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Teaching and Research. Speaker : Boxiang Zhang. Outline. I. Why to do research II. Research areas III. Research trends IV. Research procedures V. Some suggestions. I. Why to do research. 1. To promote teaching Improve what we are not good Teacher : good at practical teaching;
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Teaching and Research Speaker:Boxiang Zhang
Outline • I. Why to do research • II. Research areas • III. Research trends • IV. Research procedures • V. Some suggestions
I.Why to do research • 1. To promote teaching • Improve what we are not good • Teacher:good at practical teaching; • Not good at teaching ideas that back up the FLT. • Sharpen what we know • E.g. professional knowledge, teaching methods, etc. • Invigorate where we feel powerless • e.g. high-tech multi-media in FLT • Research helps us know why • To know what and how to teach is not enough.
2. New approaches require us… • Look at changes in FLT • Early approaches: • The Grammar-Translation Method • The Direct Method • The Audio-Methods • The Audiolingual/Audiovisual Method • The Oral-Situational Approach
More recent approaches • Cognitive approach • The Natural Approach • Notional-Functional • Communicative approach • Humanistic Approaches • Behaviorist approach • Post-Communicative approach • Constructivist/Integrative approach • Research helps us know the back-up philosophies.
3. Time urges us to catch up • The world changes from chain to pyramid and to network
We are living in a(n) … • Industrialized/post-industrialized world • Information world, • Knowledge world, • Digital world, • Networked world
Students today • Net Generation • Digital natives, sophisticated with technology • Equipped with: MP3 players, iPods, iPhones or smart phones, PCs, and all the other tools of the digital age
Live in a complicated remixed, mashed-up, digital, mobile, always-on media environment. • a. Listening to music. • b. Playing PC/video games. • c. Talking on iPhone. • d. Sending text messages (TMs) or Twittering. • e. Watching videos and/or TV. • f. Multitasking on at least 3 of the above.
Teachers today • Digital immigrants • One foot still in the past • And digital is their foreign language • For many teachers, curriculum remains a static body of knowledge that must be “covered”, “transmitted” and tested.
Students • More confident and skillful in using technologies than teachers • Research helps FL teachers • Build their confidence in using these technologies and solve the problem of low efficiency in FLT
4. Relationship between teaching and research Features of Research Thought-oriented Theoretical General, abstract Detached knowledge Science • Features of Teaching • Action-oriented • Practical • Specific, concrete • Experiential knowledge • An art
Research for teaching-oriented people: • Teaching and car driving • Coexistence • Doing research while teaching • Collaboration • Interaction of teaching and research • Complementarities • Research enhances teaching, while teaching promotes research.
II. Research areas • What to do in research? • Solve problems in our teaching. • 1. Basic elements of FLT • (1) Subject 1 (learner) • Native language level (local dialect), second language level • Ethical and cultural qualities • Personal qualities • (2) Object (content, the target language) • Form (phonetics, vocabulary, grammar syntax, discourse, etc.) • Content (text, hypertext, meaning, skills, competencies, etc.)
(3) Subject 2 (teacher) • Ethical qualities, • Professional knowledge, • Teaching competences, • Language skills, etc. • (4) Means • Teaching methods, • Teaching facilities, • Learning strategies, • Learning environments, etc.
2. Relationship of the elements M S1 OB S2 • (1) S1 (Students) • (2) Object • (3) S2 (Teacher) • (4) Means
III. Research trends • Reasons for research shift to new dimensions and focuses • Complexity of human societies • Pace of globalization • Development of high-tech • New theories of FLT • New needs of Language learners
1. Shift from form to function • Form: phonetics, vocabulary, grammar,syntax, discourse, etc. • Function: messages, themes, social and/or cultural values, tones (humorous, satiric, grotesque etc.) • e.g. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. • “Luncheon” (tone, implied meaning) • The shift is due to functional grammar, pragmatics and anthropological linguistics.
Function-stressed approaches • The situational method, • The functional syllabus, • The notional syllabus, • The communicative approach • From accuracy to fluency • From grammatical competence to communicative competence • Content-based teaching/learning
2. Labor-intensive to high-tech intensive • A shift from face-to-face instruction to multi-media instruction • Multi-media made many things possible in language teaching, e.g., VLE (virtual learning environment). This might make FLT into SLA. • High-tech intensive teaching approaches:
CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) • ICT (Information and Communications Technology) • CMC (computer-mediated communication) • Task-based teaching • Web-based teaching • e-Learning • Digitized learning • How to make FLT into SLA?
3. From external to internal • External factors: condition of changes • Internal factors: basis of changes, • And external through internal • e.g. You can lead a horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink. • Learning has to come from inside; you have to want to learn. • Chomsky (1988): …teaching should not be compared to filling a bottle with water but rather to helping a flower to grow in its own way.
