Contents
Content Type: 1
Title: Using a Corpus and a Dictionary to Learn Unknown Vocabulary
Body:
Using corpora can be an effective way for learning new vocabulary. This article looks at a 2019 article that investigated how students learn new vocabulary using a corpus and a dictionary. This article also introduces an online corpus, its advantages and weaknesses.
To read more, visit http://www.eltresearchbites.com/201901-using-both-a-corpus-and-a-dictionary-to-learn-unknown-vocabulary/
Source: ELT Research Bites
Inputdate: 2019-02-01 13:23:39
Lastmodifieddate: 2019-02-04 04:53:44
Expdate:
Publishdate: 2019-02-04 02:15:01
Displaydate: 2019-02-04 00:00:00
Active: 1
Emailed: 1
Isarchived: 0
Content Type: 1
Title: The One Who …
Body:
From https://hanatichaeltblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/20/the-one-who/
In this article, read about an English teacher’s experience doing an activity called The One Who. It is a simple activity that doesn’t need a lot of preparation. It can be used for boosting positive energy and for other language practice purposes.
To read the full article, visit https://hanatichaeltblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/20/the-one-who/
Source: How I see it Now
Inputdate: 2019-02-01 13:24:34
Lastmodifieddate: 2019-02-04 04:53:44
Expdate:
Publishdate: 2019-02-04 02:15:01
Displaydate: 2019-02-04 00:00:00
Active: 1
Emailed: 1
Isarchived: 0
Content Type: 1
Title: Using Photos and Videos in Class
Body:
From https://kidworldcitizen.org/using-photos-videos-in-class/
In this podcast listen to Becky Morales talk to Sarah Breckley, a high school Spanish teacher, about the use of media in classroom. According to this podcast, photos and videos can be excellent authentic resources for many purposes; such as speaking/writing prompts, looking into cultural insights, and teaching vocabulary. This podcast looks at how media is effective in engaging students in the classroom. Also, Sarah Breckley shares six activities using photos and videos that can be used by all language teachers.
For more information visit, https://kidworldcitizen.org/using-photos-videos-in-class/
Source: Kid World Citizen
Inputdate: 2019-02-01 13:26:18
Lastmodifieddate: 2019-02-04 04:53:44
Expdate:
Publishdate: 2019-02-04 02:15:01
Displaydate: 2019-02-04 00:00:00
Active: 1
Emailed: 1
Isarchived: 0
Content Type: 5
Title: New Cohort of OIIP Students
Body:
Right on the Chinese New Year’s day, CASLS is welcoming eight Oregon International Internship Program (OIIP) students from China and Taiwan. Students are excited to be placed in local K-5 classrooms in both Eugene and Springfield areas. “Student interns were asking a lot of great questions prior to the program. I am happy to know that they are getting themselves ready to begin the internship. The mentor teachers and local students are excited to have them in the classrooms, too,” says Li-Hsien Yang, Program Director.
Source: CASLS Spotlight
Inputdate: 2019-02-04 05:56:28
Lastmodifieddate: 2019-02-11 04:42:28
Expdate:
Publishdate: 2019-02-11 02:15:01
Displaydate: 2019-02-11 00:00:00
Active: 1
Emailed: 1
Isarchived: 0
Content Type: 3
Title: How to Successfully Implement Integrated Performance Assessments and Provide Students with Meaningful Feedback
Body:
Lynette Williams has taught Spanish in Eugene, Oregon for over 20 years. Currently, Lynette serves as a Teacher on Special Assignment for World Languages and Immersion Programing for Eugene School District 4J. She, and 4J teachers, are collaborating with CASLS on the implementation of new curriculum, focusing on proficiency instruction and Integrated Performance Assessments.
After years of teaching and hundreds of hours spent correcting students’ summative assessments, I knew little about what my students could actually ‘do’ with the language. So much time correcting work that assessed students’ mastery of the language, particularly grammar and vocabulary, ended up in the trash can. Students didn’t know what to do with the feedback they received. The focus was on what they didn’t know. Something had to change.
Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) foster learner centeredness in that they allow students to demonstrate what they can actually do with the language. Implemented successfully, students can demonstrate proficiency in all three modes, Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational, spokes radiating from the hub of Interculturality. But how to do this effectively in a class of 35 or more students? The three steps that follow offer some guidance.
Incremental Introduction
Initially, it may prove daunting to assess all three modes. Teachers may find it less stressful to assess two modes in each unit until they are comfortable conducting IPAs. This strategy is successful if you rotate through all three modes several times during the course. For example, Unit One (Interpretive and Interpersonal), Unit Two (Interpretive and Presentational), Unit Three (Interpersonal and Presentational), and so on. Interculturality must be embedded in all tasks in all modes. Become comfortable assessing in two modes and then graduate to three.
Intentional Planning
IPAs require teachers to identify the content and modes to assess, to design an IPA rubric, and to share this information with students at the beginning of the unit. Backwards planning can lead to success. If students have a clear roadmap showing them what they will be able ‘to do’ with the language by the end of the unit and how they will be assessed, they will be engaged in daily instruction and self-motivated learners.
Before administering each IPA teachers should repeat the plan and the IPA Rubric with students. So, for example, when doing Interpersonal Speaking and Presentational Writing tasks, the teacher would inform students of the order in which they will speak, either individually with you or in pairs, and that everyone else will work independently on a Presentational Writing task. A clear IPA Rubric, coupled with grading as you go, makes assessing both modes easier for you and understandable for students. Gone is student confusion parsing out what rubric indicators truly mean.
Student Participation and Support
If designed well, the IPA rubric offers meaningful feedback, providing students with a roadmap of how they move to the next proficiency level rather than solely focusing on errors and grades. Armed with information about what and and how they will be assessed, they become active rather than passive learners. They are more willing to engage in self and peer evaluations. Ideally, students will come to appreciate how IPAs show what they can do with language in real life. They get excited that they have practical, useful skills to use when they encounter the target culture.
Isn’t that better than a trashcan full of tests?
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
Inputdate: 2019-02-06 05:56:31
Lastmodifieddate: 2019-02-11 04:42:28
Expdate:
Publishdate: 2019-02-11 02:15:01
Displaydate: 2019-02-11 00:00:00
Active: 1
Emailed: 1
Isarchived: 0
Content Type: 4
Title: Crafting Clear Rubrics for IPAs
Body:
This activity was created to help teachers implement student-friendly rubrics for Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs). Each of these rubrics is aligned with the 2012 ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and involves the articulation of indicators of mastery, or content and genre-specific expectations, for learners that accompany the rubrics.
Materials Needed: Mastery rubric aligned to the 2012 ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, an IPA, and an example IPA rubric with indicators of mastery (for reference)
Procedure:
- Create a mastery rubric for the communicative modes (ideally plus interculturality) that is aligned to the proficiency expectations for your students. If you do not already have one such rubric, these typically are divided into four achievement levels:
- The highest level of achievement should require a bit of risk-taking (e.g., applying knowledge in a new context) and should describe learners beginning to develop the next sub-level of proficiency.
- The third highest level of achievement should describe learners squarely performing at the targeted sub-level of proficiency.
- The second highest level of achievement should describe learners for whom the targeted sub-level of proficiency is emerging but inconsistently met.
- The lowest level of achievement should describe learners who generally do not perform at the targeted sub-level of proficiency.
- Next to the descriptors for each mode (and interculturality), create an additional column. You will use this column to articulate your indicators of mastery.
- Review the IPA that you are going to give students and identify the specific content and genre-specific knowledge (e.g., targeted structures, registers of language, and structural and rhetorical devices) that will be demonstrated by learners performing at the highest level. Take note of these expectations.
