Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Reflection # 1
Brown and others suggest that we teach the way that we were taught. Think back on your own language learning experience and discuss the setting (formal or informal) and age you were and what theory do you think informed your instruction. Have you found yourself teaching the same way that you were taught? If you have learned more than one language, compare the differences in the learning experiences.
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I took a French class when I first came to UTSA and I had not previously taken that in H.S. The students there had prior knowledge of French from H.S, so I had a hard time understanding and picking up what the teacher was saying I guess she expected me to know already some of the language but I didn't which made it hard for me. I thought since it was a beginners class that they would have gone a little slower but was I wrong. The experience was a bit frustrating due to the fact that I was lost and then she had the habit of picking students randomly, so when I got picked she put me on the spot which was emabarrasing for the most part. I would of liked more visuals and for the teacher to go at a slower rate. Maybe I would of continued in French classes that way I would have aquired a third language.
I learned to love reading at an early age and was a voracious reader during my elementary school years. I enjoyed reading any kind of books, especially about pioneers. These were self-selected books, not necessarily formally chosen books in school.
At the time, there were a lot of theories about "incentive programs" such as "Book-It!" and I definitely read more because of the Pizza Hut pizza that could be earned through Book-It participation.
In my own teaching, I have not found myself offering rewards for reading, such as pizza, however, I have found myself feeling discouraged more easily when a kid is really vocal about not wanting to read. I have a hard time understanding and relating to kids that refuse to volunteer to read during class because when I was a kid I was always the first one with my hand raised.
I was just as excited about reading when it was a second language. It was fun for me.
However, I've had the complete opposite experience with anything math-related. I really struggle to decode and understand chemistry or algebra. I had a lot of anxiety about these classes and would never have volunteered an answer for fear of being incorrect. I never felt like I had a teacher in math or chemistry classes who was really encouraging and supportive of me.
So, in my own teaching, I try to empathize with students who are not strong readers by remembering how I felt during math classes and teach using lots of support and encouragement, the way that I wish I had experienced those classes.
I agree with what Brown says. I don't actually remember learning English, I was too young and so I'm not sure that I know how I was taught. But, when I was in high school I took French for two years. I remember trying to memorize words, phrases and I can still remember short songs that our teacher tried teaching us. Alot of what went on in our class was repetition. To tell you the truth, half the time I didn't know what I was saying. When I first began teaching English, I made the mistake of trying this not very good strategy. It has been until recently that I realized I was doing something wrong. If I didn't learn French with the strategies my teacher had, why would my kids learn English with those same strategies? I don't necessarily think that it has to continue being this way. I have learned through my graduate courses that there are many strategies I can use to help my students be successful and acquire the language in a more effective way.
Besides the two languages I learned at home as a child, I formally studied English and Japanese. In my teaching, I tend to use some of the elements I used in my formal language learning that I found very effective, such as listening and repeating, songs,and associations. I also believe in teaching grammar foundations as well as some old-fashion drills (very little)since that helped tremendously when I was learning languages. I like using things that I found effective in my learning although they weren't formally used by my teachers, such as songs, magazines, TV shows and movies.
My experience in learning English as a child was both formal and informal. My household was composed of my dad and mother who spoke Spanish mainly. I say mainly because my dad knew both Spanish and English, whereas my mother only knew Spanish. So for the most part Spanish was spoken at home. There was also my older sister and younger brother but among us there was two of my cousins who grew up with us.
I remember I had difficulty in both languages when speaking them even in informal settings. I was corrected a lot from my elders and even my peers. In Spanish I was unable to correctly say the whole word and mixe some part of the word. I was taught to speak words correctly by repetition and breaking the words apart. My family and friends would help me break it apart and listen to them say it and then listen to myself say it. For example, the word stomach in Spanish is estomago. I use to say it "estogamo". And even though it was a mere error I could not get it right until one day after various repetitions, it just clicked.
In school, it was more formal becaue I was learning speech especailly when learning sounds such as ch, sh, th, etc. I remember taking small group classes. This was pull out classes in which we would do exercises and activities.
I do teach the way I was taught in certain ways. Rather than point things out because I do remember I would get embarrassed, I just model the language when they are incorrect. I modle it by repeated what they said or responding with the correct term/phrase. My learning was never hindered by my errors so I feel it is not a big issue to stress over but they are concepts that need to be practiced on. So practice is a big component for me, especially in oral communication. Plus, I do have small group sessions in the way I was taught, only with modified methods and strategies that I have learned and have been taught throughout the years.
