My Video podcast: "Around the world with Little Finger"

Video Podcast

ESL/EFL podcast

“Around the world with “Little Finger”

1.- Description of intended students:

My students are 2^nd grade High School students, in Chile. Their ages are between 14 and 15 years old. They are a class of 40 students, and all of them just speak Spanish. Most of them are not really motivated to learn English; however, they are very motivated to meet new people, listening to music, surfinf on the Internet, sharing with their friends, etc. They come from the middle socioeconomic class, and they almost none of them have access to Internet at their home but they have access to Internet in the school, and in cybercafes.

What they need to know is that English is a useful tool that they can use to do many of the activities they like to do; besides, they need to know that English is a very important language all around the world (lingua franca).

2.- Description of language objectives and content objectives

Content objectives for the series:

• Through a series of different podcasts related to places to visit around the world, types of animals around the world, primary and secondary colors; and shapes inside the classroom; students will be able to identify, interpret, and campare/contrast some of the most used adjective qualifiers to describe different places around the world. They will also be able to label, and classify colors as primary and secondary. Besides, they will be able to indicate and classify different shapes inside the classroom.
  

Language objectives for the series:

• Students will be able to write short dialogues using verbal tenses (future tense- will and going to) to express some functions of the language.

• Students will be able to perform dialogues with a classmate, using some specific verbal tenses.

• Students will be able to tell an imaginary experience they would like to have when travelling abroad, using the future tense (will, and going to)

Content objectives for the individual podcast:

• By watching this video podcast, students will be able to recognize, identify, and use some of the most used adjective qualifiers to describe landmark places around the world.

Language objectives for the individual podcast:

• By writing a composition, students will have to use appropriately some adjectives to describe places aroud the world.

• In pairs, students will have to build dialogues in which they use comparatives and superlatives of adjectives. this dialogue have to reflect their position about the place they would like to visit, and why they would like to visit it.
  

• By recording a video perfomed by them, students will be able to realize of the differences between “going to” and “will” to express future tense, and they will acquire more lexicon (adjectives used to describe places.)
  

Explanation of reasoning; connect with students' needs:

I decided to plan these objectives for my students because I think that it is very important for them to be motivated before to and while learning a topic, whaterver it is. The objectives are really challenging for students, and they were made thinking on their likes and dislikes so that they get interested in what they are doing, and they fit with the students' needs. For example, I uploaded this videopodcast to "youtube" so that students can look for it on the Net (what they like a lot); thus, students are motivated, and the content explain in the class is more meaningful for them.

3.-Description of the elements that make the podcast comprehensible

What makes this podcast comprehensible is the use of a series of multimodalities in it. We can watch video, we can listen to a person speaking about the topic. Also, we can see pictures of the different places that the person is talking about. The music is also a support in this podcast because in each of the scenes there is music related to the places that are being presented.

All those characteristics make the podcast a very useful strategy for the teacher to use in pos to engage his/her students in what he/she is presenting them and asking them to do.

It is also important to mention the fact that the podcast is funny, and that it has my voice what makes it more attractive to my students, who I think will laugh, and will feel motivated to watch it several times to understand what it talks about.

4.- Description of the strategies that we have covered that have informed the choices that you have made with the podcast and how will use it with students.

One of the strategies I used was trying to implement “Multimodality” in my podcast. I know that we as teachers have to consider our students' learning styles when creating activities, so I decided to use this strategy in order to get my students' understanding on what they are watching, and also to get them actively involved in the topic.

I also got support my podcast in the strategy related to the use of the four skills used together. Although the podcast does not contain the four macroskills, I tried to include these skills in the activity I will propose to my students to do later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlpAX2uVCGI

Reflection 6: If only she knew…

This is “Mrs. X”. She is a teacher of Spanish as a Foreign Language. Mrs X is a very good teacher, and a very intelligent person; but like all the people over the world, she doesn't know everything about education, neither how languages are most effectively learned. Mrs. X does not yet understand that people can learn a new language supporting themselves on their first language, and on their first culture, too. She ussually ignores her students' first language; besides, she tries to avoid all the contact that students may have with their L1. For example, she ussualy tells her "first level Spanish language learners" that she doesn't understand what they are saying to her in their first language; even, when the students cannot find the word they want to use to explain a complex concept; she acts as if nobody had talked to her, and she doesn't give them the opportunity to convey the meaning of that word in their first language in order to clarify their own ideas.

