2. Agenda Welcome, TESOLers!/Applied Linguists! Student Introduction: Who are WE? Class Activity: Six words memoir Course Introduction Critical Approaches in TESOL Course Blog Introduction: http://beyondmethodsfall2011.blogspot.com/ Assignments
3. Six word memoir Can you write a six word story about yourself? It can be related to your passion in TESOL, language/culture, any experience. For sale: baby shoes, never used--Hemingway I love books more than people. I’m not writing another stupid word. grown up, no money, loving life Never too old to climb trees. I recycle everything but my lies. Check out more life stories @ http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/
4. Keep in mind that… “ We cannot prepare teachers to tackle so many unpredictable needs, wants and situations; we can only help them develop a capacity to generate varied and situation-specific ideas within a general framework that makes sense in terms of current pedagogical and theoretical knowledge. (Pennycook1992, p. 41)
5. This course aims to… ….help pre-service teachers develop materials and pedagogical practices that accommodate academic and sociocultural needs of the 21st century’s diverse classroom contexts. Drawing on the principles of critical pedagogy and sociocultural theories of language learning, this course also aims to raise pre-service teachers’ awareness on important language issues such as developing pedagogical choices, being aware and doing something discriminatory language policies, developing culturally relevant material in K-16 and paying attention to first language maintenance of ESL students.
6. Course Objectives This course aims to: raise pre-service teachers’ awareness on the needs of different types of English language learners (e.g. ESL, EFL, 1.5 generation) in the U.S. school systems; move away from the traditional view of “teacher as knowledge provider” to “teacher as facilitators” and “transformative practitioners”; examine current issues related to language, identity, and culture in relation to ESL methods and material development; help pre-service teachers learn how to maximize learning opportunities; facilitate negotiated interaction, contextualize linguistic input, integrate language skills, promote learner autonomy, and raise cultural consciousness demystify mainstream English language methods and raise awareness that there is no best method out there.
7. Course Materials Required Materials and Texts: Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). Beyond methods. Macrostrategies for language teaching. Yale University Press. 2. An individual blog account 3. Research Articles are available on e-reserve. 4. Richards, J. & Renandya, W. (2002). Methodology in language teaching. An anthology of current practice. Cambridge Press.
9. Multiple Stories of TESOL: Shifting Perspectives Focusing on Learners: Hybrid identities (ESL, 1.5 generation, adult multilinguals, international scholars etc.) Motivation vs Investment Moving from a product focused learning towards process focused ones. Moving from pre-planned curricula to a flexible, diverse and open-ended curricula From Traditionalist views to Critical Pedagogy
12. Students are blank slates that needs to be filled with new information (transmission/banking model)
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14. Learning is a socially-situated participatory practice. It is done in collaborative processes.
15. Students experiences are not only shaped by their past learning but also shaped by the social, political, economic and cultural background and environment in which they have grown up.
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17. How to be Critically Conscious? According to Ira Shor (1992) a student can be critically conscious by: Thinking, reading, writing, and speaking while going beneath the surface meaning A student must go beyond: Myths, clichés, received wisdom, and mere opinions Amazon, 2008
18. Overview of Methods in ELT GTM ALM CLL Silent Way Suggestopedia TPR CLT Etc.
19. A critical look at the Concept of Method Method is a prescriptive concept that articulates positivist, progressivist, and patriarchal understanding of teaching and plays an important role in maintaining inequalities between, on the one hand, predominantly male academics, and on the other hand, female teachers and language classrooms on the international power periphery.
20. Key ideas: Second Language education is involved in a complex nexus of social, cultural. Economic and political relationships that involve students, teachers, and theorists in different positions of power. Schools as reproduction of social and cultural inequalities—How can schools act as agents of social and cultural reproduction? How do schools question the status quo? Language and language teaching as inscribed in relations of power and therefore political issues.
21. Fundamental weaknesses of the concept of Method Imposition of technique over theory Language teaching cannot be defined in terms of teaching methods alone. Each method being succeeded by a better one? The promise of even better techniques?
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23. Methods “reflects a particular view of the world and is articulated in the interests of unequal power relationships” (Pennycook, 1998, pp. 589–590),
24. All methods are interested and there is no best method (Pennycook, 1998)
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26. Assignments Read the syllabus carefully. Ask questions via email or visit me during my office hours. Send me your blog address TODAY! Intro Blog Posting: Please describe the context in which you teach/wish to teach. Feel free to comment on the social, economic and cultural aspects of your teaching environment. Why do you think it is important to be knowledgeable and conscious about TESOL issues? What are your goals as a language educator? What do you hope to gain as a result of this course? Best Wishes for a Productive Year.
Editor's Notes
Language learning situations is unpredictable, fluid, and multiple….
The field used to identify learners as individuals as learning machines who acquire a new set of linguistic tools. The discussions about language input and learners production do not anymore reflect the real learning situationStudents bring multiple identities. With the advent of globalization, internationalisation many children of migrants are now form a new hybrid identites---the traditional language learning theories does not take into account the diverse contexts.There have also been many discussions in terms of students motivation—Many researchers such as Gardner talked about instrumental versus integrative motivation (also the distinction between intrinsic—personal interst and extrinsic motoivation – learning under external cumpulsion)— the schoolarship have been heavily focused on cognitive and psychological factors of learning a second language.however later we recognized that not all learners are motivated by desire to learn english. BUT now we have arange of deeper prepectives that frames the issue of motivation and second language learning in a different perspective. Bony Norton a scholar form British columbia has used the term “investment” ton demonstrate how commitment to gaining material and symbolic resources help learners develop oppositional identities ofr the voice they develop in the new language.
I would like to briefly discuss the models of reproduction in TESOL and the models of resistance that comes with critical pedagogy. While as languafge teacher educator I try to promote a pedagogy of possibility which emphasizes the inclusive and diverse education practices, I find myself and I se that my studesnt also find themselves in the middle of competing pedagogiesClassrooms– dynamic contexts in which learners are provided with opportunities to explore issues that are important to them and their communities.Learning--CP locates learning in a nexus of political, social, economic conditions defining the communities within which learners live.
Many scholars after 90s, argues that there is no best method in TESOL. Methods usually shaped and contributed to the unequal power relationships. Research and practoice in the globalized word show that methods only have limiting impact on language teaching and learning. Methods do not help when teachers face with a wide range of complex classroom practices.
Contrary to Chomskian cognitive theories, this view implies that language is socially constructed rather than linguistically intrinsic. As discussed above, the linguistic theory of Chomsky, which asserts an “ideal speaker-listener in a completely homogenous speech community”(Chomsky, 1965, p.3), brought the terms such as ‘language acquisition devise’, ‘universal grammar’ and ‘transformational generative grammar’ to the field of SLA. However, Hymes criticized Chomsky as being ‘formalistic and context-free’ (Hymes, 1972).
