Assessment (Was accidentally saved as a draft rather than posted on blog)

The article by Elana Shohamy on Assessment was very interesting to read as a preservice teacher. The article discusses how language testers are not completely prepared to assess language learners in discourse knowledge, which affects students' performance in listening, reading, speaking and writing. Assessment is more than multiple choice questions, which can not really display students' understanding of the language. I have taken many tests in the past, and felt that my performance on these assessments did not demonstrate my understanding of the content. As a student, I have felt  frustrated that my understanding of the topic knowledge, was not shown through the assessment. As a teacher, I will do my best to ensure that the assessments I give are not only valid and reliable, but give my students the opportunity to demonstrate their discourse knowledge and language skills in a meaningful way. 

Canale and Swain (1980) identified three main components that play a role in communication which include linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence and later a fourth component to refer to the user's ability to process and produce language beyond a sentence. These are very significant elements in language learning and connect discource to language learning. There are a number of specific discourse features including the ones discussed in the article, discourse topic/content, domains and types/styles factor into testing and affects student performance. Discourse is a key feature of communicative competence. We as teachers nned to think of a variety of authentic way to assess these discourse skills.There are so many ways that we have discussed in other courses, of how we can formally or informally assess our students. through low-stakes in-class tests, portfolios, interviews, journals etc. These methods can be helpful if appropriately adapting it for your classroom, lesson, students and overall teaching context. I personally like the use of portfolios and journals which allow students to see their development overtime and encourage them to reflect on their language development. This lowers the affective filter, help students gain confidence in their language skills and practice language skills. I believe this is a better alternative than a simple score from one high-stakes standardized test, which turns a student into a score without considering student's background. 

Brown's chapters also disucss assessment with language learners and discussed terms related to assessment that we have seen in Eng 346. These concepts are incredibley important to consider when evaluating and creating an assessment for students, such as practicality, reliability and validity,  a test's authenticity and wash back, the affect the testing has on teaching. When I read about washback I always think of NCLB. Washback considers the effects testing has on teaching and the classroom. As we know, NCLB is very controversial not only because of the affects it has on schools and communities  but the teaching in many classrooms. Instead of teaching student in a way best or them, instead students "teach to the test". The emphasis is more focused on high performances on tests, rather than student development. Students who are bilingual, from a low-socioeconomic status, or even students who have special needs may be marginalized. Schools that don't have the same resources many others do, are also pressured to meet a standard without being given the resources. There is more of a focus on scores rather than the students and schools taking the standardized tests. As a consequence the needs of particular schools and the needs of students are unaccounted for. One example, I have heard before is that, a teacher may teach writing using multiple choice in the classroom rather than giving students the opportunity to explore dative writ in styles and activities because that is seen on the test. Fortunately, standardized tests are only one type of assessments used in schools, and the use of more reliable, valid, culturally relevant, practical  authentic, and student-centered assessments are out there. It is our jobs as teachers to find these types of assessments and use them in our classrooms appropriately. 

Week 13: Curriculum design and lesson planning

This week's readings included, Brown Chapter 9-11 and Kumar Chapter 13.

Kumar discusses the importance of monitoring one's own teaching acts. This, as he states includes, closely observing classroom events and activities, analyzing the classroom input and interaction and overall, evaluating instructional objectives and outcomes critically. He later discusses product and process oriented models. While product-oriented models of classroom observation assumes that a description of teacher behavior is needed to build a classroom behavior profile of the teacher, instead the process-oriented approach of observation assumes that the classroom activities are need to be interrupted to understand the classroom processes and practices. This helps us understand the things that are going on in our classroom, do you agree?

Brown discussed curriculum design in one of his chapters, including program evaluation which he states is essential. Brown states that two of the program evaluations are implied in a course, one of the teacher and one of the program itself. It is important to note that the students, teacher and the program are all interdependent, so while it is important to evaluate the teachers, it's important to know it is only one factor and an effective program evaluation needs to consider all three factors. 

Kumar also discussed, that whatever the observation system may be, it meeds to be user-friendly which means offering them open-ended possibilities and user-friendly procedures in self observing, analyzing and evaluating themselves as teachers. the system being user friendly really is key, but how do you believe this is possible? What does being user-friendly entail? 

At one point during Kumar's chapter, he discusses multiple perspectives in classroom events and how the multiple perspectives and pedagogies of teaching coming together may affect the perceptions of what happened in the classroom and how the teacher teachers. What do you think of this? 

Brown also discusses lesson planning in this week's readings which breaks down the format of a lesson plan,  guidelines for the actual planning of the lessons and provides a sample. The guidelines were very interesting to read. Which of the guidelines did you find most important?

Brown also mentions making lesson plans take into account the variation in students. We know our students abilities will vary, and we should consider this when planning lessons though some of the techniques provided on page 169. What type of individual differences can you think of between students that you should consider?

Research Progress Report

Since discussing the paper proposal I have been able to refine what I would like to do for my paper.  I am investigating the impact Communicative Language Teaching or CLT has had on different language learning contexts. My research question is; how does implementation of CLT in EFL classroom contexts with student/teacher perceptions affect language learning. Since the feedback I was given, I am going to look specifically, at how power comes into play. How CLT has been accepted in the western cultures, in the inner circle and how that has affected the rest of the world. I will be looking particularly at Kachru's concept when exploring this. I am interested in how CLT doesn't account for cultural differences that vary between language learning contexts. I am questioning it's authenticity, adaptability as well as it's acceptability for language learning contexts. I have a lot of information regarding what CLT encompasses and how it has been supported by researchers or questioned by others. Next, I am looking for more information about the inner and outer circles to discuss how power has influenced the adaption of CLT in classroom contexts around the world. A few of the articles I found regarding my paper topic include..

