Oppressor or Oppressed

Paolo Fierre raises an excellent point in his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In many situations in our world today there are two different groups that are typically represented-the opressors and the oppressed. You can see this happening throughout history and even in our world today. Accepting that we recognize this problem is still occuring in our world today, but still allowing oppression to continue is a hard thing to do. Maybe one day we can experience a world where these two roles of opressor and oppressed have been eliminated. Maybe we can learn from our past to make a better world for future generations. Although opression can be a sensitive and difficult topic to discuss, I think it is a very important topic to study as pre-service teachers. Since many of us as future TESOLers are likely to come in contact with a mariad of different students with different cultures and linguistic backgrounds, we are more than likely to encounter someone who has been oppressed. We as teachers need to recognize the problems and challenges these individuals may have experienced and use this knowledge to enhance our teaching. Being consciously aware of the role of oprression, we can provide the power to help our students let their voices be heard.

Keeping Yourself In Check

While reading the contents of the last chapter in Kuma's book Beyond Methods, I was intreged by his idea of having someone observe in a classroom to help deminish any mismatches. However, as I was reading I could not help but question the process, too.

Having another collegue observe in your classroom and provide feedback can be very beneficial. This collegue can notice aspects of your teaching or even your lesson that coule be improved because they are not being communicated in the best possible way. You as the teacher have one perspective and one vision as to how you would like the lesson to go, but in reality you will have a classroom full of students, all who have their own perspective. Thus, they may not understand parts of the lesson or the teaching style like you as the teacher had planned. Much like the example provided in the chapter; the teacher knew what she meant by, "school system," but there were students in the class who were confused. The observer can recognize this mismatch better than the actual teacher because he/she is seeing the lesson unfold as a whole and not just in the role of the teacher. I also agree with Kuma in that the observer and teacher can collaborate to determine any mismatches that may have occured during the lesson to help make any improvements for the next time. Also, the teacher can learn more about his/her teaching style and methods and make a self-evaluation as well as reflection about their teaching.

Although this process appears to have many pros to it, I could not help but think how practical would the observation steps be. I understand the point of having three seperate steps in the observation process: preobservation, observation, and postobservation, but how would all of this unfold? Do teachers have that much time to dedicate to meeting with the observer before and after each lesson as well as with a few of his/her students afterward? Also, in regards to video taping or recording the lessons, where are teachers supposed to get the equipment? What if the school distrcit cannot afford to purchase the necessary equipment? Does the teacher need to get approval from the students' parents to record their children? The collegue who is observing, does he/she take the day off from his/her job? Are the observers from the same school? School district? Retired teachers?

Personally, I do have questions about the suggestions Kuma made in Monitoring Teaching Acts." These questions are not meant to be taken negatively, nor do I want to umdermind Kuma's idea of monitoring your teaching. I think the idea that Kuma has proposed in his book has great potential to help teachers enhance their teaching, but first I would need to research the idea further to try to find the answers to my questions.

Final Project Update

Cara and I have completed two out of the three workshops working with International students. The two workshops we have had so far have been very insightful. I have been very encouraged to learn about various students' experiences with English. Hearing their stories and asking them questions has lead me to make even more connections to what we have been learning in class. We are both very excited for our last workshop this Thursday 11/18 at 6:30pm because students get to ask us questions about the English language. The topic is, "You Americans are so strange! Why do you...?"

Did You Say Bilingual?

I am currently studying to become a bilingual elementary education teacher. Even before I came to college and learned about the different bilingual education programs, I would always say that I wanted to teach in a classroom where both languages--English and Spanish, were represented. I wanted students to be able to learn the language not only from myself, but also through their interactions with one another. Now, after learning about the different bilingual programs, my ideal job would be to teach in a dual language school. However, it was not until I came to college that I learned about the various other bilingual programs, like the ones presented in Ofelia Garcia's article. Some of these programs include submersion, transitional, and structured immersion. As I was reading the Garcia article, as well as the other times in my college career, I could not help but wonder, "How are these programs considered bilingual?" Yes, they may temporarily include teaching and inclusion of both languages in the classroom, but the main goal of these programs is to phase out the student's native language. Thus, if the main goal is creating monolingual students, how are these methods even considered bilingual? Is it for lack of a better term? Is it because it makes these programs sound legitimate? Or is it because the majority never wanted the minority to be of equal status?

