Portfolio

Table of Contents

1. Description of the City College New York 01
2. Course Curriculum 02
2.1. Syllabus 02
2.2. Textbook 04
2.3. Grading 04
2.4. Class activities 04
3. My Role 06
4. First Teaching Experience 07
4.1. Own Lesson 07
4.1.1. Lesson Plan 07
4.1.2. Handout I 09
4.1.3. Handout II 10
4.1.4. Description of the Lesson 10
4.1.5. Summary of the students answers 12
4.2. Second Teaching Experience 13
4.2.1. Handout 13
4.2.2. Description of the Lesson 14
4.3. Third Teaching Experience 15
4.3.1. Handout 15
4.3.2. Description of Lesson 19
4.4. Fourth Teaching Experience 19
4.4.1. Lesson Plan 19
4.4.2. PowerPoint Presentation 22
4.4.3. Handout 25
4.4.4 Description of Lesson 26
4.5. Fifth Teaching Experience 28
4.5.1 Lesson Plan 28
4.5.2. Handout 31
4.5.3 Description of Teaching 33
5. Students Demography 34
6. Description of Three Students 34
7. Conclusion 36


1. Description of The City College New York
In Fall of 2010 at City College of New York (CCNY) 15,553 students were enrolled and 37, 2 percent were part-time students. 52.6 percent of all CCNY students were women. Of the undergraduates, 75.2% were full-time students, 25.6% were part-time and 4.8% were non-degree students. In Fall 2010, 88.5% of CCNY new Freshmen were under 19 years old. But only 13.7% of all CCNY Undergraduates were under 19 years old. The rate of women who graduated in 5 years was 34% and that for men who graduated in 6 years was 34.1%.
57 .9% of CCNY's undergraduates is a member of a minority group. In Fall 2010, CCNY's undergraduate students ethnic makeup was Hispanic 32.2%, Black 21.3%, Asian 19.2%, White 18.0%, Non-resident Alien 9.2% and American Indian/Alaskan Native 0.2%.
In the 2009-2010 academic year 2,664 degrees and certificates at CCNY were awarded. This was an overall increase of 12.6% from 2007-2008. 1,640 Bachelor degrees were awarded in 2009-2010, Hispanics 28.5%, Blacks 22.6%, Whites 19.6%, Asian/Pacific Islanders 17.9%, Non-Resident Aliens 11.3% and other 0.4%.
Nationally, The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac reported 1,433,279 Bachelor degrees were earned in 2006-07 by these ethnic groups: Whites 72.1%, Blacks 9.6%, Hispanics 7.5%, Asian/Pacific Islanders 6.9%, Non-Resident Aliens 3.2%, and other 0.8%. Of all the degrees earned, women earned 32.3%.
Queens was home to 22.2% of the students at CCNY, Manhattan 20.8%, Brooklyn 17.5% and the Bronx 15.3% as the other major places of residence.
Excluding English at CCNY 104 languages were spoken. In Fall 2010, the five languages – excluding English - with more than 100 speakers were Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, Urdu, Russian, Korean, and Arabic.
In Fall 2010 CCNY students came from 156 countries - excluding the United States. The ten with more than 100 students were the Dominican Republic, China, Bangladesh, Jamaica, India, Ecuador, South Korea, Columbia and Trinidad & Tobago.
Engineering was the most popular undergraduate degree choice from Fall 2000 through Fall 2005 at CCNY. In Fall 2006 Social Sciences became the most popular. In Fall 2007, Engineering was again the top choice and was through Fall 2010. In Fall 2010, Humanities and Arts was second, Social Sciences was third and Science was fourth. Engineering enrollment was 22.5% of the total number of CCNY undergraduates who declared a major. In 2009-2010, the largest number of degrees awarded was in Social Science, Humanities & Arts was second, Engineering third, and the Center for Worker Education (CWE) fourth.
2. Course Curriculum
2.1. Syllabus
The syllabus for the Social Linguistics class has 10 pages. The first three and half page is contact information, course requirement and description, textbook, course learning outcomes, grading and course policies. Between pages four and ten for each class activities, readings, and homework are explained.
All contact information such as email, office phone and professor’s office are given. Also students can find on the first page which kind of activities they will be involved in during this semester, like learning games, viewing videos on American dialects, and exams.
By the beginning of the explanation of the course the professor uses the pronoun “you” where she speaks directly to the students. But in the following sentence she switches to the pronoun into “the students” where she is not speaking directly to the students anymore.
The course learning outcomes are described in seven points. Defining key terms in sociolinguistics and describing key features of American English in the North, South and West are two of the learning outcomes in the syllabus. Also to teach the understanding and analyzing of language and communication are some learning goals during this class.
The course policies are summarized under seven points. It is explained that students may not be absent from a class more than four times during the semester and all course documents will be posted on CCNY on-line Blackboard. Students have to take each exam on the official date and only in case of illness which has to be documented by a physician a make-up exam can be offered.
Also the link to the CCNY Policy on Academic Integrity is indicated. The syllabus points also to cheating and plagiarism and it is exactly explained what is meant by these terms.
On the syllabus students can read for each session what they have to read, the activities during the session, topic of the class discussion, and also a description on how they have to do the homework.