1. The Use of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): Turkish EFL Teachers' Perceived Difficulties in Implementing CLT in Turkey by Zekariya Ozsevik. This article explores the effect implementing CLT has in Turkey.

2. Communicative Language Teaching: Teachers' Perception in Bangladesh (Secondary Level) by Mohammad Tofazzl Hossen. This article includes data regarding teachers' attitudes towards CLT in a Bangladesh secondary level school.

3. English for Speakers of Other Languages Students' Perceptions of a Communicative Curriculum in a Family English Class Sarah Price. This article looks at while many advocate the use of CLT, its effectiveness is called into question when it is applied to different cultural styles of learning.

Week 12

This weeks readings include Brown chapter 26, and Kumar chapters 11 and 12.

"Critical pedagogy" is something that perhaps at the beginning of this course, we were unsure of what it meant. Now I am sure this phrase means something different to each and every one of us. It encompasses what we believe about teaching within it's own context, based on our particular beliefs. What does your critical pedagogy mean?

This chapter discusses teaching being a subversive activity. This is something that is very important for our future classrooms. Teachers should not be passive agents that distribute information to our students, but instead, critical agents for change who work to instill these values in their students and as Brown states, help them become "crap detectors". We are not only language teachers, but we are also helping students develop and grow through critical pedagogy. They should be prepared for social, economic and political systems and become  individual learners you think and behave for themselves and intellectually. Brown goes on in his chapter to discuss "hot topics" that may be adressed in our future classrooms which involve human rights, gender equality, nonviolence, racial/ethnic discrimination, political activism, health issues, environmental action and more. These are all very controversial topics which involve critical thinking. Because these topics can be very personal for students, Brown included a numer of ways we can deal with these controversial issues that make their way into our classroom. Before he even discusses these guidelines, he does state that teachers need to have social responsibility, which means they will fully resepect the values and beliefs of all students.

As we know our classrooms are not isolated from the rest of the world, instead they include political, social and economic factors. Kumar mentions this as well when he states that no classroom is an island unto itself.  Instead, "It is influenced by and is a reflection of the larger society of which it is a part" (239). I have always supported creating a critical pedagogy in the classroom, but how can you do so while still being socially responsible? What is our role as a teacher? Brown discusses teachers being there to create first an atmosphere of respect for all students opinions, beliefs and ethnic or cultural dicersity. teachers are also responsible to include opportunities for students to learn about these topics, and have the opportunity to examine and analyze all sides of an issue. With doing this the teacher needs to maintain morality and ethics in the clasroom atmosphere. Today, teachers everywhere are involving global concerns and social responsibility in their classrooms. Why do you believe this is important? How will you do this in your own classroom? What are your concerns?

Brown also discusses five moral dilemmas that may be involved in our classroom of critical pedagogy. I believe these are very important to mention because if we are aware of them, we are more likely to consider them in our classroom atmosphere and the activities we do. We need to be aware of the cultural biasses of communicative approach, avoid adding to disempowerent, analyze our matierals, remain neutral and consider assessment standards  which may have cultural and ocioeconomic bias.

Integrating Language Skills: Week 11

This weeks readings include Kumar chapters 9 and 10 and Brown chapter 22.

Kumar discussed how little sense language would make if it was removed from the context. The book states, language is something that not only invokes content but it also provides context. As we have discussed in class, language is not simply a collection of words but much more complex.The chapter goes onto discuss the various contexts including linguistic context and provided the example of the meaning of the word "table" across different contexts. Reading how different the meaning of table can be used in English made me reflect on verbs and vocabulary that were difficult for me to learn in Spanish. It was confusing for me to understand that words could be used in different contexts until I realized how often this occurs in my first language. I can understand how difficult the concept of linguistic context can be on second language learners. Another difficulty for many student is the extralinguistic context which includes prosodic signals like stress and intonation in an linguistic environment. When reading about this, I thought of the first grade students I work with in reading. The biggest area of focus in their development is reading fluency which accounts for intonation, tone etc. This is very difficult for students to do in their native language when reading, so I can only imagine how difficult this must be for second language learners. Understand how to use and using these extralinguistic features like stress and intonation is a very difficult for task. Kumar points out that this is difficult for even advanced L2 learners. While we learn how to appropriately use these features in language implicitly, students' background knowledge from their first language. I also thought Kumar's discussion on extrasituational context was interesting as it proved that there are not only context influences from the language itself, but there are also social, cultural, political and ideological contexts that influence particular speech events. This is something that has always been very interesting to me- how much culture affects our interaction with others and how difficult this can be on L2 learners. I have experienced this myself when communicating with someone very different from myself, and expect to experience this in January when I arrive in Spain. Kumar provided an excellent (and humorous) example of such about an cross-cultural interaction between an American and a woman from Zambia. While the woman from Zambia may tell another "How are you? Oh, I see you've put on weight"- which is a normal greeting for this woman, to an American with different cultural values and expectations, this may be very odd or even offending. It truly is interesting how differently we interpret the things we say and do, because of our own cultural values.

