Ken & Yetta Goodman~ whole language conference

Here are some pictures taken on the conference.

Two days of whole language conference finally came to an end. Estela and I went there together. Though there is one more conference that will be held inTainan on 5/30 and 5/31, it’s a pity that I couldn’t participate in it because of my school work. >"< Nevertheless, I’m still happy to meet Dr. Kenneth Goodman and Dr. Yetta Goodman in person and listen to their speech. ^^ 

 Whole language has been an issue discussed vigorously in recent years. One year ago, I took Dr. Lin’s whole language course. At that time, I was attracted by its humanistic, meaningful and authentic perspective. I would of course doubt of the feasibility of the philosophy in Taiwan, where people care about immediate outcome or performance. However, after sitting in the classes in NTUE about Children’s literature and Reading Theory, I’m acquainted with some elementary teachers implementing the whole language philosophy in their classes. Whenever I talked to them, I come to believe the power of the philosophy. One of the elementary school teacher said, “The process of this kind of instruction takes time, but when you observe students’ improvement three months later, you will think the efforts spent in advance are worthwhile.” Sometimes I will wonder whether this would be true in the EFL context. After listening to the speech, there are some aspects that are worth pondering.

1.      Teachers are kid watchers, or observers. Before teachers design the course syllabi, they should know what students have already known, what they want to know more, and what their personalities are. Only when teachers observe carefully can they provide appropriate materials and strategies to their learners.

2.      The materials should be authentic, that is, meaningful to the learners. In high school setting, as what
Alice has done in her teaching, she will adopt various activities to help students relearn the same content. To learners, this kind of instruction is meaningful because they can practice and memorize it in an easy way. In addition,Alice will integrate real life situation into her teaching materials, and thus make the learning more authentic and meaningful to learners.

3.      Learning is a kind of socialization. Learners are encouraged to work with their peers so that they can learn from one another. Talking or interacting with others can prompt learners to know more and deeper. In Ms. Lin’s class, she will invite us into book talk before moving on to any whole class activities. It is interesting that learners will talk more when they are in small group or in pairs.

There are still more ideas that are worth delving into. From Yetta and Ken, I start to understand language learning more and in a fresh perspective. I truly enjoy their speech, especially Yett’s vivid storytelling and singing.                 ~ “tra la la la, la la la la, la la la”~