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.

           

Week 8

 

Over the fast years, I have comes the importance of feedback and its astonishing potential when it comes to learning an L2. But on the other side, it also poses difficulties in deciding when, how, and who will treat deviation.  As we know, both none and excessive feedback can impede the language development.  In his chapter, Brown makes a distinction between two types of errors, global and local. He states that global errors need to be treated because it leads to incomprehensible utterance. He also provides a model for treatment of classroom speech errors, which provides teachers with the equipment in deciding if correction is needed and how. While preparing for this week’s class, I could not stop thinking about the conversation I have with my cousin. (He recently moved from Cameroon to California. While at home, he studied English and became fluent).  We made a goal that at least once a week we would attempt to have a full conversation in English (which has proven to be hard). The issue I have during our conversation relates to the topic of feedback. Because my cousin is older than I, I am reluctant to directly bring to his attention his errors. Therefore I decided to use recast. I assumed using such method would correct the errors in his language while still keeping him as the authority figure.  Over time, I still ponder over the question, “is he noticing my feedback”. For example, when I would recast his sentence, he agrees with me, but he would repeat the error form of the sentence with confidence. So what I naturally do is continue with the conversation. Another issue I noticed in our conversation is that I have this urge/tendency to correct as much errors as I can during our conversation. In my viewpoint, the purpose of our conversation is so that he can improve his English. So for the most part, the conversation is filled with, clarification requests, which are good because it involves negotiation of meaning.  Now reflecting on our conversation, I realized that I have been putting too much emphasis on both global and local errors instead of global. Although the purpose of our conversation is to provide meaningful interaction, it should not mean that I must correct every deviant utterance, especially when it is comprehensible. With this week’s reading, I realized that correcting an individual is not as easy as I perceived (or as I have been doing). Before providing feedback, I should employ critical thinking in how, when, and why I provide feedback to my cousin and my future students, not just for the simple fact that it is wrong.

The second part of the reading focuses on meaningful interaction. Meaningful interaction “increases the possibility of input becoming available” (Kumar 101). A concept I gained from the reading is that fact that students benefit more when the topic is chosen by them. There is a lot on emphasis on teachers to choose topic that is appealing for the students, but this can be a hard decision because this involves guessing. But if the topic comes from the students, it is guarantee that it will spark conversation among the learners. For example, the plumbing lesson derived from a student personal experience. During the lesson, the student in Miss Dolores’ class showed interest and work hard in solving each problem. I can see this exact example during my conversation with my cousin. When we talk about home, he is very motivated and could talk about it the entire conversation. Her classroom is a perfect example of what Brown describes as an ideational activity. Her classroom topic makes connections between her students and the world.  The story of Miss Dolores inspired me, if a teacher with no degree in ELL background is capable of creating such type of community how much more I. I believe Miss Dolores and her class is a perfect example of how all classes in the world should resemble.

 

Week 6: Brown and Kumar

This week’s reading had me thinking about my feature classroom. During this time I kept asking myself questions such as “what will I do? How will I conduct my classroom? How do I know which type of questions to ask? How will I be sure to maximize the learning opportunities for my students? How will I make sure I don’t let a learning opportunity slip away like the teacher from episode 3.2 in Kumar? How will I help my students to develop intrinsic motivation, become good learners and develop great strategies investment? All these questions bounced inside my head nonstop. I believe that in order to understand my teaching style/s I must understand the approach I am using. It is Task-Based, is it CLT, or is it Audiolingual, or it is a combination? Having knowledge on which perspective I am using will help me understand why I choose certain techniques over the other. It will also help me to better evaluate why certain techniques work and others do not. With this thinking in mind, I wondered which learning principle I can envision myself using in my classroom. Principle number 2, meaningful learning, stands out to me because I believe that if this can be establish students will be able to surpass other barriers. Meaningful learning makes a difference between your everyday rote memorization and actual uptake of the information in order to apply it to previous knowledge. The author mentioned this can be done by appealing to the students’ goal and interest which I completely agree with. This reminded me of a conversation I had with a co-worker about how her teacher wondered why she never performed as well as she could on the exams. My coworker explained to me that she simply was not interested in the class, in was not appealing to her. I always thought that if a student had the capability to perform great he/she should be able to do so no matter the circumstances. I believed appealing to students’ interested was used to facilitate the learning or even help those struggling in the classroom.  But now, as I am typing this, I am realizing that those students with capabilities but interest were most likely doing rote memorization instead of connecting the different ideas. I believe this principle goes well with the microstrategies that Kumar explains in his chapter because meaningful learning comes in different ways, shapes, and forms. I can make meaning learning happen in my classroom by connecting the learning with the outside world; make that connection between what my students are learning and what the outside world demands of them. This might be on a campus, local, or global community. If the students can see the connections, they are more likely to internalize the information.

