Week 7 Post-method approach

There have been many types of method developed for second language teaching. Each types of method have its own characteristics and have been developed to benefit for both teachers and learners in terms of effectiveness in teaching and learning. Some types of method, even though they are quite old methods, are still used in a part of other approach and some of them are not used anymore.

Kumaravadivelu (1994) identified what he called the "post-method condition", a result of "the widespread dissatisfaction with the conventional concept of method". Rather than subscribe to a single set of procedures, post-method teachers adapt their apporoach in accordance with locan, contextual factors, while at the same time being guided by a number of "macrostrategies". Two such macrostrategies are "Ensure social relevance" and "Raise cultural awareness".

Prabhu (1990) argued that there is no best method, but teachers need to learn to operate with some personal conceptualization of how their teaching leads to desired learning - with a notion of causation that has a measure of credibility of them.

References

Candlin, C. N., & Mercer, N (eds.). (2001). English language teaching in its social context. Routledge: London.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (1994). The Postmethod condition: (E)merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28.

Week 6 Critical Language Teaching

"Rather than follow the methods prescribed by their teacher education, TESOL practitioners may benefit by developing their own methodology for their students based on their own reflective action research (Lin, 1999 citing Holiday, 1994).

In Lin (1999)'s article, students in four different classes, where different types of teaching are employed by teachers, are led to a success or failure in learning English. It is important to keep in mind that teachers (their teaching styles and their attitudes toward student) play an important role to lead students a success in learning.

In a reality, different cultures have different education background such as teacher-student relationship, teaching style (For example, teacher-dominant classroom), and materials teachers use. Therefore, for example, CLT, which can be said that the most popular and supported methodology nowadays, it can not fit in an Asian country classroom. There is no one best method to fit a classroom situtation. Therefore, we need to think critically.

Lin, A.M.Y (1999). Doing-English-lessons in the reproduction or transformation of social worlds?. TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 393-412.

Week 5 EAP

I have many things to point out on EAP. I strongly agree to Darryl's point that teachers should know what it means by EAP. I think teachers do not exactly know what studetns expect to learn from EAP class.

Students take EAP course to prepare getting into University. However, the prescribed books for EAP are about comparison and contrast, cause and effect, for example, which I can say it is no use when writing academic essays at University.

What studetns should know is how to shape the essay, what to write down each section, and how to reference/cite. That constitutes an academic writing.

Moreover, essays in different fields requires different types of essays. For example, science field require different types of essays from history field. Teachers should have their knowledge in each fields, which lead students to write an appropriate and successful essay. Without having any knowledge in subjects, how would teachers teach students?

Otherwise, what is the student's point of taking EAP course?

Week 4 SFL and Language teaching

A theory of SFL is based on a functional view of language that focuses on the analysis of authentic products of social interaction (texts:written and oral), considered in relation to the cultural and social context in which they are negotiated.

Context concerns the Field (the subject matter, and the topic being spoken/written about), Tenor (the social roles and relationships between the participants), and Mode (the type of the text that is being made) (Burns and Knox, 2005)/

Metafunctions of language is divided into three components:

Ideational Metafunction: the propositional content, "Field" is expreseed through ideational grammar.

Interpersonal Metafunction: concerned with exchange structure, expression of attitude, "Tenor" is expressed through interpersonal grammar.

Textual Metafunction: how the text is structured as a message, "Mode" is expressed through textual grammar.

SFL involves learning how to use the language in a way that makes sense to other people who speak the language.

To me, SFL seems a bit hard to manage for teachers who do not have many teaching experiences. For example, it may have difficulties linking text and grammar in practice. In fact, most of prescribed books are designed based on traditional grammar, rather that SFL.

Reference

Burns, A. & Knox, J. (2005). Realisation(s); Systematic-functional linguistics and the language classroom. In N.Bartels (ed), Applied linguistics and language teacher education, pp.235-259. New York: Kluwer Academic.

Week 3 Genre-based approach

As Paltridge (2001) points out that a genre is more than just rhetorical structure and patterns of grammar and vocabulary, and a genre is influenced by socio-cultural context of production, interpretation of text, expectations of the discourse community, relationship with other texts.

Moreover, Hyland (2003) adds the point that "genre knowledge is important to studetns" understaning of their L2 environments, and crucial to their life chances in those environments.

I was so impressed by both Paltridge and Hyland's point as L2 learners, in fact, have difficulties of writing and speaking apporpriately in a real situation. For example, the one common thing happens among Korean students ( I think most of students from Asian-culture background), is when writing an e-mail, their main purpose is always at the last part of an e-mail. Since they have been learnt that saying their point directly is too rude, therefore, their e-mails always start from greetings, mentioning about the weather..then, the main point comes at the bottom. Moreover, studetns have no ideas og the forms of letter or e-mails (such as writing "regards" at the bottom). This ill-formed letter or e-mail makes learners seem rude, in fact.

However, those are not second languag learners' intention, but they just do no know how to write appropriately.

Genre approach has some positive aspects such as it enables students make sense of the world around them and participate in it, and gives security to students by offering models. However, it has negative aspects such as leading studetns to a lack of creativity and a text-centred approach rather than student-centred.

References

Hyland, K. (2003). Genre-based pedagodies: A social response to process. Journal of Second language writing. 12, 17-29. Doi: 10.1016/S1060-3743(02)00124-8.

Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and the language learning classroom. Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press.

Week 2 Lexical Approach

Lexical approach, chunks of language, introduced in Week 2 was quite exciting to me. Like others, I have learnt English in grammar-based approach. In grammar-based approach, grammar and vocabulary are taught separately.

I strongly agree to Lewi's point that studetns spend hours learning grammar, but still have difficulty communication, because there is a lack of spoken language taught in natural contexts useful to the students. When seeing textbooks designed for second language learners, as mostly grammar-based designed, there is no context. Therefore, in a real situation, students make incomprehensible and unnatural utterances.

As Nattinger (1980) points out that language production consists of piecing together the ready-made units appropriate for a particular situation and that comprehension relies on knowing which of there pattersn to predict in these situations.

