Equipping Teachers to be Language Explorers

1
Equipping Teachers to be Language Explorers

• Exploring language in the classroom
• Elaine Tarone

2
Background The Minnesota Context

• Enduring Scandinavian heritage
• Other historic ethnic groups African-American
  and German
• French voyageurs and American Indians gave us
  place names and north country activities like ice
  hockey, canoeing, and exploration

3
Increasing Linguistic Cultural Diversity

• 25 of students in St Paul Public Schools are
  Hmong
• Hispanics are the fastest growing minority
  group
• Largest Somali immigrant group in the U.S. is in
  the Twin Cities
• It is a very diverse group of learners that we
  are preparing our language teacher-learners to
  face.

4
Years ago I asked a teacher at my school, what do
you teach?

• I expected something like I teach French to a
  diverse group of high school freshmen.
• She answered, I teach Prentice-Hall.

5
Basic Message of this Talk

• Teach the learner
• Dont teach the book
• Dont teach the curriculum
• Dont teach the test
• Dont teach the parents.
• FOCUS ON THE LANGUAGE LEARNER

6
Basic Message to Teacher-Learners

• Figure out who your students are
• Figure out what language your students know and
  dont know, and what they need to learn
• Teach that, in ways that work for them.

7
Language Teaching is like a TripApproach 1

• Teaching Approach 1 I teach the book.
• teach students who are all from the same
  linguistic and cultural background, in programs
  where someone else has ordered the book, and
  planned the schedule, the activities, and the
  tests.
• based on some professionals global assumptions
  about the average student

8
Language Teaching is like a Trip Approach 1

• Travel Approach 1 I do the tour.
• travel in groups of people like yourself on
  pre-planned tours where someone else has selected
  popular routes, schedules, hotels, restaurants,
  activities
• based on trip organizers global assumptions
  about average interests and needs of people like
  them

9
There IS no readymade book that is designed to
meet the language learning needs of YOUR LEARNERS.
10
Language Teaching is like a Trip Approach 2

• Language Teaching Approach 2 I teach the
  language my students need to learn.
• teach a L2 to students from different native
  languages and cultures, in a class where on an
  ongoing basis you choose your own teaching
  materials, schedule, activities, and tests
• based on your analysis of YOUR particular
  students diverse needs

11
Language Teaching is like a Trip Approach 2

• Travel Approach 2 I explore.
• travel on your own, get off the beaten track,
  choosing your own route, schedule, hotel,
  restaurants and activities
• based on YOUR needs and interests

12
Approach 1

• Approach 1 is EASY just show up and follow
  directions

13
Approach 2

• Approach 2 is HARD requires special training,
  equipment and skills, sensitivity to changing
  contexts, and wisdom to use the right skills in
  the right context

14
U.S. teachers ill-equipped to teach students from
diverse languages and cultures (Adger et al 2002)

• Multicultural and multilingual classes are the
  norm
• Students discourse and learning patterns are
  affected by their culture and language background
• Mainstream teachers must know more about language
  and culture in order to teach ANY content
  effectively
• Teaching world languages requires a deep and
  explicit knowledge of the facts about language
  (map), and the skills to analyze language on an
  ongoing basis (map-reading skills)

15
Language teachers as school experts

• Increasingly, mainstream teachers in schools may
  turn to their language teacher colleagues
  (English, ESL, FL) for the knowledge they need
• But do language teachers themselves have the
  expert knowledge about language facts that is
  needed?
• Are they equipped with the skills they need for
  exploration in this new territory of language and
  culture?

16
Language Teacher Knowledge Base

• What should be the knowledge base for language
  teacher education?
• Is what we teach in our LTE programs USEFUL to
  language teachers?
• Does it include tools and skills they need to do
  language analysis?

