Sur-viv-al

     I am struggling. It was really, really a busy week. I had been saddled with a chain of tasks, and school workloads. Besides the routine discussion and tasks, there was still one final project draft because the course was coming to an end. In addition, this week my school was having a monthly test, so I had a plethora of test papers to correct. All the week my mind had been occupied with the work, which lingered to impel me to fiugure out what had been done, or what had still been left to deal with.

     What was worse, I was baffled by the creation of my wiki, which took me too much time; until now, my wiki is still a half-done webpage. Owing to that, I was delayed to not have other tasks done. Well the saying goes, “It never rains but pours;” my printer was out of order so that I could not have some papers printed out. I probably got too many rain checks.

     I even got indecisive—whether to create a Nicenet or a Wiki. Pondering for one day, I decided to have a wiki. “Every solution breeds new problems,” which I couldn’t agree with it more. What template to adopt becomes another quandary. On the Wednesday afternoon I had no class, after working the final project draft out, I kicked off the creation of my Wiki. To my dismay, I tried and tried but still stayed under the initial stage, though. That night, I felt worn out, lying on the bed, those icons, templates emanating from my brain. Then it followed a bad night. Alas, everything takes longer than I think.

An Ideal English Classroom

     Why do we have to help learners gain autonomy? All English language teahers should always ask themselves the question before, amid, and after their teaching. American philosopher and educator, John Dewey, advocates the doctrine, “Learning by doing,” which is pivotal to language learning. In terms of Dr. Deway’s idea, I try to figure out the correlation between using target language and learner autonomy, and besides between collaborative work and learner autonomy.

     In the process of developing learner autonomy, David Little thinks that a teacher should "use the target language as the preferred medium of classroom communication and require the same of her learners..., and require her leaners to identify individual goals but pursue them through collaborative work in samll groups." I believe that many English language teachers prefer staying in their comfort zone—using their mother tongues rather than the target language as the preferred classroom medium. However, once they choose their mother tongue as the main classroom medium, learners would never have the potential to develop their autonomy. The acquistion of language arises because learners put the language into practice. What if teachers apt to use their mother tongue in the language classroom, learners would certainly feel unusual to speak with their teachers in the target language. As a matter of fact, this is a formation of cognitive process--through a teacher's guide, learners develop a concept that in Englis class, both the teacher and the learners should use the target language. The reason falls into place with ease if we think of the occasion when we speak with a native speaker, who spontaneously takes the leading role in guiding a conversation discourse; we as non-native speakers acquire the target language with the guidance of the native speaker. What counts is that we are on the way to autonomy through the guidance. For learners, a language teacher resembles the native speaker, and her/his language is conducive to the acquistion of learners’ target language. Learners, though unconscious, initially base their autonomy on enlightment from teachers. The relation starts with reliance on teachers, and later learner autonomy comes into bud (cognitive learning) until they are entirely independent of guidance (metacongitive learning).  

     What other fosters the construction of learner autonomy besides teachers’ assistance? In a language classroom, learner-centered strategy should be galvanized, a prospective Mr. Elliott agrees with as well. “…… the group learns to rely on each other more, and less on the teacher as authority figure. As they work together they gain confidence in the knowledge of their group and awareness of their own abilities.”  On the one hand, the formation of learner autonomy implies that teachers as authority figure transform as “a facilitator of learning, a counselor, and as a resource.” On the other hand, the acquistion of a language always comes with frequency: the more one uses it, the more fluent it becomes. In cooperative learning, learners have more chances to use the language than in a teacher-dominant classroom. In addition, pressure mitigates among peer interaction, which motivates learners to take active role in using the target language. The actual scenario has displayed a stress-free communication. Collaborative work are more likely to conduces to learner pragmtism than teacher-centered learning. According to Little, collaborative work results “in their commitment to self-management and their generally proactive approach, autonomous learners are motivated learners.” In the actual teaching scenario, my personal observation is that learners are move involved in learning process-- in cooperative learning, learners are more active, creative, and curious; some questions they bring forth transcend the scope I have prepared. Let’s go over a little on teacher-centered learning, which is built on positivism: learning in large part consists in the transmission of knowledge from one individual to another. It means learners learn from teachers. In contrast to teacher-centered learning, coopoerative learning is constucted on cosnturctivism and critical theory. Through interaction bewteen learners, they come to acqurire what they need. As for the teacher, he/she is more of a facilitator than of an instructor. Learners stride toward autonomy, owing to the transmission of a teacher role, and the elevation of learners confidence and self-awareness.

     Therefore, an ideal language class should operate as follows: it is a learner-centered learning; it is a cooperative learning; it is a PBL learning, which prominently motivates learners.

A Huge Break

I am not averse to activities, but the problem is that whenever I proceed with my teaching via them, I feel guilty. It’s because some students just hang around along the way, not involved in group working or discussion. The other is that activities are always time-consuming. In a 50-minute period, activity process always do not flow smoothly and efficiently. As a result, I try as safe a way as I can, teacher-centered approach. However, deep in my heart, I know a language classroom should be more than a teacher’s show; it should be a stage for learners to perform. A teacher is nothing more than a director. But I lack a clear script on how to direct.

