OPINIONS
WHAT DO STUDENTS THINK?
“A foreign language should be taught in a foreign language”
KAORI SUZUKI -- AGREE

I agree with this opinion as following aspects. I have mainly learned English in Japanese in my junior and my high school days. And I feel it is important to use English in an English classroom so that students can always face this language.   

Firstly, in this classroom, students are exposed to English from the beginning to the last of the class. Students cannot help using English to communicate with a teacher or their classmates. Students probably concentrate their attention on the stream of English. They can no longer pay attention to 1 word or 1 expression as an English classroom in Japanese. I think this circumstance make students self-starters. Students try to or have to get a lot of English words, expression and grammar for themselves on top of a regular class’s study to understand what a teacher said and the meaning of a word, and to express their thoughts to other people.

I think time and space in a foreign classroom is a foreign language world as a whole. Throughout a class, a lot of English expressions break over students. On entering into a classroom, when a teacher uses English only and students also switch to English, I think it is an ideal language classroom. Even if students do not understand an explanation in English at first, I think they gradually get how to catch English and they can pick up an important word in the stream of English.

Secondly, I could make sure that a foreign language classroom should be taught in a foreign language last week. I went to my graduated high school to see an English classroom last Friday because my high school teacher invited me his classroom. He and ALT spoke only English throughout the class. He said that students did not understand what he and she said at the first class, but they look gradually accustomed to this classroom. I was surprised to see the attitude of students. As he said, they tried to understand what he and she said, and I saw they could translate it into action at the same time. They were more positive to English than I had expected.

There may be the problem “What does a teacher do if students can not understand what he or she said in English?” I think a teacher needs to put English into Japanese at first. And as students get used the circumstance, it is possible to make up an English classroom in English only.

I believe it is significant to use a foreign language only in a foreign language classroom. Throughout the classroom, students can face English. I think learning a foreign language is to use a foreign language in a classroom.


“A foreign language classroom should be taught in a target language.”
MAYO YOSHIKAWA--DISAGREE

I disagree because in order to establish a foreign language learning, we need to compare it with your native language.  By means of doing this, you can know meanings of new words of the language that you are learning, according to your native language ability.  I think it is almost impossible for beginners to learn a totally new foreign language all in a target language. This is because when we need to try on something inexperienced, it’d be better if you have something that could be your fundamental base to step on in order to go on to a next step, which means you are learning more and getting better. So in language learning, the basic is essential, but with the exception of learning for advanced learner. It’d depend on who is a learner, or what level he/she has. If you have learned a basic grammar, and if you are confident of yourself in four skills “speaking, writing, listening, and reading), this means you are ready to be taught in a target language, therefore, with the phrase in the title above, I also agree in some parts.  This basic could be also your native language. If you have this as a base to step on, it’s better and easier to learn more. Without it, you wouldn’t learn anything.  People have an individual language to talk, but if you didn’t have it, you would get completely lost because you don’t know what language itself is. Because it becomes like a core when you learn a foreign language.

“A foreign language classroom should be taught in a target language.”
MAKI MIYAZAKI -- AGREE

I mostly agree to this topic. I really think that a foreign language classroom should be taught in a target language. Especially, young people being very curious and having good memories, we should teach them a foreign language without using native language. I think it is important for us to get used to the sound and pronunciation of foreign language as early (young) as possible. However, I also think there is a limit to teaching and studying in only target foreign language. At the beginning, we can enjoy learning and understand our teacher effectively, because he/she choose simple words and use them to speak. But as we learn more, we need more difficult and abstract words which are difficult to explain in the target language. Studying a little advanced subject, for example, grammar and culture of foreign countries would need to use native language, too. From these opinion above, whether a foreign language classroom should be taught in a target language is varies in level of students and age. Therefore, I think a teacher must consider and choose which language (target or native language) to use. Personally, if I were a junior high school or high school student (or a pupil), I would like to be taught in a target language, because it will be fun!! 


