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 The Exploratory Learning and Teaching Newsletter of Dokkyo University Winter 2004 | No. 4 |
Welcome
to Languaging! No. 4!
Please
note
that archived issues are now available online also as PDF files. Future
issues will no longer be made available in HTML format. Feel
free to
print the entire issue or refer to the Table of Contents and
print only the page numbers of articles of interest. Let us know if
you have any questions.
| Letters
from Alumni |
|
| Dreams
Come
True! Life Long Learning Process |
Naoko
Takaishi Yukiko Watanabe |
| Professional Development Column | |
| Just
Doing
It! Involving Students in
Teaching
and Publishing |
Chitose
Asaoka and Tim Murphey |
| Autonomous Learning | |
| Music is
the
Mirror Reading Aloud: A Self Study Method An Excel Tool Against the Forgetting of Vocabulary Just Learned |
Akiko
Kunimi Yuhei Koshiishi Markus Rude |
| In the Classroom | |
| A
Composition
Class with 90 Students? やっぱり勉強になりました！ A Magic Formula Utilizing Technology for Classroom Productivity |
An
Interview with Gabi Schmidt Akihiko Ohashi Stephen Mendenhall and Masaki Seo |
| Perspectives | |
| Risk
Taking
& Making Mistakes Language Teaching, Language Sharing Japanese in the English Classroom A Reconsideration of Business English Reflections on CALL |
Kaori
Suzuki Yuuki Banba Seichi Fukui Evelyn J. Naoumi Paul Horness |
| The Efficiency Column | |
| Crucial
Student Feedback:Are we
getting it? |
Tim
Murphey |
| Also
in this issue... |
|
| Deep Thoughts Reader's Forum Haiku Funny Bone Free Christmas Activities (Or click here to download a PDF file) How to Contribute to Languaging! Click here to download the PDF file for Languaging! No. 4 Editors of the December 2004 Languaging!: Jim Brogan Christopher Carpenter Paul Dore Miho Furuyama Tim Murphey Chieko Nishimura Markus Rude |
|
Dreams Come True!
Naoko Takaishi, Hawaii Pacific University
Aloha, Dokkyo guys!
Nice to see (?) you. I’m Naoko, a graduate from Dokkyo University. Now I am really enjoying my courses, doing my Master’s degree on TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) at Hawaii Pacific University in Hawaii. It was during the summer course that I met Dr. Tim Murphey, who was probably the first person to teach me the real joy of learning in my life.
I was born and brought up in Chiba, Japan. Since I was a child, I have seemed to be interested in foreign countries. When my grandma took me to an international exhibition in Tokyo, she was surprised at my enthusiastic questions like “What’s that? What’s that?” since I was usually very shy and quiet. She expected that I would engage in a job related to a foreign country in the future.
However, ever since I remember, I have felt something wrong or strange with school, teachers, and classes. In short, I didn’t like school or teachers although I loved my friends. Most of the teachers were too picky about school regulations (kousoku) and too strict about making mistakes for me to establish friendly relationships with them. Moreover, most of the teachers seemed to judge students by what they had (grades) not by what they were (humanity). Around that time, I began to think that school should have more fun!
There were mainly 2 reasons why I decided to become an English teacher. One was that I liked English since I imagined that it would be wonderful to communicate with people from around the world, which would allow us to know more about the world from a global perspective. I wanted to do something that might lead to world peace. I thought English could play a vital role for it and therefore, I wanted to make English classes more enjoyable so that as many students as possible could find the joy of learning. The other was that I had to be independent as soon as possible. My father was an alcoholic, and therefore I needed a lifelong job to protect my mom. There were quite limited jobs that women could continue all through their life. Accordingly, being a teacher was the only and best choice for me. I have never attended cram schools. I applied for only one senior high school and only one university (but I was admitted into Dokkyo University by the recommendation of my high school). In both of the first exams, I was ranked first. (Actually, at that time I loved sports and some entertainment; tennis, skiing, dancing at some night club, and so on. However, to be independent, I needed to study and work part time hard. Once I was in the hospital for almost a month because of too much work!).
After 4 years’ struggle at Dokkyo University (because I had a great difficulty in listening and speaking because of little exposure to native speakers’ English), I finally became an English teacher at a public senior high school in Japan. The more I taught English, the more I wanted to study abroad (Of course, since I was young, I had wished I could study abroad, but at that time, I couldn’t even dream of it because of my father issue). The teaching experience made me think of 4 things:
- I want to improve my own English, especially listening and speaking.
- I want to learn practical teaching strategies to make my classes more enjoyable since I love my students.
- I want to develop my humanity by broadening my horizons through interaction with people with different perspectives from different countries.
- I want to get the answer to a crucial question of how I should teach English as an EFL teacher to my students. I like English, but at the same time, sometimes I wonder if my English teaching could lead to world peace. In short, language teaching might lead to serious discrimination or exploitation.
For a long time, I couldn’t put it into practice to study abroad since I would have had to quit my teaching job in Japan to do so. However, suddenly a law for teachers changed!!! If teachers try to get a Master’s degree, they can take at most 3 year-leave of absence for their teaching job (but for the period, they cannot get any payment from the board of education). Fortunately, I got the chance and got a permission to study abroad (I had been waiting for the chance to come for many years, preparing money required for 2-year study in the U.S., and TOEFL required for admission to the program).
For the first semester that I took regular graduate courses, I had a really hard time although my TOEFL marked over 600. I couldn’t even get what to do for homework on that day due to my poor listening skills and got too nervous to speak English in class due to other classmates’ fluent English. Every one but me spoke pretty fast!!! It was no wonder because I had never been abroad to study before I enrolled this graduate program. I had no study skills in the U.S. academic study; I didn’t know how to cover such a great deal of reading, how to do research, how to write research papers, how to give a presentation, how to do a project, how to write in essay exams, and so on. However, not only my friends but also professors always helped and encouraged me a lot to lead me to the goals. Because of their great help, now I am really enjoying my courses and moreover, since I got into HPU, I’ve got straight A’s. I will graduate next semester, hopefully.
My point here is that waiting for a chance. It might take time, but you will be able to do it someday, I hope.
I just finished my project, NPRM video-making for the beginning level students at HPU, supported by Dr. Murphey. You might have a chance to see it if you’re interested in studying abroad.
Thanks for your time to read. Someday I might see you somewhere in Japan.
Mahalo!
Naoko Takaishi
|
Deep Thoughts
Perfect Blossoms Tim Murphey At one point in “The Last
Samurai,” Katsumoto, the last samurai, is looking at new cherry
blossoms and says, “A perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend
your life looking for one and it would not be a wasted life.” At the
end of the movie, as he dies on the battlefield seeing the cherry
blossoms in the distance, he says, “Ahh! They are all perfect.”
Students are our cherry blossoms. We should take care not to continually seeing imperfection and wishing they were the perfect beings we want them to be. Rather, perhaps we could see that they are already perfect—the perfect people they are. It is our demanding that looks for something we have in our minds. No minds. Let them be who they are. Cherish that. And they will blossom. Perfectly. |
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Letter from Alumnus
Life Long Learning Process
Enriching my experience in Hawaii through graduate studies
Yukiko Watanabe, University of Hawaii
Aloha, Dokkyo fellows, the people with broad perspectives and great ambitions!
My name is Yukiko Watanabe, a class of ‘99 graduate of Dokkyo University, currently pursuing an M.A. degree in ESL at the University of Hawai’i at Manoā (UH), Department of Second Language Studies (SLS).
Before coming over to Hawaii, I taught English at a private high school for four years. Those four years were a challenge as a fresh graduate to explore what I believed as English education and to understand what education means. As many of you may know, Japanese teachers usually have multiple roles: teaching a particular subject area; taking care of students as a home room teacher; establishing and coordinating international student exchange; advising students in making choices for their future as a guidance counselor; and even coaching sports! These were the major roles I had to manage from the start. As you can imagine, I had no time to read for myself, to participate in conferences, or to stop and reflect on what I was teaching. Although I knew I was learning a lot from the students and through teaching, I wanted to have a balance between teaching and professional development. Once I got into the field of education, I was expected to work as a professional teacher immediately and barely had time for teacher training. This is the reason why I started to think of pursuing further education to be a better teacher, a researcher, and a curriculum developer.
The environment I am in now makes me realize that as a high school teacher, I was also an ethnographer. I observed students’ learning processes, measured students’ learning and the effectiveness of my teaching, analyzed student-student/ student-teacher/ teacher-teacher interactions, gathered information and reflected on findings to inform my pedagogy. This is what ethnographers do as well as teachers. According to Watson-Gegeo, K. (1988), ethnography is “an important alternative to other forms of educational research because it allows us to address very basic questions of theory and practice. One such basic question has to do with what is going on from moment to moment in settings where second languages are taught and learned” (p.585). The more skilled the ethnographic techniques used in the observation, the more wide and thick descriptions teachers can get about a particular group of students in particular settings to solve the problems of teaching and learning. The basis of this view derives from my graduate coursework at UH (e.g. in syntax, second language acquisition research, psycholinguistics, language processing, sociolinguistics, curriculum development, quantitative research methods, and testing).