I think that the teacher should be awared of what Freemen & Freeman (1998) say in their research about Bilingual Education: "supporting first language development is critical because students learn concepts best in their primary language" because it is important for her to know that "literacy and content knowledge developed in the first language transfer to the second language"; besides, students who are biliterate have more chances for getting academic success than students who are not.

For getting a better understanding of what I have been arguing, I am going to present you a series of links which may help you to get a clearer idea of what I have been discussing here.

http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/eslbil.html

Resent research

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Jwcrawford/biling.htm

http://www.ericdigests.org/1997-3/bilingual.html

Video

Reflection 5: Websites that might help

This is “Aaron”, a pretty new Spanish-speaker in the ELD class. He is 15 years old. His notions of English are basic, almost nothing. Aaron arrived at the ELD class just two weeks ago. During the first days he was very afraid of the teacher to asked him; the only response he gave her was “yes”, or simply he avoided her. Since the days have being going on, Aaron has been gaining more confidence in the class but not enough to participate actively in it. However, he has so much potential! He learns everything incredibly quickly. Besides, he learns and is able to use what he learns from that exact moment.

I am convinced of Aaron could get more proficiency in the English language if he had constant practice and support in the target language. I mean, if Aaron could exercise what he knows, and try new contents by himself, he would obtain greater results in the four macroskills (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing). Moreover, Aaron would succeed more and more if he took risks in his own learning. In that last point, I personally think that a series of websites pointed to a revision of some repeted patterns of the English language would be useful for him, in order to give him some hints of how the English language works campaired to his native language.

I think that Aaron has not specific needs, he just needs help in every aspect of the language in order to commuicate with others. That is the main goal; make him participate a little bit more in class. And, when he goes getting more confidence using the language to communicate with his classmates, and be understood by them, he will be able to get into more difficult and challenging tasks.

These links take you to a series of different webpages where English is taught through games. It is enormously useful for students to learn some new vocabulary because by getting the lexicon bigger, they are more prompt to speak and communicate with others.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids.htm

http://eslbears.homestead.com/Contact_Info.html

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/

http://www.saberingles.com.ar/games/index.html

The idea is that the student uses these webpages whenever he feels the need of learning some new vocabulary. But, as he is an teenager, and he must have many other things in what to think of, I would suggest him to use it twice or three times a week until he really feels he is doing good in what relates to vocabulary.

By using these websites, the student should get some more vocabulary to use when talking with people inside and outside of the school. He should be capable of using at least some content words to get right track in the communicative process.

Reflection 4: A topic in language education that I want to know more about

Since the first day I have been doing my internship at “The Highschool” I have been wondering what it would be the best ways or strategies that the teacher should use to maintain motivational levels in classes made up of students from different parts of the world.
Most of the time that I have spent there, the teacher has had to apply different strategies to keep the class hooked in what she is teaching. All those strategies have got success, and that success is what has triggered in me the interest of wanting to know more about “Strategies for motivation in classrooms”. Maybe, this is because of I really expect to be a good teacher; I have faith in my future students, even when I haven't met them. I have faith in them because I am convinced of everybody has a gift, and as teachers we are the responsible people who must discover it.


The students in that class come from different parts of the world, they have different interests, and different learning styles. In this point, the teacher must not only be the learning facilitator, but also she must be the leader of her class. And leadership is not an easy task. Being a leader-teacher means addapting your ways of teaching to lead your class forward; it also means carrying out a series of activities which are interesting to all the students in the class; activities that you know will create interest in each one of the students. But, how can you do that, taking into account that you are teaching a completely new language?; How can teachers manage their own classes to engage students in just one common activity which involves aspects of their own background?

Here there are some links that can be helpful to understand a little bit more what we can do as teachers to motivate our students in EFL clasrooms:

http://www.tefl.net/esl-articles/motivation-esl.htm

This link is useful because it gives you some hints that help you to adecuate or modify our lessons in pos of more motivating classes.