Also, as I was reading through the article, I kept asking, "How do those who implement subtractive "bilingual" programs into their schools define the term bilingual?" Personally, I would define bilingual as the ability to speak and understand in two different languages. Do those people consider subtractive programs "bilingual" because at one point two languages are used and known by the students? Is not the main goal of them to phase out the native language? Why is phasing out a child's native language beneficial? Why aren't majority language speaking students required to learn a minority language? Why do we have these double standards? Sometimes I feel guilty as a native English speaker because I feel as though so many other English speakers are sending the message that to be successful in the world, you must learn English. When I have asked some of my residents, "Why did you learn English?" They respond something like,"Well, to be successful and to be able to communicate with others in the world one needs to learn English." I really hope that as a future bilingual teacher, I can make a difference in the educational word. I hope that students feel that they can be successful when using their native tounge too.

Stool?

"Words and utterances can have different meanings and functions in different contexts" (Kuma, 210). As I was reading through this weeks chapters, I was able to make some personal connections with the content. Although I am a native English speaker, I sometimes still have difficulty with words if they are not given in a specific context or situation. The problem could be that in the English language some words can have more than one meaning. For instance, on page 205, Kuma gives five different ways the word, "table" could be used. If I was asked about the word table, I would probably define the word similar to the usage in sentence 1, "a flat surface usually supported by four legs" (Kuma, 205). Since the word was not given in a certain context or situation, I would not think that the word could also refer to a math term or even a verb. Thus, I think Kuma brings up an excellent point that situational context is just as important to consider as linguistic and extralinguistic contexts when teaching students about a language. Not only do students need to understand words and/or phrases and deliverance, but they also need to have an understanding of when these words/phrases are appropriate. Without this extra knowledge, students, especially non-native speakers, may be unsure when to use a phrase or confused if someone uses the word in a specific context or situation with which they are not familiar. Actually, I can relate to a time when I came across a word that could have two separate meanings, and if the word is used in the wrong context one can become confused. This past weekend I was playing the game Catch Phrase with my family. For those who are unfamiliar with the game, you can pick a category (i.e. family, around the house, technology, food/drink, etc.), and then you are given a word(s)/phrase that would fall under that category. The goal is to describe the word/phrase to your teammates without using the word and they have to guess the word. The category was "Around the House" and my specific word was "stool." Immediately, I became very confused and wondered why the game would put this word under this category. I was confused because I was thinking of stool in reference to fecal matter, not an object you may use to stand on to reach items that are too high. After I thought about the word some more and remembered the category was "Around the House," I realized the word was supposed to refer to an object you use to stand on, not fecal matter. Of course, after I came to this realization, I could not help but laugh at my own misunderstanding of the word and its context.


Overall, in the future, I will be sure to remember to teach my students not only the linguistic and extralinguistic components of a word, but also include the situational context of the word. After all, the situational context can be very helpful and avoid any confusion.

Waiting for Superman

"I will continue to get paid whether you learn or not." This quote from the film, Waiting for Superman, really struck me while watching the video. The woman who said this was referring to a teacher she had while in school and how that greatly affected her and her attitude towards public school. Although I am not entirely familiar with how the 10 year program works for teachers, nor have I actually been a teacher, but I do feel that something needs to change. Not every educator who has 10 year, will have this outlook, but I do feel that this happens more often then we think. I understand that the intentions of teacher unions are good and that the idea of 10 year was to protect teachers from being fierd or let go without a reasonable explanation. However, I do feel that some individuals take advantage of this institution and may take less interest in teaching students if they feel they have job security no matter what. I would be interested to learn if other jobs have a rule in place, like 10 year for teachers. Just think what would happen if doctors said, "I will continue to get paid whether I help you or not." or if the police said, "I will continue to get paid whether I respond to your emergancy or not." I get the impression that not matter how long a person has been a doctor or how long he/she has been a police officer, if this person continues to not do their job correctly, they will be let go from the position. I do feel that teachers should be protected and that the 10 year idea has good intentions, but school administrators need to be sure that educators are doing their jobs well, and if they are not something should be done about it--possibly letting a person go.

