AUTHORITY, MYSTERY, AND MIRACLE IN TESOL   Term Paper ID:20759 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Describes various methods & theories for teaching/learning a foreign language. Authority & control, Counseling-Learning/Community Learning, Silent Way, teaching machine movement.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Describes various methods & theories for teaching/learning a foreign language. Authority & control, Counseling-Learning/Community Learning, Silent Way, teaching machine movement. Paper Introduction: AUTHORITY, MYSTERY, AND MIRACLE IN TESOL Whether a behavioristic or humanistic approach is taken towards teaching and learning a foreign language, the fact remains that there are more questions than answers regarding how to teach and how one learns. Teaching--as all endeavors affecting human destiny--is as much an art as a science. There is no shortage of proposed ways to help modify human behaviors: methods come and go and come back ill-disguised as one or another scholar or pseudo-scholar rediscovers the light bulb. As to learning, we are only beginning to discern some of its mechanisms in some people who, in some situations and in some contexts, try and acquire some knowledge or some skills. Linguists fail to understand that linguistics is neither psychology nor pedagogy. Psychologists fail to admit that to know something is not to know Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. (1987). In M.H.Long & A. The phenomenological aspect of problemposing education appears in the emphasis on how the learners perceive their personal situation. The teaching-machine movement proposed that vocabulary,pronunciation, and grammatical rules be taught by machines rather than byteachers or through inductive student-generated methods. Klein, W. Innovative approaches. Richards (Eds.), Methodology in TESOL: ABook of Readings. (1978). InJ.R. Miracles "We used to believe that if students learned the form, communicationwould somehow take care of itself. Celce-Murcia (Ed.),Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Theteacher, in this setting, did not function as an authority or strongpresence, but rather as an understanding, supportive, and non-judgmentalcounselor... If it were truly achieved, the teacher may feel threatened bythe students' self-reliance and suffer from an 'empty classroom syndrome'just as a mother might experience the 'empty nest'" (1987:136). Yet, even thoughunAmerican, much of Suggestopedia has been shown to work and to be based onaccepted principles of psychology. Taylor (1987:5 ) concurs with Stevick in that "The teacher's attitudeand the resultant relationship created between the teacher and the studentis the single most important variable in successfully executing student-centered teaching. It hadoccurred to Canter that teachers had been socially and educationallyconditioned to respond nonassertively, i.e. First, it puts teachers in their place, emphasizing the individuality of students and reducing the compulsion we sometimes feel to control classroom activity. In M. In the name of "teaching control", teachers must be careful not tomonopolize initiative. Journal of Research and Development inEducation, 12, pp. (1973b). Where does that putthe teacher and her "authority?" Has she lost control of theteaching/learning situation? Boston, Mass.: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. One of the greater mysteries.Indeed, "there is not yet a single, comprehensive formula or a known bodyof principles which, if followed, can satisfy all tastes and assume uniformsuccess for all teachers and learners" (Blair, 1991:23). The trick, for the teacher, is not only to preserve this distinction, it is also to provide just the right amount of learning space. Memory, meaning, and method. Whether torelinquish authority awarded by the group is "democratic" or "demagogic" isa matter of degree and political philosophy. Mystery? One quandary that baffles teachers is the amount and nature ofauthority they ought to exercise for optimum student learning. We seethus, as do Richards and Rodgers (1987:15 ) that "Some instructionalsystems are totally dependent on the teacher as the source of knowledge anddirection; others see the teacher's role as catalyst, consultant,diagnostician, guide, and model for learning; still others try to teacher-proof the instructional system by limiting teacher initiative and buildinginstructional content and direction into tests and lesson-plans." The audiolingual method is an example of the teacher-centered concept--a concept which provides security to the teacher. Thissyndrome is precisely the teacher's fear--whether real or imaginary--thathe or she is losing