APLNG 589 Technology in FL/SL Education

Objectives:1, 2, 5, 7

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       Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has been wildly applied for decades, not only because of its affordances of long distant learning, but also its providing multimedia interactions. Additionally, according to the Sociocultural Theory, learning happened in interactions. With proper design, technology can be used to scaffold learners according to their ZPD with fewer efforts.

        Aside from an individual final project, there were three mini-projects which students were required to incorporate technology tools introduced in class to design activities for teaching:1) listening, speaking, and pronunciation; 2) reading and vocabulary; 3) grammar and writing. Each design should consider the context, learning objectives and the sustainability. Moreover, designers should also consider how they are going to evaluate the outcome. Through designing mini-projects, I learned how to evaluate the affordances and restrictions of technologies considering specific contexts and theoretical bases.   

The first mini-project was designed for EFL learners with intermediate-high level students in Taiwan (please refer the attached file: mini project 1). We used the Windows Movie Maker to add captions and reflecting questions on a short clip in order to increase listening comprehension.

        The second mini-project was designed for ESL015 students to increase their reading comprehension (please refer to the attached folder—mini project 2). We used an online tool— Hypertext which has a dictionary on half of the screen and give definitions instantly. Also, Wordel and Wordsift were used for incresing effectiveness of reading prediction. Our goal was scaffolding students based on their ZPD accordingly.

Word cloud for pre-reading activity in  mini-project 2

      

      In the third mini-project, our group considered incorporating of both Google Docs and the PBworks (a type of wikis) to facilitate collaborative writing (please refer to the attached folder—mini project 3). We designed a task requiring students to use conditional tense in Spanish to report expecting activities, food and music they would like to explore in a Hispanic festival. By utilizing these tools, our goal is to increase the flexibility of collaborative writing and mutual scaffolding. 
      My final project was a literature review of wiki-based collaborative writing studies (please refer to attached file—final project) .Wikis are Web 2.0 tools providing highly accessible, interactive and flexible collaborative learning experience. In terms of collaborative writing, wikis’ trailing revisions, instant commenting, and co-editing present writing as a process rather than a product. However, although wikis currently draw much attention from educators, wiki-based collaborative wiring research is still in beginning and there is still no framework to ensure every student could on one hand maintain their autonomy, and, on the other hand, participate actively. Thus the review strives to explore possibilities of wikis in future task designing.

APLNG 412 Teaching Second Language Writing

Textbook 1.

Meeting Objectives: 2, 3, 4, 6

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    Using one sentence to summarize this course—“it is more than second language writing, but sociopolitical issues related literacy development.” I admit that before taking this course, I viewed teaching second language writing as designing learning topics, choosing materials, and giving feedback to students’ papers. In other words, I took writing not so much as a skill, though I knew it was tightly connected to listening, reading, and speaking. However, this class turned my perception of writing to be a set of political issues correlating with power.

Textbook 2.

      The first project was a literacy biography (please refer to the attachment literacy biography). Before doing this project, I nearly forgot that becoming able to read and write was such a heavy, painful, self digging and identity constructing process, I have experienced the processes twice: learning how to read and write in Mandarin and English. This project still reminds me always put myself in ESL/EFL learners’ shoes to understand their struggle in their literacy development.

Textbook 3.

       Another project was an observation in the writing center (please refer to the attachment—reflective tutoring observation). Because of the observation, I learned that the center’s structuring tutoring process was not so natural and simple. It implied the center’s defining of “what is good writing,” but it was not necessarily consistent with expectations of instructors or literacy research.

Textbook 4.

      The final project was a combination of philosophy of literacy and a lesson plan (please refer to the file named philosophy of literacy). By the end of this class, the emotional reactions toward literacy development were refined with the theoretical knowledge. In this philosophy I articulated my feeling which intertwined with the scientific concepts, and they were applied in the lesson plan.
      Because of these projects and the issues explored in this class, I came to a whole new, more complicated understanding toward teaching writing. I decided that if I have a chance to teach writing, I will not present a “perfect” model of writing for my students to pursue, but encourage them to develop repertoire which will help them communicate effectively in different genres. 

APLNG 482 Introduction of Applied Linguistics

Meet objectives: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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What is the difference between linguistics applied and Applied Linguistics? Can Applied Linguistics simply be taken as language teaching?

Starting with these two questions, this course expended topics covered by Applied Linguistics from how to define “native speaker” to broader issues, such as language right and language policy. Although I have never taken Applied Linguistics as only the knowledge of language teaching, the topics introduced in this course were much broader than I expected

 

Textbooks 1, 2, 3

For every class, there was an assigned topic for one student to write a reflection paper to open up an online discussion (please refer to the file Reflection Paper and PPT file “the politics of text”). The topic I got was Critical Literacy, which takes language as a set of contextualized social practices containing ideology. 

