New Academic dictionary

Towards an academic definition of  the term discourse community

With the intention of sharing the concept of discourse community, the codes and academic language used by groups of people should be considered for understanding the term under a social perspective. Then, “the idea of discourse community emerges from two other concepts- speech community and interpretive community” (cited in Pintos and Crimi, 2009, p. 12). Thus, the notion of discourse community emerges from social reflection based on academic discursive practices.

For a group of people to be part of a discourse community, there are certain requirements which should be considered following Swales’ (1990) list of basic criteria. In other words, when discourse community members share goals and they also favor participatory mechanisms as well as information exchange, addressing to community-specific genres, the group meets the basic requirements. In this perspective, the discourse community members use highly-specialized terminology evidencing a high level of expertise (cited in Pintos and Crimi, 2009).

Briefly, it may be concluded that the characteristics mentioned above give the tools to recognize discourse communities considering the theory to analyze reality. In this sense, Kelly Kleese (2004) claims that “its members have, over time; developed a common discourse that involves shared knowledge, common purposes, common relationships and similar attitudes and values” (para. 6).

References

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2001). Editor’s Choice: An Open Memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators. Community College Review. Retrieved October 2010, from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_29/ai_77481463

  

Pintos, V. & Crimi, Y. (2009) Unit 1: Building up a community of teachers and prospective researchers. Universidad CAECE. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved October, 2010 from

http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=6856

Towards an academic definition of the term critical incident

The term Critical Incident refers to a “method of reflective practice” (cited in Pintos and Crimi, p. 8, 2009). Following this definition, an incident may be described as an event which demands attention due to the situation which emerged before, during and after it.

Critical Incidents are then, a crucial tool for teachers reflecting upon their own practices and others. According to Flanagan (1954), there are steps for collecting information describing the incident. These steps share special significance while meeting prescribed criteria.

According to Fernández González, Elórtegui Escartín and Medina Pérez (2003), Critical Incidents provide the tools for teaching practices analysis. Through the usage of this tool the teacher observing and analyzing the situation as well as students, are faced with the real-classroom situations which deserve to be analyzed considering the causes and possible solutions attending the students’ context. Critical Incidents have proved usefulness in teaching practices.

References

Fernandez González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N., & Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17- 001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved October, 2010 from

http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/src/inicio/ArtPdfRed.jsp?iCve=27417107

Flanagan, J. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51-4. Retrieved October, 2010 from

http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/special/cit-article

Pintos, V. & Crimi, Y. (2009) Unit 2: Personal narratives in teaching. Universidad CAECE. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved October, 2010 from

http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=6856

A book critique on principles of language learning and teaching

In his book, Brown (2000) explores principles to language teaching and learning experiences introducing key concepts as well as simplifying them for readers to get easily immersed. Brown (2000) develops topics such as constructivist approaches to Second Language Acquisition (SLA), emotional intelligence, models of SLA among others. In this useful study, Brown (2000) provides journal-writing guidelines which aim at helping students or readers put into practice principles to personal experiences in teaching and learning environments.

The reader of this book will identify in this significant work end-of-chapters exercises which aim at rich classroom discussion. Moreover, in the passage called “In the classroom” vignettes, preliminary interesting material is provided considering a wide variety of pedagogical applications from the perspective of second language research. According to Brown (2000), “in this edition the suggestions for further reading now more effectively target audience of students just beginning in the field of SLA” (p.xi).

All in all, the author seems to satisfactorily expand the significant aspects language learning and teaching. Especially interesting is the inclusion of examples accompanied with the theory to help readers clarify concepts related to the field. Nevertheless, Brown ´s (2000) book would have been more complete if he had included a glossary to clarify certain terms which may reinforce doubts due to their similar meanings. Had the glossary section been annexed, the book would have been remarkably complete.  

References

Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. (4th ed.) San Francisco State University. Longman.

Critical Incident Technique: A tool to analyze and interpret classroom situations

The Critical Incident Technique (CIT) is a method developed by Flanagan (1954). It is accepted that this strategy provides the steps for collecting the human evident actions which lead exploration with the intention of establishing possible solutions to the incident being observed (Flanagan, 1954).

