New registrations are now closed for the 2009 IATEFL site. The forum content is for reference only.
Is language acquisition a good analogy for teacher development?
- Login to post comments
Sun, 03/29/2009 - 08:00
Hi all,
I'm new to this forum - I'm a teacher at a language school in the middle east. I've been thinking a lot about teacher development recently, and whether it follows similar paths for all teachers, and I'd like to ask you all a question - is second language acquisition a good anology for teacher development?
For example: second language development has been shown to follow certain fairly predictable paths (e.g. emergence of consistant past tense use) - is teachers' development similarly predictable (e.g. reliance on activity-based teaching before the emergence of a more coherent methodology); second language development seems to be relatively resistant to explicit instruction, with the really valuable stuff coming through experience of language use - although certain words/phrases can be picked up in class; similarly teachers training tends to have a "slow release" effect on teachers, with the real relevance of instruction only becoming apparent through experience - although teachers can pick up discrete ideas/lesson plans etc....
What do you think - is this a useful analogy to make? Are there any other similarities? Or have I already stretched it too far?
Peter
Tue, 03/31/2009 - 07:23
#2
Hi Helen,
I'm sure you're right - teachers' own attitudes and experiences must have an impact on their development. Yet it really seems to me that certain ideas or principles are beyond me at my stage of development (about 6 years teaching, 2 years post DELTA). For example, some members of the dogme group recently tried to suggest that more teachers learn about and try to use approaches related to critical pedagogy in their teaching. This is probably a great idea; but it feels like, for me, it's too far beyond my grasp - I don't have my principles worked out at a more basic level yet...
I wonder if others have had similar feelings or experiences - or can give examples of the opposite?
Peter
Wed, 04/08/2009 - 21:01
#3
Hi Peter,
Your example strikes a chord with me but I think it demonstrates that teacher development is not either natural or gradual but happens in sudden bursts in response to a felt need. This is certainly what has happened to me.
You say that you think critical pedagogy is beyond your grasp and I have certainly felt myself in this position regarding many different aspects of my (EAP) teaching context, e.g. the appropriate grammar (nouns not verbs) dealing with texts from specific disciplines (robotics) or understanding approaches to research. Each time I had to quickly find ways to understand at least a little of the theoretical background so I could cope with the immediate demands of the class. I did lots of reading, sometimes attended conferences to get an overview and then just tried things out for myself. The first attempt was always full of problems (looking back) but that was OK and I tried to improve in the following years.
What do you think? It seems this is more like Darwinian evolution (a burst and then consolidation) than language acquisition.
Olwyn
Sat, 04/04/2009 - 09:17
#4
By the way the 'natural order' is a highly disputed notion...
Thu, 04/16/2009 - 06:23
#5
Hi Tony:
Personally, I don't agree with the notion of a "natural order" in adult second language aqusition in all respects, but, other than myself (and you, I guess), who else do you know of who disputes the notion?
Dan Jenkins (Foreign Expert, English Department, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, China)
Thu, 04/16/2009 - 11:28
#6
Hi Peter:
I think second language acquisition can be used as an analogy for teacher development in certain respects. For example, one might use uninstructed second language acquisition as a analogy for teacher development, if teachers' trainining consists of a 6-week course in teaching their native language. On the other hand, one might use instructed second language acquisition as a analogy for teacher development, if teachers' training consists of a 10-week course in teaching their native language. Then, one might use some combination of instructed and uninstructed acquisition of a second language as an analogy for teacher development, if the teachers' training consists of a 4-year degree program that includes theory, pedagogy (applied theory), and a teaching practium.
In other words, I think the course of teacher development depends upon the teacher's starting point, and as Helen mentioned, the input from the teaching environment; specifically, the degree to which the teaching environment differs from the environment in which the teaching practium took place (or, the environment for which a a teacher trained).
Teachers who are products of a good training program teach within the context of a particular teaching approach (philosophy, theory, method, and technique) that they use to consruct a syllabus and evaluate the result; whereas those who are untrained in how to teach anything at all are, in general, efforting to remember how their teachers taught them and attempting to emulate the same techniques without understanding the "why" of the techniques. These individuals will have different experiences in their development as teachers.
However, I think both these types of teachers follow a similar, basic path in teacher development: 1) have an idea, 2) analyze the idea, 3) execute the idea, 4) analyze the result, and then 5) modify the idea as necessary. The difference, I think, is in the skill with which each type of teacher executes each of these 5 aspects. Those teachers who are not well trained will tend to rely more on trial and error, and thus come to collect a list of "teaching principles;" whereas the adequately trained teachers do not rely on trial and error, but function within the context of an approach, and do not compile a list of "teaching principles" (which may be one definition of the difference between a teacher who is not considered to be a professional and one who is). Perhaps teacher development can be equated with the development of greater skill in performing each of these 5 aspects.
Dan Jenkins (Foreign Expert, English Department, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, China)
Hello Peter,
This is a really interesting question! I don´t know the extent to which languge acquisition is a good analogy for teacher development. It is widely held that there is a "natural order" of language acquisition, but I don´t know if there is really a "natural order" of teacher development. Maybe teachers develop in different ways depending on who they are teaching, and what their own and their students expecations about learning are.
In my own case, I feel that my development as a teacher has been tied to gradually developing and deepening my understanding of the learning process (which I still don´t claim to really understand!) I feel that this development is partly the result of Diploma level training, but partly also it is a result of my own experience as a language learner. I did my Cert in Barcelona, and since then, I have always worked in Spanish speaking countries. When I first started teaching, I spoke no Spanish, but I have gradually become reasonably fluent in it. This learning has taken place in conjunction with my development as a teacher, and my experience of learning Spanish has definitely shaped my beliefs about teaching and learning, and so shaped my development as a teacher, but I´m not sure where this leaves your analogy.
I´m really curious to see how other people respond to this question.
Helen (Global Issues area moderator)