Letter to an Interviewee

My research project’s primary data consists of teacher and student interviews.  One  interview was with my former professor.  She taught TESL graduate courses on Linguistics and Language Learning and Acquisition.  She has 25 years of experience teaching ESL to adults and it was because of this expertise and experience that I asked to interview her.  There are many adult ESL teachers that do not specifically have a background in Education or pedagogy, so I felt that she would provide an informed perspective that was rare in the world of Adult Education. Wendy Luttrell in “Reflexive Writing Exercises” suggests writing a letter to an interviewee and summarizing what was learned from the interview.

 

My letter to this interviewee follows:

Dear B.

Thank you for your time last week as an interview subject for my research project on language learning plateaus.  They main ideas I heard you express were:

·         Language learning plateaus happen to all language learners.  It is normal phenomenon.

·         The quantitative evidence of a plateau is a stagnation in standardized test scores for over a year.

·         The qualitative evidence of a plateau is frustration and absenteeism on the part of the student.

·         Overcoming a plateau often hinges on the student having the motivation to meet their own instrumental goals despite the slowdown in learning progress. Keeping an adult student motivated is essential.

·         Explicit communication with the students about their learning plateaus, all their skill areas, and specifics about what they are learning each day is important.  Pointing out their progress will help.

·         The amount of language input outside the classroom can influence how quickly a student can get past a learning plateau.  Homework assignments can help provide those opportunities.

I noticed that you never looked at a language learning plateau from a deficit perspective.  You didn’t find the student, the testing, the school, the resources, or teaching styles as blameworthy or as unassailable obstacles, though they may not have been ideal.  There was always an approach that you, the teacher could take to make up for any shortcomings.  (Though I used the word shortcomings, you just see learning conditions as neutral.)

For example:

·         Classrooms might not encourage communicative pedagogy, if there are rows of tables or chairs.  But rows can be rearranged into more communicative groupings.

·         CASAS assessments may only measure reading ability, but teachers can conduct other formal and informal assessments to measure other skills and be explicit with students about conducting these assessments and sharing the progress they see.

·         Text books can be supplemented with a variety of resources and activities that provide language input.

·         Students might stop coming to class when they meet their specific instrumental goals.  Though teachers may want them to continue their language study, we can remind ourselves that the students have succeeded in meeting their short-term goals. And that itself is success.

·         Anxiety about things going on outside the classroom or in his/her personal life may distract a student and diminish his/her ability to concentrate but uncovering and acknowledging these issues can help students know their experiences are valid and make them see the classroom as a safe haven and supportive community.

I want to thank you for providing your perspectives on language learning plateaus for my current research project.  But mostly, I want to thank you for providing me with suggestions that I can use as a teacher to assist my student as well as suggestions about how to positively and effectively work with the various challenges that confront students and teachers within the world of Adult ESL Education.

Sincerely,

Deborah McCoy

Adult ESL Instructor

Dorcas International Institute of RI

Let the Interviews Begin!

My field notes will not be one of my data sources.  My days and my notes are too variable to pertain to my research question about language learning plateaus.  My data sources will be interviews with students, interviews with teachers, and classroom surveys.  My interview questions were revised last week after my research questions were revised.  I reached out this week to some teachers and scheduled one interview for Friday afternoon and two for Monday.  I have a couple of emails out awaiting responses and a couple of verbal agreements to be formalized. 

I set off to Genesis Center, an organization that offers adult ESL classes, with my interview questions and consent form.  The teacher I interviewed is a white male, 38 years old, with 17 years of experience teaching adult ESL including a couple of years in China.  His post graduate degrees are in English literature, not Education.  I was never quite sure what pedagogical lingo to use with him.  He has many years practical experience and has been a presenter at the RI Adult Education Conference.  He was familiar with the term “fossilization” but not “language learner plateau” which I defined in general terms.  In the literature I have been reading, these terms are sometimes interchangeable, but fossilization more often refers to specific long-lasting errors in grammar or pronunciation or syntax, while “plateau” is used to describe the overall learning process and the leveling off of progress.

I looked at my watch to gauge the time.  I explained that I would try to keep the interview down to 30 minutes.  He predicted that he would talk more than I would want.  We went on for 50 minutes.  He seemed happy to share his thoughts and experiences and he exhibited a healthy air of confidence.  In asking my questions, I realized there was overlap.  This was initially intentional to ensure that the questions would be addressed, but in execution, this seemed to be awkward.  I took notes in the form of phrases or key words and I audio-recorded the interview.  During the interview I heard mostly non-specific responses and I thought there may not be much applicable data to analyze here.  But I was comfortable with the process.  My subject seemed comfortable with the process.  He asked for a repeat of the question a couple of times when he thought he may have strayed away from the topic.  We had an easy rapport and he told several anecdotes about his students and some of his teaching activities.  It was my first interview. I had mixed reactions.  The process seemed workable and easy, but usable data seemed elusive. 

