The “Social Practice” of Teaching

      Examining teaching from the context of a ‘social practice’ may provide us with fresh insights that will challenge the accepted ways of seeing the world of teaching with important implications for faculty development. First, we will look at what we mean by a social practice and then see how teaching falls into that category. A social practice needs to be understood in terms of purpose, context, and a complex array of norms. A social practice is, first, a form of activity that has grown out of common needs in a community to accomplish certain purposes.

      A system of etiquette and a means for communication serve to make human society more civil. Second, a social practice involves shared and mutually understood ways of behaving or acting. Third, the patterns of action are guided by a complex array or norms that we might call rules, standards, principles, precepts, and unwritten policies. These norms have authority (people comply willingly), and they are created and recreated in and through the interactions of those involved in the practice (Case, 1990; Selman, 1989; MacIntyre, 1984; Taylor, 1983). The norms provide reasons for the actions or behaviors of individuals. As in etiquette using particular forms of address, handshaking, and removing or wearing particular headwear are the behaviors that constitute the practice.

      The behaviors have meaning only in terms of the context of that particular community and purpose and can only be explained in relation to the guiding norms. The feature of a social practice (they develop out of the common needs of the community) is clearly consistent with what has already been said about the purposive nature of teaching. Teaching is an activity that has grown out of the need in a community to pass on its knowledge, mores, and behaviors and in medical schools these are formulated as mission statements which include educational aims. To view teaching as a social practice is to acknowledge, first and foremost, the expectations society has for teaching, or in other words, the particular purposes of teaching.

(Available in: D’Eon, M., Overgaard, V., & Harding, S. R. (2000). Advances in Health Sciences Education, 5(2), 151–162. Accessed on May 18st, 2019. Adapted.)

The Regional English Training Centres (RETC) project – new approach to teaching English already shows results

                                                        September 30, 2018 08:00 By The nation

      British Council and the Thai Education Ministry have joined hands to modernise the teaching methods of 17,000 English-language teachers in the kingdom, moving from the “grammar-vocabulary” memorisation system to focus on communication.The UK cultural and education international body’s Regional English Training Centres (RETC) project aims to improve the skills of teachers at primary and secondary schools across Thailand.

      Some 75% of English teachers in Thailand are ranked at the A2 elementary level in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), representing an IELTS score of 3.5 to 4, according to the statement issued by British Council on Friday.The RETC Boot Camp project was first introduced in 2015 to improve overall English teaching proficiency. After two and a half years, 15,300 English teachers, or 90%, have improved their confidence in teaching English and using it in classrooms.

      As the next step, an assessment and evaluation system is to be considered to assist in the adaptation toward the communicative approach.

      Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin said the development of Thai students’ English skills is crucial and needs serious improvement. Each Thai student studies English for at least 12 years at primary and secondary school, however most are unable to communicate in English which is the main obstacle to global competition, he said. Two main challenges that need to be addressed are Thai teachers’ English skills and their teaching approach. “By focusing on language accuracy and the memorisation method rather than the communicative approach, most Thai students cannot communicate effectively in English,” he said.

      Many Thai students also have a poor attitude towards English classes. Andrew Glass, director of British Council Thailand, said since the start of the project, 15 RETCs have been established and that 17,000 out of 40,000 of Thailand’s English teachers have been trained and mentored in the communicative approach. Additionally, more than 30 teachers have been intensively trained to become TMTs. They work with British Council trainers to mentor and transfer knowledge to teachers and school directors, creating academic networking opportunities with regional supervisors to improve their follow-up sessions.

      After completing the project, the research clearly indicates that 90% or 15,300 English teachers have more confidence in teaching English in the communicative approach and more confidence in using English in their classrooms. Besides, 72 of English teachers improved their lesson planning and were able to give clearer instructions, while 94% improved their lesson management. In addition, 93% of English teachers have improved their English subject knowledge. Sutthiwat Sutthiprapa, one of the Thai master trainers and a full-time English teacher at Khor Wittayakom in Nakhon Phanom Province, said all the knowledge he gained from the RETC project can be applied in his English classes. “It significantly changes the atmosphere of the classroom and the students’ attitude towards English. "Students are eager to attend the class and make every effort to participate in class activities. I believe that if every English teacher in Thailand exploits the RETC concept, Thai students’ English ability will increase considerably," he said.

(Available in: https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1548446/british-council-helps-train-thai-english-language-teachers.Accessed on May 18th, 2019. Adapted.)