IG for CEX Forming
(I thought that would catch your eye!) Calm down. CEX stands for Changing Entrance eXams, (pretty exciting still!) by the Interuniversity Group (meaning people from different universities) uniting and sharing information that can help to improve the entrance exam system in Japan. If you are interested in joining such an email discussion group send your email to mits@dokkyo.ac.jp with IGCEX in the subject box.


Japanese Speaking English to Each Other
On the Telephone!!!
Mari Sekiguchi

At the first lesson of a class, a teacher suggested a short language-learning activity. It looked unique and enjoyable, so that I started to do it from that day. The task, which drew my interest, was a conversational practice with a friend on the phone. It has been 2 months since I started phoning my Japanese friend for English conversation. I am continuing irregularly still. Here, I will report on the activity, and how we work it and what makes us continue.

My partner:
I asked Minako, one of my best friends, to be my telephone partner. We met and came to be friends in a 2-month cultural exchange program abroad 3 years ago. She also majored in English (literature) at her university and our proficiency in English is similar. Now she works at an insurance company, but she plans to quit her job and study abroad in a few years. So she is highly motivated to develop her English. 

What we do Before starting this activity, we often called each other on phone. So I called her as usual, and then switched our language to English. Mostly we enjoyed chatting and girl talk! (about our boyfriends, fashion, movies, food, and so on). When we became accustomed to chatting in English, we even talked over our own serious troubles. The more serious the topic become, the more difficult expressing it in English becomes. So gradually we started preparing a little for what we wanted to say in English. Sometimes we couldn’t come up with right word, then we would try to recall it together and look it up in a dictionary. I like this kind of time because I could feel we cooperated to study.  

What makes us carry on?
To understand why we continue, it would help to read my action log. At the beginning of this program, I wrote:

Nothing is hard on telephoning! I just talk and have fun with my friend as usual. Even though I am frustrated with my own poor English, I feel I am doing something worth doing and that encourages me a lot. It is also very good to collaborate with supportive friends. They make the activity more fun and decrease your nervousness (something like lowering your “affective filter”). 

Actually I am wondering whether my English make progress or not. But I am sure that my attitude toward speaking and learning English and talking with others has developed. My goal of language learning is not to be like a native speaker but to be a good communicator. Telephoning might require lots of communicative strategies that I cannot learn from grammar books. I learn how I handle difficulty in communication through trying by myself and learn from modeling others’ strategies. I think it is as important as speaking and listening.  

Minako’s comment:
Minako said telephoning was really good for her, because she felt as if some part of her brain that she didn’t use in daily life was stimulated through talking in English with me. She also suggested that we should set a goal or goals for our practice. So we talked about it and we decided to prepare for the topic beforehand so we could make our chatting more successful.

Interesting findings:
Strangely, sometimes I found our English pronunciation became more JAPANESE like. We intended to “break” our English pronunciation. Here is an example. “Batto… it’s a ritoru bitto difikaruto – ne! (But…it’s a little bit difficult)” Moreover, Japanese and English are mixed up in our conversation. “You mean you feel MENDO-KUSAI?” (you mean you feel troublesome?)  I think we try to speak in a natural mood like when we are talking in Japanese. But so far we prioritize relaxing and having fun rather than setting up some strict rules on our language usage. I think we will do this for many weeks to come.



Gakuryokuteika?
Declining Academic Achievement And The Role of Parents
By Chieko Nishimura

Gakuryokuteika (declining academic achievement) is becoming a controversial issue in Japan (The Kyoushoku Kenshu March 2003 vol. 31 p. 7). The gakuryoku (academic achievement) test was done to see how students understand the lessons under the new guidelines started from this year. Unfortunately the result of the test did not satisfy some teachers or specialists. In the new guidelines, 30% of content in textbooks was cut down, aimed at students to have relaxed education (The new guideline). Students were expected to think and solve problems by themselves related to their daily lives. It is expected that this will make students motivated and considerate of other people’s opinion. As a result, that will encourage students to make their own opinion so that they would have ikiruchikara (a zest for living).

