hxr4076's blog

Throughout this semester my view on FL teaching has changed dramatically. First off, it has been my first opportunity to teach (anything at any level) and I did it as a GTA this semester in SPAN 2313/2314. Upon starting this position I quickly realized that teaching a foreign language is not as simple as it appears, in fact it is a very complex and engaging process. Also for instructors, it is not just enough to rely solely on speaking skills to cruise through teaching grammar, vocabulary, and culture, but rather a very thorough knowledge of all aspects that you are teaching in order to explain and answer student questions in the most articulate manner. It has been a challenging experience but at the same time very rewarding. Taking this MODL class has served to shatter my previous thoughts on effective FL teaching strategies and dismissing old teaching myths. By dismissing the old ways and utilizing new or more effective techniques, I have noticed a substantial difference in the way I teach, and the positive responses from the students affirm this.

One of the oldest myths that was shattered for me was that dealing with methods of teaching vocabulary. Since I had never taught before, I had no idea how to teach vocabulary, or even an idea of how to effectively teach several new vocab words per chapter. The traditional way was to have long lists of vocabulary with an adjacent English translation. This of course is not very intriguing for the students to just sit down and memorize words, especially since every word could be different in different cultural contexts. There are several better ways to teach vocabulary. My favorite adopted method is using several pictures on a PowerPoint slide that are not labeled. I then ask the students to tell me the name of each of the pictures in question. This helps students with pronunciation as well as being a more interesting learning style. For my part, I give a definition using the word or use it in a sentence (both ways in the target language). I learned that if one is unsure about the cultural context of a word in a foreign language, you can use Google image search and change the Google search to fit the country that the word has its context in.

Another aspect in FL teaching that I was given a new perspective on was the listening aspect. I was not sure how much speaking in the target language was necessary or how much speaking in the target language was “too much”. Recent findings have shown that at least 70% of the teaching should be done in the target language. Yet on the subject of using too much of the target language, there really is no such thing as long as the teaching itself is done well. One of the most remarkable FL teaching stories I learned of this semester dealt with the language immersion school in San Francisco, California. The video that was made available through PBS showed the progress of young kindergarten students, middle school, and high school aged students. The results were very impressive. 1^st grade students (possibly older) that were put into a Chinese immersion class were taught by a teacher that spoke only Chinese. Yet by using hand gestures and pointing, the students were able to vaguely make sense of what she was saying at the beginning. Later on in the school year, those same students had a much greater grasp of the language (listening). This was evident when I saw the teacher giving the students instructions and advice on their Chinese character writings. After speaking with the teacher on a one on one basis the students returned to their work. The video later went on to show a student (around 5^th grade) who had spent some years at the school and his speaking abilities were close to a fluent Chinese student of the same age. The students at this language emergence school also take other courses in the target language, like mathematics or science courses. One very interesting aspect was that the instructors do not reveal the fact that they know English at the early levels. This is similar to the study abroad experience that I had while studying Portuguese in Brazil as an undergrad. Our professor never revealed that he spoke English until the final day of class. He even studied at the University of Pittsburg and we had no idea! I think this worked out well for the immersion aspect because it forced us to push ourselves harder in developing speaking and listening skills. I have used both of these situations as my cornerstones for avoiding the use of English in the classroom as much as possible. At first it was very easy to fall into speaking English when things weren’t going well or the students didn’t understand me. This is a habit that I was able to break with persistence. Sometimes this would require saying things (in Spanish) in a different way, or at a slower pace, or even dramatizing with hand gestures. The students have responded well to my increased effort and I am glad that I was inspired to make the change. As much as it well help the FL learners to hear more of the target language in the classroom, there is still a large void that is left as far as getting the appropriate amount of listening hours. This time, aka “time on task” can be made up outside of the classroom through various mediums.

