MITESOL Messages
August 15, 2023 | Volume 49 | Issue 2
President's Corner
Fellow MITESOLers,
I imagine some of you are starting to think about the many possibilities the upcoming school year holds. We too are thinking about this and so much more, as planning for our annual conference continues to keep us busy. For this reason, I will keep my comments brief, with your calendars in mind.
MITESOL Conference Registration is open!
I am thrilled to host our MITESOL 2023 Conference: Culture, Creativity, Connection on Saturday, October 14th at Aquinas College. What better time to think about ways to engage in these areas, as our field continues to grow and flourish. Join us for a special in-person conference to consider how we can build/rebuild our teaching and learning communities by creating meaningful connections with our students and with each other. Let’s explore the ways these connected communities can thrive outside of our various institutions and within the local and global community.
Speakers and events planned with MITESOL members at the center
Last year, members asked for more time to connect, fewer sessions to choose from, and a teacher-centered keynote. We heard you.
MITESOL is thrilled to welcome Saturday morning Keynote Speaker Emily Francis, a nationally-recognized English as a Second Language teacher and author. Emily is originally from Guatemala and came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor. This year will also feature a practitioner panel consisting of advocacy experts representing various professional constituencies of TESOL. We have built in more time between sessions to connect and take action with each other, including the Advocacy Action Center, where advocacy activities will be at your fingertips.
We will also bring back invited speakers Kelly Alvarez from the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), as well as Patrick Brown from the Michigan Adult, Community and Alternative Education (MACAE) Association. Plus, representatives among our long-time partners at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC).
For more information on the conference, please visit our website.
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2023 CONFERENCE FAQS
How much does it cost to attend?
Registration rates remain the same as last year!
Conference registration is currently open with discounted, early registration rates available through September 25. Starting September 26, standard registration rates go into effect.
Pricing Information
Early Bird Registration Rates
(register by Monday, September 25, at 11:59PM EDT)
Non-member*:
- $60 - Student
- $80 - Employed Part-Time, 501(c)3, Retired, or Unemployed
- $120 - Employed Full-Time
Member
- $40 - Student
- $60 - Employed Part-Time, 501(c)3, Retired, or Unemployed
- $95 - Employed Full-Time
Standard Registration Rates
(register on or after Tuesday, September 26th)
Non-member*:
- $70 - Student
- $95 - Employed Part-Time, 501(c)3, Retired, or Unemployed
- $140 - Employed Full-Time
Member
- $50 - Student
- $75 - Employed Part-Time, 501(c)3, Retired, or Unemployed
- $115 - Employed Full-Time
*For non-members, the registration fee includes a 1-year membership from purchase date.
Can I attend for free?
Yes, we offer four MITESOL Conference Travel Grants to support conference attendance among members of under-represented professional groups. Applications will be sent out on our listserv.
All grant awardees have their conference registration fees paid.
Is there a conference hotel?
Yes, please visit this link for the conference hotel information. The conference is only on October 14th, but hotel rooms are available for Friday and Saturday nights.
Can I get credit for participating?
Yes, we plan to offer State Continuing Higher Education Credit Hours (SCECHs) to eligible attendees for participating in MITESOL 2023.
What if I have other questions about the 2023 Conference?
Keep your eye on mitesol.org and feel free to contact info@mitesol.org with your questions.
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On behalf of the entire MITESOL Board, we would like to wish all of our members a successful start to fall. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Briana Asmus, PhD
MITESOL President & 2023 Conference Chair
Email: president@mitesol.org
Website: mitesol.org
Facebook: facebook.com/michigantesol/
Twitter: @mitesol
From the Editor
Welcome to our August issue! I hope that you had an incredible summer of relaxation and are gearing up for the new school year. We have some great content to get you excited to get back into the classroom. As I have just moved out of state, this will sadly be my last edition as the newsletter editor. I thank my fellow board members and all of the authors who I have had the pleasure of working with over the past two years for such a great experience. I will miss being on the MITESOL board, but will certainly follow along as a reader from here on out. And I want to welcome Kawther Mohammed aboard as the new editor for the upcoming spring issue -- Thanks for reading this issue of MITESOL Messages, and consider submitting to our next issue in February!
MITESOL News:
- President Updates
- Past President Updates
- Board Updates
- Advocacy and Policy Updates
- Adult Education Interest Section Updates
- Post-Secondary Interest Section Updates
- K-12 Interest Section Updates
Updates from the field:
- Why we built a super simple Lesson Planner (Ellii)
- Application of pronunciation and technology into the intensive listening class
- Deconstructing and disrupting: reimagining our teaching in the journey of decolonization
- Cultivating the Genius of K-12 Multilingual Learners Culturally Driven Classrooms
Call for Submissions -- MITESOL Journal
Don't miss the call for submissions for the MITESOL Journal at the very end of this issue!
MITESOL Conference 2023 Coming Up Soon!
If you're looking for some more high quality content in the form of a conference, attending the MITESOL conference is a must. This year, our theme is Culture, Creativity, and Connection. Register here: https://www.mitesol.org/cpages/2023-conference-home
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Your editor,
Kelsey DeCamillis
Past President Updates
My dearest MITESOL Friends and Colleagues,
Back in the summer of 2016, when I had just returned from several years teaching abroad and was about to embark on an M.A. TESOL journey, I received a listserv email from my soon-to-be graduate advisor. The subject line read something about professional development and networking, and when I opened it to find that the Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages were accepting applicants for a Newsletter Co-Editor position, I thought, “Why not?” Actually, my bachelor’s degree was in Journalism, so it seemed like the perfect combination of two passions, and I wasn’t sure yet whether I wanted to dive into the world of TESOL International… but Michigan TESOL seemed less intimidating. I applied. I was elected in.
