teaching dates

February 24, 2011 (tomorrow I will send you a lesson plan)

March 10, 2011

March 15, 2011

April 5, 2011 (study exam...answering questions)

May 5, 2011

Lesson Plan

I had prepaid a lesson plan for Thursday, February 17, 2011 but I was too late to show it to you Professor Gleason.

Lesson 1

Topic: A Language like English

How animals communicate with each other?

Learning Outcomes:

1. The students will be able to understand the different ways of communication.

2. They will learn some of the specific vocabulary of linguistics.

3. They will learn that languages are relative to each other and how they developed.

Materials: textbook, video, handout

Planning Tips:

50 min.

1. Greet the class. Inform them about activities that we are going to do today. Turn on the video and watch. During watching the video students should take notes, so that they can write a 600 words response homework.

15 min.

2. Ask students following questions:

1) In which ways is it possible to communicate?

2) It is possible to not to communicate? How?

3) How is human communication different to the animal communication?

15 min.

3. Discuss with the students the definition of the highlighted vocabularies on page 12 and distribute the handout. Explain Grimm’s Law through the examples on the handout and take a look to the Proto-Indo-European language family tree to understand how languages are related to each other.

Total time: 75 min.

References:

How English Works: A Linguistics Introduction, 2^nd edition by Anne Curzan and Michael Adams (Pearson Longman, 2009).

Evolve Episode 6 Communication History Channel,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRISXNXtegU

Third Week

Third Week

Professor Gleason prepared some questions about the chapter”American dialects” and the students worked in group. The students really enjoy working together and sharing information with each other. Some of the group members discussed the questions in details and some only listened. It remind when I went to high school I hate group working because I did all the work and the other students did nothing. As a teacher I try to be careful that everybody is participating and I think the best way to do is to assign a secretary, leader, speaker in each group.

All the students were interested and they listened to the results of the other groups. They asked questions to each other and discussed questions. I really enjoyed this class and it made me happy to see that students really want to learn something. It was a good class.

When I want to teach (February 10, 2011)

February 10, 2011

Conference with Professor Gleason

1. Teaching dates

· February 17, 2011

Chapter 1: A Language Like English

Topics: Linguistics (p, 12) discusses the terms, prepare a list?

Do Language Have families? (Read p, 23 and discuss p, 21) Look for same vocabulary? (List)

· February 22, 2011

Quiz about Chapter 1

Topics: Reread the explanation on page, 40 “Defining Standard English”

Descriptive versus Prescriptive Grammar Rules

Spoken versus Written Language

Discussion about one of the Case studies

· February 24, 2011

Writing assignment

Topics: Sharing answers in small groups and presenting in class the results

What is Corpus Linguistics?

English Grammar, Usage, and Style

· March 10, 2011

Quiz about Chapter 11 Language Variation

Topics/Activities: Sharing responses to the documentary

Review answers to quiz in groups?

Choosing one/two quotation of Ch. 11 with reaction to the idea in that quote

· May 5, 2011

Topic: Language acquisition

Presentation of some theories, focusing on bilingual education?

View Movie and write an autobiographical anecdote

second week

Second Week

I read the syllabus a couple of times and I saw how much details Professor Gleason wrote down. When we will work in groups, when they have quizzes, all the homework and readings. I saw how everything is matched up perfectly. Professor Gleason prepared a syllabus which is diversified.

Second week we talked about the movie and students shared what they learned new or what was interesting for them. They found it very interesting how they make research about new words and then decide to put this in the dictionary. They create a line time to document how language is changing and including the new words in the dictionary. We spoke about Standard American English (SAE) and that this dialect is more powerful than the other dialects because it is used in the official writings, government, school and TV.

Another interesting point was that the New York accent is similar to the Boston accent. It was very good explained and it was very interesting to see how language changed. For example in New York the “r” is not pronunciation. In the movie they said they stopped the pronunciation of the “r” sound after World War 2 without an explanation. Some of the students asked “why” on their response papers to the video. I hope I can find an answer.

In classroom I feel like I am an undergraduate student like them. I do not feel ready to teach. Some of the students seem that they are older than me and more intellectual. I hope, they will accept me as a teacher and therefore I have to catch up a lot.

In addition

On Thursday we watched a documentary movie “Do you speak American?” with the students. I knew that people from Texas speak different but I did not know that the American English can sound so different. When I watch movies I can only differ British English from American English. Next time, when I find time I will watch a cowboys movie form the south to learn more about the accent from this area because in the class students told that the accent from the south is funny. I will figure out this.

First Week

During the winter brake I started reading the textbook for social linguistics class. I recognized that I am interested in all these chapters and it is easy to read. Especially, I saw how much I learned in my second language acquisition class and I could write down almost all the names of the authors which we had read. I could connect the author’s theories with the information of the textbook.

When Professor Gleason and I went to the classroom the first time, I was afraid and happy. I was afraid because I do not feel comfortable with my English but on the other hand I will teach which I have very missed. When Professor Gleason said I have to introduce myself and I should say something about myself, I got very nervous to speak in front of the classroom. I mean, I will teach them and they will hear my voice, pronunciation, accent and mistakes.

Professor Gleason handed out the syllabus and students started to read. Professor Gleason spoke to the undergraduate students different. She was very formal and strict to the students. She explained how they can find their ccny email account and blackboard and she did not offered help. When I started my graduate school Professor Gleason helped me to set up my blog and finding my ccny account.

The students are very nice but they are also different from the graduate students. They are 26 students with different majors and from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Very young students and old students, native speaker and EL students, students with different dialect sit next to each other. We graduate students are also from different backgrounds but something unites us, which I cannot explain. We talk to each other and try to become “friends” but the undergraduate students do not talk to each other when I walk into the classroom. They only sit and read something.