Brown Ch. 6,7,8

Brown Ch.6

Between the behaviorist and cognitive definitions of motivation, I would lean more to the cognitive side. The cognitive definition of motivation says that rewards are a part of the whole picture but motivation lies in yourself and self rewards. I believe that there is nothing wrong with encouraging students or saying “good job!” or even giving stickers but when the extrinsic motivation is extreme the students are learning for all the wrong reasons. The comment that Brown uses comparing learners to a horse running after a carrot (85) threw me off, that is not how I want my students to be encouraged. As a future teacher I want my students to be interested in what they are learning, I want them to realize that the knowledge they are gaining will give them a stronger sense of self. I would not want my students to be compared to a horse chasing after material rewards. The dive theory, hierarchy of needs theory, self control theory and constructivist theory all agree that the learner has to be interested in their learning and make their own decisions about their learning because that is when their knowledge and understanding becomes richer. Intrinsic motivation makes learning more centered toward the students because the students are applying the knowledge to themselves, they are not doing the  activity to get an extrinsic reward they are doing it to make themselves better learners. This type of learning results in better long-term knowledge which makes sense because what they are learning is of importance to them, not the materials they are being rewarded with. I see nothing wrong with telling a child “good job!” but when the child gets to the point that he/she is not interested in learning without rewards is where extrinsic motivation is too much. Having students (either working together or separate) have goals in the classroom and complete these goals is a great example of intrinsic motivation working.

Brown Ch. 7

Teaching children and teaching adults are obviously extremely different in how you teach, not necessarily what you teach. Both children and adults can be successful at acquiring a second language. For children teachers have to take into consideration how they speak to the child, what words and lessons they choose. With children teachers should be concrete and remember the language and cognitive limitations, for example children need repetition and patterns when learning a difficult concept. Teachers also have to take children’s attention spans into concern because that is a big difference between children and adults. It is important to have variety in lessons to keep the students attention and interest as well as having energy, if the teacher seems bored there is no way a child is going to want to pay attention and learn. This goes along with sensory input, adults have the capabilities to sit through a lesson and actually learn but children need to move and have hands on activities. When teaching children, more than adults, you need to make sure to build self esteem and give them plenty of opportunities to participate.

Brown Ch. 8

Beginning language learners are the most challenging to teach because they do not have any prior knowledge of the target language. It is scary to think that you are the one that is introducing the student to the language and culture of the language. The first few days may be difficult but I like when Brown said to place meaning in the language and make it meaningful. Because the students are so new to the language they are dependent on the teacher so it would be smart to have some class time be teacher fronted and have the teacher take control most of the class time. The pressure is on the teacher to be clearly articulate and to stay natural and authentic to the target language. When the language the teacher uses in class loses authenticity the students are not getting the full experience of the language. If the teacher does not model correct language use of the language it would be difficult for the students to become efficient, fluent and accurate in the language. Just like teaching children teachers should encourage students to be creative and have short to the point lessons to keep attentions flowing. It is frustrating learning a new language from scratch and the teacher should be sensitive to this. The students have so much to learn including listening skills, reading and writing, grammar, fluency and accuracy and a teacher should keep this in mind. Teaching students who have a history with the target language takes the pressure off of the teacher because they are not teaching language from the beginning. As future teachers we have to make sure that our language is natural and authentic for these students because that is what these students are concerned about for themselves. Students at this level should be more active in their language learning and teachers should step back and let student/student interactions take place. Encouraging creativity as well as the core subjects in language is important for this group because they are at the stage where they can express themselves through this new language and a teacher should always encourage this. With advance learners the teacher’s main job is to keep the class on track and keep the students focused. Since these students have the capability to speak freely the teachers need to take reigns of the class and make sure the discussions are meaningful and on task.  