Then I listened to the audio-recording two days later.  It was all familiar, but I noticed different connections I hadn’t noticed when the conversation originally happened.  It is really hard to be a good listener.  In the moments when the interview was happening, I was concentrating on recognizing and pulling out what I expected to hear.  And when I didn’t hear what I expected, I thought that there was nothing there.  But when I listened later, I heard what I wasn’t listening for, what I wasn’t waiting for.  I heard more of what was actually there.  It is really hard to be a good listener.  It is hard to stop expecting what I expect and just be open to what is there.  I must practice this.  Tomorrow is another day, another two interviews.  I will try to listen.  I will also continue to record the interviews, so I can have as many chances to listen as it takes for me to really hear what is really out there.

Field Notes or Professional Journal?

What have I been writing these past three weeks? According to Falk and Blumenreich in The Power of Questions, field notes are detailed observations of what happens in the classroom. (p. 92) and a professional journal contains the thoughts, questions, and ideas of the writer that may include insight about what happens in and out of the classroom.  (p. 91) Our assignment is to write daily “field notes” and yes, I have been recording observations from my work as a teacher, but it seems to me I am also writing a professional journal.  My writings are a mix of both types of journaling:  observational detail and reflections, questions, and brainstorming.  It is difficult to stick strictly to the field notes format because I am not yet in a steady class of my own.  Adult ESL Education is a new career for me.  I started volunteering at Dorcas International Institute of RI, working with adult immigrants and refugees in ESL classes three and a half years ago.  Three years ago, I started the RIC Master of education program in Teaching English as a Second Language. Two and a half years ago I become a substitute teacher in addition to continuing to volunteer in classrooms and tutoring students.   So, I am a student part time, a teacher part time and a volunteer part time.  Every week is different for me and every day of the week I am in a different setting.  My field notes have turned out to be just as variable as my weeks are.  I decided to use different colored sticky notes to designate the different settings my notes are based on.  The categories are:

1.      Substitute teaching for Dorcas,

2.      Volunteering at Dorcas (includes volunteering as classroom assistant, conversation facilitating for class break-out group, and tutoring individual or small groups of students),

3.      Working in Adult Basic Education (ABE/GED) for the Department of Corrections (DOC) at the Adult Correctional Institute (ACI) (so far this includes two days as volunteer, one job interview, two half days as hired substitute teacher), and

4.      Working and reflecting on my coursework for FNED 547: Introduction to Classroom Research.

What I have learned from the process?  IT IS USEFUL.  I have always written extensive notes to the teachers for whom I substitute.  I give them great detail about what topics we covered and what activities we did and if any particular questions, confusions or issues came up and also specifics about students themselves if any events stood out.  But to now write extensive notes for myself helps me in many ways.  Writing in my field notes/journal allows me to remember more about what activities worked, what didn’t, and how I should adapt them in the future.  Writing allows me to brainstorm for future lessons and follow-up for individuals and classes I will work with again.  Writing causes me to reflect on and give expression to my personal philosophies, attitudes, and perspectives about teaching practices and strategies.  It allows me to be reflective and identify what I believe is good pedagogy.

What I have realized about my own pedagogy? I value getting to know my students, using authentic materials, translanguaging, using props, costumes, and realia for context, including writing exercises, and sticking with a grammatic theme or vocabulary theme for a long time while varying the activities (rather than jumping for one theme to another too quickly).  Methods I dislike include word searches, current adult ESL and ABE text books, handouts with one-word blanks, cloze sentences, and multiple choice, and using child-oriented videos and materials for adults.

How can I use the field note/journaling process more productively?  I need to REREAD my notes more regularly.  I think I need a way to mark or draw attention to my notes I have labeled “action” or perhaps have a separate “to do list” page where I also transcribe my “action” items, for quick reference. 

How will my field notes fit into my research project? I had thought that some of the students I tutor and write about in my field notes would be students I interview for my research project, but I realize it is past students who are more appropriate for my research questions.  The classes I have subbed for so far are beginning level ESL and therefore not directly connected to my research questions about intermediate level students stalled in their progress towards advanced level proficiency.  Some of my journaling does pertain to the course work I am doing including the research project in the planning and organizational aspects. Thus far it proves to not be a source of data for the project.  But the lessons about process make me think that I am learning skills of journaling that will help me in my future endeavors in classroom research.

