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P.T. Semester 1 purpose while reading (EDN610 Professional Dialogues in…

- - - - challenges
        
        I found many academic articles that have ideas to support my own or that spark a direction to follow which unfortunately don't appear to be peer-reviewed. They have convincing studies and evidence to follow up on, but I often find a few slight typos or language errors which send alarm bells ringing. They do still help in putting ideas together. The other point of interest is that they do not appear to be native English speakers, something suggested by their names, university they got their PHDs. I worry about how tested their ideas are as a result.
        
        Another challenge is how sensitive ideas are that I share about my employer. I do not want to lose my job as a sessional. If I share too much information about what I see as issues it might not be seen as constructive. It might appear that I am criticising the managers that oversea much of the choices above me.
      - doubts
        
        I would be fabricating to what lecturers want to hear if I didn't say I am not sure how much I will get out of this course of study. I do not doubt that any study is beneficial, however I have reservations about the time spent working on the course and whether it equates to more than spending the same time on creating more engaging lessons for my students each week. I wonder whether the effort put in will improve my teaching abilities, and even my pay check at the end of the week. Would an MEd (TESOL) improve my family's life?
        
        (Horwitz p.8) one of the main characteristics to differentiating learners is affective or emotions. My attitudes toward learning relates to my older age and as a result I have clear goals in terms of achieving advanced study, possibly improving my career as motivated by improving my family's situation.
      - growth
        
        The fact that we are given choices in our assignments means I can find areas to improve on . This helps becoming an autonomous learner setting my own goals. Backing up choices and providing support using studies helps build confidence.
        
        One of the greatest points of growth has come from my choice to investigate the macroskill of listening. It has made me rethink my lesson planning completely. For some reason, possibly influenced by my own feelings towards reading and grammar = text is boring, I have always put them first in the day. Yet in reality listening is actually proven to be one of the most difficult skills for students and in terms of General English takes up the largest proportion of our lives.
        
        I want to increase the amount of listening I do in class. This may solve a lot of problems I perceive in students. Their ability to interact with other students might be what makes them often disengage. They may find the classes more enjoyable on all fronts if their listening skills are lifted. You can't speak well if you can't listen. You can't hold conversations about your reading, or writing if you can't understand what people are saying around you. You have more trouble with instructions too. You have more trouble in the greater university and life in general living abroad.
    - - professional understandings
      - professional experience
        
        This task of reflecting on learning is what I already do with my students. Self-reflection is a large part of becoming an autonomous learner. We can get students to reflect on individual tasks they have performed before the teacher gives feedback or on their learning as a whole over the session. Which areas they are good at, which areas they need to work on, what they are going to do about it.
      - academic literature
    - - create a series of short reflections about MEd learning which document how my ideas develop over the first 4 weeks
    - - consider my reflections by drawing on academic literature in light of the big scholarly ideas that are explored in this unit
      - conclude with a discussion of how I plan to further develop my professional expertise.
- - - - I choose Listening because it is probably my weakest point out of the macro skills, grammar and vocabulary. One of the main reasons is finding good listening materials.
        
        chapter 4 p85 Horwitz (2013)
        
        Input Hypothesis
        
        associated methods see listening as key to 2nd language aquistion
        
        Natural Approach
        
        Total Physical Response
        
        SIOP Model ??
        
        the comprehensibility of academic & language input central to language & content learning.
        
        main responsibility of teacher is providing appropriate and comprehensible input
        
        An important implication of Piaget’s theory for teaching is what J.M. Hunt years ago (1961, as cited in Woolfolk, Winne and Perry 2003) called “the problem of the match” Students must be neither bored by work that is too simple nor left behind by teaching they cannot understand. According to Hunt, disequilibrium must be kept “just right” to encourage growth. Bormanaki, H. B., & Khoshhal, Y. (2017). The Role of Equilibration in Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development and Its Implication for Receptive Skills: A Theoretical Study. Journal of Language Teaching & Research, 8(5), 996–1005. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0805.22
        
        The cognitive learning theories favor using using consciousness-raising activities to increase learners' awareness of grammatical structures when they listen.
        
        conversation theories / communicative language teaching stress listening since it's not possible to have a conversation without
        
        Sociocultural theories see LL as using tools available to actively construct meaning from the language.
        