Week 6 Readings-Brown and Kuma

Maximizing Learning Opportunities

“Teachers know that they cannot become prisoners of their own agenda.” Lesson plans and teaching go hand in hand, teachers need to hand in lesson plans weekly to ensure they are on task with the curriculum. But teachers should use lesson plans as a guide and if the lesson organically unfolds in another direction we should keep in mind it can be a natural and beautiful thing. Teachers can also get into funks with learning materials as well. Because the goal is to make progress every class period teachers sometimes get caught up in limitations, such as texts. I fully agree that teachers should texts as “a springboard to launch the interactive process in the classroom”(46). Teachers should be the ones with the responsibility to educate their students, and not depend 100 percent on texts. The limitations in the syllabus can hold back classroom activity and originality as well. When teachers chart out every minute of class time there is no room for the student. If there is not time carved out for students to discuss, debate, ask questions about what interests or confuses them then they are not being educated as well as they should be. Teachers should be encouraging students to get involved into beneficial conversations and pushing the conversations by asking quality questions.

Teaching by Principals

The principal of Automaticity places importance in fluency and subconscious absorption of language through meaningful use. This principal focuses on the use of language for genuine purposes in a classroom. Students need to practice patience in this principal because it does not come overnight. This is a great principal to teach students because it teaches hard work and discipline. It shows the students that language is a process, that using shortcuts will not give you fluency.  Another principal that stood out to me was the principal of meaningful learning. When students tap into their prior knowledge in a learning process then the learning is more significant to them. By appealing to the students interests or backgrounds the students have a focal point but this becomes tricky in language learning. It is important for teachers to avoid memorization and theories and focus on accomplishing the goals of the lesson while integrating new knowledge to the student’s schema. Intrinsic motivation follows this principal because again the student’s learning behavior stems from what the student wants to know and what they are familiar with. When teachers tap into this motivation, when students are interested in what they are learning, there is no need for outside rewards they are self rewarded. When a student begins to expect rewards from learning and only learns to receive rewards then the learning is not organic, it is not valuable anymore. Students that are motivated to learn, that have teachers that encourage and induce curiosity of learning are self-rewarding. Supporting students is a major role for teachers and the Language Ego principal values this. Hopefully with the support and understanding of the teacher the students will have a willingness to communicate and not feel silly using their new language and provide feedback and attain communicative competence.  

Strategies Based Instruction

It comes to no surprise that good language learning behavior involves the student taking charge of their learning, be organized, keep their goal in mind, making smart guesses, learn from their mistakes, and put themselves and their new language out there to practice. These can also be described for good learning behaviors of any subject because when learners have these learning qualities they are committed to learning. Part of this is being aware of weaknesses and strengths because how else would learners know what they need to work on to become better. Checklists, style tests, and most importantly discussions can help a learner organize and develop self awareness. As future teachers we need to learn how to encourage our students to use strategies. Being totally interactive with the students and getting to know them helps teachers understand the student’s wants and needs. Having learning centers in the classroom can help student focus their attention on a certain subject and help teach them to use these strategies independently. 

CTL

Task based instruction

Skehan argues that interaction is key when it comes to task based instruction and that imput alone is not enough for our students. I could not agree more because the immediate feedback students get from interacting with either a native speaker, L2 speaker, or even a fellow peer is valuable. When students can take the input they learn, have it register in their minds and communicate affectively is essential to the learning process. Skehan argues that task based approaches enhance a student’s knowledge and measure performance differently. There are many different approaches in task based instruction but one that caught my eye was by Willis who broke down the tasks into a sequence. The pre task introduces the topic and texts all while exposing real language, task cycle where the task is presented, students practice and rehearse language while the teacher assists, and finally the language focus where students analyze and practice. Skehan believes in task based instruction saying researchers have made methodological progress within the last fifteen years and all signs of success point to task based instruction. 