Moreover, language text is not adequately modelled as a sequence of items, each in environment of other items (Sinclar, 2004) which means that we cannot understand languaeg by breaking it down. Therefore, a context is important.

Hoey (2005) introduced the term "lexical priming". It is the way a "priming" word may provoke a particular "target" word. For example, a listener, previously given the word body, will recognise the word heart more quickly than if they had previously been given an unrelated word such as trick.

To conclude, what the seoncd language learns want is to communicate naturally and appropriately in a given situation rather that while speaking the perfect grammar, but using the inappropriate vocabulary. Therefore, language teachers should consider how to help sutdents while learning appropriate and natural English in the way the native speakers speak, rather than following a prescribed textbook which has no context.

References

Hoey, M. (2005). Lexical Priming: A new theory of words and language. London: Routledge.

Nattinger, J. (1980). A lexical phrased grammar. TESOL Quarterly. 14(3), 337-344.

Sinclair, J. (2004). Trust the test. London: Routledge.

Week 7: Post-methods approach

Richards (2001) defines methodology as “the activities, tasks, and learning experiences used by the teacher within the teaching and learning process.” (p.167) For centuries, linguists and language specialists have been searching the efficient ways of language teaching, from the earlier year’s grammar-translation method to audio-lingual method, to a series of humanistic methods, to more recently two dominate methods communicative language teaching (CLT) and task-based instruction method, method in second language teaching has become less prescriptive and more eclectic. However, as Prabhu (1990) claims, for teachers, there is no best method need to employ in a classroom, therefore, rather than seek for the best method, Richards’s (2001) notion of beyond methods suggests teachers focus on the circumstances and conditions of an effective teaching and learning. Richards (2001) points out that all methods share a set of specifications for guiding the accomplishment of teaching and learning based on a particular theory of language and language learning. The specific roles for language teachers, learners and instructional materials are prescript and somehow are imposed on teachers and learners. However, teaching is a dynamic, creative and interactional process rather than static or fixed in time, Richards suggests that teachers work independent of methods and involve in observing and reflecting of their own teaching processes in the language classrooms could be effective. The notions of beyond-methods and post-methods are likely giving more freedom to TESOL practitioners. Thus, rather than follow the existent methods only, based on classroom-centred research, under Kumaravadivelu’s “post-method condition” and “10 macro-strategies”, teachers could develop their own macro-strategies that more suitable for specific needs of students and classrooms.


Reference:

Knight, P. (2001). The development of EFL methodology. C. Candlin & N. Mercer (eds) In English language teaching and its social context. pp.147-166. Routledge: London
Richards, J. C., & Rogers, T. S. (2001). Approaches & methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: CUP
Richards, J. C. (2001). Beyond methods. In English language teaching and its social context. pp.167-179. Routledge: London
Kumaravadivelu. B. (1994). The post-method condition: (E)merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28: 27-48. [Accessible AUT e-journals]

Postmethod Approach to Language Teaching

Over the past weeks we have been studying the different types of methods in language teaching. While studying these methods I had been thinking about which method(s) would best suit my class. Of course one method alone is not enough to fulfill the requirements to successful language teaching. So then which method do we choose? And on what basis do we choose one from another?

The postmethod approach to language teaching gives the freedom to choose what's best for your classroom. Rather than keeping your teaching to one particular method, you are allowed to choose those that suit your own learners. The postmethod approach is all about empowering teachers and learners and about the context. Kumaravadivelu's (1994) strategic framework for second language teaching is an ideal one because it gives you the flexibility to choose the macrostrategies that suits your classroom. It is open to modifications, unlike the methods developed in the past. The 10 macrostrategies themselves are all about empowering teachers, learners and teaching within the context.

The postmethod approach is appealing to me because it gives choice - something that language teachers need because of the complexity of language teaching and learning. It gives teachers the "knowledge, skill, attitude, and autonomy necessary to devise for themselves a systematic, coherent, and relevant alternative to method" (Kumaravadivelu, 1994).

reference:

Kumaravadivelu, B. (1994). The postmethod condition: (E)merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28 (1), 27-48.

Critical Language Teaching

Pennycook (1999) desribes a critical appraoch to TESOL as always 'in flux', 'questioning', 'problematizing'. This means we as ESOL teachers need to constantly problematize and deal with social, cultural and educational issues surrounding students. The global position of English makes the role of English teachers a crucial one. Students learn English not just for the mere reason that they want to learn the language, but mainly because they want to enter universities or get a good job. As in Lin's (1999) article, she mentions the example of Hong Kong where employers preffered employees with a good command of English rather than Chinese, although Chinese is the mother tongue of the majority of the people. The role of English teachers then is to review and relflect how best to deal with the issues learners have and develop a method of teaching that benefits learners.

Lin (1999) discusses four different classrooms in her article. Learners from different social backgrounds had different attitudes to learning English which affected their learning. Reflecting on my own teaching context, I realise that my students too had similar issues/problems as those in Classrooms B and C. The pressure on them to always use English within the classroom often led them to withdraw from class discussions using English. What was interesting to see was that group activities generated more discussion because students used their mother-tongue together with English to express their ideas. Things that they were not able to express using English language was done through their native language.

I believe that we need to critically look at our own classroom situations and devise the best method(s) to use. Each classroom has their own mixture of students of different socio-cultural and educational backgrounds. One method of teaching does not fit all. A more critical approach is needed.

references:

Lin, A. M. Y. (1999). Doing-English-lessons in the reproduction or transformation of social worlds?. TESOL Quarterly, 33 (3), 393-412.

Pennycook, A. (1999). Introduction: Criticial Approaches to TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 33 (3), 329-348.

EAP & Academic Literacies

The readings on EAP and Academic Literacies have drawn my attention to my own experience when I first entered university as a student. It took a while to understand what academic writing was all about. I had to learn skills of writing academic essays, reports, journals, presentations. Different tutors/lecturers had different expectations, which made things difficult. This makes students confused and a lot of time is spent on learning the guidelines on the academic writing skills and applying them within their own contexts.

