TESL 130 - Unit 1 reflection


Unit 1 included a great deal of information on reading and the views and understandings of reading. Throughout the unit, the authors discuss topics like the genres and characteristics of written language, previous research that has been done on the topic of reading and, in particular, reading in a second language (Brown & Lee, 2015, p. 389, 396-397). Whenever there is a discussion about learning, there is a discussion on the role of background knowledge on learning. In Brown and Lee, this topic is brought up often and for a good reason. While reading the different research about reading such as “Bottom-Up and Top-Down processing”, strategic reading, extensive reading, etc., the role of background knowledge and the “schema theory” is the section I find most interesting (Brown & Lee, 2015, p. 390 - 394). I do not find it interesting because it is a new concept, but, on the contrary, I find it interesting because it is an idea to which we always go back. The idea that we have a repertoire of knowledge that leads us to understand symbols as well as context that is not always written is deeply interesting to me. I have learned many reading comprehension strategies (asking questions, making predictions, etc.) as well as strategies to work on fluency.

The comprehension strategies and fluency strategies seem to be very important bases upon which I have established my approach to reading.  I am curious to know how my reading would have been impacted if I had not learned those strategies. Would my life experiences would have been enough to help me understand any type of reading? Would life experiences have given me enough knowledge to understand different genres and underlying principles in a work or would I have missed some of these intricacies? In the book, the scenario that is discussed about the teenage boy being late for class and explaining his musical tone is a great example. Had I not been to a high school or learned music, I never would have understood the situation or the ‘punchline’ to the joke. My main question is, how do we teach experiences to people who have not experienced them?

In the following video, a middle school ELL teacher describes how background knowledge affects her students and how she helps them gain the knowledge they lack.



Here are some links that discuss the topic of background knowledge, as well as how to build it in our learners:




Reference:

Brown, D. & Lee H. (2015). Teaching by Principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.

Prentice, A. [ColorinColorado]. (2012, Dec. 10).  Building Social Studies Background Knowledge [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BEnlxdtzRM




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