fundamental to give teachers appropriate advice and support to face this challenge. The basic idea should be that the process of inclusion can be fostered by means of new technological tools: it requires, in turn, changes and modifications in educational contents, approaches, structures and strategies.
Teachers play a key role at these ends: innovation cannot cross the school’s threshold without their deep and active involvement and the educational effectiveness of any technological means mainly depends on the choices they make (Scrivener 2005); in order to take a significant step forward, e-tools need to be carefully selected and their use needs to be appropriately planned and conceptually well integrated in mainstream activities. 3. 6 Drama
Drama is a good way to get students using the language. By bringing the outside world into the classroom, we can provide a lot of useful practice that would otherwise be impossible in cafes, shops, banks, businesses, streets, partiers etc. There may also be a freeing from the constraints of culture and expected behaviour; this can be personally and linguistically very liberating. Curiously, it is sometimes the shyest students who are often the most able to seize the potential.
Drama activities can be done in several ways like role-play, simulation, drama games, guided improvisation, acting play scripts and prepared improvised drama. It is important for teachers to be aware of the individual learning differences while preparing drama activities in a classroom. The success or failure of drama activities depends on teachers’ perceived attitude and that of the students; without a certain degree of trust, respect and acceptance, the chances of useful work are greatly diminished.
By all means, teachers must ensure no learners are isolated or marginalised through language, culture or any other difference that may influence thoughts and actions or form a barrier, work towards eliminating discrimination and harassment, recognise and accommodate learners’ individual needs and ensure that all learners have equal access to the curriculum (Scrivener 2005). 3. 7 Poetry Poetry stimulates, wakes learners up to see things in new ways, hear things in new ways and think of things in new ways.
Scrivener (2005) says, ‘using poetry in language teaching stirs up students’ hearts; it moved learners; it provides an opportunity of giving an odd idea or use of words in an unforgettable way’. Again, it is up to the teacher whether it is suitable to use poetry in a classroom. For this, he/she has to consider the attitudinal differences of all learners; their learning styles, cultural backgrounds, mental abilities and disabilities are all equally important. 4 Resources and individual learning differences
Classes certainly seem to have their own character – one often surprisingly different from the sum total of individuals in it. Some teachers pitch their lessons at the perceived character, level, needs and likes of a generalised feeling of the group identity. They may not be concerned with any individual differences and feel their primary task is to work with the class as a whole. Some other teachers take the opposite position – that whole class lessons generally won’t work because of the variety of people in class.
An individualised approach would probably be a very valuable goal. There is a third group of teachers who teach the class by pitching the lessons to what they perceive as the majority of the group, but keeping in touch with the others- by asking questions, adding extra comments and explanations, offering special tasks for some students, dividing the class to work on different things at some points, choosing topics that appeal to different groups of learners, designing tasks that appeal to different learning styles and preferences.
The third position is a classic balancing acts of teaching – to maximise working at every individual level, fulfilling as many wishes and needs as possible while also keeping the entire group engaged (McKay 2010). 5. Three resources In this section, I am discussing three resources for ESOL lessons and how they will engage learners. I will also see how they can be adapted and developed to enhance inclusive practice. 5. 1 Project work Projects are one useful way of providing an ongoing thread to classroom work.
They supply longer term goal to focus on, and students can invest their energy in something that has a tangible outcome. They also offer a valuable chance for learners of mixed levels to work on something at their own current ability level. The project that I have planned here is the following: Prepare a web page tourist guide for something in your local area. Use descriptions, photos, diagrams, maps etc. This project is task-oriented rather than language oriented; in other words, the learners focus on doing something practical rather than directly on studying language.
It typically involves learners in decisions about precisely what is to be done and how to do it, as well as in collecting information, solving problems and presenting the final outcome as a computer-based web page. The planning, decision-making, ideas-collecting, structuring, discussion, negotiation, problem-solving etc. are all an integral part of the project work. This project work embeds language, numeracy and ICT components of learners. The language learning arises from learners having a reason to communicate authentically in English to achieve a specific goal. It will also have a strong group-building outcome.
