1b language teaching

Persidangan Pembangunan Pelajar Peringkat Kebangsaan 2008 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 22-23 Oktober 2008

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Language Teaching the E-Portfolio Way

Shanthi Nadarajan (PhD)a

aUniversity Malaysia Sarawak [email protected]

Abstract Following decades of efforts to make learners’ autonomous, self reliant and creative and teachers less directive and more facilitative, it is time to rethink learning autonomy in terms of the electronic age. Providing equal education to large groups of students can be a challenge especially when students come from various backgrounds and disciplines continue to receive education from language instructors whose areas of expertise might not be similar to the students. This paper is an insight into a language proficiency course in Unimas which attempts to minimize the instructor and learner variable by using the e-portfolio as a teaching context. The e-portfolio is best seen as an electronic teaching management tool that enables instructors to use a plethora of internet resources and teaching materials to support teaching and learning. By connecting the teaching environment to a virtual classroom, where students provide feedback in terms of learner needs, the course has been able to tap into both learner needs and instructional effectiveness. It might be necessary for course coordinators to rethink learning in terms of the e-portfolio.

Keywords: learner autonomy, ESP, interactive media, virtual classroom, teaching, learning 1. Introduction In designing language proficiency courses for University students, language instructors are often caught between identifying a particular teaching model that a) helps undergraduates improve their subject knowledge and language skills and b) identify the correct mix of learners who will benefit from it. Having identified, the next step would be to tailor the course to meet the needs of the learners and to ensure that the language presented in the course ‘corresponds as closely as possible to the language that is actually required by learners in their specific purpose area’ (Flowerdew, 1993). This paper is an attempt by one Malaysian university to use the advances in technology, a particular Second language teaching model and framework to provide both content area knowledge and language skills that “corresponds” closely to learners needs. This presentation is made up of two parts. The first part explains the rationale for choosing the teaching model for teaching subject area knowledge and the second part explains the course management tool “e-portfolio” in terms of structure and implementation.

2. Content Based Instruction

Content based Instruction (CBI) as described by Brinton, Snow and Wesche (1989) serve as content driven curriculum where both language and content are taught concurrently to ensure comprehensible input provided through content material leads to language acquisition (p.240). Such form of instruction therefore functions as a bridge between language learning and content learning where teachers use instructional materials, learning tasks and classroom techniques from academic content areas to develop language, content, cognitive and study skills. In University Malaysia Sarawak, the English for Professional Purposes course is aimed towards helping undergraduates improve their language skills and prepare themselves for the workplace communication. The course helps prepare learners for workplace communication as well as job applications. In terms of approach the course include both CBI and task based activities that help provide content area knowledge and increased language proficiency.


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3. Designing the EPP Course In designing the course, two models of learning in CBI were considered, namely the theme based model and the Sustained CBI. In the former, the language instructor build the language skills around selected topics or themes e.g. workplace communication and report writing. As stated by Gianelli (1997), by organizing materials thematically for the students, instructors get to create a powerful integrated learning environment where students obtain in-depth understanding of content area knowledge as well as improve and increase their language and vocabulary skills by reusing and expanding them (p.143) Jacobs defines it as ‘an application of a methodology and language from more than one discipline in examining a central theme’ (cited in Gianelli, 1997, p. 143). Meanwhile, the Sustained CBI distinguishes itself from ‘theme’ based models in that students study a particular discipline for a half or a full semester, progressing through various aspects of a larger topic through an assignment (e.g. report writing). In EPP, the course begins with students reading several articles about the importance of English in workplace communication and job application. This creates an awareness of the importance of language for workplace communication. This is followed by an assignment where students work on addressing language gaps and weaknesses in their discipline. The research topic changes from semester to semester and this minimizes the possibility of students submitting their seniors assignments as theirs. For the subsequent weeks, students are taught the process and procedures involved in securing a job. For the later part of the semester reporting and business writing skills are addressed. In a way, it is assumed that the later concepts and information will become reliant on earlier ones and learners can identify a thematic link as they go through the course. Course outlines of this nature are often used in advanced beginner through advanced levels of English theme based learning and is believed to provide teaching skills that are appropriate to age level and ‘transferable’ to analytical/ critical thinking that undergird discipline specific work (Pally, 2001, p. 281). Sustained CBI also suggests that students learn analytical/ critical thinking skills when they confront actual

