A good education: It can be a good school, a good education system, good students, good teachers, a bad education system, and many others. Find what factors make it good and how to make it.

The article should contain at least one full paper explanation (better more than one).

As the requirement, it should be submitted in the form of F4 paper with 1 line spacing, margin: 1 inch each, and 12 font size of Times new romans.

What to do?

1. Searching on Google. (An English article)
2. Translating the article. (into Bahasa Indonesia)
3. Summarizing in your own words. (in Bahasa Indonesia)
4. writing (into English)

Due: the following week after the information is announced.

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Just now, I had a very good idea to gain your English mastery. The problem comes when I think my students need to read more English articles or texts besides their limited text-book material. As what I experience when I studied in Senior and Junior high school. My teachers only ask me to translate some texts. And the result is I can translate well but you know I cannot write or speak in English. the second reason is the step or reading and translating are in line with their goals to get high score in the final test or national examination. As you know, Indonesia implements Ujian nasional (Standardized national examination) by assessing the students through multiple choice questions which rely on the reading and translating skills. Therefore I’d like to make another model of my teaching by proposing the three-steps. That is what I call the three steps of Reading-translating and writing. To make it clearer, read the below explanation:

Reading step: the students are given some materials or articles which they are interested in such as story, their hobby, or novel in English. As my preference, I prefer using motivational article because it can build the students character. the length of the article or story should meet our students’ ability or level.

Translating step: the students are asked to summarize what they have read in their own word by using their mother tongue (Bahasa Indonesia). Then the students should submit or consult their summary to the teacher.

Writing step: this step is added because in this phase the students learn to produce the language and give them chance to recall all the vocabularies in the article. This assumption can be proven exactly because usually students are lack of reading and they seldom use the vocabularies they get from reading. Therefore the recall of what they read and gain the ideas from their own mother tongue (Bahasa Indonesia) is influencing them much to gain their writing ability through the easy way.

Finally, by implementing this model, your students will be successful in National examination and their English competence is also improved. Thus it will be helpful for you. Good luck. Have a nice trying.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Now, I have more ideas to improve this technique. It has to do with the best assessment as the easy way to do that. After they read, summarize, translate, and write the texts. It is better if the technique is followed by asking them to post their product to Blog (since it is very influencing much to write a good writing). The one who gets more “like” deserves to get an additional points. Furthermore, because their writing is in English, it will be challenging if theirs can be read by foreigners whose English Native. By doing so of course the students will compete to create a good writing.

Besides, gaining, the students’ writing skills, it is also influencing them to learn how to make a blog because many of my students are not capable to blogging. By asking them, obviously, it will help them much if someday they need to use blog. It will also encourage them to read and write more although they have left the school.In addition, the way we use is like being a journalist although a journalist in a very simple way.

Reading step: the students are given some materials or articles which they are interested in such as story, their hobby, or novel in English. As my preference, I prefer using motivational article because it can build the students character. the length of the article or story should meet our students’ ability or level.

Translating step: the students are asked to summarize what they have read in their own word by using their mother tongue (Bahasa Indonesia). Then the students should submit or consult their summary to the teacher.

Writing step: this step is added because in this phase the students learn to produce the language and give them chance to recall all the vocabularies in the article. This assumption can be proven exactly because usually students are lack of reading and they seldom use the vocabularies they get from reading. Therefore the recall of what they read and gain the ideas from their own mother tongue (Bahasa Indonesia) is influencing them much to gain their writing ability through the easy way.

Finally, by implementing this model, your students will be successful in National examination and their English competence is also improved. Thus it will be helpful for you. Good luck. Have a nice tryng.

• 

  

  The Fulbright Program with the Philippines is the world’s oldest continuous Fulbright program. The Philippine-American Educational Foundation (PAEF) was established on March 23, 1948.

  Grants are available for Filipino students to pursue Master’s or Ph.D. degrees in the U.S. Filipino teachers of English are eligible to teach Tagalog in the U.S and take classes at a U.S. university in the non-degree Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program.

  Opportunities in the U.S. for Filipinos

  Grants to the Philippines for U.S. citizens are offered in the student and scholar categories. Ten-month awards are available for students to carry out either independent or Ph.D. dissertation research. Lecturer/research grants and Fulbright Specialists grants are availble for U.S. faculty and professionals.  read more…

  In the Philippines, Fulbright U.S. grantees are supported by the Philippine-American Educational Foundation.

• Students

  Fulbright U.S. Student Program

  The Fulbright U.S. Student Program enables U.S. graduating college seniors, graduate students, young professionals, and artists to study abroad for one academic year.

  The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

• Scholars

  Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program

  The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program sends American scholars and professionals abroad to lecture and/or conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.

  Fulbright Specialist Program

  The Fulbright Specialist Program, a short-term complement to the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, sends U.S. faculty and professionals to serve as expert consultants on curriculum, faculty development, institutional planning, and related subjects at overseas academic institutions for a period of 2 to 6 weeks.

  The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES).

  

  

  Fulbright

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Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

Reference:

Werner Koller. 1979. „Das Problem der Äquivalenz.“ In: Koller, Werner: Einführung in die Übersetzungs­wissenschaft. Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer, 176-191.

We as language teachers have the singular task of teaching a discipline that requires extensive practice, application, analysis, reflection and energy. Failure to update and modernise methodology can gradually leave us lagging behind. This is a brief guide to ensure that, even in a difficult teaching environment we maximise our students’ learning experience.

