Week 15

This weeks’ reading discuss a topic that is dreaded by students, teachers, parents, and administrators, but that is also part of the education life; tests. I would be flabbergasted if anymore made it through their education years without being presented one them. Brown says, “tests have become a way of life in the educational world” (466). I believe we just have come to accept them without any more questions. I have always been one of those who felt indifferent about standardized test. When it was time to take them, I do without being over stressed or depriving myself of sleep. I do not know if this is a result of my confident to take tests or just the fact that after so many years of being tested, I have become numb to it. The latter one is more probable.  But that still does not remove the amount of stress and pressure that it put on teachers and students. The idea of knowing that entrance to the University of your Dream depends on a single score or knowing that you will be judged based on the scores of your students does not make it difficult for negative backwash to occur. Now a day, we have been hearing of the effect standardized tests have on the curriculum, specifically how teachers are teaching to the test. With the passing of the NCLB, the negative backwash has only worsened. In his chapters, Brown discusses the topic of test and assessment and clarifies for the readers that each terms holds a separate definition. Tests are part of a teacher’s requirements so even though we may be against tests; we must give them to our students. We cannot escape that idea, but as teachers what we can do is changes the format of the tests. Instead of leaning towards the tradition multiple choice pen and paper test, we can evaluate our students on various occasions and on exams that our authentic and performance based. There needs to be several evaluating instruments that allow students to show their skills. I believe the author Assessment Shohamy would also agree with this.

In her article, Shohamy, looks at the extent to which different features of discourse affect test takers language scores depending on what is expected of them. The first examination explored the effect of subject matter on reading test takers’ scores. The results showed that familiarity with the content affect the nature and fluency of the communication. When looking at the different question types and test type, research revealed that the strategies used by test takers for processing the discourse differed. One can only agree with such findings. Essay questions and multiple choice questions are separate types of questions therefore students must use different strategies to answer each question. Multiple choices most likely call for short term memory while essay not so much. The research that convinced me even more on the concept of using different type of test was the study done by Shohamy and Inbar in 1991. The researchers investigated the effect of different genres along the oral-literate continuum on test takers' scores on a listening comprehension test. The topic was kept the same for the three types of discourse, interview, lecturette, and a news broadcast. The results from this research opened my eyes to how much different tests had different results. The results revealed substantial difference among the test takers’ scores for each discourse type. The interview had the highest listening comprehension, followed by the lecturette and then the news broadcast.  This made me realize the importance of including a variety of discourse types on tests since it is not possible to draw the same conclusions about language proficiency across discourse types. Students respond different to different situations, therefore it is important for teacher to gives ample opportunity to the students to show when they know. In another research, the researchers looked at how students tests scores differed, especially with oral tests, when speaking to a human versus a machine or when they were part of a discussion, role-play, or giving a report. All the different styles revealed something new, and sometimes contradicting. The most important information we as teachers can take from this week’s reading is that we should evaluate our students knowledge in various ways, with various instrument, and at various time. As teachers we must be creative and devise evaluating tools that are authentic for the students.