academic/ professional task in which skills are modeled, explained and practiced. Incidentally Pally’s (2001) case study involving 13 students from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe in eight classes at two American universities indicate the effectiveness of the sustained CBI model, where papers by lower proficiency students who followed the model demonstrated stronger argumentation skills than papers written by advanced students who had not. 4. Teaching the E-Portfolio Way In designing the EPP course, CBI was considered as one of the few realistic options for promoting the development of strategic learners within a language learning curriculum. However, with language teaching becoming increasingly fragmented and unfocused, where teacher educators and teacher education programs substitute their own individual rationales based on existing pedagogical assumptions and research findings, identifying subject matter expertise has become an increasingly difficult matter. So to create a sound Second Language Acquisition (SLA) basis for teaching, J.C. Richard (1997) five core components of SLTE program were selected. (See figure 1). The five components include a) general teaching ability; b) language proficiency and communication ability; c) subject matter knowledge; d) pedagogical reasoning; and e) course evaluation. These components were integrated into the main themes of e-portfolio and will be discussed.

Figure 1: Components of SLTE programs (source: J.C. Richards, 1997, p.206)


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General teaching ability include the instructors’ ability to teach meaningfully across the curriculum, organize and manage adult language classrooms, present clear explanations, assign and monitor students’ works and provide meaningful input. To ensure all instructors in the 27 classes in EPP possess such abilities, a course management CD called the e-portfolio is given to each instructor at the beginning of the course. The e-portfolio has a number of in build features as well as place holders where instructors add on additional material as the semester progresses. It begins with the teachers’ teaching philosophy and teaching and learning strategies as indicated in figures 2 and 3.

Content (Menu)

Teaching ResourcesTeaching ResourcesTeaching ResourcesInstructor Topics

Teaching Resources Course Material

Peer Summary Assessment

Exit

Evaluation

Reports

Figure 2: Main Menu

EPP 08

Instructor -** Group :

Teaching Philosophy

I like teaching because I enjoy inspiring young minds. I like to ask questions that challenge and cause them to think and reflect on issues that concerns.

I understand that the use of technology enhances language learning. It is a useful tool that helps instruct and inform about my teaching and students’ learning performance.

Main Menu

Figure 3: Teaching Philosophy

The course materials are linked to specific folders that contain powerpoint slides, video clips, notes, handouts, pdf. documents and URL

links to the World Wide Web. In addition, course assignments, datelines, suggestions and notes are included for the instructors’ reference. Indirectly, the materials are aimed towards ensuring that students are exposed to the same content and instructors work from a similar teaching context. In a way, the e-portfolio serves as a one stop centre that provides both language content and subject knowledge and instructors are only required to rely on their general teaching skills and language proficiency to carry out the lessons. Slides, videos are incorporated because the students of today are the result of the digital era and more interested in technology and visual representations. Task based activities are used to provide learner engagement. 5. Language Proficiency and

Communication Skills With language being both tool and vehicle for instruction in EPP, language proficiency is seen as a necessary prerequisite for all instructors. Since all EPP instructors are selected from an existing pool of language instructors, the issue of language proficiency is not seen as an issue. However, general communicative ability and subject matter knowledge still serve as factors especially with new instructors, who may be unfamiliar with the overall theme of the course and would be learning as they teach. To overcome the gaps, attention is paid to text selection in terms of matching learners’ needs with instructor’s expertise. This is to ensure that the language teacher is able to impart relevant knowledge to learners. The use of discipline specific texts that differ from language instructor’s subject area knowledge, can result in learners viewing language instructors as less competent and therefore treat the subject as less important compared to their content courses (Creese, 2001) and this can have implications for overall teaching and learning in terms of attendance and performance. To ensure that instructors posses a ‘threshold’ level of proficiency in the subject matter, the e-portfolio is equipped with the various teaching resources, course content, reading materials, assignment task and powerpoint slides that could be used for each lesson. In addition, additional teaching resources such as up to date data in terms of topics and techniques are included. Additional language resources in terms of downloadable


