I have never taken a university course that focused on grammar and vocabulary and look forward to this one. I anticipate learning meaningful and interesting ways to teach grammar rules at the same time as learning the rules myself.
I think grammar has had a bad reputation in the past because it has often been taught in isolated situations where memorization of rules has been the primary way to learn them. Applying the rules to relevant and authentic situations has often been missing in the learning process which results in forgetting the rule.
As an elementary school teacher, I have thought of learning vocabulary as acquiring new concepts. However, this would not necessarily be the case for many ESL students. They already have a vast amount of knowledge in their first language. Therefore, learning vocabulary would involve associating the English word with the corresponding concept in their first language.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
My Reflections - ESL Course #2 (An Introduction to Second Language Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening)
The role and value of the Canadian Language Benchmarks for Adults in assessment and program planning was an important part of this course. Other CLB documents that I became aware of and/or used during this course are Additional Sample Task Ideas, A Guide to Implementation, Companion Tables, “Can Do” Checklists and ESL for Literacy Learners. These documents are informative and will be used extensively.
Designing needs assessments and administering one to a student was a great learning experience. This initial assessment is useful for determining students’ approximate benchmark levels, interests, goals, and learning preferences. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing samples completed at the needs assessment session can be used to measure students’ progress throughout the course. Interviewing students individually may be time consuming; however I felt that I had learned things that I would not have known about the student had the assessments been completed in a group setting.
Another part of this course was developing a professional development plan. This was interesting and will be useful in providing a focus for future PD. The first step in making this plan was to research various ESL job descriptions. The next step was to list the key knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to do the job well. After that I highlighted all the skill areas that I already possessed. Anything not highlighted were skills that could become part of my professional development plan. After selecting fours skills, a plan was made to develop each which included the specific skill to be developed, actions that will be undertaken to learn the skill, resources that may be accessed, target completion date and how I will know when I have learned the skill.
This course continued with on-line viewing of ESL lessons. I enjoy watching and learning from these videos.
Designing needs assessments and administering one to a student was a great learning experience. This initial assessment is useful for determining students’ approximate benchmark levels, interests, goals, and learning preferences. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing samples completed at the needs assessment session can be used to measure students’ progress throughout the course. Interviewing students individually may be time consuming; however I felt that I had learned things that I would not have known about the student had the assessments been completed in a group setting.
Another part of this course was developing a professional development plan. This was interesting and will be useful in providing a focus for future PD. The first step in making this plan was to research various ESL job descriptions. The next step was to list the key knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to do the job well. After that I highlighted all the skill areas that I already possessed. Anything not highlighted were skills that could become part of my professional development plan. After selecting fours skills, a plan was made to develop each which included the specific skill to be developed, actions that will be undertaken to learn the skill, resources that may be accessed, target completion date and how I will know when I have learned the skill.
This course continued with on-line viewing of ESL lessons. I enjoy watching and learning from these videos.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
The Role of Learning Objectives in Planning Instruction
Learning objectives state what a student, course or program will achieve or do when provided with certain resources by the end of a specified period of time. A widely used guide to writing learning objectives is the acronym SMART which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-related. Learning objectives need to be specific enough and written in clear language so they accurately describe the purpose of the activity, lesson or course, and guide the planning and development of future lessons; measureable so students’ achievement can be described, assessed and evaluated; achievable for the students’ skill and knowledge levels; relevant and meaningful for the students; and can be accomplished within the available time period.
SMART objectives guide the teacher when planning learning activities. Measureable objectives provide the teacher and students with information needed to plan formative and summative assessment tools to measure the amount of progress that students have made for one or more lesson objectives. This information helps the teacher determine if new learning objectives should be introduced or is re-teaching is needed. Unachievable objectives could result in frustration for the students because the learning activities are beyond their zone of proximal development. Relevant and meaningful objectives and activities that are achievable in the allotted time will be highly motivating and could increase students’ participation and learning.
Clearly stated learning objectives allow the teacher to state why the activities are necessary to advance skills. This reason can then be articulated to the students and other people of interest such as the program co-ordinator.