Week 13

I found Kumar chapter 13 to be very important to us pre-service teachers whose constant fear is that we will fail. The idea of using a teacher friendly system observational tool to help improve the quality of our teaching is something we all will agree with. Many people often talk about being observant in order to improve the quality of their teaching. Others even mention the idea of videotaping oneself in order to do such examination. I used to think this was a great idea, but not after reading the Kumar chapter. In his M&M observational scheme, Kumar presents us with a three stage activity, preobservation, observation itself, and post-observation. Just like the phrase two eyes are better than one applies to writing; it can also be applied in this context. In the first stage, preobservation, which is often missing in many videotaping, one would choose a colleague to talk about the focus and purpose of the lesson. Later on, that colleague will help the teacher analyze the lesson. This is important because it removes that tendency to be bias but also brings to light information the teacher could have missed. Based on my experience with editing papers this step will be very beneficial to me. When I have an idea or something in mind, unless the error is overtly noticeable, it is hard for me to see it. I am a type of person that tends to mentally fill in the missing blank. In step 6 of the M&M, both the teacher and observer exchange information. This step allows for any misunderstanding between the teacher and the observer. Because both individual know what to look for, they are more likely to perform a thorough analysis. This made me think. During the student teacher semester/ year, do the principles obtain a list of the objectives and or focus of the class before their observation? If not, what is the point of the observation?
            The next step in this process is to meet with the students. This is where I can see conflict happening. In order for this step to yield accurate results, the relationship between teacher and students must be very open. If students are scared of the teacher they might give a teacher desired answer which will not beneficial to the teacher. But if that relationship is open, this step can give a great deal of insight into the lesson. A strategy a teacher could employ to reduce this problem is to have the observer do this step. In step nine, the teacher and observer pull together information from the observer, students, and teacher in order create a 360 view of the lesson. This is where everything comes together based on this full picture the teacher can then make effective changes to her teaching style. I am really excited about this observation strategy and cannot wait to try it out. I think as a teacher, it will be very beneficial to do such thorough observation once a month to constantly be in that evaluative mode.
As a read episode 13.1 and read the analysis, it just made me realize how easy teachers can make understandable mistakes. As I read this analysis, I began to make suggestion as to what I would have done different. For example, when the students are confused about the difference between a house and condo, a simple picture could have clarified this misunderstand. Second, I felt that the way the teacher handled the answer “under the bridge” was inappropriate but I can understand why she would do that. In my case, out of pure curiosity, I would have asked the student to explain his answer because one never knows for certain why students bring up topic. But it is very understandable why a teacher could see this as disruptive behavior and brush it under the carpet. The same explanation applies to the teacher’s response to the students who were writing during her explanation. For me, the best way to see what a student is doing would be to ask him/her to share his/her work. This way the teacher could find out what is going on instead of assuming. Also the teacher’s reaction reminded me that we do not teach reading, writing, listening and speaking in isolation. One subject might dominate over the other but is not taught in isolation. The last conflict is in regard to the misunderstanding with the school system. I would have let student 14 to further explain his answer and give the class his definition of what he understood by school system. Then if the problem still persisted then the teacher would jump in. the other step I would have taken would have been to openly ask the student what did he not understand about the school system. For example the concept, the word itself, or the way it’s written etc.
            From the Brown chapters, I liked the idea evaluating textbook. Although this process is tedious and time consuming, it does help the teacher to determine whether the textbook aligns with the classroom curriculum and if not what changes need to be done so that it will.

Research progress report

For my final project I really wanted to explore the topic of error correction in writing. My goal for this project was to understand what types of error correction strategies, whether teacher or student, can a language teacher foster in order to have a classroom conductive to developing good writing skills. Because the topic of error correction is very broad, I just want to focus on the following question “what type of teacher feedback on error correction is most effective in improving the writing skill of ELL”. I want to explore this topic from the perspective of an ESL class.

1.      Reid, Joy M.Folse, Keith S. (2008) Writing myths :applying second language research to  classroom teaching Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press,

This first source is what motivated me to explore the topic of teacher feedback on writing. There are eight chapters in the book but I only looked at chapter 5 by Ferris. Although this chapter lead me to my research question, I do not believe it answers my research question because it focus more on acts students can do to improve their writing and not the teacher.

2.      Gray, R. R. (2000). Grammar correction in ESL/EFL Writing classes may not be effective.

This second source explores a research done by Robb, Ross and Shortreed which looked at four types of grammar corrections that were used on Japanese students and compared the result to see if they had an influence on the students' writings over time. The results showed that at the end of the course, no significant differences existed between all the groups in terms of accuracy.

3.      Lee,I.(1997). ESL learners’ performance in error correction writing: Some implications for teaching. System, 25(4) 465-77

The article explores three common assumptions behind ESL teachers’ error correction practices, but I was mostly interested in two; overt correction is helpful and all errors deserve equal attention. Based on the reading done in class, we know that this is not the case. Some errors may deserve more attention than others. This idea is also reiterated in this article. As for the first assumption, the article concluded that error feedback may be more desirable than overt correction.

