The Active Construction of a Grammar Theory & The Innateness Hypothesis in relation to FLA.

QUESTION: 

How does each of the following theories account for the process of first language acquisition?: a) The Active Construction of a Grammar Theory, b) The Innateness Hypothesis.

ANSWER:

a) The Active Construction of a Grammar Theory focuses on explaining FLA from the perspective of being, as human species, programmed to acquire and construct the linguistic features related to language. It also explains why we cannot come up with higher form structures before simpler and more basic constructions have been mastered.

b) The Innateness Hypothesis as exposed by Lenneberg claims that, as walking, developing our capacity to speak when children is innate to human beings -genetically if you wish- and as such (a naturally expected behavior)  it is expected to occur when children feel ready to do so.

Dead Poets Society - Favourite Scene

Talking about effective teaching, I'd like to share with you one of my favorite scenes from the 'Dead Poets Society' film (1989). On this scene we can see how Professor Keating (Robin Williams), an English Literature teacher, manages himself to teach one of, from most of students' perspective,the most boring contents in the syllabus: poetry and Shakespeare altogether. The trick seems to be spontaneous, adding a lot of humor to the lesson, making students participate actively, and, of course, proposing a task worthy of a lesson like this. Hope you can enjoy it as much as I did... and start looking at things in a different way.

Effective Teaching Implications

According to Alton-Lee’s ten point model for effective teaching (2003) and Gurney’s five key factors (2007), the most reiterative concepts related to effective teaching are enthusiastic teachers, learning encouragement, inclusive learning environments, promotion of metacognitive strategies and thoughtful student discourse and engaging constructively in goal-oriented assessment.
From the perspective of effective language teachers, Allen (1980) states that a love of the English language, critical faculty, the persistent urge to upgrade oneself, and the professional citizenship are concepts that call the attention of ELT professionals.
Then Brown (2000) groups good language teaching characteristics into four groups (technical knowledge, pedagogical skills, interpersonal skills and personal qualities) that present a number of characteristics to be acquainted with as teachers of English.
All the above gives a good deal of responsibility towards teaching. Rephrasing Reynolds and Yates, it is surprising that most of these components of effective teaching are not given much prominence in the professional training of teachers nowadays. These aspects involving effective teaching seem to be totally ignored by university departments of education teaching beginning teachers (Westwood, 2008). Now, how can educational programs at universities prepare ‘warm, concerned and flexible’ (Wilen et al., 2008) effective teachers? Qualities that are empathetic and human in nature and which the students themselves comment about teachers.
Related to students’ learning, effective teaching should include five areas in which skilled teachers display their expertise: presenting and explaining subject matter and ideas, questioning students during lesson time, giving feedback, strategy training and adapting or differentiating instruction, being this last one a very interesting area to discuss.
Adaptive instruction is defined as instruction geared to the characteristics and needs of individual students (differentiation). The teacher that ‘differentiates’ varies the method as necessary during the lesson, from teacher-directed to student-centered, according to students’ abilities and needs. She/he also monitors the work of some students more closely than others, accepts different quantities and qualities of bookwork, encourages peer assistance and selects or creates alternative resource materials.
Being realistic, this would be very difficult to implement and sustain over time. The pressure and extra work for the teacher to attempt this can be unbearable. However, teachers are required to recognize and respond ‘as far as it feasible’ to different aptitudes and learning needs in any group of students (Westwood, 2008) if effective teaching is expected to occur.

Oh, my God!

Overthinking what a good first post could be about to provoke some instantaneous responses, I couldn't think of a better topic than referring to God.

I could have just finished my post there, right? Just mentioning that powerful three-letter word should have sufficed. Is it enough? Is that it? I'm supposed to believe that by only writing His name is enough to break the ice about This tabooed topic - I grew up trusting that talking about God was rude and inappropriate, along with politics and soccer teams. If talking about Him in good terms was that bad, how would have it been to do so in order to question His ways? 

But here I am. Even though my soul is already destined to eternally suffer and burn in hell due to further and stronger critics to His work as I grew up, there's something about believing that keeps me from doing it more often. I'm supposed to believe in the Christian-Catholic version of God. Not that anyone asked me to, but I was baptized to do so. But if I consciously know He is only a version of how to believe in an almighty being, if that is the truth of millions of faithful, devote and thankful Catholic believers around the world, what about the rest? Do other religions propose a different version of God? Is their God better? Is He the same guy tricking us all about the proper name?


Always the same questions when talking about Him. I believe that we were created by some inconceivable superior force whose inconceivably superior existence can only be understood when the right levels of meditation or clearness of consciousness have been reached for those truly dedicated to make the correct questions and find the answer accordingly. We, the rest, will have to wait for anything to happen after exhaling our last breath... that's why in the meantime, I'll always refer to Him with capitals... just in case. 

Welcome!

Greetings from Santiago de Chile! It's been a while since the last time I wrote something on one of my blogs. And today I've decided to restart this hobby... but for the first time, in English.

I'm a BA in English Language, and I'm currently taking an MA Program in TESOL. I just arrived from today's lesson at the university after a long session of oral presentations that my classmates and I had to prepare for the Methodology & Creativity course. Mine was about the Natural Approach method... topic that definitely I will cover more in detail in time.

Well, the idea is to start a whole new eclectic blog where the most diverse, polemic and also boring topics can be analyzed from my selfish and narrow perspective to encourage further discussions, hails and/or insults about them.

I just hope to have both the enough time and mental strength to go on with this new idea. I really do love writing. I really do love using English to communicate ideas. I have to use it anyway, and maybe this could turn into a hell of a good practice.


Welcome, and see you soon.