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syntax and grammar activities that can be downloaded and self access material are also included to ensure that instructors remain on top of matters. These features include notes, videos and powerpoint slides from foreign institutions taken from the WWW. Subject matter knowledge refer to information which teachers need to know about what they teach rather than what they should be teaching and this constitutes information which would not be shared with students and non teachers. Ideas as to what issues are essential for interviewing, statistics on undergraduate unemployment levels, applications procedures, accurate and appropriate language are included. This however does not mean that the instructor is now a subject matter expert. Rather, the concern is still on accurate and appropriate language use and usage. So to ensure that instructors do not get confused or carried away with teaching the content rather than language, linguistic issues are also addressed for every topic. 6. Evaluation As most professional teachers of English undergo pedagogical training in language teaching and academic training in linguistics and applied linguistics, language teachers must be seen as having have certain priorities or decisions on the nature of language that are crucial for language development and evaluation. In this matter, instructors are encouraged to identify factors that effect learners performance and development, and document selected assignments in specific slides in the e-portfolio. Such information will serve as useful artifacts for the learning taking place and help us plan future course. In addition, teachers are encouraged to add comments on students level of accuracy, appropriacy, intonation, communication, presentation and target language and this will inform us of the gaps and weakness is the language process. 7. Course Evaluation and Decision Making Pedagogical reasoning and decision making at various stages happen to be central to the nature of teaching and is best clarified with an example from the actual lesson. So, a number of questions are posed to the individual instructors

at the beginning of the course in terms of opinions on the effectiveness and limitations of the course. In thinking through these questions, skillful teachers will be able to create a mental plan for subsequent planning of the course and related courses. In terms of direct course evaluation, three forms of evaluation are held for this course. The first is in terms measuring overall language learning. To assess the learning taking place, a pre-test and post test design is used at the beginning and end of the course. This is separate from the final assessment that takes place. Second, the course runs a mid term evaluation for select groups to determine the effectiveness of the course. This helps ensure that there is no mismatch between course objectives and learner needs. Indirectly, the mid term evaluation also provides the course coordinator an idea of the effectiveness of the program. Finally, instructors and learners evaluate the course and this helps inform the university and course coordinator about the overall relevance of the course in terms of meeting the course aims and objectives. 8. Conclusion Overall, it cannot be said that the e-portfolio has helped addressed all the gaps and weaknesses in theory and application. Changes have to be made from time to time and that should be seen as the gear that keeps the course relevant. There is the need to monitor the content that is being used and to make sure that the information provided is accurate and appropriate. Being language teachers, it would not be fair to expect instructors to keep up with the rapid changes in another discipline and by providing the content to instructors through the e-portfolio, the course has been able to help bridge the difference between language and content area expertise. Finally, the e-portfolio’s usefulness in the course can be attributed to the fact that it is based on a number of well planned approaches and techniques that have been proved in SLA and its penchant for academic language. Academic competence is seen as being able to dramatically impede or accelerate L2 learners’ performance and progress within the school system (Kinsella, 1997) and as Adamson (1993), indicated, it may not be cost beneficial to wait for students to acquire basic language


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proficiency before they learn to develop academic survival skills. REFERENCES 1. Brinton, D.M., Snow, M. A., and Wesche,

M.B. (1989). Content Based Second Language Instruction. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

2. Creese, A. (2002). The discursive construction of power in teacher partnerships: Language and subject specialists in mainstream schools. Tesol Quarterly. 36,4, 597- 616.

3. Flowerdew, J. (1993). A educational, or

process, approach to the teaching of professional genres. ELT Journal 47, 305- 16.

4. Gianelli, M.C. (1997). Thematic units:

Creating an environment for learning. The Content Based Classroom: Perspective on Integrating Language and Content. In M.A. Snow & D.M. Brinton. The Content Based Classroom: Perspectives on Integrating Language and Content. Longman.

5. Krashen, S. (1981). Principles And Practice

In Second Language Acquisition. Oxford : Pergamon.

6. Pally, M. (2001). Skills development in

‘sustained content based curricula: Case Studies in Analytical/ Critical Thinking and Academic Writing. Language and Education. 15.4: 279- 305.

7. Richards, J.C. (1997). Preparing language

teachers for tomorrows’ language classrooms in Language Classrooms of Tomorrow: Issues and Responses. Anthology Series 38. Seamco RELC:295-129.

1b language teaching

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