Assessment Issues in Oral Language
Vera Gutierrez-Clellens's Narratives in Two Languages: Assessing Performance of Bilingual Children was very close to my heart. After all, I grew up bi-lingual ; and so is my daughter. We have been lucky to learn more than one (two) languages early in our lives. My belief was that by osmosis or by innate instict you could learn and perform well in both languages as long as you were exposed to the language.
Learning that children who are in the process of becoming proficient in a second langauge may require greater resources for processing incoming narrative information has been enlightening. It had not occourred to me. Through the results of the experiments done by Gutierrez I can understand how the processing demands of the narrative recall had an effect on the children's comprehension of the story.
It is sad to see hispanic children who can speak and understand two languages, are not doing as well on tests as are students who speak only one language. One might think that the student who has knowledge of the more languages is a high-achiever. Yet, when not given the correct tools to process the language, it can be a barrier rather than a trampoline.
What I mean is that the studies demonstrated that the students are capable of understanding, but it suggests that teachers provice more resources for the comphrenesion.
I believe that the research strategies used in this study were very useful and creative. It provided the opportunity for the student to demonstrate his/her abilities in both languages, therefore avoiding the classification of low-achiever, or not capable of understanding. It also provided educators with the tools to help these L2 students comprehend and perform better in the L2. Performance is not the problem, but its assessment.
Fulcher and Marquez-Reiter's article about the difficulty in speaking tests was also a great article in which the conditions in which the tests are given affect the performance of teh test-takers as well as other elements related to the test. Speaking tests have always been to my belief, only a part of assessment. One can not define the proficiency of a student by a mere test.
According to Tarone and Ellis, variablity in physical setting, topic and the participants affect the results of the test. Fulcher argued that each test would be a test of performance in the specific situation. Tarone also argued that test scores can only 'tell us something about student ability on other test tasks and real-world-tasks that share the same characteristics."
It is argued that some tests are made about topics which the test taker is no expert about. This also affects the results. Cross-culturral pragmatics also play an important role in test taking. L2 learners come with a cultural background different from that of the new language and cultural differences and ways of viewing and interpreting situations are also rocks on the road that (impediments) that do not help speaker be assessed as best they could.
"Task difficulty in speaking tests is affected by the cultural baggage that the speaker brings to the specific act of communication."-Fulcher
Tests can be affected by cultural differences as well as task difficulty and experstise, and conditions of power (social power).
and many other external conditions that may have nothing to do with the test taker' ability.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
week 7
Speaking Strategies
It is good to have something that you have lived, experienced, seen and heard, explained to you in a direct and implicit manner. I had been in situations in which a person would use many words trying very hard to get the meaning across and most of the time not being successful. It's comforting to see that it has a name, "strategy of over-elaboration" where non-native speakers include more details than native speakers do when explaining or deacribing something. Studies by Blum-Kulka abd Olshtain(1986) named it Over-Elaboration.
The notion of studying strategies such as Circumlocution, Approximation, Literal Translation,Mime, and Message Abandonment is so appealing to me that I will center my project in this topic. Will will try to find out what types of strategies pre-schoolers use to communicate in a L2 , if they use any at all. And wether these are taught or by insticnt they arise.
As Helen Basturkmen mentions in her article, teachers must create speaking parctice tasks for their L2 students, but they should also create an awareness of the features of the spokenn language as well as placing tehg students in the position of analysts of discourse.
As I refekcted on my teaching strategies I found that I had used some of these strategies in my Conversational English classes yet did not know what they were called or that they had been studied. As I mentioned earlier, most of my teaching is based on instinct and gut feeling rather than taught strategies (taught to me I mean).
Now I know the importance of teaching startegies to your students in a way that they see the importance, value and benefits that using these straties might bring them.
I have my students observe themselves as they speak./ With the use of a video camera we record speeches and then analyze them. We also record interactions and the students really enjoy seeing themselves and evaluating themselves as well. It is true as Bastukmen says, that one can learn to talk by observing talk.
About Dantas-Whitney's article I must say that teh audiotaped journals proved to be exiting and fruitful. Having students reflect upon what they learned in class and the conncetions that they made with their personal lives is a great tool. Critical thinking skills are developed in a way that the students enjoy and that can also help them improve their speaking skills. It's a great way of NOT having your students feel theratened and evaluate themselves.
