What matters in teaching a second language

AN INVENTORY OF CONCEPTSAND THEIR IMPLICATIONS

TO TEACH A SECOND LANGUAGE

What matters in the second language classroom?

http://www.actfl.org/files/public/guidelines.pdfRubric ACTFL proficiency guidelines-speaking-

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) is the national association for language education professionals from all levels of instruction and representing all languages. With more than 12,300 active members, ACTFL provides innovative professional development opportunities, acclaimed training and certification programs, and widely cited books, publications, scholarly journals, research studies and language education resources, including Foreign Language Annals and The Language Educator magazine. As part of its mission and vision, the organization provides guidance to the profession and to the general public regarding issues, policies, and best practices related to the teaching and learning of languages and cultures. ACTFL is a leading national voice among language educators and administrators and is guided by a responsibility to set standards and expectations that will result in high quality language programs. For more information, visit the website at www.actfl.org.

Acquisition vs. Learning The distinction between acquisition and learning is one of the hypotheses (the most important) established by the American Stephen Krashen in his highly regarded theory of foreign language acquisition known as the Natural Approach.

Language acquisition refers to the process of natural assimilation, involving intuition and subconscious learning, which is the product of real interactions between people where the learner is an active participant.Teaching and learning are viewed as activities that happen in a personal psychological plane. The acquisition approach praises the communicative act and develops self-confidence in the learner.

The concept of language learning is linked to the traditional approach to the study of languages and today is still generally practiced in high schools worldwide. Attention is focused on the language in its written form and the objective is for the student to understand the structure and rules of the language through the application of intellect and logical deductive reasoning. The form is of greater importance than communication.It seeks to transmit to the student knowledge about the language, its functioning and grammatical structure with its irregularities.This effort of accumulating knowledge becomes frustrating because of the lack of familiarity with the language.

References: Krashen, Stephen D. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Prentice-Hall International, 1987.Krashen, Stephen D. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Prentice-Hall International, 1988.

http://easypractice.blogspot.com/2009/07/language-learning-vs-language_07.html

Allegory of the cave

• The Allegory is related to Plato's Forms, according to which the "Forms" (or "Ideas"), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. Only knowledge of the Forms constitutes real knowledge. In addition, the Allegory of the Cave is an attempt to explain the philosopher's place in society: to attempt to enlighten the "prisoners".

Analogy

• In "The Republic," Plato sums up his views in an image of ignorant humanity, trapped in the depths and not even aware of its own limited perspective. The rare individual escapes the limitations of that cave and, through a long, tortuous intellectual journey, discovers a higher realm, a true reality, with a final, almost mystical awareness of Goodness as the origin of everything that exists. Such a person is then the best equipped to govern in society, having a knowledge of what is ultimately most worthwhile in life and not just a knowledge of techniques; but that person will frequently be misunderstood by those ordinary folks back in the cave who haven't shared in the intellectual insight.

Shadowy representation of the reality. Who are the enlightened?• If he were living today, Plato might replace his rather

awkward cave metaphor with a movie theater, with the projector replacing the fire, the film replacing the objects which cast shadows, the shadows on the cave wall with the projected movie on the screen, and the echo with the loudspeakers behind the screen. The essential point is that the prisoners in the cave are not seeing reality, but only a shadowy representation of it. The importance of the allegory lies in Plato's belief that there are invisible truths lying under the apparent surface of things which only the most enlightened can grasp. Used to the world of illusion in the cave, the prisoners at first resist enlightenment, as students resist education. But those who can achieve enlightenment deserve to be the leaders and rulers of all the rest. At the end of the passage, Plato expresses

another of his favorite ideas: that education is not a process of putting knowledge into empty minds, but of making people realize that which they already know.

The Brain research in the foreign language classroom

http://www.flbrain.org/research.htmhttp://brainconnection.positscience.com/topics/?main=fa/second-language3

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• Human brains are as unique as faces.• All brains are not equal because context and ability influence learning.• The brain is changed by experience.• The brain is highly plastic.• The brain connects new information to old.

