Eng 345: week 3

Celce-Murcia's article, I found, was the very user-friendly.  It was easy to read and understand the brief history of language teaching, and I found the bullet point chart quite useful to organize so many methods.  I was able to recognize many bullet points of the later methods from my own high school language learning.  Some of the more recent theories can still be partially found in classrooms!

After reading both of the articles, I couldn't get one image out of my head.  Reading about how each method replaced another reminded me of fad diets.  Researchers find one method and see that it works.  Then they find out that certain aspects aren't being adequately tended to, and they find another one to replace it.  It seems like a money-making market to the researchers and the theorists to me.  And all this time I'm wanted to yell, "What about what's best for the students!"  I feel that now the theorists are still leaning towards a best method (whatever that is...) to teach students quickly and efficiently, even though many authors of the articles we've been reading swear against it.  Which is why, at the end of the Kumaravadivelu article, when he stated that task-based learning is the newest non-method approach to teaching and a sort of awakening toward language teaching, I wondered what is coming next?  Surely this is another fad, as it follows the same pattern as the previous ones, replacing the seemingly outdated methods of teaching.  The author made it seem as if this approach is the end-all.  But I took a different view: Is task-based teaching really the total potential of language teaching and learning?  TESOL seems too new to have already figured everything out.  Or is this a new method hiding under the fact that it claims NOT to be a method, and just part of the research (or fad) stage?  If that is true, then what will come next?

Eng 345: week 2

The first two chapters of the Anthology were helpful in an introduction to this course.  It was informative and helpful to read that methods of teaching are somewhat outdated and seem to rigid, so the term approach has become more popular.  It was encouraging to read that approaches are typically less prescriptive and not as static as a method of teaching.  Sometimes, as a pre-service teacher, it can be intimidating and daunting to be furthering a group of students' education in terms of speaking English.  It seems as if a lot more responsibility is placed on us than on other teachers, especially in terms of high stakes testing and other forms of standardized tests.  To read that the best teachers assess students frequently and change what isn't working makes it sound less intimidating.  It's always helpful to hear that even the best teachers have to change their curriculum, sometimes even in the middle of it, to meet the needs of the students.

Reading about the theories of teaching a language was also helpful.  It was informative to read about the different types of theories and that mixing and matching them will create the best learning environment for students.  The bullet points at the end of the chapter really summed up the theories and allowed me as a pre-service teacher to think about what I'll try to implement into my own classroom.

eng 345: week 1

The readings this week, though seemingly disconnected at first glance, really set the pace for this class.  Having already completed a research project on intelligibility and Jennifer Jenkins's work, I really felt the importance of one central question: What is considered standard, correct, English?  Having so many different students will allow us to truly see the diverse Englishes we need to embrace.  As teachers, we must strive to teach intelligibility, because being understood and being able to negotiate meaning is of utmost importance.  Accent reduction, then, would not only be a waste of time, but may even damage our students' identities and foster negative feelings toward learning English.  Tolerance, in these two articles, is the main theme.

Tolerance can mean many things, really.  It includes understanding of other cultures, breaking down stereotypes, raising awareness in social change, creating a safe environment for everyone, understanding the home lives of others and truly realizing that everyone you meet has their own problems, successes, thought processes and opinions.  Tall order for us teachers.  But we have to start somewhere.  By creating and encouraging many different Englishes, while encouraging home cultures, we can start to get the ball rolling towards more tolerance in the world.  TESOL educators really have an important role in the start of such a large movement, and continuing to work towards different methods of teaching and understanding one another, we can be a powerful influence in the lives of our students.

Canagarajah and ch. 7 Lightbown and Spada

The readings this week really summed up the information that we have learned throughout the weeks in Eng 344.  Lightbown and Spada went through several ideas and myths present in TESOL, and explained several different outlooks on them.  Because we've learned all of this information before, I found it extremely useful to read summaries of what we've covered and talked about in class.

I really enjoyed reading the Canagarajah article.  I found the pedagogical shifts most interesting because they still pertain to our future classrooms.  I found the argument on World Englishes to be the most interesting because I plan to write my paper on the consequences of accent reduction and the idea of intelligibility in our classrooms, which is very near to my heart.  I can't imagine telling a student that the way they pronounce something is "wrong," probably because of the information I've learned on critical period and how pronounciation will never be native-like (whatever that means now...) after adolescence. 

Another important topic that I would like to discuss in a future TESOL class was brought up in this article.  Digital technologies! I'm interested in talking about how to teach the newer and growing context of the internet.  Digital technologies have led to new genres of communication, new conventions of language use, new vocabulary and definitely new grammar rules for English.  How can I possibly teach that?  As the types of texts have changed over time, so have our practices of reading and writing them.  There are hundreds of thousands of possibilities on the internet and other digital technologies.  We simply cannot ignore them in the classroom.  I'm hoping you all can give me some of your thoughts for teaching such a prominent and growing context of language!

week 13

When reading the Lightbown and Spada chapter, I found that a few of the proposals reminded me of my learning in high school, which was not incredibly successful.  The "Get it right in the end" proposal seemed to be like the most effective way to teach, in my mind.  It's important to remember that some things are more difficult to teach than others and will just take time for the student to acquire.  This was the case for me in French when I was learning the genders of nouns.  It's memorization and practice and new because we don't have an equivalent in English.  I think when students don't have the equivalent in their own language, it takes more time for the learner to acquire it.  Interlanguage can change depending on the student's focus.  It's important to teach in a way that creates memorable experiences so that the students can alter their interlanguage and learn from errors and successes.

When I was in France, I remember that I learned that most not only when errors were pointed out, but when someone would compliment me on my accent.  Teaching in a way that encourages learning in both the students' L1 and L2 will allow them to feel a part of both cultures and languages.  This, in turn, will create an environment that fosters learning and creates memorable, meaningful exchanges that would never show up in a textbook.

week 12

These articles were somewhat confusing for me to understand.  However, I did find the article by Canadarajah, about Lingua Franca English to be extremely interesting.  The idea behind LFE is a multilingual approach, which seems to be a far reach because of its goals.  The article describes LFE as a non-geographically specific, multilingual way of life.  All users would have more than one native competencies and learners are not considered incompetent.  There are no strict rules of language and speakers monitor and shape their language choices by those around them.  Multilingual speakers do not move towards someone else's target, instead, they construct their own norms.  Meaning is produced in practice and acquisition aims for versatility in conversation and agility, not mastery and control.  However, even in an ideal world, it's hard to picture these goals ever occurring.  It would be excellent if our students would aim to reach understanding and not have to match society's view of target, but in our education system, especially with the high stakes testing, it's not feasible to teach in a way that fosters the goals and ideas presented in the article.  However, taking some of the ideas and implementing them in the classroom would be one step closer, while still preparing students for the tests at the end of the year.

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.