Week 11 Response

While reading chapter 9 in Beyond Methods, I began to think of how difficult it is to teach elements of language such as cohesion in discourse and stress/intonation patterns (especially in English).  When you also consider the situational context that may be necessary for language to make meaning, the waters get even murkier.  That's a lot to ask of a teacher, and may even be near impossible in the EFL context.  I started to think of ways in which a teacher could feasibly cover all these topics, which I believe are essential to mastery of the language.  I kept hitting this wall in which I thought, "Yeah, all that stuff is important and necessary, but you need to learn the basics first before you can begin to cover topics such as cohesion or cultural implications and interpretations."  As if he were reading my mind, Kuma introduced the three classes of drills, from mechanical, to meaningful, to communicative (214).  Of course, he went on later to criticize this model, but to me, it still makes sense.  I think a student must be taught the the basics before they can understand simplified language and the cultural context.  I have seen this many times while tutoring Spanish, but the same ideas can be applied to English as well.

For example, if we're discussing direct and indirect objects and their pronouns, you must scaffold the learner by breaking this knowledge and simplification process into steps.

1: Did you give the report to Jonathon?
2:a: Yes, I gave the report to Jonathon.
   b:Yes, I gave it to Jonathon.
   c: Yes, I gave it to him.

There are many transformations taking place in this example, and I think the best way to have the student understand them is to take it one step at a time.  Only then can they apply it in their speech as an instantaneous process.

I also liked some of the microstrategies presented near the end of the chapter.  I thought the timeline activity, in particular, could be used for comprehensive learning and culmination of previously learned concepts such as the past tense, future tense, and any vocabulary that was presented in and outside of the class.  Normally, I disregard anything that has "Cloze" in the title, but the activity Kuma shows on page 219 was adapted to test only grammatically categories, and thus, I think it can form part of the "mechanical" step of learning grammar.

Chapter 10 deals with the integration of traditionally 'isolated' language skills (e.g. speaking, listening, writing, reading).  However, from our class discussions regarding strategies, as well as from ENG 346 and assessment techniques, I think we have come to realize they are rarely separate.  However, I think most people would still hold tight to the active-passive separation, because it seems so inherent to us (227).  The truth is that, by modeling strategies and techniques, teachers can attempt to break this assumption.  For instance, while performing a "passive" activity such as reading, the students can also perform "Think Alouds" and share their immediate thoughts with a partner, and then discuss the passage.  Thus, the activity because "active" and multiple modalities are engaged simultaneously.