El manejo del tiempo en la clase

Saben que es lo mejor de ser estudiante? Poder detectar errores en el manejo de la clase y comprometerme a NUNCA cometerlos yo misma.

Hoy tuve una clase que pudo haber sido muy interesante. Se suponía que ibamos a tener un debate sobre la controversia de la autobiografía de Rigoberta Menchú. No sé por qué a la profesora se le ocurrió que antes del debate cada estudiante debía resumir tres capítulos. Cuál era el propósito de esto? De todas maneras teníamos que leer el libro para prepararnos para el debate. En fin, el punto era resumir, entonces si cada uno lo hacía por unos minutos no se perdía mucho tiempo.

Pues les cuento el resultado de no ser capaz de manejar el tiempo de la clase. Hubo personas que hablaron por media hora, volviendo a contar la historia que ya se nos había relatado en el libro. Todo el tiempo tenía ganas de gritar y preguntarles: No saben lo que es un resumen? Por favor! Hubo una estudiante que se dedicó a hablar de unos detalles gráficos que una película de terror gore le quedaba corta. Terrible!

Conclusión, que yo era la sexta persona que debía presentar y nunca lo pude hacer y el debate... bien gracias, no hubo tiempo. Claro, seguimos en la próxima clase, pero como también debemos cubrir el material de ese día, pues ya se imaginan la calidad del debate.

Todo por no saber manejar el tiempo. Para un educador esa debería ser una habilidad básica. Créanme, hablando desde la perspectiva de una estudiante que quería tener una clase interesante, pues al final me sentí frustrada y decepcionada. No me quedan ganas de prepararme adecuadamente para la siguiente clase.

En fin, seguimos en la lucha...

Sentence and word stress in the ESL classroom

Stressed-timed language: Stressed syllables tend to occur at roughly equal intervals in time.

Syllable-timed language: Rhythmic beat by recurrences of syllables, not stresses.

Spanish is a syllable-timed language. When Spanish speakers transfer the intonation patterns of their native language into English, which is a stress-timed language, the result can be barely comprehensible to native English speakers. This is because the meaning or information usually conveyed in English by the combination of stress, pitch and rhythm in a sentence is flattened or evened out by the Spanish learner.

The following lesson is designed to enable students to identify and place sentence-level stress on content words and reduce the function words in order to produce stress-timed rhythm. The activities consider visual and auditory learners. The last activity takes advantage of cooperative learning and provides students with the opportunity to share their experience and get feedback from their classmates. The lesson uses both inductive and deductive strategies, providing students with the background and theory but also allowing them to discuss initial perceptions and make predictions. This lesson could extend to the following class session, depending on how quickly students grasp the concept of stress-timed language.

Sentence and Word Stress Lesson

1. The teacher starts the class by dragging the end of a ruler on a smooth surface and then on an irregular surface. This activity is used to illustrate stress-timed and syllable-timed languages, followed by the definition of each.

2. After having listened to an audio taped speech in Spanish and English, students make correlations with their own language and talk about their perception of the English rhythm. Finally, they determine which language is syllable-stressed and which is time-stressed. The rationale for devoting part of the class to discussing this matter is to allow students to have a clear understanding of the difference between the stress-timed nature of English and the syllable –timing of Spanish.

3. Sentence stress awareness will be built on students` knowledge of word stress. It is important to remind students that a tonic syllable has a longer duration, is louder and has a more prominent pitch movement. They are given a handout that shows the connection between word stress and sentence stress. Then, students are asked to differentiate function from content words. They will also be given a list of “Content versus Function Words”.

4. Listening Discrimination:

Students listen to the following sentences and write down the stressed words:

Nice to meet you

My name is Ray

I’ve got to go.

I’m sorry.

Want a ride?

That`d be great!

What do you do?

I’m a physician.

After students have identified stress in short sentences, they can be introduced to longer stretches of speech. A listening discrimination activity that is fun as well as effective is jazz chanting. To begin the activity, the teacher provides an explanation and an example of primary and secondary stress. Next, the teacher provides students with the jazz chant and after reading it, students have to predict where the stresses are. They also attempt to mark the primary stress with a large dot and the secondary stress with a smaller one over the word. Afterwards, students listen to the chant recording and make comparisons with their predictions.

5. Guided practice and feedback:

The teacher asks students to imagine themselves in a cafeteria crowded with noisy people. They have to call out a message across the cafeteria to a friend. Since it is very noisy, their friend will not be able to understand every single word, but it is the students’ responsibility to ensure that the main idea gets across. The objective of the activity is to promote learners` further understanding of word prominence and the fact that function words can be inferred by the interlocutor when they are not heard.