17
Knowledge Base Just the Facts?

• Some LTE books and programs conceptualize the
  knowledge base as no more than a body of facts
• Teacher learners must internalize those facts
• and demonstrate they know those facts on essay
  and M/C tests, and in reviews of the literature
• Examples grammar and SLA courses

18
Goal of many grammar and SLA courses for teachers

• Show you know facts about the field.
• Memorize them to repeat them on the test.

19
Knowledge Base FACTS?

• The rules for using ser and estar in Spanish are
  
• The polite form for greeting a superior in
  Japanese is
• Research shows that teachers prefer to use
  implicit corrective feedback (recasts)
• Research shows the stages of acquisition of
  questions in German L2 are

20
Facts are not enough

• You do need the basic facts but
• just owning the map and knowing the names of the
  parts of a canoe doesnt make you an expert
  orienteer and canoeist.
• You need to develop skills in the USE of the
  equipment.

21
Remember where youre going . its a much more
complex context than it used to be... requiring
skills, knowledge, and understanding.
22
(No Transcript)
23
Can we teach teachers to use facts to solve such
language learning problems as these?

• I need a way to get these students to use ser
  and estar correctly.
• This kind of error may require a more explicit
  correction strategy than a recast.
• I wonder if consciousness-raising will get this
  learner to use a polite greeting form.
• Is this learner developmentally ready for this
  lesson on German questions?

24
Reconceptualizing the knowledge base

• Defining the elements of the knowledge base that
  needs to be provided in any language teacher
  education program.

25
Three dimensions of knowledge for language
teacher education (Allwright, 2001 Tarone
Allwright 2005)
26
Dimension 1 SKILLS

• TECHNIQUES
• How to demonstrate a new speech sound
• How to keep students engaged in class
• How to recast an error in conversation
• Essential to language teaching, but not enough
• Skills and techniques may enable one to teach
  the book -- but not to make decisions required
  in teaching a group of students with varied needs
  

27
Dimension 2 KNOWLEDGE

• FACTS about language / language learning
• Basic units of language
• Rules for using definite and indefinite articles
• Stages of acquisition of questions in the L2
• Essential to language teaching, but not enough
• Knowing these facts does not enable the teacher
  to move beyond teaching the book

28
Dimension 3 UNDERSTANDING

• How and when to USE skills and knowledge
• When to provide a particular form of corrective
  feedback to learners
• Why Group Activity X helps learners to move from
  Stage 2 to Stage 3 question formation
• How and when to analyze a sentences structure
• The ability to USE implicit skills and explicit
  knowledge is what enables one to move beyond
  teaching the book to teaching students.

29
John Dewey Pragmatism
(Hickman Alexander, 1998)

• Education of language teachers should not be
  simply teaching dead facts
• Skills and knowledge learned should be fully
  integrated into their lives
• Learn by doing not just knowledge, not just
  skills, but skills that put knowledge to use
• Teacher learning requires a combination of
  content mastery, skills development and
  understanding

30
Is the knowledge base implicit or explicit?

• Implicit unconscious, unanalyzed, unstated, not
  the focus of attention
• Explicit conscious, analyzed, verbalized, the
  focus of attention

31
Language Learner Knowledge

• May be almost entirely implicit, particularly for
  a native speaker or a student from a program
  like
• Communicative Language Teaching
• Natural Approach
• Language immersion with little language focus
• Implicit knowledge of the language is not an
  adequate knowledge base for language teaching

32
Language Teacher Knowledge

• Language teacher knowledge is both implicit and
  explicit
• Skills are implicit
• Knowledge of facts is explicit
• Ability to use both is both implicit and explicit

33
LANGUAGE

• Language teachers need to know more than just the
  language.
• Language teachers must have explicit knowledge
  about the way language is structured, and know
  how to analyze and sometimes talk about language
  structure
• Language teacher educators have the job of
  helping teacher learners make their implicit
  knowledge about language EXPLICIT (fostering the
  aha! moment).