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Hazzard-MakingMovies.html

This link takes you to a good experienced lived by a group of EFL students who discovered a new way to learn English.

http://teacherjoe.us/TeachersMotivate.html

This link takes you to a really energetic webpage. Its creator is "Joe", and he gives you very good ideas for the ESL classroom. In this case: "Teach your students to speak out in English"

All these links have taught me the importance of motivation for carrying out a good class of English. Motivation, and leadership go hand to hand, and it is important to be aware of that. Thus, by applying at least some of the strategiees that these webpages suggest you, your students will learn, and you (teacher) will feel full of yourself for having reached what you proposed to yoursef.

Reflection 3: Response to a question about English teaching

A Plan for introducing a new ESL student to your class

Questions by Shelley Cole

"Hi, I am getting my teaching certificate and ESL is part of my certification. I have a few questions that I was wondering if someone could help me with?I'm trying to learn as much as I can about ESL and how I can be a better teacher to ESL students.
These are my questions: 1. What would you do to help the student overcome first-day apprehension? 2. How would you introduce the student to the class? 3. How would you convey classroom rules and expectations to the new student? 4. How would you communicate these expectations to the student's parents? 5. What type of documentation would you keep to track the student's progress?"

These are my answers to Shelley's questions.

Hi Shelley!!

I have been doing an internship in a High School these last days. One of the classes that I attend is a “Newcomers Class” where there are students from many different parts of the world, most of them come from Burma and Russia, but there is also a couple of Cuban students (A and B). “A” is a girl. She is 14 years old, and has been attending school since 3 months ago. She had a previous formal education in her country, but her English was nothing strong. “A” has been working hard, and it is possible to appreciate success in the way she answers. Student “B” is a 15-years old boy. He began his classes the same day I began attending to the School. That day he was extremelly quiet. He just said “hello” and looked very scared of responding questions, even when those questions were in his first language (Spanish). Student “B” arrived to the USA just 15 days before he entered to school. Everything is new for him, specially the language.

From what I could see in the classroom that day. The teacher didn't introduced student “B” just in the moment he arrived. She began her lesson, and let “B” interact with “A”. Student “B” began to talk a little bit more. In the second period, the teacher introduced him to the rest of the class. The teacher told them they had a new classmate who didn't speak English at all, and who really needed their help. Then, the teacher asked the whole class to intruduce themselves. This fact made the class, and the experience of introducing himself easier and more comfortable for student “B”. He could overcame his first-day apprehension, and at the same time the teacher could establish a good environment for “student B”'s future emotional and academic developments. I think this explanation reflects what you wanted to know in questions 1, 2 , and 3.

In relation to question 4: “How would you communicate these expectations to the student's parents?” I would say that this is a trigger question. It is extremelly important to involve parents in their children's academic development as they are one of the main participants and supporters of their children. Giving students tasks in which the assistence of parents is required is the best way to begin involving parents in their children education; thus, at the same time we will be communicating them the expectations we have in relation to their children.

I personally think that the best kind of documentation that we can keep to track the student's progress is a kind of formative evaluation, in which you don't put pressure on your student by marks or grades. I think that the best way we can accomplish this is by writing about the student's improvement, and supporting him as he is enhancing his learning. Of course, getting to know him, his learning style, his way of thinking, what he likes and what he doesn't, would be a wonderful way to take him to success.

I responded to this question because it involved many of the topics we studied in our Bilingualism and Bilteracy course. The teacher mentioned expectations, parents, rules, among other well-known concepts for us. Words that sound in our heads, and that are very important in the teaching-learning process. Apart from that, all those questions have a direct connection with what I have been observing during this period of internship. So, these questions seemed to be very meaningful for the teacher as well as for me. My answers to the teacher reveal that my beliefs about language teaching have changed since I got here. I have learnt a lot. I think that I am a better teacher now because I have strong arguments which support what I am able to say about teaching techniques or strategies.

Reflection 2: A case of effective language teaching

November 14^th, 2008: Students leave the classroom; the purpose is clear: “To make a presentation about their own culture”. The whole group of students walks towards the “International Language Classroom”. They are very anxious about how they are going to be welcomed. They are wearing their typical clothing, and they carry pieces of paper with some useful information they want to talk about; such as how they say some words or phrases in their language. Also, some of them bring objects such as current money of their country, maps, drawings of their flag, etc. to clarify, and help themselves with what they are trying to explain.

