Presentation Diversity in Learning based on diversity of students

Dear readers,

Welcome to my blog. Here I am going to talk to you about different students, and how they study. Everything will be based on my personal observations.

My area of specialization is English as a Second Language, and I have been working with adults for a very long time, and that is why I can always rely on behaviourism in my teaching.

No matter if my students are good at discovering the truth (a language topic in my case) on their own or not, in the end, everything depends on if they have time on these endeavours on not.

And, unfortunately, most grown-up students, even the brightest ones, cannot find time to use their natural abilities for decision-making, problem-solving or creative thinking in their free time. Moreover, quite often they don’t have time to visit classes regularly, and therefore, a situation when A LOT of a foreign language material should be studied in a very limited time is unfortunately common. As a result, everyone appreciates it when I formulate the rule in the shortest and easiest way for them to understand and remember, and then provide exercises for practice.

However, since students are special in their abilities, previous knowledge, learning style, memory, attention, personality traits etc., I often feel myself as a conductor to the orchestra who is supposed to unite various musicians with different instruments and partitures and produce a nice melody as a result.

I would divide them roughly into three main groups while remembering that there are many people in between.

For example, when I deal with the students who would get most from cognitivism and constructivism, I truly enjoy their independent and unique attitude, especially when I can work with them individually. They argue, ask questions, find parallels with another linguistic material, use life examples etc. They like to work with the teacher, but they don’t mind studying with other students either. They are flexible, analytical, and easily accept the fact that there are exceptions to any rule. They are making our collaboration interesting, and I deeply appreciate that.

On the other hand, I can experience some difficulties with the students who are obvious extraverts as they sometimes behave as flowers without water – wither if their classmates are late or not coming to class. They need peer communication so badly that I try to avoid individual approach with them at all. They flourish in the group work though and often win English class competitions. And it doesn’t matter for them which topics we are studying or if there are exceptions to the rule as long as it gives them an opportunity of co-operating with others. I also understand that they are great at multitasking, so I usually don’t mind them doing a lot of extra things while studying. They are not getting distracted – they live their life like this; it’s their style.

As for those students who usually rely on the teacher to make progress together, they need a lot of attention and encouragement. Every small success should be pointed out and commended. They learn slowly but surely, and are not very fond of exceptions to the rules but will put up with them in the end. They expect me to be very diplomatic and creative with the explanations and exercises – if one doesn’t work, we will turn to another to succeed. Together with the “cognitivists”, they are interested in mechanisms of learning, and are grateful when I show them how to teach English better to their younger siblings. I don’t know if it is a good word to use, but they want me to love them deeply and unconditionally during our time together. This is how I feel when I work with students who prefer behaviourism – like a big sister at least.

So, due to students’ peculiarities, I am to provide intellectual challenge to one team of students, interesting group activities to another, and lots of love for the third one, and all these – in one lesson. Yes, it is an arduous, eclectic, but amazing job all the same. I happened to be an easily bored person myself, so using different approaches, methods and techniques for the same topic is what I like most.

I have a list of questions that I am contemplating myself. I would be grateful if you shared your ideas on them here or on Canvas.

1. If a student prefers constructivism, and a teacher prefers behaviourism, how do you think their communication will go? Will it be successful?

2. If the situation is reversed, and a student prefers behaviourism, and a teacher – constructivism, what will change in their cooperation?

3. I divided students roughly into three groups – curious ones, extraverts, and introverts. Did you discover any other group during your teaching or studying experiences?

4. How would you as a teacher deal with the student who came to class to see his groupmates and wasn’t psychologically ready to work with you only?

5. Do you think that studying online transforms learning theories a bit?

6. I named students’ lack of time the biggest problem of modern educational institutions which doesn’t allow an ESL teacher to use numerous methods in class. Which other barriers to the application of multiple approaches during one lesson do you see?

7. If a classroom unites students of different age, in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, does it automatically mean that different approaches are necessary? Do you believe that learning theories are age sensitive?

