Last blog entry - Class reflection

The very last class was short and sweet. It was fun to go around and have a look at all the groups' posters and leave comments. It was also interesting to see how each group's research product came out and how after the research everyone got to know their topic better and deeper.

To me personally, the class was not at all a piece of cake. Reading and reflecting, researching and discussing, all of these and many other things kept me constantly busy and even overwhelmed at times. However, after all the hard work, what i experienced and learned was numerous and useful. I was able to gain thorough knowledge of several issues in second language learning and teaching, as well as reflect on my own language learning process. I learned how the language teaching theories developed over time, and how each method can be applied into the real teaching context so that students can benefit the most. All of this will apparently be very helpful for me in my future teaching, since it now becomes clear to me that as a teacher it's important to not only know how to teach, but also to understand why i teach the way i teach.

The process of doing the multi-genre research paper is also fruitful and inspiring. Even though there were times i felt confused about what i was supposed to do, overall i learn how to manage my time, look for references, work in groups and be as creative as possible in creating the genres.

Class interaction is also what i like about the class. The fact that we work in groups most of the time to complete class activities as well as class projects did make learning more cooperative. And at the end of the day, i am glad that each of my classmate has a lot for me to learn from. I loved the experience-sharing part and was inspired by their teaching stories.

The very last READING REFLECTION of the semester: Assessment and Teaching

I am not sure whether this is just a coincidence or a purposeful arrangement, but this week's reading comes at a very sensitive and presumably right time of the semester and touches on an issue that is of great concern to students and teachers alike.

As a student i (and i am sure i am not alone when it comes to this matter) have always wished that we could just go to class and study without having to take any tests and exams. School life would be much less stressful and easier to students then, but at the same time it has to be taken into consideration that without tests, exams and other assessment methods, it would be very likely that students would get out of school with a mostly blank mind! And in my opinion, this may be one of the reasons why testing and assessment have, for a long time, become an indispensable part of every school system, or as stated in the book: "a way of life".

Personally i find the principles of language assessment presented in the book extremely helpful and practical, especially to novice teachers who have little experience in test designing. Among these principles, validity is, in my opinion, the most important and also most difficult requirement to meet, since this feature dictates the overall quality of the test as well as the extent to which the teacher is aware of what he/she is teaching and the students' performance.

Another issue which captures my attention is ethical matters in language assessment. While standardized exams produce reliable reflections of the language proficiency level of test-takers, they do not take into account many individual differences that may adversely affect learner performance in the test. I have a couple of friends who are very good language learners in class, but always struggle when it comes to exams. The reason is because they do not work well under the pressure of time constraint and thus usually do not have enough time to finish the test. This brings it home to me that a variety of language assessment methods should be implemented in the language classroom in order to reduce the level of stress and anxieties that students may suffer. Continuous long-term assessment is also preferable and should be given priority in language teaching.

Week 14 - Class reflection – Content-based instruction and Group work implementation

This week’s class started with Dr. Lybeck’s presentation about using Content-Based Instruction (CBI) in teaching Writing to non-native speakers. I was greatly inspired by the idea, especially when the content being implemented was Second Language Acquisition – a topic which is close to every language teacher’s heart. Also, since none of my language skill classes were instructed in this method throughout my English learning experience, it was hard for me at first to imagine how a CBI language class was like. And the presentation with detailed descriptions of how the teacher goes about teaching the students helped clear the mist of the unfeasibility of CBI in an EFL setting that had been with me since I was introduced to this method of instruction. This change of mind drives it home to me how as a teacher I can teach differently from the way I was taught, as long as the method benefits my students. Besides, as Dr. Lybeck stated, she wasn’t sure if the improvements the students made were due to the instruction or if there were any other contributive factors, still, I believe the instruction has an important part to play. One more thing this CBI writing course that I find really stimulating is that at the end of the course, students walk out of the classroom equipped with not only the skills needed to prosper in their academic writing life, but also a considerable amount of knowledge about second language acquisition that is surely beneficial to their language development in the long run.

Bekir, Kizuna and Veronika’s presentation about learning styles and strategies which followed was really concise and informative. One issue which was brought up by JoAnn during Bekir’s presentation about the use of group work and which is quite familiar to me was the fact that during group work, students may turn to their native language without teacher’s notice. Even though this is a quite natural thing to do when students at a modest language proficiency level have difficulty expressing themselves in the target language, it takes away one of the main purposes of group work implementation, which is to foster the use of English within smaller communities and to maximize students’ talking time. In my experience, many of my teachers used “financial punishment” to deal with this problem. That is to say, the teacher goes around to observe the students while they are working in groups, and apart from taking notes of mistakes and answering questions, he/she also listens and notices students who use their first language more than 2 times in the discussion and writes their names down. At the end of the class, the teacher reads the name list out loud and students whose names are on the list must give a particular amount of money to the teacher. In my case the amount was not too big but it was large enough to “bother” students who resort to their first language too often. Though this solution did work for some of the speaking classes I was in, personally I don’t like it since it seems too straight-forward and the involvement of money may adversely affect student-teacher interaction. To me, a more effective solution teachers might use is to assign each student in each group a specific role, and among which there is one called “moderator” – whose job is to make sure all group members limit their use of the native language during group discussion. The moderators may be asked by the teacher at any time during the group activity to report on how many times their groups have turned to the native language to make sure they are doing their job properly.

