Essential Linguistics: Freeman & Freeman

As Esther mentioned on D2L there is some information in the chapters that we read this week about "reading and retelling". I found the most interesting information about the subject on page 32 to be the "direct spillover" and the "delayed spillover". The direct spillover, as far as fairy tales are concerned, is very close to what seems like common sense because if a student is retelling a fairy tale that they read they will most likely use phrases such as "Once upon a time..." and "...they lived happily ever after". But the most intriguing concept on page 32 was the idea of delayed spillover or when those specific text features of a certain genre are found in the student's writing later on. I like this idea because it shows that when a student reads more they also tend to write and communicate through writing more effectively because they then pick up on the many different styles and techniques that have been effectively used to communicate meaning by other writers/authors. I saw this in my own writing as an undergraduate when I studied literature. I would read a few stories by a couple of my favorite authors and even though I couldn't write as well as they could I did end up using many of the same overall text structures and even some of the vocabulary in my own writing.

I also want to touch on another concept on page 19 of the Freeman text. On that page the authors state that, "Humans are born with an innate capacity for language, but explaining how language works is a real cognitive challenge. This is why so many students struggle in linguistics courses!". I wanted to quote this passage because it made me chuckle a little bit, but also because I agree with this statement. Over the course of the last 10 or 11 years I have become progressively more aware of my native language and how it works. This process of study hasn't been easy for me and I still tend to get confused about the smaller details in English grammar even though I generally know when I read something whether it is a correct form of English or not. So the question then becomes: why have I decided to go as far as consciously learning some of the detailed aspects of linguistics in English? The quick answer would be that I will be using this information to teach English in the near future, but the honest answer is that since I am also a writer I feel that by teaching English in other parts of the world and by being more aware of how my language works I will then be a more effective writer in that language. Of course being more aware of my native language alone does not guarantee that I will be a better writer, but I believe that as long as I continue to write, read, speak, and understand English as much as possible throughout my life then I will at least have the opportunity to improve my communication skills to the level that I desire.

Linguistics Week 1

So this first blog entry of the semester is supposed to be a reflection of what we did in our first week of class. Now since we didn't do too much I am going to make this particular entry short and sweet.

I think the most interesting part of our first week was just getting situated with all of this new technology. I've never had an online course before so it was pretty amazing to see that even though it was different than a face-to-face class it seems like it will still be an effective "classroom" type of experience. The only thing that I was wondering while we were in class was how we were going to take turns speaking since there is going to be very little visual information shared. For example, we can't raise our hands but since that doesn't always happen in a graduate course anyways I'm sure the turn-taking will be fine. Besides that I don't have much to say except for wishing everyone a good semester.

Using Literary Texts to Develop Language

In our MCM readings for this week there was a focus on how to use literature to develop language skills such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This also happens to fit under my group's multi-genre topic which is creative writing.

This week our group created a short story activity which uses the teaching-learning cycle. By using this cycle we are allowing our students to read and analyze the short story genre with some scaffolded instruction. This will eventually allow our students to construct an independent text. The reason why I mention this is because this activity involves most of the elements that are discussed in the MCM text.

At the beginning of our activity (which is meant for intermediate to advanced learners) students simply read a fairy tale. The reason why we chose this short story genre was that fairy tales usually adhere to a simple structure and this would make the analysis much simpler for them. Then after our students have thought about the genre we ask them to recreate the story by writing a modern version of it. This allows our students to rewrite the story in their own words and to make a connection with the text. In our MCM reading this week the authors say that, "it is important in selecting literary texts to ensure that the theme of the text is engaging for the students and that the text itself is not too difficult on either a linguistic or conceptual level" (322). So by allowing our students to find a connection with the text we hope that they become engaged in the learning process. If they are engaged then task such as determining the point of view, the structure of the story, and the kinds of vocabulary in the text become much more interesting and our students are more likely to remember what they are learning. I am not going to explain the entire activity that we created, but after a series of scaffolded instructions our students become less and less dependent on the teacher. Our activity's final goal is to have our students choose a character and independently write/act out the dialogue that they have created along with the other students to create a miniature play of the original short story. After finishing this activity our students will have not only become engaged in the learning process, but they will also have had some practice reading, writing, speaking, listening, and most importantly thinking about English.

Lightbrown & Spada: "Observing learning and teaching in the L2 classroom"

This is my 13th and most scary post, a little late for Halloween though... I found the eleven studies at the end of chapter five to be very useful and interesting. Since I don't have too much teaching experience I want to mention just a few of these studies and how I have noticed them in my own L2 learning.

The first study I want to mention is study #2 on page 128 (Recasts and private speech). In this short paragraph L & S state, "that learners noticed recasts when they were provided by the instructor. Furthermore, learners were more likely to react to a recast with private speech when it was directed to another learner or to the whole class". I think that this is worth mentioning because it reminds me of how a simple change in the instructor's reaction to a speech error can make all the difference. When learning my L2 I found that this method of recasting a student's error indirectly was used very often and it was very effective. The result that this had on me and other students was that we became aware of the fact that this was more than likely a common error that we all shared instead of an individual mistake on our part. It sort of unified the class. This way we were able and more willing to adopt the recasts and to work on our own errors without feeling stupid or behind the curve.