In What Ways Does Oral Storytelling Differ from Written Storytelling?

Among those thought-provoking questions I especially liked this one because I had live examples – my grandmother used to tell me the stories of her life while I was growing. My grandad in his turn was very talented with the fairy tales. For many years I was their grateful introverted listener, so I am quite familiar with the oral tradition of storytelling.

Looking at this art now, I can clearly see that in oral tradition the narrator is the creator of the oral text and quite often the character of it.

There is an interesting phenomenon that oral text makes the figure of the speaker more prominent and sympathetic. We can compare this effect with the written text told from the first person when the reader cares for the character as a result. Not for the person who wrote the text, not for the author, but for the fictional speaker. So, owning the stage, i.e. performing any oral narrative, guaranties the speaker their listeners’ support.

I am inclined to believe that oral storytelling creates a special atmosphere and a bond between a speaker and the listeners. Oral story is expressive, full of emotions and passions of the characters, the performer, and the listener.

Next, oral storytelling, unlike written storytelling, allows interruptions, repetitions, and variations of the text – the listener can ask questions to add details, descriptions, or explanations to the plot. Also, the most impressive scenes can be performed again if the listener asks for it.

It is all right for the listener to join the performer in storytelling to check the memory or to live through the most dramatic moments together. Honestly, not even the most exciting book ever inspired me to read a passage aloud just to share the emotions of the narrator.

In addition, oral story is well-thought of and moralistic even in details – what should be done and what shouldn’t in a certain situation. I assume the performer contemplates the story many times while telling it and then chooses the best way to convey this or that idea to the listener.

Finally, the same oral stories can be performed again and again for the listener to memorize them better.

These are the main peculiarities of the oral storytelling that I can point out.

Also, when my aunt read the book to us, children, the outcomes were practically the same – unique atmosphere, connection and gratitude toward the reader, questions to understand the text better etc. Therefore, there are life situations when oral and written traditions are almost interchangeable.

After I learned to read, I enjoyed the libraries of my relatives, and I retold some books to my grandma. I don’t think I was a successful narrator though as I usually didn’t focus on details and considered retelling the main storyline most important. I always thought that too many details would kill the interest, but now I am of a different opinion. I realize that individual features are valuable too and sometimes the bright fact makes the whole story worthy, besides allowing the listener to remember everything.

To sum up, it was a great pleasure for me as a child to listen to those grandparents’, parents’, aunts’ and uncles’ stories, and I am glad that oral storytelling still exists.

PRACTICAL PART

My dictated text turned out to be funny partially because I have never done it before, and partially because of my accent.

I have used a speechnotes.co site to create a story, and I miscalculated its length a bit, made it smaller than necessary (around 400 words instead of 500). So, I can conclude that it is rather difficult to speak and calculate the words at the same time.

On the other hand, I was quite successful with the punctuation, and it means that my falling tone in English is close to authentic.

I can clearly see from the text that I should work harder on English word collocations or idioms since the machine couldn’t recognize them in my speech.
Also, suffixes of the words should be enunciated better, to be more noticeable in my speech.

In general, I consider this exercise very useful for the English teacher. I have to contemplate how to introduce this activity into my work with the international students, for them to have a reason to laugh and to learn something new about their English.

As usually, I am thankful to the collaborative team who created this program for their creativity!