After considering the results, earlier this year analysts said drills must be increased or cram school teachers be utilized to teach techniques to develop calculation and writing Kanji skills more effectively. Although it is not clear what the criteria are for evaluating children’s performances, it could be compared to passing university examinations. It could be retraced back to the transmission style rather than the interactive curriculum negotiated for long time and finally started this year.

In this article I am proposing to increase the parents’ roles so that it could improve children ‘s comprehension.

There is the data showing (Asahi News) that main expressions which children hear from their mothers after coming back from school are, “Finish your homework?” (shukudai owatta?) or “Do quickly!” (hayaku shinasai). In addition to this, the data says mothers ask their children to listen and obey to what their teachers say (Asahi news). So they are not encouraging their children to question information or their teachers in a classroom. Quiet classrooms are required. Parents’ attitudes influence one of the negative characteristics of Japanese students — their silence.

Alternatively, I recommend firstly parents should notice what children learn in school and secondly talk with each other at home about what children learn at schools instead of rushing their children through their homework. Parents could also ask children to narrate what they learned in school each day.

I did just this with my 8-year old son. He could say nothing the first week or so that I asked him. Then, gradually he began telling more and more things about school. I haven’t seen great improvement yet, but I have seen a spark of light.

Why is talking about school effective? Vygotsky believed that our life experiences affect and influence our development (Wink & Putney, 2000, p.60). Our use of language determines our learning; and our learning determines our use of language. The notion of social learning is key to the work of Vygotsky, and it takes different characteristics in a sociocultural perspective. For example when we read a good book, we want to share what we have read with others. That is one kind of social interaction. Being social is also being cultural and historical, i.e. we carry on the customs of our ancestors and our societies.

Therefore the more you talk, the more you learn to understand. Children will learn more by talking or explaining what they learned in schools. And by talking or explaining with their children, parents are also learning. Instead of doing more drill calculation or inviting cram school teachers, it is better to draw out their children’s hidden intelligences and give them confidence in discussing their world.

Talking helps to develop our learning in a relaxed curriculum. Ask children, “What did you learn?” and “Teach me.” Talking and explaining about what they learn helps children develop. Eventually they will ask many questions in interactive classrooms. I hope some day soon teachers will be shocked at all the questions, and then overjoyed.

References
Asahi Shougakusei Shinbun – The Kyoushoku Kenshu March 2003 vol.31

The new guideline  http://www.mext.go.jp/

Wink, J., & Putney, L.,(2001). A Vision of Vygotsky. Boston: Allyn & Bacon

Helpful Language Learning!
Taemi Toda

As you may have noticed, there are an increasing number of foreigners visiting Japan and they very often could use our help at train stations, on the streets, and in restaurants. Below, I tell two short stories about how I helped some English speakers and a Korean couple. I also got to practice my languages and boost my confidence that I could actually communicate. But even more than that, research has shown also that when you do kind things for people, they are more likely to do kind things for others. So you are "paying it forward" and making the world a better place, a little. It only takes a little courage.

Episode one: One day, on my way to home from high school, I saw two foreigners who were at a loss in front of picture-taking machine. I talked to them without thinking in English (my major was English then). They needed some portrait pictures for foreigners’ registration IDs. I helped them to do it while enjoying conversation. They looked as if they appreciated me so much, and I was also happy to feel like that!

Episode two: At the beginning of this semester (2003), I was going to university. I found a Korean couple staring at their guidebook and the train map above the ticket machines at the station. “Odikagi kaseyo?” (Where are you going?) I said to them. They were very surprised at my speaking Korean. I just explained how they had to change trains further on and how they could buy their tickets. I just used very simple Korean, because I was not sure if the grammar was right. In any case, I could give them the information they needed. And I left there, hearing them say, “Thank you!” in English. I was also filled with good feeling during the whole day.