So far, through my three semesters of study in SLS, I am able to understand and evaluate current literature of ESL critically, and engage in systematic investigation of the issues related to educational research. The focus of my current research is how humans process auditory infor- mation. Along with this psycholinguistics research, I am also interested in teacher training and curriculum development. My colleagues and I are presenting “a 10-year national English language curriculum guideline for Japan and Korea” at the 2nd Asia TEFL conference in Seoul, Korea in November 2004. Hoping that the proposed curriculum will come true one day, the curriculum is based on communicative language teaching, utilizing tasks to enhance thinking skills while motivating cultural awareness.
In order to put my thoughts into practice, I have developed a cultural awareness class at the University of Hawaii English Language Program, where I work as a part-time ESL instructor. You can see the content of the course and my students’ work at the following web site: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yukikow
The SLS department supports its various graduate students with tuition assistance by providing various graduate assistantship (GA) positions and this is one of them. In addition to tuition waivers, GAs receive a stipend. From the first semester, I have been teaching TOEFL and content based ESL classes to students of various ethnicities. This way, I am able to gain knowledge from my studies and reflect that knowledge immediately to my class.
The SLS program has a good balance of theory and practice, but it is heavily research based. So if you expect to have teacher training in terms of practical training, like how to teach the four skills, this is not the place. The department expects the graduates “to influence the field, guide its direction, and eventually take on leadership roles in ESL. They may expect to be involved in training and supervising other ESL practitioners” (Student Handbook: MA Program Goals, 1990, 7). The final required product is either a scholarly paper or a thesis. The students take an average of 2.5 years to graduate from the program, though many are on a 3-year plan, like me. The faculty offers a lot of support in guiding students and that is what I like the most. Thanks to the location and the beautiful environment of Hawaii, there are many visiting scholars from all over the world to give lectures and workshops, which is very stimulating as a graduate student. Moreover, Hawaii is a very friendly environment for Asians and invites various cultural experiences other than schoolwork, like snorkeling at Hanauma Bay!
These past years have been a very enriching experience. If you ever thought of continuing your education, graduate school isn’t just about school! There are many ways and many places where you can strive for your goals. I hope many of the current undergrads and graduates of Dokkyo University will think beyond the environment they have now and explore the possibilities.
Video Still: Tim Murphey and Yukiko Watanabe in the video presentation, Juggling with Language Learning Theories, at UH.
Cited in this article
Student Handbook: MA Program Goals. The University of Hawai‘I at Manoā, Department of Second Language Studies (1990). Retrieved October, 27th, 2004, from http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/handbook/maprogra.html
Watson- Gegeo, K.A. (1988). Ethnography in ESL: Dealing the essentials. TESOL Quarterly, 22, 575-592
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Professional Development Column
Just Doing It!
Involving Students in Teaching, Publishing and Presenting
Chitose Asaoka & Tim Murphey
Dokkyo University
“What?!? Students teaching already? Writing articles, doing research, and presenting at academic conventions? Preposterous!” That is the typical response we get when we tell other university teachers that our students are teaching, researching, writing, and presenting with us. They don’t believe us. They want specifics. So we tell them, as in the two narratives below:
§§§
Volunteer Teaching Programs
Chitose Asaoka
In 2000, I created a volunteer program in which undergraduates could go into local elementary schools and teach English once a week and really apply what they were learning about in their language methods classes. This program aims to train both volunteer students and primary-school teachers, support English conversation activities in local community primary schools, and give ample in-class training opportunities for volunteer students before their official senior-year practicum. Various workshops, lectures, and meetings are conducted for both volunteer students and homeroom teachers with the help of colleagues and graduates of the program (see Asaoka 2004 for more details).
Volunteer students are asked to keep a log where they reflect on their lesson plans and ideas. This strategy is useful for communicating with homeroom teachers. In addition, teaching logs can help student teachers in the following years to see what has been taught before and what has or has not worked well. Student teachers also have given demonstration lessons many times in front of PTAs, other school principals and the education board of Soka City. In fact, this program has lead to the introduction of English conversation activities among every primary school in Soka City, guided by the education board for the 2003 academic year.
This year, eight students visit Sakae Primary School and eleven Hanaguri-Minami Primary School every other week and team-teach with ALTs and homeroom teachers. Both schools are located only a few minutes away from Dokkyo. Those undergraduates seem to enjoy learning from both ALTs and homeroom teachers. In addition, about fifteen undergrads and graduate students work in teams and regularly conduct English activities with homeroom teachers at Kitaya Primary School, which is also a few steps away from Dokkyo. In this program, undergrads and grads can interact and learn from each other by working together closely. Such a program as this also aims to “entice primary school teachers to become co-learners with their students and to continue to model learning when the volunteer is not there” (Murphey, Asaoka, & Sekiguchi 2004, p. 17) as well as to support English conversation activities in local community primary schools.
| Join the Soka City Elementary School
Volunteer Group! Who is eligible to join this Volunteer Group? All 3rd year students who are taking the English teacher training curriculum. The program is also open to 4th year students and grad students. If interested, what do I do? Tell your EFL Methods instructor and contact Chitose at casaoka @ dokkyo .ac .jp |
§§§
Community Access Publications
Tim Murphey
For eleven years at Nanzan University, students regularly did research with me in the field of communication psychology that I oft cited in my own research, especially concerning near peer role models (Murphey & Arao 2001, Dornyei & Murphey 2003). Presently several of my seminar students here at Dokkyo are contributing to this area.
To scaffold students into academic writing, I published a newsletter each semester called Nanzan’s Language Teacher Briefs and invited students to write for it. When I came to Dokkyo University in 2003, I started Languaging! that serves the same function—to encourage students and staff to see themselves as contributors to the field they are studying. Now there is an active team of editors among the part-time staff, students, and teachers and Languaging! has its own website.
These publications also seek to break down barriers between undergraduates, graduates, teachers and staff as all are invited to contribute short pieces. These “access publications” (Murphey et. al 2003) are accessible to all comers and encourage those on the peripheral of the field to really identify with the activity in the field (Lave & Wenger 1991) to become part of our communities of practice (Wenger 1998).
In Taiwan 2001 to 2003, I did similar work with undergraduates. I had students in my Language Teaching Methods class do book reviews which were then posted on bulletin boards in the halls and later on the web (http://www2.dokkyo.ac.jp/~esemi029/pages/ResourceBookReviews.htm). Several students were later actually contacted by the authors of the publications with comments.
Encouraging undergraduates to research and publish gives them a more authentic feel for the field and allows them to identify with it. And their publications can actually provide insight for seasoned professionals. Publishing their work on bulletin boards, web pages, newsletters, or in books also sends the message that our field is open and inviting to new participants and greatly enriches the community. Publications also help students go on to graduate school. Two of my once undergraduate students in Taiwan, Chen Jin, and Chen Li-Chi , are co-authors with me on a chapter about language learning histories in a book edited by Nunan and Benson (CUP to appear). They are both graduate students now and can list a chapter to appear with their “old” teacher on their resume.
Research is showing that collaborating with our students is a great way to scaffold their way into professional activities and identities. Researching and presenting alone is not only difficult but the quality of the work often suffers as well. For example, Dokkyo graduate student Chieko Nishimura will be presenting at the National Japanese Association of Language Teaching (JALT) Convention in Nara with me on November 20th about Self and Other Modeling, her thesis topic. One last example: last spring I was asked to do a juggling presentation at the Dokkyo Speech Contest in September. I took that as an opportunity to collaborate with eleven of my students in various classes, notably my Advanced Public Speaking class, to perform a series of short speeches and singing/ juggling performances that helped the audience learn about the benefits of risk taking and appreciating our small mistakes.
Students & staff wishing to write for Languaging! see below.
§§§
We believe that teachers can see themselves as collaborators with their students and learn a lot with them through such collaborations. These are steps toward creating what Senge (2000) has called “The Learning School”, where everybody is learning and supporting each other’s development.
Cited in this column
Asaoka, C. (2004). English conversation activities in primary schools in Japan: A case of a support program of university students as volunteer English teachers. The Language Teacher, 28 (6), 63-65.
Dornyei, Z. & Murphey, T. (2003). Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Murphey, T. & Arao, H. (2001). Reported belief changes through near peer role modeling. TESL-EJ 5 (3) 1-15.
Murphey, T., Asaoka, C. & Sekiguchi, M. (2004). Primary teachers co-learning English with their students, The Language Teacher, 28 (2), 15-18.
Murphey, T., et al. (2003). Creating publishing communities. In T. Murphey, (ed.) Extending Professional Contributions, pp. 105-118. Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
Senge, P. (2000). Schools that learn. New York: Doubleday.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning , meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Autonomous Learning
Music is the Mirror
that Reflects Us After All
Akiko Kunimi, Dokkyo University
“No music. No life.” You can see this popular catchword at Tower Records, the shop selling music and videos. Indeed, our lives are full of the memories of music. You would fall into sleep while hearing lullabies when you were a little baby. Maybe you can still sing the theme songs of some TV cartoon programs, such as “Doraemon,” or some commercial songs that you used to sing along in your childhood. And I’m sure that you can’t forget the songs that you listened to with stars in your eyes or with sorrow in your heart at the period of adolescence. When we consider the relationship between music and us, we would be surprised at the fact that so many songs are connected with our life.
