Category Archives: Education

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It’s the small things

Just today I had a revelation when ordering coffee and a scone a local coffee shop (Caribou Coffee). For those of you who know me, you’ll probably say that’s where all of my revelations come from because I spend all of my time in coffee shops.  That’s true.  What’s more true is that I even use coffee shops and the language used in them as my favorite examples in my methods classes.

I like to talk about the importance of scripts.  These are common patterns of interactions embedded in specific contexts. The coffee shop is one of my favorites. The understanding of scripts helps people with limited L2 language skills to cope and communicate in L2 contexts.  Ordering at a coffee shop is relatively standard across shops and countries (thanks to Starbucks), particularly across Starbucks shops.  Even if I understand little Korean, I can still order at Starbucks in Korea.  The more differences between scripts, the greater the likelihood of confusion and breakdowns in communication (not to mention failure to accomplish your task).

At a coffee shop today (granted it wasn’t Starbucks), I came to the realization that my time away from the US makes me a less reliable guide to operating in this culture.  It was a small thing, but similar differences can reduce teachers’ effectiveness the longer they are abroad.  Now, we can have discussions of whether one needs up to date knowledge of one of the target language cultures to this degree, but I do think it is another hole in the cult of the native speaker.

By now, you may be asking what brought on this realization.  As I say in the title, it’s the small things.  Coffee shops here (at least the big ones) don’t really do mugs.  They might have them, but the default is a to go cup.  Even the ones that they had at this Caribou Coffee were only for smalls.  So, while they did say, “for here or to go,” staying true to the script, my response didn’t determine which type of cup I received.  Secondly, I got a scone.  The same thing I get when I go to Starbucks in Korea just about every time.  There, scones are served with jelly and butter.  When I asked for that here, I was met with a confused look and an employee digging through the refrig to see if they had either of those (they didn’t).

What does all of this mean?  First, it means that while I am in Korean, things change in the US.  Yes, I know, really deep, Dan.  However, these change without my notice and leave me less prepared to operate in my native culture.  That is a strange feeling.  Second, it means that my expectations of my native culture are influenced by businesses (and thus culture) that I associate with the US, but in reality operate outside of US cultural expectations.  This is a subconscious expectation on my part, but one that is very real. In this way, I develop Korean expectations for US language and culture that color my interactions with those people, businesses, and contexts in my native land.

I don’t have anywhere else to go with this. It was just something of my lived experience that I wanted to get out there.

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Great Student Feedback

Another Subversive Comment

I know that this is a rare post for me.  This blog hasn’t been action-packed this year.  However, this experience motivated me.

At this time of year, many of us teachers, particularly those of us in Korea, are likely dreading end of semester student evaluations.  Not only are these painful due to their impact on our employment status, but they are often worthless in terms of beneficial feedback.  Student evaluations can be wonderful sources of feedback on our teaching methods, materials, and overall classroom environment.  However, most evaluations focus more on what the administration cares about: Did you teacher come on time, where the materials good, and so on.  These are so vague that they are unlikely to help any concerned teacher improve their practice.

I’ve taken a number of approaches to this problem over the years, most included direct questioning, additional surveys (Google Docs is great for this), and even anonymous notes slipped under my door.  I don’t know why it’s taken so long for me to come to my most recent approach.  

I teach quite a few writing classes, which are some of my most popular courses (not necessarily my favorite to teach).  I’ve been doing the same courses long enough that I have my approach down, but I’m always in need of feedback on the topics, classroom management (grouping strategies), and new technologies or tasks.  This semester I taught a couple courses that focus on preparing students to take the Korean English teacher exam.  The class focuses on writing 2-3 paragraph responses to prompts relating to SLA, TESOL, and classroom management. I had the class write their feedback as a final in-class, timed writing assignment.  I was amazed with the feedback.

Now, first let me say that I was nervous before reading each one.  It’s tough to get feedback.  I don’t think anyone likes negative feedback, but it was required for this assignment.  They had to write 2 paragraphs: what should stay the same in this class and what should change in this class.  I knew that I was going to get some good criticism….and I did.

I generally don’t take isolated criticism to heart unless it is something that I was worried about previously.  There were plenty of these isolated problems that I really didn’t give too much thought about: too many/much reflections for the portfolio, provide detailed outlines for your lectures (never really a lecture in actuality), and so forth.

However, when I start seeing the same ideas/categories repeated, I take note.  Some are things that students universally agreed on where the benefits of peer review (this is the first year I’ve seen this agreed on), the number of assignments (this has been the biggest complain in the past…this year I had more), the creation of portfolios, and my “teaching style” (of course, they did this before I had given them a grade, LOL).  Agreement on what should be changed was a little more elusive: student presentations (as content for papers) were seen as a waste of time that could be better spent discussing (I see this being a group prepared handout next year) and many people commented on a variety of ways that peer editing could be improved (checklists, modeling, grouping, etc…).

