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.
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2 comments:
I like what you said about students' personalities in the classroom. I think you are absolutely correct when you say that the more quiet students may be progressing just as much in a language classroom but possibly in different areas.
I was also a little surprised when I first read what they had to say about the positive affects of small amounts of anxiety. How does anxiety affect your work?
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