Автор работы: Пользователь скрыл имя, 04 Декабря 2014 в 17:58, курсовая работа
Topicality. Works of modern foreign language teacher can not be imagined without the use of new information technologies. It's not just hardware, but also new methods and forms of teaching. The task of the teacher is to create the conditions of practical language learning for each student, to choose such training methods that would allow each student to show their activity, their creativity, to enhance the student's cognitive activity in learning foreign languages.
The learner uses the context of language to help in comprehension but the foreign language classroom can often seem artificial. Brainstorming allows the students to create a context for the subsequent speaking task. Relevant existing knowledge (content schema) can be called up from memory and can provide a context which supports comprehension and production in the subsequent speaking task.
As discussed in this section, brainstorming can help our students to become better learners, but equally importantly, students will benefit just by working in groups. They will learn language from each other and by interacting together they will become better communicators.
A research study on the use of brainstorming was carried out in Oral Communication classes at a Japanese senior high school. The students had studied English since junior high school, but it was their first introduction to spoken English. Many students carried out the speaking tasks very slowly which resulted in very little speaking time. Brainstorming was introduced as a short warm-up activity that could direct the minds of the students towards the speaking task and maximize their speaking time.
The study was carried out in six classes of 40 students. Each class was split into two groups by student numbers. Both groups were assumed to be at the same level of ability. Odd-numbered students did only the speaking task and acted as a control group. Even-numbered students did a brainstorming warm-up followed by the speaking task.
The type of brainstorming used was word-mapping. In word-mapping, students write one word in the center of the page and link other related words to it. Students did several examples in small groups and groups competed with each other to get the highest number of words. For each brainstorming session, the students were given only two minutes to encourage quick thinking and to reduce the time for worrying about mistakes.
The speaking task was a simple information gap involving the exchange of personal information. The students were given a time-limit of five minutes. Each piece of information exchanged was noted in a box on a worksheet. At the end of the task, the scores were counted. If a box was filled, a student got a point. There was no penalty for incorrect answers.
Since the goal of the task was to maximize student speaking time, a larger amount of information exchanged was assumed to mean a better performance. The score was assumed to be a suitable measure of this performance. Other variables were not considered. Changes in score were assumed to be due to the effect of the brainstorming session. The scores for the test groups and control groups are shown in Table 1.
Table 1
All of the test groups performed better than the corresponding control groups and the average speaking time was about 15% longer. The increases in speaking time for the individual groups ranged from 3.8% to as much as 25.3%.
Brainstorming had a strong positive effect on the atmosphere of the classroom and behaviour of the students. The students in the study got involved in the brainstorming immediately. In the warm-up, groups competed and got increasingly higher scores in each consecutive brainstorming. The average number of words written during the brainstorming rose from under 10 words in the first example to over 50 words in the last example. This seemed to indicate an activation of self-initiative.
In the test groups, the game-like activity of the brainstorming carried over into the speaking task. In addition, students had already worked with a partner before the main speaking task which helped to overcome shyness or anxiety. This probably helped the making of intelligent guesses. The students were familiar with the vocabulary in the speaking task because of the organization of knowledge and introduction of contextual cues in the warm-up activity. The whole pace of the task was much faster in the test groups and the students seemed to enjoy it more. Japanese was used very little by the test groups in the course of the task.
In contrast, in the control groups, there was a general fear of making mistakes in the speaking task and many of the students were nervous. In addition, they were not as familiar with the vocabulary and had to be constantly reminded not to use Japanese.
The test-group students seemed to move towards the characteristics of the good learner through the warm-up and speaking task. The brainstorming activity achieved the goal of increasing the student speaking time.
Although, the study covers a narrow area, it shows that an increase in speaking time and a more positive atmosphere are two benefits that brainstorming can bring to speaking tasks. This can be seen as a result of guiding the students towards the characteristics of the good learner.
Brainstorming methods can be changed and adapted to meet the needs of class. As we become more confident with using brainstorming we may want to vary the ways we use it. Here are some variations on brainstorming that we can incorporate into our lessons:
Brainstorming: In addition to using brainstorming with the whole class, in small groups and in pairs, it can also be done or individually, with the results then shared with a partner or the class as a whole.
