Monthly Archives: March 2015

Best Practices in Teaching: Task-Orientation & Student Success

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In this post, we continue to examine best practices for effective teaching. The topics of this post are as follows…

  • Teacher Task-Orientation
  • Student Success Rate

Teacher Task Orientation

Task-orientation of the teacher is about how much time a teacher spends actually teaching. There are many hurdles to staying on-task from classroom management issues to interruptions by announcements from the administration. In addition, if the teacher is not prepared through thorough planning and if he/she is unclear in their delivery, a lot of time will be lost in having to re-explain and go over the same material several times unnecessarily.

Task-orientation plays a role in the environment of the classroom. As such, it influences the students’ perception of their learning experience. If the kids are off-task too much there learning suffers and their experience at school plummets as well. Therefore, If the focus of the teacher is not on teaching and the instructional guidance of the students, it could impact their effectiveness. This means that planning and the focus of the teacher are components of successful teaching.

Student Success Rate

Student success is the rate at which students are able to understand and complete assessments at levels that meet or exceeds objectives. It is a common misperception among many that if students do not perform well it is their fault. To be fair, it is often the student’s fault at least partially. However, an effective teacher also needs to look at him or herself if many students are struggling.

A general rule of thumb to determine how challenging a task should be is that students should spend about 2/3 of their time on tasks and assignments that allow for almost totally understanding of the content. This means that your goal should never be to overwhelm your students through requiring task beyond their ability. The desire should be the growth of the talents of the student and not to decimate them through requiring tasks that are beyond their zone of proximal development.

Frequent failure lowers self-esteem and could lead to students who become disengaged. On the other hand, moderate to high levels of success contributes to mastery of content and fosters deeper critical thinking. This may be because the students are learning but they are not perfect. Thus, they are doing well but are also aware of where they need to improve. This experience of good but not perfect contributes to a growth mindset in which the student is convinced that they can improve. To summarize, an effective teacher must be cautious of the twin dangers of total discouragement and on total success of students.

Conclusion

Time on task and implementing principles of assuring student success are core components of effective teaching. It is not necessarily easy to get things done in the classroom. In addition, it is a challenge to determine the right amount of difficulty for assignments. However, understanding how to achieve the goals of time on task and student success is necessary for those who aspire to increase the effectiveness of their instruction.

Best Practices in Teaching: Knowledgeable

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In this post, we will continue to look at common best practices in teaching. A critical best practice for teachers is having a thorough knowledge of their field. As such, being knowledgeable is a core component of effective teaching.

Knowledgeable 

An effective teacher must be knowledgeable. However, there are several types of knowledge that teachers need. Among the various types includes the following.

  • Content knowledge
  • Pedagogical knowledge
  • Context knowledge
  • Curriculum knowledge

Content Knowledge

Content knowledge is perhaps the most obvious form of knowledge a teacher needs. Content knowledge is a thorough understanding of one’s subject. It is commonly taking for granted that content knowledge is a given by the time anyone reaches the level of teacher at any level of school. However, there are times when a teacher is called to teach outside their expertise which jeopardizes their effectiveness as they lack the necessary knowledge to teach at a high level.

Pedagogical Knowledge

Pedagogical knowledge relates to knowledge of various modes of instruction. Many lecturers love to lecture. Lecturing is only one form of teaching and there are many different ways to add “spice” to one’s instructional approaches without undue stress. Understanding how to teach in different modes is important. In addition, knowledge of how to assess students in various ways increases the variety of instruction and thus the teaching effectiveness of lecturers.

Pedagogical knowledge is closely related to variety of instruction.  However, pedagogical knowledge is an antecedent of variety of knowledge since you cannot teach different ways with having the necessary knowledge to do this first.

Contextual Knowledge

Contextual knowledge is possessing an understanding of what is happening within the institution. Such knowledge of context includes knowledge of decisions by leadership, happenings within various departments, and or student activities. Knowledge of the context is valuable because these factors within the school affect the students. For example, if the Student Association had an activity over the weekend, there may be a decline in the time spent by students over the weekend studying. This may mean having a major test the next week may not be the best decision after such a weekend. A teacher can choose to go forward with the same teaching decision without considering context but this could affect the effectiveness of the teaching.