That October, I attended my first ever MITESOL Conference. It was at the University of Michigan-Flint, with keynote address “The Power of Diversity in a Complex World” by the incomparable Diane Larsen-Freeman. It changed me; opened me up to so much more than just teaching. And I know now that none of us are just teachers. We’re also linguists, advocates, researchers, administrators, first responders, materials developers, workforce trainers, social workers, event planners, writers, financial advisors, policy drivers, graphic designers, translators, learners, and friends – we’re a community. And it is with great love of this community that I bid MITESOL a very fond farewell, for at the end of the 2023 Conference, I will transition out of Past President and off the MITESOL Board.
I leave the Board with a few parting gifts, though! When I put forth my name to be considered for President-Elect three years ago, I knew my presidential priorities would center around strengthening the infrastructure of the Board and deepening our connections to and among our members in the field. To those ends, I’m proud to reflect on the following:
The training sessions, video tutorials, and completion of the Board job descriptions, which taught me so much about what onboarding truly means;
The hard decisions made with our Conference Planning Committee and Treasurer for the 2022 Conference, which reduced the event from 1.5 days to a single day… but saved us money and helped our finances start on a better path;
The revision of our By-Laws, which was more than ten years overdue but absolutely showed me a thing or two about procedure;
The outreach to MACAE that led to brand new featured sessions on Adult Education at our annual conference, and a MACAE member on our Board, as well – by the way, Briana, Spencer and Meredith, we now have such strong connections with K-12 and Adult Education organizations, it might be time to up our game in the Post-Secondary world; and
The rebranding of our Interest Sections (previously “Special Interest Groups”) and discussions of relaunching the Membership Development Committee, which really is still just a brainstorm at this point but fills me with hope for the things our MITESOL membership will accomplish together in the future.
There are a lot of professional associations and conferences out there for educators, even specifically for educators of multilingual learners. I don’t know of any that are as membership- and community-oriented as MITESOL. Thank you. Thank you for being amazing, and for being such a definitive part of my life, and of one another’s lives.
I am legitimately tearing up here, so let me close this with a few announcements of celebration:
Congratulations and welcome to Meredith Bricker (incoming President-Elect), Carrie Machkouri (incoming Membership Coordinator), and Kawther Mohammed (incoming Newsletter Editor).
Farewell and best wishes for what’s next to Yevgeniya Pukalo (outgoing Membership Coordinator), Kelsey DeCamillis (outgoing Newsletter Editor), Sarah Trumble Springsteen (outgoing Webmaster), and Lisa Shin (outgoing Social Media Coordinator).
Congratulations and much love to Sharon Umlor on her promotion from Advocacy & Policy Interest Section Leader to Advocacy & Policy Coordinator. I can’t imagine anyone will be able to fill your shoes if you ever choose to retire from the Board. I can’t imagine anyone could have been a better partner to have at the TESOL Advocacy & Policy Summit, either.
Congratulations to member Dr. Zuzana Tomaš (Eastern Michigan University) on her nomination as this year’s MITESOL candidate for the TESOL Best of Affiliates session. Her 2022 Conference session on “Effective Pedagogy for Newcomers: Toward an Access-Asset Approach” was an attendee favorite.
Congratulations to members Dr. Michael Pasquale (Cornerstone University), Carly Vaitkevicius (Grand Valley State University), Dr. Ildiko Porter-Szucs (Eastern Michigan University), Barry DeCicco (Michigan State University), and again Dr. Zuzana Tomaš (Eastern Michigan University), all of whom have been selected by the MITESOL Board and IATEFL Poland Webinar Coordinator to lead presentations this November as a part of the IATEFL Poland Webinar Series – MITESOL Month!
To these and everyone else, I look forward to seeing you in October at Aquinas College. Stick around until the end of conference for the annual Business Meeting, and maybe I can talk you into running for a current or future position on the Board!
Jennifer Musser
Past President
Board Updates
- We are currently looking for a Webmaster and Social Media Coordinator. Please apply here: https://www.mitesol.org/cpages/board-vacancies
Jennifer Bashara
Secretary, MITESOL
Advocacy & Policy Updates
Hello MITESOL Advocates!
Please check out the A&P Interest section page on MITESOL website, which has updates and resources such as the 2023 MITESOL Advocacy Packet, TESOL U.S. federal policy priorities for the 118th Congress, and current campaigns you can use the Advocacy Action Center to advocate for!
Also, be on the lookout for upcoming dates for virtual evening meet-ups where interested members can collaborate together to determine needs, problems and projects specific to ESL and TESOL in advocacy and policy.
This year during our October conference, we have a space reserved for advocacy activity stations where attendees can learn how to use the TESOL Advocacy Action Center, participate in a phone bank or letter-writing campaign to local/state policymakers, complete activities on an Advocacy BINGO card, and participate in a jump-in roundtable with prompt cards to discuss advocacy issues. Can’t wait to see you!
What kind of advocacy issues are important to you? Feel free to email me at advocacy@mitesol.org
Sharon Umlor
Advocacy & Policy Coordinator
Adult Ed Interest Section Updates
Hello from the world of Adult Education!
This year has been busy and will continue through the year. In May, MITESOL hosted a workshop on the importance of financial literacy in adult education. Keylen Rubio from Southwest Economic Solutions presented parts of her curriculum and how critical financial education is for those who are new to American currency, banking and scams. With other presenters, in K-12 and the universities, we see this as a positive trend in the ESL curriculum.
