Reflection

As a beginning level TESOL professional, this semester was really a challenge to me, especially in the Introduction to TESOL course. However, through the immersing of the whole semester, I gained piles of knowledge concerning the TESOL field; what’s more? I purchased the overview of the most parts of TESOL field. I have a general idea of what I will work on in the follow semesters, even in my future teaching. Since I have read several of papers related to different issues and concepts, I become more confident when I talk about these issues.
I want to highlight some big ideas that really impressed me this semester. The first one which brought me in a new world of exploring the EFL teaching was taken English as “international language”. It no longer belongs to any nation or any culture; rather it belongs to the people who use it. Language can never be taken apart from the culture, so when English becomes international language I begin to think which culture I should use in my teaching. If I instruct the course based on the learners’ source language, it will be easier for them to access the knowledge. However, will they miss some of the essential culture from the target language? Then the conflicts come. What is the culture related to the target language which acts as international language? This is one of my big problems which I will try to find the answers in my future teaching career.
Not only the sufficient materials make me improved, but also some of the notions support me to be active and confident in this field. One of them is the notion of “native fallacy”. As a non-native EFL teacher, sometimes I really feel a little bit disappointed when I regarded as non-native speaker, which I can never choose and never have chance to change, no matter how hard I contribute myself in this career. It is really a sad thing if I always feel like an alien, expelled by some invisible “judges”, “notions” and “environment”. Therefore, after read some articles talking about the native and non-native issues, I was introduced to the general background of the EFL teaching field. I also found that the non-native teachers are showing their contribution to TESOL field which taken as a necessary part of major. I also found the prevailing status and advantages as non-native speakers in EFL classroom.
Another interesting concept totally changes my mind of what I thought of English in the past. That is the criticizing about “standard” and “non-standard” English. I really reshape and reconstruct this notion in my mind. When I trace back with this notion and think about my L1, I am surprised there is even no “standard” Chinese, the one I am familiar with. After that I am no longer puzzled about finding and learning “standard” English instead, I feel freer to acquire a language belonging to me. This notion establishes my confidence and encourages me to explore more in this field.
Above all, I am satisfied with all that I learned from this course and from my colleagues and my teacher. For me, the final assignment is not that easy to fulfill. Because I have to consider so many aspects of the lesson plan including what is the students learning outcome, how to achieve my planned language objectives, how to set up appropriated assessment for the students to evaluate their work and etc. After modifying my less plan for several times, I think the final lesson plans of my assignment is my best work.

Week 12 ----the useful guidelines for doing research

Every time, when I read Hall’s book I will find some new ideas. This time I come across the ideology “sociocultural perspective” of research which is viewed as a natural component of all applied linguists’ activity. I found an interesting idea “good research is dependent not on one’s professional role- that is k whether one is, say, a university professor or classroom teacher. Rather, it depends on one’s degree of research expertise.” (P139)

The ninth chapter from Hall book is really helpful. The six steps of research circle show me a clear way of how to organize my own research. The actions include identifying concerns and pose questions, identifying appropriate approach and sources of data, collecting data, analyzing data, reflecting on the findings and share findings and take action.
Before I read this chapter, I read the report from William Labov about the “what is a reading error?” From his report, I realize that the question or the issues the author concerns are really concrete and accurate. The participants should be spotted and all the research aspects need to be narrow down into sentence, words even phonetic symbols. So from the very beginning of the research, after the researchers entails identifying particular concerns or issues arising from one’s professional life as an applied linguist.,(P160) the researchers can be priorities according to their importance or significance to the researcher, and for this ranked list a specific topic for investigation can be identified. (161) There is one thing that I never thought important before was when we are concerning about the questions the researchers should consider whether they are reasonable in light of any constraints he or she may have in terms of time, and availability of resources. (P161) However, the final goal of the research was to present the feedback to the readers or to be used into the practice situation. The final step is sharing the result with others where appropriate, taking action.