You must be keenly aware that it is not enough to learn second language just in your classes, so how about using music as a material of learning? It is obvious why music is useful when we learn other languages: we can easily memorize lyrics, for most of them are simple and colloquial and have lots of repetition, so we can easily increase our vocabulary and learn the daily usage of language. And through music we will learn naturally about rhythm, intonation and pronunciation. Thus there are a lot of things we can learn by music, but one of the most important things is that we get the chance to know the spirit of not only musicians but also the times and the people themselves.
Do you remember why you want to study other languages? I guess that one of the reasons must be that we want to get closer to the people using the language. Not just to get some good scores of TOEIC, right? To know their mind or background, music is a good material. For example, do you know the phrase, “How many years can a mountain exist before it’s washed to the sea?” (“Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan)? If you know the part of the famous speech by Martin Luther King “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low,” you might want to know more and more about the background of this song and then you may begin to feel interested in other songs by the same musician or by other performers of the same period.
I have the impression that not so many students are familiar with songs that are written in English. When you do not have much money but much time, I recommend, first of all, you to go to Tower Records in Shibuya, Shinjuku or anywhere. You can listen to some music on trial. Without a fee! (Well, believe me, I’m not a sales worker of Tower Records!) If you find your favorite, then dare to buy it and enjoy listening! And then try to analyze the lyrics and memorize them. It’s fun to sing along loudly without looking at any lyric sheet!
Finally, I want to add the fact that to learn another language leads us to know ourselves. When you go back to your memories concerning music in the future, you’ll remember how you spent your life at that time like the lyric of “Yesterday Once More” by The Carpenters. After all music is the mirror that reflects us all.
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Autonomous Learning
Reading Aloud
A Self-Study Method for Developing Oral Accuracy and Fluency
Yuhei Koshiishi, Dokkyo University
In a recent conversation with Koshiishi, he told Languaging! about a self-study method he uses which he feels has helped him improve his English oral communication skills and develop his pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation, as well as his listening comprehension skills. He explained that he often reads English out loud to himself. He uses various reading materials in this process. He said that at first reading aloud in English was difficult, but with practice it became easier and helped him attain much more natural sounding rhythm and intonation in casual English conversation. Now he enjoys reading aloud to himself and does it regularly in his free time. Also, he feels that the practice has helped him think in English more quickly, leading to better listening comprehension. We asked him to explain why he thinks reading aloud is such good training. This is what he said:
Reading aloud is a good method of training in English, not just for reading but also for conversation. When we try to read things aloud, I think that we are doing four processes at once. The first process is the “intake.” We look at the sentence and try to understand the words and analyze the sentence. Then, the next process is the “structuring.” We think of the sounds we use to say the sentence in our minds. After finishing these two processes, we finally do the “speaking.” But to know that we are reading the right words we must listen to our own words and match it with our “intake” process. This is the “checking” process, which I think it is the most important process in reading aloud. If we don’t do the checking we can’t be sure that our mouth is doing what our brain says to do, and that is like walking around in our sleep, which we can’t bear even for second.
There are cases, however, when we do the “checking,” but we can’t understand what we are saying. That happens when the “checking’’ took too much time. Since the “check’’ is done according to our listening abilities, there is a gap of time between the “speaking’’ and the “checking.” But if this gap gets too big we can’t match the words we spoke with the words that are in our minds, so we get confused. To not get confused we have to do the “check” quickly. The training of reading aloud helps us increase our speed in the checking process. This is the reason why I think reading out loud is useful.
In conversation we also listen and check the words, but conversation is some thing that is done in real time. We can’t take our time checking the words. Even when the words that are used in the conversation are very easy, like “good morning,” if we can’t do the check quickly we can’t understand what the other person is saying.
Have you ever tried reading aloud for language training? What was your experience? If you are a teacher, do you ever ask your students to read aloud? What do you feel are the benefits of reading aloud and what kind of feedback have you gotten from your students?
About the writer
Yuhei Koishi is a ping-pong coach and an undergraduate in the English Department at Dokkyo University.
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Autonomous Learning
An Excel Tool Against the Forgetting of Vocabulary Just Learned
Markus Rude, Dokkyo University
Abstract
Here you can find an easy way to study vocabulary, or rather, how not to forget vocabulary. How can we avoid forgetting vocabulary which we have just studied? The simple trick is to repeat the word neither too early nor too late. A spreadsheet program, like Excel, can help us to select the words which should be repeated next for maximum retention. Repeating a word, which we are just about to forget is fun: It is neither boring ("I know this word already, so why do I have to repeat it again?") nor frustrating ("Have I ever seen this word?").
Introduction
Linguists are continually inventing all kinds of new methods for language learning. However, due to the academic pressure to always invent new things, the old and successful methods of their predecessors often are discarded.
Ebbinghaus was a memory researcher, two centuries ago, who came up with some interesting findings about forgetting. Best known of his results is what is today called "the forgetting curve": If we learn something new, we will already, within just 20 minutes, have forgotten about 40% of it. The percentage of what is retained decreases with time over the next hour, the remainder being about 50%. This decrease continues the next day, with the remainder being about 30%. The next month it falls to about 20%. This curve slightly resembles the slopes of Fujisan (or, more scientifically: It decreases more or less exponentially).
The question is: If we forget everything sooner or later, why do we study at all? Luckily, the forgetting curve never reaches 0%. If 20% of Ebbinghaus’ “nonsense syllables” (these were his study material) were retained for as long as one month, we can reasonably expect at least the same retention for some meaningful learning material, such as vocabulary.
The “learning machine”
The German, Sebastian Leitner, concluded that about one out of five words learned will go directly to our long-term memory (corresponding to Ebbinghaus’ 20% remainder after one month). His proposition: Repeat only the four that will be forgotten. Do not repeat the fifth, since it is already in the long-term memory; don’t waste your time. But how can we know, which is the ONE among the five?
In the 1970s Leitner developed his "learning machine", which consists of a box with five sections of 1cm, 2cm, 5cm, 8cm and 14cm width. They have respectively room for about 30, 60, 150, 250 and 500 cards. A new item on a flashcard will always be put into section 1. If we feel like studying or if section 1 overflows, we take some or all of its cards and perform a self-test as follows (the front = the front of each section. The back = the back of each section):
- If we read a flashcard’s front side and we cannot recall its rear side, we don’t worry and just insert it at the back of section 1.
- If we can recall it, the self-test was successful and we put the card away into the back of section 2.
We can go on writing new cards and putting them into section 1. If it gets full again, we do the same self-test as before and thus thin it out. As section 2 gets full, we take a bundle of cards from the front – about 10 - and perform the same self-test:
- If we don’t know a card, we return it to the back of section 1.
- If we know it, we may put this “successful” card away into the back of section 3.
The increasing sizes of successive sections determine increasing time intervals, after which each flashcard will be repeated. Depending on frequency of study, these time-intervals range from just a few minutes or hours in section 1 up to several weeks or months in section 5. Leitner assumed that a card which was successfully repeated 5 times in a row has reached long-term memory. We will never forget it! J
The Excel tool as a digital learning machine
Today, flashcards are out, computers are in. We can therefore adapt Leitner’s idea with a spreadsheet program, such as Excel. Assume a learner wants to study the Japanese equivalent of an English word.
On the flashcard’s front side he would write the English word (the trigger), on its rear side the Japanese translation of that word (the item to be recalled from memory).
We proceed with an Excel worksheet as follows (Fig. 1): The cells of column A contain the section numbers; column B, the English “trigger” (the content of the flashcards’ front sides), and column C, the Japanese words to be recalled (the rear sides of the flashcards). A new word is always put into section 1. Each line of the Excel file now represents one flashcard of the learning machine.
For the illustrative example we assume that sections 1 and 2 are completely filled with cards. Since a computer file never gets “full”, we have to limit the capacity of a section by a number, let’s say we limit section 1, 2, 3, … to 3, 6, 15, … lines, respectively. This downscaling to 10% of the values above is only for sakes of simplicity of the illustration. Let's now simulate the input of a new word and the associated self-tests: Figure 1a is the starting point of our example: We want to learn the new word "arrangement" and insert it into section 1. However, section 1 is already full (sections 1, 2 and 3 are limited to 3, 6, and 12 items, respectively) and – indeed – overflows (see: green region in Fig. 1b). Through two self-tests and by re-sorting the items according to the outcome of these tests (see: Fig. 1b, Fig. 1c, Fig. 1d, and Fig. 1e), we bring our sections again within limits (see: Fig. 1f: 3 items in section 1; 4 items in section 2, ...).
In this example, the insertion of one new item resulted in the repetition of 8 items as well as in the concentration of “forgotten” words in section 1. However, as soon as we insert the next new word, we will do a new self-test of section 1 and repeat these items again.
By this method, learning one new word is always associated with a systematic repetition of some older words (some items already in the worksheet) in a semi-automatic way: manual insertion of the new words and manual modification of section numbers of repeated words, but automatic sorting. Critical items (those who failed the self-tests) will be repeated most frequently. (Italics, font size variations and gray tone are only used for illustrative purposes.)
Essential hints
- During the self-test: Set the zoom-factor to a high value such that you can only see one cell at a time on the screen (as with flashcards, where you can only see one side at a time).
