Morgan: Teaching Culture chapters 3&4

Morgan states that everything he has read about culture has given him a different perspective on culture and he can relate to every one of those perspectives. In class last week we discussed our personal definition of culture and I found myself agreeing with everyone’s definition. Because the idea of culture is complex, there are many different perceptions that can relate to different people. Culture means something different to different people but if one takes the time to comprehend and value that culture understanding grows.

The three components of culture are products, practices, perspectives; artifacts, actions and meanings. All of these components merge together to create an understanding of what a specific culture values and finds important. For these cultures to live on people and communities need to come together and work on preserving these products, practices and perspectives. The example of drive-thru restaurants exemplifies that all five pieces of the puzzle of culture are needed. The products needed are things like food items on the menu, cars, napkins, bags, etc. The person would also have to know specific practices such as the rules of the road, how to order the food properly, and knowing social norms like paying for the meal. Perspective involves how people generally feel about the food and the make and model of the car. Communities have to be supportive of the drive thru as well as the people or else the restaurant will not survive.

As a pre-service teacher for students learning the American culture I would incorporate how to scenario’s such as a drive thru restaurant, a wedding or a grocery store to help the students learn and understand some of the practices, products, perspectives, communities and people that make up this culture. By acting out scenes or going on a field trip to actually act out these scenarios these students have a firsthand familiarity with an aspect of culture in this country. Language and culture go hand in hand; language is seen and heard everywhere in a culture. This is why practicing these scenarios is a good idea, while the children are learning these product, perspectives and practices they are also practicing the language which is hugely important in the culture.

Language is used in culture to describe certain products, participate in the culture, identify and explain thoughts, participate and actively express individual identity. In the classroom setting language also does all of the above that is why it is so important that teachers cover all of the five dimensions of culture so the students are well versed and comfortable with culture and language. 

Week 14

Assessments are a crucial part of teaching, it shows us the progress the student has made over time as well as the strengths and concerns some students need. Assessment can be as formal as a final project or test it can be as simple and informal as observation. Assessments give the students a freedom in the classroom, tests can harbor anxiety in students and assessments can give them an opportunity to show what they have learned in a creative way. There is also freedom with what a teacher can do with assessments, there can be a lot of creativity and versatility in assessments but they must be practical, reliable and valid. If the test is dependable, tests what it is intended to test and practical then it is trustworthy and the students will feel more comfortable with it. The test should always be authentic and use authentic language, this is especially important for English language learners.

I personally believe alternative assessments provide more stability and security in students. I believe they showcase student’s strengths and concerns better than a traditional test. For example in this class we have a good mix of alternative assessments and tests. It is important to know what a student knows and tests can do a good job of that but there are so many factors that can influence a test. With alternative assessments students have a better opportunity to demonstrate what they know. When the students have an opportunity to use alternative assessments such as portfolios, journals, conferences and observations they are more in control of their learning. In portfolios students can pick and choose what they think is most important, the students are more in control of their learning and learning outcomes which is more meaningful than taking a multiple choice test and forgetting about it a week later. Alternative assessments are an outlet for students to be creative and for me it is more meaningful. Traditional tests are important but there should be a healthy mix of alternative assessments as well.

When traditional testing is needed it is important that as a teacher you know how to construct a quality test that is valid, reliable, and practical. The items that are being tested should be clear and unambiguous, the last thing a teacher wants to do is confuse students when they are being assessed. The directions should be clear, this can be challenging especially for non native English speakers. Teachers should have a variety of discourse types in the test as well as in the evaluation. It is important for testers to develop a variety of procedures to assess different skills.

Oral Proficiency tests are a whole new area that needs to be assessed differently. An interdisciplinary approach is a great way to understand the language because it is practical and an effective means of assessment. 

Brown ch. 9-11 Kumar ch. 13

Brown ch. 9-11 Kumar ch. 13

Curriculum design can be daunting at first; you have to think about so many different areas; the setting, classroom characteristics, teacher characteristics, course content and evaluation requirements. When developing a skeleton for a curriculum plan it is essential that you take in consideration of the kinds of learners you have in your classroom. You have to look at their background, their learning styles, what they need to learn, what materials they have available to them and goals of the curriculum, students and teacher. When making a course syllabus as a teacher you really need to make sure that when teaching is going on you are going to be making changes constantly, no teacher follows or should follow the syllabus to a t. Constant redesign of the syllabus should happen because the topic of conversation could go further in one direction than you previously planned, this is not a bad thing. When this happens teachers should take advantage of this because students are engrossed and there is meaningful conversation happening. Texts should help with this meaningful learning, not be the number one source of it, especially with L2 learners. Texts should support learning and give another outlet for further learning but it should not be the only articles that shape it.

