Course Design: Confident and Fluent Reading

COURSE TITLE: Confident and Fluent Reading

INSTRUCTOR: Julien Sanghyo Park

E-MAIL: juliensanghyopark@gmail.com

YEAR/QUARTER: 2011/summer

STUDENT PROFILE: 9^th grader ~ college/adult learners planning to take IELTS/TOEFL and achieve 6.5 on IELTS or 90 on TOEFL or higher within a year.

PROFICIENCY LEVEL: Mid ~ Upper Intermediate (EFL)

COURSE LENGTH: 12 weeks

TIME TABLE: (90minutes * 2)/week * 12
                 +one 60min. assessment session per 2 weeks

COURSE MATERIALS & REFERENCES:

l  Required textbook: Essential Reading 4 (Macmillan)

l  All materials used in the course will be provided in the form of a handout.

(extracted from Teacher’s File, etc.)

l  Recommended Reading: Speckled Band and Other Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and other Intermediate ~ Upper Intermediate Leveled Macmillan Readers, Oxford Bookworms Library, etc.

l  Audio Files of the articles in the textbook are available at http://www.macmillanenglish.com/essentialreading/resources.html

COURSE OVERVIEW

Confident and Fluent Reading is designed for upper intermediate EFL senior high school or adult students who wish to become confident and fluent readers in English. This course offers both intensive and extensive approaches to reading, a wide range of engaging topics, and a full range of skills-building activities.

The aim of this course is to instill confidence and fluency in English reading in the learner. The students are required to either successfully complete Essential Reading 3 or equivalent reading material or demonstrate intermediate level of reading in English by providing evidence such as the scores in the placement test that is previously arranged or other international English proficiency tests.

The syllabus and learning activities in this course are developed to increase the student’s mastery and appreciation for reading as well as their critical thinking and study skills. Increasing the competencies in these areas will improve the level of achievement on the reading test in proficiency examinations such as IELTS, TOEFL.

STANDARDS

National TESOL standards

Goal 2, Standard 3
To use English to achieve academically in all content areas: Students will use appropriate learning strategies to construct and apply academic knowledge

Descriptors

• focusing attention selectively
• applying basic reading comprehension skills such as skimming, scanning, previewing, and reviewing text
• using context to construct meaning
• taking notes to record important information and aid one's own learning
• applying self-monitoring and self-corrective strategies to build and expand a knowledge base
• determining and establishing the conditions that help one become an effective learner (e.g., when, where, how to study)
• planning how and when to use cognitive strategies and applying them appropriately to a learning task
• actively connecting new information to information previously learned
• evaluating one's own success in a completed learning task
• recognizing the need for and seeking assistance appropriately from others (e.g., teachers, peers, specialists, community members)
• imitating the behaviors of native English speakers to complete tasks successfully
• knowing when to use native language resources (human and material) to promote understanding

COURSE GOALS & OBJECTIVES


Goals

To develop the advanced abilities of reading

To have enough reading confidence and fluency to achieve 6.0 or more on IELTS reading


Objectives

By the end of the course, the learner should be able to:
     successfully score more than 60 percent on mock reading comprehension test of IELTS or TOEFL.
     read passages with similar difficulty level of IELTS or TOEFL at 200 wpm or faster by the end of the course

ASSIGNMENTS

Most of the class activities rely on home reading tasks given in advance. Along with the specific tasks for every class, home reading essentially involves working out vocabulary used in the texts to enable students to analyze the texts and to fluently discuss the issues in English. Extra reading and references given after each odd numbered chapter are encouraged to fill in informative gaps or to cover the topics of particular interest found in the texts or raised in class discussions. Review exercises at the end of every two chapters in the textbook are given as homework.

The students are required to keep record of their reading speed for every reading material in the course, and submit it to the instructor at the end of each week.

In-class activities may also include reading comprehension tasks and exercises without initial home preparation. At the end of each unit, the students are required to do the writing assignment in the textbook and submit their work to the instructor for feedback.

ASSESSMENT & TEXT

To determine that the students have successfully completed the session of two chapters (2 weeks), There is

A vocabulary & review test is given to determine that the students have successfully completed the session of two chapters(2 weeks).