The last activity of peer-reviewing on the last two genres was useful as always. Also, I was glad that Dr.Smidt gave some explanations and examples of the posters that we are to make during the last week of class. This gave me a clearer picture of what to be included in the poster presentation.

Week 14 Reading reflection - Learning styles and strategies

This week's reading discusses the issue of second/foreign language learning from quite a different perspective: learners' learning styles and strategies.

According to the learning styles analyzed in the book, i categorize myself as a visual, extrovert, sensing-sequential, closure-oriented learner. However, before reading the chapter in the Apple book, i hardly had any idea of what my learning styles are except for the visual one, since i remember we did a survey on this matter during the first weeks of class. That's why i really like what the book says about the teacher's own awareness of his/her own learning styles, since they go a long way toward dictating his/her teaching style. Also, thanks to the reading i come to fully understand how important it is for language teachers to always keep in mind various learning styles of the students when designing classroom tasks/activities. Of course as teachers we can't cater for all of our students' need, but it always pays off to do as best as we can.

Another issue which captures my attention is whether or not to teach students learning strategies. In my experience as a foreign language learner, this is definitely useful and necessary. Such strategies as how to memorize new vocabulary and use them appropriately or using guessing abilities when reading, listening and speaking in a foreign language that I learned from my language teachers have been really beneficial to me. However, as indicated in the book, the teaching of learning strategies should not be made into a separate lesson, rather, it should be a small part which is well incorporated into the language lessons, so that learners can take it as a piece of advice rather than something they HAVE TO remember.

Week 13 classtime reflection

Although the reading covers many things, this week's class primarily focused on the use of literature in the language classroom.

Starting with Adib's concise and well-run presentation on using a short story (or fairy tale) as a teaching material, the class proceeded with another short story-based activity, and i really enjoyed the task we were asked to do: thinking of as many teaching activities developed from the story as possible. Our group worked hard and came up with 20 activities, and it was also interesting to hear other groups share their ideas. Through this activity i came to fully understand how such a small literature work can generate lots of teaching ideas and a variety of thoughts, how important it is for language teachers to be creative and adaptable in creating learning tasks, and one last thing being the sharing spirit among teachers. Since different teachers may have different approaches toward the same teaching materials, sharing experience and the tasks that are designed can help enrich the teaching scenario and circulate bright teaching ideas.

Also, as the issue of blogging was raised, i think i am one of the students in the class who likes blogging and find it interesting and inspiring. Since i have been keeping a personal blog on Yahoo360! for more than 2 years, to me blogging is not a stranger, rather, it is a good way for me to express my opinions, feelings, ideas and more importantly, to share and to be shared. Unlike a personal diary in which the writer writes to herself/himself, blog entries, as long as they are not so personal, are for the writer to share his/her viewpoints and emotions, which very often come out more easilyby means of writing than speaking. The exact same things apply to this learning blog of mine. I find the blog another means for me to communicate with my teacher and my classmates besides class hours. And it seems i am able to express myself much more here than in class, since 4-hour meeting each week is defintely not enough for everyone's ideas to be listened and shared. As a future teacher, i will definitely use blogs as one of my teaching tools, especially when i teach writing.

The following discussion about the final portfolio was really helpful, and Bekir and I were able to figure out what we needed to include in the portfolio. I found Pair-work work really well here.

Week 13 Reading reflection - Overwhelmed with knowledge!

This week's reading covers a whole bunch of practical issues in teaching and learning, and even though i felt overwhelmed to be taking in a large amount of knowledge all at once, there are quite a few issues that i am really interested in.

First, it is the use of literature as a material for content-based language teaching. I used to think literary works are very often difficult for learners who learn a foreign language. However, as the author indicated, there are at least three advantages to using literature in the language classroom, the most important of which, in my opinion, being that literature gives students insights into what and how language can be used to convey personal viewpoints. Thanks to the reading in which the author describes clearly how a content-based literature lesson operates , i can picture in my mind how i will be using literary works in my future teaching in a way that they bring effectiveness and freshness to my language class.

Another highlight I can perceive while reading is the use of project work and group work. These methods are extremely helpful in getting students to have closer contact with the target language outside the classroom, especially in the EFL setting. The wide range of project topics that are proposed in the book is really inspiring and practical as well. I am determined to appropriately apply these into my future teaching. With a bit of adjustments and creativity, i believe such group work projects would benefit students in many ways and create an authentic learning experience.

Week 12 class reflection

This week's class focuses on classroom observation and the features of different classroom settings.

Marya's presentation was very focused and task-based. I think our group had a good discussion in finding arguments to support for the use of communicative instructional settings. Also, the fact that this setting has the most advantages also made it easier for us to prove our points.