Week 12

The manner in which people are strongly opposed of not having bilingual or ESL programs one would think that English was the national language of America and as a result was owned by America. It is sad to say this, but the pedestal on which English stands on correlates with this view. Kumar mentioned that because English is an international language no one has custody over it. I would have to agree with that idea because language is always changing. Languages, especially English, are constantly being shaped and reshaped by inner, outer, and expanding countries therefore having a hold on English is impossible. This constant interaction between different cultures is what gives birth to the different varieties that are present in our world. The battle between Standard English being positively associated with certain groups of people and nonstandard being negatively associated to another group is a battle that I can sadly say will never be won. As language teachers our job should be to expose our students to as much language varieties and help them understand the power of language.
            In chapter 12, Kumar talks about language understanding, which I found to be a very important topic, especially in a multicultural classroom. I have a friend who was born and raised in the USA but is married to man from Ethiopia. The other day at work she started venting to me about how her husband is so frustrating because he does not want to learn or understand her culture (he just arrived to the USA about a month ago). I feel that this kind of situation happens a lot with people from different countries; neither party wants to understand the other in fear that they might change, conform, and as a result leave their culture behind. This reminded me of the readings I have done in the previous class about assimilation and people leaving their own culture and being forced to blindly adopt the American culture. When thinking of this, I wondered how different their experience would have been If  their teachers were familiar with the term cultural versatility, Color Purple, and the third culture. From the above terms, the definition of cultural versatility, “expanding one’s repertoire of experiences and behaviors, not subtracting anything” stands out to me because it goes against the notion of assimilation, which people are expected to perform once they arrive to a new country. From this point of view, understanding a culture does not mean one has to lose his or her culture, which is what most people fear, but rather the individual builds of what he or she already has.

Week 11

All throughout the semester we have emphasized the importance of context when learning and teaching a second language. The article by Hu showed us the negative effects of lack of context considerations when adopting a teaching technique. This week’s readings reiterated the importance of teaching and learning a language within a context.  As chapter 9 stated, there are many different realities that come together to make a context. We have linguistics, extralinguistics, situational, and extrasituational. While reading about extralinguistic context, I could not help but reflect on my life. My sister and I arrived here when we were quite young, but other members of my families like my aunt did not.  The few months after her arrival, she came and spent some times with my family. Although we had fun, it seemed as if every other day we ran into problems. For some unknown reasons my sister and I would always had some type of misunderstanding between the three of us. She (my aunt) always misinterpreted us when we talked especially when it came to jokes and compliments.  There was always tension and frustration between the three of us that were not a result of actions. She always had this notion that we were insulting or mocking her. (It is hard to properly put it in words but all I can remember is that the simplest things we said made her mad and that drove us crazy because we could not understand why she became so upset over unimportant things.) At the moment, I could not understand why we seemed to clash so often.  As I was reading the section on extralinguistic context, I started to wonder if this was the source of our problems.  I wonder if the conflict that existed between the three of us was a result of mismatch between French and English extralinguistics features. If indeed it was, it just demonstrates the importance of language features and how as teachers whether language teachers or not, we must attend to such matter. 

The second half of the reading touched upon the importance of integrating the four skills of language (reading, writing, speaking and listening). It is important to remember that even if we are label reading teachers or writing teachers that should not be the sole focus of our course. As the reading has revealed that the four skills are integrated together and should be taught altogether. In the bilingual program there is a push for teachers to use the SIOP Model to teach ELL both content and language objectives. As part of the goal of the language objectives, all four language domain must be incorporated within the lesson plan.  I like using this model because it obligates me to integrate all language domains even in subject such as Math. But once an individual does such lesson, you come to realize that for the most part your daily teaching incorporated two or more of the language skills.

Week 10

Chapter 7 begins with fostering language awareness from two popular countries, the USA and Britain.  Although both countries brought important points within the idea of LA, I was especially drawn to the Whole language movement because it advocates the acceptance of the different dialects of L1 as well as L2 students bring with them. In every country, there are negative stigmas attach with dialects that are not considered proper such as AVE or Chicano English in the USA. I cannot cease to repeat the fact that students need to be taught that certain context demand for certain dialects and one needs to know which dialect or variety to use to benefits them. Students also need to understand that although all language variety are entitled to equal power, there are some dialects that over power others and understand that  language is linked to power, Kumar calls this critical language awareness. It is very important for students to understand how language is use within their country and be aware of social inequalities and dominance that can result from language. Such type of teaching must come from a teacher who possesses an awareness of language. The example of doublespeak to foster language awareness was a great example to use to teach students the power of language. Even native speakers are easily drawn to such traps. In order to provide such language awareness teachers need to be knowledgeable both within and outside their field. Kumar mentioned that teacher’s “limited knowledge of language may result in a failure to anticipate learners’ learning problems etc.” (162). This is very important because when a teacher knows the content which he or she is teaching, they can imagine what can go wrong and where it can go wrong and have the appropriate explanation to facilitate such confusion.