There were many more suggestions that spanned the two categories.  Some were more commonly positive like writing topics and the class website, while others were more commonly negative like pacing and Twitter.  The Twitter feedback killed me.

I personally love Twitter. I’ve been using it with my writing classes for about 3 years now.  It was really difficult at first because nobody had heard of it, much less used it.  These days, few are using it, but everyone has heard of it.  I get more people each semester who find the value of authentic written interactions in Twitter.  These people, however, don’t make up for the masses who would rather not be bothered using it.  At this point, I think I will take the hint and kill it for this course.  I have other writing courses that are more general in nature and it will likely remain a requirement in those courses.  There is more room for using Twitter than in this course.

This kills me not because I like it but rather because I feel that students are missing out a great opportunity.  I’ve always justified using Twitter as a way for students to experience daily writing (a sentence a day) and to practice expressing themselves concisely.  I still think there are good reasons to use Twitter with a writing class, particularly Korean writers of English. These novice writers are more likely to write confusing, 20 clause sentences.

Facing inconvenient facts is one reason why I love this process.  These are things that I would never change if I didn’t have such overwhelming feedback.  I love my students for being so honest (at least I’m assuming there is a lot of honesty in there) and I am proud of them for not only providing feedback but doing so with such diplomatic language.  The harsh, blunt language I see with many of my novice writers was magically replaced with much softer, modal-rich language.  I must be doing something right when they can tell me to go to hell and I appreciate the way they say it 🙂

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Google Translate Nightmares

I’ve taught ESL writing classes for nearly 13 years now.  Overall, I really enjoy teaching these courses.  It is great to be able to concretely witness student improvement from assignment to assignment.  The amazing transformations evident in some end-of-semester portfolios make teaching writing so much more satisfying than “four skills” classes or conversation classes, particularly at higher levels of proficiency.  However, there is one practice that drives me nuts, students submitting Google Translate translated papers.

Please, don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame them for using it.  I used a translation software way back in the dark ages for my Italian classes.  I actually think this can be great (wait on the “how/why”).

I can spot a Google translated passage in about 10 seconds.  It’s a little eery, but Google actually has a “voice”.  It’s a signature voice that, while similar to non-native Engish speaker interlanguage (particularly with Korean learners), is rather easy to identify.  I won’t even comment on these papers outside of “rewrite….but actually write it yourself this time.”

So, why do I hate these?  Those who do it are lazy.  Not because they used Google Translate, but because they didn’t take the valuable second step.  They didn’t edit it.  Translating software can save people a lot of time, and that’s important to all of us.  However, you are missing out an a learning opportunity if you don’t take a look at the translation and edit it for grammar and vocabulary (particularly in regard to context appropriate vocab).  It’s important for learners to make sure that the final piece is written in their voice, not Google’s.

So, I finally decided to get my revenge.  It was time for students to see what I see all too frequently.  I took paragraphs from multiple news stories in an English language Korean newspaper and translated them using Google Translate into Korean (see document below).  I then gave them to groups of students and had them translate.  They are also instructed to note comment problems/errors with the translations (Korean version), and I asked that they think of strategies for correcting/improving the translations after the fact.

I’m still working out the best approach for this activity, but I was generally happy with the first implementation (2 classes).  The students seemed to happily translate the passages, but carrying the activity past this point seemed to drag a little.  I fully intend to work it back into future classes though, when appropriate.  Any suggestions for next time?

Writing_-_Google_Translate_Nightmares.docx
Download this file

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John Seely Brown Keynote at NITLE Summit 2011

Go to around 18:30 in the video to skip to his talk. I think he’s pretty good at putting his ideas forth and I agree (in general) with his conclusions and queries.

Some interesting points:

  • The nature and use of knowledge and information are changing and, thus, educational needs are changing.
  • We need to get credit (as academics) for social media creation.  How many tenure committees are going to consider even a high-quality blog?  Very few to be sure.
  • Content captured without context makes less sense.  How much of the context do we need to capture?
  • Major challenges require a socio-technical, interdisciplinary approach.  The interdisciplinary part is probably the most difficult.  Getting out of our established groupings to collaborate with others outside is difficult.
  • Need to “cultivate a resilient mindset in our students – an ability to change, adapt, re-conceptualize, and engage in deep listening with humility in an act-reflect, provisional loop.”

South Korean parents told: pre-school English ‘harmful’ (Good goal, bad approach)

Media_httpstaticguimc_riukw
via guardian.co.uk

This is an interesting article. It’s one of those articles that I both agree and disagree with. It is one of those many times in which an organization uses emotional, yet undersupported claims in an attempt to get people to pursue a beneficial change.