Curriculum Knowledge

Curriculum knowledge entails the skill to develop a cohesive plan for instructional activities. Effective teachers need to understand principles of instructional design for the sake of information processing. In addition, an effective teacher needs to see the big picture of how what they are doing in their classroom influences their students, their department, their fellow teachers, and their institution. This view is often missing as teachers focus exclusively on their class to the detriment of the goals of the school.

Some questions to ask when thinking of curriculum knowledge is. How do my course standards support the goals of the department? How do the departmental goals support the philosophy of the institution? Being able as an instructor to answer these questions about curriculum provides direction in an effective teacher’s approach. All of these principles of curriculum knowledge relate to structuring the content, which includes indicating to the students what they need to know.

Conclusion

Knowledge of various aspects of the teaching experience is critical for strong teaching. The principles in this post are some of the most basic concepts of knowledge needed for teaching.

Best Practices in Teaching: Variety of Instruction

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In this post, we continue our discussion on best practices in teaching. The topic of this post is the concept of variety of instructional approaches. This is a key characteristic of effective teaching.

Instructional Variety

Instructional variety is a description of the flexibility of an instructor when presenting a lesson. For a teacher, this means being able to shift from one form of instruction to another in order to maintain the focus of students. This is not easy and is considered a valuable skill in education. If a teacher teaches the same way regardless of what the lesson demands or the students need, this indicates a lack of a variety. This inability to provide instruction in a variety of ways suggest that there may be a lower level of teacher effectiveness.

There are naturally many different ways to provide a variety of instruction. Some of the ways to do this include showing enthusiasm, which helps to maintain the energy of the lesson. Having several forms of reinforcement in your classroom is another form of variety. Reinforcement encourages the behavior you as a teacher want to see in your classroom. The emphasis on reinforcement is psychological being based on operant conditioning. Other approaches include using student ideas. Using student ideas heightens relevance, which is a key component of humanistic teaching. Some ways to include student ideas are the following

  • Acknowledge a student idea-This can be done through repeating the idea the student shared to the class
  • Modify-Rephrase in idea provided by a student and repeat it to the class
  • Apply-Take a student’s idea and use it in a different context
  • Compare-Take the idea and relate it to something similar
  • Summarize-Use the student’s idea to review the lesson.

Using Questions

One of the simplest ways to bring variety into the classroom is through the use of questions. Questions stimulate thinking and provide a way to include simple forms of application within a lesson without extensive effort.

Two common types of questions are content and process questions. Content questions assess understanding of facts which have one answer. For example, “what time is it? Process questions require many different answers. An example would be “who was the best president of the United States?” Content questions deal with declarative knowledge while process questions often deal with procedural knowledge. In addition, content questions deal with lower level knowledge while process questions deal with higher-level thinking.

Conclusion

There is so much more that can be said on this subject. Variety of instruction can come through using student ideas, reinforcement, and or the use of questions. There are other ways to make this happen but the ways provided are perhaps the easiest for someone new to teaching. It would be nice for others to share some ways they bring instructional variety into their classroom

Best Practices in Teaching: Clear Lessons

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What is an Effective Teacher?

For many, there are two types of teachers, the good, and the bad. However, labeling a teacher as bad is oversimplistic as there is so much more to the story than this. Many times the success of a “good” teacher and the disappointment of a “bad” teacher have more to do with differences in the effectiveness of their teaching.

A good teacher is good because they are more effective at what they do and vice versa. A struggling teacher can become much more successful through understanding how to be more efficient at what they do. Even with limited “natural” talent, a teacher who is trained to be efficient can have success in the classroom.

So what is effective teaching? An effective teacher is most often a role model and they serve as an example of what students should strive to become. Unfortunately, ineffective teaching also provides a poor example that some students influenced by. Amazingly, such traits as aptitude, personality, attitude, and even experience are not strong indicators of effective teaching. In this post, along with several more in the future, we will look at best practice for efficient. For now, we will look at one critical indicator of teaching effectiveness which is the ability to develop clear lessons.

