ME AND YOU AND A DOG NAMED BLUE

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ME AND YOU AND A DOG NAMED BLUE

• FLAVA FORUM
• October 14, 2005
• Frank Medley, Jr.,West Virginia Univ.
• Judith L. Shrum, Virginia Tech

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Old Paradigm and New Paradigm (Travelin
livin)
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Old Paradigm and New Paradigm (contd.)
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Old Paradigm and New Paradigm (contd.)
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Old Paradigm and New Paradigm (contd.)
Source Shrum Glisan, 2005, p. 68
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Asking the right questions can provide direction

• Language learning as an individual achievement
• Language learning as a collaborative achievement

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Language Learning as Individual Accomplishment
(I did it my way)

• Empiricist Theory Learners experience is more
  important than any specific innate capacity.
• observable
• behavioristic
• operant conditioning (Skinner, 1957)
• stimulus-response
• habit formation
• classical conditioning (Pavlov, 1927)

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COGNITIVE THEORY

• emphasizes KNOWING rather than RESPONDING,
• emphasizes mental structure or organization, and
• views the learner as one who acts, constructs,
  and plans, rather than as a receiver of stimuli.

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THE LAD (Chomsky, 1965)

• Innate properties of a LAD (as envisioned by
  Chomsky) include
• the ability to distinguish speech sounds from
  other sounds
• the ability to organize language into a system of
  structures
• the knowledge of what is possible and what is not
  possible in the linguistic system
• the ability to construct the simplest possible
  system based on the linguistic data to which one
  is exposed (i.e., a transformational or
  generative grammar).
•  universal grammar comprised of a set of basic
  grammatical elements that are common to all human
  languages and that predispose children to
  organize the input in certain ways.

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Communicative Competence

• Communicative competence (Chomsky, 1965)
• Communication within meaningful contexts
  (Bachman, 1990 Campbell Wales,1970 Canale
  Swain, 1980 Swain,1985 Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei,
  Thurrell, 1995)

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Communicative Competence (Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei,
Thurrell, 1995)
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Keep on rollin (Proud Mary)

• Learners use of the target language is a system
  in development characterized by
• Hypotheses
• Noticed features
• Errors and revisions
• Input ? intake ? uptake ? output

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Role of Input Monitor Model (Krashen, 1982)

• acquisition-learning hypothesis
• monitor hypothesis
• natural order hypothesis
• input hypothesis (i 1)
• affective filter hypothesis

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Role of Input Interlanguage, modified input
(Selinker, 1974 Long, 1983 Pica, Holliday,
Lewis, Morgenthaler, 1989 Gass Selinker,
1984).

• Comprehensible input
• Language of the Learner
• Interaction hypothesis
• Negotiate meaning

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Role of Input Processing (Wong VanPatten,
2004)

• to make sense of grammatical forms and be able to
  use them in communication, learners need to be
  engaged in attending to meaningful input
• mechanical grammar practice does not help
  learners attend to and use form in meaningful
  output

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Traditional Practice in Grammar

• input ? intake ? developing system
  ? output
• ?
• ?
• ?
• focused practice
• ...traditional grammar instruction, which is
  intended to cause a change in the developing
  system, is akin to putting the cart before the
  horse when it comes to acquisition the learner
  is asked to produce when the developing system
  has not yet had a chance to build up a
  representation of the language based on input
  data.
• Source Lee VanPatten (1995), p. 95

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Processing-Oriented Grammar Instruction

• 
  
• Input ? Intake ? Developing
  System ? Output
• ?????
• ?????
• Processing mechanisms
• ?????
• Focused practice

Source Lee VanPatten (1995), p. 9 VanPatten
(2004), p. 26
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Role of Output (Swain, 1985, 1995 VanPatten
Cadierno, 1993)

• Meaningful
• Purposeful
• Motivating
• Are forms being processed in the input?
• Are learners attending to grammatical
  information?
• Are correct form-meaning connections being made
  when attending to input data?

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Language Learning as a Collaborative
Accomplishment (Islands in the Stream)

• Sociocultural theory
• Language learning is social as well as cognitive
  (Wertsch, 1991)
• Interactions between experts and novices (Appel
  Lantolf, 1994 Rogoff, 1990 Wells, 1998, 1999)
• Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978)

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Sociocultural Theory (contd.)

