ECRIF

ECRIF: Encounter, Clarify, Remember, Internalize, Fluency

• It’s a framework for understanding learning

• It’s a lesson planning framework

• It can be used to assess where a learner is in his/her relationship to the material

• It can be used as a guide to determine what kind of corrective feedback would be useful for the learner.

• ECRIF is NOT a linear framework, although at times can be used that way

ENCOUNTER:

The encounter phase of learning is the first time a learner encounters new material or information. In PPU framework it is the Presentation. Very often the Encounter will be prefaced by activating the learner’s background knowledge, or finding out what they already know.

METHODS of ENCOUNTER:

o Teacher fronted deductive or inductive presentation

o Storytelling with or without realia, role play, pictures, recordings, etc.

o Matching exercises

o Categorizing, sorting, predicting

o ETC. ETC.

CLARIFY:

Clarify is something that happens inside the learner; when the learner can determine for example that the meaning of a vocabulary word or pronunciation is that it is this not that, or that a certain grammar construction is used here not there. Teachers of course assist in clarifying and check or assess learners’ understanding of material. One way that that teachers check comprehension is with comprehension checking questions, or CCQ’s.

4 KINDS OF CCQ’S

o Non-verbal affirmation—“Point to the supermarket.”

o Positive/negative “Is this a supermarket?” “Can I buy bread at the supermarket?”

o Discrimination “If I want to buy bread, do I go to the pharmacy or the supermarket?”

o Short answer “What is the name of a local supermarket?”

Notes about CCQ’s:

1. They are used to check the understanding of anything that learners have encountered or been presented: vocab, grammar, appropriateness, etc. They are also extremely handy to check if Ss understand instructions for an activity, project, or assignment.

2. It is helpful to write out CCQ’s at first in your lesson plan, until using them starts to be natural.

REMEMBER:

This is the first step in committing new material to memory. It is usually characterized by repetition, drilling, and referring back to support materials such as models or prompts.

TYPICAL ACTIVITIES FOR REMEMBERING:

o Drilling

o Gap fill or cloze

o Information gap

o Searches

o Scrambled words, sentences

o Guessing games

o Matching

o Reading scripts and dialogues

Note about remembering: The activities for this stage of learning are also called controlled practice. Controlled practice means that the learner has lots of support, and little or no choice in how to successfully complete the activity or exercise.

INTERNALIZE:

When a learner internalizes

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