- Start developing indicators of mastery of that articulate the knowledge you identified in Step 3. Consider and articulate what the knowledge would ‘look like’ for a student performing at each of the lower levels on the rubric. Important: Make sure to articulate each of these indicators based on the knowledge that is proven (proficiency-oriented) rather than what is absent (deficiency-oriented). This may require careful word choice. For example, you may want to use language like this:
- Level 1: Targeted structure/genre-specific expectation/interpretive question or task type was attempted.
- Level 2: Targeted structure/genre-specific expectation/interpretive question or task type appears in student work with correct treatment from time-to-time (the specific number of times may be articulated by teachers depending on the assessment).
- Level 3: Targeted structure/genre-specific expectation/interpretive question type or task appears in student work with correct treatment with general consistency (‘general consistency’ may be specifically defined by teachers depending on the assessment).
- Level 4: There are few, if any errors, in student work regarding the targeted structure/genre-specific expectation/interpretive question/task type. Some risk-taking with the targeted structure/genre-specific expectation/interpretive question task or type is evident.
- Consider your indicators and eliminate redundancies. Each higher level of performance assumes that all of the previous level has been demonstrated, so it is unnecessary to articulate the same expectation more than once.
- Review the rubric and indicators of mastery with your learners often throughout the course of their learning activities designed to prepare them for the IPA at hand. Connect their learning activities clearly to those expectations.
- Deliver the IPA. Protect time for learners to use the indicators of mastery to predict their scores.
- Score the IPA. Simply begin at the lowest level of achievement and start checking off the indicators of mastery that appear in the student work. Once you arrive at indicators of mastery that are not represented in student work, stop checking them off. Assign the score that corresponds to the place on the rubric you were when you stopped checking.
- Reflect on your students’ work and your indicators of mastery to determine what changes, if any, should be made before the next time you deliver the IPA. Take note of those changes.
Notes:
Sometimes, particularly with interpretive assessments, learners may actually answer the most difficult questions well but miss some of the more basic ones. For these students, use a best-fit approach when determining their grade in lieu of strict adherence to the process described in Step 8.
At most schools, mastery rubric grades have to be converted to the 100-point scale. A general rule-of-thumb to guide this process is to make Level 4 an A, Level 3 a B, Level 2 a C/D+, and Level 1 a D-/F.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
Inputdate: 2019-02-06 06:11:15
Lastmodifieddate: 2019-02-11 04:42:28
Expdate:
Publishdate: 2019-02-11 02:15:01
Displaydate: 2019-02-11 00:00:00
Active: 1
Emailed: 1
Isarchived: 0
Content Type: 1
Title: Report: English Learners in STEM Subjects
Body:
English Learners in STEM Subjects: Transforming Classrooms, Schools, and Lives
Edited by David Francis and Amy Stephens
Published by the National Academies Press
The imperative that all students, including English learners (ELs), achieve high academic standards and have opportunities to participate in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning has become even more urgent and complex given shifts in science and mathematics standards. As a group, these students are underrepresented in STEM fields in college and in the workforce at a time when the demand for workers and professionals in STEM fields is unmet and increasing. However, English learners bring a wealth of resources to STEM learning, including knowledge and interest in STEM-related content that is born out of their experiences in their homes and communities, home languages, variation in discourse practices, and, in some cases, experiences with schooling in other countries.
English Learners in STEM Subjects: Transforming Classrooms, Schools, and Lives examines the research on ELs’ learning, teaching, and assessment in STEM subjects and provides guidance on how to improve learning outcomes in STEM for these students. This report considers the complex social and academic use of language delineated in the new mathematics and science standards, the diversity of the population of ELs, and the integration of English as a second language instruction with core instructional programs in STEM.