This project work will * Incorporate the use of technologies such as web designing, developing pictures, word processing, photo shopping, and internet browsing * Engage learners of all levels and abilities regardless of their disabilities * Motivate learners as it is about their own village or town or city * Will enhance team working skill * Will encourage self-discovery learning * Appeal learners of different learning styles * Ensure no learners are isolated or marginalised through language, culture or any other difference * Encourage mingling of learners of all differences Recognise and accommodate learners’ individual needs (Davis ; Rinvolucri 1988) 5. 2 Newspapers There has been much use and abuse of newspapers in the ELT (English Language Teaching) profession. Newspapers are much more current than course books. There is also a lot of information in newspapers which make them an excellent springboard for lessons. Finally, there are lots of different kinds of texts in newspapers (narratives, stories, letters, advertisements, reports and so on). If we are using newspapers in class, the task itself should be authentic wherever possible, not merely the material.
One aim of reading newspapers should be to encourage learners’ reading outside the classroom as well. Teachers must give special attention not to use the newspapers as an up-to-date course book activity. If we apply the same pedagogical principles and exercises that are in the course book, it can be extremely time-consuming and therefore disinterest the students (Harmer 2006)). It is advisable for teachers to adhere to the following ideas while using newspapers in classrooms: * Allow learners to select an article that interests them, work on it and report back to other learners.
It will help learners to attribute to their learning styles and individual learning tastes. * Be clear on the activity aims. * Don’t assume what we find interesting in a newspaper will interest our learners as well. We must remember the individual learning differences while choosing the material and kind of activity. * Get learners to read outside class as much as possible. * Use English language newspapers produced for the local community. * Make the activities as authentic as the material. * Help learners to become better learners and readers. Reading is a great way of acquiring language.
If we can get our learners to regularly dip into English newspapers, then their reading skills, writing skills and vocabulary will improve. (www. onestopenglish. com) Harmer (2006) has identified a list of ideas to use newspapers in an ESOL classroom some of which have been presented below. Briefing news items Students will be given different news items in the newspaper and they will have a time limit to read and understand them. Then, they will brief those news items to others in the class. This can be a very good exercise to improve learners’ scanning skill and presentation ability.
Teachers may also divide the class into groups depending on their ability and do the activity. Quiz competitions Students are divided into groups of four or five and each group gets a newspaper and a piece of paper. They have ten minutes to make a quiz based on that section of the newspaper. When the groups are finished, they pass the paper and the questions to another group. Set a time limit for new groups to do the quiz. This is good to practise the reading skill of scanning for information (Grellet 1981). Writing a letter to the editor Direct learners to the letters to the editor page of the newspaper.
Ask them to read some of the letters and discuss in pairs which ones they find most interesting/ controversial/ easy to understand. Have a feedback session on this as a class. There is often one or more letters in the letters to the editor section that can spark discussion or a controversy. Now ask learners to write their own letter to the editor. They can respond to one of the letters on the page, or they can write about a recent news item. They must write between 25 and 75 words. When they have finished, ask them to compare letters with a partner and try to peer correct any big mistakes. Circulate and monitor.
Then post the letters to the editor around the class. If someone responded to an earlier letter then they should copy and cut out the original letter to which they are responding (Grellet 1981). Role playing incidents in the newspapers Choose an interesting article or story from the newspaper and make enough copies for every pair of learners. There are often “human interest” stories in the newspaper which adapt themselves well to role play (“Man finds long lost brother”; “Lottery winner buys a house for pet dog” etc. ). Ask learners to first read the newspaper and then improvise a short role play.
