Mckay CH5 TEACHING METHODS AND ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
After reading this chapter, I believe that methods applied in EFL and ESL setting will have entirely different influence upon the learners. The writer, Mckay, started out with the introduction of a culture of learning, explaining the role of teachers in Confucian and Western academic lecture. In western countries, teachers are referred as guide/facilitators, whereas in oriental countries, teachers are the authority of the lecture and should not be challenged. According the 2nd table, it describes the communication style of Japanese and Americans, low self-disclosure versus high self-disclosure; group consciousness versus individualism. Due to the variances of cultures between eastern countries and western countries, the problems raises.
The communicative language teaching method has won huge success in many areas and lost it popularity over the time in some countries. It is not hard for me to understand the challenges of CLT has met in China. The biggest motivation for most Chineses students to learn English is to succeed in the National University Entrance Examination. The problems is, however, that NUEE does not spare any sections to test students’ communicative competence. Most part focuses on grammar, translation, listenning comprehension, and writing. As Burnaby and Sun pointed out, CLT would be appropriate for Chinese students who intended to go to English speaking countries. Further, teachers are expected to play the leading role in the classroom while CLT, guiding students to absorb the knowledge. Fun games, group discussion, and puzzles don’t seem to fit in in such culture environment.
I have never taught in public middle school. However, based on my personal experience in the language school, CLT was quite popular, because a large number of students are high school students in my area. They feel tired after a long day/week’s study in their school. They’ve already had enough rote learning and grammar translation exercises in their school. Also, most of them want to study abroad after finishing their high school education. Therefore, CLT is exactly the method that meets their requirements and expectations.
My concern is how about the students who do not intend to study abroad and desire to improve their communicative competence. The traditonal methodology can not satisfy their requirements and some feel very frustrated about how to improve their spoken English. It seems that students do not benefit from the innovative methodology as they are all about to take the UNEE in the coming future. The writer was proposing an appropriate methodology for the students in a variety of local contexts, but that requires teacher’s sense of plausibility. In China’s case, I believe the education bureaucracy’s willingness to improve the English curriculum and UNEE is part of the solution.
2009年10月11日星期日
Borrowing Others’ Words:Text, Ownership, Memory,and Plagiarism by ALASTAIR PENNYCOOK
Quoting a story of borrowing texts the writer has encountered while teaching in China, the writer analysizes the text ownership, momory, and palgiarism from various historical background, namely Premodern, modern, and postmodern understandings of text, and authorship. Along with the confusion, ambiguitym and hypocrisies over plagiarism existing in different culture, the writer suggests that we should show more appreciation of the relationship between different approaches to texts.(PP.201)
From the ancient time to modern era, Chinese students have been taught to memorize the articles/poems that have enlightening and educative theories behind them. The scene of a bunch of kids memorizing Confucius’s, a great Chinese philosopher that has influenced eastern Asian deeply, analects is a positive expression of diligent and up-and-coming learners. As the writer points out, the memorization is not a pointless practice. “Memorization through repetition can be used to deepen and develop understanding.”(PP.222) There’s no doubt that memorizing does play a crucial role in Chinese education through which we have fostered a great many poets, educators, and artists and developed creativity, the critical thinking ability etc.
From my point of view, it is probably this practice that misguide students to copy from other writers. As I recall, when I initially started to take writing class in elementary school, my teacher told us to memorize these articles and developed a good habit of writing down every good sentence and good vocabulary you’ve come acrossed and apply them in your writing, which is a good way to beautify/improve your essays. Unsurprisingly, teachers will find many students have the same conclusion of a journal response to a patriotic movies or a visit to a zoo. As we moved to a high school and college, then we progressed with those good sentence and vocabularies and improved our writing skills over time. I don’t think there’s something wrong with this. No one is a natural-born great writer, and millions of original ideas will not jump out at anytime and anywhere. I agree with the writer who claims that it is important to distinguish the good plagiarism and bad plagiarism.
With the conclusion of language learning is to some extent a process of borrowing others’ words and we need to be flexible, not dogmatic, about where we draw boundaries between acceptable or unacceptable textual borrowings.”(PP.227) I believe this article will change people’s attitudes towards students’ “plagiarism” in particular culture.
From the ancient time to modern era, Chinese students have been taught to memorize the articles/poems that have enlightening and educative theories behind them. The scene of a bunch of kids memorizing Confucius’s, a great Chinese philosopher that has influenced eastern Asian deeply, analects is a positive expression of diligent and up-and-coming learners. As the writer points out, the memorization is not a pointless practice. “Memorization through repetition can be used to deepen and develop understanding.”(PP.222) There’s no doubt that memorizing does play a crucial role in Chinese education through which we have fostered a great many poets, educators, and artists and developed creativity, the critical thinking ability etc.