I was leading the discussion related to Critical Literacy

The application of the concept proposed by Pennycook (2001) is a reversion of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The hardest part of the project was not understanding the concepts, but finding materials which did not obviously show the ideology (since one of the critique Pennycook gives to CDA is its revealing of ideology in political texts is sometimes too apparently), but still demonstrated the way that CDA approach to the text (please refer to the attachments). I then used the picture book, Slovenly Peter, to demonstrate how social changing affects the ideology changing, and why this is missing in CDA. 

One of the activities I designed: analyzing the picture book Slovenly Peter

What I learned from the assignment was designing activities to get my colleagues to apply the concept immediately instead of “telling” the concept. The experience of this practice was and is still “alive,” even after I started teaching.

 My final project was also related to “the politics of language.” I did a small research project reflecting on how the two major “language in education planning” in Taiwan have changed the status of languages (please refer to the attached file—final project). This small project demonstrated why language teaching should not be taken as teaching other content knowledge, but as a nationwide identity transforming process (for detailed research, please refer to the attachments).

  To conclude, this introductory course serves as a fundamental basis of my preceding professional development as a language teacher proposing teaching critical literacy.

APLNG 491 Second Language Acquisition

Meet objectives: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7

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This course introduced five major themes in SLA research chronically from “SLA in the head (cognitive approach, Monitor theory),” “instructed SLA (Input Process Theory),” “social approach SLA,” “SLA as socialization,” and “SCT and SLA.” Each theme covered at least five key concepts and researchers. Instead of lecturing, the instructor followed the inquiry-based approach: students in a group of three were assigned one theme and taught all the key concepts in three sections of class. In addition, students chose another theme aside from the assigned theme to write a short research paper discussing its possible educational application.

My individual project was “SLA in the head” (please refer to file named SLA in the head—first project). Through doing the project, I found many concepts (such as input hypothesis, negotiation for meaning) were consistent with the theoretical foundation of many materials I had used before. I then understood the rationales of the sequences, followed Krashen’s comprehensible input hypothesis, as well as the activities (e.g., giving output), which helped me become able to give critiques.

In group teaching: I was giving an introduction course about language socialization

       The group project was more challenging in choosing assigned articles for the three class sections (they should be research which can explain the key concepts thoroughly). Additionally, we could not just lecture, but had to create at least two to three activities for our classmates to engage them to play around with the key concepts (for the material we developed please refer to the series files starting with “second project”). After designing the tasks, these concepts and theories became clearer than just reading through the materials. I not only internalized the knowledge, but also used the knowledge in teaching.

    

        What about I like this course particularly is how it brought me this major SLA research in one semester, and I became able to transform the knowledge in other courses (please refer to the final exam—concept, definition, and implication). This outcome reveals the power of inquiry-based teaching as well as SCT: the mode of learning, through doing inquiries, affects what learners will learn.

APLNG 484 Discourse Functional Grammar

Meeting objectives: 1, 2, 6

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As an EFL learner who has received grammar-based language teaching for many years, while seeing the title, I did not have any expectations of how this course might be different from the grammar courses I have taken. However, from the Introduction of Applied Linguistics, the notion of World English and descriptive grammar led me to question what I used to think about grammar. Thus, I looked forward to seeing if this grammar course may help me create a “new grammar teaching.”

Textbook for this course

       Although a great portion of this class was on-line, this course did not disappoint me in terms of its bringing the social functional perspective of grammar into discussions and blog reflections (please refer to the attachment blog entry 1-5). For example, the first discussion was analyzing the language of an invitation, a postcard, and a short conversation. Coincidentally, I did a conversational analysis project at that time in my discourse analysis class. The two courses worked as a good combination in helping me analyze from a researcher’s as well as a teacher’s perspective.

One of the activities we did: post card language analysis

        Moreover, more than just analyzing hidden meanings constructed by different grammatical choices, this course also provided chances to apply this functional grammar perspective into teaching. One lesson that impressed me was teaching “modals.” After this lesson, I wrote an entry about how I would plan a lesson for teaching modals (please see entry no. 2), and in my ESL 015 class I applied this plan.

        Aside from these specific topics, the final project consisted of both our discussions about the broader teaching issues (such as English only movement and its impact on teaching) and the design of a lesson for a specific learner after analyzing her speaking transcript and essays (please refer to the attached file- final project). Combining global and local assessments, this analysis helped me come to a pedagogical decision confidently.

        Language teachers definitely should encompass knowledge of language. However, what perspective teachers emphasize on while teaching grammar depends of how they define the knowledge of grammar. I defined the knowledge as socioculturally constructed, and the course did help me to accomplish this type of teaching.