A final examination is given after completion of all the assigned units of instruction. Students must complete all course work at a 70% or higher mastery level to be eligible for the final examination.

The questions for the formative assessment and the final exam can be extracted from Test Generator CD ROM of Essential Reading 4 included in Teacher’s File.

GRADING SCALE

The grading scale given below should be applied to all coursework, tests, and final exams.

90~100% = A

80~89% = B

70~79% = C

60~69% = D

0~59 = F

COURSE SYLLABUS

Evaluation of Curriculum Materials (2)

Basic Grammar Course as a Cyber College Graduation Program by YBMSISA

Course Name: English Grammar
Course Length: 15 weeks
Students: College Students (English Major)
Level: Elementary to Intermeidate Low
Textbook: Basic Grammar in Use (Cambridge University Press)

Video-recorded lectures of a textbook by the instructor are included in the curriculum in most online language courses in Korea. In other words, an instructor and his or her own style and method are often considered as core components in the initial process of developing the curriculum rather than assigned after the curriculum is set. Sometimes, a whole curriculum is canceled or modified depending on the recruitment of the instructor. Therefore a particular rubric should be applied to the assessment of online course in Korea.

I chose a basic grammar class of a cyber college graduate program run by YBMSISA. Basic Grammar in Use published by Cambridge University Press is the textbook for the class. The program adopted a video-recorded lecture previously made for an online grammar class, but applied other necessary implements to be approved as an official college graduate program stated by the government. This interesting combination of both informal and formal education aspects has offered me a chance to think of how to see different forms of courses of today.

Since it is the basic grammar course for Korean students who are in EFL surroundings and developed according to the standard by the government, those categories related to ESL/ELD standards in yellow rubric do not make the case however I gave some points where I could find some evidence that parts of descriptions of ELD standards can be applied. Articles related to four domains and addressing needs of English learners at every level in them in the category of Instructional Resources couldn’t be applied as they are to the course since it was not a comprehensive course but a basic grammar course through video-recorded instructions. The textbook Basic Grammar in Use doesn’t have teachers’ Edition. As stated above, since the course already included the lecture by a set instructor in the curriculum, the article about it in the category of Material Design seems irrelevant. However this kind of online college graduate programs also assigns manager professors who are in charge of all the other jobs except for giving classes such as giving assessments and grading besides the lecture professor who does the video lectures. Therefore I think Teachers’ Edition may flexibly be replaced by manager professors’ manual for this kind of system. I also think it should be considered whether the manager professors should be regarded as instructional resources in this system. If so, the scores in III Instructional Resources where they will play roles to handle what are described in it will be different.

My rubric is designed for online English courses in informal sectors. So I have found out it should also need modification according to aspects of formal education setting as a college graduate program. The delivery mode along with advanced but convenient technologies and appealing graphics are very important aspects to decide the success of an online course in informal sectors, however in formal sectors assessments and grading count, thus the importance of interaction between the instructor and the student doubles, which not many students in informal sectors feel as necessary.

The course earned 4.0 point average out of 5.0 from yellow rubric, scoring relatively high in Instructional Content and Assessment and low in Material Design and Instructional Resources. In contrast, the result from the evaluation by my rubric has higher scores due to the points earned from technologies and media related categories. Yellow rubric assesses resources and materials of the course with the more detailed articles than mine whereas mine has more focus on what it looks like and how it is run such as technologies and media, which accounts for the majority of the budget in the field. The biggest difference is that yellow rubric is for general offline English courses in formal education while mine is for evaluating online courses in informal sectors. There should also be a consideration for the standards to apply; ESL/ELD standards are irrelevant in courses in Korea. The rubrics for different types of online courses in Korea also seem necessary as well as the universal one for the effective assessment.

