Classroom Testing

While reading the chapter on testing, I have questioned whether testing in the form of an instructional, sit down test, is appropriate for students. I think that there are other ways to monitor students progress throughout the classroom. I think that through creative projects that are not only research based, but must have creative, student produced content, teachers can monitor the students use of grammar, vocabulary, and culture and its progression. These projects can be based on written or oral, presentation projects. I think that these projects would better put content that students are learning into more real life presentations. All tests or quizzes throughout the semester should always be cumulative. Some students tend to learn the content for a specific unit only for an assessment and forget about it afterwards. I think that keeping tests/quizzes/project cumulative, this will alleviate the problem of just learning content for the exam.
Tests are definitely a way to show if a teacher is teaching content well or not. If students are scoring well on the test, the teacher is either effectively teaching the materials or the test is designed too easily for students. I think that students should always be challenged when taking tests-- there should always be a few questions that are "tricks",  that can really push students to use the knowledge that they have learned outside of the traditional format that they have learned it. I believe that effective question types for students would be ones where they are producing their own content-- translating sentences or summarizing authentic materials that they have read. Multiple choice questions or true/false questions should never be used when testing for grammar or vocabulary.
Administrative tests, or placement/assessment tests, can be used for teacher's purposes at the beginning and end of the class. Teachers can use these general tests, like the SAT II or college placement tests to see how well their aims of the classroom are reflecting in the students overall knowledge of the language. Teachers can use these at the beginning of the class to see what topics students are struggling with and what he should better focus and spend more time with. If all the students are scoring really well with the use of the future or the conditional, there is no point for the teacher to waste the instructional time in the classroom working on these. At the end of the class, teachers can use these to see what the students are still struggling with and that can help to mold the lesson plans for the next semester or school year.

Testing

I think that Chapter 9 does an excellent job of demonstrating the different ways that foreign language teachers need to test students' knowledge.  It is important to remember that students are not taking tests based on their ability to guess what a teacher is going to put on the test or their memory skills.  Tests should assess students' ability to comprehend a specific grammatical (or another skill) in which they are learning, that helps them achieve becoming one step closer to proficiency.

Specifically, in one of my former classes, I have thought a lot about the testing process.  In this class, we often had weekly grammar exams that covered different topics that we were specifically learning about.  In these exams, I always felt that random knowledge was being tested opposed to actual understanding of the material and the student's ability to demonstrate their understanding in a larger context.  In one specific exam that I can recall, we were going to be tested on our ability to memorize a list of over 35 phrases using Por and Para.  These were important to learn, but the way we were tested did not help us demonstrate our knowledge.  In this exam, there were about 10 phrases that were chosen that were written in English by the teacher.  Then, the students had to translate the phrases into Spanish using the memorized list of phrases.  I remember being able to identify a few, but not a significant amount of phrases and I earned a low grade on the test.  I was shocked that the teacher really felt that our ability to memorize phrases represented our actual knowledge.  This made me think about how I want to test my students' understanding in the future.  I want to be sure that the tests directly relate and correspond with actual information and understanding from studying, reading or paying attention in class.

This whole experience was interesting to think about from a teacher's perspective.  I can see how the teacher felt that this could be a good test, but the teacher did not fully think through how the students could study for it.  As the chapter indicates, students should not be sitting, memorizing random facts or words that have nothing more than an arbitrary meaning in their larger understanding of the subject or topic.  Our testing needs to accurately represent the material that we actually have taught our students what we actually want them to understand.  We need to recognize what a student will actually gain if arbitrary concepts are memorized.

