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.