Although I have been a Taipei city dweller for about 20 years, I still do not know much about Neihu District. Last time I got lost on my way to Lishan Senior high school.  Luckily I got a cab pretty soon, so I was not late that time.  This time, I decided to ride my motorcycle to get there, and I looked up the map to find the way. But unluckily, the constructions of MRT lines confused me again, because many roads were blocked. Therefore, I could not take the road I planned to go. Fortunately, I found two engineers to show me the right direction before it’s too late. So, this time, I was still be there on time.

       This time, we observed only one class, but the class is different from other oridinary classes very much. It is a class consisting of studnets with relatively better English competence. And it has only six students. If the students had not be in uniforms, I would have thought that I was coming to a cram school class. In the class, the teacher use English to communicate with the students and give instructions. I also noticed that there were some posters on the wall. Some English proverbs such as “Where there is a will, there is a way.” are printed on the posters. Those posters reminded me the technique used in the method of Desuggestopedia. It is argued that we perceive much more in our environment than that to which we consciously attend. The power of so called peripheral learning is used here.

What also impressed me is that the studnets in that class are not only with relatively better competence, but also have strong motivation. They took pleasure to listening to the teacher’s teaching and finish their tasks happily. It seems that they love English class so much just like other kids love video games.  I really think that the establishment of this class offers those special students an perfect environment. In the second hour, we saw some portofolios and English works by students there. Some of them are so delicate that people may think they are from college students. I always think the evaluation form is not supposed to be limited to tests only. I strongly recommend that teachers can ask students to make their own portofolios and use it as a kind of evaluation. 

      The observation this time makes my eyes widely open. Because I really saw someting beyond what I had expected to see. In this junior high school, I saw the new hope of English education. When leaving, we went through the playground. I saw the statue of ex-president CKS. Vincent Hsu and I saluted the statue and leave this lovely school…….

    The Owl at English Department 

                                               by Nathaniel Chang  (2007)

 Of this river side campus in which we stay,

        Always a constant owl idly flies and sits

       Beholding me that all the roles play,

       Disguising diversly my eyes do not see.

   Sometimes I joy when glad encounter fits,

      And mask in happy like a supreme Comedy

      But at times the owl sees me as a nihil

      I weep and make my pains a Tragedy,

  Yet the owl beholding me with the constant eye,

     Let the heartless rain falling on my head

     But when it cries I soothe, and when it laugh

     I wish it is the true laugh from its deep heart

  What then can move the owl? if I could find the way

     One day I may say, cute thy owl let’s call it a day.

   Group 5’s presentation about reading really impressed me. They used an article that is very famous to all of us as model. They also gave us lots of opportunities to practice. And they gave us a clear frame of reading as well. But I think it is such a pity for them to miss the theory of extensive reading, which could be one of the most popular issue in the field of language learning nowadays. If they had given us some brief intruduction about theories of reading, their presentation would have been more intact. But they really did well and gave us a wonderful time. May the force be with you, my friend.

I have been a part-time English teacher in Luzhou junior high school at Taipei county for more than two years. During last school year, I taught 7 graders and the night cram school. From this school year, I teach students in the night cram school only. In this period, I know some experienced English teachers who are worth respecting and modeling for me. One of them that has helped me a lot and imparted me most experiences is Mrs. Chen. I have always regarded her as my mentor.  Therefore, I decided to ask her to be the interviewee this time. 

Before showing the records of the interview, I would like to tell you something about Mrs. Chen first, because this may make you know more about this respected English teacher. Mrs. Chen was graduated from the English Department at National Taiwan Normal University in the year of 1983. She has the experience of teaching English to junior high school for more than 20 years.  As I can remember, she is always one the teachers who left the office late. She asks her students who do not pass the quizzes to the office to receive make-up quizzes during the 15-minute break times or after school. And I was also impressed by an experience that students on her class are polite. One time, I went to supervised her class in the monthly test in the winter of 2005, every students on her class said thank you to me when I gave them the test papers. She is also very generous; she sometimes bought young teachers like me some snacks or milk.  In one word, I am so lucky and glad to work with her.

Following are the records of the interview.

Hyde: What is your teaching philosophy? As an English teacher, what do you think you can bring to your students?

