In the shade
Or in the sun
Choose a book
That looks like fun.
One that's old
Or one that's new.
Make-believe
Or really true.
I'll read one line
I'll read two.
You'll read to me.
I'll read to you
Mary Ann Hoberman
martes, 18 de diciembre de 2007
Using CD-ROM storybooks when teaching with topics
Teaching English through literature can help develop students' digital literacy as they are learning English. This can be done through CD-ROM storybooks and this is what Shamir and Korat refer to.
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/Shamir___Korat.pdf
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/Shamir___Korat.pdf
When referring to intercultural communication Byram (1998: 7) says:
The starting point for this is again linked to the notions of identity and interaction. Whenever we are engaged in interaction with others, we perceive and are perceived ourselves in terms of our social identities, one of which is our ethnic identity. In British society and those similar to it, for example in Western Europe, the ethnic identity of the dominant majority coincides with their national identity. This in turn sometimes coincides with state citizenship, although the second coincidence is less frequent.
Each person has a number of social identities, social groups to which they belong, and cultures, cultural practices, beliefs and values to which they subscribe. Which identity is dominant in a given interaction depends on a number of factors in the situation: the language in use, the relationships with the other, how the participants identify each other. When the other with whom we are interacting is from a different state with a different national identity, symbolized in a different language, it is our national identity which comes to the fore, at least in the initial stages. It is therefore important to understand the national group and culture to which that person belongs. Any international interaction will refer to national identities and cultures which are therefore embodied in the mutual perceptions of the actors involved. It is for this reason that language teaching puts an emphasis on national cultures and the mutual perceptions of national groups, attempting to ensure a proper analysis of national stereotypes. When an interaction takes the people involved beyond this stage and into relationships where other social identities -for example, gender, social class, age group - become significant, then it is necessary for the participants to know, or be able to find out, about the other social groups to which their partner in the interaction belongs. Language teaching thus also needs to anticipate what learners need to know or what skills they need to acquire in order to discover other identities and groups - and their cultures - for themselves. In the first instance, however, learners usually perceive others and are themselves perceived by others as belonging to a national group and culture.
It is not possible, neither desirable, for learners to identify with the other nor to deny their own identity and culture. Yet in terms of linguistic learning this has been the implicit aim for many years. We have judged the best language learner to be the one who comes nearest to a native speaker mastery of the grammar and vocabulary of the language, and who can therefore 'pass for', or be identified as, a native, communicating on an equal footing with natives.
When considerations of social identity are introduced into the debate a different kind of judgment of the good learner is implied. It is the learner who is aware of their own identities and cultures, and of how they are perceived by others, and who also has an understanding of the identities and cultures of those with whom they are interacting. This 'intercultural speaker' (Byram and Zarate 1994) is able to establish a relationship between their own and the other cultures, to mediate and explain difference, and ultimately to accept that difference and see the common humanity beneath it.
From this perspective, the cultural dimension has become an intercultural dimension when teaching English. Our role as educators is:
To facilitate learners´ interaction with some small part of another society and its cultures, with the purpose of relativising learners´ understanding of their own cultural values, beliefs and behaviours, and encouraging them to investigate for themselves the otherness around them, either in their immediate physical environment or in their engagement with otherness which internationalization and globalization have brought into their world. (Byram, 2001: 3)
We have therefore introduced the concept of the 'intercultural speaker', someone who has an ability to interact with 'others', to accept other perspectives and perceptions of the world, to mediate between different perspectives, to be conscious of their evaluations of difference (Byram & Zarate, 1997; see also Karmic, 1998). Where the otherness which learners meet is that of a society with a different language, they clearly need both linguistic competence and intercultural competence. Here we focus on intercultural competence which is necessary whether a different language is present or not.
The components of an intercultural competence
Byram (2001) explains that:
The components of intercultural competence are knowledge, skills and altitudes, complemented by the values one holds because of one's belonging to a number of social groups, values which are part of one's belonging to a given society.
Attitudes
The foundation of intercultural competence is in the attitudes of the intercultural speaker and mediator:
Intercultural altitudes (savoir etré): curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one's own. This means a willingness to relativise one's own values, beliefs and behaviours, not to assume that they are the only possible and naturally correct ones, and to be able to see how they might look from the perspective of an outsider who has a different set of values, beliefs and behaviours. This can be called the ability to 'decentre'.
