reading log.pdf

5/20/2018 READING LOG.pdf

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READING LOG

REACTION 1

They say everything has a purpose in life. Having a purpose means having an objective and

teaching is not an exception. Clear objectives are one of the keys to succeeding in teaching. Inthis chapter, I have learned about the importance of writing objectives that are measurable,

specific, achievable and flexible. By looking at each of these words, you may think it is easy to do

so, but the truth is the opposite when you have to consider all of them in one objective. In other

words, you need to articulate them in one idea, in a way that allows you to observe students

accuracy and fluency. Refining the objectives by asking the key questions is a good way to learn to

state your lessons objectives.

REACTION 2

Setting up an activity is like organizing a party because you have to pay attention to every single

detail if you want your guest to leave the party not only happy but satisfied. In a party you have to

take into account your list of guests to consider their relationship and their interests to decide

how you will seat them. In your classroom, you have to do something similar, you have to consider

who your students are what their strengths and weaknesses are linguistically speaking, and also

their likes and dislikes so that you can group them in a way that the activities will have a better

chance to succeed. Besides, in a party you have to decide on the food you will serve, in order to do

that you have to consider individual needs, for example if somebody is vegetarian or celiac. Thus,

materials and activities have to be carefully chosen according to you students needs. Finally, the

importance of the nice environment is crucial. In a party, everybody is supposed to be relaxed,

happy and enjoying it. In the classroom, students need to be relaxed, motivated and enjoying

their learning process. To sum up, teaching should be like partying all the time!!!!!

REACTION 3

This reading provides an interesting way to analyze groups and their process to become what I

would call a team. As I was reading, I was thinking about my own experiences. In my professional

live, I have made and been part of many different kinds of groups, for example grouping teachers

for a specific project, team teaching, committees, study groups and working in small groups in the

classroom. When it comes to grouping colleagues, I try to make a good group; however, no

matter the criteria I follow, it is difficult to predict how it will function as a team. How cohesive the

group will depend on the tasks and the time they have to adjust to each other. I find interesting


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the metaphor they make on the reading comparing the process a group goes through with the

cycle of life. Thus, I can help thinking in the group process we are going through during this course.

REACTION 4

In different school systems teaching could be overwhelming, too many classes, a lot of students,evaluation and planning, too much paper work and meetings, among many other duties teachers

may have. Thus, you may see teachers in the classroom doing other tasks like checking exams or

planning rather than focusing on their teaching. For this reason I like the authors insights about

presence in the classroom. Presence means to actually follow your studentsdevelopment during

the language acquisition process. The way I see presence, it comes hand and hand with

monitoring.

REACTION 5

This reading is not about listening as a learners skill to be developed but as the art of listening to

others. I do believe that being a good listener is not a matter of gender, but caring about the

people you interact with on a regular basis. Thus, I disagree with the author when she states that

listening is a women condition and not a men one. On the other hand, I like it when she writes

when someone has listened to you, you go home rested and lighthearted. I think it is a

blessing to have a person who not only listens to you but knows when to remain silent, to give an

opinion or some advice, to make you reflect, or even to reprimand you. That is why I do believe it

is an art.

REACTION 6

As I was reading the chapter on The Three Dimensions, I cant help thinking about how teachers

may approach some structures. How many times teachers have focused their teaching only in

form and forget about meaning and use. Generalizations are not always welcome, but when it

comes to language teaching, we can say that many English teachers do not know the actual use of

the language. For this reason they teach a grammar rule (thats form for them), the translation of

the sentences (thats meaning for them), and some substitution drills (thats use form them).

Knowing the correlation of these three dimensions as Larsen-Freeman presents them may lead

language teachers of a better understanding of how to teach in a more meaningful way.

Pragmatics is such a rich dimension that can provide teachers with many different uses of the

language in various contexts like culture, regional variations of language, and levels of formality

among others. Thus, a language is in constant change because its alive, it means you will never


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end learning it. As Cotton Dana, quoted by Larsen-Freeman, states Who dares to teach must

never cease to learn.

REACTION 7

The ultimate goal for language teachers is undoubtedly language acquisition. What does it imply

to guide students to acquisition? According to the reading the most input the better, the more

interaction the better, learners production must be communicative, form should be meaning -

based and communicative and expectations shouldnt go beyond students production ability.

Following these implications may take teachers to a real communicative class where all skills can

be fostered and production promoted since the early stages of the process. All together are like a

gear that makes the whole cycle moving; however, interactions plays a very important role in

having students produce the language. Having the opportunity to talk and exchange ideas with

others in the target language will add up other aspects such as confidence, language usage, and

strategies development to get the message across, among others.

REACTION 8

The author makes a contrast between the purposes of listening in the 30s to those in the 90s.

Unfortunately, today several listening tasks are still like the once back in the 30s. As a receptive

skill, it requires the development of strategies from the learners in order to understand the

message. In an interactive situation, learners have the opportunity to use some non-verbal

communication besides verbal communication to get the message across. They are involved in the

interaction; therefore, they have an active role in the process. While listening to a situation where

learners are not involved and many times there are no visual aids, things become much more

complex for learners. There may be a lot of frustration in relation to listening to information in thetarget language as listening to a song and dont understanding anything, or to a TV program and

getting few words. Learners often express how anxious or bad they feel because with little

exposure to the target language they pretend to listen to and understand every single word from

any input they get. Then the task of the teacher is to use different techniques, like the ones

described by the author from the 90s, to help students discover the best way to figure out what is

being said.

REACTION 9

Reading provides meaningful input in various forms. Either in the L1 or the L2 reading is a great

source for vocabulary, structure, variations of language, levels of formality, cultural and/or

historical elements. Besides, there is literature and all its literary figures and approaches that may

contribute to develop reading strategies. As the reading suggests helping learners to develop

strategies is not an easy task due to the fact it is an inner process for each learner. What teachers

may do is using diverse techniques to benefit students learning styles and favor the development

of strategies. In the specific case of foreign language learning, following the three reading stages is


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a must for learners to understand the content. On the other hand, new literacy emphasizes the

fact that reading is not just the interpretation or comprehension of a text made up of words; a text

can be a graph, a table, a sign, a label, an image, or a picture among many other visuals. Thus, the

combination of content and formal schemata leads the learner to a world of knowledge and

imagination called reading.

REACTION 10

For some people culture is considered the fifth skill in language teaching, for some others it is a

sub-skill. It doesnt matter at which level it is placed, what matters is the significance it has in

learning a foreign language. While teaching a language, everything is relevant from intonation or

rhythm to humor or idioms in terms of cultural differences. Thus, the cultural framework that

connects the four learning interactions: knowing about, knowing why, knowing how, and knowing

oneself, becomes a good practice in the classroom. All the cultural information that can be implied

while teaching a cultural aspect turns really meaningful when people understand the knowing

why. Knowing why closes the gap that may exist between having information about a specific

culture and judging that culture or create stereotypes or overgeneralizations. Not all language

learners may be exposed to the complete cycle; though knowing why may give them the

information they need to understand why some behaviors take place in a specific situation.

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