2012.9.26
1. What is community learning 學習共同體?
2. What is PISA?
3. How are these two relevant to our English teaching and learning?
Topic: PISA & Community learning
In the past of decades of years, the trend of Taiwan education system is toward teacher center. Community learning, which is opposite to the traditional one, emphasizes on students center and the interaction between teachers and students. Students. Teachers, and parents should not just be single parts individually. Teachers could work together to have experience exchange and stimulate learners' learning motivation. As a result, learners could discuss the problem solutions and apply knowledge as well.
PISA, which is an acronym of “Program for International Student Assessment “ . The program aims at assessing learning students' reading, mathematics and science ability. The PISA tests asks students to apply their mathematical and scientific knowledge to solve problems set in various real-world contexts. To solve the problems students must activate a number of scientific and reading competencies as well as a broad range of mathematical content knowledge. That is, the goal of the program is not to test how much a student learns rather how much a student could apply their knowledge to solve real-life problems.
As an English teacher, I'm usually eager to lecture my students grammar patterns, vocabulary or everything which would be possibly tested on the tests. I forget what students really need is “authentic ability” which could be applied to their real-life situation and how to make meaningful communications among the practical world. From the two terms, I also find that, no matter for teachers or learners, learning should involve two-way interaction and learners' autonomy and critical thinking to adapt the real world.
1. Definition and difference between these two terms
“Focus on forms” is the deliberate teaching of grammar in order to produce understanding of the grammar, in the hope that understanding alone will allow the language learner to use the form correctly. “Focus on form”, on the other hand, refers to bringing grammar to the attention of language learners as a part of communicative language practice. It is generally conceded that focusing on grammar for grammar’s sake does little to contribute to correctness during communication, while making ESL learners aware of structures as a part of communicative language practice can contribute to the development of greater accuracy during communication (Trent, 2011).
2. Which one do you or will you adhere to?
Based on the former definition, the research de-emphasizes the use of focus on forms. Indeed, too much attention to explicit grammar rules may reduce learners’ learning motivation or interest. However, in my opinion, direct ESL grammar instruction may help raise learners’ consciousness of a form which they have not noticed when they have read or heard it. This way, learners would learn to recognize the features of the grammar in their fastest pace. I always persist, once we keep explicit rules in mind for a long time, we would produce the particular forms automatically when we are communicating. Therefore, since there are pros and corns within the terms, which I prefer to adhere to should be based on the learners’ difference, such as age, proficiency, learning strategies, or learning motivation or the difficulty of the form patterns. For example, for elementary children or basic ESL learners, it would be a better way to instruct them with lots of examples and practices. For advanced learners, it would be quite good to lecture them with the understanding of grammar rules to accelerate their learning. For me, used to teach a group of junior high students, I tend to tell them the grammar patterns first and ask them to practice with lots of examples.
PISA, which is an acronym of “Program for International Student Assessment “ . The program aims at assessing learning students' reading, mathematics and science ability. The PISA tests asks students to apply their mathematical and scientific knowledge to solve problems set in various real-world contexts. To solve the problems students must activate a number of scientific and reading competencies as well as a broad range of mathematical content knowledge. That is, the goal of the program is not to test how much a student learns rather how much a student could apply their knowledge to solve real-life problems.
As an English teacher, I'm usually eager to lecture my students grammar patterns, vocabulary or everything which would be possibly tested on the tests. I forget what students really need is “authentic ability” which could be applied to their real-life situation and how to make meaningful communications among the practical world. From the two terms, I also find that, no matter for teachers or learners, learning should involve two-way interaction and learners' autonomy and critical thinking to adapt the real world.
Activity 2
1. Define these two terms: “Focus on forms" & “Focus on form”
2. What are the differences between the two approaches?
3.Which one do you or will you adhere to?
