Pau's video-podcast: Meeting New Friends

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SqTFgGiaEA

My Video-podcast

Series: Living in a Globalized World
Videopodcast: Meeting International Friends

I) Intended Students

The intended students for this videopodcast are 9th grade students, high school level. They are a group of 40 students from different social backgrounds that attend a public school in Valparaíso, Chile; so they all share the same first language: Spanish. At this level students have very basic knowledge of English, they know the pronouns, some basic regular verbs and daily life vocabulary such as window, pencil, door, etc.

The class is composed of 25 girls and 15 boys. This school has not much access to computers; there is just one computer laboratory with 30 computers, for the whole school. So, in this case I will work with my laptop, a pair of speakers and a proyector to show the video to all the students.

For this series students will need to know the present tense of the verb to be, the pronouns, the use of like and love to express likes, for example “like/love plus a to-infinitive verb or -ing”. They will also need to listen and understand spoken English.

II) Objectives

Content Objective for the whole Series: Recognize the importance of English in a globalized society; understand the diversity that exists in the United States, the different cultures that mix here and the different accents of English.

Language Objective for the whole Series: Write about likes and dislikes about Globalization.

Content Objective Individual Videopodcast: Learn how people introduce themselves in English; use of the verb to be and present tense; learn some structures to express likes.

Language Objective Individual Videopodcast: Become familiar with the vocabulary used to talk about oneself; talk about and introduce members of the family by showing pictures.

III) Videopodcast' s Elements

This videopodcast shows people from different countries introducing themselves, most of them are interntional students, and tend to talk slower and clearer, but some of them are native speakers and talk faster. Therefore, this videopodcast has the following elements to make it more comprehenive:

It has image so that the students can see the people speaking and their gestures.
It also has some visual aids such as texts and the flags of each country to support students understanding of the audio.
It has speakers from different nationalities to make it more interesting and eye-catching, so it shows students the usefulness of English to relate with people all over the world, and that motivates them to listen and try to understand.

IV) Strategies Used

In this videopodcast, I have applied several strategies that we have learned here in this four months. It has realia, because all the people in this video are common students that I have met during my stay here in the United States; besides it shows the students the importance of English in this globalized society. Therefore, it is motivating for students, because here they can find a purpose to learn English, a language that can act as a link between people from different countries and languages, so English can give students many opportunities in their lifes. It is also multimodal because it has image, audio and text. When I created this videopodcast I also had high expectations on these intented students, so I provide then some support with the flags of the countries and some texts, using the knowledge learned in the language technology class. So this is a good idea to create our own materials for classes in order to reach our specific goals.

Reflection 6

Response to a question about English teaching

Question:

I work in a Headstart Program that has a Charter school component. Our classroom model is 1/2 day in Spanish and 1/2 day in English. The age group is 3 and 4 year olds. I was an ESL teacher for 32 years in public school. Here is our issue. I believe that it is okay to translate for the ESL children in the beginning if you are not getting any response in English. Others do not agree. Is there any theory about this?

http://www.everythingesl.net/askjudie/?i=10800&n=50

Hi Victoria,

Many people believe that in order to learn a new language, you have to be taught only in the target language, without using any of the first language at all.

Personally, I think that using the first language of the students doesn't make any harm. On the contrary, it can be very helpful, because you don't need to start teaching a new language all over again from the beginning but you can use the first language of the kids and build on that previous knowledge.

I think it's a good idea to use a certain amount of Spanish in the class and take it away gradually; depending on the students progress, because sometimes the children need something to grab at. I'm not saying that you have to translate everything and teach the whole class in English; because I know that sometimes the only English the kids hear is in the class. But if you are not getting any response in English I think it is okay to use some Spanish, to explain certain things or concepts that are difficult to understand, especially if they are little kids and don't have enough vocabulary to use.

However, I think every classroom is different and has different needs. Thus, every teacher has to evaluate and analyze their own particular situation in terms of age, background, English level, first language of the kids, learning styles, etc. Because what has good results for a class might not be necessarily good for another.

It is not just my personal opinion; research also supports the fact that, in order to be successful at school, an ELL child needs to be literated in his or her first language, so that he or she doesn't have to learn all the things as new. He or she can find support on his or her first language and just transfer the prevoius knowledge to the new task; because it is not the same as acquiring a first language. Kids already know a language, so you can take advantage of this, but you have to be also aware of how this first language works, in order to prevent and anticipate some comon mistakes and difficulties; especially if they share the same one.

Research also tells us that when kids feel their first language and culture are valued, they learn better and in a more comfortable way. Talking to a very experienced ESL teacher, she also agrees with the believe that it is better to take advantage of the first languge of the kids. She knows that because she has proved this through her experience.

Therefore, depending on the age and level of students you can use more, less, or any Spanish at all.

I hope this can help you... bye.

Reflection 5

A topic in language education that I want to know more about

I would like to know more about the home-school connection; how parents are involved in what their children are doing, and if it makes any change in the students' performance at school.

I would like to know more about this topic, because as I've been observing the classes and the kids at the school, I wonder how the immigrant parents relate with the teacher and the school if they don't know much about the language. I would also like to know how the teacher manages to communicate with parents from so many different countries.

I've search on the Internet and I found some web sites that helped me to get a better understanding of this topic.

http://www.schoolfamily.com/school-family-articles/article/7445-involving-parents-in-homework

http://www.schoolfamily.com/school-family-articles/article/824-teachers-tips-how-parents-can-help

http://www.schoolfamily.com/involved-parent?position=top

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1393

http://www.csos.jhu.edu/P2000/tips/index.htm

http://www.nald.ca/litweb/PROVINCE/nb/tesl/guide4.htm

These links explain the importance that the home-school communication has in the child success. It is important that both, parents and teachers work together helping each other; because on the one hand, the teacher knows about the school, the curriculum, the grades and the child behaviour during school time. On the other hand, the parents know about the personality of the children, their interests and family relationship. The most common ways of communication between teachers and parents are by phone or e-mail.

