Week 11 Blog Response
Integrating language skills
"While insights from L2 acquisition research has been sparse, experiential knowledge has helped language eduactors realize that linguistic input to learners should be presented in units of text, or what we now call discourse, so that learners can benefit from the interactive effect of various components and contexts." -Kumaravadivelu
Brown chapter 17, Kumar chapters 9 and 10
These chapters focused on language integration across the four traditionally defined language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing. Both Brown and Kumar note the recent trends in segmenting these skills, and also the counter-trend toward integration of these skills. Kumar points out a number of studies that show the benefits of skills integration in the ESL classroom. Brown discusses five different models for integrating the skills.
There are content-based instruction and it's weaker form, theme-based instruction. The former focuses on content specifically (perhaps at the expense of explicit language instruction/objectives), while theme-based instruction places a greater emphasis on language objectives within the framework of content themes. Brown also discusses task-based language teaching, experiential learning and the episode hypothesis. "Experiential learning includes activities that engage both left- and right-brain processing, that contextualize language, that integrate skills, and that point toward authentic, real-world purposes." (Brown 291). The episode hypothesis argues that successful language learning and teaching occurs when language is presented in an easily followed storyline (Brown 293).
Kumar also discusses in chapter 9 how to contextualize linguistic input. In this chapter Kumar talks about the way language "invokes context as well as... provides context". He then discusses how language joins these realities, which are: linguistic, extralinguistic, situational, and extrasituational.
Linguistic context is "the immediate linguistic environment that contains formal aspects of language required for the process of meaning-making."
Extralinguistic context refers to "the immediate linguistic environment that contains prosodic signals such as stress and intonation."
Situational context requires that "one goes eyond the linguistic and extralinguistic contexts in which it occurs and considers the situational context as well."
Extrasituational context explores, according to McCarthy and Carter (1994) "the ways in which forms of language, from individual words to complete discourse structures, encode something of the beliefs and values held by the language user."
The readings for today helped me to realize that it is important to integrate multiple language skills when teaching. In my mind I had it made up to focus on a particular form in the language, separate in a way from the context it is used. Say, a lesson on the past tense inflection in English. I would talk about how it is used to convey something that has happened in the past, and provide a few sentence examples likely in the form of written text on the board. But from the readings, it seems like a.) I would want to contextualize the form in a text that is appropriate (or meaningful) and b.) use multiple forms of presentation for the students (read the sentence aloud, write the sentence down, have the students speak the sentence). Using or integrating multiple language skills into a lesson not only appeals to a wide variety of learners, but it also strengthens the bonds between all the language skills and this increases the "communicative competence" of the students through creating what I understand to be opportunities for more meaningful learning than the traditional or more widely accepted methodologies.
-TfM
Monday, October 29, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
ENG 345 - Methods and Materials Week 9
Topic: Teaching of Reading and Writing
SUMMARY
Brown Chapter 20
This chapter was about the teaching of reading. In it Brown opens with some research that has been conducted on reading in a second language. He discusses schema theory and background knowledge. This section made me think about how much we bring to a text to help ourselves understand that text. A reader brings a wealth of experience to a text upon reading, and I think as a native speaker I take that for granted, or rather, didn't see how much content and formal schemata I actually have and bring to each text. Brown then presents a list of different genres of written language, and then discusses some general characteristics of written language, such as permanence, processing time, distance, orthography, complexity, vocabulary, and formality. Brown then provides strategies for reading comprehension, types of classroom reading performance, and then the following principles for teaching reading skills:
-Don't overlook a specific focus on reading skills
-use techniques that are intrinsically motivating
-balance authenticity and readability in choosing texts
-encourage the development of reading strategies
-include both bottom-up and top-down techniques
-follow the 'survey, question, read, recite, review' technique
-plan on pre-reading, during-reading, and after-reading phases
-build an assessment aspect into your techniques
Brown Chapter 21
This chapter was about the teaching of writing. Brown opens this chapter with a section of research in second language writing. He points out a lot of things I had not really considered before in this section. This chapter in particular made me reflect on my own writing practices as a student. Brown pushes for more process writing rather than product writing. The early focus, he argues, should be on how to write and revise and self-edit, rather than reaching some ideal error-free product of a paper, but hopes that this process will help students work toward that ideal. Brown also talks about Kaplan's contrastive rhetoric, and I like how he dealt with this: "you would be more prudent to adopt a 'weak' position in which you would consider a student's cultural/literacy schemata as only one possible source of difficulty." (394). Brown then discusses types of classroom writing performance, and then gives the following principles for teaching writing skills:
-incorporate practices of 'good' writers
-balance process and product
-account for cultural/literary backgrounds
-connect reading and writing
-provide as much authentic writing as possible
-frame your techniques in terms of prewriting, drafting, and revising stages
-strive to offer techniques that are as interactive as possible
-sensitively apply methods of responding to and correcting your students' writing
-clearly instruct students on the rhetorical, formal conventions of writing
Article: "Myth 5: Students Must Learn to Correct All Their Writing Errors" by Dana Ferris (2008)
This article aims to debunk the myth that ELLs NEED to learn to correct all errors in their writing. Ferris discusses her own experiences with teaching writing in the ESL classroom and then discusses what the research has shown regarding writing and the ELL. There are three observations she makes: (1) SLA takes time, (2) second-language writers' are different from native speakers', (3) even diligent correction and student editing does not lead to error-free production. She then goes on to talk about her experiences with altering the writing program she teaches, and how moving from a more display-writing oriented process to a more process-writing oriented process has dramatically improved the success rate of students in the program. She provides a number of tips and strategies that will be helpful when teaching writing in a classroom. I really enjoyed the idea of portfolio assessment (both as a student and as a future teacher) rather than an in-class writing essay.
