Research Evaluation by Youngran Song

Youngran Song — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:16:23 +0000

Research Evaluation Iddings, A. C. D., & Jang, E. Y. (2008). The mediational role of classroom practices during the silent period: A new-immigrant student learning the English language in a mainstream classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 42(4), 567-590.(Youngran Song) RELEVANCE For this article Iddings and Jang aimed to understand the emergence of English as a second language for a newly immigrated Mexican student, a native speaker of Spanish, enrolled in a mainstream classroom, who was undergoing the silent period (Krashen, 1981). I used to be as English teacher at the kindergarten in Korea and also I have two children struggling with English in America. Therefore this research is related to me as a teacher and a mother as well. CONTENT Research questions: a. What do the students learn during silent period? b. Whether the sildent period actually results from the need for input and acquisition before speaking? c. Whether the L2 curriculum should include an initial period of silence? Summary of previous research: Gibbons (1985) study demonstrated that a period of silence, rather than beneficial to SLA, may signal a lack of comprehension and , if prolonged, may mark psychological withdrawal rather than acquisition. Ioah and Hatch (1978) argued that an extended silent period does not mark any contribution to SLA, especially because some children sink into it by resisting or avoiding L2 learning. In contrast, Clarke (1989), when examining the role of the silent period in the acquisition of English as a second language of one Vietnamese preschooler, argued that it may be a period of intense learning and that the development of a social network during this time is important in determining wheter the child gains access to the new language. Saville-Troike’s (1988) study involving nine young Chinese L2 learners also highlighted a positive aspect of the silent period by linking it with productive private speech. Summary of related conceptual work: Van Lier (2004) described an ecological approach to be neither a theory nor a method with which to do research but instead as a way of thinking (and acting), allowing for broad understandings of cultural, historical, social, institutional, and linguistic phenomena in the classroom. Ellis and Larsen-Freeman (2006) have claimed that L2 learning can be better understood when it is conceived through the lens of emergentism, or the idea that “patterns in language development and of language use are neither innately prespecified in language learners/ users nor are they triggered solely by exposure to imput. Lantolf (2006) has emphasized the importance of interactional and contextual affordances in language learning process. Definition of terms: Top-down processing: Achieving interpretation and production of language meaning through prior knowledge of content, context, and culture. This process may allow learners to guess the meanings of words they have not encountered before, and to make some sense out of larger chunks of written and oral text. Utterance structure: The focus of the information organization approach to SLA, where emphasis is on “the way in which learners put their words together” Sociocultural theory: An approach established by Vygosky which claims that interaction not only facilitate language learning but is a causative force in acquisition. Further, all of learning is seen as essentially a social process which is grounded in sociocultural settings. Linguistic competence: The system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language FORMAT Quantitative and qualitative approach Qualitative research methods and a case study design were used. The focal students were selected on the basis of (a) their native language being other than English and (b) the fact that they had never attended the institutional context of school before entering kindergarten in the United States. Procedure of data collections: The data consisted of field notes, anecdotal records of students’ interactions, academic artifacts (i.e., student products), about 20 hours of cideotape, and audiotaped interviews Data analysis: Data analysis was ongoing throughout the study and lasted for several months after the period of date collection. The highlighted episodes were purposefully selected because they reflect routine practices of the classroom and were useful in helping understand the processes of L2 learning. RESULTS Findings 1: A shared object – The quiet mouse. A student holding a mouse puppet in her or his hand walked around among other students, who were sitting on the floor, to find the quietest child. Students were waiting silently, wishing to be picked. The one who was picked took over the mose pupper and continued the activity by walking around and picking the next student. The Quiet Mouse practice was found to provide an opportunity for Juan to learn particular actions and utterances related to this activity in a context in which intertion reading could take place effectively. Although silence was the aim of this practive, kindergarteners often made utterances relating to the practice, such as, “Hey, be quiet, Pick me,” The students’ utterances developed from a few core ideas by showing that the content of their utterances were mediated through these features of the Quiet Mouse practice Findings 2: The infrastructural elements in learning center practices. Each afternoon for about 60 minutes, all students in the kindergarten class participated in learning center activities. These activities were designed to provide students with independent practice that reinforced mathematical or literacy concepts that the teachers had already taught and the students had practiced under guidance. The infrastructural aspects of center activities created many affordances for intention reading to take place, making it easier for Juan to gain control over and make use of the meditational means afforded by the classroom environment. Findings 3: Speech patterns in testing practices. Each week in the kindergarten classroom, students took simple, teacher-made tests under the guidance of either of the homeroom teachers. These tests consisted of a cone-page, the tests were designed to assess the children’s achievement levels in relation to sound-letter relationships, word recognition, and spelling. These routine actions relating to testing established a triadic joint-attentional frame between the teacher and Juan through the mediation of the testing procedures, which became a basis for Juan to attend to the communicative intentions of the teacher at specific moments during the practice. What has been learned? Language learning was not merely a result of repetition or mimicking, but instead, it was an intentional, transformative, and complex process of meaning-making involving an understanding and creation of shared semiotic systems through joint participation in sign-mediated activities, or in van Lier’s (2004) words, “the whole was not only more than a sum of its parts, it was of different nature than its parts.” Implications for further research This study has been instrumental in providing opportunities for the reassessment of the silent period and in presenting a counter-argument to deficit perspectives that view emergent-level language learners as being unable to participate meaningfully in classroom activities. This article has sought to draw attention to the early stages of L2 acquisition so that we, as educators, can better understand how and what students may be learning during this period of silence.