Chapter ten is talking about the contexts of research. Instead of teaching how to do a research, this chapter is talking about how we might identify topics and questions that are appropriate for empirical investigations. The examples form this chapter is really helpful for me, a newcomer to the field who has no idea of sociocultural perspectives to get some idea of the range of possibilities for exploration.

Week 11 Response to Dave’s ESL Cafe

Last week, we read and discussed the ad from Dave’s ESL Cafe in the classroom. The main two requirements almost appearing in every ad we found are “native speaker” and “working experience”. These really terrified me. The major I chose for bachelor and master are both focusing on English teaching. It is obviously that I will probably be an English teacher after graduation. From the ads and the overviews of the teaching fields, I found no chance to teach in expanding or outer countries at all, except my own country. It doesn’t matter where I am going to live or work, but I felt, to some extent, we NNESTS being ignored and denied by some sort of concepts, some unknown scholars and some notion. Does it mean that all these years what I learnt and expected are meaningless?

First of all, I am not a native speaker, but I am innocent, since I cannot choose my parents and their nationality. Or when I gain the chance to choose I cannot abandon my parents due to the language they speaking. I can try my best to be a native-like English users but no chance to change my accent and the living experience along with me. If I insist to be a teacher, then I need to change me major to Chinese teaching, then I become the first-choice among my entire colleague. Second, I cannot find the door or even a single window for the new teachers to enter the gate of teaching field by the barriers of “working experience.” So I really wonder how I can begin from an experienced teacher from the very beginning. I cannot forget those happy times that I spend with my assistant teacher who is young and just graduated from school. Those new ideas and attractive activities impressed us; since we can never gain from our previous teacher by his regular schedule. But it seems that I will never have the chance to share my learning experiences with my students.

Week 9 ---- Who worth more? ---- NS or NNS

These days, we talked a lot about the NS and NNS which I didn’t quite think about it before. For me, I think it is obviously that the NSs gain the predominance place on English teaching and will be more efficient than NNSs do, since they achieved a high degree of proficiency. For those native speakers, I think, no matter how worse their English is will be better than I do. But after I read my articles my point of view begins to change. I found it is true that sometimes NNSs are more suitable and more proper than NSs in English teaching.

I like the points the author sited in the passage. Only non-NESTs can serve as imitable models of the successful learner of English. Non-NESTs can teach learning strategies more effectively. Non-NESTs can provide learners with more information about eh English language. Non- NESTs are more able to anticipate language difficulties. Non-NESTs can be more empathetic to the needs and problems of their learners. Only Non-NESTs can benefit from sharing eh learners’ mother tongue. (P346) All of these advantages show me a clear way how to be a qualified teacher and who to balance the deficiency with NSs in English teaching.

In recent class, the topic reminds me thinking about my own experiences when I was in middle school. We have different foreign teachers for each academic year or only for a semester. We get along well with both the NESTs and Non-NESTS. I think they have a very clear division of their focus on teaching. For the text book which mainly talked about the vocabulary and grammar, we depended on the local teacher. They can give us a more accurate explanation and show us good examples; also sometimes we can negotiate in Chinese a little bit. The Chinese teachers can provide us more efficient materials and even some rules about how to understand it. The most important thing is that we can use all of these in our exams. That’s the point! The foreign teachers will become the most popular teachers when we have some speech competitions or if we need to perform a kind of shows. They really help most of the time, correcting of the pronunciation and intonation, helping us to be heard like native-like speakers. They help us find some plot which appropriate to be performed. Especially when we come across some cultural issues, the foreign teachers play unique and important roles. In this case, they acted perfect, but from the bottom of my heart, I don't trust or depend on my foreign teachers compare with my Chinese teachers. That does will make me feel freer and more willing to work with my Chinese teachers. The Chinese teachers will definitely be the first choice for the students even though the students know that the NSs may gain a higher proficiency in English. That’s funny! We have been doing this with the concept of NSs would be a better choice.

To be honest, this makes me feel more confident to be an English teacher when I go back to China. And now I know what an ideal non-NEST is according to the author. This will really helps in my future career.