The End of CLT

“A country without CLT is somehow backward.” This is the CLT attitude and while it has worked well in the past Bax says it is time to replace this approach because it is causing negative effects on the learners. Bax gives four diverse examples about how CLT is no longer needed today. Even though many think it is a complete solution to language learning CLT has served its purpose and even though it was beneficial to language learning at a certain degree it is time to look at other approaches. I could see why people gravitate towards CLT; it has worked in the past, its main focus is communication, and promotes student interaction. It is time to move on from this approach because it ignores an instrumental part of language learning, the context where it takes place. It tells teachers that CLT is written in stone; no matter what it is the best approach. I disagree with this because language learning is so personal and it depends on the individual. A teacher’s job should be finding out what works best for the student and start from there. There is no one approach that works the best for every language learner out there but CLT presents itself as the end all be all language learning approach. As future teachers we must look at the whole context of the classroom and understand that methodology is just one factor in language learning. There are many more important factors that should not be ignored and other approaches that should be looked at.

There are other approaches to look at besides methodologically driven ones such as language driven approaches. Language driven approaches typically give priority to one or more facet of language. But both types of approaches treat context the same way, secondary. It would be valuable for teachers to look at an approach that places importance on context.

Communicative Language Teaching in China

At the very core CLT and the culture of the PRC are radically different. It is a culture clash when you put the two fundamentals side by side. The principals of education in China verses CTL key components are so different I kept asking why the PRC would even try to teach this way. Hu talks about several important features of Chinese education; education is extremely significant and is put on a pedestal, accumulating knowledge for a practical purpose rather than learning for an immediate purpose (learning equals reading books), everyone is capable of being educated and capable of perfection, and that students are expected to respect their teachers, not challenge them. These key factors in Chinese education are what CLT is trying to avoid. CLT is opposed to teacher dominance in the classroom and think of teachers and students on the same level. Collaborative learning and it is important for student’s to have discussions with the teacher and bounce ideas off of each other.  In China the students are seen as empty vessels and the teacher’s role is to fill them with knowledge as well as being the director of knowledge. This is quite the daunting task and the pressure on the teachers is intimidating. As future teachers we know that children have off days, sometimes they do not want to do their work even if they can sometimes they just do not want to depending on the day. If the student was assessed on that day the teacher could lose credibility based on an off day. This is just one example of how CLT and ELT in China are different.

 The student’s job is also pressure filled, they sacrifice their social lives for perfection in school. This would also put a dent in learning CLT because it is focused on communication. ELT would be extremely hard to teach and learn in PRC and the pressure would be extremely hard to deal with especially since Chinese education demands perfection. The two cultures are so different it would be exceptionally difficult to become proficient in ELT learning through CLT. It is almost like setting the English learners up for failure which would be discouraging in a culture that expects precision in education. 

Postmethod Era

The Postmethod Era: Toward Informed Approaches

I like how Brown starts off the chapter talking about unifying our approach to language teaching and designing appropriate tasks for our students.  This should be our main priority as teachers, making useful and appropriate tasks that our students comprehend and use to their advantage. “Postmethod need not imply the end of methods but rather an understanding of the limitations of the notion of method and a desire to transcend those limitations”. I think Bell describes postmethods perfectly, it is not putting an end to methods and planning but it understands that methods have limitations. There is no a one size fits all method, we have to look at the classroom environment; the geographic, social and political background’s of the student to see what fits our learners the best.

The problem with theory and practice is that there is one person who organizes, researches and applies an approach while the teacher takes the backseat most of the time. When the practitioner does little to question or appeal the theory this is when setbacks happen and students can fall behind.

Communicative Language Teaching is hard to define because it is a unified but broad approach that relies on the nature of language and real life communication. Goals of the CLT approach are to encompass all of the components of communicative competence as well as organizational and pragmatic aspects of language. The relationship between form and function are important as well as fluency and accuracy and focusing on real world contexts. Teachers are a facilitator and guides and students are active participants in their own language and are active in their own learning process. Students are also encouraged to interact as much as they can with other students and the teacher. I value this approach because of the focus on communication. Real life communication and interacting with others is extremely important in language, just as important as grammar rules and I liked how CLT puts focus on both. There are positives to the CLT approach but there are negatives also. It is difficult for nonnative-speaking teachers who are not very proficient in the second language to teach effectively. It is also easy to focus on one aspect of CLT but it is important to focus on all aspects, this can be difficult so a direct approach can be helpful.