APLNG 583 Methods of Language Assessment

Meeting objectives: 1, 2, 5, 7

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Textbook 1.

Under the umbrella term “assessment,” there are various assessing methods. However, no matter what assessment methods (e. g., small quiz, survey, journal, etc.) they choose, teachers must make decisions after assessing rather than assessing students only for its own sake. “Decision making,” then, became the buzz word in this course, since all major topics this class covered (designing assessment, analyzing assessment, choosing assessment targets, and technology assisted assessment) came to the same end: what should teachers do next?

        Speaking of assessment, the first word comes to people’s mind is probably “test.” However, if language teachers have to monitor every learning process, assessments should be conceptualized more than testing, but as an information gathering process. In other words, language teachers are not only looking for learners’ outputs, but, more importantly, measuring students’ Zone of Proximal Development.

Group presentation

         To evaluate different types of assessment and their rationales, we had assessment assignment for every class. They could be categorized as “assessment evaluation (e.g., analyzing an existing standardize test—its credibility, reliability and possible flaws, such as rater bias)” (please see attachment: assignment no. 9, 20), “choosing assess methods: rationale and effectiveness” (see attachment: assignment no. 1, 2, 6), “technology assisted assessment”(assignment no. 14), and “assessment designing” (see attachment group project: questionnaire). Although I dare not to say I understand every aspect of assessment thoroughly, I am confident to say that I can choose and design a small scale assessment considering contexts and learning objectives.

       

Textbook 2.

         As a learner coming from a context where language learning is test-based, this course changed my perception of assessment greatly and prepared a set of useful toolkits which I can apply in my future teaching. 

APLNG 493 Teaching English as a Second Language

Meeting Objectives:1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7

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Textbook 1.

Audiolingual method, TPR, Direct method, Natural approach, Communicative Language Teaching Approach…although I have some basic understanding toward these approaches and methods, until I took this course, their sociohistorical background were unfolded and clarified.

       Team teaching was the first project in which each group was assigned a method and designed a twenty minutes lesson (for the materials we developed please refer to the attached files starting with Audiolingual method). The method our group got was the Audiolingual method: a method that has been denounced for it did not allow authentic outputs. We came to a conclusion that although we could not change the routine practices (e.g., presenting dialogue, demonstration, and learner repeating), we could add culture factors as “flavor” to make the dialogue appealing. By engaging in this method, I understood the essence of the method instead of solely pointing out its strength and weakness.

The PowerPoint we made for Audiolingal 

demonstration

           

The second assignment was a classroom observation in which I observed an ESL class twice and wrote a reflecting observation (please refer to the attached file: second project reflective observation).It was my first time coming into the class purely as an observer, which helped me set myself objectively to understand every practice the teacher did and rationalize the purposes. I felt so humble after knowing how much effort and concerns the instructor gave in designing every activity. In observing, I learned how ESL teaching is constructed. Because of this great experience, I started a semester long observation in my third semester.

Textbook 2.

      

The final project was writing three sections lesson plans in which I needed to consider a specific context and design materials fitting learners’ needs (please refer to the attachment: final project— lesson plan and teaching philosophy). While doing this project, I felt the tension between teachers’ goals and the pressure from the broader contexts (e.g., the institution, test system). After that, I learned that I should never take teaching to be what I can control as a whole, especially when English teaching now intertwines with a various sociopolitical factors.

APLNG 581 Discourse Analyses

Meeting objectives: 1, 4, 6

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Textbook 1.

Discourse Analysis is a powerful research approach as well as a decoding tool for classroom practice. In this course we went through various types of analyses (their conventions and their purposes), such as conversation analysis (CA), interview analysis, gesture analysis, and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Apart from reading case studies, we had three mini-projects which allowed us to collect, transcribe, and analyze the data. In addition, the final project required students to incorporate these skills developed in these mini projects to analyze a series of texts. Personally, I like qualitative studies more than quantitative studies, but what I like about this course was that it not only provided me tools to design a qualitative study, but it also gave another perspective to approach teaching as a type of discourse.

In the first project, I used the CA convention to transcribe a short video clip (please refer to a series attached files start with first project-CA workshop). I then noticed that although there are many conventions for analyzers to follow, it does not suggest that every one will come to the same transcription even when they use the same convention. While doing the whole class transcription comparison, I also noticed that choosing conventions according to the different research purposes could be a big issue. Conventions can make some features stand out but also can hide them, which may affect the direction of the research. 

My demonstration PowerPoint of "participation 

organization" based on (Goodwin, 2007)

The second project required students to record a sound clip or a video clip including a narration (please refer to the attachment— second project-narration analysis). While doing this project, I gradually understood the reason why discourse analysis has frequently been used as an approach to investigate identity building process. Within this short six minute conversation, I saw how the speaker went back and forth framing the incident she saw, and this presented her identity shifting as a study abroad student for five years. She tried to synthesize two different value systems (Taiwanese vs. American) in this small narration to negotiate the conflict between the two. This project led me to reflect on how language works as an identity construction foundation.

