Final Reflection MATL Experience I was excited to get back to the Master of Arts in Teaching Languages (MATL) program since circumstances did not allow me to continue in the summer of 1998. In this program, I have not only grown as a teacher but have learned much incidentally that I wouldn’t have learned outside of the program. I learned how to research a paper using the internet, and learned much about online communication. I began my teaching prior to the internet and was not afraid to use the internet as much as I just didn’t know how to use the computer and avail myself of its resources. This Master’s “stretched” me to write clearly and concisely. Also, I did not realize how much there is to learn about the teaching and learning of languages. Mostly, I learned in the MATL program to explore new methods for teaching language, use what works, and be flexible to the needs of students. My first course, FL664 Second Language Acquisition: Theory into Practice, taught me the basics of theory and foreign language research. As a foreign language student in school, I was taught through grammar translation, Audiolingual Method, Direct Method, and communicative language teaching. I did not know before that these methods erupted from psychological approaches such as the Nativist approach which believes language is innate. One of the most interesting insights I gained was the debate concerning child language acquisition. I learned you can learn at a later age however, it is just more difficult and you will not have a “nativelike” accent. Accent is not the final determiner and although it is easier to learn language at a younger age it is not the only factor involved. It was essential to discover this because I teach high school to adults. This course I feel was a synopsis of second language acquisition, like one of the titles to the text I used, and it foretold that there would be much to learn. Another core course I took was FL 663 Applied Linguistics in Second and Foreign Languages. I learned in a brief overview about morphology, phonology (with its phonemes and morphemes) and linguistics even though I feel the topics were difficult. Morphemes are the parts of words but looking at morphemes in another language during some of the chapter exercises also clarified their importance in the sentence structure. The small parts form the larger parts of the sentence like building a structure with Legos. I was proud to find a website that helped me solve a textbook question to identify the numbers one to five in twenty languages. I have found that it helps to know how children acquire languages to be able to advise people who ask for insight. The meaning that one wants to communicate was covered the chapter exercises on semantics and I found out that language learning is very complicated. I have an understanding of why another language is complicated to learn for the non-native speaker. Of course, like most students of language, I thought I would learn about the grammar of sentences in the course entitled: TSL 612 – Options in the Teaching of Grammar. Instead I discovered a more complete and comprehensive study of the theories behind the acquisition of grammar. It may be best to not supply grammatical rules one at a time as is often done in American schools and textbooks when teaching a foreign language. The background of the learner, culturally and socially; the cognitive ability of the student; experiences and eagerness of the learner; as well as instruction that is form-focused are all essential in the teaching of grammar. I learned that misconceptions I have, and arguments I hear about grammar teaching have been researched and that research provides a clearer picture of what occurs in language learning. It is not just transliteration that moves a sentence from one language to the new language for the L2 learner. Similarities may exist but also may not exist from the L1 to L2. I was also fascinated about the discoveries into child acquisition of second language. It amazes me how the public has solidly formed views on the topic about the “blank slate” theory of language learning, accent development, correction of children’s speech, and imitation of adults by the child. I have found that most of these ideas that people have are solidly underdeveloped. I believe that my own perspective has broadened when I approach grammar. I choose to relax on the production practice and use grammar more contextually. I learned to embrace a broader perspective to include discovery type exercises of grammar. Grammar too can be fun if taught in an interesting way. As a teacher in foreign language I never really thought vocabulary needed to be taught not caught. I had the traditional understanding of the students needing to define the words and then memorize the words using flash cards. The course TSL 692 – The Teaching and Acquisition of Vocabulary, taught me about theories and facts in learning vocabulary. Some theories I have learned spawned programs like “the million word reading program” which wants students to read a million words in a year. Some teachers and administrators, however, incorrectly interpret the goals and results of these programs. There are explicit means to vocabulary development such as direct teaching and implicit means to develop vocabulary through television, reading, radio and magazines, to name a few. Teachers can teach strategies to the students to help them organize and retrieve words they are learning. I learned that in colleges students want to learn more vocabulary for their writing and academic studies. I was very interested in this class because I did not know what was expected in teaching vocabulary and what the teacher could do to help the students. Lastly, the course covered the testing of vocabulary which I have expanded to include more than multiple choice tests. There are many methods to teach and test vocabulary and I am attempting to try and branch out to use a wider variety of both teaching and testing. My first question in the course, FL 665 Sociocultural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives in Language Teaching was “Teaching culture, how do you do that?” The culture is everywhere in the language as said by Moran (2001). Culture became clearer to me when it was defined as products, practices, perspectives, communities and persons. What I see is that currently the foreign language teacher confines culture to some products, usually associated with holidays, and history. Often the L2 student of English does not understand how to participate in the cultural aspect of English. The learner of English needs to avoid trouble, socialize, and maintain relationships in the cultural community. These other functions of culture can