Dr. Folse's Lecture
Dr. Keith Folse, a professor at the
University of Central Florida, posed the question to the audience on what
grammar concepts should we teach for a great writing class and how should we
teach grammar to our students.
In pairs the audience tried to come up with some interesting
answers to his question. What came out
for most was the following: verb tenses, articles, word order, subject-verb
agreement, adjective clauses and prepositions.
To understand to teach grammar in writing, Dr. Folse challenged us by posing
more questions: (1) which grammar should be taught in writing, (2) what are the
teacher’s options in dealing with grammar in writing class, (3) which grammar
points might deserve more attention and which might be omitted from our
classes, and finally (3) what decisions should we make to make grammar work for
our writing class. He believes that it
is the “learner” who should run the show in terms of grammar. We need to ask ourselves what do our students
need to be able to do with writing in English.
Do they need to (1) pass a test?, (2) function in freshman comp?, (3)
write lab reports?, (4) communicate via email or similar?, (5) write a research
paper?, or (6) respond to a piece of literature? From that point teachers will
know what direction to take in teaching what their students in writing will
need. Then when the students write, how
then do we correct their papers and how do we address the grammar problems? Dr. Folse gives us various options. We can (1) ignore it completely, (2) assume
it will transfer from the grammar class, (3) teach the writing in the grammar,
(4) teach grammar tied to that type of writing, (5) mark all errors, (6) mark
only certain errors, (7) teach lessons based on student errors, or (8) do
mostly grammar and then some writing.
The option is definitely on the teacher, but he adds that there are some
factors to consider: many students show that adult learners want All errors
corrected; how can you NOT correct certain errors sometimes? and feedback on an
error is needed because not all errors are obvious, even when pointed out at
first.
According to Dr. Folse, choosing which grammar to teach
comes down to two approaches. First, we need to look at student errors and if student
needs will be determined by their errors. Second, we need to look at our goal
in teaching grammar and realize that a student’s need means a need to do, not a
need to correct. Dr. Keith Folse first tackles the issue of teaching
verbs. He begins by reminding us that
there are 12 verb forms or tenses in English, but the native speaker does not use
or need all 12 forms on a daily basis.
So he proposes that we should teach verbs based on their frequency of
use and taught in the following order: (1) Simple present + passive, (2) simple
past + passive, (3) present perfect + passive, (4) present progressive +
passive, and (5) past progressive. By
doing so we eliminate verbs that are hardly ever used by native speakers on a
daily basis. Dr Folse reiterates that
verbs should be taught on how frequent they are used and not because there are
12 kinds of verbs and they should all be taught and learned by all ESL students.
Dr.
Folse’s next grammatical point is on how to address “articles” because they are
unique in English and should be taught well to ESL students. He states that the way to teach articles is
to declare that all singular count noun MUST have something in front of them:
a, this, my, the, one, etc. and that you make plurals plural. To have students understand the notion of
articles, Dr. Folse invents a hypothetical “Vulcan” language that does not have
articles. The task of the students is to
identify the errors that an English speaker would make in this “Vulcan”
sentence: “In Malaysia, a person who wins an Olympic gold medal is the most famous
person and will be in the news all the time.”
By giving this as an example, Dr. Folse’s aim is to get the students to
understand how one language, the “Vulcan” language, does not allow articles
whereas English does.
Teaching the “-ing and –ed/-en” adjectives has always been a
burden and a challenge for many teachers and causes many ESL students to be
confused and bewildered on how and when to use them. Dr. Keith Folse states that teaching the
difference between “ing vs ed” adjectives like “interesting vs interested” will
always be a challenge if not confusing to any ESL student. He has proposed the strategy of teaching
“-ings” first and then teaching the past participles second since they can be
used as adjectives. This will lessen the
confusion and the frustration of the students and ease the pedagogy and angst
of teachers.
In terms of sentence structure and building better
sentences, Dr Folse proposes the idea of putting 3 sentences color coded and
broken up to many pieces in an envelope.
The task of the students working in pairs is to unscramble the words or
phrases and make sense of the color-coded sentences they create. This allows the students to figure out and
make sense of the grammar based on the unscrambled words or phrases they see and
to create meaning into a logical sentence.
Another way to get students to build better sentences is to have
students put 3 phrases that the teacher has created together and to create a better
sentence. For example: (1) Checkers is
an easy game to learn, (2) Battle is an easy game to learn, and (3) Many people
believe this. The resulting sentence
could be: Many people believe that Checkers and Battle are easy games to learn. This type of exercise forces the student to
make sense of the grammar and build a better sentence that could be complex or
compound-complex.
I
enjoyed Dr. Keith Folse’s lecture because it has taught me that grammar could
be taught on what the students need and their purpose for taking grammar. His lecture has given me more ideas on how to
logically structure my grammar lessons so that students can understand better,
i.e. teaching only the most used verbs forms in daily life, teaching simple
verbs + passive and simple past + passive in that order, and putting scrambled
color-coded phrases or words in an envelope for students to unscramble and
build a logical sentence that makes sense.
No doubt Dr. Folse’s lecture made me think of more creative ways to get
students to understand better and to retain the information based on their
needs and purpose.
Katrina's Poster Presentation
During
the poster session I was able to spend time with Katrina to talk to her about
her goal as a teacher and her project at Palomar. I wanted to write about it because her poster
really caught my attention to her skills and dedication and it made me
understand her goals better as a teacher at Palomar. I also wanted to support her as my colleague
at Palomar.
She states that with technology students have, teachers can
engage language learners in active communication through self-reflection. All they need is a cellphone, a digital
camcorder, and a digital voice recorder.
According to her, the camera enables the student to reflect on much more
than just his/her textbook knowledge of the target language. I thought this was a powerful statement
because for a photographer and a videographer, the camera not only catches what
the photographer sees but it also reflects on what the photographer understands
of himself or herself based on what he or she sees. In other words, photography is a two-way
street. Her project states that students
in this project will engage and communicate with a larger community. In other words, the media extends beyond the
classroom. She further states that the
camera empowers the students because the camera is like a painter’s brush. The
student is in control of what he/she sees and he/she will be able to paint what
he/she interprets “life” as he/she sees and understands it. With the camera, the students become embolden
when they are engaged in the interview process when holding the camera and
video taping the subject. In the process
the activity promotes technology literacy because students are exposed to and
learn how to utilize the camera, phones, USB drives, and computer
applications/software. I thoroughly agree
with this dynamic approach as the student becomes the painter, the photographer,
the journalist, the editor, the writer, the producer, and the story
teller. Being engaged in this project
her students must attend class and dedicate themselves to fulfilling their part
in the project. Through this project the
students engage in five steps: (1) journal/pair practice, (2) self-reflection,
(3) reaching beyond comfort zone, and (4 + 5) outcome reflection. When all the interviews and video taping are
done, then the students get to present their final product to parents,
relatives, friends, and fellow teachers during “Recognition Night Celebration,”
which will be held on Tuesday, May 13, 2014.
In my estimation Katriana Tamura has created a magnificent way to integrate
technology, writing, interaction, team effort, editing, producing, scripting
and story telling that involve the attendance, creativity, and dedication of
her students.
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