Undecidedly speechful

I realise this seems like a bit of a weird title, but the topic it is addressing is autonomous speech in an L2 language.

I learned German as my L2. I remember feeling incredibly awkward in the beginning, stumbling over sentence construction, trying to find the right word, using the appropriate verb tense, knowing if I should use "der, die, das, den, dem, derren, dennen, dessen"... all too much, or so it seemed. Then I got over the embarrassment of stumbling, and started asking others to help me with my language acquisition. Eventually, with much interaction and practice, the speech came more readily, fluently, and comfortably. Responses to basic every day conversation ("Wie geht's?", for example) became reflex rather than thought provoking. Ordering food in a restaurant wasn't an ordeal any more, where I would usually end up eating 'schnitzel' and 'kartoffelsalat', because it was the only thing I could read on the menu, or the only thing I could understand the waiter describing to me. I started to participate in social conversation, coming out of my position of silent observer.

Sure, I still made mistakes, but that started to become how I learned. Another thing that I learned to do when speaking was, if I wasn't sure on what to say or how to properly pronounce what I wanted to say, I would 'swallow' the word - say the word incoherently so that the listener had to rely on their sense of context to fill in the word I hadn't spoken clearly enough. I did this until I learned how to say the word properly, and would then proudly speak the word out loud and clearly. The moment for me when I realised I was speaking autonomously (without deliberate thought or reflection) was in a restaurant one day.

I was with a group of German friends and we were enjoying our meal and each others company, telling jokes and relating stories of the day. Our waiter, who also happened to be the owner, had apparently been listening in to our conversation as, when we were preparing to leave, he started a conversation with me that focused on my (German) accent. He asked me what part of Germany I was from, as he detected a slight accent in my pronunciation. I asked him where he thought I was from, and he said "Muenchen oder Frankfurt" (Munich or Frankfurt). I told him I was actually from England, living in Germany with the armed forces. He laughed, as he apparently thought I was sharing a joke with him. It took a great deal of convincing for him to finally believe that I was actually English, and I had to speak a couple of English quotes for him to hear. I'm not sure that he totally believed me though, as he commented that I had a really good English accent!! It was then that I realised that I was speaking German without thinking about the speech process. The words came naturally, my thought processes followed the conversation, predicted what would be said, and allowed me to participate with independent thought and opinions.

Welcome to the world of Autonomy!!

TTFN

From Troglodyte to Shakespeare

Writing, for today's purposes, is the use of widely recognised symbols set out in a specific pattern that carries meaning to the reader. Considering the drawings found on the walls of caves, this really hasn't changed too much since cro-magnon times.

Pre-writing times (as we understand the term 'writing' today) may have found verbal skills as the most important, perhaps with the use of hand gestures and gesticulations to provide emphasis and accuracy. The use of writing can 'paint a picture in the reader's mind', and often we find such imaginative expressions being used in teaching creative writing courses.

If writing were enough to convey a message there would be no need for in-person contact, as we could simply jot down our thought, use some conveyance method to have it delivered to our intended reader, and have them interpret meaning from the symbols, characters, and sequencing of those 'words'. However, with 55% of messages being conveyed using body language, 35% of the message being conveyed through the tone and inflection of the voice, that leaves only 10% of the messages' accuracy to be conveyed through the words selected.

Strong and effective writing skills provide for a message to be written in a semi-permanent and consistent way, carrying a message for multiple readers to see over time, rather than the spoken message which may quickly become interpreted rather than translated, and thereby lose its original meaning in its conveyance.

Everyone can write, whether through the use of illustrations, words, SMS characters, or any other generally recognised symbolisation. However, not everyone can write well. And not everyone can understand everything that is written. It requires training in the written symbolism to read that symbolism well. Also, even well written prose can lose its meaning in translation. So, reading and writing go together. Here's an example of what I mean.

Der schnelle braune Fuchs ueber den faulen Hund springt.

With even a limited understanding of German and a strong understanding of English pangrams, you may recognise the expression as one used to teach typing skills with the use of all of the letters of the English alphabet included. However, when translated into German in this manner, the pangram no longer exists, and we are left with a sentence that, while having some interesting meaning, may well leave the reader confused as to why a fox would leap over a dog, unless trying to escape from it.

Using examples such as this in the classroom to emphasise the importance of writing, and learning to do it well, may well help L2 learners to understand why literal translation doesn't work too well in writing, especially when you are trying to understand whether to be or not to be, that is the question?

TTFN

Say what?!

Teaching Reading

It's interesting to consider how important reading is as a skill. An exercise conducted by one of my colleagues highlighted this importance with myself and a group of my peers. She conducted the exercise using Low German as the language of choice - no one in the room understood the language, much less were they capable of reading it.

