Training EFL teachers to respond to writing

1. Preparing teachers to respond to student writing

Dana Ferris


Abstract
Responding to student writing is one of the most challenging aspects of the writing instructor's job, and it is certainly the most time-consuming. Preparing future teachers to respond to L2 writing thus becomes an important aspect of any pre-service training course. In this paper, the author describes her own approach to training writing instructors in an MA TESOL seminar, using the “approach/response/follow-up” outline found in Ferris and Hedgock [Ferris, D. R., & Hedgcock, J. S. (2005). Teaching ESL composition: Purpose, process and practice (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates]. Additional sections describe special considerations for language-based feedback and ideas for working with in-service writing instructors.


2. Preparing writing teachers to teach the vocabulary and grammar of academic prose

Averil Coxhead, a, and Pat Byrda




These are good articles for teacher educators and EFL teachers. Helping teachers use an appropriate way to respond to students' writing is critical especially at tertiary level. Secondary teachers can adapt some of the ideas and approaches in this article in their classroom contexts. Good for a writing work shop...

Teachers say: Don't push me to use computers.

After I read an article, I came up with this title. I suggest this to language teachers who are interested in using technology classroom.

Teacher Adoption of Technology: A Perceptual Control Theory PerspectiveJournal article by Yong Zhao, Gary A. Cziko;
Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, Vol. 9, 2001

I found it very close to what i'm trying to find out about what teachers think when they use technology. This article helps you understand yourself and your colleagues better.

There is a part in the summary and implication that is very useful for technology integration training for teachers. One recommendation is - Don't just give teachers flashy gadgets or training or impose them to any software without assessing their needs.

Enjoy!

Teaching Writing with Technology: What to consider?

THis article is very good for teachers who want to use multimedia technology in writing instruction.

Beliefs about Technology and the Preparation of English Teachers: Beginning the Conversation.
by Swenson, J., Rozema, R., Young, C. A., McGrail, E., & Whitin, P. (2005). Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education [Online serial], 5(3/4). Available: http://www.citejournal.org/vol5/iss3/languagearts/article1.cfm

I like these statements:
"Technology should not replace the writing teacher; however, teachers will need to embrace new and emerging technologies with respect t oteaching composition and coaching students' development of effective writing process and products."

As I have been realizing about the importance of using technology in writing instruction, I always look for ideas how to adopt technology in writing classroom. Reading this article comfirmed my beliefs that teachers need to change the way we teaching writing to students. Students need skills to compose in multimodal environment. Sooner or later, writing with pen and paper will become obsolete. Students really don't need to practice only five paragraph essays. They will need to practice how to embed multimedia in their composition which would definitely - make more sense in the digital world.

LOL

Best Practices in Using Technology in Language Teaching?

Are there any reading about critical appraoches to technology integration in language teaching?
Yes there are some...I enjoy reading them..but still trying to figure out how things should be done in real-life classrooms.

Technology Integration: Best Practices–Where Do Teachers Stand?
Best Practices in Technology and Language Teaching
Using technology in Adult ESL

Read and think about how would you use some of the suggestions to integrate technology in your own teaching contexts.

Using Activity Theory to Study ICT integration

Using Activity Theory to Study ICT integration

A Response to Demiraslan and Usluel (2008): ICT integration processes in Turkish schools: Using activity theory to study issues and contradictions.

I found the above article using a sociocultural framework to investigate ICT integration process. So it means that this activity system really has something to do with ICT integration in educational settings. I didn’t include this framework at the very beginning of my research. But I know this triangle-ish figure will matter in my research. The point is I use qualitative inquiry techniques. The research questions are open for changes and modifications. I can bring or drop anything in my research. That’s a good point about qualitative approaches.

After my research data were collected, every day I look at them -- thinking what to do. How should I analyse this messy constructs? Gradually I have come across some useful techniques to organize the data. Activity theory for me is now clearer than before after I read this article. It means that when we study an integration of technology in an educational setting. There are key domains to be carefully explored. If possible, the research questions should be designed to concur with the aspects within activity system before the data collection. It will be useful to do these as the researcher will have a theoretical framework in mind when he/she gathering the data. But for me, I don’t really have any frameworks in mind when I collected my data. The only thing that I knew was getting the data from the natural setting, listening to teachers talking about their work- like a friend sharing what’s going on in lives- and perceiving teachers’ views and behaviours as the way they really are. However, some researchers may want to have a sound theory in hand to manipulate their data. These key elements are:

Subject: people who use the tools and what they know about the tools (teachers)

Object: the goals of using the tools (students create a web blog for keeping their learning journal)
Tools: what tools are being used (CMC, Moodle, PowerPoint, Word, Google)

Rules: what’s the regulation of using the tools or the evaluation criteria (e.g. students use multiple skills to create their learning blogs )

Community: who else involving the use of the tools (students, blog readers, peer teachers, local organisations)

Division of labour: the roles and responsibilities of individual who use the tools(students maintain the blogs and interact with the readers)

Outcome: what are consequences of using the tools/ what the subject receive
(Students experience meaningful language use and online communication; be able to carry on using the tools and the skills in their learning process)

NOTE: The examples I have provided in the parentheses are all from my own understanding. Diversity will occur in other research settings and contexts. I have my own interpretation which base on the obtained data and from my research point of view.

