Clarke Wainikka TESL

Professional Learning Network: How did it change? What did I learn? One of the first things I noticed was my expansion of resources. Throughout this course, with the collaboration of my peers and the course content I was able to greatly expand my knowledge of online resources. Sites like quizmaker and screen-o-matic are quite new to me and I'm looking forward to implementing them into my classroom in the future.  Some other things I have learned about my PLN is the great community of online collaborative professionals in the ESL industry. I added this to my PLN under the 'people' section as a larger circle as I believe it is something that all instructors should take advantage of. It is clear that the instructors that actively post and share their resources online are passionate about language learning and acquisition and I hope to become a part of this community so that I can improve my skills and knowledge as an instructor. This community is quite active on ...

What are some privacy concerns in using social media with the class? It's so true that social media can have incredibly powerful ripple effects. And I do believe it can be a very scary tool for both teachers and students. Cyber bullying is a very relevant issue especially to the current generation of high school learners. I assisted high school students last year for a short stint and the detrimental effects of social media on friendships and learner education was quite shocking. I had several students come to me with instances of 'he said she said' on instagram or twitter. These privacy concerns are still a very new issue for most teachers and it can be difficult to navigate our way around these issues when the students are more knowledgeable on the technology than we are.  With that said, I do think it's important that we as teachers take the time to explain the safety and consequences of social media. And I believe this can be done by utilizing some aspects in ...

What is the difference between testing and PBLA? Testing can be used as a formative or summative assessment while Portfolio Based Language Assessment (PBLA) is formative in nature. That’s not to say that PBLA could not be used as a summative assessment but it leans more towards an update on student’s progress rather than an end of unit assessment. PBLA is often seen as something that is cyclical while testing is much more linear. A testing classroom will learn the unit and then have a test and this will continue until the end of the program. For PBLA, it is a more detailed cycle of planning for learning, assessment and engagement followed by skill-building, transparent assessment, action-oriented feedback and future planning. I believe that PBLA has many merits, it offers a much more learner-involved process not only in planning for learning but also in the assessments and criteria. PBLA also focuses on authentic learning tasks which will, in my opinion, translate better to real-wo...

What can teachers do to 'discourage interaction'? Teachers walk a fine line when creating a classroom that fosters interaction. It only takes a few simple errors for an instructor to 'discourage interaction.' Firstly, in regards to error correction, Brown & Lee advise that their must be an optimal balance between positive and negative cognitive feedback in order to be effective. Too much negative feedback will lead to a learner shutting themselves off from communication while too much positive feedback can lead to the "fossilization" of certain errors and develop bad habits. (2015) For example, if a student continues to drop the 's' when reading out loud at the ends of words and the instructor decides it is more worthwhile to correct other pronunciation errors, this could lead to the student continuously dropping 's''s and causing later confusion in their speaking.  Another example of the fine line that teachers walk when it c...

Why do you think there have been so many language teaching methods? I believe there has been so many language teaching methods because, firstly, as Brown & Lee stated, there was a search performed from the 1880's to the 1980's for the right 'method' that would successfully apply to all foreign language speakers. (2015). There was an idea that there must be one method that would work for all teachers and all students and this led to a continuous cycling of methods as they came about. Meaning new methods would replace the old, another new method would be released, would be adapted and so on and so forth.  It is clear that, nowadays, our methods are much more comprehensive and not so strictly limited to one type of language teaching. I believe this is because of the expansion of globalization. The ESL industry, with the invention of technology, has greatly expanded its borders. Teachers are now able to connect with other professionals from all over the world and t...

After revisiting the popular ideas about language learning in Lightrown & Spada (2013, p. 202), have any of your previous opinions changed or become stronger? Reading through the popular ideas about language learning by Lightbrown & Spada, I found myself very interested in two particular points. Firstly, that highly intelligent learners or those with a high IQ make good language learners. Throughout my experience, specifically with international students, I have had several students who were very intelligent and very successful in their respective fields but struggled in the classroom. I can confirm what Lightbrown & Spada suggested, having a wide variety of language abilities leads to more success, specifically in oral communication. I have had many students that are very knowledgeable in terms of meta linguistics, grammatical rules and, even, English literature. However, these students still often would make mistakes as they were not able to apply the knowledge that the...

First Language Acquisition versus Second Language Learning Above you can find a diagram I made about the differences and similarities about first language acquisition and second language learning. In my research, I was surprised by how different the two are and how truly fortunate I am to be born with English as my first acquired language. To learn that Second Language learners will, truly, never reach the point of competence of first language acquisition is quite surprising. Even those who are bilingual will still have one language more dominant than the other. I’m curious to see if this changes in the oncoming years as second language learning and children being taught two languages at a young age becomes more and more common. In my personal experience, I think I am a clear example of the differences between FLA and SLL. As a child, I spoke only English but upon entering school I was enrolled into a French immersion program. From ages 5 to 13 all of my schooling was in Fr...