Hall’s “Powerful Poetic Inquiry” and Falk’s “Data Collection Tools”

Allisa Hall’s “Powerful Poetic Inquiry” from Stephanie Jones’ Writing and Teaching to Change the World

O.K. I will confess right away that poetry has never been my thing.  I often don’t get it.  I have occasionally memorized a poem, been impressed by some poetic spoken word performances, and enjoyed the Pablo Neruda verses we wrote about in class.  I have also looked for poetry by multi-ethnic writers to share with students.  But writing poetry seems extremely daunting to me.  I came into this topic slightly skeptical about its relevance or usefulness to me.

My response to Hall’s two poems is barely measurable.  I found the preceding narrative versions sufficient.  However, I found a couple of lines of this essay to be poetic in their own way and thought provoking.  In quoting sociologist Laurel Richardson, who “described poetry writing as an experience that sharpened her critical eyes and ears, enabling her to become more attuned to the lived experiences of others” Hall writes that “the process affected [her] willingness to know [herself] and others in different ways.’” (Jones, p. 74) Hall also brings up Cahnmann (2003) who wrote that “while the demands of writing poetry are great, so is the potential ‘to make our thinking clearer, fresher, and more accessible and to render the richness and complexity of the observed world.’” (Cahnmann, p. 34 as quoted in Jones, p. 76)

-becoming more attuned to the lived experience of others

-being willing to know one’s self and others in different ways

-making our thinking clearer, fresher, and more accessible

-rendering the richness and complexity of the observed world

These are amazing payoffs!  Who wouldn’t want to experience this?  In the realm of pedagogy could these enhanced ways of tuning in, expressing, and experiencing make any impact on how we as teachers reach our disenfranchised students?  Could these enhancements help teachers assemble the conditions for a critical pedagogy identified by Jones in chapter one as (1) an openness to unpredictability, (2) a commitment to ethics, and (3) a commitment to the aesthetic?  Hall believes that yes, writing, and in particular “poetic inquiry enabled [her] to enact critical pedagogy.” (p. 80) 

What practical suggestions do I take away from this?  “Focus on the moment and the moment only.” (p. 78) “Write personally.” (p. 80) “Commit to returning” to my writing. (p. 81) I will try all these suggestions with writing group exercise #2 on page 82: “Find a poem in a memory.”  I will write about a memory with detail, let it sit, return to it, then pull out the powerful phrases and burning questions to arrange in poetic form.  Maybe it’s not too late to “get” poetry, personally.  And if that results in any of the bounty that Hall, Richardson, and Cahnmann have found, it will be worth the time and effort.

Falk & Blumenreich’s Chapter 6: “Data Collection Tools” from The Power of Questions

I plan to use interviews for my research question about what effective means are there to propel students past the language learning plateau that often confronts intermediate level language learners; that slowdown or stalling of progress in learning that previously moved ahead steadily.  I plan to interview both students and teachers.  This chapter had a lot of practical information about interviews. 

• “Interviews are best suited to finding out in-depth information from a small group of people.” (p.  98)
• Use open ended questions of various types (i.e. broad, specific, follow-up)
• Plan interview questions ahead that relate to the research questions, without using the research questions themselves
• Be flexible during the interview and follow where responses may lead        
• Take notes; notice other cues such as body language; consider recording       
• Transcribe only what is relevant to the research questions; transcribe very soon after the interviews

There were more guidelines in figure 6-3 on page 103 as well as in Exercise 3 on page 114.

Using these guidelines, I began to compile possible interview questions for my project. These questions are for teachers.  I will have other questions for the students.

1.      Can you share examples of students who had reached a language learning plateau, students who seemed stuck at a standstill in their language learning?

2.      What signs were there that the student was experiencing a plateau?

3.      How were the different modalities (reading, writing, listening, speaking) similar or different in the student’s progress?

4.      What strategies did you use in your teaching that may have promoted progress for those students experiencing a plateau?

5.      What were the results?

6.      What do you recommend teachers do to propel students forward who are experiencing language learning plateaus?

7.      What do you recommend students do to propel themselves forward when they are experiencing language learning plateaus?

I think I have a combination of broad, specific, and follow-up questions that are all open ended.  I want to include a question about stressing grammar, conversation, or vocabulary strategies without leading the interviewee, but I am drawing a blank. My question about strategies is broad and perhaps I should leave it that way and see what comes of it.  Perhaps if I specify grammar, conversation, or vocabulary I am tainting the question with my assumptions. I welcome any thoughts about that.

