Week+7+-+February+22


 * Connecting Students to Culture Through the Use of Coming-of-Age Novels**

1. Consider the following quote.

"Students enter the target culture by focusing on that which they have in common with other adolescents. Students, like the protagonists in these texts, are trying to make sense of their community, the world, and themselves. What they do not have in common with the protagonists—migration, dictatorships, revolutions, extreme poverty or wealth—then become issues from which empathy can be established because there is a personal identification with the person/people of the culture represented."

2. Do you agree or disagree with the quote? How will you address this cultural issue in your unit?


 * ANDREW:** I agree with the quote to some extent. I definitely think that reading the perspectives of people going through some of the same/similar life experiences that they are will help a lot of students connect better with cultural issues. However, in my experience so far with this age group, they seem to be (for the most part, not every student) lacking in the empathy department. Perhaps this is because of their limited exposure to other cultures and perspectives, and it is our duty as foreign language teachers to provide them with the insights and opportunities that it requires to develop the ability to put yourself "in someone else's shoes." For my unit, students will be listening to songs and reading brief poems by immigrants to Germany in order to gain a better understanding of their perspectives. It's no coming-of-age novel, but I will try to find at least a couple resources produced by someone who was "coming-of-age" in a foreign country to better deal with the issue of immigration.

The quote makes sense to me. I totally agree that students enter the target culture by focusing on that which they have in common with other adolescents; for example, in my class, they took interest in exploring that both of them and other adolescents from the target country like pop music, Pizza and so on. However, most of them would like to challenge but not try to make connection and try to understand the culture of the target country that they never heard or experienced before when they first learned it. Sometimes when I introduced a culture or legend story from China, some students would say, “It is so wired.” “Do you really believe it?” “It is so stupid.” I can understand why students said like this. The reasons can be their limited knowledge and experience related to foreign countries.
 * Yao Huang: **

In order to make sense and meaning of what students learned to them, I give students context. In other words, give them the chance to let them in someone else's shoes; think and understand in others' perspective. Through this way, they will become more respect, understand and make sense of the target culture. For example, in my class, students will watch the latest videos about the culture, and then compare with their own culture. In addition, I sometimes create hands-on activities for them, such as make Tangyuan in class, a traditional food Chinese eat to celebrate Lantern Festival.

I think coming-of-age novel is a good way for teacher to put student in the real situation, put them in other's shoes to understand and bridge the gap between themselves and the culture they study. I may try this way to my level 2 students.

==== **Yu:** I have the same feelings as Andrew, I agree students will connect better with target cultures by reading coming-of -age novels of target cultures. However, I don't think most of my students would show empathy to other people. Based on my observation and student surveys, a lot of students are 'self smart' in the 'multiple intelligent' category. They care too much about themselves. When my students read the responsibilites Chinese students have in school, such as cleaning, most of them were shocked and don't think students should do that type of work at school. ==== ==== On the other hand, I think the main purpose of teaching culture is to introduce students there is different culture existed in the world. They do not have to agree or have empathy feelings to the other culture. The five common culture markers the author mentioned, such as leaving home, going to college, having children... are universally related. Students definitely can relate that.I don't think I will go look for a coming-of-agenovel for my level 1 students to read. It maybe too hard for them. I may let them watch movie for the same purpose. ====

**Kristen**: I do agree with the quote. It is easy for the students to relate to characters, especially if they are close in age. The experiences are much the same as far as the cultural markers are concerned. As Wehling states, it is the personal identification that makes the distinctively cultural experiences of the characters more susceptible to empathy. However, the empathy piece is difficult for the students. They are very limited by their own personal experiences. It is difficult for them to imagine a world outside of their own. Starting out I heard many of the same comments that Yao described most often, “That is stupid.” For my students, they have to get over the “Black and White hurdle”, their American experiences are the norm or acceptable and anything different is not. I have really tried to stress that these differences are not wrong, weird or stupid. They are simply different. As far as my unit goes, I think visual learning is going to be the most affective way to approach this cultural issue. At the novice level, I do not think that an entire coming of age novel would be the most affective approach. Perhaps I could include a short excerpt from a novel to cover the point but I do think that a short YouTube clip, film clip, commercial, or even magazine images and articles may be a more level appropriate resources for my unit.


 * Hui-Ching(Kayla) Hsu:**

Yes, I agree with the quote, and I consider it is a challenge to led students to compare themselves with other adolescents in the target culture. The reading “Connecting Students to Culture through the Use of Coming-of- Age Novels” suggests that traditional literary materials are a good vehicle to move students towards a cultural understanding. I like this idea but I think those literary materials are more suitable for advanced-level students. Reading a novel might be too difficult for the beginning-level students whose vocabulary is limited. For beginning-level students, I think watching a movie might be a good choice. For my unit, I am thinking to teach students a short Chinese poem that depicts homesickness. For the PBL project, they will be asked to interview Chinese students who are far away from home. Soon enough my students will leave home for college too. Through the poem, they might realize that they are more connected with those students they are going to interview. “Leaving parents” is one of the most common cultural markers of coming-of-age.


