Blog #5- Kumar and Brown

Lauren Watters

English 345

September 24, 2012

Brown Chapter 4

Brown Chapter 16

Kumar Chapter 3

            Kumar tells us that teaching cannot automatically lead to learning because the learning is controlled by the learner. All I can think about when I read this is my junior year chemistry teacher in high school who expected all of the students to understand the material as soon as she presented it on the overhead. I was not interested in chemistry in the slightest. So I didn’t want to learn the material in the first place, but even when I tried to, it didn’t work. My teacher expected the students to learn the material instantly and that there should be no questions. She did not want to change her agenda to help out students who needed it. This specific teacher did not realize that learning opportunities are not bound by the teachers’ agenda, teaching materials and/or the syllabus. The “road conditions” may have been rough for this teacher, but she didn’t want to stop attend to her students needs, which is the exact opposite kind of teacher that I want to be. Most teachers use the textbook provided, create worksheets or word problems and have the expectation that every student can learn successfully this way. The textbook can be a springboard to launch the interactive process in the classroom. The idea of a teaching syllabus seems to be a rough draft of what teachers want to do in the classroom, but the learning syllabus is what students and teachers agree on doing within the classroom. Once the teaching syllabus is converted to a learning syllabus, students will find more opportunities to learn. When language learners speak with their target language, they are organizing and creating a sense of who they are in the world. When they pose questions, they are creating learning opportunities. The language learners need to know that their voice has a purpose in the classroom. Questions are very important such as yes/no questions, factual questions, opinion questions, and reasoning questions. However for L2 development, referential questions are more important than display questions. Open ended questions (referential) provide longer and more complex answers from the students. Why would teachers then continue to ask language learners display questions? How can we eliminate the majority of these all together?

            Brown begins chapter 4 by saying that it is still a mystery how learners successfully acquire second languages. Second language acquisition is not an easy task. After taking just over seven years of Spanish, I am still not fluent. I am still embarrassed by my speaking ability or lack thereof. It is a mystery to me how anyone masters another language if they are not learning it while learning their first language growing up. Twelve principles are cognitive because they relate to the intellectual functions. They are automaticity, meaningful learning, the anticipation of reward, strategic investment, autonomy, language ego, willingness to communicate, the language-culture connection, the native language effect, interlanguage and communicative competence. Language learning involves a timely movement of processing the language form. I agree with this because if I didn’t take a year or two off of learning Spanish, I might have the ability to be somewhat fluent. Or if I actually traveled to Spain like I had wanted to, I would be able to speak the language better. My timing for learning the language was not efficient which is why I feel uncomfortable speaking Spanish to another speaker, especially if Spanish is their native language. Then again, learning the language wasn’t necessarily meaningful to me because it’s not like I was immersed in the culture and needed to speak it every day. If it was more meaningful, I would have retained the information long term. Principle 8 talks about the willingness to communicate. If my students have anxiety about speaking their second language, like I do with Spanish, they will not have self-confidence and they might think what they are doing is not correct. This leads to students not wanting to participate at all because they are embarrassed. How can we as teachers show them that it is okay to make mistakes while they are learning a new language?

            Brown talks about strategy-based instruction in chapter 16. The more learners put in, the more they will get out of it. If they actually invest time and effort into their learning, they will develop better skills. Good language learners take charge of their learning, organize information about a language, are creative, etc. In order to learn, you need to take care of your own learning. If you don’t read the class material, you obviously won’t do well on the exam. Each learner needs to realize that they have to work hard to succeed and the teacher cannot force them to want to do well in class. The students need to be self driven, independent learners inside and outside of the classroom. The more students participate in the classroom and the more work they complete outside of the school, this will help lead to a successful language acquisition. Awareness styles include their beliefs, intelligence, self-efficacy, etc. Action strategies are used to help active these awareness styles. A learning styles checklist is a good informal way to get to know your students the first week of school. Self-confidence is also a big issue with second language learners. If you give them a checklist that rates them on a scale, you as a teacher can figure out how they feel about speaking in small groups, large groups or one on one with the teacher. Using different techniques is necessary to keep students motivated and I think that using checklists is a great way to get to know your students. 

