Minding Your Own Language Learning

Mindfulness, Reflective Teaching, Teaching Practices, Teaching Styles 0 comments

Minding Your Own Language Learning

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 177

Mindfulness does not just mean to be aware of what others do or feel (or what I, as an individual feel and do), but it is a conscious act that allows us to introspectively and retrospectively analyze how things happen(ed) in life, such as the way a foreign language was acquired. At times it is helpful to place oneself in the shoes of one’s learners to tell them that one understands what they are going or have gone through as language students. Let’s mindfully ask ourselves these questions or just read the following answers.

“What were the contexts in which you felt you were most successful in learning a language?” Since now I am getting to understand language learning processes better, in hindsight I can see myself years ago learning English and being exposed to lots of social interaction in class, but with one professor I got at University of Costa Rica whose class was solely delivered from her desk. Prof. Pacheco never gave me or my partners any way to socially work with other peers to try out the development of our interlanguage and test our comprehension of the target language. Now as an ELT instructor, and thanks to that Prof. Pacheco, in a mindful act for the sake of my lesson plan, I provide my pupils with zone-of-proximal-development opportunities to exercise their English, to feel comfortable in my class, and to give their interlanguage a try. Somehow I want to guarantee that my language trainees get a classroom setting that inspires them with activities that can foster their language proficiency in a social context.

“Did you learn best in a classroom context?” With language instructors such as Prof. Pacheco at UCR, I cannot see much evolution of language in learners (because I saw none in my case). But my personal language learning story is not just connected to a single unmindful teaching professional; there were people who really helped me a lot to continue developing my language. However, being retrospectively and mindfully alert, the classroom context was not the best place for me oftentimes. There were partners who recurrently went back to our native language to discuss what the instructor asked us to consider and talk over among ourselves. Committed peers were not always nearby, and for that reason I self-taught myself many things I could not either learn with my uncooperative peers or in a class that turned out to be too theoretical and abstract for me or socially tracked off. As a language instructor, and in an act of mindfulness once more, my students are much more involved in routine tasks that can assist them to help them develop their language proficiency in various ways: from grammar to pronunciation, and from social skills to hierarchical thinking skills. Anything that resembles the way native speakers use the language in a foreign country is something that can be tried out in class to help learners construct their knowledge of the target language and to practice it.

“If you have visited a country where you had to learn at least some basics of a second language, what helped? What didn’t help?” As a language learner, I never visited any English-speaking country, nor did I have to learn the basis of a second language in a foreign country. I learned English in my Spanish-speaking home country. It was until later in life, as a graduate student, when I had the opportunity to travel to the United States for a teacher training course, several years after I had graduated from UCR. But before that traveling chance materialized, there were plenty of British, American, and Canadian native speakers who shared their language with me through lengthy conversations or small chats. In a mindful act in the search to improve my language proficiency, I looked for any opportunity to have a conversation with a native speaker to –once again- try out the evolution of my interlanguage. At this point of my professional teaching life, I recurrently ask my pupils to go and look for those opportunities to practice their English! And better yet, if they can travel to an English-speaking country for a while, I ask them to seize the chance and explore other linguistic horizons that are only hosted in a country where the target language is spoken.

In brief, as a language instructor one has to be mindful of how one’s language learning process took place. Our experiences can be guiding stars for what we want to instill in our learners to experience a more down-to-earth and meaningful way of learning or to go and search for language experiences that can help them learn, consolidate their learning, or try out what has been learned and moved into the interlanguage. We were foreign language learners; why can’t we use all that experience to assist our students in their language learning journey?

Minding Your Own Language Learning by Jonathan Acuña

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Non-Threatening Environments in Education

Education and Learning, Mindfulness 0 comments

Non-Threatening Environments in Education

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 176

When one steps into a classroom, what is the most common behavior that can be sensed and witnessed? Though overgeneralizations should not be made to try to account for the kind of environment that is most common, say, in Costa Rican language classrooms, a researcher is bound to identify either threatening or non-threatening atmospheres that no doubt will have an incidence in the quality of learning expected from students sitting in class. The question that ought to bugle in the instructors’ ears is, how can I provide my pupils a non-threatening environment to help them learn?

After working on mindfulness in the last six months of the year with SIT TESOL scholar, Mary Sholl, I have come to fully comprehend the necessity to strive for the creation of “safe, creative, reflective, and fun environments that enable … learners to really focus on their learning” (SpiralMana.Org, n.d.). Mindfulness in what we do in education is a door to create non-threatening environments that can foster student learning in the classroom and beyond its boundaries. Being aware of what others think and feel is a way to become mindful of what we do to our students within the class setting.

