Language Learning Autobiography and Pre-Analysis - Essay Example

?Language Learning Autobiography and Pre-Analysis Five years ago, I along with my parents immigrated to the largest country in North America-Canada from South Korea. As I entered high school, I was placed in an ESL class. This simply implied that I had to improve my skills in English while continuing with my other studies. At first, this was a very challenging task as I did not have even the basic necessary level of English to understand or implement in my other studies. However . Later I found that ESL was very important for me as it helped me in my learning process. Though I had studied English in Korea, but that was only about basic vocabulary because my teachers there adopted a Grammar Translation approach to teaching language and hence, the focus was on grammar and no emphasis on speaking and listening. Thus, even though I succeeded in putting few sentences together orally, they had poor pronunciation, grammatical errors and repetitive words due to limited vocabulary. This made me realize that apart from the lack of speaking and listening practice , the traditional Korean approach did not work for me because it focused repetition and parroting rather than providing the opportunity of actually using the language. I also noticed that the teaching system , approach and methods here in Canada are very different from that of Korea as language learning here focuses on all four major skills- reading ,writing ,listening and speaking .Also the teaching is more student focused rather than the teacher providing all the input and the student being a passive learner. Here in Canada, I have become more of an autonomous learner and am able to understand how I best study and learn. In other words, I am more aware of my learning styles and patterns that best work for me. ESL curriculum should therefore, emphasize more on training in language learning strategies and help students be more aware of the learning patterns. As an ESL teacher, I would try to ensure my knowledge and ability in all possible ways in which students learn and also try to develop lessons by considering visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners. On reflection, I realized that at first my strategy was to imitate. Although I did not completely understand the teacher’s instructions, I was able to follow by imitating and taking the lead from the peers. The English teacher would usually teach a new language point and then start with class choral work before moving on to formation of small groups, par work and then individual responses. This allowed me the opportunity to imitate the other students and thus not only improve my language knowledge but to improve my pronunciation as well. My experience therefore coincides with the point of view given by Skinner, (cited in Coelho, 2004, p.142) who states that imitation through repetition is important in early stages of acquiring a first language and learning a second language. I learnt and acquired English not only by study but also by social interaction with teachers and peers (both local and ESL students) which necessitated me to pull on or extract the language I already knew and manipulate it according to the situation in hand. In other words, this interaction provided me an opportunity to use English for communication rather than only for classroom intent. A new culture and totally different curriculum proved difficult initially as was a little apprehensive to so many changes , but due to the help form ESL teachers and proficient English speaking peers , I not only learnt fluent English but I also faired well in other subjects. Thus, as the school and classroom atmosphere worked in my favor, learning and acquiring my second language was not as tough. Vygotsky (cited in Coelho, 2004, p.146) states that when a child is acquiring their first language they learn best by interacting with peers that are at a higher level in language development than themselves they will learn better. He calls this the child’s proximal development zone, which is defined as the level just beyond where the child is at. I now know that a similar process is evident in acquiring a second language. If a learner receives comprehensible input (Coelho, 2004, p.146) within their proximal development zone and the teacher provides scaffolds to help then they will acquire the second language more easily. This exactly happened with me. I would attribute all my learning experiences to my teachers and fellow students both local and ESL as they never considered me different from them. The teacher was very well-read, patient and student oriented. One of the reasons admire my teacher is because of his innumerous efforts that could maintain a healthy atmosphere in the class even when the classroom was full of students representing diverse backgrounds, cultures and languages. This capability is a must for an ESL teacher and I could gauge that it is not an easy task. However, as a future teacher, I would try my best to maintain an ESL classroom without any bias on caste, color, religion. Initially, I was a very shy student or in simple words I was afraid of committing mistakes and losing my face in front of fellow peers. This feeling of insecurity was due to lack of communication initially and differences in cultures. I was very afraid of being laughed at. One more reason for my silence was that, though I could understand well, but I could not communicate it back, that means I could not produce my understanding in front of my teacher. Learner’s receptive competence- their ability to understand oral language and written text is more developed than