The first element of a lesson that at teacher should think about is the goal of the lesson; what the students will accomplish after the lesson is completed, how you as the teacher will carry out the lesson and how the students will take what they have learned and apply it to their lives. The objectives help the teacher organize these goals and bring them to life. Teachers should be constantly thinking about the terminal and enabling objectives as well as the materials they will need to carry out the assignment. Beginning lesson plans the teacher should have a clear set of goals and objectives they want to cover as well as the materials and texts they are going to use with keeping assessments in mind. Teachers should not be discouraged is the topic goes off course or if a topic or assignment lasts longer or not as long as they planned, teachers need to think on their feet and run with it.

Thinking of techniques can also help teachers know what direction they want the lesson to go. It should be clear from the beginning if the lesson is open-ended or structured, student centered or teacher centered, in other words controlled or free, but this does not mean if you are teaching a lesson with controlled characteristics you should not have free characteristics. In the real world classroom it is not so black and white, the students and teacher the lines will blur. 

Week 12: Social Relevance, Cultural Consciousness

Ensuring Social Relevance, Raising Cultural Consciousness

“No classroom is an island unto itself. Every classroom is influenced by and is a reflection of the larger society of which it is a part of.” This quote is the perfect way to start off the chapter because it personifies what good classroom social relevance should be. Class, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, language, and sexual orientation are some factors in social relevance that teachers have to keep in mind, especially if they are teaching ELL students. I think it is unfair for “standard English” to be in our vocabulary, in the past this may have worked but right here and now there is no “standard American” so the term “standard English” should be rewritten. The standard variety Kumar is talking about in this chapter refers to a person with no regional accent, who resides in the Midwest, who have more than average or superior education, who are educators or broadcasters, who pay attention to pronunciation and grammar, who are easily understood by all and use “proper language”. This is not the case with many Americans and it is not fair to say that one variation is superior to another. Imagine English Language Learner’s whose teacher refers to their variation as nonstandard or wrong, it is more than discouraging and it would not make them want to become a better speaker.  American’s have different variations that is what makes this country so interesting, English in a L1 setting is very different than English in an L2 setting but that does not make either setting better or worse than the other. When teaching we need to make this issue personalized to each student and we have to keep an open mind to the background of each student. It would be appropriate to tap into the unique linguistic and cultural knowledge that all the learners have in the classroom, connect with them. Give clear directions and providing simple clear examples and be friendly; being in an open welcoming environment can make a change.

Culture can be hard to define and hard to maintain in a classroom. It is upsetting to see learners from other cultures and countries lose some of their culture when going to school in America. While we want our students to flourish with the English language and custom it would be a shame for them to lose their original background and way of life. In order to help these students preserve their culture we as pre-service teachers have to make an effort to understand their way of life at home. The classroom should be rich in culture to make the students feel comfortable being themselves and comfortable to share their culture with other students.

Social responsibility can be tricky because there are controversial issues that need to be dealt with, especially regarding ethics. As teachers we should try to stick with the “universal” moral principals such as love, equality, tolerance and freedom and not get into the topic of religion or any topic that can go in the direction of making students uncomfortable or that are potentially offensive or disrespectful. The classroom is a community and the students should always feel a part of that community.

For my final paper I am focusing on the pedagogies and methods used in Early Childhood classrooms with students who are English Language Learners.  I have found some articles; Beverly A. Clark’s “First- and Second-Language Acquisition in Early Childhood, Teacher Skills to Support English Language Learners by Deborah Short, Effective Practices and Principals to Support English Language Learners in the Early Childhood Classroom by Vickie E. Lake. Some new questions I have formed form the last time we meet are: how can programs support English Language Learners and what specific pedagogies should be in place?, How can we assess ELL’s language without the skills of reading and writing? 

Integrating the four skills, connecting linguistic input

When the skills of listening, speaking, writing and reading all come together it is essential for students to know how to handle and take control. These skills go hand in hand; when a student is in class listening to his/her teacher discuss a new topic the student is integrating many of the skills together. The student is listening to the teacher’s new ideas, writing down notes, reading the notes that the teacher is putting on the board and speaking when discussing or asking questions about the topic. This seems so natural for us learners after years of going to class and sitting through lectures but to students new to the English language this can be a daunting task that may make them anxious. This is why we as future teachers have to give these students the resources they need to make whole language learning as non-threatening as we can. By taking the fundamentals of task based instruction or theme based instruction the focus is on the purposes of language. Task based instruction particularly integrates whole language with real world situations; this makes the task seem purposeful and applicable to their lives and make integrating skills easier. Integration is imperative to learners but we have to remember it’s not as easy as we think it is. Integrating listening, speaking, writing and reading was something my teachers had us work on in grade school but they did it in a nonthreatening and at a comfortable pace. Integrating the four skills is another example of how teachers have to be thoughtful and cautious when developing a lesson.