Planning progressions

In our approach to themes and vocabulary, it is important to lay a lexical foundation to facilitate language acquisition. There’s little point talking about dates, addresses, telephone numbers or the number of rooms in a home if your students haven’t thoroughly mastered numbers. Before presenting any topic, always leave ample preparatory time to introduce foundation themes that will make the process more meaningful for students.

Incorporating integration

Teaching vocabulary themes and grammatical topics will have little lasting linguistic impact if the lesson does not have adequate content integration. Everything we teach should be tied to something else to reinforce connections. Studies have shown that doing isolated lexical themes like animals, the house, or food result in minimal acquisition. Instead, applied linguists encourage integration. If teaching a topic on animals, one can also discuss geography (Where do these animals live?), physical description (what do they look like?), social disposition (Are they aggressive or shy? Are they gregarious or solitary?), biology (Is this animal a mammal or a reptile?) and so on. One can also explore other language structures or practice those previously learned (Do you like crocodiles? Which is your favourite animal? Do lions live in Asia? – No they don’t. They live in………. – negation).

Grappling with Grammar

Teaching grammar is a delicate manoeuvre. On one hand we have required structures that must be covered within clear deadlines. On the other hand, by explicitly teaching grammar, we reduce the meaningful acquisition time that students have to speak, express ideas and listen to those of others. I find that one of the most effective methods of teaching grammar, particularly to younger children (7^th & 8^th grades), is to briefly present the grammatical item to students so they see what it is you are doing. Once you have demonstrated how a given rule is applied, you should initiate production as soon as possible. The goal is not to confirm that students have understood the concept. Some students take a while to fully internalise grammatical concepts and this is normal – not a sign of slow learning. In addition, some students will quickly master the mechanics of a grammatical concept but will quickly lose this grasp as well. Why? This is because the grammar lesson was essentially discreet. Lasting grammatical competence requires meaningful production. So, rather than present a topic then give simple practice exercises, present and then initiate dialogue. By allowing students to express their own perspective immediately after the a brief demonstration, even while making mistakes at first, the grammatical structure becomes useful, salient and necessary and this in turn forces the student to actually incorporate the concept into his or her speech to make him/herself understood. After extensive communicative practise with the grammatical item, one can then assign homework or class activities in subsequent lessons to enable students to refine their technique.

Activating awareness

If you have ever realised one day that a word is spelled a particular way in your native language after years of being oblivious to that fact, you will be able to relate to the notion of awareness or “noticing” in language acquisition. Too often, we as language teachers simply teach grammar lessons and language without allowing students to think critically and observe carefully their own discourse as well as that of their peers.

Strategies for increasing awareness should be included in lesson planning whenever circumstances will permit. Foreign language learners are most successful when they increase their linguistic awareness or sensitivity to the morphology and phonology of the language. Even among beginners of all ages, this can be achieved. One can design games that foster linguistic analysis and attention. For example, games can have students earn points for accurately identifying the linguistic errors made by an opponent.  These errors can be phonetic, lexical or grammatical. Increasing your students’ awareness gives them a greater sense of involvement in their own learning and will make your job a lot more pleasant and effective in the long run as awareness increases exponentially in learners once that process has been activated and sustained.

Facilitating fluency

Oral fluency in foreign language learning remains one of the fundamental shortcomings of our educational system. Certainly, the standard curriculum in Jamaica and other countries across the region and the world leaves little room for developing oral fluency in the classroom. Yet, this alone cannot explain why our students remain so limited in their ability to speak fluidly and meaningfully in their foreign language. It would seem that there are two factors to consider – the teacher’s competence and the teacher’s readiness to make oral communication a mainstay of each lesson. Many foreign language teachers around the world face the same dilemma when they begin their profession. They have made the transition from student to teacher, but are not necessarily comfortable enough in their foreign language to speak fluently. Now in a position where they believe they should be above and beyond mistakes, they become reticent to speak in class due to insecurities about their own oral production. They therefore turn to reading exercises and choral repetition, using them as crutches to feel they have provided the students with oral practice without risking their own discomfort of having to practice what they preach. This kind of fear is somewhat understandable. No one likes to be wrong in front of his or her students (and this is the case in all disciplines). Indeed, the burden of teacher as the model and source of knowledge is a heavy one and some of us are therefore reluctant to show our imperfections. This mindset is crippling and will prevent the teacher from doing his or her job well. The first step to addressing this is to remember that no one is perfect. Native speakers, even the most refined, do sometimes make lexical and phonetic blunders. It is therefore more than acceptable for a foreign speaker to make a mistake. Furthermore, students who are intimidated by the language find much comfort in knowing that even their teacher can sometimes have a linguistic lapse. It is, for them, an inspiration to see their teacher speak well, make a mistake, acknowledge it, show what was incorrect and move on. Never forget: children are much more astute than we would like to admit. They know when their teacher is frightened or when they are being short-changed. Speak to your students in the target language as much as possible. This rule is to be applied even when giving instructions – pages numbers, stand, sit, silence, turn around… Don’t forget that WE the teachers are the sole language source for most of our students. To refuse to speak to them primarily in the target language is to deny them the chance to really learn. Language teaching leaves little room for insecurity. Both students and teachers must be willing to take risks together.

