Big Ideas

One thing that makes me happy during the study process is that I will meet some of the words, sentences, concepts, theories and people again just after I read, learn or know them a couple of days or hours ago. That makes me a little bit satisfied about what I learn and what material I choose.

Last week, this situation happened. When I just have a general idea about the Post-method from the methodology class, I come across with the three-dimensional post-method pedagogy: particularity, practicality, possibility. This is what we call big ideas in Dr. Seloni’s class. I really like it and this is what I didn’t know before. Let me add more details about these concepts. For the particularity, it refers to the advancement of a context-sensitive, location-specific pedagogy. It is based on the particular time with particular educators at particular place. From the practicality, I gain the ideas of every change is possible. The action and reflection from the students form a kind of recycle. The possibility covers more aspects of the background of both teachers and students. The learners may be influenced by the teachers’ political status, the economic views or even the values.

The second exciting event I want to share with you is my own experience of the “U-shaped cultural phenomenon”. When I read about this I was so surprised, because I was really involved in such situation. When I was nine years old, I migrated from north China to the south with my parents. Although I was still in the same country, since the language was quite different from the north and south, it was a big change for me including the environment, the weather, the food, the teaching method in my school, etc. So everything comes out naturally as Kuma mentioned in his article. The process is just like a “U” shaped. What I was thinking, before I read this article, was just concerning my own experiences, but without any relationship with the culture globalization theories. And now I know this is a very natural development for a new comer.

Actually, last week was the first week I began to read the TESOL QD in detail. I found it gave me a broader view of the same article or the same concepts. It also helped me finding deeper meaning of some theories. Since most of us didn’t read the original article, we didn’t go deeper about this article. And here comes a question like this, why the concept of method in language teaching is politically structured and delivered. Does it mean the language is not neutral or it is influenced by the teachers’ backgrounds? I will try to find the answers after I finish reading the article.

Till now, I have no idea about the Hall’s book, like Cindy said, it was a heave book and it was really challenging to most of us. So I will spend most of the time in this week to finish reading the chapters and then find out some questions or big ideas sharing with you all.

Have a nice week!