Assessment

The article stresses the importance of discourse as a part of communicative competence. There is a need for testers to come up with different ways to assess discourse skills. I thought the quote at the beginning by McNamara was very true. It spoke about how oral assessment models focus on a candidate instead of on how they interact. Since the language tester is seeing how the candidate can orally communicate, it is important that the tester is studying the interaction part. Assessments need to be in context, because if they aren't  the tester cannot truly understand how the candidate communicates. The use of direct tests proves this. When a candidate is orally tested using a direct test, he/she uses more elaborate and indirect language and involves more pragmatic and social devices.

            Chapter 23 was about language assessment. It outlined different assessment types, such as performance based. These portfolios, projects, and experiments show how students progress without them having to memorize facts to copy down onto a pencil/paper test. Even though traditional testing offers higher levels of practicality, those types of tests are not individualized. This does not mean that they cannot be used. More authentic assessment types take longer to create, implement, and grade. I suggest placing more emphasis on alternative assessment methods because they show more of what a student is capable of doing.

            Brown’s chapter 24 went into detail on classroom based assessment. It also gave practical steps to creating a test, my favorite one being “form your objectives, draw up test specifications” because it gave a sample outline of a test. It encompassed many domains by including listening, multiple choice, and writing production. When it comes to alternative assessment types, I think that portfolios truly show the progress of a student from the beginning of the year until the end. It allows the student, instructor, and parents to see the work of the student in the beginning of the course and how/if they improved with various assignments.

Teaching Quality

Brown’s chapters 9-11 are all about course/lesson planning. I enjoyed the way Brown gave a concrete example of all the different steps of planning a curriculum. It made it easier to think about. A valid point he made was about the quality of teachers. Many times the successfulness of a course is dependent on its instructor. Since I have decided to become an educator, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of teacher I want to be. There’s an important balance between being an approachable teacher and one that facilitates knowledge acquisition. It is important that the students feel comfortable enough to ask questions, but not so much that the teacher is seen more like a friend than an educator. Students might give high rating to “nice” teachers, but even though they have friendly personalities, did they cover material? A stern teacher might get more material covered. I want to make sure I have a balance of both in my classroom.

Lesson planning is the topic of chapter 10. When teaching ELLs it is vitally important to allow time for the students to communicate and interact with each other to produce language. Therefore, teacher talk should be at a minimum and student talk should be strongly utilized. This does not mean that teachers should not talk at all. They should ask the students questions and facilitate discussion. But, students should have many opportunities during class to produce the language. Also, I feel that it is important to over-plan when it comes to lesson planning. If the lesson is to end early, the teacher should still have activities in mind that she would be able to do. Otherwise, students are missing out of prime learning time.

The dialogue in chapter 13: Monitoring Teaching Acts in Kuma’s book helped me to understand one way of evaluating how a teacher presents her lesson. In the beginning of the chapter, the sections seemed theoretical and unclear. After reading the dialogue, I had many critiques that were addressed in the evaluation of the lesson. The part that was the most upsetting to me was the numerous times she passed up learning opportunities. When a student repeatedly asks a question, usually they genuinely want to know the answer. I bet it was difficult for the observer to watch the teacher and not say anything at the time about that. If you were the teacher, would you have addressed the housing issue of homeless people living under the bridge? To me, it is acceptable to get off topic if the students are still learning and if it is somewhat related to the lesson. For example, I got through 50% of my last lesson at the ELI on schooling. However, the reason we were unable to get through the lesson was that the students had things to add about what we were talking about. I had no problem going on a tangent because they were interested in the topic and asking questions.

Cultural Awareness

Kuma’s chapter “Ensuring Social Relevance” was about Standard English and the use of L1 vs L2. One time last semester, I took my conversation partner to a speaker about education. When the speech began, we quickly learned that English was the speaker’s L2. He was from India and my conversation partner was from Korea. I could barely understand him, and I knew that she couldn’t. This brings up the question, should ELLs be taught in Standard English? I feel that they would benefit from it, but not to the point of totally excluding exposure to other dialects. Non-natives varieties are present in the English-speaking world and people need to acknowledge them and not see them as less valuable. When that happens, it’s degrading because language is part of identity. This also applies to L2 use in the classroom. However, many times teachers don’t know how to speak the L1 of the students and the parents of the students don’t want it spoken to their children. But, the student will feel more valuable if the teacher connects the classroom activities to the student’s home language and/or culture.

