Week 14 -- Wrap-up

The reading in the sugarsync folder attempts to combine all of the SLA theories we've covered into one model. Are you satisfied with it? Hopefully not.

I hope that you have developed (or are still developing) your own idea about how languages are learned and what effective teaching looks like. This week, we'll attempt to put it all together.

This week there are two tasks:

1. Look over the reading. The gist is most important. Focus on how Gass has simply combined everything we've already talked about into one model. This should act as a review.

2. More importantly, post 3-5 (or more) "big" questions that you still have about SLA. These questions can be things that you are still curious about -- perhaps the course did not cover them sufficiently (or at all). The questions could also be about things you want your classmates' opinions about. The questions can be about connecting Meth, ICC, and SLA. Or the questions could be related to your own classrooms. Pretty much anything goes.

Basically, everyone is the Discussion Leader this week. Post these questions here by Thursday evening. I also need some time to read the questions and look for relevant research.

I'll collect them into one paper and we'll spend most of class discussing these in small groups, and then as a class.

Do not answer the questions on the blog. We'll answer them in class.

Week 13 -- Focus on your project this week.

No reading. No posts. Focus on making your Language Learner project awesome.

I am looking forward to hearing/reading them.

Week 12 Pair Presentation/Discussion guidelines (no Academic Reading Circles this week)

This week's reading tries to make SLA much more practical by examining six different proposals for classroom teaching.

Find a partner. Then look over the chapter and decide which proposal you want to present to the class. Post your pair (both names) and choice in the comments section of this post. First come, first served.

Your Presentation/Discussion should be about 10-15 minutes long. This is to be a very informal overview of the proposal, examples of research, pros/cons, personal experience, suggestion for future research, and whatever else you want to include to make it meaningful for your classmates.

You'll be given 15-20 minutes to meet with your partner next week at the beginning of class to finalize your presentation/discussion plans. Then we'll start.

The presentation/discussion should be:

• informative -- mention the key points
• interactive -- ask questions to the class
• interesting/meaningful -- be creative; allow classmates to personalize

You can use all or none of the following:

• WB
• ppt
• handouts
• video/audio

The presenters have the option of standing in front of the class or remaining seated in a round table discussion format.

This will be graded as part of your homework grade.

Week 11 Academic Reading Circles

Three readings this week. The SLLT is the priority.

Week 10 Academic Reading Circle

This week's reading is a little tough. There's a lot of information and not all of it is relevant to classroom teachers. However, I feel obligated to give you a full view of Vygotsky's ideas in relation to SLA.

As you read, try to focus on the ZPD (what it is), co-construction of meaning, scaffolding, and how it all connects to Methodology (or what you're doing in your classrooms).

***New groups and roles posted in the sugarsync folder.

Week 9 Academic Reading Circle

This week's reading continues the Information Processing model with some classroom implications. In class we'll evaluate some textbooks according to Bloom's Taxonomy.

Week 8 Academic Reading Circle

Don't forget to do the reading and fulfill your ARC role.

You should also be thinking about a language feature for your research project.

Week 7 Dialogue Journal

Week 7 Dialogue Journal

**Notes: In week 7 we'll be looking at how input and output play a role in L2 development - you'll see there are two readings for each topic. Of the two for each topic, one is relatively short, and the other is quite long. I suggest reading the articles in the following way: read 01, skim 02 for clarification of things that may not be clear in 01 and longer explanations of concepts (hypotheses). Read 03, then skim (or peek into) 04 for more examples.

Most of Swain's output research was done in French immersion schools so if you have a background in French, you might find the examples particularly interesting.

We will choose new groups in class tonight.

Week 6 Dialogue Journal

Congratulations everybody! We made it through the language components. For some of you it may have been wonderful and for some of you.... well - a necessary evil. Over the next week you will read about communicative competence, interlanguage, and the role of the native language in L2A.

Communicative competence and interlanguage are two concepts that you need to master. They underlie everything we talk about in our course, and are also very central concepts in Meth and ICC.

The Gass chapter outlines the role of the native language in L2A and is the starting point from which we'll dive into L2A theory. From this point forward, the readings may be a little bit longer; however, I believe you will find them easier to read and personalize.