This movie also caused me to think more in depth about what are we really teaching our kids? What messages are we really sending them? Are we telling them that to be successful you should become a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, or another high paying profession? Smart people do not become hair dressers, garbage workers, factory workers, or other similar types of professions, but rather those jobs are for individuals that did not do very well at school. I strongly feel that we need to change our thinking about which jobs are superior to others. I almost got the impression from Waiting for Superman that we need to improve our school systems so that everyone can achieve and have the credentials to obtain a high profile job. I do agree, we do need to change our school systems and make it so that everyone can achieve and perform well, no matter the demographics of the school, but I also think we need to help our students break the stereotypes of what is a high profile job. To make our world function correctly we need  ALL of the different types of job. We need people who will work the factories, drive the buses, design bridges, teach our children, practice medicine, collect the garbage, etc. I think we need to encourage our students to pursue a career that is interesting to them and one they have a passion for. So, if a person who graduated validictorian of his/her class wants to go to beauty school and cut hair, we should encourage him/her to do so. We should not be questioning them and saying, "Are you sure? You can be so much more than that." I think that to change our negative stereotypes towards the kinds of people who hold certain positions needs to first change in the classroom. I feel that Waiting for Superman was portraying that in order to succeed in live one must become a doctor, business CEO, lawyer, etc.

Poetry Slam

I have mixed feelings on last weeks poetry event. In the beginning, I was very intrigued by the performers and the poems they created. I found them to be enlightening and a really creative way to express their feelings. However, towards the end of the event I became very confused and unsure of the meaning of one of the performances. Unfortunately, I was not able to stay until the end of the event to hopefully learn the meaning behind the poem. Although I was not able to stay until the end, I could not help but think maybe the reason I was not capturing the full meaning of the performance due to a cultural difference. Maybe my background experiences did not match up with the reader's experiences and therefore we were not able to understand one another. I know that if I was given the opportunity to write a poem and then read it at an event similar to the one last Wednesday evening, I know my poem would be much different than anyone else's poem because we are all different and all have different experiences.

While listening to the people speak, I was inspired to have a similar type of event when I become a teacher. Having a poetry event can allow people to express themselves for who they are and share how they feel/their experiences in a unique way, which can be very helpful to a person.

Building Language Awareness

In this video, we are able to see a variety of activities and multiple intelligences displayed by the students. I was very impressed by the teachers/facilitators in this video because they used activities that would allow students to actively engage in the learning process. In addition, all of these activities could have been used for a different subject, but could have been part of one thematic unit. For example, the skit about the Pilgrims coming to the United States could have been a fine arts lesson, the discussion afterwards could be part of language arts, and using travel brochures to find information could be used for social studies. These sorts of lessons and activities are great examples of the types of lesson that I have been learning about in my education classes, especially my bilingual education classes. Allowing the students to make connections to their own personal lives is one way to help students better learn and understand the material. Also, including kinestetic activities in the classroom is especially helpful to ELL students because they are able to learn through movement. Also, going back to making personal connections is one way for teachers to incorporate cultural diversity into the classroom. Since the lesson was focusing on the Pilgrims journey to the new land, teachers could allow their students to talk about their experiences leaving their home countries and coming to America, just like in the video. This gives a student a chance to practice their language skills and share a personal story and it allows others in the class to learn more about their peers. Overall, I found this video to be a reinforcement of what myself as a future bilingual educator should be doing in my classroom as well as a great tool as to how I can incorporate cultural diversity into my curriculum.

Cultural Diversity: A Reform Worth Fighting For

"To commit ourselves to the work of transforming the academy so that it will be a place where cultural diversity informs every aspect of our learning, we must embrace struggle and sacrifice" (Hooks, 7). Bell Brooks has some really insightful commentary towards the topic if integrating cultural diversity into the everyday classroom. Her words were very powerful and inspiring because I feel that so many teachers and pre-service can become discouraged when attempting to incorporate cultural diversity into the classroom. Sometimes they may feel as though they try and try to bring cultural diversity with little to no success.

I believe we can all take something away from Hooks chapter 2: A revolution of values. Within this chapter, she compares the struggles and difficulties one may face when trying to create a culturally diverse environment in the classroom to the civil rights movement and even to feminism. Advocates for civil rights and women's rights did not just give up when things seemed difficult or almost impossible. Instead, they embraced the fight because they knew that in the end, the fight was completely worth it. In the end, we would all be better people and we would all have so much to learn. We would all learn something along the way as well as after the change had occurred. Now, as we fight and commit ourselves to transforming school systems by including cultural diversity into the many different aspects of education, we need to brace ourselves for the struggles that lie ahead, and find the strength and endurance to push through these times. Although we may have a goal set in our minds, the final outcome can be even greater than we can even imagine. This change will not occur over night. It will take time, but when it does happen, the future generations will benefit that much more.