- Leitner suggests inserting a card to the back of a section; this guarantees, that all other cards of the section will be repeated before that card. In our Excel worksheet, this can be realized by using time stamps, which, used with the sort function, gives the option of sorting as the learning machine does (Excel function "now").
Further hints
- The function "countif()" can be used to count the words contained in each of the sections. Seeing the numbers change automatically while you are renumbering lines can have a stimulating effect.
- The method described is just a basic version. You can enrich its form (e.g. by adding color) as well as its content (e.g. by adding phrases, synonyms or antonyms).
Conclusion
This paper described how we can learn and repeat vocabulary in a systematic way with an Excel worksheet. A repetition cycle consists of the three steps: a) the attempt to recall the words from our memory; b) setting a certain section number for each word according to whether we know it or not; and c) re-sorting the worksheet according to these section numbers. The order of words in this worksheet then reflects the depth of our knowledge of these words: The words at the very top of the worksheet represent words, which we do not yet know. We should repeat these items often. The lower the words are positioned in the worksheet, the better we know them. We still need to repeat them occasionally, but less and less frequently.
I personally use this method for studying Japanese compounds and Kanjis: Seeing a compound in Japanese, I try to recall its reading, its German meaning and the meaning of its components. Currently, the worksheet contains more than 500 items. I have been using the tool for more than two months now, and it is still fun.
About the writer
Markus Rude is an instructor of German at Dokkyo University and a student of Japanese hoping for a good score on the recent nikyuu exam.
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| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
In the Classroom
A Composition Class with 90 Students?
やっ ぱり勉強にな りました!
An Interview with Gabi Schmidt
We spoke with Gabi Schmidt, lecturer at the German department of Dokkyo University. We heard that Gabi is teaching a writing class with almost 100 students. We think this is incredible. Therefore, we decided to ask her for an interview.
Languaging!: How many students are in your class exactly?
Gabi: There are more than 95 students enrolled. About 80 or 85 students attend regularly.
L: Why are there so many students in your class?
G: I was also surprised when almost 100 students showed up in the first lesson. However, since the concept works for 20 students as well as for 100, and since I had the OK from Dokkyo, I accepted all of them. In return, they had to accept the concept.
L: Could you tell us a little more about this concept and the objectives?
G: The concept is to work together in groups of 4-6 students interactively for one year. The class aims at 3rd-4th year students and has the objective to improve their writing skills. The method is peer correction in groups of students of similar level.
L: How did you come up with the idea to teach such a class?
G: I visited two workshops by the Goethe Institute in Tokyo, where I learned about group work in general and one essential finding from error analysis in particular: Students learn significantly more if corrected by their peers compared to being corrected by their teacher. And groups are more intimate, so they accept more easily advice from the teachers.
L: How does a typical lesson look?
G: Each lesson is an independent unit with the goal to produce some kind of textual composition within the 90min timeframe. Instruction time is short (5min maximum) and the instruction material is brief (one copy with 2-5 lines of text describing the topic and the pattern or writing skill of this lesson). Actually writing in group-work takes about 75-80min. The final 10min are used for writing their feedback in a kind of diary or action log.
L: What is the most difficult problem in a lesson?
G: It is to promote cooperation. Though the students are theoretically willing to interact, they hesitate and need constant encouragement (“Don’t work alone! Ask your partner!”).
L: What is the most difficult problem of this class in general?
G: It is to find adequate topics and language skills for the lessons. Since the levels of the groups are very different (ranging from A+ to C-), some groups found certain topics too difficult. Certain topics worked extremely well, for example “Write a story together”. Other topics worked quite well, for example “Nature of News” or “How to write a letter”). But some topics did not work at all, for example “Academic patterns”. 15 or 20 students did not know what’s going on until the end of the class.
L: How much time do you need for this class outside the lesson?
G: The preparation of one lesson takes between 1h and 4h. The correction of compositions from one lesson takes 8h, if I correct all of them. However, handing in the compositions is voluntarily, so I never read all of them. But 4-6h is no exception.
L: How are the students’ responses?
G: Judging from what students write into their diaries, most students like this class and they enjoy writing. Many say that they learned things they had never understood in other lessons. I can often find the phrase, “やっぱり勉強になりました” (“Finally I’ve got it!” Yappari benkyou ni narimashita.).
L: Do you have a wish for the future concerning this class?
G: This exceptional class would not have been possible without the support of the Department of Student Affairs and the German Department for which I am very grateful. I wish to get a similar support in the future. I also would like to teach this class with a second teacher. Having two teachers would be optimal.
L: Thank you for this interview and your engagement.
Fig.
1: Sample Entries from a student action log in Schmidt’s
composition class:
7 Oktober 2004 Heute habe ich über die Paraphrase gelernt. Ich lerne das Synonym und Antonym. Das war ein bisschen schwierig für mich. Aber ich kann es verstehen. Am lustigsten sind Worterklärungen. 14 Oktober 2004 Ich habe heute über die Familie geschrieben. Aber das war sehr schwerig. Ich kann es nicht. 21 Oktober 2004 Ich habe heute über den Kurse und das Leben an der Uni geschrieben. Mein Seminar ist langweilig, aber der Unterricht heute war interessant. 28 Oktober 2004 Heute haven wir eine Erzählung geschrieben. Das war sehr interessant, dass wir uns eine Erzählung ausdenke. Eine groβartige Geschichte vollenden. |
About Gabi Schmidt
Dr. Schmidt is a linguist from Stuttgart, Germany. Before coming to Dokkyo in September 1999, she taught German in South Korea and Okinawa.
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
In the Classroom
A Magic Formula
for Successful English Conversation
Akihiko Ohashi, Harue Junior High School
In English conversation, the most difficult thing is not using English, but making concise, short, understandable sentences. By the time Japanese students graduate from high school, they have memorized thousands of English vocabulary words, idioms and expressions. Still, we too often hear that “Japanese people aren’t good at speaking English.” I believe that part of the reason for this is that Japanese people take English conversation too seriously. Actual English conversation does not have to be difficult.
It seems that Japanese people aren’t good at speaking English. Of course, I am not the exception; I am not good at speaking English, either. But I no longer feel English conversation is difficult. Today I will tell you how to get over it; I will give you a “magic formula” for successful English conversation. There are many books on English conversation in Japan, but to begin with, we Japanese would do well to keep the following simple points in mind:
1. Use easy words … as easy as possible!
According to one specialist of English linguistics, conversation often consists of the easiest and most common 200 English words (Chida, personal communication). If you want to explain something in detail, you may need more than 1000 words. Some may say, “More than 1000 words!?! That’s a lot!” But Japanese students already know half of these words, like apple, one, go, etc… The number of words we have to memorize is at best 500. Keep a watchful eye on the everyday things around you and ask yourself, “What do English speakers call this thing or idea in English?” These basic words and ideas are very important for Japanese people. Let’s increase our vocabulary little by little, but let’s learn words that are really useful and efficient for communication.
2. Don’t always use difficult expressions and words.
After studying English, Japanese people tend to use the most difficult words and phrases. But often this generates careless mistakes. Sometimes even native speakers can’t understand what you are driving at. Additionally, we have difficulty thinking of what to say because we think we must use the difficult words. We need to express ourselves more directly with simple words. I’ll show you some examples:
I
made an effort to study English yesterday, but in
vain.
To make the sentence easy:
I tried to study English yesterday, but I didn’t.
To make the sentence easy:
I tried to study English yesterday, but I didn’t.
Providing that we have the ability of 2nd grade junior high school students, we can begin communicating in English. It’s good enough for speaking English. We shouldn’t be concerned with mastering difficult phrases before we can communicate with the simple ones.
Now, let’s change the easier sentence to the easiest sentence:
I
couldn’t study English, yesterday.
“Couldn’t” contains the meaning of “set one’s mind to do it, but…” To make sentences concise like this is the short cut to improve our English.
3. Shorten each sentence.
A characteristic of Japanese English is that often our sentences become too long. Japanese people try to cram everything we want to say into one sentence, hereby bringing about grammatical mistakes. As is often the case with Japanese people, the tenses of spoken sentences are all screwed up because each sentence is too long. Because of trying to speak in high gear, spoken sentences are often choppy and the person speaking gets confused. In conversations, the most important thing is to play catch in the verbal exchange, so we need to shorten sentences and focus on the heart of the ideas we are expressing. Another example:
Q: What time do you eat breakfast every
morning?
Even if ordinary Japanese people understand the English, to make English sentences like this in conversation is difficult. But to cut sentences short enables us to speak easily, as follows:
A: Do you eat breakfast?
B: Yes.
A: Every morning?
B: Yes.
A: What time?
B: Seven o’clock, usually.
B: Yes.
A: Every morning?
B: Yes.
A: What time?
B: Seven o’clock, usually.
I think this conversation would be very easy even if a low level English speaker tried it. Judging from the current of the conversation, we can understand what the “When?” is. Of course, if you want to ask in more detail or more concretely, “What time do you eat?” may be appropriate. However, we can communicate with foreigners and each other without using the best or most complete expressions. B doesn’t need to say, “Yes, I do,” either. B’s answer can be “Yes,” only. Thus short sentences decrease a speaker’s mistakes and enable the person to communicate straight to the point.