“Hello this is anna with the voice-to-text that task well it’s early the hardest thing to create a text without writing it down first but I will try I will choose the topic I’m from the layaway is teaching English to adults and what can I say about that first of all I I have recently had some experience in teaching English to Matthias 2. And I notice psychological knowledge is very important for the teacher in this situation first because different aspects of English demands. Psychological attitude toward them and the teacher is supposed to help a student to to make a success in the listening and speaking in the writing and reading all together and different psicologico tricks 3 ft. I’m sick on thing I notice he is actually some psychological support that is necessary for the immigrants especially for the older immigrants are all of them became on some kind of ship the hardships on the on their way to success he and Canada and they are always eager to share their experience with difficulties they will negotiate disick’s. Learning something in English in a bit so they prefer to tell their life story to starting anything useful in English and the teacher should be ready for that and I should have some technique to tactfully you know our turn the conversation back to the language I want to be carried away from Mom from the topic of the meeting let it be said in this way so yeah this is important so no native speakers in Canada experience differ with life and influences their status as well so I make a conclusion that psychology is extremely important to teach of these days to in English in English teacher of these days you’re not only providing knowledge you are also in a weight is psychotherapist to a person who is supposed to use this knowledge in Canada yeah it’s extremely important and I want Old English speaking English teacher ready for that you are to be a psychotherapist do you drink some lessons please be ready with maybe some distraction methods with the complete with jokes with words of encouragement it will come in handy so that’s what I can say about material students from my recent experience you so much”

Well, looking at numbers assigned to the tracks, I can clearly see that no recording got just one fan – every composition chosen has at least two people who loved it. So, in a way, people of this group are adjacent, and there are ones between us as well as zeroes.
Also, surprisingly for me, all tracks from 1 to 27 are presented on the graph. I thought we would together skip a rhythm or two. Perhaps, this ratio – 22 group members vs 27 tracks – was against it. If there were 5 group members, some music would not be selected, I assume.
Among our group’s musical preferences, classic (old) music and most famous melodies of Western culture of the 20th century clearly dominate though our group members are not opposed to the folklore music.
These are my impressions at first glance. I am still struggling with the communities – I haven’t figured out yet what they are about, and what the criterion was used to create one. Need more time which I am lacking since the beginning of this fantastic course. Hope to edit this post for the better later. Thank you!

I am amazed how this course challenges me at every turn. Its practical part centers on everything I don’t do or have never done before. For example, I am not really into music, and here I am, listening to the tracks, contemplating their selection, and suggesting a new track for a next expedition to the stars.

First of all, I have to say that I understand the importance of the diverse folklore part in this selection; however, from the “history of music” point of view the choice seems questionable. And I am not talking about personal preferences now.

Back in the day, I got a pretty decent music education. In musical school we listened to and played ourselves the pieces of music created by the greatest composers, so, no objections whatsoever to Johann Sebastian Bach, the representative of the Baroque period. Out of the four most prominent composers from Classic period we have three on this record. The question is why does the list contain three pieces from Bach and none from Joseph Haydn? It is a huge mistake obvious for anyone who studied classical music professionally.

As for my current personal inclinations, I suggest to include a “Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 in A major, Op. 92, II Allegretto” into next Golden Record Collection. Though sometimes the tune does sound menacing, in general it is optimistic, energetic, and encouraging.

My selection of “Music from Earth” was based on my origin, gender, education, experience and musical preferences.

Thus Track No.4 from the rainforests of the Congo surprisingly reminded me the folk songs of Ukraine in melody and manner of performance.

Next, I am from Eastern Europe, so words like Azerbaijani or Georgian mean more to me than just a map location. A polyphony of a Georgian male choir (Track No.12) is quite a thing to enjoy.

In addition, I like Beethoven and therefore, I picked up all his compositions on the list.

Also, I used to play the violin, so I said Yes! to the instrument whenever I heard it, solo or in orchestra.

Besides, Tracks 5 and 20 sounded most unusual to my ear.

Finally, I chose two pieces out of compassion – Tracks No.23 and 26.

To sum up, I don’t really pay attention to music. I listen everything that other people listen on the radio or in the movie, and that is all. But the idea to send our terrestrial music to space as a part of introduction was nice and thoughtful. I appreciate the global humanistic projects like this.

I can add that I hate taking pics of myself. Creating this vid was even worse – I had to memorize the text and then smile into the camera. Absolutely awful. I forced myself to do all these only in the name of mode-bending

These tasks are amazing! I wonder who the author of this fantastic program is.

I thought I would never be able to introduce a show that I had watched recently. It has been an utter disappointment for me so far, and that is why I cannot forget it. And no, I didn’t choose it because it is easy to visualize. It’s just that I cannot stop thinking about it, and how it could have been much better with another script, ideas, emotions, costumes, and behaviours.