Knowledge
Another crucial factor is knowledge, not primarily knowledge about a specific culture, but rather knowledge of how social groups and social identities function, both one's own and others. If it can be anticipated with whom one will interact, then knowledge of that person's world is useful. If it cannot, then it is useful to imagine an interlocutor in order to have an example of what it means to know something about other people with other multiple identities: Knowledge (savoirs): of social groups and their products and practices in one's own and in one's interlocutor country, and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction. So knowledge can be defined as having two major components: knowledge of social processes, and knowledge of illustrations of those processes and products; the latter includes knowledge about how other people see oneself as well as some knowledge about other people. No teacher can have or anticipate all the knowledge which learners might at some point need. Indeed many teachers have not had the opportunity themselves to experience all or any of the cultures which their learners might encounter. There are however skills which are just as important as attitudes and knowledge, and teachers can concentrate as much on skills as upon knowledge.
Skills
Because intercultural speakers/mediators need to be able to see how misunderstandings can arise, and how they might be able to resolve them, they need the altitudes of decentring but also the skills of comparing. By putting ideas, events, documents side by side and seeing how each might look from the other perspective, intercultural speakers/ mediators can see how people might misunderstand what is said or written or done by someone with a different social identity. The skills of comparison, of interpreting and relating, are therefore crucial: Skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre): ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents or events from one's own. Secondly, because neither intercultural speakers/mediators nor their teachers can anticipate all their knowledge needs, it is equally important to acquire the skills of finding out new knowledge and integrating it with what they already have. They need especially to know how to ask people from other cultures about their beliefs, values and behaviours; these can be difficult to explain because they are often unconscious. So intercultural speakers/mediators need skills of discovery and interaction: Skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire): ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication and interaction.
One’s own values and beliefs
Finally, however open towards, curious about and tolerant of other people's beliefs, values and behaviours one is, one's own beliefs, values and behaviours are deeply embedded and can create reaction and rejection. Because of this unavoidable response, intercultural speakers/ mediators need to become aware of their own values and how these influence their views of other people's values. Intercultural speakers/ mediators need a critical awareness of themselves and their values, as well as those of other people: Critical cultural awareness (savoir s'engager): an ability to evaluate, critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one's own and other cultures and countries. It is not the purpose of teaching to try to change learners' values, but to make them explicit and conscious in any evaluative response to others. There is nonetheless a fundamental values position which all language teaching should promote: a position which acknowledges respect for human dignity and equality of human rights as the democratic basis for social interaction.
The role of the teacher is therefore to develop skills, attitudes and awareness of values just as much as to develop knowledge of a particular culture or country, or of different cultures within one's own country.
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/Byram.pdf
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/McKay_2002.pdf
Each person has a number of social identities, social groups to which they belong, and cultures, cultural practices, beliefs and values to which they subscribe. Which identity is dominant in a given interaction depends on a number of factors in the situation: the language in use, the relationships with the other, how the participants identify each other. When the other with whom we are interacting is from a different state with a different national identity, symbolized in a different language, it is our national identity which comes to the fore, at least in the initial stages. It is therefore important to understand the national group and culture to which that person belongs. Any international interaction will refer to national identities and cultures which are therefore embodied in the mutual perceptions of the actors involved. It is for this reason that language teaching puts an emphasis on national cultures and the mutual perceptions of national groups, attempting to ensure a proper analysis of national stereotypes. When an interaction takes the people involved beyond this stage and into relationships where other social identities -for example, gender, social class, age group - become significant, then it is necessary for the participants to know, or be able to find out, about the other social groups to which their partner in the interaction belongs. Language teaching thus also needs to anticipate what learners need to know or what skills they need to acquire in order to discover other identities and groups - and their cultures - for themselves. In the first instance, however, learners usually perceive others and are themselves perceived by others as belonging to a national group and culture.
It is not possible, neither desirable, for learners to identify with the other nor to deny their own identity and culture. Yet in terms of linguistic learning this has been the implicit aim for many years. We have judged the best language learner to be the one who comes nearest to a native speaker mastery of the grammar and vocabulary of the language, and who can therefore 'pass for', or be identified as, a native, communicating on an equal footing with natives.
When considerations of social identity are introduced into the debate a different kind of judgment of the good learner is implied. It is the learner who is aware of their own identities and cultures, and of how they are perceived by others, and who also has an understanding of the identities and cultures of those with whom they are interacting. This 'intercultural speaker' (Byram and Zarate 1994) is able to establish a relationship between their own and the other cultures, to mediate and explain difference, and ultimately to accept that difference and see the common humanity beneath it.