The point is that there needs to be assistance provided for the students so that academic writing is made easier. Of course there are academic writing courses being run by universities which are meant to help sutdents. but these writing courses are not always subject specific. This means that the "study skills are divorced from subject content and knowledge" (Wingate, 2006). I have done EAP course which was to a large extent helpful. However, a few things taught were not quite related to my context.

What needs to be done is that the academic skills should be taught within the degree course rather than as a separate course. Wingate (2006) suggests that " a far more effective model is the embedded model, in which skills are developed as an integral part of the study program".


reference:
Wingate, U. (2006). Doing away with 'study skills'. Teaching in Higher Education, 11 (4), 457-469.

The post-method condition and the process-oriented method

The term ‘method’ means a set of prescriptions for the teachers and learners in their classroom (Richards, 2001). Methods present a static view of teaching such as teacher roles, learner roles, and teaching/learning activities (Richards, 2001). However, studies in the classroom such as interactional process between the teacher and the learners, and the instructional activities have demonstrated that teaching is a dynamic (Richards, 2001). Methods only provide the basis for the decision making in the processes of teaching which are not fixed (Richards, 2001).

Kumaravadivelu (1994) takes the position that the critical approach to TESOL, which we learnt last week, is “a steady stream of evaluative thoughts on the nature and scope of method” (p.27) and his ’10 macro-strategies’ is one of “alternative ideas that implicitly redefine our understanding of method” (p.27) in the post-method condition. The three features of the post-method condition, which are provided by Kumaravadivelu (1994), are as follows;

・ Confront with the complexity of language, language learning, etc,
・ Promote teachers’ autonomy for enabling them to theorize from their practice
・ Empower teachers with the knowledge, skill, and attitude for devising their own effective way of teaching.

According to Kumaravadivelu (1994), the three features of the post-method condition provide the 10 macro-strategies as a framework. Teachers can use the framework to develop investigative capabilities for observation, analysis and reflection studies in their classroom. Teachers can also design their own micro-strategies for desired learning outcome.

‘Investigate’ seems to be a key word in English language teaching at the present time. The process-oriented method mentioned by Richards (2001) starts with the investigation of effective teaching and learning strategies. This method redefines the role of the teacher through empowering teachers with investigative capabilities (Richards, 2001). Through their observation, analysis and reflection with their investigative capabilities, teachers can obtain valuable feedback for their effective teaching (Richards, 2001). Then, teachers can also design their own micro-strategies with Kumaravadivelu’s framework for desired learning outcome.

My mentor on a certificate in language teaching to adults last semester advised me in the feedback that an effective way to improve my way of teaching might be to look at my own teaching in a video, although he had never done it for fear of looking at himself using his own teaching method…


List of references

Kumaravadivelu, B. (1994). The post-method condition: (E)merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28(1), 27-48.

Richards, J. C. (2001). Beyond methods. In C. Candlin & N. Mercer (Eds.) English language teaching in its social context. (pp.167-179). Routledge: London.

Systemic functional Grammar/SHG

please excuse me but the explanation of systemic functional Grammar wasn't on the blog as I had first statement.
So, here goes with a new explanation. I hope that you get some kind of understanding from it. Read away.
Systemic functional Grammar: exclamation.
Systemic functional Grammar was first theorised by Halliday during the early 1960s. Systemic relates to the network of choices a speaker has to formulate sentences which are ultimately spoken it is sometimes referred to as systemic functional linguistics. It is part of a broader social semiotics approach to language. In this context, systemic refers to an integrated network of systems that allow form meaning. Functional refers to the contextualised, practical uses of grammar in a social context.
generative grammar, on the other hand, already has an explanation in this blog. if you are unsure about the meaning of cognitive grammar or generative grammar, take a look at the posting in this blog.

Cheers, peace out.

Week 6: Critical language teaching

According to Pennycook (2001), rather than consider classroom in ESOL as a neutral site, a critical approach to ESOL views the classroom as a part of the world that "both affected by what happens outside its walls and affecting what happens there." (p.129) It seems that the curriculum and educator's cultural preferences determine the environment of a classroom. Therefore, we TESOL practitioners need to take a more problematic stance, always questioning the inequality power between language learner and educator.

We need to question the methods that prescribed by our teacher deuction and develop our own methodologies according to different classroom situations and different students; we need to problematise the course materials that may carry cultural and ideological meanings; we need to problematise assessment to avoid the fact that the test takers who share the worldview with the test makers will be benifit, and to enable the test takers to present their talents and abilities unobstrctedly.(Lin, 1999;Penneycook, 2001;)

We TESOL practitioners also need to be aware of the limits of our knowledge, and raise the awarenesses of choising pedagogies based on objective, scientific, rational grounds rather than on political of ideological, as well as make students be concious of the power relationships which lead to liguistic or ideological oppressions. (Pennycook, 2001;Benesch, 1993)

Besides, Lin's(1999) observation reveals how differents ways of teaching, such as the use of L1 Cantonese and L2 English, the ways of asking questions lead to different results on students' response and attitudes of learning target language. The implication should be: we TESOL practitioners need to consider learners' needs, evoke learners' motivation, encourge learners to give their voice in the classroom rather than follow the policy of English only in TESOL classroom and the prescribed time limit.

In a whole, as a TESOL practitioner, we need to set up a critical attitude and a critical way of thingking and teaching in our classrooms.

Reference:

Benesch, S. (1993). ESL, ideology, and the politics of pragmatism. Tesol Quarterly, 27, 705-715.
Lin,A., (1999). Doing-English-lessons in the reproduction or transformation of social worlds. TESOL Quarterly, 33.393-412.
Pennycook, A., (2001). Critical applied linguistics. London:Lawrence Erlbaum.

generates a grammar

excuse me, I hope that people who read this don't think I am be utterancesing a little pretentious, however,

generative grammar

is, along with systemic functional Grammar to terms that I have trouble with. If I have trouble with them that means that may be someone else also has trouble (probably not Mike).
Generative grammar is a term theorised by Chomsky around circa 1960. Generative grammar is, in the eyes of Chomsky, starting to move away from formal grammar. In formal grammar, Chomsky theorises that language concerts of strings of words that are constructed by applying rules to sequence of of utterances. These occurrences appear on the right as symbols for example V,P,N etc.
A sequence of the rule is called

derivation

. In generative grammar, Chomsky theorises language appearing in concentric circles starting words regular and then contexts free, context sensitive and lastly recursively innumerable. All language that can be recognised is generated here. The language is also recognised as the recurring innumerable language. Everything you hear about the language is context free.

