Day 7
Tues. Nov. 17
Speakers: Share responses to Niemic & Ryan
Strategies for finding the right words and learning how to use them
Speakers: Share language learning plans
Homework
➤ Read Prentis and preview Dornyei
Read the magazine article “Feel More Fun in French” by Nicola Prentis and preview the excerpts from the academic book Motivating Learners, Motivating Teachers: Building Vision in the Language Classroom by Zoltan Dornyei and Magdalena Kubanyiova.
As you read Prentis, consider these questions:
1) Is your personality different when you speak (or write) English? If so, how?
2) What is “self” or “identity” and how is it related to personality? What is your “English-speaking self” or your “English-speaking identity”? Do you have one?
The excerpts from the Dornyei and Kubanyiova book will be challenging to understand, so I’m only asking you to preview them (look them over) to get a sense of what the book is about. (This book’s intended audience is language teachers, and Zoltan Dornyei is one of the most influential scholars working in the field of the psychology of language learning.)
Here is a list of questions that will help you focus your attention on key aspects of this text. See if you can figure out where in the article Dornyei answers these questions and roughly what he seems to be saying:
3) What is a "vision" and how is it different from a goal?
4) What does Dornyei mean by "possible selves" and how does that idea relate to motivation?
5) What does Dornyei mean by the "ideal L2 self," the "ought-to L2 self," and the "feared L2 self?"
6) What does Dornyei mean when he writes about "constructing" an image of one's "desired future self"? What kinds of advice does he give to teachers about how to help their students do this?
➤ Speakers
Ruohan and Kaiyuan: Answer questions 1 and 2 above (about personality and identity), and also tell us: Why might the reading from the Dornyei & Kubanyiova book be interesting? What of the ideas that Dornyei & Kubanyiova are writing about do you find most intriguing?
Shen Shen and Xinyi: Tell us about your language-learning plan. What’s your long-term goal, why are you pursuing it, and what habit are you trying to pick up to move you toward that goal? How has it been going so far? Has it been working? If not, why hasn’t it been working?
➤ Short writing assignment
In a paragraph or two (~200 words) describe a problem related to how we think about language learning that you think is interesting, important, and relevant to a community like DKU. Be specific — make yourself clear by giving examples. Do your best to paint me a clear picture of what this problem is, exactly, and why you think it’s interesting, or important, or relevant, or all three.
Here are a few “templates” you could use (though you’re not required to). I’m putting them here just to get you thinking:
One problem that is often overlooked is ________________.
One problem few people appreciate the importance of is ____________.
One problem that is poorly understood is ____________.
One issue that is often misunderstood is _____________.
One problem that is particularly vexing is _____________.
One common misconception about language learning is ____________.
One problem that is of critical importance to ______ is _________.
One particularly widespread problem is ______________.
➤ Word puzzles
Pick one of the English words on our list and one of the Chinese words on our list that you find particularly interesting or feel you’re likely to use. For the English word, try to figure out how to use it accurately; for the Chinese word, try to figure out how express that idea accurately in English. Come to class prepared to share your thought process — how you researched the word, what tools you used, and what you found out.