ICE Panel Discussion

The ICE panel discussion was led by a member of AMOR (Alliance to mobilize our resistance), a coalition of six organizations, along with a member of PRSM (pronounced “prism;” Providence Youth Student Movement), one of the coalition members.

AMOR takes inspiration from activist groups in the past, The Black Panther Party and The Young Lords, a Puerto Rican activist group in Chicago & New York, particularly from their community service programs.  They provide support line services to connect people to transportation, mental health providers, interpretation services, community response organizations, and legal support services involving either immigration or police violence issues.  AMOR also organizes rallies, letter writing campaigns, and other events to publicize and resolve immigrant detention and family separation crises.  In addition, AMOR lobbies for legislation to prevent immigrant detention and family separation.

PRMS (Providence Youth Student Movement) works to support Cambodian deportees who have been deported to Cambodia through the 2002 Repatriation Agreement.  PRSM lobbies to suspend the repatriation agreement, reports the deportations as human rights violations to the U.N. and calls for the return of immigrants deported to Cambodia.

We learned at this forum that even immigrants with permanent resident status are being detained or deported for minor legal violations from many years ago.  I teach adult immigrants and refugees at Dorcas International Institute of RI.  Members of this community may be subjected to the aggressive detainment and deportation policies of ICE and the current U.S. administration.  No immigrants are safe.  My friend and student A------- just received her permanent resident card, along with her family.  She is so happy.  But the danger still exists that some legal technicality will put her or her family members at risk for deportation.  I haven’t seen any outward anxiety from the students at Dorcas, but many of them already suffer trauma and related medical problems from their experiences in war torn or politically unstable countries.  If detainment and deportation processes should be initiated, I hope that AMOR would step in and protest, bringing attention from the public.  I should make sure that AMOR’s 24-hour service line is posted at Dorcas.  I met an inmate of Cambodian descent at the state prison where I began volunteering last week.  He is native born American, but if his father or older relatives who were born in Cambodia were incarcerated, they might be subjected to the 2002 Repatriation Agreement and sent back to a country where a quarter of the population had been massacred, a country and nightmare they had previously escaped.

I am not aware of much that the organization Dorcas does to respond to the dangers that face our students.  I do remember the posting and handing out of cards that spell out an immigrants’ rights and the cards give suggestions for how to behave if ICE detains or arrests someone.  What should teachers do to acknowledge the fears and anxieties the students may be experiencing?  If the classroom environment has been established as a safe, welcoming community, then students will feel free to express their concerns in safety.  Making the student feel part of the classroom community is an essential goal for teachers of all English language learners and now even more critical.  When students express concern, teachers can address those concerns with assurances that we, our schools, and other organizations will provide support.  We should make sure they have access to legal assistance.  Our schools that serve immigrant communities should have resource listings readily available and in multiple languages.  The teachers and staff at Dorcas are not allowed to question, inquire, or speculate about a student’s immigration status. We respect the privacy of our students.  All students have equal status in our school regardless of their immigration/documentation status.

During the forum’s Q & A session, a teacher attending suggested that schools and teachers can help counter today’s political climate of anti-immigrant sentiment by including into the curriculum the history of immigrants in this country and their contributions. Let all generations learn inclusivity, appreciation, and respect for our immigrant neighbors and friends.  Hopefully the children of tomorrow won’t turn on each other if we educate them now to be tolerate and compassionate, if we teach them how integral to the fabric of American society, our immigrant residents are.

I believe that providing moral and practical support, including access to resources is the short-term responsibility we have to our students.  Delivering a curriculum that includes and values immigrant contributions to the U.S. is our long-term responsibility to our students.

 

The Research Design; Developing an Action Plan for Your Inquirey

“The Research Design – Developing an Action Plan for Your Inquiry”: Chapter 5 Falk & Blumenreich

I decided to use “Figure 5-3. Student Response Form” found on page 82 to structure my reflection on chapter 5 from Falk & Blumenreich’s The Power of Questions; A Guide to Teacher and Student Research.

From this session/class [chapter – “The Research Design …”] I take away:

• ·         The subquestions are key to the whole project so everything should be designed to answer these questions, including the selection of the study group, the types of data, the setting, the timeline, and the method of analysis.
• ·         The research plan may change and transform though the course of the project.