         Why 'Run' Is The Most Complex Word in the English Language

                                                                                         BY EMILY PETSKO

      English can be hard for other language speakers to learn. To use just one example, there are at least eight different ways of expressing events in the future, and conditional tenses are another matter entirely. For evidence of the many nuances and inconsistencies of the English tongue, look no further than this tricky poem penned in 1920. (For a sample: “Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!”)

      As author Simon Winchester wrote for The New York Times, there’s one English word in particular that’s deceptively simple: run. As a verb, it boasts a record-setting 645 definitions. Peter Gilliver, a lexicographer and associate editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, spent nine months sussing out its many shades of meaning.

      “You might think this word simply means ‘to go with quick steps on alternate feet, never having both or (in the case of many animals) all feet on the ground at the same time,’” Winchester writes. “But no such luck: that is merely sense, and there are miles to go before the reader of this particular entry may sleep.”

      This wasn’t always the case, though. When the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published in 1928, the word with the most definitions was set. However, the word put later outpaced it, and run eventually overtook them both as the English language's most complex word. Winchester thinks this evolution is partly due to advancements in technology (for instance, “a train runs on tracks” and “an iPad runs apps”).

      He believes the widespread use of run—and its intricate web of meanings—is also a reflection of our times. “It is a feature of our more sort of energetic and frantic times that set and put seem, in a peculiar way, sort of rather stodgy, rather conservative,” Gilliver told NPR in an interview.

      So the next time you tell your boss you "want to run an idea" by them, know that you’re unconsciously expressing your enthusiasm— as well as all the other subtleties wrapped up in run that previous words like set failed to capture.

(Available in: http://mentalfloss.com/article/582820/run-most-complex-word-in-english-language. Accessed on May 17th, 2019. Adapted.) 

Schools of thought: can mindfulness lessons boost child mental health?

      Children are taking 10 minutes out from the hurly burly school day to reflect on their thoughts and their feelings. Some ground themselves by thinking about their feet on the floor, while others concentrate on their breathing.

      This is mindfulness, the lessons quickly growing in popularity as an antidote to the stress of being a young person in the 21st century, be it pressure to perform in exams, social media, or the obsession with body image that is reported to even affect primary age children.

      Children are learning about their brains and how to deal with unruly thoughts – to control emotions such as anger and fear. It is no longer head, shoulders, knees and toes, but amygdala, hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex.

      The most recent NHS survey of young people’s mental health in 2017 shows one-in-eight 5- to 19-year-olds in England has a diagnosable mental health condition. Hospital admissions for anorexia alone more than doubled in the eight years to 2017/18.

      Stress is a known barrier to learning and a growing number of schools are targeting the emotional health of pupils through schemes such as meditation, mindfulness and the provision of mental health first aiders and buddies.

      The Mental Health Foundation charity wants emotional wellbeing to be at the heart of the school curriculum, and has chosen body image as the key theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week. Dr Antonis Kousoulis, its assistant director, said its survey last year found 47% of people aged 18-24 had experienced stress over their body image to the extent of being overwhelmed or unable to cope. “Social media has certainly played a part,” he says. “Historically, it was the mirror that was the main driver of perception of our image and how we thought others perceived us. Nowadays, young people are exposed almost on a 24/7 basis to manipulated and heavily edited images, whether that’s in advertising or photos of their friends.”

      Over the past five years there has been a proliferation of mindfulness organisations and companies selling lesson plans and staff training to schools. But does it work?

      Secondary school teacher Richard Burnett, who founded the Mindfulness in Schools Project 10 years ago, warns against “quick fix” approaches. “We are a charity started by teachers who wanted to teach children how best to manage their thoughts and feelings and deal with the rollercoaster of being a young person,” he says.

      It has two training courses for teachers – one aimed at secondary students and another for younger classes. “It’s about training your attention to notice what is going on. If you are aware of that, you can choose how to respond, for example to manage the amygdala, the part of the brain that detects fear and prepares a response,” he says.

      Emotional disorders are on the rise, and we should instil something in our children and young people about coping with stress, advises Lee Hudson, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s mental health lead. But should it be mindfulness? There is evidence that the process can bring benefits to adults, he says. “[But] the evidence for its effectiveness with children is not yet sufficiently robust and we need more research. However, some schools are rolling it out and children seem to enjoy it – and it unlikely to cause harm.”