and should be taught for the L2 English student to be successful in the community. I learned that my interpretation of learning the language involves more than words and grammar. Teaching culture helps the student discover the culture so they are no longer puzzled as to why anything is done or said a certain way. This past summer I saw people in line at Disneyworld to take a picture in front of the castle when no line was required. It was obvious to me that they were all internationals. I couldn’t help but think about the culture they came from and I wanted to call out to them and say “don’t make a line just snap a picture when you want.” Students need to shop, go to the post office, and go to a restaurant and more. We as second language teachers can reveal the perceptions and attitudes that combine with the English language. In TSL 643 – Discourse /Conversation Analysis for Teachers, I found that I was nervous and excited about the project. I had to begin the audio recordings of naturally occurring audio data. I learned that people are nervous about letting you record them but they forget you are recording. I learned about how conversation occurs and it is actually very predictable. It was so fascinating to me to have revealed that conversation is so ordered into preliminary comments, TCU’s or Turn Constructional Units; or what makes a completion of a turn and rush-throughs; a practice to speed up near completion. I thought that although I have participated in these practices my whole life I never knew I was following a pattern of conversation. I also learned that it is difficult for non-native speakers of English to interpret how the conversation is unfolding and when they can enter the conversation. Also, I learned to be aware of cultural differences in how language is perceived. Tasks such as forming acceptance of an invitation can help the L2 learner practice conversation and how it functions. I believe that we can teach conversation with the knowledge of how the various aspects work in conversation. The texts considered openings, closings, telephone conversation, invitation and others to teach conversation. With actual understanding and knowledge of conversation and how conversation evolves I can and should teach my students how to be effective conversationalists. An elective I took was CIE 600 – Foundations of Multicultural Education. The course examined the national guidelines, teaching approaches, research, and evaluation techniques in addressing multicultural classrooms. I grew in my understanding of what constitutes different ethnicities and how understanding the cultural pluralism of the classroom can aid the teacher in avoiding potential misunderstandings. Cultural differences do exist verbally, non-verbally (such as personal space), orientationally (like attention span) socially, (such as values and goals) and intellectually (such as knowledge most valued) which is the five point guideline of understanding differences as proposed by Longstreet (1969). I was immediately drawn to an idea for my final project to explain the problems and solutions of teaching the African-American student. I learned that the causes are the home, low income, their culture and even the teachers own self efficacy that the teacher has if they will be successful with these students. Regarding culture, I learned about High-Context culture in which the members of the group have strong affiliation with each other. My suspicions were confirmed that African-American students are overrepresented in special education and underrepresented in gifted education classes. This comes from misdiagnosis from teachers who misinterpret cultural values. I learned a lot in my research, mainly to diversify the learning experiences in order to help students achieve greater success. In the course, Introduction to Language Pragmatics, I learned about the study of language use in context and its application to foreign language teaching and learning. I learned as I suspected that pragmatics is communicating more than what is said. Hopefully, this study of pragmatics will help me form a greater understanding and awareness of cross cultural differences and similarities in communicating. Mostly we cannot assume that the students can produce correct L2 forms. Learners have social and cultural frameworks for the negotiation of meaning also. Speech acts such as apologies, complaints, compliments, requests, refusals, and thanks are all pragmatic use of language. I also learned that there is conversational management and conversational implicature as part of pragmatics study. There is a question I have that if the authentic language is preferred in lieu of textbook language (unauthentic) how do we determine success of meaning? This study of pragmatics is introductory and clearly more research would be reasonable. I learned; however, that meaning is contextual and social also, what is said includes verbal and non-verbal cues, and social and linguistic signals between hearer and speaker. For the teacher it is reasonable to need to know that what is said involves many factors in the negotiation of meaning. When I was finally able to enroll in FL 561 – Teaching Second Languages: Theory into Practice, I had already learned much about foreign language teaching theory and experienced and tried approaches to teaching foreign languages. I was introduced to the new paradigm of the goal areas of communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. I don’t know if there were national standards before but I made lessons that were Interpersonal, Interpretive and Presentational before I knew about them although I now have more direction. I am more aware of what the standards involve so I am more inclined to use the components and practices involved. I did some exercises in the text which were videos of real life teaching in applying the standards. The course was helpful to formulate my own teaching style in creating a discipline plan, textbook reviews, teaching philosophy, lesson plan and more. The practicum was helpful to evaluate my own weaknesses and styles by observing other teachers in action in the classroom. The focused observations were helpful to view one aspect of the teachers’ presentation such as questioning. The text was an excellent guideline to look for the focus of the presentation. I enjoyed the observations and tried to view them from the perspective of if I was lacking in an area of delivery in the class. I decided I don’t greet the class and verbally appreciate them. I have changed as a teacher in the entire MATL experience. I smile at students more, differentiate instruction, share what I’ve learned and know that I have taken a step to be a more effective teacher in the future.