Social Distance:
1. Social Dominance. Whose social group is more dominant?
From my piont of view in this case both native-English speakers and native-Spanish speakers have equal power. Due to Spanish is almost the second spoken language in The United States.
2. Interaction Pattern. How much do learners integrate, or do they do most things apart from the mainstream?
Gina's interaction with the target language can be greater, because the two groups interact each other daily, but they do have different points of view about certain topics such as lifestyles and culture.
3. Enclosure. To what extent does learner's group have their own resources for interaction, such as church, publications, clubs?
Certainly social distance can be greater in this point because the Latina culture expresses in a very different way. On the other hand they have their own institutions where they can interact among them.
4. Size. How large is the Group?
Gina's group is bigger than native-Spanish speakers.
5. Cohesiveness. How much does the group "stick together?
The two groups interact at every moment. For that reason the second language learner is exposed to the target language and culture many times.
6. Cultural Congruence. How are the cultural patterns and customs of the home culture and the target culture alike or different?
In this case cultural patterns and customs differ in critical points of view such as community life and traditions.
7. Attitude. What attitudes do the home and target cultural groups have toward one another?
From my piont of view nowadays there is a better understanding between both culture which is better in mastering a second language.
8.Intended Length of residence. How long does the learner intend to stay in the new country?
Psychological Distance:
1. Motivation. Does the learner want to learn the new language?
Gina is highly motivated in learning Spanish, so she has more possibilities to learn a second language.
2. Attitude. How does the learner feel toward the target culture group?
She wants to learn Spanish in a short period of time (a quarter).
3. Culture Shock. Is the learner suffering culture Shock?
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
School Visit to Bridgeport - Brewster
Our visit to Bridgeport - Brewster schools was quite interesting because we could watch how teachers do their job working with children that do not speak English as a first language. An important fact is that in these schools the 81% of the students speak Spanish and most of the teachers speak just English so teaching and learning can be pretty difficult. However, they set up high expectations for their students, like college classes, which is really important because the students know what they have to do and what is expected of them. I really liked the environment inside the schools, the messages written on the walls, the layout and organization of the tables inside the classrooms all of them painted in bright colors, every teacher in his/her room making the schools a comfortable place to be in. I would like to have these kind of facilities in Chile.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Seattle ... The Rainy City?
Our visit to Seattle was amazing. We had three beautiful sunny days which was really good because we could walk around the city without problems. We could watch and talk with people from different nationalities and see how people live in a city that gives them a wide variety of things to do. The Public Market and Chinatown were the places that I liked the most, in these places you can find a lot of interesting things to do, eat and watch ... I took beautiful pictures there. The visit to the Space Needle was awesome too, Seattle looks gorgeous from the sky.
On the other hand there are a lot of people living in the streets, the very same homeless people that you can find in every single city around the world, the same faces and the same stories.
I liked this modern city a lot. I want to visit it again as soon as I can, certainly three days are not enough.
On the other hand there are a lot of people living in the streets, the very same homeless people that you can find in every single city around the world, the same faces and the same stories.
I liked this modern city a lot. I want to visit it again as soon as I can, certainly three days are not enough.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
REAL ENGLISH ACTIVITY
http://www.real-english.com/reo/1/unit1.html
Lesson: Normal, Formal and Informal Greetings.
Level: Beginner.
Activity: We are going to watch two videos, each with ten greeting dialogs in English. In the first video you must listen to the people and try to figure out what they are saying, but in the second one you can read the subtitles in Englishs. By the end of the activity we are going to do some exercises presented in the very same page.
Technology: Multimedia; videos and podcast.
Aims: Present real material to the students and contrast different ways of greetings.
I chose this web because we can see how English works in real situations and how people in different parts of the world use it. Multimedia can give us the opportunity to understand and know better the target language and culture. It is a powerful tool for teaching because teachers can bring pieces of that culture into the classroom and expose students to real dialogs or situations. Teachers not only teach grammar rules and vocabulary but also by using this kind of technology they can teach values, beliefs and ways of speaking of a certain group of people.