Blog #4- Skehan, Bax, Hu

The End of CLT: A Context Approach to Language Teaching article was much more interesting to read compared to the Task-Based Instruction article. More examples within articles are much better to read because I can better understand the material. Although Communicative Language Teaching has been used for many years, the article discusses that CLT is now having a negative effect. CLT says that speaking in the language you are learning is the most important skill. The CLT attitude is when people think that without CLT, it is considered backwards. This makes it seems like no other method is good enough to be used in the classroom. There are many different approaches to learning a language, so one method cannot be the sole way to learn a new language. “The view seems to be 1) assume and insist that CLT is the whole and complete solution to language learning; 2) assume that no other method could be any good; 3) ignore people’s own views of who they are and what they want; 4) neglect and ignore all aspects of the local context as being irrelevant.” (Bax 280) The solution in order to remove these ideas from the minds of those teaching a new language to students is to demote this theory to second place. CLT is about the way teachers teach, not the way that students learn. We should not be putting in student’s heads that there is only one way to learn, especially because you will be teaching future educators. The main problem of CLT is that it gives the suggestions that this method will work anywhere in any context, which is not true. Not all classrooms are the same. This method should not be telling the teacher what they need to do. CLT is not the complete answer. Other factors are important and other methods need to be considered while teaching. Methodologically-driven and language-driven approaches need to both be considered for language teaching and CLT is saying that only teachers should be instructing methodologically. If more attention was paid to the context teachers should be teaching in, it would benefit language teaching. CLT needs to be a disposed of theory so better teaching ideas can begin to surface. What can be done so that more teachers begin to use other methods besides CLT?

            Communicative activity and task were eventually referred to as the same concept. The weak position said the use of tasks is an adjunct to structure-based teaching, while the strong position says that the engagement of acquitisional processes are central. I believe in any case input is very necessary especially for English Language learners. Obviously as a teacher you don’t want to overwhelm students by showing them every single error they make, but input and feedback is so important for learning. Well-timed feedback is so crucial because then students can start to see their trouble areas and make the necessary adjustments. Comprehension checks, clarification requests and confirmation checks are being promoted, but do all learners need these? When should they be used? Task-based instruction says that Focus on Form can function better for a large number of approaches. The users of tasks are researchers, testers and teachers. There is some overlap among their functions for what they do concerning the use of tasks. I think the task definition in relation to the real world could be the easiest one to relate to. It is much easier for a teacher to relate a concept to real life than to lecture and give definitions. Most students can remember concepts and definitions easier if they can relate them to their own lives.

Blog Post 3- Kumar, Brown

Kumar, Chapter 2

Brown, Chapter 3

Kumar-TESOL Methods

            Method “means so little and so much” according to William Mackey. I think that methods can be hard to distinguish from one another. While reading, many methods were discussed. I like how Kumar talked about language-centered, learner-centered and learning-centered methods. Investigating each method is important while teaching. The language-centered method focuses on introducing concepts one at a time and having the learner practice until the learner internalizes them. The learner-centered method provides the opportunity for learners to practice grammar structure and communications. The learning-centered method provides learners with opportunities to participate in open-ended questions and problem solve while in class. But which method is considered the best in a classroom? Being an English major, grammar is very important to me. So does this mean that the learner-centered method is correct for me as a future teacher? I correct my friend’s papers all the time and help them with word choice, sentence structure and organization. So what kind of theory do I use when I help correct these papers? Do I use a theory at all? It seems hard for me to figure out where I belong within these theories.