When I went to Dalian (China), and Taipei (Taiwan), there were lots of young people who talked to me (us) in Japanese. They were eager to find chances to talk. Some people helped us even though they could not understand Japanese, they did not mind whoever we were at all. They spend a lot of time with us, even going so far as to call their brother who could speak Japanese, and he translated what they said into Japanese!! Both experiences were so interesting for me.
 
These kinds of things may often happen around you if you are looking for them. It might not work sometimes. I can say however, it is up to you whether you can take advantage of the chances you are offered or not. These episodes also showed me the most important thing is NOT language ability, BUT how we act/behave. It is not a special thing. I believe anyone can do that. And I am SURE that learning languages through communicating with people works a lot and is really effective. And helping others can make your day!


Research Collaborations
The Research Collaborations column allows students and teachers to announce present research projects. Having 100 eyes to help you do your searching is wonderful. Colleagues may run across material that might be useful to another and let the researcher know. Also, people may want to collaborate on different areas of interest.

Languaging
FORUM Column
The forum column invites comment from any one concerning any of the issues raised in the publication, or any one who would like to raise an issue and request that it be addressed.

PDG
that’s not pedigree, that’s Portfolio Development Group. If you are using portfolios or interested in doing so, you can join this email discussion group. Send your email to mits@dokkyo.ac.jp with PDG in the subject box.



Five Finger Exercise for English
Jim Brogan, Dokkyo University

Dokkyo has about a hundred Chinese students studying mostly in the economics department, and I teach about 70 of them. While studying in China and teaching in Taiwan, I came up with some handy hand signals to alert students to their most commonly occurring language transfer errors. 

Chinese differs structurally from English in several ways: it does not have different tenses, instead it uses verbal aspect markers and adverbial time and frequency expressions, such as often, every week, yesterday and next year; it does not conjugate verbs, so the third person 's' is often forgotten; in written Chinese he (他) and she (她) are clearly distinguished but they have the same spoken form in both pronunciation and tone, 'ta' (first tone); there is no equivalent of the definite and indefinite articles; and finally the noun does not change for singular and plural. The following, though a little exaggerated, could be a typical example of those five mistakes: 


As a way of showing the student that one of these mistakes had been made I developed a set of specific hand signals (see photos above & below). Teachers around the world in several methodologies have developed hand signals to show such things such as word order, syllabic break up of words and stress.

The advantages of the hand signals over verbal interruptions are that they are less intrusive; they bring a visual element to the process and can, eventually, be fun. I explain to new Chinese students, from lower intermediate to lower advanced, that these five mistakes are going to recur a lot. Intermediate to lower advanced students are usually quite good at avoiding these mistakes when they are purely focussed on language. When they are telling a story and are concentrating on content, however, they make these same mistakes. I then suggest that a good way to tackle them is to use 'the five finger exercise' (not strictly correct as the gesture for the 'article' uses both hands, but I liked the analogy of piano warm-up exercises). I also use the analogy of conditioning exercises used for gymnastics or practising serving shots for tennis. I start sessions with learners talking uninterrupted, other than by the hand signals, for two minutes. I let other minor mistakes pass. The approach to the previous example would be as follows (the bold print shows the original error and the italics the corrected version; the relevant hand signals given are in brackets):

She or He (Her or Him) Check (pics 1, 2, 3)	Past - Present - Future Check (pics 4, 5, 6)

Third Person "S" Check (pic 7)	Article Check "The," "A," or no article (pic 8)
Plural or Singular Check (pics 9 & 10)

The initial reaction from students at intermediate level and above was that they did not believe that these problems would occur so often. After one or two sessions the reaction changed: first to frustration and then to an acceptance that this was something that should be looked on as a way of warming-up those language muscles for the switch from Chinese mode to English mode. After further sessions it usually became fun for them.