The teacher is always supporting them emotionally. She gives them confidence enough for them to develop a good performance,. The teacher doesn't interfere in the decisions they make or in what they want to present, but she suggests good ideas of how to present the contents. She performs like a guide, and she observes the class all of the time, and she never let the students totally alone. Moreover, the teacher always tries to be a facilitator of resourses for her students.

When the students are all inside the International language classroom, the teacher of the other group introduces the “new comers” to her class. She uses very slow English for them to understand what she is saying. Most of the “newcomer students” seem to understand; they are very willing and motivated to learn; they have the need for understanding and catching the most English they can. Besides, this activity of presenting their own culture to other people makes them feel really engage and motivated to learn. This activity makes them feel “owners of the topic”, they are the people who know, they have the power to talk about those places they are presenting because they have been there. This factor really helps them, and the teacher knows that; in that way they feel comfortable speaking in front of “English native speakers”, and they uncountiously develop their ability to express themselves without fear.

When the whole group finished with their presentations there was a great round of applause. The “newcomer students” felt very good, they realized they are capable of expressing themselves on their own. That experience helps them greatly. Finally, when back in their classroom the teacher made them questions about the term “Culture”, the students made excellent guesses, and those guesses helped the teacher building a very ellaborated and meaningful explanation.

I believe that this activity was really effective. The teacher could make relationships not only between first language and the target language, but she also took into account the children's background, their previous experiences, in general, she considered their valuable culture. Furthermore, even when the students didn't know what the term “Culture” meant, they did it excellent, and they could realize for themselves what that term means, what the term involves, and how important it is all over the world.

"Reflection 1": Podcasting my way to mastery of English

Bringing Disneyland Home is a video series dedicated to all Disneyland, and Disney fans. This series includes home video tours and attraction ride throughs from the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA. Besides, this video series may be used with educational purposes, since it talks about familiar aspects for children, and it uses easy words for them to use.

Webpage link:

http://www.oakfan.com/BDHVodcast.xml

In any case... This is the webpage where I took the link from:

http://www.videopodcasts.tv/feed/382/Bringing_Disneyland_Home

I chose this video series because this offers me a great variety of topics which I can use with my future students. Moreover, this video series gives me the opportunity to continue improving my comprehension of listening texts, and my ability for reflexion. I think, this video series will help me greatly when needing of ideas to engage my future students on a task, because the topics that these videos show are very motivating, especially for young children who really enjoy using technology when learning. Also, this video series will give me the chance of being always updated with some authentic language used in the United States.

Finally, I will use this webpage, and the podcasts present in it three or four times, twice a month (at least).

I hope this will be a good tool for me, and for my future students.

The Classroom story

Stone Fox:

Strategies: - High expectations on students learning

- Effective

Wine Box Sledding:

Strategies: -Social interaction

- Support on L1 and C1

- Outdoor activities

- Effective

Scene-Setter Visuals:

Strategies: - Teaching through content

- Association of parts or words present in the book with actions performed

by students.

- Pre-reading activity (summary)

- Paraphrasing for facilitating understanding

-Effective

Power words:

Strategies: - Multimodality (use of colors, images, lists, etc.)

- Respect for learning styles

- Preview- view- review

- Effective

Spin-Off stories:

Strategies: - Respect for students' Multiple Intelligences

- Use of the four skills (listening- "read aloud"; reading- the story; speaking-

about their own experiences; writing- about Willi's loss of Searchlight in

their journal.

- Relation to factual events -when students describe their own experiences

and thoughts

- Social interaction.

- Effective

About my future students

What I want to know about my future students is:

1.- The level of english they have.
2.- The expectations that they have in relation to the class.
3.- How the ways they best learn english are.
4.-What I can do for them in order to make the class motivating.
5.- What the appreciation that they have of english as a useful language is.
6.- What their interests are.
7.-What the appreciation of the worst teacher of English is
8.-Which the techniques they use when studying English are.
9.-If there is any activity they would like to develop during the english lessons.
10.- What the issues they would like to know about during their english lessons.

Gina's homework

This is for Gina to learn a little bit more of Spanish.

What you have to do is:

1.- Try to identify what the song talks about (main idea)
2.-Try to catch a word that appears more than three times on the video.
3.-Look at the dictionary the meaning of that word, and see if that word has any relation to the main idea you said in question number 1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TH7KJc9yrU

No more run-ons!!!