Connecting the dots in comprehension

It is an evident truth: listening comprehension is, for most language learners, the hardest skill to acquire and master. It is therefore incumbent upon as language teachers to work on this skill regularly.  In the absence of adequate audiovisual materials, every effort should be made to train students as often as possible. Listening comprehension is arguably the only skill that students cannot really refine without assistance. There must be a constructive medium in which students can negotiate listening to develop their oral comprehension. Listening at home to CDs can help, but, particularly in beginners and intermediates, listening comprehension must be approached with the guided hand of the teacher with carefully planned documents that present old, recent and unknown material. The same should be done with written material. Old material reassures students as they read; recent material challenges them; unknown material develops their ability to negotiate meaning. Instead of having students listen, listen then listen some more in blind desperation, we can craft our texts so that that they train, refine and develop students’ comprehension skills. Every topic and arguably most lessons should incorporate all four competences whenever possible.

Positive production

Students are to produce in the language. Even if our external exams have minimal requirements in this regard, we can still make every effort to ensure that our students are able to express themselves orally and in writing. At the end of every themed lesson or unit, students should be provided with the opportunity to write and speak holistically on the topic by incorporating all the grammatical items involved in the previous lessons. “Holistic” production exercises should incorporate material from previous lessons. This further strengthens connections between different aspects of the language and also enables students to revise while learning new material. If your students have already covered topics concerning, the home, family, animals, and foods, craft an assignment that will oblige them to speak about all of these topics in a personalised way. While practice communication should not be too closely monitored for errors (as the key at that stage is practice), post-lesson projects should be closely evaluated for explicit mistakes that could become habitual and consequently detrimental to the acquisition process. Students should also be encouraged to be creative. It is okay to play with expression as opposed to only relying on what they have been taught. This builds their autonomy and dexterity – essential qualities to achieve near-native competence.

CASE STUDIES

Below you will see an example of how a theme can be exploited in the classroom:

To actually make some sense of these ideas, create a convincing lesson that incorporates all the pedagogical considerations previously outlined. Be sure to provide for ample oral, written production and comprehension-building exercises in your lesson. Ideally, your lesson should provide content inclusion from other subject areas, disciplines and themes. Diversifying content exposure is a sure way to facilitate language acquisition.

Choose one of these topics and brainstorm on your own or with a colleague to see how much you can harvest from the theme you have selected. Plan within the realistic constraints of time and materials at your school.

FOOD

TIME

HOUSING

TRAVEL

CLOTHING

HOBBIES

FAMILY

SPORTS

Enjoy!

Sec. Luistro

That DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro comes out swinging — as reported in the accompanying article — on the idea that public school teachers start training in foreign language teaching is a surprise — and a difficult one to understand — considering that majority of his own teachers have not even mastered the constitutionally mandated medium of instruction (MOI) used in school namely, English. Is this the reason why he is for K+12 which adds 1 year of kindergarten, 1 year of junior high school and 1 year of senior high school, or 3 more expensive years to the old 10-year basic education cycle so he can justify adding non-essential subjects to the basic curriculum? For sure, knowing some foreign languages gives one an advantage in the global stage, but in this day and age when there’s a glut of FREE, self-paced, and self-help language learning resources on the internet, why can’t we just leave those who have a need to learn other languages to so learn on their own? So many of our students won’t even have a chance to use the foreign languages they are taught, so why do we keep beating this path?  The draft, “World Bank Education Strategy 2020″, released by the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) for comment (comment phase already closed), contains an appeal “to governments, donors, community leaders, and employers to focus more on education that prepares young people for the jobs market rather than on the time they spend in school. Unless you can convince me that majority of our students will be working in environments where their foreign language skills are required — like outside the country — then the push to train public school teachers in foreign language teaching is rather a misguided course of action in the scheme of priorities. — JP

Public school teachers start training in foreign language teaching

By Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star) Updated April 28, 2011

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) has started the summer training of all its public school teachers teaching foreign languages under its Special Program in Foreign Language (SPFL) wherein it seeks to teach French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Mandarin in select public high schools.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said that the continuing education for the public high school teachers was part of their thrust to invest in their teachers, and consequently, the millions of public school children.

“We believe that all students deserve quality education,” Luistro said.

“But we cannot give this to our students if we will not provide our teachers opportunities to acquire the necessary skills and education relevant to the present needs of the education system,” added Luistro.

DepEd has been pushing for initiatives not only to improve learning outcomes but also to achieve the kind of education in the country that is at par with global standards. It also conducts programs that will enhance the competencies of teachers and upgrade the quality of teaching in public schools by giving them scholarship grants towards their professional advancement.

SPFL is among the department’s efforts in enhancing not only public school teachers’ but also students’ foreign language proficiency and global competencies.

“Knowledge in foreign language will allow us to participate in intellectual discourses during engagement in social, political and economic issues in a wider global and scientific community. And as we communicate our thoughts and understand others, we can further develop our potentials and enhance our capacity in learning life skills, as well as the cognitive and affective competencies, required of us to connect to the world,” Luistro stressed.

One hundred four teachers are being trained in Spanish, 29 of them are representatives of selected pilot schools, while the remaining 75 teachers are delegates from expansion schools. The Ministry of Education, Embassy of Spain, and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for the Development of the Kingdom of Spain collaborate with DepEd for the SPFL in Spanish. Instituto Cervantes, Manila serves as the venue (April 11-May 25, 2011).

A total of 39 teachers from the National Capital Region (NCR) and Region VII are participating in SPFL in Japanese, sponsored by Japan Foundation and now being held at the Philippines-Japan Friendship Center, Makati City (April 11-May 27, 2011).