1. Interaction: we can achieve interaction with this website depending on the activity chosen by the teacher. Mainly you can work on listening, reading and writing, but you can also use it for speaking too; work in pairs in order to do the exercises in the same website.
2. Authentic Audience: in my opinion this condition does not apply to this website.
3. Meaningful Activities: from my point of view the activities presented in this website are meaningful for the students. They can watch, read and listen to how language works in a real situation. They can relate their experiences to real conversations in different contexts.
4. Exposure to/Creation of varied language: students are exposed to different kind of English speakers from different nationalities. They can perceive the differences between native and the non-native speakers.
5. Right Amount of time/Feedback: not only we can use this website in class guiding the activity and giving some support to the students, but also students can work by themselves whenever they like. They can assess understanding and increase difficulty by themselves.
6. Appropriate for Styles, Personalities and Intelligences: students can learn the content of the activity in different ways. Some of them can listen to the speakers and understand what they are talking about. others are going to listen to and read the English subtitles at the same time so they can understand better what the conversation is about.
7. Motivating: I think that students can feel more motivated when they see and understand how language works in a real context. trying to understand what people are talking about it is a challenge to them.
8. Student-centered: the main goal of this web page is to help students of English and people interested in it. Everything is designed to help students to improve their listening and reading skills and have a better understanding of the culture.
9. Autonomy: as I said before once students learn how to use this web they can work on it whenever they want and of course they can increase difficulty when they feel comfortable.
10. Multimodal: real-english.com provides different ways in which material is presented. Students can watch real people on the street, listen to them and read what they are saying which is quite important because students can understand better the new material and put into practice what they learned.
11. Comfortable Environment: for some people this website might be a bit confusing and messy. Maybe it is difficult to get use to it but it is a matter of time to feel more comfortable working on it.
Lesson: Normal, Formal and Informal Greetings.
Level: Beginner.
Activity: We are going to watch two videos, each with ten greeting dialogs in English. In the first video you must listen to the people and try to figure out what they are saying, but in the second one you can read the subtitles in Englishs. By the end of the activity we are going to do some exercises presented in the very same page.
Technology: Multimedia; videos and podcast.
Aims: Present real material to the students and contrast different ways of greetings.
I chose this web because we can see how English works in real situations and how people in different parts of the world use it. Multimedia can give us the opportunity to understand and know better the target language and culture. It is a powerful tool for teaching because teachers can bring pieces of that culture into the classroom and expose students to real dialogs or situations. Teachers not only teach grammar rules and vocabulary but also by using this kind of technology they can teach values, beliefs and ways of speaking of a certain group of people.
1. Interaction: we can achieve interaction with this website depending on the activity chosen by the teacher. Mainly you can work on listening, reading and writing, but you can also use it for speaking too; work in pairs in order to do the exercises in the same website.
2. Authentic Audience: in my opinion this condition does not apply to this website.
3. Meaningful Activities: from my point of view the activities presented in this website are meaningful for the students. They can watch, read and listen to how language works in a real situation. They can relate their experiences to real conversations in different contexts.
4. Exposure to/Creation of varied language: students are exposed to different kind of English speakers from different nationalities. They can perceive the differences between native and the non-native speakers.
5. Right Amount of time/Feedback: not only we can use this website in class guiding the activity and giving some support to the students, but also students can work by themselves whenever they like. They can assess understanding and increase difficulty by themselves.
6. Appropriate for Styles, Personalities and Intelligences: students can learn the content of the activity in different ways. Some of them can listen to the speakers and understand what they are talking about. others are going to listen to and read the English subtitles at the same time so they can understand better what the conversation is about.
7. Motivating: I think that students can feel more motivated when they see and understand how language works in a real context. trying to understand what people are talking about it is a challenge to them.
8. Student-centered: the main goal of this web page is to help students of English and people interested in it. Everything is designed to help students to improve their listening and reading skills and have a better understanding of the culture.
9. Autonomy: as I said before once students learn how to use this web they can work on it whenever they want and of course they can increase difficulty when they feel comfortable.
10. Multimodal: real-english.com provides different ways in which material is presented. Students can watch real people on the street, listen to them and read what they are saying which is quite important because students can understand better the new material and put into practice what they learned.
