Term Paper on "Tutoring Grammar"

Quoted Instructions for "Tutoring Grammar" Assignment:

The directions are below. I need you to do option #1. Of course, you don*****'t actually have to tutor someone, you can make up the scenario.

Grammar for TESOL Winter 2012

ERROR RESPONSE / TUTORING ASSIGNMENT

Pick one of the two options. I consider Option 1 ***** the Tutoring Option ***** to be the default choice. It will give you experience with a real learner and could be used for tutoring hours if you need them for your portfolio. You can work with writing or speech for the Tutoring Option. If you don*****t already have a learner in mind, going to the IELP Coffee Hour is a good way to find a tutee. E-mail Kristi Kang (kkang@pdx.edu) for details, explaining that you would like to find a partner for some grammar teaching practice. You should also offer to work with the partner for an equal amount of time on anything that person wants to do.

Option 2 ***** the Written Error Response Option ***** is useful if you already have lots of teaching and tutoring experience and you want to work with written errors. If you think you want to do Option 2, send me an e-mail describing your teaching and tutoring experience, making clear why you don*****t need more grammar-teaching practice right now. Tell me when and where you taught, what grammar you covered, and who the students were.

OPTION 1 ***** TUTORING OPTION

Purpose of this option

To give you practice with

ï‚· noticing a real learner*****s grammatical errors and choosing an appropriate one for instruction

ï‚· using class materials and other reference materials to analyze learner errors

ï‚· giving clear explanations of errors, both for teachers and learners

ï‚· helping a learner understand or use a specific grammar point more accurately and appropriately

ï‚· experimenting with your own grammar teaching and critiquing it. Notice that your grade for this assignment does not depend on your doing an excellent teaching job; it*****s more important that you describe what you did and why, and then critique it insightfully.

The Tutoring

ï‚· Spend at least an hour with a learner. Tape record the hour, even though you will use only a few minutes. (You do not need human subjects review committee approval for this *****data gathering***** because you are not presenting your results publicly.)

ï‚· For the first half hour or more, you can do any activity (including working on a writing assignment) but do not work on a specific grammar activity at first. (Do not, for example, work through a unit in a grammar textbook.) Having a casual conversation is fine. During this time, notice errors that the learner makes.

ï‚· In the second half hour (or less, especially if you have a low-level learner) work specifically on one or two grammar points that you have noticed the learner making errors with. Decide how you want to give instruction to the learner. For example, you can choose to start with a consciousness-raising activity, or you could use a deductive approach if you think that will be most effective. You can work on declarative knowledge or procedural knowledge or both. The choice is yours ***** but you do need to have reasons for your choices.

ï‚· If you want to, you can have two separate meetings with the learner ***** one with the initial conversation or other activity, and then another that is focused on grammar. This set-up will allow you time to decide how to address the grammar point you want to address.

After the Tutoring

Listen carefully to the part of the tape where you are helping the learner with the grammar point. Transcribe a few lines that include explanations that you gave and interactions between you and the learner. Consider how effective you think your tutoring is. What evidence do you have that

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the learner understands your explanations? What evidence do you have that the learner learns anything new? Does it appear that the learner already had explicit knowledge of this grammar point ***** and if so, did your tutoring help the learner in any way besides reminding him/her of that explicit knowledge? What would you do differently next time?

What to hand in

Write a paper that covers the following. Use headings in your paper to show the content you are covering. In the past, effective papers have been around 5 pages, but there is no page limit.

ï‚· The context of your tutoring (tell me the characteristics of the learner including proficiency level, your relationship, the length of your meeting, the activity you began with, any other useful details)

ï‚· What grammar point did you choose to work on? Why? (Even if you worked on several grammar points with the learner, write about just one.)

ï‚· Give 2-3 examples of errors that the learner made with this grammar point. Tell the corrections. Explain what the error is in terms that you would use with a fellow teacher who is well trained in grammar. (This should be a more sophisticated explanation than you gave to the learner.)

ï‚· Explain how you tried to help the learner. What kind of instruction did you give? Why? Include one or more transcribed examples of your explanations or exchanges with the student so I can see the actual words that you used.

