Position in Italian‏ - Florida State University

Assistant Professor of Italian and Language Program Coordinator

The Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics invites applications for a tenure-track position in Italian at the rank of Assistant Professor. The successful candidate will serve as coordinator of the Italian basic language program, and teach undergraduate and graduate courses. The candidate will devise language syllabi, train and supervise Teaching Assistants, and work towards further developing  the language program. The successful candidate will be expected to maintain an active program of research (e.g. SLA/Linguistics). Excellence in teaching and a willingness to work collaboratively are also essential. In addition to responsibilities as coordinator of the basic language program in Italian, the teaching load will be three courses per academic year (1/2 or 2/1). Salary is competitive.

Candidates must hold a Ph.D. in Italian and/or Applied Linguistics/SLA and must demonstrate native or near-native fluency in Italian, as well as an excellent command of English. Other requirements include a strong interest in language teaching and technology-enhanced instruction. Preferred expertise in teaching supervision and coordination, and in community outreach. 
 
Possible secondary areas of interest include: Dante Studies, History of Italian Language, Cultural Studies, and Visual Culture (cinema/art).

Applicants should send a current cv, a writing sample, a research statement, a statement of teaching philosophy, and evidence of teaching ability and effectiveness (which may include a digitized audiovisual file of sample class, if available), and should arrange for three confidential letters of reference to be sent directly to:
 
                                 Dr. William Cloonan
                                 Chair, Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics
                                 Florida State University
                                 Tallahassee, FL. 32306-1540
 
Review of applications will begin on October 15, 2011, and continue until position is filled. Florida State University is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from all qualified candidates. 

(Italian) Teacher urgently required! - Houston TX

We are a successful language teaching company working with freelance trainers all over the world to provide private tuition for numerous languages, but mainly in the

US

and the UK.  

 

That means that we are currently recruiting teachers for all languages and in every area.

CAN YOU ANSWER YES TO THE FOLLOWING 3 QUESTIONS?

  

1. Are you a native speaker of the language you teach?? (That means it is either your mother tongue or you are effectively bilingual)

 

2. Do you have any language (e.g. degree in languages) or teaching qualification?



3. Do you have the right to stay and work in the USA?

 

If you can answer YES to all 3 questions, then please read on...

 

We have students (private students and from corporations) who need to learn any language, anytime and anywhere. Thus we organize teachers for them at their offices or their homes.
Classes
are usually 2 hours each once or twice per week, and can be morning, afternoon or evening, Monday thru Sunday.

 

How we work: when we have a student of a specific language and we know when and where he/she wants to study, we ask one of our teachers speaking this language to go and teach. If the timing and location is convenient, we organize the first lesson where both student and
teacher
get to know each other and plan the rest of the course. Courses are usually for 20 to 100 hours and are usually one-to-one or two-to-one.

 

We offer excellent rates of pay on a freelance basis, require very little administration or paperwork from you. We will only send you to a student if the location and the time are convenient for you. 

 

Please apply online by using the following link:

http://www.languagetrainers.com/language_trainer_application_us.php


If you teach any other language please send your CV/resume as well.

 

We currently have a specific course with the following details:

One of our clients in Houston, TX, 77007, would like to have one-to-one general Italian tuition. The client (adult, beginner) wishes to have classes twice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursdays at 7:30 pm, 4 hours per week - for a total of 50 hours. Lessons would start as soon as possible.



We pay the teacher 25USD per hour but the salary is negotiable depending on the degree and qualifications. Also we are happy to discuss travel costs.



If you think you are the right teacher for the positions please send your resume, references and copies of teaching degree(s)/certificates to

sandra@languagetrainers.com





We look forward to hearing from you soon! 

ID#: 57050249 Location: Houston, TX

Italian teacher urgently needed- Salt Lake City

Teachers urgently required!

We are a successful language teaching company working with freelance trainers all over the world to provide private tuition for numerous languages, but mainly in the UK and Ireland.


That means that we are currently recruiting teachers for all languages and in every area.


CAN YOU ANSWER YES TO THE FOLLOWING 2 QUESTIONS?


