Naanan

Well, its not officially spring yet and it is STILL cold. I can see the maple tree in my yard and it is not running sap yet. We need cold nights and warm days for the sap to run. I am late in getting this entry in; I have been busy with the work for Nedra and Diane as well as bugging my clan brother Dana for help with my speech. Yesterday, he just told me, "Look, Call me next week. In the meantime practice, practice, practice. Try to make sure you know the meaning of the words." I knew that much without using up my cell minutes.
When Brian listed the assignments I was glad because I thought I had the easiest. Just define methodology and syllabus. Of course he played a trick on me because its harder than it looks. Chapter 3 appears to have multiple confusing definitions, so I will just include a lot of what it says about methodology direct from the chapter. A number of theorists were cited. The definitions started with the work of Edward Anthony who had 3 definitions as follows: (1) approach, which was defined by a set of theoretical principals; (2) method, which was a procedural plan for presenting and teaching the language; and (3) technique, which involved strategies for implementing the methodological plan. Westphal is cited frequently in this section and adds the following definitions: The syllabus refers to the subject matter content of a given course or series of courses in which it is presented; the approach is, ideally the theoretical basis or bases which determine the ways in which the syllabus is treated; a strategy or technique is an individual instructional activity as it occurs in the classroom. Examples of syllabi that are mentioned include a literary syllabus, a grammatical syllabus, or a functional/task based syllabus. Westplal stresses the importance of alignment of approach w/ syllabus / w/ methods. A lack of alignment would occur if a teacher used a literary syllabus with a grammar-translation approach and learning strategies based primarily on translatin.
Other theorists define methodology as a "task hierarchy" and the differences in major methodologies are in the priorities assigned to various tasks. This is summarized in the following statement: All major methodologies, whether skill- or process- oriented, aspire to the same result: a student who can read, write, speak, understand, translate, and recognize applications of the grammar of a foreign language. Methological labels assigned to teaching activities are, in themselves, not informative because they refer to a pool of classroom activities which are universally used.
It seems that many teachers use an eclectic approach to teaching and learning. There is no "one true way". To go back to my conversation with Dana, one of his comments seemed appropos. He mentioned that if students are learning the language just to get the academic credit, then he tends to focus on writing (double vowell) and reading, less on speaking but if a student's goal is to speak the language, then its listen, listen, listen.