Post #13: Assessment

            Chapter 23 and 24 in Brown discuss the topic of assessment. We have talked about a lot of the topics in these two chapters this semester in 346. Both chapters explain the differences between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests. These are two different ways of scoring tests. With criterion-referenced tests, scores are assigned based on the content of the student’s work, if it contains all the required criteria. With this type it is possible that all students in the same class can receive A’s. Norm-referenced tests are scored by comparing the quality of the student’s work to their classmates’. With this type of scoring, not all the students in the class are able to get an A. One of my teachers here at ISU assigned grades on our papers based on the norm-referenced format. This way isn’t used too often in my opinion. It’s probably more common in the college than in a K-12 setting. I’m not a fan of the norm-referenced scoring approach since I don’t think it’s fair to students since they’re always being compared to their peers. It’s also very subjective scoring since it’s the teacher’s opinion as to who they think did the best and worst on the test or assignment.

            Authenticity is described as being a principle of language assessment. This isn’t something we talked a lot about in 346 but I do think it’s important. With language assessment, test items should be contextualized and natural, assessing real-world tasks. I think this is important but I also think that it may also be necessary to give structured tasks to assess students as well since some language skills and concepts may be difficult to determine whether students know them or not when they’re within a context.

            Chapter 24 talks about alternative assessment, another topic we recently covered in 346. Portfolios are an example of alternative assessment. I think portfolios are especially great for ESL classes since teachers are able to see the progress of the students’ L2. They’re also great for the students to see how far they’ve come in the learning of the L2. Performance-based assessment which is discussed in chapter 23 is another example of alternative assessment. I think performance-based assessment is especially important in language classrooms since it’s necessary to see students produce the language. Overall I like the idea of alternative assessment even though the grading is also very subjective. Students who don’t do well on formal tests may also prefer this method. I think it’s a good idea to use both formal and alternative assessment in the classroom.     

Post #12: Curriculum Design and Lesson Planning

      This week’s readings are about curriculum design and lesson planning. Brown chapter 9 talks about how a curriculum is created and describes principles of an effective curriculum. When it comes to curriculum, all schools and districts are different. As a pre-service Spanish or ESL teacher, to what extent I’ll be able to make my own curriculum choices will depend on the school that I teach at. Depending on the school I may have a strict curriculum I need to stick to or I could have the ability to create part of my own curriculum. No matter what I think it’s important to realize that all schools are different. At the Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ICTFL) conference that I went to in October I listened to a presentation on surviving your first year of teaching given by a second year Spanish teacher. She teaches at a small school in southern Illinois that has a lot of students from low SES backgrounds. She, along with the two other teachers in the small foreign language department, was able to design the curriculum herself. This is very rare, not all teachers are able to design their own curriculum and instead have to follow one that is already in place. Pre-service teachers need to be aware of the curriculum differences amongst schools. I think that either way, whether there’s a set curriculum that you have to follow or that you get to create your own, would be difficult. I feel like this idea is something that should be covered more in teacher education classes.

      Branching off of curriculum design is lesson planning with is discussed in Brown chapter 10. In the chapter, the guidelines for planning a lesson and the format for a written lesson are laid out. I think that it’s unrealistic to write a complete lesson plan for every lesson. When you’re first starting out writing lessons it may be a good idea, but I think that having just a rough outline of the order of things for each class period is sufficient enough. Writing full lesson plans for all lessons would be very time consuming. When I student teach, lesson planning is one of the parts I’m most worried about because it’s going to take a while to plan all those lessons since I have very few materials to start from. Everyone plans in their own way so I think that teachers should find the system that works best for them for planning lessons. Going along with lesson planning is Brown chapter 11 which is about the techniques and materials that go into a lesson plan. In this chapter is a section about textbooks. This is a topic we’ve talked a lot about in my foreign language teaching methods class. I think that textbooks, especially if they’re outdated, should be used as a guide for teaching. You can follow the order the concepts and vocabulary are presented and use some activities it includes but there should also be some supplement activities from other sources or ones that you created yourself. You can also evaluate the activities in the textbook and alter them to best suit the lesson needs. After a curriculum is designed and lessons are planned out, it’s very important for teachers to monitor their own teaching acts in order to make changes to best suit the students’ learning needs, which it the concept discussed on Kumar chapter 13.  Monitoring your own teacher acts emphasizes the importance of self-observing, self-analyzing, and self-evaluating. This is necessary in order to grow and develop as a teacher and to also benefit your students the most.              