Brain writing: Each group is provided with a sheet of paper. After they have written one idea, they swap their sheet with another group. This is continued until the papers have passed around the class. This method allows students to build on other students’ ideas.
Pie storm: A circular piece of paper is divided into four or six sectors. Students brainstorm their ideas into these ready-made subsections. This method allows you to indicate to the students how to organise their thoughts into different categories.
Sticky notes: Each student or group of students writes one idea, question or thought on a small piece of paper or sticky note (such as a Post-it note). These small pieces of paper are then stuck on the wall or board. The teacher can move the pieces of paper around to organise the ideas into particular themes, eliminating any repetition.
Brain wave: Groups of students discuss a question or scientific concept. A representative from each group stands up and quickly presents one idea from their group. As they sit down, the next group’s representative stands to quickly present their idea – which must be different what to what went before. This is repeated until the class runs out of, or starts repeating, ideas.
Brainstorming contributes to the generation of creative solutions to a problem. It teaches students to breaks away from old patterns of reasoning to new unexplored paths of thinking. Problem solving has become part and parcel of teaching and learning process. Brainstorming can make group problem-solving a less sterile and a more satisfactory process. It can be used with your class to bring the various students experiences into play. This increases the richness of ideas explored, particularly before reading, listening and writing activities. Brainstorming is fun. That’s why it helps student-student and students-teacher relationships to get stronger as they solve problems in a positive, stress-free environment. We often use mainly 2 types of the brainstorming: individual brainstorming and group brainstorming.
Advantage of individual brainstorming is that students are free and do not worry about other people’s opinions and judgements, and can therefore be more freely creative. For instance, a student who hesitates to bring up an idea in a group brainstorming because he thinks its unworthy, might be free to explore it in an individual brainstorming and find that it develops into something quite interesting. Students don’t have to wait for others to stop speaking before they contribute their own ideas.
There are however some downturns with individual brainstorming. In a group brainstorming, the experiences of the members of the group help to develop ideas thoroughly. This is something that might be missing in individual brainstorming where only the individuals experience come to play.
Group brainstorming may work in so many effective ways. Brainstorming brings the full experience and creativity of all members of the group to solve a problem. When individual group members get stuck with an idea, another member’s creativity and experience can take the idea to the next stage. Group brainstorming can therefore develop ideas in more depth than individual brainstorming. Another advantage of group brainstorming is that it helps everyone involved to feel that they have contributed to the end solution. It reminds one that other people have creative ideas to offer. Brainstorming can be great for team-building and creating harmony within a team.
Nevertheless group brainstorming has some disadvantages. It can be risky for individuals. Valuable but unusual suggestions may appear irrelevant at first sight. That’s why, the teacher needs to be careful not to suppress these ideas. Group problem-solving must not stifle creativity.
1.3 The theoretical usage of brainstorming in teaching
Brainstorming is a group or whole-class technique for generating free-flowing ideas about a topic. It promotes creative thinking, encourages interaction, pools knowledge, and reveals to the teacher what students already know. We should not forget about the purposes of brainstorming. The main purposes of brainstorming are:
Some students may initially be reluctant to speak out in a group setting, but brainstorming should be a relaxed, positive activity that encourages all students of all abilities to participate and express their ideas, while listening to and respecting the contributions of others. There are no right or wrong answers during a brainstorming session and all students should feel safe about contributing whatever comes to mind. Their ideas may be shared verbally, or captured on paper or on the board. These ideas can take the form of words, statements, questions or even drawings. This kind of rules you should suggest to your students.
Write down the set of rules you have agreed on a large piece of paper and display it on the wall.
As a teacher, your role is to facilitate the brainstorming activity. First, you will need to identify a suitable prompt. Next, you will need to decide whether the brainstorming will take the form of a whole-class or small-group activity. You may also wish to remind the students of the agreed rules at the start. You should then encourage discussion and involvement – which may be voluntary, or gently prompted. It may be necessary to guide the students as they share their ideas. If it is a whole-group activity, you will need to decide whether to record your students’ contributions on the board or not. With a small-group activity, it will be necessary for the ideas to be noted down in order for students to be able to report back to the rest of the class. In this case, you may wish to allocate the role of recording ideas and managing the turn-taking to a particular student. Either than student or another can then share a given number of the ideas with the rest of the class after the time is up.