It is technology that provides us with the best and largest variety of options to improve time on task. This was well demonstrated in the ever helpful University of Texas at Austin FL teaching module website. The section on technology was presented by my former undergraduate Spanish phonetics professor Dr. Orlando Kelm. He created a website called “Tá Falado” that is comprised of several interviews with native Portuguese speakers from several different dialectical regions of Brazil and Portugal. Listening to these exercises gives the FL learner a fun and convenient way to practice listening and learning colloquial speech that is culturally relevant. Also, the students have the option of changing the subtitles to Spanish or Portuguese or even not have any subtitles. There are also several podcasts that are available and blogs that students can share their questions and experiences. This helps facilitate group learning and the professor can look at these blogs and tailor his/her lesson plan on aspects that the students are having trouble with. Many of these podcasts and language vocab boosters are very convenient for students because they can be listened to in the car, iPod, or pretty much anywhere. Therefore, increasing time on task is easier and more enjoyable for both the students and the professor. There are several other technological options that instructors can use in teaching like YouTube videos, Google reader (which allows for reading actual newscasts), and music/ music videos. While teaching for my SPAN 2314 class I used two cooking videos that demonstrated vocabulary that was just learned and the formal commands that were in the grammar section of the chapter. The students responded well to this and it was good to have a video that was both culturally and contextually relevant.

On the issue of reading, the UT Austin website was once again a huge help. It was a lesson that I had to put into immediate practice in SPAN 2314 as I was scheduled to teach two different stories that pushed the students’ Spanish comprehension and reading skills to their limits. Before beginning the stories, I learned that I should give a good review of background and cultural context beforehand. I followed through with this while teaching a story called “El Recado” which dealt with machismo in México. I thoroughly explained the concept of machismo and the social atmosphere at the time in respect to traditional male and female roles in México. In doing so, it made it allot easier for the students to grasp the underlying themes and symbolism that were in the story.

Some other exercises that prepared me to do this were the teaching segments that we did in class (MODL 5305). Through trial and error I was able to realize how much preparation and effort was really necessary to teach a story in a foreign language. The first time that I presented a story in Portuguese to a small group of classmates I had not practiced reading over the story enough and while reading it aloud I found myself confused on two of the words I was teaching (they had similar meanings). I was eventually able to correct myself after I misled the students briefly. The presentation would have gone so much smoother if I had read the entire story aloud beforehand instead of skimming over it. In dealing with the teaching segments that were done in front of the entire classroom, there were many other side factors that one had to take into consideration in order to maximize the effectiveness of their teaching segment. External factors like light, sound, position, and clarity can easily become a hindrance to the presentation if not dealt with properly. For instance, there is one side of our classroom that is better lit than the other, therefore making it the ideal side to choose for writing on the chalk board. Furthermore, facing the audience that you are addressing is crucial in maintaining their attention. It is very easy to fall into the habit of staring at the power point (or whatever visual is being used) while speaking to the students. In order to avoid this, the instructor should be very familiar with his/her own power point and have practiced it a couple of times. Testing the students on the material at hand is another great way to make sure they are paying attention. This could also include class interaction or having them repeat vocabulary out loud. The class’s energy usually parallels that of the instructor’s energy and enthusiasm.

When I became conscious of all of these teaching aspects, I realized how many different facets of my FL teaching I needed to improve on. There are so many different features to FL teaching (including the ever growing technological options) that I will always have something to improve upon. This class has served to help me develop new teaching techniques for every aspect of FL teaching and working with other students has given me several new ideas that I would like to try out in my future classes. We learned that having our students work together in groups helps to facilitate more effective learning and it also held true in our MODL class since I have learned so much from my fellow classmates on perfecting the art of FL teaching.

This blog will be a critical assessment of Reflejos which is a textbook designed for Spanish 2314, or the last lower level Spanish class. The book was published in 2004 by Houghton Mufflin Company. Despite being published in 2004, the book has the appearance of being much older, like a reprint of an 80’s textbook. Most of the pages are printed with very dull colors (light purple and greys) which do not really reflect the vibrancy of colors that Latin America and Spain are known for. As far as the vocabulary sections, I find them to be extremely lacking. The vocabulary in each chapter is presented in a long monotonous list of Spanish on one side, and its English translation on the other. There are no pictures to present the vocab and I believe this to be the textbook’s biggest flaw. Furthermore, the vocabulary that is presented contains words that are not commonly used and the most important common words are nowhere to be found. For example, in chapter 5 the main themes of the chapter were cooking, foods, and the command forms. Yet, the chapter hardly contained any of the most common fruits, vegetables, and other foods that people use in everyday cooking. It seemed that the ones that were included were only included for a recipe that was on the previous page. Also, the vocabulary exercises are reused every chapter and are very limited.
Another huge downfall is with the grammar. Every grammar section is literally presented in all text with some important words in bold. This is very confusing as there are many complex concepts that are all crammed into a paragraph with other similar concepts. It is also very unappealing to the eye.
On a higher note, this textbook is rich with reading activities and culturally relevant stories that introduce some new vocab. There is background information on each author and some limited information on the social/literary atmosphere. The questions that follow test comprehension on the reading itself and ask the reader to apply knowledge from the reading to compare it to another real life situation. The readings include short stories and poems from authors of various backgrounds of Latin America and Spain. Yet these positives are not nearly enough to offset all of the faults that this textbook has and I would not recommend it for any level of Spanish, although the stories included are commendable.