Language Awareness

The English language. For some, this is a person's native language and it is easy to acquire. Others, English is their second language and is extremely challenging to learn. In my opinion, Stephen Pinker had the right idea when he described English as, "a zany logic-defying tongue" (159). Although the complexity and trickiness of this language is not recognized by many of its native speakers, the English language can truly be a hard language to master. Like Kuma stated in this chapter, there are so many difficult rules and words to remember when learning English. For instance, "there are atleast nine different spellings for the sound of the vowel [I:] in English: believe, receive, people, key, leave, machine, quay, be, and see" (159). I think being aware of how complicated the English language really is and how often the spelling of the words is nothing like the pronunciation of that word is very important; especially when dealing with English language learners. Being aware of the rules and factors that can make English learning difficult, can help people be more understanding towards those who are not "naturals" at acquiring the language. In other words, learning English as a second or even a foreign language is not as easy as some people make it out to be. Even native speakers have difficulties with the pronunciation of words based off of its spelling. Take Illinois State's very own Schroeder Hall. People who are visiting campus or are just not familiar with the building may pronounce the name as [shr-oder] because that is the way it looks like it should be pronounced. However, the correct pronunciation is [shr-ay-der] hall. Even though they might be native speakers, they are looking at the spelling to assist them in the pronunciation, which is not very helpful in this situation.

Overall, I think Kuma brought up a great point when he discussed the importance of being aware of a language. Knowing the complexity or rules behind a language can be very insightful and help an individual. This knowledge can help a person be more understanding of another person who is learning the language as his/her second language, especially when it comes to English language learning.

Trilingual Programs

I was very intrigued by the section in the chapter that discussed the trilingual classroom. Being a bilingual education major, I have been exposed to the different types of programs, materials, and preparation needed to create a successful classroom, but I have never thought about those aspects for a trilingual classroom. I cannot even begin to imagine how a school or a teacher would go about developing the curriculum or deciding which language to use for the different subjects. One question that did arise while I read about the trilingual school was, "Do the teachers need to be trilingual themselves or would there be three separate teachers; one person responsible for knowing a language?" My previous experiences in my bilingual classes have taught me that many bilingual programs do not reach their full potential because the teachers are not adequately trained or prepared. Therefore, I wonder, what is the preparation and training for a trilingual educator?
Another aspect about the trilingual program that caught my attention, was how each language had a "wing." Within these wings, the materials, books, spoken language, etc. was all in that designated language. In other words, the students would enter a full immersion environment for a short period of time. This concept caused me to think once again because I have learned that sometimes full immersion is not always the most successful for students. At times, a child may need the materials presented in their native language as well as the L2, or in this case the L3, to help them fully understand the material, but if they are in a classroom where these materials are not provided, issues may arise for the student.
In addition, I was wondering if there is ever the opportunity for students to make connections between the three languages, or are the languages kept separately? If the languages are kept separately, I wonder how successful the students are with being trilingual. Although I have not learned in a trilingual setting, I feel as though I might keep those languages very separated from the others and fail to make connections between all of them.
By no means am I trying to say that trilingual programs are not effective. What I am saying is that I have questions about the format, function, and development of the programs and I would love to learn more about the programs. More specifically, I would like to learn more about the challenges teachers as well as administrators face in a trilingual setting. Also, I would like to learn how the curriculum is set up and implemented in the classroom. From my experiences in bilingual classes, thematic units can be very beneficial to bilingual students; therefore, I wonder if the same is true for trilingual students, or would they learn better using one of the other curriculum designs mentioned in the chapter.

Discovering is Learning

As I think about Kuma's chapter, Activating Intuitive Heuristics, I cannot help but feel conflicted because I think of the readings and points brought up from previous class discussions and readings. In other words, his chapter has caused me to have an internal debate. The reason I am struggling so much inside is that I feel as though allowing students to discover grammatical rules and structures on their own can be very beneficial when trying to teach a class English. On the other hand, I think to myself, what about all of the other teaching methods and approaches we learned, such as Grammar Translation and Direct Method? I remember reading about how these techniques are more beneficial in other classrooms and in other cultures.