authority. (1987). Designing a curriculum on the basis of this concept of authoritybecomes rather subjective. How do we know, then, how to adaptdidactic methodology to evolutionary status? Butthen, as Blair (1991:241) concludes: "The only way to see for oneself howthis marvelous new way of teaching and learning actually worked was to takean expensive workshop." Conclusions The dilemma concerning authority is an expression of politico-socio-philosophical considerations more than of pedagogical approach. Mystery. "A first dip into the literature on methods of teaching foreignlanguages is likely to be a puzzling, even a disheartening, experience"(Prator, 1991:11). Language teaching must do an about face. First, althoughthe intent is for steadily decreasing reliance on the teacher-counselor andincreasing student independence, this intention is difficult to achieve inpractice. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second orForeign Language (2nd ed.). (1987). Stevick, E. Doubtlessly, teachers must beaccountable for the output of their pedagogical efforts. One simple visual aid: A psychodynamic view.Language Learning, 25, pp. In M. Mystery. Hostile teachers, on the other hand, overreact,i.e. Stevick, E. (1976). Toward a realization ofpsycholinguistic principles in the ESL reading class. It shifts the didactic orientation from teacheras major dispenser of knowledge to teachers and students "mutuallyreflecting on a cultural theme with both contributing valid insights"(Crawford-Lange,1 97:126). and consist[s] ofchoices among a narrow or a very broad range of possibilities which areprovided by whoever is exercising control." He argues that control andinitiative must be kept distinct and can be adjusted independently of eachother. Denton, D. The mystery, of course, may lie in oneor more of the many variables which enter into the teaching/learningequation: application of the method, personalities of the teacher and ofthe students, cultural climate, and, above all, individual learning styles. Blair, R. Linguists fail to understand that linguistics isneither psychology nor pedagogy. (1986). without consideration for theirown wants and feelings, to students' demanding, often aggressive, andschoolgoal irrelevant comportment. "We don't know at what age children learn that form and function do notcorrespond exactly" (Cazden, 1972:13). The language teacher as facilitator. Review of Gattegno's teaching foreign languagesin the schools: The silent way. (1986). A primary focus of Curran's work was to highlight what we cancall 'learning initiative"' (Taylor, 1987:58). Culturally imposed student expectations set definitelimits to the classroom social climate which best promotes learning.Strange as it may seem to American or Scandinavian teachers, "even adultstudents may have a strong need for authoritarian classroom atmosphere.Because of personality, cultural background, or age, some students want tobe told exactly what to do. Thedilemma remains: To spank or not to spank, that is the question! Taylor, B. To a largeextent, culture determines the amount and nature of authority vested in thepeople and in their elected delegates, in the students and in theirteachers. Some researchers have questioned the authoritarian aspect ofcorrection in language learning. ModernLanguage Journal, 58, pp. Clarke, M., & Silverstein, S. They feel a class is a place not for learningbut for being taught" (Peterson, 1991:379). Grammatical explanations in ESL: Teach thestudent, not the method. 39-53. Boston, Mass.: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. About mysteries and miracles, only one thing is certain: Thereain't no mysteries and there ain't no miracles. Long & J.C.Richards (Eds.), Methodology in TESOL: A Book of Readings. There is no didactic material selected and used in asystematic and comprehensive way. Stevick, E. She passes judgments on student performances, and correctsevery error and mistake. Richards (Eds.),Methodology in TESOL: A Book of Readings. (1987). (1974a). This shortpaper quotes a number of currently renown TESOL researchers, with a view tohaving their opinions on the matter. Language Learning, 23, pp. 3-15. The learner-centered curriculum. A final remark should be made for the special benefit of teachers whoteach English in a foreign country. Mystery "What is amazing is that there are some examples of successfullanguage learners for different and even contradictory methods (Stevick,1976), and the question of which overall method is superior remains to beanswered" (Eisenstein, 1987:282). Whether it leads to betterlearning remains to be demonstrated. Clarke and Silverstein (1987:236) exemplify this new trend indiluting the teacher's authority: We utilize a paradigm of L2 classroom activity which minimizes teacher intervention, forcing the student to use and develop his new language skills... Shouldn't we believe in miracles? (1987). A Synthesis of Methods for InteractiveListening. Foreign Language Annals, 13, pp. The non-assertive teacher fails to actbecause of fear or confusion regarding the adequacy and the appropriatenessof his or her actions. Hayes (Ed.), Cognition and the development of language (pp. Such orientation seems to have drawbacks. 