In the University of Texas website on team based learning (TBL) takes an innovative approach to the tried term “group work”. The videos really help to capture the environment and real feedback from the students that participated. In the video, the UT Austin students in a lower division history class were first put into diverse groups. The professor spread out students from different ethnic backgrounds and ages in all of the groups. These groups were set as permanent (for the rest of the semester) and the students had to follow a seating diagram during the lecture where they were always seated with their groups.

When the students were given a test, they each had to do it individually first and then again in their respective groups. I think this is a neat aspect to the TBL process because it keeps students honest. It will be fairly obvious which the group members that actually study are and which are the ones that do not (if there are any). There is sometimes a tendency when students know that they will be working in groups that there could be the assumption that someone will pick up the slack and their part in the groups is not important (even though this is completely absurd).

While taking the tests together the students discussed every answer and a scratch-off answer sheet provided the students the opportunity to try again if they chose an incorrect answer. I really like this aspect because it gives the students the chance to figure out together what they did wrong and why. Also, it serves as repetition that will reinforce their knowledge of the topic. After grading all of the groups’ tests the professor gives a lecture based on the weaknesses of the class and clarifies any misconceptions. If the students feel that one of their answers should have been correct that was marked wrong, they have the option of writing a written proposal of why their answer should be considered correct based on evidence that they provide from the texts.

By creating student feedback sheets, the students not only become responsible to their classwork, but to each other, because the group members have to rely on each other. This gives an added sense of peer pressure to perform, which is usually to strongest form of pressure for college aged students.  Two of the questions that appear in the survey for every student are; what did you appreciate about this person? And what do you need from this person? From the history class at UT the feedback was not so negative. Many group members wanted their respective partner to come to class more often. Feedback like this from fellow students can be just the thing to motivate an idling classmate. Overall this is an excellent system. I would like to implement some form of it into my SPAN 2314 classroom, especially the idea about the group test where students have to scratch off the answer. This only leaves the problem of where to find such an answer sheet.

In the University of Texas FL teaching module website, Dr. Orlando Kelm discusses how FL instructors can incorporate technology into FL teaching. The presentation is excellent and it was great to get another lesson from one of my former undergraduate professors from UT Austin. He begins by discussing the hours that many experts believe is necessary to gain moderate speaking proficiency in the FL.  (Yet it varies from language to language and depends on what the speaker’s native language is). 500 hours are necessary to gain some level of proficiency (ranging from low to intermediate) and Dr. Kelm points out how most students only get about half of that amount in the 4 lower level courses. Therefore, there is a huge need to increase what Dr. Kelm calls “time on task” in order to help with proficiency. Technology can help increase time on task in many ways. For one, technology is extremely flexible. Audio can be heard in the car, on an iPod, and videos can be accessed online from anywhere with internet access. This degree of flexibility allows FL learners to squeeze in more hours of language learning and listening around their classes and busy schedules. Dr. Kelm took the use of technology to the next step with his “Ta falado” website and other Spanish websites. When I was an undergraduate taking Spanish and Portuguese classes, I remember using these websites to practice oral exercises and seeing what would be necessary to say in different social scenarios. This was especially useful in hearing the dialectical differences from native speakers from different regions of Brazil. Also on the website are 24 pronunciation podcasts that help with listening, social situations, grammar, and they all have cultural relevance.  If this weren’t enough, there are also PDF transcripts of the podcasts that students can download. Needless to say, this offers time on task to take place at any time or place, and for audio and visual learning.  Furthermore, there is a discussion blog that facilitates group discussions and group learning.  Dr. Kelm gives an excellent idea about a giving the students the homework assignment of listening to the podcasts but leaving their questions about it on the blog discussion page. Then he adds that the instructor can base his/her lecture off of the questions in the discussion board, therefore keying in on all of the students’ weaknesses.