Nine teachers from NCR are taking part in the SPFL in French, while nine teachers from Region VII are attending the French Language Program – Summer and Face to Face Follow-Through Training. The French program, in coordination with the Alliance Francaise Manila and Cebu, commenced (April 25-May 21, 2011) at Alliance Francaise Manila and Cebu.

Training in German involves 32 teachers from NCR, 15 of them are new teachers attending the training (April 11-May 28) while the remaining 17 are pilot teachers who will attend the May 2-27 training. The program is in partnership with Goethe Institut-Philippines, Makati City.

Meanwhile, Confucius Institute at the Angeles University Foundation is conducting a training on the Chinese language to six teachers (April 25-May 31).

Photographs can be used to trigger cross-cultural discussion in language learning

I’d like to make a link between two of my favourite things in life: photography and language. The phrase “a picture speaks a thousand words” travels a long way.

One of my first memories of teaching English as a foreign language in France was the enthusiasm kids in the classroom showed when presenting them with photographs. It triggered discussion, questions and even laughter, all vital elements in a healthy and successful learning environment.  I think it was a more memorable experience than the average textbook-lesson too. Relating themes and discussions to the expression of our own personal experiences makes language learning a relevant activity: sharing those experiences with other people from different places is where the motivation factor comes in. We all take photographs and the beauty of it is being able to share them with other people, from any culture, almost like a universal language that is symbolic and anthropological. Think about the power of pictures for a moment: when learning a new language or moving to a new country without any language preparation (it happens in some cases), signs, symbols and images can be the only way of being universally-understood. I must add here that I make an exception for international road signs as even they have their fair share of false friends!

Photographs are so often shared online through social media, blogs and websites. Pictures not only serve as an educational aid in language learning, but the effectiveness of picture-power in vocabulary memorisation has been proven time and time again – we simply remember pictures more than we do text: without getting too cognitively technical, our brains simply operate visually in many respects. Take the successes of mind-mapping in memorisation techniques for example. Cue cards with vocabulary on one side and a picture on the other are a typical example of common language games used in the classroom….and they work.

Why I bring photography into all of this though, is that photos are a common denominator between one person and the next, the world over. We take pictures on holiday and indeed abroad, we take family photographs, we photograph special occasions, national holiday celebrations and traditions dating back to ancient rituals. Photos therefore reflect a country’s culture and way of life.

I remember exchanging photos with my students from Japan to explore each other’s cultures: it revealed so much about social occasions, personalities, everyday lives and had us learning new words (nouns and verbs in particular) as we recalled stories and past events. What was great about it was that we ended up using the past, present and even future tenses, an all-round winner for language practise. We went on to compare and contrast traditions using superlatives and comparatives. Language-exploration aside, we gained a mutual insight into what each others’ countries were really about.

This is one of the reasons why I love photojournalism so much; it’s a type of news-reporting and indeed it is useful to speak the language on location, but the images are universal and the captions will each be translated differently in each country according to the interpretation of it or the message conveyed. You can try this discussion with foreign friends: express in the target language what a picture means to you and why and invite your foreign conversation partner to do the same. A picture can tell a story: what’s yours?

Send your photos to me from all around the world with an interesting caption about life in your country and I will pick the best one to feature next week!

Send your photos with captions in your language to: guru@theculturecave.com

Coffee on the beach?  These dreamlike landscapes of caribbean bliss[1] feel like an odd partner to the daily potion of jittery energy.  Surrounded by white sandiness, you’d rather have a batida de coco or simply a cold beer. In contrast to these vistas of untouched nature, the cup of joe usually comes with an opportunity for social interaction (see conversant barista in me, myself and I) or at least with the possibility of people-watching (see coffee on the public square in making history).

These seascapes sans human interaction call to mind the cliché “If you were to go to a desert island, which three things would you bring along?”. Which remains a tough one to answer. Those who have it figured out are a minority and, not infrequently, truly misguided. A hubristic smart-ass would answer something along the lines of: “I would bring the internet, an iPad, and a cooling room so I can order anything I want online, and do all the reading and viewing I usually do. Hell, I could even keep my job, if need be”. Of course smart-ass has forgotten that he/she will also need electricity, a valid shipping address, an unexpired credit card, a fast enough broadband connection, and maybe some human companionship.

With the exception of the occasional genius who has it all figured out, the question has, since decades, provided foreign language teachers with a great way to fill an hour of a mid-level foreign language class with lively conversation. Besides the indecision on the part of students, it allows for usage of hypothetical verbal modes and/or counterfactuals. And it could also do double duty as fun icebreaker.

Besides the conversational exercise, this genre of sachets also recalls other moments in human history. The simple beach-meets-blue-sea sample comes close to David Hockney’s umbrella on the beach. Perhaps, when in Italy for a fair or exhibit, he saw one of these sugarbags whose images imprinted itself on his membrane. The two outer ones evoke Indochine‘s melancholic air and hint at colonial nostalgia. Place Deneuve or her lover on a ship between those rocks, staring languidly at the eastern horizon. The other beachscape might bring to mind Crusoe’s Friday, cooking his master’s meal in the shade of that palm tree.

Lined up one next to the other, these sachets undermine the uniqueness of both Deneuve’s and Crusoe’s experiences, and possibly even of Hockney’s work. These small color prints stand in for the readymade sentiments, ruses and imagination of that prototypical Western subject who is currently religiously indulging in an afternoon ristretto.