Research Progress for Final Paper

            For my final paper I’m going to discuss native-speaking language teachers (NSTs) versus non-native speaking language teachers (NNSTs).MY two research questions are: What do both types of teachers bring to the table (the benefits of NSTs and NNSTs)? What do students say about NSTs and NNSTs and who do they prefer? I integrated your feedback by trying to look for sources for the rationale part of my topic (ownership of language, identity). I also looked up articles by two of the names of authors you gave me who have done research on this topic (Peter Medgyes and Lucie Moussu). I looked for the article that you suggested by Medgyes called “Native or Non-Native: Who’s Worth More?,” but there’s no full text on the Milner library databases. Is there another way I can find that article? I also found a couple books by him about non-native speakers (When the Teacher is a Non-Native Speaker and The Non-Native Speaker) but I haven’t got them from the library yet. From what I’ve seen, there’s so much research and articles on this topic. So since this is a paper we’re going to have a literature review section, the rationale, and what else?

Post # 11: Raising Cultural Awareness

            Brown chapter 26 begins by questioning the reader: What drives you in your professional life? What purpose propels you through teaching each week? Somehow, teachers are “guided by a sense of mission, of purpose, and of dedication to a profession in which they believe they can make a difference” (Brown 512). Even though I’m not an actual teacher yet, I’ve obviously been asked why I want to be a teacher. The main reason I say when I answer this questions is because I love the content area that I’m going to teach (Spanish). I love it so much that I want to teach it to others. I’ve had many situations during college that have helped confirm my wanting to be a Spanish teacher. Most of these situations involve tutoring. Every time I tutor students I know that I am meant to be a teacher. This is what drives me in my “professional” life. One of the ways that I want to make a difference when I teach is to show my students the importance of learning a second language. I think that this is important to incorporate into lessons, even if it is very briefly, since many students don’t see a point in learning a language.  

            Branching off of the importance of teaching the significance of learning an L2 is the topic covered in Kumar chapter 11: Ensuring social relevance. In order to make L2 learning relevant in the eyes of the students, it’s important for them to recognize that the “broader social, political, historical, and economic conditions that affect the lives of learners and teachers also affect classroom aims and activities” (Kumar 239). Through what goes on in the classroom, students need to see how the L2 ties in with social, political, historical, economic, etc. conditions. When teaching English, it’s important to acknowledge the status of English as a global language in order to help students understand the importance of learning. Discussing this idea can help justify their learning of the language. This chapter also discusses the question of how to determine the “standard” variety of a language? This is a topic that is very interesting and puzzling to me. It makes me wonder how schools chose what variety of English to teach their students since there are so many. Also, should ESL and EFL teachers introduce students to other varieties of English even if that’s not the variety they focus on?  There are so many unanswered questions on this topic since it’s so difficult to determine a “standard” variety of a language.  

            Kumar chapter 12 talks about raising cultural consciousness since it’s important for L2 learners to be conscious of the L2 culture. Robinson’s theory of second culture acquisition makes sense to me. Her theory is that second culture acquisition is the “integration of home and target culture” (Kumar 270). She calls this the Color Purple. I agree with this theory since when you learn about a new culture you also learn more about your native culture thus creating a second culture that includes parts of both. In order for someone to develop critical cultural consciousness they have to recognize that there isn’t one culture that embodies the best and worst of human experiences. To help develop cultural consciousness in students it’s important to treat them as cultural informants as well, not just the teacher. Teachers can do this by identifying the cultural knowledge their students bring to the classroom. I think this can helps motivate and involve learners more since they’re discussing their knowledge.   