Parent expectations are also important. Involving parents in the educational process benefits the children. It leads to a better communication, because parents know how they children are performing at school, if they are having any problems or difficulties. So students give more value to their education, they feel their parents care about it, they have a higher self-steem and fewer bahaviour problems.

A good idea is giving the children interactive homework to do with their parents, not too difficult (TIPS, Teachers Involving Parents in School). For instance, they can ask about family stories, recipes or family trees. But it is important to explain to the parents know what are you doing and why, before give them instructions and enough time.

I also talked with Mrs. R, the ESL teacher. She told me that it was very difficult to communicate with the parents of the children, for many reasons: many of them don't speak English, so when they need to communicate they need the help of a translatior, sometimes the cultures are different, and parents are not expected to be involved in the children education at school, many times they don't have time to go to school because they have to work or they don't feel comfortable involving in activities with American parents. So it is a big challenge, but Mrs. Ross is very respectful of this, she tries to involve parents but she doesn't force them.

Reflection 4

Websites that might help

Axel is a 15 years old Cuban kid. He just arrived to the United States 25 dias ago; and started school on wednesday last week. He came with all his family to the United States because of political problems in his country. He likes soccer; he speaks Spanish and knows just a little of English; he knows some vocabulary and basic structures to introduce himself or ask permission to go to the bathroom, he can spell words and count in English, but he can't understand when someone talks to him.

This is very difficult because all the kids in the classroom already know some English. They have been at least one or two months in the school and can communicate well in English. So the teacher just does her regular class, and Axel is given the same instructions, the same guides and the same tests, but the problem is that he doesn't understand anything.

Now, the teacher is teaching an unit about food, shapes and colors. Axel is willing and eager to learn; I've seen his progress since he first arrived. The first day he was very quiet and just talked with us in Spanish (no English at all). But know, when he arrives the classroom in the mornings he seems more comfortable and he can say good morning to the teacher, but he can't yet understand much English and he is always lost in classes.

First of all, I think he should move from where he seats, so that he can relate the written words with its pronunciation and learn more, because he sits at the back and can't see well the board. I think he really needs to understand spoken English, to interact in classes and to know what is going on, so that he doesn't depend on others to translate things.

It is difficult to know where to start, as he knows just very basic things and the other students are more advanced than him. I think that he first needs to acquire some vocabulary.
He should learn by games. Here are some websites

Fruits (with audio): http://www.1-language.com/materials/memori/elementary/fruits/memori1.swf

Shapes: http://www.primarygames.com/storybooks/sammy/start.htm

Colors: http://www.primarygames.com/storybooks/i_spy/start.htm

Animals: http://www.primarygames.com/storybooks/farm/start.htm

These sites can be helpful not only for Axel but also for the other kids in the class. Here he can increase his vocabulary and reinforce the things learned, so that he can participate in classes.
Other websites for Axel to learn English:

Song about soccer (with lyrics): http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-songs-football-popup.htm

Soccer: http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-football.htm

As Axel likes soccer, I think that learning some vocabulary and expressions about it would be useful, since it is something that he likes. Besides he can start relating with the other kids by having a topic of conversation in common, because many of the kids in the classroom love soccer as well.

Finally, I think that at first, it would be good that he uses these pages every day, for at least 30 minutes (he can use them more if he needs it), he can listen or read the information the times he needs and challenge himself to understand the main ideas. So that he can build his vocabulary day by day, understand and participate a little more in classes and doesn't feel frustrated.

Reflection 3

A case of effective language teaching

Mrs. R is an ESL teacher at a well known High School and she works with the newcomer students. She is a very nice person, and you can see that she really loves what she does. She spent several years teaching in Africa, so she has a vast experience in language teaching strategies.

Wednesday. The students were a little shy, they just have in the country between 25 days and 4 months. When we first arrived to the classroom, the students wanted to know who we were, so they asked Mrs. R. but she didn't answer that question; she told them that if they wanted to know, they had to ask us to introduce ourselves. Then, before the class finished, Mrs. R told students that the next day they will have to prepare a presentation about their countries, to teach other students on Friday.

Thrusday. Students had to form groups among the persons of their same country. They had to talk about what they wanted other students to know abou their own country and culture. They had to write in cardboards some of the information and determine the role of each one in the group.

Friday. The day of the presentations!. Students were all excited and nervous at the same time. They had to present in three different classes of Spanish. They presented in alphabetical order: Burma, China, Cuba, Moldova, Vietnam and Ukraine. They taught the other students their alphabet, numbers, months, days of the week and some useful words such as hello, thank you, nice to meet you, etc. in their language. The childrem from Burma even wore their typical clothing.

After the presentations, there was room for questions. From there emerged powerful stories from this conversation and the audience was very interested. Mrs R. explained to them that if the Burma kids had stayed in their country, now they would be dead.

When the presentations were done and they came back to the classroom, there was a kind of debriefing. Mrs. R asked the children some questions about what they had just done. Then they had to put that information in their jorurnals. All the kids concluded and agreed that they were nervous but it had been a great experienece. Mrs R also asked them what they liked about their own presentation and what they would have wanted to change or improve. So, they had the opportunity to think critically about their own performance.

I really loved this activity because it was purposeful and meaningful for the students. I could see their enthusiasm.They were very excited and really enjoyed talking about their country, and their culture. They prepared all the things carefully and did their best. They felt very comfortable talking and answering questions about their culture because they really managed the topic, so all of the students participated willingly in this activity.

It is wonderful to see all the progress these kids have made in such short period of time, how they are able to express their own ideas in English.

I think in this activity we can see reflected, many of the principles and strategies we studied during this quarter. It has been very important, because here we have seen all these principles in practice and we know that they really work.

