How we use Ellis lab to teach English

Starting with the Basics

The course levels are Basics, Intro, Middle, and Senior. The Basics course takes about 10 hours to complete, whereas the Intro consumes about 30 hours to master. Intermediate students then taken on the challenges of the Middle course, while the upper learners enjoy the Senior course.

Master Pronunciation is ideal for teachers and advanced learners. In our experience, it is best for most students to start with Basics because it focuses on specific sounds that Thai students find difficult, specifically "th", the letters v, l, r, and all ending consonants.

Lessons in administration

The way we use the lab has changed over the past three semesters, reflecting our experience. For example, we changed the criteria for evaluating students who use the lab. During the first term of 2006 we gave students credit for the hours they spent in the lab. Many students properly used the lab, but some just signed in and did nothing. All received hourly credits.

The next term, we required students to complete specific lessons with a score of 80 percent or better. Most students did the work. However, some students learned that they could pass the quizzes and tests by cheating. That resulted in several cheating investigations. We learned a lot about the data signature of a cheater.

The Ellis system captures a mountain of statistics on each student. Getting at this data is not easy, but we have written computer programs to solve that problem. Evaluating the data is another challenge.

Speaking is the key

A useful feature of the Ellis system is Listen-Record-Compare. There are literally thousands of opportunities for the student to record his/her own voice. The student listens (as many times as she wants) to the dialogue, then hits the Record button and speaks those lines herself. After that, she presses the Compare button and the original is played followed by the student's recorded speech.

A teacher sitting with the student can quickly determine if the speech is "within the box", that is, within the pronunciation limits of spoken English. Unfortunately, we do not have a teacher for every student, and often there is no teacher present.

Students, quickly discovered they could skip Listen-Record-Compare. The result was that Learning Avoiders never recorded anything. Once we knew what to look for, it was easy to detect and to fashion a solution. Students could not speak the lines of the dialogue they were supposed to be practicing. When we did not test for this, learning avoidance went undetected.

The recording information is buried deep in the Ellis statistics. It was so often zero that at first we though it was irrelevant information. Now that we know that low Record counts and times means speech avoidance, we have taken corrective action.

Our lab proctors are being trained as teaching assistants. We recruit them from the ranks of junior, senior and graduate English majors. Their job is to coach students one-on-one. They pay particular attention to the Listen-Record-Compare cycle.

Passport to English

Our system is reinforced with a Passport to English. The student pays a lab fee and in return receives a personalized book the size of a typical passport. Each student's information is printed inside its front cover. We attach the student's photograph and laminate the cover. The inside pages contain Certificates of Achievement for each of the five series in the Ellis Academic program.

To receive a certification stamp, a student must meet several criteria. First, she or he must have completed all the lessons with a score of 80 percent or better. Second, they must obtain a minimum score on the placement test, which measures vocabulary, grammar and listening. Third, she or he must read aloud to an examiner one of the dialogues from the lessons. Lastly, the statistical data captured by the system must fall within the limits we have established as our assurance that the work was done.

Community outreach

We have come a long way this past year in our evaluation of students. And not surprisingly, our students have come a long way in improving their English skills.

Language learning is a personal, physical, and mental experience unique to each individual. Physical participation in making and reproducing sounds is unavoidable. A person cannot speak without making the proper sounds. It's just that simple.

We are now preparing to offer a Supervised Ellis Lab Program to anyone of any age in the community who wants to improve their English skills.

Peter Covey is an English teacher and director of eLearning Systems at the Language Center, Udon Thani Rajabhat University, in northeast Thailand. Comments and questions may be sent to Peter at ajarnpeter@gmail.com .