2.2. Textbook
We used in the Social Linguistics class the second edition of the textbook “How English Works A linguistic Introduction” written by Anne Curzan and Michael Adams. This textbook is subdivided into fourteen chapters and introduces the structure of the English language, general theories in linguistics, and also important sociolinguistic problems are discussed.
The first chapters deal with the basics of linguistics. Topics, like syntax, morphology, and grammar are presented. Furthermore, semantics, dialect, language acquisition, language variation and the history of language are discussed in this textbook. After each chapter students can find a list of further readings and also exercises can be found. Major scholars’ biographies are given in each chapter through sidebars.
2.3. Grading
The grading of the Social Linguistics class is mostly based on the exams. Students will have three exams and each is worth twenty-five percent of their grades. Twenty percent is counted by homework and quizzes. Five percent of their grade will depend on their class participation which is described in the syllabus as to be present in class on time, homework has to be submitted on or before the due date and also an active participation to the discussions in class and online influences the grading. Final course grades will be given form a scale from A + to F. Students will pass the class with a grade C or higher.
2.4. Class activities
Various class activities are involved in the social linguistics class such as free writing, class discussions, watching videos and group working. Each class had different activities and concentration so students were not bored and participated actively in the class which is important in the process of learning.
After watching the videos on, “Do You Speak American” students had to write an in class response. They wrote down their thoughts, questions, and what they found interesting. To give them the opportunity to free write which helped students to work in a atmosphere without pressure. The informal paper were collected and read by the instructors. With the help of these responds students interest and question can be figured out and during the next session discussed. It was a good strategy to watch the videos after the due date of their exams. Students worked hard to finish their exams and therefore to ask them to read the next chapter and taking the exam would be not effective. Students would complete the exam and had no time to read the chapter and therefore discussions to the chapter would not be effective.
Class discussions are very helpful to underline important points in the chapter and to make sure that these points are understood by the students. Along with the class discussions the instructor had prepared hand outs with guiding questions which organized the discussion and also prepared student to the next exam because these hand outs were related to the questions by the exam. For an inexperienced teacher it is more work to prepare these hand outs but on the other hand also the instructor can benefit from them because it is like a lesson plan and the base of the exam. During these discussions the instructor asked student to sit in a circle so that she could see all of the students. To sit in the circle gave the feeling as to work in group work in a nice atmosphere and not in a conventional class, where almost only the instructor speaks and the students listen.
Another method was in the Social Linguistics class to ask the students to work in groups. The instructor had prepared guiding questions and asked students to make a group of three students. Each student had a function in there group. A secretary ,who took the notes, a presenter, who will present their results and a discussion leader who makes sure that they stay on the topic and time. When students work in groups they feel more comfortable to ask each other questions and the level of the language and knowledge are the same and when they explain their thoughts, they can understand each other better than the instructor. When the groups presented their result the discussion was lively and not only the presenter spoke, also the other participated. Before the instructor handed in the exams some of the questions which were answered incomplete were discussed to make sure that all students can rethink their answers and learn the complete answer. Reviewing the exam questions underlined the correct understanding of the questions and also prepared them to the final exam. Another important point is that the instructor explains in this way her expectations so the students know how to answer to the questions.
3. My Role
I was introduced in the syllabus to the undergraduate Social Linguistics class as a graduate student teacher. During the sessions I was always present and helped the instructor with the organizing of the class. Picking up CD player from I Media or the copies from the duplication office, distributing the handouts and collecting the exams and quizzes were some of my duties.
I mainly observed the instructor and took notes on how she applied her knowledge and experience to this class. Before each class the instructor and I organized the session and spoke about which topic we will concentrate on and with which method we will introduce the topic. During the session I observed the instructor and how she applied the oral lesson plans to the class. It was like learning through watching and learning new methods and strategies.
Sometimes students asked me questions about their exams, grading, and organizational questions. After the first exam students complained about the intensive work they have invested for the exam or when they wanted to speak about a problem which they have with the instructor they asked me how to tell her. I was like a bridge between the students and the instructor and through my teaching experiences from Germany I could help them with these kinds of questions because I like to think how an instructor thinks.

