Kuma Chapter 13 and Anthology Chapter 3

Kuma Chapter 13: Monitoring Teaching Acts

We must help teachers be flexible with the ability to create their own theories for the situations they will encounter while teaching. We cannot teach them how to deal with all the situations they encounter. Instead we must teach them to become autonomous in that they can adapt to what they may find in the classroom.

Self-observation and analysis is very important in teaching and can help teachers become more efficient in their classrooms if it is done with as much of a lack of bias as possible.

Product-oriented models have their merit in teacher observation in that the teacher receives input and guidance from an outside source who is able to observe them as they teach and work with students. When an observation comes from a supervisor or teacher with more experience, the teacher being observed is able to consider what they can improve upon and what may help them teach more efficiently. I would find this kind of feedback particularly useful in my own teaching, especially as a new teacher. In my own teachings I’d like to be abroad and having the guidance of a teacher who has been a part of the culture longer than I have will help me adjust and work with the students in their comfort zone instead of only sticking to my own roots in teaching theory. With this in mind I think this model will be very useful for me.

The process-oriented model also has its merit in that it considers the inner workings of the teacher and students and how they process the teaching and learning their classroom. As Kuma notes, it is rather cumbersome and seems to mostly benefit “researchers, supervisors, and teacher educators” (288). I know it would be beneficial for my teaching to be able to analyze my own teaching processes while also receiving feedback from my students but I think that these models need to be combined, like Kuma does with his M & M model so that I can have all three points of observation to help me improve my teaching.

Kumas presentation of the M & M observational scheme seems to take data from both the product-oriented model and the process-oriented model and combines them to give the teacher a rounded out way to analyze their teaching. I especially find the videotaping of your teaching to be helpful. I think that watching yourself teach is much different from being in a teaching situation because you are able to go back and observe your processes and how the students reacted to said processes. As far as step 7 is concerned, when the observer and teacher meet with students to discuss their view of the teaching, I think this can be a good idea but with students, depending on the grade level, this could become very difficult. Students may not have the ability to describe processes or they may have no interest in the subject matter being taught. They may feel pressured to say something ‘nice’ in front of the teacher. I feel that in the case of students, anonymous questionnaires may be a better route because there is less pressure to be ‘nice’ or ‘polite’. There is no fear of bias towards grades when the teacher doesn’t know who said what in evaluations. The issue with anonymous evaluations becomes that many students don’t take them seriously. So it is a difficult thing to reconcile.

Anthology Chapter 3

Lesson planning is definitely an important part of the teaching process and I know it will play a key role in my own teachings because I want to teach abroad. The daily planning will become crucial with my students and how I teach because I am working with a new culture (for me anyway) and I know that lessons may take longer or shorter than I originally plan. That being said, planning is important but there are many things we cannot count on, thus we must have a flexible attitude towards our planning and lessons so we can adapt to our students learning processes.

Kuma 11 and Leki

Chapter 11: Ensuring Social Relevance

Standard variety is prestigious because of social, political, and economic factors.

Recognition of varieties of English is essential in the ESL classroom to help students.

It is interesting to me that the book talks about two situations, one in Britain and one in Sri Lanka, where the use of the L1 seems to be fairly heavy. I suppose it depends on the level of the learner but I think it would be fairly difficult to use the learners native tongue if you, as a teacher, don't know it or are not familiar with it. I liked the idea of a bilingual aid but that can become expensive for the school to pay another person to help in the classroom. I feel this could become difficult in terms of getting the school to hire a bilingual aid. They may say that you shouldn't be using students' L1 and that doesn't not include taking into account the different languages of students. This is especially true in Britain and the U.S. because you are dealing with a classroom which may have many different native languages present. It presents an interesting problem. Though I still believe that acknowledgement and use of the L1 can be extremely helpful when learning your L2.

Leki

Lekis' article makes an interesting point because we, as teachers, may believe that we are not included in those who look upon the ESL student as their ESOL representation but, as Leki states, “that would be missing the point.” I find myself in that boat as well. I don't think I would look upon students according to their representation in society and the media but, even if I think I don't, how do I address those issues in the classroom? There is always some kind of underlying bias due to our own social conditioning and this is also true for students in the classroom. Being in an open dialogue about this topic could become difficult if we are convinced that we do not hold these views about the ESOL student. It is an interesting dilemma, one that I'm not sure how to solve or work on.

Chapter 5 + 7 Kuma

Chapter 5: Facilitating Negotiated Interaction

Interaction with target language is key.

Types of interactional activity:
    •    Textual Activity makes use of Krashens Monitor Model and i + 1 as a means of teaching students. The best way for them to learn their L2 is to receive comprehensible input.

I think that students can learn how to understand and speak a language (at a young age) just by listening and interacting with the language in that way but they will not be able to write or read the language with any sort of proficiency and that can be very detrimental to the students’ academic career. Because there is no active participation by the learner there seems to be a lack of learner autonomy in this kind of activity.

    •    Interpersonal Activity includes specific types of interaction in which the negotiation of meaning is involved (Prevent or repair communication breakdowns).

Being able to converse with native speakers and being able to adjust your own speaking can be extremely helpful in learning a L2. This kind of interaction allows the learner to take some control of their learning, instead of just being spoken at. There may be more use of mental facilities and a focus on correct grammar when speaking to become comprehensible. The learner may be able to notice further their own mistakes when they are corrected by those with a higher proficiency.

Comprehensible output is actually, in my opinion, a very important piece to learning a language. In my own language learning for Spanish the best ways that I’ve learned and gained further fluency is to 1) hear the language spoken to me by native speakers and 2) to be able to respond and sound out my own output of the language. With this kind of method I find that I learn from the native speaker and their use of grammar and I also learn from my own mistakes as I speak and correct as I go along in the conversation. So I consider output to be a key part of learning an L2.

    •    Ideational Activity pits ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) against i + 1 and how one follows a meaningful interaction model while the other merely suggests input at the learners’ level and one step higher with no emphasis on interaction.
This method is focused on interaction and the learner but it also takes into account sociocultural factors and the effect they have on L2 development.

Chapter 7: Fostering Language Awareness

Language Awareness Movements:
    •    The British Movement: 1975 report of the Bullock Committee to go into “the teaching to reading and other uses of English” Promotion of linguistic tolerance began and a few educational reform proposals began. A new desire arose to create curiosity in students concerning language and its uses in everyday life and how it changes our lives.

    •    The American Movement: The Whole Language Movement  ~1975. This is the introduction of language into all aspects of classwork and disciplines. It looks to enrich the experience of the students with language. A new recognition of diverse linguistic resources that learners bring to class.

This idea of using language and acknowledging language in all aspects of the curriculum, in math classes and whatnot, reminds me of changes made to curriculum that require the use of math across the curriculum which was implemented when I was in junior high and high school. It seems to be used as a way to create more linguistic awareness, just like the use of math in all courses was used to improve the math scores/knowledge for students.

Language Awareness of Language Teachers
In my 241 English class this semester we have talked quite extensively about the issues of teaching and how problematic it can be when teachers themselves do not understand the language they are teaching which is why knowing the languages’ history is so important. Teachers must have language awareness so that we are not leaving our students with answers like the one on page 161. Having no answer at all, or saying something happens just because it does, can cause serious confusion for students who are trying to learn English as their L2.