By helping students acquire speaking strategies and reflective and critical thinking skils, we are fostering self-directed learning as well as practice situations.
Dantas-Whitney asks " Does critical reflection via spoken journals contribute to oral language acquisition?" I can reply with Helen Basturkmen's statement that one learns to speak by observing and listening to others [or ourselves] speak.
It is good to have something that you have lived, experienced, seen and heard, explained to you in a direct and implicit manner. I had been in situations in which a person would use many words trying very hard to get the meaning across and most of the time not being successful. It's comforting to see that it has a name, "strategy of over-elaboration" where non-native speakers include more details than native speakers do when explaining or deacribing something. Studies by Blum-Kulka abd Olshtain(1986) named it Over-Elaboration.
The notion of studying strategies such as Circumlocution, Approximation, Literal Translation,Mime, and Message Abandonment is so appealing to me that I will center my project in this topic. Will will try to find out what types of strategies pre-schoolers use to communicate in a L2 , if they use any at all. And wether these are taught or by insticnt they arise.
As Helen Basturkmen mentions in her article, teachers must create speaking parctice tasks for their L2 students, but they should also create an awareness of the features of the spokenn language as well as placing tehg students in the position of analysts of discourse.
As I refekcted on my teaching strategies I found that I had used some of these strategies in my Conversational English classes yet did not know what they were called or that they had been studied. As I mentioned earlier, most of my teaching is based on instinct and gut feeling rather than taught strategies (taught to me I mean).
Now I know the importance of teaching startegies to your students in a way that they see the importance, value and benefits that using these straties might bring them.
I have my students observe themselves as they speak./ With the use of a video camera we record speeches and then analyze them. We also record interactions and the students really enjoy seeing themselves and evaluating themselves as well. It is true as Bastukmen says, that one can learn to talk by observing talk.
About Dantas-Whitney's article I must say that teh audiotaped journals proved to be exiting and fruitful. Having students reflect upon what they learned in class and the conncetions that they made with their personal lives is a great tool. Critical thinking skills are developed in a way that the students enjoy and that can also help them improve their speaking skills. It's a great way of NOT having your students feel theratened and evaluate themselves.
By helping students acquire speaking strategies and reflective and critical thinking skils, we are fostering self-directed learning as well as practice situations.
Dantas-Whitney asks " Does critical reflection via spoken journals contribute to oral language acquisition?" I can reply with Helen Basturkmen's statement that one learns to speak by observing and listening to others [or ourselves] speak.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Week 6
From Speaking to Writing/ teaching the Spoken Language
The importance of practicing spoken language is crucial and sometimes overlooked by many teachers of languages. I can say from experience that in Puerto Rico, students learn the see and read English and hardly ever learn to listen or speak the language. Opportunities, as well as tasks and strategies to do so are not given the proper importance.
Another factor is the contextual aspect of teaching. Some teachers make the learning more difficult and superficial as Kramsh mentions, because he/she looses the vision of the importance of teaching cognitively and the importance of making the lesson relevant and in a context in which the learner sees that he/she will be able to use this new information being learned, that it is for a purpose.
As a teacher I am more aware now and try to make the context of culture and the intertextual aspects of the discourse of my students more explicit. To try to make us all more aware of our position in the context.
The Peregogy/Boyle article adds to my enlightenment by showing the importance of teacher/student talk. As an educator I create hands on activities for my students that for my understanding are perfect and fun for a specific topic to be covered, but I must admit that sometimes I do not take the context of my student's realities into consideration, making it harder for them to understand and practice the necessary skills for a particular lesson.
Taking in consideration the students' prior knowledge should be one of the first aspects a teacher considers; specially in a foreign language classroom. This might mean a change in the way my colleagues and I teach English in PR, But I believe it's worth a try.
The importance of practicing spoken language is crucial and sometimes overlooked by many teachers of languages. I can say from experience that in Puerto Rico, students learn the see and read English and hardly ever learn to listen or speak the language. Opportunities, as well as tasks and strategies to do so are not given the proper importance.
Another factor is the contextual aspect of teaching. Some teachers make the learning more difficult and superficial as Kramsh mentions, because he/she looses the vision of the importance of teaching cognitively and the importance of making the lesson relevant and in a context in which the learner sees that he/she will be able to use this new information being learned, that it is for a purpose.