Influence on Academic Performance

When talking about the several factors that may influence our English Language Learners' academic performance, we can think on a large amount of them. In Freeman & Freeman's book (2001), through a series of case studies, we can appreciate a great variety of factors that may influence academic performance upon English Learners, either inside a school environment or outside of the school. It is very important to have an exhautive knowledge of several case studies in order to get a right understanding of the research and theories about second language acquisiton and culture. Taking that knowledge into account will help us when teaching in our future lessons .

Detailed Description of Students:

School: Liceo “José Tomás de Urmeneta García” “This is a public secondary school which imparts technical education at middle level. Most of the students who come here come from a middle or low socioeconomic status. In what concerns to the their descent, inspite some of the students' last names are indigenous, nobody has declared to be one, so there is no evidence of indigenous descent. The school has more than a thousand students which attends specialized classes, classes are of 40 to 45 students. There is not immigrants in the school. The level of motivation is very low, principally because there is no chances of better resourses in the school for us to give to ours students. Besides, teachers are also dismotivated because students misbehave, and do not want to success. The relationship among parents, school, and students is very little, almost nothing. Most of them come from families in which parents are separated and so they do not have enough time to come to the school to see and know how are doing their children at school.

My Good Language Learner My good student is called David. He is a very organised boy. Although he does not come from a very good family (because his older brother was in prision, and his father does not have a fulltime job) he is a very smart guy. He is very engaged in what happen in classes. He asks everytime he does not understand anything, he puts all his effort in trying to understand the language. That is why he has succeded in that way. Besides, his mother is always giving him all the support he needs to get a high self-steem.

"Teaching through content", "Teaching through social Interaction", and "Having higher expectations"

My personal understanding of “Teaching through content”, “Teaching through social interaction”, and “Having higher expectations” is that in every single class we teach, we should try to incorporate these 3 stretegies for getting a better class environment and a better students' learning process.

Teaching through content is a great way to get students involved and also engaged in what we are teaching them. If we, teachers of English, consider what the subjects that our students are studying are, and if we try to incorpotare them into the learning of their second or foreign language, then the learning process will be really meaningful, and the students will conserve it forever.

The idea of pair or group work is a useful tool for teaching a language, of course, it is a useful and complete way of learning a language. Always that interaction is present, there is learning. Interaction is a very complicated concept because it does not just mean that ther are two o more people working together but it means that those peolpe are working for a common purpose.

It is also necessary to mention that our students are always aware of everything that happens inside and also outside the classroom, and they absorve all the possible expectations we, as teachers, have to them. So, it is extremelly important to have faith in them, thus, they unconciously will expand their potential, and consequently, improve their level of English.

How would you incorporate them in your classses?

I would try to use them all the most I could, I would try to make projects in which the students could apply real, interesting, and relevant content that are useful for them and of course useful for the purpose of our class. These projects would have to be carried out in groups and with a very clear and specific purpose. besides, these projects would have to consider the level of proficiency of my students when using the language. In this way I could evaluate what is challenging for them and something that they can get with a feeling of satisfaction.

Activity number 4

How could you know if a classroom you were observing REALLY contained social interaction?

List of Factors that we can look for when we visit classes

• The class should have purposeful activities, ideally written down on the board.

• The class should link English with other interesting subjects for students.

• The teacher should engage students in simulation and replication activities, or at least in one of them.

• The class should not be focussed just on grammatical competence (usage) but also on the correct "use" of the language.

• The students must be able to apply the knowledge they acquire in the class when negotiating meaning in real and authentic situations.

• The teacher should give the students a chance of having some minutes of the class for talking freely about their previous day, and then the teacher could assess their students by asking them a report of what they talked.

Letter to Alanis Morissette

Dear Alanis Morissette,

I like a lot your songs, I always read very carefully the lyrics and enjoy them all, but yesterday I paid special attention to one of your most famous hit songs (“Ironic”). I realized that the concept that you have of irony is very different from the concept I have. Let me explain it to you. I Know three types of Irony (verbal, dramatic, and situational), each one represent a very different kind of Irony. Verbal Irony has to do with a difference between what the speaker says and what the speaker means. Dramatic Irony is a difference between what a character in a story knows and what the reader or ausience knows, as in “Romeo and Juliet”. And finally, Situational Irony has relation to a difference between what someone meant to happen and what actually happened as a result of her actions. After that short explanation I would like to say that I just found one concrete example of Irony in your whole song, that fact does not mean that your song is bad or something like that, all the way around, it is great!! But, anyway it is wrong, and makes the people who is studying discourse misunderstand the real concept of what Irony means.