In July, MITESOL also participated in the Newcomers Summit. Partnering with associations such (Michigan Association of Bilingual Education--MABE, Michigan Department of Education--MDE, and Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity--LEO) what a great day for gathering and learning about how to support new families who arrive in the United States and entering the K-12 system.
I have started a group chat with hot topics related to ESL in the adult education classroom. Please join me on Fridays at 2:00 p.m. The zoom is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88206851705?pwd=cDhVL3Ziekg5Qy9EQ1FBaVJhbTI2dz09&from=addon
MACAE (Michigan Adult, Community and Alternative Educators) Association is hosting an ESL workshop on November 17, 2023. This will be face to face and an all- day event! Location to be announced.
I hope to see all of you at the MITESOL conference on October 14th at Aquinas College. We are excited about this event we have great sessions and an excellent keynote speaker, Emily Francis, a nationally recognized ESL instructor. You can register at https://www.mitesol.org/cpages/2023-conference-home
Please contact me at kgoven@swsol.org if you have any questions or want to get involved.
Have a super year!
Karyn Goven
Adult Education IS Leader, MITESOL
Director of Workforce Development, Southwest Economic Solutions
Post-Secondary Interest Section Updates
Dear Post-Secondary Interest Section colleagues,
Happy summer! I hope you are enjoying the sun and taking some time to relax and decompress. The 2023 MITESOL Conference will be held on October 14, 2023, at Aquinas College, in Grand Rapids. I hope to see you there.
I would like to share a few interesting articles that you might want to add to your late summer reading list. The first one was published in September’s issue of the TESOL Journal, and it describes how to use a corpus of American English to teach collocations to ESL learners. The second article was also published in the same issue of the TESOL Journal, and it discusses issues of academic integrity in the age of artificial intelligence. The third, and last article that I would recommend, was published in June’s issue of TESOL Quarterly, and it is a study about the language socialization of international students in EAP and mainstream college classrooms. Here are the citations for these articles:
- Pham, Q. H. P. (2023). Using COCA to promote students' awareness and use of collocations with high mutual information scores. TESOL Journal, e706.
- Soltani, B., & Tran, L. (2023). Examining space, silence, and agency in language socialization of an international student in the EAP and mainstream courses. TESOL Quarterly, 57(2), 480-510.
- Yeo, M. A. (2023). Academic integrity in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) authoring apps. TESOL Journal, e716.
These next two articles are ones that I suggest you share with your post-secondary ESL students. One would be a great guide for international students who have not yet arrived in the United States, and the other describes how international students can apply for credit cards.
- 3 Steps International College Students Should Take Before Coming to Campus
- How international students can get a credit card
Thank you for reading! If you want us to feature a particular topic in our next newsletter, please let us know.
Virginia David
Post-Secondary IS Leader, MITESOL
post-secondary-sig@mitesol.org
Faculty Specialist & Coordinator of TESOL, Western Michigan University
K-12 Interest Section Updates
This past month there were two opportunities for professional growth in the K-12
Writing with Multilingual Learners
Out of state, in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin the Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services (WCEPS) in cooperation with WIDA presented a two day writing workshop for elementary students. The workshop centered around the work of Pamela Spycher and her work around the Teaching and Learning cycle. Around 50 English as a Second Language teachers, general education classroom teachers and program directors traveled to the conference from around the country.
The teaching and learning cycle consists of five stages; building the field, exploring the language of text types, jointly constructing texts, independently constructing texts and reflecting on one's own texts. The stages of the teaching and learning cycle have many similarities to the components of SIOP but are specific to writing.
Stage 1: Building the Field
In the first stage, Spycher (2017) states the focus is on “building deep content knowledge through language-rich experiences that involve a lot of discussion and exploration” (p. 12). During this time, students are exploring subject areas, such as topics in science, social studies, math or literature, through activities like field trips, reviewing videos, gallery walks, research projects, socratic seminars or any other activity where students are immersed in the subject area. These are vocabulary-rich tasks that are supported with images and activities that support the student in understanding and eventually obtaining ownership of the vocabulary. This is a great opportunity for word walls so that during discussions the students can reference and use the appropriate words.
Stage 2: Exploring the Language of Text Types
The second stage consists of diving into the mentor texts to find language that is used to discuss the topic. Spycher (2017) states, “this is an opportunity for teachers to highlight and amplify the purpose, overall structure, and particular language features of the text” (p. 13). Students read through the mentor texts in groups or with a teacher to identify the language used for different genres of texts and for different purposes such as descriptions, arguments or narration.This will include discussion of verbs that can be used as well as how to expand sentences further. This is also when teachers and students discuss how the audience will affect the language that is used. This is a great opportunity for students and teachers to create an anchor chart that can be used when writing or during discussions.
Stage 3: Jointly Constructing Text
The third stage is an opportunity for discussion while creating a text with the students. The text may be an introduction or an identified paragraph within the required text. During this time the teacher will coach the students by asking questions and indicating the anchor chart and vocabulary when students struggle. The teacher can use this time to expand on information and to assess student knowledge.
Stage 4: Independently Constructing Texts
The fourth stage is where students work independently to write the assigned targeted text. This may be independent, with a classmate or in a small group. The teacher should be circulating among the students, providing assistance where it is needed. The independent construction is a part of the learning process and should be used as an opportunity to further student knowledge and understanding.