Another principle I found interesting was principle number 7: language ego. Like the previous example, I believe that working on this principle can open other doors for the learners. When I was reading this principle, I began to think of “how can I lower the affective filter in my classroom? How can I lower students’ anxiety? This can and will be a challenge because this struggle applies to first language users and it is even worse for second language use whose linguistic abilities are limited. I remember a teacher’s story of his quest to lower anxiety in his classroom. He was often frustrated because no matter how hard he tried, his students were always afraid to make mistakes or take risks. The students’ driving force was the search for the right answer, the answer that the teacher wanted; this mentality blinded them to use logical reasoning. Many times students and teachers see errors as a sign of failure and inadequacy. How can I change that in my classroom? Do I show my students that even I make mistakes? (How do I do that? It is definitely by not making language errors intentionally.)  How do I show them the power of mistakes? This risk taking behavior is one of the reasons younger learners seem to acquire the language faster than adults. Also by lowering the affective filter of the learners, I can give my students opportunities to explore their learning experiences from within. I believe that when a student is truly immersed in his/her learning they are willing to see what works for them (of course with the help of the teacher) and are able to developed true intrinsic motivation which can go far. As research has shown, motivation is the second most important factor when in come to determining how successful one can be in acquiring a second language.

Week 4: Kumar’s Changing Tracks, Challenging Trends and Brown chapter 3

The article by Kumar summarizes the shift that has occur in the field of TESOL, the evolution of perspectives over the past 15 years. More specifically, it explores the shift from CLT to TBLT, from method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy and from systemic discovery to critical discourse. In addition to focusing on the above changes, it also deals with the changes and challenges each perspective has to offer.

First shift: From CLT(sociolinguistically orientated)  to TBLT (psycholinguistically orientated)

The theoretical principles of communicative language teaching derived from a concept strongly rooted on language communication, in particular Austin’s speech act theory. Some perceive CLT as having the same concept as the audiolingual method and other recognize it as the answer to the unsuccessful audiolingual method. Either way, such theory explores the idea on how language uses perform certain speech act. The primary focus of such theory is the concept of “negotiation, interpretation and expression” (Kumar 61). The CLT aims to move classroom teaching from the typical structure curriculum and more them towards a classroom teaching that relied on meaningful actions that take place outside of the classroom. I believe the Brown’s chapter paints a clearer picture of the goal of the CLT. The goals include creating “real-life communication, facilitating lifelong learning, developing linguistic fluency, generating unrehearsed language performance” in the real world and seeing students as partners in the classroom (Brown 45-46). Despite the fact that it contains respectable aspects, there still exits certain flaws, the authenticity, the acceptability (not supported by evidence) and the adaptability (it works in once context but fails in another. “what is good for Europe is not good for KwaZulu” (Kumar 63)) of the CLT.  The discrepancy in the CLT paved the way for TBLT.

Some researchers see TBLT as a perspective within the framework of CLT while others, like Kumar, argue that is significantly different. Before the theory of TBLT is discussed, the author attempts to define the word task, because it is at the center for language teaching. Task is “a range of work plans that aims at facilitating the language learning” (kumar 64).  Essentially, the TBLT approach specifies what it is that the learner will do with the language. Depending on the researcher, numerous approaches can be given. Skekan presents two approaches to TBLT. There are structured-oriented (which place more emphasis form) and communicative oriented (which places importance on meaning). Long and Crookes offer three different approach, language centered task (giving attention to linguistic form), learner-centered task ( “direct the learner attention to formal and functional properties”) and learning-centered ( aims to engage the learner in certain speech act without explicit focus on form). In chapter three, Brown also talks about the different types of tasks, target tasks (which students must complete outside of the classroom context) and pedagogical tasks (which form the center of the class).  Target tasks are more detailed and closely tied to the classroom. Pedagogical tasks focus on the techniques use to guide the students in performing the target tasks. In other words, target task is a subset of pedagogical task.