1. Are you a native speaker of the language you teach?? (That means it is either your mother tongue or you are effectively bilingual)


2. Do you have any language (e.g. degree in languages) or teaching qualification?


If you can answer YES to both questions, then please read on...

We have students (private students and from corporations) who need to learn any language, anytime and anywhere. Thus we organize teachers for them at their offices or their homes.
Classes
are usually 2 hours each once or twice per week, and can be morning, afternoon or evening, Monday thru Sunday.

How we work: when we have a student of a specific language and we know when and where he/she wants to study, we ask one of our teachers speaking this language to go and teach. If the timing and location is convenient, we organize the first lesson where both student and
teacher
get to know each other and plan the rest of the course. Courses are usually for 24 to 60 hours and are usually one-to-one or two-to-one.

We offer excellent rates of pay on a freelance basis, require very little administration or paperwork from you. We will only send you to a student if the location and the time is convenient for you.


If you are a teacher please apply online on the following link:

http://www.listenandlearn.org/cvs.php

This way, your details will be stored in our database and we can match you straight away to any of our current courses



We look forward to hearing from you soon!



We currently have a specific course with the following details:


One of our clients in MSalt Lake City, would like to have one-to-one general Italian tuition for a total of 60 hours. Lessons would start as soon as possible.


If you think you are the right teacher for one of the positions please send your CV, references and copies of teaching degree(s)/certificates to marian
.listenandlearn@gmail.com.



We look forward to hearing from you soon!

ID#: 57000848 Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Motivation and Motivating in the Foreign Language Classroom by Dimitrios Thanasoulas

Introduction

In this paper, we will briefly examine a variety of techniques, strategies and macrostrategies which teachers can employ in order to motivate their students. As Dornyei (2001: 116) notes, ‘teacher skills in motivating learners should be seen as central to teaching effectiveness'. Even though there have been a lot of education-oriented publications providing taxonomies of classroom-specific motives, they fall short of offering an efficient guide to practitioners. Thus, our main goal is to familiarise any putative “practitioners” with a set of techniques and strategies (henceforward, “motivational strategies”) for motivating foreign language students.

 

Power in the Classroom

Prior to presenting some of these motivational strategies, it would be of relevance to say a few things about the teacher / learner relationship. Whichever way we look at it, this relationship is riddled with power and status. For many, power plays a large part in the relationship (see “Language and Power in Education” for further details). The rights and duties of teachers and learners are related to power. For example, many teachers might assert that they have the right to punish those learners who misbehave. In any social encounter involving two or more people, there are certain power relationships ‘which are almost always asymmetrical' (Wright, 1987: 17). Social psychologists distinguish between three different types of power—coercive, reward-based, and referent (ibid.). The basis of coercive power is punishment. Some individuals or institutions have the authority to punish others. The basis of the second type of power is reward. Some individuals or institutions have the power to reward what they deem appropriate behaviour. For example, business organisations reward employees with a salary, a bonus etc. The basis of the third type of power is motivation. In this case, individuals or institutions appeal to the commitment and interest of others. In view of this three-fold paradigm, it is of importance to concern ourselves with the fostering of learner motivation, as it is considered to be the most effective and proactive, so to speak, power relationship.

 

Group Processes and Motivation

A discussion of motivation and motivational strategies would not be complete without a consideration of group processes, inasmuch as there is usually a group of people that we as teachers are called on to motivate. Tuckman (1969, quoted in Argyle, 1969) established that a group went through four stages from its formation, which has important implications for the study of the classroom and the use of group activities during teaching.

• Stage 1 Forming : At first, there is some anxiety among the members of the group, as they are dependent on the leader (that is, the teacher) and they have to find out what behaviour is acceptable.
• Stage 2 Storming : There is conflict between sub-groups and rebellion against the leader. Members of the group resist their leader and the role relations attending the function of the group are questioned.
• Stage 3 Norming : The group begins to develop a sort of cohesion. Members of the group begin to support each other. At this stage, there is co-operation and open exchange of views and feelings about their roles and each other.
• Stage 4 Performing : Most problems are resolved and there is a great deal of interpersonal activity. Everyone is devoted to completing the tasks they have been assigned.