From this perspective, the cultural dimension has become an intercultural dimension when teaching English. Our role as educators is:
To facilitate learners´ interaction with some small part of another society and its cultures, with the purpose of relativising learners´ understanding of their own cultural values, beliefs and behaviours, and encouraging them to investigate for themselves the otherness around them, either in their immediate physical environment or in their engagement with otherness which internationalization and globalization have brought into their world. (Byram, 2001: 3)
We have therefore introduced the concept of the 'intercultural speaker', someone who has an ability to interact with 'others', to accept other perspectives and perceptions of the world, to mediate between different perspectives, to be conscious of their evaluations of difference (Byram & Zarate, 1997; see also Karmic, 1998). Where the otherness which learners meet is that of a society with a different language, they clearly need both linguistic competence and intercultural competence. Here we focus on intercultural competence which is necessary whether a different language is present or not.
The components of an intercultural competence
Byram (2001) explains that:
The components of intercultural competence are knowledge, skills and altitudes, complemented by the values one holds because of one's belonging to a number of social groups, values which are part of one's belonging to a given society.
Attitudes
The foundation of intercultural competence is in the attitudes of the intercultural speaker and mediator:
Intercultural altitudes (savoir etré): curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one's own. This means a willingness to relativise one's own values, beliefs and behaviours, not to assume that they are the only possible and naturally correct ones, and to be able to see how they might look from the perspective of an outsider who has a different set of values, beliefs and behaviours. This can be called the ability to 'decentre'.
Knowledge
Another crucial factor is knowledge, not primarily knowledge about a specific culture, but rather knowledge of how social groups and social identities function, both one's own and others. If it can be anticipated with whom one will interact, then knowledge of that person's world is useful. If it cannot, then it is useful to imagine an interlocutor in order to have an example of what it means to know something about other people with other multiple identities: Knowledge (savoirs): of social groups and their products and practices in one's own and in one's interlocutor country, and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction. So knowledge can be defined as having two major components: knowledge of social processes, and knowledge of illustrations of those processes and products; the latter includes knowledge about how other people see oneself as well as some knowledge about other people. No teacher can have or anticipate all the knowledge which learners might at some point need. Indeed many teachers have not had the opportunity themselves to experience all or any of the cultures which their learners might encounter. There are however skills which are just as important as attitudes and knowledge, and teachers can concentrate as much on skills as upon knowledge.
Skills
Because intercultural speakers/mediators need to be able to see how misunderstandings can arise, and how they might be able to resolve them, they need the altitudes of decentring but also the skills of comparing. By putting ideas, events, documents side by side and seeing how each might look from the other perspective, intercultural speakers/ mediators can see how people might misunderstand what is said or written or done by someone with a different social identity. The skills of comparison, of interpreting and relating, are therefore crucial: Skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre): ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents or events from one's own. Secondly, because neither intercultural speakers/mediators nor their teachers can anticipate all their knowledge needs, it is equally important to acquire the skills of finding out new knowledge and integrating it with what they already have. They need especially to know how to ask people from other cultures about their beliefs, values and behaviours; these can be difficult to explain because they are often unconscious. So intercultural speakers/mediators need skills of discovery and interaction: Skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire): ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication and interaction.
One’s own values and beliefs
Finally, however open towards, curious about and tolerant of other people's beliefs, values and behaviours one is, one's own beliefs, values and behaviours are deeply embedded and can create reaction and rejection. Because of this unavoidable response, intercultural speakers/ mediators need to become aware of their own values and how these influence their views of other people's values. Intercultural speakers/ mediators need a critical awareness of themselves and their values, as well as those of other people: Critical cultural awareness (savoir s'engager): an ability to evaluate, critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one's own and other cultures and countries. It is not the purpose of teaching to try to change learners' values, but to make them explicit and conscious in any evaluative response to others. There is nonetheless a fundamental values position which all language teaching should promote: a position which acknowledges respect for human dignity and equality of human rights as the democratic basis for social interaction.
The role of the teacher is therefore to develop skills, attitudes and awareness of values just as much as to develop knowledge of a particular culture or country, or of different cultures within one's own country.
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/Byram.pdf
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/McKay_2002.pdf
Essential Characteristics of Effective Interactive Reading
1) Adult sensitivity and responsiveness: adults should show children that they value children's contributions to the storybook reading interaction (Bus & Van Uzendoorn, 1995; Leseman & de Jong, 1998) and this could be done considering different strategies such as observing, waiting, listening, and being face-to-face.
2) Child engagement: There are many examples. One of this can be having children answer questions during storybook readings because it can help to produce greater gains in their expressive vocabulary than reading passively. Pausing to look at pictures, talking about words, and exploring topics of particular interest, allow children to handle reading materials and to turn pages. Remember that deviations from the text can be beneficial. The object of book reading sessions should not be to get through the book or only to read the words on the page but rather to create an enjoyable, high-quality, and sensitive interaction.
