Teacher Answer: Description of teaching situation in chilean classrooms

I created 2 different questions for a teacher in Chile, and here are the answers. I decided to ask for two different cases. One in which the student is really good at learning English, and one in which the student is really bad.

1.- DESCRIBE YOUR SCHOOL (GENERAL DESCRIPTION), SOCIAL ECONOMICS, HOW MANY STUDENTS SPEAK OTHER LANGUAGES, IS THERE ANY FOREIGN STUDENT? CAN YOU ADD ANY DATA ABOUT THE SCHOOL?

The school is located in a small town, dedicated mostly to agricultural activities. It has excellent facilities (in terms of the construction itself), but it does not have labs with good implements. Each classroom has a TV set, but many of them are not working. The school provides technological support, but it is not enough (there are too many students. Actually each class has an average of 46 students per class).
The students are rather poor though this impresion is not only based on their economical situation (most of the have expensive mp3 or mobiles) but in their cultural background. Most of their parents are not proffessional and have no qualifications at all. Most of their mothers are housewives, and it is known that the biggest influence is played by them. There are mothers who did not attend to school. Not even a single student speak another language. (thouh there are some students who understand pretty well what it is said in english).

2.- DESCRIBE A LEARNER OF ENGLISH IN CLASS, ONE REALLY GOOD AND ONE REALLY BAD... AND WHY DO YOU THINK THEY ARE GOOD OR BAD?

The good one is E.R. (4th grade high school). She likes English. She wants to learn English. She pays attention and has natural skills. That is why she is good, though I also think she manages in a good way her own language and she has trainned her cognitives skills. What do I mean... she is use to think.
A really bad student could be any from 9th grade, so I will mention one: B.B. He has no interest, he does not pay attention during classes. He gets easily distracted (though that is my problem too). But basically I think he has poor results because he does not master her own language and he is not trainned to think. He and his classmates do not understand anything. They need extra support and motivation that we teachers are not able to provide so far.

Usk

On september 15th, we visited Usk, and we learnt about Kalispel Tribe and their history.

It was the first time we visited a school in United States. The school we visited was "Cusick Highschool", and the principal showed the facilites that this school has for their students, the different programs and how teachers work with the students. Cusick highschool has commited students, excellent teachers, and they integrate students of the Kalispel community, tribe that has had several problems along their history, in terms of alcoholims, drugs, domestic violence (consecuense of the last problems), etc.

People in Usk, also showed the traditional places and the kind of life that Kalispel Tribe used to have.

SEATTLE!!

SEATTLE... JUST IN ONE WORD: AMAZING!
I think that going to Seattle has been one of the best experiences in my life. I do not know why, but I really like that city. It has something special.
Unfortunately we stayed just for one complete day, but I can say that I knew Seattle by walking.
Chinatown, downtown, the coast, Space Needle, Monorail, Public Market... and several things that I do not want to forget, and I hope to visit again.

We stayed in Seattle between September 09th to September 11th

Bridgeport and Brewster School

September 23rd

We had a long trip for visiting this schools, but I am really impressed with several things.
The most important for me was art class. I can not believe that material are provided by the school!! In Chile each, almost all students have to buy their own things. Probably in some private school materials are provided, but I would like to know which one.
Another think that called my atenttion was the amount of student per class. It makes everything much more easier. To work with 40 or 45 students for 8 hours or more is VERY difficult, tiring... and probably this make teachers feel frustrated about what they do, because they can be brilliant in creating an activity, but probably some students do not pay atenttion, they do not care, etc. We have to consider that English in Chile is one of the less attractive subjects for students.
Finally, everybody look happy. Students look motivated, they work in class, there are materials (books, animals, paint, computers in classrooms, etc) and teachers seem to use every resource that they have at school... That is very important, and very good for the students.

But my question is... How do parents participate in this process of school? In the reality of US, are they committed with their children's education?

Use of camara... and webpages for learning grammar

Now I am really interested in verbs and how to learn them. Actually we have many resources, but I think that cameras are easy to use and almost everyone has one.

My idea is that students have to create poster with creative pictures of verbs in action.