4. Own Lesson
4.1 Fist Teaching Experience
4.1.1. Lesson Plan
Lesson 1 February 24, 2011
ENG 31106 Social Linguistics
Topic: Language and Authority
Descriptive and prescriptive grammar rules and corpus linguistics.
Learning Outcomes:
1. The students will be able to understand the difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar rules.
2. They will learn how corpus linguist works.
Materials: textbook, video
Planning Tips:
3 min.
1. Greet the class. Inform them about activities that we are going to do today.
2 min.
2. Hand out the flyers and ask the class to form a small group with 3 classmates.
8 min.
3. Students will answer in groups to the questions and I will set up the video.
8 min.
4. Groups will answer one question and I give the chance to add information from other groups. I will collect the answers from each group (secretary).
3 min.
5. Explain to the class the corpus linguistics. How they work, materials and importance.
3 min.
6. Ask the class “What do you think, in which areas is corpus linguist working and why?” 2-3 Students will answer and I will add information when necessary.
8 min.
7. Show the video to the class and hand out flyer with guiding questions.
10 min.
8. Ask the class what they have answered to questions on hand out 2.
Total time: 45 min.



References:
How English Works: A Linguistics Introduction, 2nd edition by Anne Curzan and Michael Adams (Pearson Longman, 2009).
The Word Counter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixw-XyycGdU

4.1.2. Handout I
ENG 31106
Social Linguistics
Professor Gleason
Ms. Ayse Keskin Saglam
February 24, 2011
Guide for Reading and Discussing Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammar Rules in
“Ch 2 Languages and Authority”
Please form a small group with 3 of your classmates. Then, choose a discussion leader, a secretary, and a speaker for your group. Your group secretary will write down your answers and you will also hand in your results. The speaker will present your group's results in class today.
1. What is a descriptivist attitude toward the study of language?
2. Why might linguists be more likely to adopt a descriptivist attitude toward studying language than a prescriptive attitude?
3. What are two examples of descriptive language rules?
4. What is a prescriptive attitude toward language use?
5. What are two examples of prescriptive language rules?
6. Explain MCKean’s Law and Deborah Cameron’s viewpoint.
7. What point of information did you find most interesting in Ch. 2?
8. Was any part of the text in Ch. 2 unclear? Or do you need more explanation about any topic?


4.1.3. Handout II
ENG 31106
Social Linguistics
Professor Gleason
Ms. Ayse Keskin Saglam
February 24, 2011
Guiding Questions for Discussing “The Word Counter” (Video)
Please view the video about corpus linguistics and answer the following questions.
1) What did you learn about corpus linguistics?
2) Is corpus linguistics a descriptive or prescriptive enterprise? Explain your answer.
3) How do corpus linguists work? And what kinds of materials do they use?
4) In which areas are the results of corpus linguistics useful? How can the knowledge gained from corpus linguistics be used?
5) What was the most interesting topic/information that you learned about while you were viewing the video?
4.1.4. Description of the Lesson
I taught on February 24, 2011 the first time. After rereading the chapter “Language and Authority” I decided to teach the descriptive and prescriptive grammar rules because on the syllabus the instructor mentioned in the course description that this topic will be explored. Another learning outcome was to teach the students how corpus linguistics works. When I read the chapter about corpus linguistics in our text book I realized that this topic is not well described and this was the reason why I chose this topic. By my online research I found on youtube a short video “The Word Counter” about 8 minutes, where A corpus linguistics professor explains the areas where corpus linguistics work and their function and also their methods and strategies. To underline these topics I have prepared handouts with guiding questions. The lesson was planned for forty-five minutes but we have spent 75 minutes, the whole session with these topics.
After informing the class about the activities we will do I have distributed the handout with the guiding questions about descriptive and prescriptive grammar rules and asked them to form a group with three students (a secretary, a presenter, and a discussion leader). To answer the questions I gave the students eight minutes and then we discussed the answers. After the discussion I have collected the answers of the students and summarized it and posted it on blackboard. The students had a summary about the topic and could use it to prepare for the next exam. I was very excited and could not focus on the students answers. The handout was well structured but I could not lead the discussion because I did not know how to respond to their answers.
Before we watched the video I tried to give the class some information about corpus linguistics so they have an idea about it and I have distributed the second handout with the guiding questions to the video. Students liked the video and through the guiding questions we had a nice discussion but I was still excited and scared to say something wrong so I could not lead the class discussion.
I noticed through the answers of the students that they have learned what I wanted them to learn and I think the reason therefore was the well organized lesson plan and the handouts with the guiding questions.

