What we're learning from online education!

The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting. 
                                                                                                              Plutarch

 

Asians: Too Smart for Their Own Good?

At the end of this month, high school seniors will submit their college applications and begin waiting to hear where they will spend the next four years of their lives. More than they might realize, the outcome will depend on race. If you are Asian, your chances of getting into the most selective colleges and universities will almost certainly be lower than if you are white...

Please click here to read the rest of the article on NY Times

INTRODUCING TECHNOLOGY TO PUPILS

A Conversation with Betty Azar and her new co-author, Stacy Hagen

http://www.longmanhomeusa.com/professional_development.php?mid=180

ANOTHER STEP TO BE TAKEN

TCCRISLS 2012 - INTERLANGUAGE: 40 YEARS LATER

In her presentation, Larsen-Freeman suggested, “We should close the separation between learning and teaching and bring them back together.”

The topics on which she focused in the presentation

Part A

1- Definition of success

2- Attempted meaningful performance

3- Five processes

Second Language Learning; First Language transfer, second language learning, language transfer, transfer of training, and overgeneralization of TL rules

4- Fossilization

5- No necessary connection between units

The Ultimate Yardstick of Linguistic Success

Larsen-Freeman stated, “There is no ultimate homogeneous state to aspire to. The persistent instability of complex systems (Percival 1993) is due to the fact that a person’s use of language resources changes them, and I don’t just mean growth in the lexicon.”

Part B

Is it possible to reconcile the non-normativism of learning with the [apparent] need for normativism in language learning?

1-    Think in terms of capacity rather than competence.

2-    Think in terms of discourse domain.

3-    Think not in terms of telic conformity, but in terms of semiotic agility- the capacity for shifting “rapidly and fluently between and among semiotic words (Prior 2010, p. 233)

4-    Assess learning as a self referential way.

Part C

How does this play out in practice, you ask…

1-    Engage learners in activities that are rich in affordances (for particular discourse domain)

2-    Activity should be psychologically authentic (where the learning/ use are aligned)- making meaning

3-    Activities that can be iterated.

4-    That teach adaptation

5-    Then, stand back and respond in the service of learning.

Closing

“Knowing how to negotiate our way through a world that is not fixed and pregiven, but that is continually shaped by the types of actions in which we engage,” is a challenge of being human. (Varela, Thomson & Rosch 1991)

INSTRUCTED SLA: 40 YEARS AFTER "INTERLANGUAGE"

TCCRISLS 2012 - INTERLANGUAGE: 40 YEARS LATER

Bill VanPatten, in his presentation today, stated, “… instruction has no direct effect on competence…” In other words, explicit teaching does not affect learning. He also remarked that explicit instruction does not accelerate learning.

A participant, the owner of an ESL school in New York, asked Van Patten, “Then what do you suggest me to do as a school owner to help students learn?” He suggested a curriculum based on implicit instruction through pure communicative and task-based language teaching.

Before Larsen-Freeman’s talk tomorrow, I have several comments on his claim and suggestion:

While I support that (pure) communicative and task-based language teaching have great benefits in language learning, yet they not be left alone as mere teaching tools in ESL classrooms.

I have not yet come across any cumulative empirical data supporting that instruction does not have direct effect on learning or accelerate learning. Although VanPatten stands behind his assertion based on individual case studies, I have to make it clear that there exist not all but many ESL learners who read in English and speak to native speakers of English to a great degree and still fail to produce TL structures accurately.

Is it because they do not have the competence even though they may have processed the input or they may not notice the TL structures in the input in spite of input flood?

My answer is a big “No.” My claim based on my teaching experience is that explicit teaching should include and start with noticing/consciousness raising following redundant meaningful not pure but constructed communicative activities, in which ESL learners gradually automatize TL structures in their speeches. When I answer the question above, I remember Hinkel and Foto’s book (2002) “New Perspectibes on Grammar Teaching in Second Language Classrooms as Gass, Mackey, & Pica (1998) stated that input and interaction alone does not guarantee learner acquisition (cited in Hinkel& Fotos, 2002, p. 305).

Reflection on VanPatten’s presentation

Possible reasons why SL learners fail to produce accurate usages of TL structures:

1- Interlanguage
2- Forcing early output instead of waiting for the silent period to naturally end
3- Adult learners’ cognitive development (Intelligence, attention, perception, memory etc.)
4- Psychological reasons (Anxiety, motivation etc.)
5- Too much information that SL learners can process at a time
6- Teaching TL structures in isolation

Hinkel, E. & Fotos, S. (2002). New perspectives on grammar teaching in second
language classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

INTERLANGUAGE: 40 YEARS LATER

TEACHERS COLLEGE IS CALLING(3)!