(Available in: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/16/mindfulness-lessons-child-mental-health. Accessed on May 17th, 2019. Adapted.) 

TOURISM IN TURKEY

Turkey's Tourism Took a Hit in 2016

by Isabel von Kessel,

Jul 13, 2017  

Several major terrorist attacks in(1)____ Ankara, Istanbul and Diyarbakir, as well as an attempted coup d'état one year ago, made 2016 one of the worst years for (2)_____ Turkish tourism industry. After a ten-year-high of nearly 36,8 million visitors arriving in 2014, Turkey is facing a severe backlash that is hitting its tourism sector the hardest. Following the coup on 15 July 2016 and subsequent purges in Turkey, foreign visitor numbers have dropped dramatically (70 percent). By the end of last year visitor numbers fell to 25,4 million. While European holidaymakers and business people (notably the British and Germans) are still reluctant to pay a visit to Turkey, visitor numbers nevertheless increased from January to May 2017 by 16.3 percent when compared to the same time frame of the previous year. However, Russian citizens are increasingly making up for the declining tourist numbers from other countries: with more than 928,000 visitors coming from Russia up until the end of May, Germany was displaced as (3)_____ largest source of tourism for Turkey. (…)  

Source:https://www.statista.com/chart/10270/tourism-in-turkey/(adapted)

Access:22^nd April, 2019  

TEXT II

What to Know About the Controversy Surrounding the Movie Green Book

Depending on who you ask, Green Book is either the pinnacle of movie magic or a whitewashing sham. 

The film, which took home the prize for Best Picture at the 91st Academy Awards, as well as honors for Mahershala Ali as Best Supporting Actor and Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly for Best Original Screenplay, depicts the burgeoning friendship between a black classical pianist and his ItalianAmerican driver as they travel the 1960s segregated South on a concert tour. But while Green Book was an awards frontrunner all season, its road to Oscar night was riddled with missteps and controversies over its authenticity and racial politics. 

Green Book is about the relationship between two real-life people: Donald Shirley and Tony “Lip” Vallelonga. Shirley was born in 1927 and grew up in a well-off black family in Florida, where he emerged as a classical piano prodigy: he possessed virtuosic technique and a firm grasp of both classical and pop repertoire. He went on to perform regularly at Carnegie Hall— right below his regal apartment—and work with many prestigious orchestras, like the Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. But at a time when prominent black classical musicians were few and far between due to racist power structures, he never secured a spot in the upper echelons of the classical world. (African Americans still only make up 1.8 percent of musicians playing in orchestras nationwide, according to a recent study.) 

Vallelonga was born in 1930 to working-class Italian parents and grew up in the Bronx. As an adult he worked as a bouncer, a maître d’ and a chauffeur, and he was hired in 1962 to drive Shirley on a concert tour through the Jim Crow South. The mismatched pair spent one and a half years together on the road — though it’s condensed to just a couple of months in the film — wriggling out of perilous situations and learning about each other’s worlds. Vallelonga would later become an actor and land a recurring role on The Sopranos. 

In the 1980s, Vallelonga’s son, Nick, approached his father and Shirley about making a movie about their friendship. For reasons that are now contested, Shirley rebuffed these requests at the time. […]

(Source: from http://time.com/5527806/green-book-movie-controversy/)

TEXT I

Critical Literacy, EFL and Citizenship

We believe that a sense of active citizenship needs to be developed and schools have an important role in the process. If we agree that language is discourse, and that it is in discourse that we construct our meanings, then we may perceive the foreign language classrooms in our schools as an ideal space for discussing the procedures for ascribing meanings to the world. In a foreign language we learn different interpretive procedures, different ways to understand the world. If our foreign language teaching happens in a critical literacy perspective, then we also learn that such different ways to interpret reality are legitimized and valued according to socially and historically constructed criteria that can be collectively reproduced and accepted or questioned and changed. Hence our view of the EFL classroom, at least in Brazil, as an ideal space for the development of citizenship: the EFL classrooms can adopt a critical discursive view of reality that helps students see claims to truth as arbitrary, and power as a transitory force which, although being always present, is also in permanent change, in a movement that constantly allows for radical transformation. The EFL classroom can thus raise students’ perception of their role in the transformation of society, once it might provide them with a space where they are able to challenge their own views, to question where different perspectives (including those allegedly present in the texts) come from and where they lead to. By questioning their assumptions and those perceived in the texts, and in doing so also broadening their views, we claim students will be able to see themselves as critical subjects, capable of acting upon the world.

