DiscoveryTrailTM

The following is an excerpt from a Masters thesis about the uses of games in the ESL classroom.  It describes the origin of Discovery Trail and provides readers with useful insights into interactive classroom activities.  Originally submitted  to the School for International Training, Brattleboro, VT.  Copyright ©1987, Mark Feder.

A common difficulty facing the teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) ¹ in foreign countries, and especially in developing countries, is the lack of adequate materials and resources.  The procurement of simple realia such as newspapers, brochures, advertisements, and recordings of native speech may entail inordinate effort and expense.  My experiences  in teaching English and developing materials and activities from locally available resources have resulted in the recognition that the teacher's most dependable, accessible, and valuable resource is the students themselves.  To be most successful, activities should, therefore, endeavor to exploit that resource as fully as possible. Discovery Trail, a game originally developed for teaching ESL to adults in South Korea, is an attempt to use the students as the central element of the learning process.  In this section, the development of the idea of Discovery Trail will be described, and since, "Every classroom practice derives from an underlying theory of some kind,² the premises and assumptions upon which the game is based will be examined.

The importance of placing the student at the center of the learning process is attested by my own experiences and firmly supported by ESL literature.  Oller, for example, calls the "increasing concentration on student learning rather than on teaching (the) most significant trend” in ESL.³ The style of teaching in which students passively submit to a kind of linguistic indoctrination has been all but abandoned by progressive teachers who view active student participation as necessary to the effective accomplishment of their roles.  By its very nature, learning, which is an excursion from the known to the unknown, entails labor and anxiety.  But if these negative aspects are de-emphasized and the student is absorbed in the excitement and adventure of the enterprise, inhibiting factors such as anxiety, which obstruct input and form, in the words of Dulay and Burt, an "affective filter,"⁴ can be reduced.  Thus, the student can more easily come out of his⁵ "protective shell"⁶ to absorb and integrate new data.

Having determined that student-centered activities are highly desirable, the teacher has the difficult task of selecting and devising activities that can successfully integrate student participation with the specific language objectives set for the class.  Dividing the class into small groups, each of which works on pre-established goals, is one of the most practical ways of assuring that the students function as the main participants and the teacher acts only as an inconspicuous counselor or guide.  Small group work is also generally less inhibiting and intimidating than whole-class activities.  Some students who are shy or lack self-assurance may, nevertheless, be dominated by more aggressive classmates.  This limitation should be addressed to assure the general effectiveness of small group work.

Three domains have been recognized in pedagogy as playing a part in learning: cognitive, psycho-motor, and affective.⁷In language learning, the word “competence” refers to the reservoir of knowledge and information that the learner possesses.⁸Competence, therefore, is related to the cognitive skills of knowing, albeit unconsciously, the rules and information which underlie communication.  "Performance" denotes the actual use of those skills.  Because performance is affected by use, repetition, and habit, it is closely allied to the psycho-motor domain.  To illustrate, a student may be able to accurately chart the pronominal system, but in actual speech substitutes "he" for "she" or vice versa.  In this case, we may say that competence exceeds performance, which is typically true in language learning.  The affective domain embraces all those psychological and sociological factors such as anxiety, shyness, and status which influence learning and hence pervades the entire learning process.

The relationship between the three domains of learning is depicted in the following diagram:

In less abstract terms, language learning does not consist of simply internalizing new vocabulary items, grammar rules, and sentence patterns.  A complex network comprised of intellectual, emotional, and neuro-physiological elements operates in the assimilation of new material.  Every classroom activity need not simultaneously address all three domains.  One which does so, however, is inherently more complete than an activity which deals with just a single part.

Small group work is especially valuable for the affective domain because students have more freedom of movement and opportunity to experiment with language.  It has been astutely pointed out that, "if communication is always on a one-to-thirty basis (i.e. from teacher to students), a great number of other possibilities are being wasted”⁹ Small group work clearly provides the great advantage of maximizing student participation.  As stated earlier, students who feel intimidated about speaking in front of the whole class can sometimes speak to a few other classmates with less embarrassment and self- consciousness.  Small group work is ideally suited for limited practice and reinforcement of previously taught material.  A drawback of small group work is the impossibility of monitoring every group at every moment.  There is a danger that incorrect utterances will go undetected and be reinforced or that students will totally fail to follow instructions.  So, while small group work is very useful, it must be controlled to assure that the objectives are being met.

