TESL 110 unit 2

The video discussion on creating an interlanguage really stood out to me. To me this is the reason for teaching and learning other languages, the ability to be understood. Being able to have meaningful communication in another language is the standard we all hope to reach. As Betty Azar discusses, vocabulary is the most important, but there is a place for grammar. Native language speaking is not important in todays multicultural society. It is all about fluency and accuracy, this will let students be able to be understood. The discussion that immersion will result in accuracy was also riveting. Her example of the student who was in college and still wrote relatively poorly was shocking. The fact that they had been in the USA for ten years and still wrote that way was crazy. Really showed me that there needs to be a focus on grammar.


resource:
2008 TESOL Panel: Teaching Grammar in Today's Classroom—Introduction: Why Teach Grammar?

TESL 110 unit 1

I found the quiz in this unit to be very eye-opening. It brought to my attention that we use grammar everyday but don't even realize how we are using it and if we are using it properly. I found some of the questions were hard and unfamiliar so how could I teach them. I would definitely have to brush up on a lot of my grammar rules in order to feel confident teaching grammar to students. I felt after this unit that grammar would be quite the undertaking and a long time learning process. I know of many people who are born here that have very disappointing grammar. It is a big subject and requires a lot of attention and foundations. It seems to be me that when grammar becomes more natural to students that their language capabilities would improve significantly. Making the teaching of grammar a very important subject.

TESL 130 unit 4

I found the different ideas of metacognition really useful and insightful, being able to teach students with promoting metacognition such as:

activating what students already know 

asking for "the muddiest point"

providing students with opportunities for reflection

students asking themselves questions as they read vs previewing the reading 

making predictions (what will happen next, what I will hear next in the lecture, what occurs next in the story)

teacher adding prompts during a task (in class or in comments on paper, for example) to make students think

thinking ahead to the next stage (what will I have to know next)

modelling metacognitive strategies.

Showing the students many different metacognitive strategies such as; 

record what they think they will learn in the course

reflect on their learning, as it occurs after each unit

use a checklist to track what they have learned/haven't learned

write  a reflective essay at the end of a course to identify how far they have come and what they have accomplished

The realization that getting students to achieve self-autonomy through their preferred learning style isn't always the way to go was another good point for me. That I have to guide students and offer them different ways of doing it is the best approach.

TESL 130 unit 3

This unit really showed me a lot about how much I predict what I will read. Using predictions based on title, images, content, figuring out a purpose for  the reading, determining who wrote the text, why, and where it is written. Realizing how much of this I need to convey to students and how much they themselves will be using these same strategies when they are reading was such an eye-opener. Teaching students to use strategies such as: 

using graphic organizers

looking for discourse markers

highlighting key words;

skimming

scanning

making predictions

reading for speed

re-reading

looking for context clues

think-aloud

text annotation.

will all be useful for students to know in order for them to be successful in the classroom.

My activity is based on the activity I did on food labels.
1) look at a food label and write on a white board each of the nutrients in a column on the board
2) under each nutrient ask the class if each is considered good or bad and write responses.
3) ask the class if they know any other words to describe each nutrient. i.e. sodium is salt, calorie is energy or any other examples.
This will give the students chances to get a better understanding of what other the nutrients are and how to determine which is good or bad when reading a label. 

References:

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (Rev. 4th Ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

TESL 130 unit 2

I found the website ( https://readable.io/text/ ) incredibly useful. To be able to measure so many options in a text is an incredible resource. It will prove to be a very useful asset in the future when looking to assign readings and being able to identify some possible problems that you'll run into when you get to that particular text will help me to get ahead of the problem.
When adapting the text in the exercise I find it actually quite difficult to just adapt it. There are always so many factors to consider in your classroom that to say that by doing this or that to a text has suddenly made it perfect for LINC level 4 mature students is not feasible. I could change some of the words and make them simpler. I could eliminate slang words and replace them with more common words. These could help make it more understandable, but the authenticity of the text might become ruined. Also different copyright laws can apply. I may or may not be able to make changes to the text if I'm able to use it all.
I found the screencasting technology unusable on my laptop. I witnessed other peoples castings and can see the usefulness of such technology. Though we are taught in this course that when using technology that you should be prepared for problems occurring. This particular technology was just not working properly for me to use. I spent far too much time trying to get it to work. In the future I would like to access and use this technology as the ability to teach with it would be worth the effort of figuring it out.

