Second Language Reading & Writing Pedagogy (Q/A)

Writing is effective when all steps are used by the writers while they compose an essay and a great piece of writing moves towards communication.

1. One definition of writing is “the process whereby a person selects, develops, arranges, and expresses ideas in units of discourse.” Do you agree with this definition? Does it imply a particular orientation to teaching L2 writing? How would you define writing?

Yes, I strongly agree with this definition because the process approach to writing teaching emphasizes the writer as an independent producer of texts. Actually it implies a particular orientation to teaching L2 writing. The model of writing processes are mostly accepted by L2 writing teachers, which is known as the original planning-writing-reviewing framework. This was established by Flower and Hayes (Flower, 1989; Flower and Hayes, 1981). According to them, “Writing is a non-linear, exploratory, and generative process whereby writers discover and reformulate their ideas as they attempt to approximate meaning.” (Zamel, 1983:165)

A process model of writing instruction to develop the abilities to carry out a writing task, and the stages of writing process are crucial. In fact, a significant number of writing teachers adopt the process orientation as the main focus of their courses and the approach has had a major impact on writing research and teaching, especially in North America.

In the first place, selection of topic is the most important part in this writing process. Generally topic is selected by the teacher and/or students.

Second, prewriting stage of writing process involves gathering ideas or brainstorming and collecting data. Teachers can help students in several ways like creating lists, note taking, outlining, and researching.

Third, composing stage which involves getting ideas down on paper, reading to discover more about the author and author’s style, and reminders from other texts.

Fourth, the response to draft is an important stage. In this stage, teacher/peers respond to ideas, organization, and style. Especially students begin writing, connecting, and developing different ideas.

Fifth, revising is the stage of writing that involves rewriting, reorganizing the style, adjusting to readers, and refining ideas. It emphasizes on examining sentence structure or grammar, word choice, voice, and everything.

Sixth, response to revisions is related with teacher/peers respond to ideas, organization, and style.

Seven, proofreading and editing stage involves in checking and correcting form, layout, evidence, etc. For example: spelling, grammar, usage of vocabulary, and punctuation.

Then, the evaluation stage of process approach of writing, whether teacher evaluates progress over the process, and the overall effectiveness of the writing.

After that, publishing is the going public stage, whether writing got published through class circulation or presentation, noticeboards, websites, etc.

Lastly, follow-up tasks to address the weaknesses. 

Finally, we can define writing as a way to express ourselves, to inform a reader, to persuade a reader, or to create a literary piece.

 2.  Look again at the sections on the Process and Genre approaches. How do you think each might answer these fundamental questions about teaching writing?

·         What is involved in the process of becoming a writer?

·         What are our criteria for good writing and how do we communicate these to learners?

·         How should teachers intervene in students’ writing?

The development of writing skill is complex. It begins from product-oriented approach to a process-oriented approach and also to genre approach. 

Moreover, there are six traits of writing which involve in the process of becoming a writer. These are ideas, organization, voice, sentence fluency, word choice, and conventions. The idea is related with the topic of story or the main message. Organization is the way how the story is written and organized. Particularly voice refers to what makes the story unique to the author. Have to make sure the sentences flow because the sentence fluency is important. Writers need to focus on conventions like spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Have to beware of using simple, complex, and compound sentences properly. As well as, avoiding common phrases is necessary; need to focus on vocabulary and it makes writing realistic for the genre.

However, the criteria of good writing are subject content, composing processes, textual forms, and the communication with readers. We write something to achieve some purpose, and the relation between writer and readers actually matters. Especially topic should be decided from the personal emotions and experiences, and must be relatable. 

We can communicate these to learners by introducing with some factual genres. In recount genre, we can reconstruct past experiences by retelling events in original sequence. In procedure genre, we should simply show how to processes or events are accomplished, and this is called ‘meta-cognitive awareness’. With description genre, we may give an account of imagined or factual events, and enough descriptive feedback. In report genre, we can try to present factual information about a class of things by classifying them and describing their characteristic. It can be interactive feedback. Sometimes it can be peer feedback which is more facilitated. Finally through the explanation genre, we can give reasons or logical statements to affairs and judgement also.

