June 29

The point that struck me in today’s class was the following one: “Watch videos silently before watching them with sound.” I don’t know why this struck me, but it did and it did with some profundity. I show a lot of YouTube videos and videos that go along with my curriculum in my classes. I have never thought to show them without sound first but after hearing this, I went to do this on my own today because, after all, a teacher should do everything she is asking her students to do. So for today’s reflection, I decided to do this exercise. And while doing it, at first I thought that it was dumb. I sat there looking at the picture trying to imagine what I would say to a class before watching it. I didn’t really know, and was at a loss for words. But then I was instantly reminded of a course I took two years ago in American Sign Language. I began to remember how effective that class was for me not just because I learned a little sign language (I know NO deaf people) but because it made me a more effective communicator. I seriously recommend that all teachers be required to take a course in American Sign Language because you learn so much more about how to connect to another person using elements besides speech. It made me a better communicator because when I started teaching beginners, I had more tricks in my sleeve and knew more than to just talk louder as many do with people that don’t understand language. I could slow down, I could gesture, and I could use eye contact and space around me more effectively. I still don’t know how I would introduce a video I would show silently, but that will come with time.  

July 1 Reflection

Laila and I discussed in great detail the fluency/accuracy debate from the reading and came to the conclusion that fluency was far more important than accuracy, at least in the beginning stages of learning a language. Because we talked about vocabulary being the key to learning a language (and not getting stuck on grammar and verb tenses) fluency is all about using vocabulary. If a student can show that he or she can use vocabulary, that student has achieved fluency. If I can understand what he is trying to say, I try not to correct minor points and continue with functional communication, showing the student that he was understood and comprehensible, building confidence in that student. At the beginning stages of learning a language, I believe that is far more important than correcting a lack of a plural s or a verb tense. This has taken me a while to learn, and I still slip into overcorrection mode at times, as it appears to be my default when I need something “teacherly” to do. Laila and I also talked about pronunciation and teaching it. I don’t find this difficult, but again I worry with my speech pathology background I can overkill pronunciation so that it’s not useful and just tedious to students. I use IPA when I teach this, and if my students don’t understand the symbols I teach it to them. I wonder if this is a useful strategy. It’s what I was taught to do in previous classes, along with tongue placement, mouth shape, and palate movement. Some students respond really well to these kinds of drills and others just kind of look at me like I’m crazy and move on to the next thing in the lesson that day. I’m wondering if there is a better approach. 

July 6 Reflection

I am reflecting today on the following statement: “A student who doesn’t tolerate ambiguity well is not going learn a language well.” I don’t exactly know why this statement jumped out at me, but it did. I began to think of my early language learning self. I think this is the reason why I am not fluent in my L2. When I started to learn Spanish, I was 16 in tenth grade. I was a student that loved following directions and I loved rules. (I credit the ISFJ in me, but that’s just one measure how I relate to my world, I realize.) I did really well memorizing vocabulary and the rules of grammar that were regular. I didn’t like stem-changing verbs because they defied the rule. I did not tolerate ambiguity. I did not like things that were not stable. As I progressed through Spanish, I think I was also getting older, and with age come maturity and an awareness of my learning style. I didn’t think I was truly aware of my learning style until after I graduated university. I have become a little more tolerant of ambiguity just out of necessity of the work and I would like to apply this to re-learning and further learning in my L2. I haven’t had a lot of time to dedicate to Spanish learning over the last few years but when I do start studying again I think I will keep this in mind.  

I also was struck by the IPA debate. I had no idea how heated people felt about this. I didn’t say anything in class because there were so many varying opinions and I didn’t want to make the issue any more confusing. I come from a speech pathology background, where the goal there is nothing BUT pronunciation and intelligibility. One of the reasons I switched fields is because I think there was TOO much emphasis on IPA and pronunciation. In my linguistics and phonetics courses we had to learn and memorize IPA symbols. And you know what I learned? There is NEVER agreement among professionals about how to transcribe a word in IPA. I had classes where we would debate one syllable for an hour. I thought it was always ridiculous because pronunciation varies by region anyway. It always seemed pretty ridiculous arguing about these because I can always tell what was said. I figured out that my view on pronunciation is that as long as it’s comprehensible I don’t do any correction. If I can understand it, it is fine, because after all that is the goal of communication, right? So I will probably never use IPA again as long as I’m in the ESL/EFL field. There are other ways to do it. The beginning book I taught from last session had a series of spheres to tell students where the emphasis of the word should be placed. The large sphere is over the syllable with the most emphasis. It was much simpler than trying to decode a whole other set of symbols. Maybe my view will change as I continue my career, but with my current experiences, I will remain here.