Not only is there such a connection between language and context but there is also a connection between the way we use "primary skills of language" including listening, speaking, reading and writing. Kumar discussed this along with language being context-embedded. He discussed the concept of separating primary skills of language how important it is to instead, integrate language skills as learning and using any one skill will i effect, trigger cognitive and communicative associations with the others. It's interesting as he mentioned, that so many universities teach courses specific to one skill. Haven't we learned how complex language is, and how important it is that all domains me used and developed to have an authentic learning experience of the language?

Brown's chapter also gave us a better understanding of integrating language skills, as it discussed form-focused instruction. While not all theorists have agreed on what role form should take in the classroom, many researchers today support some form-focused instruction in the communicative framework. I learned Spanish with explicit instruction of grammar, and little time for communicative or authentic communicative tasks. While the idea of "form-focused instruction" originally came with a negative attitude, I do agree that there needs to be some focus on form of the language including organizational components for language and systemic rules that govern the structure. There seemed to a push for more of a natural approach to language teaching and a push away exclusive attention of grammar and vocabulary.  We went from too much focus on form, to the opposite end of the spectrum- barely any. Now attention to language forms was also ineffective but now it is understood that there needs to be attention to what brown calls the "basic bits and pieces of a language" provided in an interactive curriculum.

Brown did an excellent job discussing the different ways grammar can be taught and the effects it may have. Did his argument change your own ideas of teaching? What are you concerned about the most? Teaching seems to be a balancing act of some sorts, and while it may difficult to balance a focus on form, and focus on communication purposes, hopefully in time we will be able to do so to meet our students individual needs. Brown's examples of grammar techniques were especially helpful, would you consider using these in your own classroom?

Week 10

This week's readings included Brown Chapter 22 and Kumar's chapters 7 and 8.

Brown's chapter provided some principles for language assessment that I also thought are extremely important in tests and assessments including practicality, relability and validity, authenticity and washback.
Reliability is very important because it ensures that sources of possible unreliability are noticed and accounted for when considering test scores and making decisions. I, as many of us, have learned in other TESOL courses how important a test's reliability is and of the number of possible sources of unreliability including the test itself, testing environment, test scorer or test takers themselves. Can you think of an example of when you administered or took part of an assessment that you felt was unreliable for one of these reasons? Why is it important for our tests/assessments to be reliable?
Validity is also important because it makes sure that the test or assessment is measuring what it needs to measure. We have come across three different types of validity including the content, face and construct validity. How can we be sure there is validity in our test/assessment?
Washback is another principle Brown discusses, which I find very interesting and important to consider in our future ESL/EFL or bilingual classrooms. This term refers to how assessments or tests affect teaching and learning. I believe it is important in our classrooms, to consider how each assessment we administer will affect our teaching, and the learning occurring in the classroom.


Brown's chapter also learly defined the difference between a test, which can measure someone's knowledge about a given domain, and an assessment, which refers to an ongoing process for a wider domain. As I read Brown's theories on assessments and tests, I wondered when would it be appropriate to use an assessment? When would it be appropriate to use a test?


While brown's chapter looked at tests and assessments, Kumar discussed language awareness. One interesting point of this, addressed Critical Language Awareness (CLA) which considers the sociopolitical nature of language, specifically focused on the exercise of power. Kumar discusses how teaching CLA can teach learners how language can be used as a tool. Overall, Kumar discussed that language awareness, is important in language education as it helps the learner. How do you believe language awareness will affect your future classroom.

Kumar also discussed heuristics, which was an unfamiliar word to me. Heuristics, as Kumar states on page 176, refers to the provess of self discovery as the part of the learner, and to a particular method of teaching which encourages the student to learn about themselves and their own experiences. This is connected to this idea, of language awareness. While there are language rules  the teacher should create beneficial linguistic environment, learners can use to use their heuristics and discover the linguistic system on their own while teachers need to show students that grammar is a dynamic system with structure of form meaning and use, they should also promote the students own self-discovery.

Week 8

This weeks readings included Cary S How do I support student's first language when I don't speak the language, Brown Chap 18 and 19 and Kumar Chapter 5!

Out of all the readings I was really interested to read Cary's work. I know a few people who have taught English who don't speak their students' native language. I also know people here who are interested in getting a TESOL endorsement but don't because they are monolingual.

The article points out a number of things I find important in teaching and have discussed in my previous courses. The article right away lists the key points of the writing.

Establish a classroom community that values and celebrates all languages and dialects. Later on in the article when talking about Delores, they author mentions how much she works on making sure her classroom celebrates diversity. This is something we have discussed in my bilingual education courses. In my own classes we have practiced activities and lessons that create a classroom community, from sharing your immigration story, to describing and drawing yourself.. I believe creating an open classroom which promotes diversity is essential in today's classrooms.

Another key element mentioned is to Encourage parents to develop and maintain primary language at home. This is something I hold in my own teaching philosophy. From what I have seen, some parents really want their children to learn english, and quickly. This sometimes leads them to discourage the use of the primary language in their own home. I think it is important to share with parents how important it is to keep building the child's primary language in the home. A language should never be seen as something that hurts the child's success but as an attribute that should not only be celebrated in the classroom but in the home as well.