Clear Lessons

Clear teaching is the ability of a teacher to share content in a comprehensible way. In order to have clear instruction consider the following do’s of lesson clarity

  • Clear lessons allow students to follow along in a systematic manner. This means that a teacher should be familiar with various forms of instructional design which takes into account how people process information. In many ways, the teacher is taking the students on a journey with him/her. The students know what they are doing, where they are going, how they are getting there,  and when they will get there. Without direction, the students are lost and quickly frustrated.
  • Clear lesson actual involves direct oral delivery. Direct instruction has been receiving a bad rap over the last few years as there has been more and more push towards active learning and getting away from teacher-centered instruction. However, an effective teacher connects with his audience while speaking. They are aware of student’s understanding and communicate directly without mysterious unclear language. Sparingly used, direct communication plays a critical role in the 21st-century classroom.
  • Clear lesson includes an advance organizer. Advance organizers are pictorial representations of the content of the lesson. The purpose of organizers is to introduce a lesson, guide students through a lesson, and conclude a lesson.They provide a context in which the relationships of various ideas are seen in how they are connected.
  • Clear lessons include assessing prior knowledge. Keeping with the tenets of instructional design, an effective teacher begins with a review of knowledge students should already have in order to determine where to begin the lesson of the day. In addition, information processing theories indicate that constant reviewing deepens the understanding of the students and can contribute to elaboration and higher levels of thinking.
  • Clear lessons provide an application. This is an aspect of humanistic teaching, which emphasis relevancy. In a post-modern world, students need to know how they can implement the information they are learning in school. The application provides the setting in which students can connect what they learned to their own life. This experience is at the heart of constructionism. The inclusion of context helps in not only information processing but in understanding as relevance has been created for the student.

Conclusion

Lesson clarity is in many ways an indication of a teacher’s organizational skills. In addition, the clarity of the teacher plays a role in the academic performance of students. This is a teachable skill. Many are clearer than others but all can improve their ability to develop clear lessons. The trick is to know how well you do this and to develop steps to improve.

Methods of Teaching English: Part 4

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The last few post have been looking at various methods of teaching English. In this post, we will look at the following

  • Communicative Language Teaching
  • Task-based learning
  • Lexical method

Communicative Language Teaching

The premise behind communicative language teaching (CLT) is that people need to learn the spoken functions of language as well as they learn the grammar. Therefore, students in this method focused on communicating as much as possible and learn the grammar of the language along the way. By doing this, students understand the language would happen naturally.

With CLT the focus is always on realistic communication. Role play and simulation are common techniques of the CLT method. For the most part, whatever replicates real communication falls under the CLT method. This has led to confusion in defining CLT as it is a vague method in terms of what it is.

There is some criticism of CLT. For example, it favors native-speakers who can teach in an improvised language environment. CLT is also difficult to use in a context that is traditionally teacher-centered. Another concern is that students develop fluency in the language at the expense of accuracy in their understanding of the grammar.

Task-based Learning

In Task-based learning (TBL) students learn the language by performing various task. TBL has three steps.

  1. Pre-task–Introduction of the topic and task
  2. Task cycle–Students complete the task
  3. Language focus–Students analysis what they did and learn the language lesson

For example, the teacher explains the activity of the day and goes over necessary new vocabulary (pre-task). Next, students are given a bus schedule and they are asked to tell what time such and such bus arrives (task cycle). Lastly, the students complete the task and then the teacher explains whatever language was being used (language focus). This is a highly inductive form of learning. The belief is that if they complete the task then they will develop competency in the language.

Criticism of TBL is that the term is vague and involves common learning task. Another problem is that there is more to language than just completing a task. Some even believe that focusing on a task while also learning the concepts of a language could overload a learner’s cognitive capacity.

Lexical Method

The lexical method is based on the belief that language is not about grammar but multi-word pre-made chunks. Examples include Come on…?, I’ll try, You must be kidding?, may as well. If students learn these “chunks” they can make a whole string of sentences. Students learn how to use these phrases and thus learn the language.

The Lexical method has detractors like all other methods discussed. For one, no one has been able to prove how learning these short phrases actually helps in learning the language. It is like learning the phrases in a phrase book. You know the phrases without knowing the language.

Another concern is the lack of procedures for the Lexical method. A method without procedures is not much of a method. For many, this is a method without support.

Conclusion

These methods here are among some of the most common teaching methods in language learning. Teachers and students need to see what is best among the myriad of choices when deciding on how learning will take place in their classroom.