Actually a good teacher needs to be understanding to all learners equally. S/he must be fair, reasonable, and sensible at his/her pace. Teachers can help students to introduce with different genres and distinguish between them. Teachers can make them to write more effectively using proper structures. Mainly teachers should intervene in students’ writing by developing control of the genre. The teachers here can adopt an interventionist role, ensuring that students are able to understand and easily reproduce the rhetorical patterns, expressing the meanings.

 3. The process and genre approaches are often presented as polar extremes. Can you think of ways that they might be seen as complementary rather than as incompatible?

Many researchers have mentioned that the teachers should not only adopt just an approach all the time in the classroom. Combining these two approaches or sometimes more than two can be considered as a new way to teaching writing. This combination allows students to understand the relationship between purpose and 

form for a particular genre. As well as, it develops the processes of prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing.

However, both approaches complement each other, and additionally ensures that grammatical and vocabulary items are not taught in isolation. It is rather than taught in meaningful and interactive situations, derived from the particular genre.

Therefore, here practicing process approach and rewriting on different genre is so important.   

A Brief History of Teaching Reading

                                          

The Alphabet and the Alphabet Method:

Alphabetic writing first emerged in Middle East more than 5,000 years ago.

v  Roman Alphabet -

Ø  Descends from the symbols used by the Phoenicians.

Ø  Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet roughly 3,000 years ago.

v  The spelling method or the alphabet (ABC) method employed into the 19^th century in Europe and America.

v  The Greek philosopher Socrates discovered that the alphabet method is harmful.

v  Saint Augustine’s doctrine of reading silently came in the year 384.

v  This method fell from use in America in the late 1800s.

Early Innovations in Europe 

v  The alphabet method came about 1500s in Europe.

v  In 1527, the German teacher Valentin Ickelsamer prepared a reading book called The Shortest Way to Reading about a new method.

v  Synthetic Phonics Method

v  John Hart introduced a similar method in a 1570 publication with the title- A Methode or Comfortable Beginning for All Unlearned, Whereby They May Bee Taught to Read English, in a Very Short Time, with Pleasure.

Ø  Phonic Approach

v  In 1658, the Moravian educator Johan Amos Comenius published- The Orbis Sesnusalium Pictus.

Ø  The beginning of the word method

Ø  A picture alphabet that taught phonic associations

Ø  Analytic phonics

Ø  The Orbis method was popular in Europe more than 100 years.

The Scene in Early America

v  The alphabet method was used in colonial America for teaching reading.

v  Primers and Bible (morality & morality)

v  The spelling method was employed in the colonial primers.

v  The popular primer ‘New England Primer’ was published in Boston in 1690.

v  Spelling books replaced primers in the 1700s.

v  Noah Webster published the spelling book ‘American Spelling Book’ in 1783.

v  The “old blue-back speller” employed the alphabet method.

Changes and Reforms in the 1800s

v  Horace Mann observed the alphabet method as harmful into European school in 1843.

v  The word method and the phonic method got popularity in the United States during the 1800s.

v  A Midwestern professor William H. McGuffey produced a graded series for the reader.

v  The McGuffey readers provided with the format of the phonic method, the word method, or both in 1879.

v  The sentence method emerged in the late 1800s.

v  George L. Farhnham published his pamphlet- The Sentence Method in 1881.

v  Phonic methods were developed in that time also.

v  Rebecca Pollard described the synthetic method in 1889.

v  Reading scholar Edmund Burke Huey referred the method as a crime….be suffered.

v  Huey praised another method- the language experience approach.

v  Francis Parker and John Dewey called it as the activity approach.

v  Parker attributed this approach to The Orbis.

v  In 1890, Charles W. Eliot, the president of Harvard University, emphasized on the story method in teaching reading.

The Early 20^th Century

v  Phonic methods found new popularity

v  The new development prompted in 1915.

v  A new pedagogy- silent reading was superior to oral reading.

v  The activity approach grew popularity in the early 20^th century.

v  William S. Gray at the University of Chicago accomplished the classify and sequence reading skills.

v  Gray developed a comprehensive skills model of reading with four levels, from 1930s to 1960s.