their Productive Competence -speaking and writing (Coelho, 2004 ,ch 8) .Thus, I did not participate fully in the class sessions and instead chose to use silence as my weapon. This was probably what linguists called a silent period. If my teacher was not kind enough, ESL could have been a nightmare for me. According to ezinearticles.com, the silent period is a conscious and active period where simply listening to the target language is associated with the notion of a one-way communication which can extend for many months at a time without producing the language. Premature pressure upon the second language learners to perform in the target language in terms of taking examinations, writing compositions and participating in oral classroom discourse can be exacerbatingly intense as well as discouraging and futile. In this learning situation, the second language learner does not possess an adequate amount of knowledge of the target language and so, he or she will lean on the first language in order to facilitate communication. Therefore, a silent period may be tremendously beneficial in terms of helping the learners to strengthen their target language. As my teacher was familiar with this phase, he did not pressurize and instead encouraged me to start by answering one words, two-words and so on. Gradually I started participating but made many mistakes. Tackling so many students with due care could have been exhausting for my teacher, but he responded to my errors in a respectful manner by providing feedback without embarrassing me. Supportive feedback is more helpful than overt correction (Coelho, 2004, ch4). Now I know that this teaching approach and peer respect is considered a means of a student’s development of integrative motivation (Coelho, 2004, p.161) and helped me to overcome my shyness , fear of getting embarrassed , thereby increasing my confidence in both learning and using English. This strong foundation paved a way for a sound learning of the language. Thus, one of the many pedagogical procedures that would implement in my teaching would be to provide a polite feedback to the learner rather than pointing out mistakes so that he can get an idea of his position without feeling embarrassed. One of the other reasons for a strong foundation was the activities that we were allotted. Clubbing students of similar abilities and allotting them tasks i.e. think-pair-share (Coelho, 2004, p.192) is an effective method as students feel comfortable interacting in a small group rather than addressing the whole class. This also promotes a healthy bonding between them. At the same time it also creates a sense of competition as a result of which each group tries to perform to the best of its ability. Thus, I would adopt task-based-teaching in my stint as an ESL teacher. According to action.ncca.ie, teacher-designed tasks and tests are beneficial in assessing the child’s learning in particular areas of knowledge, skills or attitudes. Tasks designed for and assigned to children for whom English is an additional language should emphasize clarity and simplicity of direction. The criteria should be clearly identified and explained before the task is given to the children. Teachers may use a variety of tasks to assess the child’s language and curriculum learning. Some of these might include the following- Improvising group dramas or ‘scenarios’ Asking children to reassemble jumbled words , sentences or texts Asking children to respond to verbal or written directions as given by teacher and peers Creating a new ending to a familiar tale or imagining what might happen next Identifying the appropriate operations to be carried out in word based mathematics problems Drawing graphics that record science experiments Using classroom texts to assess the child’s reading ability Another important point worth noticing is that a teacher should also be able to judge all aspects of learning. My teacher is the best example of such an intelligent teacher. According to action.ncca.ie, there are 5 dimensions of learning- 1) Cognitive dimension- includes identification of child’s progress in language and literacy as well as in the subject areas. 2) Creative dimension- includes child’s inquisitive and spontaneous interaction with people , concepts and environments that may be new and unfamiliar for the child. 3) Affective dimension– includes child’s sense of belonging as well as his/her preferred learning styles and how the child engages with learning tasks. 4) Physical dimension- includes child’s developing fine and gross motor skills. 5) Social dimension- includes child’s growing capacity to interact with peers and others in a new socio-cultural context. My teacher continuously stressed on using only English for communication, I now understand the importance of this rule. When one implements it continuously, the command over the language and vocabulary improves phenomenally. I was also unaware of the importance of a student’s first language in learning second. Application skills acquired in first language helps in better cognitive development as it eases the understanding and vocabulary learning of the second. First language enables a learner to grasp the second language better. According to mkweb.co.uk research evidence shows that bilingualism confers intellectual advantages. Pupils learning EAL are already proficient in one or more languages. They are able to transfer their linguistic and cognitive skills from one language to another. This reinforces the importance of strong development in first language for pupils while they are learning an additional language. Understanding this concept will help me a lot in my career as an