When first thinking about using “apprenticeship” in education, I can only think of the subjects that need specific skills for concrete result such as crafts and cooking. I didn’t think this approach could be used in language teaching. However, after reading the articles, I realized that this is an effective way of teaching reading and writing in language education. I found that modeling doesn’t have to be limited to actions that perform a difficult skill; it could be presented in different forms, like think aloud or simply read and write (or whatever you want them to imitate) in front of students.
I especially like Palincsar and Brown’s “reciprocal teaching of reading.” It made me clearly understand how cognitive apprenticeship can be used in language teaching setting. In this approach, students can first observe an expert’s demonstration and learn from it before actually doing it, so I think it is a great way to ease beginner’s tension to learn new things. Besides, this approach asks learners to speak out his/her own reason of doing some action, I think this is a good way to allow students to articulate their own opinions as well as reexamine their decisions. Moreover, learning reading in this kind of environment can help students become sensitive of good answers when other classmates are answering the questions in order to help them either learn from others or become the role of teacher to help others. As a result, I think it is a very good way to engage students into the classroom activity, eventually helping each other.
For me, I think the difficulty for this approach is what cues or hints to give students. It is not easy to guide people without giving answers. However, I think it is crucial to help students to figure out the answer by themselves in the learning process. And I believe that this is a teaching process that needs teachers’ experience. Because teachers can learn from students reactions to see if the hint works, after a long period of experiments, the teachers can have a series of effective hints to guide confidently in class.
I think it’s possible to use this approach online for language instruction. For example, changing the form of conversation into the written form on the individual blog to answer the questions asked by the teacher like making a summary or asking questions to clarify, etc, and ask students to respond to each others’ blog entry. Or using virtual meeting to discuss these questions online. Nonetheless, I still believe that discuss face-to-face in class is the best way to give timely assistance and is easy for teachers to observe students’ progress by seeing their facial expression.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Miya,
ReplyDeleteI like your writing, as usual you have written your reflection in simple but effective and accurate words. I will agree with you statement that the difficulty is what cues or hints to give students. I think that it is teachers' skill to ask right questions at right time, to provide helpful hints to give proper direction to them. In fact I would say that this is an essential skill for not only teachers but also for parents also.
From Jennifer Knott: Miya, it's clear to me that you take seriously what we are learning about situational learning. When you said, "... students can first observe an expert’s demonstration and learn from it before actually doing it, so I think it is a great way to ease beginner’s tension to learn new things." I think too that it's important to immediately respond to students questions. In the case where one can't look at expression, online chat can be available to facilitate. Students today are used to this form of communication. Still, I wonder about students who don't have as much practice texting or verbalizing questions with the written language. More and more I'm considering apprenticeship learning as better for face-to-face teaching.
ReplyDeleteMiya,
ReplyDeleteI have a background in history/political science. I always saw the application of cognitive apprenticeship in these areas. Wanting student s to think like a historian….
Until recently I had trouble imagining it in reading/writing. I had always thought people were born writers or readers. After taking a graduate level reading/writing techniques class I realized that wasn’t true.
I am glad there are educators like you out there.
What would adding video-conferencing as a required part of an online language course do to the SL/CA model? Would that help remedy the audio/facial expression challenge?
ReplyDeleteFinding the line of not helping too much versus helping too little ... that's an ongoing struggle as teachers. I never get it quite right though.
I still think there might be a way to use some of the newer technologies that have been developed that could sponsor apprenticeship and mentoring. Still trying to figure out what those technologies might be... ;)
Jill Sipe
ReplyDeleteHi Miya,
You mentioned being a bit uncomfortable knowing how to draw answers from students without leading or giving them the answers. One of my most memorable teaching moments took place when I was teaching an Eskimo kid from Nome, Alaska. I was teaching her French Horn lessons during a summer camp. I quickly realized that verbal instructions were not going to work and later, when talking with some other teachers, learned that the Eskimo culture included lots of nonverbal instruction. I was quickly immersed in a situated learning environment! I spent the next month playing something for her without music, and then looking at her, giving her a nod, and then she would try her best to mimic what I played. We both learned a lot. She was not only good at mimicking my music, but my mistakes as well! We had a ball.
During my student teaching semester, I sometimes experienced difficulty scaffolding students. Sometimes I was trying to do ten things at once, and I caught myself giving a student an answer. Othertimes, I spent a lot of time guiding one student when others needed assistance. It's hard to find a balance!
ReplyDeleteMiya - I really enjoyed your post and that you pointed out the importance of students voicing their rationale and thought process behind a task or response. I think if you're goal is teaching to the TEST then you probably only care if the student got the answer correct but if learning is the actual goal then it's necessary to find out how the students got to their answers. I think that's a wonderful piece of this model and makes it that much more interesting and valuable!
ReplyDeleteMorgan
Glad you picked up on the connections between apprenticeship and second language teaching. I too think the reciprocal teaching approach does mimic a lot of what goes on in good language teaching classrooms. In evaluating some of the high school ONLINE language teaching courses in the state, we heard students begging for the type of apprenticeship instruction they typically get in a regular classroom when the teacher models, provides opportunities for practice, and sees to feedback from teacher/peers. It's a little harder to plan for this cycle online, but not impossible with new tools.
ReplyDelete