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Title: Increasing Motivation Through Students Setting Goals
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Larry Ferlazzo writes, “Extensive research has shown that a scaffolded and supported goal setting process, particularly one where students choose their own goals, enhances student motivation and academic achievement and specifically helps in developing second-language proficiency.”
Learn more about two types of goals (learning and performance) and access Mr. Ferlazzo’s own goal-setting lesson plan here: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/larry-ferlazzo/larry-ferlazzo-increasing-motivation-through-students-setting-goals
Source: British Council
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Title: Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation
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From http://gazette.teachers.net/
Our InterCom theme for February is “Engaging Learners.” For those who are new to thinking about motivation, this recent article by Marvin Marshall about intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation and how to foster intrinsic motivation in students will help: http://gazette.teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/marvin-marshall/intrinsic-vs-extrinsic-motivation/
Source: Teachers.net Gazette
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Title: Camp OFLA 2016
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Camp OFLA is an elementary foreign language camp for students in grades 3-8. It was created by the Ohio Foreign Language Association in 2005. There are two “official” language classes each day, each about 1 ½ hours. The second language is also spoken at meals, during arts and crafts, song and dance, and cooking classes. High school counselors often read bedtime stories or teach songs as campers hike to and from activities. Evening activities include all languages, so don’t be surprised if your camper learns a little German or Japanese along with his French lessons! Language available are French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.
If you are the parent or teacher of a child who might want to attend, or the parent or teacher of a high school student who may want to work as a counselor, or if you want to participate yourself, go here for more information: http://www.campofla.org/
Source: OFLA
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Title: Using Authentic Resources - Step 3
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From http://www.creativelanguageclass.com
Following up on two recent blog posts about using authentic resources for language teaching and learning, Megan Smith talks about how authentic resources can lead to assessment in your instructional design. She also provides resources for learning about love songs in Spanish.
Read the blog post here: http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/activities/modes-skills/reading/let-authres-take-the-lead-step-3/
Source: Creative Language Class
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Title: Blog Post about Checking for Understanding
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From http://www.path2proficiency.com
Alyssa Villarreal writes, “Checking for learning must be regarded a feedback process providing us, the educator, with room to grow! The data we collect provides insight into student achievement with the concepts we are sharing with them. Therefore instead of inadvertently assigning value to certain students over others, let’s think of ways to engage all students in the checking process. When we check for learning with all of our students it sends the students the message that we care for each of them and they are equitably important to the process and to us.” Get some ideas for quick checking for understanding as well an embedded video from the TELL project about checking for understanding in this blog post: http://www.path2proficiency.com/how-do-you-know-they-know/
Source: path to proficiency
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Title: 5 Ways to Pair Students
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From http://eltexperiences.com/
Here are five different ways to get students into pairs for interactive work: http://eltexperiences.com/2016/02/09/5-fantastic-ways-to-pair-students/
Source: ELT Experiences
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Title: Open Culture: Curated Cultural and Educational Media on the Web
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From http://www.openculture.com/faq
Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. Open Culture’s mission is to centralize and curate intelligent audio and video content. Resources include annotated lists of free language learning resources (http://www.openculture.com/freelanguagelessons), movies, audio books, and MOOC’s and other online courses. Your InterCom editor found herself fascinated by this video depicting a Salvador Dalí painting in 3D: http://www.openculture.com/2016/02/walk-inside-a-salvador-dali-surrealist-painting-with-this-360o-virtual-reality-video.html
Explore resources at Open Culture at http://www.openculture.com/
Source: Open Culture
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Title: Music Videos Get Google Translated
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Teachers often look for good examples of how automatic translation can go wrong. Here is another source: Malinda Kathleen Reese’s YouTube channel. She runs popular songs through Google Translate several times and then creates videos similar to the original music videos, with the new lyrics.
Visit her channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP2-S6-M9ZvlY8t7cRn4O6A
Your InterCom editor’s favorite pick is “Bohemian Rhapsody”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwOH3YsraNs
Source: YouTube
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Title: February 21 is International Mother Language Day
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From http://www.un.org/en/events/motherlanguageday/
International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.