Later in the lesson Dr. Kelm gets into more of the cultural aspect that is tied into Fl learning. He discusses his problems that he had in a Latin American bakery and how he was not prepared culturally for it at first. I think this would make for an interesting lesson for my Spanish 2314 class. The next chapter that I am going to teach will focus mostly on food, customs, and the command forms. A video on ordering food from a bakery or other food stand could be a good way to incorporate all three things into one lesson that is culturally relevant. Technology provides endless options for Fl instructors to make use of exciting new teaching methods and increasing time on task outside of the classroom. The variation in options also provides an ever stimulating environment for the student that they will not likely tire of.

In his teaching module at the University of Texas at Austin language module website, Dr. Thomas Garza discusses the importance, implications, and strategies for teaching culture in the FL classroom. One of the first issues he discusses is culture as a fifth skill. According to Dr. Garza, language cannot exist without culture. If it were not for culture, language would just be a “bunch of correct utterances”. I concur with this since everything is what it is in a cultural context. If it we had no knowledge of the culture of the FL that we were learning, we would come across all kinds of cultural miscues or faux pas as Garza describes it. He goes on to give an example of this cultural faux pas occurrence during his time as a study abroad college student in the Soviet Union. As a token of appreciation for his host family Garza went to buy a dozen roses. When he presented these dozen roses to his host mother, she was initially appalled. After tossing one of the 12 roses into the trash, she smiled and put them in the vase. Garza later put together that it was taboo to give someone an even numbered color of roses. Hearing this caused me to think of another cultural faux pas that I have had myself in Brazil during a study abroad. On the first night that some of the fellow students and I went out for a couple of drinks, we ran into a slight cultural difference. I originally ordered a beer for all 5 people at the table but when the waitress returned, she brought 5 small glass cups and one 24oz. bottle of beer. I thought that I had asked for the wrong thing at first and when I tried to explain to the waitress that we all wanted our own beer, she did not understand the concept. We soon adjusted to this new concept and realized that Brazilians do not drink beer the same way Americans do. They do it with much greater moderation and much slower. There is the idea of everyone sharing from the same bottle. The emphasis is on social interaction amongst good friends and they usually do not get drunk (not that this was my intention that night).

Dr. Garza continues his lecture with a discussion of what we consider to be culture. According to him, there are two categories; Culture (capitalized) which includes permanent things of a particular culture, and culture (lowercase) which includes things that are pertinent to the present but may not be permanent. Culture can include famous poets, writers, film directors and movies. The lower cased culture may include aspects of the culture that are pertinent for the moment but may not be so relevant in the future. In this coming week I will be required to lecture my SPAN 2314 class on a certain reading in their textbooks. Before we get to the actual reading, it is my desire to give them background and cultural information about when the story was written. It is a short story called “El recado” which deals with a women’s solitude and anguish in the machista society of Mexico. In order for the students to really understand the cultural undertones of the reading, it will be necessary for me to explain the machista way of thinking in Mexico. I plan on doing this with images, definitions, and personal accounts from those who have lived in Mexico. This is not only important in the reading but also if the students ever study abroad in Mexico they need to be aware of the stark culture differences between interactions of men and women that arise from machismo. This module has been particularly interesting and the videos provide a more personal understanding of what Dr. Garza is conveying. I look forward to teaching this culture aspect in the coming week.