The first part is the title, and I gave several variants/options of it because it is not easy to guess. Yes, I started with the name of the show as it is important to put everything in order.

The second part is a story in brief, in a chronological order. It’s very-very brief, practically a beginning. I used a combination of ideas to present the main plot. I also put a hint there, but it is totally devoid of orthography, so it is permitted.

As a person who hardly ever uses emojis, I must say they don’t have enough of them to describe activities. As a linguist, I feel the lack of pictured verbs here, to be exact.

Well, good luck with my story and tell me what you think, please!

Emojis

I misunderstood Twine and created my own story with the links:

FANFICTION: DECLARATION OF LOVE

I am a big fan of fanfiction. I discovered this guilty pleasure in 2006-2007 and have been a devoted reader ever since.
Quite often I have only a vague idea of the source, not having read or watched the original story. For example, I am not fond of Tolkien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien, I prefer Zelazny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny, and therefore, I missed watching “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies, but I am familiar with tons of fan-written stories about Middle Earth instead.

Books and movies about Harry Potter did not spike my interest either, but those surprising fan stories and especially unexpected crossovers with other fanfiction communities? Definitely worth checking out. Look at “By Chance” by Femme, for example https://archiveofourown.org/works/1254.

There are many established authors in the fanfiction world famous for their mastery of words, high-quality content, and a recognizable unique style – Tamaris, Lenore, Roseetta, Meyari, Danceswithgary, C. S. Pacat, P. L. Nunn, Astolat, Telera, Rivkat, Wicked R to name a few. It doesn’t matter to which fandom or category their writing belongs, their pattern is recognizable and plot twists – unpredictable. Some of these seasoned authors have already died, others stopped writing fanfiction, and some started writing commercially. However, I will always be grateful to them for their wonderful stories.

I especially recommend Astolat https://archiveofourown.org/users/astolat to all the English language lovers – if you never read her before, you are for a delicious treat. For instance, a currently popular TV series “Witcher” has a nice little prequel “By Any Other Name” created by Astolat to explain the origin of the Witcher and his colleagues https://archiveofourown.org/works/12210708

The love theme is less important for me there, but a great injustice and a masterful way to deal with it is what really attracts attention there. Plus, a rich language of course.

I am aware that a fanfiction became a focus of academic attention long time ago. Some university professors routinely include a fanfiction section into their literature courses while others serve as research advisors for the Master’s papers on fanfiction. Look here https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/9593v148 or here https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/760842/McCain_georgetown_0076M_12977.pdf for a sample.

There are numerous articles on different aspects of fanfiction all over Internet, though for me this is just a pure pleasure. So, everything about this literary genre looks quite decent, accepted, and serious; therefore, imagine my surprise last week when I found out that all fanfiction is actually illegal.

What a strange world we live in where something that big, amazing, and meaningful as fanfiction exists outside the law, as an infringement of copyright!

I have recently got fascinated by the heroic life of Albert Bandura. I am sure that I learnt this name long ago when I was an undergrad myself. However, then it was just one of the prominent names in the course of pedagogy. Now that I am reading Bandura’s articles, I understand how strong-willed and truth-oriented this person was. He is the best role model I can imagine. And he is also of Ukrainian origin.

All this inspired me to write a post about him on a Facebook. I don’t have a lot of followers there; I have my academic colleagues from the former Soviet Union first of all to share my impressions with. This is what my hand-made text in Russian is about.

I typed it on my cell phone first, and this manual draft is Option 2. I have been editing the post all the time – while it was electronic and when it was written by hand. When I write manually, I prefer pencils to have a possibility of correcting everything neatly.

Frankly, I still produce a lot of manual texts in pencil. I mostly write down the ideas of English exercises (for speaking, reading, grammar, vocabulary, translation etc.) that come to my mind any time of day. I use scrap paper for that. If I don’t have paper available, I type in my Notes on the cell phone. Quite often I forget what I wrote/typed before and later come across those texts (future exercises) again.