This week you will use the Gass reading for the dialogue journal. After a brief summary, group leaders should address one of the following questions in the comments (from Gass).

Andrew, Evan, *Swati, Sean 

Young, Justin, *David

Greg, Michael, *Julie

a    As described in this chapter, beginning second language learners produce sentences such as He comed yesterday where regular rules are extended to irregular cases. What does this suggest about the formation of early interlanguage? Can you think of cases in your own language learning where you have tried to impose such regularity improperly? Relate your characterization to the strengths and weaknesses of the contrastive analysis hypothesis.

b    Consider the process of looking at structures across languages. Do you agree that one can easily note similarities of structures and differences of structures? Do you agree that these cannot equal ease and difficulty of learning? In what circumstances might similarities/differences be compatible with ease/difficulty of learning?

c    Consider the two types of interference discussed in this chapter: retroactive and proactive. In terms of the former, under what circumstances might it be possible to lose some of your native language fluency? What parts of the native language might you predict would be most affected? Have you had this experience?

Reading: Are you teaching it or testing it? (optional)

Hey everyone,

This week I've been reading a lot about reading. I've been reminded of all of the subskills involved and what "good readers" do while negotiating a text. They definitely are not circling words and translating. Reading to answer questions kills the writer's original purpose. 

Reading our L1 is so easy that we sometimes forget the complex processing skills are involved and what strategies we use to comprehend a text. All of you are good readers, but do you ever consider how to pass along your skills to your students? I'm guilty of not taking the time to teach my students how to actually process a text using these strategies (inferring, questioning, predicting, personalizing, visualizing, summarizing, etc). Sometimes our students mistakenly consider L2 reading as "finding answers" or "filling out workbooks." That is in direct conflict with the reasons people write. People write to convey ideas, not to be a measure of grammar skill or a source of comprehension questions. 

Here are a few articles to help give you some alternative ideas about teaching reading. 

The first is an overview of several frameworks for instruction. I like this article because it is easy to read, full of examples, and hits a lot of popular reading tactics.

Comprehension Frameworks

This next one lays out the START framework in detail. I like START because it is user-friendly, and it seems pretty easy to implement in any class that allows time reading instruction. 

START

This last one is a bit more unconventional. This is based on Reader Transaction Theory, which assumes that readers interact with the text to construct their own meaning. This may be somewhat more difficult to implement because the focus shifts from accuracy to meaning-making. It more closely mimics actual reading, but good luck telling that to your boss or students' parents. Sigh...in a perfect world...

A Transaction Approach

Week 4 Dialogue Journal

Hello everyone, this week we'll be talking briefly about syntax, summarizing theories of acquisition, and prepping for the week 5 quiz. 

Week 4 Reading: Lightbown & Spada. How Languages are Learned. Chapter 2 (HLAL_Chapter 2.pdf)

Directions:
**This week you will read summaries of several L2 Acquisition theories. Choose one to support, summarize it and share learning and teaching experiences that support your choice.

Attention!! Group leaders: If your name has an * in front of it, you are the group leader for the week 4 journal. Please get your summary and comments posted by Wednesday.

Andrew, *Evan, Swati, Sean

Young, *Justin, David

Greg, *Michael, Julie

Week 3 Dialogue Journals -- Morphology

Week 3 Dialogue Journals (due before week 3's class)

Hello everyone, this week we'll be covering morphology. The West reading covers the basic concepts/terms related to morphology and the Carlisle reading focuses on morphological processing and word learning.

Attention!! Group leaders: If your name has an * in front of it, you are the group leader for the week 3 journal. Please get your summary and comments posted by Wednesday.

*Jeff, Amy, Jasper, Liz

*Sammy, Kevan, Lawrence, Dee

*John, Laura, David

Summary guidelines: KEEP IT SHORT! A good summary is a shorter version of the original that includes only the main points. Try to keep your summaries limited to 200 words or less.

Comment guidelines: Comments should demonstrate your ability to personalize the material. Whenever possible, share your own experiences as language teachers and learners that relate to the assigned reading. This should be longer than the summary.

Week 3 Reading: 

West, Morphology: The Inner World of Words

Carlisle, J. Fostering Morphological Processing, Vocabulary Development, and Reading Comprehension.