The next activity of observing and commenting on an English classroom in Korea was demanding yet interesting. The activity the teacher in the clip was carrying out was very much creative and practical, which can give students authentic language practice. However, he was apparently dominating the classroom with too many instructions and a lot of talking. As i was watching the class, i wonder if the students understood what the teacher explained or not, since they mostly just smiled and nodded their heads. But then i came cross the next clip which featured the students' activity right after the first teacher-talking clip, and it seemed all the students knew what they had to do and the exchange between the student customers and bank tellers went really well. This indicated that even though his instruction-giving techniques needs more skills, the teacher was able to get the students understand his instructions. Through this activity it became clear to me that apart from teaching, observing and evaluating other teachers' teaching is also an important part of being a teacher. As in many other professions, teachers can learn a lot from each other's success and failure. It is therefore necessary to develop a critical mind so that constructive criticisms can be made to enhance the teaching quality.

The next part of peer-reviewing the next 2 genres was useful. Our group reviewed the works of Aaron, Stephanie and Adib and i must say their genres are very well-connected to their research questions and after reading their genres i can clearly see the benefits of using creative written works in teaching. Also, our works were reviewed and commented by another group. The recipe received good feedback, but the diary genre definitely needs more work. I was really disappointed when i first heard the comments on our diary genre and for some moments it occured to me that the genre was a complete failure. However, as i think more about my classmates' comments and advice, i came to realize how subjective i was as a writer when i created the genre and i feel thankful because I had a chance to have my work reviewed.

Week 12 Reading reflection - Approaches to second language learning and teaching

In this week's reading i am especially interested in the three different approaches to second/foreign language learning and teaching that are brought into focus.

In an EFL setting, it seems to me that each of these approaches has its own strengths that can be beneficial to language learners at certain points in their learning process. In particular, for students at the beginning level, structure-based instructional setting can make it easier for new language items to be conveyed and absorbed, since linguistics items are presented and practiced in isolation and errors are frequently corrected. However, as students progress to a higher level, communicative instructional setting with greater focus on authentic language practice works best. Meanwhile, high-intermediate and advanced students may benefit the most in the natural setting, where the target language is frequently and naturally used.

Also, the natural acquisition setting with its unique characteristics captures a lot of my attention. Growing up in a tourist city in Vietnam which hosts a large number of foreign tourists every year, i have met with many language learners who are mostly souvenir-sellers and street-vendors and who learn the language mostly in the natural setting with no or very little formal instruction. Most sellers in a big market in my hometown can speak at least 3 languages and can switch back and forth among them depending on the nationality of the customers they serve. It is true that their language ability is very limited and most of the time speaking is the only skill they have, but the natural setting in which they use the language does make them fairly intelligible. This again brings into concern the importance of a natural acquisition setting in teaching English in an EFL context, which is sure not an easy task to achieve...

How technology can adversely affect the learning outcomes

It goes without saying that technological advances which have so far been used have gone a long way toward facilitating teaching and learning and make the classroom a much more modern and advanced environment to be working in for both students and teachers alike. However, on the other side of the coin, there also exists some situations in which the technology being used does not have as good influences on learners as expected.

In my own learning experience, technology-aided teaching has become a very common term to teachers of all teaching contexts, from elementary, middle, high school to university. Every year teachers are required to teach a number of lessons with the help of technology, which in my country would be automatically associated with the use of computers. However, what happened when i was in high school was as students we were mostly attracted by the fancy power-point presentation, how the animations were created and how vivid the animated effects were than the lesson itself. Once in my Mathematics class our teacher showed us a demonstration of how a certain type of graph was made and changed and it was so amazing that the whole class turned into a chaos of discussion about which shape the moving graph made right after that. It then took my teacher nearly 10 minutes to get everyone's attention back. Also, there were times when the power-point presentation went too fast that we felt like in a rush, which was affected by the fact that it was hard for teachers to estimate the time for students to take notes when he had had everything beforehand and did not write the stuff himself. Besides, the use of technology sometimes put into question the role of the teacher in the class. I had a couple of teachers who did nothing in class but read from his/her power-point.

Luckily, these incidents happened less often in my language classes. Still, it did occur that sometimes we students felt we missed out on emotional interaction, especially eye contacts with the teacher because she/he was more busy operating the technological equipments.

All of the above is just taken from my own experience and they surely do not speak for any conclusion or theory. It may be just a reminder that no matter how advanced and developed technological achievements are, they can never take the place of the human figure of the teacher in the classroom, since it's because of teacher-student interaction that people are going to school for.

Class time reflection - 3/11

This week’s focus is technology and how it can facilitate the teaching and learning of a second/foreign language. The first activity of brainstorming all the technological advances that can be used in the classroom is really engaging and inspiring, since apart from the usual equipments which are normally used, it was interesting to see my classmates come up with some very innovational ones such as coffee-grinder, oven, etc. I was bit puzzled at first at how these equipments could be used in the English class but then it became clear that all of them can be realia for teaching vocabulary. Also, personally I think the list would have been more concise and well-related to TESL if the definition of technology had been discussed before we started the brainstorming activity, for it is true that our present life is so much influenced by technology that it’s understandable for people to get confused between what’s technological and what’s not.

Besides, the short wrap-up clip about text and technology that we watched in class did leave an impression in my mind. I felt like I was blown away with the galloping development of technology described in the clip. That again reinforces in me the importance of honing my technological skills to be well-qualified for teaching English in the new era. I fully understand there are so many things about the application of technology in the field of English teaching that I have yet to know, and that’s why keeping an opening eye on these is important for me as a future English teacher.