For instance, social interaction; when they had to work together as a team, in order to make the presentation. She gave all the students the opportunity to learn and express themselves. The teacher also took into account the first language and culture of the kids; she made them feel that their culture is important and valuable. She didn't give students the answers but she made them search for them. We can see Mrs. R really has faith in their students; she believes they are capable of doing great things and doesn't give up on them. So students know this and feel really motivated.

Through these presentations I learned tons of things. It is wonderful how these kids have overcame all the difficulties the life has put in their way. I could also notice the different styles of the students; for example, the students from Moldova were very structured, they just read what they had in their cardboards. On the other hand, the students from Burma were less rigid; they explained with their own words. The kid from Ukraine was more technologic; he made a Power Point presentation.

This has been an unique experience that I will never forget. I think that people should appreciate and take advantage of the diversity and the mixture of cultures that exist in the United States. It has been one of the best experiences of my life, that undoubtedly makes me a better person. It gives me another perspective of life and a better understanding of education. I think one of the best things of this career is that you not only teach your students, but also you can learn from them.

Reflection 2

If only he knew...

On thursday, we (the four of us attending at Ferris) went to a Social Studies Class. In this class none of the students were native English speakers, although they had a good level of the language. We had met the official or permanent teacher (Mr. B) and been in his class the day before. He was not going to teach the next day, so he invited us to help the substitute teacher..
When we arrived the following day to the classroom, the substitute teacher (lets call him Mr. S) was already there. He already knew we were going to be in the class.

Mr. S was sitting at his desk while the students were doing whatever they wanted. He wrote some instructions on the board and kept on doing something on the computer. It was an easy task, so the students did it in a couple of minutes and then started to talk, distracting the class. One of the students was playing on the computer, some others were playing with their phones or listening to music. One student was playing with a spray; it smelt terrible!. But the teacher didn't move from his seat, he didn't even say a word, he just pretented that nothing had happened. After that, he didn't even check the assignament and went on another activity.

in this activity, They had to check the answers of a reading comprehension homework. Mr. S made me check the answers. I didn't even know what the reading was about; he just gave me a sheet of paper with the correct answers and I had to checked them, meanwhile he was typing on the computer. He wasn't even paying attention to what I was doing. I just tried to do my best; but I think that wasn't correct. He should have explained to me something about the activity or asked me if I wanted or was prepared to do it.

I was really dissappointed. As a conclusion, I can say this is the perfect example of what a teacher doesn't have to do. First of all, you have to be aware of what your students are doing, you cannot pretend that nothing is happening when they are misbehaving and distracting the class. He should know you have to monitor your students, trying to find out if they understood the task, or if they have any doubts; specially if they are not native English speakers. Another important thing when learning a language is to create a comfortable enviroment so that students can express freely.

There are many important factors in the process of language acquisition this teacher should know, such as knowing the students, having high expectations, etc; but I think it is difficult to analize this particular case due to the fact that he is not the regular teacher of the class. However, I believe a good teacher always has to do his or her best no matter the circumstances.

Some tips and websites that might help Mr. S:

Characteristics of a good teacher:

Here he can find some characteristics of a good teacher, such as good sense of humor, wiling to listen to the students and motivate them, he or she should always be searching for new theories and prepares the class in advance.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/381389/characteristics_of_a_good_teacher_what.html?cat=4

He should also work on leadership and classroom management. Every teacher should be a leader among their colleagues, get to know and guide his students, provide constructive ideas and be a critical thinker. He should also have a good classroom enviroment and relationship with the students. He should be friendly, but at the same time state clear rules.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/206127/the_evolution_of_leadership_a_comparative.html?cat=4

I tried to search some web sites, but I really think that all what he needs to know is in these two books:

“ESL/EFL Teaching. Principles for success”
Yvonne S. Freeman, David E. Freeman.

“What Works in Schools, Translating Research into Action”
Robert J. Marzano

Mr. S should reflect on his teaching and try to incorporate these theories and strategies!!!

Reflection 1:

Podcasting my way to mastery of English

As a language learner, it is very important to be exposed to the language in order to be updated, because we know languages are constantly changing. This is something very dfficult in Chile, because it is mainly a monolingual country, so you don't have many opportunities to listen to or talk with English speakers. After so much exposure to the language, during this three months living in the United States, my listening and speaking skills have improved a lot; but when I return to Chile I'll need a source to keep in contact with the language. A good idea for this is by listening to podcasts, because they are a good source of native-like English.

As teachers, we have to update our knowledge periodically, we will have to be life long learners. I found a really good web page, http://www.esl-lab.com/. I liked this site because it has several audios; they have different levels, for example easy, medium or difficult. You can also choose from different topics such as food, education, work, shopping, relationships, entertainment, etc. Another good thing is that each audio is divided in four parts: pre-listening, listening exercises, vocabulary activities and post-listening exercises.

That being said, to really acquire a language we need to be exposed to it and use it. I think this podcasts will be very useful, not only to continue my own mastery of the language but also for my teaching. I commit myself to use this web site periodically, once a week.

Web site: http://www.esl-lab.com/

Some of the podcasts:
Dating Woes: http://www.esl-lab.com/trouble/troublerd1.htm
Hotel Check-in: http://www.esl-lab.com/checkin/checkinrd1.htm
Housing Compaints: http://www.esl-lab.com/complain/complainrd1.htm
Telemarketing: http://www.esl-lab.com/market/marketrd1.htm
Where's the movie theather?: http://www.esl-lab.com/dir4/dir4.htm

Important Note: the audios have to be opened with Windows Media... not Realmedia player

The Classroom Story

Planes Making!!

The Strategies I could see here:

--- Teaching through experience: Students learned by doing step by step the paper planes.

--- Underscore the purpose of reading

--- Use of visuals for a better understanding.

--- Relating prior and current knowledge to solve the problems.

--- Social interaction: group work, so that they can help each other.

--- High expectations: she didn't give students the answers; she guided them so that they were able to come up with the necessary ideas and strategies.