Program objectives provide necessary information for students when selecting an appropriate course to advance their skills. The objectives guide institutions in developing courses to meet the needs of students at all levels that they intend to serve. Course objectives give teachers information about the approximate level of the students enrolled in the program as well as the expected level of skills and knowledge by the end of the course. Program objectives can be used by teachers to plan specific learning activities, gather resources for the lessons, and plan a timeline in order to ensure all objectives are covered by the end of the program.
SMART objectives guide the teacher when planning learning activities. Measureable objectives provide the teacher and students with information needed to plan formative and summative assessment tools to measure the amount of progress that students have made for one or more lesson objectives. This information helps the teacher determine if new learning objectives should be introduced or is re-teaching is needed. Unachievable objectives could result in frustration for the students because the learning activities are beyond their zone of proximal development. Relevant and meaningful objectives and activities that are achievable in the allotted time will be highly motivating and could increase students’ participation and learning.
Clearly stated learning objectives allow the teacher to state why the activities are necessary to advance skills. This reason can then be articulated to the students and other people of interest such as the program co-ordinator.
Program objectives provide necessary information for students when selecting an appropriate course to advance their skills. The objectives guide institutions in developing courses to meet the needs of students at all levels that they intend to serve. Course objectives give teachers information about the approximate level of the students enrolled in the program as well as the expected level of skills and knowledge by the end of the course. Program objectives can be used by teachers to plan specific learning activities, gather resources for the lessons, and plan a timeline in order to ensure all objectives are covered by the end of the program.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Language Skill Modules - My Reflections
Studying the language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) separately has enabled me to focus on the terminology and importance of developing each skill in a language learner in order to achieve communicative competence.
I can’t help but notice the overlap in the language aspects from one modality to the next. For example, activating prior knowledge before a learning activity enhances students’ ability to apply known ideas, integrate new ideas and participate in listening, speaking, reading and writing tasks. Expanding learners’ syntactic, world, socio-cultural, topic and genre knowledge improves students’ language learning in all four skill areas. A student’s reason for engaging in a language activity is also common across modalities. For instance, a student’s goal may be to get information by listening and/or reading; or to convey information by writing and speaking.
Although teachers may set lesson and assessment objectives that focus on one language skill, there is almost always another modality involved. For example, the activity of interviewing a partner with a list of questions and then introducing each other to the rest of the class may have a speaking skill objective as the focus for development and/or assessment; however, reading the questions, listening for answers, and writing the answers on the paper are also involved.
I think integrating more than one language skill in learning activities makes the activities more authentic, interesting and provides more opportunities for students to expand their language development.
I can’t help but notice the overlap in the language aspects from one modality to the next. For example, activating prior knowledge before a learning activity enhances students’ ability to apply known ideas, integrate new ideas and participate in listening, speaking, reading and writing tasks. Expanding learners’ syntactic, world, socio-cultural, topic and genre knowledge improves students’ language learning in all four skill areas. A student’s reason for engaging in a language activity is also common across modalities. For instance, a student’s goal may be to get information by listening and/or reading; or to convey information by writing and speaking.
Although teachers may set lesson and assessment objectives that focus on one language skill, there is almost always another modality involved. For example, the activity of interviewing a partner with a list of questions and then introducing each other to the rest of the class may have a speaking skill objective as the focus for development and/or assessment; however, reading the questions, listening for answers, and writing the answers on the paper are also involved.
I think integrating more than one language skill in learning activities makes the activities more authentic, interesting and provides more opportunities for students to expand their language development.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Listening Skills - How Important Are They?
Listening is perhaps the most neglected of the language skills. Reading and writing are associated with academics and therefore many exercises are built around them. Speaking is a necessary part of communicating with others in the classroom, and so that too, becomes an obvious teaching choice. Both writing and speaking are ways of assessing progress, because they result in particular ‘products’. But what about listening, without which meaning could not be communicated? How much teaching time should we be spending on explicitly developing listening skills? How are good listening skills linked to independent learning? Justify your answer.
