The Kuma chapters helped remind me about the difficult of language learning and teaching. I really liked how he illustrated that language is somewhat dependent on the context, resulting in coherent sentences from seemingly incoherent ideas and vice versa (especially in the telephone ringing, bath taking example on page 211). However, being reminded of these areas of language make the native speaker in me think ahhh yes, that makes sense! I can think of one hundred instances where this happens every day! But the teacher in me is a little more skeptical. How will I teach my students about intonation? Does this need explicit instruction or will exposure to natural language be enough?
I don't want to leave my classroom hoping students understand. I want to practice and come up with tasks that will ensure understanding (or at least awareness) of all types of contexts including situational, intonation (and other extralinguistic contexts), extrasituational, etc. This all seems very heavy. I'm wondering if context is something to dissect with medium to higher proficiencies. Or do we just jump in with the beginners and teach them about 'natural' English language use and hope they aren't overwhelmed. As a language learner, I felt that listening to natural language definitely helped, but that it wasn't enough for me to fully grasp these issues in France. How do we teach this then? When do we start teaching it? Who benefits the most from it? How can we make it seem less overwhelming? What tasks can be involved? These chapters left me with more questions than answers.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Eng 345: ch 24, 25, myth #1
When doing these readings, I found that the article summed up the text of the two chapters in a very coherent and understandable way. It was interesting to read that paraphrasing takes such a large vocabulary. I was surprised when I saw that there are resources online to teach students academic vocabulary that they will need if they are going to be in an academic setting in English.
Most of the vocabulary teaching, however does not depend on teachers alone. When I studied French in school, we had vocabulary lessons every week. Each week, I would learn the material, understand it, and do well on the quizzes. However, if I didn't regularly use it, it was gone. Sometimes I still can't remember words that I need to say, and my language capabilities are much higher than they were in high school. Half of learning vocabulary is dependent on the autonomy of the learner. If the learner does not consistently work at learning and memorizing the vocabulary, they will lose it quickly as well as their ability to paraphrase, summarize and synthesize the information. Students aren't able to use the material to learn if they are constantly misunderstanding the language used in it. Learning English, and more specifically vocabulary, is very much dependent on the learner's autonomy.
The article also mentioned the importance of explicit teaching of vocabulary. However, I want the students to be engaged in their lessons and it is difficult for me to think of a way to teach vocabulary without it seeming to be out of a textbook. Any ideas on task-based lessons for vocabulary? I was thinking something along the lines of charades, or writing stories that include words from a list, or learning songs that include new vocabulary. Besides this though, I want my students to gain autonomy by feeling engaged when learning new material.
Most of the vocabulary teaching, however does not depend on teachers alone. When I studied French in school, we had vocabulary lessons every week. Each week, I would learn the material, understand it, and do well on the quizzes. However, if I didn't regularly use it, it was gone. Sometimes I still can't remember words that I need to say, and my language capabilities are much higher than they were in high school. Half of learning vocabulary is dependent on the autonomy of the learner. If the learner does not consistently work at learning and memorizing the vocabulary, they will lose it quickly as well as their ability to paraphrase, summarize and synthesize the information. Students aren't able to use the material to learn if they are constantly misunderstanding the language used in it. Learning English, and more specifically vocabulary, is very much dependent on the learner's autonomy.
The article also mentioned the importance of explicit teaching of vocabulary. However, I want the students to be engaged in their lessons and it is difficult for me to think of a way to teach vocabulary without it seeming to be out of a textbook. Any ideas on task-based lessons for vocabulary? I was thinking something along the lines of charades, or writing stories that include words from a list, or learning songs that include new vocabulary. Besides this though, I want my students to gain autonomy by feeling engaged when learning new material.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
ENG 345: ch 11 and 12, Cary article
These articles taught me a lot about self-reflection. I felt that the most important thing to take away was that learning strategies explicitly will help the students become better learners, which is ultimately our goal as teachers. Not only this, but if the students are given a chance to think about their strategies, errors, and goals, they are better able to articulate how they plan on improving.
However, it is important to remember that there is a such thing as inundating the students with too much information. The explicit strategy teaching should be built seamlessly into the lesson, which is possible but difficult. We will have to build those into our lesson plans, knowing exactly what strategies would work best with which exercises.
I was trying to figure out how to have the students reflect without forcing a study on them, or several surveys. I know that journaling is often done, however, there are many more options. Exit-slips, or asking the students to recall what they've learned that day, would help solidify this explicit instruction. In these exit-slips, I could ask the students to set a few goals for their language learning and how they think that strategy will or will not help them achieve that goal. By providing the students with many strategies, my classroom would be sensitive to all students needs, abilities, and learning styles. The hardest part, I think, will be fitting them into the lesson without interrupting the flow of what I'm teaching.
However, it is important to remember that there is a such thing as inundating the students with too much information. The explicit strategy teaching should be built seamlessly into the lesson, which is possible but difficult. We will have to build those into our lesson plans, knowing exactly what strategies would work best with which exercises.
I was trying to figure out how to have the students reflect without forcing a study on them, or several surveys. I know that journaling is often done, however, there are many more options. Exit-slips, or asking the students to recall what they've learned that day, would help solidify this explicit instruction. In these exit-slips, I could ask the students to set a few goals for their language learning and how they think that strategy will or will not help them achieve that goal. By providing the students with many strategies, my classroom would be sensitive to all students needs, abilities, and learning styles. The hardest part, I think, will be fitting them into the lesson without interrupting the flow of what I'm teaching.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Eng 345: ch 21, 22, 23
I found these chapters to be extremely helpful. As an pre-service TESOL educator in my last classes before practicum, I feel that I haven't learned much about the skills required for listening until I read these chapters. (Nor had I realized how important it is to incorporate into the classroom...)
