9/1 Reading Thoughts (ENG 345)

Celce-Murcia (1991):
In the past, we have used two ways of approaching language teaching: which were speaking/understanding the language and learning the languages' grammatical rules.
Celce-Murcia lists nine approaches to refer to different teaching methodologies of language: Grammar-Translation Approach, Direct Approach, Reading Approach, Audiolingualism (U.S.), Situational Approach (UK), Cognitive Approach, Affective-Humanistic Approach, Comprehension-Based Approach, and the Communicative Approach.
After reading over the descriptions of these language teaching approaches, I found the communicative approach and the affective-humanistic approaches to be quite interesting.
I really like the communicative approach in that it lets students take a hands-on approach to their language learning (i.e. role-playing of real-life situations) and the idea of classroom materials having authenticity to the students. The teacher's role is more of a facilitator, and not just to correct and mark-off errors. The basic skills like reading, speaking, listening, and writing are integrated into the language learning.
The parts of the Affective-Humanistic Approach that I thought were necessary were the emphasis of respect among everyone in the classroom, being motivating and not bringing down anyone's feelings. There exists a class environment that is almost like a community, with peer support and interaction. I believe that teachers, among teaching the curriculum, are responsible for teaching our students to be global citizens, welcoming all cultures, so that we can knock down all these barrier and stereotypes that sometimes hinders learning.

B. Kumaravadivelu, Tesol Methods: Changing Tracks, Changing Trends
The author of this article touches on the last 15 years (1991-2006) of how TESOL has developed, how it has shifted from three different waves: (1) from communicative language teaching to task-based language teaching,
(2) from method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy, and (3) from systemic discovery to critical discourse.
I found that the author was a bit rash in thinking that we have figured this whole TESOL thing out. I am not the best at describing all these different theories and even saying that I agree with a lot of these waves of change that have occurred. I feel that the best way of understanding is not by the times, but by the learners. There are different TESOL environments all over the country. A lot of the ways of approaching students depends on the classroom/school environment. What kind of learners (Where are they from) do you have? What technologies do you have on your utility belt?
When Dr. Brown (1991, p. 257) declared that "We have come a long way," in regards to TESOL, I couldn't disagree more. The rates of students dropping out because of the barriers set-up against ELL learners and the poverty state of many immigrant families still makes it difficult for these students to not only adjust, but be successful. There are still many ways we can improve on the way we teach our students, and a lot of it falls on us and the fund-lacking curriculum that education has to deal with.

Off my soap-box! See you all tomorrow!

Blog ya' lata!
The TESOL Bro, Tommy T.