        One of these orientations is the well-beaten approach in which repetition plays the core role. The approach is founded upon the premise that repeating the same listening input to learners might remarkably enrich their listening fluency.
        Moore (2011) maintains that repetition is a prominent factor in both development of linguistic competence and the transformation of language practices. It also fundamentally contributes to a more vivid understanding of communicative competence and also its development across contexts. In a similar vein, Brown (2001) argues that repetition is a rudimentary prerequisite for learning, in the sense that it provides the possibility of bringing together related experience and committed memory. In listening fluency practice, in the light of well-beaten path approach, repletion helps learners gradually become more familiar with the highly diversified strands of audio input such as accent of speaker(s), context, topic, etc. Additionally, repetition also succors learners relieve their negative feelings like stress and anxiety in that th ey know that the audio is to be repeated more than once. Furthermore, given the highly-quoted saying "practice makes perfect", constantly repeating audio input is also a sort of practice that might finally arouse better performance of individuals.
        The study revealed that this approach can meaningfully and significantly help students to enhance their ability of listening comprehension. The approach is also a great help for teachers to reduce the impact of negative feelings like stress and anxiety which consequently leads to the better acquisition of the skill.
        Ghaniabady, S., & Hashemi, H. R. (2016). Enhancing listening fluency through well-beaten path approach. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 6(3), 592-595. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/10.17507/tpls.0603.19
        
        This article is exactly my thoughts about teacher talk, and it goes further to interesting reasons why text book English is a failure.
        Wagner, E. (2014). Using Unscripted Spoken Texts in the Teaching of Second Language Listening. TESOL Journal, 5(2), 288–311. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.120
        
        My interest in going against teacher talk may well be supported also by the need for more authentic listening. This could be a whole essay in itself to investigate. Techniques like the teacher explaining prior to other texts are in fact listening time too.
    - - draw on recent research studies into second language teaching and learning which will provide the basis of my rationale for the approach I adopted in my teaching of Listening.
        
        Part B: Critique: use the literature to inform reflection on and critique of what worked well for whom in the particular context; what needs improvement; and how these changes can be implemented. This application of theory to practice for the purposes of recognition and improvement will be an outcome of the assignment which will be beneficial in my ongoing practice
        
        It has been a common practice for ESL/EFL teachers to focus on learners’ getting the right answers during listening exercises. Second/foreign language learners most often experience listening comprehension as a test (Usó-Juan, & Martínez-Flor, 2006), rather than a process of acquiring second language proficiency. Research has shown that we listen to twice as much language as we speak, four times as much time as we read, and five times as much time as we write (Celce-Murcia, & Olshtain, 2005). Nation, and Newton (2009) regard listening as the primary channel of learning a language. The acquisition of primary language skills precede secondary language skills: listening skills precedes speaking skills, and aural/oral language skills precede graphic/written language skills. The sequential acquisition process of the four language skills formed the circle of first language learning process (Bozorgian, 2012a),.. there are three prerequisite conditions that facilitate second language acquisition. First, a learner needs to realise the importance of learning a second language, and is motivated to do so (Csizér, & Dörnyei, 2005; Dailey, 2009; Ryan, & Deci, 2000). Second, the teachers, or parents who speak the target language proficiently provide support and guidance, such as using simplification, repetition, and feedback to negotiate second language learning with the learners (Cook, 2015; Pica, 1994; Pica & Doughty, 1985; Swain, 2000). Third, the social environment should provide the learners with comprehensible input, and sustained contact with native speakers, or proficient second language speakers that make second language learning feasible (Hasan, 2008; Krashen, 1982; Long, 1996). The difficulties in the effort of acquiring a second language are generally due to a lack in one or more of these factors (Rost, 2015). HO SIN HONG (2016). The Effects of Listening Comprehension on ESL Learners’ English Language Proficiency. Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, 12(2), 15–30. Retrieved from https://gateway.library.qut.edu.au/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=eue&AN=123896793&site=ehost-live&scope=site
        
        Wolvin, and Coakley (1988) propose five listening purposes: discriminative listening, comprehensive listening, critical listening, therapeutic listening, and appreciative listening. The listener’s different purposes demonstrate that listening is an active process, rather than a passive product
        
        Why is everything comprehension based then? Why not focus on the others?
        
        considering the difficulty my students face I should most definitively write on the board all classroom instructions as I explain tasks.
        