Testing in Foreign Languages

I think that multiple forms of testing need to be incorporated in the foreign language classroom in order to ensure that students are learning as much as possible in every area of learning a language: reading, writing, speaking and listening. After reading Chapter 9 and about the different methods of testing in the foreign language classroom, what came to my mind were all the examples of teachers I had previously had in foreign language classes that only utilized one or two of these forms of testing. For example, in my high school French classes my teacher put very little emphasis on oral proficiency and did not test us on listening comprehension or our competence in speaking. When I reached the university level and began taking French classes, I did very well and placed into French 503 on the placement exam, but when I began the class I was shocked at how far behind I was in terms of listening and speaking because it was something that I had hardly been tested on. I could read and write French very well, but speaking it and listening to a native speaker and comprehending what they were saying was very difficult for me because I did not have that extra practice and testing in that area. In order to be effective teachers, it is completely necessary that we incorporate all these different areas of foreign language proficiency into testing.

One thing that I really agreed with in Chapter 9 was the importance of not just including open-ended questions or just grammar questions, but a mixture of both. Both skills are necessary and crucial to testing in the foreign language classroom to measure how much of the grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary that a student knows (such as with fill in the blank grammatical questions) and to measure how much of the content and context the student is able to master (such as with open-ended questions that leave the student to hypothesize and formulate their own coherent sentences and answer). In my beginning Spanish classes in high school, almost all of the tests and quizzes that I had to take were simple grammatical tests where we just had to fill in the correct verb conjugation to fit the sentence or circle the correct vocabulary word that completed a phrase. While this is a good skill to learn, it left me and many other students in my classes totally unprepared for when we reached Spanish III and suddenly we were expected to read Spanish novels and write papers every week about various topics and were often tested using open-ended questions to prove that we had comprehended the main themes or stories we had learned about that week. Based on the experiences that I have had in my own foreign language learning, I think it is completely necessary that teachers integrate many aspects of foreign language learning into testing so as to best measure their students’ proficiency level in that language. 

Testing in the Foreign Language Classroom

           I find the idea of classroom testing very interesting, and I thought Chapter 9 described some really neat ideas for the improvement of foreign language tests. Testing methods interest me for many different reasons. First because I am currently a student and I currently take tests, second because I have been a student ever since I can remember and I remember many different tests, and third because I want to be a teacher who will be the one to create tests! As a student and a prospective teacher, tests and exams interest me because they are supposed to serve as ways for students to show teachers what they know. Tests are not supposed to give students nervous break-downs, they are not supposed to test material not covered in that specific class, and the information is not supposed to be immediately forgotten after the test is over. Although these things are not supposed to happen, I’m sure we’ve all seen (and/or experienced ourselves) times when instances like these have occurred.  

            Thinking back to all of my high school Spanish tests, they were all boring, grammar-based tests. I did one oral test when I was a sophomore, but since it took place outside of the classroom and with the 17-year-old TA, it turned out to be mostly English. Like we read about in Chapter 9, I think that traditional language tests need to be revamped to actually test how well students can use the language. If students are memorizing weird acronyms to help them remember words, or if they’re making up other mind games to aid with memorization, chances are those students are going to forget those acronyms and those mind games as soon as they pass in their tests. If you’re taking human anatomy and need to memorize the names of all of the bones in the body, or if you’re taking a history class and need to memorize the dates that all of the Roman emperors served then yes, memorization mind games might really help you. But if you’re studying a language, I don’t believe that students should feel they need to memorize tons of material. I believe that if students are receiving enough good, comprehensible input each class, that knowledge should (for the most part) allow them to do well on each test. I’ve always been a big believer in the idea that test material should not come as any surprise to students, and I think test material should look and be very similar to activities done regularly in class. In my opinion, language tests should test the material covered in class, and at the same time allow for students to show any and all of the language that they know. Like we read in our book, I like the idea of open-ended questions because they allow students to produce what they know. I know an open-ended response question in a novice Spanish class might seem a little intimidating, but it’s the teacher’s job to scaffold the test questions appropriately based on the level of the class, and to put the students at ease. Obviously you wouldn’t ask a novice Spanish student to write their opinions on a complex topic because they simply wouldn’t have enough knowledge to do that. However, you could have an oral interview with that Spanish learner and, while maintaining appropriate expectations, ask them simple questions that have been explained in class (ex. ¿Cuál clase tiene usted después de esta clase de español? ¿Te la gusta?) and the student could elaborate or not as they see fit. I think that by using more open-ended responses (both written and spoken), and more authentic materials (maps, recipes, stories, etc.) in language tests (and in instruction in general!), students will learn a lot more of the language, and teachers will be able to more clearly see what their students know.