Stage 5: Reflecting on One's Own Texts
The fifth and final stage of the teaching and learning cycle is reflecting on one’s own texts. Spycher (2017) states “students should have an opportunity to reflect on their own writing and to receive feedback on it, as well as to provide to other writers, as this is how all writers grow.” (p. 20)
Spycher, P. (2017, September). Scaffolding writing through the. WestEd. https://www.wested.org/resources/scaffolding-writing-through-the-teaching-and-learning-cycle/
Newcomer Summit 2023
In Lansing, Michigan, several of the associations dedicated to the education of English Learners Michigan Association of Bilingual Education (MABE), Michigan Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MITESOL), Michigan Department of Education (MDE) and Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO), worked together to provide the Newcomer Summit. This summit is dedicated to providing information that will help students and their families receive the services they need.
Jo Napolitano, the keynote speaker who began the Newcomer Summit, shared some of the stories from her book The School I Deserve: Six Young Refugees and Their Fight for Equality in Trump's America (2022). The hall was quiet as they listened to the struggles and triumphs of each refugee, including the author's own personal story.
There were sessions on how to provide services in low incident districts, family engagement activities, strategies that can be used in the classroom and program evaluations. In the low incident session, it was suggested that materials boxes should be prepared for classrooms that can support students in the curriculum. The strategy sessions provided technology support for commonly used curriculum across the state, as well as different points of view on student knowledge. A realization made by one of the attendees, a 6th grade science teacher, was that students can read in one language and respond in another.
It was wonderful to see administration attend the conference along with the English Learner Program staff. It is encouraged that more administration and core curriculum teachers attend conferences focused on English Learners.
Spycher, P. (2017, September). Scaffolding writing through the. WestEd. https://www.wested.org/resources/scaffolding-writing-through-the-teaching-and-learning-cycle/
K12 IS Leader
Why We Built a Super Simple Lesson Planner
By Ben Buckwold, Founder & CEO at Ellii, ben@ellii.com
There are countless ways for a language teacher to be a great teacher, but there are a few fundamentals that should always be considered necessary. One of those fundamentals is planning. When you take the time to plan (whether planning your next lesson or planning your whole term), you inevitably set yourself and your students up for success. Planning should never feel like a burden. It should come naturally, and it should be an enjoyable part of teaching.
When I was doing my CELTA certificate at International House in London back in 1996, one of the first things they taught us was the importance of writing lesson plans and how to write them successfully. They taught us to always start with a simple aim or objective for the lesson, such as “What am I trying to accomplish with this lesson, and what do I expect the outcome will be for my students?” That aim, pasted clearly at the top of your lesson plan, helps guide you as you begin to write it out. Each time you think of an activity to include in your plan, the aim at the top makes you carefully consider whether the activity has any business being in that lesson.
By planning each class you teach—starting with the aim, writing out the related activities, and estimating how long each will take—you will walk into every class feeling prepared and confident. Now you’ve got a roadmap for every minute of that class, and you’ll rarely find yourself scrambling to fill or kill time. Planning each and every class you teach simply helps you be a better teacher.
Similarly, taking the time to set an aim or objective for your whole term helps you determine what to teach and when to teach it. When you have an overall objective for your course, it makes it that much easier to plan each new lesson.
When we launched Ellii (originally known as ESL Library) back in 2002, the intention was to take a lot of the planning burden off the plate of busy English teachers when they didn’t have time to develop their own materials and lessons. But “burden” is the wrong choice of word. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Planning every lesson (even if it’s just jotting down a simple timeline of what you will do in class that day) inevitably helps you reflect on the needs of your students and deliver a smoother, more meaningful class.
In the spirit of helping teachers plan better (and enjoy the process of planning), we recently built a new tool called Lesson Planner and embedded it inside of every class that you create at Ellii. Our goal was to create a tool that makes the process of planning your course or semester effortless, enjoyable, and fun.
The Lesson Planner tool is set up as a Kanban board with three lanes: Prepping, Teaching, and Taught. The board gives you a bird’s eye view of everything you’ve taught in the past, everything you’re working on with your class at the moment, and everything you plan to do with them next. And because it’s set up in a Kanban style, it’s super simple to move things around and adapt your plan as the term progresses.
Here’s how it works. When you find a ready-made lesson on Ellii that you think your students could benefit from, you add it to your class and put it in your Prepping or Teaching lane. The items can be dragged up and down so you can easily adjust the order that you want to assign something in.
None of the items that you put into your Prepping lane are visible to your students. You use this lane to set up a sequential, itemized list of lessons you plan to teach soon. If you change your mind about the order of what to teach and when, simply drag a lesson up or down to change the priority.
When you’re ready to assign something to your students (either as homework or as an in-class assignment), you drag the lesson from your Prepping lane to your Teaching lane. The moment you drop the lesson into the Teaching lane, your students have instant access to it as an assignment. You can click on the lesson item to add notes and due dates for your students, or to copy a tokenized link to paste into your LMS. Anything you put in your Teaching lane is automatically visible to your students and is clearly displayed on their class landing page.
Then, when you’re finished working on a particular lesson with your students, just drag it to your Taught lane to get it out of the way. Your students still have access to anything in your Taught lane, but those items are out of the way so students can stay focused on the current assignments.
Since releasing this new planning tool, we’ve heard from countless teachers writing to us about the joy they now take in planning and administering their courses. As of May 2023, more than 10,000 new classes have been created using our Lesson Planner. We’re thrilled to hear how many teachers are enjoying the process of planning, and we look forward to building many more simple and delightful tools for language teachers.
Here’s a look at how it works in more detail: https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-elliis-lesson-planner
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After teaching English and developing curriculum in Tokyo, Japan, for five years, Ben launched Ellii (formerly known as ESL Library) in 2002. Ellii is a subscription-based resource site providing easy access to highly engaging, relevant content for English teachers. Over the past 20 years, Ben has held the position of CEO at Ellii and has helped build the company into one of the world's leading ELT content platforms. Today, Ellii is used in more than 10,000 schools worldwide.