Normalisation: Am I going to witness this in my life?

I'm following Bax's Normalisation in some articles. Yeah- isn't it quite late to talk about this? The article is several years ago. Besides, I have seen his article long time ago, but I didn't read it in details. After I've been digging into notions of technology in language teaching. I realise that I should have read it carefully. Anyway, you know, it takes time to figure out concepts which are new for me. This entry will be update soon.

"... an integral part of every lesson, like a pen or a book. Teachers and students will use them without fear or inhibition, and equally without an exaggerated respect for what they can do. They will not be the centre of any lesson but they will play a part in almost all. They will be completely integrated into all other aspects of classroom life, alongside coursebooks, teachers and notepads. They will almost go unnoticed..."
(Bax 2003: 23–4)

Are EFL teachers prepared to use technology in classrooms?

This is my opinion beforeI read Valaquez-Torres's article. You can find the article here at http://tesl-ej.org/ej36/a1.pdf

Isn't it true when we look back to our young days when we were doing BA, we have no idea how computers would be integrated into a language classroom. I remember my oral practice class (which I often got 'C'". Yes my speaking skill really sucks I admit that). I and my English major classmates met our native speaker teacher almost everyday. We had a lot of conversation practices in the class. We usually had to talk about topics usually raised by the teacher and then take turns asking questions and join group discussions. Actually it was quite stressful for me to push myself to talk about something without planing ahead. Nevertheless, no picture of any computer or other technology comes into my mind. We sometimes were required to use the cassette tapes for pronunciation listening and practices. But it's all from the teacher's demand.
There are no other way to enhance our oral product. We just went in front of the class and start giving speech on the defined topics. I wonder if teachers, who have shared the same student experience like me, would be able to integrate technology in the way that it support a lot of students who are fascinated in the cutting edge technology. We may look "dinosaur"- imagine when students ask us about how to download YouTube video....or they ask if we have our 'hi5, facebook, or bebo".

Are we people prepared to use technology in language classrooms?
Let's have a look what are interesting in Valaquez-Torres's article

EFL teachers read the below statement and see if you are agree with the ideas. Would you be able to turn these concepts into actions in classrooms?

Using new technologies can:

1. Enrich and enliven foreign language courses (how?)

2. Provide greater diversification of learning activities (define diversification?)

3. accommodate different learning and teaching style (ha, really?)

4. effective motivate students who live in a technologically developed society (Do our students have access to computers?"

5. offer students additional guidance and practices

6. involve students in foreign language environments without having to leave their regular classrooms. (wow)

Asking ourselve whether we believe the above premises would be possible in our school context might be enough to know how well we are prepared for using technology. It is not just our own computer skills, but there are a lot of external influences upon integrating technology in language classrooms.

Project-based learning and Internet in EFL instructions

Project-based learning and Internet in EFL classroom

As I talked to some EFL lecturers who are currently using technology, I have seen some similarities among their successful integrations even though they work in different environments. The lecturers mentioned that the most effective use of IT integration in EFL classroom is adopting a project-based learning. A teacher told me that asking students to work online is not difficult for the young generation. The key thing is students need to know explicit goals of the activities. Students would perform the tasks better when they see what they are required to do. Students and teachers may have to use a lot of skills in order to complete the assigned tasks. In Brandl’s article(Are you ready to Moodle), there is a number of literatures supporting the project-based learning with the incorporation of technology in the following ways.

- Project-Based Learning is a comprehensive constructivist-based approach.
According to Chun & Plass (2000), “Constructivist approached to learning advocate allowing learners not only to interact directly with information to be learned, but also to add their own information and construct their own relationships” (p.160). An Internet-based approach to project learning also lends itself well to the teaching of specific skills required to conduct research. For example, Gaspar (1998) used McKenzie's (1995) "Iterative Research Cycle" consisting of the different stages of the research process with her advanced language students.
These stages are:
> Questioning -- Decide what information is lacking or what problem needs solving.
> Planning -- Develop a strategy to efficiently locate valid information.
> Gathering -- Locate the best sources, Internet and other, and collect needed information.
> Sifting -- Select from what was found that information most pertinent to the research question.
> Synthesizing -- Sort the information into a meaningful pattern.
> Evaluating -- Assess progress in answering the research question, and if needed, return to the first step in this cycle (cited in Gaspar, 1998, p. 72).