*Saturday, August 11 - Workshop on TEACHING ENGLISH to CHILDREN

This workshop is designed for English teachers who are not experienced in working with children in a foreign language context. The workshop covers approaches to teaching
foreign language to children; activity and materials design; and classroom management
techniques.

TEACHERS COLLEGE IS CALLING(2)!

*Saturday, August 4 - Workshop On GRAMMAR FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

This new workshop was added to our schedule at the request of ESL and EFL teachers, who felt that their own grasp of English grammar needed improvement. Designed for both novice and experienced teachers, this workshop is designed to give participants an in-depth understanding of some of the more complex aspects of English grammar, such as tense & aspect, and reported speech.

TEACHERS COLLEGE IS CALLING!

Summer Saturday Workshops!

Boost your resume and gain new skills in teaching English with our
one-day workshops.


Every year, we offer special Saturday workshops on different TESOL topics that are open to both students and non-students in the TESOL Certificate Program. Click on the link above for more information and to sign up.

Teachers College has been at the forefront of teacher education for more than 100 years. We offer an intensive 8-week summer program in Teaching English as a Second- or Foreign- Language. The program runs from June 25 to August 17, 2012.

Our program balances practical, hands-on exposure to teaching with cross-cultural awareness and information on how English is structured, learned, and used.

ASKING QUESTIONS by Steve Darn & Funda Cetin

Asking questions is a natural feature of communication, but also one of the most important tools which teachers have at their disposal. Typically, teachers ask between 300-400 questions per day.

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From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle

This paper is my attempt to fill up that silence with words, words I didn't have then, words that I have since come to by reflecting on my earlier experience as a studentin China and on my recent experience as a composition teacher in the United States. For in spite of the frustration and confusion I experienced growing up caught between two conflicting worlds, the conflict ultimately helped me to grow as a reader and writer(Lu, M., 1987).

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Should There Be a Three-Strikes Rule Against Pure Discovery Learning?

In many ways, guided discovery appears to offer the
best method for promoting constructivist learning. The
challenge of teaching by guided discovery is to know how
much and what kind of guidance to provide and to know
how to specify the desired outcome of learning. In some
cases, direct instruction can promote the cognitive processing
needed for constructivist learning, but in others, some
mixture of guidance and exploration is needed (Mayer, R., 2004)

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AN INSTRUCTIVE ARTICLE ON MEZIROW'S TRANFORMATIONAL LEARNING THEORY

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SEVEN MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT LEARNING

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WHY EVERY PROFESSOR NEEDS LINGUISTICS 101

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HOW SIGNIFICANT IS PARENT ENGAGEMENT IN EDUCATION?

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THE TEACHERS COLLEGE TESOL CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

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CROSSING THE CULTURAL DIVIDE

An Engrossing Article on Cross-Cultural Communicative Competence (CCCC)

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AMERICAN ACCENT VERSUS BRITISH ACCENT

THE POWER OF INTROVERTS

DR. RANDI REPPEN'S TALK ON HOW TO TEACH GRAMMAR FOR THOSE WHO MISSED HER LAST WEBINAR!

Note: The first eight minutes is the introduction.

For apart from inquiry, apart from praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, and with each other (Freire, P., 1993, p.3)

A WEBINAR ON THE NEWEST PRACTICES IN TEACHING GRAMMAR MARCH 1, 2012

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

HOW DO BABIES THINK?

A GREAT ARTICLE ON INTERLANGUAGE AND FOSSILIZATION BY ZHAOHONG HAN

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BRING ON THE LEARNING REVOLUTION

IS OBSERVATION EXPERIENCE DURING PRACTICE TEACHING MEANINGLESS?

OBSERVATION IN LEARNING TO TEACH: FORMS OF "SEEING"

A CASE STUDY on TEACHER REFLECTION by Robert M. Boody

TEACHER REFLECTION AS TEACHER CHANGE, AND TEACHER CHANGE AS MORAL RESPONSE

A DIFFERENT FOUNDATION OF KNOWLEDGE

...[A]nother kind of knowledge is available to us, one that begins in a different passion and is drawn toward other ends. This knowledge can contain just as much sound fact and theory as the knowledge we now possess, but because it springs from truer passion, it works towards truer ends. This knowledge that originates not in curiosity or control but in compassion or love- a source celebrated not in our intellectual tradition but in our spiritual heritage (Parker Palmer, 1983).