SLT 202 - Concepts and Issues in SLT

COURSE DESCRIPTION

SLT 202B Concepts and Issue in SLT – Language Skills continues the exploration of classroom-based language development. SLT 202B students begin the course by exploring language skills from various perspectives and investigating the different ways that research and experts view instruction of language skills in various classroom settings. SLT 202B students also explore the relationship between pedagogy and language skills development and compile a portfolio of strategies for helping learners develop language skills.

This course consists of lectures, group discussions, student participation, readings, research, field trips, internet enhancement, a major course project and report, and other class activities.

SLT 202B Concepts and Issue in SLT – Language Skills is an elective course in the A.A. curriculum and a required course in the A.S. degree for Educational Paraprofessionals with an emphasis in SLT. SLT 202B is designed to help students integrate content with language teaching. Students explore different kinds of curricula and evaluate their effectiveness based on the needs of language learners and the goals of their institutions. The students examine activities and materials appropriate for developing language skills in specific content areas, such as language arts, mathematics and social studies. In addition, SLT 202B helps future educators develop the skills necessary to develop activities, materials and lesson plans appropriate for facilitating language development in a particular classroom setting.

COURSE OBJECTIVES/ COMPETENCIES

• Upon successful completion of SLT 202B Concepts and Issue in SLT – Language Skills, the student should be able to:
• Describe language skills from various perspectives
• Discuss concepts and issues associated with the instruction of language skills in various classroom settings
• Create and implement lesson plans, activities, and materials that are appropriate for developing language skills in various classroom settings
• Compile a teaching strategies portfolio that contains lesson plans, activities, and materials for developing language skills in various classroom settings

General Education and Relationship to other Courses

This course supports the following college competency areas:

• Computation and communication abilities
• Problem-solving and decision-making abilities
• Career choices and life-long learning
• Study in a selected program

This course also supports the following Associate in Arts degree SLOs:

• Make effective decisions with intellectual integrity to solve problems and/or achieve goals utilizing the skills of critical thinking, creative thinking, information literacy, and quantitative/symbolic reasoning.
• Ethically, compose, convey, and interpret varied perspectives with respect to an intended audience using visual, oral, written, social, and other forms of communication.
• Evaluate one's own ethics and traditions in relation to those of other peoples and embrace the diversity of human experience while actively engaging in local, regional, and other forms of communication.
• Explore and synthesize knowledge, attitudes, and skills from a variety of cultural and academic perspectives to enhance our local and global communities.

This course also satisfies the following Associate in Science degree competencies:

• Employ skills and understanding in language and mathematics essential to fulfill program requirements.
• Understand attitudes and values of various cultures and examine their potential for improving the quality of life and meaningfulness in work.
• Understand contemporary issues and problems and respond to the impact of current conditions.
• Demonstrate proficiency in conceptual, analytical, and critical modes of thinking.
• Develop insights into human experience and apply them to personal, occupational, and social relationships.
• Recognize relevance of career choices to life-long learning.
• Demonstrate competence in a selected program of study.

SLT 202B Concepts and Issue in SLT – Language Skills supports the following SLOs for A.S. degree for Educational Paraprofessionals with an emphasis in SLT:

• Use informed decision making to function effectively in the classroom, school, local, and professional communities.
• Use communication skills to work effectively with students, their families, school administrators, teachers, staff, and other related personnel.
• Use instructional and behavioral management strategies to facilitate a positive learning environment for students.
• Demonstrate professionalism and ethical practices in the classroom, school, local, and professional communities.
• Demonstrate knowledge and skills specific to the instruction and support of ELL students in a variety of settings.
• Demonstrate an ability to effectively facilitate the language development of students based on individual language needs.

SLT 202B Concepts and Issue in SLT – Language Skills satisfies one Diversification Humanities (DH) requirement.

COURSE TEXTS

Diaz-Rica, Lynne T. 2012. A course for teaching English learners, Second Edition. Boston: Pearson. ISBN 0-13-249035-8

Wharton, Jennifer. 2009. Academic encounters: The natural world: Reading, study skills, writing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-521-71516-4

Boardman, Cynthia A. & Frydenberg, Jia. 2008. Writing to communicate 2: Paragraphs and essays, 3rd Edition. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0132351164

Raimes, Ann. 2010. Pocket keys for writers, Third Edition. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. ISBN: 978-0-547-15294-3

Kanaoka, Yoneko. 2009. Academic listening encounters: The natural world: Listening, note taking, discussion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-521-71639-0

Nilsen, Don L. F. & Nilsen, Alleen Pace. 2010. Pronunciation contrasts in English, Second Edition. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. ISBN: 978-1-57766-641-7

Raimes, Ann. 2004. Grammar troublespots: A guide for student writers, Third Edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0-521-53286-8

Baugh, L. Sue. 2005. Essentials of English grammar, Third Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 978-0-07-145708-8

Folse, Keith S. 2004. Vocabulary myths: Applying second language research to classroom teaching. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. ISBN: 0-472-03029-9

Zimmerman, Cheryl Boyd. 2009. Word knowledge: A vocabulary teacher’s handbook. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-470393-2

Additional materials as supplied by the teacher.

COURSE TOPICS:

➢ Linguistic competence

➢ Pedagogy

➢ Purposefulness

➢ Language skills

➢ Student variation/ Socio-political awareness

➢ Integrated skills instruction

➢ Teaching portfolio

COURSE CONTENT

Linguistic competence

Issues:

• How can we best develop CALP in a L2 class setting?
• How can we best develop BICS in a L2 class setting?

Skill:

• To facilitate L2 development in an academic context

Pedagogy

Issue:

• Which instructional practices best fit a teacher’s theories of learning and teaching, personal instructional style, and instructional setting?