        One obvious problem is the pronunciation of words which differ greatly from the way they appear in print (Bloomfield et al., 2010). Thus, the identification of the words in spoken discourse may prove problematic for learners. Likewise, listeners, unlike readers do not have the luxury of regular spacing that indicates the beginning, and ending of words as they do in print (Vandergrift, 2007). In addition to pronunciation, and the identification of sentence boundaries, prosodic characteristics of spoken discourse, such as where the stress falls, weak, and strong forms of words; the speaker’s intonation and emotion also influence comprehension of the verbal messages. Furthermore, spoken discourse usually come in short phrases, or clusters loosely strung together (Osada, 2004), with mispronunciation, hesitations, rephrasing of utterances, repetition. Eventually, listeners may face the risks of losing track of what is being said (Field, 2008).
        
        ...verbal messages require immediate attention. Floyed (1985) defines listening as a process which involves hearing, attending, comprehending, evaluating, and giving responses to verbal messages. When the listening process is over, only a faint mental impression remains in the learner’s mind (Vandergrift, 2004). Unlike reading, listening requires instantaneous processing, with little or no chance to access the verbal language again....In most cases, language learners need to process the verbal message at a speed determined by the native speakers, which in generally quite fast (Osada, 2004).
        L1 listeners could be distracted, disinterested, or responded to the verbal contents by thinking about something else. While L2 listeners also insufficient linguistic knowledge, a lack of knowledge of the second language socio-cultural contents, or a lack of pragmatic schemata that assist them to infer meaning from the verbal messages. Therefore, the pressure of the second/foreign language learners to manage all the structural, and grammatical obstacles when listening to verbal messages, combined with the fact that language learners need to accomplish all this in real time makes listening comprehension complex, dynamic, and fragile (Walker, 2014)
  - - - accompanied by principles for application.
      - I should draw on all my ideas that have been quite innovative. Also, as I am researching for other assignments and doing other weekly readings, be on the look out for innovative ideas.
- - - - this also connects with a deeper explanation to intrinsic motivation that I felt Horowitz provoked curiosity in me.
      - Asher's (1977) total physical response method is in accordance with Nida's theory. Later in other approaches such as natural approach, the priority was on listening in silence and students did not have to produce anything until they felt comfortable to do so. The research on the importance of input lead to Krashen's introduction of comprehensible input (1985) in which he explained the notion of (+1) that is for the input to be converted into intake, the listening material should be just a little above the learner's present ability. Krashen points out that a good language classroom is designed to make input comprehensible through extra linguistic support (use of visuals, gestures, and context) and by use of textual features (repetition, redundancy, and simplification).
      - Sherwyn (2001) mentions that visual aids assist in illustrating or supporting the content of a speech and add interest and excitement to it. They are useful when you need to clarify a difficult concept, present a complex idea, or demonstrate a process the audience would have difficulty understanding. Some environmental, usually visuals, accompaniment to heard discourse is a characteristic of most listening situations. In the classroom these environmental clues will usually be represented by different kinds of visuals: pictures, sketches on the board or over head projects. Ur (1984) emphasizes that the presence of such materials is of immense value in contextualizing and bringing to life the listening situation as well as in aiding comprehension of language .She strongly believes that some kind of visual clue is essential in any language learning activity based on face to face communication. Visuals have an important function as aids to learning, simply because they are motivating, attract students’ attention and help and encourage them to focus on the subject in hand. Ur (1984) mentions that it is relatively difficult to concentrate on spoken material that is heard blind, far easier if there is something relevant to look at.
  - - - Liu concludes ...more proficient listeners of L2 use more flexible strategic processes combining linguistic knowledge and prior experience, and are in control of their emotions. In addition, the more effective listeners demonstrate the flexibility of learning style. The results of this investigation also suggest strategies-based instruction within L2/FL classrooms useful to increase learners’ awareness of their learning styles and of making decisions for their own strategy use during task performance. Such training implies that a learner could take control of his/her own learning by planning a goal, monitoring the process, and evaluating the learning outcome, that is, nurturing an individual’s metacognition is the key to successful learning. Wenden (2003), Goh (2003), and Vandergrift (1997) emphasise that learners’ metacognitive processing is closely related to effective learning and is applicable to all learning contexts. In the current research context, the process operationalised metacognitively in listening comprehension is to plan what to listen for, to stay focused on the text, to predict what comes next, to monitor carefully, and to evaluate one’s comprehension.