References:
# Chomsky, Noam (1959). "On certain formal properties of grammars". Information and Control 2 (2):. doi:10.1016/S0019-9958(59)90362-6.

Systemic functional Grammar

I have had, not unlike all of my other classmates except for Mike maybe, have had a problem with what systemic functional Grammar is really about.
So, I have been doing a lot of reading (listen in my case) on what systemic functional Grammar is. Systemic functional Grammar is concerned with the choices that are made available in grammar for the speaker. It is concerned with the contextual practical uses to which grammar is put. This makes it very different from formal grammar which focuses on Word class verbs, nouns, adjectives etc the choices that are available to speakers and writers make the grammars concrete and steadfast, in other words, they are unbelievable. The meta-functional systems of this kind of grammar and include phrenology, the syntax, and Lexus. It attempts to encompass all areas of language. For example, it considers many aspects of the persona, such as the use of language used in

nicknames

which would denote how close the speaker is to the listener showing the interpersonal meta-functions of the social arena. It takes into account the relative social status and social standing and social distance all relative to only spoken texts.

Bibliography are asleep
Halliday, M.A.K. Introduction to functional grammar, 2nd ed. (1994) London: Edward Arnold.
O’Halloran, K.A. (ed.) English grammar in context, Book 2: Getting inside English (2006), The Open University,

Critical approaches to TESOL

Although the power relationship of student-tutor and student-institution in an academy has come into question through the examinations of the critical EAP and the academic literacies approach (Lea and Street, 1998), the critical approach to TESOL has problematised lots of the other issues of TESOL such as class, race, gender and ideologies (Pennycook, 1999).

Although Pennycook (1999), who is a proponent of the critical approach to TESOL, problematized lots of issues through questioning to engage with these issues, I cannot finish this posting if I concern myself with all of these issues. Therefore, I focus on what most impressed me in the reading material this week against the background of the dominant position of English in the world.

Lin (1999) demonstrates the important roles of the teacher through showing the example that the individual teacher, who explores the alternative creative, discursive practices through understanding existing classroom practices and their socio-cultural and institutional situation, can transform one’s social world (Lin, 1999). It is very persuasive if a learner who belongs to one of the disadvantaged groups can acquire English for legitimate and appropriate discourse in official settings, they have stronger possibilities to transform their social world (Lin, 1999). Therefore, the responsibility of language teachers (not only English, but also the other languages) is really serious.


List of references

Lea, M. R., & Street, B. V. (1988). Student writing in higher education: An academic literacies model. Studies in Higher Education, 23(2), 157-172.

Lin, A. M. Y. (1999). Doing-English-lessons in the reproduction or transformation of social worlds? TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 393-412.

Pennycook, A. (1999). Introduction: Critical approaches to TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 329-348.

Week 5

My apologies to everyone. I had some real trouble with my Gmail account and hence have not been able to login to the blog. But thanks to Darryl for getting me back online.
As with most of us the lecture yesterday was extremely interesting and beneficial to myself (thanks to Mike also for his input) and to the rest of us.
After the lecture, I started to wonder as I have a very good friend who is a priest who had change from the Catholic Church the Lutheran church. No mention was given to the religious reforms that were carried out (not sure about the time frame) where Luther broke away from the Catholic Church. Surely, this may have had something to do with movements of the way people thought and acted. Luther was the first priest to make a move and break away from the Catholic Church, forming his own church with his own followers. Possibly, the way language was used around that time may have been influenced by their act of anti-disestablishment.

During my readings (listening) out all the readers we have had recently, namely Pennycook and Benesch who I have quoted were quite understandable in their approaches. Although, I found Pennycook and the way he wrote to be quite angry as if for he had had a very bad experience at some time during his years teaching. Maybe it is because Benesch and he are locked into a battle over research. I guess I will never know.
Let me add to the timeline to Darryl wrote on the board for us and let me add my two cents.
Of course, I cannot prove this, but I believe that there used to be life on Mars (I can hear your laughter). But no,NASA have sent a probe to Mars and found nothing. Yes of course, think about it, how long can you hold your breath in space? About 30 seconds. And think about why astronauts wear suits with heavily shaded visors?! It's only because of the power of the sun. Of course it can destroy anything. Getting back to language teaching, there is a strong movement away from the classroom and into the home of the student. The two universities that I know of (one of my work collea and gues graduated from one) are the University of Southern Queensland USQ and Phoenix University situated in Arizona (is that right Mike?) And is something that I had been working on at the University I was tenured at. We had set out the classrooms so that every room hand a camera that could be connected to the Internet. So, as this was a woman's University there were times when they were not able to attend lectures. They could however, with an Internet connection connect to the classroom via the Internet and take the class. This was all done using Skype.

EAP

What you have written Darryl was, as always, enlightening reading. It was sometimes hard to draw myself back to the fact that you used to be an ESL teacher. (No disrespect meant).
As a teacher it's very hard sometimes not to focus on the areas of the student and not the good things that they do. Until now, through discussion with others, I see (myself included) that everybody is focusing on the micro or the sentence level. I haven't heard many people talking about the macro and focusing on the' total text'. Shouldn't we be looking at text a student produces and commenting on its whole structure. This was discussed in our lecture yesterday and made me realise the shortcomings of myself and the other teacher trainers in the class possibly focus on sentence structure of a text and not the whole unit.

English for academic purposes

Although various approaches have been implemented in academic education, the genre-based approach has become the mainstream since 1990s (Hocking, 2010). In the meanwhile, the critical EAP and the academic literacies approach emerged in the late 1990s (Hocking, 2010). They not only criticize the lack of creativity of the genre-based approach, but also examine three aspects in academic education; as students bilities, student-tutor interaction and the institution (Lea & Street, 1998).

