Contact Information
Email: katebarba10@gmail.com
Phone: (267) 261-4551
Learning Outcome 1
"Students will demonstrate understanding of the nature and
structure of language, and the structure of English, on phonological, morphological,
syntactic, semantic, discourse, and pragmatic levels."
The first learning outcome focuses on an in-depth understanding of the English language. This includes everything from grammatical knowledge and phonetics to the everyday use of the language. English language teachers are frequently asked to explain the meaning of a phrase, idiom, or the grammatical structure. As a new English teacher, there is always the worry that a student or colleague will ask you a question that you are unable to explain. However, the MA/TESL program has helped prepare me to feel confident in my ability to answer the questions that are asked on a daily basis.
The first language that I learned was Latin which has deepened my understanding of grammatical structures. I can comfortably map out the structure of a sentence. However, explaining the grammatical structures to another person is a whole other process entirely. Therefore, the last semester of classes on campus, I elected to audit the Pedagogical Grammar class even though it was not a requirement for PCMI students. Through the grammar partner assignment, I gained experience explaining grammatical topics in tutoring situations.
I frequently relied on the knowledge that I learned in the class during my Peace Corps experience. As a volunteer, I am not only asked questions by my students in class but also by my co-workers. This tests my knowledge of the English language more than in a classroom setting because a teacher can prepare for the class beforehand. However, the teachers' questions usually are not related to any topic that I recently reviewed and require me to think on my feet. The experience has helped me to identify my own areas of difficulty with English grammar as well as improve my overall knowledge of the language.
Phonology has always been one of my favorite aspects of language. I love learning languages and the International Phonetic Alphabet was a whole new alphabet system to discover. The Phonology course at Gonzaga University familiarized me with the phonetic alphabet which contributed to my ability to explain certain pronunciation rules in the English language. On campus, I worked with an ESL student from Japan and created a pronunciation plan to help him improve upon the areas that were challenging for him.
Learning about how to teach phonology and which errors Spanish speakers typically make when speaking English was particularly important because my co-workers and students constantly wanted to improve their pronunciation. In my city in Ecuador, there were not many opportunities to listen to native English speakers and hearing me speak encouraged my co-workers to improve their own pronunciation. After identifying the issues that my students had with pronunciation, I was able to dedicate the second half of my service to addressing the problems.
Recognizing the importance of phonology, I decided to start a phonology club during my second year of service. The students had the opportunity to learn the phonetic alphabet for the first time since it was not included in their regular English education. One student mentioned, "I had no idea what those symbols in my dictionary actually meant!" The phonology club not only provided the students with a chance to improve their English pronunciation with the help from a native speaker but also gave them the skills to be able to find the correct pronunciation on their own.
The following slideshow contains pictures of the phonology club, an example of teaching past tense pronunciation, a pronunciation contest for which I was the judge, an irregular verb contest, and an activity in which the students changed the adjective form of the word to the noun form.