TESL-0110 - Unit One Reflection
My first memories of
learning English in a classroom are from when I was in grade one. I remember
doing activities like counting how many school days had passed since the first
day of class. We would count by multiples of 2, 3, 5, and 10. We would also practice
pronouncing combinations of letters. I remember having a vocabulary diary that
had common words in it and allowed us to write new words that we learned in it.
My teacher would try to get us to look up words in a dictionary to learn how to
spell the words that we needed. I always thought that this was strange because
you need know how words are spelled to be able to look them up in the
dictionary!
The learning activities
we did in grade two built off the ones that we did in grade one. I remember
doing vocabulary units on months and seasons. We would fill out worksheets
after watching parts of nature documentaries. My teacher seemed more concerned
with our abilities to answer questions and understand the material than with
spelling. I do not remember learning grammar explicitly, but she would correct
our grammar in our writing. I think the first time when I had a class that
focused on grammar was in grade three when we learned parts of speech (e.g.
verbs) and spelling.
The education system in
Manitoba requires that all students to study French from grades four through
six. I did not retain much of the language that was taught during this period. The
instruction from one of the teachers was all done in French. However, other
teachers taught mostly in English. I remember having vocabulary units where we
learnt about colours and rooms in houses. However, I did not find this to be
practical since I could not use what I learnt in sentences or in any real-life
situations. The only sentences that I retained were how to say the date in
French and “Est-ce que je peux aller aux toilettes?”, which translates to “Can
I go to the bathroom?” (Remembering this sentence was very important because we
could only go to the bathroom if we asked the teacher in French!)
During my university
education, I needed to take a language course to fulfil my degree requirements
and decided to try to take a French class. I found it to be extremely
difficult. It was structured in a way that was completely opposite way to how
it was taught during middle school. The professor used very little English in
her teaching and unlike my middle school experience, the focus was primarily on
grammar. Vocabulary was treated as less important and felt like it was thrown
in and only learnt through encountering it while learning sentence structure
and conjugating verbs. Even the class lab was taught in French and we were
supposed to avoid speaking English in it. I decided to drop the course because
it was too challenging and I had been hospitalized for a sudden and unrelated
illness.
I had to take another language
class since I was unable to finish the French course. This time, I decided to
try learning Spanish. I thought that this class was structured much better than
the French class was. One of the factors that likely contributed to the
differences was that it was taught at a different university. The instruction
in the Spanish class was mostly in English. The instructor gradually incorporated
more Spanish into her teaching as we progressed through the course and became
more familiar with the language. I really appreciated this because it
acknowledged that there was a learning curve and that we would have difficulty
acquiring a language that we did not have any background in. There also seemed
to be a balance between learning grammar and vocabulary. There were themed
units but each of them incorporated different verb tenses and sentence
features. We also did a lot of partner and group exercises so that we could practice
language skills. I found this to be a much better way to organize a course, but
I still struggled to learn how to conjugate verbs and structure sentences.
The outline for this
unit states that “your educational background likely contributes to your
knowledge of grammar and to your beliefs about its importance in an L2 (second
language) classroom.” I had not given much thought to the way that these
experiences could affect my beliefs about being a teacher. I think that the effects
that early language learning experiences have on people’s beliefs about how
language should be taught in the classroom can be subtle and that people might
not be consciously aware of them, especially if they do not have an interest in
being a teacher or learning a new language.
I feel like my early
classroom experiences did not have much of an effect on my perspective of language
teaching as an adult. I This is because I recognize the differences between teaching
the building blocks of language for children who are developing their L1
language skills and teaching students who have normally developed those
language skills and are trying to apply their language foundation to a new
language. I think that it is not particularly helpful to teach a language framework
to someone who does not have basic knowledge in their L1 since they lack the
vocabulary and means of understanding the complexities that exist in grammar. As
such, I think that instructing young students to re-write a sentence in the
present perfect will not be helpful or meaningful to them. In contrast, I think
that L2 English language students would benefit more from that type of
instruction since they need points of reference and ways to separate sentence
forms in their minds. Thus, due to the complexity of grammar, the age,
language, and educational backgrounds of students must be considered when
teachers plan how to incorporate it into their lessons.
In comparison, I think
that my foreign language learning experiences were much more influential on my
perspective of language teaching. I feel like these experiences helped me
empathize with the way that some students feel when they are learning a new
language. They have helped me see teachers can have an adverse effect whether
their primary focus is on vocabulary or grammar. Learners need to know grammar
and sentence structures so that they know how to use language, but students will
not know how to use what they have learnt if there is too much focus on these
things. Likewise, learners need to know vocabulary so that they have something
to use when engaging in language activities, but they will not know how to use
these words if they do not have enough knowledge about grammar, sentence
structure, and real-life tasks that they can use them in. As such, I think that
there needs to be a balance in language teaching. It would be more helpful to learners
if the focus was on something else, like specific tasks that are useful and of
interests to learners. However, I think that there is a limit to the amount
that teachers can teach. As a result, they need to be able to pass on tools to students
so they can learn and practice their skills outside of the classroom in order
to go beyond basic proficiency.
Unfortunately, my
experiences have also made me doubt my abilities and effectiveness as a teacher
because I do not have much knowledge about other languages. I worry that
students will have similar learning difficulties and that I might have problems
connecting with speakers of other languages who do not have much of an English language
knowledge base. I recognize that language learners come from different
educational backgrounds and that students will have different experiences than
I had when learning a new language. I hope that the doubt that I am
experiencing is temporary
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