Methods of Teaching English: Part 3

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This post will continue our look at different methods to teaching English. This post is unique in that we will examine methods that are considered by many to be somewhat outside the main line of English teaching methods. The methods of this post are…

  • Community Language Learning
  • Suggestopedia
  • Total Physical Response
  • Silent Way

Community Language Learning

Community Language Learning method involves a circle of students who are attempting to speak. There is a person called the “knower”, also known as the teacher, who stands outside the circle and helps the students to articulate what they want to say. The knower helps the students by translating, suggesting, or modifying what the students are trying to say. Through this process, the students develop a basic idea of the grammar of the target language.

There is a significant lack of direction in the use of the Community Learning method. This concern has been one of the strongest complaints. In addition. students are constantly being corrected in groups, which is not appropriate in many different context.

Suggestopedia

Suggestopedia is perhaps one of the most unusual methods of teaching English. This method focuses on developing a relaxing environment in which the students emotions are made calm. The student-teacher relationship is one of a child-parent, which is disconcerting to many. During the lesson, the teacher reads a dialog with Baroque music in the background, which helps to provide a nice ambiance for the learning. The three phases of Suggestopedia are

  1. Pre-sessions-Students are informed of the topic and materials of the lesson
  2. Session-Students experience the lesson
  3. Post-session-Various elaborations of the topic are used to encourage assimilation of the text such as role playing or monologues.

It is not hard to prove that this is a unique teaching method. The teacher has an extraordinary amount of psychological influence over the students that few would consider healthy.

Total Physical Response

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a method in which the teacher tells the students in the target language to do various tasks. Examples include “run in place” or “jump up and down.” By doing the commands the students learn the language. As the students become comfortable they begin to give commands themselves.

TPR is an excellent approach for learning the basics of the conversational aspects of a language. However, deeper levels of communication and academic levels of speaking are not possible through this method alone. Initially, TPR can also be highly teacher-centered, which limits students learning at times.

The Silent Way

In the silent way, the teacher rarely speaks. Instead, they point to a phonemic chart and model the sounds. The students attempt to imitate the sound that they hear and the teacher uses gesture to indicate the accuracy of the students’ imitation. This places the burden on the students to figure out the language. When students are correct, the teacher moves to a different phoneme or word.

Lack of communication makes this approach frustrating for someone. Beyond pronunciation, this method is not widely used.

Conclusion

Different methods work for different people. Although these methods in this post are considered somewhat as being on the fringe of English teaching they are still useful in a variety of context. As such, it is the responsibility of the teacher to determine which methods are best for their students.

Methods of Teaching English: Part 2

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In this post, we will continue our discussion on various methods of teaching English. In particular, we will look at the Presentation, Practice, and Production method (PPP) along with variations of this approach.

The PPP method is actually derived from the Audiolingualism method. The difference between PPP and audiolingualism is that PPP places language in obvious situational contexts. The teacher uses a scenario that provides contextualization of the language acquisition. Students practice the language within the context. For example, if the context is movies the students or the teacher would develop phrases related to the topic of movies.

The PPP method is divided into the following procedure

  • Presentation
  • Practice
  • Production

Presentation

Presentation is the teacher sharing the context of the discussion. For example, the teacher may show a picture of people in the library. The teacher may then point to various people in the picture and ask the students what the people in the picture are doing.

As the students respond the teacher listens for the grammar that she wants to isolate for practicing. If the goal is to develop students understanding of contractions this is what the teacher will listen for as the students provide answers to her question. Another way to do this is by the teacher modeling the answer she wants. By allowing the students to generate the material it can help in improving relevancy for the students. This experience leads to the next step in the PPP procedures.

Practice

At this stage, the students employ what they learned several times in relation to the context. Returning to our library example, the teacher has the students develop several sentences that describe what is happening in the library while using contractions. This process is also called cue-response.

Production

At this stage, the students are no longer answering the teacher but are developing their own sentences related to the picture. The context can even be extended beyond where the learned the new skill. For example, after learning about contractions in relation to the picture of the library, students might use contraction to describe school, family, friends, etc.

