Some Final Approaches Stuff

Key Silent Way ideas: what am I doing the Ss can do for myself, and awareness is educable. In evaluating something, whether positive or negative, consider “where’s the evidence.” Donald Freeman was Bev’s biggest influence. Mike wrote a book on the experiential learning cycle Bev described the concentric circles of language education, a la Silent…

Closure Activities

This is all from: Dörnyei, Zoltán and Murphey, Tim (2008). Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Four main functions of “closure”: Help students realize and summarize what they’ve achieved during the course Provide emotional finality Help students  think about what’s next (plan of action) Evaluate teacher’s work The authors quote Tim…

Feedback to Four Skills Class

Course Goals and Objectives In answering this I have reviewed the list of objectives and find that the course has met them each, with one exception: to develop an attitude of confidence. While I understand that that comes from experience, practice and moral support, perhaps there are some additional techniques we can learn so that…

MAT Internationalist Internship Standards

Teachers & Teaching TWBAT: Switch gears midstream when lesson isn’t working; be spontaneous when circumstances require it; modify or toss a lesson plan on the fly. How: Have eyes open to students’ reactions and my own feelings; ask students for their ideas; be myself and confident enough that my brain is fluid; have lesson plans…

Notes on Some Unread Library Books

Vella, Jane (1994). Learning To Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialog in Educating Adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers. 3–4: “A principle, the philosopher tells us, is the beginning of an action.” Her twelve principles of teaching adults across culture [all this is a direct quote]: Needs assessment: participation of the learners in…

4 Skills Double Class

It’s good to invite S feedback on topics to explore It’s okay to get the ideas and take them home to find the language first Be careful about trying to teach something Ss want if you’re not prepared Be yourself, though; don’t do topics that make you uncomfortable It’s okay to give them a choice…

My Survey Response for Adult Ed

Course Goals & Objectives The stated goals and objectives are definitely relevant. But, even though I didn’t know too much about adult ed for refugees in the US, I don’t feel I learned much. As I mention below, I felt the course design, being relatively broad in scope for a one-unit class, didn’t allow us…

Final Approaches Paper Notes

Graves, Kathleen [ed.] (1999). Teachers as Course Developers. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1 (Teachers as Course Developers) also by Kathleen Graves. “Prabhu (1990) defines theory in the general sense as an abstraction that attempts to unite diverse and complex phenomena into a single principle or system of principles so as to make sense…

Final Group Dynamics Paper

Hidden Dynamics For every thought we express during a conversation, there are probably several others that never emerge: ideas that are off-topic (or off-color), discourteous or otherwise inappropriate. And often what we do say is not really what we mean. For personal, cultural or other reasons, many of us are reluctant (or unable) to express…

Dell Hymes, RIP

Dell Hymes, Linguist With a Wide Net, Dies at 82 By Margalit Fox, November 22, 2009, The New York Times Dell H. Hymes, a prominent anthropologist, linguist and folklorist whose work mined the rich, often overlooked territory where language and culture intersect, died on Nov. 13 in Charlottesville, Va. He was 82 and lived in…

Writing Response Paper

[ELIZABETH’S FEEDBACK IN BLUE CAPS] Something I Learned About Myself as a Writer in My L2 I am out of practice in my L2 and had a very difficult time remembering even the basic vocabulary that I needed to complete my writing project. So I used a lot of avoidance strategies, as fundamental as changing…

Exploring How Texts Work

Derewianka, Beverly. Exploring How Texts Work. Victoria, Australia: Primary English Teaching Association, 2004. I borrowed Beverly’s copy. Here are notes I took, beginning with their page numbers. 3: “A functional approach looks at how language enables us to do things — to share information, to enquire, to express attitudes, to entertain, to argue, to get…

My Motivation

A brief note about the role of the institution in a student’s motivation. As the weeks have passed I’ve been hearing more and more about the sorry state of SIT’s — or at least the MAT program’s — fiscal and morale difficulties. I’ve learned that just before I arrived, the school laid off a significant…

Error Analysis

Read Ann Raimes and Jessica Williams articles. She began class, as she has before, by posting quotations (Raimes) around the room and asking us to go around and pick one that relate to our experience as teacher or learner.

