Blog 9

Interview Protocols 


Questions I will be asking before I ask my real interview questions:

1. How many years have you been in the education field?
2. What college did you attend?
3. How was your college experience?
4. What inspired you to be in the ESL field?
5. Were you an ESL student?

Interview questions:

1. What are some everyday challenges faced in the ESL classroom?
2. Does it ever become frustration for you or your students if you aren't able to communicate or comprehend each other?
3. Do your students struggle with the work that you assign?
4. How do you conduct your lessons?
5. Do your students grasp the material and lesson easily?
6. How do your students overcome their struggles? Do they ask a friend for help or do they ask the teach?
7. Does it make it difficult for the students who don't live with English speaking people hard to learn the language?

Blog 8

Statement of purpose (what you hope to show/discover)

I hope to discover the techniques teacher use to teach their non-english speaking students. How the teacher overcomes her struggle and how he or she helps their students overcome their struggles as well. 

Detailed statement of your research question

What are the most common struggles that you and your students face in the classroom everyday and how do you overcome those struggles as a team?

List of the information you need to gather

• how ESL teachers teach
• common struggles in the classroom
• the attitudes of the students towards ESL
• what motivates these students

A preliminary list of sources

Plan for gathering your information that includes:

·         who/what you will be studying (for example:. students in a College Composition class, how they think about the comments teachers write on their papers)

I will be interviewing two elementrary ESL teachers and one ESL student

·         where you will collect your information (for example:. in interviews at Kean University)

I will be collecting this information at the school where the teachers work and I will interview the student in her home.

·         how many subjects you will study (for example:. 3)

I will be studying 3 subjects

what methods you will use to conduct your study (for example:. interviews, textual analysis, discourse analysis)
I will conduct interviews, textual analysis, discourse analysis. I was also hoping to do an observation in a classroom but I don't think that will apply to my study, 

Blog 7

For our class interview, we had to interview a classmate about Valentine's Day. The person I interviewed was Ariana. Before the interview I developed my questions and prepared what I was going to say to develop enough data for my results.
After listening to the interview I noticed how awkward it was at first but it eventually eased up. We began to get comfortable with each other and the interview turned out well. I interviewed Ariana first and one major mistake that I did was that I forgot to ask her her name. I dove right into the questions. However, I did ask some personal questions to get to know her better.
The results of our interview showed that Ariana and I both had the same attitude towards Valentine's Day. We thought of it as just another day or a day remind our loves one how much we appreciate them.
I believe this experience has prepared me to conduct a successful interview. I know have a feel of what to expect and what I should and should not do.

Blog 6

Blog 6:  In class we talked about the differences among a topic, a focus, and the particular research questions you might ask as you conduct your research. 


Topic: The struggles of  ESL in grade school: How the students' and teacher overcomes the struggle of language barriers.

Specific Focus: For this research paper I want to focus on how the students and teacher overcome the struggle of language barriers. I want to get a better understanding of how the students resolve their problems in the classroom of to "say, be, and do" in a new language. I want to analyze their attitudes and behaviors in the classroom-- are they motivated to go to ESL class or not. 

• Are students motivated or ashamed to be in ESL 
• Body language in the classroom-- interactive or not. 
• Are student engaged in lesson and understanding of the material

What I want to do in my study: Being that someday I want to become an ESL teacher, I would like to get a better understanding of how students feel towards learning a new language/ culture and their attitudes. As the teacher I would like to know what I can personally do to help my students be motivated and learn the new language. What methods work what methods don't work (playing games, homework, etc.) I will observe an ESL classroom and interview that teacher to collect my data. 

Post 5

To be honest, I found this exercise to be difficult due to the fact that I cannot multitask; even if my life deepened on it. 



Jottings:

• Everyone was shy and hesitant at first
• people eventually gravitated to people they were more comfortable with.

Head-notes:

• I first spoke to Adrian then to Sara.
• Everyone was awkward 
• People were walking around and scoping out other people's conversations

Things I remembered later:

• You could notice from some people’s body language that they weren't comfortable
• Since we were put on the spot, there really weren't any interesting conversations going on
• Everyone was crowded in the center of the room
• You could notice from some people’s body language that they weren't comfortable
• It was hard to multitask- writing observations and conversing
• Small groups formed
• Lack of eye contact
• Different comfort levels

Field-notes:

It was obvious that we were put completely out of our comfort zones. At first we went to people that we hadn't spoken to before and eventually everyone just gravitated towards someone whom they did feel comfortable around. The body language was extremely awkward and some people even lacked eye-contact. Everyone crowded around the center of the room because we all felt awkward and didn't really know where to stand. I also found it extremely difficult to have a conversation, observe, and write all at the same time. I also thought it was more difficult to hold a conversation with someone who was taking notes on their cellphones than someone who was taking head notes or writing them on a notepad. 

Blog 4

Our Discourse Community

1. A discourse community has broadly agreed set of common public goals.

For the class of English 3029, I think we could all agree that we do have common goals. The majority of the class are English majors, we want to pass the class, we are in the class to learn how to properly write a research paper.

2. A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.

Yes, we listen to our professors lectures and we collaborate within our groups. We use blogs and email to communicate with our teacher and classmates. This class is also teaching us a new set of terms that someone from outside of our community may not understand.

3. A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.

Yes, the main source where we receive feedback from our teacher is via email. The professor expects us to do our blog spots and she replies with feedback via email. The syllabus also provides us with information on what is expected of us and what kind of feedback to expect.

4.  A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.

Yes, our discourse community does utilize more than one genre to communicate with each other. We use our blogs, email, and class discussion. The teacher also provided us with a syllabus, which can be a form of communication, that tells us what is expected of us and the schedule for the semester.

5.  In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.

Yes, our discourse community has our very own lexis. Our professor taught us new terms that most of us have never heard before. These terms will allow us to become better researchers and writers. We also follow classroom etiquette. Such as, not speaking the way same we do to our friends to our professor.

6.  A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.
Yes, our professor is the expert and it is unfair to say we are all on her level. She is way above our level but I do strongly believe she will provide us with the right information so we could reach closer to her level by the end of the semester. Given that none of the class has taken this class before, we are all on the same level.

                               

Blog 3

Before this class, I never really analyzed the way language is used. I have always been able to take apart a sentence and communicate a thought. This course has really made me think critically of the language people use and the underlying meaning of what they are actually saying. I have recently found myself "over analyzing" the way people speak to each other, to me and how I speak to others. ENG 3029 has also introduced me to a new vocabulary, which I think will help me improve the way I communicate and write.


Discourse-language in use; how we relay our thoughts using words. Put patterns for talk: the way language is used.

• letters
• words
• sentences

Classroom discourse- The way language is used inside of a classroom. Teacher is speaking in front of classroom and students are sitting, listening to their teacher.

• formal
• questions
• language use
• IRE
• values

Analysis- the way we separate material and put them into categories and features. It is a detailed summary of our deeper interpretation of an element.
Discourse analysis: how you use the language: cultural connection. Finding something in common with the other people to develop a connection.
Lexis- language within discourse; vocabulary. Each region has its own lexis.
Genre- The way a piece of art, literature, movie or music, is categorized depending on its specific elements and features.

• Literature: folk tale, fiction, non-fiction, poem, fairy tale, fantasy,etc.
• Movies: comedy, romantic, horror, etc.
• Art: abstract, animated, portrait, etc.