The “Conventional Wisdom” of the Mid 20^th Century

v  A historic example by Gray in the 1940s and 1950s was ‘The New Basic Readers’ basal reader series.

v  The ‘look-say’ approach – called oral recitation and Comprehension were included.

v  Oral reading and interpretation were included.

v  Chall referred the basal reader series as the ‘conventional wisdom’ from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Alternatives to the Conventional Wisdom

v  In 1955, a professor of rhetoric, Rudolf Flesch published- Why Johnny Can’t Read and What You Can Do about It. It condemned the look-say approach and advocated a return to phonics.

v  Rebecca Pollard promoted ‘guesswork’ with dissatisfaction in 1889.

v  Other challenges to the conventional wisdom emerged in the 1960s.

v  Chall introduced “the great debate” over how best to teach beginning reading.

v  Chall referred two opposing approaches- Code Emphasis and Meaning Emphasis.

The Later 20^th Century

v  More fundamental changes were brewing.

v  Kenneth Goodman, Frank Smith, and others brought a change known as- Whole Language in the 1970s.

v  Holistic approach of Parker, Dewey and others.

v  In 1990s, Marilyn Jager Adams published- Beginning to Read.

v  The 1990s was concerned on developing phonemic awareness.

v  A balanced approach was found growing in the close of the 20^th century.

                                          

                                          The End

Language and Gender

                                               

Language is a conventional way of human communication. The relationship between language and gender depends on the areas of sociocultural linguistics, conversational analysis, critical discourse analysis, and many more. A gender-free language is a natural language but most of the phenomenon of the language is gender-based. Now throughout the assignment we will see the gender, relationship between language and gender, and the differences in the usages of language between male and female gender.   

In the first place, sex is biologically determined. One is born a male and another is a female. On the other hand, gender is socially determined. One choose to speak in feminine or a masculine way. The transgender and the cisgender are the members of sex categories but ‘male’ and ‘female’ are always completely clear. Gender involves a consideration of the psychological, social, and cultural differences between men and women. We cannot talk about gender without mention to sexuality, or vice versa.

Cameron (2006, 724) says: ‘Sex is a word used in connection with the biological characteristics that mark humans and other animals as either male or female, whereas gender refers to the cultural traits and behaviors deemed appropriate for men or women by a particular society.’

Actually, we create our gender identity like other aspects of identity through the language we use. This is culturally determined and reinforced by socialization practices.

Men and women speak differently. The differences between the way males and females speak like restriction to grammatical features. These differences can be phonological, lexical, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic. The ideas about how gender and sexuality are produced and reproduced through language will reveal that women talk more or less than men, women break the rules of turn-taking less than men, women’s speech is less direct or assertive than men’s, women use more standard forms than men, women use more pause and also establish informal atmosphere rather than men.

According to Cameron and Coates (1985), ‘the amount we talk is influenced by who we are with and what we are doing.’ They also add that if we aggregate a large number of studies, it will be observed that there is little difference between the amount men and women talk.

In the first phase of language and gender, we can say that standard forms are used by both genders but women usually tend to use it more than men and by definition men use more vernacular forms than women do. In many aspects men and women differ in their speaking, such as turn-taking and interruption, minimal responses, using hedges, compliments, asking questions, apologizing, and more.

At the point of interruption, we can see that men interrupt more than women because they have a tendency to perform the dominant response. They seek to achieve the upper voice to prevent others from dominating them. Whether women interrupt more than men. Generally women think of closeness or intimacy, and men always concern for status and independence.

The features of women language are lexical hedges or fillers like you know, well, you see; tag questions like she’s good, isn’t she?; using intonation like it’s really good, and empty adjectives like cute, charming, and divine; precise color sense; intensifiers like just, as, so; avoid the strong swear words; emphatic stress like brilliant, outstanding.

Needless to say, the differences between women and men interaction may be the outcome of different socialization. Women’s gossip focuses on personal experiences and personal relationships regarding personal problems and feelings. Men particularly discuss with shared values and referential information. Sometimes men get involved in conflicts and change the topic abruptly. Women tend to be more supportive whether men are tend to be more competitive.

Another important thing to be remembered is minimal responses, which are monosyllabic utterances, such as yeah, huh, hmm and many more. Minimal responses are used mainly to show the agreement. In this case, women tend to use minimal responses more than men. Men prefer to keep silent rather giving minimal utterances. Additionally, women use more often hedges rather than men because women are more concerned about style of interaction, such as I think, I guess, you know, maybe etc.

