Bilash’s Success-based Language Instruction Model (B-SLIM) overview by
Dr. Olenka Bilash (Olenka.Bilash@ualberta.ca)
We talk so much about self directed learning and have structured policies and proposed practices around the assumption that all learners are equally self-directed. BUT, practitioners know that not all learners are equally self-directed. In fact, teachers also know from experience that some learners need to be taught to be self-directed. By being based on success, B-SLIM incorporates enough scaffolding (structure and support) at each phase for learners who are less self sufficient to succeed while simultaneously providing opportunities and direction for the more self-directed student to push forward. For example, while a less self-directed student might need to follow a template several times before really ‘getting’ the structure of a form such as a brief event review (in order to be able to create one on his/her own as an OUTPUT assignment), a more self-directed learner may only need to hear or see the model once and be able to replicate and creatively alter it!
Theoretical Underpinnings
- Cognitive Science (Piaget, Vygotsky, Gagne) (We organize knowledge of different types into schema through mental processes. As learners who are active participants we require scaffolded instructional material that utilizes demonstrations, illustrative examples and corrective feedback to maximize memory retention.)
- Constructivism (Bruner) (We construct our own understanding of the world by generating our own rules and mental models to make sense of our experiences.)
- Developmentalism (Ryle, Schwitzgebel) (We learn concepts and dispositions in a gradual way frequently passing through periods of being "in between" genuine understanding and failure to understand.)
Goals
- to develop self directed learners
- to ensure that every learner succeeds at each phase of the learning process by maximizing exposure to concepts through all learning styles/intelligences and encouraging intellectual/thinking growth in systematically developed steps
- to help students develop all aspects of language by applying research findings from all areas of second language learning and acquisition (language awareness, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, situations- fluency-accuracy, culture and Culture, learning strategies, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, reading, forms, skills, content, motivation-attitude)
- to ensure that learners can transfer what they have learned to new contexts
- to learn language and to learn through language
- to identify success in learning in concrete terms
Components/Phases
B-SLIM reflects how to think about sequencing and pacing activities for all students. In this day of heterogeneous multi-level classes teachers must oversee the learning of students with varying abilities, interests and learning styles during the same class time period. B-SLIM helps the teacher to plan, organize and implement activities for each learner. See Figure 1. B-SLIM has 5 parts:
1. Planning and Preparation
2. Comprehensible Input
3. Intake – “Getting it”
“Using it”
4. Output
5. Assessment and Evaluation
Because assessment occurs throughout the model the teacher is easily able to recognize where a student is ‘at’ – what the student has learned and what the next step(s) should be. For example, if the student is referring to class notes, blackboard or other mounted visual clues or a dictionary then the student is clearly still at the ‘getting it’ stage. Only when content is remembered can it be used in the ‘using it’ phase. Key points about each phase follow.
Planning and Preparation
- What we do before we enter the classroom
- Knowledge of what resources we can use and how to quickly find them
- Choosing what materials to use
- Adapting and/or developing resources
- Scaffolding:
- Creating games, pair activities
- Selecting worksheets
- Creating games, pair activities
- Selecting worksheets
- Pacing – considering cognitive overload/capacity (attention and automaticity)
- Selecting and developing activities that appeals to all learning styles/intelligences
- Selecting and developing activities that help each student advance in each type of input
Comprehensible Input
- What is new to the students
- Building on what students already know (moving from their understanding
of a concept in L1 or MT to how that concept is expressed in L2)
- Choosing and structuring the learning of something into small steps to teach
“new” material
- Presenting in a way that students understand
- Power of the First impression
- Appeal to as many of Gardner’s learning Intelligences as possible:
linguistic, visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, kinesthetic, interpersonal,
intrapersonal, musical
- Maximize use of instruction in Target Language (TL)
- Research suggests that language production is a complex enterprise that
entails the integration of many areas: language awareness, pronunciation,
vocabulary, grammar, situations- fluency-accuracy, culture and Culture,
learning strategies, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, reading,
forms, skills, content, motivation-attitude, content (See Appendix A)
Intake - “getting it”
- Helping students LEARN meaning that they understand AND remember because if one cannot remember a concept (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, cultural point, learning strategy, etc.) one cannot use it!
- “getting it” activities help students understand the concept being taught at their own rate (self-paced) and through a variety of learning styles. They need to be structured so that all students can succeed.
- The teacher needs to develop a REPERTOIRE of strategies/activities in this phase so that students can learn in different ways AND not become bored or unmotivated when learning more difficult concepts
- Providing clear examples
- Providing sufficient examples
- Providing supports such as templates, sample sentences, models, dictionaries, visual support of keywords or illustrations
- Answering student questions
- Guiding, coaching, encouraging, praising students
- Takes time to learn:
- “often lower performing students need more time to reach levels of language development similar to those of other students”
Joan Netten, project director, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Claude Germain, co-researcher, Université du Québec à Montréal
Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.
