2. Course Requirements Class participation Written paper: around 1500 words Mock class Final exam (no midterm)

3. LANGUAGE SKILLS FOR TEACHERS: TESL OR PSYCHOLOGY? What is TESL? What is psychology?

4. Questionnaire Why are you studying TESL and what are your professional goals after you graduate from UIC? What do you think we will be learning in this class? What do you hope to get out of this class?

5. Assignment You have been studying TESL for 2 years. That means you have attended 4 regular English classes and numerous TESL classes. If you were preparing to teach those classes you’ve taken, what would you do to improve them? Further, we all make mistakes. When you make a mistake in the classroom, what is the best way to deal with your mistakes? What is the best way to deal with others’ mistakes?

6. Communication in the classroom Source: Johnson, Karen E. (1995). Understanding Communication in Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

7. Kinds of classroom communication Spoken Written Nonverbal Other?

8. Main Point 1 Understanding the dynamics of classroom communication is essential for all those involved in second language education.

9. Main Point 2 In second language classrooms, how teachers perceive their students and how students perceive their teachers will shape both the meaning and structure of classroom communication.

10. Main Point 3 If students are unaware of the social and interactional norms that regulate participation in classroom activities, they may learn little from their classroom experiences.

11. Teachers and students interpret classroom activities through their own frames of reference which are: Moment-to-moment actions and interactions that constitute what actually occurs in second language classrooms. What teachers and students bring to the classroom from their own life. The challenge set before teachers is to recognize both the obvious in there classrooms and the not so obvious within themselves and their students.

12. From the diagram The extent to which second language students are willing or able to demonstrate their knowledge can be constrained, to a greater or lesser degree by the patterns of communication that are established and maintained in second language classrooms.

13. Teachers’ management of the patterns of classroom communication Teachers manage what goes on in classrooms primarily through the ways in which they use language. IRE –Initiation –Response –Evaluation

14. Teachers’ frames of reference Professional and practical knowledge –Prior training and teaching experience –Prior experience as students (as second language learners)

15. Students’ perceptions of the patterns of classroom communication How students interpret what teachers say and do will shape the patterns of classroom communication. Norms of communication behavior in classrooms are generally not explicitly taught, but instead tend to be implicitly enforced through the teachers’ use of language. Most students eventually learn the norms of appropriate communicative behavior based on what they experience with their teachers.

16. Students’ frames of reference Culturally acquired expectations about the norms of appropriate communicative behavior in classrooms based on prior schooling experience.

17. Students’ knowledge and use of language Students enter classrooms with an accumulation of prior experiences and knowledge through which they interpret the world around them. When they are forced to operate in a second language, they must acquire a new means of encoding and representing their experiences.

18. Students’ use of language for classroom learning and second language acquisition There are two kinds of language taught in second language classrooms: –The new language that is being taught in the lesson –The language needed to learn that new language. Language input shapes L2 acquisition only when it is placed within concrete, meaningful contexts in which learners can understand the message even if they do not understand all of the language.

19. Summary By coming to understand the patterns of communication that exist in L2 classrooms, teachers can recognize the extent to which the dynamics of classroom communication can influence the complex processes of both classroom learning and second language acquisition.

20. Other things we discussed We will talk more about these in future lectures:

21. Classroom communicative competence How students talk and act in the classrooms greatly influences what they learn. Students need to know with whom, when and where they can speak and act. They must have speech and behavior that are appropriate for classrooms situations They must be able to interpret implicit classroom rules.

22. What is communication context? Classroom: artificial or contrived? Outside of the classroom: real?