Task Based Language Teaching is a popular approach within CLT. The tasks specify what the students need to learn and use organizational skills to meet these goals and tasks. A task is an “activity which requires learners to use language with emphasis on meaning to attain an objective.” TBLT also puts emphasis on real world language, communication, and problem solving.

Learner Centered Instruction focuses on the individual student. It emphasizes the learners needs, style of learning, and goals. LCI gives some of the control to the student, allows student creativity and sense of competence. This is good for the student, especially ESL students because it allows them to create a sense of independence and I could see students gaining confidence in their language skills when LCI is used. Cooperative learning also involves the same characteristics in LCI but students and teachers work together as a team to reach goals. It is not as focused on the individual learner but it is said to “heighten self esteem”. Interactive learning also incorporates group work, uses real life language, focuses on communication, and prepares students for the real world. This approach is effective because it prepares students for the real world and working together enhances the input and output of the student.

Whole language education focuses on the wholeness of the language, not breaking it down into smaller pieces. Oral and written language are equally important in learning a second language. Because we learn our L1 in “wholes” not “parts” L2 teachers try to create the same idea and not build language up from the bottom. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all equally important which is a great characteristic to this approach because in the real world they are all important and as teachers one of our goals is to prepare our students for the real world.

Content Based Instruction brings language and subject matter together and language becomes the means to which the student accomplishes a set of goals. This approach can become complicated and frustrating because the teacher has to become the double expert in both language and the content subject.

Postmethods

In the beginning of his essay Kuma describes the modern way we should be thinking about TESOL practices. He states that before 1990 TESOL was in a period of awareness but now we are in a period of awakening. I like how he says this, as teachers we learn so many pedagogies, methods and techniques we need to take what we think is best look at our students and figure out what is most beneficial for our classroom. We should not just be aware of these teachings we should be “awakened”, figure out how to put these practices into action.

CLT (communicative language teaching) is a classic approach, covering a multitude of aspects. Today the approach seems stale and out of date with society and what we value in language today. That is why task based teaching (TBLT) is more popular today, it breaks language learning down into smaller tasks that seem easier to conquer. There is so much that goes into TBLT like grammar rules, meaning, communication, integration of language skills and connecting all of these to your psychological process.

Because we are moving away from being dependent on methods because they are “dead” or “there is no best method” we can look at other approaches and perspectives. Strategy and technique for example is not just another word for method according to Stern. There are three layers in the strategy and technique approach; connecting the student’s first and second language, code communication and explicit-implicit option. When I read about the strategy/technique approach in Brown I was not very impressed, I felt like a lazy or unmotivated teacher would use this approach, it was an easy way out. Because Kuma went further in depth with this approach I could see how it could be constructive for both teachers and students. 

Week 2-Brown chapters

Brown Ch. 1 and 2

The classroom observation was very interesting to me. While I thought there were very good points in the lesson, I think Ms. Lee could have done a better job with getting the students to communicate more efficiently with each other. While I did like how the class had a chance to practicing with small talk Ms. Lee could have incorporated more communication and vocabulary into the lesson. The tape recording part of the lesson could have been seen as confusing to a lot of the students because the teacher did not set them up enough, they just dove right into it. Overall, I think the teacher did a good job but the lesson could have been better. I liked that this book gives us a glimpse into a classroom that is not perfect, it seemed real.

“Method is an umbrella term for the specification and interrelationship of theory and practice.” For me a method is a good place to begin but it is not the be all end all of teaching techniques. In the three layer design of a method, the approach, design and procedure, I believe that the procedure is the most important. A teacher can sit at his/her desk for days planning out the “perfect” method but it is all about how the students react to it. If the design does not work well with the individual students it is useless. It is the teacher’s job to be able to change with the students. It is not fair to the students if a teacher “swears” by a method, the teacher should be ever changing and ever learning, just like students.

