Erica's Self Evaluation

My second mini-lesson went a bit better than the first one. I might have made it more communicative by playing Jeopardy! ® on the blackboard, rather than the computer. Being that far away from the class was a mistake. I couldn’t hear the students’ answers well, and it was noted that I frowned a lot when I had to ask them to repeat. Next time I would have the categories with answers written down and just write the categories and amounts on the board. Standing closer to my students and being more upbeat and enthusiastic would go a long way toward making the lesson super-communicative. I do think that letting the groups work together to come up with the right answer is a great group activity, but I would change it a little so that a different person each time got to answer out loud. That would keep any dominant students from doing all the work, and ensure that others got an equal chance to participate.

Erica's Test Evaluation

Subject/verb agreement

This quiz tests subject verb agreement, using the simple present and past tenses.

Practicality:
I found this test to be very practical. The quiz is available for free online, which makes it affordable, easy to manage, and can be easily printed out for the students. This class can also be taken online, but I would rather it be a pen and paper test, unless my class is spending a lot of time on the computer. For a key, it’s easy for me as teacher to answer the questions myself and then submit for grading. I can then print out the answer key for grading myself.

Reliability:
This test appears to be very consistent. It asks the students to choose between two possible answers. The tense is the same on each question, however. There is no ambiguity—the answers are clear.

Validity:
I believe that it is valid, both for content and face. The students should believe that they are being tested on whether or not they can properly conjugate a verb and make it match the subject.

Authenticity:
Authenticity is whether or not the test relates to the material taught, and I believe this does. If you are teaching grammar, you are going to explain to your students that some verbs take an ‘s’ at the end and some don’t, and it depends on your subject.

Washback:
Once students’ tests have been graded and returned, if they got any wrong answers that the other answer is the right one. I think that it may take another mini-lesson by the teacher to reinforce why, if very many students got a lot of answers wrong, though.

Listening - Types of Performance, Techniques, Assessment

I. Types of Listening Performance (Brown 308-310)
a. Reactive – This is essentially rote memorization. It is not as valid for an interactive classroom but it may have a small role in correcting pronunciation.
b. Intensive – For stressing specific components of language such as phonemes and intonation or for “imprinting” a phrase.
c. Responsive – Teacher speaks and students respond immediately. It can help with checking comprehension, questions and commands, or clarification.
d. Selective – Finding specific meaning within a longer discourse such as speeches, broadcasts, stories. This is similar to teaching the strategy of picking out the key words in an utterance.
e. Extensive – More effective for lectures and note taking and uses a top down method of teaching.
f. Interactive – Requires integration with speaking and other skills and includes all of the above types of performance. Leads to true, real-world communication.
II. Listening Techniques (Brown 312-317)
a. Bottom-Up – This technique goes from small pieces like phonemes to grammar specifics.
b. Top-Down – More concerned with schemata, which is what the student brings to the classroom.
c. Interactive – An exchange of ideas between two or more people and the effect that they have on each other.
III. Assessment (Brown 318-319)
a. Intensive Listening Tasks – More about distinguishing pieces of language such as phonemic and morphological pairs, stress patterns, recognition and paraphrasing.
b. Responsive Listening Tasks – This is about questions and answers
c. Selective Listening Tasks – Fill in the blanks, verbal responses, chart completion and sentence repetition.
d. Extensive Listening Tasks – Focus is dictation, dialogue, lectures and stories.
e. Interaction – Includes full skills integration and all of the above points including speaking.


Critical Thinking Questions
1. What type of technique would you use for the intensive type of listening performance and why?
2. How would you go about assessing a student or students in an extensive listening performance environment? Give examples.
3. In an interactive teaching situation, which uses all five of the other types performance, which performance type do you feel you might use more and why?

Erica & Yuni, Part II

Part II

Listening: Carefully consider the form of listener’s responses

In order to understand how much students know and comprehend, you must look at external cues such as doing, choosing, transferring, answering, condensing, extending, duplicating, modeling, and conversing. Different responses can be observed depending on the level of students, but in a current classroom setting answering seems to be the most frequently used way to check students’ comprehension. In the case of modeling, you need to try to induce students’ creativity rather than having them repeat the model.

Listening & Speaking: use techniques that are intrinsically motivating

Try to select the topics or activities related to personal interests and goals to increase students’ intrinsic motivation. For example, teachers can choose the topic relevant to “asking for a date” for young adults to increase their level of interest, but need to be cautious about sensitive topics. When you have multiple people with different interests, you can choose one topic for one day and another for the next day so that everyone can get interested in classroom topics.