Bekir and Brian’s presentation which came next was interesting and demanding. The textbook evaluation activity was practical and useful, although I wish we had had more time to work on it.

The last part about the final portfolio was, I must say, tough. It was at first confusing too, since I didn’t get it right when the professor mentioned the final porfolio at the beginning of the semester. Now as far as I understand we have to make an overall review of all the stuff we have been creating during the semester and put them under specific standards. This is definitely not easy, since in my opinion we could hardly meet all of these demands with the work in one course. However, it’s good to know we can do this in pair, which means I can share what I have with my partner and be supplemented with what I don’t have.

Reading reflection - Week 11

This week's reading focuses on a lot of issues that are close to the heart of second language teachers and the more i do the readings as the course proceeds, the more practical the knowledge in the books become to me, which very much nurtures and strengthens my teaching inspiration.

One thing i noticed about Chapter 11 in the HDB book is the different types of drills that are mentioned. As a language learner I found the drill practice carried out by my English teachers very helpful for me as i first learned a new grammar point. In fact, drills and the repetition that go with this kind of language practice give students necessary practice before they move on to the next stage of being able to manipulate the language by themselves. However, as mentioned in the book, the teacher should be careful when using drills, since the overuse of this technique can make learning repetitive and boring. Therefore, in my future teaching, i will try to make good and appropriate use of drills, with more focus being given to meaningful drills where students are required to produce both questions and answers, not just repeat a sentence and make some minor changes.

Textbook adaptation is also a matter of great concern to me, since i know not everything written in the textbook is appropriate to my students, especially when in Vietnam, English textbooks very often contain exercises/tasks that are mechanical and not very meaningful. For some exercises students do not understand the meaning of the sentences but still can do them correctly. Textbook adaptation therefore becomes more important to me as a way of improving my teaching quality.

The next chapter about Techonology in the classroom is also very informative and practical. Living in the technological era, hardly can any teachers in general and language teachers in particular turn a blind eye toward the technological equipments which are designed to enhance the teaching and learning quality. The benefit of using technology language teaching is of course numerous. One of my writing teachers once used an online forum as a supplement for his writing class and whenever a new thread was posted, it really got everyone in the class involved and contribute, which could hardly happen in a real classroom context. However, one thing that i myself have experienced and which i think can actually happen is that there are times when the visual-audio techniques being used are so dominant and impressive that they take away students' attention and it then takes a long time for teachers to reset the order. In short, whether or not technology has a postive impact on the language learning process all depends on the technological conditions available and the teacher's flexibility and creativity.

Class + Presentation reflection 10/27

Before our presentation Kizuna and I discussed with each other many times and it was really hard to come up with the activities that would be interesting and engaging to a class of all excellent classmates. Even though I did quite a few micro-teaching and presentations when i was at my home university before, that was my first time presenting in a foreign context and i knew it was not going to be easy.

We started quite well with the explanation of the first activity but then what we were afraid the most did happen: the questions were quite easy to the two teams and we wasted a large amount of time on timing for the answer. Also, the fact that there were quite a few students absent in the class that day did affect our arrangement. Luckily we received on-the-spot suggestions from our teacher and our classmates and finally were able to adjust our plan. The second activity went a bit wild but the follow-up discussion about novice teachers and experienced ones was really interesting to me and i'm glad our short skit was able to arouse quite a few issues for everyone to think about.

Though the presentation is not a requirement for me, i am glad that i did it because i was able to learn about things and skills that i would never know unless i myself actually carry it out. The saying "Learning is by doing" works perfectly for me in this case. I also came to realize that as teachers it's better to give students a task and make them produce a particular and real product at the same time. In other words, as Dr Smidt suggested, students should do something while they're discussing in order to be fully involved in the lesson. This would be a really good lesson for me and i'll keep that in mind in my future teaching.

Also, the next part about peer teaching and lesson plan review was very much fruitful and useful. I was able to discuss with my groupmates about my own lesson plan as well as learn from theirs. The 10-minute micro-teaching were also very effective and i can feel our group worked very hard and we had fun at the same time as well.

Week 9 Classtime reflection: I enjoy classtime and this turns out to be my longest entry ever! =)

First, I greatly enjoyed Stephanie and Chris's presentation, which clearly showed careful preparation and great efforts. I like the way they organized and carried out all the activities in a well-connected, smooth and lively way, which in itself is a good model of flexible and thorough lesson plan. One more good thing is that they two cooperated perfectly during the whole presentation, which somehow puts me under some kind of pressure since next week Kizuna and i are going to do our presentation on the same topic.

Also, Thea's sharing on her own experience in having students do the multi-genre research project was really interesting to me. Seeing the products made by Thea's students did help me visualize and understand better how diverse and creative the genres can be. Added to this, it was useful to know how Thea and other students in the class as well as my teacher would deal with plagiarism in the follow-up discussion. Every teacher obviously has his/her own way of handling students' misbehaviours, but here a common feature that can be seen is that tolerance and understanding play very important roles. From this i learn a good teaching philosophy: Don't ever push your students too hard and don't say to them: "You are NOT able enough to do this/that".