One of the most important points I read was about nonreciprocal listening. So much of listening in today's world doesn't allow the listener to ask clarification questions or comprehension checks. Just thinking of media in general, the listener does not get to ask questions when listening to radio broadcasts, anything on television, answering machines and voicemails, even most religious ceremonies and meetings, as well as the majority of speech presentations, whether formal or informal. This is a skill. Students can't expect to know the skills they can use to comprehend what they are hearing unless we give them ample practice with real language. As the chapters pointed out, the listening portions of many textbooks, as well as other sources of listening practice in the teaching world do not give any example of real language. Authentic language has uses of pauses, ungrammatical fragmented language, as well as facilitation devices that students need to be exposed to and aware of. Therefore, using authentic language as much as possible in the classroom will benefit the students and allow practice in developing this skill.
Part of chapter 22 reminded me of living in France. "It is vital that students of a language be given practice in dealing with texts where they understand only part of what is said" (244). When I first went to France, I was extremely discouraged when I couldn't understand everything. They spoke quickly and the slang was over my head. No one told me that I wouldn't understand every word that was said, probably because it never occurred to my teachers or family to tell me. However, this feeling passed and I became better and better at using context clues. Because of this, I found that this part of the text was extremely important to include in the classroom. Students need to be reassured that not knowing every word isn't failure; instead, it provides an excellent opportunity for students to practice finding context clues and manipulating the language to fit their needs.
One of the most important points I read was about nonreciprocal listening. So much of listening in today's world doesn't allow the listener to ask clarification questions or comprehension checks. Just thinking of media in general, the listener does not get to ask questions when listening to radio broadcasts, anything on television, answering machines and voicemails, even most religious ceremonies and meetings, as well as the majority of speech presentations, whether formal or informal. This is a skill. Students can't expect to know the skills they can use to comprehend what they are hearing unless we give them ample practice with real language. As the chapters pointed out, the listening portions of many textbooks, as well as other sources of listening practice in the teaching world do not give any example of real language. Authentic language has uses of pauses, ungrammatical fragmented language, as well as facilitation devices that students need to be exposed to and aware of. Therefore, using authentic language as much as possible in the classroom will benefit the students and allow practice in developing this skill.
Part of chapter 22 reminded me of living in France. "It is vital that students of a language be given practice in dealing with texts where they understand only part of what is said" (244). When I first went to France, I was extremely discouraged when I couldn't understand everything. They spoke quickly and the slang was over my head. No one told me that I wouldn't understand every word that was said, probably because it never occurred to my teachers or family to tell me. However, this feeling passed and I became better and better at using context clues. Because of this, I found that this part of the text was extremely important to include in the classroom. Students need to be reassured that not knowing every word isn't failure; instead, it provides an excellent opportunity for students to practice finding context clues and manipulating the language to fit their needs.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Eng 345: chapter 26-28, kuma ch 8
Before reading these chapters, I didn't know the importance of reading in a second language. It was explained in all of the chapters that reading definitely makes a huge difference in the comprehension aspect of learning another language.
Grabe in chapter 26 states that, "a large vocabulary is critical, not only for reading, but for all L2 language skills, for academic abilities, and for background knowledge" (279). Building a large vocabulary is a hard feat for students as well as a challenge to incorporate it into the classroom. When reading through the dilemmas and the struggle to incorporate reading for fun, I couldn't help but think that I could pretty easily add 10-15 minutes of reading in class every other day or so. Students could also have an assignment or project attached to this extra reading. Each month, a new book could be read and the students could create their own project about it, such as performing skits, making mixed CD soundtracks, creating dioramas or posters about characters or plot, etc. I felt that as long as I was able to have access to decent reading material for the students, whether it be my own books or a book from the school or public library, I would love to add more reading into the curriculum.
I also agreed with Jacobs and Renandya that students need to read material that is not too difficult for their abilities. Therefore, Vygotsky's i+1 wouldn't be the best way to incorporate reading. It is important that we foster a fondness in our students when it comes to reading, simply because it is proven that grades and study skills are directly affected by it. i+1, or incorporating difficult text in a class with ELLs would create a lot of frustration and stress toward reading, which is exactly what shouldn't happen. ELLs would greatly benefit from more reading, and I think it's extremely important that TESOL educators work diligently to add it into their curriculum.
Grabe in chapter 26 states that, "a large vocabulary is critical, not only for reading, but for all L2 language skills, for academic abilities, and for background knowledge" (279). Building a large vocabulary is a hard feat for students as well as a challenge to incorporate it into the classroom. When reading through the dilemmas and the struggle to incorporate reading for fun, I couldn't help but think that I could pretty easily add 10-15 minutes of reading in class every other day or so. Students could also have an assignment or project attached to this extra reading. Each month, a new book could be read and the students could create their own project about it, such as performing skits, making mixed CD soundtracks, creating dioramas or posters about characters or plot, etc. I felt that as long as I was able to have access to decent reading material for the students, whether it be my own books or a book from the school or public library, I would love to add more reading into the curriculum.
I also agreed with Jacobs and Renandya that students need to read material that is not too difficult for their abilities. Therefore, Vygotsky's i+1 wouldn't be the best way to incorporate reading. It is important that we foster a fondness in our students when it comes to reading, simply because it is proven that grades and study skills are directly affected by it. i+1, or incorporating difficult text in a class with ELLs would create a lot of frustration and stress toward reading, which is exactly what shouldn't happen. ELLs would greatly benefit from more reading, and I think it's extremely important that TESOL educators work diligently to add it into their curriculum.
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