Week-8

Pronunciation is always my favorite topic about the English teaching. I will have a further investigation about the pronunciation teaching and learning in my final paper. So, I was so excited when I come across this article. And in the passage the author really talk about some issues that may have serious implications for ELT pedagogy. After illustrating the current background of the overall view of the pronunciation role in ELT field and his own view of the teaching English pronunciation as international language rather than foreign language, the author begins to demonstrate his research model and the analysis of it. And then the author gives us his proposal for ELT pronunciation teaching: a syllabus of NNS focusing pronunciation teaching.

These days we talk a lot about taking English as an international language. In the beginning of the passage, the author introduces the changing circumstances and changing pronunciation goals. It is the fact that English is now spoken by a considerable greater number of NNSs than NSs. In Mckay’s book we know that the English users in outer and expanding circles take more percentage among the whole international English circumstance. It is obvious that recent study has begun to shift from NSs based to NNSs based research. The scholars believed that “language teaching would benefit by paying attention to the L2 user rather than concentration primarily on the native speaker.” The author also shows us a clear distinguish between taking English as EIL and EFL. In this case, it will be helpful to clarify his position as regard the appropriateness of regional accents in ELT.

When I begin to learn English, I remember my teacher put a lot emphasis on the pronunciation, and we try really hard to imitate the native-like pronunciation. I think, it is ok to learn standard pronunciation at the initial position since the learners have no input before. However, you will find that we have a very serious problem to correct the wrong or fallacy pronunciation if the speakers have already own their individual pronunciation system. And to my surprise, sometimes, the imperfect pronunciation won’t be a problem for communication. This will probably happen when they talk to native speakers. Happily, I found that author also has similar idea appear in the passage and the research data also prove the situation. This remained me of the teachers’ certification in China. These years, there state a new policy for Chinese teachers who want to gain the certificate or those have already got the certificate. The entire teachers have to pass the exam of psychology, pedagogy and standard mandarin. This can be really funny in the case for those experienced teachers or professors. It really doesn’t matter if they are math or chemistry teachers even thought they are lack of standard pronunciation of mandarin. And for those who have already in their forties or fifties. How can you improve or change their accent easily? But it is still important for those teachers who will teach mandarin especially in primary and middle schools. The requirement for standard mandarin becomes severe these years due to the low level of mandarin for those Cantonese teachers working in the south part of China.

I appreciate the last part of the passage. The proposal shows me a more concrete plan to improve the level of pronunciation with the direction of these theories and ideology.

Week-7 CULTURE IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

In McKay’s book chapter 4, we have a review of the international language that talked about in chapter 1 and also explore the important role of culture in language teaching. It seems that language learning and teaching have a tight relationship with culture; no matter it is the target language culture or the source language culture. In this chapter, the author gains a conclusion about the primary rationales of culture in language teaching: 1) that culture is embedded in the language itself, particularly in the semantics of language; and 2) that cultural content is motivating in language learning. (P100) Also, the author highlighted the three principles that should inform how cultural content is handed in an EIL classroom. First, the materials should be used in such a way that students are encouraged to reflect on their own culture in relation to others. Second, the diversity that exists within all cultures should be emphasized and finally cultural content should be critically examined so that students consider what assumptions are present I the text and in what other ways the topic could be discussed. (P100) And this is what impressed me most the culture including in the material in EIL teaching. The question of which material is a proper one to choice among the source culture, the target culture, or an international culture has come to my mind.

