R-A Chpt.13 Promoting Literacy Development

This chapter expands on the ideas of teaching literacy through a natural language framework that were introduced in chapter 5. They talk about using the language experience approach which is where the students begin writing experiences from stories and other things that they dictate to the teacher who then writes it down. I think this idea would work well especially with beginners because it will make it easier for them to connect written and spoken language since they will already know the meaning of the words since it comes directly from them. I was already familiar with the techniques discussed under the Literature-Based curriculum as I learned about the before-during- after reading activities in my content area reading class. I also found the section about feed back on errors quite helpful as I never would have thought of providing feedback on content/meaning based errors first and then the grammatical/spelling errors on later drafts.

R-A Chpt. 5: Literacy Development

This chapter discussed how to encourage literacy development in the second language classroom. They describe both reading and writing as interactional processes, and not only interacting with the text, but with the teacher and peers as well. The authors also talk about the whole language movement, which is the basis for a natural language/literacy framework which emphasises the importance of learning to read and write in order to communicate and survive rather than just teaching reading/writing skills out of context. I definitely agree that students will be more motivated to learn to read and write if it has an importance to them that is outside of the classroom. This is much easier in an ESL classroom than in a foreign language classroom, because the need to be able to communicate in the target language is there every day. However I feel that if the foreign language teacher sets up pen pal programs or other activities that involve the target language community, as the author suggests, it will greatly increase students' motivation to want to be literate in the language, more so than having them practice writing compositions that aren't really relevant to real life communication.

R-A Chpt 11: Storytelling

This chapter talks about how to use storytelling, drama and role play in the language classroom. The author gives examples of different types of activities you could do with different age groups and proficiency level. I honestly don't see myself using most of the story telling activities she suggested in a high school classroom, but I did like the role play situations she explained, and how the teacher can include students of many different levels in the same role play if she takes on a leading role and adjusts the input for each student so they will be able to understand and participate on their individual level. Also, in this chapter I could really tell that this book seems to be written for ELL teachers, more so than in other chapters. However, I still found it to be helpful and I could see how the activities could be adapted to the foreign language classroom.

Moeller handout: teaching literature

This article addressed the role literature plays in the foreign language classroom, and the author argues that it is an excellent way to teach the language within the context. It also gives examples of pre reading activities, activities to help with comprehension and building vocabulary as well as expansion activities(such as creative writing or performance of the story) and a way to connect it to the target language culture. I really enjoyed reading the article as well, I found it to be very informative on how to present literature to the class. It made me laugh when at the beginning of the article the author was talking about the "traditional" way of teaching literature which is where the teacher explains the "reading of the text" to the students with no interaction from them because that is exactly how my professor of Latin American lit teaches. I guess in his defense I should let you know that he is 80 years old, and from the looks of it I dont' think he's ha any recent professional development classes to update his teaching methods....

C&D Chpt 11: Connections Standard

In this chapter, the authors explained how to successfully integrate other subject area content into the language classroom. They discussed several different forms of doing this such as immersion and content based instruction. The pros and cons to these methods were also discussed and came to the conclusion that it can only be successful if the need to master the content does not overshadow the language and culture standards. I really enjoyed reading this chapter as I was worrying about how to go about planning for our connections demo. I feel as though this chapter helped me to see more clearly how teaching content can make the need to learn language more salient and at the same time reinforce other curricular standards. I think I now have an idea for my demo!

C&D Chpt. 7: Thematic Planning

This chapter gives very detailed instruction on how to plan your instruction around a central theme. It focuses on the importance of having a balance between language use, content and culture in the units & lessons while still connecting them all to a central theme. Although it was nice that the authors were so detailed on how to plan thematically, I found this chapter to be a little dense, and probably would have been more helpful in remembering the information if it was broken down better. I have already learned how to do backward design in the 502 class, so that was a nice review. I also liked the idea of having interactive homework, as I feel that students would be more motivated to practice their language at home if they are given an oral and almost teaching task to show their family what they have learned that if I were to send them home with a worksheet.