Skill:

• To develop instructional practices that are appropriate for a teacher, given that teacher’s theories of learning and teaching, personal instructional style, and instructional setting

Grammar

Issues:

• What is the state of the art of grammar acquisition in the L2 class setting?
• What grammar should be taught and how do we facilitate instruction?
• What is the function of grammar development in L2 learning?
• How do we best teach grammar in context?
• What are some important variations in grammar use?

Skill:

• To facilitate grammar development

Vocabulary

Issues:

• What is the state of the art of vocabulary study in the L2 class setting?
• What are current trends in teaching vocabulary?
• How can corpus theory be utilized to facilitate vocabulary development?
• How is vocabulary learned (epistomological approach)?
• What is the link between grammar and vocabulary (collocations) and how can this link best be taught?

Skill:

• To facilitate vocabulary development

Reading

Issues:

• What is the state of the art of reading in language development and the use of reading in the L2 class?
• What are Learning to Read and Reading to Learn?
• What is comprehension?
• What is purposeful reading?

Skill:

• To facilitate reading development

Writing

Issues:

• What is the state of the art of writing instruction in the L2 class?
• What is Learning to Write and Writing to Learn?
• What is academic literacy?
• What is “good writing”?
• What are some major controversies in the teaching of writing?

Skill:

• To facilitate writing development

Aural understanding

Issues:

• What is the state of the art of the role of aural understanding in L2 learning and of “listening” instruction in the L2 class?
• What are differences between the aural understanding of discrete pieces of information and getting necessary information to complete a given task?
• What are current trends in the teaching of “listening” in the L2 class?
• What is comprehensible input and what is its role in L2 development?

Skill:

• To facilitate development of aural understanding

Pronunciation

Issues:

• What is the state of the art of the role of pronunciation in L2 learning and of “pronunciation” instruction in the L2 class?
• What are current trends in the teaching of “pronunication” in the L2 class?
• What is comprehensible output and what is its role in L2 development?

Skill:

• To facilitate development of pronunciation

Socio-political awareness in language teaching

Issues:

• What is the connection between L2 acquisition and identity formation?
• What is the connection between community languages and identity?
• What is bilingual/ bi-dialectal education?
• What is multiculturalism?
• What is sociolinguistic competence and the connections to descriptive and prescriptive linguistics?

Skill:

• To facilitate language development among diverse groups of students in a socio-politically appropriate manne

Teaching portfolio

Issue:

• How can a teaching portfolio be utilized to facilitate language development?

Skill:

• To develop a teaching portfolio for the purpose of facilitating language development

COURSE TASK

Create a portfolio of teaching strategies for addressing grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing and pronunciation in classes with diverse groups of students.

GRADING

The following procedure will be used to determine a student's grade in the course and the weighting of these items and their contribution towards the final course grade.

Letter grades will be assigned according to the scale described below:

90 - 100% = A

80 - 89% = B

70 - 79% = C

60 - 69% = D

less than 60% = F

Please note that a grade of lower than “B” in the field of Education is considered inadequate. After all, would you want a “C” teacher teaching your children?

ADDITIONAL COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Field Service requirement:

Because students are training to become future ESL educators, students will participate in mandatory field service while in this course. Field service can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including

• verified and approved employment during the course semester as a language tutor or teaching-assistant at Kapi‘olani Community College,
• verified and approved employment during the course semester as a language tutor, teaching-assistant or instructor in an educational setting outside of Kapi‘olani Community College, or
• completing 20 hours of service during the course semester in an approved Service-Learning education-pathway site, such as
  • Palolo Pipeline (Palolo Learning Center, Palolo Head Start, Palolo Elementary School, Jarrett Middle School, Kaimuki High School)
  • Waialae Japanese School
  • Queen Kaahumanu Elementary School’s ELL Program
  • Farrington High School’s ELL Program
  • Kaimuki and McKinley Community School for Adults
  • Project SHINE
  • Foreign-language courses at KapCC (Filipino, French, Hawaiian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish)
  • ESOL program courses at KapCC

Note: Because of the focus of the SLT program, field service must be completed in an educational setting where language teaching and learning is the goal of instruction.

Connection to Course

In each SLT course, students will complete a major course research project, including a final paper and poster presentation, which provides evidence that the students have engaged with, understood, and applied the course content. The field-service requirement provides a means through which SLT program students will be able to complete their research projects. Through their field service, SLT students will collect data by investigating issues, researching ideas, applying skills, testing hypotheses, and reflecting on experiences, which they will use to develop their course papers and posters. SLT students learn by discussing and doing: the SLT classroom is the discussion space; the field-service site is the doing space. Together, learning takes place.

SLT classroom + Field-service site = Learning

Support

Students are supported during their field service through the Laulima course site. Timely field-service information is posted in the Messages section of the course, based on the Timeline provided below. Field-service materials are posted in the Class Materials section of the course. And field-service reports are posted in the Discussion Board section of the course. In addition, regular updates about students’ field-service projects will be discussed in class.

During the first week of the semester, the course instructor will provide more information about the field service requirements, including paperwork from the Service-Learning office at Kapi‘olani Community College.

Field Service Timeline

Online class and email:

Students must be able to access and use our online course site located at http://laulima.hawaii.edu . Students will compile their course projects, access certain course materials, and complete certain course assignments on Laulima.

Students must use their hawaii.edu account or the Laulima mail tool for email communication to guarantee a response from the instructor. Students should expect an email reply within 24 hours. The instructor generally does not respond to email at night or on the weekends. Your understanding is appreciated.

Attendance policy:

Because this is a focused training course, students are expected to attend every class session and come to class prepared for classroom activities. Students are also expected to attend class observations and complete the service learning requirement as scheduled outside of class times.

CLASS SCHEDULE

SCHEDULE OF CONTENT/ TOPICS