At the end of the activity, you should do the following:
John R. Hayes recommends following these steps in his book “The Complete Problem Solver.”
“Separate idea generation from evaluation. Start with the idea generation phase, writing down ideas as they occur, without criticism. You should welcome wild or silly ideas, and you should try to combine or improve ideas that were generated earlier. The hard part in this phase is to control your internal editor– the internal voice of criticism which may lead you to ignore an idea that seems too dumb or trivial. Just as with group brainstorming, when you begin to run out of ideas, you can review the list as a source to stimulate further production. When the ideas really have stopped coming, it is time to move on to the evaluation phase. Here you review each idea to select those that seem best for solving the problem.”
As it is said above both group and individual brainstorming can work perfectly well. We think that we, as teachers, should vary the types of brainstorming so that students may fulfill their needs according to their learning style. It is also possible to combine both types by having students carrying out individual brainstorming the results of which can be shared in a group brainstorming. In the following description we will show how a group brainstorming should be done.
In classes brainstorming can be effective in a wide range of areas of instruction.
Conventional group problem solving can often be undermined by unhelpful group behavior . And while it's important to start with a structured, analytical process when solving problems, this can lead a group to develop limited and unimaginative ideas.
By contrast, brainstorming provides a free and open environment that encourages everyone to participate. Quirky ideas are welcomed and built upon, and all participants are encouraged to contribute fully, helping them develop a rich array of creative solutions.
When used during problem solving, brainstorming brings team members' diverse experience into play. It increases the richness of ideas explored, which means that you can often find better solutions to the problems that you face.
It can also help you get buy-in from team members for the solution chosen – after all, they're likely to be more committed to an approach if they were involved in developing it. What's more, because brainstorming is fun, it helps team members bond, as they solve problems in a positive, rewarding environment. While brainstorming can be effective, it's important to approach it with an open mind and a spirit of non-judgment. If you don't do this, people "clam up," the number and quality of ideas plummets, and morale can suffer.
We often get the best results by combining individual and group brainstorming, and by managing the process according to the "rules" below. By doing this, we can get people to focus on the issue without interruption, we maximize the number of ideas that we can generate, and we get that great feeling of team bonding that comes with a well-run brainstorming session.
To run a group brainstorming session effectively, follow these steps:
Step 1: Prepare the Group
First, set up a comfortable meeting environment for the session. Make sure that the room is well-lit and that you have the tools, resources, and refreshments that you need.Consider who will attend the meeting. A room full of like-minded people won't generate as many creative ideas as a diverse group, so try to include people from a wide range of disciplines, and include people who have a variety of different thinking styles. When everyone is gathered, appoint one person to record the ideas that come from the session. This person shouldn't necessarily be the team manager – it's hard to record and contribute at the same time. Post notes where everyone can see them, such as on flip charts or whiteboards; or use a computer with a data projector. If people aren't used to working together, consider using an appropriate warm-up exercise, or an icebreaker .
Step 2: Present the Problem
Clearly define the problem that you want to solve, and lay out any criteria that you must meet. Make it clear that that the meeting's objective is to generate as many ideas as possible.
Give people plenty of quiet time at the start of the session to write down as many of their own ideas as they can. Then, ask them to share their ideas, while giving everyone a fair opportunity to contribute.
Step 3: Guide the Discussion
Once everyone has shared their ideas, start a group discussion to develop other people's ideas, and use them to create new ideas. Building on others' ideas is one of the most valuable aspects of group brainstorming.
Encourage everyone to contribute and to develop ideas, including the quietest people, and discourage anyone from criticizing ideas.
As the group facilitator, you should share ideas if you have them, but spend your time and energy supporting your team and guiding the discussion. Stick to one conversation at a time, and refocus the group if people become sidetracked.
Although you're guiding the discussion, remember to let everyone have fun while brainstorming. Welcome creativity, and encourage your team to come up with as many ideas as possible, regardless of whether they're practical or impractical. Use thought experiments such as provocation or random input to generate some unexpected ideas.
Don't follow one train of thought for too long. Make sure that you generate a good number of different ideas, and explore individual ideas in detail. If a team member needs to "tune out" to explore an idea alone, allow them the freedom to do this. Also, if the brainstorming session is lengthy, take plenty of breaks so that people can continue to concentrate.
So here are the mainly problems while using brainstorming in teaching: