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Reflections
on Readings Week of (8/27 - 9/10) |
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Readings
(8/27 - 9/10) |
Two Important Concepts or Facts
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Quotations
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| *Byrd, P. (1995). Writing and Publishing textbooks. In Patricia Byrd (Ed.), Material writer's guide (pp. 3 - 9). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. | * Materials writers need to have the target audience in mind when writing. |
*"Our target audience consists of other writers
who have already published ESL textbooks and ESL teachers who would like
to become published writers of textbooks." |
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| * Materials writers must remember the cultures and histories of the intended audience. |
*"We must consider our students' cultural histories,
their purposes for studying English, and the context in which English
is to be used." |
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*Dubin, Fraida. (1995). The craft of materials writing. In Patricia Byrd (Ed.), Material writer's guide (pp. 3 - 9). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
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*"Craft Knowledge" is the accumulation of experiences advice, practices, and ways of dealing with issues. Expertise in this area is vital for material writers. | *"Indeed, it is
universally recognized that experience as a classroom teacher is a vital
prerequisite for writing materials for use by a wider audience of learners." I like this quote because finally someone acknowledges the wealth of knowledge one gains while teaching in a classroom. |
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| * The "Voice of the Learner," the actual language used by the learner, is is not used as a teaching tool in texts. |
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*"Textbooks exist for the purpose of teaching
the language, or presenting "correct" forms, so any variance
from this standard would most likely be turned down at the first suggestion." |
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| *McDonough, J., and Shaw, c. (1993). Current approaches to materials design. In Jo McDonough and Christopher Shaw, Materials and methods in ELT: A teacher's guide (pp. 43- -62). Oxford: Blackwell. | * Since learning strategies are of benefit for all learners, teaching learning strategies is a current approach to materials design. | *"'Success' is
thought to be based on such factors as checking one's performance in language,
being willing to guess and to 'take risks' with both comprehension and production,
seeking out opportunities to . . ." I like this quote because it provides a unique definition for the meaning of success for certain students. |
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| * There are numerous approaches to design materials for teaching. The key is to use the approach relevant to particular teaching situation |
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*"They are design principles, and cannot have
equal and universal applicability: as we have seen, different teaching
situations have different requirements and expectations." |
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| *Jolly, D. and Bolitho, R. A framework for materials design. In Brian Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (pp. 90 - 115). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. | * Materials writers must consider several areas when developing a framework for their work: contextual realization, pedagogical realization, and the physical appearance and production before writing can begin. | *". . .We have
outlined and illustrated a framework for materials writing. Underlying this
framework are some beliefs and working principles. . ." I like this quote because it not only demonstrates that there is a framework to this area of expertise, but also show that their are beliefs and principle underlying the framework. |
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| * Materials Writing is a form of teaching, not a separate entity as some teachers believe. |
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*"However, we take an entirely different view,
believing that materials writing as a process is process without constant
reference to the classroom. Materials are written, materials are used
in the classroom to attempt to meet the need and subsequently they are
evaluated." |
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| *Holmes, Martin. Web-based language learning materials. Retrieved August 18, 2002, from http://web.uvic/ca/hcmc/rnd/weblang/ | * This site is an excellent example of the new trend in ESL education, new exciting user/reader friendly activities. | *Navigate through the exercises and see for yourself the wonderful learning experiences! | |||
| * This site offers the answer to many teachers questions about how to evaluate students in language acquisition. |
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| *Biographical statement on Martin Holmes. (n.d.) Retrieved August 18, 2002, from http://web.uvic.ca/hcmc/staff/martin.htm | * Martin Holmes is a brilliant researcher torn between his loves of technology and language acquisition. | *"I am now developing
Web materials and software programs at the University of HCMC as well as
doing a little on-line teaching." I am delighted with this point because it demonstrates the ongoing marriage of materials writing and teaching. The two cannot be separated. |
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| * Martin Holmes has developed his craft knowledge, which is important for a materials writer. |
*"Until 1988, I was an ESL teacher, and in
the last few years, I taught in Japan, Indonesia, Greece, Saudia Arabia,
and the UK (which is my original home)." |
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Readings
(9/10 - 9/24) |
Two Important Concepts or Facts
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Quotations
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| *Byrd, P. (1995) Issues in the writing and publication of grammar textbooks. In Patricia Byrd (Ed.), Materials writer's guide, pp. 45 - 63. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. | * Materials writers must use all types of activities to facilitate learning. |
*"It might be possible that the love of being
entertained and the value placed on individual self expressions in the
United States society has led some United States material writers, language
teachers, and teacher educators to a xenophobic rejection of the use of
memory and memorizing as valued tools in the learning process." |
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| * When writing instructions, the intended audience is must be identified before the initial stages of writing. | *"If you assume
that your audience is made up of experienced teachers who will understand
how to use your materials, you are not acknowledging the huge numbers of
new and relatively untrained teachers in our field." I appreciate this quote because many teachers have had no training in teaching ESL students. Material writers must acknowledge this fact when writing. |
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| *Conrad, S. (2000). Will corpus linguistics revolutionize grammar teaching in the 21st century? TESOL Quarterly, 34, 548 - 560. | * Corpus linguistics provide a new view of grammar which describes variation in frequency and use of grammatical constructions. |
*"Finally, changes in pedagogy will depend
on teachers' willingness to deviate from traditional grammar syllabi." |
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| * TESOL professionals can rely on Corpus based research rather that intuitions or judgments to analyze factors associated with the use of particular structures and to conduct analyses. | *". . . teachers
and students with computer access can analyze English language corpora themselves,
particularly as corpora become increasingly available on the World Wide
Web." This quote is interesting because it shows the abundance of information available for TESOL professionals. |
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| *Jones, S., Byrd, P., Allomong, S., and Tanaka, Y. Heinle & Heinle grammar activity inventory. Retrieved from http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/inventgrl/ | *This is a very comprehensive site! It it includes exercises from clauses to word ordering. | *Navigate through the exercises and see for yourself the wonderful learning experiences! | |||
| * The "Work with Illustrations" section will be a sure fire hit with any student. | |||||
| *Larson - Freeman, D. (2001). Teaching grammar. In Marianne Celce - Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd., pp., 252 - 266). | * Grammar is not a one dimensional concept. It includes form meaning and use. | *" . . . grammar
teaching is not so much knowledge transmission as it is skill development.
In fact, it is better to think of teaching 'grammaring' (Larsen-Freeman
1997; 2001) rather than 'grammar.'" This quote is meaningful because so many times teaching is so much more than knowledge transmission. |
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| *The teaching process is a multidimensional concept. | *" . . . teaching
grammar means enabling language students to use linguistic forms accurately,
meaningfully and appropriately." It is interesting that "successful" teaching also implies learning on the students' part. |
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Readings
(9/24 - 10/8) |
Two Important Concepts or Facts
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Quotations
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| *Coxhead, A. (2000). A New Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34, (2), 213-238. | *There is a new set of criteria by which to determine which set of vocabulary to introduce to students. | *This article describes
the development of a new academic word list, which was compiled from a corpus
of 3.5 million running words of written academic text by examining the range
and frequency of words . . ." There are sound pedagogical theories to the systematic presentation of vocabulary. This article lays the pattern for that presentation. |
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| *There is so much offered in the field to teach vocabulary. Learning how to critically judge the material is important. |
*One of the most challenging aspects of vocabulary
learning and teaching in English for academic purposes EAP programmes
is making principled decisions about which words are worth focusing on
during valuable class and independent study time." |
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| *Decarrico, J.S. (2001). Vocabulary learning and teaching. In Marianne Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd ed., pp. 285-299). | *Interest in learning a topic is increased by learning additional vocabulary. | *"Vocabulary learning
is central to language acquisition, whether the first, second, or foreign."
Teachers cannot not teach vocabulary. It is an integral part of learning. However, the methodology used to teach vocabulary should be considered. |
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| *Vocabulary knowledge set development is more than teaching sight word recognition. | *"'Knowing a word'
includes not only knowing the meaning of a word, its part of speech, and
its word family and other association, but also means knowing if its occurrence
is restricted by certain collocations." Teaching and learning vocabulary has a new meaning. It involves not 'knowing' the word, but also 'knowing all about the word.' |
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| *Groot, P. (2000). Computer Assisted Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Language Learning & Technology 4, (1), pp. 60-81. | *Vocabulary is at the heart of communication." | *"There is now
general agreement among vocabulary specialists that lexical competence is
at the very heart of communicative competence, the ability to communicate
successfully and appropriately." Teachers cannot not teach vocabulary. It is an integral part of learning because using vocabulary is how we communicate. |
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| *Technology is a valuable resource in the field of second language acquisition. | *"The naive view
that the vocabulary of a language should be seen as a "set of basic
irregularities" impervious to systematic study, and its acquisition
as a haphazard process of learning largely unrelated elements is long outdated.
Furthermore, the language teaching profession has come to realise that in
foreign language teaching, a grammar-oriented approach is not, to understate
the case, the most efficient way to achieve communicative competence." Corpus Linguistics at work. This article made corpus linguistics "real for me." It provide concrete examples of what I learned from the previous chapter. |
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| *Nation, P. (2000). Learning vocabulary in lexical sets: Dangers and Guidelines. TESOL Journal 9 (2), 6-10. | *"Real," "Everyday" English is to be taught as we use it, not taught as a grammar exercise formulated for a book. | *"In
addition to the criteria of and avoidance of interference, designers need
to apply a . . . normal use, meaning that . . . should occur in normal communication
situations, not in contrived language-focus activities." Learning should reflect everyday language use. |
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| *I am learning how to teach all over again. This concept is contrary to much of what I learned as a teacher in training. | *"It is difficult
for course designers, as well as teachers and learners to appreciate that
items in sets such as months, days of the week, and numbers are best learned,
initially, when not learned together." This will be an almost impossible task! For so long teachers have been taught the complete opposite. |
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| *Stoller, F.L., and Grabe, W. (1995). Implications for L2 vocabulary acquisition and instruction from L1 vocabulary research. In Thomas Huckin, Margot Haynes, and James Coady (Eds.), Second language reading and vocabulary learning, pp. 24-45. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation | *Vocabulary development has now been recognized as a key component of the comprehension process. | *"Current L1 research
suggests that vocabulary is much more central to understanding processes
that L2 theorists and practitioners have generally recognized." With this research readily available, teachers will have to rethink how a lesson is prepared and presented. |
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| *There are many constraints and contrasts on L2 students developing a set of vocabulary. | *"L1 children come
to the task of vocabulary learning with most of their syntactic knowledge
set, with a complete phonological system in place, and with approximately
5,000 - 6,000 words already known. By no means do L2 students begin learning
target language vocabulary with this extensive language background. L2 students
also are affected by transfer effects, . . . and/or processing differences
in the early stages of learning a new writing system . . ." There are many factors which affect second language acquisition. Developing a student's vocabulary will enhance this acquisition. |
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Readings
(10/8 - 10/22) |
Two Important Concepts or Facts
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Quotations
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| *Byrd, P. (2001). Textbooks: Evaluation for selection and analysis for implementation. In Marianne Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd ed., pp. 415-427). | *The most important issues that must be addressed in textbook evaluation is the fit between the materials and the curriculum, the students, and the teachers. | *"The evaluation
for selection process need to find out if the textbook can be used effectively
by the teachers to whom it will be assigned." I believe that the fit between teachers and text is the most critical step in textbook evaluation. If teachers are uncomfortable or not pleased with the text, it will be very difficult for them effectively teach the material. |
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| *Teaching is a multi-step process. It involves presentation, practice, and evaluation. | *"Teaching usually
involves an overlapping cycle of presentation, practice, and evaluation." This statement is interesting because so often, teaching is viewed as a 'set' of steps rather than a 'cycle' that overlaps. I view teaching as a cycle because so often, teachers have to revisit/reteach many concepts that are connected to other subjects taught within a school year. |
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| *Kessler, G., and Plakans, L. (2001). Incorporating ESOL learners' feedback and usability testing in instructor-developed CALL materials. TESOL Journal 10 (1), 15-20 | *CALL is a method for teachers and materials writers to develop learner specific materials based on their needs. | *"The need for
materials developed by teachers in our field is essential because these
individuals are the most immediate experts on the needs of ESOL learner,
the cognitive abilities of different age groups, and the language learning
process of their specific learners." All too often, the chosen text for a course does not meet the needs of learners. I believe the teachers are the experts in the field. CALL allows these teachers to develop materials for the specific needs of learners. |
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| *Materials are developed and tested based on design principles. | *"Developers should
consider who will be using the end product - their language level, nationality,
specific skill level, age, and familiarity with material type (especially
important in CALL testing). Teachers and materials writers are not creating materials just for the sake of creating materials. There is a purpose behind this development. These steps are just the beginning of the process of CALL materials development. There are many more steps in the usability procedure. |
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| *Reid, J. (2002). Dealing with reviews. | *Having a system for reviewing feedback, whether positive or negative, can greatly affect the quality of the materials or articles. These 6 steps outline the process of reviewing feedback. | *"I try to highlight
the good stuff (literally, with pink or yellow) first. Then I kind of divided
the criticism into NO, YES, and CHECK. I don't put many NOs, but lots of
CHECKs (which means I need to consider and then decide). I take care of
the YESs first, and read around those changes to make sure everything is
the surrounding area still 'fits.'" I believe that this step (#4) is the most crucial step in dealing with reviews. It it the stage where the feedback is actually incorporated into the materials. This implementation can either make or break the material being developed. |
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| *"And I reward
myself with ice cream" This final step is well deserved. |
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Readings
(10/22 - 11/5) |
Two Important Concepts or Facts
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Quotations
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| *Healey, D. (1999). Theory and research: Autonomy in language learning. In Joy Egbert and Elizabeth Hanson-Smith (Eds.), CALL environments: Research, practice, and critical issues (pp. 391-402). Alexandria, VA: TESOL. | *Learner autonomy reflects that learners have a degree of independent learning skills. | *". . . autonomy
to refer to the instructional framework: the degree of independence the
learner is given in setting language learning goals, the path to the goal,
the pace of learning, and the measurement of success." Learner Autonomy is very similar to the concept of Constructivism. The end result of both learning theories is to create independent learner, thereby increasing learning.. |
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| *Learner autonomy requires that students learn to control the many different aspects of learning and the learning environment. | *"For full autonomy,
a learner must be able to control the content and the structure of the learning,
including the time, the pace, the path to the goal, and the measurement
of success." Technology can be a valuable tool to create an autonomous learner. Various technological tools teach students to set goals, progress toward achieving them, and do a self-assessment - all critical factors toward creating autonomous learners. |
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| *Prowse, Philip. (1998). How writers write: testimony from authors. In Brian Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (pp. 130-115). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. | *Materials writing is a "science." There is a process to getting the most out of writing and collaboration time. | *"Writing together
means what it says: sitting down at a table together. We meet for a whole
evening at a time and are very strict with ourselves - no gossip or chatting,
just work . . . the actual writing process is something we have to do in
the same room" It is very easy to become sidetracked when writing. By sticking to the "writing rules" much can be accomplished. |
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| *Planning is the most important phase of materials writing. | *"This stage is
essential; it takes time, maybe a week or so, but it means that on the happy
day of "real" work, there's no such thing as writer's block, only
bad planning." Plan, plan, and then plan some more to create great material! |
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| *Reid, J. Developing ESL writing
materials for publication OR writing as a learning experience. In Patricia
Byrd (Ed.), Material writer's guide (pp. 64-78). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. |
*Authors writing what they are most familiar with presents them with the best opportunities for publishing. | *"I would therefore
be obeying the first rule for any kind of writing: write about what you
know." Fortunately, this writer discovered the market for her expertise. She then concentrated on publishing what she knew worked. |
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| *Job satisfaction is the first, foremost, and at times the only benefit to writing. | *"When I consider
a job, whether teaching, volunteering, or writing materials, I look for
the four S's: satisfaction, security, salary, and status . . . In our field,
only the first is easily achievable; the others are often dependent on individual
situations, luck, and perseverance." Future writers must recognize that there may not be great financial gains to materials writing. However, the satisfaction of providing much needed materials is worth all of the hard work. |
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Readings
(11/05 - 11/19) |
Two Important Concepts or Facts
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Quotations
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| *Chapelle, C. (1998). Multimedia CALL: Lessons to be learned from instructed SLA. Language Learning & Technology 2 (1), pp. 22-34 | *When developing CALL material for SLA, many things must be considered. This article offers criteria for developing this multimedia CALL. | *"Linguistic characteristics
of target language input need to be made salient." This is the first criteria for developing multimedia CALL. This quote demonstrates that language development should be the focus on the learning, not technology. |
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| *Evaluation is an important component of CALL material development. | *"Empirical evaluation
of learners' task use is seen as critical for making judgements about the
quality of the task." Evaluation is critical to determine the usability of materials and the quality of the task. |
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*Egbert, J. (1999). Classroom practice: Creating interactive CALL activities. In Joy Egbert and Elizabeth Hanson-Smith (Eds.), CALL environments: Research, practice, and critical issues (pp. 27-51). Alexandria, VA: TESOL. |
*CALL materials and computers are not mere drillmasters. They can be valuable teaching teaching tool for students. | *"Even simple computer-assisted
activities such as having learners create each others' resumes instead of
their own can stimulate conversation. It takes a great deal of interaction
to obtain a satisfactory result from this type of task." After reading this article, I said to myself, "Be creative! Think outside of the box!" I learned that there are many useful teaching tools, other than drill and practice routines, on the computer. |
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| *The goal of CALL materials is not to teach computer competence. Although those skills will come naturally through use, the goal is for students to learn language. | *"Students could
probably do all the activities described here with out the computer; however,
automation provides the means for students to focus more completely on the
language and ideas being presented and to proceed more efficiently in their
team efforts." The computer is a tool to facilitate learning. It is the presentation of the material that gives the computer the advantage over traditional learning methods. |
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| *Kol, S., and Schcolnik, M. (2000). Enhancing screen reading strategies. CALICO Journal 18 (1), 67-80. | *Traditional paper books are being used less and less, giving way to digital libraries. This article probes methods to enhance computer screen reading. | *"Although more
and more reading is taking place on screen, certain problems are still associated
with reading in this mode." Although electronic books are becoming a more viable reading method, there are problems associated with it, such as batteries required and cost. These are concerns that may prevent the average consumer/student from becoming totally involved in this form of learning. |
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| *Computer screen or page from book? Which should students use when learning? This article also describes a project designed to teach students strategies to facilitate their screen reading. | *"We hypothesized
that after learning to use the new strategies, students reading from the
screen would: scan better than those reading form paper; skim as well as
those reading from paper; and close-read as will as those reading from paper." The project taught students to "screen skim" and "screen scan." The results demonstrate that students reading from screen and students reading from paper performed eqully well in all types of questions on the reading comprehension test, whic indicates that students probably read as well on screen as they do on paper. |
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| *Shin, J., and Wastell, D. (2001). A user-centered methodological framework for the design of hypermedia-based call systems. CALICO Journal 18 (3), 517-537. | *This article describes the research on the educational qualtiy of hypermedia-based CALL systems. It describes how learning requires "self-regulation and the building of conceptual structures through reflection and abstraction." Proper CALL material design enhances this learning. | *"From a constructivist viewpoint, learning is not seen as a simple stimulus-response phenomenon, it requires self-regulation adnt he building of conceptual structures through reflection and abstraction." | |||
| *The design process begins with the distinction between the design issues and principles. | *"Issues reflect
unresolved questions regarding good design for CALL systems. Principles,
on the other hand, reflect those design concepts which are settled, either
because they reflect established precepts of good design or because they
have been derived from a previous workshop." Distinguishing between these is crucial. Only after this, can CALL process and design development begin. |
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