In 2004, I started working at a state- fund school in the urban area in my city. I was in charge of first year of Secundaria Básica. Even tough there were no more than fifteen students in my class, things turned quite difficult as soon as I entered the school. I remember the Headmistress worked one shift so if any troublesome situation happened while she was absent, it was solved by the monitor.

The students were from twelve to fourteen years old. They had basic level of English but they seemed not interested at all about learning neither English nor any other subject. The monitor, a very hard-working person, informed me about the social environment of these students. From her recount, I knew the learners had serious discipline problems due to addictions, poor living conditions and aggression. Under the circumstances, I understood why learning ought to be approached in a special mode to be meaningful for this particular group.

Before meeting the students for the first time, I read about the prescribed aims for first year which covered specific contents. No sooner did I meet these adolescents, I knew I should work very hard to adapt the contents successfully while displaying appropriate strategies. On the contrary, this would turn one of the most difficult experiences in my career.

The second class began with a discussion on a comic about the purpose of learning English. My impression was that nobody was interested in it since they hardly made eyes at the photocopy. I must confess I did not know whether to stay or leave the class at once! Then, I decided to survey the students to grasp some information as regards their likes and preferences. After carrying out the survey, I noticed a different attitude on them. I understood then that no matter what the prescribed contents were, I had to adapt them to the students’ reality for them to be meaningful.

The following classes started with a short talk about the things they have done during the week. Then, we continued with warming up games, a song or a story. In that way, students were motivated to start working. As students were asked to work on more demanding tasks, they were organized in groups for them to feel they had a peer to work with. From then on, I felt it was worth trying to work with this unique group of learners who needed attention and care to be eager to learn.

On balance, I must confess this has been one of the most challenging while rewarding experience I have gone through. All the incidents faced with this particular class may be food for thought for teachers who are likely to experience similar situations. The way to tackle the problems may vary, but it has proved to be useful to consider the learners’ environment, needs and likes to address life long learning.

                                                      References

Flanagan, J. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51-4. Retrieved September 2010, from

http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/special/cit-article

Do Critical Incidents aid reflection on teaching practices?

Many teachers and educators consider that a person who masters the concepts of a field is able to teach it, while others emphasize the importance of reflecting and analyzing the situation deeply. Reflection on teaching practice is then understood as a formatting strategy which “outlines procedures for collecting observed incidents having special significance and meeting systematically defined criteria” (Flanagan, 1954, para.2).

According to Fernández González, Elórtegui Escartín and Medina Pérez (2003), Critical Incidents provide the tools for teaching practices analysis. Through this medium, an efficient analysis strategy is developed not only for students but also for teachers evaluating the situation. Thus, being observed when you are still an apprentice may become a very fruitful experience.

A wide variety of alternatives to overcome everyday life controversial classroom situations are provided by the perspective of the observer and the person delivering the class. In this perspective, the numbers and ways of tackling and solving the problems will vary according to the teaching context, the students and the problem in itself.

Lots of memories come to my mind about my teaching practices at college. My teacher of Teaching Practices commented on the classes I delivered. She always highlighted the things I did well and suggested me to re-think certain aspects which, on her view, have not produced a positive outcome. Even though I felt a bit frustrated with some of her comments, I must I affirm I have grown from her careful observation and judgment.

All in all, Critical Incidents do deserve to be taken into consideration for bettering teaching practices. Through this technique, the problem in itself is careful analyzed considering the context and the main causes. On the findings of this research, an ample diversity of possible solutions is reflectively discussed. Certainly, I have used and proved usefulness of this technique some time ago when I was still a student.

      

 

References

Fernandez González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N., & Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17- 001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved December 2007, from

http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/src/inicio/ArtPdfRed.jsp?iCve=27417107

Flanagan, J. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51-4. Retrieved October 20, from

http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/special/cit-article

Considering discourse community main characteristics and requirements

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In order to share and understand the codes and language of academic literacy, it is crucial to deal with the concept of discourse community. The central belief is to consider this issue from the perspective of a social viewpoint with the importance of communicating practices culturally built up.