As I said before, in conversation, the most difficult thing is not using English. It is how to make concise, short sentences that express our ideas in simple language. All I want to insist on is that we should remember the goal of learning English: “English is the language which can be understood by people around the world.” In other words, wherever I go, English that has the same meaning in each country is the best English. The more difficult and colloquial the expressions and words are, the more different the meanings are. For example, I once said to a British high school student, “Please, denote it.” “Denote? What do you mean?” she said. Even if the word is English, it is usually used in formal situations. We can’t call it “good” English since the word makes no sense in normal conversation. When all of the English speakers around the world regard words as having the same meaning, these are the most appropriate vocabulary to use for international communication. Using easy words and shortening sentences are both important keys to communicating with people the world over.
[For a similar idea, see the example of an English “mentions” conversation in Mendenhall & Seo, this issue. –Ed.]
About the writer
Akihiko Ohashi is a junior high school English teacher, father, and Tokyo Midnight tour guide. He also plays a mean ukulele.
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
In the Classroom
Utilizing Technology
For Classroom Productivity
Stephen Mendenhall and Masaki Seo
Hawai'i Pacific University
Stephen and Masaki met each other for the first time this summer during a Hybrid course called Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom at Hawai‘i Pacific University (HPU). A hybrid, of course, is the mixing or combining of different elements, forms or modes of operation, in this case the mixing of face-to-face classroom interaction with internet-based classroom interaction. The following is a description of and our feelings towards this first time hybrid learning experience.
Course Description
The first 3 weeks of the course took place mainly online through HPU’s WebCT system (http://www.webct.com). The professor was situated in Japan and the students in Hawai‘i. “The hybrid design allowed HPU to attract a scholar [Dr. Tim Murphey] with a worldwide reputation for innovative teaching…” (Kirschenmann, 2004, p. 1). The WebCT Classes went so well that when the teacher arrived for the first face-to-face meeting it seemed as though we had already known each other for a long time; no icebreakers necessary. There were times online when participants got lost and disconnected and felt frustrated. Some felt alienated more than they normally did in just a face-to-face class. However, overall the mix of the two modes was very stimulating and a learning experience.
Hybrid vs Only Face to Face
Just as a traditional gasoline- powered car can be inefficient in the inability to provide high gas mileage, we feel that traditional face-to-face classrooms are inefficient in realizing students’ full potentials. In the same manner, just as an electric car is limited in its mobility between charges, online courses are limited in various ways. We propose that a Hybrid course of both face-to-face and online mediums work best to realize full potentials.
Hybrid courses can offer many advantages compared to traditional face-to-face or classes taught on-line. An increase in participation; as Lu (2004, personal communication) states: “… I usually do not talk or ask questions in class, but with this chatting style, I did talk more than I usually do [in face-to-face meetings].” Even shy people participate actively in our conversations. There is more mobility in a hybrid course than being in a single classroom location; students can continue a relatively high level of interaction and progression as long as they have internet access. Hybrid courses can create hyper-cohesive group dynamics because sharing writing assignments with classmates can serve as an icebreaker for students as well as convey personal information which fosters relationships and therefore group cohesiveness.
Hybrid vs Only Online
Technical problems such as computers crashing and slow connections can delay progress and increase stress levels without the presence of a teacher. In addition, students with slower typing skills may be limited in their participation during chats. For example, as Kumagai (2004, personal communication) states: “I tried to join the discussion and type…. But I ended up just reading the conversations others wrote.” Hybrid courses are able to overcome feelings of isolation through providing on-going human interaction.
Some Online Activities for the Adventurous
How can teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) successfully add an online component? There are various activities appropriate for face-to-face meetings that were successful online as well. Note that the following activities were done online with four participants usually at different places in Hawai‘i.
One basic level activity is called “Mentions” (Murphey, 1994). This is the breakdown of conversations into simple 1 to 3-word statements. By simplifying statements, students are able to focus on content as opposed to worrying about grammar.
| An Example of Mentions Student A: Weekend plans? Student B: Date with Randi. Student A: Where to? Student B: Window shopping. Student A: And then? |
An intermediate level activity is called “Story Construction;” this is when students use their imagination to construct a story of fantasy about anything and everything, similar to image streaming. The first person starts off writing one line and then writes an unfinished sentence that the next person must continue. Each person thereafter finishes a sentence and starts another for the next person to finish. The story can grow as far as students’ imaginations.
| An Example of Story Construction Student A: Once upon time, there were… Student B: an old man and an old woman who lived all alone… Student C: One day the old woman went … Student D: to the river and found a big peach… |
An advanced level activity would be academically themed group discussion; this is when the teacher breaks the class up into groups and assigns roles for students to fill. An example of 4 important roles would be the Initiator (leader) to start the discussion, the Provocateur to help generate socio-cognitive conflict, the Time Keeper to keep the pace and ensure progress, and the Wrapper to organize and summarize discussions. We suggest that this activity, in general, can be used for advanced students in positive ways, enhanced with the support of “near peer role models (NPRMs)…[which] are peers who are close to the learners’ social, professional and/or age level, and whom the learners may respect and admire… If teachers can find productive behaviors, roles, and beliefs present in some respectable peer, and highlight these for emulation by others, this can become a powerful means to encourage students to follow the example” (Dörnyei & Murphey, 2004, p.128).
| An Example of Specific Roles and Possible
Statements Initiator: In my opinion, … Provocateur: But don’t you think…? Time Keeper: Let’s move on to the next topic. |
When Ebata (2004, personal communication) reflects upon course activities, she states “when these activities are used in face to face [meetings], we sometimes feel nervous, which does not enable us to focus on our thinking [therefore a hindrance on performance].” On the other hand, face-to-face meetings provide non-verbal communication, such as the ability to see our peers’ facial expressions, hear their tones of voice, and make eye contact, which can also be a calming experience for students, therefore helpful.
We can conclude that the hybrid combination of face-to-face meetings with on-line activities proves to be an efficient and powerful force. The variety of activities not only provided practical exercises, but also encouraged students to make progressive learning steps. We believe that teachers should utilize the advantages of hybridity to elicit high productivity. Although two months have passed since the conclusion of this course, group cohesiveness remains strong amongst members whose relationships will surely prove to be valuable for years to come.
Cited in this article
Dörnyei, Z. & Murphey, T. (2003). Group dynamics in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kirschenmann, J. (2004, October 18). TESL offers unique course. Kalamalama, p. 1.
Murphey, T. (1994). Mentions in Action: Few Word Sentences, O.K.! TESL Reporter 27, 21-26. Accessed Oct 30 ’04 at http://www2.dokkyo.ac.jp/%7Eesemi029/pages/mentions.html
About the writers
Stephen Mendenhall is an MA in TESL student at HPU. He has spent nearly a decade teaching EFL in Japan. E-mail:
alohastephen @ yahoo .com
Masaki Seo is a BA in TESL student at HPU. He is currently the president of Intercultural Teachers Organization at HPU and works as a Japanese tutor at the HPU Tutoring Center. E-mail:
mseo @ campus .hpu .edu (remove spaces)
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Readers’ Forum
Thoughts on Fast Failure
The theory of “fast failure” has been mentioned on more than one occasion in this newsletter (See “Failure Breeds Success,” in issue #2, and “Ceramics, Flight and English Learning?” issue #3. Also see the article by Suzuki in this issue –Ed.). Essentially, it seems to promote the idea that risk-taking is important for learning. Perfectionists are at a disadvantage as they shun the mistakes of the process for the perfection in the ideal product. As a relatively new teacher, who still feels he’s got a lot to learn, I have been reflecting on this dynamic within my own professional development … and, as a miserable perfectionist, trying to take more risks and feel better about my failures. I thank the contributors to Languaging! for giving me so much food for thought.
Christopher,
Dokkyo University
The New Languaging! Website
I was perusing the old websites from our graduate course in web & materials design and was amazed and pleased to see [the new Languaging! website]! Really great work!
Brian Shanding
Delgado Community College, New Orleans
| READERS! Languaging! wants your feedback! Please send us your comments, reactions and reflections, however brief, positive or critical. You can send your comments to languaging@yahoo.com In the subject line, write “Reader’s Forum.” Please tell us which article you are commenting on. See the insert in this issue for more information. |
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Perspectives
Risk-taking &
Making Mistakes
Kaori Suzuki, Dokkyo University
If you don’ take risks, you won’t make many mistakes or have many failures (Gelb, 2003, p. 19). Risk-taking brings fear and uncertainty as constant companions, and guarantees us either failure or serendipity (Beebe, 1983, p. 39) (Matson, 1996, p. 73). In language learning, it is crucial for learners to open their mouths because “Those who do not risk do not fail and do not improve” (Matson, 1996, p. 100). In the process of language learning, making mistakes is “not only normal, but necessary to language learning” (Edge, 1989, p. 37). I realized that if we have negative beliefs and are afraid of making mistakes, we will not learn efficiently.
I investigated the beliefs language learners have about making mistakes by asking participants to mark their agreement to statements about mistakes (estimating their answers for the beginning of the spring semester and at the end, judging their own changes) and to write CMART (Celebrating Mistakes and Risk Taking) histories. CMART histories are students’ personal stories about risk-taking and mistakes that students have had in their lives. Participants were Japanese students at Dokkyo University who have taken Professor Murphey’s classes.