Content-based Instruction

This method is more about the subject matter and not specifically about other language forms.

Lesson Plan

Age: Native Chinese-speaking Adults in EMBA program at UTA
Proficiency Level: High Intermediate
Institutional Setting: classroom of 6 students, 1 hour class
Terminal Objective: To be able to function in a business meeting conducted in English
Enabling Objective: To read a case study of a company (reading), hear a summary of a different case study (listening and speaking), and be able to answer 3 questions about what they heard (writing)
Materials: 6 different case studies (1 copy each); 6 evaluation forms (6 sections of 4 questions each)

Warm-up (5 min.) (L, S)

Have the students gather around a large table.

Teacher: Today we are going to talk about businesses. Can you tell me some successful businesses?
Ss: verbal responses
Teacher: What makes a company successful? Why?
Ss: verbal responses

Segment 1 (5 min.) (L, R)

Teacher: You each have a case study about a different company in front of you. Without reading the whole study now, but just looking it over, have you ever heard of this company? Have you seen or heard anything about the CEO? Remember, CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, or the head of the company.

Segment 2 (10 min.) (R)

Teacher: Now I want you to each read your case study, silently. At this time, there should be no talking, just reading.

Segment 3 (30 min.) (S, L)

Teacher: OK, has everyone read their case study? Great! Starting with David, I want you to summarize the case study for your classmates. You don’t need to read it to them, just tell them what the company is, who the CEO is, and some good information about the company. The rest of you should listen carefully to the summary. You have in front of you a sheet of paper, divided into six sections, one for each person, with the questions you will need to answer for each section. You may take notes if you want to.

Segment 4 (5 min.) (W)

Teacher: Now that you’ve heard each summary, write down the answers to the questions that I’ve given you.

Question 1: Who is the student who summarized?
Question 2: Who is the CEO mentioned?
Question 3: What is the name of the company?
Question 4: Name one fact that is interesting to you; this is your choice.

Wind Down (5 min.) (L, S)

Teacher: You all learned about several companies today, and the men who run them or started them. Were these companies successful? Why or why not? If they were, what made them successful?

At this point, the teacher should take answers from several of the students.

Teacher: Please hand in your evaluations. This was a great class today, wasn’t it?

Meaningful Learning Article

The article I chose is The Role of English in Individual and Societal Development: A View from African Classrooms, by Ailie Cleghorn and Marissa Rollnick. In this article, the authors discuss when to begin L2 teaching (English, in this case). They feel that, according to studies done, that the best time is either after or at the same time as the student is becoming literate in his first language. This is so that the mother language is not lost while the second language is acquired. The authors delve into meaningful learning when they discuss how important code-switching is for language learners. Just giving students vocabulary and grammar in a second language does them no good if they cannot understand that there are cultural differences between them and other language speakers. The goal is to maintain their own native culture, while preparing these learners for becoming world citizens.

Meaningful Learning

Record 1

Dwight Atkinson. 1999. TESOL and Culture. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 4: 625-654. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3587880

Abstract

Culture is a central yet underexamined concept in TESOL. In comparison to other fields such as anthropology and cultural studies, there has been little serious discussion and critique of the concept in TESOL over the last two decades. This article offers a reassessment of the notion of culture in TESOL, taking recent work in critical anthropology and cultural studies, and to a lesser degree TESOL itself, as a starting point. It proposes a revised view of culture that is intended to serve TESOL practitioners into the 21st century, or that can at least provide a takeoff point from which such a view may be developed.

Record 2

Cartes-Enriquez, Ninette, and M. Edith Larenas-San Martin. 2002. Orality in the Intelligent Classroom, via Computer. Estudios de Linguistica Aplicada, 20.36: 39-52.

Abstract

This is a quasi-experimental research project, the main objective of which is to develop the acquisition of English as an L2 in the fields of didactics & educational technology as applied to critical thinking. This work arises from the need to develop oral capabilities among university students who have studied English for 2 years in the University of Concepcion & still lack fluency, spontaneity, cohesion, adequate lexicon, & grammatical structures. The methodology is used to stress the communicative-interactive approach in hybrid classes assisted by the computer to develop meaningful learning. The research design consisted of a pretest, an assessment of the development of linguistic & cognitive strategies, & a posttest. Quantitative & qualitative evaluations were used to draw conclusions about language acquisition. 2 Tables, 22 References. Adapted from the source document

Record 3

Cleghorn, Ailie, and Marissa Rollnick. 2002. The Role of English in Individual and Societal Development: A View from African Classrooms. TESOL Quarterly, 36.3: 347-372.

