Appropriate Pedagogy:

1. Appropriate Pedagogy: Language, Culture, and Curriculum

2. What is “Appropriate Pedagogy?” • What are appropriate goals? • What are appropriate texts? • What are appropriate contexts? • What are appropriate methodologies? • What are appropriate assessments?

3. Appropriate Goals-1 • Is it “Linguistic Competence”? • Focus on Form • How (grammar) and what (vocabulary) to say

4. Appropriate Goals-2 • Is it “Communicative Competence”? • Focus on meaning (making) • Meaning as bound to a cultural context • Meaning as negotiated through discourse • Meaning as negotiated through communicative strategies

5. Communicative Competence • …[some] occasions call for being appropriately ungrammatical … child acquires knowledge of sentences, not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate, … [child] acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner … [s/he] becomes able to accomplish a repertoire of speech acts, to take part in speech events, an to evaluate their accomplishments by others.

6. Communicative Competence • Knowledge of how, when, and why to say what to whom. [add understanding] • Focus on language functions linguistic items perform. • Ex: achaa, caleN? • Compare: “appropriately ungrammatical” papaji, aap caay pi-yeNge? daddy, aap bhii pi-yoge?

7. Why Communicative Competence • Kashmiri: “Would you like to have a cup of tea?” • caay cakh-aa • caay cakh-ay • caay cakh-ba • caay cakh-bi • caay cakh-sa • caay cayiv-mahraa • caay cayiv-haz

8. Components of “CC” • Grammatical competence: knowledge of the vocabulary, word structure, and sentence structure of a language; • Sociolinguistic competence: the ability to use language in a contextually appropriate way, taking into account the roles of the participants, the setting, and the purpose of the interaction;

9. Components of “CC” • Discourse competence: the ability to connect utterances to an overall theme or topic (discourse coherence), and the ability to infer the meaning of larger units (pragmatics); • Strategic competence: ability to compensate for imperfect knowledge of linguistic, sociolinguistic and discourse rules.

10. Focus of FL teaching • Theoretical focus • How do learners learn? • What do they learn? • Methodological focus • What are learners’ “needs”? • First step: Needs analysis

11. Communicative Language Teaching • Meaningful, goal oriented use of target language—focus on the “active” learner; • Language input is vital, grammar explanations may help; • Some errors are creations of productive engagement with input; • Teacher’s role: selection of material and tasks, facilitator.

12. CLT: Methodology • Mainly TL use in class • Optimal use of L1; code-switching • Authentic texts • Focus on “functions” (in addition to grammar and vocabulary) • Group and paired activity • Meaningful and realistic interactions

13. Competing Methodologies • Input processing: Input => Intake • PPP model: • Presentation-practice-production • OHE model: • Observe-hypothesize-experiment

14. APPROPRIATE TEXTS • Authentic, but what are they? • *Making travel arrangements, going to bars, eating out, booking into hotels, buying gas • Focus on the culture(s) of the TL • An essay on cricket? • Whose culture?

15. Diglossic Variation • Bengali: Calit bhasha vs. Sadhu bhasha • Tamil: Colloquial vs. Literary • Also Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu • What about Hindi?

16. Hindi Language Variation • Eastern vs. Western • Hindi vs. Urdu vs. Hindustani • Polyglossic variation • paati, ciThii, <khat>, patr, <letter>

17. Hindi: Use and Identity • maine janaa hai <> mujhko janaa hai • aap caay piyeNgee <> aap caay piyoge • kyaa ek gilaas shiital jal uplabdh hogaa

18. APPROPRIATE CONTEXTS • Learning SALs as: • Foreign Languages • Less Commonly Taught Languages • Heritage Languages

19. SAL as Foreign Language • Affective Variables: Needs “Needs Analysis” • Motivation? • Integrative and/or Instrumental • Attitude? • Positive or negative

20. SAL as Heritage Language • Heritage and cognate-heritage • Motivation? • Ethno-linguistic identity • Maintenance of cultural practices • Pop culture

21. HL and FL: the vital difference • Input processing • Strategies and mechanisms that promote form-meaning connections during comprehension • Cross-language (and skills) transfer effects • Sociolinguistic competence • Discourse competence • Linguistic competence

22. Less Commonly Taught Languages • Motivation? • Cultural awareness • Diversity

23. Socio-political context of LCTLs • Lack of resources • Lack of classroom research on LCTLs • Lack of institutional support • Lack of formal training in language pedagogy • Abundance of heritage students • Variable class size and offerings • Lack of professional development and networking

24. Contexts of texts • Are they teen-appropriate? • Are they HL-appropriate?

25. Foreign language Literacy Accuracy Fluency Heritage language Fluency Literacy Accuracy Skills in contexts

26. L2 Literacy • Issues • Transfer of skills: Supports or interferes • Language Threshold Hypothesis • Onset of L2 literacy vs. L2 learning • Limited language knowledge of L2 reader/writer • For a LCTL, the problem is worse • Role of strategies: mental translation, cognates • Scripts: The embarrassment of choices • Script choice and identity politics

27. L2 Reading • Abilities and skills • Rapid, interactive, strategic, linguistic, and purposeful • Purposes: • To find information: scan, skim • To learn: basic comprehension of main ideas • To critique/evaluate: reflections, connections and integration with prior knowledge • What works: Texts must be grounded in learner-contexts

28. L2 Writing • Writing is • Text • Composing (process) • Social construction (context) • What about L2 writing?

29. L2 Writing contd. • What is good L2 writing? • Cultures affects texts • Different cultures produce culturally influenced and rhetorically distinguishable types of text. • Some useful pointers • Focus on the process of writing • Group writing tasks, peer correction • Drafting and re-drafting • Teacher as advisor and editor

30. L2 Listening Comprehension • How does comprehension work? • Intelligibility • Comprehensibility • Interpretability

31. L2 speaking • Talk across cultures • In U.S., but not in South Asia, we • Talk around • Talk up • Talk down • Talk it out • Talk it through/over • Have talk radio and tv stations • Have talk show hosts • Take turns talking

32. Conclusions • Language learning must proceed within the socio-cultural contexts of its use • Learning language, learning culture • Goal: Communicative language teaching, tailored to appropriate goals and needs of learners and learning.