The statement, It is OK to make mistakes had the largest change (+3.94 from an average of 5.04 to 8.98) on the 10 point Likert scale. It shows that their beliefs towards mistakes have gradually been reframed. Furthermore, it looks like they acquired the skill of self-correction as well. Both of these statements, I notice my mistakes, and I can often correct my English when I speak, had a more positive change.
From the CMART histories, it was clear that students’ environments have a great influence on their willingness to take risks and make mistakes. It seems the repetition of bad or good experiences concerning mistakes makes their beliefs very strong. Learners’ views are often colored by what their peers and teachers think.
Learners need a safe environment where they can take risks and talk freely. Getting it right is important, but not as important as getting students to speak and participate. As Bateson (1994) says, “Participation precedes learning” (p.41). Mistakes are stepping-stones for your desired outcome, not stumbling blocks. How you react to mistakes is crucial to the amount we will ultimately learn, improve, and participate.
Cited in this article
Bateson, M. (1994). Peripheral visions. New York: Harper Collins.
Beebe, L. M. (1983). Risk-taking and the language learner, in Classroom Oriented Research in Second Language Acquisition, Seliger, W. H. and Long, H. M. (editors), (p. 39- 66). Cambridge, MA: Newbury House
Edge, J. (1989). Mistakes and correction. London: Longman.
Gelb, J. M. (2003). More balls than hands. New York: Prentice Hall.
Matson, V. J. (1996). Innovate or die. Royal Oak, MI: Paradigm Press Ltd.
Some rabbit research on the theory of fast failure and the benefits of risk-taking?
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Perspectives
The Dilemma between
Language Teaching and Language Sharing
Yuuki Banba, Dokkyo University
I’m a student at Dokkyo University and a “cram school” teacher for a school named Hitotsubashi Seminar in Takenotsuka. I teach English and Japanese to students from 4th grade elementary school to 3rd grade high school. I enjoy teaching, but I have many questions about language teaching.
In the beginner English course for elementary school children at Hitotsubashi Seminar, we try to teach the students how fun speaking English is. The children don’t know how to spell even the word “dog.” When we want to convey the idea of “dog,” it is best to use sound, gestures, facial expressions and body language. As when someone gives a speech, we must think about our audience. They appreciate that the speaker is making their best effort to communicate, which makes the audience (our young students) eager to understand what we are saying. When they understand the idea of “dog” we are sharing with them, it gives them great pleasure.
On the other hand, there are the junior and senior high school English courses? Of course, students are trying to get a good grade on the entrance tests which lead to acceptance to good high schools and good colleges. What is needed to get a high score? The best way is to cling to a textbook on grammar, reading strategies, paragraph reading and summary writing until the students understand it very well. This is a writing- and reading-centered way to learn. You see, speaking is completely lacking in these classes (although recently, listening tests are becoming more popular in high school and college enterance examinations). In this situation, oral communication doesn’t exist and the sound-centered learning, which is how infants master their first language, is not important. It is the sound-centered environment that really leads children to the native speaker level in any language.
So, what is needed to make balanced English learning education in Japan? There are so many problems. As a demonstration, I want to tell you about some of the difficulties I have faced in my teaching experience. First, I will focus on teaching high school students.
In Japan, college entrance examinations are taken by about 400,000 people, yearly. If you enter a prestigious or high-level college, your future is almost guaranteed in a hopeful and high salary job. Students definitely hope to be accepted, and I must help students to study and pass the entrance examination.
For entrance examinations, reading ability is the most important requirement. Here is an example of the kind of question a student might have to answer in a university entrance exam:
Translate the following sentence into
Japanese and explain what the subject does and what each relative
pronoun means:
It is during this very long period in which the human infant is totally dependent on others that it reveals the second feature which it shares with all other undamaged human infants, a capacity to learn language.
It is during this very long period in which the human infant is totally dependent on others that it reveals the second feature which it shares with all other undamaged human infants, a capacity to learn language.
The requirements to answer this type of question include detailed explanations of the grammatical structure of the sentence, the indications of relative pronouns (e.g., “that” and “which”), the meanings of the phrasal verbs (e.g., “dependent on” and “shares with”) and idiomatic usage and how these and the parts of speech (adverbs, adjectives, nouns, verbs, etc.) all relate to each other (all of this is called grammatical explication). In other words, it is a very complicated and laborious process. [Wouldn’t most native speakers fail this type of question? –Ed.]
I have to say teaching is different from how we ourselves understand language, so we should not teach students as parallel to our understanding. As in the example above, an enormous amount of information is needed to translate only one sentence. For a native English speaker or a nonnative, advanced English speaker, to follow such a basic level interpretation is not needed because they can comprehend the sentence mentally. They listen and get a mental understanding of the information in the sentence without grammatical explanation.
Now, let’s consider “language sharing.” Language sharing is communication. As I said before, in the beginner English course, you have to teach the students that the sounds “dog” and the letters “d-o-g” mean dog. To do this you have to use not only sound but gestures, body language and facial expressions. When your students succeed in understanding the word “dog,” they will be happy and motivated to try to use English. This is speaking- and listening-centered learning.
Now, I have a question, which is more important, listening-centered learning or grammatical learning? Which is a better approach? If you use both listening- and grammar-centered approaches, can your students understand you? Remember, the entrance examinations for Japanese colleges require a lot of reading and grammatical understanding. The higher the level of the exam, the higher the complexity and difficulty of the sentences you will need to understand. I have not yet reached a conclusion about whether language learning or language sharing should be different. If they are different, we have a dilemma between natural English learning and Japanese style learning. If not, the dilemma does not exist. (It can’t be at least in Japan.) I’m very confused about the differences between language sharing and language learning. What do you think?
About the writer
Yuuki Banba is a sophomore in the French Department at Dokkyo University.
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Perspectives
When Should We Use Japanese in the
English Classroom?
Seiichi Fukui, Dokkyo University
Is it easy to explain the meaning of the sentence, “John broke his leg,” to Japanese students without using a word of Japanese? You would probably act to show that your leg hurts or you can’t walk. If you asked them the meaning of “broke leg” in Japanese after your performance, you would hear a lot of close-but-not-correct answers such as: “itai” (feel pain), “nenzashita” (sprained the ankle) and “kega shita” (hurt and bleeding). Isn’t it easier to explain in Japanese that it usually means “ashi no hone o otta” (the bone of the leg was broken)? Or, would you further try to clarify the meaning of “to break” by declaring, “I am breaking a chopstick,” while actually breaking one?
So many Japanese learners of English believe that the most efficient way to learn English is to join a class where the use of Japanese is forbidden. Many mothers try to avoid a Japanese teacher for their little children’s English class. They are disappointed when they hear their children’s English teacher speak fluent Japanese in the classroom.
My wife and I have rehabilitated quite a number of 5th and 6th graders who had learned English since they were toddlers. They need to get used to learning some elementary grammar and translation into Japanese before joining “reading and grammar drill” English lessons in junior high schools. So many of those who learned English for almost ten years have below the average marks in English, partly because they can't get used to translating English phrases into Japanese, and also because they feel school English is boring. What we usually do in rehabilitation classes is to put English sentences and words into Japanese. They find a lot of things while going through such a process. The other day, in such a rehabilitation class of several 6-graders, my wife asked them the meaning of “me.” An interesting discussion followed in Japanese.
“It’s not face, is it?”
“No. But it’s not chin, either. What is the correct Japanese word?”
“I remember! It’s nodobotoke (Adam’s apple)!”
The other students agreed!
We all have to be careful how we act and what our students think we are saying when we say “listen to me” in the classroom.
I know that “direct translation” or “grammar translation” method hasn’t worked well enough in the past century in Japan. However, even if some of the students become fluent in English without using Japanese in the classroom, I often hear them say that they are confused. They often have two different worlds in their heads: an English world and a Japanese world. They sometimes wonder if they are really thinking logically in English, because they cannot explain in Japanese what they are thinking and speaking in English. In but cases, they can translate some of their ideas formed in Japanese into English. There seems to be a one-way circuit in your brain after learning a foreign language without using your mother’s tongue. In other words, what you learned in the foreign language tends to be isolated or locked in a separate box.
I believe that Japanese learners should use a certain amount of Japanese language, at least until a certain level, in order to avoid some confusion they would face later in an advanced level.
[For other perspectives on using L1 in the classroom, see Suzuki, Yoshikawa, and Miyazaki in the 1st edition of Languaging! -- Ed.]&aamp;>&&aamp;>&&<
About the writer
Seichi Fukui is an expert of simultaneous interpretation and a teacher of English at Dokkyo University.
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Perspectives
Reconsidering Business English
Evelyn J. Naoumi, Dokkyo University
Recently I had the opportunity to write a paper reflecting upon the implementation of business English into some of my university classes. At the end of the first semester of these classes, it was apparent that implementing a business English syllabus into the university classroom was not as easy as simply implementing a new general English syllabus and that problems existed particularly in the choice of materials available. A certain amount of student confusion also revealed a need for a more suitable course objective and framework based upon a better understanding of student needs and perceptions.
Recent policy changes at the government level have dictated that Japanese tertiary education must change if it is to reflect the requirements of the various stakeholders. One change has been the growing movement to prepare students for their future working environments as well as providing an academic education. The increase in courses in business English is a reflection of this trend but the question of how successful or how appropriate these are has not been sufficiently addressed. Another influence is the TOEIC Test.
