Saville-Troike
Our reading this week was something I, surprisingly, hadn't thought much about in my TESOL classes. We discuss the SLA theories and the different methods of teaching but, what really stuck out to me in this chapter is the discussion on how to teach an L2.
What do I mean by that? Well, it's not a discussion on strategies or games to play or academic exercises for teachers to use. It's a discussion on the different items L2 learners need to have academic competence and/or interpersonal competence. My initial thoughts on teaching have been vague at best. I suppose we all have those feelings of going out into the teaching world and having these great students that are so enthusiastic to learn and knowing exactly what to do to teach them well. Well, either way, that's how I've generally viewed things, through a thoroughly unrealistic lens. I never really thought about what these kids would actually need to learn and I didn't think much about where I would have to start to get them to the point of communicative competence.
This chapter has changed a few things for me in that respect because I am starting to see that I cannot just go into a classroom and know exactly what to do and how to teach. There are so many basic things in English that I take for granted that I never would have thought to teach. Maybe this makes me a bad teachers or way too optimistic but this chapter blew all that out of the water. See, what I find in this chapter is that it's not all about the theories we learn or the ways to create a fair and safe classroom. That's only the half of it. Outside of those things, we as teachers have to understand what our students need to be competent when they try to communicate outside of the classroom or we haven't done our jobs correctly.
What also struck me as I was reading was that all the things the students need to learn, need to be taught in a way that they can process it and use it to their advantage. I cannot, for example, teach a class of 2nd graders about the morphological differences between their native tongue and English in those terms. Each of these points of knowledge has to be morphed into something that can process at their age, grade, and level of proficiency.
This may seem like a 'oh, well, duh. How could you not have realized that' moment but, in my case, I honestly never viewed it that way. Even through my own years of learning Spanish from the bottom-up processing method, I didn't look back and wonder how I'd gotten to where I am now with the language. Moving on, since I seem to be rambling.
The final part of this chapter that I felt hit home for me was the separation that needs to be done in catering to students. What they learn depends on how they will be using the language in their future and based on what they need the language for changes everything about what they learn. For example, the different vocabulary that goes along with academic competence in comparison with interpersonal competence. Second language learners have so much variety in their needs as far as learning goes but if they have the motivation for it then so can we.
Lightbown & Spada
This chapter then delved into the different theories on how to teach in the ESL classroom and what works effectively and what doesn't. There were six different approaches, each studied and analyzed.
1. Get it right from the beginning
2. Just listen... and read
3. Let's talk
4. Two for one
5. Teach what is teachable
6. Get it right in the end
Their discussion is based on what is the most effective between the six but in my opinion I see each as having their own merit. I would say that each should be used at some point in the classroom because each gives the student something different whether that's repetition, conversation, or reading activities; each holds it own value in the classroom. Generally, what they found was that communicative approaches worked best in effectiveness, which I agree with concerning my own L2 learning of Spanish and how much I learned being abroad, but the grammar and repetition done before I left for study abroad had it's own uses concerning my precision within the language which helped make me more comfortable when I was finally placed in a setting where English was just not an option.
That is generally how i feel about that. Super long post.. oops.
I think all of our blogs this time around were a bit longer, at least mine was! And I kind of had the "oh duh" moment with the top-down and bottom-up approaches also. No matter which way one learns a language, there is still A LOT that each LL must learn, by no means is it just grammar and vocab, eh?
ReplyDeleteI think that a big problem is that a lot of times, there are so many students in each class. I feel like we should get more money for education, but we don't do we? Yet, people argue that the quality of education has declined, but of course it does, many teachers are getting laid off every day! So I think that the advice Lightbown and Spada gives, and in the other books too, will work better in smaller classes. One teacher is simply not enough for 30 kids, no matter how good advice they give you in every book. One teacher will have a hard time making each student feel comfortable enough in class to the point where they feel confident enough to practice the language, alone or with the help from teachers or peers.
ReplyDeleteI liked the Lightbrown and Spada chapter on the six different approaches that can be used. I also did not find one to more just than the other and I agree with you when you say that thyey all had their own merit. I also agree that you say each should be used in the classroom at different times, I believe that some of these approaches are make more sense to use than others when teaching certain subjects. I also believe that it is a great idea to use each approach at different times just to change it up a bit, so that the students are experiencing learning more than one different way.
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