From my point of view, it is probably this practice that misguide students to copy from other writers. As I recall, when I initially started to take writing class in elementary school, my teacher told us to memorize these articles and developed a good habit of writing down every good sentence and good vocabulary you’ve come acrossed and apply them in your writing, which is a good way to beautify/improve your essays. Unsurprisingly, teachers will find many students have the same conclusion of a journal response to a patriotic movies or a visit to a zoo. As we moved to a high school and college, then we progressed with those good sentence and vocabularies and improved our writing skills over time. I don’t think there’s something wrong with this. No one is a natural-born great writer, and millions of original ideas will not jump out at anytime and anywhere. I agree with the writer who claims that it is important to distinguish the good plagiarism and bad plagiarism.
With the conclusion of language learning is to some extent a process of borrowing others’ words and we need to be flexible, not dogmatic, about where we draw boundaries between acceptable or unacceptable textual borrowings.”(PP.227) I believe this article will change people’s attitudes towards students’ “plagiarism” in particular culture.
2009年10月4日星期日
“Breaking Them Up, Taking Them Away" ESL student in Grade 1
Kellen Toohey’s observation on ESL student Grade 1 is genuinely impressive for me. The classroom’s practices, interactions and seats and furniture are interconnected factors which will have impact on those children’s target language competence. It is not shocking/hard to for me to imagine that even kindergarten exists a stratified community that is similar to the harsh outside world.
I was also a little surprised that it is a commonplace teachers everywhere prefer to put those “problem” students seats near them, so that teachers can take care of them.
Another point that interests me is as Hull and Rose(1989)noted that: “A fundamental social and psychological reality about discourse—oral or written—is that human beings continually appropriate each other’s languageto establish group membership, to grow and to define themselves.”I remember when I transferred from a small rural school to a large urban elementary school, I didn’t speak the local dialect. Nobody in my class wanted to make friends with me.Needless to say, I was really having some difficulty adapting myself to a brand-new environment. This situation has not been gradually improved until I acquired the dialect.
For many years, educators and researchers in China are highly concerned with the bullying and violence issues on campus. However, over the years, what have been ignored are not those students who fall victims to violent crimes.Rather,outsider students, because of their defective language competence or discrepant family/ethnic background,more often than not,build inharmonious or even hostile relationship with their peers, enduring the pain of so-called “campus cold violence.” and finding it so hard to fit in no matter how hard they tried. As this has been observed/discovered by the writers, classroom communities that encourage the sharing of all resources-intellectual, emotional, and material-would be positive step in changing attitudes and reducing many problems we face in our schools. Regardless of what subjects we are teaching, we, as prospective teachers, are expected to be compassionate toward our students, giving support to them whenever needed. Furthermore, we need have an observant mind about the classroom community as well. A supportive environment is crucially important for those students in which they spend a good amount of time learning and interacting with teachers and classmates.
I was also a little surprised that it is a commonplace teachers everywhere prefer to put those “problem” students seats near them, so that teachers can take care of them.
Another point that interests me is as Hull and Rose(1989)noted that: “A fundamental social and psychological reality about discourse—oral or written—is that human beings continually appropriate each other’s languageto establish group membership, to grow and to define themselves.”I remember when I transferred from a small rural school to a large urban elementary school, I didn’t speak the local dialect. Nobody in my class wanted to make friends with me.Needless to say, I was really having some difficulty adapting myself to a brand-new environment. This situation has not been gradually improved until I acquired the dialect.
For many years, educators and researchers in China are highly concerned with the bullying and violence issues on campus. However, over the years, what have been ignored are not those students who fall victims to violent crimes.Rather,outsider students, because of their defective language competence or discrepant family/ethnic background,more often than not,build inharmonious or even hostile relationship with their peers, enduring the pain of so-called “campus cold violence.” and finding it so hard to fit in no matter how hard they tried. As this has been observed/discovered by the writers, classroom communities that encourage the sharing of all resources-intellectual, emotional, and material-would be positive step in changing attitudes and reducing many problems we face in our schools. Regardless of what subjects we are teaching, we, as prospective teachers, are expected to be compassionate toward our students, giving support to them whenever needed. Furthermore, we need have an observant mind about the classroom community as well. A supportive environment is crucially important for those students in which they spend a good amount of time learning and interacting with teachers and classmates.
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