As a teacher I am more aware now and try to make the context of culture and the intertextual aspects of the discourse of my students more explicit. To try to make us all more aware of our position in the context.
The Peregogy/Boyle article adds to my enlightenment by showing the importance of teacher/student talk. As an educator I create hands on activities for my students that for my understanding are perfect and fun for a specific topic to be covered, but I must admit that sometimes I do not take the context of my student's realities into consideration, making it harder for them to understand and practice the necessary skills for a particular lesson.
Taking in consideration the students' prior knowledge should be one of the first aspects a teacher considers; specially in a foreign language classroom. This might mean a change in the way my colleagues and I teach English in PR, But I believe it's worth a try.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Week 5
Classroom Talk/ Teacher Talk
I will begin this posting by recalling from my experiences as a student. I wcan say that I remember having a favorite English Teacher and one I could not stand. I can honestly say that the reason why I did not like the latter teacher was because of the way she spoke and pronounced her words. Honestly, I believed I know better English than she did. Up to this day I still think this is true. Her impression on me was a bad one because I was aware of her mistakes. Yet, not I think about those classmates of mine who were not aware of this. It must have been extremely hard for them to learn anything in the class and feel comfortable listening to a 'different' kind of English.
There is no need to explain now that my favorite English Teacher was the one with the perfect pronunciation, choice of words and tone of voice. Class was such a delight.
As I read Long's and Walsh's articles about the role of the teacher in the classroom, I became even more aware of why I felt this way about my previous teachers. As an educator I will try to become a facilitator of the language and not an obstruction to understanding. I will try to expose my students more to different types of English also.
As it was note din our oral presentation, we chose a song for our lesson which had some words that were pronounced in the colloquial way and not in the proper English that's expected in classrooms. if we go back to the cultural and contextual aspect of education, I believe that students should be able to function in the society outside the classroom and this is why it is important to teach the proper manner and the colloquial ways as well.
But going back to my teachers from my childhood. I believe that there was more to my liking and dis liking these teachers than their pronunciation. It was also that my favorite teacher made the learning flow naturally and wonderfully, while the other teacher obstructed the learning process with her other behaviors such as direct error correction of my classmates, laughter, long pauses, tone and speed of speech, use of slang and filling in the gaps in class herself. Class was her 'show' and whomever did not like, or understand it was out of the game.
In my motivation class we talk about how teachers cane be positive or negative examples and influences in our decision to become teachers ourselves. I believe this negative experience influenced me to become a better teacher than she was.
And the readings by Long and Walsh have made it all more clear to me now.
Peace.
I will begin this posting by recalling from my experiences as a student. I wcan say that I remember having a favorite English Teacher and one I could not stand. I can honestly say that the reason why I did not like the latter teacher was because of the way she spoke and pronounced her words. Honestly, I believed I know better English than she did. Up to this day I still think this is true. Her impression on me was a bad one because I was aware of her mistakes. Yet, not I think about those classmates of mine who were not aware of this. It must have been extremely hard for them to learn anything in the class and feel comfortable listening to a 'different' kind of English.
There is no need to explain now that my favorite English Teacher was the one with the perfect pronunciation, choice of words and tone of voice. Class was such a delight.
As I read Long's and Walsh's articles about the role of the teacher in the classroom, I became even more aware of why I felt this way about my previous teachers. As an educator I will try to become a facilitator of the language and not an obstruction to understanding. I will try to expose my students more to different types of English also.
As it was note din our oral presentation, we chose a song for our lesson which had some words that were pronounced in the colloquial way and not in the proper English that's expected in classrooms. if we go back to the cultural and contextual aspect of education, I believe that students should be able to function in the society outside the classroom and this is why it is important to teach the proper manner and the colloquial ways as well.
But going back to my teachers from my childhood. I believe that there was more to my liking and dis liking these teachers than their pronunciation. It was also that my favorite teacher made the learning flow naturally and wonderfully, while the other teacher obstructed the learning process with her other behaviors such as direct error correction of my classmates, laughter, long pauses, tone and speed of speech, use of slang and filling in the gaps in class herself. Class was her 'show' and whomever did not like, or understand it was out of the game.