I really liked:

·         On page 60, Falk & Blumenreich wrote “Just as the ideas and interactions of your students influence and alter your curriculum plans in the classroom, the data you collect during the course of your inquiry should inform and shape how you proceed.”  I think the most surprising and challenging thing about teaching is how much planning goes into lessons and then how different the lesson can turn out to be as the interaction with the class, or the interests and curiosity of the students, or the comprehension of the students requires more time, detours, and alterations to the lesson.    Teaching requires much fluidity and flexibility which can be challenging, exciting, or frustrating.  It makes sense that classroom research projects are subjected to the same requirements of constant adaptation.

·         On page 81, I read that “Individual inquiries offer opportunities to experience the power of doing work that is intrinsically motivating.” Whether as a teacher researcher or a student researcher, I think it is a powerful experience to pursue the course of one’s own questions and interests.  I was never the beneficiary of this kind of learner-centered approach, but I have tried to use materials and subject matter that appeal to the individual students that I tutor and to use relevant, and multicultural images, stories, and materials for classes I have subbed for.  I will need more experience and mentoring to better facilitate extending individual inquiry opportunities to my students in the future. 

I am confused about:

·         How shall I analyze the data? Perhaps this is confusing for me because I can not yet envision all the forms of data I will be using.  I anticipate using qualitative data such as interviews and surveys for students and teachers.  I may use quantitative data such as CASAS scores to choose my research participants, though not for the actual research questions.  I will wait and see how the preliminary steps go and expect that the analysis portion will become clearer as the project proceeds.

Questions I have that still need to be answered:

·         What will the timeline be?  The semester is short, and this Classroom Research class has only two solid months left.  What can be accomplished in 8 weeks?  Is there really time to try different strategies to overcome a language learning plateau in such a short time.  I think that if I proceed with this topic, the most I can glean is about the past experiences of students and teachers.

·         Besides interviews and surveys, what other forms of data should I use that would be appropriate for my questions about strategies to overcome language learning plateaus?

Ideas about what to do next:

·         Begin the literature review

·         Write survey and interview questions

·         Identify students to include

·         Identify teachers to include

·         Write a consent form

Emotional Expression, Crossing Borders, & Researching Language Learning Plateau Strategies

Part I.  “Emotions and Critical Pedagogy” by Jaye Theil (from Jones chapter 3)

This was a dull read for me. The editor’s introduction reads “Jaye has chosen to focus on the need to listen to and share emotional experiences in our classroom rather than the specifics of the student’s story itself.” (p. 36) I found the vagueness surrounding the student’s story frustrating.  In a podcast from Malcolm Gladwell about why country music makes us cry (“The King of Tears” Season 2, Episode 6, Revisionist History) he concluded that it was country music lyrics’ minute details and specificity that inspired tears and empathy. There was no detail here, and I admit I was disappointed and unengaged. 

I did underline a few things. “Our relationships must be built on something more embodied than performance standards and curriculum goals, both of which are imposed on our lives rather than born out of our experience.” (pp. 41-42) “By naming our feelings and allowing emotion to embody us in the classroom space, willing to permit emotional testimony and witnessing … we are able to work toward student dignity as the cornerstone of our relationships.” (p. 45) So classrooms relationships are enhanced by emotional sharing or stifled by emotional resistance.

But there were some lines that didn’t make sense to me.  “When things don’t go as planned, when students cry, or yell, or share too deeply, the blame is placed on ‘otherness’—class, race, gender …” (p. 40) Really?  Have any of my classmates witnessed or experienced this?  It seems an extraordinary claim to make. I suppose gender stereotypes have been used to explain a boy’s outburst or a girl’s tears.  But when is class and race used as a reason for unwanted emotional expression? The other statement I felt come out of the blue was a quote from Megan Boler (1999): “Emotions are a primary medium through which we learn to internalize ideologies as commonsense truths.”  She specifically cites that shame and humiliation are used to teach rules about anger and authority.  Boler is also referenced to make the claim that the rules of what is acceptable differ by gender, race, or social standing.  (p. 40)   These statements seem broad and I wish there had been some concrete examples.

                Part II.  “Las Fronteras …” by Daphne Hall (from Jones chapter 4)

Crossing borders is the theme of this essay by Daphne Hall, but only in the minutest way does it refer to the physical borders of Mexico and the United States.  The borders that Hall speaks of are the borders of class, culture, economy, and language in the relationship between the teacher and the families of their students.  To build relationship with students and their families, Hall advocates teachers cross the boundaries between them and go into the homes and worlds of the families. When we expect the families to come to the schools and the teachers’ turf we are “requiring families to do the bulk of the boundary crossing” (p. 50) and to remain in the position of vulnerability with less powerful status.  I have invited adult students and their families to my home, to my annual birthday party, and to lunch.  I have been repeatedly invited to the home of a student, Atefeh, and I have enjoyed getting to know her and her family better.  I can help with her children’s school paperwork, making family medical appointments, provide transportation for shopping and more.  They feed me excessively and drown me in the best green tea I have ever had, and my friend begs me to come often.  My husband worries that I might get taken advantage of and he has also expressed concern when I paid a student, who was looking for odd jobs, to help with yard work. Did I take advantage of him?  Should I consider if the blurring of the teacher/student or teacher/family lines into more friendly relationships can cause confusion, be manipulative, or result in a loss of effectiveness as a teacher?  So far, I have not seen evidence of such.  I will continue to try to befriend any student who shows interest and I will continue to try to be useful to my student/friends.