Post # 10: Integrating the Four Skills

Brown chapter 17 and Kumar chapter 10 discuss the integration of the four language skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). The Kumar chapter goes into the history of this topic, saying that the language skills were always isolated from one another and were taught in a specific order: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These skills were only taught in this order and could not be switched around. Students were not allowed to attempt to speak before they were able to listen, or write before they were able to read. We know now that this isn’t true and that all skills can be taught or focused on in any order that makes sense. Today, we are supposed to integrate all four skills into a lesson and not just focus on one at a time. Even though the integration of all four language skills is now seen as common sense, there are still courses, especially in colleges and universities, which separate the skills into different classes. Here at ISU for Spanish they do this. There’s a composition class devoted to just writing in the TL and there’s a conversation class devoted to just speaking in the TL. Brown chapter 17 talks about how some people have the idea that “integration of the four skills diminishes the importance of the rules of listening, speaking, reading, and writing that are unique to each separate skill” (Brown 285). I don’t agree with this idea. I think that integrating all four skills highlights the importance of each skill even more than if they were taught separate from each other.

Brown looks at the different models of skill integration. I like theme-based instruction, probably because that’s how I learned Spanish and how most Spanish textbooks and classes are still laid out. In Spanish textbooks each chapter is centered on a theme starting with the vocabulary. The grammar concepts covered in that chapter incorporate that themed vocabulary. For example, the chapter that introduced students to food vocabulary usually included the grammar concept of teaching them how to say “I like,” “you like,” etc. Creating themed vocabulary lists is a good way to teach the words and make them more meaningful. I think theme-based instruction would be a good model of skill integration to use when teaching EFL as well.

Kumar chapter 9 talks about contextualizing linguistic input. He explains each of the different contexts. The first is linguistic context which is the linguistic environment that contains formal aspects of the language like pronouns, articles, verbs, etc. Extralinguistic context includes things like stress and intonation, which can even be difficult for advanced L2 learners. The third is situational context which is where “words and utterances can have different meanings of functions in different contexts” (Kumar 210). Lastly is extrasituational context which I think is one of the most important. This context includes the idea of what is or isn’t appropriate, which is where the culture of the TL comes into play. This is one of the reasons why the TL culture is so important to teach language students so that they know how to act if they ever travel to the country that speaks that language. It’s important to present the language to the students within a context. Teaching the aspects of a language within a context makes the information more meaningful to the students, therefore making it easier for them to retain. Learning what type of language to use and in what situation is a huge part of mastering an L2.      

Post #9: Teaching Grammar and Fostering Language Awareness

Brown chapter 22 talked about form-focused instruction. The teaching of grammar is such a debatable part of language teaching. The chapter questions whether grammar should even be taught or not.  When I was learning Spanish, grammar was the main focus of the class since that’s what the textbook mostly talked about. Even today most of the language classrooms I observe in continue putting grammar in the L2 as the first priority. In my opinion, grammar needs to be one of the most important and mostly focused on parts of an L2 classroom. Brown says that too much grammar focus at the beginning “runs the risk of blocking their acquisition of fluency skills” (Brown 422). I think that it’s necessary for beginning levels to put the main focus on grammar. In order for a learner to become fluent in the L2 they need to know grammar. This idea goes back to our discussion the other week about fluency versus accuracy. This chapter also talks about the deductive versus inductive approaches to grammar teaching. This is a topic we talk a lot about in our class foreign language teaching methods. I tend to favor the deductive approach mostly because I like the structure of it and that’s how I was taught grammar. I like having all of the grammar rules and steps laid out for me from the beginning of the lesson. Even though I like this approach better, I still think it’s important to use both deductive and inductive approaches to teaching grammar. The inductive approach incorporates whole and authentic texts which I think it very important to include.

