appropriate pedagogy: language, culture, and curriculum
Post on 20-Dec-2015
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Appropriate Pedagogy:
Language, Culture, and Curriculum
What is “Appropriate Pedagogy?”
What are appropriate goals? What are appropriate texts? What are appropriate contexts? What are appropriate methodologies? What are appropriate assessments?
Appropriate Goals-1
Is it “Linguistic Competence”?
Focus on Form How (grammar) and what (vocabulary) to say
Appropriate Goals-2
Is it “Communicative Competence”?
Focus on meaning (making) Meaning as bound to a cultural context Meaning as negotiated through discourse Meaning as negotiated through communicative
strategies
Communicative Competence …[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 Knowledge of how, when, and why to say
what to whom. [add understanding]
Focus on language functions linguistic items perform.
Ex: achaa, caleN?
Compare: “appropriately ungrammatical”papaji, aap caay pi-yeNge?daddy, aap bhii pi-yoge?
Why Communicative Competence
Kashmiri: “Would you like to have a cup of tea?” caay cakh-aa caay cakh-ay caay cakh-ba caay cakh-bi caay cakh-sa caay cayiv-mahraa caay cayiv-haz
Components of “CC” 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” 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 Theoretical focus
How do learners learn? What do they learn?
Methodological focus What are learners’ “needs”?
First step: Needs analysis
Communicative Language Teaching
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 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
Meaningful and realistic interactions
Competing Methodologies Input processing: Input => Intake
PPP model: Presentation-practice-production
OHE model: Observe-hypothesize-experiment
APPROPRIATE TEXTS Authentic, but what are they?
*Making travel arrangements, going to bars, eating out, booking into hotels, buying gas
Focus on the culture(s) of the TL An essay on cricket?
Whose culture?
Diglossic Variation
Bengali: Calit bhasha vs. Sadhu bhasha Tamil: Colloquial vs. Literary Also Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu What about Hindi?
Hindi Language Variation
Eastern vs. Western Hindi vs. Urdu vs. Hindustani Polyglossic variation
paati, ciThii, <khat>, patr, <letter>
Hindi: Use and Identity
maine janaa hai <> mujhko janaa hai
aap caay piyeNgee <> aap caay piyoge
kyaa ek gilaas shiital jal uplabdh hogaa
APPROPRIATE CONTEXTS
Learning SALs as:
Foreign Languages Less Commonly Taught Languages Heritage Languages
SAL as Foreign Language Affective Variables: Needs “Needs
Analysis”
Motivation? Integrative and/or Instrumental
Attitude? Positive or negative
SAL as Heritage Language Heritage and cognate-heritage
Motivation?
Ethno-linguistic identity Maintenance of cultural practices Pop culture
HL and FL: the vital difference Input processing
Strategies and mechanisms that promote form-meaning connections during comprehension
Cross-language (and skills) transfer effects Sociolinguistic competence Discourse competence Linguistic competence
Less Commonly Taught Languages Motivation?
Cultural awareness Diversity
Socio-political context of LCTLs
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
Are they teen-appropriate? Are they HL-appropriate?
Skills in contexts Foreign language
Literacy Accuracy Fluency
Heritage language
Fluency Literacy Accuracy
L2 Literacy Issues
Transfer of skills: Supports or interferes
Language Threshold Hypothesis Onset of L2 literacy vs. L2 learning
Limited language knowledge of L2 reader/writer For a LCTL, the problem is worse
Role of strategies: mental translation, cognates
Scripts: The embarrassment of choices Script choice and identity politics
L2 Reading Abilities and skills
Rapid, interactive, strategic, linguistic, and purposeful
Purposes: 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 learner-contexts
L2 Writing Writing is
Text Composing (process) Social construction (context)
What about L2 writing?
L2 Writing contd. What is good L2 writing?
Cultures affects texts Different cultures produce culturally influenced and
rhetorically distinguishable types of text.
Some useful pointers Focus on the process of writing Group writing tasks, peer correction Drafting and re-drafting Teacher as advisor and editor
L2 Listening Comprehension How does comprehension work?
Intelligibility Comprehensibility Interpretability
L2 speaking Talk across cultures In U.S., but not in South Asia, we
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 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.