 * Brittney:**

I agree with this quote to an extent. Yes, students focus on the similarities that they share with adolescents of another culture, but I think they initially see the differences before they see similarities in realistic situations. For example, if one of my students were immersed into a Korean school, they would notice the immediate differences—“none of these students look like me” and “none of these students talk like me.” No secondary student is going to say, “Well, we are similar because we are both searching for a sense of self.” These realizations of differences would automatically put a student in the mindset that he or she is different from these students. The quote can be deemed true because it is not a real life situation. The students are seeing the target culture in the images that they produce in their head, so of course they are going to picture that which they already know and will seek out the similarities between the target culture and their own. I do agree that once students reach the point of having a connection with the target culture, they can feel empathy with the situation being represented in the book.

I think the most appropriate way to incorporate this into my unit would be to have a short video clip to introduce the topic that I want to discuss, and then have them read a short excerpt. This way, they can visualize what they are reading and can have a more authentic connection between the target culture and their own culture.


 * Entering an English Free Zone**

1. Consider the Natural Approach Questions (page 10). If we want our students to remain in the target language, we must ask questions that are appropriately targeted given where they are in the development of new concepts. What might a set of question be for the unit that you intend to teach? Please write in the target language, but provide translations.

Here are the translations to help others:

Name classmate: Who has the (sandwich)? Yes/no: Is this a (specific drink)? Either/or: Are there temples or houses in (city)? Open ended: Where do the Aztecs live? What do you like to eat at a cafe?

-Gibt es viele Migranten in Deutschland? //Are there many immigrants in Germany?// //-//Hat Deutschland mehr Migranten als die USA? //Does Germany have more immigrants than the USA?// //-//Wo kommen die meisten Migranten her? //Where do most of the immigrants come from?// -Warum ziehen so viele Fremde nach Deutschland? //Why do so many Foreigners move to Germany?// //-//Wuerdest du je nach Deutschland ziehen? Warum oder warum nicht? //Would you ever move to Germany? Why or why not?// ** Yu: ** **Name classmate**: who likes to eat spring roll? 谁喜欢吃春卷？） (shei xi huan chi chun juan?) **Yes/no**: Are you hungry(thirty)? （你很饿（渴）吗？ (ni hen e(ke) ma?) Do you like Chinese food? （你喜欢中国菜吗？） (ni xi huan zhong guo cai ma?)
 * ANDREW:** Well, because the examples were in Spanish and French (without translations), I don't have a REALLY good idea of these types of questions. But here are some ideas I came up with based on the explanation of the //types// of questions:

**Either/Or:** Do you like rice or noodle?( 你喜欢米饭还是面条？ ) (ni xi huan mi fan hai shi mian tiao?) **Open ended:** what would you like to eat/drink? 你想吃（喝）什么？ (ni xiang chi(he) shen me?

Yao Huang:

--- 最近谁过生日？（ Who will celebrate his or her birthday recently?  ） --你喜欢过生日吗？（do you like celebrating Birthday? ） --你喜欢和朋友一起过生日还是喜欢和家人一起过生日？（do you prefer to celebrate your birthday with your friends or with your family?） --你最喜欢哪一件生日礼物？为什么？（which present you received is your favorite? Why? ）


 * Kristen:**

Wer hat einen interesanten Stil? Who has an interesting style? Ist das Kleid teuer? Is the dress expensive? Findest du das Kleid schön oder hässlich? Do you think the dress is pretty or ugly? Wo kannst du dieses Kleid kaufen? Welche Typ des Ereignisses kannst du das Kleid tragen? Where can you buy this dress? What type of event could you wear this dress to?


 * Hui-Ching(Kayla) Hsu: **

Unit: Sports Open-ended Question: 你喜歡什麼運動 ? (What Sports do you like?) Yes or No: 你喜歡打桌球嗎 ? (Do you like to play table tennis?) Either/Or: 你喜歡桌球還是籃球 ? (Do you like to play table tennis or basketball?) Name a classmate: 誰喜歡打籃球 ? (Who likes to play basketball?)

**Brittney:**

//Name a classmate:// ¿Quién quiere ver el Museo Nacional del Prado? (Who wants to see the National Museum of “El Prado?) //Yes or no question:// ¿Quieres ir a España en el otoño? (Do you want to go to Spain in the fall?) //Either/Or question:// ¿Cenan los españoles temprano o tarde? (Do Spaniards eat dinner early or late?) //Open ended question:// ¿Cómo está el clima en Madrid? (How is the climate/weather in Madrid?)

2 What idea or strategy will you implement from this article?


 * ANDREW:** I have recently started speaking exclusively German with my second year students. This article inspired me to try it, despite the difficulties with implementing this method. I have some success and some challenges, especially the first couple if days. The students protested and resisted at first, but they have now accepted the fact that I will be communicating in German, whether they like it or not. However, part of the goal of this strategy is that the students speak the target language, not just listen to it. This has been my biggest challenge, despite giving the students a sheet on the first day with key phrases (such as "how do you say_?," "I don't understand," and "Could you please repeat that?" The strategy from this article that I am going to try is the timing how long we can speak exclusively German as a class. I fear that by the end of the first week we may only achieve 1 or 2 minutes, but the key is that we keep extending the length of time as a class we can speak ONLY German. We shall see!