4.1.5. Summary of the students answers
1. What is descriptive attitude toward the study of language?

A descriptivist attitude towards the study of language based on the content on how one speaks or why they use certain words rather than observing grammar.

2. Why might linguists be more likely to adopt a descriptivist attitude towards studying language than a prescriptive attitude?

They adopt a descriptive attitude because it characterizes how a person or group speak and relates to the ever changing factor of language.

3. What are two examples of descriptive language rules?

• Adjectives precede the nouns they modify
• Regular nouns form the plural by adding -s

4. What is prescriptive attitude toward language use?

A formal language where you have to follow the grammatical rules of the language.

5. What are two examples pf prescriptive language rules?

• Do not end a sentence with a preposition
• Do not use double negatives

6. Explain McKean's Law and Deborah Cameron's viewpoint

McKean's Law explains that when correcting another's speech or language, the corrector will inevitably make a mistake of their own. Deborah Cameron believes that correcting another is a natural part of language development. She further argues that studying these incidents of correction should be a part of linguistics.

7. What point of information did you find most interesting in Chapter 2?

• The word "ain't" first appeared in the seventeenth century
• The history of dictionary and its evolution
• Prescriptive and Descriptive language rules
• Written versus spoken word


4.2. Second Teaching Experience
4.2.1. Handout

ENG 31106
Social Linguistics
Professor Gleason
Ms. Ayse Keskin Saglam
March 10, 2011
Turkish and German Alphabet
Turkish Alphabet
A B C Ç D E F G Ğ H I İ J K L M N O Ö P R S Ş T U Ü V Y Z
Ç Çay Tea
Ğ Sağlam Stabile
I Irmak River
Ö Özlem Yearning
Ş Şarkı Song
Ü Ülke Country

German Alphabet
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X
Diphthong
Ä Ärger Anger
Ü Übung Exercise
Ö Öl Oil

Au Auto Car
Eu Eule Owl
Ei Ei Egg
IE Sie She
ST Strasse Street
CH Chemie/Buch Chemistry/ Book
SCH Schreiben To write

4.2.2. Description of the Lesson
On March 10, 2011 I got the chance to teach. Teaching 75 minutes is very hard and therefore Professor Gleason gave me the opportunity to teach the last 20 minutes of the class. I have prepared a handout with the Turkish and German alphabet and it was very easy to talk about this in front of the class. We talked about how many speech sounds German and Turkish has and I focused on the different letters. First we discussed the Turkish alphabet and then the German alphabet and I pointed out the different letters in the both languages. We have tried to find the similar speech sound between the three (English, German, and Turkish) languages. This experience was like informal “teaching” but it helped me to feel comfortable to speak in class and just tell them what I know. The students listened to me and were interested. It was a nice feeling to know that “I can do it”.



4.3. Third Teaching Experience
4.3.1. Handout
ENGL 31106
Social Linguistics
Professor Gleason
Ayse Keskin Saglam
April 05, 2011
Questions and Exercise for Morphology

Question 1
The study of the construction of words out of morphemes...
A. morphemes
B. morphology

Question 2
Smallest linguistic unit that has meaning or grammatical function.