 

Chapter 7 in Kumar discusses the importance of fostering language awareness. I found this chapter to be very interesting and entertaining. At the beginning, someone describes English as being a “zany logic-defying tongue” (Kumar 159). Another person goes on to say, “English is a language in which one drives on a parkway and parks on a driveway, plays at a recital and recites at a play” (Kumar 159). Many native speakers of English may not realize how odd things like that are since we are so used to saying them, whereas non-native speakers are more aware since they are trying to learn the language. Examples like this cited quote can help foster general language awareness among learners. The chapter also talks about how it’s necessary for teachers to have language awareness. Teachers who are native speakers of the language they teach “may know the underlying system of their language intuitively, but they may lack explicit knowledge needed to give a proper explanation” (Kumar 162). Since I’m not a native Spanish speaker, I have the explicit knowledge needed to teach the language. Since learning Spanish I have learned a lot more about the English language but I still don’t know if I have the explicit knowledge needed to fully explain grammar points. All parts of the language come naturally to me so sometimes I can’t explain why something should be said a certain way. An example of this is last week when we were critiquing the two students’ paragraphs they had written. Someone said that the student needs to put a “the” at the beginning of the sentence but couldn’t explain why it needs to be there since with it, it just sounds correct to us.    

 

Chapter 8 in Kumar is about heuristics, which refers to the process of self-discovery on the part of the learner” (Kumar 176). Heuristics is also a teaching method that allows students to learn by discovering things for themselves. I think that fostering language awareness in learners can help promote heuristics since by making students aware of the language, they become more interested in learning and therefore are more motivated to discover other aspects on their own.

Post #8: Teaching Reading and Writing

Chapters 20 and 21 in Brown talk about the teaching of reading and writing. Last week we discussed the previous chapters on the teaching of speaking and listening. It’s important to remember that each of these language skills is developed best in association with the others. One of the skills of reading comprehension that is discussed in the chapter is to identify the purpose in reading. Students want to know why they’ve been asked to read something. This also goes along with making sure the reading passage is something that interests the students. If the text isn’t something that interests the students and they don’t understand the purpose for reading it, they won’t put forth the effort needed to make sure they understand it. I think that a good topic for reading passages is the culture of the language the students are studying, but it’s important that the cultural information in the readings still interest the students. From personal experience and from what I’ve observed, students like to hear more about the daily life of the people in the countries they are studying, not about historical facts and stories.

            The use of graphic organizers is a great reading strategy since they help students to organize the information presented in the text. Graphic organizers or other helpful strategies should be used as both pre and post reading strategies. The chapter talks about the SQ3R sequence to aid students with reading comprehension (survey, question, read, recite, review). Reading passages are very beneficial with L2 instruction since they help students work on their reading comprehension skills in the language and can also introduce or highlight different grammar concepts. It’s also very important to use as many authentic texts in the language as possible since they are more contextual, therefore more meaningful.

            Chapter 21 talks about the teaching of writing. Many teaching strategies involve the combination of reading and writing. After reading a text students can write a reaction to it or answer short comprehension questions. The book states how with reading and writing there is a heavier demand on vocabulary than with speaking. From my experiences of being in an L2 classroom, when students have to write in the L2 they always want to know how to say different words. I remember one of my high school Spanish teachers would tell her students to go look in a dictionary when they wanted to know how to say a word. Even though this approach may sound a little harsh, I tend to agree with her. L2 teachers would constantly be telling students how to say things when in reality students have the resources necessary to find out how to say anything in the L2. I also think it’s important that students learn how to talk around what they want to say, describing the word or concept in another way. This is a great skill to have especially when the learner is communicating with native speakers of the language who don’t speak that student’s native language. That student can’t just ask the person they’re talking with how to say the word that they want to use since they don’t speak the student’s L1. The student must then resort to talking around the word. A difficult aspect to teaching writing in the L2 is deciding what written errors to correct in student work. This is a topic we also discussed in 343. This is a difficult question that has no correct answer. No matter what approach teachers take, I think it’s important to stay consistent with all students but to also make changes to grading accordingly.