Module 5: English Learning Classrooms (October 07 to October 13, 2020)

The final module or Module 5 of PPP is the heart of TESOL as the reading materials provided here address what happens in English-learning classrooms.
1a. Components of Classroom Language Instruction
1b. Language Games: Innovative Activities for Teaching English
2. Assessment of English Learners
3a. Instructional Planning
3b. Lesson Plan Template: Prepare, Present, Practice, Perform (PPPP) Format
4a. Special Factors in ELT Classroom
4b. Teaching in Action: Case Studies from SL Classrooms -Jack C. Richards

I decided to post my reflection on the first reading material.

Components of Classroom Language Instruction

The four types of opportunities that a good language classroom provides for students are as follows: Nation (2008)
(1) Comprehensible and Meaningful Input: Language input is where language acquisition begins via the receptive skill, listening and reading. Hearing and reading do not result in language acquisition unless what is heard and read is understood. This is what Krashen (1981) called comprehensible input. He developed the i+1 formula, just barely above a student's current language level which we can call the independent level. If the comprehensible input level is too high, it is difficult to infer the meaning of sentence and leads to failure of language learning. Even too low level is also equally problematic. Language input needs to be meaningful, i.e. a part of a real conversation.

(2) Meaningful Output: Input alone does not usually result in high language proficiency. Swain's (1985) output hypothesis is now fundamental to our understanding of effective classroom language instruction. Students need abundant opportunities to speak and write. 'Repeat after me' task is meaningless, mindless, and boring. Writing prompts are also often meaningless and boring. So, to make the meaningful and interesting output, we begin to think about what information students might truly enjoy communicating, and with whom. Writing tasks become meaningful when there is a real audience and the topic is real life events. Student grouping is an effective way to provide more opportunities for students to speak in class, invariably more pair and group work is utilized. We have to follow this guidelines for making peer work as successful as possible: (a) give a clear and specific task, (b) consider the language level of the students for the task, (c) use purposeful pairing and grouping, (d) model the task (than explanation), (e) monitor the students as they engage in the task, and (f) close the task before boredom.

(3) Language-focused Learning: Proponents of CLT focus on four skill of language or teaching the language. But teaching or learning about language is also essential and helpful in a language classroom. Grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are other areas that it is appropriate for roughly 25% of a language class to be spent on language-focused learning.

(4) Fluency Development: Fluency is developed when students have opportunities to use language that they already know – opportunities to read, write, speak and listen using language that is known so that they can develop the fluency in all four skills. Songs and chants can be particularly helpful in developing oral fluency. Songs have long been seen as a good way to aid memory and develop automatically. We have probably all had an advertising jingle stuck in our heads. Over the past 30 years Carolyn Graham's (2011) popular "Jazz Chants" have drawn attention to the effectiveness of chants for helping students learn and remember language, especially language chunks - common word combinations or phrases.

Using games and game-like activities in the language classroom can provide challenge, fun, interest, movement, and more.

My classroom activities focus on both teaching language (four skills of language) and about language (Grammar and vocabulary). Using Chants and games is also used a little bit. But after reading this article I came to know the deep importance of these four opportunities in the language classroom.

Module 4: English Teaching Today (September 30 to October 06, 2020)

In Module 4 of the PPP, we looked at how language teaching has been viewed in the past and how it is currently viewed. The five articles from six PDF files give us the ample information on the topic: "English Teaching Today".
1. What is English Teaching?
2. Principles of Language Learning
3a. Developing Learner Autonomy
3b. How do We Recognize an Autonomous Classroom – Revised
4. Learner-Centered TESOL
5. Where can I Get my Shoe Fixed? Authentic Tasks for Students in EFL Settings

I looked through the first article and posted my reflection on it.

What is English Teaching?

Terminology: The terms used to talk about what happens in a language classroom are – (a) approach: broadest term, a set of beliefs about teaching and learning languages, (b) methods: general ways of organizing what takes place in the classroom for a certain approach, (c) techniques: the activities chosen by teacher and done by the students for a method. It's known as strategy too.

Historical Methods: Since early 1900s foreign languages began to viewed as school subjects, and various methods have been emerged in different time span. Some prominent methods in the language teaching history are – Grammar Translation (GT) method, Direct Method, Audiolingual Method (ALM), in the latter half of the 20th century, Community Language Learning (CLL), Suggestopedia, The Silent Way, Total Physical Response (TPR),

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): Best method, however it's a modern approach to language teaching that prioritizes real communicative ability.