Evaluation of Curriculum Materials (1)

Evaluation of an Online Course

Reflection on Module 6

Chapter 5 Formulating Goals and Objectives

From my experience, addressing goals and objectives helps teachers to be aware of what they are heading for through the lesson they are doing and the least focus they should not miss in each class. In English classes for adults especially in informal sector, goals are addressed but often vague and not with objectives. Many private academy owners or directors seem to perefer to leave the classes to each teachers as long as students learn something to improve their English skills, which is the goal they address. Not to mention the vagueness of the goal, the missing of objectives may lead a chaotic result especially when there is an evaluation or assessment involved. "The objectives are the different ponts you pass through on the journey to the destination" (Graves, 2000). Since different points were covered by different teachers, who may also have understood the goal differenty, it is hard to decide what exactly should be assesed. Thus, the students are likely to cast a doubt not only on the reliability of the assessment but also on that of the class and the whole course. As a previous owner of an academy, I believe that goals and objectives should be addressed explicitly to maintain the unity and consistency of each class. They will also give both the teachers and the students "a sense of the syllabus of the course" (Graves, 2000) and "provide the basis for evaluation of the course (goals) and assessment of student learning (objectives)" (Graves, 2000), which ultimately defines the identity of the education that is to be realized.

EESL 614 - Module #5: Annotated Bibliography (1)

By Julien Sanghyo Park, Anica So Hee Kim, Christina Minjung Kim

Citation 1:

Collier, T. W. (2004, March). The effects of bilingual education programs on English

language learners. A national study of school effectiveness for language minority

student’s long-term academic achievement. 2(5).

Summary & Review:

Since bilingual education has been a nation-wide issue, the writer studies how effective bilingual education programs for improving the English reading skills and general content knowledge of English language learners.  The study examined the type of Spanish- speaking instruction English language learners received in five school districts over five years as well as the achievement of these students of English and Spanish tests of academic problem solving across the curriculum.  The finding is that students in bilingual programs continues to perform well on tests of Spanish achievement and scored higher on other core academic subjects.  Conclusively, the findings may only be valid in districts chosen for the research though, well-designed and carefully implemented bilingual education programs can have a significant positive effect on student achievement both in English literacy and in other academic core courses when compared to English immersion. 

Citation 2:

Center for Expansion of Language and Thinking. (1998). Fact Sheet #7: Bilingual Learners.

Retrieved: http://www.ncte.org/collections/secell

Summary & Review:

8 “false” assumptions that harm bilingual learners are dispelled along with whole language principles that help bilingual learners.  Note that this is work by CELT, a whole language supporting body; their principles seem dramatically plausible with contrasting assumptions, but whole language is not the only one that disproves those “false” assumptions.  The sheet itself does not directly provide detailed case studies, but just states what whole language researches have shown to contradict the assumptions.  According to their principles or the assumptions that they contradict, whole language education focuses on learning proceeding from whole to part, learner-centered programs, schoolwork focusing on now, group work, simultaneous development of oral and written language, faith in the learner, acquisition of English built and facilitated by first language.

Citation 3:

Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning teaching. Oxford, U.K.: Macmillan.

Summary & Review:

This is a practical, comprehensive guidebook to the practice of English language teaching in that it introduces all key language teaching topics in one volume of 431 pages.  Key techniques of teaching English, a wide range of practical ideas, examples of activities and photocopiable resources are provided.  Chapter 6 titled planning lessons and courses covers considerations for a lesson plan, lesson components, syllabus, and etc. however, other chapters also deals with options for teachers to make in the act of teaching.  Three toolkits chapters focus on actual practice in the classroom like classroom management, error-corrections, and tool uses while the other chapters are more like backups with rather fundamental principles such as phonology and language analysis.  Help index is designed to help teachers to decide which unit to refer to by showing relevant chapters and sections to particular questions in detail like ‘How can I use the board?” 

Citation 4:

Lewis, M, & Hill, J. (1993). Source book for teaching English as a

foreign language. Oxford, U.K.: Heinemann.

Summary & Review:

This is a simple package for newly started language teachers or teacher assistants. It deals with initial, immediate considerations for beginner teachers to have before going into the actual classrooms. However, the material collections classified by speaking practice, language games, topics, photocopiables, and tried-and-tested ideas are useful even for experienced teachers who need to refresh their ideas or repertoires or are looking for immediate resource to use to fill up some time in the class.  It provides key knowledge and ideas for ‘how to do lessons’ by step-by-step approach in three chapters.  Note the main problems for speakers of other language in Chapter 10: Speaking practice giving insights into various foreign accents we might face in an international context.