The argument that early language learning is harmful is laughable. They are basing this on a couple of studies that run counter to piles of research finding no significant difference or even positive outcomes for early childhood language learning. I’ve seen this many times in my writing classes. I have students take a position on this topic and they do pretty good research papers. Those who write papers opposing this always bring out the same “evidence” that is buried in low-quality journals, or more likely, from blogs and newspapers.

However, with the intention of strengthening public schools and reducing the drive for private institutes (hagwons), I wholeheartedly agree. Children don’t need 12 hours of schooling a day. They probably don’t need half of that in elementary school and I’d say they need much less than that in pre-school. At younger ages they need time to play, socialize, and experiment with the world around them. This forms the foundation for intellectual growth later in life.

This group (WWW) really seems to have this as their mission. I just disagree with the evidence that they are presenting against early childhood language learning. It’s simply weak evidence that has no business of being represented as “fact”.

South Korea Says Good-Bye To Print Textbooks, Plans To Digitize Entire Curriculum By 2015 (video) | Singularity Hub

via singularityhub.com

I worry when the government mandates technology, but I don’t hate this idea. I’m looking forward to this. The publishers are going to have to turn into digital media companies. Publishing these types of materials is going to be extremely difficult.

I’m hoping beyond hope that they will include the ability for teachers to integrate their own materials and web-based materials.

Freeing the LMS – Pearson’s free entry into the LMS field with OpenClass (anyone have feedback on this?)

OpenClass can be used “absolutely for free,” says Adrian Sannier, senior vice president of product at Pearson. “No licensing costs, no costs for maintenance, and no costs for hosting. So this is a freer offer than Moodle is. It’s a freer offer than any other in the space.

via insidehighered.com

Color me intrigued. I would ditch my Moodle in a second for a better option. Of course, I don’t know how much of this hype. The system could suck. Anyone out there with some experience?

They say that they are taking a cue from Google, but that’s not really the case. They are taking there cue from Apple (at least originally). It’s all about the content. Come inside for free and while you are here can I offer you some books at a nominal fee?

I’m going in eyes wide open, but I’ll certainly go in

We Are the 99 Percent – Common themes: student debt and healthcare debt

Media_http29mediatumb_rjshu
via wearethe99percent.tumblr.com

Student debt and healthcare debt seem to be the trend for these sad stories. Regardless of your politics, you must admit that there is a need for significant change. There are no simple solutions. These folks are already in trouble and are unlikely to get out of it any time soon. However, we can try to avoid future problems.

I’ll let other, wiser souls comment on healthcare. I don’t really feel like getting into that one. However, I think I can comment on education.

Simply blaming students is misplaced (though they do share the blame). Our educational institutions are one big pyramid scheme. Professors and administrators can only justify their existence by filling their programs. Whether students can get gainful employment as a result of this education is secondary. The more students in your programs, the more faculty and facilities you can afford, which allows you to recruit more students. It’s a terrible cycle that results in departments filled to the brim with under-employable students who have yet to feel the fire at their feet.

Faculty likely don’t think of it this way, but I can’t see how they don’t. Faculty are often blinded by the relative importance of their field. For them, this field is full of work. Their friends, colleagues, and some past students do work in the field. What they lose site of are the scores of students who don’t make it in the field. They justify this by talking about the alternative paths they take and their poor decisions (never about the original poor decision of joining their department).

I struggle with this daily. I teach in a department that is seeing negative job growth (pubic school teachers) in Korea. I tell students at every chance that they must have a plan B. The benefit of an English Education degree in Korea is that they have communication and translation skills that are in relatively high demand. With this in mind, we are having to reconsider what an English Education program should prepare students for. Are we still preparing public school teachers? Or are we preparing “communicators”? If the latter, it’s just not good enough. They need marketable skills that prepare them for specialized fields including sales, trade, publishing, and so forth. If the former, we are looking at less than 1 in 10 who will get that coveted public school job. What about the other 9?

So back to student debt. There are 3 ways to address student debt. (1) enter programs in which graduates earn good money. (2) Don’t go to school at all and have the same low paying jobs at 18 that you’d have after graduating from a low-employment major. (3) Programs have to adjust to make their students more employable. Now, these are all ways that have to do with schools as they currently stand.

Another way to deal with student debt is to reduce the costs associated with education. Very few majors (if any) require long-term, residential programs to adequately learn the content. Does a degree in English literature really require one to be in a classroom for 4 years? I’d argue that it works against a good education in that field. What about math? Same problem. Education? A little more justification of face-to-face modeling. The list goes on and on. We need to give up on tradition and move to what is not only effective, but efficient.

The bubble is going to burst in education. There will be winners and losers. I just hope that when the dust clears, the winners are the students and the losers are the organizations.

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