Experience shows that almost every group goes through these four (or even more) stages until it reaches equilibrium and, thus, taps into its potential. In reality, this process may go on forever, since student lethargy and underachievement norms in the classroom are considered to be basic hindrances to effective teaching and learning (Daniels, 1994). Against this background, we will try to design a framework for motivational strategies.

 

A Framework for Motivational Strategies

As we have already said, skill in motivating students to learn is of paramount importance. Until recently, however, teachers were forced to rely on “bag-of-tricks” approaches in their attempt to manage their classroom and motivate their learners. Good and Brophy (1994: 212) hold that these approaches have been influenced by two contradictory views:

• a)that learning should be fun and that any motivation problems that may appear should be ascribed to the teacher's attempt to convert an enjoyable activity to drudgery; and
• b)that school activities are inherently boring and unrewarding, so that we must rely on extrinsic rewards and punishment with a view to forcing students to engage in these unpleasant tasks.

Rewards and punishments may be a mainstay of the teaching-learning process, but they are not the only tools in teachers' arsenal. Dornyei (2001: 119) believes that ‘the spectrum of other potentially more effective motivational strategies is so broad that it is hard to imagine that none of them would work'.
The central question in designing a framework of motivational strategies is to decide how to organise them into separate themes. The following taxonomy, around which our main discussion will revolve, is based on the process-oriented model by Dornyei and Otto (1998). The key units in this taxonomy are as follows:

• Creating the basic motivational conditions, which involves setting the scene for the use of motivational strategies;
• Generating student motivation, which roughly corresponds to the preactional phase in the model;
• Maintaining and protecting motivation, which corresponds to the actional phase;
• Encouraging positive self-evaluation, which corresponds to the postactional phase

 

Creating the Basic Motivational Conditions

Motivational strategies cannot work in a vacuum. There are certain preconditions to be met before any attempts to generate motivation can be effective. Some of these conditions are the following:

• a) appropriate teacher behaviour and good teacher-student rapport;
• b) a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere;
• c) a cohesive learner group characterised by appropriate group norms

 

Appropriate Teacher Behaviour and Good Teacher-student Rapport

Whatever is done by a teacher has a motivational, formative, influence on students. In other words, teacher behaviour is a powerful ‘motivational tool' (Dornyei, 2001: 120). Teacher influences are manifold, ranging from the rapport with the students to teacher behaviours which “prevail upon” and / or “attract” students to engage in tasks. For Alison (1993), a key element is to establish a relationship of mutual trust and respect with the learners, by means of talking with them on a personal level. This mutual trust could lead to enthusiasm. At any rate, enthusiastic teachers impart a sense of commitment to, and interest in, the subject matter, not only verbally but also non-verbally—cues that students take from them about how to behave.

 

A Pleasant and Supportive Classroom Atmosphere

It stands to reason that a tense classroom climate can undermine learning and demotivate learners (see MacIntyre, 1999 and Young, 1999 for further details). On the other hand, learner motivation will reach its peak in a safe classroom climate in which students can express their opinions and feel that they do not run the risk of being ridiculed.To be motivated to learn, students need both ample opportunites to learn and steady encouragement and support of their learning efforts. Because such motivation is unlikely to develop in a chaotic classroom, it is important that the teacher organise and manage the classroom as an effective learning environment. Furthermore, because anxious or alienated students are unlikely to develop motivation to learn, it is important that learning occurs within a relaxed and supportive atmosphere (Good and Brophy, 1994: 215).

 

A Cohesive Learner Group Characterised by Appropriate Group Norms

As was hinted at above, fragmented groups, characterised by lack of cooperativeness, can easily become ineffective, thus reducing the individual members' commitment to learn. There are several factors that promote group cohesiveness, such as the time spent together and shared group history, learning about each other, interaction, intergroup competition, common threat, active presence of the leader […] (see Ehrman and Dornyei, 1998: 142).As for group norms, they should be discussed and adopted by members, in order to be constructive and long-lasting. If a norm mandated by a teacher fails to be accepted as proper by the majority of the class members, it will not become a group norm.