Second shift: From method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy

It seen that, we, should distance ourselves from the method-based pedagogy because it place to much emphasis that there exists a method suitable for all learners. The concept of method-based pedagogy put limitations on language learning and teaching. The idea that there is no need for “an alternative method rather an alternative to method” is what cause the shift from method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy (Kumar 67). Among the numerous approaches that are used to explain the concept of post method pedagogy, the author discusses three, Stern’s three-dimensional framework, Allwright’s exploratory practice framework, and his own macrostrategic framework. Sterm framework contains strategies and techniques. The three dimensions are “the L1-L2 connection, the code-communication dilemma, and the explicit-implicit option. On the other hand, Allwright’s EP is rooted in three important doctrines; the quality of life in the classroom, the understanding the quality of the classroom life, and understanding the quality of life is a social matter. From these tenets, Allwright created seven principle of language that can be found on page 68 of the article. But the main purpose of the seven tenets are to have the learner identify the problem, reflect on it, pay close attention to it, take action against it, determine whether there is adequate information to move one, moving on, and last going public with the information. Although it involves many steps, the “central focus to EP is local practice”. Kumar’s perspective is based on three principles, the principle of particularity, practicality and possibility. I believe the book provides an easily understandable definition. The principle of particularity, means paying attention to the context. Every teacher, student, classroom and even English is different.  Practicality deals with removing the division and/or closing the gap between teachers and theorists. Possibility taps into what the student has to offer. The perspectives above give insight on how one can adapt post method pedagogy, but ultimately it is the teacher that constructs his/her own postmethod pedagogy.

Third shift: From systemic discovery to critical discourse

Critical discourse aims to connect the word with the world, to expand the educational journey to many aspects such as social, cultural and political language use. It deals with creating the cultural form and knowledge that give purpose to the experiences of the learners and teachers.

Week 3: Critical Approaches to TESOL and Kumar chapter 1&2

Throughout my years as an education major student, I always wondered why I was constantly bombarded with theories and methods left and right. I strongly believed that it was impossible for someone to teach me how I will teach my future students. Therefore for the majority of the times I never made effort to memorize theories or pushed myself to follow a certain theory. I always believed that, one cannot be taught on how to teach, rather you teach base on personality, beliefs, culture, and also how you were raised or educated. I cannot say that I had a strong stand in this belief of mine. At times, I wondered whether this was the best way to educate my future students, but for the most part I was confident that I was not heading down the wrong path. I believe this week’s reading has strengthened that believe of mine.  On page 2, kumar states that classroom practice is directly base on some theory, theories gained through “professional education, personal experience, robust commonsense”. I agree with this because theory is not just what the “theorist” have coined, rather theory is a combination of many factors that come to make up how you conduct your classroom. Those factors are influenced by by different circumstances.

Between the chapters and the article, one theme always seemed to be reoccurring, the tension between theorist and practitioner. It seems that for many years and still now, the two are looked upon as two separated entities, having no relation. One is seen as the power dominant (theorists) and the other the none dominant ( teachers).  But I believe the aim of this week’s reading is to reveal to us that the two are not and should not be seen as separate, rather the two should work hand in hand. Although I believe that teaching should be based on “personalities, beliefs, cultures, and also how you were raised or educated” the article by Pennycook reminded me that it should not be my only source.  Theory and experience should not constitute an argument against one another, “rather than turning our backs on theory and taking refuge in experience alone, we should think in terms of transforming both the social relations of knowledge production and the type of knowledge produced” (342).  We need to start seeing the two not as one, or completely opposite but rather seeing them as depending on each other. In a sense, the argument between theorist and practitioner reminds me of the check and balances system we have in the USA, each branch work together to ensure the stability of our government. The same logic should apply the theorists and practitioners, the two should work hand in hand to ensure that students receive the best education there is to offer.

One thing I really enjoyed from the readings was the concept that theories should not only left to theorists, the concept of professional theory and personal theory. Educators should also become theorists because they are constantly in the classroom, experiencing the action first hand. The readings talked about different theorists and methods, different ways of conducting a class. They each had their short comings but the most important message I took from this aligns with last week reading, it is not a debate of which theory or method is better rather it is about understand your teaching techniques  and constantly being in that transformative stage.