In my mind, self-discovery is one of the more effective teaching methods. Self-discovery, from my point of view, is more beneficial because I believe that I can better understand a concept if I am first presented with examples or  questions/activity to think about, and then I am slowly introduced to the main concept/focus. Then again, I have grown up in a particular environment and in a specific culture where self-discovery has been encouraged and more likely used by teachers and school administration. Maybe my feelings and reactions would be different if I grew up in another culture, or even during a different time period in the US when a different type of language learning approach was used.

Another point in Kuma's reading that caused me to think about the different teaching methods and which approach to use, was the part on the deductive method of grammar teaching. Kuma mentioned that, "many adult L2 learners, particularly those who bring an analytical approach to language learning, would like explicit description and instruction of grammatical rules for language practice and for error corrections" (pg. 184). Looking at this quote more closely, leads me to think that Kuma is illustrating the point that sometimes learners, especially adult learners, prefer to learn a language when the teacher presents the rules and the facts of the language, instead of the students "discovering" the different aspects to the language. However, he later goes on to say that the deductive method only has limited use and refers back to how the self-discovery method is more useful. Again, I cannot help but wonder, if this applicable for a variety of different classroom settings? Or is this specific to classrooms in the United States? Or even just in the Western Hemisphere?

Overall, Kuma brings up a very insightful way of introducing a language teaching method called the self-discovery. Within this method, the teacher serves more a facilitator who provides students with the necessary information and materials to encourage them to figure out the rules/facts on their own. However, I cannot help but wonder, is this approach universal? Or would it be more productive in a cultural setting like that of the US? For now, I believe that I still need to assess the needs of my students at that particular moment in order to determine which teaching method would be most effective whether that is the self-discovery method or another approach.

Final Project Progress

Cara and I have been making progress on our final project for class. We have contacted Sarah Jomae, who is in charge if the International House to make sure it was alright we held these workshops. Ms Jomae seems to be on board with us coming in a few times through out the semester to talk with the international students. We have also come up with a list of dates that would be the most convenient for us, we just need to make sure the dates are alright with I-House. The dates we are thinking are Sun. 10/24, Tues. 10/26, and Sun. 11/7. The times for these days would be 6pm, 7:30pm, and 6pm respectively. In addition we have developed some thoughts and ideas for possible topics for the sessions. These topics include:

1. Learning English

• When did you start learning English?
• Why did you learn?
• What methods were used? (Did you find these methods helpful?)
• What was the hardest thing for you to learn?

   2. English in your home country vs. English in the US

• Are there any similarities? What?
• What was most shocking when you came to the US?
• Do you feel your previous knowledge prepared you well?
• What do you still find yourself struggling with?

  3. You Americans are so strange! Why do you...?

• Allow students to ask us questions, such as "why do you say/do _______?"

Now, we plan on coming up with different activities to incorporate at each session. We want to include things that would engage everyone and that the experience would be beneficial for everyone. We also plan on making fliers/advertisements, so the students are aware of these workshops. :)

You Can Read It, But Can You Practice It?

As I continue to study education, specifically bilingual elementary education and TESOL, I begin to wonder if I will actually be able to put the methods and strategies I have learned into practice. As I read the articles for this week, I kept thinking, of course! Of course you want to be sure to incorporate diversity into the classroom, of course it is important to have well trained teachers,  of course providing a model is helpful for ELL students, I have read this a million times. However, I then began to think to myself, I have been given what seems like endless opportunities to read about the "best practices" to utilize in a classroom of ELL students, but I have rarely been given the chance to practice these theories.

Do not get me wrong, I have learned a great deal of helpful tips and information in regards to how to best reach out to English language learners, which I plan on remembering and using when I become a teacher, but I strongly feel I lack the experiences of putting them into practice!  In other words, sometimes you can only read so much, until you have to put the material you have learned to "the test." Otherwise, you may never be a good teacher because you never practice what you read. For instance, I can read everything there is to know about baseball, but that does not mean that I will be a good baseball player--I have to practice the sport in order to become good at it.

