Blog 9 Entry Point

In general, Mojie’s research makes me rethink every decision and judgment I have made about English teaching. As an instructor, what we should do is to listen to students and then make a decision considering of students’ choices. Although Mojie’s research is based on a small group of students, the data from her research does tell the current information about students. For example, as assumed by the majority of people, all of young people are the master of technology stuff; however, there is one interview indicating that there are some students don’t use computer/laptop a lot in their life. When these students are put in college, they are “forced” to learn all kinds of new technologies like learning manage system “Blackboard”, Google Doc, etc, and they have to get used to checking emails frequently and doing research online, etc.

When talking about reading and writing, I found the following quotes very interesting:

• “I don’t like reading just for fun unless it’s something I like.” (9)—A quote from student in  interview
• “Finally, youths’ responses to the question about the frequency of reading and writing for pleasure did not show a relationship to achievement” (12)… “The amount of reading done in school was not the only factor that related to improve reading; students’ out-of-school reading habits have also been documented as indicators of their reading ability (Anderson, Wilson, & Fielding 1988)” (12-13).

The reason why I put these two quotes here is that I think these quotes help correct my misunderstanding of two things. First, reading for pleasure ≠ reading for fun ≠ reading that I like. For students, the entry point can be to read something they like and then we keep the pleasure of reading in school text. Second, assessment can only be one sign to indicate students’ ability. Here, I am questioning “achievement”. Is this “achievement” test scores or reading ability? If “achievement” means test scores, test skills are more important, not the ability to interpret text and reflect on the text.

These two points give me some ideas about curriculum design for ESL students. When facing a challenging unfamiliar area, people need an entry point into the area; same as English.  There should be something ESL l students want to explore about English culture and society, and these could be used as the entry point. Students can do their research and start their Fully English reading with help of instructor, and then they can choose their reading or be lead to choose the reading with instructor’s facilitation.