Additionally, the brief touch on "teachable moments" really attracted my attention. That was the first time i heard of the term and it sure is very much interesting. This, in my opinion, affirms the flexible nature of lesson planning and how being able to realize and utilize teachable moments can help language teachers arouse students' motivation and guide them towards a higher level of performance based on their personal interests. However, this ability undoubtedly does not come naturally. A lot of sensitivities, good observation and quick reactions on the part of teachers are surely needed.

What's more, i think the peer review session is really fruitful. Our group got a chance to have our works reviewed and commented by another group, which is an excellent way for us to look at our product from a less biased perspective. We were glad to receive a lot of constructive comments from Stephanie, Aaron and Adib and i think we'll be able to improve a lot on our genres based on their review. Apart from that, to me it was a great experience to read and review on the genres of Chris, Rachel, Mitch and Thea, who are working on the topic of Humor in TESL, which i find really interesting. Due to the lack of background knowledge, it was difficult at first for me to understand the humor presented in the products, but after listening to Brian's explanations, both Kizuna and I were very excited. However, as Chris pointed out to us, the most important thing about the genre is not the jokes themselves, but more significantly, they are able to prove that there is a close relationship between humor and the outcome of classroom interaction. One thing about this topic that just crossed my mind when i am writing this entry is: Does the teacher have to be a humourous kind of person to incorporate humor into his/her teaching? The reason i am asking this question is because i am not the person who are good at telling jokes or making other people laugh. A good sense of humor is just not a part of my personality and i wonder whether there are any rules/techniques that can be used. I know this sounds like a wild idea but i just can't help wondering. =)

One last comment I would like to make is that I really like the way the class gets more interesting with time and I am able to learn a lot from my teacher and my classmates. Also, one thing i can feel and enjoy is that as the course proceeds everyone in the class seems to loosen themselves a little more. All of this makes learning a much more non-threatening experience.

Reading reflection Week 9: How my teaching desire grows stronger...

In this week's reading, I found the chapter on textbook evaluation and implementation greatly practical and useful. After reading the chapters i am able to identify where i will be at in my future teaching concerning the choice of textbooks. Specifically, in my future teaching context in Vietnam, the Ministry of Education and Training publishes their own version of national textbooks and i will have to stick to their designs as long as i am still teaching at Mid/High school. I know this means i will not have much freedom regarding what to teach, but at the same time it gives novice teachers like me crucial initial guidelines as to how i am to plan and teach a lesson of my own. Also, as stated in the book, a nationalized textbook does not close off all of teachers' own choices. The door to creative and active teaching is still wide open provided that language teachers know how to maximize their "power".

Also, the part about "The fit between Students and Texts", in which one of the criteria under investigation is how Exercises/Tasks provided in the textbook relate to students' interests, did very much remind me of the different textbooks that i had when learning foreign languages. These examples again are about my French versus English learning experience, and this time it is about the textbooks being used. For my English classes, all of the content of the textbooks used in all grades focus on very general everyday and social issues such as environment, festivals, family, school life, etc., which are of course all useful for us students with respect to vocabulary and grammar acquisition. However, when it comes to my French textbook (which was the authentic ones written by native French speakers), since the title of the textbook is "ADO" - the abbreviation for "adolescent" in French, the story is totally different: most of the book is amazingly about popular teenage issues and problems such as dressing styles, hairstyles, boyfriend/girlfriend affairs, generation gap/conflicts and so on. It is therefore not very difficult for you to imagine how much we loved the fantastic French textbook compared with its practical yet not-very-fanciful English counterpart. As a result, even though French is not our main foreign language, my friends and I really enjoyed the class and we even tried to look up the new words before class to understand the teenage stories that were featured in the textbook, which really amazed my French teacher. This greatly brings it home to me how a student-oriented textbook version can help make teaching and learning more interesting and appealing to teachers and students alike.

Finally, to tell you the truth, the more I read about lesson planning and textbook evaluation in this week's reading, the more my desire for teaching grows stronger and the more i want to apply those guidelines and evaluation techniques that are put forward in the book into my future teaching. I can feel very clearly here how inspiring this reading time is to me as a reader and a future language teacher.

Week 8 Classtime reflection

First, regarding the class discussion about our ancestors' language, i was really amazed by the fact that many of my classmates have very diverse family backgrounds and it was really interesting to hear how the language their great-grandparents talked connect to them and why knowing the language helps them better understand their personal identities. Though in Vietnam families members very often speak the same language throughout the family history, i have met here in the US many young Vietnamese Americans being born and growing up with the English language and knowing very little Vietnamese who also develop a desire to learn Vietnamese at a later point in their life as a means of defining who they really are. This, together with what many students shared in the class, helps solidifies the idea that learning a language is indeed a process of discovering one's own self, and though it is always good to master a foreign language, it is even better that you don't lose your own unique identities as you try to integrate into your target language's environment.

Also, I found Jodie's presentation really interesting, especially when she showed a short video featuring how people speak different dialects in different places in the US. This reminded me of one element in this week's reading, that teachers should not only teach students standard English but also need to direct their attention to various varieties of English, so that the students know what to expect when encountering real English usage in everyday contexts.