1. Definition and difference between these two terms
“Focus on forms” is the deliberate teaching of grammar in order to produce understanding of the grammar, in the hope that understanding alone will allow the language learner to use the form correctly. “Focus on form”, on the other hand, refers to bringing grammar to the attention of language learners as a part of communicative language practice. It is generally conceded that focusing on grammar for grammar’s sake does little to contribute to correctness during communication, while making ESL learners aware of structures as a part of communicative language practice can contribute to the development of greater accuracy during communication (Trent, 2011).
2. Which one do you or will you adhere to?
Based on the former definition, the research de-emphasizes the use of focus on forms. Indeed, too much attention to explicit grammar rules may reduce learners’ learning motivation or interest. However, in my opinion, direct ESL grammar instruction may help raise learners’ consciousness of a form which they have not noticed when they have read or heard it. This way, learners would learn to recognize the features of the grammar in their fastest pace. I always persist, once we keep explicit rules in mind for a long time, we would produce the particular forms automatically when we are communicating. Therefore, since there are pros and corns within the terms, which I prefer to adhere to should be based on the learners’ difference, such as age, proficiency, learning strategies, or learning motivation or the difficulty of the form patterns. For example, for elementary children or basic ESL learners, it would be a better way to instruct them with lots of examples and practices. For advanced learners, it would be quite good to lecture them with the understanding of grammar rules to accelerate their learning. For me, used to teach a group of junior high students, I tend to tell them the grammar patterns first and ask them to practice with lots of examples.
Activity 3
Understanding Writing and Oral Presentation English in Science and Engineering: A Scientific Analysis
Time: Thursday Nov. 1 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Place: Assembly Building I Room 101
Questions to consider:
1. What is AntConc or AntWordProfiler (or other software) you found on Prof. Anthony’s website?
2. How can we use them in our English teaching?
3. List two questions you want to ask Prof. Anthony.
1. As Laurence Anthony claims Antconc is a corpus analysis toolkit designed specifically for use in the classroom. It’s a freeware application including various functions for learners to improve their writing skills, such as concordance tool, WKFIC, tools for cluster and lexical bundle analysis and a word distribution plot.
2. In terms of budget, it’s a freeware application. Students, especially college students, could easily get the access to the software when they are writing their thesis as a reference. For teachers, teachers could show the software without budget issues in class to help student find some authentic resource about language use on their writing works.
In terms of teaching, I much appreciate the function of sorting of key word context. As a language learner, even for a teacher, it’s hard but essential to tell the frequency of each key word in the particular context. With the help of Antconc, teachers could more easily investigate what word is appropriate in the specific context.
3. Questions:
Would Antcons be beneficial for high school learners as well? How could we make sure they won’t face technical problems?
Would it be possible to create an informal and casual idioms concordance based on target context which is used in a casual conservation?
Time: Thursday Nov. 1 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Place: Assembly Building I Room 101
Questions to consider:
1. What is AntConc or AntWordProfiler (or other software) you found on Prof. Anthony’s website?
2. How can we use them in our English teaching?
3. List two questions you want to ask Prof. Anthony.
1. As Laurence Anthony claims Antconc is a corpus analysis toolkit designed specifically for use in the classroom. It’s a freeware application including various functions for learners to improve their writing skills, such as concordance tool, WKFIC, tools for cluster and lexical bundle analysis and a word distribution plot.
2. In terms of budget, it’s a freeware application. Students, especially college students, could easily get the access to the software when they are writing their thesis as a reference. For teachers, teachers could show the software without budget issues in class to help student find some authentic resource about language use on their writing works.
In terms of teaching, I much appreciate the function of sorting of key word context. As a language learner, even for a teacher, it’s hard but essential to tell the frequency of each key word in the particular context. With the help of Antconc, teachers could more easily investigate what word is appropriate in the specific context.
3. Questions:
Would Antcons be beneficial for high school learners as well? How could we make sure they won’t face technical problems?
Would it be possible to create an informal and casual idioms concordance based on target context which is used in a casual conservation?
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