Week 4 Learning Circle----Developments in TESOL Methodology
Group members: Ebi, Trang, Peach, Cindy, David, Anna, Zoe

1. This article was written 20 years ago. To what extent does it appear 'dated' or modern to you?
The majority of us think the article is modern to us. The CLT approaches mentioned in the article are still quite popular in our countries and the implications for teaching make a lot of sense to the teachers. However, a few of members find some views of the author’s are dated. For example, the author says that carrying out reliable research into learners is difficult in the process of learning. Besides, we want to emphasize that though the theory of CLT is popular and accepted by most of the English teachers, the practice of CLT is quite difficult in the real situation, especially in some secondary schools and the schools which are exam-oriented.
2. Look carefully at the 'Implications for teaching' section on p. 89. Consider both your learning of English, and your teaching experience, and reflect on the extent to which Maley's predictions have ‘come true’ in your own learning/teaching context.
We have almost the same learning experience. When we were in the secondary school, our learning focused on grammar and forms. The teaching methods which our teachers used were something like Audiolingual and Grammar-Translation method. However, we benefited a lot from the communicative language learning in the universities and Maley’s predictions have come true in our learning process. As to the teaching experience, the predictions also have come true in Ebi’s class. He organized many task-based and learner-centered activities which were warmly welcomed by his students. Peach used to teach students in a communicative way, but it didn’t work because the final exam focused on the reading and writing skills and the CLT didn’t match the students’ needs. Trang and Zoe tried to make a balance between the CLT and the teacher-centered class in order to meet the students ’needs who wanted to gain high marks in the national exam and also to enjoy the language learning.

3. To what extent do the advantages listed on page 90 outweigh the disadvantages? Choose one of the following and justify it in light of your own experience (1 – advantages completely outweigh disadvantages, 2 – advantages partly outweigh disadvantages, 3 – neither outweighs the other, 4 – disadvantages completely outweigh the advantages).
Five of our members agree that advantages partly outweigh disadvantages because we are worried about the difficulty of implementing the CLT in the real class. It has some obvious limitations to implement, for example, we cannot apply CLT in a big class (more than 50 students with different levels). However, one of us thinks advantages completely overweigh disadvantages because she finds that the disadvantage (1) and (2) should not be the disadvantages. It is good to promote the profession training and the competence of the teachers and it is helpful and challengeable if the teachers do not just follow the prescription offered by the textbook.

4. Maley lists six problems (pages 91-2). In the light of your own teaching experience, can you rank these problems from 1 (most serious) to 6 (least serious).

We reached a consensus on this question. All of us think that No.6 is most serious and No.1 is the least serious. As to the former, we teachers are confined to do something that we are not willing to do, for instance, we have to focus on grammar and forms because the College
Entrance Examination is focus to examine the students’ mastery of them. As to the latter, we think it is common that we don’t know much about how languages are actually learnt because of the individual differences.

5. Look at Maley’s list of 14 'principled decisions' on pages 92-94. Choose the three which you think are the most important and rank them 1, 2 and 3 (1 being the most important).

Four members of our group think the NO.2 is the most important decision because a combination of the accuracy-focused and the fluency-focused is more practical in the real situation. Two of us think the NO.9 is the most important one because they find the students in their counties are passive who need the responsibility to engage themselves to the activities. Cindy regards the NO.10 as the most important one because she thinks we teachers should pay much attention to the students’ motivation and try our best to cultivate the students’ interests towards language learning.

Group member: Deman, Noora, Aziz, Janet, Evelyn, Kate

1.What do we mean by term aptitude?

According to our group’s view aptitude is a concept of desire, natural abilities and it is combined with talent that push learners to learn and absorb the target language. Also we thought that aptitude is something between talent and desire that motivate learner to learn new language.