As anyone who has tried to learn a foreign language has probably discovered, we have two basic kinds of mistakes: those that stem from not having yet learned something and those that come from thinking in our own language and translating what we think into the target language. The English Subject, Verb, Object sentence structure does not readily translate to the Japanese Topic and Comment structure, but German speakers, used to the verb at the end of a sentence, can find this switch easier. The native tongue, rather than lack of ability, is often responsible for the most frequently recurring mistakes when learning a foreign language. These are sometimes phonetic and sometimes structural problems and are usually common to other members of that native tongue. Scottish learners of Spanish, for example, are usually much better than English learners at the rolled 'r' sound necessary to distinguish 'pero' (but) from 'perro' (dog). French, Italian and Spanish speakers of English will often refer to a table as 'she', while native English speakers learning these languages usually struggle to remember which nouns are male and which female. Again, native German speakers are usually better, learning the article and the noun together. Cantonese speakers of English seem to speak it at 150 miles per hour because that is the way Cantonese is spoken (actual speed 149.9mph!).

A constant problem for teachers is deciding how many of these regular mistakes we let go in order to encourage fluency and confidence. In this article I will describe five regular problem areas I came across while working in Taiwan and a quick warm-up exercise I used to use to tackle them.

P.S. Tim Murphy has suggested that this idea could be developed with pair work in larger groups.  And he has asked what hand signals might be developed with Japanese students.
 


There’s Nothing So Helpful as a Good Theory Column
Developing Self Regulation
from Other and Object Regulation
By Tim Murphey, Takashi Yamada, & Chieko Nishimura     
 
The Vygotskian idea of going from other and object regulated to self-regulated is a fascinating one and one that points toward autonomy, something many teachers are interested in having their students achieve.

Other in the classroom is mainly the teacher. Object- regulated might be considered the language, or the movie or tape one watches or listens to. Developing self-regulation is a particular case of internalizing or appropriating (going from intermental to intramental) the other (the teacher) and the objects (the language and methods of displaying and monitoring the language) such that the student can then make the decisions that were once the domain of the teacher and the objects. Students can then look at their particular needs more closely so they can self-regulate.

Actually, the three are probably always active in that we are a somewhat other, object and self-regulated at the same time. For the purposes of discussion below, we will pretend for a moment that they are more separate than they are.

For example, teachers can get students to shadow them and to learn how to shadow. At first students are mostly other regulated (by teachers) and object regulated (by the language). However, soon students learn they can shadow away from the teacher with anyone they interact with, in any language, and shadowing becomes more self-regulated in that they are deciding when and where to do it.

Each time they begin an encounter with someone, they may also be object regulated (by the language) such that the meaning, or lack of meaning, directs their attentions and emotions in certain ways. However, with more negotiation of meaning skills, they gain more self-regulation such that their attention, meaning making, and emotions are more self-regulated through their expanding abilities to perform recursivity (bring the objects into their attention field repeatedly for individual treatment and negotiation). In conversation they can do this through shadowing and summarizing, and also through questioning. With a video or audio cassette they can rewind and watch and listen repeatedly. They might also self-regulate by choosing the closed caption options for English or another language on DVDs and videos.

When we record students conversing on audio or video tape and they can take these tapes out of the classroom to listen to and watch them, their self-regulatory potential is enhanced many times. The possibility of repeatedly seeing and hearing themselves perform allows them to make decisions about even their unconscious ways of being in the world, their gestures and mannerisms. With such reflective recursive tools, our own self-regulatory abilities are put on the table themselves and we not only learn how to fish, we learn how to observe our fishing and make it qualitatively better.

GREAT RESOURCE For Univ TEACHERS!
You, too, can Subscribe to the Stanford University FREE Professional Development service for university teachers called “Tomorrow's Professor.” They send out a short article twice a week, about 1500 words in length, on various practical matters for university teachers (getting tenure, chairing a department, leading curriculum change, remembering students names, keeping lectures interesting, etc.). I have been subscribed for the last few years and have found it very useful for my professional development. I print out about half of their twice a week mailings to read more closely. The rest I trash immediately. They are all conveniently archived as well. Below are the instructions about how you can apply to this service. Try it out for a few weeks. You can always UNsubscribe if you don’t like it.