Until recently, affective factors have not been viewed as essential to the learning process and have generally been neglected by traditional teaching methodologies.  The Grammar-Translation Method, through such techniques as translation, recognition of cognates, and the deductive application of rules,¹⁰ stresses cognitive input.  The Audio-Lingual Method, employing repetition, substitution, and transformation drills as well as dialog memorization,¹¹ treats language learning as a "habit formation process."¹²Affective considerations have traditionally depended on the teacher's temperament.  That is to say, such considerations have been incidental rather than integral to the teaching methodology and were not grounded in a conscious philosophy of pedagogy.  With the growing realization of the importance of affective factors came a number of new approaches to language teaching directed at the “whole person” which focused on the condition of the learner.  Such holistic approaches attempt to enhance the student's readiness to learn and recognize the comfort, enjoyment, and engagement of the students as legitimate and primary concerns of the language teacher.  As Brown observes:

The importance of the affective domain has been recently stressed in most of the literature on language teaching methods and techniques.  A number of methods have been devised in the last decade—and some used successfully--which claim to capitalize on humanistic factors in language learning.   The Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Total Physical Response, Community Language Learning, and others have emerged as methods which attempt to provide the humanistic context and affective support necessary to meet the egocentric, transactional, and motivational necessities of second language acquisition.¹³

Game-playing has many features which make it a potentially valuable activity in the language class.  There are six aspects of game-playing that deserve special attention: communication context; mood enhancement: group-building; student participation; competitiveness; incidental or spontaneous learning.

Communication context: Games provide what Brown calls "meaningful contexts of genuine communication."¹⁶  Students need not mimic the contrived, artificial, and stilted language of textbook conversations but can attempt to formulate appropriate language to express their own thoughts and emotions.  Once the student has something to say, the teacher can act as a counselor to perfect that communication.

Mood enhancement: The importance of the affective domain has already been discussed.  The student's readiness to learn is influenced by physical as well as psychological factors.  In playing games in small groups, students have a great deal more freedom than in more formal learning situations.  The freedom to move chairs and stretch limbs contributes to a sense of autonomy and well-being.  As a result, students feel more relaxed and their minds may be more attentive and receptive.  A game is play and play is relaxing and enjoyable.  It is obviously advantageous for students to enter into an activity with a sense of excitement and anticipation rather than foreboding.

Group-building: The teacher who is aware of the importance of the affective domain does everything in her power to make the classroom a friendly and supportive place.  The relationships and interactions among students are dynamics which play a critical role in determining the success of a class.  Small group work fosters greater intimacy and cooperation among students and provides an opportunity for them to use their pooled knowledge to solve problems.

Student participation: The primary role of the teacher, I have come to believe, is not to "teach" but to set up situations in which the student can learn.  The old adage that "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" is particularly apt for learning.  It is the student who is finally responsible for his own learning and he must play an active role in that process.  Student-centered classes try to reverse the traditional situation in which the teacher is the actor (i.e. active) and the students are the audience.  Small group work, as discussed earlier, is a way of assuring that the teacher has a less obtrusive role to play.  While playing games, the students may entirely forget about the presence of the teacher, which means that they are absorbed in their task and focusing their attention where it does the most good.

Competitiveness: Rivalry plays an important role in all human affairs and to some extent the progress of civilization seems to be linked to competition.  There has probably never been a human society in which competition has not played a part.  Games, contests and matches of skill seem, indeed, to be universals in the human experience.  Because competition is such a pervasive human characteristic and game-playing such a natural trait, competitive activities may well be able to facilitate the learning process.  A word of caution, however, is necessary here.  Competition is a double-edged sword.  While it can promote progress in some circumstances, it can, just as easily retard it by causing intimidation.  The inclusion of elements of chance, which will be discussed later, is one way of curtailing potentially negative aspects of competition.

Incidental or spontaneous learning: Anyone who has played Monopoly or any similar board game is aware of how players "pick up" pieces of information without conscious memorization. Players easily assimilate such data as the cost of Marvin Gardens or the rent of Boardwalk with a hotel.  This kind of spontaneous, unconscious learning can be put to good use in the language classroom.  Observers have noted that when excessive attention is given to the performance of an action, failure frequently results.  A Zen master, for example, explained to his archery student that, "The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed …"¹⁷ Likewise, Gallwey attributes tennis players' problems to excessive self-consciousness¹⁸ and Stevick adapts the idea to language learning in his theory of the "Critical Self.¹⁹ When a pseudo-objective is set to absorb the attention of the participant, the real objective is frequently achieved without special effort.  If a student is drilled on a sentence pattern, he may make arrors because of his very attention.  But if the student’s attention is distracted by some unrelated task such as playing a game, the forgotten linguistic objective may be fulfilled effortlessly.  Game-playing is an especially effective device for masking the real lesson.

The discussion thus far has pointed to the unique suitability of games for the ESL classroom.  The six features of game-playing just discussed, in addition to the theory of language learning outlined above, set the stage for the development of an activity which can serve many purposes at the same time.  Two of the limitations of small group work cited above, namely, the difficulty of monitoring and the uncertainty of equal participation by all students, must also be taken into consideration.  The following section will describe how Discovery Trail fulfills the criteria of a multi-functional classroom activity.