The 24th Biennial Conference 2011 of the German Society for Foreign Language Research (DGFF) will be held September 28 to October 1 at the University of Hamburg, Germany. The conference theme is: Globalization – Migration – Foreign Language Learning and Teaching (Globalisierung – Migration – Fremdsprachenunterricht). The call for papers is not out yet, but the organizers have already issued a call for workshop proposals. I’d like to organize such a workshop (or an international research symposium) focusing on “Enhancing Young Learners’ Developing Concepts of Self and Other in the Primary FL classroom”. Here’s the abstract I have already submitted to the conference organizers – I’m very interested to hear what you think about the overall project:

Enhancing Young Learners’ Developing Concepts of Self and Other in the Primary FL Classroom

Current primary school EFL curricula in Germany (see, for instance, North-Rhine Westphalia 2008) place considerable emphasis on the incorporation of intercultural learning and teaching (fostering language and culture awareness, etc.) into a comprehension-driven, usage-based framework of instruction aimed above all at the development of basic communication skills in ways that are appropriate for children. Culture-sensitive language learning and teaching is thus not (or no longer) conceived of as an aside, but as an integral part of foreign language education in primary schools. However, in view of the current state-of-the-art of foreign language research in this area, the optimism shining through in curricular statements such as the one below may not be entirely warranted. The main reasons for some skepticism might include: a) we still know very little about the intricate mix of ((meta-)cognitive, (meta-)linguistic, affective, sociocultural, moral, etc.) dispositions, abilities and constraints involved in culture-sensitive education in primary EFL classrooms, b) the patchwork of case studies on adequate and fruitful instructional designs and activities (arguably) does not provide a fully reliable basis for the development and implementation of long-term instructional programs as yet, c) the limited amount of time allocated to the teaching of English in primary schools (90 minutes a week in Germany), and d) the fact that FL teacher education in this area (in Germany and, perhaps, elsewhere) is only just beginning to meet the challenges resulting from such a complex endeavor:

„Ausgehend von ihren eigenen Erfahrungen erhalten die Kinder Einblick in fremde Kulturen und Lebensweisen. Sie erkennen dabei Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zwischen ihrer eigenen Situation und den Lebensumständen anderer. In Gesprächen über die mehrsprachige, multikulturelle Wirklichkeit von Kindern im englischen Sprachraum wird ihnen die kulturelle und sprachliche Vielgestaltigkeit der eigenen Lebenswirklichkeit zunehmend bewusster. Dies stärkt die Entwicklung von Aufgeschlossenheit, Verständnisbereitschaft und Toleranz. Eine wesentliche Voraussetzung für das Verständnis fremder Kulturen und Lebensweisen ist Authentizität. An diesem Anspruch müssen sich Themen, Situationen und vor allem Materialien messen lassen.“ (MSW NRW 2008: 10).

This interdisciplinary workshop / research symposium is intended to address and illuminate some fundamental aspects of intercultural education in primary FL classrooms, seeking to bridge theory and practice as far as possible. i.e.:

a) The concept of (the aspects of) intercultural communicative competence to be targeted in primary FL classrooms (openness towards other cultures, transcultural curiosity, ability to adopt a different perspective?); as Kramsch (2008: 24) points out, “In Europe, researchers stress education for citizenship and moral responsibility in the multicultural societies of Europe, they emphasize democratic debate, tolerance of the Other and reflection of the Self. In the U.S., advocates of intercultural competence stress individual learner development and community spirit, participation and task-based collaboration.”

b) The significance of acculturation and enculturation in today’s primary school FL classrooms (focusing on aspects of migration, pluriculturalism and plurilingualism).

c) The sociology and psychology of child language development (focusing on the child’s developing (meta-)cognitive, (meta-)linguistic, affective, social and moral capacities).

d) The implications of current research for creating curricula and for implementing convincing and successful instructional programs and classroom practices, in the primary FL classroom as well as in (pre-service) FL teacher education.

Envisioned concept of the workshop / research symposium: brief statements/presentations, plenary debate; workshop languages: English and German

References:

Kramsch, Claire (2008). The intercultural yesterday and today: Political perspectives. In Renate Schulz & ErwinTschirner (Eds.) Communicating across Borders: Developing Intercultural Competence in German as a Foreign Language. Munich: iudicium, 2008, 5-27.

MSW NRW (2008). Lehrplan Englisch für die Grundschulen des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. Available online.

Although English and Spanish share common roots within the Indo European family of languages, the first comes directly from the Germanic group, that includes the languages produced by some of the barbarian tribes.

Spanish, on the other hand is a romance or neo Latin language that evolved out of the Roman culture. They are somehow distant.

However, present day English and Spanish have interchanged a number of structures, words and symbols in general thence  narrowing a gap created from birth, since the origin of their construction as communication means for different and distant social groups.

History has also put together these two languages on several occasions. The colonization process carried out in the Caribbean in the XV Century, mainly by the British and Spanish empires,  imposed the linguistic identity. Time, and the subsequent evolution of these nations, has favored linguistic borrowings travel on both directions.

In Jamaica, for example, some of the geographical names have roots in the Spanish language, resulting from the Spanish colonial past of the country:

Ocho Rios, Savannah-La-Mar, Rio Grande, are  clear examples, with the use  of Spanish words directly. Others, like Montego Bay, mix up the Spanish root for manteca (lard), and the English word Bay, to conform the name of this beautiful and challenging city in north-western Jamaica.