NOTE: Anyone can SUBSCRIBE to Tomorrows-Professor Listserv by addressing an e-mail message to: <Majordomo@lists.stanford.edu> Do NOT put anything in the SUBJECT line but in the body of the message type: subscribe tomorrows-professor. 

A sample article from the May 28th Tomorrows-Professor is below:

Folks: The posting below offers a number of practical tips on communicating with students via e-mail. It is from Part 1, Tip Across the Curriculum, 59. Giving pupils feedback using email, in 2000 Tips for Teachers, edited by Nick Packard & Phil Race. ISBN 0 7494 3182 2. Kogan Page Limited, 120 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JN, UK. Distributed by Stylus Publishing Limited, 2283 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166, USA. http://www.styluspub.com/

GIVING PUPILS FEEDBACK
USING E-MAIL

E-mail is particularly useful as a vehicle for giving pupils individual feedback on assessed work, and can save you time and energy as you mark their work.  E-mail feedback can extend usefully, from time to time, to giving pupils feedback on hand-written work that they have submitted for assessment.  The following suggestions may help you to exploit the benefits of e-mail, not least to save you time and energy in giving pupils feedback:

… to see the rest of this article go to the web pages.

[THE ABOVE BOOK IS BEING REQUESTED FOR OUR STAFF ROOM]


The excerpt below is taken from http://www.ctc.ca.gov/cstppublication/cstpreport.html The California Standards for the Teaching Profession (adopted, approved and endorsed in 1997). This last standard in a series can serve as a wonderful tool for assessing your own professional development efforts and aligns itself well with the purpose of the newsletter Languaging. One of the best things about these is that answering, “How do I (already and more effectively in the future)…” and “Why do I …”can greatly stimulate teacher reflection. Talk over a few with your colleagues. (Ed.)
 
 
STANDARD FOR DEVELOPING AS A
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR

Teachers reflect on their teaching practice and actively engage in planning their professional development. Teachers establish professional learning goals, pursue opportunities to develop professional knowledge and skill, and participate in the extended professional community. Teachers learn about and work with local communities to improve their professional practice. Teachers communicate effectively with families and involve them in student learning and the school community. Teachers contribute to school activities, promote school goals and improve professional practice by working collegially with all school staff. Teachers balance professional responsibilities and maintain motivation and commitment to all students.

Key Element: Reflecting on teaching practice and planning professional development.
As teachers develop, they may ask, "How do I . . ." or "Why do I . . ."
·    assess my growth as a teacher over time?
·    learn about teaching as I observe and interact with my students?
·    reflect on my instructional successes and dilemmas to move my practice forward?
·    analyze my teaching to understand what contributes to student learning?
·    formulate professional development plans that are based on my reflection and analysis?

Key Element: Establishing professional goals and pursuing opportunities to grow professionally.
As teachers develop, they may ask, "How do I . . ." or "Why do I . . ."
·    maintain an attitude of lifelong learning?
·    learn more about my own professional roles and responsibilities?
·    establish goals and seek out opportunities for professional growth and development? ·    use professional literature, school district, and other professional development opportunities to increase my understanding of teaching and learning?
·    continue to seek out and refine approaches that make the curriculum accessible to every student?
·    expand my knowledge of new instructional methods and technologies?
·    benefit from and contribute to professional organizations to improve my teaching?

Key Element: Working with communities to improve professional practice.
As teachers develop, they may ask, "How do I . . ." or "Why do I . . ."
·    value and respect the student's community and appreciate its role in student learning?
·    increase my understanding of the cultures and dynamics of my students' communities?
·    promote collaboration between school and community ?
·    identify and use school, district, and local community social service resources to benefit students and their families?
·    seek out and use resources from the local community and businesses to support student learning?
·    provide my students with community-based experiences that support their learning?
·    interact with students in activities outside the classroom?