Another study that I'd like to mention is study #7 on page 132 of L & S. Here our authors discuss how closed questions from an instructor usually produce a "simple on-word response" from the student, while open questions produce "longer and more complex answers". I would agree with this in general, but I want to focus on how this type of questioning is used in beginning level L2 classrooms. I want to focus on this because for beginning level second language students it is often difficult to create complex answers because of their lack of vocabulary and grammatical forms. But with this difficulty in mind I also want to mention that beginning level L2 students can often surprise a teacher with their limited abilities. One thing that I noticed in my own L2 was how, even with very limited knowledge, I was able to express ideas beyond my L2 abilities by making the most use of the vocabulary and grammatical forms that I already possessed. Usually all it takes (or took) is for the instructor to assist their students by giving them a couple words of new vocabulary that interests them or by helping the students to make a more complete and complex sentence than they would have come up with on their own. This negotiation of meaning along with a few metalinguistic comments can help an engaged student to keep looking to the horizon of their abilities (+1).

The last thing that I want to point out which is fairly obvious but important is study #9 on page 133. At the end of that study it focuses on how important the home life is on a student's second language acquisition and education in general. Even though I think that this is obvious, it is something that we, as teachers, should always keep in mind.

"Sounds like someone's got a case of the Mondays"

Probably the most helpful thing that we did in class last week was the peer review. It mainly got a couple groups in the class to look at each others work and critique it, but it also provided some valuable feedback for each group. I think that being able to see a couple different approaches to the same project was also helpful because it gave my group some fresh ideas on where to take our project next. The only thing that I was left wondering after this portion of the class was: why didn't we devote a little more time to this activity since it was so helpful? I ask this question just because my group was not able to go into the details of the project which we were reviewing. We only got a chance to skim it over a couple times and we felt rushed with the written response. I would say that the most valuable feedback was the verbal response because it gave everyone enough time to point out most of what was discussed as we were reviewing the other group's project.

A couple other highlights from last Monday were Chris and Stephanie's presentation and Dr. Smidt's teachable moments discussion. The presentation went well and it allowed everyone in the class to focus on at least one component of a lesson plan. I'm not sure if we came up with a coherent and teachable lesson, but each area of the lesson plan that was written on the chalkboard was fairly well done. I just want to mention the teachable moments discussion because it focuses on a teacher's ability to work on their feet and react to unforeseen situations. I think that this is a very valuable ability that a teacher should acquire with experience because it allows a failed lesson plan to succeed sometimes and it can also make the class much more enjoyable for the students as well as the teacher. I've seen how experienced teachers have utilized this concept in the past and it allows the class time to pass by evenly and naturally instead of in a choppy pre-conceived order (although if it is used incorrectly it can cause the class to get off track).

Shakespeare in ESL??

The section of the readings that I'd like to focus on is the "Guidelines for Language Classroom Instruction" in the MCM text. The reason why I want to focus on that is because I think that it provides a useful and practical outline of the preparation for and the execution of an ESL lesson. It starts with the lesson planning, then states a variety of tasks (motivation phase, input/control phase, focus/working phase, application phase, testing, and some other aspects to think about when preparing to teach). Of course all of these suggestions may not be used in a single class, but being aware of the many different kinds of activities helps to get me thinking about what I might want to use in my classroom. 

An example is the translation activity in the Focus/Working phase section on page 34 of MCM. For the Multi-Genre project my group is focusing on creative writing and one of the activities that we are using to promote this genre is the translation of parts of Shakespeare's "Hamlet". Now this may sound like a difficult activity for our ESL students but in The Journal of Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching there is a great article about how this activity can be used for ESL students of varying proficiencies (if anyone wants this article I can cite it for you). The gist of the article is that by translating or rewording a small text from Shakespeare's play (such as the "To be or not to be?" scene from "Hamlet", which was quoted by our friend Bill from Saigon) into modern English the students get an insight into the culture of English while gaining confidence in their language abilities as well. I have yet to use this activity (I may use it with my tutee), but it seems like an activity that could engage students with the English language if done properly.

Video Reflections

Ok, so I saw this great use of the word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" on Saturday Night Live (an American comedy show) and I had to add the link here so that everyone can watch it (I can't upload the video here because NBC is over protective about their shows). The title is "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is Fatal":

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/mary-poppins/727503/

Speaking of videos though, I thought that Jodie's use of the "American Tongues" video was great. Not only did it enhance her presentation, but parts of it were pretty funny (i.e. the one woman who wouldn't have babies with a southern accent "crawling around inside" of her). It just goes to show how prejudice people in the US can be about other dialects, even when their own is strange to begin with. I had seen this video in my Introduction to Linguistics class that I took as an undergrad and I remember that we also watched a few videos about pidgin English too. I've always thought it would be fun to be able to teach some aspects of creole or certain English dialects like Irish-English, but I don't know what practical purpose that would serve to the general ESL/EFL student. I did manage to find an ESL website rather easily that gives quizzes on Creole-English though: 

http://iteslj.org/v/creole/

So it is obviously used by some ESL teachers.

The other thing that I'd like to mention about our last class was the fact that we got to work in our Multi-Genre groups for over 30 minutes. This helped immensely. My group (Adib, Stephanie, and I) got to throw around some ideas about how to make our next two genres better and being able to ask Esther some questions helped a lot also.