Citation 5:

Reilly, V. & Ward, S. M. (1997). Very young learners. Oxford, U.K.:

Oxford University Press.

Summary & Review:

Whether the students have had some exposure to English or they are in EFL or ESL surrounding does not really matter when it comes very young learners aged around 3 to 6 as  native speakers are not yet proficient in their own language and still have a lot to learn.  This book provides activities for children that have a language bias and that are based on sound pre-school practice and educational theory as well as advice and ideas for their teachers.  The introduction part deals with principles about young learners.  The sole use of English is the ultimate objective in the classroom, however there is some justification for using mother tongue, especially in the early stages. First, small children need some time to adjust to the new environment of English language. Secondly, they need their mother tongue for communication to build up the relationship with the teacher and for the feedback about their feeling. Finally, teachers may need to give instructions in English and then in the mother tongue to make things clear. Nevertheless, there are ways to avoid or minimize the use of mother tongue like gestures and using international English such as T-shirt.  Learner characteristics in terms of individual attention, attentions span, and the silent period are also covered.

Citation 6:

Swan, M. (1998, April). Seven bad reasons for teaching grammar…

and two good ones. English teaching professional, 1(7), 3-5.

Summary & Review:

Michael Swan points out people teach too much of grammar because it’s there.  However, it is important to choose grammar points relevant to students’ needs, rather than blindly going through the syllabus from left to right.  Secondly, grammar looks tidy and is relatively teachable.  Grammar is testable too while it is time consuming and difficult to design and administer tests which really measure overall progress and attainment.  Grammar can be reassuring and comforting; it gives students the feeling that they can understand and control what is going on.  However, this aspect can lead both students and teachers to concentrate on grammar to the detriment of other less codifiable but equally important aspects of the language.  The fifth reason is that grammar is what those foreign language teachers studied in their learning and it incorporated in their own teaching.  An illusion that grammar is the whole system is another reason.  We teach only selected subsystems, asking for each:

1.      How much of this do the students know already from their mother tongue?

2.      How much of the rest is important?

3.      How much have we got time for?

To try to teach ‘the whole system’ is to ignore all three of these questions.  Finally, grammar is where teachers have superiority over students.  Grammar is given too much priority.  Nevertheless, there are two good reasons for teaching carefully selected points of grammar.  The first reason is its comprehensibility. Knowing how to build and use certain structures makes it possible to communicate common types of meaning successfully.  The second reason is the acceptability.  Good level of grammatical correctness can help with examinations and employment.  In conclusion, the author says that we teachers should choose points of grammar to teach depending on the circumstances and the learners’ aims.  All in all, the ultimate objective is to teach English, not just to teach grammar.

Citation 7:

Maley, A. (1999, January). Surviving the 20th century. English

teaching professional, 1(10), 3-7.

Summary & Review:

In this article, the author, Alan Maley discusses the qualities that teachers need to succeed both personally and professionally in today’s world.  He says there are key factors which remove from us our power to act independently, pointing out consumerism, globalism, media saturation, trivialization, and the pace of change.  He examines the aspects of dehumanizing pressures which affect us as teachers.  There is a list of ten qualities of survivor teachers:

         Survivor teachers will be:

1.      competent in their profession, and hence also confident

2.      curious – intellectually, emotionally, in relationship

3.      choosy in their ability to handle and screen out large amounts of information

4.      concerned about their learners, about the state of the world

5.      centered – calm in turmoil, concentrated when surrounded by distractions

6.      concrete – able to find pragmatic solutions for complex real-world problems

7.      committed to the worth of what they are doing, to their students, to sanity

8.      courageous in the face of pressures, failure, feelings of helplessness

9.      critical – perpetually questioning, resistant to pressure

10.  capable of finding their own further ways of surviving

One interesting part regarding triviality is that we have gone along with the idea that accuracy or precision matters little as long as we can ‘communicate’, but this version of communication is a trivialization of what it really means to communicate significantly. It used to be said that under the traditional methodology students emerged who could not even order a cup of coffee in the foreign language. We are now in danger of producing students who can only order a cup of coffee! – Great point with typical Alan Maley humor!