Mrs. Chen: I think that learning English, which is a foreign language for us, is different from learning Chinese, that is our native langauge. The students need many chances to practice it. Therefore, a teacher should offer some drills for them. And I think grammar is very important. Grammar is the foundation to use English well. So I think a good English teacher must be able to make students understand grammar rules clearly and give them some drills to practice the patterns and rules personally. After they practice over and over again, I think they can master those rules well.

Hyde: Is there any barrier and support you face in the teaching context? Can you share with me.

Mrs. Chen: The biggest barrier I face could be also the one that most teacher may face. That is that some students do not even want to learn at all. They have no interest in English; they give up learning this language before they start.   It’s pretty frustrating sometimes. When facing this kind of students, what I have been doing is to set different standards for them. They do not need to compete with other classmates, but they have to achieve their own goals. If they can make any improvement, I always give them some rewards to encourage them, trying to help them find the meaning to learn.  As for the support, everytime when I see my students perform well or make progress, I feel so happy. For instance, one of my students just won the first prize on the English speech competetion last month. Something like that is my supports in the life of teaching.

Hyde:    If you have an opportunity to make a new choice, will you still teach English?

Mrs. Chen: If I could start over, I would still choose to do further studies to gain a PHD and teach in universities. It is not bad to teach in high schools, but it is more interesting and challenging to teach professional subjects in universities, and there is probably less pressure from exams, so I think it will be happier to teach there. But the prerequisite is that I have to read lots of books.

Hyde:  Please give some constructive suggestions to those who are on the way of being an English teacher.

Mrs. Chen: I am firmly convinced that those who want to be an English teacher in the future that a teacher should be equipped with the qualities of confidence, profession, and patience. Besides, he or she should read more articles and journals about language teaching. Because teaching language is a complex and challenging task, we cannot teach students by our instincts or follow the ways that our teacher had taught us. Some teachers teach hard and spend a lot of time on their students, but their effort pay back little, because they teach on the basis of their own experience. That is some kind of risky, therefore I strongly suggest that teachers should read books about Language teaching and even teenager phychology.

My Reflection on the Interview

     I totally agree with Mrs. Chen’s perspective about that teachers should not just teach on the basis of their own experience. Because your experience cannot be always right. It is very likely that your experience works this time, but next time it doesn’t, because the students are different. I always hear some people say that theories are theories; when it comes to reality, it’s another case. What they say does not make any sense. A theory is the accumulation of tons of experience, and it must be tested and proved again and again. In my career of an English teacher, no matter in junior high school or cram schools, I have always heard other teachers said to their students (usually angrily) “Why are you doing that?” or “Why can’t you understand this?” Everytime I hear this kind of words from their mouth, I want to laugh at the teacher. I always want to tell them ”If you had ever read the Cognitive Development Theory by Piaget, you would not say that.”  If a teenager could be so polite courteous and diligent all the time, he would not be a teenager; If a kid could understand and learn everything the teacher them just a few time, congradulations, you found a prodigy there.

     To conclude, I feel in the innermost recesses of my heart that a teacher should read theories about psychology and teaching and learning. And patience is also an indespensible element for a good teacher. I appreciate Mr. Chen to share so much pressious experience with me. 

Pastoral (2007)  hyde Chang 

Under the pleasant sky,

Amid the happy field,

 Upon the warm soil, standing thy gentle blith lady.

Upon thy temperate palm hold helpless plum flower,

which relieve thy temperament.

O holy Godess of Muse, make the golden harp sound there;

 O holy Great poets, make the Oaten reeds read there.

First of all, I would like to appreciate our teacher to give us such a precious experience to visit LSSH. The first idea that came through my mind upon seeing this high school was “What a nice place to study!” On that beautiful Wednesday morning, we attended and observed two English classes.  I sincerely thank the teachers of the two classes for letting me know what the English course at today’s high schools is all about. My personal thoughts and reflections on the two classes are as followed.

  The first class was given by Ms. Liu. And the students were eleven graders; most of who are males. The lesson taught in that class is a simplified version of a story from mythology. The story was about the origin of echo. Undoubtedly, the lesson consists of a lot of allusions which are even strange to many college students. I doubt this kind of topic can activate those teenagers’ motivation to study it. Motivation has been proved to be one of the most crucial determiners for successful learning. When I studied in senior high school,  one of the lessons in English the textbook was about U.S. professional baseball. I am a super baseball fan; therefore, I can still remember the contents of the lesson today. I am not saying that literature is a bad topic; on the contrary, I adore literature, but for those high school kids, we really choose some topics related to sports, movie stars or pop singers etc. Because most of them still look up to Lebron James, Rainei Yang and Jolin Tsai more than the great Shakespear and T.S. Elliot. The other thing that really attracted my attetion was that in both classes the teachers used English for most of the time. I was astonished at the very beginning, but later I noticed that English was used to give students orders or requests only. I think that was really wise. Because it is important to immerse students in a environment where English is spoken.  Through repetion of those frequently-occured classroom English, students can get used to them and even learn those phrases by heart unconsciously and gradually.