I think that Sleeter brought up a good point in the article, Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools, when she pointed out that so many teachers lack the proper and necessary preservice training when working with culturally diverse students. The article mentioned that so many students who are studying to become teachers are not provided the necessary materials and information about teaching in different settings and how to reach out to students from different backgrounds. In my opinion, I think Sleeter should also add that many preservice teachers lack the necessary experiences to teach students from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Materials, education, and experience should all go hand in hand. I do think it is important to educate preservice teachers about how to teach in culturally diverse settings, but I also think that clinical experiences or more hands on lessons should also be included. I feel that going from reading and learning to teaching in the classroom is a mighty big leap if you have never really had any prior experience interacting with students, especially students of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Mismatches

"Mismatches are unavoidable. They are a part of the practice of everyday teaching. Even highly structured and meticulously planned lessons will result in perceptual mismatches of one kind or another" (Kuma p. 90). Personally, I feel that this piece of information is good to know up front as a perspective teacher because it helps eliminate the pressure of always having to be "perfect." By no means am I saying that because mismatches are inevitable one should not consider how to avoid any confusion in a lesson. Rather, I am trying to point out that these types of communication failures do happen-- no matter how prepared, experienced, or well planned out a teacher is. Even in a mainstream classroom with native speakers, mismatch situations may arise. We just have to remember that nobody is perfect, not even teachers (as shocking as that may be), and the teacher and/or student may not always communicate their thoughts or ideas clear enough for others to understand.
As a future teacher, I need to remember that these moments of language misunderstanding are going to present themselves, and that I should not be discouraged by them. In fact, as Kuma later points out, mismatches can actually be used as a learning opportunity. For example, I am a resident assistant on one of the international floors and earlier this year, I was writing a reminder message on my residents' whiteboards using the "common" phrase ASAP (meaning as soon as possible). Later that same day, I had a resident come up to me and ask, "what does ASAP mean?" It was at that moment that I realized many of my residents may not understand what the expression means. After informing my one resident of the word's significance, I then went and wrote, "= as soon as possible," next to ASAP written on the whiteboards. By adding the meaning on the whiteboards, my residents learned what ASAP means, and I recognized that I have to be careful with the terminology I use because sometimes I take advantage of my audience's language background knowledge.

Teaching: A New Approach

This week was a bit of a humbling experience for me in regards to TESOL and which teaching methods are "better" than others. For awhile now, I was beginning to think that the Communicative Language Teaching method was, for lack of a better word, superior to the other types of teaching approaches (such as direct method, grammar translation method, etc.). Although I am not able to pinpoint where these thoughts originated, I can only guess that I started developing this view point after learning about the many benefits the CLT method seemed to have in comparison to the other approaches. I started to believe that CLT was the "newer" and "trendier" version of teaching a second language in comparison to the previously practiced techniques. However, after reading Stephen Bax's article, The End of CLT: a context approach to language teaching, I began to realize how wrong I was.

In his article, Bax makes an excellent point when he mentions how the CLT approach has been overused and overemphasized for so long. In fact, others began to have a similar view point as myself in the sense that if the CLT method was not used, the teaching program was somehow backwards. Bax gives the example about a man who went to Japan and questioned the experienced teachers' use of the Grammar Translation method. He later states," this displays an unfortunate attitude: a young and relatively experienced teacher comes to a new country of which he has almost no knowledge. Without any reference to the culture, the learning context, student needs and wishes, and other contextual factors, he immediately judges far more experienced teachers as failing. And what gives him a license to do so, as he sees it, is the fact that he is a native speaker, and that he is armed with CLT" (pg. 2). When I read this comment, I could not help but imagine myself doing something similar. Maybe I wouldn't actually say it to the instructor directly, but I would probably be thinking it in my head. "Why," you might ask? Because I would probably think my teaching methods were more effective since they are "newer." As I continued to read, Bax put me in my place once again when he talked about how clearly other methods can be just as effective--it all depends on the context. For instance, in schools over in Holland or the Czech Republic, who did not use the CLT method, the students were able to speak English really well. This shows that the CLT approach does not always have to be used, but rather, depending on various factors such as the students, resources, culture, etc. can help determine which teaching method would be the most effective. Or more simply put, it all depends on the context of the teaching situation.  

To close, I would like to say, "Thank you Stephen Bax. Thank you for keeping me in check and helping me realize that CONTEXT is a very important factor when selecting a teaching method."

Kuma Reflection

Although a lot of good material was presented in this weeks reading, I found it interesting how defining the role of a teacher is much like choosing the best teaching method for a classroom. While reading chapter 1 in Kumarauvdivelu's book Beyond Methods: Macrostrategies for Language Teaching, I could not help but notice that there has never been one conclusive decision on the definition of a teacher's role in the classroom. According to Kuma, some individuals see themselves as passive technicians, others reflective practitioners, or even transformative intellectuals (sometimes a combination of them all) when it comes to being an educator.