3) Repeated reading: Children enjoy reading books multiple times, so…let’s take profit from this. What are the advantages? Just to name mention some: acquisition of the target language will be fostered, children will experience a sense of familiarity due to the meaningful repetition of the story, and in consequence, they will fell more confident in the target language
Justice, L. & K. Pence. 2005. Scaffolding with Storybooks. Newark: IRA.
2) Child engagement: There are many examples. One of this can be having children answer questions during storybook readings because it can help to produce greater gains in their expressive vocabulary than reading passively. Pausing to look at pictures, talking about words, and exploring topics of particular interest, allow children to handle reading materials and to turn pages. Remember that deviations from the text can be beneficial. The object of book reading sessions should not be to get through the book or only to read the words on the page but rather to create an enjoyable, high-quality, and sensitive interaction.
3) Repeated reading: Children enjoy reading books multiple times, so…let’s take profit from this. What are the advantages? Just to name mention some: acquisition of the target language will be fostered, children will experience a sense of familiarity due to the meaningful repetition of the story, and in consequence, they will fell more confident in the target language
Justice, L. & K. Pence. 2005. Scaffolding with Storybooks. Newark: IRA.
The Role of Interactive Reading in Promoting Language and Literacy
Young children gain many of the language, literacy knowledge and skills through informal and naturalistic interactions with the adults because they are biologically and socially geared for that, both to develop oral and written language. Adult-child interactive storybook reading, in particular, is viewed by many experts as one of the most potent and frequent contexts for this incidental language and literacy learning of young children (e.g., Bus, 2001: Teale, 1986, Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). It is a context that is meaningful, interesting, and motivating to young children. The adult deliberately encourages and scaffolds the child's engagement and participation while the child extracts meaning and constructs knowledge. The adult's involvement is sensitive to the changing needs and contributions of the child, whereas the child's needs and contributions reflect the adult's dynamic sensitivities. Scaffolding by the intentional adult to assist children’s progression moves from dependent to independent performance in a particular skill or area of' knowledge. But, not all adult behaviors or input are scaffolds. For a particular behavior or type of input to be considered a scaffold, it must enable children to work at a higher level of performance than they would be able to do on their own (Bruner, 1978; Vygotsky, 1930/1978, 1934/1986). What this means is that adults need to be sensitive to what an individual child cannot do and then enable the child to do it. Scaffolding is developmentally appropriate if the child is not frustrated and if the adult provides the support needed for the child to be successful. The different types of adult behaviors and input that seem particularly useful in engaging children at high levels of performance and fostering children's rapid movement from dependent to independent levels of performance include the following:
**Distancing scaffolds: it occurs when the adult gradually reduces the amount of support given to the child (e-g, "You are doing this so well!", "Remember, you nave done this before."),
**Linguistic scaffolds: linguistic scaffolds are used by the adult to present advanced models of language and literacy that build directly on the child's level of knowledge or skill. This could perfectly be manifested through open-ended questions (e.g., "What is going to happen next?") or by describing unfamiliar concepts or ideas.
**Regulatory scaffolds: adults use regulatory scaffolds to help children understand a specific task or goal and how it applies to a larger goal (e.g., "Knowing these letters will help you read these words")
**Structural scaffolds: it refers to aspects of the context in which learning takes place, a context that helps to improve or support children's learning. Examples of this type of scaffolding could be working through a known and familiar routine, working with motivating and appealing materials or using storybooks
http://www.spresent.com/view/?p=/inglesepb15@yahoo.com.ar/literature2
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/kieranegan
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/grondonawhite
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/gill
**Distancing scaffolds: it occurs when the adult gradually reduces the amount of support given to the child (e-g, "You are doing this so well!", "Remember, you nave done this before."),
**Linguistic scaffolds: linguistic scaffolds are used by the adult to present advanced models of language and literacy that build directly on the child's level of knowledge or skill. This could perfectly be manifested through open-ended questions (e.g., "What is going to happen next?") or by describing unfamiliar concepts or ideas.
