The Need of Integrating Technology into Second Language Classroom

I had some trouble helping my son with his 4^th grade math homework one night: neither of us understood the term Front End Estimation.  I received education from a different country and there was no such a term in any math course I have taken.  My son wasn’t sure if the teacher had explained it to the class, or he was not paying attention when she did that.  So, as what we usually do, we googled Front End Estimation and found this: http://www.nutshellmath.com/textbooks_glossary_demos/glossary_content/front-end_estimation.html.  Thanks to the modern technology, both of us were enlightened within less than 1 minute.

Technology has been increasingly essential to both learning and teaching, as technology opened a new horizon where teachers and students can access to knowledge in various pathways and modes, find answers in seconds, finish their assignments and projects in productive ways, and share their learning process and results with a broad audience. 

Ten years ago, when I started teaching as a second language teacher, the integration of technology was limited to TV, cassette recorders, CD and VCD players, and the language laboratory which basically served as a listening classroom and test center.   Students were carrying heavy and bulky dictionaries into the classrooms.  Teachers were using textbooks and chalks/markers to teach. All the assessments and tests were based on pencil and paper.

What is happening to the second language classroom in the new era of information and technology?  When cassette recorders, TVs, and bulky dictionaries have all become passé and gone with the wind, almost every modern classroom has access to internet and computer software developed for language learners, a wide collection of on-line teaching resources pertaining to textbooks is available, teachers are bringing their laptops to the classrooms, and students are looking up words on electronic or on-line dictionaries. The methodology of teaching second language is also experiencing innovations.  Researchers at New York Institute of Technology, Hsu, Wang, and Comac designed and implemented audioblogs into the curriculum of a college ESL conversation course (2008). (http://languageaudioblog.blogspot.com/) Through the use of affordable and easy to use websites and recording software, the students were able to receive feedback fast and frequently from the instructor, while the instructor was allowed to chronically record and monitor the learning progress of each learner.

The other benefits of integrating technology into second language classrooms include:

·       motivating learners of all levels and age groups

·        helping students visualize underlying concepts in unfamiliar or abstract topics (Roblyer & Doering, 2007, p15)

·       giving language learners access to the language environment which could be outside the classroom or faraway abroad.

·       providing practice and drills related to specific language skills, such as listening and speaking

Along with the trend in which teachers and educational researchers acknowledge the great impact of technology on education and have been progressively studying the theories and practices of successful implementation of technology into education, researchers and language teachers have agreed that technology cannot replace good teachers and face-to-face interactions between the teacher and students. “A pencil is high tech as long as our students are concerned” (Wrigley & Guth, 1992, p95).  Simply having students use technology does not raise achievement.  The impact depends on the ways the technology is used and the conditions under which applications are implemented (Roblyer & Doering, 2007, p13).

Galveston, TX----Escape from the heat of Dallas!

Brother & Sister

Water fight!

Seagull

My mom is paying a short visit from China.

Feeding Seagulls

Grandma & Weiwei

Ahhh!  Now I can finally release my energy!

Grandma strolling on the beach.

Husband fishing

40 Sea trouts overnight

The fish ended up in here!

Hermit crabs can only survive on rocky beaches.

Quiet Morning

Ms. Little Beautiful

Simply happy!

Our favorite Mexican restaurant

All wet feels good!

Scarlet Ibis----Rain Forest, Moody Gardens

Rain Forest Plant

White-Faced Saki

Rain Forest Flower Idonnothename

Heritage Language Teaching

 Differentiated Instruction in Heritage Language (HL) Teaching

Introduction

In one of her articles, Polinsky (2007) recounted the story of Jim, a student “at a prestigious American university.  He is planning to go to law school and has many talents: he is a member of the debate club, and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper; he plays the flute, holds numerous winning titles in wrestling, has been on the dean’s honor list since his freshmen year, and is universally liked as a charming, articulate, caring person.  He is an all-American, well-rounded guy.  Jim has a dark secret, though: he has not really spoken to his grandparents since he was five, he cannot write to them, and he cannot even sign his name” (p. 368).

“Jim’s grandparents speak no English.  Jim’s birth name is Cho Dong-In.  He is a Korean American who can barely speak in Korean”(p. 368).  In the early 21^st century, about one third of incoming college students in America are like Jim.  They “speak American” and their knowledge of the language they were exposed to from birth can range from limited to nonexistent (Polinsky, 2007, p.369).