SUMMARY
Brown Chapter 20
This chapter was about the teaching of reading. In it Brown opens with some research that has been conducted on reading in a second language. He discusses schema theory and background knowledge. This section made me think about how much we bring to a text to help ourselves understand that text. A reader brings a wealth of experience to a text upon reading, and I think as a native speaker I take that for granted, or rather, didn't see how much content and formal schemata I actually have and bring to each text. Brown then presents a list of different genres of written language, and then discusses some general characteristics of written language, such as permanence, processing time, distance, orthography, complexity, vocabulary, and formality. Brown then provides strategies for reading comprehension, types of classroom reading performance, and then the following principles for teaching reading skills:
-Don't overlook a specific focus on reading skills
-use techniques that are intrinsically motivating
-balance authenticity and readability in choosing texts
-encourage the development of reading strategies
-include both bottom-up and top-down techniques
-follow the 'survey, question, read, recite, review' technique
-plan on pre-reading, during-reading, and after-reading phases
-build an assessment aspect into your techniques
Brown Chapter 21
This chapter was about the teaching of writing. Brown opens this chapter with a section of research in second language writing. He points out a lot of things I had not really considered before in this section. This chapter in particular made me reflect on my own writing practices as a student. Brown pushes for more process writing rather than product writing. The early focus, he argues, should be on how to write and revise and self-edit, rather than reaching some ideal error-free product of a paper, but hopes that this process will help students work toward that ideal. Brown also talks about Kaplan's contrastive rhetoric, and I like how he dealt with this: "you would be more prudent to adopt a 'weak' position in which you would consider a student's cultural/literacy schemata as only one possible source of difficulty." (394). Brown then discusses types of classroom writing performance, and then gives the following principles for teaching writing skills:
-incorporate practices of 'good' writers
-balance process and product
-account for cultural/literary backgrounds
-connect reading and writing
-provide as much authentic writing as possible
-frame your techniques in terms of prewriting, drafting, and revising stages
-strive to offer techniques that are as interactive as possible
-sensitively apply methods of responding to and correcting your students' writing
-clearly instruct students on the rhetorical, formal conventions of writing
Article: "Myth 5: Students Must Learn to Correct All Their Writing Errors" by Dana Ferris (2008)
This article aims to debunk the myth that ELLs NEED to learn to correct all errors in their writing. Ferris discusses her own experiences with teaching writing in the ESL classroom and then discusses what the research has shown regarding writing and the ELL. There are three observations she makes: (1) SLA takes time, (2) second-language writers' are different from native speakers', (3) even diligent correction and student editing does not lead to error-free production. She then goes on to talk about her experiences with altering the writing program she teaches, and how moving from a more display-writing oriented process to a more process-writing oriented process has dramatically improved the success rate of students in the program. She provides a number of tips and strategies that will be helpful when teaching writing in a classroom. I really enjoyed the idea of portfolio assessment (both as a student and as a future teacher) rather than an in-class writing essay.
Monday, October 8, 2012
ENG 345 Wk 8 - Teaching of Speaking and Listening
SUMMARY
Brown Chapters 18, 19
Chapter 18 was entitled "Teaching Listening". Brown talks about input and uptake according to Krashen (1985). He also discusses types of spoken language. Brown also discusses what makes listening difficult and points out eight characteristics of spoken language that attention needs to be paid to (p 304-306). He then discusses listening performance in the classroom (p 308-310). And finally some principles for teaching listening skills (310 - 312).