How is English teaching viewed now?: It's the era of postmethods now. Language teaching is considered primarily about, not methodology, but other aspects of teaching (Kumaravadivelu – 2006). The other aspects are: Postmethods: focuses on principles and strategies rather than with specific methods or approaches. Principles are foundational understandings about SLA, and strategies are broad guideline. 

Beyond EFL and ESL: New models for language acquisition: Content-Based Instruction (CBI) or Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) emphasizes learning other content, such as math, science, cooking, or golf, through the medium of the target language. Immersion Education can be thought of as full-time CBI. Bilingual Education model is the fusion of some immersion and some native language instruction in an academic context.

What should English teachers know and be able to do?: Effective language teachers possess two skill sets: 1) language skill – communicative competence and linguistic knowledge, 2) teaching skill – theoretical knowledge and methodological competence.

Finally, teacher's personal qualities – positive characters, attitudes, beliefs, and values are also another most important thing. Teaching a language = Enabling someone to acquire a language. After reading this article, I got very clear and precise knowledge of all the ways of teaching foreign language. I have been using most of the ways in my classes. Some are new for me though they were emerged many years back. Now I realized that an effective language teacher should have sound theoretical and practical knowledge and skill of teaching methodology, as well as possess good personal characters.

Module 3: Language Learning and Acquisition (September 23 to September 29, 2020)

The Module 3 of the PPP was about the language learning process. In this Module, we have to attempt a pre-quiz, which mirrors the quiz at the end. Probably this was to assess our entering behavior on the topic. and from the post-quiz, we will be able to reflect on our learning in this module. We had to read four articles in this module:
1. First Language Acquisition
2. Additional Language Acquisition
3. Myths about Language Acquisition
4. Language Leveling Systems

My reflection on the article:

First Language Acquisition

Regarding the first language acquisition, there are mainly four theories of language learning.

a) The behaviorist perspective: B. F. Skinner (1957) explained that a child learns first language in the process of – hearing – imitation – reinforcement (feedback). However other theorists claim that behaviorism cannot account for the creativity that humans bring to language use, so, it's incomplete.

b) The Innatist Perspective: Noam Chomsky (1959) developed universal grammar (UG) and argued that human beings are programmed to develop grammatically correct language, even though they have never heard such utterances before. It talks about a "critical age" – fertile time for first language acquisition, that is coincide with puberty and known as the critical period hypothesis (CPH).

c) The Cognitivist Perspective: Jean Piaget (1951/1946) propounded cognitive constructivism that is to say – people mentally construct meanings that make sense to them, and this is how they learn. Learning language is a mental process, but the UG explanation is not necessary.

d) The Sociocultural Perspective: Vygotsky (1978) proposed that language learning takes place when an individual interacts with an interlocutor who is a more knowledgeable peer or teacher within his or her zone of proximal development (ZPD). His work is often known as social constructivism that focuses on the collaborative construction of meaning through social interaction.

Brain Research: Some researchers are focused on brain research in language acquisition. A child normally learns 40 distinguished sound out of 800 by 10 months of age (Kuhl, 2010). Sound recognition process comes before the sound production process in early life of child.

Simultaneous Bilingualism: Almost all of children learn more than one native language at the same time. Simultaneous bilingualism is different from sequential bilingualism, in which an additional language is acquired after the first has been acquired – usually by age 4 or 5.

Do Bilingual Children Experience Delays?: Acquiring two first languages at the same time is more complex task, so language development can be delayed by a few months. But by late elementary school years, bilingual children catch up to and often surpass their monolingual peers in language development.

How should the Language be Separated?: The context of simultaneous bilingualism is created when a child gets the equal exposure of two different languages at the same time from caregivers, parents or peers. The children should be given equivalent and quality input on a particular language by the parents.

How much Input in a Language is Necessary?: Bilingual children may be at risk of not developing full competence in one of their languages if they do not receive sufficient input. Gunesee (2007) explains that bilingual children must be exposed to a language during at least 30% of their total language exposure.

Is "Code-switching" a Problem?: When bilingual children speak, they may switch between languages – often called "Code-switching". Code-switching allows her to express her meaning more precisely. One language at a time is helpful for developing bilingual speakers, but we need not ban code-switching.