The exercise comprised reading a document and completing the task as required - these were the only instructions offered. The task was timed, and needed to be completed in two minutes. Anyone not completing the task would be asked to leave the room, as their language skills were obviously not high enough to continue in the peer group.

 

By the end of two minutes no one had even started the task, meaning we would all have to be ejected from the room. This was a strong message to send to a group of instructors who were dealing with second language learners who were new to the country, and new to the concept of finding work in a foreign place.

To me, this was a very revealing way of demonstrating the difficulties our newcomer clients may experience in their search for work, and in how we as an organisation had set our expectations of our clients.

It was clear from the document during the skimming phase that this was either a list of instructions or an inventory of items, as the bulleted list style of writing was used. However, beyond that any guesses anyone made as to the nature of the task were grossly off the mark, because we lacked the communicative part of the task.

After discussing the client dilemma that this type of approach provided, we were asked to complete the task with a more detailed set of instructions. we were told that this was a set of instructions, and by the time we were finished we should have drawn a picture. We were given clues to the words being used (die Sonne meaning the sun, der Rasen meaning lawn, ueber meaning above, and unter meaning below). Provided with this new set of instructions, many of the peer group were able to draw a minimalistic image of what the instructions were calling for. Most of the task was completing using our own comprehension of where the sun and grass were located in our world with respect to each other, the fact that the sun was yellow and the grass was green, and so on. It became a constructive reading task that allowed us to use previously gained knowledge to complete it, and the ability to explore the language in a communicative way.

I now truly understand the importance of teaching communicatively in the EAL classroom, particularly when it comes to reading tasks.

Everything old becomes new again

This post is a bridging post between the three previous ESLTCP courses and the last course, which brings together all of the materials learned to date.

I've been fortunate enough so far in this program to have been working in an environment where I was working with newcomers. They have been seeking work, and I have been able to learn the nuances they experience in language and authentic materials as differences between their cultures and 'the Canadian way'.

My interest in teaching ESL lies in this area.


I want to guide learners through the potential minefield of errors and nuancial mistakes (yes, that's a real word). I plan to provide language courses that integrate cultural understanding in language learning, and that identify how language is more than verbal communication, but includes non-verbal as well.

To Be or not To Be... past present or infinitive?

I've just completed the course requirements for my ESLTCP course in Grammar and Vocabulary. We've been asked to provide our thoughts and musing on what we've learned, what ideas we struggle with, and what surprised us the most. Where do I begin... ?

When I was a young man, I excelled in language arts in school. I won awards for my poetry examples, consistently placed in the top three in spelling, and was generally known as an excellent communicator. So, I should be pretty good at understanding Grammar and Vocabulary, don't you think? Well, you couldn't be more wrong!

As an English language communicator, I learned mostly through chunking and patterning. I wasn't into the rules of grammar, couldn't fathom for the life of me the difference between a prefix and a suffix, pronoun and adverb, and really didn't much care. I wish I had.. cared, I mean. Because here I am at the point of becoming a facilitator in the topic. And I still feel frustrated.

For my students, I will bring to them an unbelievably strong understanding of the frustrations that Grammar and Vocabulary can deal them. I will revel in their successes, holding complete admiration for their ability to grasp a topic that I have not understood in the 50+ years of my life.

I have also been a foreign language learner - German is my second language. I used precisely the same learning methods when processing the language structure in German - I chunked what I could, and patterned and copied those knowledgeable in the language. I took one formal course in University for German language studies, and I mostly fluffed my way through that. It appears that my learning methods work well, as I was able to complete that course with a much higher-than-expected mark, and an invitation to join the German department.

My take-away for this course is that, no matter what academia prescribes as learning methods, or what we believe we understand of how our second-language learners acquire language skills, be it inductively or deductively, our students will learn in the best way that they can, and we should not stand in the way of their learning for the sake of prescribed methodologies. Learning is learning, no matter how or why it occurs.

We cannot, and must not, put our expectations of the learner ahead of the learner's needs for understanding, patience, and a huge amount of kindness.

I have experienced all of these things in my course through our instructor, for which I will be forever indebted and truly, truly grateful.

TTFN

Elementary my dear Watson...

In teaching grammar, we have been asked to identify which of two strategies we would feel more inclined to implement - inductive or deductive teaching. This made me think of the stories I used to read and watch on TV about Sherlock Holmes and his eternal best friend, Doctor Watson. During the investigations of the various crimes in which the pair would become involved, Holmes would often deduce the perpetrator of the crime based on the actions of the criminal and the evidence left behind. However, what for me provided a twist to the stories, was Holmes' ability to infer the personality of the criminal without ever having met them. This was provided through inductive theory, and using a huge background of knowledge of the type of criminal that would commit such a crime. I was enthralled by the story lines, and engrossed in the mystery. Was I experiencing flow? Absolutely.