Oh! I forgot giving you the only one example of Irony I found in your song, this is in the third stanza:

“Well isn't this nice...”

This is a clear example of “verbal Irony” because this phrase is being used in a real moment, and when it should not be said. (His plane has crashed down!) A great example of Irony.

Alanis, I hope you do not get angry with me for being so sincere but I had to explain to you this.

I look forward to hearing from you...

Abbie.

Language through content

Activity Plan

-Coursebook: Test Bank for understanding and using English Grammar. 3rd Edition. Mark Wade Lieu.

-Content: Review of verb tenses.

-Grade: 12th grade


Activities

-Ask students to work in pairs with their coursebook.
-Ask them to build an interesting interview to apply it to an important member of the School Staff, using the cuestions in Chapter 1, page 1.
-Then, ask the students to apply the intervieew they made to an important membre of the School Staff.
-When they are done, ask them to notice which verb times the interviewed used to describe what they answered.
-Finally, ask the students to make a short report of what they learnt.


What does Language through content mean to you?

Language through content means to me the best way to teach a language, it is useful because with this way of teaching students can understand the real purpose of what they are doing. Besides, students can apply what the are learning in the classroom rightly outside it.

Am I smarter than any book?

Of course!! Although books have great ideas to teach, sometime they do not consider the context in which the students are immerse. Is there, when I can leave my imagination fly and be creative, it is that the time to get closer my students and consider their real interests and learning styles.

EFL/ESL Teaching

This is an Example of an Audiolingual method lesson, where most of the time is spent on repeating dialogues or doing drills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5sR5W5h5qI

Gina's social and psychological distance to Spanish language, culture and speakers

Social Distance

1. Social dominance

Dominant group: Native-English speakers in the U.S.,
Gina's first language: English
Target culture: Latina culture
Target Language: Spanish

2. Integration pattern

Most of students integrate themselves very well at tasks required by the target language teacher, but it almost always depends on the established rapport inside the classroom. Obviously, some students prefer doing things in isolation very apart of the mainstream, the main objective is so trying to integrate them the most we can to the language learning process through socialization with partners. In Gina's case, she will need to interact a lot with us in order to get a better understanding of our language and culture.

3. Enclosure

As Eastern Washington University has been doing conventions with a series of hispanic universities there is a great amount of spanish speakers on the campus with whom Gina may talk to and share with. In that way Gina will be able to practice her English and also she will know more about the culture of different hispanic peoples.

4. Size

Gina is alone trying to learn the language, she is trying to do it by herself. But there are lots of people on campus also learning Spanish, and whom she can go for help in case she needs it, too.

5. Cohesiveness

As I said in the previous answer, Gina is trying to learn the language on her own. There is no another group learning spanish with her. But Gina has a great advantage, she is immerse in a group of 15 Chileans students (future teachers of a language) what helps her a lot because she is able to listen to them most of the time, this helps her to develop more quickly a better listening comprehension, or at least her listening skills.

6. Cultural congruence

The home and target culture are kind of similar. Latina culture, in terms of customes and alimentary issues is very alike to the american culture. The principal difference Gina is going to find when studying and learning about the Latina culture will be that related to the status of latino countries. These countries are defined as "Developing countries" which makes them to be poorer countries in what refers to economy and tecnological developments. n the other hand, the USA are defined as a "Developed country". This may make a big struggle on the person who is learning the new culture, I mean a "Cultural Shock".

7. Attitude

The home and target groups have very good attitudes toward one another. The home group is very used to Latino speakers within their culture, and the target group wants Americans to know their culture and language in order to get more benefits and take more advantages from them. It is mainly a question of necessity. Both cultures need one another to survive.

8. Intended length of residence

Let's ask Gina first!!


Psychological Distance

1. Motivation

Gina has a "Full-time" motivation, she always wants to get new words in the target language and she is always asking her Spanish students to teach her a litlle bit of it. This is a great chance to learn because the more motivates she is, the more Spenish she gets.