A. bound morpheme
B. free morpheme
C. morphemes
D. derivational morphemes

Question 3
Bound morphemes always attach to other morphemes, never existing as words themselves. They always carry a grammatical function.
A. True
B. False

Question 4
An affix that attaches to the end of a stem; in English, suffixes may be inflectional or derivational.
A. Prefix
B. Suffix
C. Affix

Question 5
An affix that attaches to the beginning of a stem...
A. Prefix
B. Suffix
C. Affix

Exercise1 : Identifying Morphemes
Count the number of morphemes in each word. Underline the bound morphemes and define the part of speech.
Example: unpreventable -- 3 morphemes; un- prevent –able. Adjective

1. Beauty
2. Knowledge
3. Kindness
4. Reelections
5. Biology
6. Unable
7. Running
8. Blindness
9. Prepay
10. Dislocation
11. Ladylike
12. Purposeful
13. Strongly
14. Judgment
15. Stapler
Exercise 2
Isolate the affixes in each of these words and state wether each is prefix or suffix.
Example: unchanged = -un-prefix, -ed-suffix
1. Include
2. Unpredicted
3. Action
4. Redirection
5. Forcefully
6. Resulted
7. Behead
8. Devised
Exercise 3
Determine what kind of suffix is highlighted in the words below. Use the structure of the sentences to guide your decision.
• Inflectional Suffix
• Noun-forming Derivational Suffix
• Verb-forming Derivational Suffix
• Adjective-forming Derivational Suffix

Example: industrialist = Derivational- Noun - Forming


Washington Irving

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow


In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town. This name was given, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the inveterate propensity of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise and authentic. Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world.

1. Spacious
2. Expansion
3. Denominated
4. Protection
5. Generally
6. Adjacent
7. Authentic
8. Quietest
9. Places

4.3.2. Description of Lesson
On April 5, 2011 I have offered an “ Exam Workshop”. It was optional and I thought that just 5-10 students would come and listen to me. 14 students joined this workshop. I prepared a handout with exercises and questions about morphology. I researched online for these questions and I was very surprised that I could find different pages with different questions and exercises. So, I have prepared a four pages handout with different exercises and questions. When I started the class with my own questions and handout I was very “free”. Nobody is watching me and I can just share my knowledge with the students. I felt comfortable and safe. We discussed the questions and sometimes I asked the class to look up the answer in our textbook. When students said the wrong answer I let other students correct his/her answer and students liked my handout. They really worked on it. They took it serious. I was surprised. After the class some students came to me and said “Thank you”. It helped me feel good and self confident. This time I was focused on the lesson and concentrated so I could listen to the student’s responses and questions. I was not scared to say something wrong or make a mistake and it was a great class. Students got very good grades on this exam and this shows that the “exam workshop” was successful.
4.4. Fourth Teaching Experience
4.4.1. Lesson Plan
Lesson
April 28, 2011
ENG 31106

Topic: Chapter 8: Spoken Discourse, How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction
Defining Discourse Analysis 252-253,
Discourse Markers: Signaling Discourse Organization and Authority 269-273.

Learning Outcomes:
1. Students will be able to understand the definition of
a. Discourse
b. Discourse Analysis
2. Students will be able to apply their knowledge of spoken discourse to analyzing samples of written and spoken language.
3. Students will be understand the definition of discourse markers and apply their knowledge to a dialogue.

Materials:
Power Point Presentation, Handout (Dialog)

Planning Tips:



-Greet the class
- Ask about their spring break (How was your spring break? Any interes-
ting news you want to share with us? Did somebody celebrate Easter?)
- Inform the class about the activities that we are going to do today.

-Start power point presentation
- Explain “Discourse” and “Discourse Analysis.”
- Talk about the example given in the power point presentation and ask for more examples.

- Tell students the distinction between written versus spoken discourse.
- Talk about the influences of spoken discourse and ask students for examples.

- Explain the characteristics of spoken discourse and nominalization.

- Students will work in pairs to do the assignment where they have to find the characteristics of spoken discourse in a paragraph. After 5 minutes pair work we will discuss the results in class.

- Explain to the class what are discourse markers and their function (signaling and authority) with examples.
- Talk about the different types of discourse markers.

- Students will work in pairs to analyze the dialog to find discourse markers and their function.
- Students will share their results in class.

- We will summarize what we have learned in class.