Finally, he says, as teachers, we need to realize how much influence we have with our students.  By choosing themes, texts, the way we handle them, the tasks we set using them, we will be helping our students to develop their own critical faculties.  We can join others with similar concerns, taking strength from solidarity.  We can also share our concerns and our activities with others, through the Internet – or journals and magazines.

Citation 8:

Judy, L. (2008). Beyond Learning Styles: Brain-Based Research and English Language Learners. A journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas. 81(5) My/Je 211-222

Summary & Review:

In this article, the author discusses ways in which teachers can implement brain based research in teaching English language learners (ELLS).  Receptive and expressive language skills are developed through read-aloud, vocabulary explorations, reader’s theater, pair-shares, and use of kinesthetic activities and audiovisuals to stimulate discussion.  Students must feel they are in a welcoming, non-threatening environment when teaching new language skills.  ELL teachers can put second-language learners at ease by cooperative-learning activities like pair-share and jigsaw and by not interrupting fluency to correct students when they read aloud.  Using innovative, cutting-edge approaches helps teachers recognize that teaching and learning addresses the needs of diverse learners in second-language learning through a variety of strategies.

EESL 614 - Module #5: Annotated Bibliography (2)

Citation 9:

Cynthia, B. J., & Drew, D. J. (2000). Why teach vocabulary? Promoting Vocabulary

Development. Austin, TX: Texas Reading Initiative/ Texas Education Agency.

Summary & Review:

Cynthia Brantley Johnson and Drew, D. Johnson are working together as Anaxos Inc. The Johnsons have written numerous student books with a strong focus on vocabulary.  They authored the Worldly Wise 3000 test series for EPS.  These writers indicate that limited vocabularies prevent students from comprehending a text.  Good readers often acquire much of their vocabulary through wide independent reading, also known as incidental learning.  Direct vocabulary instruction is useful for students at all ability levels, but it is particularly useful for beginner students who have a limited exposure outside of school.  Experts agree that a combination of direct instruction of word meanings, discussions about words and word parts, and encouragement of wide reading is the best way to help students develop their vocabularies.  Studies have shown that the key to increasing vocabulary is exposure to new words – not an innate ability to learn from context.  These writers also suggest that some general strategies and specific techniques for teaching vocabulary: encouraging wide reading; emphasizing learning from context; using prefixes, suffixes, and roots; using graphic organizers; extending instruction through reading aloud; and discussion.

Citation 10:

Alemi, M., & Daftarifard, P. (2010). Implication of studies on bilingualism for SLA. Journal

of Language Teaching and Research, 1(5), 671-677.

Summary & Review:

This article describes and studies bilingualism from different perspectives of social, individual, cognitive, psychological and political issues. To this end, this article goes through the following stages: What is Bilingual and Bilingual Education and Cognitive Processing? There are several factors which indicate what kind of decision (selective or nonselective) might be made.  These include L2 proficiency, language intermixing, task demands, and instruction.  Language intermixing refers to whether an experiment contains exclusive items that belong to one language (block presentation) or items from two languages (mixed presentation).  Therefore, lexical codes from different languages are activated in parallel on the basis of an input string, selection of the lexical candidate that is identified appears to take place rather late in the recognition process, and several factors affect the ultimately arising result patterns, the most important of which are a participant's L2 proficiency level, the requirements of task, and the blocked or mixed presentation of items from different languages. The most striking similarity between comprehension and production in bilinguals is the overwhelming evidence for nonselective access to words in both languages, regardless of whether the task logically permits the language of processing to be selected in advance.  In both processes, the consequences of the lower L2 and L1 proficiency are in unbalanced bilinguals.

Citation 11

Urquhart, S., & Weir, C. (1999).  Reading in a second language: Process, product, and

practice. New York: Longman.