R-A Chpt. 9: Communicative Practices

This chapter explains the Natural Approach to language learning and its four basic principles. Later the author gives various activities that can be done in the classroom according to the level of speech production the students are at, including activities for TPR, roleplaying, activities that include reading and writing such as a penpal station and many more. I especially liked the section where they layed out different thematic units and included coordinating topics and situations. That part sort of goes along with what we were doing last week on the board, when we were trying to think of broad thematic units that would allow for the creating of "bigger idea" questions to guide the unit. I was also glad that they addressed the issue of when students should focus on form and high level thinking skills within the natural approach, because I was thinking that this approach wouldn't go very far a higher level language courses as I feel the content would be limited. Now I see that the content can be expanded on, so that the student's progress in the language can move beyond basic survival skills.

R-A Chpt 4: Participatory Language Teaching

This chapter discussed how classrooms and learning can be set up so that it is more participatory and collaborative between the teacher and students. Teachers and students share each others roles, however that doesn't mean that the teacher isn't the one in charge of the class and its attainment of their goals. I think that it is smart to empower the students to take control of their own learning, and especially teach them strategies(which this chapter listed quite a few) that they can use to do so. I however do disagree with what the author said about Theme Cycles, or where the students and teachers create the curriculum together, and from the previous theme chosen, they can pick the following theme together as well. I feel that it is the teachers job to have already planned the main objectives and big ideas for the course and shouldn't be decided on a whim. That being said, I think that as long as the teacher has the objectives in place, I don't see why the students can't take part in creating activities, or choosing their own projects as long as they meet the objectives. I could be wrong, but at this point in time, that is my opinion :)

Brooks, Donato & McGlone: "When are they going to say it right?"

This journal article discussed a study that was done to look at the types of discourse that take place during collaborative tasks. The four features that were studied were: metatalk, metacognition, use of english, and wispering to oneself. They found that by the fifth time around students' use of english and other talk had decreased. This is significant because most teachers would argue that any use of the native language in a foreign language classroom would be detrimental, but this study shows that it was only used when neccesary to figure out the task, and once students were familiar with what they needed to do, it's use declined. The authors also believe in a sociocultural perspective on language theory and conclude that classrooms rich in interaction are vital to second language acquisistion. In regards to the actual experiement conducted, I felt that the authors made it sound like a large number of students participated in their introduction, when in fact it was only 6 students I believe.

C&D Chpt 5

This chapter talked about literacy in the language classroom. The authors stress the importance of building literacy as reading and writing skills are important to to both the interpretive and presentational modes of language. They also say that teaching reading and writing skills to second language learners can begin as soon as possible as long as the basic skills are there in their first language and students either have the background knowledge needed to understand the text, or the teacher provides sufficient scaffolding. I liked the idea of having students keep some sort of word bank for learning new words. I actually do this myself, although in a much less organized way, but I'll scribble down words that I am unfamiliar with while reading so that I can look them up and try to use them in other contexts. I was also surprised to learn that having students take turns reading allowed wasn't a good activity to use. I always thought that it would help students practice pronounciation, but I suppose it is a waste of time if the students aren't paying attention to the meaning of the words they are reading, but rather just the sounds the letters make.

C&D Chpt 6

In this chapter the authors talk about cooperative learning and its place in the language classroom. They talk about the benefits of group and partner activities as being that they not only provide more opportunities for interpersonal interaction, but at the same time they foster the development of social skills. I had already read the Johnson and Johnson and Kagan articles so I was already familiar with some of the information about cooperative skills in this chapter. The second part provides sample activities which I found to be quite interesting. One activity in particular called my attention (the "find someone who..." activity) as I have actually done that activity in a college level Spanish class. We did it as a sort of icebreaker during the first class, but I think it could be adapted to fit many different lesson topics.