Regarding the difference between electronic and manual texts, well, I don’t feel it. When I am writing / typing, I am focused on the ideas and how to formulate them better, which word combinations to choose to make the text easier for my readers to percept. The form of production is secondary to that; I am quite comfortable with both.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!

My picture can clearly show that quarantine has modified my life. I haven’t used my purse for more than two years because I don’t have to. I visit the local grocery stores occasionally, buy as much as possible in one go, and return home. This constitutes most of my present-day off-line mobility.

Instead, my pockets substitute my bag quite successfully. I keep there the key to the apartment, the old cellphone just in case, some cash, a napkin, and a mask. Three heavy-duty bags to carry food are nearby too – one for the shoulder and for each arm.

So, my life is pretty simple like that. If I have to go somewhere, for example, to visit a sick friend and treat her to some home-made food, then other pockets will be filled with pretty much the same stuff plus what I cooked for her in a heavy-duty bag.

I feel quite comfortable within my four walls, and the neighbourhood is nice too. I have a wonderful view on the main street in Toronto, from south to north, and it is especially beautiful during holidays. I have a big balcony for walking.

As for the texts visible on the bags in my picture, well, I hope that they will tell those who look at them that (1) I am an immigrant, (2) I saw some sights in Toronto, (3) I have some sense of humour.

In this Youtube video “Lera Boroditsky, How the Languages We Speak Shape the Ways We Think” that lasted a bit more than an hour the speaker Lera Boroditsky shares some of her ideas on languages, cultures, and thinking. We should keep in mind though that her report aims first of all at entertaining a general public.

Yes, it has some distant reminiscence of the university lectures on phonetics, linguistic typology, comparative philology, and cultural studies. But it’s not systematic or historical; it doesn’t follow the language levels or any certain linguistic topic in particular. It is just a stream of funny and disconnected facts about the world languages followed by the assumptions regarding their possible influence on humans’ brain.

Why is that? It appears to me that elusiveness of the content dictates this loose structure of the video material – nothing can be stated for sure because there is no reliable proof. “Language influences thinking”, or does it? Or perhaps, it more affects the unconscious behavior instead, like gestures, posture, span of attention, strength of a voice, prejudices, preferences, space orientation etc.?

I can agree that a language has some impact on its speakers, and even the grammatical categories change the world in a way. Yet in my opinion, the extent of those influences and transformations is vague and incalculable.

I was interested in finding the dissertation of Prof. Boroditsky to see the topic of her own research. It turned out that her dissertation of 2001 centered on the phenomenon of time and its expression in English and Chinese.

I also found the critical article of 2007 written by David January and Edward Kako which “raises some theoretical and empirical issues for Boroditsky (2001) that challenge the validity of its experimental outcome and by extension its potential larger implications” (p.418). These authors report “six unsuccessful attempts to replicate the basic finding of Boroditsky (2001) that English speakers think of time as horizontal. Additionally, we point out some apparent empirical and theoretical inconsistencies in the original report that would pose a serious challenge to Boroditsky’s interpretation of her results, even if they were replicable” (p. 418).

I am actually not surprised at this criticism. These language-mind connections are too ephemeral to any researcher’s liking. Being a bilingual myself, for example, I cannot in my conscious mind declare that my two mother tongue languages influenced my mental, physical or psychological growths any different than they did my monolingual parents’ development.

It seems to me that Prof. Boroditsky was lucky to find and explore an interesting topic at the intersection of linguistics, psychology, and sociology, and used it to her advantage to become a successful stand-up popularizer of linguistic relativity.

But I am afraid it is not linguistics anymore; it’s a show business.

Reference

January, D., & Kako, E. (2007). Re-evaluating evidence for linguistic relativity: Reply to Boroditsky (2001). Cognition, 104, 417-426. https://ruccs.rutgers.edu/images/personal-karin-stromswold/publications/January2007.pdf