Before my first exam in Spanish 503 here at UNH, I remember asking my professor if the exam was cumulative and she said language exams are always cumulative, and it’s true! Language learners should not just be tested on whether or not they can conjugate the verb “comer” properly in a single-sentence. When it comes time for a test, students should be encouraged to use and show everything that they hear and see and think in class to truly show the teacher their level of language proficiency.

            

Teaching culture in the L2 classroom

Teaching culture is a good way for students to learn about the language they are studying.  It allows them to make connections and comparisons with their own language and culture.  I think teaching culture is a very important part of teaching L2, but I think that it is difficult in lower level classes.  I think it is easy to teach some parts of culture to beginning L2 learners, such as food, holidays, and sports (with popular teams being a natural continuation).  However, I think teaching culture also means including dialect differences, register changes, current events, and history, all of which could be difficult for beginner L2 learners.  This means that in the lower level L2 classroom, culture should be something that is not very concrete yet, but rather something fluid that is always changing.  A good example is something I have experienced in the classroom.  When our textbook covered Colombia, it limited the culture portion of the chapter to the various geographical regions, cultural diversity within the population, and some key, legal, exports.  This means that the students learned a few general facts about Colombia, but did not learn about the dangerous politics, violent current events, or bloody history of that country.  This is a good example of my point because these things could be a lot to handle for a new L2 learner who would need not only to process these things, but to understand the language behind them to truly grasp the culture they were being taught. 
As stated in the book, teaching "facts" about a culture's current events, politics, and even history is difficult because these things can change dramatically depending on the situation in that particular country.  Current events, which are an important part of learning about a new culture, are also difficult to teach because to be current, they need to be happening as they are being taught.  This becomes difficult for beginner L2 learners especially because they may need to learn a lot of new vocab just to keep up with the stories, making it harder for them to entirely understand the events and the cultures they are tied to. 
Another problem stated in the book is that it is difficult to dispel stereotypes when teaching culture because, unless the curriculum calls for it, there may not be enough time to go in depth about everything that is taught, leading to the creation of stereotypes, which can be very detrimental to L2 learners.  The book says that this "information-only" approach "provides no means of accounting for cultural variation," which is essential for culture learning in L2 students. 
Another problem with teaching culture in the classroom is that some students may become too focused on the culture they have studied, and become ignorant to other parts of culture or other cultures entirely.  A student who has learned a lot about Mexican culture and little about Argentinian culture could find themselves at a huge disadvantage if they ever found themselves in Argentina.  Those two countries, although often lumped together as "Latin American" in some contexts, are very different in culture as well as in language itself. 
So, i think that although it is important to learn about the cultures of the new language, I think that it is also important to know that the difficulties that come along with teaching culture are substantial.  Teaching culture to beginner L2 learners should be very different than teaching culture to advanced L2 learners. 

Teaching/Learning L2 Culture

To me, culture is the distinct and collective ideas, values, and characteristics of a particular group in society. This can be broken down into many categories that are typical of that particular culture, such as food, religion, art, music, habits, etc. I believe that all cultures are also followed by many assumptions or stereotypes that may or may not accurately reflect the lifestyles and beliefs of the group. This is one of the more important reasons that I think we should teach L2 culture; to get a better understanding of the culture that is followed by a particular language which often times can have its own given reputation before we have the chance to learn about it from a legitimate source. Another reason why I believe we should teach L2 culture is to better understand the language in general. More often than not, there are words that cannot be translated from one language to another because they specifically reflect a part of that culture that cannot be shared or properly defined with another language. I think it’s important for children to learn that the language that follows a culture is very important because it allows us and others to express thoughts and ideas in ways that are unique to that group of society. Therefore, the language and culture go hand-in-hand and both should be taught equally in the classroom.