C&D Chpt 4

This chapter discusses Foreign Language Standards 1.2(interpretive mode) and 1.3(presentational mode) The interpretive mode includes activities such as reading and listening and the authors give various examples of how this can be achieved in the classroom through storytelling and listening and reading authentic materials. They stress the importance of these activities having a purpose and making sure they are the same linguistic level as the students. Presentational mode includes speaking and writing. They suggest many activities for this standard such as creating travel brochures, performing skits, and creating storybooks that can then be read to younger language students. While I liked many of the suggested activities, a lot of them probably would not be engaging for high school students, however I really liked the fantasy animal creation and I think that maybe older students would like it as well. I think a lot of fun could be had with the partner activity especially, where one student describes their creature and the other has to try and draw it.

R-A Chpt 3: The Role of Interaction

This chapter dealt with the importance of interaction and negociated meaning in language learning citing Vygotsky's ZPD theory. It also talked about how to deal with student errors, and that often direct correction is not helpful and that teachers should only worry about errors when they are habitual. The second half of the chapter addressed the role of grammar instruction and output in second language acquisition. While the information they offered on grammar instruction and how it is helpful when students are ready to learn specific grammatical forms, I felt that it would be very difficult to actually apply in the classroom, primarily because it sounds like it would be incredibly hard to know when students are ready, and I don't think its plausible to have an individual grammar syllabus for 30 different students. I also agree that output is a vital part to language acquisition and is what really stretches a student's target language development.

Kagan: 17 Pros & Cons

I probably should have read this article before the Johnson article. This one definitely does a much better job of showing both sides to cooperative learning. They discussed some of the pros to coop. learning such as building diversity skills and strengthening social skills while at the same time increasing student learning. Then they describe what can go wrong if cooperative learning is not implemented correctly. When I was reading the "Pro" of individual accountability and increased participation, I know on the teacher's side its a pro, but from the students' point of view its probably a con.... while reading it I immediately thought of one of my Spanish classes where the teacher stands up at the front with his stack of index cards with our names and photos pulling out names to answer his questions. In my opinion it makes for an incredibly stressful class, and I don't want my students to be stressed out. Thankfully I don't think this is what cooperative learning is about.

Johnson & Johnson: Cooperative Learning Overview

This article talked about the basic elements of cooperative learning and how there has been quite a bit of research done that shows cooperative groups (when structured and monitored by the teacher) increase learning among all students, more so than competitive or individual work. I agree with the authors in that individual accountability is key for the success of cooperative learning, as I can remember dreading group work as a child, because that meant I would be doing all the work while the rest of the group goofed off. I also felt that the authors sounded a little idealistic, in the fact that it is true that children working together will make them become more community instead of individually minded, however it certainly doesn't always work out. There are a lot of instances where instead of giving extra help to the less capable member of the group, they whine and complain and don't want that person in their group because they slow them down.

C&D: Chpt. 3 p.54-end

The second half of chapter three continues with activities/tips that can be used when addressing Standard 1.1, or person to person communication. It spoke mostly about how to invite students to move from listening to actually speaking. I thought that the "Answer precedes question" technique definitely makes sense, and I am also now proud to say I know what a dialogue journal is.

R-A Chpt 2: The Classroom as Environment for Language Acquisition

This chapter talks first talks about the similarities and differences between L1 and L2 acquisition, and that the similarities lie mostly in the process of acquisition. A few models were also introduced to help explain how the process of SLA plays out in the classroom. The two best known models are Krashen's Monitor model and the Variable Competence model. I personally lean more towards Ellis's Variable Competence model, because although comprehensible input is very important, I don't feel as though it is enough in order to progress in the language. I feel as though interaction helps lead the student on to the next level, where instead of just listening for comprehension, they will have to actively participate in the conversation as well.

R-A Chpt 1 From Grammatical to Communicative Approaches

This chapter discussed several different methodologies(which until recently have been dominated by grammar based methods) used over time for language teaching and devotes a section to the contributions of Chomsky to the field of language acquisition. His major theory was that some aspects of language are innate, and that everyone has a Langauge Acquisition Device which he likened to a sort of computer, and that computer would set itself to the appropriate language setting in which a child is born.
I find the idea of Universal Grammar to be very interesting, especially when they talk about how the brain is able to reset parameters in order to accomodate a second language.