Application of pronunciation and technology into the intensive listening class
Researchers have shown the correlation between learning pronunciation and the listening skill, that learning pronunciation would have a positive effect on learners’ capability to listen and understand English. In this article, I would like to share a method of applying pronunciation in listening classes. Students are expected to know about the IPA (International Phonetics Alphabet) and word stress to apply this technique.
Combined with new technology, in an intensive listening class – where students can listen to a recording for many times to learn all aspects of the listening tasks (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc.) this method has proved to be effective to learners in dealing with keywords they fail to decode while listening.
The method is effectively applied as homework, when students have internet connection, an internet-connected cellphone for voice recognition, and a listening task posted on an internet platform like YouTube, so they can listen to the homework at their own pace.
This method consists of 3 steps.
Step 1: Listen and write down the IPA
When students fail to identify a keyword, they are asked to listen to identify:
The number of syllables
Word stress
And the sounds of the word.
Because the homework is online and asynchronous, students can replay and slow down the speed as they wish, and try to hear the sounds as accurately as possible in order to write down the IPA of the unknown word.
Students should be capable of identifying out and writing down the sounds in the form of IPA before the listening class.
The implication of asking students to write down the IPA are:
Students have to focus on what they hear to identify exactly what sounds they have heard in the word/phrase. This prevents students from making “assumptions” and guessing the word regardless of the sounds they hear. For example, if they hear the word “fist”, it must be the /st/ sound at the end, instead of “fish” which has the “sh” consonant.
Later on, if the students fail to identify the word, they can look at the transcript provided, and figure out where they have mis-listened and draw an experience for the future.
Step 2: Reading the IPA to the speech-to-text application
Once the students have written down the IPA, they are requested to read the IPA to “speech-to-text application”.
- “Speech to text is a speech recognition software that enables the recognition and translation of spoken language into text through computational linguistics.” (Amazon.com)
This application can be found in any smartphone texting application now, both on Android and ioS operating systems. This application allows people to read to the phone and the AI will transcribe it to the written text form.
If the students have heard the sounds of the word correctly and successfully identify the sounds, most of the time, when they read to the speech-to-text, the text will show - provided they pronounce the IPA correctly.
But it has to be noted that listening to connected speech is a challenging feat to most EFL students because “words spoken in context (in connected speech) often sound quite different from those same words when they are spoken in isolation” (Alameen & Levis, 2015). So, it would be risky and ineffective to teach students to just rely on the sounds that they’ve heard.
Even though students have learned about sounds reduction, omission, liaison, and connection, they are likely to get confused when dealing with words in connected speech. Therefore, students are encouraged to figure out a keyword based on all 3 aspects:
In terms of pronunciation, they’ve got to answer the questions of: how many keywords they’ve heard; what are the number of syllables; what is the stressed syllable; what are the beginning or final sounds. Then they can write down the IPA.
In terms of grammar, once they match the sound with a keyword, they have to make sure that the grammar is correct.
In terms of meaning, does the word make sense in the whole sentence, or context of the recording?
So, in the bigger picture, pronunciation is one important tool that students can use to help themself figure out the keywords that they have difficulty with.
Afterwards, students can match the word into the context of the listening to find out if the decoding process has been successful. Grammar and context would help students solidify their belief in the answer.
Sometimes, students might find a new word after reading to the “speech-to-text”, they can then google the meaning of the word they found to see if it’s both grammatically correct and meaningful. Now, with the online dictionaries and google, students can simply type the new word + “meaning”, they can learn the new words at ease.
Because they have figured out the word all by themselves, they tend to remember the words a lot longer than compared to the traditional script-reading methods.
When students can’t find the word, it’s mostly because they have either misheard the sound, reduction, elision, or linking sounds where one sound might be assimilated by others.
Whether they succeed or fail in decoding the difficult words, students will learn and accumulate listening experience in the future and gain confidence in listening.
This activity connects the listening - pronunciation - speaking skills of the students.
Step 3: Compare the IPA with transcript
After students have made all efforts to identify the word they couldn’t hear, they can see the transcript. If they have correctly identified the words by listening to IPA and reading the speech-to-text, it can be concluded that their ability to hear the sounds/syllables is good, and they have learnt a great deal on the way.
If they have failed to identify the word, the IPA that they have noted down is also very important because it’s the proof of what students have heard before they have the transcript.
A lot of the time, the feelings we have with the sounds we’ve heard are totally different before and after we know the transcript. By looking back at what students have heard before transcript, they can reflect on their own listening experience better.
The reflection are then noted down by students, stating the problems they had faced, such as:
They misheard the sounds or syllables of the word;
They fail to listen to the “reduction” or “unstressed” part of a word or a phrase;
They heard the sounds correctly and knew the word in written form, but fail to match because of mispronunciation;
They couldn’t figure out the word or chunk of words because of the linking sounds or connected speech, or;
They heard the sounds correctly, but matched it to a different word with the wrong meaning.
Below is an example of a student's report on the initial IPA that she heard from the recording. The four columns are:
(1) The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet): is written down at the time of listening (before having the transcript)
(2) the wrong words: are the best guess of the student at the time of listening, provided she has followed all the steps above;
(3) the correct word: are the words she learnt from the transcript, and;
(4) the reason she couldn’t hear the word.
By looking at the report, the instructor can “hear” what the student has heard, see her effort in guessing, and her ability to identify the problem in listening, thus giving feedback to her for the following tasks.