How would you approach teaching a multi-level class? In my experience, nearly all of my classes have been multi-level classes. Unfortunately, ESL learners do not always fit into 'boxes' in terms of level.  I've had multiple students that have the same IELTS level on paper but upon entering the class it is clear that their levels are incredibly different. I find that level can, even, vary depending on a students mood! For example, in my current class, I have pretty strong writers and readers but their listening and speaking skills are on the weaker side. At the beginning of the week, on a Monday, usually my students are quite tired and I notice a major decrease in their pronunciation and retention of materials.  I would approach teaching a multi-level class by, firstly, ensuring that I have accurate needs assessments in hand. Knowing what my students require and their goals for the class will assist me greatly in being able to accommodate to their levels. I also will ...

"Reflect on what it means to be the speaker of the language or languages you speak. What does speaking that language mean to you?" How does it shape you an as an English teacher? (Razfar & Rumenapp, 2014, p. 286) Being a 'speaker of the language' for English means privilege to me. I believe that I am incredibly lucky to have been raised in a country where English is the native language. English is an incredibly nuanced language with multiple varieties that will only increase in the coming years. As Brown states there are certain 'internationalized' varieties of English. (2015) For example, countries like Singapore or the Philippines will be developing their own nuances as English is an official language in both of these countries. There is not 'one true English' and I've found, in my experience, that students at times get caught up in the idea of speaking 'native speaker English.' However, what will occur when native speaker Englis...

Teaching Identity Thinking about Tyson Seburn's perspective, he advised that he didn't consider teaching his profession for a long time at the beginning of his career. This caused him to lack his professional identity. I can strongly relate to this, I didn't expect to fall into teaching as I have. I grew up in a household of teachers, my mother and father were both teachers, my grandfather, my grandmother, my aunt. All teachers. To be honest, it put me off of teaching for a bit, in that I didn't see myself pursuing it as a profession.  When I was in school, I studied psychology in hopes of one day becoming a therapist. And perhaps this avenue will one day be pursued but for now I've fallen in love with teaching English. I believe I still struggle with a professional identity. I'm only 4 years into my career and still everyday I doubt my confidence as a teacher. I believe if I can accept and modify my identity it will assist me with my teaching philoso...

Assignment 3: Adaptation and Creation of ESL Materials Introductory Paragraphs Profile of Target Learners Learner Type : International Students Age: 18 and up English Level: IELTS 5 Goals: To prepare students for future College programs and courses Specific Needs: Academic English, Knowledge of essay writing, Note Taking Proficiency with Technology : Students MUST have a laptop and internet access to participate in the class. Learning Objectives This course is designed to develop academic reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. The students will learn relevant grammar to write strong sentences, paragraphs and essays. They will develop effective oral communication skills in order to listen and speak in common academic scenarios. Students will expand their academic vocabulary to assist them in future college programs and courses. Lesson Objectives By the end of this lesson, the learners should be able to: §   Identify ‘hooks’ and thesis stateme...

Technology review for Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/ I like Khan Academy because it is user intuitive, it has expansive materials that can be adapted and visually appealing quizzes. I also believe it matches with Nathan Hall's criteria: "free for students, no registration for students, don’t need to install anything, works on laptops/desktops, tablets, and phones, adds to the learning process, not complicated to learn." (2016) Khan Academy works well in my context because of the grammar practice activities that they provide. I don't generally use the explanation videos as the level is too high for some of my students. Often I will create my own explanation on a certain language point such as a power point and then provide the students with Khan Academy practice. Sometimes I will use the provided videos to further solidify my explanation.  Almost all of the practice activities I use are under the 'arts & humanities' tab, in the 'gram...

Applying Effective Principles for Adapting Resources Activit y Scenario 3 You are teaching a test preparation course. All your learners need to take the IELTS, which is an English language proficiency test and a university entry requirement. You are preparing a reading lesson to help students practice matching paragraph headings to the corresponding paragraph. You have the  Reading Lesson 1: Matching Paragraph Headings  resource available. I chose the 7 principles of materials development below to assess this activity. I chose these principles because the context is a test preparation course. I tried to stay away from principles that detailed the student’s emotional engagement as, in this context, the emotional engagement will most likely not be very high. I ensured to use principles that detail outcome feedback as I believe this is necessary in a test preparation course. I also ensured that these principles included references to high level skills as students will requ...