 

Generating Student Motivation

Ideally, all learners exhibit an inborn curiosity to explore the world, so they are likely to find the learning experience per se instrinsically pleasant. In reality, however, this “curiosity” is weakened by such inexorable factors as compulsory school attendance, curriculum content, and grades—most importantly, the premium placed on them.Apparently, unless teachers increase their learners' ‘goal-orientedness', make curriculum relevant for them, and create realistic learner beliefs, they will come up against a classroom environment fraught with lack of cohesiveness and rebellion.

 

Increasing the Learners' ‘Goal-Orientedness'

In an some classes, many, if not most, students do not understand why they are involved in an activity. It may be the case that the goal set by outsiders (i.e., the teacher or the curriculum) is far from being accepted by the group members. Thus, it would seem beneficial to increase the group's goal-orientedness, that is, the extent to which the group tunes in to the pursuit of its official goal. This could be achieved by allowing students to define their own personal criteria for what should be a group goal.

 

Making the Curriculum Relevant for the Learners

Many students do their homework and engage in many types of learning activities, even when a subject is not very interesting. Obviously, these students share the belief of the curriculum makers that what they are being taught will come in handy. In order to inspire learners to concern themselves with most learning activities, we should find out their goals and the topics they want to learn, and try to incorporate them into the curriculum. According to Chambers (1999: 37), ‘[i]f the teacher is to motivate pupils to learn, then relevance has to be the red thread permeating activities'.

 

Creating Realistic Learner Beliefs

It is widely acknowledged that learner beliefs about how much progress to expect, and at what pace, can, and do, lead to disappointment. Therefore, it is important to help learners get rid of their preconceived notions that are likely to hinder their attainment. To this end, learners need to develop an understanding of the nature of second language learning, and should be cognisant of the fact that the mastery of L2 can be achieved in different ways, using a diversity of strategies, and a key factor is for learners to discover for themselves the optimal methods and techniques.

 

Maintaining and Protecting Motivation

Unless motivation is sustained and protected when action has commenced, the natural tendency to get tired or bored of the task and succumb to any attractive distractions will result in demotivation. Therefore, there should be a motivational repertoire including several motivation maintenance strategies. Let us have a look at two of them: a) increasing the learners' self-confidence; and b) creating learner autonomy.

 

Increasing the Learners' Self-confidence

In an inherently face-threatening context, as the language classroom is likely to be, it is important to find out how to maintain and increase the learners' self-confidence. There are five approaches that purport to help to this end (Dornyei, 2001: 130):

• Teachers can foster the belief that competence is a changeable aspect of development
• Favourable self-conceptions of L2 competence can be promoted by providing regular experiences of success
• Everyone is more interested in a task if they feel that they make a contribution
• A small personal word of encouragement is sufficient
• Teachers can reduce classroom anxiety by making the learning context less stressful

 

Creating Learner Autonomy

Many educationists and researchers (Benson, 2000; Little, 1991; Wenden, 1991; also see my article, “What is Learner Autonomy and How can it be Fostered?”) argue that taking charge of one's learning, that is, becoming an autonomous learner, can prove beneficial to learning. This assumption is premised on humanistic psychology, namely that ‘the only kind of learning which significantly affects behaviour is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning' (Rogers, 1961: 276). Benson (2000, found in Dornyei, 2001: 131) distinguishes between five types of practice fostering the development of autonomy:

• resource-based approaches, which emphasise independent interaction with learning materials
• technology-based approaches, which emphasise independent interaction with educational technologies
• learner-based approaches, which emphasise the direct production of behavioural and psychological changes in the learner
• classroom-based approaches, which emphasise changes in the relationship between learners and teachers in the classroom
• curriculum-based approaches, which extend the idea of learner control over the planning and evaluation of learning to the curriculum as a whole

Good and Brophy (1994: 228) note that ‘the simplest way to ensure that people value what they are doing is to maximise their free choice and autonomy'—a sentiment shared by Ushioda (1997: 41), who remarks that ‘[s]elf-motivation is a question of thinking effectively and meaningfully about learning experience and learning goals. It is a question of applying positive thought patterns and belief structures so as to optimise and sustain one's involvement in learning'.