I disagree that we teach the way we were taught. I believe we teach based on the philosophy of education we develop over time. The way we were taught shapes our perspective. However, the way were taught may serve as either a positive or negative factor.
In my formal language learning experiences, teachers used behavioral approaches, focusing on publicly observable responses. However, I believe in a constructivist approach.
There is a tendency among language (and perhaps all) teachers to do this to some extent, particularly at the beginning of their teaching experience. It appears to be a natural instinct to bring in our personal experiences. What is interesting to me is that we do this, no matter whether or not we felt that it was effective instruction.
In my case, as a second language learner of Spanish, my language classes in K-12 were taught in a predictable fashion that most closely resembled, and surely came out of, the Grammar-Translation Method. As Brown states, this method "does virtually nothing to enhance a student's communicative ability in the language (p.16)." I would have to agree with this comment. It felt like rote memorization, and the goal most certainly did not seem to be communicating with anyone in Spanish! I am fortunate to have studied Spanish again in college, and after the first (Grammar-Translation-esque) semester, I took a wonderful conversation and culture course, followed by a school trip to Mexico, and I FINALLY got it!! I started speaking Spanish in my sleep almost immediately, felt highly motivated in class, and began speaking to the locals in Merida right away. I loved my own language and I am very social, so when it meant the means of expressing myself and understanding others, I had immediate buy-in. I went back to school, changed my minor to Spanish, and have been traveling and learning languages ever since. It is amazing to me that those two months essentially changed my life!
Later, when taking Korean and Mandarin (Chinese) classes, I realized that there was definitely a way my teachers taught that helped me learn and a way that left me frustrated and baffled. I have great empathy for my students because of this, and always try to keep in mind what they must be feeling and how well they are progressing.
Because of this, as a teacher, I have always tried to emulate the more communicative method that I learned so much from in college, tying meaning into form and getting students to interact with each other as much as possible. As I have had the chance to work with and observe many wonderful, bright, and talented ESL/EFL teachers throughout my career, I have incorporated many of their great ideas and methods. Teachers should always be willing to learn more about teaching and to improve themselves, their methods, etc. The more open we are to new ideas, the better we can refrain from falling back on teaching the way we learned (or didn't learn) our second or third or fourth languages.
Do we really teach the way we were taught? In my opinion, we do not!!! Teachers have different teaching styles that reflect their personalities. As I think back at my own language learning experience, it was positive. I was placed in an English instruction setting. Although, my native language is spanish. I strongly believe they were positive due to the fact that I had older brothers and sisters that helped me with my BICS as well as CALP.
As a Kinder Bilinugal teacher, I do not teach the same way I was taught. My classroom setting is student centered.
I have to say that I am continuing in the process of learning a second language: English. I started to have contact with this language in Mexico at Middle School, where I learned words and phrases in a separated way. The classes were based just in translating, instead communication, pronouncing, and grammar issues.
According to the readings I think these process were far away from the teaching of the sixties, the method the teacher taught English was old. Instuction was teacher centered whereas, today it is student centered.
Actually, in San Antonio is the place where I am learning to communicate with people in different contexts, in a language that is not my mother tongue. Language learning is a procces that never ends.
Catalogue of language learning experience:
1. French-wild and free communication playing with French kids, some grammar lessons in school (10 years old).
Krashen's natural method plus some structuralist approach in school, e.g., fill in the blanks, grammar exercises.
2. Spanish-Structuralist method in high school class in Arkansas (yes, going from France to Arkansas was a culture shock). Translation both ways and plenty of grammar exercises supplemented by Nat King Cole's rendition of Mariachi songs for sing-along practice (audiolingual). (15 years old)
3. More of the same structuralist approach in university with Spanish literature and culture, translating into English and discussions in Spanish and English (18 years old). Major shock came when I was posted to Spain to be Marketing Manager for a purchased pharmaceutical company and had a hard time communicating because of the accent and the vocabulary for business, which was unfamiliar. I took private Spanish lessons, cut off all English thought, and was up and running within nine months.(40 years old).
3. In a graduate program in Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis University, I had a very traditionalist grammatical approach to Classical Arabic as used in the Koran. Learned to hate grammar and classical languages. (30 years old).