Visit the publisher's website to purchase this report in paperback or to download it for free: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25182/english-learners-in-stem-subjects-transforming-classrooms-schools-and-lives
Read a short article about the report at https://thejournal.com/articles/2019/01/23/education-needs-to-revamp-how-to-teach-english-learners-in-stem.aspx
Source: The National Academies Press
Inputdate: 2019-02-10 16:20:35
Lastmodifieddate: 2019-02-11 04:42:28
Expdate:
Publishdate: 2019-02-11 02:15:01
Displaydate: 2019-02-11 00:00:00
Active: 1
Emailed: 1
Isarchived: 0
Content Type: 1
Title: Book: English Language Learners’ Socially Constructed Motives and Interactional Moves
Body:
English Language Learners’ Socially Constructed Motives and Interactional Moves
By Thomas A. Williams
Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing
This book explores the potential for task-based language learning and teaching (TBLT) within a particular context, specifically Hungary, by investigating beliefs among Hungarian university students about English (and other foreign) language teaching. It also examines the nature of these learners’ task-based spoken interaction and explores their socioculturally determined choices in that regard. It finds that, despite much exposure to traditional classroom practices, the learners are generally open to TBLT, make various (sometimes surprising) contributions in performing speaking tasks, and display a tendency toward collaboration in spoken interaction over communication breakdowns. The book offers both universal and culture-specific explanations for this tendency. The findings detailed here have implications for English (and other foreign/second) language teaching which may be of interest to researchers, practitioners, and teacher educators, not only in Hungary, Central Europe, and similar educational contexts, but anywhere that teachers and learners are struggling to improve foreign and second language development.
Visit the publisher's website at https://cambridgescholars.com/english-language-learners-socially-constructed-motives-and-interactional-moves/
Source: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Inputdate: 2019-02-10 16:21:35
Lastmodifieddate: 2019-02-11 04:42:28
Expdate:
Publishdate: 2019-02-11 02:15:01
Displaydate: 2019-02-11 00:00:00
Active: 1
Emailed: 1
Isarchived: 0
Content Type: 1
Title: Book: Code-switching – Experimental Answers to Theoretical Questions
Body:
From https://benjamins.com/catalog/ihll.19
Code-switching – Experimental Answers to Theoretical Questions
Edited by Luis López
Published by John Benjamins Publishing Company
This volume compiles eight original chapters dedicated to different topics within bilingual grammar and processing with special focus on code-switching. Three main features unify the contributions to this volume. First, they focus on making a contribution to our understanding of the human language within a coherent theoretical framework; second, they understand that a complete theory of the human language needs to include data from bilinguals’ I-languages; and third, they are committed to obtaining reliable data following experimental protocols.
Visit the publisher's website at https://benjamins.com/catalog/ihll.19
Source: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Inputdate: 2019-02-10 16:22:20
Lastmodifieddate: 2019-02-11 04:42:28
Expdate:
Publishdate: 2019-02-11 02:15:01
Displaydate: 2019-02-11 00:00:00
Active: 1
Emailed: 1
Isarchived: 0
Content Type: 1
Title: Call for Proposals: Canadian Association for Japanese Language Education 2019 Annual Conference
Body:
From https://www.cajle.info/programs/cajle2019/
CAJLE (Canadian Association for Japanese Language Education) holds an annual conference which includes lectures and workshops by guest speakers, as well as research presentations and a general meeting. The conference provides an opportunity to exchange information and opinions on Japanese language education and Japanese linguistics. The CAJLE 2019 Annual Conference will take place at The University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. For more information visit the CAJLE website (http://www.cajle.info/) and Twitter (@CAJLE_ACELJ).
Theme: "Hyōgen" Literacy: Exploring Japanese Language Education in a Diversifying Society from the Perspective of Communication
Conference Date: August 6 (Tuesday) – August 7 (Wednesday), 2019
Abstract Submission Deadline: Monday, April 8, 2019
Notification of Acceptance: Thursday, April 25, 2019
For more information, visit https://www.cajle.info/programs/cajle2019/
Source: CAJLE
Inputdate: 2019-02-10 16:23:41
Lastmodifieddate: 2019-02-11 04:42:28
Expdate: 2019-04-08 00:00:00
Publishdate: 2019-02-11 02:15:01
Displaydate: 2019-02-11 00:00:00
Active: 1
Emailed: 1
Isarchived: 0