**Yu:** I tried speaking target language previously, but then give up. This article is short, but give me many detail ideas. ** equip the teacher: ** I am a native speaker, so I do not need to spend too much time equip myself with the target language now( I still need to learn new vocab invented recently, especially in texting and internet). ** equip the learner: ** Same as mentioned in the article, “ I needed to expand the direct teaching of functional classroom vocabulary: following common directions, asking for clarification, expressing feelings and reacting to events.” I have taught them some, but not enough. I also need to post them around the wall, students can easily find them without looking at notebooks. I also like the idea of timing, as Andrew mentioned. It will encourage both me and the students. I like the trouble shooting part as well. Students and I will work together to figure out what should be added. Other ideas: For concepts that could not be simplified, I should rethought their appropriateness for teaching. If it is absolutely necessary, make a lesson plan for substitute teachers.


 * Yao Huang:**
 * Every second counts:**
 * In the article, Paris Granville mentioned that he often created realistic communication situations such as setting up a café right in his classroom. Daily classroom interactions allow him to teach high-frequency language functions and daily culture.**
 * In terms of the daily culture, in my classroom, we will introduce a daily routine at the beginning of the class. Students will greet to their teacher in Chinese and also do the routine exactly the same way as what Chinese students do in China, such as stand up, bow to teacher, greet to the teacher and sit down and the teacher bows and greet to students. And then, a class formally begins. We do the routine each day to remind students consciously that they enter a typical Chinese classroom at the time of stepping in the class and they will begin to learn Chinese. Therefore, it helps to make sense to them that why they should do it and they can understand that they are supposed to speak Chinese and they need to try to understand what the teacher want to express when the teacher says Chinese 90% of the time in class.**

I think it would be interesting to time the target language use in the class. I know my level 3/4 class can work the entire period in German but level 1 and 2 would be the complete opposite. To track the time would be a nice visual to see and in many ways I am sure I would notice improvement in their output as well. Maybe we could make goals to beat their previous levels times by a certain amount. I already try to use pictures or draw or act out things if the explanation would be too high for a level. I found the flags strategy to be very interesting. I might try to find a way to do something similar.

How to reach the goal of teaching 90% of class in the target language? This issue has been bothering me since the first day we met in L520 class. This article helps me a lot in how to build an atmosphere to promote speaking in the target language in the classroom. I paid attention when my mentor was teaching, and her number of using Chinese was around 50-70%, depending on the content for the day. Students are able to answer the drill or translation questions, but they seldom negotiated the meaning (communicate) with each other. There is an oral test in the end of each unit. For last unit, students were asked to describe the apartment using at least 10 sentences. I think this is an authentic assessment, but we did not have time to do it in class. My mentor prioritizes the class time to cover the textbook. Therefore, students could just do the oral test at home and send the mp3 files to us. My mentor told me that most students prefer to do the oral test at home anyway because they are not confident in their speaking. So I listened to the mp3 they sent me last week, and surprisingly found out that “they actually speak pretty well!!” I started to wonder that if I can create a positive environment for them and let them know making mistakes is okay, will they be more confident to do the oral test in class. I like the strategy of using three colored flags to show student’s level of understanding. It’s easy for the teacher to see the flag but not for other classmates. I was a fast speaker due to my previous job and I am slowing down for students in class. I keep reminding student to let me know when I speak too fast. I taught them how to say “please speak slowly” in Chinese. However, no one ever raised hand in class to request that. After I read this article, I feel I was so dumb. Who want to catch other classmates’ attention by raising hand and admit that he is lost? Each of them was probably wondering “am I the only one who did not understand what she just said?” Therefore, I think using the flag is a really good idea.
 * Hui-Ching(Kayla) Hsu:**

**Brittney:**

This article inspired me to speak in Spanish as much as possible with my future students. I found the difference between 80% and 100% use of target language (a months and a half) to be very interesting! In addition to implementing the most amount of target language possible into my classroom, I want to incorporate the signaling activities that the article mentioned. It says that the author monitored the level of student comprehension by giving each student three different colored flags. The green flag was pushed to the front of the desk when the students were comprehending everything that was going on, the orange to signify slight confusion, and the red to show that they were completely lost. This is a great way to get immediate feedback from the students (if they are being honest) and to cater instruction directly to their needs.


 * Interpersonal Communication - Curtain and Dahlberg, Chapter 6**


 * Consider how you will use the information in this chapter to design appropriate pair work for your unit. How will you move from "drill in disguise" activities to meaningful communication?**


 * There is no need to respond to this question at this point in time. You will have a chance to incorporate pair work strategies when microteaching and/or in your detailed units.**