Reflective.docx

Reflective.docx

《Reflective.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《Reflective.docx（17页珍藏版）》请在冰豆网上搜索。

Reflective

Reflective Teaching in EFL:

 Integrating Theory and Practice

作者：

Santiago…    文章来源：

其他网站    点击数：

1451    更新时间：

2006-8-13

Introduction

Thereisatendency--atleastwithinSpanishUniversities--toseparatelinguistictheoryfrommethodologyinlanguageteaching.Ourunderstandingisthatlinguistictheoreticalinputshouldnotsystematicallybetaughtindependentlyofpedagogicalconsiderations.Instead,itmaybeverybeneficialtointegratelinguistictheorywithinthepracticalmethodologicalframeworkinwhichlanguageteachersbecomeinvolvedintheirprofessionalcareers.Thisisspeciallythecaseinappliedlinguisticswherebothdiscourseandgenreanalysis（Swales,1990;Fairclough,1992;Bhatia,1993）representanimportanttoolforlinguistsintheireffortstocomprehendthevariationoflanguageacrossdifferenttypesoftexts.

Ouraimistoovercomesomeoftheproblemsbasedontheexistinggapbetweentheoreticalinputandpedagogicalteachertraining.WeagreewithLewiswhenhestates:

Manynon-nativeshavespentmanyyearsstudyingthelanguagebuttheirtheoreticalstudies--philology,phonetics,linguisticsandthelike--arefrequentlynotrelatedtopedagogyandtheclassroom.Extensivetheoreticalknowledgewhichprecedesclassroomexperienceoftenremainstooabstractforteacherstoseeitsrelevance?

（1993,p.189）

Inordertoovercomethisgap,wearedevisingagraduateprogramforEnglishLanguageTeachersatUniversitatJaumeI,Castelló（Spain）,placingaspecialemphasisonmakingtheseprospectiveEFL/ESLlanguageteachersawareoftherelevanceofappliedlinguisticsresearchtoolsinthedevelopmentofsyllabusesandcoursedesign.Thisawarenessisraisedbymeansofathoroughreflectiveprocessonlanguageteachinganditsimplications.Therelevanceofthisreflectiveapproachhasbeenattestedbyaseriesofstudies（Bartlett,1990;Korthagen,1993;Hatton&Smith,1995;James,1996;Farrell,1999）.[-1-]

Thesamplecoursesinthisgraduateprogram,aspresentedinthispaper,arebasedonpreviousinvestigationsintheareaofgenreanddiscourseanalysisinBusinessEnglish,EAP/ESPandESLbyourlinguisticsresearchgroupfinancedbyBancaixa,aSpanishprivatebankinginstitutionwhichmainlyoperatesontheMediterraneancoast（Posteguillo,1996;Fortanet,Palmer&Posteguillo,1997）.

UniversitatJaumeI

UniversitatJaumeIisaneweducationalinstitutionfoundedin1991.TheUniversityisdividedinthreemainschoolsandoneinstitute:

theSchoolofSocialSciences,theSchoolofLawandEconomics,theSchoolofExperimentalSciences,andtheTileIndustryInstitute.

Thereare19degreesofferedatUniversitatJaumeI.TheSchoolofSocialSciencesofferscoursesonPsychology,Humanities,TranslationandInterpretation,andEnglishPhilology,aswellasfourdifferentdegreesonPrimaryEducationTeaching.TheSchoolofLawandEconomicsoffersLawStudies,BusinessStudies,BusinessAdministrationandManagement,PublicManagementandLabourRelations.Finally,theSchoolofExperimentalSciencescomprisesthedegreesinChemistry,ChemicalEngineering,TechnicalEngineeringinComputerScienceManagement,ComputerScienceEngineering,IndustrialEngineering,andTechnicalEngineeringinIndustrialDesign.TheTileIndustryInstituteremainsasaresearch-orientedinstitutionincoordinationwiththeSchoolofExperimentalSciencesandmosttile-relatedcompaniesintheCastellóarea.

Asignificantanduniquefeatureinallthedegreesabove-mentionedisthatEnglishisacompulsorysubject.ThisisnotonlybecaauseEnglishisaninternationallanguageforresearchinmostacademicdisciplines,butalsobecauseoftheparticularneedofEnglishlanguageskillswithintheCastellóindustrialcommunity.Infact,90%oftheSpanishtile-relatedindustryisconcentratedinafairlysmallarea（ofabout300,000inhabitants）.Thisisaexport-orientedindustryforwhichEnglishlanguageisanessentialtool.Additionally,thisisaveryimportanttouristareaontheSpanishMediterraneanCoast.Previousresearch（Palmer&Posteguillo,1996）indicatesthatamong59companiesinterviewed,54confirmedthattheyusedEnglishlanguagedaily.Additionally,datashowedthatEnglishwastheforeignlanguagemostfrequentlyusedamongthesecompanies（with58.6%ofthetotalusageofforeignlanguages）,followedbyFrench（24.5%）,Italian（10.2%）,andGerman（6.3%）.