 Hall also advocates that teachers learn the language of the student’s family.  She writes, “Placing myself in the role of learner was probably the ultimate equalizer when there were such disparities in status and power.” (pp. 67-68) I have found that with my adult students, they LOVE to have the roles reversed or stabilized by having the opportunity to help me or teach me some of their languages.  When students see me using dictionaries in Arabic or Somali or when I use a little Spanish and ask for help with vocabulary or a different written script, they light up with enthusiasm and pride.  I don’t have to be anything more than a beginner in their languages for them to revel in being the teacher and the one with a superior proficiency.  Since loving foreign languages is half of what led me to this career, this is a strategy that I can embrace.  It comes natural to me to want to learn language from my student while they learn mine. 

                Part III.  My research questions

Students at Dorcas often ask for one-on-one tutoring.  Most are intermediate level students looking for opportunities to practice conversation.  In the class room they may get asked 5 or 6 questions to answer out loud.  This is not enough practice to continue progressing without some supplementary time spent outside the class time speaking English.  

One of my tutoring students is Sylvia.  She has been in ESL level 4 for a couple of years.  It is high intermediate level.  But she is frustrated because she seems to be stalled.  Her progress at first was quick but now she has seemed to plateau in her language learning.  She does not get to speak English at home and does not work outside the home, so her English is only used at English class.  It is not enough practice.  How can I help her progress beyond this language learning plateau, particularly an absence of immersion opportunities? 

This is a common experience among second/additional language learners at an intermediate level.  Progress is quick at first and then it slows down.  I want to research what strategies are useful when the language learning plateau happens. 

My topic question is:  What are effective strategies for assisting students to accelerate or continue their progress towards proficiency after they have plateaued in their language learning?

My assumptions about language learning plateau strategies are:

1.       Immersion is ideally the best approach to a language learning plateau.

2.       Grammar instruction should continue along with increased conversation practice.

3.       Balancing reading, writing, speaking, and listening practice is important.

My sub-questions are directly related to my assumptions.

1.       What opportunities exist for immersion into the second/additional language for my student?

2.       How much grammar instruction is effective for getting beyond the language learning plateau?

3.       How much conversation practice is effective for getting beyond the language learning plateau?

4.       What balance between reading, writing, speaking, and listening is best for getting beyond the language learning plateau?

5.       What methods should the student adopt to continue their language learning progress?

6.       What goals, motivation, and commitment are required by the student to advance beyond the language learning plateau?

If I can find out the answer to my questions about language learning plateau strategies, I can be more effective guiding and teaching the adult students of Dorcas International Institute of RI.

"Making Waves" by Jennifer McCreight and "Finding Your Question" by Falk & Blemenreich

“Making Waves . . .” by Jennifer McCreight

I love metaphors, but this ocean, tide pool, waves, sandbars, etc. imagery seemed a little over-done and contrived to me.  It didn’t take away from the chapter, but I don’t think it added anything to it either.  The value I found in this chapter consisted of being reminded that

(1) “children do come to school bursting with their own cultural backgrounds, ripe for  sharing and teaching others” (Jones, 2014, p. 18);

(2) capitalizing on students’ connections to home and family can animate and engage students;  

(3) stories can be the bridge between home and school environments (see p. 21-23);

(4) and students do not progress at the same developmental speed.

What really stood out for me was the story of Mack teaching the other children about the rules of conversation when he said, “Please don’t step on someone’s words.” (p. 23)  “In a single moment, Mack made clear his reverence for the words of his friends as well as his deep understanding of the concept of dialogue, which involves listening to others’ perspectives without expecting equal time or to change their viewpoint.” (Freire, 1972 as referenced in Jones, p. 24) This understanding of dialogue may be the most important lesson we can learn in our families, our schools, and our civic society.  It is hard not to want to rush in and make our comments, viewpoints, and needs known instead of waiting, and truly listening to others while we wait.  I belong to a Church fellowship group that considers listening as a spiritual discipline and we meet to share our personal news, to reflect on brief readings, and to practice the art of just listening without interruption, without offering advice, without saying “Oh yes, something similar happened to me and I did/felt . . .” I am from a large family and I find it challenging not to interrupt others, but I am working on it with this fellowship group and in other settings, getting more comfortable about risking giving the impression that I have nothing worthwhile to say.