ï‚· Evaluate the effectiveness of your instruction. Consider questions such as the following: What evidence do you have that the learner understood and that the instruction helped? Do you think you were just reminding the learner of previously learned explicit knowledge? What would you do differently if you were doing this again? You can refer to parts of your transcription for evidence, or quote other parts of the tape that you have not transcribed.

ï‚· Finally, choose two more errors that the learner made. (Write down the learner*****s exact utterances or writing.) Briefly explain them and their corrections (as you would explain them to a teacher well trained in grammar). At most, only one of the errors that you deal with in your entire paper can concern tense/aspect.

OPTION 2 ***** ERROR RESPONSE: WORKING WITH WRITTEN ERRORS

Purpose of this option

To give you practice with

ï‚· analyzing learner errors that you should recognize from content covered in class

ï‚· using reference materials to analyze learner errors with grammar features we have not covered in class

ï‚· giving clear explanations of errors, for both other teachers and students

ï‚· matching a grammar teaching activity to the needs of students

Instructions

1. Choose one of the short paragraphs in Section A of the *****Texts for Error Response***** page. [This page will be given out in a few weeks. It contains ESL and EFL student writing.] For the paragraph you have chosen, do the following:

ï‚· Identify the learners***** errors with tense and/or aspect. Tell which verbs are wrong and what the correct forms would be.

ï‚· Analyze the errors, using terminology and explanation that is appropriate for a teacher who is well trained in grammar (i.e., this should be more sophisticated than the explanation you would give to most ESL students). Explain what the error is and why it is an error. Explain your correction and why it is accurate.

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ï‚· If you want to, you can include reasonable explanations for why the learner seems to be making each error ***** for example, other features that the learner seems to confuse it with or rules the learner might be transferring from the first language. However, do not spend a lot of time on this and hedge appropriately for anything you can*****t know for sure.

ï‚· Remember that tense/aspect is accurate only when the meaning is what the ***** intended (not just if the grammatical form is correct).

ï‚· Briefly summarize evidence you have about the learner*****s proficiency with tense/aspect. Which forms seem acquired and which not (given the sample you have)? How serious are the tense/aspect errors?

2. Choose 2 errors in Section B of the *****Texts for Error Response***** page. (Note: 2 errors, not 2 full texts.) Do the following for each error:

ï‚· Identify the error and write out its correction

ï‚· Analyze the errors, using terminology and explanation that is appropriate for a teacher who is well trained in grammar (i.e., this should be more sophisticated than the explanation you would give to most ESL students). Explain what the error is and why it is an error. Explain your correction and why it is accurate.

ï‚· If you want to, you can include reasonable explanations for why the learner seems to be making each error ***** for example, other features that the learner seems to confuse it with or rules the learner might be transferring from the first language. However, do not spend a lot of time on this and hedge appropriately for anything you can*****t know for sure.

ï‚· Remember that the errors can be related to structure, or to meaning/use. If the status of the error varies with the context of use, make clear what aspects of the context are important.

ï‚· If the error you are addressing is associated with another error, explain that association in your analysis. However, do not discuss other errors that are not related.

For both Section A and Section B:

ï‚· do not include extraneous information. If you include extraneous information when you are working with a student, it will probably confuse the student. In this paper, it will lower your grade.

3. Choose 1 of the errors you have already worked with (or one type of error if there is more than one occurrence) and write out what you would write or say to an ESL student to address this error. Specify whether you are writing comments or talking to the student during a conference. Write down the exact words that you would use. (You can invent the students***** words, too, if you want to write out a dialog.)

4. Continuing with the error you used in #3, imagine that you are teaching a class in which many students are making this type of error. Briefly describe an activity that you would use to address this feature in class. Any kind of activity is fine, except you cannot use an error correction activity by itself. Briefly specify the context of your class (e.g., location, type of program). You do not need to write out all the materials for the entire activity if it is complicated (e.g., all the parts of an intricate jigsaw activity), but describe it thoroughly and give enough concrete examples so that it is very clear how the language feature is being addressed and what operations students are required to do.

What to Hand In

Give me concise, clear answers for each part of the assignment. Do not write one long essay. I expect your paper to be organized so that the sections are clearly identified. Around 4 pages is probably enough, but there is no page limit.