Variations

There are several variations of the PPP method. Most are in response to criticism of PPP. Some claim that this approach is teacher-centered or that the processes are too linear.

One alternative is the Deep-End Strategy which allows a teacher to begin the lesson at any point in the PPP method. Teachers are not bound to start at presentation but can begin anywhere in the procedure. This allows flexibility and removes the linear criticism of the PPP method.

Another variation is the Engage, Study, Activate method. Engage means that the students are emotionally ready to learn. Study is the focus of the student on a form or component of a language such as past tense, passive voice, etc. Activate is the students use of the language in a meaning making activity.

Conclusion

The PPP method is one of many tools that teachers can employ in the teaching of language. It involves the use of context in order to enhance the relevancy for the student. Though this process has its critics, the PPP method is a practical and simple way to teach language.

Methods of Teaching English: Part I

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In this post, we will begin a discussion on various methods of teaching language, primarily English. In this post, in particular, we will look at the Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method, and Audiolingualism.

Grammar-Translation Method

One of the oldest methods for teaching people a new language is the Grammar-Translation method. It is derived from the belief that students can acquire a language through rigorous training in translating the language and learning the grammatical rules of it.

This belief or approach to language acquisition led to a practical set of techniques. Among some of the common techniques of the Grammar-Translation method include.

  1. Reading text in the new language.
  2. Translating the text into the students’ language
  3. Learning grammatical rules of the new language
  4. Memorizing vocabulary

This is an excellent method for learning to read in another language. You simply learn the vocabulary, grammatical rules, and you are ready to go. For those who study ancient languages such as Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in biblical studies, this is the approach used for acquiring knowledge of the language.

One of the biggest concerns with this method was the indifference to speaking. Students who learn with the Grammar-Translation method often do not acquire verbal communication skills. This leaves them with a theoretical knowledge of the language with an understanding of practical use.

Direct Method

The Direct method is a reaction to the Grammar-Translation method. The Direct method de-emphasized translation and focused instead on the teachers and students speaking together. Grammatical rules were related to real-life objects and the target language was the only language used in the classroom. Below is a list of common techniques associated with the Direct method.

  • Reading aloud
  • Self-correction
  • Dictation
  • Question and answers

This method allowed for the development of verbal skills while still allowing for understanding grammatical rules. The Direct method is also practical as it relates well to language use in the real world. However, there are problems with this method. The Direct method emphasizes pronunciation, which requires a native speaker. Another concern was that mostly strong teachers can use this method in the classroom. Lastly, the avoidance of the native language makes it difficult to communicate at times.

The Direct method, over time, has morphed into what is now called Audiolingualism. This method is derived from the approaches related to behaviorism. This method relied heavily on operant conditioning and stimulus-response-reinforcement. The same techniques mentioned above were employed with the added caveat of positive reinforcement. Drills were used to help students to practice the language.

Conclusions

There are many more methods used in language teaching beyond the ones mentioned in this post. All methods are used primarily to help students to acquire mastery of a new language. The method employed depends on the needs of the students as well as the abilities and talents of the teacher.

Approach, Method, Procedure, and Techniques In Language Learning

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In language teaching,  in the general area of teaching methodology, people talk about approaches, methods, procedures, and techniques. This post will help to clarify the meaning of these interrelated terms and provide examples of each.

Approaches

An approach is a theory about language learning or even a philosophy of how people learn in general. They can be psychologically focused such as behaviorism or cognitivism. They can also be based on older philosophies such as idealism or realism.

Approaches are fuzzy and hard to define because they are broad in nature. An example of an approach that leads to a method would be the philosophies of scholasticism, faculty of psychology, or even perennialism. Each of these philosophies encouraged the development of the mind in the way of a muscle. Train the brain and a person would be able to do many different things. These philosophies have impacted some methods of language teaching as we will see below.

Method

A method is an application of an approach in the context of language teaching. An example of a method is the grammar-translation method. This method employs the memorization of various grammar rules and the translation of second language material to the student’s native language. Students were able to develop the intellectual capacity to understand the new language through a deductive process of acquiring the rules of the language.The purpose is not to critique this method but to show how it was derived from the approach that the mind needs to be trained through intellectual exercises to be able to accomplish something.