The article also states, Offer primary language support through bilingual parent and community volunteers, peers, cross-age tutors, and extended day programs. I hope that when I am a teacher, I will also be an active member of the community. I think schools benefit from being well-supported by community members and parents. I believe having support like this for parents would really make a difference. Later in the article, the idea of having parents come to the school and share something of their primary language, either through a poem, song, story, show and tell etc. with the classroom. I was really impressed by this idea, and thought of what a great impact this would have.
Understand the differences between supporting and developing the primary language and Learn and use some second language yourself with students are also key ideas mentioned in the article. I believe there truly is a difference between supporting and developing the primary language for your students. At one point the article stated that Dolores wasn't completely fluent in Spanish yet. They mentioned that while she can "suppor a student's primary language" she "couldn't develop it". This is something I am very worried about in my future practice. Because Spanish is my second language, and I am not completely fluent I worry that this will be a disadvantage for my students that need to continue developing in their first language. I decided to pursue teaching because I want to help children- and I am afraid that because I am not a native Spanish speaker this could be a disadvantage for younger students.

The article mentioned one other concept that is very prominent in the field of bilingual education. The article mentions Prop 227 at one point which is anti-bilingual education. Our classes have researched views of both the supporters and opponents of Prop 227 extensively. While many of the basis of the advocates of Prop 227 are based on biases and myths, it is still very difficult for me to hear people claim that bilingual education is too expensive, ineffective or misguided. As the  article and multiple other research outlets have proven, children who have a strong foundation in their primary, native language outperform their peers in English programs. It is true that students who have this strong foundation, are more successful in school. Hopefully one day we will base our decisions on the education of our children on what is best for them, and not on our own stereotypes and biases.

Week 6 Teaching by Principles: Maximizing language learning opportunities

Brown's chapter four begins by discussing approaches to teaching. As he states on page 62, you are more likely to engage in what he calls "enlightened" teaching if you perceive and internalize connections between practice and theory. This is not unfamiliar to us. We as pre-service and practicing teachers continuously ask ourselves; Who am I as a teacher? How does theory influence my practice? How does this impact my students?

The readings for this week seemed to focus on how important it is to maximize learning opportunities for our learners. However, as Kumar states, learning is primarily a personal construct which is controlled by the individual learner (44). What individual learners bring to the learning context must be considered in teaching. There are a number of factors we have read about that influence second language learning which all center around the individual learner. The best we as teachers can do, according to Kumar is create the conditions necessary for learning to take place (44).

Brown specifically looks at 12 principles of second language learning which form the core of an approach to language learning. The first is automaticity and the second being meaningful learning. Meaningful connections must be made between existing knowledge and new material. The third principle is the anticipation of reward which Brown believes to be a human characteristic. If students are driven to act in anticipation of some reward, what can we do as teachers long term, short term to motivate students? Fourth is intrinsic motivation; the idea that it is better in language learning to be intrinsically motivated. If the student is intrinsically motivated a external reward won't be needed as the act itself would be self-rewarding. Strategic investment is the fifth principle mentioned. This is the idea that instead of a focus on teaching methods, learning a second language will be due to a learners own personal investment in effort, attention and time. As Kumar suggests as well, language learning should be learner-centered and not focused on the teaching methods. Brown states on 64 that, "a teachers greatest dilemma is how to attend to each individual student in a class while still teaching the class as a whole group." (64). What does this mean? How can we individualize instruction while still teaching the whole class? you agree and what can we do in our classroom to individualize instruction while still reaching ll stud tens. 

The sixth principle is autonomy which means the learners' autonomous ability will have a great influence on their success in the second language. I thought it was well defined here as "the capacity to control one's own learning" (70). Brown also states learners need to become autonomous, independent of the classroom in another chapter when discussing strategic investment. Here he states how important it is for learners to be fully aware of their own strengths, weaknesses, preferences and styles and to use that in strategic options and raise awareness in language learning (26). Brown believes that knowing who you are as a learner, helps you become more independent and more successful.  The chapter goes on to discuss the number of ways learners can develop the self-awareness they need to for successful learning strategies and how to teach these strategies in your classroom. Why is this important? What stuck out to you in these sugestions?

The principles discussed by Brown thus far have been considered cognitive but there are also a number of socio-affective principles which are more focused on the emotional involvement of learners.  Brown first discusses the "language ego" meaning when we learn a second language we develop a "new mode of thinking feeling and acting" (72). Brown calls this second identity, a language ego.  He believes this can create a sense of defensiveness, fragility and raising of inhibitions in the learner. Therefore it is important to provide support for our students, how would you do this?

Willingness to communicate is the eighth principle discussed. On page 73 it is described as "the intention to initiate communication, given a choice". This often includes, anxiety, self confidence, risk-taking, self efficacy, their belief in their ability etc. I know through my own language learning experiences that this can be challenging for many learners. While I can listen to my second language and comprehend what is being said, I find myself to be much more reserved when using my second language. In my first language I am able to express myself openly and don't worry about mistakes or what I am saying. However, in my second language, even when I am tempted to say something, most often I hold my comments back because I don't want to take the chance of a communication breakdown.  

The ninth principle is the language-culture connection. This is the idea that with the language, a system of customs values, feelings, acts and ways of thinking is also taught. This is something we have discussed in ENG 343 and most likely, many of your other courses. This could also include helping students through the process of acculturation. It is very difficult to define a culture, as we have discussed. Teaching culture and learning about culture also proves very difficult. However, many students whoa re living in a feign culture may stubble with this process of acculturation, what can we do to help? Or for the students who are learning EFL, how are we able to teach culture?  

The last set of principles are linguistic, centered around the language itself. These include the tenth principle; the native language effect in which the native language  has a strong effect on acquisition of the second language either through production and comprehension. The eleventh principle is the interlanguage which states that learners go through a systematic or quasi-systematic developmental process as they progress to full competence in the language (Brown 77). And lastly, instruction should be directed towards communicative competence, which is the goal of the language classroom.