Chapter 19 was entitled "Teaching Speaking". In this chapter Brown discusses some of the theoretical foundations of teaching speaking in the classroom. He then talks about some of the difficulties of speaking, and the types of speaking that happen in the classroom. Finally he provides some principles for teaching speaking skills in the classroom (331 - 332). Brown then discusses the role of feedback and in what ways it can be utilized for enhancing students' speaking skills.
Kumar Chapter 5
This chapter was entitled "Facilitating Negotiated Interaction". In this chapter Kumar discusses three different types of interactional activities. He borrows these from Halliday: textual, interpersonal, and ideational. Kumar then discusses the foundational theory behind these activities (Krashen, Vygotsky), and provides some classroom interactions for examples. Lastly, he provides four microstrategies to help demonstrate some of these points in action.
Cary 2008 - "How do I support a student's first language..."
This article discussed a woman named Delores' ESL classroom in California. It demonstrated a multitude of ways that an ESL/EFL teacher can be supportive of their students' first language. This involved a lot of code-switching activities, having presentations from the students' parents, and utilizing other community volunteers for assistance. I really enjoyed how she involved many members of the community to take part in the classroom activities.
RESPONSE
The Brown chapters were really practical and provided a wealth of information on how to approach teaching speaking and listening in the classroom, for all levels of learners. They will be invaluable resources going forward. The Kumar was a little less practical, or perhaps a bit more wordy than the Brown. One thing I noticed from one of the classroom examples in the Kumar was that a teacher asked a student to stop referring to their dictionary. This made me wonder, to what extent should we allow students to refer to a dictionary in class? The way I see it is that the dictionary is a resource that helps to facilitate understanding, (and probably in situations where I cannot provide a good explanation of a word [i.e. translation]) so why should we say "No don't use a dictionary."
The way I saw it was that the teacher inhibited the learners' autonomy for learning by asking for the student to stop. I think I won't mind students using a dictionary in class. I would just have to pay close attention to the way in which the students are using it. On one hand, I don't students to become over-reliant on dictionary translations, but on the other hand I want students to be able to understand a topic. Hmm...
TfM
Brown Chapters 18, 19
Chapter 18 was entitled "Teaching Listening". Brown talks about input and uptake according to Krashen (1985). He also discusses types of spoken language. Brown also discusses what makes listening difficult and points out eight characteristics of spoken language that attention needs to be paid to (p 304-306). He then discusses listening performance in the classroom (p 308-310). And finally some principles for teaching listening skills (310 - 312).
Chapter 19 was entitled "Teaching Speaking". In this chapter Brown discusses some of the theoretical foundations of teaching speaking in the classroom. He then talks about some of the difficulties of speaking, and the types of speaking that happen in the classroom. Finally he provides some principles for teaching speaking skills in the classroom (331 - 332). Brown then discusses the role of feedback and in what ways it can be utilized for enhancing students' speaking skills.
Kumar Chapter 5
This chapter was entitled "Facilitating Negotiated Interaction". In this chapter Kumar discusses three different types of interactional activities. He borrows these from Halliday: textual, interpersonal, and ideational. Kumar then discusses the foundational theory behind these activities (Krashen, Vygotsky), and provides some classroom interactions for examples. Lastly, he provides four microstrategies to help demonstrate some of these points in action.
Cary 2008 - "How do I support a student's first language..."
This article discussed a woman named Delores' ESL classroom in California. It demonstrated a multitude of ways that an ESL/EFL teacher can be supportive of their students' first language. This involved a lot of code-switching activities, having presentations from the students' parents, and utilizing other community volunteers for assistance. I really enjoyed how she involved many members of the community to take part in the classroom activities.
RESPONSE
The Brown chapters were really practical and provided a wealth of information on how to approach teaching speaking and listening in the classroom, for all levels of learners. They will be invaluable resources going forward. The Kumar was a little less practical, or perhaps a bit more wordy than the Brown. One thing I noticed from one of the classroom examples in the Kumar was that a teacher asked a student to stop referring to their dictionary. This made me wonder, to what extent should we allow students to refer to a dictionary in class? The way I see it is that the dictionary is a resource that helps to facilitate understanding, (and probably in situations where I cannot provide a good explanation of a word [i.e. translation]) so why should we say "No don't use a dictionary."
The way I saw it was that the teacher inhibited the learners' autonomy for learning by asking for the student to stop. I think I won't mind students using a dictionary in class. I would just have to pay close attention to the way in which the students are using it. On one hand, I don't students to become over-reliant on dictionary translations, but on the other hand I want students to be able to understand a topic. Hmm...
TfM
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