I focus on the first two aspects of these which strongly relate to the following two approaches for learning support, and it seems to be very important for a tutor if they adopt any approaches of English teaching.

According to Wingate (2006), there are two main approaches for learning support in academic education. The one is the ‘bolt-on’ approach (Wingate, 2006). This approach focuses on students themselves and concentrates on issues of surface forms of grammar and skills for structure and argument (Lea & Street, 1998). Although it is expected that students acquire ‘appropriate’ skills for successful writing, skills are divorced from the process and content of learning, and subject knowledge (Wingate, 2006).

The other is the ‘built-in’ approach in which skills are developed in a progressive and holistic manner through student-tutor interaction (Wingate, 2006). Students are given experience and feedback on the experience that encourages reflection for developing strategies to deal with similar situations (Wingate, 2006). However, Lea and Street (1998) point out that most tutors cannot make explicit what constitutes successful writing, and then, they are likely to use familiar descriptive categories as in ‘structure’ and ‘argument’ and do little for experience and reflection.

As a result, the predominant approach is the ‘bolt-on’ approach, although an effective approach for academic education would be to adopt the ‘built-in’ approach (Wingate, 2006).

Again, the meta-language which I focused on in the previous posting about systemic functional grammar seems to be the suitable resource for providing tutors with descriptive categories for making explicit what constitute successful writing. ‘The meta-language provides a common language which teachers and students can use to talk to each other about language and how it works’ (Butt, Fahey, Feez, Spinks & Yallop, 2000, p.18), although Butt, Fahey, Feez, Spinks, and Yallop (2000) state that tutors are required to take ‘considerable professional judgement‘ (p.18) for the appropriate use of it…

Oh, I cannot forget to say this. I have noticed an answer for my one of questions in my previous posting about the genre-based approach that Figure 4 in ‘English for academic purposes and academic literacies' (Hocking, 2010) is one of real genre approach’s model texts as prototypes for learners’ individual variations. Although the table is presented in iResearch, which I am also taking in this semester, I have not considered it in this paper. I feel much better now.


List of References

Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., Spinks, S., & Yallop, C. (2000). Using functional grammar: An explorer’s guide (2nd ed.). Sydney: NCELTR.

Hocking, D. (2010). English for academic purposes and academic literacies [Lecture]. Auckland：AUT university.

Lea, M. R., & Street, B. V. (1988). Student writing in higher education: An academic literacies model. Studies in Higher Education, 23(2), 157-172.

Wingate, U. (2006). Doing away with study skills. Teaching in Higher Education, 11(4), 457-469.

Systemic functional Grammar

Kimiko Explain to us the concept of systemic functional Grammar brieflyIt explaining to us about the concept that Butt et. al described to us as havingField...the meanings about experience in the situation; the purpose of the text
・Tenor...the relationship between the participants
・Mode....the kind and nature of text that is being made.

My problem is this. If I think back to my L2 learning, I would walk from my home to school every day. A trip of about 50 minutes to 1 hour.
This whole time I was engaged in a dialogue with myself. In this case, let's presuppose that the text is all internal, what then is the : nature:: of our discourse? I understand that the tenor would be between me myself and I, but what about the Mo?

Systemic functional grammar

I am very interested in a meta-language as an answer for my one of questions in my previous posting about the genre-based approach, so this posting centers mainly on it.

Systemic functional grammar is a way of describing and interpreting meaning, lexical and grammatical choices from the wording systems. A special language describing how language is being used to realize the meaning is called a meta-language (Butt, Fahey, Feez & Yallop, 2000).

According to Butt, Fahey, Feez and Yallop (2000), texts occur in two contexts. One is the context of culture and the other is the context of situation. Then, the main areas of the meta-language for describing the context of situation are the following (Butt, Fahey, Feez & Yallop, 2000):

・Field...meanings about experience in the situation; the purpose of the text
・Tenor...relationship between the participants
・Mode....type and nature of text that is being made

The actual meta-language for these areas is the following (Butt, Fahey, Feez & Yallop, 2000):

Field
・Experiential domain (the processed, participants and circumstances of the text)
・Short term goal/long term goal (the purpose of the production of the text)
Tenor
・Social roles of the participants (e.g. teacher-student)
・Power and status of the participants 　
・Social distance (how well the participants know each other)
Mode
・Role of language (for the whole activity or for helping some others' activity)
・Type of interaction (monologic or dialogic)
・Medium (spoken, written or signed)
・Channel (phonic, graphic or visual)
・Rhetorical thrust (the overall feeling of the text)

The meta-language seems to really be the suitable resource for providing the appropriate points of key features and patterns of language for the genre approach which stresses the role of contexts and the linguistic features.

A problem for me is the statement of Butt, Fahey, Feez and Yallop (2000) that the acquisition and the use of the meta-language are difficult…


List of references

Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., Spinks, S., & Yallop, C. (2000). Using functional grammar: An explorer’s guide (2nd ed.). Sydney: NCELTR.

W5: Approaches for teaching academic writing

Various approaches are used in the area of teaching academic writing. From early years rhetorical functions approach, the process approach to recently genre-centred approach, critical EAP approach and academic literacies approach, each approach has its own focus as well as limitations.

The rhetorical functions approach is believed as an approach which restricts students’ individual expressions and hinders students’ creativities due to its explicit modelling of linguistic form. However, from my own learning experience, (this approach is the way that I was taught in EAP course) it is likely an effective introduction to academic writing for students who are not familiar with the rhetorical patterns which appear in academic writing frequently.

The process approach is a learner-centred approach which involves self-evaluation and peer feedback and focuses on stages of writing and emphasis on language comes in final stages, according to Paltridge (2001). This approach is regarded as misleading students’ view of academic settings, yet it seems a good way to evoke students’ creativity and autonomy.

A genre-centred approach focuses on teaching particular academic genres, text and context as well as writing for particular disciplines. Following Hyland’s model for a genre-centred syllabus, students get familiar with the particular academic genres and finally they are able to complete independent writings. Though Reid (1984) and Horrowitz (1986) point out that this approach fails to consider disciplinary differences, it could be an efficient way to introduce particular academic genres writing in that it identifies both the rhetorical and linguistic features, as well as considers the socio-cultural contexts of certain genres.

