Pre-Service ESL Teachers’ Knowledge about Language and its Transfer to Lesson Planning
FINDINGS
Journals from the English Grammar Course
Applying KAL to Teaching
The journals written the second and fourth weeks of class are characterized by questions about how to apply KAL to teaching. Some show emerging comfort with formal linguistic analysis, intended to develop their metalinguistic knowledge, as exemplified in the following excerpts:
I think that slowly I’m gaining a better understanding of simple grammatical terminology. ...As a result, I’m not falling into the same patterns of learning grammar that I’m used to using. In other words, my frustration level is kept lower. (G.M., journal, 9/19/01)
However, transfer of KAL to teaching was seen as problematic. Participants expressed confusion about how formal analysis helps in grammar teaching, with five participants specifically bringing up that issue in their journals and four others writing that they wondered how they would explain grammar to young children without using metalinguistic terminology. This concern can be explained by the fact that the participants were beginning their elementary ESL student teaching placements and were largely concerned with how to make what they were learning the English Grammar class applicable to teaching children. Conversely, many participants specifically commented on the benefits of the activities carried out that day in class that linked the formal analysis of verb forms to an explanation of sample student errors. This was a connection between formal aspects of language and everyday classroom practice that worked for some. The question of teacher explanations is exemplified in the following excerpt:
What gives me confidence to teach a structure to learners would be knowing that I truly understand it (not just intuitively but well enough to articulate it). That’s where I lack confidence actually with a lot of this. Sure I know simple past and past progressive, but can I explain it so it actually makes sense? What helps is practice. (M.L., journal, 10/3/01)
By the fourth week of the class, participants had been introduced to many new concepts and grammatical structures. The journals reflected a growing confidence with their understanding of the course material, yet there were still concerns about applying the new information to their teaching. Class activities were designed to meet this need by presenting grammatical structures within authentic texts that ESL students would use and by providing opportunities to practice explaining the structures in small groups. Participants described various class activities and individual learning strategies that contributed to their learning, while still expressing concerns about their ability to apply KAL, as noted in the following journal excerpt:
It’s all a blur! In general I feel like this class has given me a general overview of the grammar structures..., but I think that in all cases I will need to do a lot more studying and research more student-friendly how-to books before tackling the task of explicitly teaching grammar....I would want lo consult other resources geared to students to develop a better understanding of how to present the ideas to my students. What metalanguage will I use, for example, to teach grammar?(S. J., journal 10/3/02)