Role plays from newspapers are often conducted one of two ways: 1) one learner plays the journalist and the other plays the protagonist of the story; the journalists does an interview, or 2) learners each take the role of a person in the story and act out the story, or something that happens before or after the story. (Harmer 2006) 5. 3 Videos Video is a valuable and possibly underused classroom tool. There is always the temptation to simply put a video on at the end of term and let our students watch a film without even challenging them to be actively involved. Video as a listening tool can enhance the listening experience for our students.
We very rarely hear a disembodied voice in real life but as teachers we constantly ask our students to work with recorded conversations of people they never see. This is often necessary in the limited confines of the language school and sometimes justifiable, for example, when we give students telephone practice. However, we can add a whole new dimension to aural practice in the classroom by using video. The setting, action, emotions, gestures, etc, that our students can observe in a video clip, provide an important visual stimulus for language production and practice. There are many things we can do with these clips.
Here I would like to demonstrate some of them which have been taken from (Davis ; Rinvolucri 1988). Vision on/ Sound off Students view a scene with the sound turned off. They then predict the content of the scene, write their own script and perform it while standing next to the television. After the performances students watch the scene with the sound on and decide which group was the funniest or the nearest to the original. This is a good fun exercise. It will be a fun activity for learners regardless of their age, gender and level (www. developingteachers. com). Observe and write
Students view a scene (this always works better if there is a lot happening) then write a newspaper article on what they have witnessed. Students work for a local newspaper and have to write an article on a fight between two men over a beautiful, young girl. Pre-viewing and while-viewing tasks allow them to work on new vocabulary, while the post-viewing task gives them plenty of practice on past tenses. Video dictogloss This follows the dictogloss method of dictation and can easily be adapted to video. Students watch the scene a few times and write the main words and short phrases that a particular character says.
Each group is given a character and is encouraged to listen and exchange information; this usually works better if there are two characters in the scene. Working with someone from a different group, they then write the script for the scene, incorporating both characters. As they will not have managed to write down the whole script from the listening exercises they will have to use their imagination and fill in the gaps. This gives them an excellent opportunity to work on grammar. This lesson is based on the hilarious restaurant scene from As Good As It Gets and is best suited to higher levels.
The pre-viewing and while-viewing tasks give plenty of practice with food vocabulary (www. bbc. co. uk). Watch and observe This is a good lesson for lower levels because students only have to focus on a minimum of spoken dialogue. Students watch a scene from a film which has lots of things that they can see and therefore write in their vocabulary books. You can teach and test your students’ vocabulary by asking a series of true/ false questions and asking them to put a series of events in order. This lesson is based on the kitchen scene from Unbreakable where David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is held at gunpoint by his son.
Video as a listening tool – pronunciation In some listening exercises we must concentrate on specific dialogue to enable our students to learn. It is necessary to challenge them to listen when dealing with features of pronunciation. I find movies provide a good source of authentic listening material for the practice of pronunciation and I use them accordingly. Without going into too much detail here, English is a stressed-timed language, meaning that certain syllables in a sentence have prominence therefore create a beat, other syllables tend to be said quickly making it difficult for our students to hear.
The use of video is an advantage here as it is an emotional scene with lots of gestures, adding weight to the situation (Grellet 1981). Video as a listening tool – elementary video class By the time students get to elementary level they have the level of grammar for more complex communication. It’s motivating for them at this stage to enjoy and understand a real movie clip. There are different ways in which we can help them do this. This exercise involves working with a conversation as a jumbled text first then using the movie to check. Conversations normally have a logical order and movies are a great source.
There is a role-play which encourages students to practise conversational English. 6. Intellectual property rights and legislation Intellectual property rights (IPR), very broadly, are rights granted to creators and owners of works that are the result of human intellectual creativity. These works can be in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic domains. They can be in the form of an invention, a manuscript, a suite of software, or a business name, as examples (Korn 2008). In general, the objective of intellectual property law is to grant the creator of a work certain controls over the exploitation of that work, as he unfettered ability of others to copy the work or invention may deprive the creator of reward and incentive. For some intellectual property rights, the grant of protection is also in return for the creator making the work accessible to the general public. Intellectual property law maintains a balance by (in most cases) granting the rights for a limited time. Some rights require registration, for example, patent right, whilst other rights accrue automatically upon the work’s creation as in copyright.