1 The term ESL is used throughout to refer to all types of English language instruction for non-native speakers.
2 Ronald Wardhaugh, "TESOL: Current Problems and Classroom Practices" Teaching English as a Second Language: A Book of Readings, eds. Harold B. Alien and Russell Campbell, 1972 ed. (New York: WcGraw, 1965) 3.
3 Christina Bratt Paulston, What Research Says to the Teacher: English as a Second Language (Nat. Ed. Assoc. of the U.S., 1980) 32.
4 "Dulay and Burt suggested a filter, an affective filter, can keep input from getting in ...What the filter hypothesis says about pedagogy Is that the more we do to lower the filter, I.e., the more our classes are low anxiety, the better off our students will be."  (Stephen Krashen, "Theory Versus Practice in Language Training" Innovative Approaches to Language Teaching, ed. Robert W. Blair (Rowley: Newbury, 1982) 25).
5 To deal with the sensitive issue of gender in third person pronouns, "he" is arbitrarily used throughout to refer to the student and "she" to the teacher.
6 The tortoise metaphor is from Earl w. Stevick, Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways (Rowley: Newbury, 1980). 13-14.
7 Bloom's taxonomy is presented in Anita E. Wool folk and Lorraine McCune-Nicolich, Educational Psychology for Teachers.
2nd ed. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1980) 389-391.
8 H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1980) 27-28.
9 Alan Maley and Alan Duff, Drama Techniques in Language Learning: A Resource Book of Communication Activities for Language Teachers, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1978) 12.
10 Diane Larson Freeman, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986) 13-14.
11 Larson-Freeman 45-47.
12 Dwight Bolinger, "The Theorist and the Language Teacher," In Alien and Campbell 28.
13 Brown 116
14 Instructions for "Hangman" and a variety of Bingo games is presented by Judy E. Winn-Bell Olsen, Communication Starters
and Other Activities for the ESL Classroom (San Francisco: Alemany, 1977) 3-10.
15 Earl W. Stevick, Teaching and Learning Languages (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1982) 128.
16 Brown 77-78.
17 Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery, trans. R. F. C. Hull  (New York: Pantheon,  1953) 51.
18 Timothy Gallwey, The inner Game of Tennis (New York: Random, 1974).
19 Stevick, Teaching Languages 11-33.

References

Alien, Harold B. and Russell N. Campbell, eds.  Teaching English as a Second Language: A Book of Readings. 1972 ed.  New York: McGraw, 1965.
Bolinger, Dwight.  "The Theorist and the Language Teacher." Alien and Campbell 20-36.
Brown, H. Douglas.  Principles of Language Learning and Teaching.  Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1980.
Burt, Marina K. and Carol Kiparsky.  The Goof I con: A Repair Manual for English.  Rowley: Newbury, 1972.
Celce-Murcia, Marianne and Diane Larson-Freeman.  The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher's Course.  Rowley: Newbury, 1983.
Dixson, Robert J.  Graded Exercises In English.  New York: Regents, 1983.
Ferreira, Linda A.  Express English: Transitions.  Rowley: Newbury, 1984.
Gallwey, W. Timothy.  The inner Game of Tennis.  New York: Random, 1974.
Herrigel, Eugen.  Zen in the Art of Archery.  Trans. R. F. C. Hull.  New York: pantheon, 1953.
Knowles, Philip L. and Ruth A. Sasaki.  Story Squares: Fluency 4 in English as a Second Language.  Cambridge, MA: Winthrop, 1980.
Krashen, Stephen.  "Theory Versus Practice in Language Teaching."  innovative Approaches to Language Teaching. Ed. Robert W. Blair.  Rowley: Newbury, 1982.   15-30.
Larson-Freeman, Diane.  Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching.  Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986.
Maley, Alan and Alan Duff.  Drama Techniques in Language Learning,  2nd ed.  Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1978.
Olsen, Judy E. Winn-Bell.  Communication Starters and Other Activities for the ESL Classroom.  San Francisco: Alemany, 1977.
Pack, Alice C.  Prepositions: Dyad Learning Program.  Rowley: Newbury,- 1977.
Paulston, Christina Bratt.  What Research Says to the Teacher: English as a Second Language.  Nat. Ed. Assoc. of the U. S., 1980.
Reinhart, Susan M.  Testing Your Grammar.  Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1985.
Stevick, Earl W.  Teaching and Learning Languages.  Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1982.
---.  Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways.  Row ley: Newbury, 1980.
Wardhaugh, Ronald.  "TESOL: Current Problems and Classroom Practices."  Alien andCampbell 8-19.
Woolfolk, Anita E. and Lorralne McCune-Nicolich.  Educational Psychology for Teachers,  2nd ed.  Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1980.