I just found it interesting how there are (what sometimes seems like) endless discussions as to what is the purpose of a teacher in the classroom, and how those talks are similar to the continuous discussions of which teaching method is most effective for second language learners. Personally, I have come to discover that the conclusion in both of these topics is that there is no conclusion. There is not a definite answer because there is no one best term or method. In other words, people will always view their role in the classroom, or which teaching approach would be the best practiced, differently because every person and situation is unique. Depending on the make-up of the classroom environment, as well as on how the individual themself views the situation, will influence the teacher's approach to teaching a second language and/or defining their personal role to their students.


In general, I have gathered from the various readings for this course thus far, that there is not just one way to define a teacher, nor is there just one teaching method that works best. As the instructor, he/she will have to evaluate his/her students and their abilities, in order to select a teaching approach that would be the most effective. In addition, every teacher may see themselves maintaining a different role in the classroom as their fellow co-workers because their situation and viewpoints are unique.

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How would you approach this?

As a second language learner, I have experience many different types of teaching methods over the years. For instance, when I first started to learn Spanish as a freshman in high school, my teacher used more of a grammar translation approach. A majority of the class was spoken in English and we would translate various words and/or phrases from English to Spanish. At the time I found this method to be helpful because I was a beginner and did not have the slightest clue how to speak Spanish. This method helped introduce me to many important vocabulary words and phrases in the Spanish language.


However, as a continued on with my Spanish learning, the methods my instructors used to teach began to change as our ability levels were increasing. To give an example, the approach my Spanish teacher from senior year used could fall under the cognitive approach method. As learners, we were never really corrected on our pronunciation, unless of course the word we used was completely wrong. My teacher viewed speaking errors as something that was only natural for non-native speakers to experience. In addition, we spent time focusing on improving our abilities to read and write in the language as well as learn about different grammar rules. At the time I found this teaching method a bit challenging, but in a positive way. This approach helped me improve my Spanish language abilities.

A third type of language learning that I have experienced is the direct approach. This past summer I had the opportunity to study abroad in Mexico. While I was there, the professor only knew how to speak fluent Spanish; therefore, the entire class was taught in that language. At times, she would use hand motions or other gestures if the class was unsure on what she was saying. My professor also liked to include various literary texts into her lessons for us to enjoy, rather than analyze the grammar. Once again, I found this teaching method to be beneficial to my Spanish learning career. Being immersed in the language and having to constantly speak and understand in my L2 helped me further develop my Spanish abilities. I found the direct approach to be helpful at that stage in my life because I was at a more advanced stage in the language learning process.

Overall, I would say that one method is not better than the other. Sometimes the type of method that would be “best” depends on the ability level of the class or even an individual. I felt that the methods my teachers have used through out the years have been appropriate for the level of proficiency I was at during that time period. When I become a teacher, I feel as though it is important for me to know the language ability of my students, so that I can utilize a teaching method that would be most suitable for them. However, sometimes the entire class may not be at the same level, and as a result, I will have to be more flexible with which teaching styles I use in the classroom.

Dreams, Facts, and Goals

Although one cannot be completely sure what the future holds, one can always dream of what may happen. Personally, I dream about leaving the United States and teaching somewhere in another country; specifically in a Latin American country. I would love the opportunity to teach for an under developed school that is located in a Spanish speaking community. However, if I end up staying in the U.S., my ideal job would then be a teacher in a dual language school. Either way, I would ideally like to teach in a diverse setting.
Living in America, where there are a multitude of different languages spoken and cultures represented, I feel as though it is very important to be aware and knowledgeable of the issues in regards to TESOL--especially those who are teachers. Knowing about the problems that speakers of other languages may face can give an individual a better understanding of how to interact with others who may not speak fluent English. A person can learn so much about other groups of people and/or individuals, if they take the time to learn. Teachers could reach more students in their classroom through having a better understanding and knowledge of how to create a learning environment for all students—including ELLs. To turn a blind eye towards the difficulties and problems English learners may face is ignorant and only makes matters worse.

As a possible candidate as a language teacher, I have made it my goal to learn how I can create an environment in my classroom where my students feel comfortable, challenged to grow as an individual, and to learn. I recognize that if a person does not feel as though they are part of the classroom community, then their ability to learn can be negatively affected. In addition, not providing my students with opportunities to grow as a human being can cause them to not be considerate of others. Finally, the most obvious goal for my classroom would be for my students to learn academically.