Co-constructing intercultural views and identities in a teaching methods class

Misumi SadlerUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignDepartment of East Asian Languages & Cultures

sadlerm@illinois.edu

Introduction

A classroom as a “third space”

the perceptions of newly-appointed graduate student teachers (GSTs) about academic language teaching and learning

the effect of intercultural competence and learning experience on their perceptions and teaching practices

Third Space

coined by Home K. Bhabha (1994)

challenges the judgmental, polarized views of the “us versus them”

“Rather than stereotyping and making assumptions about how the ‘other’ should act, the ‘thirdspace’ allows each to search for an understanding of the world of the ‘other’ ” (Benzie, 2005, p. 5)

not a “unitary, stable, permanent and homogeneous” place, but a place that is “multiple, always subject to change and to the tensions and even conflicts that come from being in between” (Weedon, 1987, cited in Kramsch, 2009, p. 238).

The benefit and value of third space concept (e.g., Benzie, 2005; Bretag, 2006; Dooley, 2011; DeMont, 2010; Forasiepi, 2011).

A classroom as a “third space” (e.g. DeMont, 2010;

Forasiepi, 2011) where newly appointed graduate student teachers (GSTs):

share their perceptions of educational issues co-construct more global views shape new identities for themselves through

interacting with each other engage in reflection of what they believe

about academic language teaching/learning and how their beliefs affect their teaching practice

Participants

East Asian Language Pedagogy (EALC560), fall 2012 (required; once a week for two hours and half; fifteen weeks)

9 newly-appointed GSTs 6 Chinese, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Japanese 7 female, 2 male linguistics, pedagogy, TESL, music 3 in the U.S. for less than three months 2 taught Chinese at an university in the U.S.

Data

A questionnaireWeekly posts on the discussion forumThree reflexive logsThe results of Intercultural Development

Inventory (IDI v3)

Supplementary data: class observation reports Lesson plans Teaching Portfolio

Mitchell R. Hammer, Ph.D.http://www.idiinventory.com/

IDI Group Profile

Perceived Orientation (PO)

Developmental Orientation (DO)

6 Minimization cultural commonalities & universal values deeper recognition and appreciation of cultural

difference 2 Polarization

judgmental; “us” vs. “them” Defense: an overly critical view toward other cultural

values and practices Reversal: an overly critical view toward one’s own

cultural values and practices 1 Denial

recognize observable cultural differences but not deeper cultural differences

avoid or withdraw from cultural differences(Hammer, 2008)

more monocultural more global ethnocentric intercultural

uncertain/unfamiliar certain/familiarunresolvedfrustrations, fears, struggles

opening new alternatives (Soja, 1996)

generating new knowledge & understandings (Benzie, 2005)

Xin

1st year MA Chinese linguistics China 1~2 years of living in the States taught Chinese at a U.S. university Elementary Chinese I The result of IDI

Perceived Orientation: Acceptance Developmental Orientation: Denial

Trained and taught under an Audiolingual method

A small class size Used teaching strategies that have worked

well for her in the past likely work well with students from her own

cultural background but may not be as effective with students whose learning approach is culturally different

Use of technology Use of visual aids

On use of technology

… Technology takes time. Showing something on PPT takes one second for changing one slide; recalling what you plan to teach by this slide takes another two seconds and explaining briefly what this slide is being about takes at least five more seconds. If the teacher prepares 20 slides for a class, three minutes or so will be spent on introducing technological information. For students, the visual and audio aid may be helpful but still takes time for them to process the new stimulus. Also students’ reaction to technological info might detour their attention from language info…..

As I have been introduced more teaching approaches and methods in pedagogy, my mind is becoming opener than before to view technology issue. It is not necessary a waste of time if the instructor is fully aware of what she is doing and doing it efficiently enough…..Nowadays, I feel more obliged to accept technology in order to fit the trends that more textbooks and Chinese courses are designed for contextual approach….. after five-year's learning from and practicing audiolingual school, I am proud to say that I am changing, to adapt and to survive.

Response from a classmate, Dan

I agree with what you say about the change. I myself am very used to the old school ways of teaching because that was how I was taught. Yet today's students obviously want more than that, and they will easily get bored if we still stick to the old school. I, therefore, try to incorporate technological and visual aids in my teaching to adapt and to survive. In a large sense, we should always be open to change--willing to try and adapt and find what works best for us…

Xin’s response to Dan

Thank you, Dan, for your comments and agreement. I used to believe that there always exists one approach working better than all the others for the interest of the final product of a language class. Forgive me my tenacity please because I still believe so. The reason I am changing strategy in our Chinese class is that what I have been doing does not serve well our current textbook. There will be an obvious unintegration between contents and method. Since we are not picking our own textbooks and designing our own syllabus, the best solution would be adapting ourselves old tricks to better serve the books.

Observing Kim’s classThe most impressive part to me was the group activity. I did not usually engage students in free conversation in pairs. However, Kim was pretty familiar with this approach and the outcome was surprisingly good..... Students come up with a variety of marvelous expressions simply combining the couple of grammar patterns we have learned. Some of their expression conveyed a complicated meaning. They were more creative than me!

Annotated bibliography on the paper that challenges audiolingualism (i.e. how to incorporate context into a drill-based class)

“As potential language educators, we should always bear with the awareness of these unsolved problems and contribute our intellects to conquer these issues when it is the moment we have to introduce these ABCs to our students.”

Conclusions

Interaction and self-reflection deepen learning. Claiming common ground Sharing intimate information and mutual

understanding A teaching methods class can become

more effective and supportive. The importance of building a community The third space concept

Future Studies

The Theoretical Orientations to Academic Language Learning survey (TOALL) (Forasiepi, 2011)

The effect of teacher presenceThe development of ICOngoing teacher development beyond a

teaching methods courses (Allen & Negueruela-Azarola, 2010; Crane, Sadler, Ha, & Ojambo, 2011)