99-1 6). Boston, Mass.: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. This social dimension, however,is essentially an assumption conditioned by culture. Teachers who are new to the profession, teacherswho are insecure in the face of mounting democratic sharing ofresponsibility, teachers with an autocratic bend, teachers shortchanged bya dearth of material or by an autocratic school system--are teachers whoseauthority is dictated not by the needs of the learners but by either theirown needs or by the strictures of a retrograde system. Boston, Mass.: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. Crawford-Lange (1987:125-6), discussing Problem-Posing Education as precognized byPaul Freire and reconceptualists (such as James Macdonald, Michael Apple,John Mann, Dwayne Huebner, Maxine Greene, Madeleine Grumet, William Pinar,George Willis), remarks that In contrast to the technological base of the systemsbehavioral design, problem-posing education has its roots in the humanities, as evidenced in an instructional and evaluative methodology derived from existentialist methodology and phenomenological philosophy (Denton, 1974). Teachers, usually ill-trainedand confused, think that by concocting a mixture of recent faddist theorieswith their own insight, they hold the key to teaching. Building positive attitudes byusing cooperative learning groups. What's the point ofexperience, then? Does form exist without function... Washington, D.C.:Georgetown University Press. In this method,the teacher provides but limited guidance and constitutes but a limitedinformation resource, intervening only when it becomes clear that the groupneeds to solve a problem. (1987). The machine thus frees the teacher from the "mechanical"components of language teaching/learning. TESOLQuarterly, 4(11), pp. Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. Boston, Mass.: Heinle and HeinlePublishers.----------------------- 3 Nunan, D. There is only ignorance--which slowly, painfully, we are eroding. In encouraging him to take "initiative", she is allowing him to work, and to grow, within that space. 259271. 379-383. If we do not know this, at whatpoint in the learning process should one dichotomize between form andfunction? (1987). Miracles rarely occurmore than once... TESOL Quarterly, 8, pp. In the Silent Way method, the teacher has even less authority. Stevick, E. New York, N.Y.: Teachers College Press. Richards (Eds.), Methodology in TESOL: A Book ofReadings. In thetraditional way the teacher spends more time talking than do the students--thereby gaining more practice than do the students. Rardin, J. Second Language Acquisition. (1983). In M.H. 279-362).New York, N.Y.: Wiley. InCooperative Learning--as Johnson and Johnson (1975), Gunderson (1978), andGunderson and Johnson (198 ) point out--learning occurs primarily from peerinteraction rather than from teacher-student relationship. One thing is for teachers to exercise control ofclassroom discipline, another is to stand as the role-model of theknowledge and skills to be taught, another still is to constitute the soleor main architect of the teaching/learning environment and processes. Language and content. Again, teacher's authority is diluted. Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. Clear, detailed objectivesare absent. The question now arises: Does this sharing of responsibility not leadto the teacher abdicating her fundamental authority and responsibility toguide and structure the class--its environment and didactic methodology?Neither Curran nor Taylor thinks so. It is authority that provides control. Peterson, P. If,as psychologists believe, the locus of learning resides in the learner,should the learner not generate his own syllabus and didactic methodology?Affective-Humanistic Approach methodologists think so. Richards (Eds.), Methodology inTESOL: A Book of Readings. 383-7. References Bever, T. and vice versa? Stevick, E. This relieves us of feelings of guilt and frustration occasioned by unsuccessful attempts at coercing the students to keep together. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Now we seem to believe that if studentssomehow learn to communicate , mastery of the form will take care ofitself" (Eskey, 1983:319). From the existentialist emphasis, problem-posing education extracts a concern for the real-life situation of the learners as well as the perception of the student as decision maker... Before linguistics and beneath method. Perhaps there is a juste milieu, abalance of power which ensures optimum and harmonious mutual growth. Long & J.C. In M.H. It isthe students who do the talking and the recombining of material. In most non-Westerncultures, for instance, such climate will lead to a "loss of face," loss ofrespect for the teacher who is supposed to be the authority by virtue ofhis wisdom and title. The crux of thematter lies in the various facets of authority as well as on its variousmodes of application. It concerns classroom "climate".Americans assume that a classroom should be relaxed, supportive,democratic, if it is to promote learning. Boston, Mass.:Heinle and Heinle Publishers. Thus it is that much of TESOL remains a mystery, in spite of themiracles which proponents of one fad or another try to foist upon ateaching profession and a learning public hungry for valid formulaicresponses. Doubtlessly, thisis a good approach when the teacher, for instance, is not a native speakerof the target language and feels more secure in the grammar-translationmethod than in imparting skills he may not have mastered (Pronunciation,for example, because he started learning at too advanced an age-basically,past puberty). indirecting, counseling, correcting (if allowed!). Boston, Mass.: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. He follows thecurriculum, the lesson-plans, the accepted methodology: he is, in otherwords, in full command of the situation; he has the authority conferred bythe system and his title. If there is an importantcorpus of similarities due to the speciesspecific idiosyncracy of humans,is there not a body of principles which might satisfy at least most tastes? New York, N.Y.:Cambridge University Press. Are there moredifferences than similarities among learners? Long & J.C. WhetherIt is nobler to adopt a laisser faire attitude or to be in full command ofthe situation is still at the core of the teaching/learning authoritydilemma. Crawford-Lange, L. Phillips, M., & Shettlesworth, C. Teaching ESL: Incorporating a communicative,student-centered component. Mystery. (1975). The teacher as teacher is necessary only when the class is attempting to resolve a language problem. "A Bulgarianphysician and psychotherapist, Lozanov, first used the rapid memorizationof foreign vocabulary as the test vehicle of his experimentation withsuggestology, concluding that the experimental techniques used, aimed atrelaxing the subjects and fostering hope and trust in their own powers oflearning massive amounts quickly and easily, made possible a phenomenalrate of learning--up to a thousand words in an hour, reportedly, or (asadvertised) 'From Five to Fifty Times the Normal Rate!' Then heexperimented with higher-order language learning, producing, it wasclaimed, equally dramatic results" (Blair, 1991:41). Methodology has to adapt to culture, rather than the other wayaround. Rather, they say, it emphasizes theneed for teachers to be sensitive to the dynamics of the class. Mohan, B. Since the educational approach is based on the students' concerns andtheir perception of their personal situation, and since it is the studentswho are decision-makers, clearly the authority of the teacher is muchlimited. (197 ). Still a mystery. Review of Curran's counseling-learning: A wholeperson model for education. As tolearning, we are only beginning to discern some of its mechanisms in somepeople who, in some situations and in some contexts, try and acquire someknowledge or some skills. In M.H. Stevick, E. and this is what has happened to Lozanov's baby. they reduce their level of anxiety through aggressiveness which theyare wont to rationalize as the "need for discipline" in the classroom. Stevick (198 :19) contrasts control with initiative which "refers todecisions about who says what, to whom, and when... Or should we ever? Method: Approach, design, andprocedure. Rowley, MA:Newbury House Publishers. Rowley,MA: Newbury House Publishers. Richards (Eds.), Methodologyin TESOL: A Book of Readings. Boston, Mass.: Heinleand Heinle Publishers. AUTHORITY, MYSTERY, AND MIRACLE IN TESOL Whether a behavioristic or humanistic approach is taken towardsteaching and learning a foreign language, the fact remains that there aremore questions than answers regarding how to teach and how one learns.Teaching--as all endeavors affecting human destiny--is as much an art as ascience. It also briefly points out some ofthe mysteries and miracles