Brown's chapter sixteen further discusses language learning. On page 258, he argues that persistent use of a whole battery of strategies for learning language, either in a classroom or self-study is needed for success. He discusses strategic investment, which learners make in their own learning process.  This is an investment of time and effort. Brown compares these skills to others including learning a musical instrument or playing a sport. Both of these examples and language learning involve observing, focusing , practicing, monitoring, correcting and redirecting. I have played a musical instrument for over a decade and taught myself how to play several more.  When I think about how I learned how to play my first and second instruments I do see many connections  between these skills and language learning. 

Learning is certainly individualistic. As Kumar addresses in his chapter, we need to break the cycle of classrooms being bound by teaches' agendas, teaching materials, and syllabus specifications.  It is important as Brown pointed out for language learners to be autonomous and teachers must do everything in their power to maximize learning opportunities for their students. Kumar discussed in his chapter that teachers and learners need to generate learning opportunities not only inside the classroom but outside of the classroom. Inside the classrooms students must be involved, teachers need to be asking questions that will trigger meaningful interaction and outside of the classroom teachers need to help learners connect with the local community and global community.

Week 5: The downfalls of CLT

            This week’s readings included two articles exploring the issues of CLT and

Shekan’s article, which explores task-based instruction and research surrorunding this approach.

            Stephen Bax’s article The end of CLT: A context approach to language teaching discusses how CLT ignores context, a crucial aspect to the language pedagogy.  While he admits that CLT has been very useful and important in the TESOL profession, the need for CLT has expired. CLT became popular in order to correct problems found with other methods at the time but today, CLT is negatively affecting the practice and needs to be replaced.  As we have discussed in class, CLT ignores context. So what is the reasoning behind the large amount of support of CLT by researchers and professionals today?

Bax introduces the idea of the “CLT attitude”. Some teachers ignore the culture, learning context, student needs, and other contextual factors when looking into the classroom. They ignore these contextual factors and if they see CLT is not being used in the classroom they immediately consider the approach as “backwards”.  Many, in fact, see CLT as the modern and overall best way to learn language properly. Bax provides a number of examples including perspectives of individuals observing language classrooms. These examples show how many scholars and teachers look down on a culture and teachers because they are not embracing CLT regardless of the learning context. Is a method better because it is newer?

            These individuals see CLT as a whole and complete solution to learning a language, when as we know; none exist. They assume that there is no other method that can be better, choose to ignore other’s views and neglect the local context. We as professionals in the TESOL field need to carefully analyze what we are seeing in the classroom and abandon this CLT attitude. 

            So what does Bax mean when he states that CLT ignores context, a crucial aspect to language learning? Guagweu Hu provides an excellent example of this in his article, which discusses the rising importance for English learning in the People’s Republic of China and the inappropriateness of the CLT approach to learn English. The traditional approach to learning English is described as a “combination of grammar-translation method and audiolingualism” (Hu, 93).  When this method was seen as failing to develop good levels of communicative competence among learners an effort to import the CLT method into the Chinese context began.  A lot of time and money has been spent on putting CLT in schools. However, these efforts and resources show little impact. As Hu states, “Chinese teachers and learners of English do not seem to have gone through any fundamental changes in their conception of effective language instruction and in their daily practices (Hi 94). Despite the push for CLT, traditional approaches are still found in most classrooms.

            Why don’t we see CLT in these classrooms?  While there are many versions of CLT out there, all versions share positions that meaning is primary and that teaching should be centered on communicative functions (Hu, 95). In CLT teaching is found to be learner centered, focuses communicative competence and works to provide opportunities to use the target language in real life experiences. However as we discussed last week, even though this method sounds promising, CLT does not take learning context into consideration.  When looking at the example of the People’s Republic of China in Hu’s article we see why many times CLT is not the appropriate method.

            Hu states that cultural influences may prohibit Chinese teachers and students from embracing this approach.  There is what he calls a “Chinese culture of learning”; a set of attitudes, expectations, beliefs, perceptions, values, preferences, experiences and behaviors that are all characteristics of Chinese society regarding teaching and learning (Hu, 96).  Shouldn’t this be considered in the classroom? Is CLT doing that?

            Hu discusses how education has been internalized in Chinese society, and that many attach education to social mobility, strength and superiority. Hu states, that many take education very seriously and may see games and communicative activities often found in the CLT approach as out of place in the classroom (Hu, 97). Education also has an affect on moral qualities, and this emphasis on moral education is said to encourage imitation of socially approved models and collective orientations. This discourages individuality, fulfillment of personal needs and self-expression which play a very important role in CLT. We don’t want to over generalize Chinese culture but it is important to consider contextual factors like these when CLT is being applied. Another issue is that education traditionally is viewed as a process of gathering knowledge rather than a practical process of constructing and using knowledge for purposes (Hu, 97). This concept of education in Chinese culture also contradicts with the principals of CLT. There are a number of things considered part of the Chinese culture centered on education that disagree with the CLT approach. As Bax discussed in his article, when most see that a Chinese classroom perhaps does not use the CTL approach, they consider this classroom as “backwards”, out of the loop, or less effective. Is this true? No, these researchers Bax discusses simply do not understand how CLT is not the right approach for everyone, for every culture, for every context.