The checklist/rubric provided above is just a way to self-assess how mindful we are in regards to the practices that Watson (n.d.) suggests reviewing to create a non-threatening classroom environment. My idea behind this rubric-like checklist is to help myself and others to mindfully reflect, as taught by Mary Sholl, upon areas that can affect the well-being of students in class: 1) teacher social presence in class, 2) allowing students to gain confidence with you, the teacher, 3) sharing bits of our lives to become members of a learning community, 4) respect for differences and variety present in class, 5) embracing tolerance rather than bullying the one who is different, 6) the fostering of teamwork and cooperation to achieve goals, 7) the importance of focusing on the right psychological traits of each student, 8) the promotion of two-way respect among all class members, 9) copying with difficulties or hardships learners may be facing, and 10) the promotion of confidence and self-esteem.

As pointed out by Finch (2001, October), “given the tendency of language classrooms to promote debilitative anxiety, the promotion of a low-stress language learning environment must be an important priority for the teacher.” In the end this is going back to the premises of learning outlined by Krashen’s affective filter; whatever we teachers do in class that affects the natural synergy present in the classroom will trigger a peak in anxiety that will not help the learner to achieve the learning goals proposed by the teacher in his/her lesson plan. The whole curricula will be affected, and our lack of mindfulness will ruin the learning process for the students who will –no doubt- feel threatened in an environment that is not friendly for them.

Centro Espiral Mana. (n.d.). What do we believe about learning and how do we put those beliefs into practice. Retrieved on 2015, June 20 from the Centro Espiral Mana webpage at http://www.espiralmana.org/our-philosophies-of-learning.html

Finch, Andrew. (2001, October). The Non-Threatening Learning Environment. Retrieved on 2015, June 20 from the Academia.Edu webpage at http://www.academia.edu/6022977/The_Non-threatening_Learning_Environment

Watson, S. (n.d.). How to Create a Non-Threatening, Welcome Classroom Environment. Retrieved on 2015, June 20 from the About.Education webpage at http://specialed.about.com/od/teacherchecklists/a/classroom.htm

Non-Threatening Environments in Education by Jonathan Acuña

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Critique on “Materials Design and Lesson Planning: Poetry”

Literature, Poetry 1comments

Critique on “Materials Design and Lesson Planning: Poetry”

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 175

Have language teachers ever been challenged with the teaching of poetry in the language or literature class? Well the answer is a resounding yes! Many an instructor, who has or had to deal with this particular subject matter, has probably endured anxiety, despair, discontent, distress, and even exasperation at the thought of how to go about teaching poetry in the language classroom. Lazar (1993), in her book Literature and Language Teaching has a straightforward answer for any teacher who is about to embark him/herself in the teaching of the art of poetic composition.

Lazar (1993) devised a series of reading tasks to help literature instructors to better design and develop truthful activities within a task-based instruction orientation. Basically, there is no reason why poetic literary pieces cannot be included in a regular language class. Lazar (1993) proposes the following to work with poetry: “exploiting unusual language features” in grammar, pronunciation or word choice; “helping students with figurative meanings,” something that is common for poetry, how to use poetry with low levels, how to use it to “develop oral skills” in a pronunciation class, and how to challenge higher level learners with poetry, too.

The best section of Lazar’s article is her proposal in regards to what kind of activities should be used within a task-based instruction cycle. Lazar (1993) insists on working with poesy in terms of pre-, while-, and post-reading activities, which indeed makes sense when it comes to planning and producing an enjoyment effect in a poetry class. Her suggestions, as the ones included in her article (p. 127) are indeed great departure points when the teacher is clueless and has –basically- no idea whatsoever of what to do with a poem. As a starting point, the instructor can design how a given poetic piece can be taught, then develop the necessary activities for the whole TBI cycle, and then think of a consolidation activity.

Lazar’s suggestions for poetry teaching are worth-while trying in the classroom. They are indeed great help when planning and devising the right strategy for teaching poetry or for using a poem to teach grammar, pronunciation, word choice, dialects, literary devices, collocations, etc.

Lazar, G. (1993). Materials Design and Lesson Planning: Poetry. Literature and Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP

Materials Design and Lesson Planning - Poetry by Jonathan Acuña

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Critique on “Non-native Literatures in English as a Resource for Language Teaching”

Education and Learning, Language Learning, Literature, Second Language Acquisition 1comments

Critique on “Non-native Literatures in English as a Resource for Language Teaching”

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 174

Brumfit (1986) describes “an attempt to reject ‘set books’ approach to teaching literature” and suggests “to develop with students an attitude to works of literature.” The problem with Brumfit’s idea is that, though he wants to give learners freedom of choice when it comes to selecting literary pieces, he continues to circumscribe students within the idea that “we should teach real English literature” (Kachru, 1980), an idea that many literature instructors hold. However, Kachru (1986) proposes a very different way of dealing with literary studies: the use of non-native English texts in the classroom.