For example, in the 1st line, the IPA was /ˈværɪs/. Had the students tried to read to the speech-to-text, the word she found could have been “varies” - or perhaps she had tried, but found the word unmatched to the context. So, in the second column of “the wrong word”, she wrote “don’t know.” The keyword was “various” which is a 3-syllable-word, so if the student had correctly reflected, she would have written “miss one /ə/ syllable” - instead, she claimed “mispronunciation” on the 4th column.
This is what the teacher can further help with the student's listening ability. By looking at the report of the student, a teacher can quickly pinpoint her problem and show her where she had done incorrectly, thus help her master the technique for the next time listening. This is an important implication of the method, because most of the time, the teacher does not know why a student comes up with a wrong keyword when listening.
Coming back to the student’s report of the words she misheard, some reasons she mentions for failing to catch the keywords are: mispronunciation, new words, failing to catch a sound, mishearing a sound, connected speech, and a combination of the reasons.
CONCLUSION
Pronunciation with the help of technology has become an effective tool to both teachers and students in terms of training intensive listening skill. Of course, teachers can replace the IPA with any other phonetic transcription that is familiar to both the teacher and her students. This method helps students to self-study and help the teacher to know exactly what her students hear when they listen, and thus figure out the best solution to each student.
References:
Ghinwa Alameen, John M. Levis, (2015) The handbook of English pronunciation, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118346952
What is speech to text. Amazon. https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/speech-to-text
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- Quang X. Nguyen
- English teacher at MoonESL, Hanoi, Vietnam
- quang782@gmail.com
Deconstructing and disrupting: reimagining our teaching in the journey of decolonization
By Trisha Dowling
Our field (ESL/EAP/EAL/EFL/TESOL) is based on international or multilingual speakers of English being linguistic and cultural outsiders with goals of becoming part of the English language and academic cultural community. Kachru (1985) describes global speakers of English in three concentric circles: inner, outer, and expanding. This description of English language learners perpetuates the idea of our students as “incomplete” people on the outside of these communities, with a final goal of becoming a part of the inner circle.
Defining Colonialism and Decolonization
Colonialism is defined as a practice of attaining control, occupying, and exploiting another country. English, as it is taught as an international language, is a colonizing force. It is a billion dollar industry and learning English is seen as an opportunity booster. English language learning and teaching has occupied the global curriculum and one would be hard pressed to find a country that the language has not exploited in some way. As Wane (2006) states: “Embracing another person’s language” is “the highest form of colonization” (p. 95). Though for the majority of international students studying in the United States, English is not an official language in their country, the colonization or diminishing of self may occur in different ways.
The role of colonialism in language teaching is both implicit and explicit. Many have reviewed this topic (Hsu, 2017 does so extensively). Though few ESL or EFL educators would like to admit this reality, the fact is that whatever our reason is for pursuing a career in teaching international speakers of English, the end result is ultimately one of normalization (Chua, 2008) wherein the individuals, in this case, English language students, are expected to “conform to dominant standards and practices and leading values and ideas, which in turn affect individual and group identities and practices” (p. 1184). The global justification for learning or teaching English is to open up opportunities for success, the definition of which inherently conforms to the western idea of success: increased potential of capital.
Decolonizing means divesting from [White] colonial power (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018). It is also an on-going and un-ending process; a collective journey and one that has not yet arrived (Dei, 2016). Keeping the word “collective” in mind, decolonization requires an “epistemic community” to develop and nurture hope, dreams, and aspirations and to transmit the energy for this work (Dei, 2016). In a field like TESOL, decolonization feels even more impossible as the basis of the field is in language, colonialism, and maintenance of power. However, from my perspective, the steps along the way on the journey to decolonialism are 1) deconstructing the impact of colonialism generally and the white gaze specifically on EAP, ultimately 2) disrupting the colonial systems that exist.
Deconstructing & Disrupting the Field
In this section, I will provide four areas of focus to begin the process of deconstructing and disrupting our field to work towards decolonization. Then, I will share two potential actions that can be implemented to assist in this process.
Ways to deconstruct and disrupt:
1. Through awareness raising and reflection:
- Whose language is being taught?
- What is perpetuated through the teaching of this language?
- Who is prioritized/qualified to teach this language?
2. Through Deconstruction of hidden assumptions; unsettling/unlearning/disrupting those assumptions
- Acknowledge historical, political, economic impacts of ELT
- Understand that ELT “has a significant role in perpetuating the normalization of whiteness and the compartmentalization of Othered cultures. This terrain of ignorance is not so innocent, as it has built systems of patriarchy and white supremacy” (Brady, 2017, p. 117).
- Ending the separation of student from person and language from systems
3. Through Deconstructing & Disrupting our Teaching
- Utilize a pedagogy of care; centering the human being above all else
- See students as complete people who do not need to speak “standard” English or have access to the privileged culture of whiteness in academia to contribute to academia.
- Cammarota and Romero (2006) suggest reciprocal connections with students on an emotional level so that they feel more acknowledged as individuals.
4. Through Decolonizing the Materials Utilized
- Ensuring that students are appropriately represented in the subject matter
- The hidden curriculum and representation in materials and policy significantly impact minorities (Smith, 1999).
The Western education system lacks representation of women or racialized people, many students do not see themselves in materials. Hall’s (1997) work provides detail of the importance of representation in media, and this can be translated into representation of diverse people in course materials and curriculum.
Potential Action: Adopt a Positionality Statement
A positionality statement provides transparency between a researcher, a reader, and everyone involved in a research project. It is a reflection of the position that the researcher has when conducting and analyzing their work. Positionality is impacted by, but not limited to, an individual’s worldview, background and upbringing, politics, social or economic status, assumptions, interactions, religion, sexuality, location, and race.