            Bax states in his article that though CLT is almost disguised by being called an approach it is actually more of a method. What does he mean by this?  As he states on page 280, CLT is often seen as “the way we should teach”, the way things should be done. Looking at the name alone tells us a lot, Communicative Language TEACHING, not Communicative Language LEARNING. What is the difference here?

The main idea is that CLT ignores the context in which teaching is taking place. We look at what teachers should say do, make and prescribe a solution; a method.

While CLT tries to focus on communication, context is ignored and it generates this idea that it is a solution that can be applied anywhere.- as Bax calls it, a “magic solution” for all learners (281).  CLT is not a magic solution. There are a number of ways to learn a language, language learning is in fact very complex- so why are we reducing language learning to one solution? What does this do? What needs to be changed? What benefits do we get in including context? 

            Bax discusses on page 285, that as teachers, we need to learn about our context before we decide on how we should teach. When deciding on how we should teach we must consider the individuals’ needs, learning needs, styles, wants and strategies. We need to consider local conditions, classroom culture, school culture, national culture and the many other factors that come into play. A classroom includes all of these. As teachers it is not our job to apply one approach in teaching language but to take our own, specific learning context into consideration and teach to the best of our ability, for the best of our students. As teachers, we shouldn’t be simply following a method but we must be expert context analyzers. 

Week 4

This weeks readings included Kumar: TESOL Methods: Changing Tracks, Challenging Trends and Brown's Chapter 3: The Postmethod era: Toward informed approaches

Before discussing the article more in depth, I want to call attention to a statement Brown makes on page 41. He states, that the problem with the term "method"is that it connotes a fixes set of classroom practices that serve as a prescription. That a method can be applied to any classroom to cure the issues despite context and leads to learning. As we have discussed in class, teaching calls for a pedagogy of particularity. Can we really diagnose what is needed in a classroom and prescribe a remedy? There is not a method for all. As much as we may want an "easy solution" TESOL is complex and as Brown state son page 44, out approaches to language teaching must be designed for specific contexts of teaching.

Brown Chapter 3 discusses particularity as the idea that we should be sensitive to a particular group of teachers teaching a particular group of learners pursuing particular set of goals within a particular institutional context embedded in a particular social milieu (pg 41). This shows that our learning pedagogy is context based and based on what we need in our own particular setting. 

Kumar's article was great to read after our discussion on Tuesday on the changing trends in TESOL methods. The article first discussed communicative language teaching which was a popular trend in the 1980s and became a term commonly used for methods which embraced "both the goals and the processes of classroom learning, and for teaching practice that views competence in terms of social interaction.." (Kumar 60). CLT primarily focused on language communication.

Brown describes  characteristics of the CLT approach on page 46. Did you find anything missing from this list? Overall, CLT appears to be a very interesting method that focuses on expression, interpretation and negotiation. It's goal being to prepare learners for real world communication that occurs outside of the classroom. While reading I thought about how useful many ELL students may see this approach as. I'm sure many ELLs would enjoy what is described as purposeful lessons that they can use day-to-day which promotes communicative fluency while still improving grammar. CLT focuses on meaningful exchanges outside of the classroom and is said to use creative classroom activities including games, role playing scenarios etc. to practice this communicative capacity and motivate students. While reading this article, this method sounds wonderful and effective. However, research found three serious doubts on the efficacy of CLT including its authenticity, acceptability and adaptability. Based on classroom observations it has been found that the application of this method really isn't up to par and there is actually very little communicated in the L2 classroom as learners did not have genuine interaction in the classroom. CLT appears to be based off exaggerated claims and misrepresented ideas. Kumar also states that this method lacked adaptability meaning it could not be adapted for various contexts of language teaching to meet different sociocultural demands.  Kumar suggests that this pedagogy is center-based and out of sync with local linguistic, educational, social, political and cultural needs (64).  Can CLT be saved? What would need to be fixed? Would you incorporate aspects of CLT in your classroom and how would you know if your teaching approach's  authenticity, acceptability and adaptability were efficient?

The trend then moved on to TBLT, and the term "task" became very important. Task-based language learning and teaching produced a lot of research. What do you originally think go when you hear the term "task"? Elis (2003)'s more recent definition of this term is included on page 64; 

"A task is a workplan that requires learners to process language pragmatically in order to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated in terms of whether the correct or appropriate propositional content has been conveyed. To this end, it requires them to give primary attention to meaning and to make use of their own linguistic resources, although the design of the task may predispose them to choose particular forms. A task is intended to result in language use that bears a resemblance, direct or indirect, to the way language is used in the real world. Like other language activities, a task can engage productive or receptive, and oral or written skills, and also various cognitive processes. (p. 16)"

Brown Chapter 3 provides us with another definition of task on page 50; when describing tasks he states that there is a relationship comparable to real-world activities, communication, the completion of the task has priority and the assessment of the task is in terms of the outcome. Simplified: a task is an activity which requires language learners to use the language and emphasize meaning in order to attain an objective. 

After reading these definitions, how would you define task in your own words?

I liked that Brown discussed two different types of tasks in task-based teaching; target tasks students will need to accomplish beyond the classroom and pedagogical takes which center around classroom activity. How do these two tasks compose a successful classroom context for language learners? I wondered how these two tasks worked to benefit ELLs. "A task-based curriculum then, specifies what a learner needs to do with the English language in terms of target tasks and organize a series of pedagogical tasks intended to reach those goals" (51). Could you think of an example of this?