Recognizing someone as a FL language teacher and the qualifications one should have in order to be bestowed this recognition is an issue that is addressed in the University of Texas FL teaching module website. According to Dr. Tom Garza the first thing that he looks for in a FL instructor is proficiency in the language (both spoken and written). This being said, I too believe that this is important, especially in the student-teacher relationship. Being highly proficient in the language gives credibility to the instructor. I think that there are many people that slip through the cracks when it comes to FL proficiency. I believe this to be especially true in dealing with the oral proficiency. In my opinion this is the result of the over emphasis on grammar and written exercises as opposed to oral exercises. This has been the trend in most FL education in this country until recent advancements. Nevertheless, it is a common occurrence to hear someone say “I can’t speak Spanish that well, but I am an excellent writer”. If the trend is going to improve, then I think that oral proficiency is a quality that will need to take a higher importance.

Further along in his recorded lecture, Dr. Garza explains what he thinks is a necessary body of knowledge amongst the collective group of FL teachers nationwide. This body of knowledge will be the outline for all FL teaching, no matter the language. He breaks these up into the “Five C’s” of FL instruction which are communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. The communication aspect deals with the actual learning of the written and spoken parts of the language. This includes grammar, listening, and conversation skills. Culture deals with learning the language in the context of the various cultures that may speak the language while also learning about the cultures themselves. Connections deals with the actual application of the language into various mediums. An example of this would be reading poetry in the target language. Also, in this step are able to students are able to obtain new points of view that “are only available through the foreign language and its cultures.” In “comparison” students delve deeper into the nature of the language. This could include linguistic and phonetics studies and comparisons between the target language cultures and the student’s own. The final “C” is communities, and is the one that I find to be the most interesting. Students demonstrate real world applications for using the language and becoming “lifelong learners”.  For this students must use the target language outside of school, which is something that could be tricky to make mandatory but I have seen some effective methods.

For a translation class that some friends of mine are taking in the Spanish graduate program at Texas State, they are required to volunteer as a translator. One of the recommended events was a course for immigrants who were studying to become naturalized citizens. The majority of these people were of Mexican descent and spoke little to no English. The students that volunteered for this event all had a great experience and surprised themselves with how their Spanish skills held up. I think this kind of positive reinforcement is something that gives the students confidence in their speaking abilities and will help them strive to be lifelong learners. I think encouraging students to be lifelong learners is something that I would have no trouble doing. This is because of my passion for language learning, study abroad, and traveling. Of course some students may be indifferent to this but I think that my life experiences with traveling and interacting with various cultures can help encourage others to get more excited about learning the language and broadening their horizons, while at the same time enriching their lives.

The issue of how to teach FL grammar is one that differs from instructor to instructor. The University of Texas at Austin FL online grammar module offers insight to the many obstacles involved in this process while also offering many possible solutions. The first issue that is dealt with is how to create an effective lesson plan. Spanish linguistics professor Dr. Rafael Salaberry presents two different lesson plans for teaching informal commands in Spanish. After looking over the 2 lesson plans the instructors in the room discuss which one they prefer and why. It was very insightful to be able to see this discussion take place in the online video. Reading about their conclusions would not have had the same effect. Most of the instructors preferred the second lesson plan. Those that had preferred the 2^nd claimed that it helped facilitate oral comprehension (because of the video) and written comprehension while the 1^st plan only dealt with written comprehension. I personally saw major flaws with both lesson plans. Although the 2^nd plan was a popular pick because of the video, I did not find it to be any good, mostly because the video did not even use the command forms that were being taught. I think that this approach will eventually lead to the students getting confused. Interestingly enough, Dr. Salaberry seemed to share my sentiments. As far as the first lesson plan, I thought it had good content and made learning the imperative as simple as possible but, there was no cultural or oral context applied to the lesson plan, making it rather dry. For me personally, I would have used a combination of the two lesson plans. I would like to have included a video (but one that actually uses the imperative), but still include the necessary written grammar points and rules just for reinforcement purposes.