Cohesion is key when communicating because when speaking to others you are always connecting exchanges, even if you are not aware. When communicating you are always thinking about how to relate to the input, how to respond linguistically and how to carry the conversation forward. If the conversation is not unified between the parties then there is no purpose. Culture plays a big role in this as well. If the people conversing do not have anything in common socially, culturally, politically, or ideologically it would be extremely hard to carry on a conversation. Context and input go hand in hand, if the language input is out of the norm or one of the parties has no perspective on the subject the conversation seems useless. 

Teaching Reading and Writing

Teaching Reading and Writing

These Brown chapters give us many strategies, characteristics, and principals for teaching reading and writing to second language learners. As we saw last week in teaching listening and speaking to second language learners, there were many similarities between reading and writing but also many important differences between the two. Reading and writing share some of the same characteristics, but are applied differently. We process the two skills differently and it is important for teachers to tap that into their students and provide enough support to facilitate the second language learners. Both skills have the same characteristics; performance, production/processing time, distance, orthography, complexity, vocabulary and formality. The difference between reading and writing for all of these characteristics is the fact that writers form and produce their own language for other readers to process and digest. This can be a frightening task for some students and they may feel vulnerable when others read their work. As future teachers we have to be there to support and teach our students that it is a positive thing to express themselves through writing and that they will become better writers and readers for doing so.

These chapters touch on some principals and strategies for both reading and writing. Some of the principals I thought were helpful in teaching English to a second language learner was again to use intrinsic motivation, include bottom up and top down techniques to keep reiterating the fundamentals, tap into the students schema, connect reading and writing and provide as much authentic language as possible whether it is assigning a writing or reading.

Assessing reading and writing are two different tasks. For assessing reading a teacher can either have the student read out loud or have a closed (multiplication, fill in the blank, etc.) type of test. Writing is much different in assessing. There is much more to assess in writing because there are so many variables and different things to incorporate. Teachers can use checklists on content, organization, discourse, syntax, vocabulary and mechanics to assess writing. 

Week 8:Teaching Listening, Speaking and Facilitating Interaction

Teaching Listening, Speaking and Facilitating Interaction

Listening comprehension is essential to language learning, and teachers must take a lot into consideration when teaching listening. Before actually presenting information to their students teachers have to ask themselves some questions; what makes a good language learner? What are good listeners doing while listening? What are some listening techniques? By knowing the answers to these questions teachers are one step closer to teaching quality listening skills to their students. First we have to realize that there are different types of spoken language and our listening skills alter depending on what the speech is. Our listening changes dramatically from when we are listening to a monologue, interpersonal or transactional dialogue. We as speakers and listeners would react and listen differently to the three examples and this can be difficult for new language learners. Our language can be very difficult to learn because it can be difficult to understand. In the English language we have concepts like idioms, slang, redundancy, clustering, reduced forms, sentence fragments, performance variables, and the list goes on. It can be intimidating going into language learning so teachers have to guide their students and help them feel less overwhelmed. By including an integrated skills course into the curriculum students will receive special, separate instruction on all four skills which will help the student organize the language better. Teachers should also use authentic language and contexts to help their students recognize patterns in real world language to help with communication. Using intrinsic motivation can also help the students focus on the language they are learning.

It is interesting that the difficulties that were listed in listening are also difficulties in speaking. This raises a huge red flag for me; these are vastly important areas to be aware of as a teacher and to guide language learners through. Teaching speaking is a big job because there are so many contexts of speaking and depending on how you speak in these contexts it might not be appropriate. There are six types of classroom speaking performances, and that is just classroom speech. The relationship between listening and speaking go hand in hand and this is apparent in these two Brown chapters. I have learned that teaching intrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, giving appropriate feedback and using authentic language are key in teaching both listening and speaking.

 “One of the aspects of learning to talk in an L2 is talking to learn.” This is a great start to this chapter because dialogue provides a learner to practice speaking and learning listening, communicating and speaking skills. This is why input as well as output is essential to language learning. Also, learners have to participate in their own language development and be totally invested in it. Without investing in language