English 345: Thursday, August 31

A number of points stood out for me from today's readings, but perhaps the one that got me to think to the most is a simple quotation from Kumaravadivelu:  "In spite of the increasing number of publications, a consensus definition of task continues to elude the profession" (64). I am realizing more everyday as I continue my education that "things" are rarely agreed upon in the field of second language education, or in education in general. People are now trending toward Task-Based Language Teaching, but people cannot even agree on the definition of the word. The quotation reminded me of a reading for another class, one on rhetorical genre studies. I found it amusing in that article, as well, that no one seemed to come to a consensus on just what the definition of a genre was. As I read, I continually marked on the page that I had passed another definition.

Points like that made above seem to highlight the fact that teachers, or soon-to-be teachers, need to consider their own beliefs about teaching, about how they want their classrooms to. Teaching, as we mentioned in class on Tuesday, is not a one-size fits all students type of field. Rather, teachers need to really understand where they come from as teachers in order to best serve the many differents "sizes" of students in their classrooms.

In her article, Celce-Muria seems to reiterate this point: "What is the solution for the ESL/EFL teacher, given the abundance of current and future approaches? The only way to make wise decisions is to learn more abou the specific methods available." And, I would add, then consider which methods work best for your students.

English 345: Tuesday, August 30

I think that the main ideas, or the most important ones in my opinion, arise at the end of today's readings:  "However, it is possible to view these three conceptions as forming a continuum" (25). The three conceptions, science-research, theory-philosophy, and art-craft, appear to be mutually exclusive when one first reads Chapter two. As I was reading, I was wondering just how this was possible; I feel as if, in my own teaching, I have reached for various approaches based on the needs of the students. Thus, I appreciate this ending, that all of these approaches can have their place in a teacher's repertoire--as they should.

I echo my sentiment from last Thursday's readings when I note that I found that a hugely important point arising from these fist two chapters was that a teacher necessarily needs to look at the needs of his or her students in order to find the best approach for each of them, in order to fully embrace that "dynamic teaching" mentioned (11). Each student will be learning the new language for different reasons and will have different needs when it comes to doing so. It is our job as teachers to effectively work with these differences while we teach.

The section on assessment, the third part in the diagnosis, treatment, and assessment section, is also one that caught my eye as I work to improve my own teachings. I agree with the increased emphasis with ongoing assessment, with those formative evaluations that allow us to track a student's learning throughout the process of an assignment, a project, or in language learning. Doing so also helps us as teachers, giving us the needed information on how students are doing during the project rather than waiting until the end all-be all evaluation at the end of a unit.

English 345: Thursday, August 25

I looked back at my notes after reading the two articles, and my comments went something like this: "Basically, you cannot easily identify anyone." "How can you label different English speakers?" "How do you even precisely define all of these key words?" In sum, Jenkins' article acknowledges placing people in terms of distinct groups of English speakers is simply impossible--as it should be I think. If I consider many of the graduate students here in the English department, many people would simply assume that we are all native speakers of English... and they would be partly right. However, we come from such various places in the U.S. that dialectal issues come into play, making our "native speaker" Englishes different from one another, as well. I always find it funny when I am told that I have a "Chicago" accent because I simply do not hear it, but apparently it is pretty evident to people who are not form northern or central Illinois.

Another interesting point from Jenkins that struck me was in regards to nonnative speakers:  "The first group has always been considered superior to the second regardless of the quality of the language its members speak," (16) a point that we all know simply cannot be true. Any university in the country contains faculty and students that constantly prove this to be incorrect. And yet, the falseness of this statement once again leads one to wonder just where to place the nonnative speakers who are much better speakes of English than most native speakers. Just what should the English speaker diagram look like?

I found the Diaz-Rico article to be good background reading/history for many important topics that this class deals with. The example of Miami as a vibrant place of nonmainstream people is especially interesting as I just witnessed this first-hand a few months ago. I knew that many people in Miami spoke Spanish, but I never realized that, very often, 90% of the conversations going on in public places would be spoken in that language. It was so interesting seeing the vibrant Latin culture there--housed in the state where my grandpa and many of his  80-year-old friends live : ).