ESP and Business English Genre Education in Japan
Background reading on the subject revealed clear differences between general English courses and ESP (English for Specific Purposes) courses. One fundamental difference is that ESP courses are designed to meet the needs of particular learners and that course materials are chosen and designed accordingly (Hutchinson and Walters 1987:21). The aim of language instruction for such learners is not the development of overall proficiency in the target language but the provision of enough of the target language for them to function in a professional capacity. The second and even more important difference is that the learners in question are already experts in their fields and are able to apply that expertise in putting the target language into a familiar context to aid comprehension. The role of textbooks and supplementary materials for such learners is to provide practice in the target language in a variety of situations they are already familiar with in their native languages. Consequently, the target language presented in these textbooks becomes highly focused and will differ according to profession. For example, textbooks designed for scientists engaged in research and the presentation of research data will be totally different from textbooks designed for those engaged in business transactions, who require knowledge of socio-linguistic conventions in order to achieve their purposes. Here the concept of genre is crucial. Perhaps one of the best-known definitions of genre is the following:
[Genre] is a recognizable
communicative event characterized by a set of communicative purpose(s)
identified and mutually understood by the members of the professional
or academic community in which it regularly occurs. Most often it
is highly structured and conventionalized with constraints on allowable
contributions in terms of their intent, positioning, form and
functional value. These constraints, however, are often exploited
by the expert members of the discourse community to achieve private
intentions within the framework of socially recognized purpose (s).
(Bhatia, 1993:13)
In the framework of the genre of business English, the adult ESP learner is already a member of the business community in one language but requires knowledge of the genre in the target language. As materials play a crucial role in ESP, an examination of existing textbooks is an essential first step. In my explorations, I found the following:
- All the major ELT publishers now have sections for ESP textbooks and there are a wide variety of business textbooks available. The promotional literature describes them as textbooks designed for those already in business or preparing for careers in business. Some concentrate upon specialized fields such as finance, marketing or the tourist industry while others are more general. The majority are based on the understanding that their learners will already have considerable knowledge of the genre and very few cater to learners with little business experience.
- There is an increasing tendency to tie the textbooks to TOEIC scores, reflecting the importance given to TOEIC scores in Japan. Several now offer practice in taking the TOEIC test.
- There are also an increasing variety of supplementary materials. Videos are designed to complement textbooks but can be used alone or with other textbooks. These show business situations but many now also have factual reports about major companies. The teacher’s books reflect the ESP approach in the way the teacher is encouraged to run the course. Skill based textbooks such as presentations or negotiations are increasing, as are games and role-play activities designed to simulate business situations but the implication is that the students have some business knowledge.
My Courses and Students
Keen to give my students some exposure to business English as a way of raising their consciousness about their possible future language needs and consequently increasing their motivation to take responsibility for their own language learning, I decided to incorporate Business English into some of my university classes. There were three types of classes:
- Business English was offered as part of an inter-faculty elective language program at one university. The course was offered at the elementary and pre-intermediate/intermediate levels.
- A required elementary English course for freshman Economics majors.
- Business English was also incorporated into an elective Video Workshop for students in the School of Commerce.
The textbooks used were “Business Venture 1 with Practice for the TOEIC Test” and “Business Venture 2” and in all courses the video element was supplied by Big City 1 and Big City 2. Supplementary games and activities were added to give the students more practice.
The students were evaluated on attendance, performance on a test based on the textbook, performance in class and an oral element. Due to large class sizes (over 50 students per class) at the elementary level the students were asked to perform a drama incorporating the elements in the first six units of the textbook which was videoed. Students in the pre-intermediate/intermediate class made a group presentation introducing a company of their choice. The business English element of the video workshop was based upon a report about the mobile phone company, “Vodaphone”, and students had to complete a worksheet for evaluation purposes.
Consideration of problems and issues
Student reactions to the courses at the end of the first semester reflected some of the problems I encountered using ESP designed business materials in the university context. The main ones are as follows:
- Many freshman students had difficulty with the concept of business English being relevant to their future careers. The second year students felt better satisfied by the course but still they were very aware of the gaps in their knowledge of business and felt a little overwhelmed by the specialized vocabulary.
- The learners visualized by the authors of the textbook did not match the students in the university classroom, especially the freshmen.
- There was a large proportion of business specific vocabulary which was unfamiliar to the students in their native language, especially that dealing with the structure of business organizations and everyday tasks within the business world.
- Activities, which required the students to work with the information and language provided within the textbook, were insufficient to familiarize the students with the different workplace scenarios.
- The TOEIC test materials were difficult to use and contributed to the student confusion.
- The role-plays required more knowledge of the real world than the students possessed so they did not provide fluency practice.
- In ESP courses, teachers are language facilitators and are not usually required to have the same degree of expertise in the course’s content as the students. In classes at university when students lack expertise in the content, many teachers are unable provide content therefore some explanation of the content must be provided for them as a reading text for comprehension or as notes in the teacher’s manual.
- Many students would have performed poorly in listening and speaking in a general English course due to lack of exposure to more authentic English. There was a clear demarcation between those used to pair and group work and those who were not.
Some Reflections
Given that the student evaluations do not reflect the problems raised by classrooms in which there are more than 50 students, a situation never visualized by ESP business textbook writers, there was nevertheless a considerable amount of support for business English even in the freshman classes. However, implementation requires more thought and these are the areas I think that require to be addressed:
- A clear recognition of the differences between ESP business learners and university students from a genre perspective. Some students in their final year of business orientated course such as schools of business administration or commerce may be a fairly close match but for the majority of students the business English course will be their first contact with the real world of business and a much more general approach is needed.
- Areas of overlap between general English courses and ESP Business English courses should be identified and exploited (see Fig. 1). All students, including Freshmen, responded well to areas where business English overlaps with other types of English, for example restaurants, making an appointment, planning an itinerary for a trip or meeting people for the first time. Telephoning activities and clearly defined role-plays were popular.
Fig. 1
- Much more support for both teachers and students by providing background in business English for the games and role-plays.
- Business English should not be confined to a specific business English course at the university level. Most general English courses have a section on work and this should be expanded more by teachers to reflect the business world. New business trends of interest to the general reader in the media, business correspondence in writing classes, and topics such as advertising are areas of general business English suitable for university students.
- A clearer understanding of the roles of teachers in ESP and university teaching situations. Content course teachers working with language teachers could develop materials more suitable for the university context.
- Finally the reality of the increasing importance accorded to the TOEIC test in Japan should not be overlooked. Improvement in test scores that students perceive to be important can be motivating. There are parts of the test, such as business vocabulary, listening and reading skills and error recognition which if taught in the framework of a course should help develop overall proficiency.
My conclusions
As long as English continues to be an important tool for communication worldwide, students require exposure to different types of English, including business English, if they are to function outside the university. Business English is a specific genre and both students and teachers need to be aware of that fact, but this should not hinder it being taught at the university level. Needs analysis, the tool of ESP, should be applied to different groups of learners within the university context and materials should be developed which meet their different needs for exposure to business English in the wider framework of the development of their ability to communicate in English in a variety of situations.
However, the development of such materials will be less successful if it is left up to the individual teacher working in a vacuum. If the issues raised in this article are addressed at the university level as a part of faculty development involving all areas of expertise, then universities will be able to offer business English courses which do meet their students’ needs.
Cited in this article
Bhatia, V.K. (1993). Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.
Barnard, R., & Cady, J. (2000). Business Venture 1 with Practice for the TOEIC Test. Oxford University Press.
Barnard, R., & Cady, J. (2000). Business Venture 2. Oxford University Press.
Hymes, D. (1977). Foundations in Sociolinguistics. London: Tavistock Publications.
Lloyd, A., & Preier, A. (2000). Business Communication Games. Oxford University Press.
Oxford English Video: Big City (1 and 2).
Oxford English Video: English Channel (1, 2 & 3).
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Perspectives
Reflections on CALL
Sometimes Less is More
Paul Horness, Dokkyo University
Teaching and technology.... There has been much ado about the advancement of computer-assisted language learning known simply as CALL. This teaching aid has been great, but like any other tool, too much reliance on it for all circumstances is just bad craftsmanship. It has been my experience and observation that too much class time is given to the CALL systems. In fact, some universities allot 90 minutes for classes of CALL, ridiculous! I would like to cover some of the difficulties using CALL and then present some guidelines for using CALL such as time limits, classroom set-ups, computer software and hardware, and student behavior.
The first and most important condition of using any CALL system is a time limit. There is no way anyone can justify using CALL for 90 minutes. Imagine someone using one teaching aide for a whole class. Even though the CALL system allows for different aspects of the language to be discovered, the amount of concentration necessary is too much. In addition, have you had the CALL system’s earphones on for 90 minutes? The CALL system’s earphones are incredibly hot to wear. It would be nice if students could bring their own earphones, but the connection port is usually inaccessible.
Even if teachers did not use CALL for 90 minutes, there would be other hindrances. Most CALL rooms are not set-up for traditional teaching methods. The terminals are too high for face-to-face communication or they are locked down to the tables so any thought of rearranging the seats is not possible. The solution seems to be to schedule two rooms for usage, one for traditional methods and one for CALL methods. I have tried at many schools but there seems to be a logistical problem because all requests have been denied.
