Ana Lado, Ph.D.

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Instructional Conversations Applying Tellability
to Stories for Teaching English
Ana Lado, Ph.D. lecture at Minghsin University
of Science and Technology and Lunghua University
of Science and Technology November 2015
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How do successful teachers engage their students
with a written text?

• An expert uses
• phased instruction of a balanced set of
  strands.
• The best teacher maximizes student learning.
  They utilize synchronicity between oral and
  written texts.

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There is flow.

• For example, they
• accompany the presentation of a dialogue rich
  text with a dramatic activity, and
• accompany the presentation of a poetic text with
  a recitation activity.
• In other words, the teacher engages the students
  intertextually.

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Some written texts are better for this type of
intertextual flow than others.

• These texts help students learn to comprehend the
  English in the written text and at the same time,
  they help them learn oral expression.
• They simultaneous teach oral and written skills.
• The students also learn to seamlessly transition
  back and forth between oral and written styles of
  English.

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Labovs Tellability

• Tellability was coined by Labov (1972) when he
  analyzed solicited narratives (conversational
  stories) of African-American youths who were
  asked to talk about specific personal
  experiences.
• It requires attention to more than just the
  readability of the written text. Readability
  focuses on the difficulty of a texts syntax and
  vocabulary. Tellability focuses on oral success.

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Labov's analysis began with asking the question

• why this narrative-or any narrative-is felt to
  be tellable in other words, why the events of
  the narrative are reportable.
• Tellability refers to a relationship between
  tellers and listeners that takes account
• what is reportable and
• who can tell what to whom in what circumstances.
• Tellability is dependent on a specific context.
  It includes the study of discourse features used
  to keep a specific audiences interest (Shuman
  2012).

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Baroni (2010) discusses tellabilty as
noteworthiness of a narrative or its interest
for listeners. The worthiness of a narrative
depends on a relationship between topic and
context and on the relationships among the
participants in the storytelling occasion, as
well as on the people described or implicated in
the narrative.Noteworthiness depends on
whether or not the events described are news, but
as Goffman (1974) pointed out, some occasions
warrant the repetition of an already familiar
narrative. This is our case in TESOL

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Readability vs. Tellability

• A Readability formula is a popular way to select
  texts but it cannot help us find the best texts
  for teaching oral and written language
  simultaneously.
• A Tellability formula can be used to describe
  written texts that are good for also teaching
  oral language.

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This Land is Your Land video of Pete Seeger
Bruce Springsteen - Obama Inauguration
https//www.youtube.com/watch?vwnvCPQqQWdsvide
o of Woody Guthrie bookhttps//www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v2cKUxGrH8Fk

• Intertextuality
• Written
• Oral and
• Graphic.
• Example from the book

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Tellability is both

• A social criterion, referencing to the
  relationships among the participants and
• An intertextual criterion, referring to other
  narratives, other representations, and other
  discourses.
• The best teachers use all modes of communication,
  such as pictures, gestures, oral intonation, and
  text, all so that students understand.
• When Picture books and Radio Scripts have
  features that mimic the best teachers, they
  prompt successful conversations.

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What criteria did I use to select picture books
that mimic the best teachers?

• Overall principles of
• Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
• 2. Appropriate Content by age
• 3. English Proficiency Level
• 4. Match text discourse to a CLT strategy.

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1. Overall Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT) Principles (based on Nation, 2000 Lado,
1988)Examples

• Comprehension Visuals, Total Physical Response
  
• Expression Readers Theater, Retelling
• Language Study Substitution, Comparing/Contrastin
  g
• Fluency Chanting, Poetry Recitation
• Personalized Utilization Projects, Rewriting

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2. APPROPRIATE CONTENT The books should make age
appropriate demands. Sequential plots are
easiest. They should be of interest to the age
group. Examples A Little Overcoat Childs
picture book https//www.youtube.com/watch?vKZ37
_s7X3jA From a Distance lyrics abstract
global https//www.youtube.com/watch?vEC3FW_RU-GI
From a Distance lyrics Turkey
https//www.youtube.com/watch?vLLPj2h0N3bU From
a Distance Las Vegas Performance by Bette
Midler https//www.youtube.com/watch?vaDSh5wUtXt4
Consider both the cognitive demands and the
linguistic context of the sample.
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• Range of Contextual Support and Degree of
  Cognitive Demands in Picture Books
• Cognitively Undemanding (easy) A and C
• Cognitively Demanding (difficult) B and D

A. Contextually embedded language (clues) and Cognitively undemanding content (easy). Books with easy, accessible language and content. The format lends itself to hands-on and unison activities with linguistic, visual, and social supports. C. Context reduced language (few clues) and Cognitively undemanding content (easy). Books with less accessible language yet easy topic. The text might have a dense style and lack clarifying illustrations. Yet the topic is concrete and familiar.
B. Contextually embedded language (clues) and Cognitively demanding content (difficult). Books with accessible language and demanding content. The text might have an oral style, transparent illustration, and patterned language but is unfamiliar, academic, or abstract. D. Context reduced language (few clues) and Cognitively demanding content (difficult). Books with language presented without contextual clues containing demanding content. The books format might require topic-specific vocabulary and skills and contain few linguistic, visual, and social supports.
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• 3. ENGLISH PROFICIENCY LEVEL
• The books should make level appropriate demands.
  Consider both the amount and complexity of the
  sample.
• Walt Whitman
• When I heard the learnd astronomer
• When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in
  columns before me
• When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to
  add, divide, and measure them
• When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he
  lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
  
• How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and
  sick
• Till rising and gliding out, I wanderd off by
  myself,
• In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to
  time,
• Lookd up in perfect silence at the stars.