R-A Introduction

The introductory section talks about the two sources from which the book draws. The first is second language acquisition theory and the second is critical pedagogy, or the idea that students should not be seen as empty heads waiting to be filled with ideas from the teacher, but rather as beings capable of taking on an active role in their own learning. The author extends this idea of critical pedagogy to teacher education students and advocates a participatory teacher education, where students are encoraged to reflect on what they are learning. When I wrote an essay last year about ESL instruction, I remember reading that in years past non native speakers were looked down upon in the teaching field, so that helps me understand the author's need for addressing the issue in the introduction.

VanPatten reading: 2nd half

The second half of this book focused on the role of output in SLA as well as answered some FAQs about SLA and discussed the Five implications for teaching a second language. I think that it is important that VanPatten stresses that not just any language can be considered output; only language with communicative intent can be output. I also liked the example he used with parrots to illustrate his point. The five implications for teaching are:
1) the more input the better
2)the more interaction the better
3)all learner production should be meaning-based/communicative
4) focus on form should be meaning-based and
5) we should watch out for what we expect of learners.
I feel as though the last one is quite important in regards to the attitude students develop towards learning a second language, if the teacher expects more from a student that they are able to produce, they may become frustrated and their motivation for further learning may be affected.

Shrum & Glisan: Storybased grammar

This chapter focused on the importance of implicitly presenting grammar through meaningful contexts, such as a story. The PACE model is introduced as one way of doing this. The first part of this method is Presentation, where the teacher highlights/foreshadows an aspect of grammar through the use of a story, song, etc. Then the teacher focuses the students Attention on some aspect of the language and through multiple passes, guides the student to focus on that one aspect. Co-Construct is when after meaning and comprehension is acheived, both students and teachers co-construct and explanation of the form in question. Lastly, an Extension activity is done, that requires the students to use their new skill, but in an interesting matter that is connected to the overall them of the lesson--- verb conjugation drills and fill in the blank worksheets are NOT acceptable extension activities! I think that this method of teaching is going to be a struggle for me, as it is totally not what I think of when I think about lower level foreign language classrooms. However I feel that it will be very worthwhile, because I was taught French in high school in a very explicit manner, which is probably why I cannot remember much today.

Weyers: Effect of authentic video....

The author of this report did a study to see whether or not exposure to authentic video in the target language(in this case a Spanish telenovela) would enhance students' oral output. The results of the experiment showed that the class who watched the novelas had significantly better listening comprehension skills and also scored higher on some components of oral speech such as speaker confidence and the scope and breadth of response. I really enjoyed this article. I actually started learning Spanish myself through listening to my husband's CDs and watching the telenovelas every night with his family. I think its great that there are research studies out there that confirm the use of telenovelas as a useful tool in teaching the language!

Winitz: Grammaticality judgement....

This article discussed a study that was done that researched the differences between implicit and explicit grammar instruction and the outcomes of each in regards to the students' abilities to judge the grammaticality of sentences. Their findings show that the group who received 6 weeks of implicit instruction scored higher on the grammaticality judgement test, however there wasn't a substancial difference between the groups on the regular end of course exam. I thought their comment about the effect implicit instruction had on students' motivation to learn a FL was interesting, and makes sense to me. I think that I would feel as though I was learning a lot more of the language if the teacher was constantly speaking in the target language, rather than just learning grammar rules and then doing practice exercise, which would motivate me to want to learn more.

Erten & Tekin: Sematnic related vs unrelated teaching sets

This journal article discussed a study that was done on how vocabulary is learned. This particular study taught 4 different sets of English vocab (2 sets semantically related, the other 2 unreleated) to a group of 4th graders in Turkey. Although there is a common belief (especially among text book authors) that vocabulary is best learned through presenting them in semantically related sets, this belief is not backed up by research. In addition, this study found that the students actually learned the unreleated sets better and were able to complete the tests quicker. I was surpised by the findings of this article. I also thought that learning words in related groups would facilitate learning. However, the idea about cross association and how it can hinder the learning process makes absolute sense. I'm still not exactly sure about the difference between semantic and thematic sets, however.