2. Attitude

Gina feels very comfortable staying in the target language group. She always shows eagerness for learning and the group try to help her the most that it is possible. She has just to ask more and more and try to get immerse more in the target language.

3. Cultural Shock

She has not experienced yet a cultural shock, as she has not been or stayed in a Latino country, but when she do it she will do it very well because she is very motivated and also because she is trying very hardly to learn everyday.

Influence on Academic Performance

When talking about the several factors that may influence our English Language Learners' academic performance we can think on a large amount of them. In Freeman & Freeman's book (2001), through a series of case studies, we can appreciate a great variety of factors that may influence academic performance upon English Learners either inside a school environment or outside of the school. It is very important to have an exhautive knowledge of several case studies in order to get a right understanding of the research and theories about second language acquisiton and culture, taking that knowledge into account will help us in our future lessons when teaching.

Detailed Description of Students:

School: Liceo “José Tomás de Urmeneta García”

“This is a public secondary school which imparts technical education at middle level. Most of the students who come here come from a middle or low socioeconomic status. In what concerns to the their descent, inspite some of the students' last names are indigenous, nobody has declared to be one, so there is no evidence of indigenous descent. The school has more than a thousand students which attends specialized classes, classes are of 40 to 45 students. There is not immigrants in the school. The level of motivation is very low, principally because there is no chances of better resourses in the school for us to give to ours students. Besides, teachers are aldo dismotivated because students misbehave and do not want to success.

The relationship among parents, school, and students is very little, almost nothing. Most of them come from families in which parents are separated and so they do not have enough time to come to the school to see and know how are doing their children at school.

My Good Language Learner

My good student is called David. He is a very organised boy, although he does not come from a very good family (because his older brother was in prision, and his father does not have a fulltime job) he is a very smart guy. He is very engaged with what happens in classes, and he ask everytime he does not understand anything, he puts all his efforts in trying to understand the language, that is why he has succeded in that way. Besides, his mother is always giving him all the support he needs to get a good self-steem.

School Visit to Bridgeport and Brewster

Going to those two rural schools was a great experience. I could note the existent differences between the USA and Chile in educational issues, and also I could realise of the different levels of achievement that have reached Bridgeport Elementary School as well as Brewster Elementary School, they both have tried to get a good level in their educational system, one of them have achieved on of its goals because it was recognised as "National Distiguished School 2005/2006" and it was a great prize for all the staff that works behind the Institution.

That was the nicest part of our visit to those Schools but, as in everything in the immense world, there is a more bitter part... and it was the deficient way that teachers at Brewster had in the treatment to children. The few of them whom we could observe did not have the right methodology for teaching students coming from houses where English is not their first language. We could realise that most of children felt frustrated in ESL classes because they did not feel the support of their teacher niether an enough amount of feedback. In general this was an amazing experience and it was very much useful for us (as future teachers) in this way we can learn a little bit more of what works in a school, or with our students, and what leaving aside.

Seattle... an unforgetable experience

My experience in Seattle was wonderfull, I enjoyed a lot everything! That city is amazing, there is art in every single street corner! I was so happy of having been there! Apart of that, we visited lots of places, we began our five hours trip at 9.30am. When we arrived we stayed at "Holliday Inn Express", the place was very comfortable. In the evening we went to "The old spaggetti factory" a restaurant where the food was pretty much tasty... absolutely delicious! I tried a vegetarian lasagna... mmm!! Next day we got up at 9am and went to visit the famous "Space Needle", we went up and the view was amazing, I took thousands of pictures of the city there. It was definitevely breath-taking! We also knew the "Public Market" in Pike's. It was kind of a traditional place, people there were very friendly. The same day we went to the "Seattle Acquarium". I had never been to one, so I felt very happy of being there, it was such a great time for me... I think I won't never forget it. "China Town"... That place was wonderfull, I might say that I felt like I was in that country, and the food... the food was great there, tasty, tasty!! Delicious actually. On the whole, this was a very meaningful experience for me. I learnt a lot, a enjoyed a lot, and most important I could share with my classmates a lot. I won't never forget it.

My activity

Activity demonstrations:
Vocabulary

Level: Basic

Activity: Identify vocabulary through a game.

In pairs students will enter to the link that the teacher points them at a power point presentation. They will have to play a specific game (one pointed by the teacher) this game will have relation to the topic they are studying. In this case the specific topic will be verbs.