The UT Austin module goes into the concepts of induction versus deduction. A deductive approach is one that emphasizes the grammatical rules and explanations while the inductive approach focuses on “hypothesis testing” and not stating any grammatical rules (at least until the end) in the lesson. The two approaches are polar opposites and using either one exclusively would be a mistake I think. Furthermore, Dr. Salaberry appears to think that guided teaching is the approach that FL grammar instructors should take. Yet, the module continues discussing the 2 polarizing approaches and eventually my interest in the online module deteriorated until I reached the next section on guided teaching approaches. When I am teaching Spanish grammar to my SPAN 2314 students I usually introduce a situation or dialogue conversation that presents the need for a type of grammar that may have not seen yet. For example, when I taught the conditional verb tense, I started off with a verb conjugation that I knew that they had seen and used, but did not know its position in the grammar world or if there were others like it. The verb was “me gustaría” which translates to “I would like to” from the verb gustar. From this premise, I expanded upon further needs in speaking and dialogue for other “would + action” verb tenses known as the conditional tense. This made for a smooth transition to this new verb tense and I later showed the class further applications of the conditional, like using it with the imperfect subjunctive to create more complex phrases like “what would you do if you could?” I think by doing this I was able to incorporate inductive and deductive approaches to teaching the grammar and the students responded well to it.

In my previous blog entry I examined the methods in teaching FL literature in the classroom. In chapter 4 of, Gillian Lazar’s Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers the act of picking a FL literary text is the issue at hand. This is something that had not crossed my mind during last week’s blog. It is not enough to teach a text, but the right text must be chosen. This is a text that will be tailored to the needs, background, and comprehension level of the students while keeping in mind any constraints that could arise from syllabus or departmental requirements. The same procedures should be taken to find an accompanying text. For example, after examining the students’ cultural backgrounds, it should be determined whether a certain co-text is either “too far removed from the text” or “close enough for easy comprehension”. Other factors to consider would include intellectual maturity, emotional understanding, and the students’ literary backgrounds. During our class meeting last Monday we were shown how a children’s story book could be used to teach elementary German. I really liked the activity and allot of the vocabulary stuck with me even several days later. It was also fun to pair all of the scenes together in chronological order. I found this to be a very creative activity and knowing that we would have to put the story together at the end served as extra motivation to pay attention (a form of testing perhaps). This is an activity that I think that I would like to incorporate at some point but it will depend on what level the students are on.

In chapter 4 Lazar goes into what it means to be a student of cross cultural literature. I think this is a good perspective from the learner’s point of view. By understanding the learner better, we as instructors can tweak our methods and improve results. I think that the biggest problem that arises with reading FL literature for students is the large amount of vocabulary that they do not know. As instructors, we should not ignore this. Our vocabulary has been helped by the fact that we already have a vast array of FL literature that we have read in the past. I remember the difficulty that I had when I first began to read FL literature. It seemed that every sentence had at least 2 words that I did not know. This is very frustrating because to look up every word gets very tiresome and discourages the student from reading. I think there are some things that an instructor can do beforehand in order to ease this frustration. If the text is not very lengthy (less than 15 pages) I think that providing a vocabulary list (in context) is a nice gesture that will keep the students on board. For longer works of literature I think that an instructor would do well to give background information on the characters or situations in the book without fully giving away the plot. Book reviews and literary criticisms could be helpful also. This helps the student get their foot in the door and facilitates the reading and linguistic comprehension.

In the suite101.com website, the issue of foreign language literature teaching is brought to center stage. The article by Francesca Aniballi discusses some techniques in order to assist FL literature instructors in this task. First off, it is important to acknowledge that many students may not have the necessary reading and vocabulary skills to fully understand FL literature. I know this to be true from personal experience from when I was an undergraduate. My first course in Spanish literature was incredibly difficult. Despite making all A’s in all of my lower level Spanish language courses, I felt helpless in the face of Spanish literature. It felt that everything that I had learned was useless since I had such a hard time understanding the readings. Needless to say, my first Spanish literature course did not turn out well and I was left with a very sour taste in my mouth. According to the suite101.com website, there are more things that an instructor can do in order to help and enhance the literature experience. One of these is highlighting and incorporating linguistic elements from the reading into the class discussion and lecture. Democratizing literature was a term that the Aniballi uses to describe a flexible interpretation of FL literature. According to her, an instructor should not put literature into a “straight jacket” in terms of interpretation. The students will have higher moral and feel more encouraged to continue reading if the instructor allows for free interpretation.