**Regulatory scaffolds: adults use regulatory scaffolds to help children understand a specific task or goal and how it applies to a larger goal (e.g., "Knowing these letters will help you read these words")
**Structural scaffolds: it refers to aspects of the context in which learning takes place, a context that helps to improve or support children's learning. Examples of this type of scaffolding could be working through a known and familiar routine, working with motivating and appealing materials or using storybooks
http://www.spresent.com/view/?p=/inglesepb15@yahoo.com.ar/literature2
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/kieranegan
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/grondonawhite
http://mariaeugenia871.googlepages.com/gill
Literature presents valuable language exposure and leads to different types of enrichment (Collie and Slater, 1987)
VALUABLE AUTHENTIC MATERIAL: a material which is 'important' in some way, due to the fact that it says something about varied fundamental human issues. Any literary work can transcend both, time and culture to speak directly to a reader in another country or a different period of history. Literature is 'authentic' material because it is not fashioned for the specific purpose of teaching a language. Recent course materials have quite rightly incorporated many 'authentic' samples of language - for example, travel timetables, city plans, pamphlets, cartoons, advertisements, newspaper or magazine articles. In reading literary texts, students have also to cope with language intended for native speakers and thus they gain additional familiarity with many different linguistic uses, forms and conventions of the written mode: with irony, exposition, argument, narration, and so on. All this leads unavoidably to be in contact with cultural information
CULTURAL ENRICHMENT: For many of our students (even for many of us) a visit or an extended stay in the target culture is just not possible. For all such people (let’s concentrate on learners), more indirect routes can be taken into consideration, for instance radio programmes, films or videos, newspapers, and, last but not least, literary works. It is true of course that the 'world' of a novel, play, or short story is a created one, yet, it offers a full and vivid context in which characters from many social backgrounds can be depicted. Reading the literature of a historical period is, after all, one of the ways we have to help us imagine what life was like in that other foreign territory, i.e. the country's past
LANGUAGE ENRICHMENT: While there is little doubt that extensive reading increases a learner's receptive vocabulary and facilitates transfer to a more active form of knowledge, it is sometimes objected that literature does not give learners the kind of vocabulary they really need. The objection to literature on the grounds of lexical appropriacy, thus, has some validity, but it needs not be an overriding one if teachers make a judicious choice of the text to be read, considering it as a counterpoise and supplement to other materials.
On the positive side, literature provides a rich context in which individual lexical or syntactical items are made more memorable. It triggers learners to make inferences from linguistic clues and it is an excellent prompt for oral work.
PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT: when coping with literary works, it is necessary to consider how a language operates both as a rule-based system and as a socio-semantic system. Very often, the process of learning is essentially analytic, piecemeal, and, at the level of the personality, fairly superficial. Engaging imaginatively with literature enables learners to shift the focus of their attention beyond the more mechanical aspects of the foreign language system. The language becomes 'transparent' as long as the reader is well-motivated, and as long as the experience of engaging with literature is kept sufficiently interesting, varied and non-directive to let the reader feel that he or she is taking possession of a previously unknown territory.
http://www.spresent.com/view/?p=/inglesepb15@yahoo.com.ar/literature
CULTURAL ENRICHMENT: For many of our students (even for many of us) a visit or an extended stay in the target culture is just not possible. For all such people (let’s concentrate on learners), more indirect routes can be taken into consideration, for instance radio programmes, films or videos, newspapers, and, last but not least, literary works. It is true of course that the 'world' of a novel, play, or short story is a created one, yet, it offers a full and vivid context in which characters from many social backgrounds can be depicted. Reading the literature of a historical period is, after all, one of the ways we have to help us imagine what life was like in that other foreign territory, i.e. the country's past
LANGUAGE ENRICHMENT: While there is little doubt that extensive reading increases a learner's receptive vocabulary and facilitates transfer to a more active form of knowledge, it is sometimes objected that literature does not give learners the kind of vocabulary they really need. The objection to literature on the grounds of lexical appropriacy, thus, has some validity, but it needs not be an overriding one if teachers make a judicious choice of the text to be read, considering it as a counterpoise and supplement to other materials.
On the positive side, literature provides a rich context in which individual lexical or syntactical items are made more memorable. It triggers learners to make inferences from linguistic clues and it is an excellent prompt for oral work.
PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT: when coping with literary works, it is necessary to consider how a language operates both as a rule-based system and as a socio-semantic system. Very often, the process of learning is essentially analytic, piecemeal, and, at the level of the personality, fairly superficial. Engaging imaginatively with literature enables learners to shift the focus of their attention beyond the more mechanical aspects of the foreign language system. The language becomes 'transparent' as long as the reader is well-motivated, and as long as the experience of engaging with literature is kept sufficiently interesting, varied and non-directive to let the reader feel that he or she is taking possession of a previously unknown territory.
http://www.spresent.com/view/?p=/inglesepb15@yahoo.com.ar/literature
jueves, 13 de diciembre de 2007
The Pleasure of Reading...together
Here's a book
With something new-
You read to me!
I'll read to you!
We'll read each page
To one another-
You'll read one side
I the other
But who will read-
Now guess this riddle-
When the words are
In the middle?
The answer's easy!
Plain as pie!
We'll read together
You and I.
Mary Ann Hoberman
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