The principal intellectual property rights are: copyright, patents, trademarks, design rights, protection from passing off, and the protection of confidential information. Copyright is an important issue for those working in FE and HE. A clear understanding of the application of the law of copyright can assist those working in FE and HE to maximise the use of other people’s materials for online learning (JISC 2011). Copyright is one of the key branches of IP law and it protects the expression of ideas but not the idea itself.
For a work to gain copyright protection, it has to be original and should be expressed in a fixed material form, for example, in writing. Copyright is thus effective upon the creation of the work. It arises automatically and in the UK one does not have to register the copyright in the work before it is protected. Currently, copyright law in the UK is governed by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (the Act). 7. Significance of IPR to organisations Copyright is of fundamental importance to FE and HE as they being users, producers and disseminators of information will need to minimise their liability and maximise exploitation.
For example, the internet allows for the public dissemination of this information in an unprecedented manner (Korn 2008). Those working in the FE and HE should therefore always be mindful that their work may involve copyright material. Merely because material (e. g. internet content, software, on-line databases or journals) is openly available on the internet does not necessarily imply that it may be freely used. The vast majority of such material is made available under certain terms and conditions. One should therefore always ensure that the use of online materials complies with the terms of use stipulated by its rights holder (JISC 2011).
As substantial users of intellectual property, institutions need to consider their compliance with the law when using other people’s materials and inventions. Instilling respect for the rights of others in this regard continues to present challenges for institutions with large numbers of learners engaging with new technologies. In addition, intellectual property law provides tools which can enhance an institution’s ability to capitalise on the value of its expertise and help it exploit innovative opportunities.
There is increasing awareness of the commercial and social value in the work of further and higher education institutions and their staff. Education establishments are more than ever expected to be involved in the exploitation of their intellectual property creations with outside bodies. Making sure that licences and agreements are fit for the purpose right from the outset is crucial to enable institutions to have control over their outputs and to permit them to maximise the return on investment. 8. Conclusion
This paper discussed inclusive practice and how different types of resources can be applied in ESOL classroom to enhance inclusion attributing individual learning differences. Then, we looked at three resources in detail paying particular attention to project work to students and how to incorporate modern technologies in doing ESOL project works. Finally, The paper discussed intellectual property rights and legislation and its relevance to organisations like colleges and universities. 9. Bibliography Becta (2007) Inclusive learning: an essential guide, http://publications. becta. org. uk Copyright, Design and Patents Act (1988)
Davis, P. and Rinvolucri (1988) Dictation: new methods, new possibilities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Grellet, F. (1981) Developing Reading Skills, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Harmer, J (2006) The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd ed. ) Harlow: Longman JISC (2011) Intellectual property law: essentials, www. JISClegal. ac. uk Korn, N. (2008) Guide to intellectual property: Rights and other legal issues, Minerva project Lacey, P. (2006) Action Research for Inclusive education: changing plans, changing practices, changing minds, British Educational Resources Journal, 32/5, 754-775
Lawton, T. and Turnbull, T (2007) inclusive learning approaches for literacy, language, numeracy and ICT, Lifelong learning UK LSIS (1999) Inclusive teaching and learning, LSIS McKay, M. (2010) Inclusion, Scotland: JISC Meyer, C. J. W (2001) Inclusive Education and Effective Classroom Practice, Odense: EADSNE Northway, R. (1997) integration and inclusion: Illusion or Progress in services for disabled people? Social policy and administration, 31/2, 157-172 Scrivener, J. (2006) Learning Teaching, Oxford: Macmillan www. onestopenglish. com www. developingteachers. com www. bbc. co. uk www. talent. ac. uk