Abstract

This article discusses sociocultural & other theoretical aspects of the language-in-education debate in light of their practical implications for language policy & teacher education in linguistically diverse school settings. We draw on studies carried out in African classrooms where subjects such as science were being taught via English, an L2 for most learners. Studies indicate that code switching offers an economical resource for constructing meaning in classrooms where teachers & learners can use the same home or local language. Language use within the classroom is thus seen in terms of the need to communicate meaning with the goal of ensuring access to knowledge & thereby fostering individual development. We suggest that meaningful learning contexts are likely to increase the motivation to learn English, ultimately fostering societal development within the larger global context. The article concludes with a call for the TESOL field to identify the full potential of code switching & categorize its functions so that teachers may be helped to use it purposefully. 1 Figure, 97 References. Adapted from the source document

Record 4

Evans,Simon. Graphic Organisers for Japanese Readers of Expository Texts in English. 2003. ICU Language Research Bulletin, 18: 1-17.

Abstract

This paper aims to establish a rationale for the use of graphic organizers in the second language classroom, with particular reference to the Japanese context. Part 1 examines background issues related to reading, including the cognitive reading process, the problems posed by expository text, & the difficulties that Japanese readers of English have, before moving on to look at learner styles & memory. In Part 2, the general value of pictorials is discussed before looking at one specific group of pictorials known as "graphic organizers." It is suggested that having students produce their own graphic representations of expository text can address a greater range of learner styles, lead to meaningful learning, & improve recall of information. 2 Figures, 4 Appendixes, 43 References. Adapted from the source document

Record 5

Meyer,Lois M.2000. Barriers to Meaningful Instruction for English Learners. Theory into Practice, 39.4: 228-336.

Abstract

Classroom examples are used to argue that lowering at least one of the four barriers to meaningful instruction for learners with limited English proficiency (ie, cognitive load, culture load, language load, & learning load) can trigger a "yearning goad," the desire to learn & do well. Teachers' practices in the classroom are examined & practical suggestions are offered to help them create meaningful learning opportunities & motivate students. 16 References. D. Ayoun

Record 6

Quintero,Josefina. 2006. Cultural Contexts in the English Classroom. Ikala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, 11.17: 151-177.

Abstract

Learning a foreign language is also learning how to discover and to value other cultures in relation to one's own. Educational policies in Colombia promote meaningful learning experiences starting from the curriculum design inside the Institutional Educational Project-IEP. This article presents the results of a project aimed at integrating the curriculum and English learning with the student's cultural context. Adapted from the source document

Record 7

Shaaban,Kassim; Ghaith,Ghazi. 2005. The Theoretical Relevance and Efficacy of Using Cooperative Learning in the ESL/EFL Classroom. TESL Reporter, 38.2: 14-28.

Abstract

The theoretical relevance & possible applications of cooperative learning (CL) in second language instruction are assessed. Following a survey of existing literature on CL, the various CL models - with specific references to author, date, & primary application - are presented in a synoptic table adapted from D. W. Johnson's et al (2000). A brief characterization of each is provided: (1) learning together, (2) teams-games-tournaments (TGT), (3) group investigation (GI), (4) constructive controversy (CC), (5) jigsaw procedure, (6) student teams-achievement division (STAD), (7) complex instruction (CI), (8) team accelerated instruction (TAI), (9) cooperative learning structures, & (10) cooperative integrated reading & composition (CIRC). Research shows the effectiveness of CL in developing students' positive attitudes toward the learning process & other learners & supports its use as a valuable instructional approach with the potential to promote meaningful learning. Empirical evidence is especially strong for the STAD method, which facilitates second language learners' acquisition of target language rules & mechanics better than individual-oriented instruction. A sample lesson plan for STAD is included. 1 Table, 1 Appendix, 43 References. Z. Dubiel

Record 8

Uribe Polo,Alejandra Patricia. 2007. Course Design and Evaluation in English Teaching at the Preschool Level. Lenguaje, 35.1: 147-186.