Can Children Lose their First Language?: If a child below age five is suddenly immersed in a new language environment, and the first language is not maintained at home, there may actually be a language replacement rather than a language addition, then the child can indeed lose her first language.

My first language was Tamang language, my family language. My parents say to me, at age five I joined school where I first heard Nepali language. Then even at home, I rarely got exposure of Tamang language. Now I can hardly speak Tamang language, however I understand Tamang language well. Last month, one of my brothers who has been missing for 16 years, was found in Indonesia. He had left home at the age of twenty-eight, now he is forty-four. When we try to speak to him in Nepali language, he can't even understand our utterances. We hardly believe this incident. After one month, he is trying to speak a little bit Nepali language. This evidence proves that even adult can lose their first language, if he do not find the language exposure and speaking community of that language.

Module 2: The Nature of Language; Knowing English (September 16 to September 22, 2020)

In Module 2 of the PPP, we had six PDF file of three articles to give common information to know English language under the topic "The Nature of Language: Knowing English".

1a. The Nature of Language: Specific information about the English Language.

1b. Worksheet on Linguistic Terms

2a. Knowing the English Language: Specific information about the English Language.

2b. Test your Metalinguistic Knowledge

3a. Language and Culture: reality of culture linked with language

3b. Don Show – Culture

We can download all these articles when the scheduled time arrives. To obtain the Grade in this Module 2, we have to do two activities within this week. (a) Module 2 Quiz: Multiple Choice questions from those three articles. (Optional but recommended to attempt), (b) Discussion Forum: After reading the articles given there, we can choose any one of them and write the summary of that article and reflection on it within 250 words. Then, we can give at least one comment on other participant's post in the Discussion Forum. This is the assignment of module 2, (and all other modules) from which we can obtain Grade for the Module.

Among those articles, I decided to write my reflection on the first article:

The Nature of Language

After reading this article, I got some important points that can be very much helpful to a language teacher. After knowing the nature of language, a teacher can easily cope up with the issues related to language teaching. While we try to understand about the nature of language, we have to learn about correctness of language, form, meaning and use of language, and varieties of a language. These elements are called the nature of language.

1) Correctness of Language: Prescriptive View vs. Descriptive View

When we talk about the correctness of language, we can perceive it in two ways: prescriptive view vs. descriptive views. Both accept the rules or existence of rules or importance of rules, but the difference is that – how we arrive at the rules. According to prescriptive view, grammar rules come from grammar books. People should follow these prescribed rules. Prescriptive views strictly follow the rules regardless of how people use language. The language is changeable. The prescriptive view is counter to the nature of language and the nature of the language users. According to descriptive view, grammar rules come from the users of language. Descriptive view considers the language as correct if the users of language see it as correct.

2) Three characters of a language: From, Meaning, and Use

Diane Larsen Freeman says that any of the language can be characterized in these three ways: form, meaning, and use. Form is an element of language which deals with accuracy and syntactical aspect of a language – how is it formed? Meaning is another element of language which deals with semantic aspect of a language – what does it mean? Use is the element which deals with the appropriateness of a language – when/why is it used? All these three elements are essential for perfect communication. For example – if you teach vocabulary, i.e. 'home' – 'home' has a form. It's a noun, common noun, count noun. 'Home' has meaning – some place where you reside. 'Home' has use. It can be contrasted with house, apartment, residence, bungalow, habitat, etc. We must learn when to use one and when to use the other.

3) Language Communities: Varieties of a Language

A language may have different name and variety as per it's use, such as – dialects, pidgin, creole, etc.

a) Dialects: A varieties of the language used by a particular community in a particular region, differentiated through pronunciation, word choice, and sometimes even grammar.

b) Pidgin: An emerging language which is the fusion language of two different groups of people who speak different languages to interact with each other, often for the purpose of trade. It is not a fully developed language.

c) Creole: When pidgin is widely used for long time, becomes more highly developed language, and often used as native language by a community, it is called creole.

Module 1: The World of English Learning (September 09 to September 15, 2020)

In Module 1 of the PPP, we had three articles on different topics to begin our journey into the exciting world of TESOL with an exciting overview of "The World of English Learning".

1) The Alphabet Soup of Teaching English: TESOL related acronyms and terminology chart.