ascribed to the field. Long & J.C. (1991). TESOLQuarterly, 17(2), pp. Content is student-generated and assumes students know how tochoose content. InGeorgetown University Roundtable (pp. Cambridge, U.K.:Cambridge University Press. (1991). Does asign have intrinsic meaning or does it symbolize something? In Curran's C-L/CLL's environment, "the teacher and the studentssupported and accepted each other and worked together as a group. As he explains: In exercising "control", then, the teacher is giving some kind of order, or structure, to the learning space of the student. and viceversa? How do teachers, then, make sense of it all and stillmanage to make a decent job of teaching? There is no shortage of proposed ways to help modify humanbehaviors: methods come and go and come back ill-disguised as one oranother scholar or pseudo-scholar rediscovers the light bulb. Authority Canter (1976:46-49) proposed Assertive Training as a behavioristicanswer to the problem of controlling students' classroom behavior. Curricular alternatives for second-language learning. Eisenstein, M. (1974b). She leads allactivities. Stevick, E. Long & J.C. Within this framework, the teacher does not function asa drill leader or an authority figure, no matter how benevolent, but ratheras a 'facilitator' (Rardin, 1977) who responds to the students' emerginglanguage needs." One current teaching approach which has attempted to incorporatethese ideas in an explicit way is CounselingLearning/Community LanguageLearning. 3 5-314. Let us see what a representative sample ofresearchers think about the problem. 315-323. The teacher's burden now is to check foradequate exposure to grammar and vocabulary and hope the students willagree to changes in their self-generated unstructured syllabus (or, moreexactly, lack of syllabus). The teacher is a participant in activities in which the knowledge and opinions of all persons in the class are of equal weight... Meanwhile, back in the real world teaching. Cooperative, competitive, andindividualistic learning. (1977). Second, it puts the responsibility for learning squarely on the shoulders of the students, which is where it belongs." Amen. (198 ). The cognitive basis for linguistic structures. 63-72. (1973a). This paradigm of the L2 classroom has two important advantages. Blair (1991:34-5), for example, remarksthat "One key to fluency is to start with uncluttered simplicity of form,taking as target a reduced rule-density language; another is to producecreative narration in one's own confident form of speech, blessed by theteacher's encouragement and not threatened by authoritarian correctionbased on native norms--or even the 'norms' of the sheltered language."Nunan, 1988) acknowledges that a majority of British and, particularly,American teachers today favor student-centered learning. Teaching languages: A way and ways. (1988). "Research in secondlanguage acquisition has too short a history to supply conclusive evidenceon any important question" (Klein, 1986:167). Existentialism and phenomenology in education:Collected essays. If there is too little, the learner will feel that the teacher has abandoned "him". Bever (197 :3 3) puts it another way: "Of course it is not clear whenthey [children] understand the arbitrary nature of the acoustic-referentialrelationship or whether they believe that the names of objects and actionsare intrinsic and indivisible from the objects and actions themselves." Cananyone dissociate an object from its notation... How to arm your students:A consideration of two approaches to providing materials for ESP. Whether it affects his authoritywill depend essentially on how he asserts it where it is needed, viz. Gunderson, B., & Johnson, D. This "teacher-fronted" or teacher-dominantapproach has given way to a more "democratic" philosophy. In M.H. Eskey, D. As Crawford-Lange notes: "The concept ofsecurity in counseling-learning also generates problems. (198 ). In M.H. A mystery?"We don't know how the capacity to make use of experience is related to thecapacity to respond to it" (Cazden, 1972:128). p. J.C. Psychologists fail to admit that to knowsomething is not to know how to impart it. "So in the language teaching profession generally, Suggestopedia waslooked at as a sensationalized, mysterious, costly, and highly questionablenew gimmick, something not sanctioned, not legitimate, and imagined to beas far removed from American-style language teaching as yoga, hypnosis,sleep learning and the like" (Blair, 1991:41). "We don't know the order of emergence in theevolution of man or the development of children. Controversies continue onjust this question" (Cazden, 1972:182). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.