            Brown discusses the post method era: a concept that is continued being used in classrooms today. A creator carries out research and proposes hypothesis, also known as theory. Practice is the province of classroom teachers. Each teacher’s approach is different and it should be. Everyone’s approaches are of a great importance and you use them to rely on designing lesson plans and evaluating classroom lessons after they are taught. The Communicative Language Teaching can be used as the norm approach for teaching. The characteristics of this approach include overall goals, relationship of form and function, fluency and accuracy, focus on real-world contexts, autonomy and strategic involvement, teacher roles and student roles. Communicative Approach seems better than the Audiolingual Method. I feel like the majority of students are very visual learners so I don’t know if the audio method would really work.

            I really like how Brown highlights the important parts of the chapter with tables because it makes it easier to compare and contrast issues. Putting words in bold also helps me become more familiar with terminology. Kumar seemed harder to read. I wish that Kumar used more real life examples to make it easier to relate to the material. Teaching towards specific students and their needs is very important which is why there are so many different learning instructions.

Blog Post 2- Kumar Chapter 1

Lauren Watters

Kumar- Chapter 1

September 3, 2012

Blog Post 2

“Teaching is both an art and a science.” (Kumar 5) Teaching is an art because teachers have to use the materials they are given and their creativity in order to teach their students without having them falling asleep in class due to boredom. It is also scientific because it needs to be carried out in a certain fashion. For example, I know that most southern state middle schools and high schools have a strict curriculum that has to be followed by all teachers. However, the Midwest may be more flexible with how the teachers go about their lessons and what books they use in the classroom. I am hoping that when I become a teacher in a high school classroom that I can have some flexibility with what novels I am allowed to teach in the classroom. I feel that students become bored with constantly learning about Romeo and Juliet in their freshman English classes and beyond. I understand some novels are classics and need to be taught in the classroom but I believe that throwing in a new novel, like The Hunger Games, could keep students interested in reading. Kumar says, “Teaching lacks a unified or commonly shared set of rules.” Teachers may think this statement is true because not all teachers believe in the same teaching methods. Some think that lecturing is the best idea for their students while others believe hands-on activities will help motivate their students.

I love that Kumar includes the difference between a job, vocation, work, career, occupation and profession. When someone tells me they have a job, I think of something that is maybe part-time or is not in the field that they want to be in. They are just working there to make ends meet and pay bills, but it is not actually something they want to do with the rest of their life. For example, I work at Outback Steakhouse as a server but that is my job, not a career. A vocation is what I will have after I graduate and get a teaching job with my college education. I am not going to be a teacher for the salary, but it will give me personal satisfaction to be able to teach my students and mold their minds while they are in high school. I always thought I would call my future teacher job a career, but a career has no personal fulfillment and I plan on feeling fulfilled when I am a teacher. If you don’t like what your profession is, working there would be a complete bore. I want to be a teacher because I want to help my students learn in a way they haven’t before.

The role of the teacher is so important because teachers have more than one job; they have been referred to as an artist, architect, scientist, psychologist, manager, mentor, controller, counselor, etc. (Kumar 7) Teachers have to work together with co-workers as well as administrators to help their students receive the best education possible. Teachers have been put under three categories: teachers as passive technicians, teachers as reflective practicioners, and teachers as transformative intellectuals. Are teachers all of these things or can an individual teacher only fall under one category? Which of these theories makes the most sense? The technician method is known as traditional and safe in many parts of the world. The practitioner method wants teachers to be routine with their students so they can reflect on their actions before, during and after learning. There are five roles that are involved with this method that says that teachers have to overall take responsibility for their professional development. I like this method because I think it is necessary to reflect on what is being taught and what students have learned from what you are teaching them. Teachers also need to be professional and take responsibility for their actions because only they can help further themselves as an educator. The last theory ties in with critical pedagogy. I enjoyed reading about this theory as well because the summary of what transformative intellectuals are makes more sense in this way. These theories are constantly changing over time and seem to continue to overlap each other so it may be hard to distinguish which theory is which in the future.