“Finding Your Question” from The Power of Questions by Falk and Blumenreich

This was a “how-to” chapter and I expect an indication of what the rest of the book will be like.  I found the three examples of studies and their questions and context background useful in helping me envision the shape of my own research questions.  I am getting a clearer understanding about the particular, individualistic, and specific nature of teacher inquiry as a form of classroom research.  Coming into this class I expected the course to be about analyzing and applying quantitative data and meta-analysis research.  Now I see the difference and that there is a place for both large scale quantitative research and small-scale qualitative research done by individual teachers.  Now I understand that research about my practice is going to be about something I really care about (Falk and Blumenreich, 2005, p.21).  My questions need to be “framed in a way that is personalized” (Falk & Blumenreich, p. 25) to my situation.  I shouldn’t be concerned about any generalized or universal use of my research, because it is for me and my students.  If it offers anything useful for other teachers and students, that will be a bonus, but that is not my primary objective. This was my “ah ha” moment this week.

Storytelling and Discourse Analysis; Stock, Rex & Schiller

This week’s reading included a chapter from Stock’s The Dialogic Curriculum (1995). The chapter, “Teacher Research as Storytelling” is an introduction to the premises that teachers’ research is presented through anecdotal storytelling and for that reason is primarily ignored or discounted formally in the profession but has been shared among teachers informally and can greatly influence and benefit teachers and learners.  Stock defends the value of storytelling and anecdotal based research within teaching by illustrating that these practices exist also in the fields of law and medicine.  Maybe because I am new to the field of Education there is nothing revealing or revolutionary here.  Storytelling as a means of discerning meaning and guiding actions is common and universal.  Aesop’s fables, the parables of Jesus, other religious scriptures, family oral history, any history, biographies, novels, and news media are all about recounting specific incidents, events, and personal behavior through some form of story.  An endless cycle of life imitating art, art imitating life surrounds us. How could educational research NOT have its basis in story? 

I appreciated the inclusion of the poem and the line that stories “aren’t just entertainment.” (Stock, 1995, p. 96) I think this is true. Every story reveals, teaches, inspires, or highlights something about us.  And I found it timely to read the quote from Loren Barritt, a professor of Education that says “Research is just the story someone tells.  What counts is who gets to tell the story.” (Stock, p. 96) Indeed!  I had the same day that I read this, listened to a podcast from Malcolm Gladwell called “The Foot Soldier of Birmingham” (Revisionist History, 2017).  The episode is about a statue in a park that commemorates the Civil Rights Movement and is based on a photo taken in Birmingham of a policeman with a dog attacking a young Black boy.  The statue tells a “true story” of our history, while distorting the details of the policeman, the dog, and the boy.  The person telling the story, the artist, has subjectivity that influences him to create this statue by consciously portraying the boy from the photo smaller, younger, and more African looking, portraying the policeman who was reportedly trying to pull the dog back, bigger and not at all concerned that the dog is attacking the boy, and portraying the dog more wolf like and threatening.   And it turns out the boy wasn’t even a “foot soldier” of the Civil Rights Movement, but a passing bystander.  But this is how we tell our stories.  Real events, behaviors, actions perceived differently by different viewers.  And then told and passed on through different mediums and lenses of subjectivity.  Is this a problem?  Is truth in the details or the interpretation? Is the answer different for history, politics, art, religion, or education?  And who gets to tell the story?

The second reading was from Rex & Schiller’s Using Discourse Analysis to Improve Classroom Interaction (2009).  This was a complementary pairing of readings in some respects.  Rex & Schiller discuss interpretation of dialogue as being influenced by context, assumptions, and background information including “your own beliefs, values, and dispositions that lead you to make assumptions about what is occurring.” (Rex & Schiller, p. 16) But the sections I found most interesting were about identity (pp.19-24); recognizing the identities of our students in ways that affirm their identities and positioning them through our constructive dialogue to assume identities that will aid them to participate more successfully in the learning environment.  I recall an adult GED prep-class student who strongly felt another teacher’s disdain for his abilities in Math.  Since we rotated the students for Math lessons among 3 GED classes, one of which I was teaching as a long-term substitute, I arranged for this student to be in my Math group which was a higher level.  He seemed to appreciate the confidence I had in him to handle the lessons and I think because of that he was more open to making the effort to do the work, rather than display combativeness with the teacher.  I believe that my positioning him as a capable student and my appreciation for the world he lived in with various challenges increased his self-image and motivation to apply himself in my class.  I had been warned about this “difficult student” before taking on the class but I found that we could form our own teacher-student relationship and identities that were free of other people’s interpretations and conclusions.  Rex & Schiller provided a valuable model to follow when they wrote “We choose ways to use language that recognize identities and selves in order to engage and affirm learners, particularly those who are most reluctant.”  (p. 20) I was happy that my reluctant student felt that I had recognized his capabilities.  He said that I “got him.” So, who gets to tell the story?  We do.  Teachers AND learners.