Raising cultural consciousness is important in the classroom so that students know more than just the society in which they live. The first day of classes at the ELI, I had my students make bucket lists of what they want to accomplish at in class, ISU, and their lives in general. All of them stated that they wanted to learn about the cultures of others. How many Americans have you heard that have said something like that? My guess is not many. It’s refreshing to be around people who appreciate cultures other then their own. The chapter states that, “there is no one culture that embodies all and only the best of human experience”. So much value is given to the American culture that I fear it’s gone to people’s heads. There’s a difference between patriotism and ignorance and I hope that people become more knowledgeable about other cultures.

An interesting section in Brown’s chapter “Teachers for Social Responsibility” was Hot Topics in the Language Classroom. In general, I encourage raising student awareness about controversial issues so that students can be mindful of what is going on around them. However, my opinions on it were challenged when it happened to me in the classroom. During a class at the ELI, we were having an unexpected talk about religion. It was a learning experience for everyone so I told my students that we could continue the discussion at a later time. For the next time we met, I had prepared an article for the students to read about women’s role in religion. Right before class, a student asked me not to bring up religion in class because of differing religious views. I had a back-up article, so we analyzed that instead. When she asked me not to talk about religion, I wondered if it was something that I shouldn’t have brought up in the first place. After reading the chapter, I now know that it depends on the way in which I bring up controversial topics. How should I have presented the topic of religion in class? As the chapter title indicates, it is our job to teach about issues such as these. By choosing to be teachers, we are agents for change.

My paper is going to be about culture and rhetorical strategy in ELL writing. Originally, it was just going to be about how to teach writing, but after meeting with Dr. Seloni, she helped me tie in culture to how to teach writing, which is a large factor in how ELLs write. I will be using Contrastive Rhetoric: Reaching to Intercultural Rhetoric. The article is about how Intercultural Rhetoric builds on notions of the importance of difference based on culture and language in ESL writing patterns, but incorporates a more dynamic and pluralistic perspective on cultures and writing structures. A Comparison of English and Farsi Rhetoric and its Impact on English Writing of Iranian Students by Sasan Baleghizadeh and Azar Pashaii shows that there are significant differences in the use of these three elements between native speakers and Iranian students. It is argued that this is due to different thought patterns between the two languages claimed by Kaplan’s (1966) contrastive rhetoric. Lastly, Teaching Intercultural Communication in a Basic Technical Writing Course: A Survey of Our Current Practices and Methods by Natalia Matveeva provides some suggestions for addressing the challenges and enriching a technical writing curriculum.

Language Skill Integration

Context is a main point in Chapter 9 because language needs to be contextualized to make sense. Kuma talks about linguistic, extralinguistc, situational, and extrasituational realities. Which one should educators put the most emphasis on? The linguistic context teaches that words have different meanings in different contexts (such as “table”). The extralinguistic context says that emphasis allows attention to be drawn to certain parts of sentences and intonation lets the listener know the difference between a statement and a question. Intonation should be stressed for ELLs. I have a hard time understanding some of my ELI students because when they say something, but it sounds like a statement when it is meant to be a question. The situational contexts allows for meaning in certain places. Statements don’t make sense if they are out of place. Lastly, the extrasituational context talks about being culturally sensitive and knowing the culture of the people around you. One of my international students told me about a time in which she was describing her husband as fat to someone and they looked offended. She then learned that it is not socially acceptable to say that in America. However, in Saudi Arabia, she says that to describe him, not insult him. Therefore, teachers need to make sure that their ELL students are mindful of the setting.