11. Comfortable Environment: for some people this website might be a bit confusing and messy. Maybe it is difficult to get use to it but it is a matter of time to feel more comfortable working on it.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Bookmarks - delicious.com
I like this kind of websites. You can find a lot of information related to different contexts. In Chileteach account there are several websites that can help you with your studies, for instance you can find links to TESOL Quarterly, CALICO Journal and Language Learning & Technology.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
COMMENTARY: CAN FREE READING TAKE YOU ALL THE WAY?
A RESPONSE TO COBB (2007)
Jeff McQuillan
Center for Educational Development
Stephen D. Krashen
University of Southern California
http://llt.msu.edu/vol12num1/pdf/mcquillan.pdf
This article is a response from the writers to an article written by Tom Cobb called COMPUTING THE VOCABULARY DEMANDS OF L2 READING; Cobb claims that free reading,which is when you read because you want to or when it is voluntary, is not enough to achieve vocabulary and , therefore, reading comprehension of L2 readers won't be good enough. On the other hand he gives to computers a highly important role in L2 reading.
The authors give a reinterpretation of Cobb's study and conclude that he underestimates the amount of reading of the L2 readers, because they can read about different topics such us newspapers, novels, academic articles and so on or even if they just read about one issue free reading is a good tool to improve our vocabulary and spelling.
Jeff McQuillan
Center for Educational Development
Stephen D. Krashen
University of Southern California
http://llt.msu.edu/vol12num1/pdf/mcquillan.pdf
This article is a response from the writers to an article written by Tom Cobb called COMPUTING THE VOCABULARY DEMANDS OF L2 READING; Cobb claims that free reading,which is when you read because you want to or when it is voluntary, is not enough to achieve vocabulary and , therefore, reading comprehension of L2 readers won't be good enough. On the other hand he gives to computers a highly important role in L2 reading.
The authors give a reinterpretation of Cobb's study and conclude that he underestimates the amount of reading of the L2 readers, because they can read about different topics such us newspapers, novels, academic articles and so on or even if they just read about one issue free reading is a good tool to improve our vocabulary and spelling.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
PODCASTS
To me:
I would work with these two pages
http://www.eslpod.com/website/
http://a4esl.org/podcasts/
For the students:
This is a good website to practice listening and pronunciation.
http://www.manythings.org/songs/
Here you can practice reading, listening and watch real situations in English.
http://www.real-english.com/reo/1/unit1.html
And for Gina:
In Chilepodcast you can listen to podcast of Chilean students talking about their personal lives, and maybe you can learn about schools in Chile.
http://chilepodcast.blogspot.com/
I would continue the idea of Real-English because with this kind of videos we can bring pieces of the target culture into the classrooms.
I would work with these two pages
http://www.eslpod.com/website/
http://a4esl.org/podcasts/
For the students:
This is a good website to practice listening and pronunciation.
http://www.manythings.org/songs/
Here you can practice reading, listening and watch real situations in English.
http://www.real-english.com/reo/1/unit1.html
And for Gina:
In Chilepodcast you can listen to podcast of Chilean students talking about their personal lives, and maybe you can learn about schools in Chile.
http://chilepodcast.blogspot.com/
I would continue the idea of Real-English because with this kind of videos we can bring pieces of the target culture into the classrooms.
Monday, September 1, 2008
CMC - CALL - DRILL & PRACTISE
A good example of CMC is Sharedtalk a virtual community of people interested in languages in general. Here you can find your future language partner and practice your writing and communicative skills.
http://www.sharedtalk.com
A good example of CALL is Wordreference an online language dictionary. What I like of this page is that apart from searching for word translations you can ask in forums for the meaning of certain words and people all over the world can help you to find the appropriate translation or usage according to the context. You can also listen the pronunciation of the word.
http://www.sharedtalk.com
This is difficult to me because I have used this web lots of times ... but I have to say and according to some articles that I have red on the Internet you can find some mistakes on this web page, but at the same time is really useful. You can easily have access to a great amount of information. Besides it is a good opportunity to practice writing and publish something interesting to you and for people around the world. So sometimes we cannot believe all we read.
