Monday, January 19, 2009
When reading Chapters 1 & 2 in Gibbons, my mind kept taking me back to when I was in high school learning Spanish. I was thinking about the quote made of the school girl in the beginning and realized my problem with learning a new language was the opposite of hers. She could speak English in conversation and not in school work, and I could only "speak" Spanish when talking and writing in a more school-like context. My comparison has its limitations, however, I feel I know a bit from personal experience what Gibbons refers to when talking about the context of situation. I can almost feel the anxiety of not being able to speak the language conversationally when she described how frustrating or overwhelming it may be for an ESL student in a new classroom. For some reason, the academic context of the language was easier for me to learn; the conversational context was something I could not conquer. However, for an ESL student, the classroom talks (Chap. 2), working and conversing with other students and the teacher(s), pose a supportive way for the learner to succeed in conversational and academic contexts.
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It is always interesting to place one self in a situation that is outside their norm. Just like you and Spanish. I feel in many ways that will assist you in your future teachings, especially if you have ESL students. I also am curious about the statement you made about chapter 2. I enjoyed the examples that chapter 2 touched. The reason I am curious is I was wondering how would you use those activities. How does those activities benefit students who are not ESL learners? These are questions I was asking myself and was just curious about what you thought.
ReplyDeleteI have always felt the same way about learning a language. I took Japanese for four years and I felt very comfortable writing and reading the language as opposed to speaking in a conversation. I attribute this mostly to the fact that it was not required for me to learn the language and speak fluently to get by in society. Especially for ESL learners, they are typically learning the language in an English speaking country. Speaking conversationally is the main concern as being able to verbally communicate will make adjusting to a new place much easier, and reading and writing will most likely be learned at a slower pace. I have a feeling a lot of people learning a foreign language in a country that speaks their native language will have a more difficult time in conversation than they do in their reading and writing skills just like you and I.
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