Key Element: Working with families to improve professional practice.
As teachers develop, they may ask, "How do I . . ." or "Why do I . . ."
·    value and respect students' families and appreciate their role in student learning?
·    develop an understanding of families' racial, cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds?
·    engage families as sources of knowledge about students' linguistic and social backgrounds?
·    promote positive dialogue and interactions with all families, and respond to their concerns about student progress?
·    ensure that communication with all students and their families is understood?
·    provide opportunities for all families to participate in the classroom and school community?
·    present the educational program to all families?

Key Element: Working with colleagues to improve professional practice.
As teachers develop, they may ask, "How do I . . ." or "Why do I . . ."
·    create opportunities to collaborate with my colleagues?
·    collaborate with teachers, administrators, education specialists, and paraprofessionals to ensure that all students' diverse learning needs are met?
·    engage in thoughtful dialogue and reflection with colleagues to solve teaching- related problems?
·    participate in making and implementing school-wide decisions?
·    contribute to school-wide events and learning activities?
·    establish and maintain relationships with other school staff to become a visible and valued member of the school community ?
·    use observations of colleagues to improve my teaching?
·    prevent and resolve personal and professional conflicts with colleagues?
·    contribute to the learning of other educators?

Key Element: Balancing professional responsibilities and maintaining motivation.
As teachers develop, they may ask, "How do I . . ." or "Why do I . . ."
·    reduce stress and maintain a positive attitude with students and colleagues?
·    challenge myself intellectually and creatively throughout my career?
·    deal with the isolation of teaching?
·    find support to balance professional responsibilities with my personal needs?
·    demonstrate professional conduct and integrity in the classroom and school community?
·    extend my knowledge about my professional and legal responsibilities for students' learning, behavior and safety?

Collegial Teacher Groups = Better Learners This excerpt describes some fascinating research. It is from the conclusion of a book coming out this fall by Zoltan Dornyei and Tim Murphey for Cambridge University Press, Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom.

It is beneficial that while you are trying to implement changes in your classrooms, you also talk to your colleagues (and even the school management) about your ideas in order to bring them on board. You’ll find that you are not alone: other teachers are also facing problems similar to the ones you are trying to cope with. You can think and dream together. Indeed, we suggest that you try and develop some positive dynamics in the staff group. After all, the processes you would like to promote among the students may work best when they are reflected by similar processes at the staff level. And this is not just an optimistic assumption but something that has been supported by research. Let us summarise here a fascinating study by Susan Wheelan and Felice Tilin (1999).

    The inspiration for Wheelan and Tilin’s study was provided by various reports in the literature concluding that the level of development and collegiality of school staff groups is positively related to the effectiveness of the school and the achievement of the students. As the authors point out, in the educational literature the adjective ‘collegial’ has been used to refer to staff and faculty who work together effectively, who share common goals, professional values and norms. More specifically, collegiality can be defined in terms of four behaviours of the adults in a school:
In order to test the validity of these reports, Wheelan and Tilin set out to examine the relationship between staff/faculty group effectiveness and the actual level of productivity in 10 American elementary, middle and high schools. Their results fully confirmed that a strong relationship exists between staff/faculty group functioning and student outcomes. In group developmental terms, schools with faculty groups operating at higher levels of group development had students who performed better on standard achievement tests both in maths and reading. This points to the conclusion that the quality of the teaching a school can provide is related to the maturity and collegiality level of the staff/faculty group.
So how much are you   ????
A Joke?
The professor in a classroom says to a student, “Excuse me, but could you possibly wake up that young man who’s sleeping next to you?” The student replied, “I think you should wake him up professor,since you’re the one who put him to sleep.”