4.4.2. PowerPoint Presentation












4.4.3. Handout
Handout: Dialog
ENG 31106
Professor Gleason
Ms. Ayse Keskin Saglam
April 28, 2011

Name:

This in-class workshop activity will be evaluated and awarded class credit points. If you do the exercise fully, you will receive full credit (15 points).
S1: so. i see that you're from Hartland Michigan [S2: yes ] this is, right up the road
S2: mhm, like forty minutes from here [S1: yeah ] mhm
S1: okay, and uh, you say that you're interested in prebusiness and economics
S2: i was i don't think that i am anymore
S1: okay cuz you write a lot about international business.
S2: mhm i wro- i w- i'm interested in the um, international aspect, [S1: uhuh, uhuh ] more, of a um, of a, program or whatnot so, like the international, business i was gonna do, it's a really, you know open field, you know like all that stuff but i don't, think that that's what i wanna do anymore, so
S1: okay so what, what changed your mind and what has it been changed to?
S2: um, i, don't know if i wanna sp- like i wanna experience like you know, cultures and and the world and and [S1: mhm ] everything and and business would be get me th- to these places but i don't know if i wanna spend all my time behind a desk, not really enjoying where i am, you know, like having to d- work with numbers all the time and like, not really being out, doing something a little more interesting maybe like flavorful in any case so, i thought about um, i don't know if i, i mean even if i, ugh i just don't think business is and i, i have lots of other interests like um, that are a little bit more like, paleontology or astronomy or [S1: oh ] international religion or uh not religion international relations, so, those things i wanna_ i think i'm gonna concentrate more on, i don't think i wanna do the business.
S1: have you done any digs or anything like that?
S2: no i'm really like dinosaurs like fascinate me like that stuff fascinates me but i don't know if that's like a career choice yet but i, was looking through the course book and i know they offer like a w- half a term class or something, [S1: one of those ] that if i had space [S1: geology short courses ] mhm [S1: mhm ] that i could, like, take and see if i, if it was worth it that i should go into, [S1: mhm ] you know more depth or if that was just sort of like okay, i l- i like it but i don't wanna, like study that so i don't know.

4.4.4 Description of Lesson
I taught on April 28, 2011 the fourth time. After rereading the chapter “Spoken Discourse Authority” I decided to teach discourse analysis because it is a major topic and very interesting. I have planned to explain the definition of discourse, discourse analysis so they can apply their knowledge of spoken discourse to analyze samples of written and spoken discourse. Another learning outcome was to explain what are discourse markers and there function. In our text book I found a link with dialogs where the students can identify discourse markers and explain their function. The lesson was planned for forty-five minutes but I have spent sixty- five minutes and the instructor taught the last ten minutes of the class. To teach this class, I have prepared a power point presentation.
This class was the first class after the spring break and therefore, I asked students how they are and then informed what we will do today. First, I have explained the definition of discourse and discourse analysis and the distinction between spoken versus written discourse. I have asked students for some reasons why the written discourse is different from the spoken one. Some students answered my question and I could explore their answers.
On the power point presentation I posted a paragraph which was written first in written language and then in spoken language. I asked the students to work in pairs and find the characteristics of both paragraphs. It would be easier when I had prepared a handout with the paragraphs and guiding questions for the students so they could keep their result. By the discussion of the results I recognized that the students understood the difference between spoken and written discourse. Some of the students were not concentrated and they had not listened to me.
After the class discussion I explained what are discourse markers and their function. Through examples I showed them different discourse markers and tried to point out their individual functions. To catch the attendance of the not concentrated students I asked for examples in the class. I asked students to work in pairs to analyze the dialog and find the discourse markers and their function. After distributing the handout these students, who did not listen to the class were confused and could not understand the assignment. I went through the class and explained them again what are discourse markers and their function.
By the end of the class the instructor took over and made the assignment very meaningful. First, she asked two students to read aloud the dialog and students joined to listen to their classmates. Through the aloud reading of the dialog students could visualize the content of the dialog and find the discourse markers and also explain their function. I have learned, it is not important how old students are, dialog reading is fun and all students enjoyed this class. I also recognized that I was not excited and could listen to the students and guide all the discussions. Unfortunately, I asked the duplication office to print out my handout twenty- eight times and had not counted it. So, when I distributed my handouts, we had only eighteen copies.