ESL teacher as I will encourage my students to apply English as much as possible but to also use their first language. Learning a second language has made me realize that because of my knowledge of a first language I unconsciously looked for patterns or paradigms and in doing so I very often over generalized (Coelho, 2004, p.144) with rules, such as past tense patterns and comparative rules. I also went through different stages of inter language- a term I did not know at that time and was therefore unaware of the process. I found myself making errors and using words or structures that were incorrect in my first or second language. I kept making same grammatical errors for a long time and probably I may have even fossilized with some. While learning my first language had no idea about the components of language. But now I know that language is made of- phonetics, phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax. To an extent I have understood each of them. Some linguists purport that after puberty a person’s instinctive capability to acquire language weakens. This time in a person’s life is considered to be a ‘critical period’ (Coelho, 2004, p.145) for language acquisition. Although younger people may acquire a language more easily than elder ones, I believe that the environment plays a major role in their acquisition. Young people have more opportunity to interact with native speakers in school and nearby areas. Students after puberty however, can also succeed in acquiring English not only because of their first language development but because some may have a talent for learning languages. Today, I can say that I have an accent while speaking English but my Korean friend, who also came to Canada after puberty has no accent at all and she is very fluent. Thus, I would like to conclude my autobiography with the various pedagogical methods that I would implement in my career as an ESL teacher. As I have experienced an ESL classroom is formed of students from a number of countries, cultures and backgrounds. It is my responsibility as a teacher to maintain a decorum in the class and still encourage healthy interaction among students. Students need to be provided sufficient time to get accustomed to various changes that they experience and let them comfortable come out from the zone of comfort and start interacting with fellow peers. I would also encourage that proficient English speakers come forward to help the weaker students. But I also understand that this has to be done with due care so that these weaker students don’t feel any complex from them. I have also understood that though few languages like German are some what similar to English, some like Chinese is not even closely related. Thus, some students will require more attention than others. Managing weaker students is the quality of a good teacher. One common problem faced by most ESL learner is the use of proper tenses. I myself used ‘I have’ for simple past tense for a long time. As an ESL teacher, it’s my duty that I have to enable my students master both written and spoken English. This is because due to huge differences in pronunciation, use of vowels and silent alphabets learners often get confused with the correct spelling. As an ESL teacher my strategy would be to make learning an enjoyment process. The main motive of ESL broadly is to expand the vocabulary of the learner and this can be achieved by introducing new words in a meaningful context, by studying common roots and affixes and by providing opportunities for students to practice new words (Coelho, 2004 ch12). In the beginning a learner may be in the silent phase which is good as the learner should get enough time to get accustomed to new language, but at the same time it is also important to make the student come out of this phase after certain time and start interacting with the class. In my curriculum I have experienced that it is better if the learning is student-oriented where students come forward in discussions , arguments, justification etc. it also happens at times that proficient English speakers try to influence students by dominating , however, due praise and appreciation to the weaker student is also the need of the situation. I would also encourage students to chose their own reading material as it allows them to read freely and extensively, not necessarily to read fine literature (Coelho, 2004, ch5) Just like my teachers have enabled me to speak and write proper English and still learning to be more fluent, I will try my level best to inculcate in my students best English speaking skills without any grammatical errors and thus , with cent percent confidence. Grammar teaching can include the use of songs, choral work, chants and games that feature repeated patterns and also by using chapter content. Language can also be taught by using picture dictionaries, copying and labeling, role plays etc. (Coelho , 2004, ch11). In the end I would also like to mention the importance of parent’s role in a child learning a second language. I will try to involve the parents firstly by discussing with them their child’s progress and then by discussing the student’s feedback about the subject. It is very important for an ESL learner to possess the interest and this can best be achieved by parent’s motivation. References Coelho, E. (2004). Adding English: A guide to teaching in multilingual classrooms. Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: Pippin Publishing. Sasson Dorrit .Why Are Some ESL Learners Quiet in the Classroom. Retrieved from (October 2004), retrieved from www.action.ncca.ie/en/eal/eal-guidelines/assessing-the-child-s-progress Read More