English Language Teaching in its Social Context

296 ASSIA SLIMANIFTable 18.2 Effect of topicalisation’ILESSONS Total No oftopicalised items4Topicalised andclaimedTopicalised butnot claimedTopicalised butknownI TOTAL I 256405631603732172116311116162312151907100%112I 9243.75% 35.93%0712031407095220.3 1 Yothis study.The data of the last column were derived from the answers to questions b, c, andd on Uptake Identification Probes which were distributed to help learners dissociate theitems they believed they had learned during the observed lessons from those they had alreadyencountered in different circumstances. The observed lessons in which these items occurredagain could not fully justify their ‘uptaking’ as they have already happened in situations whichmight have facilitated their learning.Table 18.2 shows that out of 256 topicalised cases providing learning opportunities forthe class, 92 failed to attract the learners’ attention and 52 were claimed to be somewhatknown as they hat1 already encountered them in earlier events unrelated to this study. Inother words, 43.75 per cent focused episodes have ‘reached the target’, while 35.93 percent went completely unnoticed and 20.31 per cent were already to some cxtcnt familiarto the subjects.The above figures provide us with a picture of the ‘syllabus as reality’ as opposed to the‘syllabus as plan’. The former represents what actually happens in the midst of interactivework done by the participants. The on-going interaction leads to the creation of a wholerange of learning opportunities, some of which are the results of the teachcr’s plan; othersarise as a by-product of the plan, but some others arise independently of any intentions,pcrhaps as a by-product of classroom interaction.No precise comparison can be made with the ‘syllabus as plan’ which is defined as asyllabus which attempts to predict what is likcly to be learned from a planned learningevent. I was not, despite my request, providcd with very many details about the teacher’sobjectivcs. I was given the title of the structure to be taught and thc series of exercises inthe textbook to practise the grammatical features to be introduced to the group.Hence, the detailed study of the classroom discourse has revealed that about 44 percent only of what has been pedagogically topicalised was claimed by the learners. Evcnthough the teacher’s objectivcs were gcarcd toward the teaching of some particularstructural features, most of the 44 per cent were lexical items claimed to be seen and learnedfor the first time in those observed events. Nevertheless it would be misleading to concludethat the lessons were not successful because learners did not claim many of the structuralobjectives the teacher had on his plan. Although it might be suggested that the shortage ofgrammatical claims is due to thc possibility that it is much easier to report lexis because