Moreover, women give more compliments like appearance, possession, and ability. They prefer friendliness as a stress. We can say that language is used by both men and women in an informal way at the particular relaxed atmosphere. In this matter, both men and women use informal forms of language equally.

Consequently, sociolinguists tried to explain that why women speak differently than men and what is the reason of women using more standard forms than men. There are four main reasons for this difference –

• ·         Social status
• ·         Role in society
• ·         Status as a subordinate group
• ·         Speech expressing masculinity

So, women use more standard forms because they think it is more prestigious and associated with hierarchical or upper class. Another reason is society expects better and polite behavior from women than from men. Women have to be correct and polished in their speaking and behavior.

In contrast, men usually prefer to use vernacular forms because they want to prove themselves as macho and carry tough connotations of masculinity. Though men are generally lower in pitch, whether women are comparatively higher in pitch. In terms of language and gender, there are used different language forms in different age-graded among both men and women. For instance, the use of vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar.

As shown above, language and gender actually traces the relationship between language and our ideas about male and female. Most of the times, language and gender expresses the role of gender stereotyping.

But in conclusion, we can say that language and gender both influence each other. Though gender is not only major in language, but also dealing with human behavior, cognition, institutions, occupations, society, and culture.

References:

1. Coulthard, C. R. (Ed.). (n.d.). GENDER AND LANGUAGE. 11, 4th ser. Retrieved from https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/GL.

2. Holmes, J. (2001). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (2nd Ed.). Essex, U.K: Pearson Education Limited

3. Language and Gender: A study case

The Effectiveness of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) & Its Implementation in Our Country

  

Introduction:

21st century is known as an innovative age. On the off chance that the innovation is included with adapting particularly in English then it would be totally simpler and fascinating for students to adapt a new language. As a matter of fact, English is turning into a vital issue these days on the grounds that our day by day life requires English in each worldwide perspective. Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) ought to interest both the instructors and students with the goal of compelling technology based language learning, especially EFL learning. Be that as it may, more often than not as a Bangladeshi students, they are denied from this chance of innovation based dialect learning framework. The point of this investigation is to discover all the viability of CALL, upgrade over current learning, and the amount it is actualized in our unique situation.

In spite of the fact that the idea of CALL is well known in western culture and very new in Bangladeshi context, however there are few inquiries about on it. In the event that any college chooses to put a PC helped language course in their educational programs, this paper will assist them with learning about the present circumstance of CALL at the tertiary level.

Literature review:

Now the biggest question is what is CALL? CALL is the application of computer technology to language learning and teaching. It normally designs a language course to become practical rather than theoretical, which also covers the techniques of using software, CD-ROM, World Wide Web and mobile, computer as tools resources of language learning for both language teachers and learners. In fact, any use of computers to aid or support the education system or learning process or any kind of training of people. 

According to Avent and Joseph Harman (1994), “the language learning differences between students using computer assisted language learning and students using the traditional language.”

To support my research proposal I have studied 3 papers regarding this-

·         The role of computer assisted language learning (call) in promoting learner autonomy (Arzu Mutlu).

This paper was published to highlight ‘how to utilize learning environment with technology and develop learners’ autonomy or self-learning. The paper found out that the structured training group improved in their usage of language learning strategy, had higher motivation, were more willing to take responsibility for their own learning and were engaged in extra-curricular activities related to the study. Whether non structured traing group was unaware of everything except normal classroom activities.

·         Implementation of CALL in the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Perspectives and Attitudes in Developing CALL-based Classroom (Nazmul Naher Nila). 

This research paper focused to the teacher’s perception of implementation of CALL and how a teacher usually sees a CALL-based classroom. Though the implementation of CALL is tough in our Bangladeshi context and the situation is not satisfactory, but teachers are eager to implement it.

·         Integrating Computer Assisted Instruction in the EFL Classroom of Bangladesh (Naima Afrin)

Naima Afrin’s paper focused on how CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning)/CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction) can be supplemented for teaching the English language learning in tertiary level of Bangladesh.

Research Questions:

·         To what extent CALL increases learners’ motivation?