On the other hand, most of the vocabulary used in Spanish in relation to sports like base ball, basket ball, and many others, is formed with word loans and derivatives with origins in Shakespeare´s language.

Will the Internet definitely help us overcome our language differences?

F. J. Calás Arce

Los números del 11 al 15 tienen una lectura irregular. Las decenas, en general, acaban en -enta, aunque hay dos excepciones.

Según la última normativa, los números del 16 al 29 se escriben como una sola palabra, mientras que de 30 a 99 se escriben siguiendo literalmente la fórmula decena + «y» + unidades.

También según la última normativa, los números de dos dígitos acabados en 1 apocopan el uno en un sólo si la palabra que sigue es un sustantivo masculino o un sustantivo femenino comenzando en «a» tónica

In this presentation, Danijela Trenkic and Michael Sharwood Smith (2001) raise some fundamental questions concerning ‘form-focused instruction’ (more precisely, they focus on learners’ attention to formal aspects of the target language in communicative SLA environments). Does it make sense to focus on form (FonF) in the classroom? Trenkic and Sharwoold Smith come to the conclusion that “there is a place for FonF instruction and feedback in [the; JK] language classroom” and “that there is a possibility that it can ultimately influence ‘knowledge of language’” – “a question to be theoretically and empirically addressed by future FonF research.” This is vague, but due to the paucity of FonF research carried out in actual secondary school foreign language classrooms, it is almost impossible to come up with further (research-based) recommendations, appropriate and suitable to the needs of all language learners. Here are, nevertheless, some additional thoughts on this subject:

As two thousand years (and perhaps more) of foreign language learning and teaching show, focusing on the form of the target language is indespensable. However, since (intercultural) communicative competence is the ultimate goal of instruction today,  ’form-focused instruction’ needs to be placed in the wider context of developing accuracy, complexity, fluency and appropriateness as a whole.

At present, ‘message before accuracy’ seems to be the best guideline for orchestrating everyday classroom discourse and interaction in secondary schools, but – in the age of standards-based instruction and increased orientation toward measurable, skills-oriented outcome – balancing out form-focused and message-oriented communication has (arguably) become more difficult. How can learners be prepared best for the annual assessment and testing marathon (largely focused on skills, on accuracy and on discrete-point testing)? How is it possible to develop communicative complexity, fluency and situational appropriateness under these  circumstances?

Task-based instruction appears to be a promising strategy, but as research in this area shows, it is still unclear when and how a focus of form should come (before or after the task?). At any rate, mixing up form-focused and message-oriented discouse should be avoided as far as possible (see, for instance, Doff & Klippel 2007: 198-204). – ‘As far as possible’ means that learners should only be interrupted by the teacher if their utterances are unintelligable, inappropriate, etc. Otherwise, teachers run the risk of demotivating learners to use the target language productively and spontaneously.

Spontaneity (in general) should not be underestimated in this context. Since instruction always takes place in the here-and-now of the classroom situation, planning a focus on form is possible, and – whenever new grammatical structures are introduced – necessary and advisable, but in everyday classroom discourse and interaction, reacting flexibly to what learners say on the spur of the moment is equally important (i.e. treating errors spontaneously,  expanding learner utterances immediately, etc.). Future FonF research should therefore be directed at developing a more comprehensive pedagogical framework which takes into account the discrepancies of planned and unplanned (incidental), scripted and unscripted (improvised). process- and product-oriented  instruction and learning.

References

Doff, Sabine & Klippel, Friederike (2007). Englischdidaktik. Praxishandbuch für die Sekundarstufe I und II. Berlin: Cornelsen.

Let’s face it: it is not much different in English-speaking countries dialect-wise, either. There is British, American, Australian English and many more.

Now, the problem for us teacher is that we, normally at least, are no mother tongues. We cannot provide proper input for our pupils. Even the material that is offered to us by the big editor houses producing our school books and other thing for our every day lesson usage are didactically facilitated.

I have seen 19-year-old pupils that had been taught more than 10 years in English that were unable to understand a British English native, although the pupil in question had excellent marks. In order to avoid that we should try to sensibilise them actively regarding dialects.I am very well aware that teachers are trying to do that but I am of the opinion that we should discuss such issues with our pupils openly to draw their attention to it.

Here once again Youtube can help us. It provides us with English-speaking videos from all over the world including all English dialects. You could have your class do a contrastive analysis of the different dialects you are presenting them, and have them point out the differences.

Here are some examples:

British English

American English

Kiwi English

The 10th International Conference of the Association for Language Awareness (ALA) will be held July 25-28 at the University of Kassel, Germany. Central theme: “Awareness Matters: Language, Culture, Literacy”.

The conference will focus on research related to language, culture and literacy with an emphasis on awareness. The discussions will center on first, second, third, fourth, etc. and foreign language acquisition, teacher training, research in language and culture as well as on the role of language awareness and cultural awareness in the workplace.

Plenary speakers: Michael Byram (University of Durham, UK), Patricia Edwards (Michigan State University, USA), Reinhard Hünerberg & Andrea Geile (University of Kassel, GER), Günter Nold (TU Dortmund, GER), Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt (Le Moyne College, USA).

