Session one: Introduction
Monday, October 5, 2009
Preparation
Well, to be honest, at first, I found myself within a plethora of works. A feeling of dizziness and depression came over me. I just was feeling that the time is flying & I must start as soon as possible. So I made a neat plan to study the material and assigned readings. But to my consternation, I couldn't find one of the books that we were supposed to read for the fist session & this made me concerned.
Being familiar with most of the points in the other books, I found Widdowson's book really challenging. Actually I just didn't get what the whole idea was about. What really made me interested was the novel way of presenting and explaining materials in the book of psychology for language teachers.
As a matter of fact, different approaches to psychology regarding education are of great significance. Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are three distinct perspectives concerning educational psychology, the third of which is the most recent one with a distinctive focus on learners and it is the approach that Williams & Burden use repeatedly throughout their book. The first two, place little or no emphasis upon the ways in which individuals seek to bring a sense of personal meaning to their worlds. In the constructivist school, all human beings construct their own version of reality and therefore multiple contrasting ways of knowing and describing are legitimate. Yet this is the learners that acquire the function of language in social context through interaction and discourse. Humanism and experiential learning were the other issues discussed and the implications of social interactionism and a social constructivist model of the teaching & learning process for language teaching were put into consideration.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Preparation
Well, to be honest, at first, I found myself within a plethora of works. A feeling of dizziness and depression came over me. I just was feeling that the time is flying & I must start as soon as possible. So I made a neat plan to study the material and assigned readings. But to my consternation, I couldn't find one of the books that we were supposed to read for the fist session & this made me concerned.
Being familiar with most of the points in the other books, I found Widdowson's book really challenging. Actually I just didn't get what the whole idea was about. What really made me interested was the novel way of presenting and explaining materials in the book of psychology for language teachers.
As a matter of fact, different approaches to psychology regarding education are of great significance. Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are three distinct perspectives concerning educational psychology, the third of which is the most recent one with a distinctive focus on learners and it is the approach that Williams & Burden use repeatedly throughout their book. The first two, place little or no emphasis upon the ways in which individuals seek to bring a sense of personal meaning to their worlds. In the constructivist school, all human beings construct their own version of reality and therefore multiple contrasting ways of knowing and describing are legitimate. Yet this is the learners that acquire the function of language in social context through interaction and discourse. Humanism and experiential learning were the other issues discussed and the implications of social interactionism and a social constructivist model of the teaching & learning process for language teaching were put into consideration.
Assistance
During the class some important issues were explained and for me it was very helpful, since the ideas and issues mentioned, shaped my mind well and I could easily recognize the main idea of all the assigned readings. The professor's ability in using some exemplifications and talking about her own experiences regarding different matters assisted me in relating some problematic points discussed in the books to the real social life. Some novel points concerning authenticity, negotiated curricula, education, training as well as teaching were mentioned. And the distinctions between education & teaching, accommodation & assimilation, appraisal & application were clarified. And it was also mentioned that the importance of the interaction among four factors in the teaching-learning process, the learners, the teacher, the task, and the context should be always taken into account. Based on what is mentioned in widdowson's book with a kind of critical view, the texts, the learning interpretation, the tasks, and the social situation must all be authentic. The topic of negotiated curricula was another interesting and new concept clarified by the instructor in which the teacher can help learners to be familiar with different aims of learning, different techniques and strategies of learning, different materials, etc and then negotiate them with the learners in order to have an appropriate and successful curricula. Intelligence which may make the students different from each other is an important factor and to my instructor's belief, a teacher must try to discover his or her learners' dominant intelligences and then choose some tasks to touch these intelligences & it needs more creativity from the side of the teacher.
Application
HOW to apply all the things that I have identified during the class into my real classes with my students of different backgrounds, feelings, and interests is some thing that has preoccupied my eager mind. But I should be cognizant that teaching is a principled problem solving activity & I can get help from the principles of teaching and learning in order to solve problems. I should teach the students how to learn and how to use the language. The other element that I must take into consideration is the use of authentic materials. Actually it would not be very easy to find such authentic materials but trying to use authentic materials in a learning environment will help our learners in a great deal. I can make use of negotiated curriculum which is another important and useful concept in order to have a learner oriented class.
With many thanks
Saeedeh Mohammadi
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