While positionality is incredibly valuable in research, I argue that there is a place for it in our transparent teaching as well. Creating a more equitable and inclusive classroom starts with transparency in curriculum, materials, course objectives, and evaluations (McNair, Bensimon, Malcom-Piqueux, 2020). The next layer we can add to that transparency is including our positionality on the syllabus or at the beginning of class. Even if you are not comfortable sharing your positionality with your students, being aware of your positionality as an educator and as a learner will help you deconstruct and disrupt your teaching on the journey to decolonization.
Potential Action: Ongoing Reflection
We often ask students to reflect. But how often are we reflecting on our own teaching? This is integral to the journey of decolonization as it is a never-ending process of learning and unlearning.
“Self-reflection and a reflexive approach are both a necessary prerequisite and an ongoing process for the researcher to be able to identify, construct, critique, and articulate their positionality. Simply stated, reflexivity is the concept that researchers should acknowledge and disclose their selves in their research, seeking to understand their part in it, or influence on it (Cohen et al., 2011). Reflexivity informs positionality” (Holmes, 2020).
Through this reflection process, ask yourself: if a door is open for you, why are you the person occupying this space and what you are doing with the space. Keep in mind that raising consciousness on issues in our field and our classroom is important, but consciousness must then be followed by action.
TESOL is shaped by a colonial and capitalist past, which in many ways informs its present. As educators with a social justice mindset, we must constantly go through the difficult process of learning and unlearning. Deconstructing the field requires a series of steps and it is only through fundamentally deconstructing and disrupting what we know that we can work towards decolonization to create a classroom that is inclusive and representative of all students.
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References
- Brady, J. (2017). Education for Whom?: Exploring Systems of Oppression and Domination. Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education Vol. 8(1),116 - 126.
- Cammarota, J.J., & Romero, A.F. (2006). A critically compassionate intellectualism for Latina/o students: Raising voices above the silencing in our schools. Multicultural Education, 14, 16-23.
- Chua, P. (2008). Orientalism as Cultural Practices and the Production of Sociological Knowledge. Sociology Compass, 2, 1179-1191.
- Cohen, L. et al. (2011) Research Methods in Education, Routledge.
- Dei, G. (2016). Decolonizing the university: The challenges and possibilities of inclusive education. Socialist Studies/Études Socialistes, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.18740/s4ww31
- Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (Vol. 2). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
- Holmes, A. (2020). Researcher Positionality - A Consideration of Its Influence and Place in Qualitative Research - A New Researcher Guide. Shanlax International Journal of Education. 8. 1-10. 10.34293/education.v8i4.3232.
- Hsu, F. (2017). Resisting the Coloniality of English: A Research Review of Strategies. The CATESOL Journal, 29, 111-132.
- Kachru, B.B. (1985) “Standard, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle,” in R. Quirk and H. Widdowson (eds) English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 11–30.
- McNair, T. B., Bensimon, E. M., & Malcom-Piqueux, L. E. (2020). From equity talk to equity walk: Expanding practitioner knowledge for racial justice in higher education.
- Mignolo, W. D., & Walsh, C. E. (2018). On decoloniality: Concepts, analytics, praxis. Duke University Press.
- Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. London: Zed Books.
- Wane, N. N. (2006). Is decolonization possible? In G. J. S. Dei & A. Kempf (Eds.), Anticolonialism and education: The politics of resistance (pp. 87–106). Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Cultivating the Genius of K-12 Multilingual Learners Culturally Driven Classrooms
By Christy Osborne - English Language Development (ELD) Consultant, Oakland Schools ISD
Oakland Schools ISD
“Educators need to move toward cultivating the genius that already lies within students and teachers. Genius is the brilliance, intellect, ability, cleverness and artistry that have been flowing through minds and spirits across the generations. We must start their stories and identities with their excellence (Muhammad, 2020).”
This powerful quote from Dr. Gholdy Muhammad affirms the beliefs that guide the advocacy of the incredible EL educators I’ve had the honor of working alongside: Our students come to us not only whole and ready to learn, but carrying the brilliance of their culture and history across the generations. Inviting the cultures, languages and experiences of our multilingual learners into our school communities is a powerful, and essential practice that amplifies learning for all students. As educators of multilingual learners, we are often the “storytellers” in our communities, illuminating the assets of our students so they can be better served. How are we empowering our MLLs to recognize their own brilliance to bring their voices and stories into our classrooms? And, how are we equipping leaders and educators to create learning environments that reflect and honor the genius of our multilingual learners?
Equitable practices often require mindset shifts: Our multilingual learners CAN and WILL succeed, when educators recognize and honor their layered identities while providing supported, grade level content. This requires more from educators than cultural responsiveness. It requires us to create space for students’ whole selves at the center of culturally driven instruction. Culturally and linguistically responsive practices are often viewed as separate, but EL educators know that they are the foundation of what we do. We CAN teach rich content and WIDA aligned standards, while honoring the heritage of multilingual learners in our curriculum.
The need to support school communities in developing this mindset was a driving factor behind my partnership with Kristi Metz, EL Instructional Specialist & Program Coordinator in the Berkley School District. As an ELD (English Language Development) consultant for Oakland Schools ISD, I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to work alongside district leaders such as Kristi to share impactful practices in our county. Kristi intentionally designs her classroom and curriculum to reflect the culture and background of her MLLs, and collaborates with her district to grow equitable systems and practices. At the county level, our ELD team has been implementing a multi-year goal of expanding opportunities for ELD and general education teachers to engage in collaborative practices (co-planning, co-teaching, co-reflecting and co-assessing) with the WIDA ELD standards as a foundation. Kristi and I were inspired to design a project that would bring our district and county focus together to both impact students and provide learning for educators and leaders. We collaboratively planned and taught a K-8 unit for her multilingual learners, and facilitated a session at the 2022 MITESOL conference to share our work: “Cultivating the Genius of K-12 Multilingual Learners in Culturally Driven Classrooms.” Please visit links below this article for foundational resources we used with students and in our MITESOL workshop.