34
Teaching Grammar as Fact AND Process

• Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999) The
  Grammar Book (supplement w/Yule 1999).
• Approach to teaching L2 grammar to
  teacher-learners (described in Tarone and
  Lazaraton, 2005)
• Facts of English grammar presented in terms of
  Form, Use, Usage

35
Example English passive

• Form of the be passive the prescriptive rule
• Describe syntactic rules The patient, or
  receiver of the action, becomes the subject of
  the passive sentence.
• The midfielder kicks the ball.
• The ball is kicked by the midfielder.
• Use of the be passive the function or meaning
• use the passive to foreground the patient, and
  background or even delete the agent
• Usage of the be passive the descriptive rule
• The get passive may be more common.
• Speakers seldom include the agent in by phrase

36
Usage Studies and Applications

• Teacher-learners are asked to compare
  prescriptive grammar rules in the book with
  actual usage (descriptive rules)
• Usage studies they ask a RQ, gather data,
  analyze it, and compare
• Then they consider implications for pedagogy

37
If I would have known

• FORM Book rule for past counterfactuals
• If I had known, I
• USAGE
• If I would have known, I
• Noriko Ishihara

38
After this grammar course, teacher-learners can

• Move beyond the book, treating textbook grammar
  rules as prescriptive, not descriptive
• Confidently analyze grammar usage by native
  speakers in the real world, and compare it to the
  grammar rules in the book
• Transfer that new knowledge into their own
  language classrooms, considering implications for
  pedagogy -- perhaps, ways to transmit the
  knowledge implicitly to their students

39
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

• LTE programs often now require teacher-learners
  to take a course on second language acquisition
  (SLA) research
• Rationale language teachers ought to understand
  how their students learn foreign languages
• Problem the content of SLA courses focus on
  knowledge, not skills or understanding

40
SLA COURSE CONTENT

• Proponents of these courses argue they teach how
  to evaluate published SLA research.
• Is this knowledge useful for language teachers?
  (Freeman Johnson 1998)
• Is this knowledge all that language teachers need?

41
Many SLA teachers are happy if at the end of the
course, their teacher-learners can say things
like this

• Research shows that teachers prefer to use
  implicit corrective feedback (recasts)
• Research shows the stages of acquisition of
  questions in German L2 are

42
CONTENT of SLA Course

• Intro SLA books cover prominent SLA theories and
  theorists, and research that supports or
  contradicts them
• Published research studies hot off the press,
  the newer the better
• Evaluation essay tests or papers focused on
  demonstrating knowledge of the facts

43
Id like to propose a different kind of SLA
course for language teachers to FOCUS ON THE
LEARNER
44
New SLA COURSE CONTENT

• THE LECTURE COMPONENT
• Provides a broad overview of state of knowledge
  in the field, the main theories, and most
  generally agreed upon facts about SLA derived
  from research
• An intro course does not get into detailed
  theoretical nuances, research design, or the very
  latest published findings
• THE LAB COMPONENT
• Provides teacher-learners with the tools to
  analyze the language of learners FOR THEMSELVES,
  and opportunities to practice using those tools
  in a lab setting before trying them on their own
• Asks them to consider pedagogical implications of
  their analyses

45
Goal of Lab Case Studies

• Through carrying out their own case study
  analyses of learner language, teacher learners
  will
• Develop a deeper understanding of SLA research by
  DOING it (learn by doing)
• Develop analytical skills to better understand
  language learning in their own classrooms (local
  research)
• Develop confidence in assessing the usefulness of
  published SLA research for their own context
  (move away from subservience toward
  autonomy)

46
HOW?

• Provide teacher-learners with video clips of
  actual L2 learners
• Provide teacher-learners with transcripts of the
  language produced on those video clips
• Set up pair-work activities focused on
  identifying particular interlanguage features in
  the learner language samples they have
• Report what they see and reflect on what they
  have and havent learned

47
GETTING VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPTS

• Commercially available option (used differently)
• Teemant Pinnegar, 2002
• Make your own
• Forthcoming book for ESL, with videos
• Tarone Swierzbin
• Planned CARLA site for FL videos

48
Transcript Barbara

• I have two years and a half, two years and a half
  have been in USA and I came from Guatemala. And I
  stay for three month, an first in Las Vegas,
  then my dad didnt like Las Vegas, so we came...
  My dad before work in Geneva, thats a company,
  and he, he work there, he was a welder, welder.

