Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Feb 9 Question #3: Additional contexts
In addition to age and proficiency levels, other contexts also affect how we teach and how our students learn. These contexts include, for instance, cultural background of the students, whether the learners are EFL or ESL, whether or not the teacher is a native English speaker, and even the type of institution in which English is being taught. Choose one specific context (other than age or proficiency), and discuss the practical considerations of that teaching situation. Feel free to include personal experience, but refrain from (1) negative diatribes against any particular cultures, and (2) general stereotypical statements about any particular cultures. If you want to criticize some particular aspect of a previous position you have had, please make your criticism specific to the particular teaching situation you were in, rather than assuming that all English teaching in that geographical location is subject to the same restrictions.
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I believe whether students are graded or not and whether the grades are important to them or not can make a huge difference in terms of teaching and learning. I want to talk about the situation in which students are going to be graded, and they also care much for their own grades.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, a teacher can have more control over students as an assessor. You can make your students stop talking by simply saying “Be quiet or you’ll lose your credit.” Furthermore, they would try hard to submit homework on due date and prepare much for the exam. How easy it’s going to be!
However, on the other hand, it could be very challenging for the teacher to intrinsically motivate students. In many cases, students care only for the factors that would lead them to a superior grade. The thing is that when we "have to" study something, it is so easy to dislike it. As a result, they might lose a chance to develop interest in English. After getting a grade, they might say “I’m done!” as they walk out of the classroom.
I have been in this kind of competitive situation in high school in Korea. Good grade was everything for us because it was extremely critical for entering a good university. One of the subjects was “English Oral Communication” with a Canadian teacher. Not wanting to give the teacher a bad impression, we’d rather keep silent than be talkative and make many errors. I think it could have been far more interesting if we just “enjoyed” the class without worrying about the grade.
If you teach in this context, I suggest to be fair in class (students are super sensitive if you seem to prefer one student), to include participation and oral test in your grading system, and to have a group project so that they can cooperate instead of just compete against each other. Also, let the learners believe that making errors is ok and doesn’t affect their grades.
I worked in a Korean public girls’ high school. The learners are in EFL environment and I am not a native English speaker. The curriculum which is designed for a specific goal is given to the teachers, which is to get the high school students to be prepared for Korean SAT. The curriculum enumerates all the beautiful intrinsic goals of English learning however, all the students and teachers know that they have to study English because it is in the Korean SAT.
ReplyDeleteLast year we were lucky to have a native English speaker as one of our English teachers. The eleventh graders whom I taught had a chance to have a class with her every other week during a semester. The first class was a huge hit. All the students were excited to talk directly to the native speaker. However the enthusiasm faded away as time went by. Most of the students could not understand her English, because the high school English classes focused on reading and listening comprehension and they did not need to practice to speak English because speaking is not part of the Korean SAT. Students started to lose their interest to have a class with her and began to think of that class as a break from their long hours of other classes. They started to use their cell phones, even though it was strictly prohibited in the class. Whenever the native English teacher said something, almost all of the students looked at me for translating what she said.
I think the failure of that class was the fact that the class materials were not included in the test. Devising objective principles for evaluating English speaking is very hard to make. And they had that class only twice a month. Because the grade is so crucial in their high school lives, the teachers have to have very specific and clear descriptions of their evaluation categories. Therefore the English teachers decided to exclude that class content from the school test and to let them have some fun in that class. In an ideal world, students are eager to learn and highly motivated. However, as a teacher I think that students do not study if there are no tests or homework. Even though the students will hate me, I want to make them work in my class or for my class. Therefore I think that a class should be directly linked to proper methods of evaluation.
As I discussed in my ideal teaching situation, a goal of mine is to teach English in a Spanish-speaking country, preferably Mexico or Spain. I know that I would feel out of place and would have to learn the culture to help shape the way I teach and interact with students.
ReplyDeleteTeaching in such a situation would make me become aware of the social, political and religious aspects of the country. I would need to make sure that I know the social mores of the culture so that I am appropriate with my teaching style.
Not only would my students learn English language and American culture from me, I would have their knowledge to help me learn about their culture and language.