George Evans
- LOTS of Pair work for practice and clarification
- Can include ‘drill and skill’ activities
- Use choice and chance to maintain motivation
- Giving personalized positive feedback
- Emphasis on accuracy
- Focusing “attention” in order to later develop “automaticity”
Intake - “using it”
- From memory (or with minimal assistance) students engage in activities that require them to USE or apply what they have learned
- Students problem solve, create, use their imaginations (e.g. moral dilemmas, role plays)
- Students are put in new situations-contexts in order to ‘transfer’ what they have learned to it
- Work in pairs, groups or alone
- One- or two- way information gap activities
- Move from “learning language” to “learning through language”
- Includes Tasks (TBLT)
- Activities should be more communicative in nature (NO ‘drill and skill’ at this
phase)
phase)
- 
Emphasis on fluency
Emphasis on fluency Output – “Proving it”
- PROOF of what the students have learned
- Meaningful task for the students (high interest)
- Oral and written FORMS
- Integrates pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, situations, functions.
- Requires criteria for direction/structure/inclusion of NEWly emphasized content. . .
- Emphasis on BOTH fluency and accuracy
- Students reveal their abilities to use English spontaneously, creatively, and personally by integrating all aspects of INPUT into oral and/or written activities or projects
Assessment
- Criteria that help students see how they are doing and how they can
improve
- What makes a GOOD performance
- What makes communication successful
- Gives Feedback to the teacher about how and what students are learning
through observation and direct feedback from students – at every phase of
BSLIM
- Helps teachers to determine what students still need to learn
Evaluation
- Final grade
- Tests
- Exams
- Determining what students still need to learn in order to reach a prescribed mandate
Characteristics of BSLIM
- linear
- hierarchical
- cumulative
- recursive
- success-driven
It is linear in that each phase of B-SLIM is designed along a continuum and activities at the beginning of the phase are simpler than those at the end. (For example, activities at the beginning of the ‘getting it’ phase are more structured and focused than those at the end of the ‘getting it’ phase. ) The same is true about ‘using it’ activities.
Similarly, each component of input can be placed along a continuum so that L2 learners have specific goals at beginner, intermediate and advanced stages. For example, being able to “speak” for a beginner may mean saying isolated words or short sentences with long pauses between them while speaking for an intermediate learner may be described as the ability to express simple and complex sentences in dialogue about familiar topics without pauses and with minimal errors.
It is hierarchical in that each phase is more difficult than its predecessor (it calls upon more cognitive resources than previous phases). Furthermore, with the progression through each phase the teacher’s roles change and the class time should involve more and more time for students to produce or create in L2. However, just as one who is going up a set of stairs between the second and third floor cannot say precisely which floor they are on when they are going up those stairs, some activities may appear to belong to both the previous and next phases at the same time, being advanced versions of one phase and simpler versions of another.
As a recursive model, the teacher can introduce an activity at ANY phase of the model and recognize whether the activity is appropriate for the student(s) or not; if it is too difficult teachers can clearly see what supports students need in order to progress through the phase and beyond. If it is not sufficiently challenging more advanced activities can be foreseen and provided. Furthermore, it fully acknowledges that sometimes learners think they understand something but only when they begin to use it do they recognize that it is not totally clear. Thus arises an opportunity for student questions, which is an opportunity for the student to take initiative to be a self-directed learner. It also recognizes that some learners can mentally process information so rapidly that they can appear to ‘skip’ the ‘getting it’ phase (or that they may make hierarchical leaps through acquisition of some vocabulary, grammar or cultural features).
According to my friends and I studied writing B-Slim lesson plan so we feel free to share the lesson plan with everyone.
The example of B-Slim lesson plan (15 lesson plans)
Unit: Interest/Opinion Topic: Media P.1 กุ้ง
Unit: Travel Topic: Transportation P.4
Unit: interest Topic: Media Sub-topic: Book P.5
Unit: Shopping Topic: Clothes P.6
Unit: Myself Topic: Routine M.1 ยุพา
Unit: Places Topic: Direction M.1 ลักษณ์
Unit: Places Topic: Interesting places in community Sub-topic: Direction M.1 นุช
Unit: Interest Topic: Music M.1 น้องเบียร์
Unit: Personal Relationship Topic: Personal Traits M4. ลัดดา
Unit: Travel Topic: Holiday M.4 บ้าน
Unit: Health Topic: How to keep fit M.4
Unit: Health Topic: Food group M.5 ริน
Unit: Health Topic: Sport and Exercise M.5 Kook
Unit: Tourism Topic: Travel arrangement M.5 ภัทร
Unit: Education and Career Topic: Future career M.5 บี ฝน
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