In my motivation class we talk about how teachers cane be positive or negative examples and influences in our decision to become teachers ourselves. I believe this negative experience influenced me to become a better teacher than she was.
And the readings by Long and Walsh have made it all more clear to me now.
Peace.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Week 4
Listening Strategies,
I never saw listening strategies as a process to be taught teach. I always integrated listening strategies for fun, get meaning, or vocabulary in class. But I never, until now, thought about listening skills as method. Now I'm more aware of the importance of TEACHING the listening strategies to my students.
As I think back of Puerto Rico and how languages are taught there, I ubderstand why it is that French, Italian, Portuguese German and other languages programs work se well contrary to the way we teach English.
We believe that English in Puerto Rico is ESL. I have come to understand with this class that it is EFL. We do not speak English on the streets of Puerto Rico.
I guess we all assume in Puerto Rico that after 13 years of English classes through the k-12 program, students know and understand the language. Yet, English should be taught as a Foreign Language.
Meta cognitive strategies as well as cognitive strategies are also a new way of seeing things for me. the meta cognitive process is important in the way you teach the language and plan your lessons as well as important when you are a learner and know your abilities, strengths and weaknesses. The meta cognitive strategies can serve as a tool for self-efficacy and as a tool for a responsible teacher to plan ahead and make sure that the lesson is understood and well accepted by the students.
I never saw listening strategies as a process to be taught teach. I always integrated listening strategies for fun, get meaning, or vocabulary in class. But I never, until now, thought about listening skills as method. Now I'm more aware of the importance of TEACHING the listening strategies to my students.
As I think back of Puerto Rico and how languages are taught there, I ubderstand why it is that French, Italian, Portuguese German and other languages programs work se well contrary to the way we teach English.
We believe that English in Puerto Rico is ESL. I have come to understand with this class that it is EFL. We do not speak English on the streets of Puerto Rico.
I guess we all assume in Puerto Rico that after 13 years of English classes through the k-12 program, students know and understand the language. Yet, English should be taught as a Foreign Language.
Meta cognitive strategies as well as cognitive strategies are also a new way of seeing things for me. the meta cognitive process is important in the way you teach the language and plan your lessons as well as important when you are a learner and know your abilities, strengths and weaknesses. The meta cognitive strategies can serve as a tool for self-efficacy and as a tool for a responsible teacher to plan ahead and make sure that the lesson is understood and well accepted by the students.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Week 3
I must confess that metacognitive, cognitive and social affective strategies are all new names to me yet they are not new strategies.
Once again I'll refer to my previous non-existent training in teaching English as a Second/Foreign language. Therefore the name s of these techniques are new to me. The techniques are not because I learned them as a student of ESL on my own, nobody taught them to me and specifically pointed out their names and usefulness.
I do agree with Chamot in that we need teachers who are prepared in the field and who can effectively explain and transfer these strategies to their students.
As I read Flowerdew and Miller's Teaching of Academic Listening Comprehension and the Question of Authenticity, I could not help relate this reading to what we've discussed in teh Reasearch Method's class with Misty Sato. I focused on the position of the researcher in relation to the researched. I tried to classify the research as positivist, Interpretivist or critical.
I thought about how these researches were just looking for a way to support an already stated idea of belief.
As Flowerdew compares real lectures to EAP textbooks I thought about my own personal experiences and how I DO enjoy a lecture better because of the interpersonal quality. This brings me to my third reading on teaching BBC English Teaching Children With Video. And how useful video can be in terms of presenting a large picture to the students about culture, clothes, manner, nonverbal communication etc.
Flowerdew mentions this as a highlight of lectures in which students are given the time to process the ideas in real time. There is interaction there.
Two things caught my attention.
One is the reference to Kellerman’s comment on Raggler-Eagel that states “Eliminating the visual modality creates an unnatural condition which strains the auditory receptors to capacity”
I have done some research on the Blind and inter personal communications and I am now extremely curious about the difficulties or not that blind people might then have in learning and listening to a second language due to the fact that there is no visual modality in it for them.
The second point is that again I was reminded of the Research Methodology course when Flowerdew and Miller mentiono the different structures in which a lecture is presented . For example Thesis method, problem-solution method. It reminded me of a conversation in class and a general reaction of how the Science teachers preferred the positivist types of research because they understood them better and how the Literature people preferred the critical or interpretivist structures better. We all have to learn how to listen and understand all types of lectures and research.