 

Encouraging Positive Self-evaluation

Research has shown that the way learners feel about their accomplishments and the amount of satisfaction they experience after task completion will determine how teachers approach and tackle subsequent learning tasks. By employing appropriate strategies, the latter can help learners to evaluate themselves in a positive light, encouraging them to take credit for their advances. Dornyei (2001: 134) presents three areas of such strategies:

• Promoting attributions to effort rather than to ability
• Providing motivational feedback
• Increasing learner satisfaction and the question of rewards and grades.

We will only briefly discuss the third one.

 

Increasing Learner Satisfaction and the Question of Rewards and Grades

The feeling of satisfaction is a significant factor in reinforcing achievement behaviour, which renders satisfaction a major component of motivation. Motivational strategies aimed at increasing learner satisfaction usually focus on allowing students to display their work, encouraging them to be proud of themselves and celebrate success, as well as using rewards. The latter, though, do not work properly within a system where grades are ‘the ultimate embodiment of school rewards, providing a single index for judging overall success and failure in school' (ibid.). In other words, grades focus on performance outcomes, rather than on the process of learning itself. Consequently, ‘many students are grade driven, not to say, “grade grubbing,” and this preoccupation begins surprisingly early in life' (Covington, 1999: 127).There is also a wide assortment of macrostrategies used to foster motivation, but we will not dwell on them (see Dornyei, 2001: 137-140 for more details).

 

Conclusion

In general, motivation is the ‘neglected heart' of our understanding of how to design instruction (Keller, 1983, quoted in Dornyei, 2001: 116). Many teachers believe that by sticking to the language materials and trying to discipline their refractory students, they will manage to create a classroom environment that will be conducive to learning. Nevertheless, these teachers seem to lose sight of the fact that, unless they accept their students' personalities and work on those minute details that constitute their social and psychological make-up, they will fail to motivate them. What is more, they will not be able to form a cohesive and coherent group, unless they succeed in turning most “curriculum goals” (goals set by outsiders) into “group goals” (goals accepted by the group members, that is, students). Learning a foreign language is different to learning other subjects. Therefore, language teaching should take account of a variety of factors that are likely to promote, or even militate against, success. Language is part of one's identity and is used to convey this identity to others. As a result, foreign language learning has a significant impact on the social being of the learner, since it involves the adoption of new social and cultural behaviours and ways of thinking.

 

References

• Alison, J. 1993. Not bothered? Motivating reluctant language learners in Key Stage 4:London: CILT.
• Argyle, M. 1969. Social Interaction. London: Tavistock Press.
• Benson, P. 2000. Teaching and researching autonomy in language learning. London: Longman.
• Chambers, G. N. 1999. Motivating language learners. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
• Covington, M. 1999. Caring about learning: The nature and nurturing of subject- matter appreciation. Educational Psychologist, 34: 127-36.
• Daniels, R. 1994. Motivational mediators of cooperative learning.PsychologicalReports, 74: 1011-22.
• Dornyei, Z. and Otto, I. 1998. Motivation in action: A process model of L2 motivation.Working Papers in Applied Linguistics (London: Thames Valley University), 4: 43-69.
• Dornyei, Z. 2001. Teaching and Researching Motivation. England: Pearson Education Limited.
• Ehrman, M. E. and Dornyei, Z. 1998. Interpersonal dynamics in second languageEducation: The visible and invisible classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Good, T. L. and Brophy, J. E. 1994. Looking in classrooms. 6 th edition. New York: HarperCollins.
• Little, D. 1991. Learner autonomy 1: Definitions, issues and problems. Dublin: Authentik.
• MacIntyre, P. D. 1999. Language anxiety: A review of the research for language Teachers. In Young, D. J. (ed.). Affect in foreign language and second language learning. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, pp. 24-45.
• Rogers, C. 1991. On becoming a person. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
• Ushioda, E. 1997. The role of motivational thinking in autonomous language Learning. In Little, D. and Voss, B. (Eds.). Language centres: Planning for the new millennium.Plymouth: University of Plymouth, CERCLES, Centre for Modern Languages, pp. 39-50.
• Wenden, A. 1991. Learner strategies for learner autonomy. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
• Wright, T. 1987. Roles of Teachers & Learners. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Young, D. J. (ed.). 1999. Affect in foreign language and second languagelearning.Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