--- She monitored students providing and modeling different strategies to understand specific directions.

I think all these strategies are very effective because they give students the opportunity to do things and find the answers by their own, step by step. The teacher here acts as a guide.

About my future students

What I will want to know about my future students is:


* the different learning styles they have

* the multiple intelligences they have

* what they think about English

* what their level of English is

* what their personal intersts are

* what their lifestyle is

* who they live with

* how their relationship with their parents is

* what their favourites subjects are

* what they are good at

* if I will be able to motivate them

* how I can motivate them

Spanish lesson for Gina

VERB TO BE --- SER / ESTAR


SER



ESTAR





In this first lesson you have to:

1. Pay attention to the conjugation of the verb ser and estar (Subject/verb).

2. Identify the main uses of Ser.

3. Identify the main uses of Estar.

4. Recognize when you use Ser and when Estar.

5. Try to create some sentences where you apply this.

Run ons, Comma splice.... my own mistakes!! I'm not perfect!!

First of all I have to admit i'm really bad at punctuation!!!!

As future teachers we should know some important principles.

As future teachers, we should know some important principles.

because many times the language is taught in an isolated way, they learn grammar and vocabulary without a real context, they do not use it in their daily lifes so they do no see the purpose of studying it.

because many times the language is taught in an isolated way. They learn grammar and vocabulary without a real context, and they do not use it in their daily lifes, so they do no see the purpose of studying it.

I think it is important to relate English with other subjects such as biology, maths, etc. or subjects of interest for them.

I think it is important to relate English with other subjects, such as biology, maths, etc. or subjects of interest for them.

involve students in social interaction so that they not only learn to read and write in English but also use the language to communicate ideas, it is important they can work in pairs or groups so they engage in solving problems and negotiation of meaning

involve students in social interaction, so that they not only learn to read and write in English but also use the language to communicate ideas. It is important that they can work in pairs or groups, so they engage in solving problems and negotiation of meaning.

It is important that they know we trust them because they can perceive when teachers do not think they are capable and this lead to unmotivation

It is important that they know we trust them, because they can perceive when teachers do not think they are capable, and this lead to unmotivation

Key Principles: Teaching Language through Content, Teaching through Social Interaction and Faith in the Learner

As future teachers we should know some important principles. The first one is teaching language though content, it is important that students have a real purpose for learning English, specially in a context like Chile, where English is taught as a foreign language, because many times the language is taught in an isolated way, they learn grammar and vocabulary without a real context, they do not use it in their daily lifes so they do no see the purpose of studying it. I think it is important to relate English with other subjects such as biology, maths, etc. or subjects of interest for them.

Another important thing is to involve students in social interaction so that they not only learn to read and write in English but also use the language to communicate ideas, it is important they can work in pairs or groups so they engage in solving problems and negotiation of meaning to understant each other.

Apart from this, it is also important to have high expectations and faith in the learaners, to give each of them the opportunity to learn, even if it implies looking for different strategies for them to understand. It is important that they know we trust them because they can perceive when teachers do not think they are capable and this lead to unmotivation.

As a future teacher I will try to use all the things I have learn here, I will try to make interactive, entertaining and interesting classes, like Gina's classes. Teaching through content so that they can use the language, working in groups, making projects, giving them feedback to improve, etc.

Chapter 6: Learning Take Place in Social Interacction.

Question nº4:

How could you know if a classroom you were observing REALLY contained social interaction? Create a list of factors that we can look for when we visit classes.


The class should have purposeful activities, ideally written down on the board.

The class should link English with other interesting subjects for students.

The teacher should engage students in simulation and replication activities, or at least in one of them.

The class should not be focussed just on grammatical competence (usage) but also on the correct "use" of the language.

The students must be able to apply the knowledge they acquire in the class when negotiating meaning in real and authentic situations.

The teacher should give the students a chance of having some minutes of the class for talking freely about their previous day, and then the teacher could assess their students by asking them a report of what they talked.

Ironic

Dear Alanis,

My name is Paulina and I am from Chile. First of all I must say I really like your music but the reason of this letter is to pint out an interesting fact I just realized in one of my classes. I paid attention to the lyrics of one of your most famous songs, Ironic, and in spite of the fact I think it is a really good song I also think you don't have a good understanding of the concept of Irony Isn't it ironic... don't you think? From my understanding, there are 3 modern types of irony: Verbal Irony is a difference between what the speaker says and what he means, the second type is Dramatic, a difference between what the character nad the audience know, finally we have situational irony which is the difference between what someone mean to happen and what actualy happen so as you can see your song doesn't fit in any of this categories, this doesn't mean it is not a good song, on the contrary I really like it, I just wanted to point out the irony of this fact.

I hope my opinion doesn't bother you

Looking forward to hearing from you

Pau

Content-based activity

Subject: Comparative use

Activity: First interview your grandparents or parents and ask them to tell you how life used to be when they were young. Then compare what they have told you with your own life experience.

What are the differences and similarities?? use comparatives to write a report.

Pasco High School Visit

This week we went to Pasco.

The first day we went to visit the elementary school, they had a reception where they told us a little more about the school and the way it worked, we entered different classrooms to see how teaching looked like, the thing that i liked most was that children were taught in their first language so that when they are ready they can start having classes in English, we visited Russian and Spanish classrooms.

The second day we went to Pasco High School, there the director told us about the way the school works. Pasco High has many students, it is a huge school, we saw the computer and wood workshops that had all the necessary things to work there, they had like a theatre, a big gym open to the whole community and a music band. The majority of the students there are Spanish speakers (they had students from many countries), so most of the staff knew spanish so that they can communicate with the parents of the children. Students can take courses to obtain credits for university

I think it has many positive things, i liked the way they take care of the students, every teacher and other members of the staff are in charge of a group of students, so that they are responsible for checking their attendance, their grades and can help them. The director or principal of the school is very involve in the educational process, he observe the teachers and the staff nad seems very close to them and also the students.