2) What is English?: the diversity within the English language and the many contexts in which it is used.
3) Potential Harms in the Spread of English: an honest look at the threat that English may pose to cultures, societies, and even educational systems.
We can download all these articles when the scheduled time arrives. To obtain the Grade in this Module 1, we have to do two activities within this week. (a) Module 1 Quiz: Multiple Choice questions from those three articles. (Optional but recommended to attempt), (b) Discussion Forum: After reading the articles given there, we can choose any one of them and write the summary of that article and reflection on it within 250 words. Then, we can give at least one comment on other participant's post in the Discussion Forum. This is the assignment of module 1, from which we can obtain Grade for this Module. 

I chose the first article to post my reflection in the Discussion Forum

The Alphabet Soup of Teaching English

This article is about some commonly used acronyms related to English language. I have heard most of them previously. There are altogether 20 acronyms. Those twenty ingredients of alphabet soup are in a big bowl.

When I read the article thoroughly, I realized one thing which I have never perceived in the synopsized way. I found that we can classified those 20 acronyms into five groups: 1) other names of English language, 2) name of learner, 3) Teaching English, 4) Methodologies, 5) Testing.

1) Names of English Language: English language is addressed in different ways, such as a) English as a Second Language (ESL), b) English as a Foreign Language (EFL), c) English as an Additional Language (EAL), d) English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), e) English as a New Language (ENL), f) English as an International Language (EIL), (g) English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). In different countries as per the use of English language by the citizens there, this language can be called one of these. In my country, Nepal, English is not second language. My first language or primary language is my mother tongue, Tamang Language. The official language of my country is Nepali, so I had to learn it as second language at the age of six when I joined school. English might be my third or fourth language. In my neighboring country, India, English is another official language or dominant language, so English can be called second language for them. Once I was in Kazakhstan, there I used English language as ELF or EIL.

2) Name of learner: h) English Language Learner (ELL) or English Learner (EL)

3) Teaching English: i) Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), j) Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), k) Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), l) English Language Teaching (ELT), m) English for Academic Purpose (EAP), n) English for Specific Purpose (ESP). As per the use of English Language by the people of a country, the names of teaching English are different.

4) Methodologies: o) Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), p) Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), q) Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), r) Content-Based Instruction (CBI), s) Total Physical Response (TPR). These are some prominent teaching approaches or method of English Language in different countries.

5) Test: t) Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is a widely used testing system of English language.

After reading this article, I could generate these ideas as per the information provided there.

Course Orientation (September 2, to September 8, 2020)

In the first week of the online course, we signed into Oba, an online learning classroom or forum where we can get all the information and materials in asynchronus mode and submit out assignment. When I watched the welcome video, I came to know that Ms. Bita Bookman is our course tutor. I learnt that we have two parts of the course:
Part 1: Principles, Practices and Perspectives Course (PPP), six-week long course, one - orientation week and five modules week. (September 02 to October 13, 2020)
Part 2: Specialization, 32-week long practical course with 6 tasks (October 21, 2020 to May 31, 2021)

Before we started actual learning, we had to do these three things there:
1) Course Announcement: General news and announcement were posted there by the course tutor, the tutees also posted there about course news they learnt.
2) Questions: The participants could post any querries there. The instruction would reply there.
3) A Social Space: The participant could use this space to share personal stories or resources with their classmates.
After these activities, we started the real learning for Oba. In the first week we got the information on the following topics:
1) TCAP Program Orientation Lesson
2) TCAP Syllabus
3) Program Schedule
4) Part 1: Principles, Practices, and Perspectives (PPP) Course Overview
5) Part 2: Specialization Overview
6) Video Tutorials: Video guidelines to use Oba platform - How to navigate the course; How to post a message to a discussion thread; How to submit an assignment; Communicateing with other; Working with zip files; Using PDF files; How to get help when you need it.
7) Syllabus Quiz: To assess the comprehension level of the participants on the above mentioned materials.
8) Introduce yourself: All participants should have posted their brief introduction there.
When the participants completed "Syllabus Quiz and posted introduction, they would obtain certain grade which is displayed in "Grades", personal folder in Oba. That was great!

All the materials can be downloaded in PDF files. The next materials are accessible only in the scheduled date and time. SO, we are waiting for that date and time to retrieve those files, and further our online study.