Langston Hughes My People The night is
beautiful, So the faces of my people. The stars
are beautiful, So the eyes of my
people. Beautiful, also, is the sun. Beautiful,
also, are the souls of my people.
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Examples of different amounts and complexity of
language.

• Compare the Picture book version of
• When I heard the Learnd Astronomer
• To a Comic Strip version
• http//zenpencils.com/comic/88-walt-whitman-when-i
  -heard-the-learnd-astronomer/
• Compare the a picture book with only nouns
  (Bembos Zoo, De Vicq De Cumptich, 2000) to one
  with patterned sentences that can be used for
  substitution (Perfect Square, Hall, 2013).
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vEPY-FZT9ME8
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vJD9PnQFc8Kk

https//www.youtube.com/watch?v5vjdKhqefQs
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4. MATCH TEXT DISCOURSE TO CLT STRATEGY

• Comprehension taught using
• Texts with Verbs for TPR and
• Texts with actionable phrases for Reenactment
  and Role Play.

• Expression taught
• using
• Texts with rich dialogue for Readers Theater and
• Texts with sequence for Story Retelling.

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Some books matchComparing Contrasting

• A Cool Drink of Water (Kerley, 2006)
• We can compare the verbs in italics with nouns in
  capitals. We can compare lyrical text and
  expository end notes.
• Celebrating (Swain, 1999)
• We can compare Chinese
• with English

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Some books match Model-based Retelling
Story Frame Questions Answers
What is the title? Author? Illustrator? Kittens First Full Moon is Written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes (2004)
2. Who is the story about? This story is about a hungry kitten.
3. What happens first? The kitten sees the moon and thinks it is milk.
4. What happens next? She jumps off the porch.
5. What happens next? She runs through the garden.
6. What happens next? She climbs up a tree.
7. What happens next? She leaps into a pond.
8. How does it end? She finds a bowl of milk at home.
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(No Transcript)
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Some Match Fluency Fluency activities should

• 1. Enough amount / quantity of language,
• 2. Make limited demands (repetition) and
• 3. Require a high level of performance.
• (Nation, 2008)

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Some match PersonalizedUtilization

• Such as books with
• Projects
• Bread Comes to Life
• (Levenson, 2008)

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Tellability is about conversation. Therefore
it can be applied to all instructional
conversations, such as

• The database of books with Tellability associated
  with
• Teaching Beginner ELLs with Picture Books (Lado,
  2012)
• http//www.corwin.com/picturebooks4ells/
• Password person

• Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI)

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Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) lessons for
Pakistan (Radio 99) With a focus on oral
fluency. We target primary school education for
everyone. While radio is one way communication,
IRI includes interactions where students learn
through games, involvement, jingles, songs,
poems, and role plays. http//www.dw.com/en/glo
bal-3000-the-globalization-program-2015-06-22/e-18
524037-9798.

https//www.facebook.com/broadclass?frefnf
Radio 99 Broad Class Listen to
Learn January 23


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Hymes SPEAKING Model

• Setting and Scene "Setting refers to the time and
  place of a speech act andto the physical
  circumstances" (Hymes 55).Participants Speaker
  and audience. Distinguished as addressees and
  other hearers (Hymes 54 56).Ends Purposes,
  goals, and outcomes (Hymes 56-57). Act Sequence
  Form and order of the event.
• Key Cues that establish the "tone, manner, or
  spirit" of the speech act (Hymes 57).
• Instrumentalities Forms and styles of speech
  (Hymes 58-60). Norms Social rules governing the
  event and the participants' actions and reaction.
  
• Genre The kind of speech act or event for our
  course, the kind of story. The aunt might tell a
  character anecdote about the grandmother for
  entertainment, but an exemple as moral
  instruction.

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Apply S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G.

• Since the Pakistanis tell Aesops fables, we used
  this Genre but adapted to the Setting.
• For example including dialogue patterns
• The bee said to the ladybug, I am better than
  you. I fly in flowers and I sting. What
  do you do?
• The ladybug said to the mosquito, I am better
  than you. I fly under flowers and I crawl. What
  do you do?
• And jingles that lead to TPR-like activities
• Jingle What can you do?
• Everyone is better at something. I am better at
  something, too.
• Everyone is better at something. You are better
  at something, too

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KEY POINTS

• Tellability of a Picture Book or
• An IRI script
• requires us to consider context and language and
  the flow among
• students, teachers, materials and
• Strategies in ways that current readability
  formulas do not.