I already mentioned this site on first review <#1.
Review of Practical Websites>.
Especially <Web VPs v.3e> is very useful for teachers. You can experience
that complex texts are analyzed by computer software programs. You can search
information of text (e.g. You are able to identify word frequencies and
appropriate words for your class) and modify the text according to your student’s
level.
Corpus linguistics, that is, an approach to linguistic research
that relies on computer analyses of language. The corpus is “a collection of
texts – written, transcribed speech, or both – that is stored in electronic
form and analyzed with the help of computer software programs”(Conrad, 2005,
p.393). The emphasis is corpus linguistics is naturally occurring language,
that is, text created by users of the language for a communicative purpose.
Corpora can be looked at in terms of varieties of language, dialects, styles,
and registers. Corpora can consist of either written or spoken language and
therefore offer tremendous possibilities for analysis of language across many
different genres, or types of language use within specified contexts (see
Johns, 2002, for information on genre analysis). In written form, corpora can
be classified into academic, jouranalistic, or literary prose, for example.
Speech corpora have been classified into conversations of many kinds:
theater/television scripts, speeches, and even classroom languate (Conrad,
2005;Meyer, 2002;Biber&Conrad, 2001;Biber, Conrad & Reppen,
1998;Kennedy, 1998).
http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/ presents almost endless possibilities for
analysis. For example, according to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English (1995), the word idea co-occurs with the word good
(as in “good idea”), four times more often than with any other word, such as great
idea, or right idea, four times more than with any other
word, such as great idea, or right idea. Grammatical patterns can also be
identified. Biber et al. (1999) noted that the use of the word get as a passive
verb rarely includes a by prepositional phrase that identifies an agent, and
that most commonly, verbs in the get passive describe negative circumstances
(get hit, get stuck, get involved) and are much more common in conversation
than in fiction, news, or academic prose.
For teaching foreign languages, the benefits of corpus linguistics
have been and will continue to be explored as this field
grows (Conrad, 2005).
▪ Assess by textbook writers and curriculum developers
to naturally occurring language subcategorized into very specific varieties,
styles, registers, and genres (O’Keefe & Farr, 2003)
▪ Integration of grammar and vocabulary teaching
(Conrad, 2000)
▪ Studies of learner language (Conrad, 2005)
▪ Corupus-based classroom activities that use “concordancing”
and other techniques as the focus of classroom lessons (Aston, 2001; Burnard
& McEnery, 2000).
Of course, some caveats and disadvantage need to be noted.
First, we do well to be reminded that
frequency may not be equivalent to what Widdowson (1991) called “usefulness”,
Just because words, forms, and co-occurrences are highly frequent may not mean
they are highly useful in a language leaner’s progress to proficiency.
Second, so far many of the data that have
been amassed reflect English in Inner Circle, and may not represent the reality
of English encountered by learners in the Outer and Expanding circles (McCarthy
& Carter, 1995).
Finally, we have to note that even
decisions by corpus linguists of what to include in their corpora can be the
result of their intuitive decisions or even their biases.
Despite these drawbacks, corpus
linguistics holds promise for enlightening not only our language teaching
methodology, but for understanding the nature of linguistics discourse in
general.
▪ Reference
Brown, H. Douglas, 1941- Principles of language learning and
teaching / Douglas Brown. – 5th ed. Chapter 8 Communication
Competence, 230-231.
I read a article (in the bottom line on this page) in quite
long time. So I copied it and pasted it into http://www.wordle.net/.
This site provides me a visual material related to the
article in the bottom line, that is, the simple word picture like this.
This site offers information about word frequency and key
words of this article. If the teacher can provide learners the visual word
picture that is analyzed before giving reading task, it would be helpful for
learners to grasp a general idea of text quickly. Sometimes for EFL learners,
reading is a time-consuming work, so learners feel so tight and have a mind to
give up, especially the vocabulary of text might be new for learners. At that
time, the teacher could show and pre-teach this vocabulary first displaying the
word picture.
The ‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD) is
Vygotsky’s term to describe the area of potential learning in which a child can
perform an action or task, provided that a more skilled or knowledgeable person
is available to help.
Vygotsky defined the ZPD as ‘the distance
between the actual developmental level as determined by independent
problem-solving and the level of potential development as determined through
problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable
peers’ (Vygotsky 1978).
In an everyday classroom context, this
might be paraphrased as the gap between a child being able to do a task easily
without help or support, and a task which is simply out of reach for the child
at the moment and cannot be attempted without guidance and help from someone
who is more knowledgeable or skilled.
In this way, the ZPD provides a valuable
conceptual framework for situating the level of challenge in activities and
tasks that may be appropriate for children at any one time – tasks which will
challenge, stretch and extend learning but which are also achievable and will
allow for success.
There is no point teaching below the bottom
of the ZPD because the child can already function in a competent and
independent way here, and no new learning will take place. Equally, there is no
point teaching above the top of the ZPD because the difference between this and
the child’s current level of competence is too great.
The importance of situating activities and
tasks within children’s ZPD from a classroom management point of view is also
worth bearing in mind. If activities are too easy, children are likely to
become bored, de-motivated and possibly disruptive. If activities are too
difficult, children are likely to become anxious, and also possibly
de-motivated and disruptive.
Closely related to the concept of the ZPD
is the metaphor of scaffolding.
This was originally developed by Wood,
Bruner and Ross (1976) to describe the support provided by adults to guide a
child through the ZPD and enable them to carry out a task that they would be
unable to do without help. Scaffolding is a metaphor based on
Vygotsky’s view of learning as a socially constructed process and is frequently
adopted to describe teacher intervention and support in other learning contexts
as well. As it implies, scaffolding is a temporary structure or support and can
be put in place, strengthened, taken down piece by piece or taken away
completely, as the child develops knowledge and skills and is increasingly able
to act competently and independently.
An important feature in differentiating and
defining scaffolding as a particular kind of flexible help, assistance or
support is enshrined in its future orientation and in Bruner’s principle of
‘handing over’ the role to the child as soon as he or she becomes skilled
enough to take it on.
In illustrating the concepts of the ZPD and
scaffolding on primary teacher training courses, I have sometimes used the
metaphor of teaching a child to swim. In this metaphor, the ZPD is the shallow
end of a swimming pool which the child is learning to swim across
independently.
As any parent who has taught a young child
to swim will know, the process starts with the child wearing both water wings
and a rubber ring, and being held securely and moved through the water by you.
The child then gradually progresses to splashing and moving around confidently
on their own, but with you still close-by at arms’ reach, ready to help if need
be.
At the next stage, the child is ready to
discard the rubber ring and learns to kick their legs and move their arms in
‘doggy paddle‘ style, still wearing their water wings, and very often, at
first, with you holding your arms out under their body and walking by their
side in the water to give psychological, if not real, support. The process
continues until the child graduates from water wings to polystyrene float and
can eventually (and triumphantly) swim across the pool completely unaided.
In this metaphor, the secret for us, as
teachers, is to know when rubber rings, water wings or polystyrene floats are
really needed and the moment to stand back and let children swim by themselves.
In the same class, we also need to be aware that there are likely to be
children who still need rubber rings and water wings while others are already
swimming around freely like little fish.
This metaphor reflects Vygotsky’s concept
of learning and deveopment as the result of joint participation in
goal-oriented activity: ‘What the child can do with assistance today, she will
be able to do by herself tomorrow.’ (Vygotsky, 1978). It can be argued that it
is only when support and assistance through such things as water wings are
needed that learning actually takes place, because it is only then that
activity is taking place within the child’s ZPD.
Note: This posting is closely based on
articles I have previously written on the same topic (see references below).