That day we went to observe some real classes, the first hour I met the teacher, his name is John Kerr, there were also two other teachers, they talked about the school, the diversity of the students they had and the problem with gangs, they also talked about the educational system in the US and how the chilean system looked like. After that another classmate and I went with professor John Kerr to a science class taught in Spanish, there we had the opportunity of seeing and experiencing a real American class, there were about 29 students, they were learning how to mesure things using a ruler, the class was good and the Spanish of the teacher as well. He told us that since it was the 7th hour the students were a little tired and that that was the reason of the mess with the students but honestly, compared with many chilean classrooms the students in this science class behaved very well. I liked the way of the teacher to introduce a little bit of English, he was relating some of the spanish words with their equivalents on English and when the students were being too loud he started to speak just in English so that the students had to be silent and pay attention to understand, another thing is that to make students silent the teacher stood his hand and all the children had to do the same thing and I really worked. The teacher was really nice, with the students and also with us, it shows the he really loves his job.

The Third day we were with the same professor, in another two science class but now i English, in 9th grade, students were measuring volume of different shapes in groups. This was a really good experience because we were able to observe real classes, to talk with the students, to see a different reality and contrast with our reality in Chile and also to get some new ideas and perspectives. After the class we did like a kind of debriefing, there we discuss about similarities and differences between education in Chile and the US, because in Chile there are not a wide variety in terms of culture and many children do not see the purpose of learning English in a country were all speak Spanish nad we are surrounded by Spanish speaking countries. The teacher also told us about the Crystal Apple an award for teachers... I think in Chile we should also have something like that and give more importance to the education and the role of teachers. As a last point, all the security system really called my attention because there were cameras everywhere and all people had to have the identification card of the school, despite the principal said the school was very safe.

As a conclusion I have to say that this was a great experience, very different from the reality in Chile, but still we can take the good things. Apart from that I have to say they treated us very well and were very nice.

Youtube Video

This is part of a TPR class

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikZY6XpB214

Gina's social and psychological distance to Spanish language, culture and speakers .

Schumann's hypothesis is that the greater the social distance between two cultures, the greater the difficulty the learner will have in learning the second language, and vice versa.

The following are the 8 factors that influence social distance (Lets analyzed how successful Gina would be)


1. Social Dominance. When one group dominates the other there is a greater social distance...

Whose social group is more dominant? As we are in USA, native-English speakers are the dominant group, English is the official and main language here. So according to this theory Gina is not likely to be successful in learning Spanish.


2. Integration Pattern. There is more social distance when exists limited integration between the two cultures...

How much do learners integrate, or do they do most things apart from the main stream? I think Gina is not very familiar with the Latin culture or Spanish language (apart from what she might know about Mexican culture), so because of that she is not very likely to be a successful Spanish learner.


3. Enclosure. If the learner group is self-sufficient and does not need to interact with members of the target culture in daily life there will be more social distance...

To what extent does learner's group have their own resources for interaction, such as church, publications, clubs? As English is the official language here, Gina is self-sufficient, she does not need to interact with Spanish speakers in her daily life, apart from that, most of the Spanish speakers (like us) are supposed to know English. Therefore, Gina would not be successful in Spanish.


4. Cohesiveness. When the learner group is tight-knit there is more social distance.

How much does the group "stick together"? I think the native-English group has a great cohesion so they do not need to care about there other cultures that are surrounding them, and as Gina belongs to this native-English group she would be less likely to be successful in learning Spanish.


5. Size. If the learner group is big there will be more social distance.

How large is the group? I think that the largest group here is the native-English one, so as the theory points out it would increased the social distance so Gina would be less likely to success in learning Spanish


6. Cultural Congruence. When groups are very different culturally there is more social distance...

How are the cultural patterns and customs of the home culture and the target culture alike or different? I think that there are more differences than similarities between Latin and American culture, in terms of manners, food, political and educational system, etc. So this would be detrimental for Gina's success (according to the theory)


7. Attitude. When the learner group has a negative attitude toward member of the target language there would be more social distance...

What attitudes do the home and target cultural groups have toward one another?
I think that since in the US there are many different cultures existing together, the native-English speakers have a good attitudes toward other cultures, such as Latin culture. So in this terms Gina would be successful.

8. Intended length of residence. If the learner's intentions are just to stay in the country a short time the social distance will be greater...

How long does the learner intend to stay in the new country? Since Gina is not living in a Spanish speaking country I think the social distance would be greater so she would be less successful in learning Spanish.

After analyzing all this 8 factors I would say that, according this theory Gina does not have much opportunities to succeed in learning Spanish, but apart from this factors there also exist some others I will analized then

Factors that influence Psychological Distance:


I. Motivation.

Does the learner want to learn the new language? Yes she does. I see Gina is very is very motivated in learning Spanish, I hope we're able to teach her some.


II. Attitude.

How does the learner feel toward the target-culture group? I think Gina has a very possitive attitude toward Spanish and our culture, she is always trying to know more about us, our culture and customs, so if she wants to learn Spanish I think she will be able to do it.


III. Culture Shock.

Is the learner suffering culture shock? No, she isn't. Since she is here in the Us she does not have the problems of suffering from culture shock, so it gives her even more opportunities to learn since she does not have to deal with getting used to a foreign culture.

As a conclusion a can say that according to the social distance theory Gina does not have much opportunities to succed. On the other hand, if we take into account the psychological theory she has many opportunities to succed because she is motivated, has a positive attitude and does not experience culture shock.

In my personal opinion, I think psychological factors are more important and deciding than the social ones, because if you are motivated, have a positive attitude and does not experience culture shock you can overcome any social dominance, enclosure factors, etc.

Homework

1. Give a general description of the students in your school, I need information about the type of school, social status of children, family structure, the relation between parents and the school, etc... anything else you can add is ok.