4.5. Fifth Teaching Experience
4.5.1 Lesson Plan
Lesson
May 10 , 2011
ENG 31106

Topic: Chapter 10: Language Acquisition, How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction
Summary of pages 336- 348.

Learning Outcomes:
1. Students will learn when and how babies acquire language.

Materials:
Handout
Planning Tips:



-Greet the class
- Inform the class about the activities that we are going to do today.


- Explain that babies are able to hear the phonemes of all the known languages of the world and that they can hear differences by sounds.

-Explain that 3-4 months old babies are more attentive to their mothers’ voices than to a stranger’s voice.
- Four month they prefer listening to language than listening to other sounds (e.g., TV, music, washing machine).

- Explain the “Sucking Test”



- Explain them the test which shows that 5 months old babies do lip reading.


- Explain why 7-8 month old babies start to babble.



- Explain that infants have learned to pay attention only to the phonemic distinctions relevant to their parents’ languages.



- Explain that English speaking babies’ first words are mostly nouns.
- Ask: “Do you remember which was your, cousins, siblings, nieces, nephews’ first word?”


- Explain that 12-18 month old babies can speak maybe 10 words but they probably understand between 50 and 200 words.



- Explain that with 18 months English speaking children rarely use inflectional ending; third person singular -s on verbs or functional words.


- Discuss with the class the chart “Approximate Rate of word Acquisition for Children” and ask these questions:
1. Why do children between the ages of 8 to 12 years learn 12.1 words per day? What could be the influences on this performance?
2. Some children start speaking earlier than other children. What could be the reason?






5.4.2. Handout
Social Linguistics
May 10, 2011
Professor Barbara Gleason
Ayse K. Saglam
Quiz: Language Acquisition

1. Young infants can discriminate between speech sounds in all human languages. Then, at some point, they only recognize the speech sounds in their parents' language. At what age do babies typically start to hear mainly the speech sounds of their parents' language and not the speech sounds of other people's languages?
a. 2 months
b. 5 months
c. 10 months
d. 14 months
2. Babies start to babble at what age?
1. 2 months
2. 3 months
3. 5 to 6 months
4. 7 to 8 months
3. Babbling serves which of the following functions?
1. Babies are babbling to practice use of their vocal cords, tongues, lips and other articulators.
2. Babies are babbling to request milk.
3. Babies are babbling to create a special language shared with other babies.
4. Babies are babbling to practice producing speech sounds that they hear people speaking.
4. At what age can babies imitate adults' facial movements?
1. Babies can imitate adults' facial movements just a few hours after birth.
2. Babies can imitate adults' facial movements 3 to 4 days after birth.
3. Babies can imitate adults' facial movements 2 weeks after birth.
5. Babies can imitate adults' facial movements 4 weeks after birth.
5. Here is one reason for why it is important that babies can imitate adults' facial movements (e.g., open their own mouths or stick out their tongues) when they are quite young:
1. This shows that babies are born with a sense of humor.
2. This shows that babies recognize that they themselves have something similar: a face.
3. This shows that babies like their parents.
4. This shows that babies can move their speech articulators at an early age.

6. Why do children between the ages of 8 to 12 years learn 12.1 words per day? What could be the influences on this performance?

7. Some children start speaking earlier than other children. What could be the reason?


4.5.3 Description of Teaching
After I have read the chapter “Language Acquisition” I have decided to summarize all important points of this chapter and give the students an overview on how and when babies start speaking. The next part of the session the instructor showed the video “Reading Rockets” and asked some questions about the video.
After greeting the class I have explained that we will learn today how babies acquire language. I started explaining how infants have learned to pay attention only to the phonemic distinctions relevant to their parents’ languages and we also discussed why do children between the ages of 8 to 12 years learn 12.1 words per day and what could be influencing this performance?
I also prepared a handout with guiding questions to the summary I presented them. The students could apply their acquired knowledge and they also could reread the chapter during the class. These helped students to understand the video they will watch because they received the knowledge which they need to understand the video.
I could lead the discussion and also explore to the response of the students but I did not feel well on this day and therefore, I could not concentrate. Especially the topic “Language Acquisition” is my favorite topic and through the first and second Language/Dialect and Literacy Acquisition class I took last semester I had a good fundament to prepare this class.