The following activity of using post-it items to match settings with definitions was a little bit messed up but still it helped reinforce what i previously read for the class and sort out important points.

Week 8 Reading reflection: NESTs vs. Non-NESTs

This week's reading delves into an issue about which i have always developed and nurtured quite a lot of thoughts: Who makes a better English teacher, Native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) or non-native English-speaking teachers (non-NESTs)?

As i read the first part of Peter Medgyes's essay in the Apple book, i was filled with a feeling of inferiority and a lack of self-confidence. The reason is clear: as a non-NEST, i would hardly be able to reach a language proficiency level of that of a NEST colleague who was born and grew up with the English language. And it was even tougher when the author emphasizes "In no areas of English language proficiency can they (non-NESTs) emulate NESTs" and "... very few non-NESTs are able to catch up with their colleagues" regarding language ability. However, as i read on to the part which discusses the bright side of being non-NESTs, security and self-confidence began to return to me. Since as the book stated, both NESTs and non-NESTs have a lot to offer their students and each group possesses some uniques values that the other does not.

Also, with regards to the differences in teaching behaviors between NESTs and non-NESTs, though i agree with most of the teaching characteristics of non-NESTs indicated in the book, i strongly think that in today's teaching context, besides maintaining their teaching styles, more and more non-NESTs are turning toward their NEST colleagues and adapt some teaching behaviors which focus more on fluency, meaning and oral skills; and vice versa, a considerably large number of NESTs who come to teach English in a foreign context learn some teaching tips from their non-NESTs. This shift, in my opinion, helps minimize the dichotomy between the two groups, since whether the teachers are native or non-native speakers of English, they both head toward the same goal of producing generations of students who can communicate well in English.

As the chapter came to the end, i was able to meet with a preferable answer to the question i previously have, that there is no fixed rules on which the concept of an ideal teacher is built, and both NESTs and non-NESTs are capable of being good English teachers based on their language ability, pedagogical skills and teaching experience. These statements very much strengthen by self-confidence as a future non-NEST.

Week 7 - Classtime reflection

In this week's class, i found the part in which the guest speaker gave a talk about how to utilize the library resources very relevant and helpful. Still, one thing i noticed while searching for reference materials during the process of doing the multigenre research paper is that while the online databases offered in the library website are very diverse and large, the books related to ESL in the library catalog are comparatively limited and somehow it is hard to find those that relate to our topic. I am now still trying to figure out the most effective way to look for library books and it would therefore be great to be receiving advice regarding this matter.

Also, i enjoyed Rachel's presentation and the way she divided the class into two groups of girls and guys to "compete" against each other. As both groups were very excited to answer the questions, get points for their group, and more importantly protect their gender pride, it brought it home to me that sometimes it can be helpful for teachers to conduct activities that aim at arousing students' self-respect, so that they are more motivated to get involved and prove themselves.

Besides, the following activity of revising the lesson plan of another group was also very helpful for me. I could learn a lot from my classmates while we talked and discussed with each other. What's more, even though i did make some lesson plans before, the way things are organized here are quite different from what i previously learned. Therefore, activities like this give me a good chance to practice and get used to the lesson plan making process.

Week 7 Reading reflection

This week's reading covers many practical issues which are close to the heart of language teachers regarding individual differences in second language learning. I was really amazed at the extent to which the authors of the books were able to address many questions about language teaching in a very concise and understandable way.

Among the issues under discussion, my attention is especially directed toward the matter of personality mentioned in Lightbown and Spada book. As a language learner, i used to think that i am well aware of the influence of learners' personality on their language learning performance, that obviously extroverted people are to master the target language more easily than quiet ones. However, as i read the chapter, it dawned on me that the generalization may work best for the oral competence, but for the other language skills it may not be the case. This leads me to develop a new philosophy that as a language teacher i should never judge my students' language capability based on their extroversion, and to always keep in mind that quiet students also have a lot to offer. One more thing i found useful in this part of L&B book is when the author mentioned the positive effect of anxiety. Before that i did not think worries or anxieties could do any good to learner's performance in the language classroom, whereas in fact they do have a good impact on students in certain cases as stated in the book. This also adds one more thing in my future teaching guidelines: language teachers should know how to make a balance between relaxedness and anxieties, so that they can place on their students an amount of anxiety which is enough to drive them toward a higher level of performance.

Added to this, the parts about teaching across age and proficiency levels are also useful and informative. The author succeeded in pointing out different characteristics of learners of different ages and levels and how teacher's instruction should develop accordingly to match those features. However, personally i found those explanations are somehow general and theoretical. It would have been more practical if some case studies on sample classroom practices were employed to illustrate the principles/rules that are put forward.

Intrinsic motivation and lessons from an old-aged English learner

As we talked in class about various teaching principles, motivation and its effects on learner achievement, I was reminded of a short YouTube clip that some of my friends shared with me a couple of months ago and which had made me think a lot about my own English learning experience.

