week 11

Chapter 5:

The most shocking part of this reading was on page 171.  The color line that still exists today is appalling.  Wong gives the following data: "The color line also persists in U.S. public schools today: Of ever 100 White kindergartners, 88 graduate from high school.  Of every 100 African American kindergartners, 83 graduate from high school.  Of every 100 Latino kindergartners, 60 graduate from high school.  Of those same kindergartners, 25 Whites, only 12 Blacks and 10 Latinos graduate from college."  This data shows the oppression and inequality of the education system in America.  All students should have the same chances and statistics for graduation, and in an ideal world, race would not matter.  However, as stated later in the chapter, high stakes testing, a major factor in both curriculum and graduation, are biased racially and economically.  It's sad that our system has such a major flaw, especially in this day in age where we'd like to think that racism is almost nonexistent.  However, it is exciting at the same time.  Hopefully as teachers, we will be able to make a difference with our ELL classes and maybe even increase the odds of education by creating an environment of inclusion that fosters dialogue and tolerance.  These statistics give us a tough challenge that we will have to face in our futures.

week 10

I thought that this chapter brought up a lot of historical viewpoints that were interesting and useful to read about as a preservice TESOL teacher.  I agree that students, and people in general, learn best by doing.  I thought the idea of not having a "stage-approach" was interesting.  How am I supposed to teach without having an order set in which to teach it?  I know that having rigid curriculum won't work in helping students learn, but I think you need to have some sort of ordering when teaching, allowing it to stray if valuable teaching moments present themselves.  I thought that Wong was dead on when saying that learning through doing involves learning how to speak  in the language through participation in discourse communities.  I think it is important for second language learners to show initiative in learning by participating as much as possible.  However, it is on the teacher to make a diverse community that encourages all backgrounds and opinions.  As stated later, the students won't speak up for themselves if they feel that they are oppressed in any way.  As much as we can't control the environment outside of the classroom, we can surely create a space of inclusion so that students feel valuable, that both languages have significant value to them.  I liked that the chapter said that teachers of ESOL have as much to learn as they have to teach.  We will constantly be learning about other cultures and languages, as well as methods of teaching and what works best.  We will learn to reach our students in time and will learn to develop different questioning techniques, just as our students will grasp the language better in time.

alternative assignment

Article 1: The Linguistic Development of Genie

Summary: This article describes how children who have grown up under severe isolation, also known as ‘wild’ or ‘feral’ children, have the most dramatic stories about language acquisition.  Not only have these children shown signs of majorly decreased language capabilities, but also experience other sensory losses, especially those which must be acquired.  This article briefly mentions the case studies of Victor Itard as well as Caspar Hauser, but because they are dated back more than a century and a half, they lack general information that linguists would research today.  It goes into detail about Genie’s case study, which is the most recent, most conclusive case, as she was born in 1957.  She was malnourished, appeared to be seven years old when she was 13 years and 7 months old, did not speak, cry, or make any vocal sounds, and could not chew food or stand erect.  Her father had an intolerance to noise and physically punished Genie if she made any sounds whatsoever, explaining her silence.  She had extremely limited human contact and was barked at instead of spoken to.  When hospitalized, she grew rapidly, physically, mentally and emotionally.  At the hospital, Genie had poor control over her speech organs as well as the muscular control needed for eating.  Genie slowly acquired language.  Through testing, it is concluded that she had learned about negation, coordinating conjunctions, prepositional relations, pluralization of nouns, modification, possessives, superlative and comparative, and relational adjectives.  Genie learned through visual/written language (such as flashcards) as well as speech.  Genie had enormous difficulty with controlling the speech organs as well as the air flow needed to produce her voice.  Her speech is far from normal, but is much improved.  The order in which Genie learned language and functions is listed and many examples are given.  Language can be acquired after the critical age, but does not seem native-like after this age has passed.

Citation:

Susan Curtiss, Victoria Fromkin, Stephen Krashen, David Rigler and Marilyn Rigler,  (Sep.,         1974). Language. Vol. 50, No. 3, pp. 528-554

Article 2: Critical Evidence: A Test of the Critical Age Hypothesis for Second-Language Acquisition

Summary: This article describes a test done on data from a 1990 census.  The census used responses from 2.3 million immigrants with Spanish or Chinese language backgrounds.  The article wanted to test the key prediction of the hypothesis, which was that the age of immigration deeply affected the second-language acquisition.  The results of the test on this was that the age did not make as much as a difference in acquisition as the authors had estimated, but there was a surprisingly linear effect for level of education before emigrating to America.  This aspect shows that a higher level of education before immigration greatly improves the ability to pick up and acquire the language.