Another drawback to CALL is the system itself. The first step is to train the teachers and students with the hardware and software. This takes time. In an ideal world, things run smoothly and problems do not arise in any circumstance. What happens when things do go wrong? More time is necessary to resolve the issues. If a computer does not work, are there extra ones available? Again, it takes time to change computers. What if the software is not responding correctly? More time is taken. As you can see, just getting started can take up valuable class time. I realize that breakdowns happen with the use of other tools, but the amount of reliance day in and day out on CALL puts tremendous stress on the system not to break down. Is there any support? Sometimes at best, and none at all, at worst. I am proficient at using computers but there are times when I do not know what to do. In addition, not all software comes with guidelines or written text. To understand what is involved in running a programme, one must run the program completely and write down the information. Again, not time efficient.
Finally, peoples’ behavior can eat away time and lower the satisfaction level for those involved.
In conclusion, I suggest that if one is unable to understand or use the system effectively, then CALL is wasting a valuable resource. There are some studies coming out indicating that the teacher’s knowledge of the equipment is tied closely to class satisfaction in using CALL. In addition, using native English speakers to run CALL systems seems a waste, as well. Why use a computer when students can relate to a native speaker in the class? Wouldn’t CALL systems be a more valuable asset to the Japanese instructors? It would seem more efficient and profitable for all involved if CALL was used mainly by the Japanese instructors and the native English speakers used it limitedly.
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
English
Haiku
from the Mainichi Daily News
Selections from November 4, 2004 (No.665)
autumn's rough seas --
lobstermen
move their traps
to deeper water
Patricia Neubauer
Philadelphia, PA, USA
garden hose --
leaks
another rainbow
Francis Masat
Key West, FL, USA
wild flowers …
the slow appearing
of a cat-shaped cloud
Marili Deandrea
Torino, Italy
The MDN awaits your new, unpublished haiku, which are not restricted to any style, but should preferably contain a seasonal element. Send entries to: "Haiku Column," Editorial Dept., Mainichi Daily News, 1-1-1 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8051, Japan or by E-mail. Please remember to include your airmail postal address! The Mainichi Newspapers is inviting you to participate in the 9th Annual Mainichi Haiku Contest. Selected by Kazuo Sato and Isamu Hashimoto
from the Mainichi Daily News
Selections from November 4, 2004 (No.665)
autumn's rough seas --
lobstermen
move their traps
to deeper water
Patricia Neubauer
Philadelphia, PA, USA
garden hose --
leaks
another rainbow
Francis Masat
Key West, FL, USA
wild flowers …
the slow appearing
of a cat-shaped cloud
Marili Deandrea
Torino, Italy
The MDN awaits your new, unpublished haiku, which are not restricted to any style, but should preferably contain a seasonal element. Send entries to: "Haiku Column," Editorial Dept., Mainichi Daily News, 1-1-1 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8051, Japan or by E-mail. Please remember to include your airmail postal address! The Mainichi Newspapers is inviting you to participate in the 9th Annual Mainichi Haiku Contest. Selected by Kazuo Sato and Isamu Hashimoto
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
The Efficiency Column
Crucial Student
Are we getting it?
Tim Murphey, Dokkyo University
Last year the administration hired an outside company to do our course evaluations. It cost a fortune so this year they saved some money and did it themselves by mailing course evaluations in mid summer to all students. This appears to be a good method on the surface if enough students return the forms. However out of my 136 students only 58 returned feedback or 43%. If this is normal for teachers, then most of their students are not being represented in the feedback. Last year it was probably close to 90% because they were done in class. The mistake last year was giving it to an outside company that charged an arm and a leg.
I am all for saving money and being efficient. But the top priority is does it work. If only 43% of the students are responding are we getting a balanced view of what students think of our classes. This year’s procedure does not give us the data we need and much too late. With only a half a semester left, teachers and students are already settled into a routine, whether it is good or bad.
I would suggest doing the course evaluations in the 4th class of the first semester. Teachers would leave the class five minutes before the end of class and let students fill them out and a class representative turn the forms in to kyomuka. I would suggest trying to get results back to the teachers within two weeks. Then they would have time to change the situation if need be and talk to students about what they need differently to do well in the courses. I know it is possible because it happen at my previous university in Taiwan and this summer in a graduate course I taught in America. A fast turn-around with feedback can change teaching and learning early enough to make a difference.
Although Dokkyo may have saved money on this year’s process, I lament the waste in paper and postage when less than half the students respond. If we do it during class time, this would be mostly eliminated.
Do
you have suggestions for improving the way we work, learn, and teach?
Write for The Efficiency Column!
Write for The Efficiency Column!
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Funny Bone
Combonotions
The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's (2003) winners.
Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic witand the person who doesn't get it.
Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.
And the pick of the bunch:
Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and a butt.
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Photocopiable Activity
Simple Truths
Match the common sayings on the left with the with the comical twist on the right.
| 1.
Money
is not everything. 2. One should love animals. 3. Save water. 4. Love thy neighbor. 5. Every man should marry. 6. The wise never marry. 7. Success is a relative term. 8. Love is photogenic. 9. Children in backseats cause accidents. 10. "Your future depends on your dreams." 11. Hard work never killed anybody. |
12.
Accidents in backseats cause children. 13. There's MasterCard & Visa. 14. They are so tasty. 15. Shower with your girlfriend. 16. But don't get caught. 17. But why take the risk? 18. So go to sleep. 19. When they marry they become otherwise. 20. After all, happiness is not everything. 21. It brings so many relatives. 22. It needs darkness to develop. |
Submitted by Tim Murphey.
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
Photocopiable Activity
Quick Christmas Lesson Plan Filler:
“Miles To Go …”
from Tim Murphey … Merry Xmas!
Speed Dictation Directions:
- Put students into groups of 4 and give each a number from 1 to 4.
- Tell them you will read four lines of a poem, one at a time. The student whose number is 1 will write down the first line; 2 will write down the second, and so on. It helps to write 1, 2, 3, 4, on the board horizontally and point to the numbers as your read each line. Then they share and write down the lines on a piece of paper. Read the lines again if they need it again. Invite them to collaborate, correct, and discuss meaning.
- Do the same with the next three verses of the poem. (Or just one or two verses if short on time. Students’ dictation and collaboration skills improve a lot with practice.)
- Pass out copies of the poem and ask them to notice how much they got right.
- Ask them to ask you to explain words or phrases they do not understand.
- Explain that US teenagers in high school often memorize this famous poem and later in life often cite the line “And miles to go before I sleep” as a way of excusing themselves from staying longer, meaning they still have much work to do before they can rest, like the narrator who would like to stay and watch “the woods fill up with snow.”
- Look at the picture that accompanies the poem. Ask the student groups to discus in which ways the picture does and does NOT match the content of the poem (e.g. there are two horses, not one).
- Sing it! (Ask Tim for the melody, or make up one yourself!)
----------------------------------------------------- cut here -----------------------------------------------------------
Stopping
by Woods on a Snowy
Evening
Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know
His house is in the village though
He will not see me
stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake
The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep
Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know
His house is in the village though
He will not see me
stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake
The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep
| Languaging!
No. 4 |
Dokkyo
University |
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS!
Share your good ideas!
Languaging! is a semesterly newsletter. Our goal is to encourage students and teachers to explore their learning and teaching more reflectively by writing about it and sharing their ideas in our community of learners (we are all learners, after all). We want to encourage people to learn and teach (and write) together. We believe learning and innovation happen most frequently (and most productively) when people are doing it together. We want to encourage others to innovate, to take risks, to collaborate and to write about it!
We consider teaching a form of perpetual learning. This is an “exploratory” newsletter, and we want to hear from people who are exploring, trying new things, and seeing how they work. Learning and teaching involve a lot of exploration, and we hope to encourage this as much as possible. Furthermore, when we take risks, we often make mistakes. That’s part of learning, too. Feel free to write about the mistakes you’ve made and the lessons you’ve learnt so we can all learn from them.
Languaging! is a place to experiment, not just write about experiments. Think about your favorite ways of teaching and learning – fun ways to learn that could help others. Think about the data you might collect: keeping a journal, recording your changing feelings and ideas, having friends observe your classes, visiting friends classes, quizzing yourself, recording yourself, getting feedback from students on your classes, your materials, or the whole education system! If you read a good book, write about it. If you have a good idea, write about it. If you have a good conversation, write about it!
Writing style: First person narratives are fine! Student writing is great! You should write a few drafts and give it to some friends for comments. Revise it a few times, and then send it by “file attached email” to the editors (by May 15th for the next issue). Editors may ask for some adjustments or give suggestions for fine-tuning before publishing.
Length: We hope you will contribute short pieces for consideration. Teachers and students are busy people (or at least they look busy!), and they are more likely to read short pieces than long ones (4 pages or 2000 words maximum, although we also like paragraphs, comments, short anecdotes, etc.)
Format: Please send your contributions as simple Word or Text files (.doc or .txt). Word files should use normal margin parameters and a common font (New Times Roman, Arial, etc.) in 12 pt. pica, single-spaced. Use only simple highlighting devices (bold, italic, and underlining). You may include tables and illustrations embedded in your document, but illustrations should also be sent as separate jpeg files.
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Languaging!