For example, take picture of 10 different actions that we can find at school, or at home. The most creative posters can receive a gift, or a mark. Posters have to be put on the wall, in the classroom.

This can influence: Interaction, Meaningful activites, It is appropiate to different personalities, motivate students for doing something different, It can create a comfortable enviroment, etc.

A webpage from Chile!!

This page has several games related to grammar and use of english. Here you have many ways for teaching English and make our classes funnier!

http://www.grammar.cl/Games.htm

Next webpage has links in which you can choose the kind of English you want to teach, the level, and different activities and the most important... there are games!

http://www.yourdictionary.com/grammar-rules/english-grammar-games.html

TRIADIC SCAFFOLDS: TOOLS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH

http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/pdf/meskill.pdf

Actually, teaching is not only teaching through lectures and explanations about the language. Now is very common tu use computers in classes, and this paper is about the use od computers and how they can be managed by the teachers, and how their own movements or reaction about the thinks that they see as teacher, can influence the way of learning of the students.
Is proposed "instructional scaffolds", which means: "a) what appears on the screen can be viewed as reducing the size of the task so the child can complete it; b) what appears on the screen and what changes to it are possible can be viewed as keeping the child's attention in the moment; c) what appears on the screen can facilitate making salient relevant features; and d) what the teacher says and does in reaction to what appears on the screen can be viewed as modeling ways to accomplish."
Things like visual or aural aspects of language can be manipulated by the computer, that are manipulated by the teacher in a class in which computers are used for teaching and learning.
Oral and written language is the main problem for learning a second language, besides the abilities that the students have for learning to use a language and about it.
The analysis of what children need in a context of learning languages can helpo them to participate, and also equipped schools motivate students to learn a L2, more than those schools that do not have or it is not enough. This could be a good process od inclusion, and take exclusion away.
We have to consider that good teachers continue the influence of school success.
Scaffold: The activities that the teacher creates around a computer for teaching students of ESL for understanding the language of classes and the use of it in the school.

Podcast for learning English, specially for improving listening. Different themes.
http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podcasts/28327

Podcast for students.
http://veryvocabulary.blogspot.com/
http://www.etseverywhere.com/

Podcasts for learning Spanish
http://www.discoverspanish.com/podcast.php Explanation about phrases and translation. There are some lessons and it is a very elementary level. It is perfect for people that do not know to speak Spanish.

I would use podcast for teaching English, ans specially for improvinf listening skills. I think that for many students it is difficult to understand spoken English, and this can be an excellent way.
Listening and download breaking news or things in which they are interested in.

Examples of CALL, Drilling practice and CMC

Drilling practice

www.english-4u.de This web page provides examples of the use of grammar, and exercises.

CMC

www.gmail.com Different things can be done (chat, e-mail, etc)

CALL

http://www.indiana.edu/~call/

FABULA: A bilingual multimedia authoring enviroment for children exploring minority languages

http://llt.msu.edu/vol6num2/pdf/edwards.pdf

FABULA is a software creates in relation to the minority languages for helping children to learn and create bilingual digital books. The languages involved in this project are Spanish - Basque, English - Welsh and French - Friesian. (FABULA is concentrated on European Languages of lesser diffusion)
The use of text books is considered a powerful tool in this research, but it is explained that the use of softwares for teaching English to minority speakers of a language was the main target of some teachers, considering that written resources are expensive.
Creators believe that bilingual books are more interesting when thy become digital, because they can be improved adding audio or other interactive elements, and the main technical characteristic of this software is that it is very easy to use it.
Self - made materials (made by the same children) motivate them to learn languages. This is one of the principal characteristics of this book, because the researchers, the creators of the software and children worked together for doing this program.
This software has 2 different components: FABULA MAKER (creation of texts, graphics, etc) and FABULA READER (for reading and interacting with de product of the FABULA maker).
FABULA exists in CD room and it is also on internet.
This text explains different wys for using the context. It is very easy to use it, and there are different modes.
The objective is to lead teachoer to use bilingual multimedia material, and the benefit for the students is that they can develop effectively writing skills, and we also have to consider that electronic resources for learning languages are well approved.
This project has been growing, developing areas like virtual communities, bulletin boards in a website.