Citation:

Ellen Bialystok, Kenji Hakuta, Edward Wiley. (January 2003). Critical Evidence: A Test of the    Critical Age Hypothesis for Second-Language Acquisition. Psychological Science,Vol.              14, No. 1

Article 3: A Test of the Critical Period Hypothesis for Language Learning

Summary: This article is about a study done that examines the relevance of the critical period for language learning.  It specifically deals with critical age hypothesis for proficiency of English-speaking among immigrants in the United States.  This study also uses census data from 2000.  Four patterns emerged from this study.  First, proficiency in English declines monotonically with age at migration for the immigrants. Second, within country of origin, the patterns are very similar for both men and women. Third, the variability in the proportion proficient in English across ages at time of immigration is greater the older the age.  This may have occurred because there are fewer immigrants after middle age.  Fourth, among non-Mexican immigrants, the decline in proficiency with age at migration is initially shallow (up to age 8), then shows a much sharper decline that gradually diminishes, until the marginal effect of age at immigration disappears after the age of 40. On the other hand, among Mexican immigrants there is a sharp decline in proficiency with age at immigration until about age 16, with little change after this. These patterns suggested important differences between immigrants from Mexico and all other countries.  This study suggests that if a ‘critical period’ for language learning is defined as an age at which there is a sharp decline in the ability of immigrants to obtain proficiency in speaking English, no such critical period exists.  Ability to become proficient in the language declines with the age of migration to America.

Citation:

Chiswick, Barry, Miller, Paul. (Feb, 2008).  A Test of the Critical Period Hypothesis for                                             Language Learning. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Vol. 29,         No. 1

Article 4: Age Effects on Second Language Acquisition: Critical Issues under Debate

Summary: This article is a synthesis of the information and studies that have been done regarding critical age hypothesis.  It includes the ideas of four books.  It states that there are five positions in the critical period hypothesis that other authors and researchers have studied.  These include the following ideas: (1) The younger a person is, the better, overall, they will acquire the language.  (2) The older the person is, the better, overall, for acquiring language.  (3) The younger a learner is, the better for some respects.  (4) The younger the learner, the better in the long run.  (5) The qualitative change position, which details that after a certain age, qualitative changes occur in the learning process.  The article then details what researchers have said and found in every idea related to the critical period.  It concludes by stating that there are several viewpoints and supporting evidence for every view. 

Citation:

Miraleix, I. (2011). Age Effects on Second Language Acquisition: Critical Issues under Debate. Language Teaching, Vol. 44, No. 1

                                                                                                    

week 9

I felt that the problem posing approach to learning is a great way for students to be able to come to their own conclusions and own the language.  The students feel is if they need to communicate and therefore they learn and enjoy learning a lot more.  They connect with the material because problem posing questions and strategies allow students time to think and time to create opinions about the material, making them learn much more in the short period of time.  I enjoyed this reading because I felt that I received a lot of insight on how to teach ELL classrooms that are tested in a high stakes testing criteria.  The chapter gave advice on how to teach students that will be tested.  It suggested being aware of what is on the test.  I think this is incredibly important because you can steer conversations to include testing materials without forcing the class to follow an unbending schedule.  Wong states in chapter 3 that these materials will spontaneously arise.  I disagree with this slightly.  I felt that if you need the students to learn the test materials, teachers might have to work these materials in by looking for opportunities, not by hoping they spontaneously arise.  Another strategy was to teach beyond the test.  Although this is a great idea, I feel that this might be quite a lofty goal for an ELL class.  It's a great idea on paper...teach more than the test requires, but I can't see myself cramming materials in the class so that they know way more than the testing materials.  I want my students to have a firm grasp on all of the material, not force more than they can handle.  I guess this depends on the level of the class and how quickly they learn the material.  Some classes may get further than others.  The last strategy was to pose the test as a problem.  I think this is problematic in some cases.  Wong talks about showing the statistics to the students as a motivator.  However, I think that showing ELL students the fail rates of the test might become a stressor or a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I know that if I were a student, trying to learn a new language, I wouldn't want to hear about the probability of me not passing the test.  That would stress me out and, as we know, a high affective filter doesn't allow for much learning.