Utilizing Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s “Culturally and Historically Responsive Equity Framework,” our unit was designed to center the identities of multilingual learners, while also building academic language, skills and content knowledge. Though our identity unit could pair with any of WIDA’s Key Language Uses, we decided to focus on “Narrate” in order to pair with the current ELA CCSS of focus in their classrooms. We integrated scaffolds for students to develop the language needed to express their identities, tell their stories, and successfully meet content and language standards. Please visit the links at the bottom of this article to explore session resources and learn about Dr. Muhammad’s impactful framework.
As preparation for the unit, students explored a variety of texts that reflected characters and communities similar to and different than their own, and began to consider the question: “Who are you?” They designed identity maps that they added to throughout the unit, engaging in inquiry around guiding questions: “Who are you on the inside? Who are you on the outside? Who and what surrounds you? What are your interests and hobbies?” Throughout text exploration, we provided sentence frames and vocabulary to describe characters and settings, using thinkalouds to notice and name diverse traits and characteristics.
Students lit up when they noticed themselves reflected in characters and communities, and this led to rich discussions with peers about their families, communities, cultures, languages and values. Throughout the unit, their confidence grew as they shared stories and insights with multilingual and classroom peers. Students engaged in translanguaging without prompting, sharing their home language as they engaged in the task. Upon seeing an illustration of a woman wearing a hijab, one first grade student shared that her mother wears a hijab, using her home language to name similarities and differences in the illustrations. What began as a project for MLLs soon expanded to the whole school, as the excitement spread to first grade classrooms and then continued expanding to middle school. Kristi taught the same lessons in several classrooms, allowing her multilingual learners to share their identities, while stepping into expert roles.
All students were enthusiastic and motivated throughout the project, and successful in achieving content and language objectives. Kristi and I were excited to share this experience at our MITESOL session, utilizing the same impactful strategies. Teachers often get almost as excited as students when surrounded by authentic, diverse texts, and we placed a great collection around the room for them to enjoy. Dr. Muhammad reminds us that “before educators begin to teach students to know themselves and others, teachers must do their own self-work.” We had participants create identity maps to explore their own assets and identities. To model visual, expressive and interpretive scaffolds, participants had the flexibility of representing themselves through illustrations, sketch notes, diagrams or word clouds. They partnered with others to discuss maps using discourse frames that paired with WIDA’s Key Language Uses.
Our workshop was built around the inquiry questions: How can we plan with equity at the CORE of the WIDA ELD Framework? How might I lift the cultures, languages and assets of my students to learn about themselves, others, and the world? There are rich connections between Dr. Muhammad’s Equity Framework and the 2020 WIDA ELD Standards, as honoring and leveraging MLL assets is at the foundation of WIDA’s philosophy. The Guiding Principles of Language Development is a powerful resource to illuminate cultural, linguistic, experiential and social emotional assets with educators and families (WIDA, 2020). After an overview of these foundational resources, Kristi and I modeled the lessons we co-taught with students. Finally, participants engaged in collaborative lesson planning with a variety of diverse texts, brainstorming connections with identity, content, skills and language development.
Designing and sharing this project was a highlight of the 23/24 school year. The insights and ideas our EL community shared at the MITESOL conference truly inspired Kristi and I to continue this work and deepen our collaboration. A huge THANK YOU to MITESOL for this opportunity, and the hard work their team puts in to organize this impactful conference. And, I am grateful for every EL educator who, like Kristi Metz, leads, teaches and advocates for our multilingual community.
Resources from our project or session, here are some resources to explore.
MITESOL Session Resources (includes lesson plan examples and links)
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References
- Muhammad, Gholdy (2020). Cultivating genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. Scholastic, Inc.
- WIDA (2020). Illustrated Guiding Principles of Language Development. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
- WIDA (2020). WIDA English language development standards framework, 2020 edition: Kindergarten–grade 12. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
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Christy Osborne is an ELD Consultant at Oakland Schools Intermediate School District. She provides Title III/ ESL/integrated continuous improvement consultation, coaching, and professional development for educators and administrators. She earned her Master’s degree in Linguistics with TESOL endorsement at Oakland University. Christy has developed and led numerous workshops and resources on best practices in educating and serving multilingual learners, developing equitable practices, wellbeing, and culturally responsive teaching.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! MITESOL Journal
MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL is a refereed, academic journal that is disseminated online via ScholarWorks. Its mission is to promote excellence in TESOL education and teacher development. We are seeking articles that focus on:
Original research that you have conducted
Issues in the field of TESOL
Theoretically-grounded discussions of teaching methods and pedagogy
Research-based program descriptions
Books and materials reviews.
We seek both experienced and novice authors. While MITESOL Journal is a double-blind peer reviewed journal, it is also a mentoring journal. Editors will work with authors of accepted manuscripts until they are ready for publication. Authors do not need to be members of MITESOL to submit.
For submission guidelines and current articles: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mitesol/
Have questions? Please contact:
Katie Coleman
Submissions Editor
Enjoy the remaining summer days, and have a great start to the school year!
Kelsey DeCamillis
Editor, MITESOL Messages