Teacher interview : Curriculum focus by Youngran Song

Youngran Song — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:10:28 +0000

I had an interview with my daughter’s online private tutor, Ronn Lloyd B. Lagdameo. He is from Philippines and has been working as an online English teacher for more than three years. At the beginning, he was employed by YBM SI-SA, the largest language institute in Korea, in the late January of 2007. He was also responsible for accomplishing the student's daily evaluation form, monthly progress reports and responding to student's inquiries via the teacher's website. His students vary from juniors to seniors. He conducted Free-Talking, Junior and Senior classes like TOEIC Speaking Sr., TOEIC Speaking Jr., English Connections, National Geographic, Timeless Classics and more. Also, he conducts classes through Skype at home. Here are my questions that I asked him. 1. What is your teaching experience? 2. Could you tell me about your beliefs of teaching? 3. What is your target teaching level? 4. Do you think curriculum design is important? If yes, why? 5. How do you control the curriculum? 6. Do you give assignment after class? 7. Do you think test is important? 8. Do you have idea to make students concentrate on lesson? 9. What is the most important thing as a teacher? 10. What do you think the most important way to improve English as a learner? He looked like a born-teacher as he thinks teaching as a fun job. He said teaching is not just a job, it is something that he really likes. When he makes curriculum, he considers students’ age, level, as well as learning background. He also regards curriculum design as flash light in the dark place. It gives him right track and it is going to be his guide. He does not give assignment to the young kids but gives it to the seniors. He feels that test is important as he could make sure students learned something from him. He always connects fun activities to the lesson for young kids as they have short concentration time. I asked him what is the most important thing as a teacher and he said “passion” and “how much you like what you are doing.” Also he mentioned “practice” is the most important thing to master language as a learner. He has found this job to be particularly challenging as he gets to encounter different types of people every day. Likewise, teaching proves to be a difficult job but a very rewarding one. One cannot explain the joy a teacher feels when his student finally responds to questions properly. Indeed, he would like to continue being a teacher and continue helping non-English speaking students learn English in a fun and effective way. Some of the textbooks are designed for the native speakers so teacher need to change curriculum based on EFL students’ needs. As Scarino (1988) mentioned, curriculum is consisted of strategies for teaching/learning in the classroom, learning resources, assessment scheme, strategies for evaluating all aspects of the curriculum as it progresses and syllabus which is a plan of action that outlines goals, objectives and content of the learning. It includes a general statement on method, assessment, and evaluation. As Ronn is teaching English in private institute, he could manage curriculum by himself. However, school teachers need to follow the fixed curriculum and it is going to be teacher’s ability to manage it. As Ronn mentioned curriculum design is like a flashlight in the dark place, teacher need to develop it so that students could learn something more from teacher. These days, Skype is used for the online conversation class and the most fantastic merit of this is that we could record the whole online conversation. The recording program could be easily downloaded through http://www.powergramo.com/. After recording, we could save it as AVI, MPEG or QUICKTIME. Wow!! Students could review the lesson many times and parents could monitor the progress. Through the interview, I learned that teachers need to enjoy teaching with good curriculum so that students get positive energy during learning. Also it is interesting to know very powerful recording device “Skype Recording System.” I would like to use it for myself as well as for my students.

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Research Evaluation by Youngran Song

Teacher interview : Curriculum focus by Youngran Song