Washington Academy of Languages

Baby you can drive my car

Originally uploaded by in touch

My first two notes on pronunciation were primarily for a general audience. This note is primarily for those with a little experience in teaching pronunciation; though the general reader may find it of interest.

I wouldn’t say the musical metaphor was correct while the building metaphor was incorrect. Both metaphors have their uses. I tend to think that the music metaphor is useful in getting one to think and feel how a native speaker of a language reacts to speech. For example, suppose a native speaker of English hears “I am going on bacation.” The confusion between /v/ and /b/ will not cause the native speaker much trouble. However, consider this exchange: Native speaker: “I am going on vacation.” The Second Language Learner says, “Where will you go?” with rising intonation (when speaking, people usually raise or lower the pitch of their voice). Her intention is to find out the location of your vacation (which a native speaker would ask by rising then falling intonation). A rising intonation would express surprise to a native speaker and so a serious misunderstanding could occur.

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PIANO_JAZZ

Originally uploaded by ramon_perez_terrassa

In my previous blog I indicated thinking of constructing an adequate second language speaker in terms of constructing a building. It was a misleading analogy in certain ways. I closed with the suggestion that music may be a more constructive analogy then the creation of buildings. I asked you to imagine Chopin playing a piece by Thelonius Monk. I used this analogy because I was struck by the following comment made by Monk over 40 years ago, “You know, anybody can play a composition and use far out-chords and make it sound wrong. It’s making it sound right that is not easy.”

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Ahhhh - what a messy room!!!!!

Originally uploaded by littlemoresunshine

Construction is a process that involves the building or assembling of infrastructure. A solid building is impossible without a solid foundation. A strong foundation is a nice metaphor often used to talk about developing knowledge, but we have to use such a metaphor with care. When talking about second language learning, we can begin from the basic building blocks of speech. However, such an approach becomes problematic in teaching pronunciation and building language skills in a second language learner.

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january 15. [globe farm.]

Originally uploaded by misscaro

We thought we’d take this opportunity to share news from around the Seattle area of cultural events happening this season.

From January 24 – June 7, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture hosts the exhibit Coffee: The World in Your Cup. This exhibit looks at how world cultures, economies, and environments are affected by the coffee industry. There will be a number of events related to this exhibit, which you can read about here. The tastings and demonstrations look particularly interesting!

On Thursday, February 19, the Seattle Asian Art Museum will host a panel discussion titled “Playing with Power: States, Art and Patronage in Jodhpur.” The panel will discuss the cultural, historical, literary and social context of the works featured in the exhibition Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur. You can find more information on the Seattle Art Museum’s web calendar here.

The Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival comes back this year the weekend of April 17. From the Seattle Center’s website: “From the booms of taiko drums to the silence of ikebana flowers, the event is a feast for the senses. Delicious Japanese food, tea ceremony demonstrations and artwork present both a modern and ancient view of this complex culture.”

In May of this year, the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington will celebrate its centennial. Leading up to that celebration, the school will host a series of events on international topics. One highlight: “Monthly Centennial Lecture Series with the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle Featuring Resat Kasaba, Professor of International Studies. Topic: Middle East Roundtable - Politics and Economy in a Changing World.” This talk will take place on February 10.

More to come!

Some ideas are just more “delicious” than others, it appears.

I’m talking about our most recent “Super Surprise Thursday” at WAL. This is when there’s a “mystery” activity happening one Thursday every session, for our English students. It always happens during the lunch hour, but as usual, no details or information are given until the day before the event! Students are kept guessing. Sometimes, so am I!

For example, little did the students know that originally, I was thinking I would do something related to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 19) or even for the upcoming Presidential Inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama (Jan. 20). But those ideas didn’t pan out. It just didn’t seem to work in my head creatively. Time was running short.

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Split Water

Originally uploaded by klattu01

I am often asked, “What is the best way to teach a language?” The only answer that I can give is that I have noticed that effective teaching and learning occurs when students balance meaningful communications with direct teaching. The history of second language teaching is marked with periods where people believe more in one approach, e.g. meaningful communication, than the other way of teaching, direct language teaching for accuracy. Then there are periods when the reverse happens. So it goes in language teaching methodology. There are many methods that have come over the dam and down the stream. But in the end the stream flows in one of these two directions.

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Day 23 - Exam hall

Originally uploaded by jackhynes

In the fall of 2008, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) unveiled a revamped exam for endorsement certification. To earn an ELL or Bilingual Education endorsement, the candidate must complete an accredited education program, and then take the state-mandated exam, followed by an in-class practicum called the Field Experience.

Previously, this exam was known as the Praxis 2 and has been administered by Educational Testing Services. In the 2008-2009 academic year, the Praxis 2 has been joined by the WEST-E. These two tests will be offered until July 2009, when the WEST-E will become the sole qualifying exam for the ELL and Bilingual Education endorsements.

To help clarify the changes that have come about from this innovation, we want to point out some of the key differences between these two exams.

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The Washington Academy of Languages is pleased to announce that we not only offer quality language instruction, but cultural seminars as well!

Recently, we hosted a holiday class centered around Italian culture - Le Feste in Italia, and we have one coming up focusing on the holiday cultures of Spanish-speaking countries - Las Fiestas de Espanol. The cultural seminars are filled with lively conversation, holiday samplings and excitement.

Some comments from attendees:

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A classroom

Originally uploaded by Im *S

The central debate in the recent election for the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction was teacher and student accountability. The issue took the form – as it usually does: what type of objective tests will demonstrate student learning and, therefore, teaching effectiveness? There is one area that received scant attention from the candidates: the civil rights of students.

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At WAL’s Intensive English Program, we meet new students from faraway countries every 5 weeks. We spend time together as a group, and build a bond with them, and then POOF! Some leave right after their one-session stay, and we don’t always hear back from them or know how they are doing once they return home. It can be quite sad, actually.

But thank goodness for the internet and EMAIL!

In the past, we would have to send a fax, letter, or postcard to stay in touch. Today, there’s email, social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, blogs (like this one!) and yes – phone calls and “snail” mail still works.

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