Oh, I haven't said anything about how the TESOL Methods Intensive ended up. Well, we finished on Wednesday, submitting a lesson plan for a class we were actually going to teach and then describing it to two classmates for feedback. After a final burst of content, we were asked to write a word on a piece of paper which described the experience of the course or the way we were feeling about it, and then hold it up so we could get a class photo. I wrote THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS but most people kept to the stipulated one word, the most common one, so far as I could tell peeking over the top of mine, being INSPIRED!
I found it inspiring, too, but what inspired me about it was the through
the looking glass experience it offered me. I guess this is because the
TESOL thinking wasn't new to me,
since I've taught English as a second language - and have been trying to learn a foreign language, too!
Long ago in Tokyo I taught English conversation as I was learning Japanese, and the mix of pedagogy books I insisted on reading in my agency's office (nobody else did but this didn't stop me) and the daily switchbacking of being student and being teacher taught me a thing or two. TESOL is more structured, and teaching for college students more formalized. (I was excited to learn about the University Word List, and blown away by online level analyzers like Lextutor.) But the language teaching game wasn't new to me as it was for most of my classmates.
What was exciting was being on the receiving end of a course of a kind I thought I understood - and in an online version to boot. Hence: through the looking glass. And what a ride it was! Our teacher was not only an excellent teacher but a kind of meta-teacher, which I suppose any teacher of pedagogical methods must be. She always told us why she'd present something in a particular way or format (note to self: in online teaching you need to to make the purpose of every exercise clear to students) - or asked us to guess why. Things went on at so many levels we didn't realize how much we were taking in until our final assignments, when I found I'd picked up a whole new way of thinking.
Actually I'll wait to tell you about my lesson plan (which I think is great) until I get back the instructor's comments next week! For now, here are four the things I want to make sure not to forget. We may have encountered them as TESOL strategies but they apply far more broadly.
1) Start with some low-stakes way in which students can bring their own ideas and experiences into play. One trick is to give them the name of something you'll be discussing and ask them to predict what it is.
2) When you give people something to read, as in a powerpoint slide or handout, give them time to read it in silence. Talking while they're supposed to read it (or reading it aloud, as I am wont to do) will make comprehension difficult not only for non-native speakers.
3) Don't ask people if they've understood something. Some people will say they did when they didn't. Others will say they didn't when in fact they did. Noone will be the wiser for your asking. Instead...
4) Ensure that for every important thing you teach, students have the chance to apply it, learning by doing and letting you - and them - know that (if) they've got it. Best if you've let them know what the purpose is before you start.
Some of these things are just good ideas, but I have to admit some rub up against the looser and more spontaneous and open-ended learning environment the seminar format has allowed me to allow. I usually have a series of topics I intend to cover but let the class find its way to them, always open to the tangent or detour opened when students ask questions or see connections I hadn't... Isn't the point for them to make sense of things on their own and learn that and how they do that best?
Alas, whatever might be said for this approach in in-person instruction, the experience of being on the receiving end of this online course made us aware it'll be next to impossible in the online format. (Online has its own opportunities for tangents, detours and new connections which I'll need to master by Fall.) But I dare say I'll still be less direct than a language instructor working from a textbook...
One enjoyable discovery was this early (and antiquated) analysis of the different ways people in different cultures make an argument:
In graduate school I was faulted for having a "teutonic" writing style, which I took to mean dense and convoluted (not untrue at the time, or, to be honest, now). But in this account of "Romance (and German) argumentative writing" I recognize what I think the journey of learning should be like, the sort of discovery I try to let happen in a class. There's got to be more at the end than I knew to expect at the beginning, not least because the most powerful knowledge is gained only through learning new frameworks and questions!
We'll see how I do with online pedagogy... And there's another course just around the corner, required for all faculty hoping to teach in the Fall. I'll let you know how that goes!
1) Start with some low-stakes way in which students can bring their own ideas and experiences into play. One trick is to give them the name of something you'll be discussing and ask them to predict what it is.
2) When you give people something to read, as in a powerpoint slide or handout, give them time to read it in silence. Talking while they're supposed to read it (or reading it aloud, as I am wont to do) will make comprehension difficult not only for non-native speakers.
3) Don't ask people if they've understood something. Some people will say they did when they didn't. Others will say they didn't when in fact they did. Noone will be the wiser for your asking. Instead...
4) Ensure that for every important thing you teach, students have the chance to apply it, learning by doing and letting you - and them - know that (if) they've got it. Best if you've let them know what the purpose is before you start.
Some of these things are just good ideas, but I have to admit some rub up against the looser and more spontaneous and open-ended learning environment the seminar format has allowed me to allow. I usually have a series of topics I intend to cover but let the class find its way to them, always open to the tangent or detour opened when students ask questions or see connections I hadn't... Isn't the point for them to make sense of things on their own and learn that and how they do that best?
One enjoyable discovery was this early (and antiquated) analysis of the different ways people in different cultures make an argument:
(1) North American (English) argumentative writing is linear, direct and to the point,
with the thesis statement/claim at the beginning of the argument, and supporting
arguments arranged hierarchically.
(2) Semitic argumentative writing (Jewish, Arabic, Armenian) presents the argument in
parallel propositions, or embedded in stories, not in hierarchical progression.
(3) Oriental (Asian) argumentative writing approaches the argument in a circular,
respectful, indirect, non-assertive, but authoritative way.
(4) Romance (and German) argumentative writing favor a digressive style that requires
readers to follow the argument to its conclusion.
(5) Russian argumentative writing follows the Romance model, but with more freedom
for dividing the pieces of the argument as the author proceeds to the conclusion.
Robert Kaplan, “Cultural Thought Patterns in Intercultural Education,” Language Learning 16
(1966)
In graduate school I was faulted for having a "teutonic" writing style, which I took to mean dense and convoluted (not untrue at the time, or, to be honest, now). But in this account of "Romance (and German) argumentative writing" I recognize what I think the journey of learning should be like, the sort of discovery I try to let happen in a class. There's got to be more at the end than I knew to expect at the beginning, not least because the most powerful knowledge is gained only through learning new frameworks and questions!
We'll see how I do with online pedagogy... And there's another course just around the corner, required for all faculty hoping to teach in the Fall. I'll let you know how that goes!