• Scaffolding and Guided Practice (Aljaafreh
  Lantolf, 1994 Rogoff, 1990)
• Mediation (Vygotsky, 1986, Antón DiCamilla,
  1998 Brooks, Donato McGlone, 1997)
• Language Play (Lantolf, 1994 Broner Tarone,
  2001)

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Expanding our Perspectives (Dont worry be
happy)

• National context
• National Standards

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Basic Components of the Standards- Based
Curriculum

• Performance Standards
• Assessment
• Content
• Language Skills in Use
• Language Components
• Think globally, Act locally

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Standards are the Wind Beneath Our Wings (Met,
2000 Shrum Glisan, 2005) (Hero)

• Concept of proficiency in listening, speaking,
  reading, writing
• Communication in three modes to emphasize content
  and purpose of communication
• Student pair and group work
• Tasks that provide opportunities for students to
  negotiate meaning and develop interactional
  competence (e.g., ability to manage discussions)

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Standards are the Wind Beneath Our Wings (contd.)

• Oral teacher-to-student exchanges that are
  communicative in nature
• Classroom interaction that is intellectually
  meaningful and stimulating (i.e., encourages
  students to ask questions, expand on their talk,
  take multiple turns in conversations)
• Grammar as a component of communication rather
  than an end itself
• Grammar that serves communication needs

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Standards are the Wind Beneath Our Wings (contd.)

• Use of authentic materials and commercially
  produced materials organized around communicative
  topics/situations
• Central focus on developing interpretation skills
  - pivotal to acquiring new information, cultural
  knowledge, and connections to other disciplines
  and target-language communities
• Classroom activities that are meaningful,
  purposeful,and communicative
• More central role for inquiry-based activities
  (e.g., cultural investigations, authentic text
  exploration, research- and technology-based
  projects) to foster a sociocultural community of
  learners engaged in meaning making and acquiring
  knowledge through the foreign language

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Standards are the Wind Beneath Our Wings (contd.)

• Integration of various aspects of culture into
  language learning
• Approach to culture that emphasizes the
  connection of cultural products and practices to
  their philosophical perspectives, enabling
  learners to develop more relevant cultural
  insights into the target culture and their own
• Ways of measuring student learning that focus on
  performance, on knowledge in use
• Performance assessments that go beyond
  paper-and-pencil tests, have an expanded role in
  determining student progress in meeting the
  standards, and offer a more useful link between
  teaching and learning

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How does a standards-based curriculum address

• Articulation
• Recruitment
• Mentoring
• Retention

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Articulation

• 88.89 of Virginians speak English
• Of the 11.11 who speak LOTE,
• 316,274 Spanish (43)
• 40,117 French
• 32,736 German
• 31,918 Vietnamese
• 29, 837 Chinese
• 25,984 Arabic

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Recruitment

• 38 of Virginias teaching force will retire in
  the next 10 years
• Great Virginia Teach-In Job Fair, job bank,
  electronic hiring hall
• 22 reasons to be an FL teacher (Long, 2005)

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Mentoring Four Basic Questions

• What could we do?
• What should we do?
• What will we do?
• Who will do it?

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Mentoring Lean on Me!

• What could we do?
• Role modeling
• Electronic mentoring
• On-site mentoring
• What should we do?
• Create a mentoring mindset
• Recognize the need for collaboration among
  colleagues
• What will we do?
• Only WE can answer this!
• Who will do it?
• Individual teachers
• Retired colleagues
• Professional organizations
• School districts and higher ed
• Departmental units

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Mentoring Building the Relationship

• The mentor should NOT be in the performance
  evaluation loop, since this would tend to
  inhibit the open discussion between the
  individuals involved.
• Regardless of the level at which mentoring
  occurs, there should be established guidelines
  for both mentor and mentee, including selection
  of individuals to be involved in the process.

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Retention (Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown)

• 1/3 of new teachers leave in the first 3 years
• 50 of new teachers leave in the first 5 years
• Virginia Middle School Teacher Corps - math, and
  L2?
• Teacher-to-teacher Training Corps

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Retention - Rewards (Material Girl)

• From the AFT (2002-2005)
• Salary ranges from 28,143 to 57,087
• avg. 40, 510
• 1.19 ?, 3.15 inflation?
• 2005 Virginia DOE
• 46,034 Avg. budgeted salary
• 4.8 ? over 2004 2004 was 3 ? over 2003

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Preview to the Workshop

• Authentic materials
• Information Gap
• Assessment
• Brainstorming commitments across agencies

Photo credit Willa Dios, 2004