International Mother Language Day is February 21. Find out this year’s theme and what you can do to help promote students’ mother languages at http://www.un.org/en/events/motherlanguageday/
Source: United Nations
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Title: Differentiation for Engagement
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By Kathryn Carpenter, CASLS GTF/Curriculum Development Assistant
Differentiation, while commonly discussed in other learning contexts, is a relatively under-researched application in the language learning classroom. Manuel Jiménez Raya and Terry Lamb define it by saying, “differentiation implies the adjustment of the curriculum to learners’ needs, interests, and abilities, and demands from schools and teachers specific action to cater for the diversity which exists in classrooms” (Raya and Lamb, 2003, p. 14-15). Because learners in a language classroom potentially possess varying unique interests, reasons for learning, and wide-ranging target-language proficiencies, differentiation is especially applicable, and is a necessary consideration for world language educators.
Carol Ann Tomlinson, one of the experts in using differentiation (though not for language learning), lays out different bases for differentiation: readiness, interest, learning profile, and affect. She also describes the three ways in which teachers can differentiate: through content, process, and product (1999, p. 3-5). Terry Lamb (2003) states, “teachers and researchers recognize that some of the problems [with language learning] can be traced back to issues relating to individual differences, which results in language lessons often being inappropriate to many pupils,” including, as he lists, level of difficulty, content, and learning styles (p. 178). Applying the principles of differentiation provides a solution to this problem by allowing for some needs-based amendments for individuals. Teachers can ensure that they are personalizing instruction while still maintaining overall course goals and a cohesive classroom community.
In order to better understand what differentiation would look like in the language classroom, consider the following scenario. A Spanish teacher teaching high school intermediate Spanish has students who vary in level from novice high to advance low. Students have varied personal and academic interests, and some students interact with Spanish outside the class, while others don’t. Based on the variety described here, differentiation is a useful tactic to employ. When teaching a lesson, the teacher provides reading samples of varying levels, which students pick to read based on what they feel more comfortable with, or assigns different ones to different groups. During grammar or vocabulary instruction, the teacher varies the method of information delivery--implicit/explicit, teacher/learner centered, auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc, based on student learning needs, with the goal being that everything is presented in a way that appeals to all learners. Students’ production activities are differentiated based on interest--students think about what their interests are, and pick what they would like to talk/write about. For example, if the final product is a student blog, students pick the topic based on their personal interests, though they still need to include the required grammar/vocabulary/discourse/pragmatics, and may need to stay within other parameters. This is opposed to giving students one version of input, method of instruction, and a specific topic that they have to write about/research.
While research in the area of differentiation in the language classroom is very limited, we have a lot to learn from its success in other contexts. It has been shown that when teachers differentiate their teaching, students become more engaged (Anderson and Cook, 2014). Tomlinson (1995) claims that, in fact, teachers engaging all students is a fundamental piece of differentiated learning (p. 20). If students feel like instruction is tailored to their needs and interests, they will be more motivated to be involved and engaged in the learning process.
In a language learning context where learners may be more likely to have specific interests and there may be high variance in ability, differentiation could have even more implications for facilitating learner engagement. In my own experience, providing learners with individual ways to connect with what they are learning and adjusting processes based on ability and need results in engaged students who display inquiry, work hard, and ultimately attain their short-term learning goals. Students want to interact with things that are interesting and attainable for them; and the teacher has to become engaged in their students’ lives and understand students’ characteristics. When the teacher provides learning opportunities that reflect those aspects back, students respond.
References
Anderson, D., and Cook, T. (2014). Committed to differentiation and engagement: A case study of two American secondary social studies teachers. Journal of Social Studies Education Research, 5(1), 1-19.
Lamb, T. (2003). Individualising learning: organizing a flexible learning environment. In M. J. Raya and T. Lamb (Eds.), Differentiation in the modern languages classroom. (177-194). Germany: Peter Lang GmbH Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften.
Raya, J. M., and Lamb, T. (2003). Dealing with diversity in the modern languages class. In M. J. Raya and T. Lamb (Eds.), Differentiation in the modern languages classroom. (13-20). Germany: Peter Lang GmbH Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften.
Tomlinson, C. A. (1995). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The differentiated classroom: responding to the needs of all learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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