Gregory
Hadley, Keiwa College
In
many EFL classrooms across Japan, teachers begin the year by stressing the
importance of class participation.
To strengthen the point, a large number will tell their students part of
their grade will be based on their participation in class. But, how can participation be
quantitatively measured? I have
developed a simple technique for measuring and encouraging class participation
that I have used for almost two years with excellent results.
Often
teachers will give points to the students they observe participating by writing
it secretly in their notes. A
problem with this is that we as teachers unconsciously focus our attention on
the high-achieving students. Other
students who might be participating
remain unnoticed. Another
problem is that students rarely know how they are evaluated until the end of
the term. In other words, their
participation is not reinforced in any visible way until the class is
over.
What
I have done is to turn my participation points into a form of classroom hard
currency, which the students cash in at the end of each class for participation
points. This year I use poker
chips (before I used cardboard coupons), with white chips being worth one
point, blue chips two points and red three points. It really does not matter what one chooses to represent the
actual participation points. For
example, one teacher that I taught this technique to plans to use a form of
play currency.
In
the beginning of the school year, I pass out a syllabus written both in
Japanese and English explaining the participation system. The students learn they will receive
credit in class for speaking English in the classroom language tasks. There is a limit of four points a day
possible per student. This keeps
the more enthusiastic students from dominating the class. I explain that the two and three point
chips are reserved for more challenging questions or tasks. If a student nominally participates in
class activities, she will get at least one or two points per class. If they choose to give their opinions
to the whole class at the end of group discussions, they will get more
points. At the end of each class,
the students bring the chips they have received. I convert them into participation points for that day in my
class roll book. I consider three
points per session acceptable participation. At the end of the term I tally the points per student and
give them their participation score, which comes to about 30% of their total
grade.
I
use many task-based group and pairwork activities in my classes to supplement
the textbook. I encourage my
students to speak as much English as possible during the activities. I assure them that I am not looking for
grammatically-perfect English, but English which expresses their intentions and
ideas.
During
classroom activities I filter through the room, giving chips to those who are
speaking English. Even with large
classes this takes only a few minutes.
Whenever a student asks me a question in English, he receives
participation points. Students who
answer any of my questions in English also receive participation points. Even if the answer is wrong, I'll
congratulate the student for trying, and give her a point. I do this to encourage students to not
worry about mistakes. Those who do
the activities in Japanese or are not participating at all do not receive any
points, but I encourage them to try harder. At the end of each class, students see concretely if they
had participated that day in class.
Those who did not participate would see the other students getting rewarded
for their hard work. Usually,
students who did not participate began to try harder and spoke more English
after only a few class sessions.
Before I started this technique, I could
count on only a few highly-motivated students to actively participate in
class. Group or all-class
discussions usually were met with nervous or reserved silence. Now my classes are much more active. Students immediately throw themselves
into the class activities. If I
ask a question, scores of students raise their hands to volunteer an
answer. Some students try to do
other tasks in English even when it is not required.
I
administered a survey in Japanese to students at Keiwa College in Niigata
Prefecture, to get their impressions of this technique after one year.
|
Survey
Results 169 Surveys Tabulated: 58% Male 42% Female
|
||
|
I
think that giving participation points is a good idea. |
Yes |
No
|
|
83%
|
17% |
|
|
Using
this system made me feel less stressful. |
Yes
|
No |
|
59% |
41% |
|
|
This
system made the class fun, like a game. |
Yes |
No |
|
57% |
43% |
|
|
I
felt I had more chances to speak English through this system. |
Yes |
No |
|
78% |
22% |
|
|
I'm
making more effort to speak
English because of this
participation system. |
Yes |
No |
|
75% |
25% |
|
|
Thanks
to this participation system, I want to speak
English more now than before I started this class |
Yes |
No |
|
58% |
42% |
|
What
I find significant is that 83% surveyed believe in constant reinforcement for
participation. Not only that, 78%
felt they had more chances to speak English, and 75% of the those surveyed were
making more effort to speak English.
More than half felt less stressful and wanted to speak more English as a
result!
Some
have commented how this procedure "is so
behavioralistic". However, all I can say is that it works. It works not only for my classes, but other teachers who are
trying this technique report a positive response from their students as
well. I've seen from experience
how this technique makes participation count in Japanese EFL classes.