2. Is every one able to learn a foreign language? Why? Why not?

There are some factors that have influence on learners to create the aptitude. Firstly this can be done by the speed of time with certain circumstances, for instance if the learner is interested in learning certain language, his/her aptitude will be much higher for acquiring that language, second factor is related to age of the learners whether the learner have long span attention or short one i.e. if learner have a long span attention, they are likely to learn new language quickly and their aptitude probably will be much higher than those who has short attention. Hence, the only differences is that some learners acquire language very well than the others, and this related to the third factor which is environment i.e. some learners are surrounded by the learning environment since their childhood that permit them to have a huge aptitude about learning language .

3. What do you think of your own aptitude for learning a foreign language?

According to this question our group have different views in terms of aptitude such as having passion, desire, and curiosity that pushed them to develop their aptitude and being exposure in learning new language.

4. Relating to the quiz, all of us were surprised bout question number (12) and (17), and we thought that these kinds of question have a certain rules for guessing and it is interested for imagination.

Learning circle 3 (learner centered approaches)

Group members: Pei-Ru, Hiroki, James, Asis,
Mata

1.
Regarding learner-centered
approaches, teachers have to concern themselves with their learners’ needs and
individual differences. That is, before courses begin, teachers can carry out a
needs analysis, to identify who their learners are (e.g. age and current
learning level), what their learning goals are, and the like. If the students
are an older/ more mature group, teachers can negotiate learning content, materials,
and even teaching methods with them so that they can sense they are involving
students in their learning process.

2.
Some elements of TPR can be
used to facilitate learners to realize imperative sentence structure and
prepositions of place. However, the skill is more appropriate for younger learners.

3.
The music element of the
suggestopedia method can be adopted in a classroom setting to relax students. For
example, during conversation activities, music can break the ice and build up a
warmer atmosphere for learners to speak out.

4.
L1 can be used in certain
teaching contexts, especially for novice learners. One advantage is that they may
feel more confident and comfortable while being instructed; another thing is
that teachers can save time explaining grammar rules and the like.

5.
Based on the principles of
communicative language teaching, it is necessary to encourage learners to
participate in their learning process. With peer and self-learning, they maybe
develop their capacity of learner autonomy.

6.
Sometimes, a silent period is
allowed for students. Namely, teachers can wait for students when they prepare to
speak readily. In this way, learners can feel safe and are perhaps more willing
to learn.

7.
From the silent way, it may be
difficult for learners to memorize the meaning of rods and learning content at
the same time, but visual aids, such as posters, are useful in order to build an
indirect English learning environment. In this way, learners may acquire
English spontaneously.

8.
As teachers, we have to provide
opportunities for learners to give feedback on learning, including individual feedback
and group discussion as well as in the setting of the classroom and home. Through
the interaction and negotiation, learners’ feelings and needs are taken care
of, which should decrease their affective filters and increase their learning
efficiency.

9.
At the beginning of class,
teachers can list classroom rules which they can discuss and negotiate with
learners so that classroom management will be easier for teachers and more
welcoming to the learners.

10. Based on the core values of humanistic approaches, assessment can be
more process oriented - teachers can collect students’ tasks, homework sheets,
projects, or learning notes so that they can evaluate the students’ learning
process and learning outcomes. Moreover, peer evaluation as well as self
assessment can be applied so that they can have a sense of participation in
their learning process.

Learning Circle 3: Learner Centered Approaches

Learning Circle 3: Learner Centered Approaches

Members of the group: Deman, Evelyn, Hara, Janet, Kate, Noora, Uzma, Yiota

In our group discussion, we talked about how certain learner-center/ humanistic approaches seemed strange or inappropriate for certain age groups. We have also discussed that they lack assessment.Apart from that, certain methods lack research. Still, we managed to trace certain features from the four methods(silent way, community language learning, suggestopedia , total physical response) that can be integrated in our teaching lessons.

· When a teacher uses suggestopedia it is possible that students might become too relaxed, too comfortable and at the end of the lesson to fall asleep. However, this technique might be useful whenever the students become really excited about something and they can’t concentrate. At that moment the use of soft music might help in calming them down and help them to start concentrating.

