- Made a template to bring with me to the visits
- Made a draft version of the Survey Monkey (I'm going to work on it more before I send it to my advisor, though)
- Done more reasearch and written down things I want to ask about/explore
- Listened to non-stop lounge jazz
I've been doing some more reading about language teaching strategies and coming up with my opinions on them. For example:
One thing that seems to be a big deal in the language teaching community is "hands-on, experiential learning". The way that most (read: all that I've had) teachers approach this is by coming up with an activity and breaking up the class into groups or partnerships for them to converse and work on whatever it is.
A good example of this is "speed-dating" where people are randomly given cards describing a person that they are supposed to "be" while speed dating. Then the teacher runs a "speed-date"session and the students are supposed to ask questions about each other.
Another example is when students are given time to work on projects, like a presentation about a country.
Regardless of how well-intentioned the assignment is, this is how it ALWAYS works out in a high-school classroom (especially at lower levels):
There is an unspoken understanding that the assignment is kind of pointless/useless and rediculous - they roll their eyes to communicate that even though they're doing it, they don't want to do it and therefore it doesn't conflict with their coolness. Then, they proceed to do the bare minimum to make sure that the other person understands that they don't care. They will often go off into tangents in english, and would probably talk the entire time in english unless the teacher is looking at them. If one of the students is into it and wants to practice, the other student might engage a little bit more than they would, but more often than not its the motivated student who ends up conceding - as they don't want to be the "righteous" nerd.
Another thing is the faux realism that is common in this type of approach. Its not like you are actually speed-dating, and in all honesty you probably don't care that much what the Venezuelan flag colors symbolize. You might be a bit more engaged talking about what type of clothes people wear in the different seasons than you are talking about "Juan goes to the store" and "Marie eats lunch". But in both cases, its not very memorable. At the same time, its not like you can do actual mandatory speed-dating in a Spanish class. Unless you really don't like your job.
I felt like I should dedicate a whole thing to this because it's pretty much the 'go-to' strategy in most language classes I've been in. Maybe in a situation with mature adults who are in class voluntarily it would be good, but in a high school class its almost always an inefficient way to spend time. I think in 95% of situations its not the teachers fault that they do this in the way they do. They are working in a seriously limited environment with a bunch of rules and standards to meet.
Nonetheless, I think the active-learning approach is (at least in theory) a very promising approach to language learning. I'm hoping to observe how active learning is carried out in different schools/classes to see if it is possible to utilize it in an efficient and engaging way. Part of my project is thinking about different ways that the standards and requirements can be met and the limitations worked with in the most efficient way possible. Tomorrow I'm going to talk to a couple teachers in Drew about how much freedom they are given in the classroom and what they base their classes upon. Hopefully I'll be able to get a syllabus or two.
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