Writing Module Reflections

This overlaps with some of what I wrote in my last post. The writing module was a little disappointing to me when I consider the excitement with which I approached it in the beginning. I don’t know what I expected, but it seemed that the process writing explanation was formulaic. I don’t mean to say…

Buffalo Creek Disaster Lesson

Topic: Part of a course on energy and the environment OR labor OR socioeconomics, etc. Students: Advanced-intermediate college students Linguistic objectives: Relevant vocabulary; build discourse from series of photographic images; past-tense constructions; critical thinking: articulating ideas based on prompts. Later component could consist of writing exercise and debate. Introduction to Coal Mining What kinds of…

Immigration Report

Here’s my PP presentation (in .mov format) on Mexican immigration to the US: Quicktime movie: Mexican immigration to the US I have no feedback to post from peers or teacher since I got only the usual post-yack applause.

Tanzanian National Anthem (in Kiswahili)

Mungu ibariki Afrika Wabariki Viongozi wake Hekima Umoja na Amani Hizi ni ngao zetu Afrika na watu wake. Ibariki — Afrika Ibariki — Afrika Tubariki watoto wa Afrika. Mungu ibariki Tanzania Dumisha uhuru na Umoja Wake kwa Waume na Watoto Mungu Ibariki Tanzania na watu wake. Ibariki — Tanzania Ibariki — Tanzania Tubariki watoto wa…

SLA Course Evaluation

Course goals/objectives [I wish I could’ve found the course objectives on Moodle (if they were there, they were hiding). One reason it took me so long to get to this is I never had time to dig through old papers to find them!] Elka was outstanding in clearly presenting expectations and objectives, and I never…

Writing Lesson Plan

Students: Advanced/intermediate teenagers and adults in Mexico. First class session. Objective(s): In the first week of class, provide the students with a introductory activity that taps into their life story as a source, helps them get to know their classmates and teacher, and let them experience writing as a low-stress, personal and rich experience; to…

Kiswahili Class

Kabla: Before (kabla ya) Baada: After Mada: Topic Kwanza: First Pya: New (mada mpya, darasa jipya, mwalimu mpya) Mtu (one person); watu (people) Vipi? How? (Like ‘What do you think?’) Namba: Number Chagua: Choice Mti: Tree They don’t say “mtu moja” (one person). Instead: Take the first letter of the noun and stick it with…

Process Writing Class

Put a tiny piece of paper with your name on it into a basket. Teacher assigns a scribe, and both teacher and scribe take part in the circle of naming things: Scribe writes what everyone likes to get as a present: book, plane ticket, Wii, camera, laptop, chocolate,  printer (and three “passes” — people aren’t…

International Writing Panel

1. What was an experience you had as a writer in English that helped your confidence? Why? [Importance to me as teacher: ascertain level of willingness, motivation, affect] Joseph: He always had a profound love for reading, which has affected his writing. “Once you embrace a language, you automatically embrace the culture.” 2. Were there…

Islamabad

My made-up lesson plan based on Alex’s Islamabad class exercise: Students: Advanced-Intermediate from varied cultures. Goals: Introduce students to key vocabulary in context. Engage and maintain their interest by the gradual unfurling of the story and by placing events into a physical and emotional context to which they can relate. Materials Required: Cuisenaire rods, blackboard…

Participatory Approach Reflections

Update 12/1/09: Culture: community-based: rules, norms, and conditions of Ss’ society Teacher: Facilitator, guide through codes and toward action, co-learner Teaching: Ensuring balanace, asking questions, focus on S strengths Learners: Active participants, researchers, problem-solvers, generally adults Learning: Rehearsing for real life, everyone teaches & everyone learns, language is means to an end (anti-banking) Context: From…

Reflections on the Art of Writing

I’m excited about this writing module. I think it will provide an opportunity for me to objectify facets of writing that I already know deeply but have never been able to articulate. But I’m also worried that this excitement may lead to anticlimactic disappointment: maybe teaching writing won’t be fun. I love how the Lucy…