After reading the above paragraph, I reflected on my teaching experiences which include teaching English language arts (L1) in elementary schools. Most, if not all activities had some listening component to them. Some activities involved students listening to instructions, repeating the steps in their own words, and then proceeding with the activity. Other activities relied on listening in order to learn a strategy. For example, when teaching students to make connections (text to person), they listened to a story and then told how something in the book reminded them of something that happened in their lives. The same was done when teaching text to text and text to world connections. The initial lessons to teach these strategies were listening centered activities. Eventually students apply the strategies to reading comprehension. Writing skills were also taught through listening and speaking related activities. After reviewing a week of lessons that I taught, it was easy to determine that listening was extremely important in all language arts classes.
I think teaching listening strategies to students learning English as a second language is as important as learning to apply the strategies in their first language. Students may or may not have learned listening strategies in their first language and if they did they may not be using them to learn the L2. For example, students may use the strategy of writing down relevant information from a message or text in their L1, however, may need specific instruction on applying that to their L2. Therefore, I think it is important to spend class time explicitly teaching these skills.
Another benefit of teaching listening strategies is that they will eventually be used to advance skills in other language modalities. For example, practicing the strategy of listening for transition points such as ‘on the other hand’ or ‘in conclusion’ will enhance students’ speaking, reading, and writing skills.
Students will become more independent learners as they increase the number and variety of listening strategies that they can use in their daily lives. For example, learning how to ask for clarification and listen for salient points will increase confidence, risk-taking and learning.
It is difficult to determine how much class time should be spent explicitly teaching listening activities since I have never taught English as a second language. However, based on my teaching experiences with English as a first language and the fact that it is one of four language modalities, I would assume approximately one quarter of the time should be allotted to teaching listening skills in an ESL classroom.
After reading the above paragraph, I reflected on my teaching experiences which include teaching English language arts (L1) in elementary schools. Most, if not all activities had some listening component to them. Some activities involved students listening to instructions, repeating the steps in their own words, and then proceeding with the activity. Other activities relied on listening in order to learn a strategy. For example, when teaching students to make connections (text to person), they listened to a story and then told how something in the book reminded them of something that happened in their lives. The same was done when teaching text to text and text to world connections. The initial lessons to teach these strategies were listening centered activities. Eventually students apply the strategies to reading comprehension. Writing skills were also taught through listening and speaking related activities. After reviewing a week of lessons that I taught, it was easy to determine that listening was extremely important in all language arts classes.
I think teaching listening strategies to students learning English as a second language is as important as learning to apply the strategies in their first language. Students may or may not have learned listening strategies in their first language and if they did they may not be using them to learn the L2. For example, students may use the strategy of writing down relevant information from a message or text in their L1, however, may need specific instruction on applying that to their L2. Therefore, I think it is important to spend class time explicitly teaching these skills.
Another benefit of teaching listening strategies is that they will eventually be used to advance skills in other language modalities. For example, practicing the strategy of listening for transition points such as ‘on the other hand’ or ‘in conclusion’ will enhance students’ speaking, reading, and writing skills.
Students will become more independent learners as they increase the number and variety of listening strategies that they can use in their daily lives. For example, learning how to ask for clarification and listen for salient points will increase confidence, risk-taking and learning.
It is difficult to determine how much class time should be spent explicitly teaching listening activities since I have never taught English as a second language. However, based on my teaching experiences with English as a first language and the fact that it is one of four language modalities, I would assume approximately one quarter of the time should be allotted to teaching listening skills in an ESL classroom.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Error Tolerance in Oral and Written Communication
We accept different forms of oral communication errors without penalty. Should we do the same with written communication?
For the most part, I don’t think we should increase our acceptance of errors in written communication. I say this mainly because speaking is a more immediate form of communication, whereas someone writing a message has time to re-read and edit. Having said that, there are other factors that need to be considered when determining the error tolerance for both of the above mentioned language modalities.