Chapter 10 is about integrating language skills and not teaching reading, writing, speaking, and listening separately. Audiolingualists recommended a sequence of listening, speaking, reading, then writing because that is how children acquire language. They obviously did not consider that all language learners are not children and that people learn different skills at different times. It is important that the skills are integrated because learning and using any single skill can trigger cognitive and communicative associations with others. It’s like killing 4 birds with 1 stone. I do this as much as possible in my ELI classes. For example, this week we talked about Halloween. I first accessed the prior knowledge of my students and asked them what they knew about the holiday (speaking and listening), then I introduced vocabulary for a paragraph that were going to read (listening). They then read the paragraph and summarized two facts that they learned (reading and writing) to share their new knowledge with the class (speaking and listening).

Brown’s Chapter 17 not only talked about the importance of integrating skills, but also models of integration: content-, task-, and theme-based instruction. Of these three, I mostly utilize theme-based in my teaching at the ELI. Because my course is about the everyday skills of English, I have more flexibility in my teaching. For example, my students have formally debated the pros and cons of social media and written personal opinion essays. They also engage in experiential learning by ordering and interacting with restaurant staff, and using teamwork and communication to carve a pumpkin as a class. It is necessary to have a variety of skills and methods in instruction to keep learners engaged and to cater to their different learning needs.

Focus on Form

Eric Hawkins stated, “While combating linguistic complacency, we are seeking to arm our pupils against fear of the unknown which breeds prejudice and antagonism (157).” This is a good quote that is a vital part of Kuma’s chapter “Fostering language awareness”. When people are knowledgeable about something, they are less likely to judge it. We as teachers need to instill the desire for knowledge in our students about English and other languages in the school. Whole language doesn’t exclude some languages and dialects: it involves every aspect. Teachers also need to acknowledge that learning English is difficult. For every rule there is an exception. This is why language awareness is necessary for language teachers. The difference between speaking English and English Education is that English Education majors learn how the language works, while most English speakers just know how to speak it, not teach it. For English learners to develop an appreciation and knowledge about the language, they need to have control of the issues they learn about.  Teachers should explore issues that interest them and the learners. I make sure to incorporate this into my teaching at the ELI. At the beginning of the semester, I handed out a note card to each of my students and asked them to write down what they wanted to learn about. This allows me to cater to them and their needs.

Activating intuitive heuristics is when a student increases their language awareness by attempting to discover the rules and patterns of the linguistic system. This enhances their capacity to discover the linguistic system by increasing language awareness. When a teacher uses a deductive method of teaching grammar (usually focus on forms), they present students with set rules and expect the students to use the rules in speech and writing after enough practice. This encourages little teacher-student interaction and almost no learner-learner interaction that is necessary to create an environment that is conducive to self-discovery. While thinking of when you learned your L2, what deductive method features did you find helpful and which would you change? Inductive teaching (usually focus on forms) allows students to discover the grammar rules. It avoids explicit description and encourages students to analyze samples provided. Most importantly, it structures interaction.

“Form-focused instruction”, by Brown, commented that many language approaches in the past have learned to one extreme or the other regarding focus on form vs. forms. Teachers and researchers now have a better respect for the place of form-focused instruction in an interactive curriculum. After reading Brown’s chapter, I realized that it is important to have both. I usually lean on the side of focus on form, but it depends on the learners as to which one would be more appropriate. Age, proficiency level, educational background, language skills, style, and needs and goals need to be considered. For example, an adult student who already has developed their BICS would benefit more from focus on forms than a new English learner. However, it is important to take both into consideration.

Teaching Reading and Writing

Brown’s chapter entitled “Teaching Reading” helped the reader gain a sense of how to design effective activities, which I enjoyed, and had a lot of good points that I had never thought about before. The first one is that English learners should refrain from using a bilingual dictionary. The meaning of most words can be figured out from their context. I understand that that can help with fluency but I think that knowledge of word meaning is important, too. In regards to types of classroom reading performance, I thought of a disadvantage that is not listed. Oral reading can cause students to feel uncomfortable and inadequate to other students who read better. If students are put on the spot, especially in their L2, their affective filter may be raised because they do not have the necessary language ego yet. However, Brown made a valid point about extensive reading. It usually occurs outside of the classroom and involves pleasure reading. This type of reading not only develops reading fluency and accuracy, but also an appreciation for reading. It is an engaging way to discover more about English.