4. In Japan during the Vietnam War period (1970-72), learned Japanese on the street and via lessons with non-professionals. Krashen's natural method used exponentially! However, too much playing around resulted in superficial knowledge! Used Japanese for business and social purposed when posted to Tokyo in 1986 for a new product launch and corporate buy-out.
5. Learned German in a family situation, and took lessons at the Goethe Institute in Munich. Method: Structuralist--grammatical approach, learning German in German! Also private lessons, and teaching EFL to Germans. Also taught EFL to Japanese and Germans at Hitachi during 10 years.
I was 45 when I began to learn German, and it took about 3-4 years before I was fluent and fairly accurate. Keep in mind I contended with Hochdeutsch and the Bavarian dialect.
My teaching style is eclectic, and has differed from how I was taught in that I have taught commercially and recognize that I must satisfy the needs of my clients/customers. Thus I take a psychological approach, understanding the individual's situation (or group's situation), and seek means of helping them feel good about themselves through language. My philosophy is that you may be able to speak a language perfectly, but not communicate! On the other hand, you may not be able to speak or act out much of a language, but can communicate successfully using your personality and charm. So attitude and motivation enter heavily into how I approach language teaching.
I was taught in a very traditional system in Mexico City. My learning experiences were very systematic and exclusive of paper and pencil. My family and community were never a part of the learning process in the classroom (at least not conciously). On the other hand now that I am teaching I cannot repeat the same mistakes my teachers did with me. That does not mean that all my years of learning in Mexico were bad, it just means that I think I had more potential and my teachers didn't exploited. I now incorporate the old and new systems into my classroom. I teach in a very energetic, fun, and integrative way to my students. You can ask any of my students and they can tell you that they don't recieve instruction from a preacher everyday, or that they don't have to complete worksheets all week long. I try to incorporate those elements in my instruction, however they are not the essential factors for the teaching/learning environment in my class.
I went to school in Mexico. Teaching is so different there. I do not think I teach the way I was taught, but in regards to respect, etc. I do follow those beliefs. In Mexico, children are taught to respect teachers; parents respect teachers, and the community in general does. The respect for teachers is impertaive in my classroom.
As far as instruction goes, I am a lot more interactive and friendly with my students than the "evil" nuns who taught me.
I came to the United States when I was 11 and I was assigned to a monolingual classroom with no ESL support; sink or swim. Gracias a Dios, we went back to Mexico the same year.
As I look back upon my language learning expericences, I can remember clearly speaking in both Spanish and English at home. My father came from Mexico, and mainly spoke Spanish. My mother is a native Texan, and speaks mainly English. When I was growing up I spoke to my father in Spanish,and spoek to my mother in English. I remember that taking Spanish in high school, and learning by rote memorization. I thought it was meaningless, I felt sorry for those learning Spanish. Most of the teaching methods I observed in language teaching was merely rote memorization or "kill and drill". I will definately not teach using those methods. I feel the use of true authentic use of a second language is the best method of teaching. In other words, language learning needs to be more than just structural learning, but learning to capture true meaning.
Hey Ines, very interesting that a person who is fluent speaker of two languages has that experiences. I guess the teacher did not know how to tap on your prior knowledge and use that to build on a third language. This example helps us realize how important it is to assess students' knowledge before instruction and how important is it to plan instruction according to students' needs.
Who is Kinder Rocks? Just wondering.
I was an ESL student twice! I was born in New York; therefore my first formal language was English even though we spoke Spanish at home. At the age of nine my family decided to move to Ecuador, South America. I was mainstreamed in a third grade classroom and emerged in the Spanish culture with nobody to speak English with. I was so emerged in the Spanish language that I forgot how to even speak English.
At the age of fifteen my family decided to move back to United States. I entered the twelfth grade and was placed in an ESL class. Once again, I was mainstreamed in the regular high school curriculum classes. The theory the school I attended in New York was the old “sink or swim” with lots of mimicry drilling, theory. However, some of my teachers were helpful and used strategies where I was able to understand the concept of the lesson. Overall, my experience as an ESL student was challenging and complicated and confusing.
Currently, I am an ESL teacher. It has been a several years since I attended high school and I have noticed that the methods and strategies of teaching have changed in several ways. One major aspect of the changes are due to the use educational technology strategies and resources, such as computers and blogs, etc.
I use my own experience as a learner to teach, and I utilize dialogues, group work and lots of teacher-student’s interactions.
Rosa
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