- Benefits of project-based learning
Stroller (1997) summarizes some of the pedagogical advantages in the following way:
- Focuses on content learning rather than on target specific language targets. Real-world subject matter and topics of interest to students can become central to projects
- Is student-centered, though the teacher plays a major role in offering support and guidance throughout the process
- Is cooperative rather than competitive. Students can work on their own, in small groups, or as a class to complete a project, sharing resources, ideas, and expertise along the way.
- Leads to authentic integration of skills and processing of information from varied sources, mirroring real-life tasks.
- Culminate in an end product (e.g., an oral presentation, a poster session, a bulletin board display, a report, or a stage performance) that can be shared with others, giving the project a real purpose. The value of the project, however, lies not just in the final product but also in the process of working towards the end point. Thus, project work has both a process and product orientation, and provides students with opportunities to focus on fluency and accuracy at different project-work stages.
Potenitally motivating, stimulating, empowering, and challenging. It usually results in building students confidence, self-esteem, and autonomy as well as improving students’ language skills, content learning, and cognitive abilities

- Integrated Skills
The use of the Internet for research purposes requires a variety of searching skills. It asks for knowledge of different search engines and how they work, such as whether they are case sensitive or not. Furthermore, it assumes the user has some information-seeking skills. Fidel et al. (1999) showed that being somewhat knowledgeable of the topic being searched is necessary for learning how to search the Web, and that being somewhat knowledgeable about Web searching is necessary for exploring new topics.

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Language teachers are not computer teachers. What they can do is guiding students to produce a language output by using technology in the process of doing a project with all integrated skills needed for the task completion.

Trojan Horse Theory in Technology-Rich Classrooms

Last weekend was for my reading and searching articles. I found many research articles close to my study. One of the articles that wanna write about is Levin and Wadnany's article (2006).

"Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in Technology-Based Classrooms: A Developmental View"

This article is interesting for me that it is a longitudinal study exploring changes in teachers’ beliefs and practice when they use technology in classroom teaching. Specifically, the results were discussed in three areas: beliefs on learning and teaching; Evolving classroom practices; and Views on Technology. The study uses three sets of categories in the analysis of teachers’ beliefs. The conceptions of learning are categorized into: behaviourist, cognitive constructivism, social constructivism, and radical constructivism. The conceptions of teaching were classified into: passing information, transmission of knowledge, meeting students’ needs, and helping students become independent learners. Teachers’ teaching models are grouped into: direct instruction, collaborative learning, cognitive apprenticeship, and discovery leaning. Teachers’ views on technology were analysed according to three types: technical interest, communicative or practical interests, and emancipatory knowledge interests.

In other words, they looked into three main areas when conducting the study of teachers’ beliefs. They make connections among the three conceptual domains of classroom teaching in a technology-rich environment. The metaphor given at the suggestions and implications part was Becker and Ravitz’s (1999) “Trojan Horse” theory, which implies that computers intrigue changes in classroom teaching practice as well as impact on teachers’ pedagogical beliefs. The findings also support Argyris and Schon’s theory of action (1974), which maintains that humans learn from their actions, and use what they learn to plan and carry out future actions, which al ultimately affect their beliefs (Kane, et al., 2002).

Furthermore the study reflects differences dimensions of teachers’ beliefs. The beliefs of teachers in this study were not inconsistent but rather complementary and having multiple-conception perspectives. As teaching and learning are complex and multifaceted phenomena, just like how people communicate and interact in communities.

Finally the study provides suggestion on the development of teachers’ beliefs that it takes place in a continuum, from teacher centred teaching and learning to student centred teaching and learning; from relating mainly to an individual student to groups or learning communities; from disciplinary-based learning goals to inter-disciplinary, and from viewing technology as a technical tool to a learning partner.

Activity Theory Revisited: Teachers' Technology Use

Months ago I tried very hard to understand Activity Theory. After I attended Prof. Thorne's presentation, I read a sociocultural book and took note from the chapters. At that time, I feel that it will be useful for my research, but it's not clear at the beginning stage. This is the link to the previous post about activity theory http://tsreadinglog.blogspot.com/2007/11/activity-theory-on-contradictions-in.html

Today I had a look at it again and found more research relavances. I want to study this sociocultural model again as well as read research articles which present this model as the framework.

Activity theory is used as a framework to identify, examine and describe how the socio-cultural factors support a technology integration. Previous studies mentioned the advatages of using Activity Theory as a theoretical framework to analyse effective IT integration in classroom environment.

Researchers have agreed that Activity Theory has a potential to describe sociocultural factors affecting teachers' integration of technology. As the a matter of fact, the centre of classroom learning and teaching is the teacher. Learning is not from textbooks, materials, activities, or technology; otherwise, learning occurs when teachers engage their students in making sense out of ideas, contents, and related tools including IT.

My research focus is on teacher cognition about their technology use in EFL classroom. Teachers interact with the tool (computers) and they perceive the tool within its relevant environmental context. Therefore, teachers' thinking and how they interact with technology and its context should be analysed in the particular setting in which the activity is taking place.