This opportunity is provided for byteh lecture and not by the textbooks.
The lecture has the human empathetic aspect and immediate feedback that the EAP Textbook cannot provide.
Once again I'll refer to my previous non-existent training in teaching English as a Second/Foreign language. Therefore the name s of these techniques are new to me. The techniques are not because I learned them as a student of ESL on my own, nobody taught them to me and specifically pointed out their names and usefulness.
I do agree with Chamot in that we need teachers who are prepared in the field and who can effectively explain and transfer these strategies to their students.
As I read Flowerdew and Miller's Teaching of Academic Listening Comprehension and the Question of Authenticity, I could not help relate this reading to what we've discussed in teh Reasearch Method's class with Misty Sato. I focused on the position of the researcher in relation to the researched. I tried to classify the research as positivist, Interpretivist or critical.
I thought about how these researches were just looking for a way to support an already stated idea of belief.
As Flowerdew compares real lectures to EAP textbooks I thought about my own personal experiences and how I DO enjoy a lecture better because of the interpersonal quality. This brings me to my third reading on teaching BBC English Teaching Children With Video. And how useful video can be in terms of presenting a large picture to the students about culture, clothes, manner, nonverbal communication etc.
Flowerdew mentions this as a highlight of lectures in which students are given the time to process the ideas in real time. There is interaction there.
Two things caught my attention.
One is the reference to Kellerman’s comment on Raggler-Eagel that states “Eliminating the visual modality creates an unnatural condition which strains the auditory receptors to capacity”
I have done some research on the Blind and inter personal communications and I am now extremely curious about the difficulties or not that blind people might then have in learning and listening to a second language due to the fact that there is no visual modality in it for them.
The second point is that again I was reminded of the Research Methodology course when Flowerdew and Miller mentiono the different structures in which a lecture is presented . For example Thesis method, problem-solution method. It reminded me of a conversation in class and a general reaction of how the Science teachers preferred the positivist types of research because they understood them better and how the Literature people preferred the critical or interpretivist structures better. We all have to learn how to listen and understand all types of lectures and research.
This opportunity is provided for byteh lecture and not by the textbooks.
The lecture has the human empathetic aspect and immediate feedback that the EAP Textbook cannot provide.
Friday, January 19, 2007
This is my first journal entry
As I was reading the three reading selection for next class, I was captivated by the similarities and relationship between one and the other. The readings really complemented each other. Some of the ideas and concepts were the same, yet they were named in different manner.
The importance of listening in the learning environment had never been clearer to me than it is now. The way if was explained and highlighted in these readings made it seem even more important. I must confess that even though I am a teacher of English to Spanish speaking students, I have never had any formal training in the teaching methods of a second language. Therefore, I was surprised and satisfied to see that some of the suggestions and information given on the articles and book chapters were things that I do in class innately.
I must also confess that I learned my second language (English) at a very early stage in my life. And I believe that experience made it even easier for me to learn a Third (French) and a fourth (Italian) language. I believe the strategies I used in learning English I applied to learning these other two languages as a self- regulated learner. Yet, it is true that I had one of the best teachers of French anyone can have in Puerto Rico. And that I do use a lot of the techniques she used in class and that helped me learn French much faster in my own English classes is no secret. But, this is the first time I see all this in writing. All of this came to me from experience, not through formal training or studies.
I wondered about how English is taught in Puerto Rico and why is it that even though students take 12 years of English in school, when they get to college they still cannot hold a conversation in English. This is not all of the students of course, but a great majority. As I was discussing this issue with Martha before classes started I believed that the answer to this question was political, or even cultural. Puerto Rico is a territory of the US and the colonial mentality would make reject anything coming from the “oppressor” this including language. There has to be a will to learn a new language and not an imposition. In Puerto Rico, English is part of the school curriculum. Students do not have the opportunity to choose a second or foreign language in the public school system. English is a requisite from k-12. This is why I believed it was a matter of resistance.