**Read 'west_ morphology' first to get a handle on morphology, then read Carlisle. Summarize and comment on the Carlisle article only. Questions related to the readings can be posed to the community.

Personalize! Share your experiences teaching/learning vocabulary.

Note: Group leaders should post summaries and comments as replies to this post

Creativity and Assessment

I'm not sure how I feel about creativity in the EFL classroom. Of course higher order thinking is a great thing, but it doesn't seem to be in many job descriptions or part of assessment goals. Having said that, here's a brief article to get you thinking about the message our assessment is sending to students. You might consider this idealistic, but I think it is good practice to consider our students' perspectives. (I promise I'll start posting more practical/method stuff, but this is what I'm reading now)

Beghetto, R. A. (June 06, 2005). Does Assessment Kill Student Creativity?. Educational  Forum, The, 69, 2, 254-263.

I couldn't find a free version from my home computer, so...

Summary in ppt form

The Age Factor

Going back to last class' discussion about age, here's a brief overview of the research. This looks like a couple of grad students' project, but they do a nice job of explaining ideas, and most importantly, citing research. This could be a good place to start for anyone interested in researching this topic for later study or for any soon-to-be/current parents.

The Age Factor

Autonomy, Motivation, and Humanistic Teaching

Hi everyone, 

I wanted to share a few videos on learner motivation. Although these are not directed at second language learning specifically, researchers are beginning to apply these ideas to our field. 

This is Ed Deci, one of the co-founders of Self-Determination Theory. As you watch, think about your own motivation (or lack of) related to language learning or anything. Do you think his ideas apply to our students?

Is learner autonomy possible in our classroom? If not, what hinders it? Do you believe in learner autonomy? Do our students even want it?

 

This is a video by Dan Pink, a more dynamic speaker. He focuses on how rewards actually demotivate students. Citing a lot research, he makes a good case. What is your gut reaction?

Do you use rewards with your students? Do they always work? Do you respond well to rewards? If not rewards, what can we do to motivate apathetic students?

And finally, here is some Alfie Kohn, journalist turned education critic. I included him just because he is awesome. On punishment:

A Humanistic/Positive Psychology approach to education:

Thoughts?

Welcome to SMU-TESOL

Hello STG students,

Welcome to our class blog. My name is Adam Boothe, and I’ll be your SLA instructor for the next several months. I realize that spending Saturday night studying SLA is probably not ideal for most of you, but I hope to make it enjoyable and that you walk away from each class with something new to think about.  If you all look at language and learning in a new way, I’ll be very happy. At the very least, I hope you slightly adjust, radically change, or simply confirm your own beliefs about teaching.

We will be using this blog as a place to have more in-depth discussions than Google+. The blog makes it easier for me to keep track of student activity. Not that I’m policing you, but it will helpful for me to know who is saying what and when they are saying it.

I hope you consider this blog to be your space. I envision a blog full of links to interesting articles/videos/web sites/web tools, rants about difficulties with students/curriculum, and of course, discussion about class topics. I believe that more contributions make for a better experience. However, I do not want you to feel obligated to go above and beyond class requirements.

Speaking of class, I plan to make it as meaningful and practical as possible. This means that some tweaking will be done throughout the semester. These adjustments will not be major, but I would certainly like to cater the class to the demographics and demands of the students. Of course we have objectives and standards, but there will be wiggle room within those standards for you to pursue something you are passionate about. 

Some of you may have a long-term study plan in mind. If you do, and you want to adjust our assignments to fit your study plan/research goals, please do not hesitate to ask. I am happy to be flexible as long as all students are treated equally.

For the first class, I want you to think about the following questions. We will do a brief ice-breaker activity, so I want to give you a warning about the kinds of things I would like to hear from you.

1. Why are you here? Long/short-term goals?

2. What kind of teaching experience do you have?

3. What is something you have difficulty with teaching in Korea? (think less about culture differences, and more about curriculum/content)

4. What do you think is the most effective thing you do with your students?

5. Have you learned a 2^nd or 3^rd language? Why do you think you were successful or unsuccessful?

If you have any concerns about the upcoming class, email me: ajboothe@gmail.com

See you next Saturday.