Kumar argues that tasks don't belong to a particular method and that language learning tasks can be used for different learning outcomes; they can be language-centered, learner centered and learning centered. We discussed these three forms in class on Tuesday. How would you include tasks in your classroom? 

Kumar raises a few questions including that CLT and TBLT have not been able to address broad contextual issues, and that a need for context approach to language teaching has come.  Do you agree? What is a transformative teacher?

Brown discusses learner centered instruction in his chapter. we discussed in class how comfortable we are with imiliar theories. how can e feel comfortable gicinf power to the students? this a difficult step but it gives students a sense of ownership in therir learning and promotes intrinsic motivation. i believe this pedagogy really follows in multiple domains and contexts. i have learned through here at illinois state what a difference teaching math makes through a learner centered pedagogy. instead of explaining things to students, having students explain those things to you makes all the difference. instead of simply delivering information to students, you are encouraging students to reason, to make sense of the information individual and collaborate with other.s i believe this earner centered approach which gives students some control and takes their input into consideration in the curricula will as brown sates, enhance a student's sense o competence and self worth while alloying them to be creative and innovative in the classroom. 

Brown also discussed cooperative learning, interactive learning, whole language education and content instruction  Cooperative learning focuses on students working together. Interactive learning focuses on the interactive nature of communication, and creates opportunities for genuine interation in the classroom for negotiation. Whole language promotes the idea that language can not broken into little pieces but is one entity. Content-based instruction was especially interesting for me to read about. This approach integrates content learning with language teaching. As a bilingual major, this description sounds very familiar and made me reflect on the bilingual classrooms I have observed. In many bilingual programs English is not explicitly taught, compromising the child's development in other areas, but instead students continue learning content appropriate for them while learning English. Brown states that students will feel more confident in themselves, and may be motivated due to their interest in content that is important to them. As the book states, a challenge of CBI is gathering resources like materials and textbooks and training of teachers to teach concepts, skills and language across these disciplines. This concern is a very popular argument against bilingual education. The book also included different modes of CBI. What do you think of CBI and the other approaches Brown discusses here? Is content-based instruction effective? What about for early learners?

Going back to my initial statement at the start of my blog, this method-based pedagogy eventually turned to post method pedagogy. As we read last week in Pennycook's and Prabhu's, there are many problems that arise with the word method and there is no best method but teachers need to use their own personal conceptualization of how their teaching will work- a teacher's sees of plausibility. We should stop looking for the best method and instead develop our own pedagogical understanding as teachers. 

The article looked at post method perspectives, and how tesol has become critical, connecting the word with the world. Exploring the political, social and cultural dynamics of language use. It is no longer just about grammar but the context and culture, teachers, learners, experience and need.

As the readings have showed us, TESOL has undergone three main shifts; communicative language teacher - task-based language teaching method based pedagogy, postmethod pedagogy, systemic discover critical discourse. The role of a language teacher has evolved over time and we have come to better understand TESOL as an area of study and practice and it's complexity. We continue to as Brown states in Chapter 3, to make make decisions based on what we know about second language learning and teaching to continue this evolution in TESOL practices. 

Week 3: Critical Perspectives in TESOL Pedagogy

This weeks readings included Kumar, Chapter 1 and 2 and Pennycook, Critical approaches to TESOL. 

Kumar's Chapter touches on what it means to be a teacher. Terms associated with teaching include, a job, vocation, work, a career, an occupation and a profession. When reading about vocation I thought back to why I wanted to become a teacher. The role of a teacher is something I believe means something very different to each person. I liked that the chapter describes that teachers have been referred to as artists, architects, scientists, psychologists, managers, counselors,  guides on the side. So what exactly is a teacher? I believe a teacher incorporates all of these metaphors. As Kumar states, each of these metaphors captures a teacher's role partially but none of them do fully (7). To better describe the role of teachers, Kumar explores the historical role and function of classroom teachers to understand how the role has developed over time and what influence these roles have had on education. Kumar discusses the idea of teachers as passive technicians-  in this way information is presented to teachers in teacher-proof packages. In this view, teachers should not be influenced by their own teaching methods. These teachers serve as a conduit in the classroom who help channel the flow of information from the expert to to the students. This view is very traditional but still held in places around the world.  John Dewey in the early 20th century proposed the role of the teacher as reflective practitioners. In this idea, teaching should not be a series of prescheduled procedures but context-sensitive and grounded in intellectual thought. I really liked this description; seeing teachers as problem-solvers instead of passive transmitters. I believe teachers cannot be simply bystanders in the classroom transmitting ideas into the heads of their students, but instead involved in the learning process.  The chapter also discusses one other of role of a teacher; as transformative intellectuals. On page 13, Kumar states that in this way teachers are seen "as professionals who are able and willing to reflect upon the ideological principles that inform their practice, who connect pedagogical theory and practice to wider social issues, and who work together to share ideas, exercise peor over the conditions of their labor, and embody in their teaching a visit ion of a better and more humane life". Why is this all important? What is your own personal theory of teaching?  How will your theory affect your classroom and what has influenced your own theory?

Chapter 2 of Kumar looked at post method pedagogy.  The discussion of languge-centered methods and  learning centered methods stuck out to me as language centered methods see language as a linear process while learning center methods see language development not as a linear process, but that it instead requires creation of conditions in which the learners can engage in meaningful activities. It is thought that language is learned when attention is focused on understanding, doing or using the language in real life situations. What do you see language development as?  The Pennycook article looked at critical approaches to TESOL. The article refers to these approaches no as simple solutions but as complex combinations of cultural, political, social and pedagogical concerns. TESOL critical approaches involve pedagogy and research, and are very important for us as language educators to consider in our own practice and study.