Heritage language (HL) is the language spoken by the children of immigrants or by those who immigrated to a country when young. HL can be refugee, and indigenous languages, as well as former colonial languages. HL is also referred to as “minority language” or “community language”(Pérez, 2010, p.71).  Thirty years ago, HL speakers were called semispeakers or incomplete acquirers (Polinsky, 2007).  The U.S. as a country conducts bilingual education in a way that reflects an underlying theory that there is “something wrong with language minority students and that they need to be fixed through compensatory types of programs” (Pérez, 2010, p.72).  However, with the use of the term “heritage language” appeared 10 years ago, and the progress of the in-depth study on heritage language teaching and learning, a shift of attitudes toward HL and HL learners is called for.  Researchers advocated that it is time to stop viewing language minority students as deficient or academically unmotivated, and it is time to start valuing their HL skills as assets that contribute to our classrooms, communities and country (Pérez, 2010).  Although HL speakers’ learning experiences of their HL might be incomplete or interrupted, when being put in the same classroom as non HL learners, the linguistic advantages of HL learners will still be able to place them years ahead of non-HL learners.  For example, if our country and government needs some people with Arabic language proficiency to work in foreign affairs in the Middle East, teaching the HL speakers of Arabic and help them reach high proficiency will take shorter time than teaching other learners from the scratch.  Polinsky (2007) proposed that HL speakers are an underutilized national resource in the U.S. and it was an exciting and daunting task for educators to formulate the “proper” instruction in the classroom.

As a long-term foreign language teacher, I have observed how HL speakers can easily excel their non HL peers in the same language classroom, and how individually diverse the HL speakers learning experiences and needs were.  As a part-time teacher at several community-based Chinese HL schools, I also observed the strong contrast between immigrant parents’ and their children’s attitudes toward HL maintenance.  When the parents usually held positive attitudes toward HL learning and make efforts to help the children maintaining the HL, the younger generation failed to recognize the necessity and importance of retaining their HL. The lack of support from the mainstream education system, the strong trend of assimilation to English language among immigrant families might have contributed to the HL’s being ignored.  But at the level of classroom, is there anything that the classroom teacher can do to enhance the HL learning?  On the other hand, the HL learners are not a homogenous group. The HL speakers’ learning experiences and language skills may vary diversely from individual to individual even within the same generation.  How to meet each individual’s needs in a mix-ability classroom?   I am trying to seek answers from differentiated instruction.

Differentiated Instruction in HL Teaching (Outline)

Differentiation Strategies:

1.               Use literature to engage HL learners and teach them the structures of their HL.  Critically analyze the moral and standards conveyed by the texts in relation to the mainstream value.

2.               Utilize the HL in conjunction with English; work on the relationship between languages.

3.               Use electronic media and computer-based instructional materials.

4.               Make the HL learning relative to their real-life circumstances, to the mainstream culture to which they are exposed to.

5.               Respect the non-standard form of language while encouraging students to become proficient in the standard form of language.

6.               HL literacy instruction.  From “bilingual” to “biliteracy”.

7.               One-on-one coaching for students.  Connect the HL learning to community.

Conclusion

Often entwined with immigrants’ ethnic identity and subject to the assimilative forces of English language in the mainstream education system, the questions in the field of HL teaching and learning has been complicated and not been fully explored.  Study showed that HL learners at college level are highly self-determined and motivated to retain their HL, either because they consider HL as a central part of their identity, they want to polish their language skills to be more competitive in the work market, or they feel that it their responsibility to pass their culture and heritage to the next generation.  Contrarily, HL learners of younger age are still experiencing considerable HL loss and are not motivated to maintain their HL although their parents made great efforts and even became the HL teachers of the children. The main factor that affects immigrant children attitudes toward HL is the pressures of linguistic and cultural conformity in the school environments, especially as the children enter adolescence. The younger HL speakers’ perception of HL being “useless” and “unprofitable” also reveals a lack of support for HL learning in the mainstream American schools and in the larger society (Zhang, 2009).