The following clip was shot by an American tourist during his trip to Vietnam in March 2007. Coincidentally, Barry (the tourist) is from Minnesota. The 5-minute clip featured a short conversation between the Minnesotan visitor and an old Vietnamese man who sold postcards in Ben Thanh market - the biggest marketplace in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon), Vietnam.

(Please click on the play button to watch the clip - If you have difficulty watching it directly on the blog, follow this link You Tube - Meet Bill from Saigon, Vietnam)



The first time i watched the clip, i must say i was amazed by this old man's English, the brilliant and lively spoken language that is hardly taught in any language classes. He may not be 100 % grammatically correct but is perfectly intelligible, which is one of the most important features of good communicative competence. As i sought for the reasons to explain the man's incredibly good use of English, the things that first came to my mind was his strong motivation to learn the language and the willingness to communicate in English. As he said in the clip, he loved American accent, watched a lot of American movies and readily incorporated spoken phrases that he heard in the movies into his daily conversations with foreign customers. In this old-aged learner's English learning process i could see the presence of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Clearly he learned how to speak English in order to sell postcards and earn money to support his disabled daughter, but that alone could not have enabled him to speak English with the American accent nor master the use of conversational phrases such as "No sweat!" or "What's up, man?" It was the inner motivation, the desire to learn, the love for the language and the culture (in this case the movies) that drove him to his present state that was captured in the clip when he could speak fluently in English with the "American accent". Added to this, the power of intrinsic motivation in this old man is much more strengthened when we consider the miraculous fact that he learned English all by himself without going through any official language instruction! Obviously, social pressures, teacher evaluation or peer pressure exert no weight on this learner.

Though Bill's learning condition and style are very special and different from the majority of language learners, the investigation into his English learning process did make me think a lot about the power of self-motivation in learning a foreign language, and how the willingness to communicate can fasten learner's acquisition. Truly speaking, from my experience, many young English language students in Vietnam who have spent years learning English at school do not have the fluency in speech as this self-taught adult learner does. This puts into question the role of language teachers, the teaching activities, the textbook and many other pedagogical features in creating and maintaining positive motivation in students.

As I looked up this short clip of Bill on YouTube, i came across the sad news: he passed away last month in Saigon because of pneumonia. After the Minnesotan tourist posted this clip on YouTube, Bill became famous and many foreign tourists who came to Saigon went to Ben Thanh market to have a chance to talk with him. That's why the news of his death was passed fairly quickly. Bill is no more, but I believe his lively and admirable English learning experience will remain a good inspiration for many English language students who are lucky to be receiving formal language instruction.

Learner characteristics: Classtime reflection

In this week's class, we focused on specific principles for second language teaching and paid closer attention to intrinsic motivation. I think Aaron's presentation went very well, since he managed to touch almost all the main issues and engaged the class into an interesting discussion.

One thing that i found quite inspiring during the discussion was the issue of reward. As far as i am concerned, rewards in language teaching to some extent are a form of teacher's positive feedback. However, the matter of when and how to give rewards is very much controversial. As an English learner, I have experienced a large, if not excessive number of such extrinsic motivation as rewards. Many of the times when my teacher held an in-class activity, he/she often pointed out clearly from the start what kind of rewards were awaiting us at the end of the process, which very often made us work harder and more concentiously to finish the task. Another thing about this principle which was brought up in class is the fact that not every student in the class will be able to receive the reward. And most of the time this prestigious "ball" are tossed among a group of "elite" ones who conceivably outperform others. In my opinion, in order to decrease the frequency of this and help all students in the class feel good about teacher's rewarding, teachers can make it clear to the class that this particular student has done a really good job and receives the treat, but this does not mean he is the single best student, and that anyone in the class could catch up to achieve similar good result provided that they have the desire. Besides, i like the way Dr Smidt modeled the use of rewards when she asked us to go around the classroom and put an aterisk next to the point we felt strongly about. Clearly this activity has the drawback of "making public things which should be private" (as she put it) and caused some disappointment to some individuals, but it directly told how students would feel when they receive rewards and comments from the teacher. The follow-up discussion proved how teachers should consider different techniques of reward-giving so that they will work best for their students.

An activity that we did in class which i am interested in was the diagnostic of learner's learning style. This very much directs my attention to the fact that as language teachers, it is important to bear in mind different learning styles that students might have in order to design various activities that cater for a wide range of students' needs and strengths. In my opinion, one's learning style has a close connection with his intelligences and here the theory of multilple intellengences should be taken into account when we examine the effectiveness of language teaching. Even though language teachers cannot cover and strengthen every field of learner's intelligence, it is important that the acivities carried out in the class provide a good diversity.

Week 6 Reading: Cultural issues in Second language teaching

Among the 12 principles that are put forth in the HB book, the one which focuses on the connection between language and culture in second language teaching really inspires me.