Week1: Overview of Teaching Methods and from Methods to Post-method

This week’s readings included Brown Chapter 1 & 2 and an article by Prabu, which tied in nicely to further explore the concept of teaching methods in the classroom. 

            Brown’s Chapter One gave us an inside look of an ESL classroom in a private language school in Korea. This “observation” gave us the opportunity to consider the many decisions language teachers make every day and the basis behind them. Teachers are continuously making choices in their classroom either consciously or subconsciously. I thought this was a very interesting way to begin the book because it encourages us as pre-service teachers to find the connections that must be made between the research and pedagogical approaches we have studied and our classroom; how to implement these methods into practice. As a senior, I am beginning to consider this more and more each day. How are the theories and research I have studied in my years at Illinois State going influence my classroom? Should we ever stop being students? How can we as teachers stay up-to-date on these approaches long after graduation? 

Chapter  Two of Brown explored the methodical history of language teaching because by explaining the historical cycles and trends in this area we can effectively develop a principled approach to language teaching in the future. This chapter begins by defining three terms I have never attempted to distinguish from one another before.

Brown states, an approach is “… a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language, learning and teaching. Method was described as an overall systematic presentation of language based upon a selected approach… [and] techniques were the specific activities manifested in the classroom that were consistent with a  method and therefore were in harmony with an approach as well.”

These definitions provided by Edward Antony four decades ago are still commonly used among language teachers. However, attempts to reformulate these terms have been made. The key to this chapter is to look at how methodology in language teaching has evolved from very traditional, structured methods to more modern, perceptive methods disputed today.

The Classical Method is a more customary language-teaching “tradition” which focused on grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary terms and many declensions, conjugations, translations of texts and written exercises for students (Brown, 18). This was commonly used when learning Latin and Greek and became the main way of teaching foreign languages when other languages emerged in educational institutions. With this classical method there was less focus on how to speak the language but more on memorization. This method eventually became the Grammar Translation Method, survived the 20^th century and as Brown states, is practiced in “too many educational contexts” today (19). As a second-language learner, have you experienced this method first-hand? What are we teaching students by using this method and what is helpful or unhelpful about it? Brown states later “It does virtually nothing to enhance student’s communicative ability in the language” (19). Do you agree?

Over time, methods in language teaching have become popular and unpopular. More modern foreign language teaching started around the late 1800s and Brown credits Goin with designing  the Series Method to teach learners directly, without translation and conceptually without the grammatical rules and explanations (Brown, 20). The direct method, is a naturalistic alternative which looks at the natural way children learn languages while the audio-lingual method focuses on oral activity and conversation practice. The cognitive code learning methodology believes we are conscious of language rules and their applications in second language learning and more. These methods look at language-learning as more than a process of memorization. Designer methods also dispute the more classical approach. The 1970’s brought these methods and the start of more modern language-teaching history. These methods included community language learning, suggestopedia, the silent way, total physical response and the natural approach. All of these methods were used to better understand how people learn languages and the influence life outside the classroom has on learning. These methods brought even more research to this area despite how many people accept the method. 

The Article There Is No Best Method- Why? By Prabu further explores the nature of methods in language-teaching. This article states that in language teaching there may be no one best method for every classroom, but how this statement is not an end to the debate- but the beginning. The author states that many times professionals conclude that “there is no best method” to simply end a debate on methods. Stating that the best teaching method “depends” implies that there is a method that is best for different teaching contexts. We should be encouraging a further pedagogical debate.

The article also discusses the claim that there is truth to every method of language teaching. Is there no bad method? The author disagrees with this comment because once again, this statement implies that each method only had some partial truth to it. Prabu says that this statement should not have us see this as an epistemological observation, but to ask us to blend methods. But this blending needs to be done wisely considering particular parts of the methods to form a new method.

One way of looking at teaching methods is the quality of learning, but once again this concept brings along its own debate. How do we assess the best methods?

“…attempts to objectively evaluate such methods seems to quantify learning outcomes.” Is there a way for us to test the quality of these methods instead? “The more objective the evaluation is the less likely it is to assess the learning of the desired quality…” (Prabu 11)

Introduction

Hello! My name is Ryann. 

I am a senior and a Bilingual Elementary Education major with minors in TESOL and Spanish. I came to Illinois State knowing I wanted to teach 4th or 5th grade. Now that it is my last semester on campus I must say I'm even more confused than when I walked to my first class. However, I don't mind being confused. In my coursework here I have learned so much as a pre-service teacher and about myself. While I would still love being in a 4th or 5th grade classroom, I would also enjoy working with either younger or older students.  I have learned that I am interested in teaching in an urban setting with children from low-income families, adult second language learners and even teaching English as a foreign language. I would be happy to teach in a diverse classroom, socio-culturally and linguistically.  I hope that through my experiences from graduation and beyond I will find "my calling" of sorts. I hope to start working within a bilingual elementary classroom with students who are often times marginalized by the education system and use their cultural and linguistic knowledge to provide an appropriate education. I am also interested in one day, pursuing a graduate degree in linguistics. I look forward to this course, not only for the resources and information that will prepare me to be a better language teacher but also for the opportunity to work with other teachers. I am very excited to begin this semester. Let the blogging begin!