To reverse the reality that HL teaching and learning is ignored in the U.S., policy changes are needed at both national and district level.  But in the classroom practice of HL teachers, they can seek help from differentiated instruction to engage the younger HL learners and increase their motivation to learn.  For teachers of the mainstream classroom, one advice they can take home is that when possible, praise the HL skills of minority students and give them credit for keep learning their HL.

Easter 2011

Spring Break----Corpus Christi, TX

People's T Head

Fresh Catch from the Sea



Kids Playing at Seashore



Sunrise, from our Balcony

Weiwei, Santa & Alex

Book Review: Funny in Farsi, a Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America

“Funny in Farsi, A Memoir of Growing Iranian in America”, by Firoozeh Dumas, is a collection of unforgettable stories about the author and her family’s experiences as immigrants in the 1970’s.  Firoozeh Dumas was born in Iran, when she was 7 years old, she and her family moved to California.  This book spans years from her childhood to her early adulthood, the author writes about not understanding English, getting lost in Disneyland, her nose being teased, horrible experience of summer camp, traveling in different places….  The American life was pictured in the eyes of an immigrant girl. 

        Another main character in this book is the author’s engineer father, Kazem.  He spent his graduate years in America in the 1950’s.  To him, America is a place full of clean bathrooms and kind people.  This book recounts Kazem’s attempts to seek riches through bowling and in Los Vegas, and his adventures on all kinds of American foods.

        If the 27 stories of identity, discovery, and power of family love are 27 shiny pearls, the string that connects all of the stories, is the sense of humor in this book.  “What is charming beyond the humor of this memoir is that it remains affectionate even in the weakest, most tenuous moments for the culture.  It’s the brilliance of true sophistication at work. ” (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

        I think this memoir covers almost every diversity topic mentioned in our textbook.  However, the most notable ones are:  geography, language, and religion.

        The author feels sorry about the limited geographic knowledge of Americans, and is surprised at how this limitation has restrained people’s minds. When the author and her family first moved to California in 1972, most of the Americans they met didn’t even heard of Iran.  People had such a mistaken image of Iran, which often consisted of camels, tents and the Sahara, that they were disappointed at knowing Iranians actually had cars and electricity, just as in America.   Things got worse after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, when the relation between Iran and the U.S. was on edge, Americans had bumper stickers that read “Iranians: Go Home” or “We Play Cowboys and Iranians”.  These Americans felt that they knew all about Iran and its people, and they had no questions, just opinions. 

        The author makes readers laugh about their experience of overcoming the language barrier in the chapter of “Hot Dogs and Wild Geese”, “moving to America was both exciting and frightening”, because they didn’t know English.   Her father was unable to understand spoken English and he himself was speaking a “private language” made up of thick Persian accent and pre- World War II vocabulary.  They searched for “elbow grease” in hardware shop to clean the floor; they referred the restroom as “Vater closet” and were guided to the drinking fountain; the author’s parents still don’t understand why teenagers want to be cool so they can be hot. 

        When religion for many people is a serious and heavy issue, the author’s father treats religion with hearty laugh.  As a Muslim, Kazem fell in love with ham, which is the forbidden food of Islam. He believed “it’s not what we eat or don’t eat that makes us good people; it’s how we treat one another….people of every religion think they’re the best, but that’s not true.  There are good and bad people in every religion.  Just because someone is Muslim, Jewish, or Christian doesn’t mean a thing.  You have to look and see what’s in their hearts.  That’s the only thing that matters, and that’s the only detail God cares about.”    The author believed this part is the soul of her book, in which I learned religions should function to unite people, other than divide them.

        The stories in this book could “easily translates to the experience of immigrants from any part of the world” (San Jose Mercury News).  The motto of the book, I believe, is to treat diversities and culture shocks as laughing matter.  If someone had been able to capsulate humor in pill form, the pills would undoubtedly put most prejudice and hatred out of business.

        Quotes:

—      Often kids tried to be funny by chanting, “I ran to I-ran, I ran to I-ran.” The correct pronunciation, I always informed them, is “Ee-rahn.” “I ran” is a sentence, I told them, as in “I ran away from my geography lesson.”                                                       ---P34

—   …how sad it was that people so easily hate an entire population simply because of the actions of a few.  And what a waste it is to hate, he (my father) always said.  What a waste.                                                                                                                  ----P121

—  [Father]I am a rich man in America, too.  I just don’t have a lot of money.                                                                              

                                                                                                                              ----P187