 I will also add that I started teaching a new class last night, and it is the first time I will have taught advanced learners. It is also the first time I will be teaching students who are a similar age to myself. In the past, I have either taught students who are way older or way younger. But I thoguht back to the discussion on the role I want to play in the classroom and fought hard not to break out of the friend role. These learners (there are 5 of them that are very close to each other becuase they have studied together for a year and there is a husband and wife team in the mix). They are very much professionals looking to break into the professional workplace here, and one is a human resource professional qualified to give the Myers Briggs. Because the unit yeseterday was about personality, I decided it would be a good idea to give a modified MBTI test as an intro. It was a great activity, and led a great discussion, but I wonder if maybe I relinquished to much control to my student becuase I saw her more of an expert than I was in that field. I am excited about the possibilites with this class, but worry about boring them to tears since my experience has always been with beginning learners. 

American Greetings

Confused at American social norms? Watch this video!

Georgia State University

Need a tour of GSU? This was also a project from my classmates. Very well done, in my opinion.

Life in a New Language and Culture

This was from my technology and language learning class, a group assignment. I thought it was really well done. Many of these people are my classmates in the program.

Some thoughts --- haven't blogged in a while, so this is what I come up with!

------ ENTRY ------
Date:    2015-06-03
Words:   827
Minutes: 19

I have absolutely no idea what brings me to this thought whatsoever, but at this current time, I am engrossed with it. Chip Mize. The man that stole my childhood. Not for the reasons you think. There was no rape or incest or molestation involved. I really didn't even know the man personally. I had a relatively happy childhood. But I say he stole my childhood because he rocked what it meant to be a child. I was 12 when he committed his unspeakable act. He was 23. He turned my world on its head. There comes a point in every child's life where they realize that the world is not a good place to live. It takes some children longer to get to this realization. Because my family was not religious at all, God did not exist. So this has nothing to do with the presense of God. But I was raised in a family where I trusted people. I was fortunate to grow up with two loving parents, a (realtively) normal brother, and a supportive community of friends from various activities around Atlanta. I was a suburban pre-teen. One of my favorite places in the city was Tucker Recreation Center. I went to summer day camp here every summer from the time I was 5 to the time I was 16. They even gave me  my first job when I graduated high school and this is where I realized I had a passion for early childhood education and working with children. But that's besides the point. What happened on that day in 1994? I will remember it like it was yesterday. Which is ironic because I don't remember yesterday at all. I hate when people say that. My best friend at the time, Anne Schipani, told me that she had some disturbing news. I didn't know what disturbing news was. (I told you I'd lived a charmed life up until this point!)

Anne told me that someone we know had done something awful. OK. I had no idea what to do with this information. Her face was so pale, and she didn't continue until I wouldn't go away. I didn't press her for details, but she evenutally let out that her mom had read something horrible about the karate instructor at Tucker Rec Center. I didn't really know the man, but I knew of him. He was a camp counselor, and he was in my room at camp. I had gone to Six Flags with him, and he had led some intense soccer games. I wasn't a student of Karate, but I knew kids who were and loved him. He was so fun! Anne continued to tell me of this article her mom had read. It said that Chip was a murder suspect. He had killed his dad and stabbed is mom a number of times. I went silent. I don't remember what I thought or said after that point. Knowing what I know now about psychology, I went through all the stages of grief. First was denial: no way. Not Chip. Not the guy that was so friendly all the time and let all of the girls hang all over him at the pool. Then came anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Or whatever order those come in. I may or may not have made a C in Psychology 101 sophomore year of college.

I don't know when I accepted this. I don't know if I ever did. I don't know even what makes me think about this now. But I do know that this was the exact point in time that I went from being a carefree child to one that doubted the existence of good in the world. This was the exact event that made me believe that people did evil things. And it rocked my world entirely. He was an adult I trusted. And though he never did anything to me, I was in shock that someone could do that....before now, in my pleasant little town of Decatur, GA (and my small smiley elementary school) no one ever had. I still have a hard time trusting people, and it's not all because of Chip. This event happened before the advent of the Internet (the Internet was to come ten years later) so it left a lot of children and adults with a lot of unanswered questions....) and I have recently learned way more about this case that I will share in later posts with you, but upon thinking about it now, I definitely know more than I ever cared to know. Ah, internet, you never cease to disappoint that way. I will share those details and my thoughts probably in a future post. But until then, do you remember the exact point when you lost your childhood innocence? When you began to question authority and everything you'd been told? What did that feel like? What would you tell your childhood self today?