Technologies used:

Webpage http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/

(In this site you can find a great variety of grammar explanations, games, and exercises that are graded for each level of English).

Aims:

This activity is aimed to children of 3^rd grade of elementary. The principal goal is to increase the lexicon of the students in specific topics, thus they will understand a greater variety of familiar terms used in their lives.

Conditions that this activity follows:

Interaction: This activity is made for students to help their partner if they need some help. They can support each other with ideas in the development of the activity.

Meaningful Activities: As this activity was created with a specific purpose it is meaningful for students because they will be able to put in practice what they were taught. Besides in this activity children are allowed to identify and associate the spelling of the word with a picture, which is very good for visual style students.

Exposure to/Creation of varied language: New language is introduced in this activity through the game.

5. Right Amount of time/Feedback: the children are given a more and less fixed amount of time to do the activity, besides the game has a clock which registers the time it takes fulfill the activity.

6. Appropriate for Styles, Personalities and Intelligences: The main resources used are specially created for visual students but the entire activity involves others things as to be creative and it stimulates intelligence.

7. Motivating: The games are very motivating for students because they are full of color and images.

8. Student-centered: This activity allows students to work without the teacher guidance all the time; they can create independence from the teacher and can find help in their classmates also, of course the teacher can give them some pieces of advice in case they need it.

9. Autonomy: This activity provides the children very much autonomy from the teacher, but also creates a greater level of confidence between students and the teacher.

10. Multimodal: The activity principally works with images and also presents text, so the students can see the equivalent of the word or action of the verb through a picture.

11. Comfortable Environment: As the students work in front of a computer and in pairs they feel themselves very comfortable doing the activity.

Teachers and technology

1. What role do you think technology does take/can take in learning?

Teachnology is an important resource because it provoques a meaninful learning. It is a facilitator, and it motivates the students for a better learning.


Through this answer it is possible to have an idea of the approach adopted by this teacher. As almost the majority of chilean teachers, this is a most intrumentalist one. He considers technology as a tool to obtain the desired objectives.


2. What role should the learner take in the classroom?


The role of the learner is to be a receptive person, and a builder of his own knowledge. He should be very active in the classroom.


3. What role should the teacher take in the classroom?

The teachers’ roles are:

- They should be facilitators of their students’ learning
- They should be a collaborator for student in the discovering of his own learning
- They should make the students build his own knowledge


Through these two answers I realise that this teacher is a learner- centered one. Despite he answered in the first question that he thought that the learner’s role is the one of a receptive person, he repeats several times that are the students the ones who must build their own learning.

4. What does good teaching look like?

Good sense of humor, a great knowledge and expertise on the topic he teaches, collaborator, and he should establish a good raport with his students.

I am sure that the teacher did not understand my question (as it was sent via e-mail) therefore this answer, I think, does not have much validity.

Del.icio.us!!!!!!!

This is a great site (a social bookmarking)... where you can find lots of information and it is very well organized! It liked me so much! specially for pedagogical purposes, I think this is a great strategy for making our students active participants in their learning process.

Would you like to have a look on it? Lets begin with our account!
http://delicious.com/chileteach

Web Browser Trends and Technologies

Since a few years ago the Web passed from being a place where to find entertainment to a necessary tool in a big number of activities in which learning is also included. Due to this necessity and growth of the web, web browsers have had to adapt themselves to fulfill the requirements of their users.

Explorer and Netscape have been the most popular and used web browsers along the last years but it is Explorer the one who remains winner inside the internet world. however, Netscape is working very hard in the Mozilla Project, which has woke up very much interest among internet users. In what methods for Internet access refers it is expected that in the nearest future mobile language learning will be completely possible due to the use and development of technological gadgets such as mobile phones and palms. Thus, web browsers are looking for methods how to decode easily written HTML texts. This is very important because now there are several other XML developments of potential interest to language learning educators/developers that can be carried out thanks to these methods.

One thing that struggles with these web browsers is the compatibility of very specific programs with those browsers. And although "Instant messaging" is being popular now, and holds considerable promise for user-to-user contact and communication it suffers from compatibility issues.

Finally as it was referred in the text "We need to have teachers directly involved in pushing the boundaries of the technologies in order to help search out new methods to enhance student learning"