Main areas:

- Language Awareness in Language Learning and Language Teaching in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts
- Language Awareness in Diverse Workplaces, such as Business, Marketing, Health, etc.
- Language Awareness and the Use of Media
- Cultural Awareness in Language Learning and Language Teaching in Diverse Settings
- Cultural Awareness in the Workplace, such as Business, Marketing, Health, etc.
- Cultural Awareness and the Use of Media
- Language Awareness and Literacy Development in Language Learning and Teaching
- Language Awareness and Professional Literacy Development

The call for papers is out now. For further details, click ]]> http://callierlibrary.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/emphatic-ne-in-informal-spoken-french-and-implications-for-foreign-language-pedagogy/ Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:30:54 +0000 Callier Library http://callierlibrary.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/emphatic-ne-in-informal-spoken-french-and-implications-for-foreign-language-pedagogy/ This paper investigates the variable retention vs deletion of the negative particle ne in a corpus of informal spoken French, and compares the results with previous studies in which a variationist approach was used. A qualitative analysis of ne use revealed that the negative particle co-occurs most often with a number of prosodic features of discourse used for emphasis. The final part of this paper provides a number of recommendations for teaching and learning the sociolinguistics and pragmatics of verbal negation in conversational French, and discusses broader implications for the treatment of variation in foreign language education.

from the International Journal of Applied Linguistics

Back in 1934, McElroy stated that “the textbook is decidedly not the sole condition of an effective class; quality of teaching is more important” (1934: 5). 75 years later, an enormous body of research on the role of the textbook in EFL classrooms has accumulated around the globe, indicating that ‘successful’ learning and teaching in primary and secondary EFL school environments is dependent on a wider spectrum of factors, not only on the quality (or quantity) of English language learning materials. The importance of the teacher is, of course, undisputed (see, for instance, Butzkamm 2005).

Over the past decades, it has become increasingly clear that context-sensitive EFL instruction requires teachers to take into account many anthropological and sociocultural factors which influence the conditions under which English is taught. Currently, global textbooks produced for teaching and learning English as a foreign language in many different countries are criticized for paying too little attention to this, especially for largely failing to assist EFL teachers in bridging the cultural background(s) of ‘their’ individual learners and the diversity of English-speaking target language cultures.

In Germany, global textbooks are rarely used in institutional contexts though. Instead, local textbooks and related materials and media, produced especially for the ‘German school market’ by a few major German publishers are usually employed in EFL classrooms. In my view, the overall quality of these products is high. However, as commercial products textbooks and related materials are – in Germany and elsewhere – last not least designed to occupy the textbook market, offering whatever is seemingly necessary and useful in terms of target language und intercultural education (see Kurtz 2002). In consequence, German EFL teachers are flooded with materials and suggestions. 

Psychologically, this makes it difficult to think about teaching options which go beyond those suggested by the textbook authors in the teaching manuals (arguing from a Gestalt theoretical perspective see Kurtz 2001). Viewed from an international perspective, this is a luxury problem, but it is not unproblematic; the more the better?

References:

Butzkamm, Wolfgang (2005). Der Lehrer ist unserer Chance. Essen: Buchverlag Prof. A.W. Geisler.

Kurtz, Jürgen (2001). Das Lehrwerk und seine Verwendung nach der jüngsten Reform der Richtlinien und Lehrpläne. Englisch, 36 (2), 41-50.

Kurtz, Jürgen (2002): Fremdsprachendidaktik als Dienstleistung und Ware: Verlagskataloge für das Fach Englisch unter der Lupe. Englisch,  37 (1), 8-12.

McElroy, Howard (1934). Selecting a basic textbook. The Modern Language Journal, 19 (1), 5-8.

ELLiE is a transnational, longitudinal study of the introduction of second/foreign language learning in primary school classrooms in seven European countries. The study has been set up in response to the rapid expansion of provision for early languages learning that has recently occurred in Europe and many other parts of the world. It aims at clarifying what can realistically be achieved in European classrooms where relatively limited amounts of curriculum time are allocated to second/foreign language learning. Included in the study are schools from Croatia, England, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden. For an overview of current research findings, klick here.

New publication: Doff, Sabine; Hüllen, Werner & Klippel, Friederike (Eds.) (2008). Visions of Languages in Education – Visionen der Bildung durch Sprachen. Berlin, München, Wien, Zürich, New York: Langenscheidt ELT. [MAFF = Münchener Arbeiten zur Fremdsprachen-Forschung; edited by Friederike Klippel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany]

Public discussion of school education in Germany has been dominated by a move towards purely functional goals. The obligation to compare learning outcomes between schools, regions or even countries may, in many respects, be helpful, but it narrows the teaching in schools. This is particularly true for foreign language teaching. As a consequence, general goals of Bildung, self-formation and the acquisition of cultural knowledge are neglected or even by-passed intentionally.

Therefore, the authors of this volume thought it imperative to redefine the educational goals of teaching English, French, Spanish, Russian, and other languages in schools at the beginning of the 21st century and to ask:

• Why do we teach foreign languages in schools to everybody and what are the aims of doing this?
• What exactly is the contribution of language teaching to the formation of character and the acquisition of cultural knowledge?
• In what way does language teaching support other areas of school education?
• What are the past, present and future visions of foreign language teaching?

