Design

When designing a teaching plan, we look at the context, what methods should be implemented to teach, and how they should be conducted. Prior to the program, I had no experience or knowledge of how to professionally design a course based on the needs of my students or the context of the curriculum. These concepts are what my artifacts focus on when the concept of design is featured, and how they layer the foundation of my previous works. The design of segmental and suprasegmental features is important in structuring the tasks based on the communicative framework concept when it comes to pronunciation. Designing assignments and tasks in English will depend on if they are learning English as a second language or if they are learning English for a specific purpose, such as for academics or a profession. An instructor can include different forms of literacy from various genres of media to have their learners become engaged with the material and take an interest in the assignment by including a topic of personal interest. It is also beneficial for the design of learning specific areas of languages, such as pragmatics, where the context of a word indicates a specific meaning, is aided by the foundations of the Intercultural Pragmatic Interactional Competence measurements or the IPIC chart for short. In this reflection report on Design as part of the capstone project, I will introduce four artifacts, one each from LT 536, 538, 539, and 548.

 The artifacts from these courses reflect the concepts that I believe have significant value when it comes to the design of language courses and assignments, and what is necessary for designing content that is appropriate and accurate for the intended learners of that course.

It is important to have a concept in mind for what you would want to teach, and just as important to break down the methods for designing a course to work in that context. LT 548 was Curriculum and Materials Development, which had us design a curriculum for a language class or course and create materials, a syllabus, lesson plans, and an agenda towards what the needs of the students are and how to achieve them. My first artifact from LT 548 (Curriculum Design) is titled Curriculum Context, which explores the context for the curriculum that I had designed for my class Japanese: Culture, Film, and Animation. For this project, I had to create a curriculum that informs stakeholders about the information regarding student information and backgrounds, the nature of the course, the resources and settings required, and the constraints and affordances of the course that need to be addressed. This activity mirrors the intent of designing a course and having the knowledge and materials to go through each section and identify what would be necessary to have for the course. This artifact was one of the initial assignments for LT 548, which after polishing, has become an artifact that reflects the necessity for designing a language course with the intent to teach it. This experience of having to continuously polish and edit the context of my curriculum as we advanced through the course, learning new methods and concepts that would have us return to our previous assignments and revise them. Taking this course has helped play a crucial role in the ways I can design and develop a course or lesson and break down the initial requirements for designing a new curriculum.

When it came to teaching English pronunciation, I sought to focus on designing a lesson plan for suprasegmental features in an interactive and engaging way. LT 539 was Design for Learning Language Pronunciation, where we reviewed the English IPA, looked at the areas of the mouth where sound is created and articulated, and created lessons and activities that focused on the communicative framework for teaching pronunciation. My second artifact is a lesson plan from LT 539 (Pronunciation) that focuses on the suprasegmental features in pronunciation focusing on comprehending and identifying pitch contour and stress changes. The main task for the learners was to first understand the context of a scenario, modify their pitch and mark the stressed words, and then listen to the instructor for how the conversation would occur and what would be the appropriate behavioral context in that situation. I designed the lesson plan with the context of teaching English to 2nd-year Japanese students at a Japanese university. The lesson focuses on speaking and listening, aiming to help develop communication awareness in English where the context is based on pitch and stress. The main design of this lesson plan reflects how to design a lesson to teach suprasegmental features based on the communicative framework of teaching pronunciation from Celce-Murcia et al. (2010). The five concepts included description and analysis (physical and verbal descriptions of the feature when it is produced), listening discrimination (discerning specific features through listening with feedback being provided), controlled practice (activities and tasks that have a highlighted feature(s) the learners have to become aware of), guided practice (assignments that are structured and allow the learner to monitor their progression and how the feature is being applied), and communicative practice (activities that help build and improve fluency in speaking by communicating with other learners). I chose this lesson plan as my artifact because I had enjoyed designing it to teach Japanese learners of English, wanting them to work on uttering correct pitch contours and marking the stress in English words. The design of the plan allows for skits to be considered that would portray real-life situations they would encounter and can prepare for in an English-speaking environment. From my experience teaching English in Japan, this course and lesson would have helped me in planning out what were my objectives that the students would need to accomplish and what they would be able to do after the end of the lesson.