Call for submissions
Kazuyoshi Sato and Tim Murphey are editing a book for TESOL
Communities of Supportive Professionals

TESOL invites submission proposals for a 4th volume in the Professional Development series, tentatively titled "Communities of Supportive Professionals". We wish to invite descriptions of groups of language teaching professionals (informal and formal, institutional and non-institutional) who show exemplary ways of supporting each other and the group as a whole through particular structures and practices over time.

We are interested in descriptions of both successful and unsuccessful activities and structures with particular focus on the process of developing supportive communities. Some of the areas that might be approached are questions of changing identities, inclusion, orientations to new practices, group dynamics, communication styles, support structures, getting groups going and letting groups end smoothly, etc.
We foresee potential faculty groups as well as looser group structures submitting proposals and look favorably on multiple authors. Authors are requested to send a short two page (500 word) proposal of their idea to the editors by December 30, 2003: to both editors Tim Murphey and Kazuyoshi Sato at mits @ dokkyo .ac .jp  and  yoshi @ nufs .ac .jp respectively (remove spaces from addresses).

You can access the call at
http://www.tesol.org/pubs/author/books/calls/2001profdev.html.


Classroom Observations!!!
Want to see some other teachers teaching? It is a great way to learn. Research shows that if you ask them a little ahead of time (the week before), surprisingly, most will say yes! They also appreciate it if you give them some feedback about their teaching. Teachers talking to each other and seeing each other teach probably change more teaching behaviors than advanced degrees.


Cross Age Tutoring in University?
Tim Murphey & Paul Dore

Cross age tutoring as popularly presented in the literature in the US involves older children tutoring those a few years younger. For example, Samay Whang & Pippitt (1995) describe the advantages for both older and younger students when for example fifth grade elementary school students go visit a second grade class and are paired with partners to read with them. Not only are the second graders inspired by their older students and desire to become readers and people like the fifth graders, the fifth graders usually gain in reading ability and confidence through the process. But could such a thing happen at the university level?

After a chance meeting in the faculty cafeteria, Tim found out that Paul had wanted to have a language lab for his class on Friday mornings, however they were all booked. Tim invited Paul to share his language lab a few times and to experiment with what the classes might learn from each other. Tim’s students are  freshman English majors, while Paul’s are third and fourth year German and French majors. We collected data and made observations through four joint class meetings this past semester. We are still collecting more information from the students and plan to continue next semester as well because the students have responded to it favorably and they seem to learn a lot from each other.

One area of on-going research for Tim is that of near peer role modeling (Murphey & Arao 2001; Murphey 2003) in which students become aware of the beliefs, attitudes, and abilities of peers, admire them, and find them easier to adopt than those of distant models, such as native speakers. Near peer role models provide identity scaffolds for other learners; it is easier to step into their shoes. Already in the feedback from the freshmen in their weekly action logs there is evidence that near peer role modeling is happening, as you can see from the most recent newsletter after the June 19th class (on the following page).

To situate the newsletter better for the readers, Tim’s students had taught Paul’s how to juggle in a previous meeting. This time Paul’s students were teaching a variety of things: cracking a cattle whip, tongue twisters, foreign languages, word games, and other games. After the teaching segment of the class, students recorded discussions with random partners three times in the language lab. We provide you the rough data below and think you will have no problem seeing the relevant quotes.

The Good English Speaker Newsletter #9:
Speech Com with Paul’s Gp
Student action log comments after June 20, 2003, class

Cited in this article:
Murphey, T. (2003). Near Peer Role Modeling (NFLRC Video #14). Honolulu: University of Hawai’i, Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center. Presentation recorded August 29, 2002. http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/aboutus_home.cfm

Murphey, T. & Arao, H. (2001). Changing Reported Beliefs through Near Peer Role Modeling. TESL-EJ. 5(3)1-15. http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej19/a1.html

Samway, K., Whang, G., & Pippitt, M. (1995). Buddy Reading: Cross-age tutoring in a multicultural school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

Languaging!