[…] 

We believe that there is nothing wrong with using the mother tongue in the foreign language classroom, since strictly speaking, the mother tongue is also foreign - it’s not “mine”, but “my mother’s”: it was therefore foreign as I first learned it and while I was learning to use its interpretive procedures. When using critical literacy in the teaching of foreign languages we assume that a great part of the discussions proposed in the FL class may happen in the mother tongue. Such discussions will bring meaning to the classroom, moving away from the notion that only simple ideas can be dealt with in the FL lesson because of the students’ lack of proficiency to produce deeper meanings and thoughts in the FL. Since the stress involved in trying to understand a foreign language is eased, students will be able to bring their “real” world to their English lessons and, by so doing, discussions in the mother tongue will help students learn English as a social practice of meaning-making.

(Source: Adapted from JORDÃO, C. M. & FOGAÇA, F. C. Critical Literacy in The English Language Classroom. DELTA, vol. 28, no 1, São Paulo, p. 69-84, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.scielo.br/pdf/delta/v28n1a04.pdf). 

INSTRUCTIONS: Read the text carefully and then answer the questions from 21 to 26 by choosing the correct alternative.

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Along with the main app, Grammarly offers a neat browser extension. This means you get the same checks across the web—whether you‘re crafting the perfect tweet or updating your LinkedIn profile. It‘s an essential tool when you want to look professional online.

By Stack Commerce January 5, 2018 –Popular Science.

Instruction: Answer questions 36 to 40 based on the following text.

Klingon to Dothraki: Invented languages gain popularity

1. The idea of invented languages is not new. People have been trying to create new tongues
2. for a long time. One of the most famous examples is Esperanto, created by Ludwik Zamenhof
3. in 1887 which he hoped would become __ globally spoken unifying language. The fact that it
4. is based on 16 very simple rules and took words from languages already present makes it very
5. easy to learn. This was a conscious decision by Zamenhof who hoped that if everyone spoke
6. one language, there would be fewer wars and conflicts.
7. So far, none of the existing constructed languages has achieved a large number of
8. speakers. Klingon, the invented language of Star Trek has around 20-30 speakers. Na’vi, the
9. language created for the movie “Avatar” has one fluent speaker, 10 intermediate speakers,
10. and over forty novices. Dothraki, which was crafted specifically for __ series Game of Thrones,
11. boasts seven intermediate speakers and around a hundred novices. For now, Garadálava has
12. exactly one speaker: Fynn Schlemminger himself.
13. However Esperanto is a notable exception: it’s estimated that the language has around
14. some 1,000 native speakers, and many parents teach it to their children. TV series, movies,
15. books, and especially the Internet have given invented languages a chance like never before.
16. According to the BBC, Esperanto, which was created almost exactly 100 years ago, is currently
17. experiencing a boost, mostly thanks to the language learning app Duolingo, and a highly
18. engaged online community. Wikipedia is also available in this language.
19. With the amount of time and effort it takes to learn a new language, it is rather unlikely
20. that __ invented tongue will achieve world domination in the same way English has. But it is
21. clear that there is rising interest in creating new languages. “Yes, there might be more of them
22. in the future, or more people will try their hand at it,” said Carpenter.

Fonte: adaptado de http://www.euronews.com/2018/04/25/from-klingon-to-dothraki-is-inventing-your-own-language-that-hard-

QUESTION

Technological change – from consumers to producers

Chris Pim

   Over the last 20 years, there has been a tremendous shift in the way that users integrate technology into their personal lives. These changes have taken time to filter down into the educational sector, but slowly teachers have realised the need to adapt their practice in order to reflect the changing nature of technological use in the wider world.

   In the past, technology has predominately been used to source and consume information, whereas today‟s learners have become particularly adept at creating and collaboratively developing content for a wide variety of purposes, for example so-called Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, forums and wikis. Moreover, children and young people are now becoming increasingly interested in the concept of „content curation‟ –selecting, sifting, showcasing and sharing content with friends, family and peers.

   The change from a „read Web‟ to a „read/write Web‟ has encouraged teachers to become increasingly inventive in their approach to engaging technologically savvy learners who want to publish their work within an ever expanding arena.

(…)

PIM, Chris. Emerging Technologies, emerging minds: digital innovations within the primary sector. In MOTTERAM, Gary (Ed.) Innovations in learning technologies for English language teaching. London: British Council, 2013.