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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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 Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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Why are students allowed to sit at the back when they obviously can't see the board
I teach smaller class then most Chinese teachers. In part due to my winning overtime for testing oral english when teaching large oral english classes (12 hours), our college no longer has any classes larger then 40 students for the laowai.
But even whan I taught oral to 150 students, I could observe who needed to sit closer. I have never seen a Chinese teacher worry about this.
Maybe it is a , "The students are adults, it's up to them." But to me, it is much more of a, "couldn't care less." attitude, the attitude I sense towards any disabilities |
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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 2:48 pm Post subject: |
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| would that suggest that a Chinese reader who's dyslexic would have no problems with English |
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I doubt that is the gist. Rather, the person with this problem will have a different area of the brain effected. or perhaps another way to look at it, though the study doesn't openly deal with it, is that reading Chinese and reading english activate different parts of the brain, which would seem to make sense, on the face of it. But then the next logical step would be that if we use different parts of our brain for reading, our brain develops different neural connections, which would effect the way our minds perceive and interpret visual information |
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roadwalker
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 1750
Location: Ch
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| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Interesting idea. Since there are some children who are naturally bilingual, growing up in two-language households, I wonder if it's ever been the case of a student being dyslexic in one language and not in the other? This study would suggest that it's possible, particularly if one language is alphabet based in the written form and the other isn't. |
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eslstudies
Joined: 17 Dec 2006
Posts: 1061
Location: East of Aden
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| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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| roadwalker wrote: |
| Interesting idea. Since there are some children who are naturally bilingual, growing up in two-language households, I wonder if it's ever been the case of a student being dyslexic in one language and not in the other? This study would suggest that it's possible, particularly if one language is alphabet based in the written form and the other isn't. |
It is possible. There's a study of a boy growing up as a true Japanese/English bilingual. Reading impaired ["dyslexia" is a psuedo-scientific name for not being able to learn to read and write properly] in English, competent in Japanese.
However, if he was,say, English/Spanish, or any other abc language, I'd suggest he'd have difficulties in both languages.
PS Arioch:
then/than
affect/effect
Pedantic, yes, but it grates. |
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un
Joined: 09 Mar 2008
Posts: 670
Location: on-line china
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:00 am Post subject: |
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FROM pg. 2 of Promoting Change thread
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Journal of Imagination in Language Learning
Volume VII - 2002-03
... Music and Whole Brain Learning
>> In terms of cultural diversity and learning styles, it 's clear that some cultures are more right-brain dominant than Americans are. Some ethnic groups think more in picture than in words. ESL students represent that diversity. According to H. D. Brown (1994, p. 54), some of the features of right-brain dominant personalities are preferences for drawing freedom in expressing emotions, and frequent use of metaphors. Right-brain dominant people respond well to illustrated or symbolic instructions and rely on images in thinking and remembering. Brown describes the left-brain dominant individual as verbally oriented and objective. They rely on language in thinking and remembering and tend to be analytical in their reading. The left-brain learner rarely uses metaphor.
Music with words uses both brain hemispheres...<<
===============================================
Turning Language Studied into Language Learned:CONSIDERING HOW THE BRAIN PROCESSES INFORMATION
... WHOLE BRAIN LEARNING. ... [i]Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
>>WHOLE BRAIN LEARNING
Perhaps the major benefit of learning a language by speaking in social interactions, whether feedback is provided or not, and whether the learner is at a stage to be able to absorb new information or not, is that it is an active experience involving more brain activity than just intellectual study. Speaking and listening usually involve looking at faces, which is a stimulus to vocal learning in babies (Locke 1993). People show amplified emotions and greater attention, and later remember more when faces in movies are in close-up on a large screen (Nass, Reeves et al 1995). However, exposure to language is not sufficient: interaction is needed, advises Brown (1987:33). Children who watch much TV and understand the language well enough but are hardly ever spoken to, express themselves poorly in speaking and writing (Van Evra 1990:45).
