This week's reading covered multiple interesting topics. One issue that was addressed was that of dialogic pedagogy. Looking a little past the reading, I found that according to Vygotsky that this type of pedagogy is "a teacher-student relationship that stresses mutual respect, sharing, and learning in community." With this being said, Dialogic pedagogy requies students to express themselves and also, even more importantly in my opinion, be self-aware of their thought processes and their own L2 language acquisition. I think that sort of addesses the question, "What is the nature of the learner or student?" To determine the nature, the student must have a certain self-awareness.
The history of TESOL methods was also interesting. I enjoyed reading about the Audiolingual approach, along with the cognitive revolution, and the communicative and natural approaches to TESOL. I found it particularly interesting how, in the communicative approach, they defined usage and use. This makes a big difference in language acquisition. We, as teachers, should have our students USE the language rather than limit it to a certain usage.
I noticed quite a few similarities to LightBrown and Seville with Wong's reading. It readdessed Krashen's notion of i+1 along with ZPD and scaffolding. However, there was a lack of stereotyping mentioned, particularly towards Americans who put their noses in the air when it comes to learning an L2. I'd like to share nteresting comment thought that I heard on the radio today, and that was that a recently survey showed that attitudes towards America from other cultures is bettering. That's a nice relief.To be the best possible TESOL teacher, we have to be aware of other cultures' attitudes, beliefs, perception, recpetion to things, and learning styles.
We can look at the language of other speakers and analyze sociolinguist patterns within a context. We can analyze and ostracize different 'errors' and cultural 'mismatches.' We can make a student read and write sentences till their hands fall off; but what we can't do is force a motivation to learn a language. I'm personally excited to dive into what it truly means to take into account a dialogic approach to TESOL. We do have to be aware of other cultures attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and receptions to the community around them to be able to give them the correct response/feedback that doesn't other a student within a given language community. As a nation as a whole, I believe as time goes on people are more apt and able to accept their changing communities and sociopolitical landscapes across the country, but as an educator we have to be the all-showing beacon of freedom and hope within the classroom that resonates with students.
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