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The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 11, November 2002
http://iteslj.org/

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3 Steps to Improve Your Writing Skills in a Foreign Language by John Doey

Do you want to learn to write in a foreign language? Are you looking for some steps to improve your writing skills in a foreign language? If so, keep reading, because you are in the right place. In this article I'm going to help you! Here are three tips that will greatly help you improve your writing skills.

1. Develop a habit to write at least 100 words daily

Develop a routine to write at least 100 words daily. No matter what! No matter what you'll write at least 100 words daily. Really, it's crucial to your success. If you want to improve your writing skills, then you need to write a lot. If you can write 200 or 300 words daily, that's awesome - do it.

2. Start a journal in your new language

Sign up on Lang-8.com and start a journal in your target language. Write short entries and native speakers will proofread them for free. It's a great way to improve your grammar and vocabulary and you'll also interact with native speakers.

3. Chat with native speakers or participate in message boards

Use chats to write in real time (there's a free chat for language learners called Sharedtalk) and participate in message boards (related to your interest) to write longer and more complex posts. It's a tremendously effective way to improve your skills.

That's it - three steps to improve your writing skills in a foreign language. Don't forget that there's no magic pill. It's all about a regular practice. You can't improve your writing skills if you don't write on a daily basis. Really, practice as much as you can - you'll be glad you did. 

Good luck and have fun while writing!

The Mystery of Language by Poch Peralta

'Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.' 
-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

'Accent is the soul of a language; it gives the feeling and truth to it.' 
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Language is a vast field of study and I think that is so because it's a mystery. You'll have an idea of what I'm trying to convey as we go on. We'll dwell more on language as a general concept rather than specific languages e.g., English, Chinese, etc...

According to the LOTH thesis, 'thought and thinking are done in a mental language, meaning, in a symbolic system physically realized in the brain of the relevant organisms'. I don't want to get philosophical here so go to 123HelpMe.com if you're interested:

Kinds of Languages

I. Auditive or Spoken

There are approximately 3000-6000 languages that are spoken by humans today.

II. Visual Languages

The Written Language

Have you realized that the written language is more active now than the spoken ones? Technology is causing that. As days go by, more and more people are using the Internet, mobile phones (texting), and other hi-tech gadgets for correspondence rather than talking in person. As a coincidence and cause, people are getting more separated so the situation is somewhat being forced. Tunku Varadarajan's suggestion in the Daily Beast illustrates this point by suggesting that the next G20 meeting be done by eMail!

a. Programming Languages

These are the languages used by computer programmers -and ironically now it seems, by ordinary netizens and people. Most netizens use their self-made codes for personal messages, specifically in phone texting and instant messengers, so we could say that their own language was programmed.

b. Sign Language

There are sign languages for the handicapped, sportsmen, military, and who knows what else.

Mind Language

There's also the mysterious language called mind-reading. It's a known fact that some people can communicate with eye contact only. I sometimes do. I remember an incident where I noticed a street vendor was staring at me with terrified eyes. I knew that he was trying to tell me something which I didn't get. I just knew that I should shut up. After about a minute, he told me that the person passing by was a dirty undercover cop. Then I got it. The vendor thought that I was looking for street drugs and he was afraid that the undercover will hear us talk! I laughed and told him I wasn't looking for 'stone' (street drug) anyway and thanked him for his effort.

There are still lots of mysterious correspondences which I'll try to write about. Do you know of any?

Death of Dialects

The dialect of the Philippine province of Zambales is Ilocano and I believe it's dying. I handled a public computer shop there and the children playing video games aren't speaking their own dialect anymore -they're speaking the national language Tagalog instead so what can we expect is that the children of these children wouldn't be speaking their dialect at all anymore.

And I wonder how many more provincial dialects are dying this way.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pocholo_Peralta

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