As neurologist turned teacher Judy Willis, MD explains, “When you provide students with opportunities to apply learning, especially through authentic, personally meaningful activities with formative assessments and corrective feedback throughout a unit, facts move from rote memory to become consolidated into related memory bank, instead of being pruned away from disuse.”

http://www.edutopia.org/brain-based-learning-strategies-resource-guide

Teachers need to build a bridge from current neuroscience research to engaging classroom practice. Students need to envision their brain as a muscle that gains power over time as much as any other muscle does : by stretching. Learning is stretching their thinking muscle.

http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el200912_willis.pdf

Six Tips for Brain-Based Learning

1. Create a Safe Climate for Learning 2. Encourage a Growth Mind-set3. Emphasize Feedback4. Get Bodies and Brains in Gear5. Start Early6. Embrace the Power of Novelty

http://www.edutopia.org/

Brain research and its implications for education

Principles: • The brain performs many simultaneous

functions. Processes for thoughts, emotions, imagination and predispositions are on all the time.

• Learning is as natural as breathing and it is possible to either inhibit or facilitate it. Stress and threat affect the brain.

Implications• The teacher is like an orchestra conductor in

order to encompass all the variations of the human brain.

• Brain based teaching must fully incorporate stress management, nutrition, exercise and other facets of health into the learning process.

“WHEN WE ENCOUNTER NEW information, the brain quickly goes into pattern-recognition mode. If it reminds us of something we’ve encountered before, we know how to respond. But what happens when the new information doesn’t “fit” with existing understanding?

“That’s when the brain really gets excited. The brain doesn’t just detect new information—

it craves novelty.”

CommunicatingKNOWING HOW, WHEN AND WHY TO SAY WHAT

TO WHOM

Comprehensible input to learn practical verbal responses

Drama=creating contexts=specific uses of language

Drama is inevitably learner-centred because it can only operate through active cooperation. It is therefore a social activity and thus embodies much of the theory that has emphasized the social and communal, as opposed to the purely individual, aspects of learning. With regard to the learning of language, the value of drama is often attributed to the fact that it allows the creation of contexts for different language uses. In both language teaching and drama, context is often thought to be everything. There is a long tradition, influenced by sociolinguistics, from a conception of language learning as the acquisition of vocabulary and grammar independent of context to a greater focus on language in use. 'context' to refer to the way words can be explained in relation to their function in specific uses of language e.g. in particular sentences

http://www.hltmag.co.uk/jul06/mart01.htm

Fluency Fluency is the ability to read, speak, or write easily, smoothly, and expressively. In other words, the speaker can read, understand and respond in a language clearly and concisely while relating meaning and context. Fluency generally increases as learners progress from beginning to advanced readers and writers. Language teachers who concentrate on fluency help their students to express themselves in fluent target language. They pay more attention to meaning and context and are less concerned with grammatical errors. Typical fluency activities are: role plays, speeches, communicative activities, games.

Should We Teach Grammar?

Explicit grammar instruction

Accuracy Accuracy is the ability to produce correct sentences using correct grammar and vocabulary. Accuracy is relative. A child in early primary isn't capable of the same level of accuracy as an adult. Teachers who concentrate on accuracy help their students to produce grammatically correct written and spoken English. Typical accuracy activities are: grammar presentations, gap-fill exercises, frame dialogues.

Three elements in any face-to-face communication

Body language: from boredom to engagement

http://joseph_berrigan.tripod.com/ancientbabylon/id17.html

The Tower of Babel in the Old Testament was a tower built by a united humanity to reach the heavens.

According to the Quran (28:38) and the Bible (Genesis 11:1-9), a tower was erected in Babylonia with the intention to reach to heaven and God. Their presumption, however, angered God who interrupted the construction by causing among them a previously unknown confusion of languages and scattered them over the face of the earth.

M.C. Escher - Tower of Babel

Digital divide“We have no idea, now, of who or what the inhabitants of our future might be. In that sense, we have no future. Not in the sense that our grandparents had a future, or thought they did. Fully imagined cultural futures were the luxury of another day, one in which ‘now’ was of some greater duration. For us, of course, things can change so abruptly, so violently, so profoundly, that futures like our grandparents’ have insufficient ‘now’ to stand on. We have no future because our present is too volatile. We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment’s scenario. Pattern Recognition.” (57, Pattern Recognition)

"The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being."

Motivation

strategies to improve long-term memory, how to inspire more creative thinking, how to be smart about taking risks,

Technology tools

Visualization

Wiki