Theorangeindustry,furniturefirms,andevensomeoilcompanies（viz.BritishPetroleum）completeanexport-basedsociety.WhenourUniversitywasfounded,itwasagreedthatallstudentsshouldacquireatleastanintermediatelevelofEnglishproficiencyand,insomedegrees（e.g.,business,computerscience,andteaching,amongothers）anadvancedproficiencylevelinEnglish.ThissocialdemandthatourUniversityagreedtosatisfytransmittedagrowinginterestandneedforEnglishlanguageteacherstootherco-lateralteachinginstitutions.Thoseco-lateralinstitutionswereprimaryandsecondarypublicschools,privateschoolsandotherteachingcentres,suchastheOfficialSchoolofLanguages,privatelanguageacademies,theChamberofCommerce,andseveralothercentres.[-2-]

Thissituation,inturn,madeustakeheedwhendesigningthecurriculumofourownEnglishPhilologydegree,whichrepresentsthemainteacher-trainingcentre.Thefour-yearEnglishPhilologycurriculumwasinfactrevised,andseveralnewcoursesincluded,allofwhichfocusedspecificallyondevelopinglanguageteacherskills.

However,afterafewyearswithsomeofourstudentsinvolvedintheirteachingprofessions,andsomeevenattendinggraduatecourseswithinourownuniversity,wenoticedthatourobjectiveofintegratingthelanguageteachingcoursesinapreviouslylinguisticandliterature-orienteddegreehadnotbeenfullysatisfactory.Therewasagapbetweenlinguistictheoryandlanguageteachereducation,anditwasouraimtofindasolution.

Thegapbetweenlinguistictheoryandlanguageteachereducation

ThisgapisclearlydetectedattheundergraduatelevelatmostSpanishuniversities.Forinstance,ifwerevisetheEnglishStudiescurriculumofferedatourUniversity,asubstantialgapappearsbetweenourlinguistictheorycoursesontheonehand,andcoursesonlanguageteachingskillsontheother.Inotherwords,theoreticallinguisticinputissystematicallytaughtseparatelyfrompracticalmethodologyinlanguageteaching.Accordingly,undergraduatestudentsfinishtheirEnglishstudieswiththeideathatlanguageteachingandlinguisticshavenothingincommon.

Thecurriculumforanyfour-yearEnglishdegreeataSpanishuniversityusuallyprovidesthreemaintypesofcourses:

thosedealingwithliteraturewritteninEnglish,studiesonlinguistics,orlanguageteachingclasses.AtUniversitatJaumeIatCastellóthissituationisreproducedwithallcoursesfallingintothesethreemaincategories.Thus,wefindthefirstgroupofcoursesfocusingonEnglishliteraturestudies,withtwosubcategories:

coursesonliteratureitself,andcoursesonliterarycriticism.Thosebelongingtothefirstsubcategoryare:

EnglishLiteratureI,II,IIIandIV,IntroductiontoAmericanLiterature,AmericanLiteratureIandIIand,finally,OtherLiteraturesinEnglishLanguageIandII.Inrelationtoliterarycriticism,studentsmaytakeStylisticsinEnglishLiteratureIandII.

TheoreticalLinguistics,thesecondmaincategoryofcoursesofferedinanEnglishdegreeatSpanishuniversities,isrepresentedbyalargevarietyofsubjects:

IntroductiontoLinguistics,EnglishLexicology,TheoreticalLinguistics,DiscourseAnalysis,AppliedLinguistics,Dialectology,Sociolinguistics,ComputationalLinguistics,DiachronicLinguistics,andTheoryofSpeechActs.CoursesinLanguageTeacherEducationarerepresentedbythefollowingsubjects:

TeachingEnglishforSpecificPurposesIandII,MethodologyIandII,andTeachingSkillsfortheLanguageClassroom.[-3-]

Besidesthegapbetweentheoreticallinguisticscoursesandthosefocusedonlanguageteachingskills,thereisalsoaquiteunbalancedsituationregardingtheacademicloadthateachofthesetypesofcoursesoccupyinthecurriculum:

therearetencoursesonlinguistics,andonlyfivedevotedtolanguageteaching;literaturedoesnotsufferfromthisdiscrimination,withelevenspecificcoursesbeingtaught.

Integrationofsourcedisciplinestolanguageteachertraining:

areflectiveprocess

Asindicatedabove,ouraimistheintegrationoftheoreticallinguisticscourseswiththoseinmethodologyandlanguageteachertraining.Webelievethatthewaytoachievethisintegrationisthroughthekeyconceptofreflection.Bartlett（1990,p.204）states:

Improvementofteachingmaybeachievedthroughreflection.Reflectionismorethan"thinking"andfocusesontheday-to-dayclassroomteachingoftheindividualteacheraswellastheinstitutionalstructuresinwhichteacherandstudentswork.

InBartlett'sopinion,thisprocessofreflectionshouldbeaimedatbecomingacriticallyreflectiveteacher.Inordertodothis,teachershavetotranscendthemethodologicalstageandbecomeimmersedinthewidercontextofactualteaching.Hedistinguishesbetweenhowtoquestionsandwhat/whyquestions.Howtoquestionswouldbethosedirectlyrelatedtothemethodologicalconcernsofteaching,whereaswhat/whyquestionsextendthereflectiveprocesstoincludeissuessuchasthefollowing:

Whatcountsasknowledgeinsecondlanguageteaching?

[蒥Howiswhatcountsasknowledgetransmitted?

[蒥Whatkindofmulticulturalsocietyorculturalsystemusesthisknowledgelegitimately?

[蒥Whatisthenatureofknowledgethatguidesmyteachingofcontent?

（Bartlett,1990,p.206）

Bartlettdoessuggestthatteachersshou