            I think it’s possible to teach L2 culture in the classroom setting – to a certain extent. There is a great deal of knowledge about a culture that can be shared within a classroom environment that comes from different sources such as textbooks, media portrayals, news reports, etc. However, I feel that there is only so much that can be said about a culture and it would be much more beneficial to learn in that culture. Personally, being immersed in the Spanish culture during my study abroad experience really allowed me to see first-hand what true Spanish culture is and from that real perspective I was able to form my own opinions about it. This same reflection can be done after reading, for example a textbook article on a culture, but it probably will not have the same effect on that person if they are not experiencing the culture in real life. Cultural immersion seems to be a long-lasting learning experience even after the individual has gone back home. Will I forget what I learned about cultural aspects of Spain from a class lecture? Yes, probably. But will I forget what I experienced while living in Granada? Absolutely not. Not only is the experience unforgettable for most people, it is much more interesting than watching a documentary on cultural lifestyles. So, to answer this question, yes I believe that it is possible to teach L2 culture in a classroom but personally I believe the real learning happens on those cultures’ grounds. The classroom itself is really the only limitation. Relating this back to the five C’s of language learning, it is important to integrate Culture with Community, meaning that the learner needs to get out of the classroom and into the real world to learn from experiences and evaluate the different perspectives they may come across.

Teaching the L2 Culture

Culture is defined as the culmination of various aspects in a community, including their personal habits, community habits, their behaviors of living day to day life and during interactions, their literature and fine arts, their values, and their language(s). These can be shaped by factors such as geographical location, population size, and religion.

It is very important to teach L2 culture while learning the L2 because it helps students to better contextualize the language. Students are able to visualize and refute Higg’s Lexical Analog Hypothesis, the hypothesis that the foreign language is the same as the native language, except that it uses different words. Students can better comprehend that grammatical order and rules of the language, based on historical and cultural themes.

Although harder than learning culture in the actual target language country, it is possible to teach L2 culture in the classroom setting. Teachers need to command a great use of time sensitive, authentic materials in order to best pass along the real culture of the L2. These can include recently published magazines similar to those in the United States, news broadcasts, and popular music. Culture needs to be shown, not told. Teachers should not be standing in front of the classroom and telling students that this, this, and this happen during Semana Santa in Spain, but rather let students investigate it, learn for themselves, and construct their own assumptions. Some limitations that may exist, as Seelye points out is the negativity that can come out of ineffective “fact only” approach to teaching culture: establish stereotypes rather than diminishing them, not preparing students for all situations, and teaching out dated lifestyles. Teachers should be sure to give students a well-rounded view of the culture, especially when culture exists in multiple provinces or countries.

Exposing Students to Culture

 I would define culture as the actions, expressions and beliefs of a group of people. This goes further, however because I will need to define all of these words in relation to culture. The actions of people include the way that they celebrate their traditions and perform their every day tasks. The expressions of these people are ways that the people demonstrate what they believe or what they have been taught by their ancestors. The beliefs aspect corresponds to the expressions, but have to do with their religion or cultural ideals. I think that all these ideas make up the definition of culture, along with the influence of the language in a culture. 

            I think that it is important to teach the target culture simply because it is an integral part of the target language.  There is no culture without language, nor language without culture.  They are internally connected and cannot really be separated.  For instance, when a student learns a word, phrase or expression that is unusual to them, they are referencing it from their own target culture, but that student looked at it from a target cultural standpoint, they could understand the significance in the context of the target language.  Clearly, there is no way to truly separate language and culture.  This means that when we want our students to learn a foreign language, it is highly important and necessary to teach the target culture as well. 