Half of the class receives utterances on paper slips (Handout 4) and then decides which word(s) will receive primary or secondary stress and which will be unstressed. In order to help students visualize the degree of stress each word will receive, they can cut up the sentences and place the words in different levels.

They sit facing each other keeping some distance and then say the utterance while fairly loud music/noise is playing in the background. The music will make the students say the prominent words louder.

After the activity, pairs get together to discuss what was heard and discuss why they were successful or unsuccessful in carrying out the task. In an open-group discussion, students share their experience, comment on each others` performance or make suggestions.

References

Frankfurt International School. A guide to learning English. The differences between English and Spanish. http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/spanish.htm

Ribeiro, Evelise. “Pronunciation intervention for visiting Spanish speaking faculty.” Master’s Thesis, Georgia State University.

Why our students need to study foreign languages

This is an assignment I had to complete for a class called "Teaching Modern Languages". I had to explain the importance for American schools to keep their foreign language programs.

Studying a foreign language can improve students’ skills in other areas such as reading and math. It can also induce greater cognitive development in creativity and problem-solving areas. In today’s competitive world, all of these are abilities necessary to succeed in any field that students wish to pursue in the future. Learning a foreign language can help students to better understand their native language and therefore increase their abilities in standardized tests. This represents a huge advantage when we consider the importance of tests like the SATs, GMAT, GRE, etc., in our education system.

According to Thomas L. Friedman, author of the bestseller “The world is flat”, the first, and most important ability we can develop in a globalized world is the ability to “learn how to learn”, to constantly absorb and teach ourselves new ways of doing things. I believe that learning a language does not only help us to acquire abilities to learn but it also gives us, through cultural awareness, a greater and different perspective on how to do things.

Knowledge of a foreign language will increase students’ chance to be accepted into high quality university programs. Higher education institutions look at many aspects when reviewing applications and one of them is the applicant’s interest in other cultures and languages. It is very important for students to be able to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pool of candidates and a great way to do this is by showing the ability to speak and understand another language. Even more, if they can take advantage of volunteering opportunities through their foreign language knowledge, students will be setting their applications in a privileged situation.

Imagine how many people apply to a nursing program each semester. And then imagine the percentage of those students who speak a second language and who have been involved in health care related activities by providing services to minorities. The latter students will have a greater chance of their applications being looked with a special interest.

Once they are in college, having studied a foreign language will allow students to take advantage of study abroad programs. In the areas of business, arts, and architecture for example, an internship or course overseas is highly recommended if not mandatory. If students want to study literature, theatre, or music, there is a great probability that their programs will require and advanced knowledge of a second language.

After college, students will be able to increase their career opportunities if they speak another language. It does not matter which field people end up choosing. In a globalized world, the knowledge of other languages and cultures is necessary to succeed as a professional. For students that decide to work in the business world, the knowledge of other language can lead to a promotion and transfer to a subsidiary overseas. All other skills being equal, the candidate that a company such as P&G will choose to transfer to another country will be the one with knowledge of the language and culture of that foreign market.

It does not matter if students decide not to travel to other countries. According to U.S. Census records, minorities, classified as those of any race other than non-Hispanic, single-race whites, currently constitute about a third of the U.S. population. But by 2042, they are projected to become the majority, making up more than half the population. By 2050, 54 percent of the population will be minorities. This means that students will need a second language to communicate with people in their own community. If they have a business or an idea to sell, they must be able to reach a market that represents more than half of the population. They will need to speak the language of their workers in order to train them appropriately and avoid factory accidents due to lack of proper warning signs. Evidence suggests that companies that implement good diversity management programs are more likely to attract and maintain employees as well as create a good reputation in the market.

Studying another language, will allow students to feel closer and connected to other cultures. This will create a positive emotional experience as they increase their global understanding. This increased global understanding will in turn, make it easier for these young people to adapt to the fast pace of our world. Their view of the world will be expanded and considering that in this region, people’s perspective in general is rather limited, it becomes vital for this to change. Proficiency in another language means having access to international news sources, which can lead to a more educated perspective of world issues.

Students are the citizens of tomorrow and therefore, their increased cultural awareness and sensitivity will have a positive impact on our society. We are not isolated from the rest of the world and it is imperative to train our future leaders on how to deal with cultural diversity. In a globalized world, our society cannot afford to remain ignorant of what is happening in other countries or to minorities in our own one.

To conclude, I would like to quote Columbia University’s President, Lee. C. Bollinger. His view on cultural awareness is that “connecting with people very – or even slightly – different from ourselves stimulates the imagination; and when we learn to see the world through a multiplicity of eyes, we only make ourselves more nimble in mastering - and integrating – the diverse fields of knowledge awaiting us”.