LT 536 was Design for Learning Language Systems, which focused on applying different concepts, methods, and principles for designing a course and other systems of language learning. My third artifact is from LT 536 (Language Design) which was a paper titled Japanese Media as a Genre of Multiliteracy for Language and Global Education. This paper explored the boundaries of different forms of Japanese media and how they can be used as educational tools and methods in teaching Japanese culture and language. I selected this artifact because it reflects upon the design of using multiliteracy as a tool and method to teach, where there are a variety of facets that can be used within classrooms that can be extremely entertaining and educational (Williams & Zenger, 2012). An example in my paper was using the manga series Bleach (by Tite Kubo) as a tool to teach Japanese culture and Shinto culture and can be extended to learn Spanish and German grammar and vocabulary as they progress through the course and the story. If the design were to focus on Japanese culture or translation, this can be extended using motifs and what their relevancy is or what the meaning of a character’s name is translated and why it is relevant to the story. This artifact can be used as a foundation for designing a course that teaches Japanese culture and history, and breaking down stories and characters in a way that reflects the curriculum of the course. It would also explore why it would be practical for students to be provided with a rich knowledge of language and culture through hundreds to thousands and unique multiliteracy materials. My reasoning for selecting this artifact as part of my portfolio and my reflection was part of my inspiration for wanting to learn more about Japan and the Japanese culture through Japanese media. The concept of accepting different media genres as a form of multiliteracy would be beneficial to expand different educational theories and methods in the field of linguistics. I wanted to learn more about Japan and Japanese culture through manga, Japanese folk stories, and other forms of literacy from Japan. With this paper, I wanted to expand the possibilities of using different genres of multiliteracies when teaching a language to promote creative thinking with students and provide engaging materials and resources to the class.

Pragmatics emphasizes that context plays a role in the interpretation between listener and speaker. This artifact investigates the creativity of English learners using it to improve their skills for communication and for a goal set in mind. LT 538 was Design for Language Learning Pragmatics, which focused on learning about the importance of understanding how pragmatics work in languages and their significance when it comes to speaker and interpreter context. My fourth artifact from LT 538 (Pragmatics) was a curation activity project completed with then-fellow student Annie Holvey, which was a formal mock interview for English as a Second Language (ESL) and English for a Specific Purpose (ESP) in mind. With the IPIC model chart as the foundation (AELRC, 2020), English L2 learners collaborate on three goals for their mock interview. They were tasked with a) effectively conducting a professional workplace interview, b) creating a working environment to help build confidence in speaking and improving specific vocabulary within their professional context, and c) receiving feedback on their performances and using new methods to help make introductions and greetings in the workplace and answer questions regarding an open position in English. Our objective was for the learners to design their own materials and ideas for how to conduct a workplace interview and how to respond to specific questions. For ESL learners, they can focus on designing any form of interview to improve their general English speaking and communication skills (Williams & Zenger, 2012). While ESP learners can focus on conducting an interview for a potential position they desire in the future and improve that contextual English vocabulary and grammar, with the instructor able to monitor either learner’s progress or give the appropriate feedback to each learner based on their situation (Lafford, 2012). This activity was selected as part of my reflection because its design of it allows ESL learners to review the IPIC chart and modify the lesson to their own design. Students wanting to improve their English as a second language could, once again, be creative with their mock interviews and work on the material focused on in class. ESP learners can study and practice for interviews that they would be taking in the States or in an English-speaking country in the job fields of their studies. I enjoy working with international students and helping improve their English-speaking skills and comprehension in specific contexts and situations. Selecting this artifact is part of what the design area of this portfolio focuses on creating and constructing an activity that helps improve English learners' preparation for professional interviews that are dependent on their ability to understand what the interviews intended, and literal meanings are during an interview.