“Teaching Writing” briefly talked about the issue of voice and identity. How do we preserve the cultural and social identities of students but at the same time teach that English language writing conventions? It is difficult to accommodate students when the task at hand is clear-cut. I feel that we can be culturally sensitive by allowing students to choose topics to write about, such as their backgrounds and to look at the writing in the home country of the students. What is the style? How might the writing of that country be reflected in writing in English? When it comes to types of Written Language, I thought it would be a creative activity to show the students different types of writing (like on 362-363) and teach them how to identify and create these types, such as greeting cards. Lastly, in regards to peer editing, students will learn to be a better writer and a better reader if they take part in peer editing. I had not thought of it in this way before, but it is an applicable point because the students develop their reading skills when they look at the work of their peers. The Myth 5 chapter had good ideas about wiring, as well.

            My favorite of the three readings, “Myth 5: Students Must Learn to Correct All Their Writing Errors”, was a very real chapter in the sense that it gave real-life examples of how to teach and that the author made real connections from his life to the topic. Dana Ferris said that sometimes teachers sometimes expect their students to made radical transformations in a short period of time, which just does not happen. It takes time and hard work to improve and sometimes improvement is not as quick of a process as is wanted. I like that the author said that it is important to focus on the positive aspects of a student’s work. Every step should be celebrated as a big one because the student is that much closer to learning English. Students can be assessed in many different ways. Instead of a timed test, teachers can have students create a writing portfolio to show their improvement. What the teacher will find is that the quality of writing will be improved by higher expectations. Teachers who employ this method, demand more yet give students better conditions for success.

Principles, SBI, & Learning Opportunities

Chapter 4 in Brown’s book was an overview of cognitive, socioaffective, and linguistic principles that are the foundation of teaching practice. Two principles particularly stuck out to me: the anticipation of reward and the language-culture connection. I completely support the anticipation of reward. I have read articles that state that teachers should not praise at all. For example, when a student correctly completes a task, the teacher should say “I see just what you did,” according to the articles. I believe that the student can and should receive positive reinforcement. I understand that if a teacher is too generous in giving praise, the student can become reliant on the praise, but I see nothing wrong in telling the student they did a good job. Enthusiasm is also included in that principle. It says that the teacher needs to be full of life and that attitude is contagious. The language-culture principle is another one I feel is important and yet not stressed enough in the classroom. Language is a large part of culture. Therefore, when students are learning a language, they need to learn the culture along with it. All of these principles helped me better understand how I should approach teaching and what I should consider before planning classroom activities. What principles are especially important to you and how can you utilize them in the classroom?

Chapter 16 is about Strategies-Based Instruction. How a teacher’s classroom techniques encourage, build, and maintain effective language-learning strategies is what encompasses strategies-based instruction. The chapter discusses how important it is to get the students strategically invested in their language-learning journey. Sometimes the students are intrinsically motivated on their own, but many times the teachers need to set the fire under them to get them motivated. By allowing students to develop their own strategies, they become more motivated to learn English. If students dedicate time and energy to learning English, they will feel more of a connection to be responsible for their learning. The principles in chapter 4 play a large part in strategies-based instruction. They are relevant to the success of learners. Strategies are the students’ techniques for “capitalizing on the principles of successful learning” (258).

“Maximizing Learning Opportunities” is the title of chapter 3 in Kuma’s book and also the duty of teachers. The reason that the chapter is titled so is because this is the only way that teachers can facilitate learning for students. Teachers cannot force students to learn because learning is a personal task controlled by the learner. Learning is an individual task. What a learner takes from an opportunity relies on what the learner brings to the experience. A teacher can only do so much, but it is up to the learner to come away from a situation with new material. Teachers and learners need to work together to create learning opportunities and take the most from them that a person can. What are some ways in which the teacher can create authentic learning opportunities?