Multimodal professional profile

  I see myself as a learner every day along with my students. We are a team with the same goal of achieving for them, English language skills that they, the  learner, can utilise successfully in their present and future lives. Whether it be for communicating with friends, family or in their future jobs, whether for pleasure or business purposes. As English is recognised as an international language, having a sound grasp of the English language is now paramount for many people to attain. Living in Australia, a a proficient level of English enables English language learners to communicate with locals and opens up job opportunities for the future. At the same time, I also believe it is also vital to incorporate the learner's mother tongue into the teaching and recognising the learner's identity and what they bring to the learning situation.  I view every language learner as an individual with their own identity. Each learner has different learning styles, beliefs, cultural b...

  My father was born in Hong Kong in 1929 into a family of English origin. Whilst living in Hong Kong, he learnt to speak fluent Cantonese and moved to Sydney at aged thirteen. He maintained his friendships and links with family colleagues from Hong Kong whilst I was growing up in Sydney and conversed in Cantonese at Chinese restaurants. When he cooked dinner, he cooked international dishes, especially curries, which was a rare cuisine in the 1970's in Australia. I had some experience as a second language learner at school in Sydney in the early 1980's. I learnt French from Years 5 to 7 by an English speaking teacher. The teacher mainly used textbooks, which were used for students to practice grammatical forms. I also learnt German in Year 7. Again I was taught by an English speaking teacher, using mainly grammar drills from text books. This approach aligned with the Grammar-Translation approach to teaching languages. I found learning the languages boring and uninspiring and th...

  According to Nation & Macalister (2009, pp. 77-78), when designing a language teaching curriculum, principles that are based on research and theory should be addressed and “general enough to allow variety and flexibility in their application to suit the wide range of conditions in which language is taught.” Nation & Macalister (2009) suggest twenty principles of language learning. These principles were based on research and theory and were from a pedagogical approach to allow for variety and flexibility.  According to Nation & Macalister (2009, pp 67-68), “one of the values in using a principle-based approach to language teaching is that developments in theory and research can be easily accommodated by altering, expanding, removing or adding a principle without having to discard all the other principles.”  Nation & Macalister (2009) divided these principles into three groups.  The first group of principles applied to content and sequencing . This ...

  By viewing the previous language teaching approaches, I believe that no single teaching method is the best approach for all language learners. I think an eclectic approach which uses techniques from a variety of approaches is the best, to meet the individual cultural, social, emotional and learning needs of the students. To summarise the definition of  what an approach, method and technique is Celce-Murcia (2001, p. 6) states, an approach to language teaching “is something that reflects a certain model or research paradigm, a theory…a method…is a set of procedures, ie., a system that spells out rather precisely how to teach a second or foreign language…a technique  is a classroom device or activity..” Approaches, or methods are usually embedded in a syllabus with sequential outcomes for the learner to achieve.  A single method to language teaching lacks flexibility and as Strevens (1977, in Celce-Murcia, 2001, p. 6) notes “the complex circumstances of teaching and ...

  Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) became popular in Europe and the USA in the 1970s and spread around the world. This approach focuses on language functions and communication, rather than language structures. The cornerstone of this approach is learners and their individual needs. According to Savignon (1991, p. 273) CLT views the “language learner as a partner in learning; they encourage learner participation in communicative events and self-assessment of progress.” Furthermore, according to Savignon (1991, p. 273), “when language use is viewed as social behaviour, learner identity and motivation are seen to interact with language status, use, and contexts of learning to influence the development of competence.”  This YouTube video summarises the features of the CLT Approach. The Blessed Professor. (2021, October 7). Communicative Approach. [Video]. YouTube. . Content based and task-based programs provide a variety of language activities and can focus on communication...

  https://www.vcdwrites.com/journal/2017/6/14/behaviorist-theory-and-adult-ells The Direct Method led to Behaviourist approaches which influenced teaching methods such as Audiolingualism in the mid-20 th century. Behavioursim emphasised the spoken rather than written language. Audiolinguaglism combined structuralism and behaviourism. In this method language is broken down into structures which are taught sequentially. Learning occurs inductively. Behaviourist theory according to Demirezen (1988, p. 135), was a psychological theory founded by J.B Watson. It is a theory of how native language is acquired. According to Demirezen (1988, p. 136), "the major principle of the behaviourist theory rests on the analysis of human behaviour in observable stimulus-response interaction and the association between them." Applying this to native language learning, when a baby babbles, he is rewarded which reinforces the sounds. The complexity of the babblings increases and words and sentenc...

  Over the 20 th century several competing ELT or English Language Teaching methods arose including, Grammar translation, the Direct Method, Audiolingualisim, Community Language Teaching, Communicative Language Teaching and Task-based Learning and Teaching. Grammar-translation was the main approach used in the 19 th century. In this approach translation is used to teach a second language to understand the target language's grammar. Grammar-translation was the main approach used in China until the 1960’s, likely because it was similar to traditional teaching methods in China. According to Machida (2011, p. 741), the translation method focused on “learning grammar rules and vocabulary, and deductive L2 learning, the methodology used inauthentic, artificial or manufactured SL/FL translation from L1 to introduce the L2 grammatical targets.” The focus was on accuracy in reading and writing, not on listening and the spoken language. The Grammar-translation method derived from the teach...

Assignment 1   TESOL  professionals must continually reflect on their work and how it is shaped by their beliefs about practice and learning. This assessment item draws together the content from Modules 1 and 2 to connect the concepts of sociocultural theory, discourse, identity, and reflection. It also focuses on the subject objectives of explaining discourse from a sociocultural theory perspective and reflecting on your own TESOL identity. For this task, you are required to construct a multimodal profile pertaining to your TESOL professional identity. Your profile should comprise:  your life and work experiences; your language contact within and across communities;   your understanding of language learning, teaching, and managing principles, theories, and methods;   your vision for language learning. You can present your profile in any accessible space or medium, but the final product must be multimodal, that is, meaning should be communicated using a combinat...