While reading I remembered Martha’s comment on that maybe the answer to why students in PR do not learn as much English as they should after 12 years of schooling is that the methods used to teach are not the correct ones. As I read about the Bottom-up and Top-Down strategies mentioned by Richards and the comparisons of reading and listening strategies used in passive ways where student participation is limited or none, I began to understand what Martha was saying. And to “truly” understand why my French professor was so successful. There was a lot of interaction in the class and listening was developed for interactional and transactional purposes.
The Gibbons chapter also enlightened me. It was not a requirement but I’m glad I read it. The part where Gibbons talks about how sounds are interpreted and how some FL learners relate the sounds in the new language to sounds in their native language made it clear to me now why my Spanish teacher in elementary school would ask us to “sink” about a problem in order to solve it.
An old friend of the family suggested that I study and write a thesis on why Puerto Ricans who go to the US and are raised there shape their mouths differently when speaking that Island Puerto Ricans do. I thought this was absurd at the time. I was just started college and I was studying Literature not linguistics. Now it all makes sense to me and it seems like a possibility. There must be a logical explanation to all this.
I was talking to a fellow Puerto Rican student who is taking a class on Motivation an Engagement with me this semester and we were wondering or perhaps complaining about the fact that little is known about the research that is done regarding education in Puerto Rico. There is not a national conscience to make these studies public, if they have been done. Or perhaps they have not been done at all. It is a good question and a good start to motivate us to study, research and learn more about education in our Island.
The importance of listening in the learning environment had never been clearer to me than it is now. The way if was explained and highlighted in these readings made it seem even more important. I must confess that even though I am a teacher of English to Spanish speaking students, I have never had any formal training in the teaching methods of a second language. Therefore, I was surprised and satisfied to see that some of the suggestions and information given on the articles and book chapters were things that I do in class innately.
I must also confess that I learned my second language (English) at a very early stage in my life. And I believe that experience made it even easier for me to learn a Third (French) and a fourth (Italian) language. I believe the strategies I used in learning English I applied to learning these other two languages as a self- regulated learner. Yet, it is true that I had one of the best teachers of French anyone can have in Puerto Rico. And that I do use a lot of the techniques she used in class and that helped me learn French much faster in my own English classes is no secret. But, this is the first time I see all this in writing. All of this came to me from experience, not through formal training or studies.
I wondered about how English is taught in Puerto Rico and why is it that even though students take 12 years of English in school, when they get to college they still cannot hold a conversation in English. This is not all of the students of course, but a great majority. As I was discussing this issue with Martha before classes started I believed that the answer to this question was political, or even cultural. Puerto Rico is a territory of the US and the colonial mentality would make reject anything coming from the “oppressor” this including language. There has to be a will to learn a new language and not an imposition. In Puerto Rico, English is part of the school curriculum. Students do not have the opportunity to choose a second or foreign language in the public school system. English is a requisite from k-12. This is why I believed it was a matter of resistance.
While reading I remembered Martha’s comment on that maybe the answer to why students in PR do not learn as much English as they should after 12 years of schooling is that the methods used to teach are not the correct ones. As I read about the Bottom-up and Top-Down strategies mentioned by Richards and the comparisons of reading and listening strategies used in passive ways where student participation is limited or none, I began to understand what Martha was saying. And to “truly” understand why my French professor was so successful. There was a lot of interaction in the class and listening was developed for interactional and transactional purposes.
The Gibbons chapter also enlightened me. It was not a requirement but I’m glad I read it. The part where Gibbons talks about how sounds are interpreted and how some FL learners relate the sounds in the new language to sounds in their native language made it clear to me now why my Spanish teacher in elementary school would ask us to “sink” about a problem in order to solve it.
An old friend of the family suggested that I study and write a thesis on why Puerto Ricans who go to the US and are raised there shape their mouths differently when speaking that Island Puerto Ricans do. I thought this was absurd at the time. I was just started college and I was studying Literature not linguistics. Now it all makes sense to me and it seems like a possibility. There must be a logical explanation to all this.
I was talking to a fellow Puerto Rican student who is taking a class on Motivation an Engagement with me this semester and we were wondering or perhaps complaining about the fact that little is known about the research that is done regarding education in Puerto Rico. There is not a national conscience to make these studies public, if they have been done. Or perhaps they have not been done at all. It is a good question and a good start to motivate us to study, research and learn more about education in our Island.
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