· Suggestopedia might be useful for the students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder.

These students have problem paying attention and staying still in the class and sometimes this might disrupt the lesson. Therefore this method might lower their “energy” levels and help them concentrate.

· Another aspect of suggestopedia that might be useful is the usage of flash cards and acting. By acting out the dialogues they learn vocabulary. The flash cards might be used in order to help the learners distinguish certain sounds opened-/d/,placed-/t/.

· Students with learning difficulties might be able to benefit from suggestopedia since soft music will lower the inhibitions and stress and gives them confidence to participate in the class activities.

· Young learners get bored quite easily therefore one method that we considered quite useful especially for younger learners was Total Physical Response. Still, we need to be careful because if this method is used frequently the children might feel that they are “playing” instead of having a lesson and stop taking the lesson seriously. Apart from that, parents won’t be very excited with this method because it will go against the conceptions of what is a proper lesson. Therefore, we propose to use this technique as part of the lesson instead of using it as your main methodology. This technique can be used in a form of a game: Saimon says do this…/if you are learning the objects of the classroom you can stick sticker notes on different objects .After a while you can put the wrong sticker note in each item and ask them to correct it.

· Another method that seemed quite useful especially for adult learners and smaller groups(6-10) was Community Language Learning. You can use this method in order to give the opportunity to you r learners to become more autonomous(by deciding the topic of the conversation) and at the same time develop their oral skills and practice speaking.

· Silent way is a method that can be used to make students aware of the different sounds and how can we combine them. However, we thought that it is hard to remember what each colored rod represents.

Further Suggestions

The conclusions of our discussion was that learner centered approaches can be helpful because they take into account our learner needs and they give us the opportunity to adjust our syllabus based on these needs.

After discussing about learner centered techniques that will enhance our lessons we came up with further suggestions of different techniques that will help us improve our lessons and will take into consideration our learner needs.

One interesting idea was using technology such as computer games, playstation games that will adapt to individual needs and will promote learning. Another technique is to try to adapt our material to the social context/culture of the learners. Thus, the learners will feel that they can relate what they are reading to their personal experiences and thus feel that they want to learn more.

Suggestions for how to make teaching more learner-centred/humanistic

Gemma, Irene, Laia, Monica, Sean, Sunny.

1. Begin a course of study with a needs-analysis; find out what students want to learn either by a questionnaire or by talking to them or by giving them a list of options and asking them to vote.
2. Try to get as much feedback from your students as possible so that they can continue to influence and negotiate the syllabus. A small questionnaire at the end of each class can help to discover what students found interesting/helpful and what they would like to do more or less of in future classes.
3. Consider alternatives to formal assessment; consider self-assessment or peer-assessment as ways of making students feel involved in the evaluative process.
4. Use one session a week or a month where you let students provide the material for a class, for example they could bring a newspaper article that they would like to discuss or teenage students may want to look at the lyrics of a particular song that they like. The most important thing is that students get the chance to choose their own material for a class.
5. Set aside time for one-to-one tutorials so that each student has the chance to speak to you individually.
6. Create a relaxing atmosphere in the classroom; this might be by playing relaxing music during reading or writing activities or you could set up a conversation class by having students in a circle on the floor and providing some snacks, so as to give a relaxed informal feel to the activity.
7. Always include a range of different activities to take into account different learning styles, for example - role-plays and creative activities, Cuisenaire rods, matching activities etc.