Falk, Bulmenreich, and Jones Lay Out the Basics for Teacher Research

The first chapter of Falk and Blumenreich’s The Power of Questions: A Guide to Teacher and Student Research begins with a sentence that I agree full heartedly with.  “One of the great things about teaching is that it offers the possibility for a life of continual learning.” (Falk & Blumenreich, 2005, p.1) Teachers learn about their students, themselves, and their subject matter unceasingly.  Without dismissing the roles and motivations of experts, policy makers, and researchers from outside the classroom who have produced great quantities of data, curricula, and programs for teachers, it is important to remember that teachers and students aren’t strictly passive learners.  It seems evident that teachers are in primary positions (in the classrooms day to day) and therefore “capable of generating their own knowledge by engaging in investigations about issues related to their own interests, the curriculum, or their work.” (Bisset & Bullock, 1987, et al, as quoted in Falk & Blumenreich, p. 5) Once generated, this knowledge can be applied to the challenges of meeting the educational needs of diverse students in diverse circumstances.

 

The second chapter outlines the different paradigms, approaches, and methods that teachers can use to conduct research to generate knowledge that can be applied in their teaching. I can appreciate the authors emphasis on the naturalistic/hermeneutic research that “examines phenomena in their authentic network of relationship within their natural contexts” (Eisner, 1991a; quoted in Falk, p. 9) But I question how reliable or practical the conclusions can be when naturalistic research is mired in a complex web of factors and influences that are inter-woven in those natural contexts and where each situation is uniquely composed.   I hope that as the course progresses we will explore how to realistically use research that originates in the various and specific individual cases explored through case studies, personal narratives, action research and ethnography, and be able to apply the strategies resulting from them in our own unique environments and with our own unique students.  

In “Chapter 1: Assembling a Critical Pedagogy” from S. Jones’ Writing and Teaching to Change the World: Connecting with Our Most Vulnerable Students I found several significant ideas that got my attention. Jones wrote that within the teacher inquiry community (TIC) “participants recognized some of their habits of seeing students in particular ways and challenged themselves to see beyond those perceptions.” (Jones, 2014, p. 1) This resulted in being open to different pedagogical approaches and  being able to avoid “playing the blame game, getting mired in deficit discourses.” (Jones, p. 3) Jones wrote that “deficit thinking about children and families is unethical, indeed a practice that damages people.”  (Jones, p.3) I was fascinated and appreciated the distinction that Jones made between the philosophical ideas of morality and ethics. Jones linked morality with judgment and absolutism (Jones, pp.8-10) while acting and thinking ethically requires awareness of individualism and interconnectedness and questions not the behaviors but the conditions that make the behaviors possible.  I didn’t expect to find these definitions in a book about teaching but found their application as appropriate to teaching as to other areas in my life.  Jones argues for “the conditions of critical pedagogy necessarily requiring an ethical stance for questioning and acting and making sense rather than a moralistic stance that knows right and wrong.” (Jones, p.10)

This author used the metaphor of giants (Jones, pp.5-6) to describe the obstacles and challenges of BOTH school experiences AND life beyond school.  Having been a successful student and a young person who enjoyed going to school, it took me by surprise to have school life described with such a threatening image.  So, I think I may be out of touch with the experiences and feelings of students who are disenfranchised, vulnerable, or not successfully meeting the educational challenges.  I have not taught children, nor have I been fully employed in teaching adults, yet I have heard of and experienced the challenges experienced by teachers from their perspectives more than I have heard of the experiences from the perspectives of struggling students.  This surprising metaphor was a wake up call for me about the limits and boundaries of my understanding of the educational experience from the perspective of the learner.  I think my own classroom research will need to focus greatly on the student perspective.  I am inclined at this point to consider a case study or narrative approach in my upcoming research for this class in order to pinpoint that focus on learners' perspectives.