___________________________________________________________________
A good example of CALL is Wordreference an online language dictionary. What I like of this page is that apart from searching for word translations you can ask in forums for the meaning of certain words and people all over the world can help you to find the appropriate translation or usage according to the context. You can also listen the pronunciation of the word.
I am not sure if we can say this web is not so good to practice reading comprehension, but it is true that feedback is not present here. The activities are presented in pdf so you cannot modify them. You cannot answer the questions below each reading and you have to click several times to have access to the activities.
____________________________________________________________________
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Esl-lab is good drill & practice web page to practice listening comprehension. You can listen to different dialogs, answer the questions and assess yourself. You have instant feedback. You can also read the script of each conversation.
This web provides a lot of writing quizzes. It is a guide for writing and grammar but the explanations are really confusing. They are written in a very technical language. On the other hand the interface is really messy!
This web provides a lot of writing quizzes. It is a guide for writing and grammar but the explanations are really confusing. They are written in a very technical language. On the other hand the interface is really messy!
TEACHING TEXT AND CONTEXT THROUGH MULTIMEDIA
Claire Kramsch
University of California, Berkeley
http://llt.msu.edu/vol2num2/pdf/article1.pdf
This article emphasizes the importance of multimedia for teachers and language learners to teach and understand some aspects of the culture of the target language. It is an analysis of a multimedia Quechua language program and its relation between text and context.
Multimedia permits learn a second language not only as a set of grammatical rules, but also watch, listen and interpret how language works when native speakers interact in real situations. Through multimedia we can take into account verbal and paraverbal behaviors, gestures, body movements. According to the text most of the video-based multimedia materials are focused on linguistics and grammatical items, the same as textbooks. The filmmaker decides who is going to appear on the screen and those who do not. Therefore he or she leaves out some aspects of the culture and maintain others, which is quite different from being in the host community where you can confirm or eliminate some beliefs or insights about a certain culture.
New technologies such us Internet, videos and CD - ROM shift the traditional form of teaching, linguistic items, to teach values, beliefs and ways of speaking of a certain group of people. Of course when you are learning a new language you cannot learn the context, it must be experienced. This is the importance of multimedia, students can learn about culture of the target language no matter if they are in the host country or not. Students can go back to previous materials or go further and rearranged the conversation or situations in order to make new interpretations or confirm previous conceptions.
Multimedia offers a wide variety of authentic videos that help both teachers and students to have a better understanding about the target language and culture. To learn a new language it is necessary to know how to use grammar and meanings of words but also it is necessary to know how native speakers express feelings, desires or angry.
University of California, Berkeley
http://llt.msu.edu/vol2num2/pdf/article1.pdf
This article emphasizes the importance of multimedia for teachers and language learners to teach and understand some aspects of the culture of the target language. It is an analysis of a multimedia Quechua language program and its relation between text and context.
Multimedia permits learn a second language not only as a set of grammatical rules, but also watch, listen and interpret how language works when native speakers interact in real situations. Through multimedia we can take into account verbal and paraverbal behaviors, gestures, body movements. According to the text most of the video-based multimedia materials are focused on linguistics and grammatical items, the same as textbooks. The filmmaker decides who is going to appear on the screen and those who do not. Therefore he or she leaves out some aspects of the culture and maintain others, which is quite different from being in the host community where you can confirm or eliminate some beliefs or insights about a certain culture.
New technologies such us Internet, videos and CD - ROM shift the traditional form of teaching, linguistic items, to teach values, beliefs and ways of speaking of a certain group of people. Of course when you are learning a new language you cannot learn the context, it must be experienced. This is the importance of multimedia, students can learn about culture of the target language no matter if they are in the host country or not. Students can go back to previous materials or go further and rearranged the conversation or situations in order to make new interpretations or confirm previous conceptions.
Multimedia offers a wide variety of authentic videos that help both teachers and students to have a better understanding about the target language and culture. To learn a new language it is necessary to know how to use grammar and meanings of words but also it is necessary to know how native speakers express feelings, desires or angry.
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