5. Students Demography
Twenty-six students have participated on the Social Linguistic class. Sixteen of the students are female and they make the majority of the class. Students from different majors come together in this class and this makes this class unique because all of the students took this class for different reasons and with different point of views. This class is also a degree requirement course for English majors and therefore the majority of the students were English majors.
Most of the students were traditional students and only three students were over thirty years old. We had a couple of ESL students from France, Kazakhstan, Poland and China. It was a good mix of different ethnicities and languages. Some of the students could speak different dialects of English.
6. Description of Three Students
I have chosen three students from the Social Linguistics class. Two of them are students with some problems and with weak grads and the other one student is one of the strongest in the class. I will not use the real name of the students and therefore I will say student a, b, and c.
Student A is a male student and his major is Secondary Education and English Major. He is taking this course because of personal reasons and he wants to improve his communication ability through understanding how language works. Student A is very interested in music and the college degree is only a B plan, in case he cannot be successful in music. He was absent three times.
In the beginning of the class this student was very concentrated and listened to the lessons and participated in the class discussions. He was very interested in the topic and his knowledge about the reading was impressive. It seemed that he will become one of the strongest students in the class.
Through the semester he changed his work ethic rapidly. He became more quiet and he handed in his first exam not before the class but after the class. Student A explained that he has problems and could not complete the exam and that he is sorry. He only got 56.5 points by the first exam and he got a F. By the second exam he got a C+ and I think that he could get an A but he did not invest enough time to do the exam well.
Student B is a female afro-American student and her major is Political Science and minor English. She is enrolled in five classes and has a full time job and will graduate in 2013. She is taking this class to understand grammatical rules and improve her conversation skills because she wants to go to a law school after she graduated.
In the beginning of the class she participated during conversation and listened carefully to the instructor. After several weeks she started to come late to class and she handed in her paper like student A not on time. She received a C in her first exam and she only said that she is sorry but she could not finish her paper. When the instructor told her that she will probably give her an F for handing in late, she seemed to be okay and this surprised me. I thought she will explain her reason, but she did not. Student B also received a B in her second exam and it seems for me that she only wants to pass this class.
Student C is male Hindu student and his area of study in college is Psychology and he wants to become a lawyer. He is taking this class to understand the history behind the language and correct many of his own mistakes. Student C wants to publish his own contribution to the English language.
During the semester he was very quiet and did not participate on class discussions. By the first exam he received an A+ and surprised us. The instructor tried to push him to participate in class and only when she asked him a question he gave good answers but otherwise he was silent. Also by the second exam he got an A + and he became one of the strongest students in the Social Linguistics class. Student C does not like to talk but he likes to work and to be a perfectionist and through my experience I can say, he will accomplish all his goals.
7. Conclusion
This project is called “Supervised Team Teaching” and it was my pleasure to get this experience from an excellent, experienced and passionate instructor. The instructor had a clearly designed syllabus, handouts, exams and exercises. Through her experiences for over twenty years I have learned that the perfectionism comes with the years and through watching her during the lessons I have learned how she leads discussions and ask the right questions at the right time.
We had twenty-six students but this class size was not a problem because the students were well behaved, on time, and very interested to the subject. I think the good discussions are based on the well prepared handouts with the guiding questions. This is something which I have learned from my instructor and I will use this also in my further teachings.
Before each class the instructor and I met and we discussed what we will do in class. Through these meetings I have learned how to prepare and organize my class and how to introduce new topics to the students. In class I could see how the instructor applies the lesson planning to the class and how she adapts the plans to different situations in class.
It was also very interesting and unusual for me that we have not discussed the textbook chronological. The instructor adapted her learning goals to the chapters and therefore the students did not read the textbook chronological. Especially, I was overwhelmed how the instructor introduced phonology and morphology to the students. These topics are complicated and have a lot of terms but she had prepared a handout where she discussed in a circle with the students each term and let them reread it in the textbook.
When I prepared my first lesson, I thought that I will do well because I never had trouble teaching in Germany but I forgot that Social Linguistics is not my major and that I am only one step ahead of the students which I will teach. Another point was that English is not my mother tongue and when I get excited I will get in trouble because I could not listen to the students’ answers and explore it.
By my last teachings I felt more comfortable to speak in front of the class and just tell them what I have prepared to teach but I made mistakes and I can only avoid these mistakes through teaching experiences.