Learning Circle Follow-up task 24/10/11
Group members: David, Ebi, Trang, Anna, Zoe, Cindy, Peach

10 suggestions for making teaching more learner-centred

1. Create comfortable atmosphere for learners to make them feel free and relax, such as warm-up activity to motivate them to learn. The activity depends on each individual.
2. Involving students for team work activity like our learning circle activity that leads everyone to participate using the discussion.
3. Teachers should ask students what they want to learn using new materials. They shouldn’t teach what learners already known.
4. Use authentic materials for learners to learn, such as songs and newspapers. Learners can face words or dialogues which people used in daily life. Teacher should use material related to learners’ culture then forward to target language.
5. Make sure students engage in the activity. Teacher monitors learners what they do and what is the outcome.
6. Students have self-direction and self-assessment for themselves.
7. Choose the appropriate level of activity for students. Providing a wide range of activities for different groups of people and different needs.
8. Ask the learners to decide the topic of teaching and content they would like to learn.
9. Encourage learners’ self-consciousness, self-responsibility, and autonomy which they can retrieve knowledge for longer period of time.
10. Don’t use activities unless they are suitable for teaching context.
11. Use peer-correction and delay correction. Don’t give correction immediately after the mistake. Get the whole mistake and correct it once at the end.

Learning Circle Task Session 1

Group members: Peggy, Sunny, Mata, Hiroki, Aziz and James

Within the group, Peggy, Mata, Hiroki and Aziz had considered their experiences learning English at school in Taiwan, Greece, Japan and Kuwait respectively. Sunny was reflecting on her time learning English at a private language school in New Zealand and I had thought about my experience learning German as a foreign language at university in Germany.

As you would expect from the above information, we brought vastly different experiences to our discussion. In fact, there were many more differences than similarities between how we were taught so it was quite difficult to pinpoint the three most noticeable areas of difference. We tried to do this as a group, though, and felt that the following areas were most significant:

·         The role of the teacher and students, and interaction patterns

We had three different situations with regard to teacher and student roles. The first was that of Peggy and Hiroki, who said that  the teacher was a figure of authority, and the students simply the teacher’s (passive) audience. Mata and Aziz, on the other hand, felt that, while lessons and activities were mostly teacher-centred, the teacher was an approachable source of knowledge. Sunny and I had experienced a more communicative approach where the teacher established situations that were likely to promote communication and he/she acted as an adviser and communicator. The students were communicators and negotiators of meaning.

Peggy, Hiro and Aziz experienced classrooms in which there was individual student-teacher interaction, but no or almost no peer interaction, while the other half of the group were in classrooms in which the student-teacher interaction varied according to the role that the teacher was playing and where there was lots of pair and group interaction amongst students.

·         The characteristics of the teaching/learning process

There were three different sets of characteristics. Sunny and I had been in lessons where the goal was to enable students to better communicate in the target language, and this was achieved through activities, such as role plays and student presentations, that had a real communicative purpose. Student talking time, or output, was maximised and authentic materials were often used by the teacher to helps students understand how language is really used.

Hiro, Peggy and, to a certain extent Aziz, had experienced lessons that were delivered in their L1. Lexis was usually presented at the start of lessons, out of context, with the aim of aiding comprehension for later classroom activities. There was a deductive approach to grammar teaching in their classes and the rules that they had been presented were then applied to written gap-fill exercises.

Mata felt that her teacher had taken an eclectic approach to language teaching. Dictation and tests played a large role in recycling language that students had recently studied. Grammar was taught inductively, and equally students were encouraged to think about the meaning of lexis by deducing its meaning from context.

·         The language skills that were emphasized

There was a clear divide here with half of the group having had no, or virtually no, focus on the skills of speaking and listening. Instead more emphasis was given to reading and writing in the target language. The other half of the group felt that emphasis was given to all four skills. Within this framework it was felt that the function of language was given prominence over the form. Students were also exposed to nonverbal behaviour as a tool for communication.

As I have already stated, it was quite hard to find key similarities in our experiences. However, the majority of the group felt that their teacher’s main goal was to ensure that students passed end of year exams. There was also a similarity in the way that culture was viewed in the different classrooms. For most of the group there was a cultural focus on American and/or British society, though in one case culture did not feature at all and in another the local culture was studied in English.