49
Lab in LTE Provides Supportive Context for
Learning

• How to use knowledge of language structure as a
  tool to analyze language
• How learner language changes in changing contexts
• How to think about best pedagogy to use in
  response to learner language needs

50
Equip teacher-learners to be language explorers

• Give them knowledge about the structure of
  language
• Give them knowledge about the way second
  languages are learned
• Give them practice analyzing the language that
  learners produce
• Help them reflect on pedagogical implications
• And they will have tools to take pedagogical
  action in meeting the local needs of language
  students in their own classes.
• They will be well-equipped to be

51
Language Explorers

• language teachers who can do more than just
  survive in the new territories of linguistically
  and culturally diverse language classrooms ---
  they

52
will be enabled to thrive there!
53
Theyll know when to portage past rough water
54
and come to places we ourselves may never see.
55
References

• Adger, C. T., Snow, C.E., Christian, D. (Eds.)
  (2002). What teachers need to know about
  language. McHenry, Ill Delta Systems Co., Inc
  Washington, D.C. Center for Applied Linguistics
  ERIC.
• Allwright, D. (2001). Three major processes of
  teacher development and the appropriate design
  criteria for developing and using them. In B.
  Johnston S. Irujo, Eds., Research and practice
  in language teacher education Voices from the
  field. (pp. 115-134). CARLA Working Paper 19.
  Minneapolis, MN Center for Advanced Research on
  Language Acquisition (CARLA).
• Allwright, D. (2003). Exploratory practice
  Re-thinking practitioner research in language
  teaching. Language Teaching Research 7, 113-141.
• Celce-Murcia, M. Larsen-Freeman, D., with
  Williams, H. (1999). The Grammar Book An ESL/EFL
  teachers course. (2nd ed.) Boston Thomson
  Heinle.
• Freeman, D. Johnson, D. (1998).
  Re-conceptualizing the knowledge-base of language
  teacher education, TESOL Quarterly, 32, 397-418.
• Hickman, L. Alexander, T. (1998). The Essential
  Dewey Vols. I and II. Bloomington, IN Indiana
  University Press.
• Lightbown, P., Spada, N. (2006). How Languages
  Are Learned, 3rd ed. Oxford Oxford University
  Press.
• Tarone, E. (2006) The language classroom A
  co-production of all participants, in S. Gieve
  and I. K. Miller (Eds.), Directions in Classroom
  Language Learning and Teaching A festschrift for
  Dick Allwright. (pp. 163-174). New York Palgrave
  Macmillan.

56
References (cont.)

• Tarone, E. Allwright, D. (2005). Language
  teacher-learning and student language-learning
  Shaping the knowledge base, in D.J. Tedick (Ed.),
  Second Language Teacher Education International
  Perspectives (pp. 5-23). Lawrence Erlbaum
  Publishers.
• Tarone, E. Lazaraton, A. (2005). The
  teacher-learner as fellow scholar A model for
  ESL teacher education, in J. Frodesen C. Holten
  (Eds.), The Power of Context in Language Teaching
  and Learning - A Festschrift in Honor of Marianne
  Celce-Murcia. (pp. 55-66). Boston Thomson
  Heinle.
• Teemant, A. Pinnegar, S. (2002). The Second
  Language Acquisition Case. Provo, UT BEEDE
  Program, Brigham Young University. Order
  Mary Jo Tansy, Creative Works Dept, (801)
  422-7634.
• Yule, G. (1997). Referential Communication Tasks.
  Mahwah, NJ Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Yule, G. (1999). Explaining English Grammar.
  Oxford Oxford University Press.