            I think that everyone would agree with me if I said that the best way to teach the target language is in the place where it is spoken, but this is not possible when thinking about teaching High School students.  The financial limitations are essentially the biggest problem that a foreign language teacher has to face when trying to teach culture.  A teacher cannot simply bring the students to the target culture, so they need to try their best to bring the culture to the classroom.  If students can walk into a foreign language classroom and feel that they are truly in another culture, then a foreign language teacher has moved the culture to the students.  Students need to hear the sounds of the culture (the language) through people communicating and music.  If they can become aware of practices and beliefs and address these concerns in the target language, they are truly in the target culture.

            Culture cannot be learned or taught directly, but students can become aware of culture through occurrences in the classroom.  A teacher cannot simply sit the students down and say, “This is Spanish culture”.  Culture is more of an experiential learning than anything else.  I think that allowing students to understand the target culture is key to infusing culture in the curriculum. 

Teaching L2 Culture

In my view, culture is a way of life.  It includes food, holidays, family customs, slang, sports, activities, movies, music, politics, literature, and much more.  Culture is the heartbeat of a nation or a community.  It includes a nation’s history and heritage as well as climate and geography.  Anything that can effect or influence a particular community is part of their culture.  Culture is an identity. 

I believe that it is of the utmost importance to teach L2 culture.  Teaching L2 culture brings the language to life.  Students will not see the relevance of the language if they do not know anything about where it is spoken.  They will not see the importance of being able to communicate with native speakers if they aren’t exposed to thinks that they could talk about or take interest in.  If students are taught culture, they may be more likely to want to visit other countries, interact with other people, and truly learn the language.  For example, in the Spanish I class that I am teaching right now we almost always have “Culture Fridays”.  For an hour we look at pop culture in Spanish speaking countries.  We listen to music, watch movie trailers, talk about politics, and look at the latest trends.  Although not all students care, many become more and more interested in other nations each day.  They compare the other cultures to their own and begin to understand how life can vary across the world.  Not only that, but they have picked favorite songs and topics and will ask about them or request to listen to certain songs.  I think this is great because they are actually asking for more exposure to the target language and are having fun while learning. 

Furthermore, I believe in cross-culture and global communication.  I believe in introducing students to multiple perspectives so that they can develop a greater understanding of the world that they live in.  It is my hope that they will not pass judgment on others just because people from other places have different family values, political thoughts, or even taste in food.  I hope that students will realize that there is not one right way to live life and that much can be learned through cultural interactions.  The world today is becoming increasingly interconnected, and I believe that students need to know the value of cross-cultural interactions as well as the importance of understanding and respecting others.  Increased contact with other cultures might promote misunderstandings if future generations do not understand how different cultures function, what they value, or how to show respect to one another.  I want to present students with these differences so that they can begin to negate this effect.

I absolutely believe that it is possible to teach L2 culture in the classroom, or at least expose students to it.  It is true that the only way to really experience a culture is to immerse yourself in it, but in high school that is not always an option.  Culture can be brought into the classroom through authentic material like magazines, movies, talk shows, pictures, and food.  I would hope that most language teachers have been abroad so that they know about the L2 culture from experience.  The teacher is a great key into other communities.  They have lived it and therefore have personal photos, memories, and experiences.  Stories and visuals can be a great way to showing students what other parts of the world are like.  Not only that, but traditional foods could be made and brought in for students to experience.  Right now we are planning a day in Spain for a future class.  We will research customs and portray them in the classroom with as much accuracy as possible.  Granted, the limitation here is that students will not be able to interact with native speakers in their own cultures, but expose will at least assist in preparing them for what they might experience if they do travel in the future.

Finally, I think that culture should be incorporated in everyday activities (like using authentic material in grammar, writing, and listening lessons), but also that is should be taught explicitly.  Culture can be used as a great break to the grammar aspect of learning a language.  I do not see any harm in taking a day to go over the cultures someone might encounter around the world.  It can only increase student interest and interest in the language.  I do realize that sometimes there is not enough time for this.  If that is the case, then the instructor must make an effort to incorporate culture into regular lessons.  Overall, I think that culture is and integral part of L2 learning and assists in the development of a well rounded individual. 

