Transcript Appropriate Pedagogy: - University of Chicago

Appropriate Pedagogy:
Language, Culture, and Curriculum
What is “Appropriate Pedagogy?”
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What are appropriate goals?
What are appropriate texts?
What are appropriate contexts?
What are appropriate methodologies?
What are appropriate assessments?
Appropriate Goals-1
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Is it “Linguistic Competence”?
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Focus on Form
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How (grammar) and what (vocabulary) to say
Appropriate Goals-2
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Is it “Communicative Competence”?
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Focus on meaning (making)
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Meaning as bound to a cultural context
Meaning as negotiated through discourse
Meaning as negotiated through communicative
strategies
Communicative Competence
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…[some] occasions call for being appropriately
ungrammatical … child acquires knowledge of
sentences, not only as grammatical, but also as
appropriate, … [child] acquires competence as to
when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk
about with whom, when, where, in what manner …
[s/he] becomes able to accomplish a repertoire of
speech acts, to take part in speech events, an to
evaluate their accomplishments by others.
Communicative Competence
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Knowledge of how, when, and why to say
what to whom. [add understanding]
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Focus on language functions linguistic items
perform.
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Ex: achaa, caleN?
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Compare: “appropriately ungrammatical”
papaji, aap caay pi-yeNge?
daddy, aap bhii pi-yoge?
Why Communicative Competence
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Kashmiri: “Would you like to have a cup of tea?”
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caay
caay
caay
caay
caay
caay
caay
cakh-aa
cakh-ay
cakh-ba
cakh-bi
cakh-sa
cayiv-mahraa
cayiv-haz
Components of “CC”
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Grammatical competence: knowledge of the
vocabulary, word structure, and sentence
structure of a language;
Sociolinguistic competence: the ability to
use language in a contextually appropriate
way, taking into account the roles of the
participants, the setting, and the purpose of
the interaction;
Components of “CC”
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Discourse competence: the ability to
connect utterances to an overall theme or
topic (discourse coherence), and the ability
to infer the meaning of larger units
(pragmatics);
Strategic competence: ability to compensate
for imperfect knowledge of linguistic,
sociolinguistic and discourse rules.
Focus of FL teaching
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Theoretical focus
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How do learners learn?
What do they learn?
Methodological focus
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What are learners’ “needs”?
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First step: Needs analysis
Communicative Language Teaching
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Meaningful, goal oriented use of target
language—focus on the “active” learner;
Language input is vital, grammar
explanations may help;
Some errors are creations of productive
engagement with input;
Teacher’s role: selection of material and
tasks, facilitator.
CLT: Methodology
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Mainly TL use in class
Optimal use of L1; code-switching
Authentic texts
Focus on “functions” (in addition to
grammar and vocabulary)
Group and paired activity
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Meaningful and realistic interactions
Competing Methodologies
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Input processing: Input => Intake
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PPP model:
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Presentation-practice-production
OHE model:
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Observe-hypothesize-experiment
APPROPRIATE TEXTS
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Authentic, but what are they?
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*Making travel arrangements, going to
bars, eating out, booking into hotels,
buying gas
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Focus on the culture(s) of the TL
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An essay on cricket?
Whose culture?
Diglossic Variation
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Bengali: Calit bhasha vs. Sadhu bhasha
Tamil: Colloquial vs. Literary
Also Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu
What about Hindi?
Hindi Language Variation
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Eastern vs. Western
Hindi vs. Urdu vs. Hindustani
Polyglossic variation
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paati, ciThii, <khat>, patr, <letter>
Hindi: Use and Identity
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maine janaa hai <> mujhko janaa hai
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aap caay piyeNgee <> aap caay piyoge
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kyaa ek gilaas shiital jal uplabdh hogaa
APPROPRIATE CONTEXTS
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Learning SALs as:
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Foreign Languages
Less Commonly Taught Languages
Heritage Languages
SAL as Foreign Language
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Affective Variables: Needs “Needs
Analysis”
Motivation?
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Integrative and/or Instrumental
Attitude?
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Positive or negative
SAL as Heritage Language
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Heritage and cognate-heritage
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Motivation?
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Ethno-linguistic identity
Maintenance of cultural practices
Pop culture
HL and FL: the vital difference
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Input processing
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Strategies and mechanisms that promote formmeaning connections during comprehension
Cross-language (and skills) transfer effects
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Sociolinguistic competence
Discourse competence
Linguistic competence
Less Commonly Taught
Languages
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Motivation?
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Cultural awareness
Diversity
Socio-political context of LCTLs
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Lack of resources
Lack of classroom research on LCTLs
Lack of institutional support
Lack of formal training in language pedagogy
Abundance of heritage students
Variable class size and offerings
Lack of professional development and
networking
Contexts of texts
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Are they teen-appropriate?
Are they HL-appropriate?
Skills in contexts
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Foreign language
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Literacy
Accuracy
Fluency
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Heritage language
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Fluency
Literacy
Accuracy
L2 Literacy
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Issues
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Transfer of skills: Supports or interferes
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Language Threshold Hypothesis
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Onset of L2 literacy vs. L2 learning
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Limited language knowledge of L2 reader/writer
 For a LCTL, the problem is worse
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Role of strategies: mental translation, cognates
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Scripts: The embarrassment of choices
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Script choice and identity politics
L2 Reading
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Abilities and skills
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Purposes:
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Rapid, interactive, strategic, linguistic, and purposeful
To find information: scan, skim
To learn: basic comprehension of main ideas
To critique/evaluate: reflections, connections and
integration with prior knowledge
What works: Texts must be grounded in learnercontexts
L2 Writing
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Writing is
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Text
Composing (process)
Social construction (context)
What about L2 writing?
L2 Writing contd.
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What is good L2 writing?
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Cultures affects texts
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Different cultures produce culturally influenced and
rhetorically distinguishable types of text.
Some useful pointers
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Focus on the process of writing
Group writing tasks, peer correction
Drafting and re-drafting
Teacher as advisor and editor
L2 Listening Comprehension
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How does comprehension work?
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Intelligibility
Comprehensibility
Interpretability
L2 speaking
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Talk across cultures
In U.S., but not in South Asia, we
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Talk around
Talk up
Talk down
Talk it out
Talk it through/over
Have talk radio and tv stations
Have talk show hosts
Take turns talking
Conclusions
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Language learning must proceed within
the socio-cultural contexts of its use
Learning language, learning culture
Goal: Communicative language
teaching, tailored to appropriate goals
and needs of learners and learning.