Shift from teacher to learner • Student-centered teaching; • Autonomous learning; • Individualized teaching/counseling; • And interaction between teacher and student. • Do more research on students
Characteristics of the learner • Age • Gender • Personality (Extroversion/introversion) • Motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic; integrative/instrumental) • Aptitude (high/low) • Intelligence (linguistic/logical/musical/interpersonal) • Learning styles (perceptual/cognitive; field-independent/field-dependent) • Learning strategies (cognitive/affective)
New Roles of teachers • Facilitator and guide • Collaborator • Designer • Orchestrator • Evaluator • Integrator • Learner • Researcher
Teacher requires to learn: • New knowledge • New skills • Organizational Skills • Conceptual Skills • New literacies • Scientific, digital, critical, linguistic, cultural
New Means • Teaching methods and approaches • Facilities and technologies: • Audio devices: CD, Web, audiocassette recorder. • Video: DVD, cassette, Web, laserdisc, camera. • Television: Both satellite and terrestrial television programs • Computers • Internet • Environment • Exposure to authentic English all the time with audio and visual materials
IV. Research procedures 1. Statement of the problem 2. Literature review 3. Hypothesis/Questions 4. Choice of research method 5. Design of study 6. Data collection 7. Data analysis 8. Write-up
Statement of the problem • To choose a question that satisfies certain criteria: • Not too broad or general • Not being answered by previous research • A question to be answered • A question that can be answered • To be expressed in a clear, precise, and concise way, and only in one or two sentences.
Take my lecture topic as an example • Suitable or not? • No. • Too big; • Too general. • Have to be narrowed down.
Teaching • What kind of teaching? (literary/science) • Language teaching (NLT/SLT/FLT) • Research • What kind of research? (fundamental/applied/developmental ) • Applied research (professional/non-professional) • FLT and teaching-oriented research
Literature review • A critical evaluation of previous research • A literature review answers the following questions: • What has been said on the topic? • Who are the key writers? • What are the prevailing theories and hypotheses? • What questions are being asked? • What methodologies and methods are appropriate and useful? • It is not a chronological catalog of all of the sources, but an evaluation, integrating the previous research together.
Hypothesis • A logical supposition, a reasonable guess, an educated conjecture • Help to collect and locate the right kinds of data needed • Experiments and tests are conducted and the data is collected. • Hypotheses take three formats: • A question • A conditional statement • An If, then statement
Choice of research method • Crucial to choose the right method • Exploratory research, which helps to identify and define a problem or question. • Constructive research, which tests theories and proposes solutions to a problem or question. • Empirical research, which tests the feasibility of a solution using empirical evidence. • Qualitative research • Quantitative research
Design of study • It is a blueprint of research, dealing with at least four problems: • what questions to study, • what data are relevant, • what data to collect, • and how to analyze the results • The first level is about designing the overall structure of the research • The second level concerns decisions about how to collect evidence.
Data collection • It is the process of gathering and measuring information on variables of interest, to answer stated research questions, test hypotheses, and evaluate outcomes. • Ways of data collection • Direct observation • Interviews • Surveys • Experiments and testing • Questionnaires • Case study
Data analysis • Conduct data graphing, visual inspection, statistical analysis, or other operations on the data as appropriate. • Quantitative analysis is considered to be objective – without any human bias attached to it. • Analysis of qualitative data is accomplished by methods more dependent on people’s opinions, knowledge, assumptions, and inferences (and therefore biases).
Write-up • Steps of paper writing • Write an outline • State your thesis • Organize your notes • Write your first draft • Revise your draft
The structure of the paper • Introduction • Materials and Methods • Results • Discussion • Conclusions • References • Format: • APA (American Psychological Association) style • MLA (Modern Language Association) style
V. Some suggestions • 1. Be a good thinker (research-oriented mind) • Have an inquisitive and curious nature • Never accept things without questioning • Be sensitive to new things • Be imaginative and intuitive • Consider other people’s feelings and thoughts • Take risks in thought and action • Be tough and persevering in spirit
2. Be a good reader • Reading enhances our mental ability and lets you experience the world from a brand new perspective • Read with an insatiable desire and an unquenchable thirst • Create the reading habit with regular reading triggers
What to read: • Humanities and social science works: Literature, philosophy, esthetics, psychology, anthropology, religion, history, popular science, • Professional works: linguistic theories, new ideas and approaches in FLT, etc. • Academic writings: language journals
3. Be a good learner • Take an active approach to learning • Have broad cultural interests and a passion for knowledge (esp. humanities) • Be good at learning from others (esp. scholars) and from previous researches • Attend all kinds of academic conferences • Be familiar with all kinds of new ideas • Be good at collecting and accumulating reference materials • Always be on the frontier
4. Be a good writer • Writing is refined thinking. • Brainstorm before starting to write • Make logical and effective organization • Have a clear sense of audience and purpose • Write in a clear, direct style • Writing needs lots of practice: • Diary writing • Notes taking • Teaching-script writing • Academic writing
Hope Thank you! • All of you will be both good teachers and good researchers.