The purpose of communication needs to be considered before the degree of acceptable errors is determined. If a piece of writing is for one’s own use, such as a list of questions to ask the doctor, the number of errors is unimportant as long as the person can read their writing when the need arises. The purpose of a text message is to send a message in the shortest possible way which involves using untraditional abbreviations. Therefore, the number of grammar and spelling errors should not be a factor. The purpose of a sending all letters is to convey information. A friendly letter sent to a well known acquaintance, will have greater tolerance for errors than a cover letter with a resume to a company requesting a job interview.
The purpose of spoken language also determines the degree of accepable errors. Speech errors during a casual conversation between friends are unimportant and will probably go unnoticed. Error tolerance for a politician making a campaign speech at a convention would be much lower and could have a negative effect for him or her on Election Day.
The affect errors have on the message’s meaning should also be considered when deciding if the errors should or should not be accepted. For example, confusing ‘weather’ and ‘whether’ in writing alters the meaning more than mixing up ‘a’ and ‘an’; therefore, the later error will be less noticeable and more acceptable than the former error. Speech errors are less acceptable when the meaning is changed too. If need be, we usually ask for clarification and/or correct the person’s speech in a subtle way.
Overall, I think we will always be more accepting of speech errors than written errors. However, as discussed above, the degree of acceptance should vary depending on the purpose of communication and the affect on the message’s meaning.
For the most part, I don’t think we should increase our acceptance of errors in written communication. I say this mainly because speaking is a more immediate form of communication, whereas someone writing a message has time to re-read and edit. Having said that, there are other factors that need to be considered when determining the error tolerance for both of the above mentioned language modalities.
The purpose of communication needs to be considered before the degree of acceptable errors is determined. If a piece of writing is for one’s own use, such as a list of questions to ask the doctor, the number of errors is unimportant as long as the person can read their writing when the need arises. The purpose of a text message is to send a message in the shortest possible way which involves using untraditional abbreviations. Therefore, the number of grammar and spelling errors should not be a factor. The purpose of a sending all letters is to convey information. A friendly letter sent to a well known acquaintance, will have greater tolerance for errors than a cover letter with a resume to a company requesting a job interview.
The purpose of spoken language also determines the degree of accepable errors. Speech errors during a casual conversation between friends are unimportant and will probably go unnoticed. Error tolerance for a politician making a campaign speech at a convention would be much lower and could have a negative effect for him or her on Election Day.
The affect errors have on the message’s meaning should also be considered when deciding if the errors should or should not be accepted. For example, confusing ‘weather’ and ‘whether’ in writing alters the meaning more than mixing up ‘a’ and ‘an’; therefore, the later error will be less noticeable and more acceptable than the former error. Speech errors are less acceptable when the meaning is changed too. If need be, we usually ask for clarification and/or correct the person’s speech in a subtle way.
Overall, I think we will always be more accepting of speech errors than written errors. However, as discussed above, the degree of acceptance should vary depending on the purpose of communication and the affect on the message’s meaning.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Role of EAL Needs Assessment
Needs assessment results can be used to develop course goals, lesson objectives, materials and learning activities. It provides information on the students’ four language modality levels. Once this is obtained, the teacher can determine the benchmark level of instruction and plan lessons that are within students’ zone of proximal development. A class of adult EAL students will probably have accumulated diverse personal and work-related experiences, education, family responsibilities, future plans, and learning barriers which will shape their goals for taking the course. A needs assessment can assist the teacher in becoming aware of these goals and plan a program using topics relevant to the students. Knowledge of students preferred learning styles and group formats can be obtained from a needs assessment. This is important in order for the teacher to design teaching activities that will keep anxiety levels low and meet the needs of a variety of learners. A needs assessment can also assist students with learning more about their language levels and learning styles which may help them set goals and become more aware of their own learning.
An important function of a needs assessment is to establish a warm and welcoming environment so students feel respected, that they can take risks, and are comfortable speaking to each other and the teacher.
An important function of a needs assessment is to establish a warm and welcoming environment so students feel respected, that they can take risks, and are comfortable speaking to each other and the teacher.
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