Other approaches include content-based instruction which aims at post-secondary education and critical English for academic purpose which encourages students’ critical thinking. Besides, academic literacies approach is another approach involves critical learning. It emphasises on epistemology and identities and focuses on identifying expectations of different disciplines, different subject tutors. According to Wingate (2006), “writing needs to be taught explicitly within the subject context” (p.462), “through explanations, modelling and feedback by subject tutors.” (p.463) Though it is so true that this approach is a solution for developing students’ understanding of subject-specific writing requirements, it seems unrealistic in that it involves subject tutors’ teaching time consuming.

As Lea and Street (1998) point out, teacher’s beliefs about the teaching of academic writing determine the type of approach they use. Teachers, therefore, need to be aware of students’ need, consider each approach’s merits and deficits, and combine key elements from variety of approaches in their way of teaching academic writing.

Reference:
Horrowitz, D. (1986). Process not producr: less than meets the eye. TESOL Quarterly 20: 141-144.
Lea, M. and Street, B. (1998). Student writing in higher education: an academic literacies approach. Studies in higher education 23 (2): 157-172.
Paltridge, B. (2001). Linguistic research and EAP pedagogy. In J.Flowerdew & M. Peacock, eds., Research perspectives on English for academic purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Reid, J. 1984. The radical outliner and the radical brainstormer: a perspective on the composing process. TESOL Quarterly 18:529-533.
Wingate, U. (2006). Doing away with ‘study skills’. Teaching in higher education, 11:4, 457-469. Retrieved 1, August 2007 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13562510600874268

This is to follow my last posting

In my last posting, I for God to ads references for

Hayden K.(2003)" second language writing p.43" Cambridge University press, Cambridge.

Sorry, in the last posting I made, I have mentioned some things that may have ' riled' some of you. This is not my intention. Of course, I have never seen any of you teach but through the conversation from others that I hear, I can make a judgement call.
I have the only had the opportunity to listen to ' Nicki' and 'Mike' in any depth. These two people are teachers who I'd feel would employ a small part of ' humour' and their lesson. I would love the opportunity to visit their classroom while they are teaching. For developing my teaching abilities further.

Week 5

After a lecture yesterday, it started me thinking about all the students I had in Japan. I cannot say that all of them could use of written and spoken language well, but I can say that they knew the language to sue them for their purposes.Hayland, K (2003 p.32) when explaining about' writing' of L2 learners says that " students have a wide range of knowledge to successfully write in English". It has been my experience that most of the learners in my classes when writing as undergraduates did not write well. I was not allowed to instruct them in writing myself (by that I mean make my own teaching materials) and had to use a prescribed textbook. I saw the layout of the textbook was quite good however most of the writing exercises in it worse simple exercises explaining about ; family' or ' the weather' or other mundane subjects like this. As undergraduates who were all enrolled in medicine and would become doctors, I'd think that the students should have been learning about research writing.Benesch (The 2003 p. ) also as withHayland explains about students and academic writing that the students are " socially connected" and that ' identity is not " a matter of finding one's own' true self'." Certainly in my classes, with the text that the students were allowed using, I felt that it didn't really offer them opportunities that they should have had.
Interesting reading and these two books, as hard as it was for me.

W4: Systemic functional linguistics and language teaching

Language learning is a complex process. It is not only about learning vocabulary and grammar but also involves how to use appropriate words and grammatical choices to interpret and make meaning with the language according to different functions and situations.

According to Butt, Fahey, Feez, Sprinks and Yallop (2000), a text is "language that is functional"(p.3), it can be both spoken and written, it is "a harmonious collection of meanings appropriate to its context." (p.3) Context of culture and context of situation are two contexts occur in a text. Context of situation which is the innor context of the text includes three aspects: field, tenor and mode of discourse. There would be a substantially different text even if only one of these three parameters is changed.

A functional view of language considers language envolving three major functions: ideational(experiential and logical), interpersonal and textual metafunctions, and three parameters of context of situation reflect such three functions.

Under the systemic functional approach, each sentence encodes both three meanings and the related three functions of language. As a teacher, we need to think about language as a text, and every text has to be in a specific context. We need to give learners language of whole authentic texts , and let them to explore the meanings, words and structures possible in the contexts.

The extraligustic levels of context of culture and context of situation are realised in three content levels of language: semantics, lexicogrammar and expression level. In terms of stylistics, any texts can be compared in the aspects of register and genre. Texts belonging to the same register share common meanings and patterns of lexicogrammar. Therefore, it is important for teacher to evoke student's awarness of such patterns to help them create texts easily. As for genre, texts share same structural elements beling to the same genre or text type. Thus, if students know the structures of different genres, it is likely they can produce an appropriate text without difficulty. Thus, it is significant for teachers to introduce examples of text types, purposed for using language and structural elements of texts to the class consciously.

Under the concept of functional grammar, grammar can be functionally changed to convey different meanings. Language teachers, then, can show their learners how processes are related to sturcture, and the learners can respond to the texts critically. Likewise, by changing the theme of a sentence, the emphasis can be changed. Be aware of the thematic structure of a text seems enable us to understand the coherent of the text easier. Therefore, as a language teacher, it is noteworthy to focus on the textual themes to help students managing spoken interaction and understanding written texts and eventually all of these will benefit their written skills. In addition, the interpersonal metafunction seems related to interpersonal communication in that meanings can be encoded in different ways in English, therefore, language learners need to know how to respond to, manage and exchange in different situations. (Butt, Fahey, Feez, Spinks and Yallop, 2000)

In short, as a language teacher, we need to take a functional view of language, always think about language in a specific context and support our learners to participate in the process of making meaning with language.

Reference:

Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., Spinks. S., & Yallop., C. (2000). Using functional grammar. An explorer's guide (2nd ed.). Sydney: NCECTR.