Procedures

Procedures are the step-by-step measures to execute a method. These step-by-step measures are called techniques and will be discussed next. Common procedures for the grammar-translation method includes the following…

The ESL / ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide

  1. The class reads a text written in the second language.
  2. Student translates the passage from the second language to their mother tongue.
  3. Student translates new words from the second language to their mother tongue.
  4. Student is given a grammar rule and derived from the example they apply the rule by using the new words.
  5. Student memorizes the vocabulary of the second language.
  6. Student memorizes grammar rules.
  7. Errors made by the student are corrected by providing the right answers.

This is the process (with variation) that is used when employing the grammar-translation method.

Techniques

A technique is a single activity that comes from a procedure. Anyone of the steps of the procedure list above qualifies as a technique. Naturally, various methods employ various techniques.

Conclusion

Language teaching involves approaches that lead to methods, methods that are broken down into procedures, and procedures that are a collection of techniques. Understanding how these concepts interrelate can help a teacher know the reasons behind their choices in how they choose to teach.

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Differentiated Instruction

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One approach to dealing with the individual differences of students is the method of differentiated instruction. In this approach, the focus is on the academic success of individual students or a small group. In order to use this method, a teacher needs a knowledge of the students learning history, interests, readiness to learn among other things. This knowledge helps in developing individual lessons and activities that maximize the personal growth of each student.

In general, there are three crucial components of differentiated instruction. These components are…

  • Content
  • Process
  • Product

Content

The content in differentiated instruction is varied. This allows the learners to choose how they will learn. The content also varies in complexity in that students are able to complete tasks that are with their zone of proximal development. This allows all students to experience academic success.

Content is also present in incremental steps or from simple to complex. The goal is to meet the students where they are at and allow them to grow through activities that are appropriate for their current level of ability.

Process

Students are allowed to work individually, in small groups, or as an entire class. These various methods of the process of learning help to meet students various goals for learning. This also provides incentive for students to learn as they are allowed to learn in a format that is comfortable for them.

Products

Differentiated instruction calls for variety in the assessment methods. There is often a list of assignments to choose from. Students pick an assignment that is appropriate to their level of ability They are allowed to express their understanding of the content in a multitude of ways.

Pros and Cons of Differentiated Instruction

There are several advantages of differentiated instruction. One, a teacher can meet the individual needs of a student. Two, this approach is useful for diverse heterogeneous classrooms. Everyone is not put into the same mold but allowed various forms of demonstrating mastery. Lastly, there is a shift from subject-centered to a student-centered curriculum. This increases the level of activity of the student and helps in increasing learning.

Some cons of differentiated instruction are as follows. One, developing all of the various activities, assignments can be extremely taxing for even an experienced teacher. Another problem is marking different assignments for different students yet submitting a grade. If everyone does something different it leads to questions about the validity of the grading. Finally, a teacher has to teach and assisted with several different tasks simultaneously. This is again challenging to do.

Conclusion

Differentiated instruction is best for small classes with diverse students. As the classes grow larger, there is a need for more homogeneous teaching and assessment.  In addition, differentiated instruction is an advance teaching approach. Younger teachers are welcomed to attempt this approach but may find themselves overwhelmed due to the high demand on time. It is left to each teacher to decide if this approach is appropriate for them.

Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL)

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One of the more recent changes in English language teaching has been the use of cellphones and tablets in language learning. Through the use of the phones, students are learning fundamental components of conversational English. The use of mobile devices in the context of learning has been given the acronym of MALL which stands for Mobile Assisted Language Learning.

There are many distinct advantages and disadvantages to MALL and this post will explore them

Advantages

One of the most obvious advantages of MALL approaches is the mobility. Students can study anytime and anywhere since they normally keep their cellphones with them. This leads to a second advantage of informal learning. Informal learning is unstructured learning while formal learning materials developed and by the teacher. Not always but often MALL approaches involve the use of materials that are not prepared by the teacher and thus are informal.

Another advantage is that cellphones and the apps that they use are often cheaper than computers. This means that the use of MALL approaches can be useful for saving on the investment of a regular size computer. The use of apps specifically can allow for student choice in that the students could decide for themselves which apps to use to develop their language skills. This is critically important since choice is a critical part of self-directed learning. This opportunity in directing their own learning helps students with decision-making as well as critical thinking skills.