Abstract

This article shows the results of a research project that took place in the "Jardin Infantil Taller de Anik" about the design, implementation & evaluation of a curricular proposal for English teaching in kindergarten. The theoretical references were the developmental stages in children between eight months & five years old, the pedagogical principles for pre-school level, foreign language teaching to children from four to five years old & the principles of meaningful learning through pedagogical projects. The methodology that was used, followed the stages of action-research proposed by Lewin in 1947. Throughout the development of the research, it was possible to identify the main activities & materials that can be used in English classes with the students of kindergarten in a monolingual context & how the English syllabus of the institution can be organized. Finally, this research shows the importance of action-research for improving educational practices. Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document

Contextualizing Activities - Erica and Allison

Our activity

We selected "Happy Hopliday Hootinanny" from Dave's ESL Cafe. We're henceforth going to call it Holiday Charades. This activity essentially asks students to act out in groups different holidays from cards they draw. There is a word bank of holidays on the board. The cards list the holiday and activities related to its celebration. Each team must act out what is on the card, and points are given and taken away based on correct guesses, good acting, etc.

We feel this activity would be appropriate for students school age and up into adulthood. It could also be used in any setting. The proficiency level is appropriate to at least intermediate students and beyond. It might be difficult for beginning level students because of the vocabulary and exposure to the specific holidays.

For advanced learners, you could remove the listing of activities from the card, leaving only the holiday name. This way the students demonstrating cultural awareness as well as literal understanding of the language.

For very beginning level learners, we would modify this activity to involve physical activities instead of holidays. For example, the students would play charades while practicing the basic vocabulary for physical activities like jumping, standing, sitting, walking, etc.

In terms of institutional setting, this activity might vary depending on ESL vs. EFL settings. The original activity called for the teacher explaining the holidays more in-depth after they were guessed correctly. Depending on the proficiency level in an ESL setting, more prep work to familiarize students with the holidays needs to take place before the activity, and the game could actually be used as an informal assessment.

In an EFL setting, depending on the proficiency level of your class, you could adjust this activity to include native holidays in translation for beginners, to teach vocabulary of already familiar concepts. In intermediate settings, the game could involve holidays in common between the native country and English-speaking countries (for example, in China, you could play the game with New Year's, and after the holiday is guessed, explain the difference in celebrations in the two places). For advanced level students, the game could be played exclusively with holidays in English-speaking countries, to familiarize students with not only vocabulary, but cultural expressions in English-speaking locations.

Erica's initial web pick

The site I found is The Internet TESL Journal. This site seems to have it all: articles on different methods of teaching, lesson plans by different teachers, and actual lessons that one can copy and use. There are techniques and questions to ask learners about various aspects of life (which can stimulate a conversation).

I am finding it quite easy to navigate through this site. Everything is a link! If there is anything negative about it, it may be that it is just too hard to settle on where to begin. One page I found shows how to find a restaurant and read a menu. There is a link to restaurantrow.com, which has thousands of listings of restaurants all over the U.S. From there, there are specific instructions for the students to navigate through the site to find various information about specific restaurants. I followed some of the instructions and found myself quite bogged down in the amount of offerings, and actually lost a couple of times. But this is on an outside link, not the iteslj.org site.

Overall, I give this an A. I'll be back to use some of the material. One word of advice: open new tabs or windows. Sometimes it's hard to find where you left off.

Erica

Hello, I'm Erica and this is my first post. My first language is English. I also speak Spanish, French, and German. Well, I speak Spanish better than the others, since I began studying it at age 8. I don't get to use it often, so my vocabulary isn't the best, but I can converse. When I spent 6 months in Scotland in 2001-2002, I was translator to 2 Spanish women who had come there to work (I told them the Scots didn't speak English, but I don't think they really understood me). I took 2 yrs of French in high school in the 70s, then took 3 semesters here at UTA in 2007. I can hold a very limited conversation in French, and read and write it decently. My German classes were taken in the 70s as well, so I can only do basic things like ask for the toilet.

I have been a tutor for SOAR here at UTA for the past 4 years (thank you, work/study). My specialty is English Conversation (most of my students are Asians, but I've also had a Pole, a Venezuelan, and a Peruvian), but I also tutor writing skills, French, POLS and HIST. I'm taking this class because I plan to travel for a year, beginning in September, and I want to get a TEFL certificate so I can possibly teach ESL abroad. As well, I think this class will help me even more with my tutoring this summer. We have 23 new EMBA students at UTA's business college this summer, all from China. I'm tutoring 3 of them, so far.

OK, that's me in a not-so-little nutshell. See you soon!