Genre-based approach

According to Paltridge (2001), " language occurs in particular cultural and social contexts and can only be understood in relation to these contexts" (p. 40). Language users use particular genres to interact in these social and cultural contexts.

Genre-based teaching is a method that I have used with my students, especially for writing lessons. I have found it to be a helpful to my students because it allows them to be aware of the requirements of particular genres. For instance in formal letter writing, there are various kinds of letters. By providing models of each situation, learners are aware of the expectations of the different genres. This helps them to study and identify the different structures.

In addition, it also provided my learners with a starting point and gave them confidence in writing.
The workshop participants in the article by Kay and Dudley-Evans (1998), also reflected this view - "a genre-based approach is empowering and enabling, allowing students to make sense of the world around them and participare in it" (p. 310).

One of the drawbacks that I experienced using this approach was that some students became too dependent on being provided with models and made limited use of their own creativity.
I guess it is important for the teacher using the genre-based approach to maintain a balance and ensure that it is not overly done. It could also become boring for advanced learners in the class.

Genre-based approach in langauge teaching offers learners "an explicit understanding of how texts in target genres are structured and why they are written in the ways they are" (Hyland, 2003, p. 26). This understanding is important for the learners so that they are able to use socially and culturally correct language in different contexts.

References:

Hyland, K. (2003). Genre-based pedagogoes: A social response to process. Journal of second language writing, 12. 17-29

Kay, H., & Dudley-Evans, T. (1998). Genre: What teachers think. ELT Journal, 52 (4), 308-313.

Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and the language learning classroom. Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press.

expanding the learner lexicon

Lewis tells us that if we want to " increase the learners communicative power" there must be an expansion of their lexicon by adding a variety of items to it. Lewis, M. (2002) p. 177 " implementing the lexical approach-putting theory into practice". This is all very good so long as the learner is " motivated" to do so. We cannot expect to ' infuse them' with a Lexus of words and expect them to ' acquire' them naturally. This is an experience I have had. Many Japanese learners expect exactly that. They expect to acquire any new Lexus from the ' ether'. To increase the learners, unification power we should be trying to do something that Maggie told myself and some other classmates what she did. Without going over any ' target' questions or ' vocabulary' she thrust her class into the frying pan, so to speak, and proceeded to take all of her learners outside giving them tasks that they had to complete.
Tasks like asking a stranger what they're name is etc.
Using a task-based approach like this is great when you are living in a country that uses English as its native language. A little harder per se if you are living in Mozambique, China, Poland, Japan.

Maybe he explained that she had a lot of success with it. Well done.

The genre-based approach

The shift of the more top-down pedagogy through popularizing the lexical approach furthered the progress of the genre-based approach (Thornbury, 1998).

Particular genres are used to fulfill certain social functions and to achieve certain goals within particular social and cultural context (Paltridge, 2001). Learners might have a range of choices of genres to achieve their particular goals as in using an E-mail message or a phone call for finding particular information (Paltridge, 2001). Therefore, it seems that the genre-based approach can be used in the teaching of speaking, listening and reading, as well as writing.

The genre-based approach aims to make the learners’ awareness of the significant features of the different genres and to empower learners’ strategies to replicate these features on their production (Kay & Dudley-Evans, 1998). It is important that language of model texts is functional and the texts provide the appropriate points of focus (Paltridge, 2001). The emphasis is on the social purpose, the schematic structure, and the linguistic features (Kay & Dudley-Evans, 1998). This approach stresses the role of context and the way of language change by the context in which it occurs, and discusses this in relation to the aspects of discourse, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation of the language (Paltridge, 2001). These sound very difficult to practice, although I can study at least a little about functional languages this week...

As might be expected from the fact that systemic genre-based approach initially focused on writing on primary and secondary schools (Paltridge, 2001), there is one point of view that the genre-based approach is particularly suitable for learners at beginner or intermediate levels in a second language (Kay and Dudley-Evans, 1998). The approach gives them confidence by giving them security and offering the models, and enables them to produce texts that serve the intended purpose. On the other hand, however, there is a concern that the approach is restrictive and this is likely to lead to lack of creativity and demotivation in the learners (Kay & Dudley-Evans, 1998). Therefore, it seems to be very important especially for learners of higher levels that the model texts have to be treated as prototypes for learners’ individual variations. Uh-uh..., how...?


List of references

Kay, H., & Dudley-Evans, T. (1998). Genre: What teachers think. ELT Journal, 52(4), 308-313.

Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and the language learning classroom. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan University Press.

Thornbury, S. (1998, April 7). The lexical approach: A journey without maps?
Modern English Teacher, 1-7.

The lexical approach

Sorry for my late posting for the above topic.

I was not familiar with the lexical approach, and this has been pretty much the first study for the approach for me. Of course, my experience in studying English has been the grammatical approach. The lexical approach is not utilized in Japanese teaching because there is no regular Japanese corpus, although I’m studying language teaching as a Japanese teacher.

When I read Lewis’s ‘Teaching collocation: Further developments in the lexical approach’ (2000), I felt a sense of uncertainty. Then, when I read Thornbury’s ‘The lexical approach: A journey without maps?’ (1998), I felt that he acts like a spokesman for my opinions, as in “what is this ‘suitable input’ and how is it organized?” (Thornbury, 1998, p.5) and how is the lexical approach operationalized? (Thornbury, 1998)

At the same time, however, Thornbury (1998) introduces his friend’s Maori teacher’s method as one of the variations of the lexical approach which not only uses an exemplar-based system but also a rule-based analytic system for grammaticizing the lexis for avoiding danger of fossilization. As I also cannot agree with Lewis’s claim (2000) which seems to be unfair in terms of learners’ output, I’m very impressed by the adjustment made by the Maori teacher.

It seems to be important to devise a balance between the two systems if teachers introduce this approach. However, as Harwood (2002) points out, learners’ needs and wants are varied, so it seems to also be important to keep the learners’ option for the two systems.


List of references

Harwood, N. (2002). Taking a lexical approach to teaching: Principles and problems.
International Journal of applied Language, 12(2), 139-155.

Lewis, M. (2000). Teaching collocation: Further developments in the lexical approach. Hove: Language Teaching.

