A Critique of a Masterpiece Reflecting upon English Teaching

Gradually,  Harmer’s(1991) book The Practice of English Language Teaching , which was designed as a tool for teachers of English around the world, leads you into the realm of language teaching and learning, and provides you with helpful tips as regards how to teach, how students learn and how to be successful in class management.

Not only can you gain some insight into “the main theories and trends that have informed the practice of English language teaching over the last decades” (p. 31), but you can also have the possibility to obtain a detailed explanation of relevant issues, such as: skills, grammar, pronunciation and motivation.

This valuable resource might be seen as outdated by some people; however, it should be recognized that, in spite of the fact that it was published in 1991, it still serves the purpose of giving teachers hints on how to handle different levels of students and how to help learners perform well in the second language.

Despite the fact that this book is still a useful instrument for teachers nowadays, it is worth noting that in order to meet the challenges of the 21^st century, the inclusion of topics related to technology (computers, mobile phones and so forth) is a key factor to be considered by the author for future versions so as to be even more helpful with  “[teachers] who constantly seek to enrich their understanding of what learning is all about and what works well ” (p. 243). 

Although this book needs updating as regards technology, most of this material, which makes a significant contribution to the field of pedagogy with respect to English teaching, ought to be taken into consideration both by experienced teachers and those who have just entered the teaching profession, because it should be seen as refreshing by the former and as a valuable guide by the latter. 

All in all,  Harmer´s (1991)  masterwork fulfils the requirements of teachers when they are in search of help. This book assists educators  with respect to teaching techniques, students’ motivation, learners’ needs and all those aspects and problems that teachers have to tackle during the teaching process.                   

                                                                   References

Harmer, J. (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching  (2^nd ed.).  London, UK: Longman.

Critical Incidents: Reflection upon Our Own Practices

Concentrating on the meanings of these two terms, critical and incident, we could reach the conclusion that a critical incident has a negative effect on the teaching and learning process. However, it does not.

Critical Incidents (CI) are, as Kennedy and Wyrick (1990) suggest, “a method of reflective practice” (p. 5 ), so it should be pointed out that, by reflecting on our teaching practices, not  only can we obtain information which could be useful so as to solve problems that can  arise in the classroom, but also we can take decisions based on that information which may  allow us to be able to act before the unexpected.

As Fernández  and Fernández (1994) states  el “incidente critico es una estrategia estructurada y en la cual se presenta a los profesores situaciones escritas de la enseñanza (…) y se les pide que tomen una decisión en función de la información que se le proporciona”.

When writing a CI, there are steps that should be followed in order to have a deeper insight.  Mezirow (1990) outlined two basic steps to write critical incidents. First of all, the writer should describe an incident – an event – giving details of the place and time in which the episode took place. The writer should also list “people involved, the roles these people played, and the action”  taken so as to solve the problem.

The second step is to “record thoughts and feelings related to the incidents as it happened and after the action took place, being careful not to interpret or to analyze the action taken” (as cited in Kennedy & Wyrick, 1995, p. 5).

All in all, critical incidents are not only a useful mechanism for reflecting upon our teaching practice, but they are also a powerful tool for enhancing our performance. Taking critical incidents into consideration might assist us whenever  a problem arises in our classrooms.

                                                                  References

Fernández González, J.,  Elortegui   Escartín,  N., &  Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista Universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17-001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved October 2011, from http: //redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/src/inicio/ArtPdfRed.jsp?iCve=27417107

Kennedy, R.L. & Wyrick, A.M. (1995). Teaching as reflective practice. Tennessee: The University of Tennesse.

Teaching Adults:  An Overview of Learning Difficulties

This year, while I was teaching a group of 42 students in a school for adults, some complaints arose, as a group of about 10 learners started to express their dissatisfaction with the subject because they did not understand and they added that they knew they would not succeed in learning the target language.

The reason was that the rest of the learners already knew me as I had been their teacher the previous year, but the ones who complained could not follow my explanations because they came from another school with a different curriculum and background.

At first, I felt overwhelmed because  it was a difficult situation as I did not know what to do so as to confront this problem immediately and, at the same time, not to bore the rest of the class; so I tried to make them understand that whenever a person has to learn a new skill or ability, it is hard word and it requires effort.

I explained to them that the first step to success was to have a positive attitude towards new knowledge and I also asked the other students how and what they had felt the year before when they had been in contact with English for the  first time, so they told their classmates their experiences and the others managed to see that learning a language implies  hard work, but it is not an approachable goal.

Teachers should facilitate the learning process by trying to have a kind attitude towards their students (Rogers, 1983 ). After some lessons and after having practised enough, I evaluated them and both groups obtained outstanding marks.

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References

Rogers,C.(1983).Freedom to learn for the 80’s.Columbus, Ohio: Charles Merril. 

                                Describing Discourse Communities: A Laudable Attempt


 When Swales (1990) endeavours to define as well as to clarify what a discourse community is, a list of requirements emerges from his theory which accounts for some basic criteria for a discourse community to be accepted as such. Although there are authors that can react against some of his ideas, most of them agree on his definition.
In order to fulfil those requisites, Swales (1990) establishes that a discourse community should achieve common goals as well as share the same interests. Furthermore, there should also be participatory mechanisms among members, who share community-specific genres and highly specialized terminology and who ought to possess a high level of expertise.
 Most of the requirements, which are seen as essential by Swales (1990) for a discourse community to be recognized as such, can be found in Kutz’ (1997) work, when he makes an effort to include community colleges within the realm of a community discourse. As she states:
                      The community college can be seen as a discourse community: Its members
                      have, over time, developed a common discourse that involves share
                      knowledge, common purposes, common relationships, similar attitudes and
                      values, shared understandings about how to communicate their knowledge an
                      achieve their shared purposes, and a flow of discourse that has a particula
                      structure and style. (Kutz, 1997, as cited in Kelly-Kleese, 2001, para. 4 )

 All in all, many authors, researchers and theorists have intended to identify what a discourse community is, and Swales (1990) has succeeded in listing these criteria which allows us to gain a deeper understanding of such community. Those requisites serve the purpose of helping people know what to do so as to acquire membership in a discourse community.


                                                                     

                                                                      References
 Kelly-Kleese, C. (2001). Editor’s choice: An open memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators. Community College Review, Summer, 2004. Retrieved November 2011, from http/ /findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_29/ai_77481463 Kutz, E. (1997). Language and literacy: Studying discourse in communities and classrooms. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers. Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Welcome!

Diving into the world of discourse communities and blogs!

This blog has been created with the primary purpose of being in contact with all the members of this discourse community (all the ones that are attending English for Academic Purposes-2011)so as to share ideas and interests, interchange thoughts and create a bond among all of us, which will allow us to accomplish all the goals we have set out and, above all, make our voices heard.

I suggest taking advantage of this powerful tool in order to discover new ideas and sharpen our writing and thinking skills.