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?

The Method Shift

“The End of CLT: A Context Approach to Language Leaching” by Stephen Bax touched on some of the issues that were addressed during the last class. It talked about the paradigm shift from CLT. Bax proposed that the new shift will be towards a Context Approach. He claims that it does not represent something completely new, which is good that he realizes it. In past chapters, I have read that when approaches arise, they are not new but reinventions of old ones. He also cites Nunan when he says, “the ‘methods’ movement—the search for the one best method, would seem to be well and truly dead.” This relates to the Post Method Era that we have covered. Educators are done searching for one right method, but are instead creating their own way to teach. Bax also says that an eclectic approach may be the best way to deal with a varied classroom. He believes that users of CLT assume it is the best way to teach and other methods are backwards. Bax argues that CLT puts context second and methodology first, which is why he advocates the Context Approach.

            Contrary to Bax’s article about the end of CLT, Guangwei Hu writes about the beginning (and perhaps end) of CLT in China in “Potential Cultural Resistance to Pedagogical Imports: The Case of Communicative Language Teaching in China”. The Chinese usually use a combination of the grammar-translation method and audiolingualism. Hu says, “CLT has failed to make the expected impact on ELT in the PRC partly because some of its most important tenets and practices clash with expectations of teaching and learning that are deep rooted in the Chinese culture of learning (94).” The article lists a variety of reasons as to why CLT has not taken root in the classrooms of China. While reading the article, I noticed that China would benefit from some American ideals and Americans can benefit from China’s ideals. For example, it might be useful for China to not place the students so much lower than the teachers on the hierarchy ladder. The teacher should learn from the students as well as students from the teacher. On the other hand, it would be beneficial for Americans to have more respect for teachers. Many times, they are just seen as people who hand out tests. The Chinese culture has a tremendous amount of respect for their teachers. It is important that teachers take an eclectic approach and make well-informed pedagogical choices that are grounded in an understanding of sociocultural influences.

            “Task-based instruction” by Peter Skehan helped me realize that even within one language theory, there are numerous approaches. This allows the theory to cover all the learning bases but still stay under the “task-based” umbrella. Researchers of task-based instruction have made large strides recently because of the shift from CLT to task-based instruction. Ways of measuring performance have increased, which helps teachers assess their students. More variety is better because different students have different results on different types of assessments. One student might perform poorly on one kind of assessment but might excel on another. All together, the three articles were about the shift in language theories, from CLT to task-based and in China, to CLT from methods such as grammar-translation method and audiolingualism.

The Postmethod Era

            Of the three readings this week, I took the most from Brown’s chapter entitled “The Postmethod Era: Toward Informed Approaches”. It did the best job explaining what the postmethod era is. My favorite quote from the chapter is that language teaching needs to be “sensitive to a particular group of teachers teaching a particular group of learning pursuing a particular set of goals within a particular institutional context embedded in a particular social milieu.” This quote puts to rest the idea that method is a strict way of conducting a classroom. It focuses on the fact that we need to cater our teaching to our students. The chapter also touched on the fact that there is a divide between theorists and practitioners. People need to see theorists as researchers who are involved in the classroom and practitioners as people who are not just participants or people who use the work of others. Communicative Language Teaching was talked about in detail in the chapter. From what the book described it as, I think that I am a fan of CLT, especially the real-life communication in the classroom. I like that it focuses on fluency as opposed to just accuracy. The seven characteristics on pages 46 and 47 are important in language acquisition. CLT involves spontaneity, such as unrehearsed situations guided by the teacher. I do this in my ELI classes. I give the students situations about the skill I am teaching and have them act it out as if it were real life. The students then can apply what they learn in class directly to the outside world.

            Kuma’s chapter 3 “Understanding Postmethod Pedagogy” talked about the concept of method. Something I found interesting is that what appears to be a radically new method is usually a variant of existing methods presented with “the fresh paint of a new terminology that camouflages their fundamental similarity.” There are three main types of methods: language, learner, and learning-centered methods and most methods fall into these categories. When I learned an L2 (Spanish) in a formal, classroom context, it was language-centered. I was taught Spanish as a linear, additive process. Rules of thumb were provided and taught to the students as a way to learn the aspects of the language. When teaching, each method needs to be investigated to see which one best fits the students and the teacher. The chapter also states that there are limitations to the concept of method. Concerned with the instructional strategies, methodology ignores the fact that the success or failure of classroom instruction depends on the unstated interaction of factors such as teacher cognition, cultural contexts, and societal needs, which are all interwoven. The macrostrategic framework consists of guiding principles derived from insights related to L2 learning and teaching. Besides the ones listed on page 39, such as  integrating language skills, maximizing learning opportunities, and promoting learning autonomy, etc, can you think of any others to add to the list?

TESOL Methods: Changing Tracks, Challenging Trends is about TESOL’s evolving perspectives on language teaching methods from communicative language teaching to task-based language teaching, from method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy, and from systemic discovery to critical discourse. Any size shift creates a new state of awareness and awakening in the TESOL profession. The next step is for educators to devise a concrete plan of how to implement these changes in everyday lessons.

Teaching Hierarchy and Teacher Roles

Chapter 1 of Kumaravadivelu’s book is about teaching and the different aspects and ways to approach it. It presented many ideas that I had not thought of before, such as the difference between job, vocation, work, career, occupation, and profession. I hope that in my future, teaching becomes my profession. I feel that the definition really brings out all that teaching encompasses. Chapter 1 presented the three roles of teachers (teachers as passive technicians, teachers as reflective practitioners, and teachers as transformative intellectuals) as a hierarchy. Each level gets more involved. Some things that I liked about teachers as reflective practitioners as opposed to passive technicians is that a reflective practitioner is involved in school change efforts and takes responsibility for her own professional development. I thought that this role encompassed more than just the regular teaching time of the subjects, but it involved change for the better. Also, I feel that it is important to develop as a teacher because the students can benefit from that development, as well. These aspects are also true of teachers as transformative intellectuals. The process of transformative teaching asks that teachers take a critical look at the relationship between theory and practice and establish their own personal theory of practice. Unfortunately, teachers sometimes get into a routine of teaching that they find hard to break. They need to explore new options and see what is best for their students. It can be uncomfortable to change their ways, but it is necessary. My friend who is student teaching this semester told me about her classroom experience in which the teacher has set ways of teaching that are not reaching the students. The teacher just turns off the lights reads through a PowerPoint every class. Half of the students sleep while she does this. I think that she needs to look into new options of teaching and revise her personal theory. The last thing that I found interesting was that in the field of education, it has been suggested that there is no substantial difference between common sense and theory. I had never thought of relating the two, but it makes sense to me now. People who come up with the theories had to use their common sense to create the theories. Teachers should put more trust in their common sense and not just try to teach to a certain theory.