Comments on: You just gotta want it. http://www.languagelabunleashed.com/2008/05/04/you-just-gotta-want-it/ Language learning and technology for teachers and technologists, K-16 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:10:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Doug http://www.languagelabunleashed.com/2008/05/04/you-just-gotta-want-it/#comment-9489 Doug Fri, 30 May 2008 18:08:27 +0000 http://www.languagelabunleashed.com/2008/05/04/you-just-gotta-want-it/#comment-9489 You know, for all the "wisdom" we as language teacher possess, we really drop the ball when it comes to following certain trends coming out of the education field. We choose to ignore all of the studies on cognitive load, surface learning and motivation and "cover" concepts. Front-load, back-load, midterm-load...it's all "load" that students forget 5 minutes after the test. Our answer, rather than some serious introspection as to our pedagogical practices, is usually to tell students to keep plugging along or they'll forget it all! Just keep going until you get you requirement out of the way...nevermind actually trying to convert students into the profession by teaching/arranging curriculum out of the box. Yeah, students have to want it. But are we giving them something they would want to want? You know, for all the “wisdom” we as language teacher possess, we really drop the ball when it comes to following certain trends coming out of the education field. We choose to ignore all of the studies on cognitive load, surface learning and motivation and “cover” concepts. Front-load, back-load, midterm-load…it’s all “load” that students forget 5 minutes after the test. Our answer, rather than some serious introspection as to our pedagogical practices, is usually to tell students to keep plugging along or they’ll forget it all! Just keep going until you get you requirement out of the way…nevermind actually trying to convert students into the profession by teaching/arranging curriculum out of the box.

Yeah, students have to want it. But are we giving them something they would want to want?

]]> By: Barbara http://www.languagelabunleashed.com/2008/05/04/you-just-gotta-want-it/#comment-9443 Barbara Tue, 06 May 2008 11:54:08 +0000 http://www.languagelabunleashed.com/2008/05/04/you-just-gotta-want-it/#comment-9443 Thanks, Colleen, for commenting..and for admitting that you too are sucked into the vortex as well. Am seriously considering polling my students tonight and asking them whether we should even have a final exit interview for my conversation class or not. Will anything actually come of it aside from more stress for everyone involved? Will there be learning outcomes achieved through this exercise that we could not achieve otherwise or have not already achieved? Am I doing it because I feel I have to? Would I like a break from exam mayhem? absolutely. Will I miss teaching these students and watching them morph into sensible, sensitive and (thank you urban dictionary) sensical, language speakers? Oh you betcha. The ending this year will be particularly hard...it has been an amazing group. B Thanks, Colleen, for commenting..and for admitting that you too are sucked into the vortex as well.

Am seriously considering polling my students tonight and asking them whether we should even have a final exit interview for my conversation class or not. Will anything actually come of it aside from more stress for everyone involved? Will there be learning outcomes achieved through this exercise that we could not achieve otherwise or have not already achieved? Am I doing it because I feel I have to?

Would I like a break from exam mayhem? absolutely. Will I miss teaching these students and watching them morph into sensible, sensitive and (thank you urban dictionary) sensical, language speakers? Oh you betcha. The ending this year will be particularly hard…it has been an amazing group.

B

]]> By: Colleen http://www.languagelabunleashed.com/2008/05/04/you-just-gotta-want-it/#comment-9442 Colleen Mon, 05 May 2008 23:43:14 +0000 http://www.languagelabunleashed.com/2008/05/04/you-just-gotta-want-it/#comment-9442 stuffing sausages .... We know it too well. I will never forget when Maureen Garrity came to facilitate our OPI training. We lined up one language learner after the other and probed and spiraled them from floor to ceiling to try to appropriately rate their oral proficiency. What a profound experience... the proof is in the pudding. What we teach them means nothing if they haven't learned... if they cannot do anything with the knowledge. So here is to change. Gone go the days of creating a syllabus by page numbers in a book. I write this as I avoid correcting 40 final compositions... signed a recovering sausage stuffer:) stuffing sausages …. We know it too well. I will never forget when Maureen Garrity came to facilitate our OPI training. We lined up one language learner after the other and probed and spiraled them from floor to ceiling to try to appropriately rate their oral proficiency. What a profound experience… the proof is in the pudding. What we teach them means nothing if they haven’t learned… if they cannot do anything with the knowledge. So here is to change. Gone go the days of creating a syllabus by page numbers in a book. I write this as I avoid correcting 40 final compositions… signed a recovering sausage stuffer:)

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