MCELA Matters

From Dan Murphy, NBCT

MCELA Executive Board Member

English Department Chair

Bonny Eagle High School

Applying Lessons from Learning a Foreign Language to Instructional Choices

As a veteran teacher I have completed a lot of professional development and taken a lot of classes. However recently, as my children have become adults and life has slowed down a bit, I have embraced a new challenge: learning a foreign language. As I have done so, I have begun to ponder how lessons from my own learning might positively impact my own instructional choices. Here are a few thoughts. None are new or surprising, yet they can be easy to forget when we become overwhelmed by the minutiae of teaching.

The importance of cultivating a community of learners. Sure, Technology is great, but human connections trump a screen. Most second language learners - French included -  have a host of options: apps like Duolingo, podcasts like One Thing in a French Day, and youtube channels like Comme une Francaise. These tools have certainly aided whatever progress I've made. However, situations human connections have kept me motivated and moving forward. The online platform the Conversation Exchange helped me find and befriend a French language partner with whom I speak most Sundays: thirty minutes in English and thirty minutes in French. In addition, the classes I have taken at the Language Exchange in Portland have allowed me to meet others with similar interests. Unlike me, students in most of my classes are part of a captive audience; however, I can tailor my instructional choices to intentionally build classroom communities. For example, at least once a week we'll do a weekly check-in. Sometimes we take a walk; sometimes we stay in the classroom. However, we always stand in a circle and share out. Questions vary, depending on the time of the day and season: "What went well this week?" or "What are you looking forward to this weekend?" It takes only a few moments, but I have found that time spent away from our ipads and other distractions is worthwhile.

The centrality of human connections. As an adult learner pursuing my own interests, I am intrinsically motivated. Further, I have been lucky to have a number of outstanding teachers. Aside from their content level knowledge and instructional expertise, however, each took a genuine interest in my progress. Moreover, each designed engaging lessons in ways that tapped into the students' interests and goals.  Of course, not all of my English students arrive in our classroom intrinsically motivated. However, I can intentionally make an effort to learn about each students' interests and concerns, whether it's the sports teams they play on, the drama productions that they are practicing for, or the vocational programs that they are pursuing at school. Further, I can design some lessons and units in ways that taps into these areas.

The power of seeing progress. While not all students arrive intrinsically motivated, seeing true progress is intrinsically motivating. In language - as in other fields - early progress often gives way to plateaus. Goal setting and testing in my own language journey have helped me weather these periods. Sometimes I've kept plugging away; other times I've taken a needed pause. While technology can be a distraction and google classroom seems an all too ubiquitous presence in schools, my students do have access to much of their prior work - both for my class and in prior classes. Therefore, I have begun to search ways to harness this information in ways that will allow students to see their own progress over time. Seeing that they have in fact made progress will, I hope, spark motivation.

As I said earlier, none of the items above are particularly new or surprising. However, struggling to learn a new language has reminded me of a few principles that can help me better plan my instruction and help my students. For years I struggled to correctly pronounce the "ti" sound" in French. Reading aloud in class, I came to feel like Ted Baxter in the old Mary Tyler Moore show: the audience didn't know exactly when he'd mispronounce a word, but it was only a matter of time. Finally, when I did get the sound right, it was a moment of celebration for my whole French class. I hope all of my students at some point feel the joy of learning something new and the support of those learning with them.