The classical method of language (Grammar Translation Method) focuses on grammar rules, memorization of vocabulary, translations of texts and written exercises. This method is extremely interesting because there is little use of the target language and communication is not important at all. This method seems dry and useless in our society today because there is such a focus on communication, yet, it is still a popular method. Because it is easy to grade grammar and the tests are objectively scored it is easy to assume that the student is successful or not successful with the language depending on the grade. This will not work well in the long run for the student because when all is said and done they did not master a language because communication is such an important part. I never knew how many different methods that have been and are still used. The ones that caught my attention were the audiolingual method, suggestopedia and silent way. It is crazy that these methods work it must depend on the student. 

Kumar ch 1 & 2, Pennycook article

Conceptualizing Teaching Acts

I find it extremely interesting that as teachers there are so many various methods; people argue, defend, and criticize methods of teaching but we all have the same goal at the end. Our aim is to create the most sufficient learning environment for our students and get them to learn to the best of their ability in the shortest amount of time. If we all have the same goal in mind why is there such debate about what the role of a teacher is? Can’t it be true that each teacher can use different methods and styles of teaching and still come out successful? It is hard to believe that many people feel that only one type of teacher (passive technician, reflective practitioner, or transformative intellectual) can be successful, it depends on the personality of the teacher and the students. As teachers or goal is to get the students to learn to the best of their ability and our methods and styles should be able to shape to accommodate whatever the students need.

I can appreciate all the different types of roles teachers should have. Each role individually can be and has been successful; again it all depends on the classroom environment. I like how the passive technician focuses on professional knowledge and research, but I think this role is cold and impersonal in a way.  The fact that teachers and their methods are not considered very important and that in school future teachers learn more about education than teaching leaves the student at a disadvantage. I do not this approach is student centered at all, while I think it is vital to exchange your knowledge with your students, if you do not know how to teach them there is a big problem. Teachers as reflective practitioners is more up my alley because it takes what passive technicians are good at, maximizing the students knowledge but it also places the student at the center of the classroom. The teacher finally gets to add his/her personal knowledge and personality while teaching which is extremely important. This role “emphasizes creativity, artistry, and context sensitivity” (10). Reflective practitioners also involve problem solving activities into the classroom. The role that makes the most sense to me is the teacher as a transformative intellectual. This teacher takes their knowledge both personal and what they learned in school and add dedication to the students school and community. This type of role makes teaching a vocation; this is a career that serves others.

Understanding Postmethod Pedagogy

It is fascinating that as teachers we have been trying to find the best method for years and years but have never come up with the perfect concoction. People have tried to make lists of the most effective method but a “perfect” one has never been found.

Language centered learning is effective because it is additive and linear, simple to complex. You would never ask a language learner to write a paragraph before they know how to construct a sentence. I also like how language centered learning makes language seem simple and easy to learn, not over the students heads. Learner centered methods focus so much more on combination aspect of language and its aim is not to just have the students become grammatically efficient but also communicatively fluent. This is the only method out of the three that seems to be focused on communication, which to me is key to language learning. Learning centered methods takes what language centered learning says and flips it around in some ways. While language centered learning considers learning as linear learning centered methods are not because its attention should be understanding, saying and doing something with language.

A big restriction in teaching methods is that not every student learns the same way. Most methods assume that all students are the same types of learners and all at the same place of learning, and this is not true. Teachers have to be flexible with methods, and not just “swear” by one type. Learning has to be student centered and this includes what types of methods the teacher decides to use. This is why pedagogy is so important, it goes beyond methods and brings in much more than just a style of teaching into the classroom. The parameter of particularity, practicality, and possibility work together to understand local linguistic, sociocultural and political particularities, reflection, search for identity of the student and social transformation.

Pennycook

This article deals with diversity in the classroom, especially in a TESOL classroom. As teachers we should always put the student first and be aware of cultural issues and preferences of the individual. I thought this article was necessary to assign because it is very important to be alert and responsive to any students needs and that means being aware and unbiased when it comes to culture and education of the individual student.