Speaking starts from "a desire to communicate a message" and therefore brings the participation of the limbic brain system--whose primary theme is emotionality--into the learning process (Paradis 1994). Trocme (1984) and Languis & Miller (1991) urge educators developing teaching strategies to consider how the three brains, the brain stem or reptilian brain, the limbic system, and the neocortex, function in concert.
.......Effective techniques for learning syntax would optimally appeal to both the brain's simultaneous and successive comprehension-processing functions, and automatic and controlled production-processes. Learning must deal with both meaning and form, both pattern and detail. The evidence presented here is inclined to favoring techniques with a focus on meaning. While there is not enough evidence to decide on comprehension versus production learning techniques, comprehension techniques may prove to be very effective because they focus on the brain's input-processing functions. The greatest potential for brain activity and thus for language learning seems to be in interactive social situations involving emotional and intellectual efforts to express and understand meaning by listening and speaking aloud. |
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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:29 am Post subject: |
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i do agree that the reseach is pretty consistent regarding the effect of music and rhyme, and i personally believe (with limited research) emotion
This why I suggested trying to stimulate these areas of the brain is a worthwhile idea
Emotion is much harder to"subjectively" research, but the powers of the emotional centers of the brain are greater then most are aware of. |
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eslstudies
Joined: 17 Dec 2006
Posts: 1061
Location: East of Aden
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:38 am Post subject: |
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| arioch36 wrote: |
| but the powers of the emotional centers of the brain are greater then most are aware of. |
And this is a bigger problem then I thought.
Intime should tune into this topic, or at least the way its developing. He has a lot of knowledge in the whole brain area. Western schooling has been working in this field for at least the last 10 years, in my experience. |
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un
Joined: 09 Mar 2008
Posts: 670
Location: on-line china
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:43 pm Post subject: |
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RE: Learning and Emotions
The great soul singer Ray Charles was asked in an interview (which I heard via CD from Crazy English magazine):
"Ray, your songs give me and so many others...such an emotional experience. After all these years, do they do the same for you?"
Brother Ray, smooth as molasses and possibly holding/feeking her hands
(did y'all see the movie?)...
...answered her:
"No, darlin'. Not after all these years...but what happens is...when y'all in the audience feel the emotion, then that's what I FEEL!"
That's the kind of teaching I do choose to do.
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http://adulted.about.com/od/learningstyles/a/brain.htm
Your Learning and Your Brain
Five Ways to Enhance Your Learning
From Ronald Gross, for About.com
4. Your brain deals in emotions as well as thoughts.
Each of us still carries, deep in the back of our heads, our �limbic system� and �reptilean brain� -- legacies of our evolutionary past. These centers of emotion, fear, anxiety, and passion, can strengthen -- or undermine -- our learning. This is the great contribution to our field by the exponents of Emotional Intelligence, like Daniel Goleman in his book with that title.
So activate your feelings to fuel and bolster your learning. Use visualization, free association, and personalization in your learning. For example, list ALL of the reasons you want or need to learn something -- not just the first few which come to mind. Imagine the benefits and powers which will reward your success. Visualize yourself as a master of the subject, and begin to enjoy the gratification. This can turn resistance into attraction.
Tip: Ask yourself what feelings are sapping your motivation to learn, write them down, and consider objectively how you might cope with them better.
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Brian Caulfield
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 1247
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 6:16 am Post subject: |
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This is hoak. Chinese children like western children also write things backwards when learning. Some children even do it for a longer period. It is like speaking . There is a quiet period in learning a language. Some kids start speaking at 2 others at 5 but it doesn't mean that there's some psychological problem. These people who start labeling kids are the same ones who get the active kids on ridilin back home.
I started learning Chinese and I am still learning it . I quite often write things backwards. Probably because of stroke order from top to bottom that there is less of a problem for Chinese kids. If you have ever been in Chinese schools you will find that they are packed in so tight that they must write with their left hands behind their backs. They copy each other so there is less chance for dysleptic writing. |
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