Learning a language is not merely learning about its lexical or grammatical systems, it also means learning about a new culture in the most comprehensive meaning of the word. Many linguists and culturalists have stated that and hardly anyone has ever challenged the idea. In my process of learning foreign languages, i have very different experiences with the connection of language and culture. In my English classes, because of both objective and subjective reasons, most of my teachers were more concerned with giving students language instructions than exposing us to the cultural issues that lie underneath the language cover. The textbook once in a while mentioned some typical cultural features of Britain and the US, but most of the time the knowledge flipped very quickly out of our mind due to the lack of emphasis and reinforcement. In contrast, the story is completely different with my Japanese learning experience. In my Japanese class, my teacher constantly reminded us of the cultural factors that are represented in the language and how understanding Japanese culture can help us use the language more appropriately. The teacher also gave us some very interesting cultural facts about Japansese customs and traditions, which very much aroused my curiosity and increased my interest in learning the language. Clearly, cultural interests and awareness can be a factor that motivate students to learn a language.

As a result, in my future teaching, i am determined to convey cultural traits that are typical of British and American society to my students, so that they can build up adequate knowledge and ideas of the countries where their target language is spoken.


Also, last year my friends and I carried out a research which focuses on the implementation of cultural games about traditional holidays in British and American culture such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas into the teaching of English in high schools. We did some in-class experiments and what we noticed was that whenever there was the involvement of cultural activities, the language classroom was much more lively and fun and the students were more excited and motivated. Now that i have acquired more knowledge of this issue, my wish is to continue with the research after i graduate and expand it to other features of British and American cultures.

Content-based teaching in EFL setting

As Dr. Smidt had us watch a short clip about the SIOP method and raised a short discussion about content-based instruction in class last week, i have been thinking a lot about this instruction type and its feasibility in my future teaching context.

Personally i have never officially had any experience with this method when learning English. However, in high school i had seen some of my French-major friends learn Mathematics and Physics in French and the results of this were fantastic. Not only could those friends of mine communicate fluently in French but some of them even passed the entrance exam to get admitted to universities in France thanks to their good command of the Mathematics and Physics knowledge. When i asked those friends how it felt to study a subject matter in a foreign language, many answered it was hard at first when they need to transfer technical terms they already know to another language, but as time went by they got addicted to the subject and almost forgot about the language, which had then become an instrument for them to study the subject matter. And at the end of the learning process they achieved a fruitful outcome in both the use of language and the mastery of the subject matter.

This, in my opinion, is a good example of the bright side of using content-based instruction (CBI) in second/foreign language teaching. One thing should be taken into consideration, though, is that those friends of mine had already reached a relatively high proficiency level in French when they were exposed to this teaching method. Therefore, the use of CBI in second language teaching is, as far as i am concerned, should be implemented only to students at an approriate proficiency level. It would do no good if students are made to perform tasks that are far beyond their ability and find themselves get stuck in both learning the language and acquiring the subject matter.

Also, in the EFL setting where students normally have very few chances to use the target language outside the classroom, I think it is really difficult to implement content-based instruction. More specifically, in my future teaching context (middle/high schools in Vietnam), students have to work very hard to achieve good scores in mainstream subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, History etc. It would therefore be a double burden if they have to deal with these subject matters in English classes. As a result, i am thinking that it might work if CBI is used at some point in the teaching of reading or writing skills in the EFL classroom, in which teachers direct students' attention to the reading and writing material rather than the language itself. One example of this is the creative writing task in which students' work is to produce a short story, poem or a work of art in English.

Week 5 Reading: How I learned to be polite when speaking English

In this week's reading about second language acquisition, I find the text under the subtitle of "Learning to use English in socially and culturally Approriate use" in the P&B book very practical. This is because it reminds me of a past experience in which i learned how to make myself sound polite in English.

Two years ago when i was in my second year at college, i worked as a private tutor of a half American-half Vietnamese boy who was 6 years old then. His father is an American journalist who travels back and forth between Vietnam and the US to write articles and reports. Every year the family would live half of the year in Vietnam and the other half in the States. Since at the time there was no international school in Hue - my hometown and the little boy's first language is English (he speaks very little Vietnamese), he couldn't go to the local elementary school where the language of instruction is Vietnamese. That was the reason why his parents decided to have private tutors to go to their house and teach him. At that time i was teaching him Mathematics in English. And during that time i must say i was able to learn as much from him as he did from me. In fact, i taught him how to solve Math problems and he (unconciously) "taught" me how to use English in a socially approriate way. One of the most interesting lessons i learned from him was to say "please" at the end of a command or imperative sentence to show politeness. How i acquired this language behaviour was interesting. During the first days when i gave my little student some math problems to solve after having explained to him the rule, i often said: "Do this problem, Cullen (his name)!" or if i needed some thing that i wanted him to give me, i would say: "Give me a pencil!". I did not realize anything wrong in those utterances until one week later when after one of my commands, he suddenly said to me: "Teacher is not polite!". I was very surprised and immediately asked him why. The answer was that his father told him to always say "please" when he wanted somebody to do something for him. Of course he gave that comment in a normal non-sarcastic way that a child usually says when he experiences something which is different from what he is taught, and from that time onward i always try to remember to put "please" into my imperative utterance to show my politeness. Though this is just a small element in learning English, none of my teachers had ever directed my attention to it before my little student actually pointed it out to me.

Now that i read the text about "learning to use English in socially and culturally appropriate ways", i come to understand better how important it is for English teachers to raise students' awareness of social and cultural norms that are reflected and used in English, for it is true that the ability to use a foreign language fluently does not easily entail the capability to use it appropriately.