Talking about the material containing different culture, my own experience makes me feel confused. I remember when I was in middle, high school, the topic given by the English teacher either foreign or local teacher were mainly about the western culture. We have special events to celebrate Christmas and Halloween. We talked about the softball and baseball even though almost no one play them or watch them before. We are familiar with, we thought, Jake-o’-lantern, trick- or-treating, costumes, bonfires, mistletoe, and we got along well with Santa Claus. However, these are only the vocabularies memorizing in our mind. We only use it when we have to find a topic to begin our dialogue with foreigners. What’s more? When we go deeper about the topic, they begin to ask about the questions of Chinese festival, like spring festival, dragon boat festival, mid-autumn festival, etc. Then, we keep silent… Funny! Right? But it is true that most of us were involved in such situation. Of course, we keep silent didn’t mean we know nothing or litter about it, or we lack experience about all of these festival. I guarantee that all of us will dash down our opinion about these festivals if we use Chinese. During the learning process, I found it will be much harder to describe the events or objects from outer and expanding circle. Sometimes, direct translation doesn’t help much. So here comes the problem, what we are learning for in our daily life? And if we begin to think about the role of culture, what kind of materials we are using in the past? What if we begin to talk about the Chinese festivals in the class and expand the vocabularies of all words concerning about Chinese Culture? We can’t deny the advantages about gaining information of western culture, it really helps a lot. However, I think we are losing something, which have close relationship with our life, our country, and our culture.

But such situation really changes a little bit, when I teach in the middle school last year. I found the students were capable to introduce the Chinese traditional festival more easily to their foreign teachers whenever they want. And they begin to search for various cultures from all over the world, not only stick in the western culture. International culture flourished in the materials. You begin to see some faces appearing in the text book have black hair not always blond. From the feedback of the students, they like such diverse culture than only western culture. In this situation, learning English becomes more practical and make the students feel more confident. They are no longer afraid of speaking to the people who are not from inner countries. They have more options to choose the way of communication and how to handle the problems they meet in their life. Still, I concern about the percentage of the culture occurring in the learning materials among the source, target and international culture. How to balance them and benefit the teaching?

Week-5 Comments on “Borrowing others’ words: Text, Ownership, Memory, and Plagiarism”

The word “plagiarism” is the most serious word my teacher told me before I came here. What my teacher’s notion is that I should be very careful about “borrow” others words, sentences or ideas when I do the written work in the USA. Since my teacher finished his PH.D abroad, he knew about the directors or the professors are particular about “borrowing words” in USA. While he told me about this, I was doing my thesis which was really hard for me and for most of the Chinese college students. When the teachers were talking about the thesis, I think they were missing the most important part about distinguishing the writing of your own by citing others ideas or words and avoiding plagiarism. We do know don’t copy from others and create by ourselves. But how to cite or borrow properly has been totally ignored. This is a very important part of construct a passage, I think, especially for undergraduate students who are novices of writing academic papers. What’s more? For most of the undergraduate students they don’t own much about the academic theories or research results on their own, so how can they fulfill the whole passage just by the descriptions of the topic? Just like what Franklin said “why should I give my Readers bad lines of m own when good ones of other People’s are so plenty?” (P208).

When we do thesis, it is necessary to find articles or ideas to support our views. But for Chinese students they have two big problems, I think. The first one is, for most of the students in China, learning English is a kind of memorizing words and recited articles. This happens in many L2 learning environment and cause an impact on weakening the ability of creation as L2 learner. This starts from the initial learning period and continues until they are involved in the problem of creating their own work. You can imagine the difficulties and struggle from the students. Actually I understand we need some imitation or copy from others at the very beginning of learning. But the problem goes worse when the students keep on imitate and borrow from others at the time they need to be done by themselves and product their individual ideas or theories. It seems like that some of them are losing the kind of ability or in other word, the creativity and curiosity has been killed with such learning environments. It really sad to talk about it, since to some extent; I am one of them and need the improvement of finding our own way. But it is getting better, more and more fundamental schools are beginning to change their methodology and concept to avoid such problem. And we can get the information from the passage the”such views, with Chinese learners cast as passive, imitative memorizers, to be enlightened by the advent of the creative West, echo down to the present”. (P220) Since the individual views emerged in the recent years, it is easy to see alternative learning practices and relationships to text as little more than backward, outmoded learning strategies. (P220)

And then here comes out the second problem about standardizing the citing system and clarifying boundary between the “legally borrowing” and “illegally Plagiarism”. “A number of quite challenging issues were raised by several students, showing that many of them, while sometimes unsure about the rules of textual borrowing, were nevertheless aware of issues to do with texts and leaning.”(P22) If the clear rules have been positioned, students can, to some extent, avoid involving in the plagiarism situation.