The second class that we observed was more interested and student-centered than the first one. The teacher gave each of the learners whom are twelve graders a piece of sheet. On that sheet was some problem the learners thought they were facing. After they finish writing down their problems, they have to find another students to be the councler. The councler had to write his or her opinions on the sheet as a recipe. It is a good way to develop students’ creativity and imagination. The other activity was poem writing. The teacher gave students a sample of a type of poem called “Dialogue Poems”. And then, students were asked to find a partner and they have to cooperate with each other to come up with a so called dialogue poem. I am also fund of writing English poems, so I also write one at the same time. I would like to share my “masterpiece” with all of you here. The title of it was “Ode to Major League Baseball” to honor the upcoming 2007 baseball season.

  Moony night Starry night

Exciting games held under light

Big Unit pitches a strike

Big Papi swings it fly high

Brilliant fielder locks the little white

No doubt it won’t go awry

As long as eye can see

As long as men can live

Major League will always be.

To conclude, I think I saw a perfect example to develop students’ writing skill during the session. It was really a nice experience; I had learned a lot.

topbnr2vm3.jpgWhether the teaching of grammar should be emphasized or regarded as a supproting role has been debated for a long time. People who think that grammar is a top priority for students believe that Grammar is the system of rules governing the conventional arragement of words, therefore we must learn grammar.

From my personal point of view, I always believe that grammar should not be taught as isolated rules. Instead, it should be instructed in context. In other words, it is the topic of teaching materials deciding which grammar is to be taught; not the grammar to decide the teaching materials. For example, we should not give students an article full of  sentences in tense of present progressive when we want to teach them the tense of present progressive. On the contrary, we should give them an authentic article or graded reader which is at their level, and make students learn the grammar in the article.

Furthermore, I am convinced that teaching grammar inductively is more effective than deductively for teenagers. Because languages are not composed of a bunch of rules, if we teach a language in that way, it is against the nature of it and may make the class tedious and even boring. Besides, by ways of induction can students create their ability to observe and engage in the learning process in person.

To conclude, since we do not learn grammar as isolated rules when learning our native tongues, why should we do that when learning a second language?

   Most of the English teachers in high schools still teach vocabulary in the traditional way, namely, to teach them in a form of word list. The teacher translates every word into Chiniese and even tells  students how to use it. But, in my personal opinion, this could be a uneffective way to teach vocabulary. I doubt how many words can really get into their long-term memory.  

 I am convinced that the best internalization of vocabulary comes from encounters with words within the context of surrounding discourse. Therefore, a better way to acquire new words is through reading. Students should be provided with chances to read numerous readings in which they are interested. Students then should associate new words with their existing background knowledge. According to Meaningful Learning Theory proposed by David Ausubel, newly-acquired materials have better chance to get into long-term memory if they can be related to what the learner has known.

      To conclude, vocabulary should be both learned and taught within context, not in the form of a list.

I think that teaching is more like a crafe than science. Most teachers, especially those experienced ones, give lectures in a natural way. They do it fluently and even subconsciously. They have their own styles but have little ideas how they do that. It is pretty like the way in which Beethoven composed a Symphony or Yeats wrote a poem. It just happens.

On the contrary, Science is a way of awareness and consciousness. One must clearly knows every process and detail. Perhaps, for those novice teachers, teaching is more like a science.

In conclusion, in my own opinion, if one instruction or lecture has to be intriguing, the teacher must teach it in a ”craft” way.  

English is a tool that people use to communicate with others, not a subject. Therefore, we can’t teach English in the way we teach such subjects as “Geology” or “History”. English teachers can’t just stand in the front of classes and tell students a bunch of grammar rules and words which could be meaningless for them. It is not the way we learn our first language. we should give our students oppurtunities to pratice themselves. Imagine how ridiculous it would be if we teach someone how to ride a bike by telling him rules of how to control peddles and keep balance without let him try to ride the bike himself.