Curtain & Dahlberg: pgs. 39-54

This chapter talked about the foreign language standard 1.1, which is person to person communication. They stressed the importance of providing the students with a working vocabulary that would facilitate two sided conversations. Some of the methods/activities they suggested were TPR, TPRS(storytelling), and language ladders, among others.

I really liked the idea of using the Gouin series of teaching vocabulary/functional chunks and turning it into a cultural lesson as well. The Columbus series they showed not only includes Spanish culture but depending on the grade it could also be relevant to what they are learning in social studies. I also like how the book includes examples of these activities so that I can get a better idea of what they are talking about.

Curtain & Dahlberg: Chpt 1

This chapter focused the characteristics of young learners, such as cognitive characteristics, learning styles and developmental characteristics. The selection also talked about certain classroom conditions and factors affecting second language acquisition such as meaningful and interesting input and the nature of, and time allotted for instruction.

While I found the section on "Classroom Considerations" to be interesting, I felt as though much of what these experienced teachers were saying wouldn't apply to many foreign language programs. It seemed as though they taught in schools where foreign language programs began in kindergarten and were continued throughout. Most primary schools that I have been in are lucky to get foreign language programs at all. When I went to school, we weren't introduced to foreign language until 7th grade.

Curtain & Dahlberg: Introduction, etc

The introduction dealt with how methods of teaching foreign language have evolved overtime and how there has been a shift of emphasis from grammar to communication. The authors stress that communication will be the organizing principle of this book. They then give us key concepts of how K-8 learners learn languages best, and the standards for foreign language learning which are based on the 5 Cs: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities.

I personally have a difficult time grasping the idea of a foreign language classroom that is not organized around learning grammar. I agree that communication should be the most imporant aspect(as that is what learning a new language is for---to be able to communicate with speakers of that language) but my high school french classes focused a lot on grammar and grammar tests.

R-A Chpt 8 Physical Involvement

This reading talked about Asher's Total Physical Response(TPR) approach to teaching language. This method allows students to first listen and follow the commands of their teacher in the target language before they are required to produce the language themselves. This models how young babies/children learn their first language as they are able to show their comprehension first through pointing and other physical activities before they progress to speaking. Another method called the audio-motor unit is similiar except that the spoken language giving the commands, etc is a tape recording of a native speaker. This chapter also mentioned the importance of lessons that focus on meaning rather than grammar.

I think that this method is definitely a great way to get the class involved and a way for everyone to participate without the anxiety of being called out to repeat words they may be uneasy about pronouncing. However I feel that it definitely needs to be supplemented with other methods, as the text describes, as it would be hard to deliver meaning of abstract concepts through TPR alone.

VanPatten reading: Intro-p.55

The into to this book, talked about SLA research and how often the research done doesn't always provide answers to the questions teachers ask about second language instruction. He also introduces the purpose/layout of the book which is meant to introduce/explain SLA research in a concise format that is easily read by non experts in the field. This is something I can definitely appreciate. The rest of the selection discusses the "5 givens" of SLA, which are that SLA:
1. Involves the creation of an implicit system
2. Is complex and consists of different processes
3. Is dynamic but slow
4. Most learners will never achieve native-like competence
5. There is a difference between acquisition of an implicit system and acquisition of skill
The importance of input(language that learners hear/read and process for meaning) in the acquisition of a second language was also discussed.
One thing that surprised me in this text was they said that the context in which you learn a second language doesn't make a difference. I personally don't agree with this, as I would think a person learning a language in the second language context would learn the language faster since they are surrounded by the language both in and outside of the classroom. But perhaps he was referring to the process of learning, and that this process is the same for both contexts and wasn't talking about speed or ease.