Colegio Forjadores de Casablanca is a semi-private school located in the country side of Casablanca. Forjadores de Casablanca is a new school with a great infrastructure, big classrooms, football and basketball fields, a tennis court, a gym, a computer lab, a library, all this surrounded by hills and trees. There are only six grades in the school, from first level till sixth level primary, and a kindergarten. The number of students per class is small, from 6 to 17 students. The total number of students in the school is about 90. The school counts on eight teachers, only one teacher of English.

The students have got four hours of English exposure per week. Despite the number of students per class is small, some students present difficulties when acquiring the second language; this is because some of them are new students in the school and their English background is at a minimum level and they have not been able to catch up with their classmates.

All of the students belong to a middle class family. Most of the children belong to a family consisting of two-parents; however, there are a great number of students belonging to a single-parent family. The school community is very committed with the school, that is, parents always take part in the school activities, yet, many parents from the older grades, 5th and 6th grades, are reluctant to participate.


2. Describe a successful English learner and a bad English learner.

The sample students are from a 3rd grade primary. The successful learner is always committed with the class, does his homework, studies for every single quiz or test, sometimes misbehave but obeys the class rules. This learner makes questions every time he is not sure about content, is willing to participate and help his classmates.

On the contrary, the bad learner is always misbehaving during the lessons, he has never done his homework, he does not care about getting bad marks, he does not obey the class rules, and he never studies, although he understands the contents, he is just lazy and he knows it. The bad part of it, it is that his mother knows the situation but does not take any action in order to change this situation; according to my findings, I believe that he cannot motivate with anything, I have tried different approaches with him in order to capture his attention and motivate him, but it seems that nothing works.

Professor: Roberto Espinoza


Analysis

Here we see that the school has many material resources, besides it does not have a great amount of students, so we can say that the education is more personalized, it gives the teacher the opportunity to get to know each student better .

I think the successful learner mentioned here is highly motivated, he wants to learn more. I do not know but maybe he has more support of his family or has higher expectations for his future.
On the other hand, we see that the "bad" learner is unmotivated, he does not care about making his homework or following the rules, maybe what happens with that boy is that he does not feel the support of his family, I mean his mother knows but does not do anything so the boy feels nobody cares.
I think one of the bad things of the society we are living in is that every day families have less time to share togheter, sometimes parents work hard to give their children the best and do not realized that material things are not enough, sometimes all children need is a minute to talk, so they get all that they want but they feel lonely, and then when they realized life is not that easy they can feel frustrated, because they are growing up alone.
I think techers job is a beautiful but hard one, as teachers you have to know your students so that you can find different ways to teach them, however sometimes there are students very hard to deal with, and no matter what the teacher does they do not motivate, so teachers have to be constantly searching for different metodologies.

School visit to Bridgeport and Brewster

This tuesday we went to visit the schools of Bridgeport and Brewster. What this two schools have in common is that both have a large amount of mexican children, actually 81% of the students speak Spanish as their first language.

I liked Brigdeport School, because it shows that good results can be possible no matter the social status or the background of students, I mean if those children who, primarily, are not Americans, living in a country with a language that it is not theirs, can achieve things like being listed as one of the better schools, (in fact it has been National and State distinguished as a very good school) why not the rest as well.

One of the things that I really liked was the possibility of taking some college classes at school so that students can obtain credits then when they go to the University. I think it is great, I hope in Chile we had something like this, because I think it motivates students to continue their studies after school, and they can also see how different is college from school.

On the other hand, we have Brewster, which has not been so successful, actually it has been intervened and now they are working with an Scripted Curriculum.

Another thing that draw my attention was the fact that if students show up late for classes too many times they receive notificatios and their parents can be required to go to the court and they can actually go to jail... It is also interesting the fact that each state has their own curriculm for classes.

Now some questions to think about...

What other laws do exist in the US to control dicipline and attendance to classes??

What of the things you saw in this visit do you think you can apply to the teaching of EFL?

What are the benefits and drawbacks of having a national curriculum for schools or having a different curriculum for each state or region?

... Settle...

The trip to Seattle was amazing, I really liked the city, but it was so huge that the time we stayed there was not enough to see and visit all the things and places the city has.

I tried to visit as many places as I could, and with Pam we walked almost all over the city... we went to Space Needle, that has a beautiful view of the city and we also traveled by monorail.

I really liked the Aquarium and the sea otters, they were so cute and I also found Nemo!!

Another interesting place was Pike market and Dog Alley, where we found a bookstore (of used books) and I bought 3 books of Harry Potter... so I have enough reading for the summer when I arrive Chile.

We also visit China Town, that was like been in a different place.. in China!! I almost forget to tell about Pacific Science Center, in there we saw the dinasaurs and the butterflies, it had a lot of interesting things to learn about science in a funny way!!

So I just can say that I really enjoyed going to Seattle... It was a lot of fun, I took so many pictures that I had to use my second memory card... can you imagine that!!!

Well that was my experience in Seattle...

Class Activity

Memory Game!!!

http://www.1-language.com/materials/memori/elementary/fruits/memori1.swf

This web page has memory games to teach vocabulary. I chose this site because I think it is a funny way of learning new words, because apart from the images, the students can see the words and also read them, and then pass to next level.

I choose fruits as a topic because aparts from recognise the fruit, students have to disctinguish between plurals and singulars, but there are also other topics such as animals, food, feelings, occupations, etc.

So I think it is a good place to find different topics in order to teach vocabulary in an interesting way. It is good activity, specially for kids.

It has some of the 11 conditions such as student-centered, right amount of time and feedback, it is motivating, interesting, it provides autonomy and variety of language as well because the students can see the picture, read the word and also listen to the pronunciation, so thet they can relate all this things.