Thornbury, S. (1998, April 7). The lexical approach: A journey without maps?
Modern English Teacher, 1-7.

Genre and language teaching

This week we've learnt "Genre" and Genre-based approaches in language learning classroom.

As Kay and Dudley- Evans (1997) point out that Swales and Martin gave two different definitions of genre. According to Martin, a genre is "a staged, goal-oriented, purposeful activity in which speakers engage as members of our culture"; while for Swales, "a genre comprises a class of communicative purposes". (p.308) For both Swales and Martin, different communicative purposes decide the structures and the contents of different genres.

In terms of Genre-based teaching approach, it aims to evoke learner's awareness of the structure and purpose, as well as the significant linguistic features of the texts of different genres. The learners, therefore, could replicate such features in their own production.

Teacher's role in such genre-based program is to facilitate and guide students' learning process, as well as organise the instructional materials, according to Paltridge (2001). It is worth to notice that the model text presented need to be as natural and authentic as possible, and the following tasks should be considered related to the language example presented.

As Paltridge (2001) states, genre includes both written and spoken language. That means a genre-based approach could be used in both written and spoken language learning classroom. However, I think such genre-based approach is likely more effective in a higher level written language learning classroom as the learners in a low level may not have the abilities of self-analysing the structure and linguistic features of the model text. On the other hand, such genre-based approach seems workable in all levels of spoken language learning classrooms though it may "lead to lack of creativity and demotivation in the learners", as Kay and Dudley-Evans (1998, p.311) argued.

Reference:

Kay, H. & Dudley-Evans, T. (1984). What teachers think. ELT Journal October, 1998. V.52/4
(p.308-314) Oxford University Press.

Paltridge, B.(2001). Genre and the language learning classroom . Ann Arbor: Michigan
University Press.

language acquisition by the student in a classroom setting

There are many researchers, who will say that a language cannot be learned, cannot be acquired, cannot be taken in, cannot be learned to a level of fluency that would display to native speakers of the language that the learner was of a high proficiency in the language.
I would like to retract previous statements I have made about the acquisition of language in a classroom situation. I feel now that I disagree with Lewis (2007) when he says that the target language could not be learnt to a level that would charge the learner to be' fluent'.
What is meant by and a however, in this situation, would need to be quantified to make any good judgement about the learner.

including myself, as I have said, every one who was in that class was highly motivated to succeed. And that's what we did.

N.b. please excuse any grammar mistakes you have found in this post. It is becoming increasingly more difficult for me to read and to make posts.
Thank you.

Blair.

The Lexical Approach

My own second language learning has been the traditional grammar based. As a language teacher I have been greatly influenced by how I was taught. I am quite dependent on the text books for teaching the second language. Reading about the lexical approach has made me think about second language teaching. The question that comes to mind is how much of the sentences taught in the language textbooks do we actually use in real life? As Lewis (2000) says that "fleunt speech consists largely of rapidly produced short phrases, rather than formally correct 'sentences'" (p.174).

Hardwood (2002) is true in saying “If a lexical approach is implemented appropriately, learners will acquire lexis suitable for their needs” (p. 7). Learners will be able to use the ‘real’ language rather than the textbook language. However, implementing this approach is going to take a while. The attitude of learners, teachers, educational institutions and publishers all need to change if the lexical approach is to be appropriately implemented in the language classroom.

The lexical approach

According to Lewis(2000), there are two kinds knowledge: declarative knowledge which involves stating facts or rules and procedural knowledge which is knowledge how to, that is, the ability to do something actually. These two kinds of knowledge are separated in the ways which we acquire them rather than separated totally. Declarative knowledge is additive while procedural knowledge is integrative. Lewis believes that all language acquisition is intrinsically procedural. He also points out that language learned discretely and additively cannot contribute to the learner's mental lexion. This means, it is not available for learner's use.

Language learning is conscious while language acquisition is unconscious. The latter is regarded as important, but Lewis suggests that the "concious noticing of features of the language that learners meet doees facilitate acquisition."(p.158) Acquisition involves taking in new language into learner's intergrammar and mental lexicon which they already have. If learners wish to turn the language they meet which is input into language they acquire and ready to use which is intake, they certainly need to notice the linguistic features of such language. In contrast, if learners do not notice the language features and the correct natural version they used, they can not turn their input into intake. Teachers, therfore, "need to be proactive in guiding learners toward the input language"(p.163) to assist learners to acquire language effectively.

Differ from Present-Practise-Produce(P-P-P) paradigm, Lewis' lexical approach suggests the Observe-Hypothesise-Experiment paradigm. Lewis points out that firstly language must be met and noticed, then sort the input on the basis of "apparently significant similarities and differences"(p.178) and experiment involves "using the language on the basis of the learners' current intergrammar.

Lewies believes that grammar and vocabulary are not separable, in fact, many language patterns are bound up with specific vocabulary. Noticing language as chunks and the features of such chunks could facilitate acquisition. Thus, it is essential for language teacher setting a context to help learners transfer language chunks to their mental lexicon. In addition, as language learning is not a linear process, even the learning curve for a single item is not linear. The progress and backwords always happen in such curve. Therefore, giving continued input to let learner self-organize their interlanguage systems is essential.(Diane, 1997)

From my learning experience, I found Lewies's lexical approach is quite helpful. We learn language by chunks rather than single word and grammar is likely to help us to assimilate it into our own mental lexis and alert us to notice such language and then turn it into our intake. However, I disagree Lewies's view about using language is not necessarily help the learner retain it. In contrast, I think using language is essential to help the learner to retain it effectively.

my god. boy did I have trouble getting on

I have lots to ask but as I'm not on my computer, it is very difficult to type.

my first question is concerning english for testing. In many countries, especially Japan, it is a multi million dollar business. Using the lexical approach would mean attempting to 'rail' against the machine. I know myself, I really enjoyed publishing the books I did but this leaves me with a question. What was I thinking? obviously 'money' and not the betterment of the student.

Focus Group 2

This is where you'll begin blogging about the contemporary and alternative language teaching issues that are introduced in the Focus lectures.