·         How does the application of computer assisted language learning affect learner’s perceptions of English?

Methodology:

I will apply the mixed method which is the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. I will choose the English language for learning and teaching in CALL. As a qualitative research method, I will take face-to-face interview of teachers from a particular computer-based English language course. And it may be formal in his office-room or maybe informal over phone. I will arrange a questionnaire for undergrad students which includes in quantitative research method. In addition, the setting will be the formal classroom setting.

Participant:

Participants are teachers and students from undergrad level.

Setting:

My survey will be occurred in 3 public and private universities of Dhaka.

Findings: 

However, not all the students can access internet or CALL but they need to be motivated. After doing this research, we may find how much CALL motivates learners and how much it is important for learning language skills and computer-related skills. The learning process may seem boring but CALL makes it interesting. So, we will also know the students’ perception or individual perspective regarding English Language Learning through CALL.

Implication:

The importance of teachers’ training based on CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction) will be noticed by this proposal. Most importantly, it will help to focus on the elements of CALL. This research paper will help government, authority, and teachers to implement CALL in all over the country. It will also develop learners’ language skills learning through CALL. Furthermore, this study will promote CALL in Bangladesh at least in foreign language learning.

Conclusion:

Therefore, CALL has important potential for language learning and teaching. It can interest and motivate learners especially in English. Finally, the effectiveness of CALL relies on how it is utilized to meet language learning goal and how well it is implemented. 

 References:

1. A. M. (2013). • The role of computer assisted language learning (CALL) in promoting learner autonomy. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research.

2. NIla, N. N. (2013). Implementation of CALL in the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Perspectives and Attitudes in Developing CALL-based Classroom (Unpublished master's thesis). Brac University.

3. Md. Haider-Takad Chowdhury - English Language Teaching – 2012. Promoting CLT within a Computer Assisted Learning Environment: A Survey of the Communicative English Course of FLTC

4. S. H. (2010). Attitudes of L2 teachers towards Internet-based foreign language teaching (Master's thesis, European University of Lefke, Gemikonagi-Lefke, TRNC, Mersin 10, Turkey). 2010 Published by Elsevier.

5. B. T. (n.d.). COMPUTER-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING: AN OVERVIEW. Retrieved from http://web.warwick.ac.uk/CELTE/tr/ovCALL/booklet1.htm

  

মানুষের ব্যথা আমি পেয়ে গেছি ☺ -জীবনানন্দ দাশ

মানুষের ব্যথা আমি পেয়ে গেছি পৃথিবীর পথে এসে — হাসির আস্বাদ
পেয়ে গেছি; দেখেছি আকাশে দূরে কড়ির মতন শাদা মেঘের পাহাড়ে
সূর্যের রাঙা ঘোড়া; পক্ষিরাজের মতো কমলা রঙের পাখা ঝাড়ে
রাতের কুয়াশা ছিঁড়ে; দেখেছি শরের বনে শাদা রাজহাঁসদের সাধ
উঠেছে আনন্দে জেগে — নদীর স্রোতের দিকে বাতাসের মতন অবাধ
চলে গেছে কলরবে; — দেখেছি সবুজ ঘাস — যত দূর চোখ যেতে পারে;
ঘাসের প্রকাশ আমি দেখিয়াছি অবিরল, — পৃথিবীর ক্লান্ত বেদনারে
ঢেকে আছে; — দেখিয়াছি বাসমতী, কাশবন আকাঙ্খার রক্ত, অপরাধ

মুছায়ে দিতেছে যেন বার বার কোন এক রহস্যের কুয়াশার থেকে
যেখানে জন্মে না কেউ, যেখানে মরে না কেউ, সেই কুহকের থেকে এসে
রাঙা রোদ, শালিধান, ঘাস, কাশ, মরালেরা বার বার রাখিতেছে ঢেকে
আমাদের রুক্ষ প্রশ্ন, ক্লান্ত ক্ষুধা, স্ফুট মৃত্যু — আমাদের বিস্মিত নীরব
রেখে দেয় — পৃথিবীর পথে আমি কেটেছি আচঁড় ঢের, অশ্রু গেছি রেখে
তবু ঐ মরালীরা কাশ ধান রোদ ঘাস এসে এসে মুছে দেয় সব।