Interview

1. What role do you think technology does take/can take in learning?

To me the role of technology in learning is mostly supporting the teaching process during the lesson, that is, by integrating technology into the classroom, a lesson can turn into an attractive experience while learning. Internet and computers have got a decisive role when giving input or developing a lesson, students’ attention remains and acquiring contents is fun, and the result is a successful learning process. However, technology is not essential, is just a handy tool to support the teaching process; we must keep in mind that a successful learning is on the teacher’s hands.

2. What role should the learner take in the classroom?

The role of the learner should be of an active participant during a lesson, being a negotiator with the teacher and his/her peers.

3. What role should the teacher take in the classroom?

The role of the teacher should be of an active agent during the teaching process, a leader, a counsellor, a monitor, and at the same time a negotiator when giving input, teaching contents and guiding when monitoring the students.

4. What does good teaching look like?

Good teaching can be appreciated when seeing a prepared teacher to teach, that is, a well planned lesson, a teacher who knows and manages the contents, a teacher that is able to keep a class motivated, and one that is able to transfer the contents properly; these features are very important in the teaching process, but it is necessary to point out that good teaching is a process in which both big participants, students and teachers are responsible for.

Analysis

After reading this questions I can see that the English teacher is instrumentalist because he sees the technology just as an useful tool in teaching and motivating students in order to make the lesson more interesting.

In terms of protagonism in class I think that the teacher sees both, student and teacher, as important in the process of learning, however he thinks that the teacher is the main responsible for the success of the class.

del.icio.us

Social Bookmarking

In today's class we visited many interesting sites, such as Nova http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ and National Geographic http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ that have some interesting and educational games and videos.

We also learnt about bookmarkers, such as delicious http://delicious.com/

I didn't know about this, but I think it's a good way of organising your favourite websites. You have to create a delicious account and then you can start using it and adding your websites in order not to lose or forget them, you can also add them some tags and descriptions so that you can find them easily. Therefore you can access your webpages in any computer, any time and anywhere.

Our delicious account as a group is http://delicious.com/chileteach where all of us can add the interesting pages about ESL or EFL that we found.

I really hope this page will last forever... so that we constantly can help each other with tips and links for teaching English.

TEACHING TEXT AND CONTEXT THROUGH MULTIMEDIA1

http://llt.msu.edu/vol2num2/article1

This article talks about teaching language in its authentic cultural context, this research analyzes the interaction of text and context in a multimedia Quechua language program.

Nowadays language teachers are encouraged to use the technology, since it can give students a better understanding of culture nad language use nad imoprove their sociocultural competence of language. Most multimedia materials present language in a formal way and not in a discourse and interactive way nor related to the culture.

Culture has many signs used to give meaning to things in the enviroment, but when culture is shown through video or multimedia, we can only see what the filmer recorded and there are many things, situations or people that do not appear.

Multimedia transforms the way of language teaching from a formal system to a communicative practice that reproduces the thoughts and beliefs of people. Teachers tend to share linguistics prespective of language, they see it independently of the culture. The text has an example that shows the importance of the context in order to understand the conversation. The problem is that contexts can not be taught, it can only be experienced, but what we can do is to textualized the scene to hve a better understanding of the situation.

Teaching a language also implies teaching the culture, so it is important that the leanguage teachers has knowledge about the culture to develop socio-cultural competence in their students. In the text appears the example of a mony lender woman who was being judge, so in order to fully understand the context nad the way of speaking it is necessary to know some things such as the role of woman in Quechua society, the penal system, etc.

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Reflection

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From this article we can realize te importance that the context has when learning a language. We have seen that the language can not be separated from the culture, they both go together, in fact is the context and the culture that gives meaning to certain situations and behaviours. So we have to teach lenguage through culture and for this we have to use all the resources and technology that we have, and also appy all the knowledge we are acquiring at EWU.

As future teachers we have to keep this in mind, and we also have to take advantage of this great opportunity of studying in Eastern Washington University and try to learn the more that we can.

I am sure that living in USA and experiencing the culture by ourselves will be an unforgettable experience that will help us in our future careers as teachers and in our personal life as well.

... Go Eagles!!!

Where is the technology-induced pedagogy? Snapshots from two multimedia EFL classrooms

This article deals with the introduction of technology to the classroom. This research was carried out in China in two differnt classes, one of them used more technology than the other.


The results demonstrated that despite using technology no changes were made in any of the classrooms. Both classes were teacher-centered, he was the main source of knowledge, so students depended on him. It can be explained because of the conservative view of knowledge of the Chinese society.


As we saw in this research the introduction of technology only made a change in the appearence of teaching, so we can conclude that technology alone is not enough, what is necessary is a change of mind, a change in the concept of teaching an learning and also in the teacher-student relationship.

Podcasts

Here there are some websites:


1. For teacher's use:

http://www.mediafly.com/welcome.aspx?gclid=CNP35eDZvZUCFQkiagodHxTpRA
http://a4esl.org/podcasts/
http://china232.libsyn.com/

I found this page with many sites in there:

http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Listening/Podcasts/



2. For students to practice

http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.htm (this page has podcasts and diferrent levels such as elementary, intermidiate and upper intermediate so that each student can choose his better option)


3. Podcasts for Gina to learn Spanish

http://teresasanchez.biz/podcast/
http://www.notesinspanish.com/ (this page has different levels!! to choose from)

* when i find other sites i will let you know ;)



4. Ideas:

I would like to use podcasts or video-podcasts as a Tv series or a soap opera, so that every day or every week students see a chapter of the same story. I think it would be intersting for students because they can get involved with the storie and the characters, they can get familiar with the way of speaking, so they will have interest in wait for the next episode in order to know how the story continues.


Poscasts are a very good tool to get students involve in English learning, it is specially good in contexts like Chile were students have no much access to speak whith native English Speakers. I think that by choosing well the topics of the podcasts you can motivate your students to listen and pay attention, you can get them involve in a conversation or composition about the topic.