What are the benefits of using a corpus of literary works that include non-native English texts? For Kachru (1980), the inclusion of non-native texts imply relevant areas of “ethnography of communication, language pragmatics, and the sociology of language.” In the eyes of Kachru (1980), nativization or the use of English by non-native speakers to write literature can also expose non- and native readers to lexical innovations, translation equivalences, contextual redefinition, and rhetorical and functional styles. “The use of such non-native literary texts, then, provides a challenge not only to the non-native teachers and learners, but also to teachers and learners who use English as their native language” (Kachru, 1980).

If non-native literary texts were included in a course syllabus or school curricula, would it have an impactful effect? The imminent result of the use of this kind of literatures is that learners can also be trained cross-culturally or even intra-culturally. In the case of the Costa Rican teaching context, several pieces have been written by members of the Afro-Costa Rican community that can enrich our mestizaje heritage. For example, Dixon (2004) focuses on the “literary contributions of Afro-Costa Rican writers and how their treatment of place, language and nation configure a cultural identity that is no longer West Indian and is in contestation with the dominant Europeanized culture of Costa Rica.” The promising of using non-native literary texts is immense and potentially fruitful in many senses.

As Kachru (1980) concludes, the use of this kind of literatures provides learners, “a repertoire of resources for providing linguistic and cross-cultural explanations.” Students can then be exposed to how English is modified, innovation in writing styles and its effect on comprehension, and “what is meant by acculturation on English in ‘non-English’ social and cultural contexts” (Kachru, 1980).

Brumfit, C. (1986). Wider Reading for Better Reading: An alternative approach to teaching literature. Literature and Language Teaching. Edited by Brumfit & Carter. Oxford: OUP

Dixon, K. (2004). Mestizaje and Racial Categories as Hegemonic Forms of Representation in Costa Rican Literature. A Contra Corriente. Spring 2004 at http://www.ncsu.edu/acontracorriente/spring_04/Dixon.pdf

Kachru, B. (1980). Non-native Literatures in English as a Resource for Language Teaching. RELC Journal December 1980 11: 1-9, doi:10.1177/003368828001100201

Non-Native Literatures in English as a Resource for Language Teaching by Jonathan Acuña

Sunday, June 07, 2015

Mindfulness and Learners’ Mistakes

Language Learning, Mindfulness, Reflective Teaching, Second Language Acquisition, Teaching 0 comments

Mindfulness and Learners’ Mistakes

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 173

How often –in the world of education- do we hear teachers that they need to be more mindful with their learners? I personally bet this is something that is scarcely heard in school halls, in staff meetings, or even in teachers’ rooms. But what seems to be the reason for this lack of mindfulness among the teaching staff at any level of education? Reasons may vary from individual to individual, but the fact is that mindful instructors are very often absent from the school/college rooms, and when this happens, teachers forget that mistakes are part of the learning process any single individual undergoes when involved in an educational process.

Teacher mindfulness in the educational process is a must for learning to take place; its absence can simply yield catastrophic results for teaching staff and for the students themselves. On the one hand, mindful instructors will try to put themselves in the shoes of their pupils and will try to see what kind of feedback is needed to motivate students to continue to face their comprehension of a topic and the construction of their knowledge. On the other hand, teacher mindfulness will trigger some backwash that can help instructors reflect on the reasons why their learners are making mistakes or why their learning goals are difficult to achieve by students. In conclusion, mindfulness is crucial for the understanding as to why mistakes take place and how learners may feel in the presence of their own mistakes.

Mindful instructors do worry about the importance of mistakes in the learning process. Teachers must comprehend the importance of mistakes since they become conscious attempts learners are making to use what is being explained to them by their instructors. In a language classroom arise when language trainees are playing and experimenting with the language, and the mindful instructors will see how their pupils are developing the interlanguage (Cook, 1993) needed to speak the target language. In a technology class, where the instructor is training students to use freeware to create interactive materials for their students, the teachers show their mindfulness when scaffolding the learning experiences that were programmed to facilitate learning. Additionally, though mistakes are bound to happen, mindful instructors will kindly assist learners to understand and achieve the learning goals that will help them develop their own skills and competencies.

Mindfulness is indeed a way of living and a way of teaching. The fact that teaching professionals understand why students make mistakes helps us visualize that they are aware of the importance of being mindful of what is happening inside the classroom walls and beyond them when learners are practicing on their own. And a great way to have learners approach their teachers and ask for help is by means of mindful community builders, which are simple but participatory activities that can be carried out before major learning experiences are going to take place. That is, learners are given the chance to connect with their instructor and other peers as well. Their affective filter (Krashen, 1985) will go undoubtfully down, and their disposition for learning can be more acute.