Despite the autonomous nature of many MALL approaches, MALL can also encourage collaborative learning. This is often done by using Web 2.0 technologies such as twitter, facebook, and Youtube. Through social media, students can develop language skills together. This form of learning also leads to authentic assessments, which provides clear evidence of what the students are capable of doing. One example would be the use of infield mobile learning in which learning activities are conducted outside of the classroom during a trip such as to the museum. Students complete the assessment en vivo, in the field rather than in the classroom.

Disadvantages of MALL

There are also some problems with MALL. For example, if texting is employed in the learning it can become expensive for students and teachers. Tracking performance is another issue. In a world of evidence-based learning, it is difficult to monitor how several dozen students are doing on their phones to learn English. In addition, any new approach to learning requires the training of the students to utilize new tools.

Another major concern is that the current crop of MALL approaches and the apps that go with them are focused primarily on lower-level thinking. Apps consist of dictionaries, translators, and flashcards. Such approaches are useful for memorizing but not as beneficial for higher level thinking such as summarizing, compare/contrast, and or evaluating. As such, MALL is most beneficial for beginners but not as valuable for advanced language learners who are trying to communicate for academic purposes. This poses a problem for such settings as universities where the English requirements are beyond the conversational level.

Stockwell and Hubbard (2013) found both physical and pedagogical issues with MALL. In terms of physical issues, they specifically mention the screen size, battery life, and the processor speed of phones as problems. For pedagogical issues, they list that the task must be appropriate for the mobile phone. This may be the reason that flashcards and quizzes are so popular for mobile phones as they are highly useful in allowing students to work whenever it is convenient for them.

Another pedagogical concern was transferring classroom task to an m-learning environment. This transition is not always smooth as classroom behaviors are not easy to mimic in the real world. However, transfer knowledge from one context to another is a problem for traditional teaching and learning. Lastly, student motivation is a challenge for the MALL environment. Choice was mentioned as a positive in learning but choice is not significant if the student is not motivated. Since performance tracking is difficult, it makes it easy for students to avoid doing MALL related task if there is no follow-up by the teacher.

In light of these limitations to MALL, Stockwell and Hubbard (2013) developed several concepts to keep in mind when conducting M or mobile learning. One, teachers need to be observant of the limitations of MALL. This includes the disadvantages already discussed. Two, teachers should limit texting. One obvious reason for this is the cost involved. Three, MALL tasks should be kept short in order to assure student completion. Lastly, students who need support should be trained in using their smartphone and or the app that is required to complete the assignment. This point was shared earlier but even though we live in a digital age, there are still many who lack the tech savvy to complete MALL task.

Common Theories of Linguistics

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One aspect of linguistic theories focuses on how children acquire language. In general, the theories of language acquisition are divided into nature vs nurture perspectives. Some propose that language acquisition is natural while others believe that the context that a child is in influences heavily their acquisition of a language.

In this post, we will look at one theory that supports the argument for nature and one theory that supports the argument for nurture in relation to language acquisitions. The nature argument is supported by the generative approach while the nurture argument is supported by the constructionist approach.

Generative Approach

The generative approach states that children are able to acquire language because they are born with the principles related to the structures of human language. In other words, children are born with the ability to obtain and use language. According to people who support this view, there is a place in the brain called the language acquisition device (LAD) and children use the rules within the LAD to develop language.

One major criticism of the generative approach is that the original theories related to this concept were based on results from adults and not children. Another problem was that there is little evidence of one set of language rules that can be applied to all languages.

Constructionist Approach

The constructionist approach states that children learn the linguistic rules of a language through the environmental input they experience. To put it simply, children are not born with innate rules of language as the generative approach states, rather, they learn these rules through interacting with their world.

As children are exposed to language, they find the patterns in the communication they experience. For example, parents speak to their children. From this experience, the children learn how to communicate.  The children use what they hear until it becomes natural for them. There are now innate abstracts, instead, the child acquires the rules through trial and error.

The focus of the constructionist approach is on the use of language. There is no desire to develop universal grammatical rules but to examine how the context impacts how language is acquired.