CALL, CMC and Drill and Practice

CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning):

Its focus is on learning instead of teaching, it has 2 important features: bidirectional and individualized learning. Interactive in CALL means feedbacks are given after learners' inputs are assessed by the system to help learners improve their language competency.
A good example would be

http://www.esl-lab.com/

(In this page you can practise listening skills, there are a quiz for each recording, matching activities, multiple choice and mix-up sentences, you can check your answers online and it also gives you the correct ones, there is also the option of see the transcript).

http://www.englishforum.com/cgi-bin/00/messages/s/mess.pl?view_records=1&ID=*&uid=pub

(This is a forum for english learners, where you can communicate, you also have exercises, the idiom and quotation of the day, recommendations of books and dictionaries)

A bad example of CALL is

http://alice.pandorabots.com/

(In this page you can chat with ALICE, a robot, it can be useful for beginers because sometimes the conversation can be a little incoherent. This kind of pages are not consider to belong to the CALL approach)

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CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication ):

It is defined as communication that occur via computer-mediated formats (instant messages, emails, chat rooms) or text-based interaction.

Here there are some good examples of language chat rooms

http://chat.overpal.com/
http://www.mansioningles.net/chat.htm
http://www.sharedtalk.com/

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Drill and Practice:

It promotes the acquisition of knowledge or skills through repetitive practice. A good example of it is

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/regcom1.htm

(This is a page for practising comparatives and superlatives, this page does not give you the correct answer but a hint to solve the problem)

http://www.audioster.com/

(I really liked this page because it has many exercises and give you hints for the correct answers)

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

WEB-WRITING 2.0:

ENABLING, DOCUMENTING, AND ASSESSING WRITING ONLINE

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http://llt.msu.edu/vol12num2/emerging.pdf

The use of internet has made some changes in writing. Nowadays there are more tools that encourage people to write, such as blogs, chats or social networks. So, teachers have to be able to use this new technologies in order to motivate and develop students writing skills. Another thing that teachers have to deal with is that they have to link the informal way of writing that this technologies use to the development of more formal or academic writing.

There are many technologies that encourage and facilitate writing and composition by offering assessment in writing and editing. Another use of this technology is electronic portfolios to gather students works.

Writing Online

There are many online editors, most of them offer only basic functions and not the full features of a Microsoft office word processor. Most online editors often save documents auntomatically in the computer in order not to lose the information, and many of them are specifically created for posting blogs or other pages.

Google has a tool called Google Docs for online text editing, it offers a maximum of 5,000 documents or presentations for online storage and supports 48 languages.

What is good about Google is that it can save the changes made off-line, it gives you the option to save the changes to the the google database and the local computer, so using Google Docs you can have access to your documents anywhere and also share them.

Another thing are electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) for collecting works, sharing things and adding multimedia files, and you can also control the acces to it. You can use wikis, blogs or Google Docs and it is a way to give students more responsability in their writings and assessments.

There are some tools to give feedback in grammar and spelling, there are some text processors available in many languages, such as AbieWord (a multilingual word processor), some of them called Automated Essay Scoring (AES) also provide assessment and scores, on the other hand, Grammar checkers are usually designed for native speakers, but there are some programs designed for language learners such as BonPatro, a french program in which users enter a text and they receive the text with suggestions in different colors indicating the type of error, it gives some explanations but not the correction, so it requires from the student a reflection on the problem and the correct answer.

Reflection

Engaging students in writing is not an easy task, especially if we are talking about writing in an L2, because students often find it hard expressing themselves in another language, they get complicated with meanings and sentence formation, apart from that, we have to take into account that the society we are living in is moving fast and every day more people have access to technology, so we have to take advantage of this when we have the opportunity.

Web-Writing is a very good way to approach writing, because as the text says, it gives you the opportunity to copy and paste and move whole sentences from one place to another, so you can edit and store it online and you can also have access to it everywhere there is internet and a computer available.

Web writing is especailly good in an L2 because you can get more immediate feedback on spelling, grammar or synonyms and it can also be funnier because you can choose different types and colors of letters and you can add pictures as well.

On the other hand, I think that the idea of e-portfolios is very interesting because it gives students the opportnity to save and storage their works, they can also be more creative and it is a way to see their own progress on writing.

I must say that i had never used blogs, but i think that is a very interesting tool that can be used to encourage students to write, because you can personalize your page, add some gadgets, give it your personal touch and make it funny.

Activities using a projector

Here there are some examples of using the projector for classes:

1. karaoke: playing the music in a radio and projecting the lyrics on the board.

2. Story: Listening to a story and support the activity by projecting pictures so that students can ahve a better understanding.

3. Descriptions: show students pictures of famous people that they know and are interested in, and ask them to describe what they see and also.

Labor Day

On what date other countries celebrate the Labor Day?

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=341&display_order=1&sub_display_order=4&mini_id=1060

Who was the founder of the Labor Day?

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=349&display_order=2&mini_id=1060

http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm

Why the Labor Day is celebrated?

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=1060

When was the Labor Day celebrated the first time in the United States?

http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=316&display_order=1&mini_id=1060

Can Free Reading Take You All the Way? a Response to Cobb

This is an article taken from the website Language Learning and Technology.

Summary

This text deals with the usefulness of free reading and it's also a critique to Cobb's view.

Cobb said that free reading was not enough for students to acquire the vocabulary needed to understand an L2 reading, he said that free reading did not give learners enough opportunities to acquire high levels of vocabulary and that it required a minimum of six to ten exposures to a word family to be acquired.

On the other hand, Krashen have said that free reading contributes to the acquisition of vocabulary not only in the second language but also in the first one. Free reading can promote vocabulary although not the appropiate for academic purposes.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I think that free reading is good to encourage students read, because it is easier to learn vocabulary in the context of a sence or a paragraph than learn isolated words. I believe that students would feel more motivated if they are reading something they are interested in, so we can support learning through different ways