The Poster Talk: Using Research to Integrate Skills

                       The Poster Talk: Using Research to Integrate Skills

by

David Lewis Brooks

                    Published in The Word, Hawaii TESOL Newsletter, Vol 23 (2), February, 2014, pp. 13-14

http://www.hawaiitesol.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/Feb%202014.pdf

Presented at the Hawaii TESOL Conference, February, 2008.

          The Poster Talk is a powerful technique for getting ESL students to read non-fiction with eagerness and cumulative understanding, while further integrating all four language skills. A poster talk session by students at almost any age and ability level can serve as an exciting culmination of independent reading and writing, directed toward a meaningful integrated research project.

             Getting ESL and EFL students to read a variety of genres is essential to their development of reading skills. Moreover, expanding the breath and quantity of reading materials and broadening their avenues of response to the materials give the students opportunities to utilize and polish the other literacy skills as well. With the use of appropriate children’s fiction and young adult literature, the narrative itself will usually draw students into the story, especially when cooperative, interactive and holistic language learning activities are involved. But how can we get our ESL students with limited proficiency to read non-fiction with as much eagerness and with the cumulative understanding that enables them to achieve multiple literacy learning experiences?

    Capitalizing on students’ individual interests for content-area research to create and present an oral poster presentation is a great project for achieving the integration of reading with the other language skills. Either as individual research projects or as part of an integrated thematic unit or over-reaching project, students can select an area of interest and importance, such as “how safe are imported foods”, or “why do some whales and dolphins appear to kill themselves.”

    To give the research project a strong focus and a meaningful goal, the students need direct their efforts on finding and reading materials that can help them formulate, and also answer, the essential questions related to their chosen topic: the core questions. Generating four main core research questions about the topic and making complete, but succinct, answers to each of these questions, gives each student a directed purpose and a manageable goal. Because they will present their research during a poster session, students will need to summarize core ideas, design a stimulating visual display, practice giving an oral talk about the most important findings of their research, and also to act as good listeners and engage in asking questions to other poster presenters. By way of performance, multiple poster session presentations can occur simultaneously with one set of students making a rehearsed summary of their work in English while other ‘visitor’ students listen and ask questions. Later, their roles are reversed. After the Poster Talk session has concluded, the completed posters make an exciting and memorable wall display that continues to highlight the students’ learning.

    In conclusion, the Poster Talk provides for maximum effective integration of language skills with content-area learning.