Conclusion

The purpose is not to claim that one theory is superior to the other. In reality, both theories are trying to explain the phenomena of language acquisition from different perspectives. Generative are seeing language acquisition from a deductive perspective in that the child starts with the rules and applies them to a specific context. Constructionist are seeing language acquisition from an inductive viewpoint as they believe the child starts with specific examples to acquire rules that are appropriate in the local language context. As such, there is room in the discussion of language acquisition for both arguments and many more.

Components of Language Part II

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In the last post, we began a discussion on the components of language. In this post, we will conclude this discussion by looking at two more components of language, which are…

  • Semantics
  • Pragmatics

Semantics

Semantics is the rules that determine the meaning of words. Synonyms and antonyms are also a part of semantics. Synonyms are different words that have the same meaning. Examples include “small” and “tiny” or “big” and “large.” Antonyms are two words that have opposite meanings. Examples include “big” and “little” and “small” and “large.”

Understanding semantics can allow a language user to employ a rich vocabulary that is full of alternative words and meanings. However, it is the sentence and not the individual word that most significantly shapes the meaning of communication. This is due to the fact that the entire sentence or paragraph provides context, which is something we will look at later.

There are two ways to define the meaning of a word. One is denotative and the second is connotative. The denotative meaning is the dictionary definition. The connotative is the context-specific definition. For example, a dog is a four-legged animal that barks. This is the denotative definition. The connotative definition would depend on the setting. One person may think that a dog is a giant barking monster. Another might see a dog as a cute little friend. They both know a dog is a four-legged barking animal but the further define a dog by the addition of further explanation.

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of language in the context of its use. This component of language describes the rules of communication, types of communication, and the intentions of communication. Culture is a powerful influence on the pragmatics of a language.

There are several common characteristics that influence the pragmatics and how people speak to each other. These characteristics are gender, age, race, dialect, style, social status, and role. In English, it is common to change how we communicate based on these characteristics. How we speak to our boss is different than to our children. How to speak to colleagues is different than to strangers. These differences in communication are due to pragmatics.

Conclusion

The components of language attempt to succinctly explain how communication takes place. Understanding these concepts will help those who are learning a language or teaching people to learn a different language where problems may be. For example. if a student uses an inappropriate phrase this may be due to a misunderstanding of pragmatics. If a student mispronounces a word this is due to issues with phonology. Language components can be valuable in identifying language learning challenges.

Components of Language

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There are three major components of language. These components are form, content, and use. Form involves three sub-components of syntax, morphology, and phonology. Content is also known as semantics and use is also known as pragmatics. In this post, we will look at the sub-components of form which are…

  • Syntax
  • Morphology
  • Phonology

Syntax

Syntax is the rules for the structure of a sentence. Syntax deals with such details such as sentence organization, the order of clauses, relationships between words, elements of a sentence, etc. Syntax also determines which word combinations are acceptable. For example, if I say “He went to town.” it is acceptable, however, if I say, “town to went he” it does not work because of the syntax of English.

There are certain common rules of syntax. A sentence must contain a noun phrase and a verb phrase. Using our previous example “He went to town” contains a noun phrase “He” and a verb phrase “went to town.” Another example would be the “The big dog ran to the house.” The noun phrase for this example is “The big dog” and the verb phrase is “ran to the house.”

Morphology

Morphology is focused on the organization of words. Morphemes are the smallest grammatical units possible. Examples of morphemes would be any letter or vowel of the English alphabet.

There are two types of morphemes free and bound. Free morphemes can stand only. Examples include many words such as boy, small, and sad. These morphemes do not need any help to make sense. Bound morphemes must be connected to a larger word to make sense. Examples include prefixes and suffixes such as un-, non-, -ly, -s.

Phonology

Phonology looks at the sound of speech and the shaping of syllables. The sound for /p/ is different depending on its placement in a word and the vowels near it. For example, /p/ can vary in sound in such words as pea, poor, and soup. Each word contains /p/ but the sound is slightly different.

Sequencing also changes the of words the -ed sound is different in “jogged” than it is in “walked” the first has a /d/ sound while the second has a /t/ sound.

Conclusion

There is much more to be said about language form. The understanding of syntax, morphology, and phonology helps in better understanding language acquisition. Therefore, ESL teachers need an exposure to the basics of this in order to be able to provide better support for their students.