This paper aims at analyzing the most relevant aspects of discourse communities under the light of Swales’ (1990) basic criteria as regards certain discourse community requirements in four articles in the education field. Under Swales’ (1990) criteria, a group of people who share certain goals, exchange ideas about a specific matter resorting to a particular genre and lexis while evidencing a high level of expertise correspond to the main characteristics of discourse communities. Considering Swales’ (1990) list of requirements, any group of people may be analyzed considering the six basic criteria: common goals, participatory mechanism, information exchange, community-specific-genres, highly specialized terminology and high general level of expertise (as cited in Pintos and Crimi, 2009, p. 13 ). 

Wenzlaff and Wieseman (2004) developes their work about teachers’ needs and classroom practices. In their article, various discourse community requirements appear to be present. It is claimed that “the purpose of the study was to examine the nature of teacher learning in a cohort-based, masters’ degree program…” (para.2). In other words, it could be assumed that this community does not only share certain beliefs but also a high level of expertise seems to be present. With regard to participatory mechanisms, teachers are described as members of a “collaborative culture” (para.2) in which its members learn through the interchange of ideas and practices.

Kelly-Kleese (2001) also associates the value of language to meet goals related to “community college as a discourse community” (para.2).  The importance of information exchange as well as sharing common goals are considered key factors under the author’s perspective. Since this community members are expected to share basic assumptions as regards the approach about communicating knowledge (Kelly-Kleese, 2001), a community specific genre is to be addressed. Participatory mechanisms are favoured by this community as community colleagues are “open to all who want access to post secondary education”

 ( Kelly-Kleese, 2001, para.6).

Special attention is drawn to teacher reflection as a learning course instance in the paper developed by Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles and López-Torres (2003).  A basic requirement is fulfilled as the researchers use abbreviations such as Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to refer to a particular discourse community. The role of interaction is pointed out by Hoffman-Kipp et al. (2003) since through reflection teachers are believed to interact with colleagues who share and  participate in “goal-directed activities that require communication and the exchange of ideas” (para.13). A high level of expertise could be related to the idea that “teachers education and professional development programs ought to authorize more complex discourses about reflection and teacher learning” ( Hoffman-Kipp et al. 2003, para.14).

Kellly-Kleese (2004) continues describing the basic criteria for being members of a discourse community.  In this sense, Kelly-Kleese (2004) claims that “its members have, over time; developed a common discourse that involves shared knowledge, common purposes, common relationships and similar attitudes and values” ( Kelly-Kleese, 2004, para. 6). It may be concluded that this sentence matches the majority of Swales’ (1990) list of requirements. First, as a common discourse is developed, the members of a community should share a specific- genre. Second, for knowledge to be shared, participatory mechanisms and information exchange ought to be present. Then, common purposes or goals are part of the requirements mentioned in the previous statement.

All in all, it can be affirmed that it is possible to find evidence of Swales (1990) basic criteria as regards discourse community requirements in the four articles. The basic criterion has been an efficient tool not only to analyze correspondence between what the theory postulates but also to go deep into text-analysis.

   

References

Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A. J., & Lopez Torres, L. (2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442653

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2001). Editor’s Choice: An Open Memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators. Community College Review. Retrieved October 2007, from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_29/ai_77481463

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2004). UCLA community college review: community college scholarship and discourse. Community College Review. Retrieved October 2007, from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_32/ai_n6361541

Pintos, V. & Crimi, Y. (2009) Unit 1: Building up a community of teachers and prospective researchers. Universidad CAECE: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved September 6, 2010, from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=6856

Wenzlaff, T. L., & Wieseman, K. C. (2004). Teachers Need Teachers To Grow. Teacher Education Quarterly. Retrieved October 2007, from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3960/is_200404/ai_n9349405

 

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Welcome to this blog

 Dear Colleagues,
This new virtual space is part of a class at CAECE Universidad. The purpose of opening this blog is to share my pieces of writing with a community whose members will surely provide comments enhancing critical thinking.
I will be greatful to read your comments and contributions which will help me grow in the academic writing field.
Kind regards,
Valeria