I believe that a learner who is involved in any kind of activity, whether learning for the sake of learning or learning for need, uses both inductive and deductive strategies regardless of how the material is presented. As an experienced instructor, I start presenting a new topic by investigating prior knowledge. This gets the class set up into inductive mode. By applying the principles of the learner's previous knowledge, we move back and forth between inductive to deductive and back again with relative ease. I am thrilled every time I see my learners experience that "Aha!" moment of discovery.

I am not uncomfortable with either of these strategies, and try to remain flexible in the use of them. There have been times when I have prepared a deductive presentation of material for what I have seen as a topic with which my learners are totally unfamiliar, only to have a comment or question move me into an inductive mode and lay the prepared material to one side.

My preference is an inductive learning strategy. For example, whenever I am asked "Teacher, how do I...?", my first response is to ask, "What have you tried?" Excessive deductive teaching, I have found, creates a dependency on the teacher's knowledge, and the learner becomes less likely to attempt the (subject) on their own for fear of failure.

I like the material in the course we are presently taking that addresses moving the learner to independent use of the learned material. This provides a happy medium for me between the deductive strategy of "This is how you do it." to the inductive strategy of "Is this how you do it?"

Fly fishing and lesson planning...

We've been asked to apply the principles of flow to lesson planning. Anytime I think of 'flow' in a classroom, I think of the learner wrapped in a timeless absorption of the material, where the sound of a pin drop could be heard, or the chatter is so loud that no conversation is clear but to the participants. There are some specific points that we've been asked to consider, so here they are. I really enjoyed writing this blog, as it took me back to a time when I was amazingly happy, and very alone.


Clear goals in a lesson plan allow for a sense of direction and purpose. Having a sense of purpose is what humans live for... it is what drives us to continue our pursuit of life. On a smaller philosophical scale, clear planning allows us to understand the road we are walking, and that it will lead us somewhere - just enjoy the scenery along the way.

Being given immediate feedback is important to knowing we're walking down the right road, and haven't taken any wrong turns or, if we have taken a wrong turn, it guides us back to the correct path. We would never dream of setting out to a new location without some way of mapping our progress, and knowing where we are and where we need to be. Immediate feedback does this for us in our lessons and learning. It allows us to focus more on the task, and keeps us on track.

Using a balance of challenges and skills allows our senses to focus on the actions that need to be completed, without external distractions or frustrations leading us from where we are going. As in the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy and her companions get distracted by the Field of Poppies, insufficient interest in our subject can take us away easily from our intended destination.

Focusing on the task, with a clear idea of the point for departure, a point of arrival, and which turns to take along the way... well, it's like having a GPS guide you in the car. You can concentrate on driving, wothout needing to consult the map or stop and ask for directions. You know exactly where to go, and there is no fear that the GPS will lead you astray. The GPS only communicates what you need to know, at the time you need to know it. A well laid-out plan instills trust.

If you're involved in a lesson that totally swallows you up... you disappear into a total focus of the task, with no distractions and no awareness of any other concious existence... that's when time has no meaning. Time is a human invention, and doesn't exist outside the realms of consciousness and science. So, if we can remove all conscious distractions and provide a clear and determined goal with the steps for achieving that goal, then time ceases to exist. Our mind uses all of its processing power to deal with the challenge in front of us, without the need for measuring the speed at which we are processing information.

When I was a young man, I used to distract myself from the life I disliked by going fishing. As I reflect on how I spent my time while I was fishing, I have come to realise that it was autotelic... fishing for the sake of fishing. I wasn't disappointed if I didn't catch a fish, nor was I ecstatic when I did, in fact I often would return the fish to the water. I was fishing in order to teach myself how to fish. Catching a fish was an indication that I was succeeding in my lessons; not catching a fish was an indication that I needed to change my strategy.

I remember watching a man downstream from me one day, while he was fly fishing. The graceful moevment of the line as he cast and retrieved, then cast and retrieved it again, until he was able to make the fly land in the perfect spot on the water. The skill and accuracy, and the grace with which they were combined, was what I wanted to learn. I taught myself how to do what he did, through observation and practice. I don't know how long it took me to do that, but I perfected casting a line onto the surface of the water until it would land exactly where I wanted it to, every time. I recall being so absorbed in the learning process that, once I did get a distraction and notice the time, I was often late for supper and received a scolding from my mother that I was so air-headed not to keep track of time. That is 'flow'... that is learning.