Contributors:

a) Visions for Europe / Visionen für Europa

Werner Hüllen: Karl Magers Vision einer Bürgerschule mit Unterricht in den neu-europäischen Sprachen

Herbert Christ: Didaktik der Mehrsprachigkeit: Die Vision eines Sprachen und Schulfächer übergreifenden Lernens

Daniel Coste: Plurilingual Education, Identity, Citizenship

Michael Byram: Education for International Citizenship: Language Teaching and Education for Citizenship – In Europe and beyond

b) Visions for Learners – Learners’ Visions / Lern(er)-Visionen

Katrin Gut-Sembill: Visionen – Ein Antrieb zum Fremdsprachenlernen

Jürgen Kurtz: Life Skills-based Education in Secondary School Foreign Language Classrooms – Cornerstone of a Challenging Vision

Barbara Schmenk: Visions of Autonomy as a Core Concept in Language Education

Helmut Sauer: Von der Lernerorientierung zur Lehrerorientierung: Die Lehrkraft als Schlüssel zu “Bildung durch Sprachen”

c) Visions and Context in Historical Perspective / Geschichtliche Fundamente

Frans Wilhelm: Goals in Dutch Foreign Language Teaching: A Historical Perspective, 1500-2000

Daniel Tröhler: Zwischen Ideologie und Institution: Die Etablierung der modernen Fremdsprachen im Gymnasium Preußens und Zürichs

Christiane Ostermeier: Französisch statt Latein: Der Reformplan Julius Ostendorfs (1823-1877)

Sabine Doff: Was von Visionen übrig bleibt: Frauen, die neusprachliche Reformbewegung und ihr Echo in den Lehrplänen des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts

d) Visions in and beyond the Curriculum / Curriculare Visionen

Stefan Kipf: Schule im Umbruch – Perspektiven für den altsprachlichen Unterricht

Erik Kwakernaak: Fremdsprachenunterricht in den Niederlanden: Ein Fach ohne Identität?

Henry Widdowson / Barbara Seidlhofer: Visions and Delusions: Language Proficiency and Educational Failure

Claire Kramsch / Michael Chad Wellmon: From Bildung durch Sprache to Language Ecology: The Uses of Symbolic Competence

The 15th World Congress of Applied Linguistics will be held in Essen, Germany from August 24 to 29, 2008. The conference theme is “Multilingualism: Challenges and Opportunities.” The congress is organised by the German Association of Applied Linguistics (GAL e.V.), the University of Duisburg-Essen, Congress Centre Essen (CCE), and further partners.

On behalf of the German Society for Foreign Language Research (DGFF), Prof. Dr. Karin Aguado (University of Kassel, Germany) and I will be co-chairing a full three-hour research symposium which is scheduled for Tuesday, August 26, 16:00-19:00.

The symposium is intended as a forum for dissemination and discussion of current empirical research on foreign/second language learning and teaching in Germany. Its main objective is to present the breadth and diversity of large-scale, medium-scale and small-scale quantitative and qualitative research in this area to an international audience of experts.

The symposium will have three main sessions. Each session will be scheduled for a one-hour time slot. The individual sessions will be facilitated by renowned scholars as well as early career researchers and devoted to the following issues (arranged in the following order):

Current Research on Teaching and Learning Foreign/Second Languages in Germany

Session 1
Prof. Dr. Günter M.J. Nold (University of Dortmund, Germany) (60 minutes)

Sociopragmatic and grammatical awareness – findings from the DESI project

DESI (German-English-Student-Assessment-International), a large-scale assessment study commissioned by the German federal board of education, was designed and implemented by an interdisciplinary consortium of applied linguists and educational researchers. Two of the tests in the test battery that was developed were sociopragmatic and grammatical awareness tests (N=11.000; ninth grade students). The empirical results of these tests will be discussed both with an emphasis on theories of language awareness raising and on questions related to theories of second language acquisition in the fields of sociopragmatic and grammatical development.

Session 2
Prof. Dr. Marita Schocker-von Ditfurth (Freiburg University of Education, Germany) / Prof. Dr. Michael K. Legutke (University of Giessen, Germany) (60 minutes)

Task-based language learning in EFL classrooms

Research on task-based language learning has been running strong for 20 years now, but has been dominated by a psycholinguistic research paradigm for a long time. While some of these research findings have been important in terms of learning about the mental processes involved in second language acquisition, they were largely focused on isolated tasks of individual, usually adult learners, and therefore did not take into account the complexity of the contextual factors that influence learning in the foreign language classroom. The presentation focuses on the complex issues that arise when researching the methodological implementation of a task-based approach on the classroom level as well as on the level of teacher education.

Session 3
Prof. Dr. Grit Mehlhorn (University of Leipzig, Germany) (30 minutes)

Learning a foreign pronunciation – evidence from individual pronunciation coaching

Individual learner coaching focusing on pronunciation can reveal interesting insights in individual language acquisition processes. This talk reports the results of a longitudinal study with foreign students at a German university. It will be shown that the following factors influence the learner’s progress: first, an individual diagnosis of the deviations in the target pronunciation; second, an increase of the learner’s consciousness with respect to the foreign pronunciation and the choice of individual learning strategies; and third, permanent feedback on learning progress. These factors lead to an increased self-reflection on the part of the learners regarding their learning process, language awareness, and they also serve to foster learner autonomy.

Sevilen Demirkaya M.A. & Nazan Gültekin M.A. (University of Bielefeld, Germany) (30 minutes)

MIKI – Research of the pre-school language support program for ethnic minority children in Bielefeld, Germany

Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, this project focuses on examining the second language development of ethnic minority children who participate in a support program at the pre-school level.