I would like to comment on Heeny's post. I feel that grades in high school are important for all students that plan to go to a good college in any country and that as teachers we need to adjust the system, especially in language classes where progress should be easy to monitor but isn't if kids are afraid of trying due to a grade. My dad always told me "grades are not a reflection of what you learned, but of how quickly you managed to learn it." (And that was why my summers were spent learning the material that would be covered the following year instead of bumming around). His quote really stuck with me though and I feel that by giving students scheduled quizzes and tests we aren't being fair. A student who aces every test but can't retake one of those tests at the end of the year and do well is not a better student than one who fails every test but at the end of the year,if given the opportunity, could then retake and ace each one. In fact the second student has made much more progress than the first student because he/she retained the material, but that poor kid is stuck with a terrible grade because he/she learned the material at a slower rate. Whereas the first student probably had a terrific short term memory but that was all, he/she may not remember any of it. And then there are those who aced it all and did retain it but isn't he/she at the same level as child number 2 in then end, just with different grades? Does that seem fair?
ReplyDeleteSo as teachers we need to make a change! Give the quizzes and tests but then allow students the opportunities to take retests, as many as they feel necessary, (tests that cover the same material with different questions of course). Perhaps this would allow students to speak more freely in a language class because they would know that they could retest at any time through the course of the year as many times as they wanted, thereby encouraging them to get as much practice as possible so that with each test they would hopefully improve. So long as every student knows the material by the end of the course, who cares "when" they learned it?
Test and quizzes are good because they give the teacher a sense of where each student stands and they provide students with a time table of what is going to be taught and should be learned through the year. But opportunities to take a test again doesn't hurt anyone, it just lessens the stress level of every student. I realize that this may not be possible at every school because teachers don't always have that much control over their classrooms, unfortunately. But in a situation like that, presenting this argument to other teachers and then going forth to the person in charge together is worth a shot.
I'm going to answer this one and relate it to my ideal teaching situation.
ReplyDeleteBecause I speak a few languages and am a fan of foreign languages and cultures, I think that I would often resort to teaching English in a foreign country where I speak the language (Spanish/French/German) by resorting to explanations in the students' native language. Sort of "I know your language and a lot about your culture, now let me teach you mine [US English]."
So, I would like to try teaching English in a country where I do not speak the local language at all. I would like to go to one of many countries, both so that I could learn (some of) the language and the culture, but also - with my teaching - to be a sort of ambassador who happens to speak [is the term "use"?] and teach English.
I think cultural topics can and should play an enormous part in learning a second language, and that the culture of the language being learned is always a key component of teaching. As a person who arrives with my language and my culture, I would strive to share that with my students, but also make time in lessons and in approachability to engage with the culture of the student population, if at all possible.
It would be highly productive, I think, to make some US TV series or such content (that is current and popular in the foreign country) a part of the curriculum, so that students get to watch TV (or film) and concentrate with the knowledge that we will be discussing that content in class.
I realize that this approach would probably conflict with the goals and practices of certain cultures, schools, and programs, but it could be a lot of fun. "OK, class, now for advanced topics: humor."
I want to talk about teachers in the EFL context. Resent publications have indicated that up to 50% of a learners anxiety of language learning comes from the teacher. In an EFL context there a lot of perceived pressure on the student when communicating with the native speaking teacher. So as teachers we be self aware of a learner's affect. In such an environment I would suggest a communicative and cooperative approach to class lessons, so that the teacher wouldn't be the focus of the class which could help reduce said anxiety from the teacher. Also in an EFL environment there are little opportunities for authentic interaction using the L2 language, which is another reason the students in the classroom should be doing group work where they are having to use the language. This would allow the practice of the language among peers where there is less perceived judgment from making mistakes using the language.
ReplyDeleteTeaching in a foreign country that you have only studied the language but never interacted with and then coming into contact can be tuff. I am not a native speaker of the English language and teaching it to an adult class can become challenging. Even though I have lived in the U.S for a long time sometimes the American culture can become shocking to me, which can affect my way of transmitting emotions our believes of the American culture to students and this can handicap the students on fully understanding the American culture. I understand that it is critical to understand the culture of the language and I would hate to set back my students so I would let each student experience by them the culture than trying to teach them what to believe or understand
ReplyDeleteLanguage is tied to culture directly. Communities and cultures are direct results of language. This brings to mind the connotations of English being a “international” language. How is the English language effecting the culture it is entering. Is English negative or positive?
ReplyDeleteIn India many of the native language have been wiped out by the two dominant languages Hindi and English. This is when language dies so does culture. This is why it is important to teach English (or any language) without discrediting or lowering the status of the student’s native language. Teaching in a way that the L2 accompanies the L1 rather then over powers it.