The poster that inspired my topic 
choosing of the final project

The third project was a text analysis which I chose a promoting text from a local Tea Party Movement group and analyzed how it situated itself in this political movement (please refer to the attachment— third project- text analysis). To dig in deeper, I stayed in the same topic but used CDA and “narrative template” as the main approaches to analyze how local level and national level Tea Party groups constructed their identities differently as my final project (please refer to the attachment— final project).

 This course related tightly to another course I took, Meaning in Second Language Learning, and the ideas of discourse analysis and CDA were also used in my teaching of ESL 015 while teaching critical reading.          

APLNG 597A Meaning in Second Language Learning

Meeting objective: 2, 3, 4, 6, 7

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Thinking with your hand

Textbook 1. for "gesture"

There were two major topics discussed in this course to explore “meaning” in language and second language learning from a critical perspective: meaning is not fixed in language and some meanings are expressed by gesturing or metaphorical language. Although they have been neglected in language teaching, these parts are important in assessing learners’ language development, identity, and ideology. Additionally, incorporating gestures and metaphorical language in teaching may bring out strategies for dealing with long existing problems (e.g., teaching preposition).

Textook 2. for "gesture"

      Connecting gesturing to meaning, we focused on “growth point” where the meaning lies in gestures. We all have experienced that sometimes our gestures precede what we would like to say or already said. More often, gestures “complete” what we would like to convey. However, language teachers or standardized tests measure learning outcome often by spoken outputs. This reminds teachers that, from the current paradigm, many meanings produced by learners are left out, especially when students speak in English still gesture in their first language.
 

      The second topic was the role of metaphors in language teaching. Although metaphorical language has been included as a topic in language teaching, it mostly appears in advanced materials. However, people cannot not speak or write without using conceptual metaphors. Simple phrases, like “lift the grade” “raise the tax,” show a cultural perception that “good is high.” In this section our group did a metaphor teaching project (see the following picture).

 Following the idea that metaphor constructs ideology, my final project analyzed texts of the Tea Party Movement from the metaphorical language perspective (please see the attachment: final project).

Teaching "metaphor" in class 

Textbook for "metaphor"

The course changed my understanding of writing and teaching writing. Although half of the time was devoted to gesture analyzing, it actually gave me an insight of how language users construct meaning in a dialectical way. Writing is the same process as gesturing, in the sense that writers move back and forth to establish the meaning. When writing can be taken as a thinking process, teachers can put their focus on the writing process rather than written products.

APLNG 587 Theory and Research in L2 Teacher Education

Meetingobjectives: 1, 3, 4, 5

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Let’s think about knowledge based teacher education as a social artifact, and teachers as learners of teaching.  

        This course was designed to help teacher educators evaluate and critique the existing professional developing programs and related issues (e.g., how policy or culture affects the focuses of teacher training). To go through these key issues, every week students should write a blog post to address the hot questions related to the assigned reading(s). 

I like this design a lot. In these posts, a topic was investigated from different perspectives with diverse examples. For instance, entry 3 discussed how teacher learners’ mental life should be evaluated from the perspective of teacher as a learner learning to teach. Entry 4 elaborated the topic that uses teachers’ narratives to reflect on their mental development process. In these two weeks, we investigated important parts of teacher development—emotion, identity re-construction, and dialectical development—which have long been neglected. In weeks 6 through 8, the topic shifted to teacher training programs work as mediation tools playing different roles in mediating teacher learners’ developing. From week 11, the focus was the broader context affecting the teacher learners’ development and program design (please refer to the attachments: Entry-week 3, 4, 6, 8, 11). By posting, I got mediations from peers and instructors and became able to talk these issues deeply.

The mediating partners!

The second project was writing a book review for some classical sources related to teacher education (please refer to the attached file: book review). I chose Language, Culture, and Community in Teacher Education which is a series of research investigating the role of community and culture of community in teacher education. It was my first time writing a review. While learning the convention of this particular genre, I explored the topics we had discussed with more detailed examples provided by this book.

Group work and presenting in-class

My final project was a further exploration of the topic in week 8—teachers’ language awareness (TLA) (please refer to the attachment: final project). This project combined a literature review of TLA and a course design which aims at developing TLA. Because of this project, I first put myself in the shoes of the teacher educators and considered more than “what do teacher learners want to learn” but “how to create mediations that make learning happen” by analyzing the context restrictions.

The course bought me the knowledge basis of being a teacher educator. Even though I may not become a teacher educator soon, the issues unfolded in this course introduced me useful sources for further reflections on my own professional development.