     The tasks of week 5 triggered chemistry. While I was working with the tasks, I actually expected nothing until I kicked off my experiment. The first time, I only prepared pieces of paper so that students could work on the assigned tasks. The stark difference was that I asked students to bring their own laptops, smart phones, or tablet computers. The outcome went beyond my expectation. What amazed me most was that none of them was hanging around in the process; everyone was absorbed in the activity: some of them had been easily distracted or even snoozing in class. It was elated to see them “come back” to classroom learning (I had an impulse to take a video to record that incredulous behavior change). But one glitch was that they still procrastinated. Then I pondered how to direct “the play” efficiently. I thought the activity would gain efficiency if rubrics fell into place. I drafted the rubrics, and then overhauled them three times.

     Right before the second-time experiment, I tried to make the rubrics as explicit as I could, making a demo, and then students initiated their tasks, which went from strength to strength. It was a great success—students were involved, no group procrastinating, the assigned task done with alacrity.     

     Personally, the task is success because technology as an incentive is applied to their learning. For example, smart phones are gadgets for them to play games only, and what’s more, they are impossible to use in class. But when the students were asked to use something forbidden in class to facilitate their learning, the novelty must have played a significant role. Besides, they were well acquainted with game rules. When the rubric was projected onto the screen, I could feel the awe in their eyes. Presumably, they were clearly informed of the objectives and the procedures of the tasks. In addition, one of the tasks’ objectives was to find example sentences from news reports and then translate them into Chinese. Many groups selected news headlines about MBA, whose star players are well known to them. Way different from example sentences made up by the teacher, those sentences were authentic and entertaining, their motivation being aroused.

     I am pleased to say the experiment turns the corner in my teaching. Then next, I am posed to perform experiments on writing, and reading. I know it will take up much of my time, but having taught for almost 20 years, seeing many of my colleagues’ passion for teaching dispelling, I feel so blessed.

The First Half

That’s crazy. For the course, I have got registered a litany of websites. This week I have another three, RubiStar, Zunal, and QuestGarden. In a sense, the cyber world is convenient, but, on the other hand, is it that convenient? At least, I am subconsciously bound by these websites, and technological gadgets. With them, I really work with ease. But without them, I become an idiot. So, is it convenient? With so many passwords, is it convenient? You might say, “just one is enough? Use a number you are familiar with.” Then online robot might hack it. Is it convenient?

      In attempting to register in QuestGarden, I was asked to write down my last name, mine is Yu. But the registered page said, “your name must consist of at least three characters.” I was forced to key in You, which makes me feel very stupid. Is it convenient? I was forced to change my family name due to a STUPID webpage. I remember an essay question in TOEFL writing is, “….do you think will it be possible that humans beings will get stupid because of technology advance?” thing of this kind. I think this proposition can’t exist at all. Robots are stupid, how could they replace humans some day? But I do think the proposition can be adjusted into, “….do you think will it be possible that humans beings will get CRAZY because of technology advance?”

After weeks of confusion, I come to understand the outline of the course. Before attending the course, I had been wondering what I would learn, I didn’t quite follow it even after 4 week learning. But now it dawns on me that the course is perhaps designed with the following concept: the course aims to help participants/teachers instruct English through website skills, so they need to know some web tools to facilitate their teaching. And due to web learning is based on learner-centered mode, participants/teachers thus have to be aware how to make up an online learning lesson plans and set rubrics for learners to follow. In the end, participants will have a final project to demonstrate what they have learned during the 10 weeks.

     And that’s why we have to learn to use some new web tools. Actually, I indeed think they are helpful. From the first week’s search engines to WebQuest this week, they are all impressive, and with the web tools, I come to reconsider and adjust my teaching style. In my country, educational reform is on the way. One of the reform engineering is to elevate teachers’ teaching. Many seminars are, therefore, being held to carry out the stupendous task. However, the problem is that those seminars are exclusively restricted to theories, and what’s worse, teachers can merely sit and listen to officers’ and experts’ lectures. The ramification is relatively negative. Now, I feel fortunate that I attend the course. April 26, I made a presentation in front of my colleagues of English department, using some skills and web tools learned from the course. I know it is successful because after that presentation, some of my colleagues came ask me of relevant information. I am pleased with the result, one I expect. Through the presentation, some useful and helpful information is imparted to my colleagues so that learners can be benefited due to teachers’ progress.

     A feasible change that I am poised to make is project behavior learning (PBL). In my teaching scenario, I scrabble for ideas to encourage students to learn. Sometimes, I am deviated away from my teaching for students’ distraction. I cannot blame students for that because once students are obliged to be sedentary for 10 hours a day in the school, they certainly tend to “eke out” in class. PBL appears to be a wake-up call to spark students’ fervor for learning English.

     The first half is interesting and impressive. What about the second half? I am looking forward.