Teaching the L2 Culture

In my view, culture is the very broad concept that encompasses the things that people do and the things that people learn, along with why those people do and learn those things.  I think it’s very important to teach L2 culture because it’s extremely important for people to develop cultural understanding and for people to value and respect cultural diversity. If done properly, I definitely think it’s possible to teach L2 culture in a classroom setting. Since we cannot expect everyone to go live in/immerse themselves in the L2 culture that they are studying, we need to make sure that L2 culture is taught well in the classroom setting. The limitations to teaching L2 culture in the classroom would be that often, the teacher who is teaching the L2 culture is not a native of that culture and may not feel prepared to teach it. I think the biggest limitation, however, would be the most obvious, and that is the fact that while in a classroom setting, students are often not immersed in the target culture and therefore are not learning to see the culture from an insider’s point of view. But again, we cannot expect every student to be able to go live in the L2 culture, so classroom culture instruction needs to be of high quality in order to get students as close to an insider’s perspective as possible.

            I think culture should be learned and taught in many different ways using many different methods and materials. We saw the four common approaches to teaching culture in our book, the “Frankenstein Approach,” the “4-F Approach,” the “Tour Guide Approach,” and the “By-The-Way Approach” and I think that all of these methods could be beneficial to students if used well and used together. I don’t think that a teacher should teach a semester-long class and only use one approach, let’s say the “4-F Approach,” because then all the students will have learned about would be folk dances, festivals, fairs and food! However, if the teacher combines these four approaches and uses one approach one week for a certain set of topics and another approach the next week for a different set of topics, I think students would get a lot out of this. I think teachers should use many different materials and types of lessons for teaching culture. For example, if the only thing you do to “teach culture” is make burritos and salsa one day to teach about “Hispanic food,” I don’t think that will really enhance the students’ knowledge on Hispanic culture. A teacher could show clips of TV shows and/or movies from the target culture, they could bring in native-speakers as guests, they could cook authentic, non-stereotypical food with the class, they could have students role play certain situations, and the list goes on. I also think students tend to be very interested in the “survival skills” of a culture which are represented by the Four Categories for Cultural Understanding in our book on pages 354-355. I feel like students are interested in the conventions and connotations of the L2 culture because they like to compare them with the conventions and connotations of their own culture. For example, when my brother studied in Russia, he was told upon his arrival that it is normal for people to stand very close to each other while speaking, and he was told not to back away from someone even if he felt uncomfortable because backing away would insult the other person. He was also told the phrase that was considered to be the worst swear in the culture so that he would know never to say it, even if joking. I recently heard another example of cultural conventions from my grandparents who lived in Senegal, Africa for a few years. My grandmother worked as an office secretary while there and she told me that her work day was supposed to start at 9am. She said that the first few weeks of work, she was the only person in the office for about two hours, and then around 11am all the other workers would arrive. At first she had no idea why they were all late all the time, but when she realized that they all had very different concepts of time than she did, it made a lot more sense. People would leave for work at 9am, and they would walk there. While walking to work, people would stop and have long conversations with friends, pick up a few groceries, etc. and that was completely normal for them. My grandmother said that when she learned this and got to know more people, she too would stop and talk for 30 minutes to an hour on her way to work! Maybe this is just from my experiences, but I feel like many students find the 4 Categories for Cultural Understanding to be interesting. I think it’s important for teachers to teach to the interests of their students, so if everyone seems really interested in learning about different verbal connotations, spend some time on that. If everyone seems really interested in learning about the major rivers and monuments of a country and how they affect the culture, spend some time on that. I know that just because certain aspects of different cultures don’t seem to interest all students is not a reason not to teach them, but I definitely think it’s important for teachers to gauge students’ interest levels on certain aspects so that they can try to tie those things in to other aspects.