Although I have not had to teach FL literature yet, I know at some point I will have to incorporate a reading, poem, or piece of literature into my teaching. In doing so I think it is also important to make the reading as interesting as possible to the class. One strategy that comes to mind is a Spanish literature class I took as an undergrad at UT Austin. The professor would have volunteers from the class act out portions of the dialogues between characters in the literature or plays that we were reading at the time. Not only was this very fun and engaging, but it helped the students to better visualize what was going on in the story. Many times, acting out these scenes or watching others act them out helped me to understand what was really going on when I was confused. For our final presentation in this class we were given the opportunity to create a skit that would be acted out in front of the class. All of the students in my class took the presentation (10-15 minutes) very seriously, but it really made us even more enthusiastic about the literature that we were basing our skit off of. Another thing that an instructor needs to do to get students excited about literature is their own tone and body language. When I first started teaching as a GTA-I this semester, the main professor commented that I was too stale and that I needed to move around more. It was true that I had developed a habit of hiding behind the power point. In the following lectures that I have done I have been sure to move around and I changed my tone to get the students more interested. This has worked out well for me as I have noticed much greater enthusiasm and participation amongst the students. I will be sure to keep these tactics in mind when it comes time to teach literature.

During the last class session every student presented a picture (of their choosing) in a foreign language of their choosing. The purpose was to teach as much vocabulary as possible in the span of one minute. I found the exercise to be very engaging and insightful. Before the presentation, I went over all of the things in the picture that I could possibly teach as vocabulary (in Portuguese) and when it came time for the presentation I quickly pointed all of them out. Yet, the unexpected occurred; I finished going over all of the words in less than a minute and there was an awkward pause where I wasn’t sure what to say next. I quickly decided that I should try to describe the objects I was pointing at in further detail, using them in sentences in order to better convey their meaning. However, I did not practice this aspect of teaching vocabulary before I presented; which made it difficult to teach off of the top of my head. I did manage to squeak out one hastily formed definition but nevertheless, more could have been accomplished. Even though I have the ability to define and give elaborated examples in Portuguese, it will come out much smoother in the presentation if I practice doing so beforehand.

Coincidentally enough, during my GTA teaching segment in SPAN 2313 the main professor commented that he would like more elaboration on my vocabulary teaching segments. He explained that it is not enough to merely define the words that are part of the chapter vocabulary, but that I must take advantage of the time to teach new vocabulary (whether or not it is found in the book) that could be related to the material at hand. Right then I realized he was right and that if I as an instructor miss the opportunity to teach the students the extra vocabulary, there is a good chance that they will never learn it, or that they will be at a greater disadvantage when they go into the upper division courses. Furthermore, I need to use the vocabulary in a sentence, or relate it to the students in real life scenarios that make the learning more personal, beneficial, and lasting.

This sort of vocabulary teaching falls under the listening category of L2 teaching (as well as others). In the University of Texas “Challenges in teaching listening” online module, the instructors go into detail about the challenges faced when teaching listening. The module begins by explaining the importance of teaching listening skills. For many students and L2 learners, listening can be often times be done much more than speaking. (The old “two ears, one mouth” joke comes to mind.) For example, if a student is on a study abroad, his/her L2 skills will likely not be as advanced as a native speaker of the foreign language. Yet, if they were making simple conversation or asking for directions, their listening skills will play a much bigger role than their speaking skills (not to say those are unimportant). This is one reason why listening in multiple modes is very important. Native speakers usually don’t speak an exact standardized language. Listeners will have to account for varying dialects and colloquial expressions. The more variety of exposure the L2 learner has to these, the better prepared he/she will be. One example of this is the Spanish spoken in the Caribbean is delivered at a much more rapid pace than Spanish from Mexico or other non-coastal regions. There is also heavy aspiration of the “s” and the intervocalic “d” in Caribbean Spanish which could cause confusion to L2 learners who have never been exposed to it. The exposure to these dialectical differences as well as others (like formal versus casual settings) can be done through watching “YouTube” videos, music, and movies/TV in the target language. I like this idea because it adds cultural relevance to the learning, and as we learned in class the last few weeks, almost all words have cultural relevance. With this in mind, I significantly improved my following vocabulary teaching segment in SPAN 2313 and the students and professor responded well to it. This experience has opened my eyes to what it takes to teach vocabulary and listening skills. It has also given me a swarm of new ideas that I would like to incorporate in future teaching in order to build off of this.