Week 15 -- Student-led Discussion

Optional Reading: Reflecting on the Cognitive-Social Debate in Second Language Acquisition. 

Next week I'll do a quick lecture on individual differences and various views on motivation.

Final SLA Task

Student-led Discussion -- 10%

Each of you will lead a 10 minute discussion in which you propose big questions you still have about SLA. This can be related to topics covered in your courses here or things that have not been covered. This is not a review, it is a discussion. Make sure your questions allow room for discussion, opposing views, and relating theory to practice. Also, do not ask a question that you do not have an answer to/opinion for.

You will be evaluated by both the quality of your questions and the depth of your responses. Try to make sure everyone has a chance to participate in your discussion and make sure they stay on topic (make sure you stay on topic for others as well).

Bad Questions:
"Sooo, Krashen -- yay or nay?"
"What is interlanguage?"

Good Question:
"Is Communicative Language Teaching culturally appropriate for Korean EFL students?"

Week 14 -- Individual Differences & Motivation

As we're starting to wrap up the course, I want to shift our focus to our learners. This week you'll read a nice overview of issues facing learners. Also, you'll read a few more reader-friendly articles about the state of education in the US and education research. They're from Alfie Kohn, a journalist turned education activist. 

1. First, please read Dornyei's chapter on Individual Differences. We'll focus mostly on this in class. 

2. Next read the Kohn articles. Start with Well, Duh! Ten Obvious Truths that We Shouldn't Be Ignoring.

3. Then read his article 5 Reasons to Stop Saying Good Job.

4. Finally, read The Risks of Rewards, which summarizes the negative impact of rewards (with citations). 

No Reading Circles from here on out. Instead, please post 2-3 strong reactions (positive or negative) to the Kohn articles. His writing is meant to provoke, so hopefully you feel provoked. 

Week 13 -- Research Paper Presentation

No reading. Prepare for your research presentation. Please make a simple ppt to help us understand all of the parts of your research paper. Each person will have 15-20 minutes to present.

Week 12 -- Pair Presentations

This week's reading tries to make SLA much more practical by examining six different proposals for classroom teaching.

Please read How Languages Are Learned -- Lightbrown & Spada.

Find a partner. Then look over the chapter and decide which proposal you want to present to the class. 

You only have to read your section: How Languages Are Learned -- Lightbrown & Spada.

Post your pair (both names) and choice in the comments section of this post. First come, first served.

Your Presentation/Discussion should be about 10-15 minutes long (including discussion). This is to be a very brief, informal overview of the proposal, examples of research, pros/cons, personal experience, suggestion for future research, and whatever else you want to include to make it meaningful/memorable for your classmates.

You'll be given 15 minutes to meet with your partner next week at the beginning of class to finalize your presentation/discussion plans. Then we'll start.

The presentation/discussion should be:

• informative -- mention the key points
• interactive -- ask questions to the class
• interesting/meaningful -- be creative; allow classmates to personalize

Please make a simple ppt to give us a visual with your key points and to save time writing. Nothing fancy. Don’t overdo it. Content over style. 

The presenters have the option of standing in front of the class or remaining seated in a round table discussion format.

This will be graded as part of your homework grade.

Week 11 -- Long's Interaction Hypothesis

This week we'll be looking at one of our final theories, Long's Interaction Hypothesis. Think of it as a sort of marriage between Krashen, Swain, and Vygotsky. Creepy.

1. Please read this short overview, SLLT_Long's Interaction Hypothesis.
2. Next, read about a very common classroom technique related to interaction -- the corrective recast.