Summary & Review:

Much of the research referenced above will be included in the National Literacy Panel survey of research on how children learn to read and write in English as a second language.  This survey is a project of SRI International and the Center for Applied Linguistics and it seeks to address those learners who were not included in the National Reading Panel's study (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1988).  Diane August is the principal investigator of the study which will include only those learners whose L1 uses the Roman alphabet.  The publication from this study is expected in late 2003. For this bibliography, unless otherwise indicated, all of the studies included were conducted in the United States.  While no English as a Foreign Language (EFL) research is included, some research on English language learning conducted in other English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom) is included.  Some of the studies included in this bibliography are less than rigorously conducted.  We acknowledge, therefore, that all the studies are not rigorously conducted, but they are a true picture of what has been done.  More importantly, they point to research needs that exist in the field of adult ESL instruction.

EESL 614 - Module #5: Annotated Bibliography (3)

Citation12:

Bouthillier, L & Dilann. J (year: not mentioned). Video in Education, Real Networks Conference.  Retrieved from http://www.realnetworks.com/solutions/enterprise/education/index.html .

Summary & Review:

Larry Bouthillier from Harvard Business School and Jim Dilanni from Oracle Corp. presented at a Real-Networks conference under the title of "Developing an e-Learning strategy".  They showed many research-based references about controversial debate on effectiveness of using video for teaching and learning and add visual richness for many educators’ teaching style.  Combination of the visualized text and auditory mode in video enhances a communication channel and stimulates transfer information more effectively.  Learning through this kind of multi-channels supports visualized information to help processing and remembering in brain (Duchastel & Waller, 1979), which helps to recall and comprehend (Levie and Lentz, 1982). But Mayer & Anderson’s study (1991) criticized that overload of excessive senses through multiple- channel communication can reduce efficiency of learning.  Another critic, Nugent (1982) discovered the effect of combination of audio and images but not for audio and text.  One example of rich media integration suggested by the authors showed a representative model of live lecture presented through multi-channel of communication. It synchronizes images, voices and texts to realize spontaneous lectures for distance learning students, which effectively promotes processing information

Citation13:

Sara I.de Freitas (2006). Using games and simulations for supporting learning. Journal of Rouiters.

Summary & Review:

Recent growing interests in exploratory learning with computer managed methods accelerate to elicit issues about the efficacy of using games and simulations as supportive educational tools and seriously attempt to get evidences from experimental views or experience of users in practice.  To evaluate validity of the perceptions about using games and simulations in educational contexts, Sara I. de Freitas uses a qualitative method for data driven by surveys, semi-structured interviews and workshop activities.  Based on some of the findings from her surveys, validity of four perceptions were presented: (1) increased motivation levels for learners, (2) expanded learner’s completion rates through engagement and enjoyment, (3) potential for widening participation, and (4) efficacy of learning through experience. Through interviews of experts participated, she examined that motivation level plays as a catalyst in improving engagement of learning and encourages the disaffected young learners to re-involve in learning. And games or simulations for learning increase learners’ retention and completion rates. However, she stressed that not all learners may effectively use games for learning due to various reasons: from the lack of familiarity, historical knowledge background, preference and adaptive ages. Links between game or simulation contexts and real world advanced the learning from experience which develop meta-cognition mode to comprehend complex contents more effectively.  Furthermore, self-efficacy enhanced by virtual world experience proceeds with activities effectively by playing performance goal-driven actions and helps to complete process.

Citation 14:

Rowan, C. (2009, October 24). Technology overuse on child sensory development. otline, p.5-8.

Summary & Review:

Occupational therapists encourage Balanced Technology Management to improve child health and to enhance academic performance. They warned that the parent’s habit of overusing technologies deteriorates children’s development. Statistically children whose infancy was with little human touch are exposed to the risks of biological, psychological and physical impairment. Overuse of technology deprives people of human connection. Technology overuse makes negative impacts on children’s growth when it accompanies age-inappropriate contents such as violent, sexually-abusive materials. As little children are incapable of discerning detrimental contents in their indiscriminate media use, they often accept virtual experience as realities.  Besides, overuse of technology could bring imbalance of sensory system. It means that visual and auditory sensory systems are in overload while the vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile and attachment systems are under stimulated. Imbalance of the sensory system could create huge problems in overall neurological development. By the same token, the author stresses that children needs encouraging environment of human connection. Balancing the use of technology is the solution.