LINGUISTICS 191/291 - STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Linguistics and the Teaching of English
as a Second/Foreign Language

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Linguistics 191/291
Announcements & Supplemental Notes
Winter 2009

February 22:
It's hard to believe we only have 5 more classes together! This is a good time to remind you that we will not have class on Wednesday March 4 (nor will we have the CALL class on March 3). The "tentative" listing in the syllabus for that day has now been confirmed.

1) For the CALL class this Tuesday, the homework is to explore the links for one specific language skill from the list in Unit 5 and then to find some additional resources. Our new unit for this week will be CALL Research. We will do the final two units on March 10.

2) For those taking the 191/291 course for credit, hopefully you have had a chance to review my notes on your papers and are starting to think about Assignment 2. Please let me know if you have any questions. Be sure and email me if you have taken one or more of my textbooks so I know where they are. If you didn't find what you wanted you can browse after class or during my office hours Monday.

3) In the regular class Monday we'll finish up the chapter on speaking (TESFL 103-115), move on to grammar (TESFL 251-266) and have a presentation from Alex. For those with a particular interest in grammar, there are two other good chapters as optional reading, TESFL 233-248 and TESFL 267-283. Wednesday we'll cover vocabulary (TESFL 285-299), along with a presentation from Diego. (corrected version)
 

February 15:
1) For the CALL class on Tuesday, the homework is to visit at least two websites you haven't been to before from the list in Unit 4. Our new unit for this week will be CALL and Language Skills.

2) I'll try to have Assignment 1 graded by Wednesday. Assignment 2 is coming up soon. Note that I have moved the due date to Monday 3/2 so that you can hand in both the paper and the book in class. I've attached it so that you can preview it. I'll go over details in class Wednesday and bring along some textbooks you can use for the evaluation.

3) In the regular class Wednesday we'll finish up the chapter on pronunciation (TESFL 117-137) and move on to the chapter on speaking (TESFL 103-115).

As always, this note and other updates are copied to the "announcements" link on the course website: www.stanford.edu/~efs/ling291. Let me know if you have any questions. Because my scheduled office hours are Mondays I won't have them this week, but I am available by appointment if you need to talk with me. Just let me know.

February 8:
We've passed the halfway mark in the class and I think things are going rather well. Keep up the good work. 

1) For the CALL class on Tuesday, remember to either visit an ESL chat room or post a comment on a discussion board. Come prepared to discuss your experience. Our new unit for the week will be CALL on the Web.

2) In class Monday we'll finish up the Lightbown and Spada book and hopefully take a look at the last part of the video we started last week. Those of you doing tutoring and aideing should come prepared to talk about your experience briefly. On Wednesday we return to the Celce-Murcia text with chapters on listening and pronunciation.

3) Assignment 1 for those taking 191/291 for credit is due by midnight Friday. You can just email it to me and I'll print it out. If you prefer to give me a hard copy, drop it off at my office by noon but email me to let me know it's there if I'm not around. Remember that if you're doing the critical review I also need a copy of the article you're reviewing.

This note and other updates are copied to the "announcements" link on the course website: www.stanford.edu/~efs/ling291. As always, let me know if you have any questions. My office hours are Mondays 12:00-1:00, but you can also make an appointment for another time if that time isn't convenient for you.

February 2:
Additional resources about error correction
     Tedick & Gortari: Research on Error Correction and Implications for Classroom Teaching
     NCLRC: The Essentials of Language Teaching

January 31:
Here are this week's updates and reminders.

1) Everything seems to be going well for the tutoring and aideing. I already have a couple of this week's reports. Thanks.

2) For the CALL class on Tuesday, I'd like you to "review a software review" on the CALICO website. See www.stanford.edu/~efs/ling291/call.html for details. Although we will remain scheduled for 4:40, please note that there is an outside possibility I may be late because of a doctor's appointment that afternoon. If so, please go ahead and begin discussing your reviews without me--I'll be along as soon as possible. Our new unit for that week will be computer-mediated communication (CMC).

3) I gave you all a handout on Wednesday with an SLA problem on it. Be sure to bring your answers in for discussion on Monday. Try to see which learners seem to have which features and what you can conclude about their relative levels, and the acquisition order of the different features, on the basis of the patterns there. As I mentioned, it's easiest to see this if you make a matrix with Learners A,B,C,D,E as the rows and the features as the columns: 3rd sg -s, past of eat, past of fall, and the parts of the pluperfect conditional: would, have, and eaten.

4) In class Monday we'll finish our discussion of Chapter 4 on Learner Language and move on to Chapter 5, Observing Learning and Teaching in the Second Language Classroom. This chapter should be particularly relevant to your tutoring and aideing experiences and will be a valuable resource in describing the teacher and student roles for Assignment 1.

This note and other updates are copied to the "announcements" link on the course website: www.stanford.edu/~efs/ling291. As always, let me know if you have any questions. My office hours are Mondays 12:00-1:00.

January 25:
1) Our first computer-assisted language learning (CALL) session was Tuesday 4:40-6:00 in 160-314. We'll be meeting again this week, same time and place. Anyone who missed the first session but is still interested is more than welcome to attend. We'll be going over the CALL language learning experience (see www.stanford.edu/~efs/ling291/call.html) and talking about Unit 2 on development, evaluation, and implementation.

2) Most of you who are taking the course for graduate credit (Ling 291 instead of 191) have sent me the abstract from an article you would like to present and had it scheduled. I'm still missing one or two so please get them to me soon.

3) The tutoring and aide experience seems to have taken off successfully last week, and I have all but one of the reports in well ahead of the 6:00 PM deadline--thank you.

4) We will continue our discussion of Chapter 2 in Lightbown & Spada tomorrow. For those unfamiliar with SLA theory (most of you), it will really help to have read and tried to sort out the different theories and perspectives so that you have some idea of the range of options that attempt to account for SLA. We will also discuss Chapter 3 on individual learner differences.

5) I'll be passing out the first assignment in class tomorrow. It's not due till February 13 but I'd like you to be thinking about it as we go through the rest of the Lightbown & Spada text.
 

January 18:
1) Our first computer-assisted language learning (CALL) session is Tuesday 1/20, 4:40-6:00 in 160-314. This is optional except for those taking the 5th unit, but anyone interested is encouraged to attend.

2) Those who are taking the course for graduate credit (Ling 291 instead of 191) need to send me the abstract from an article you would like to present to the class by Wednesday. See the syllabus for details.

3) For those taking the class for credit, I have made some of the tutoring/aide assignments and approved others. You need to meet with your class or the individual tutees this week: your first report is due Sunday January 25.

4) We will conclude our discussion of Nunan's chapter on syllabus design and start the How Languages are Learned text on Wednesday. Please read Chapters 1 and 2, with emphasis on the latter.
 

January 1: First class: Wednesday January 7 at 9:00 in 160-318. If you are unable to come that day but still plan to take the class, email phubbard@stanford.edu.