                The second part of the reading proposed the idea of activating students’ intuitive heuristics which is closely linked to the concept of fostering language awareness. If a student is able to learn by discovering things by themselves then they are able to increase their awareness of the language.  Creating an environment that allows students to activate their intuitive heuristics and discover for themselves is a hard task a teacher must do. Knowing that as a teacher,  it is my duty to create such environment makes me paranoid because I feel that I might fail or might let an opportunity to create such environment slip away like the teacher in episode 8.1 (Kumar 179).  The chapter goes on to talk about two different types teaching methods, inductive teaching and intuitive heuristics. I was glad to see that the chapter offered both sides of inductive teaching method which I agree with them. This type of teaching styles work well with adults so they can use it to analyze the rules, also as an adult Spanish learner I would like this method.  But on the other hand, learners need to learn how to hypothesize about language and make certain conclusion without the teacher explicitly telling them. I believe when one does this he or she is capable of learning, remembering, and applying what he or she has learned. As I was reading the chapter, I was searching for the author to provide some negative aspects or disadvantage to intuitive heuristics method to point out to teachers that both methods offer good and bad effects and it was up to the teacher to determine which to choose to better fit their classroom.

Week 9

This week’s reading brought back many related topics that have been discussed in class.  It reminded me that just as there is not best method to teaching a language, there is also no best method to teaching writing, as the article by Ferris mentioned, “no error correction method will ever be effective enough to reach the 100 percent standard” (95).  Also, when it comes to methods about learning a language, we have this false preconceive notion that by sifting through various methods we will eventually arrive to the perfect one, this same thinking can be seen in learning how to write. “ Writing teachers tend to focus obsessively on finding the right lessons in the attempt to find the magic bullet that will get students to that elusive Point B” (Ferris 108). As teachers, we must distance ourselves from this type of thinking because the variables associated with learning the different form of language (speaking, writing, listening and reading) are simply “to complex, too messy, for any one method or approach to be universally successful” ( Ferris 95).  Another great reminder within the Ferris’ article is the importance of feedback and the treatment of global versus local errors. It is only when feedback, whether writing or spoken, is “thoughtful and consistently delivered” can it be beneficial to the students.  Rather than focusing on such unrealistic goals, teachers should focus on providing effective and long lasting strategies to help L2 learners with reading and writing. Between the article and Brown’s chapters, both authors provided strategies that teachers could implement in their classroom. 

           Among the authors, there is a strong importance given to the topic of authentic and meaningful classroom activities and materials. As teacher, we must always strive to relate what is being taught in the classroom to the outside world. One strategic that Brown mentions is that the purpose of a reading assignment must be identify. This same thinking can be applied to writing.  I believe teachers are good at performing this task when it comes to writing but not so much with reading. It is difficult reading a text when the purpose has not been identified. This causes confusion as to what the reader should retain and what they should not.  I witness this first hand with the reading materials from the class. It is beneficial when an article has an introduction that bluntly identifies its purpose. This is also helpful for me because at the end of the reading, I can refer back to the identify purpose to determine if the author meet his/her objectives.  This same strategy can help L2 learners in becoming better readers and writers.  Another reading strategy that I believed useful is the strategy of guessing the meaning of the words or sentence while reading. Teachers should teach students to make intelligent guesses. While learning Spanish, I relied heavily on this strategy to help me read text in a timely manner. As a self-check process, once I guessed the meaning of a word I would continue reading and while I read, I reflected on the word I guessed, shaping and reshaping my original definition until I arrived to an intelligent one.  This is the type of strategy we must teach our future students, to developed that self-editing tool.  I also found the reading strategy, “we much teach students to take time to write”, to be important and applicable to all students (Ferris 98). Often we, students, tend to wait the last minute to complete a written assignment. In her article, Ferris notes that it is helpful for teachers to design assignment in a structure that forces students out of procrastination. I wish this strategy could be employed by my college professors.  
           I really enjoyed reading the article because not only did it mention the strategies, it also provided real life examples for teachers to follow. At the end of the day, teachers can not invent the perfect method (otherwise it would have been done centuries ago) , rather we must provide student with different long lasting strategies they can employ and help them developed a self-editing tool to better their reading and writing skills.