reference:
Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language

pedagogy. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.(Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015)

TESL 130 unit 1

In the, McCullough, G. What 80% Comprehension Feels Like (2016). It made me realize that only partial comprehension is very hard to deal with. It was frustrating not fully understanding what was being said. I found myself trying to use the whole sentence to figure out the word.
I realized that reading becomes a task taken for granted. When learning a new language there is so much more to reading than just recognizing words and what they mean. To be able to fully understand what is being said there is so much more required. The research on reading was especially useful.  The bottom-up and top-down processing was interesting. Realizing how we process a reading is infinitely useful. We don't realize what we are thinking when we are reading, just that it happens. Using schema theory and background knowledge helps us to decide what to hold on to and what to let go in our head. For extensive reading I found it surprising they suggest using longer texts. The fact that research suggests that giving a longer text will lead to the learner becoming more proficient with reading ability, linguistic competence, vocabulary, spelling and writing was interesting. The focus on vocabulary seems quite obvious and justified, how can you know what you are reading if you can't understand any of the words. I could not imagine the difficulty involved with teaching an L2 to an L1 who is not literate in their own L1.
The characteristics of written language was very interesting, reminding me that there is so much more to reading than looking at the page and understanding. Understanding the permanence of the written word and the ability to look back at the text reminds me of how I will reread a sentence when I am not sure of a word or what the text is trying to tell me. the processing time required reminds me of school when I would be ahead of the class in reading and the struggles some students faced when it took them longer to read a text. Giving enough time for all the students to read and process feels important to me. If you are rushed you tend to not fully grasp what it is you are reading and miss important information. Another good point for me was the interpretation a reader makes on a text. When not speaking to the author you can not ask them what they meant when they wrote it. The only clues we have to what was meant are graphemes. We only have so much to go on. The increase in variety in lexical items is also a big dilemma that L2 readers will find. I can think of many texts I've written where the words chosen seem to be more complex than necessary and would not be used in everyday speaking.

reference:
Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language

pedagogy. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.(Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015)

unit 10

Developmental process of teacher learning;
skill learning - teacher develops basic skills such as lesson design, classroom management, performance assessment
cognitive process - teachers formulate assumptions about SLA that stem from their background, experience, and knowledge.
Personal construction - through an ongoing reorganization and reconstruction, teachers actively construct a knowledge as new learning and experiences form a personal framework.
Reflective practice - teachers critically examine and reflect on their own teaching experiences, leading to improvement and further development.
Peak performers - believe in yourself, set realistic goals, set priorities, take calculated risks, reduce and mange stress factors
characteristics of effective language teachers - competent preparation and knowledge of L2 pedagogical principles, experience in teaching and ability to reflect, a love of language, critical thinking ability, willingness to take pedagogical risks in class, readiness to go the extra mile, cultural adaptability and openness to change, interpersonal communication skills, excitement to engage in professional development, a feeling of being energized as a teacher.
Classroom based action research - convert your ideas into specific questions, operationally define the elements of your question, determine how you will answer your question, interpret your results appropriately.
Teacher collaboration, learning from each other - peer coaching, team teaching, collaborative curriculum development and revision, presenting at a professional conference, joining a professional association of teachers, informal local teacher support groups,
Further avenues of professional development - reflective teaching journals, teaching portfolios, professional reading on your own, writing for publication,.
multiple roles of a language teacher - language specialist, craftsperson, artist, intellectual, researcher, learner, transformative reflectivist.
Guidelines for teaching with social responsibility - keeping an open mind, respect, morality and ethics.
moral dilemmas and moral imperatives - cultural biased of communicative approaches, disempowerment, balancing prospective, maintaining neutrality.

reference:
Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language

pedagogy. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.(Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015)